fabiochiu/medium-articles huggingface dataset:
Why Scientists Feel Dumb
By: Mark Humphries
Tags: Work, Psychology, Science, Neuroscience, Education

Experiments are an exercise in confidence leeching. Stuff will go wrong, you will screw up, you will break stuff. The most advanced thing I’ve ever done with my own two hands is attempt to train a rat in a box to press a lever. It didn’t. I failed even at that basic task. The thought of trying to lower a piece of glass roughly the thickness of a human hair through the brain until it touches the surface of a single neuron’s body, without breaking the glass, the neuron, or your own mind in the process doesn’t compute. Getting good data can be a process of confidence-sapping, head-banging floundering.

Analysing the data is even worse. Statistics is an exercise in keyboard-snapping frustration, compounded by most scientist’s truly terrible training in statistics, which is no fault of their own. Which were you trained in: the cookbook; the t-test/ANOVA solves all; or absolutely bugger all? Few people deeply understand the principles behind the statistical analyses they do. Even fewer use them correctly; judging by the torrents of anger statisticians aim at each other, that includes most of them too. The already low confidence of most working scientists faced with doing statistics is now compounded by the many high-profile pronouncements that we’ve all been doing it wrong for decades. But with no clear guidance on what to do instead: p-values but no significance level; p-values but more stringent significance levels; no p-values but confidence intervals; no p-values but effect sizes; none of that Fisher or Neyman-Pearson rubbish, use Bayes (factors) — for a different arbitrary number scale to interpret instead. Oh for the heady days of Rutherford’s dictum “if you need statistics, you’ve done the wrong experiment”.

Reading scientific papers is worse. To know what is known, we have to read the literature. Every new research paper we read reveals to us something we didn’t know before. Broaching a new research topic — say the sub-unit composition of the GABAb receptor, the response of dopamine neurons to reward or lack thereof, the algorithms of hierarchical clustering — is like swallowing a firehose of our own ignorance.

The mere existence of the literature is worse. Science is a crushing flood of papers. More papers are published in your own research field than you can ever read. And more are published every year, every month, every day. You can never catch up. The scale of your ignorance writ large by your PubMed and Google search results.

And finally, there are your peers. Scientists spend much, perhaps all, of their time with other scientists. This is not healthy. Other scientists are smart. They know things you don’t know; can do things you can’t do; can understand things you can’t understand. All of them. Thousands of them. Go to the annual Society for Neuroscience meeting and stand in the half-mile long poster hall, and there are about 10,000 scientists in that single room that know things you don’t.
Unit Testing CLI Programs in Go
By: Elliot Chance
Tags: Golang, Unit Testing, Go, Cli

Photo by John Schnobrich on Unsplash

It’s a common scenario — for me at least — to be building a CLI tool ( main package) that has CLI options ( flags package) that I want to add unit tests to.

Here’s a simple example of a CLI tool that adds or multiplies some input numbers:

Let’s try it:

5 + 7 + 9 = 21 — great… But wait! 3 * 2 * 5 != 0 …I’ve put a deliberate bug in the command. Something that we will catch and fix with a unit test.

Don’t Try This At Home Kids

Let’s write a unit test that uses the same CLI arguments so we can fix the bug. However, we have a lot of global state that needs to be manipulated:

Yuck! This is really ugly and problematic code… miles away from a small, easy to read unit test.

One fairly obvious solution here is to separate the logic that does the calculating from the main() function (that handles the arguments and output), like:

Now the unit test is trivial:

But this is cheating! Since we have bypassed the flags completely, we are not actually testing the CLI arguments. We’d really like to perform black-box testing on the tool as it would be used — instead of testing isolated parts. Especially if a bug was introduced to the way flags are parsed.

A Better Solution

We now have an out which makes it much easier to capture output. We no longer use the functions in the flag package. Instead we have to instantiate a new flag parser for each call to main() . Anywhere output is generated will have to write to out instead.

