fabiochiu/medium-articles huggingface dataset:
The Scorpion and the Turtle. “They are whole from the foundation of…
By: Nathan Smith
Tags: Spirituality, Mormon, Religion, Psychology, Love

“They are whole from the foundation of the world … and they hate their own blood.” - Book of Moses 6:54, 7:33

I’m reminded of the old Persian fable of the scorpion and the turtle:

The turtle, walking along the riverbank, encounters its old friend the scorpion. The scorpion says it needs to cross the river but cannot swim, then asks if the turtle will carry it across the water. The turtle agrees and the scorpion climbs onto the turtle’s back. The turtle swims halfway out into the river when, suddenly, the scorpion stings the turtle — but the scorpion’s stinger bounces off the turtle’s shell. The turtle reaches the other side of the river, and, as one might imagine, it and the scorpion have a rather charged exchange. The turtle is bewildered that the scorpion would attempt to sting the turtle; the scorpion is bewildered that the turtle’s shell merely deflected the sting!

The moral of the story may become clearer in a more modern, Russian adaptation of this fable: the scorpion and the frog. In this version, the scorpion asks a frog for passage across the river and stings the frog along the way, killing the frog and drowning them both. Both stories warn of the perils of failing to truly perceive oneself or others for what one or another truly is — of getting lost in what one or others “should” or “could” be. The turtle sees the scorpion and presumes that the scorpion “should” or at least “could” be without a stinger; the scorpion sees the turtle and assumes it “should” or at least “could” be without a tough shell. And, indeed, the frog has much the same presumptuous and automatic exchange with the scorpion in its own tale.

One could assume this is a fable about not being naïve about others, and while I believe that’s true, I also believe there’s a deeper meaning to be found here. I believe, in a sense, that this story is about love. Love — unconditional love — is not to see, let alone accept ourselves or others for what we “should” or “could” be, but for what we actually are. True love does not lose itself in what “should” or “could” be, but embraces what is — for all it’s worth and all it costs.

The moral of the fable — the lesson the scorpion, turtle, and frog must learn — is to not expect, let alone insist that a scorpion, turtle, or frog should be other than what it is. Indeed, to allow a scorpion, a turtle, a frog to be what they truly are may be what it means to cease “hating” oneself or another for “failing” to be what we “could” or “should” be, and to see the wholeness in ourselves and others which is always already there.

In a word, this may be what it truly means to love oneself and to love another — as we are.
Long Lost Skills
Tags: Work, Self Improvement, Life

A member of Mutrack and Inthentic. I lead, learn, and build with vision, love and care. https://piyorot.com

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Left of Center
By: Ben Bisbee
Tags: Change, Development, Leadership, Nonprofit, Nonprofit Management

I don’t believe there is a true “center” to the nonprofit sector.

That is to say, I think we’re less connected than any other sector in reality when it comes to form, function, language and model.

At most we’re only connected at the 501(c) X status.

In fact, I would say we’re almost always far more like the sectors we’re tying to champion, change or challenge than we are anything like each other.

Take a moment. Your structure, your title, the governance, and language you use at your nonprofit is probably far more like the closest sector you’re working within — military, education, political, medical, animal welfare, etc. — than it is to the next nonprofit over.

We rarely agree what “volunteerism” means. What a “community” is. Or how to appropriately title employees outside of what we’re willing to pay in any kind of unified, centralized way.

How do we fix this? Can we fix this? Does it matter? I don’t know, but I think we can and I think it does.

What about you?

[ ben bisbee ]
3 Steps to Improve Your GitHub Overview Page
By: Shinichi Okada
Tags: Software Development, Programming, Github, Markdown, Git

3 Steps to Improve Your GitHub Overview Page

Add dynamically generating GitHub stats

My Github Overview Page. (Image by the author)

In this article, you will learn how to improve your GitHub overview page by adding your own content and dynamically generated GitHub stats.

Let’s get started.

Create a new repository. The repository name needs to be the same as your GitHub account name.

e.g. https://github.com/shinokada/shinokada Create a README.md file in this repo.

The contents of this file will be on your GitHub overview page.

You can use markdown to add headers, images, links, tables, emoji, and lists.

You can find many programming language icons from the GitHub explore repo. All the icons are under the topic folder.

This repository houses all of the community-curated content for GitHub Topics and Collections. (Image by the author)

3. Add GitHub Stats Cards.

Github Readme Stats dynamically generate GitHub stats about your repositories.

There are three kinds of stats cards.

Stats Card

Top Language Card

Extra Pin

Stats Card

Stats Card Example. (Image by the author)

The Stats Card shows total stars, commits, PR, issues, and contributions.

For example, you can copy and paste the following code.

You need to change the ?username=yourusername to your GitHub username, e.g ?username=shinokada .

You can set one of the themes in &theme= .

You can count your private commits by &count_private=true .

You can use any options in this table.

Option details. (Image by the author)

Top Language Card

This card shows your repos’ language stats.

Top Language Stats example. (Image by the author)

You can use &layout=compact to change the card design.

Top Language Stats compact layout. (Image by the author)

You can use the hide option to hide languages.