Now our unit test needs only know about the CLI arguments before calling main() :

This looks a lot nicer when there are multiple tests:
GOALD Full Public Release
Tags: Careers, Apps, Career Change, Career Advice, Education

Educational and Job opportunities!

We are proud to announce that we have released our full first version (don’t worry, we will continue to add more career paths).

Highlight Features:

Now when you search for any career path, the app will provide the relevant educational opportunities near you (or near the zip code you enter) if you expand the accordion for any required education.

Also, the app will provide the relevant job opportunities near you (or near the zip code you enter) if you expand the accordion for the job step in the given path.

Less noticeable features:
“Holiday Songs” Prompt Winners
By: Aimée Gramblin
Tags: Self, Nonfiction, Aoe Prompt, Writing, Poetry

“Holiday Songs” Prompt Winners

And, the winners are…

Age of Empathy community, thanks for knocking this prompt out of the ballpark! The numbers are really close on this one. There’s no fiction winner because there were no fiction entries. Maybe next time. :)

This is the third and final round of competitive prompts from AoE for the 2020 year. We’ll be revamping prompts and telling you all about them in the new year.

Without further ado, the winners are:

Nonfiction

Michael Burg, MD for Nonfiction
Building APIs: A Comparison Between Cursor and Offset Pagination
Tags: API, JavaScript, Software Development, Programming, Python

Overview of Pagination

When you have an extensive database that needs to be sent to the user and you decide to send it in chunks rather than sending the entire database in one go, pagination comes into play. The concept of pagination is used by almost all the sites that are visited daily.

Before diving deep into pagination, you must know about the two different types of pagination.

Cursor-based pagination

The cursor is considered to be a key parameter in this type of pagination. The client receives a variable named Cursor along with the response. It is a pointer that points at a particular item that needs to be sent with a request. The server then uses the cursor to seek the other set of items. Cursor-based pagination is more complex and is preferred when dealing with a real-time data set.

Offset-based pagination

Offset-based pagination is a very famous technique wherein the client requests parameters with a specific limit (the number of results) and offset (the number of records that need to be skipped). Offset-based pagination is easy to use and is preferred for static data.
Ø Crypto Union partners with ARK
By: Ø Crypto Union
Tags: Blockchain

It is with great pleasure we can announce that in collaboration with the ARK’s team, we are seeking to integrate ARK coin (and multisig wallet) to our ØPay application in the coming weeks!

Ø Crypto Union will allow ARK holders to take full advantage of the fantastic benefits of staking their coins, whilst also enabling them to access fiat funds in an instant, thanks to our ultra-low rate crypto-backed-loans through ØPay!

About ARK

ARK is an all-in-one blockchain solution targeted at developers, startups and enterprise level customers. ARK features a custom bridge-chain model, inter-blockchain communication through their SmartBridge technology, and a highly customizable blockchain deployer that allows for quick and easy development of ARK powered blockchains. ARK’s platform makes blockchains both easy to use and highly scalable, solving two of the major problems in the industry today.

With a strong presence in global hackathons and one of the industries leading open-source developer bounty programs, ARK has already established themselves as a major player in the industry. By fostering open relationships and encouraging collaboration and partnerships, rather than competition, ARK is paving the way for a new generation of Blockchain startups and is leading the way towards the decentralized economy of the future.

AMA

Early September, ARK will host an AMA (Ask Me Anything) with members of our team to answer any questions regarding our platform and integration.

We’ll announce on our social media as soon as we have the exact date.
Covid-19 Can Spread To The Heart And Cause Serious Damage
By: Steven Psaradakis
Tags: Health, Pandemic, Heart, Covid 19, Society

The Covid-19 virus is now known to target an enzyme that is highly expressed by the cardiac cells that comprise the heart.

Covid-19 targets the angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) receptor as a means of infiltrating body cells. The ACE2 enzyme is utilised by many organs, but perhaps most concerning is its high expression in the heart.