Extra Pin

You can use extra pins to show your repositories.

Your description in About will be displayed on the card.

Update your Github About.

Use the show_owner variable to include the repo owner’s username.

Extra Pin example. (Image by the author)

Here is my README.md file.

I hope you can use the above codes for your GitHub overview page. It is easy to apply this to get an overview of your GitHub stats.

Newsletter

References

The following resources were used to compile this post:
How to Solve the Shortest Word Distance II?
By: House Of Codes
Tags: Software Development, Coding, Programming, Interview, Java

How to Solve the Shortest Word Distance II?

Day 3 — 100 Days to LinkedIn, Yahoo, Oracle

Image by Bessi from Pixabay

100 Days to LinkedIn, Yahoo, Oracle— Shortest Word Distance II

Out of Free Stories? Here is my Friend Link.

Introduction🛹

Hey guys, I have been researching the content for my next Challenge. Many of you have reached out to me and gave me awesome ideas for the next challenge. Apart from FAANG tech questions. LinkedIn, Yahoo and Oracle topped the list.

Free for Kindle Readers

If you are Preparing for your Interview. Even if you are settled down in your job, keeping yourself up-to-date with the latest Interview Problems is essential for your career growth. Start your prep from Here!

Last month, I have been researching to find out the Frequently asked problems from these Companies. I have compiled 100 of these questions, I am not promising you that you will get these questions in your interview but I am confident that most of these “interview questions” have similar logic and employs the same way of thinking from these set of challenges.

Before we move on to the first problem, If you are wondering why I chose LinkedIn, Yahoo and Oracle over FAANG, is because I have completed a challenge Focusing on Amazon and Facebook Interview Questions in this Series:

Run, Walk, Crawl to Success🚀

Day 3 — Shortest Word Distance II 🏁

AIM🏹

Design a class which receives a list of words in the constructor, and implements a method that takes two words word1 and word2 and return the shortest distance between these two words in the list. Your method will be called repeatedly many times with different parameters.

Example🕶

Assume that words = ["practice", "makes", "perfect", "coding", "makes"] .

Input: word1 = “coding” , word2 = “practice”

Output: 3

Code👇

Author : Akshay Ravindran

Algorithm👨‍🎓

As soon as you read the Aim, You know you have to use a Hash Map to Solve this problem. If the input contains unique words only, then we can use a

String -> Integer Mapping. But Since, there could be duplicates involved, you have to use

String-> Integer List Mapping. Map Each occurrence of the word, in their positions as a key value pair in the HashMap. Now, get the two words and their respective positions in two separate lists. And get the minimum difference among all the numbers. The minimum difference at the end of iteration is the result🔚

Conclusion🐱‍🏍

Have you come across this question in your interview before? Share it in the comment section below. 🤝

Don’t forget to hit the follow button✅to receive updates when we post new coding challenges. Tell us how you solved this problem. 🔥 We would be thrilled to read them. ❤ We can feature your method in one of the blog posts.

Want to become outstanding in java programming?

Free for Kindle Readers

I have published an ebook. A compilation of 100 Java(Interview) Programming problems which have been solved. (HackerRank) 🐱‍💻

This is completely free 🆓 if you have an amazon kindle subscription.

Blog Posts You Might Be Interested in
EOS came out at 1,200 transactions per second; Ethereum was overloaded
By: Ico, Crypto News
Tags: Eos, Ethereum, Decentralized, Blockchain, Transactions

Launched about a month ago, the EOS network today reached a new maximum of its bandwidth in 1275 transactions per second and processed about 500,000 transactions over the past 24 hours.

About 13 hours ago, EOS managed to process 800 transactions per second. An hour later, the indicator reached 990 transactions, and later — more than 1,200 transactions. Then the value returned to its normal levels.

At the same time, in the Ethereum network, commissions are growing again, after expensive transactions began to fill up the blockchain on Saturday. Commission for the transaction has already exceeded to $1.

The developer of decentralized applications Justo assumes that EOS played a significant role in the problems of Ethereum. “If you think that this is not EOS, then who can have $2 million a day to attack Ethereum, and EOS tokens?” He said in a conversation with Trustnodes.

He argues that it is EOS that organizes airdrops in the Ethereum blockchain. “I and many other prominent Ethereum application developers have predicted that EOS will attempt to attack Ethereum to make its platform launch more fully. Thousands of random tokens without sites or with template sites spend thousands of ETH every day, hundreds of thousands of dollars. This occurred before the launch of the EOS on June 6, and then immediately ceased. In just one day, gas prices came back to normal,” he said, adding that around June 25 the situation began to repeat itself.

At the peak of the workload of the Ethereum blockchain in December, when the network processed 1.4 million transactions per day, the commissions were about $1. Today, the network processes about 500,000 transactions with commensurate commissions.

The leading developer of EOS Dan Larimer denies these accusations. Commenting on the situation in the Telegram channel, he wrote: “I can guarantee that Block.One is not so stupid as to allocate resources for an ETH attack when CryptoKitties exists for this. There are much more reasonable and less costly ways to attack ETH, if that were our goal.”

In any case, the new EOS records and the ETH congestion look quite a curious coincidence. To reach the figure of 500,000 transactions in 24 hours, Ethereum took 3 years and the game on the blockchain, which suddenly became popular. At the same time, it is difficult to establish how complete the transactions that take place on this day and through the EOS network itself are.

Join our Telegram channel https://t.me/blockchaininvestio
That B-Boy Strategy In Full
Tags: Education, Teaching And Learning

A short extract from Independent Thinking’s founder Ian Gilbert’s best-selling book Why Do I Need a Teacher When I’ve Got Google that explains his resistance to the apparent goal of ‘A-grades for everyone or else you’re not really trying/love to see children fail/hate reform etc etc…’

Or, as he once said when he used to be on Twitter:

“I would prefer BY FAR my children be happy, learn real skills and get Cs than be stressed, spoon-fed and get As. That’s not ‘coasting’.”

From Chapter 24 — A Short Word on Thinking About Thinking

A personal example, if I may, relates to my son. When he entered secondary school I knew he was more than capable of achieving A grades in his work so I began the process of pushing him to achieve these, abetted by his class teachers. But then I stopped myself. I realised that A grades are good for parents and good for teachers but actually weren’t good for him. He had a different goal, namely to not be a ‘boff’. In other words, his number one goal for his school day was to have a circle of friends, something that doing well at school would mitigate against in his view. It wasn’t that he didn’t want to do well, it just wasn’t number one on his list. The deal I struck with him, then, as he approached his GCSEs was one we called the ‘B-Boy’ strategy. In other words, the goal he was to achieve was ‘B grades and a life’. Not ‘all life and no qualifications’ or ‘A grades and no life’. Just Bs and a life. His minimum expected grades, I remember, were Bs right down the line (apart from RE which, in his irrefutable words and given the quality of the teacher I tend to agree, ‘doesn’t count’). We had simply aligned goals, although when he was awarded an A star in his chemistry coursework I grounded him for a week. His actual GCSEs did actually include a number of As but they were there because he wanted them to be, not because I wanted them there.

By the way, I’m not setting myself as the world greatest parent, far from it, but I have children so I may as well experiment.

I mentioned this to a group of teachers in Cornwall and it caused a great deal of heated debate and controversy amongst what was a high achieving academic staff. In the break a lady came up to me, though, and said to me, ‘I was pushed to get A grades but wished I’d got Bs and a life. I won’t be 16 again’. (ITL)
How to Use Color in Data Viz. Color can make or break your data…
By: Data Visualization Society Team
Tags: Colors, Visualization, Design, Data Visualization, Color Theory

Color is a major component in creating effective data visualizations. When done well, color can highlight the story you want the data to tell; when done poorly, it can distract from the data or even obfuscate it. So how do we use color effectively in creating our data visualization products? The DVS’s first Fireside Chat delves into that question and many more.

Panelists include:

Alan Wilson — Principal Designer at Adobe

Theresa-Marie Rhyne— Color Maven & Visualization Expert

Julia Krolik — Information Designer, Data Scientist & Artist

Subscribe to the DVS YouTube channel here.

Further reading on color theory and choosing colors for your data visualization:
Юбилей у меня сегодня
By: Orion Nebula
Tags: Historia, Mad People, Tribute, Pieces, Orion

in Both Sides of the Table
Omnichannel Post-Conversation Survey Using Customer Voice (Forms Pro)
By: Ashish Rana
Tags: Customer Service, Feedback, Chat, Dynamics 365, Customer

Recently, Microsoft announced its 2020 release wave 2 plan for the upcoming features in Dynamics 365 that will begin releasing from October 2020 through March 2021. Forms Pro is now rebranded as Dynamics 365 Customer Voice, and has more and better features. If you are an existing customer of Forms Pro, don’t worry, for all your Forms Pro surveys will be available as Projects in Customer Voice. For the transition process from Forms Pro to Customer Voice, click here. In this release, Microsoft added a ton of new features in Omnichannel for Customer Service. Click here to view.

Omnichannel uses its pre-chat feature to identify customers for agents based on their name/email address, etc. A new post-chat survey will be able to capture customers’ feedback on recent conversations with agents to improve service in the future.

Enable 2020 Wave 2 for your environment. Go to aka.ms/ppac (Power Platform Admin Center) to enable 2020 wave 2 updates.

3. Install Channels for Omnichannel from aka.ms/ppac.

4. Create a live chat channel record in the Omnichannel Administration app and go to Surveys.

5. Turn on Post-conversation survey to Yes.

6. Create a survey in Forms Pro

7. Refresh the page and you will see your Forms Pro survey in the survey field

If the survey is not available on the list, make sure Omnichannel and Forms Pro survey are in the same environment.

8. Select the survey send option:

Insert survey in conversation -- Insert a survey in an active session, only available for Chat channel.

Send survey link to conversation -- Send survey link to customer in the message box.

9. On ending a conversation, the Forms Pro survey question will be displayed (if you selected “Insert survey in conversation”).