In cases in which Covid-19 successfully spreads to the heart, it can cause a vast array of damage, from necrosis of cardiac cells, to acute or protracted heart failure. Furthermore these symptoms are not limited to severe cases of Covid-19, with signs of cardiac damage even presenting in those who experienced mild to no symptoms traditional symptoms.
You’ll Be Victorious Soon
By: Neha Ravindra
Tags: Courage, Blue Insights, Strength, Poetry, War

You’ll Be Victorious Soon

Darling, right now, you’re feeling the heat

But let me tell you, this world offers a lot to see

The air is magical and your success will be sweet

Bask in your strength and aside let the evil taunts be

I’m here to render courage and bravery

Fight with your tender heart and smile

With my love and this poetry

Let us roar again, it has been a while

Look around, they are praising what you do

March in glory and dance to the tune

Let the past be, it no more belongs to you

You’re a warrior, you’ll be victorious soon
Nature’s Art Gallery
Tags: Travel, Mountains, Spring, North Carolina

If there’s one show you don’t want to miss in the Great Smoky Mountains, look no further than out your window. As winter subsides, the mountains and forests truly come alive! Want to take in a live concert? Just listen to the symphony of birdsong, the jubilant babbling brooks, and the creaking rustle of loblolly pines as they gently sway in the breeze. A show? Sip a cup of tea as the sun rises above the mountain line, sending god rays across the land and dispelling the blanket of fog that makes the mountains “smoky”.

Discover countless hikes to magnificent panoramas and waterfalls. Above, you’ll find multitudinous birds of all shape, size, and color — the crest of the Smokies towers nearly a mile above the foothills, creating a huge diversity of habitats birds. And with so little light from cities, the night sky is ablaze with stars, and the Milky Way stretches from horizon to horizon. Drive along scenic mountain roads, and through bucolic Appalachian farmlands. There is more beauty to be found in the Smoky Mountains than can be seen in a lifetime. Showtimes are every day, and don’t worry, tickets never run out!
‘Every Act of Life’ Director Jeff Kaufman on Filmmaking, Collaboration, and Learning from Playwright Terrence McNally
Tags: Documentary, Film, Theatre, Kickstarter, Filmmaking

“You cannot tell the history of the American theater without celebrating the work of Terrence McNally,” says performer and Broadway heavyweight Audra McDonald. McNally is the prolific playwright, librettist, and screenwriter behind dozens of plays, including four Tony Award-winners: Love! Valour! Compassion!, Master Class, Kiss of the Spider Woman, and Ragtime. Most recently, he wrote the book for the Broadway musical Anastasia.

Director Jeff Kaufman and producer Marcia Ross first met McNally, now 79, several years ago while working on their documentary The State of Marriage. They interviewed McNally and his husband, theater producer Tom Kirdahy, for the film, which traces the origins of the marriage equality movement in the United States. “It was really moving to hear Terrence speak so openly about love, need, commitment, being true to oneself, and the importance of making life matter,” Kaufman says of their first meeting. “We thought, ‘Why hasn’t anyone made a documentary about this man?’ Then we said, ‘Well, we should.’”

Now, after two years of filming and a Kickstarter campaign to fund post-production, Every Act of Life premieres at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York City on April 23. The documentary traces the playwright’s involvement in the LGBTQ rights movement, his battles with alcoholism and cancer, the highs and lows of his fifty-year career in the American theater — amid his many successes, he’s also learned from his share of flops and failures — and his commitment to finding love and inspiration in “every act of life.”

Ahead of the film’s premiere at Tribeca (one of twelve Kickstarter-funded films screening at the festival this year) we spoke with Kaufman about McNally’s indelible legacy, the collaborative nature of the filmmaking process, and his advice for young documentary filmmakers.
The Dangers of Sectarianism
Tags: Religion, Ahimsa, Sectarianism, Maharshi Mehi, Sant Mat

I love this passage from Maharshi Mehi on the dangers of sectarianism, showing how hard-headed and hard-hearted sectarian attitudes between spiritual organisations is a form of violence. Sectarianism according to enlightened Masters is not a virtue. It is a vice. Best to co-exist in a peaceful spirit of ahimsa — non-violence in thought, word, and deed.