I think the post-conversation survey is a great addition and an eagerly awaited feature in Omnichannel for Customer Service, allowing customers to provide feedback on their experience. I will be sharing more posts on my experience with Omnichannel enhancements. Learn more.
Be a Community Organizer. It Could Not Be Easier.
By: Wonder Compass, Mindful Journeys Of Art
Tags: Activism, Giveaway, Community Organizing, Giving, Community

First, I was inspired.

During the early stages of Covid, I joined Nextdoor. I try to keep social media to a minimum, but I wanted to poke around.

Here’s how this one act changed my life.

With all of the fear and panic, I noticed I was stocking up on food and water in the garage for myself, my husband, and my corgi. I saw a post from a person in Portland OR collecting food to make boxes for folks who couldn’t easily leave home. I took her about 3 carloads because I was so impressed and touched by her spirit. You’d be surprised how much “extra” you have lying around. Next came the wildfires. (What a year it’s been!) My concerns always lean toward animals and the planet, but I saw that some people were collecting for families displaced by the fires. With a few quick messages and clicks, I donated what I could around the house. I gave away the food and beverages that were in the garage.

Why? I realized very quickly due to the example of the first woman who inspired me…that if we need anything, we are surrounded by strangers, neighbors, community members, and organizations that can and want to help.

I decided to become a part of that fluid cycle.

There is no need to keep stocks of food and water (above a reasonable amount.) The first woman who collected supplies was able to ask on Nextdoor for exactly what certain families wanted and needed. Someone usually had those items, and they were donated. FAST. EASY. To her doorstep. Bam!

4. Back to the wildfires. Looking around, I found an organization near the center of the worst areas in Oregon that take in burned, injured, and sick wildlife. With a few posts, I had a garage full of supplies, beds, food, medical supplies, etc which I started driving down to Salem. I emailed my vet. They gave me a box of medicine. That took one minute of my time and a pick up down the street.

After a while, someone wrote that she often drives to Salem, and she started to deliver for me, saving me the 2-hour drive. She is still doing this..half a year later.

5. Many don't help for one very legitimate reason. They are tapped out with their own lives! Understandable! Tired! Money’s extremely tight, etc. However, it’s free if you have the internet to post a community message asking to gather supplies for this or that and distribute them.

COST = NOTHING.

Benefit = The opposite of Apathy which seems to be huge right now as well. We can’t possibly save the world with all its problems so why bother!!!!

6. Currently: The virus is peaking where I live in Oregon. Restaurants are shuttering and we are back to square one. Homebound. At the same time, the homeless in our city have grown beyond anything anyone has seen…ever.

My husband and I drove down 10 bags of sandwich/supply donations and we discovered a vast section of the city has become covered in homeless tents. It spreads out in all directions. Tent growth has become unbelievable in the past 6 months.
Don’t Confuse the Need for Self-Care With the Need for Community Care
By: Zita Fontaine
Tags: Relationships, Self, Self Improvement, Advice, Mindfulness

But there is another concept that is also important, and we seem to avoid it. It’s community care. And while self-care is necessary and inevitable for a healthy mindset, the need for community care has to be fulfilled just as much.

In our individualistic culture, we value strength and independence disproportionately. We look up to people who achieve success on their own, who defy their circumstances, who show incredible strength and persistence. We are made to believe that being a one-man-show is the desired way forward.

The gig economy is pushing us toward professions that can be done alone and remotely, where we learn enough skills to carry out the work of several people, where we contribute to teams only by sending in our own solution of the phase of work. We have been moving towards isolating ourselves socially even before we were forced to keep social distancing because of the pandemic this year.

We have tons of friends yet we feel lonelier than ever. We have the means to talk to anyone anywhere in the world, yet we go out of our ways to show how great our life is as an independent person. We glorify self-sufficiency and we despise people who are needy.

Humans are social beings — and have been since the dawn of time. Our evolution and our survival have depended on being part of the community around us, they were providing us protection, care and the potential for growth. We need others — in one way or another. Our need to belong is wired into our brain, to be part of a community is a vital need. We need self-care but we also need community care.
Maybe in a parallel universe, we’ll be together
By: Kelaiah Amador
Tags: Poetry On Medium, Love, Relationships Love Dating, Poetry, Poem

There was a lover like a moon ever-changing.

He is sometimes bemusing and enjoys endeavoring concepts such as black holes and galaxies.

For all I know, his words enthrall like stars in space sparkling brightly. He might be a constellation, to figure him out is connecting points.

Perplexing notions of repressed emotions denied the universe we both created.
Message Queue dengan Google Cloud Pub/Sub
By: Ilyas Ahsan
Tags: Message Queue, Realtime, Pub Sub, Python, Google Cloud Platform

Easy read, easy understanding. A good writing is a writing that can be understood in easy ways

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LocalCoinSwap Launches with HST
By: Horizon State Team
Tags: Trading, Bitcoin, Community, Cryptocurrency, Blockchain

We are pleased to announce that our strategic partner LocalCoinSwap has launched their exchange (https://localcoinswap.com) with HST as one of its initial 11 coins. This will allow for the buying and selling of HST with any form of payment and in any currency.

The LocalCoinSwap platform will go live by means of a progressive launch period. This will consist of a soft-launch on September 10th, and a hard-launch to follow.

The soft launch will so far consist of full and live trading of Decision Token, BTC, ETH, LCS Cryptoshares, WaltonChain, Golem, Binance token, Power Ledger.

We look forward to working with LCS and providing their services to the users of the Horizon State platform, as well as giving their community the option to make decisions using Horizon State’s blockchain solutions.

We encourage our community members to try LocalCoinSwap for all of their crypto buying and selling needs.

If you liked this article, please consider joining our Community conversations on Telegram , Discord or Reddit and connecting with us on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn or YouTube. Also, we value the opinions of our Community, you can email us at feedback@horizonstate.com
Color Platform in ‘WBS Marvels Seoul 2018’! Revealing BTS!
By: Color Platform
Tags: Seoul, Shilla Hotel, Color Platform, Color Coin, Blockchain

The Color team participated in the World Blockchain Summit Marvels Seoul 2018 held at Shilla hotel in Seoul on December 12th. As it is an international event with many blockchain companies and celebrities from all over the world, it was quite a thrill just being part of it. There were many people who came to see the Color team, so we were glad to run the booth and meet everyone!
D4S Sunday Briefing #69
By: Bruno Gonçalves
Tags: Deep Learning, Big Data, Machine Learning, Data Science, Neural Networks

Issue #69

D4S Sunday Briefing #69

A weekly newsletter with the latest developments in Data Science and Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence.

Sept 20, 2020

Dear friends,

​

Welcome to the 69th issue of the Sunday Briefing.

This week we are taking a break from blogging, but you can catch up on the most recent post in the Causality series were we cover the concept of d-separation, the fundamental tool in understanding how to make any pair of variables conditionally dependent or independent. As always, all the relevant code can be found in GitHub. You can also checkout the latest in the Epidemic Modeling series where we go over the basics of Network Structure, Superspreaders and Contact Tracing.

We’re proud to announce two new events coming up in November: Data Visualization with matplotlib [Register] and seaborn and Deep Learning for Everyone [Register]. Looking forward to seeing you there!

In our regularly scheduled content, we have a Guide to Training LSTMs, and overview of Data-oriented Programming in Python, a new programming methodology made possible by Python 3.7, an overview of Decision Table Patterns, a powerful but relatively unknown algoritm and a deep dive to Multi-Armed Bandits and the Stitch Fix Experimentation Platform.

On the academic front, we have an overview of Array programming with NumPy, A survey of Twitter research an interesting toy (and open source) election forecasting model and a look at the role of geography in the complex diffusion of innovations.

Finaly, in the video of the week, Daniel Chen teaches us about Cleaning and Tidying Data in Pandas​

Data shows that the best way for a newsletter to grow is by word of mouth, so if you think one of your friends or colleagues would enjooy this newsletter, just go ahead and forward this email to them. This will help us spread the word!

Semper discentes,

The D4S Team
Actions to Take to Support Black Students in STEM
By: Niveda Balananthan
Tags: Mentorship, Programming, Startup, Diversity In Tech, BlackLivesMatter

The Data Speaks the Truth

Data shows the extremity of this issue. An OZY article states: Recent diversity reports from Twitter, Google, and Facebook found that less than 5% of the companies’ tech workers identify as Black. Inequalities that serve these low numbers start at school and continue into the workplace, due to factors such as racial bias and financial disparities that make opportunities inaccessible.

A recent report by the National Academies of Science found that mentorship is crucial in expanding diversity in STEM. Companies, industry professionals, and universities must make an active effort to foster the development of diverse talent and to eliminate racism in their communities. Because, how can you aspire to be someone that you haven’t seen adequately represented in your school and industry?

I wanted to note that despite a tiresome search of Google and LinkedIn, I struggled to find many specific programs to support Black Canadian students. For this reason, I first discuss actions that you and others can take to bridge the gap. Then scroll down for a list of scholarships and resources for Black students in STEM.
Write For the Property Talk
By: Sarah Roberts
Tags: Article Submission, Write For Us, Submission, Publication, Submit

If you're a writer with knowledge of the property market, property investment strategies, or financial tips which can benefit property investors, we want to hear from you. The Property Talk is a medium publication and podcast created by RWinvest which focuses on all things property investment, with tips and advice to help you succeed in the world of buy to let.

We’re looking to build our publication with a range of unique and insightful articles. In order to be featured on the Property Talk, your content must be:

Unique and not published anywhere else.

Cover a topic related to property investment. Basically, anything that would help to inform first-time or experienced investors on how to invest in property in the most effective way possible.

Non-promotional. We don’t allow sponsored links within our posts.

To submit your work for our review, please comment on this post with your content idea. If we think this would make a good fit, we’ll add you as a writer of our publication and review your article! We can’t wait to hear from you.
A fragilidade exposta por um ciberataque global
By: Joao Vitor Chaves Silva
Tags: Futuro, IoT, Hackers, Segurança Digital

in Both Sides of the Table
How To Buy A Congressional Caucus
By: Peter C. Cook
Tags: Politics, Campaign Finance, Unions, Congress, Education

How To Buy A Congressional Caucus

Surprise! Lawmakers In New Education Caucus Got Big Bucks From AFT & NEA

American Federation of Teachers (AFT) president Randi Weingarten and National Education Association (NEA) president Lily Eskelsen García joined 11 members of Congress for a press conference on Tuesday to announce the formation of a new caucus in the U.S. House of Representatives focused on public education issues.

Video of press conference from Rep. Mark Pocan

According to Rebecca Klein at the Huffington Post, the less-than-creatively named Public Education Caucus has been in the works for more than a year, but the decision to officially launch the group this week was precipitated by the upcoming Senate confirmation hearings for Betsy DeVos, Donald Trump’s nominee for U.S. Secretary of Education.

DeVos, a billionaire philanthropist and major GOP donor from Michigan, is a controversial choice for the nation’s top education post. Over the past two decades, she has been an outspoken advocate of school choice, although her stances on several policy issues — such as vouchers and charter accountability — have left even education reform supporters (myself included) wary of her candidacy. As a result, AFT & NEA have been waging an increasingly aggressive campaign opposing her confirmation, of which the newly-announced Public Education Caucus is clearly a part. Speakers at Tuesday’s press conference spent most of their time questioning DeVos’ qualifications for Secretary of Education.

But Here’s Something You May Have Missed…

Although several news outlets covered the group’s kickoff, they all left out an interesting fact: Ten of the eleven lawmakers in the Public Education Caucus received sizable campaign contributions — ranging from $6,500 to $25,000 — from AFT and NEA during the 2016 election cycle.
Why do we have to find the dream job that we love
By: Nikita Singh
Tags: Work, Work Life Balance

People tell us that we become what we were meant to be. For some people, it is hard to choose a career path, a profession, or an area of study, while others know what they want and see themselves in a certain profession or life path since their childhood. Even as a child, I was certain about one thing that no matter what profession I select, I should be happy and content.

After getting my degree in Public Relations and Communications, my dream was to work for a corporate giant, like many of my classmates. Not knowing the reality of the corporate world, I joined the rat race and later regretted it. In my past experience at a corporate job, I always felt like I was always looking at the clock waiting for it to strike 5.30. Having quit my first job, I got almost every piece of advice there is about switching jobs during the formative years of my career:

“If you’ve worked at an agency for less than one year, try not mentioning it on your resume.

“Stay at the same organization for at least two years. Don’t shift industries or you won’t be able to grow.”

I realized that understanding what you want from a job allows you to be more honest with yourself and towards your employers. At my last gig, which was in a start-up, I made a significant change to my mind-set. I was thriving at work because of the relaxed work environment. I believe this comes down to the work culture that a start-up has to offer — the job was everything I’d wished for. I was free from the prison of a dull, unfulfilling corporate life and dived into a fast-paced startup, working in a niche that I loved, not having to be at the office at any given time, the flexibility to work when and where I wanted.

I learned this while working on this job that my peers weren’t very open to trying new things. At that time, I simply thought, “As long as I kept bringing new ideas to the table, at some point, they’ll be keen to try something different.”

I rapidly gathered that change wasn’t a part of the organization’s culture. But I also realized something significant: I understood the kind of work environment I needed in order to thrive.

When you are unapologetically yourself, when you stand up for who you are, what you want to create in this world, who you want to surround yourself with, the universe opens up in a mysterious way. I believe everything that is meant for you will find you, and everything that is not — won’t. It is up to us to be the channel for our uniqueness, it is up to us to embrace ourselves and that is how that version of ourselves shows up in the world. When we shine boldly in our light, in our element, we motivate and empower others to follow suit. I believe being a part of Mavericks has undoubtedly given me space and freedom to be exactly who I am.
How To Never Run Out of Things to Say in a Conversation
By: Mitchell Olson
Tags: Social Anxiety, Relationships, Communication Skills, Conversion Threading, Communication

I used to blank out frequently during conversations with people. Usually right in the middle of a conversation. It was frustrating, to say the least. A tragic combination of shame and helplessness would come over me. I would have a hard time finding the right words. I would like to say something but I did not know what to say. And the craziest part was that the more I tried, the more I would draw a blank, which resulted in not having anything to say. Note: Sometimes silence is necessary and I will cover this in another article… Outside, I smiled and nodded. But inside, I was going crazy. I just needed something to say!

“the more I tried, the more my mind blanked and I would have nothing to say.”

If you can relate to this keep reading.

UNTIL I LEARNED A TECHNIQUE CALLED CONVERSATION THREADING

It’s a technique you can use in any conversation. This allows you to relax and think easily about what to say next. This is the basic concept: when you talk to someone, a thread is a word that interests you. Anything that causes something in your brain: a memory, an opinion or a feeling, for example. During a conversation, there will be dozens of discussions. So listen carefully. Each word can be a thread. And spinning a conversation is simply pulling a thread with a statement or question. Then, when someone is talking, listen to a word that interests you and use it to continue the conversation. So, for example, let’s say someone says …

“TODAY I AM GOING TO THE PARK WITH MY DOG.”

A short sentence but full of tons of information. In this sentence, there are 3 discussions that I could launch. And each of these opens a complete line of conversation.

YOU CAN TALK ABOUT TODAY

Today is the ideal day for the park.

Do you have any other plans for today?

YOU CAN TALK ABOUT PARKS

In what park did you go?

I went to Yosemite Park last year.

WHERE CAN YOU TALK TO DOGS

What kind of dog do you have?

Dogs are the best…

My friend has an awesome hunting dog.

This creates natural transitions from one subject to another. Fluid and effortless conversations are the best. That’s what we are aiming for. Most people worry about what to say next. They end up not really listening and then all those rich conversation topics float away with the breeze. Try to notice anything that wakes something up in your mind. Try not to filter and let the conversation flow.
Everybody’s Trans Memoir
By: Bethany Beeler, Author Artist
Tags: Transgender, LGBTQ, Autobiography, Memoir, Storytelling

Everybody’s Trans Memoir

Why Trans Stories That Don’t “Fit the Mold” Are Stories for ALL OF US.

With the cultural rise of trans rights and trans personae, no longer is the trans narrative exotic, esoteric, and unfamiliar.

Yet, there are narratives, and there are narratives. For good or for ill, Caitlyn Jenner’s 2014 coming out cemented in popular culture trans persons’ having grown up in a girl’s/boy’s body, knowing from an early age that they were rather a boy/girl.

the point of a memoir is to tell a very particular journey so that it resonates with EVERYBODY

Binary, Schminary

Sounds pretty binary and one-size-fits-all. Which it is. The Greek root, “trans,” means “across from,” as in “not at home with.” There is a plethora of ways beyond a binary for anyone not to feel at home with themselves.

My One-Size-DOESN’T-Fit-All Memoir

My story is one of those. I’m MtF trans. I’m post-op. I continue HRT. All my legal name-change/other transitions are complete. Here’s the twist: I had no inkling I was trans until I was 54 years old.

Howz that fer not fittin’ the mold?

Which is one reason why I call my memoir, How to NOT Know You’re Trans, for it recounts a lifetime of having been shut down and missing the boat as to my own true identity. There’s anxiety and depression in that story, as well as comic relief, and, ultimately, joy.

Given that title, you might think my narrative applies only to late-in-life transitioners.

But the point of a memoir is to tell a very particular journey so that it resonates with EVERYBODY.

The Odder the Better

That’s the gist of every trans person’s narrative—they’re accounts of being human. The better they tell a story of what popular culture deems an “oddball” subset of humanity, the more they resonate with everybody in every culture, time, place, and orientation. Otherwise, why would we continue to read stories of any ilk from cultures, people, and milieus far transported from the here, the now, the status quo?

Narratives pose a puzzle — namely, how did the protagonist get into this situation and how do they get out of it, to a brighter sunrise, and to a present — and future — of hope?

The subtitle of my memoir implies this—A Memoir of the Unknown Trans Person and How A Marriage Survived and Thrives Through It.

Narratives pose a puzzle—namely, how did the protagonist get into this situation and how do they get out of it, to a brighter sunrise, and to a present—and future—of hope? How the narrative shapes out and who it’s about fall into the background because, in reading it, we bring ourselves to the story and live it with the protagonist.

And that’s what my memoir is about. Read it to live it!
I am Proud to Announce…
By: Amanda Dalmas
Tags: Editor, The Rebel Poets Society, Announcements, Excitement, Super Stoked

I am Proud to Announce…

That I have made J.D. Harms an Editor for The Rebel Poet’s Society!

I can’t even express How Fucking Excited I am to be working alongside him and cracking into that insane genius. I only see good things coming from this. Together, I feel this pub will find greater heights. Best Christmas Present Ever!

Stay tuned in for more updates. And Have a Merry Christmas and Happy Yule.

Amanda Dalmas ~ Dec. 24th, 2020
‘Ethnic Affinity’ Advertising — Nintendo on Your Smartphone — Game Developing — Motion Design — The Creepy Net
By: Ben Johnson
Tags: Advertising, Motion Design, Gaming

Gruvi Weekly Digest #22 — A weekly catch up on what we found interesting at Gruvi.

We’re looking into games and connected lives this week. Opportunities are there for established companies to try a new approach to their trade (like Nintendo did with its smartphone app). But the internet also become a place of controversy by excellence — one of the latest basis for that is the Facebook advertising for Straight Outta Compton.

Ben, CEO

Well, that was bound to happen…

Matt, Operations Lead

Nintendo has started making smartphone apps and, after launching in Japan recently, they’ve already nabbed more than one million users. Nintendo has always been a more casual gaming company — this move, plus the reported four other apps planned for this year, makes total sense.

Johnny, Lead Developer

At GDC this year Zach Gage was challenged to create a game that would last for 30 years. Besides obvious technical challenges, Zach discusses motivations, stakes and meaning in developing a game to last a third of a lifetime.

Franco, Digital Designer

“Have you been noticing the words ‘motion design’ popping up around the design world? Companies big and small are starting to hire designers specifically with this title. So what is all the fuss about? And why does it matter?”

Mirona, Gruvi’s Go Getter

In the age of the internet, ghosts are more real then they have ever been!
How To Write a Strong Headline for Your Offer
By: Nick Chai
Tags: Headlines, Audience, Marketing Strategies, Copywriting, Marketing

4. Summarise Your Offer With a Headline

Once you’ve gathered info on your audience’s interest and created a compelling hook, it’s time to write your headline.

And it’ll come naturally since you’ve done the hard work of researching every bit of information you can find. If it’s not easy for you to write, that means your research isn’t enough to appeal to your audience.

Keep in mind that your headline has one job only — to capture your audience’s attention. It should appeal to your audience’s pain through their interest.

It should stop them from scrolling past your offer and make them click to find out more.

A rule of thumb is that you should never try to sell with your headline.

Clickbait happens whenever marketers try to do that. Clickbait may bring clicks and traffic to your offer, but it’ll hurt your business in the long run.

So a clear, strong headline should only consist of the audience’s interest and nothing else. This is crucial when writing a headline to prevent clickbait. Let me give you an example.

Interest: SEMRush, Seth Godin, Gary Vaynerchuck (Content Marketing)

Problem: Marketing their business

Wants: Leads

My objective: To offer a marketing solution through content creation

Tonality: Professional

Headlines:

a. *Your offer name* is the only content marketing solution you need

b. Here’s how *your offer name* can help you generate consistent traffic and leads to your site.

c. Find out how our clients used *your offer name* to generate consistent monthly traffic and leads

d. *Your offer name* will help you achieve content marketing success by curating your content accordingly to generate consistent leads.

e. Many successful businesses trust *your offer name* for its effectiveness in driving consistent traffic and leads in their content marketing.

These are some headlines for example purposes. They mainly pique your interest and curiosity to persuade you to click if you’re interested in this niche.

Notice that I don’t use any fear-based headlines because these headlines drive a negative impression of being salesy on your offer.

Fear-based headlines to avoid:

a. Your marketing is having trouble because you’re missing out on *your offer name* for your content marketing

b. Never worry about marketing again once you use *your offer name* for your content marketing

c. You’re leaving money on the table! *Your offer name*will help you solve that

d. Not enough traffic and leads? *Your offer name* will save the day

e. Forget spending money on ads. *Your offer name* will generate 3x more consistent traffic and leads to your site for free

Some marketers out there will teach you to use fear-based marketing because it’s stronger.

But if you don’t know how to use it, I would recommend staying away from it. Poorly executed fear-based marketing can backfire and affect your business. Just stick to your customer’s interest.
A leading figure in the development of blockchain industry
Tags: ICO, Bitcoin, Ethereum, Cryptocurrency, Blockchain

Dr. Cao Huning (Henry), founder of Usechain, is a professor of Finance, Chair of the Finance Department and the Academic Director of the Finance MBA at CKGSB. He holds a PhD in Finance from UCLA and a PhD in Pathology from Yale University.

At the age of 13, he entered The University of Science and Technology of China (USTC), which is a prominent university in China having an excellent reputation worldwide. Before joining CKGSB, Dr. Cao taught at UC Berkeley, UCSD, Ohia State University, Carnegie Mellon and UNC Chapel Hill.

His research has been published in journals including Journal of Finance, Review of Financial Studies, Journal of Financial Economics, Journal of Economic Theory, Journal of Business, Review of Finance and Marketing Science.

He is also the co-editor of International Financial Review and sits on the editorial board of Annals of Economic and Finance, and China Financial Review.

Given his outstanding academic credentials and remarkable achievements in the financial world, Dr. Cao believes that blockchain will revolutionize the financial sector. Through his concept on new technology innovation, Dr. Cao will be the first to introduce Randomized Proof of Work (RPOW) consensus mechanism and mirror identity protocol into the world of blockchain. It will certainly change how we view the world in future especially in the context of real identity, information verification and security as well as data management.

BlockTrain event: Dr. Cao (First from the left)

BlockTrain event: Dr. Cao (Second from the right)

Dr. Cao presenting at the Global Blockchain Technology Expo, BlockTrain, Silicon Valley

Dr. Cao presentation at GDIS 2018, The Era of Blockchain, Silicon Valley

Dr. Cao speaking at the Harvard College China Forum Annual Conference 2018

Dr. Cao being featured on CGTN’s The Point

Dr. Cao presentation at the Blockchain in Chicago Gala, The Hyatt Centric

Reach us at:

Website: http://www.usechain.net/

Weibo: https://weibo.com/usechain

Twitter: https://twitter.com/usechain

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/UsechainFoundation/

Telegram: https://t.me/usechaingroup

Medium: https://medium.com/usechain/

Bitcointalk: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=3432061.0

Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/user/Usechain
這些是十幾年前的概念你敢信！？
By: Mack Chen
Tags: Los Angeles, Design, Concept, 設計小天地, Cars

in Both Sides of the Table