“In different times and different places saints appear and their followers name their religion according to the sage or saint who propounded that tradition. The appearance of differences can be attributed to time, place, and language. This gives rise to various labels for the common views held by all religions. Likewise, due to excessively zealous followers, these seeming differences are often amplified. When all sectarianism and the temporal and linguistic aspects are removed, the basic principles of all the saints are in accord and the voices of the saints are in harmony.” (Maharshi Mehi Paramhans)
Artist and Band Agreements devil in the detail!
By: Peter Moore
Tags: Artist, Contracts, Band, Sales, Creative

The first thing which comes to mind when starting a band is playing music together with your mates and having a good time. This is all well and good and necessary to form chemistry with band members.

However, what bands fail to consider in the early stages is creating a Band Agreement.

A Band Agreement might single-handedly be the most important document a band could do in their lifetime.

This document could save thousands if handled correctly should a dispute arise.

During the lifetime of a band, there will likely be a dispute, as no band is perfect and we are all human.

It is also crucial to note that this agreement is cheaper than most equipment needed to perform, and is worth paying for.

This document would detail how income is distributed. This is essential as it will decide the share of revenue each band member will obtain, be it equally distributed or weighted to the artists who write the songs.
Adventures in the Natural History Museum
By: Holly Hamlett
Tags: Design, UX, UX Design

The websites were generally well designed, although navigating to some areas was complicated. The common features we found were: interactive map (and usually a downloadable PDF of the paper one), activities for families and individuals such as trails you can follow, and highlighting of accessibility mostly for people with physical disabilities.

The British museum had an app, however that was a game that didn’t involve any interaction with the museum environment. The London Transport Museum and V&A apps were simple postcard makers. We also looked at the existing Natural History Museum app, which we found had very few activities that encourage interaction in the museum environment, again relying on trails.

The next step was to create a project canvas for the project which helped is to think about elements such as the scope of the project, the assumptions, risks, constraints, as well as goals and the potential benefits to the user. We also provisionally identified 3 main user groups which we would like to interview: the Parent, the Traveller & the Casual Individual.

Discussing our findings in the Dinosaur exhibit

Contextual Inquiry/Site Visit

We also completed a site visit as a group, but split into pairs to investigate different aspects of the museum experience. One group looked at the customer journey to a specific exhibition, as well as general customer navigation.

With my partner, I looked at navigation from entrances, in particular, pain points and areas of congestion, to put into context how the users will be moving around the museum and if any of these issues would affect the design solution.

Finding Users through Screener Survey

In order to gather interview subjects for the projects, the team worked together to create a screener survey. We were interested in if the the person was visited museums and how often they attended, which museums they preferred to attend and their motivation for attending (i.e. culture, social, a family outing). We also tried to establish some behaviours to find ideal candidate for the interviews by asking if they visited museums while travelling and also if they liked to plan their visit ahead of time.

Of the 52 responses we had, a quarter didn’t visit museums at all in the past 6 months, and so were discounted, and we contacted the some of the remaining responders to arrange interviews.

Interviewing Users & Affinity Mapping

We completed 13 user interviews, from a variety of age ranges. We wanted to cover all the user groups we had identified as being key to the project, and from those interviews found valuable insight. All the users enjoyed the atmosphere of a museum — the sounds and smells, the feeling of gravitas that came with museum buildings which spoke to the expert knowledge that a museum brings with it as an institution.
Why writing letters helps you heal
By: Fabi K. S.
Tags: Healing, Writing, Writers On Writing, Letters, Life

Why writing letters helps you heal

How to start writing letters, and how it will help you get over it.

As I have mentioned before in my previous article, writing letters is a great way to help you cope with your issues with people. You address them to those you want to talk to but don’t feel comfortable with in person, you let those feelings seep into your words on the page, and then you deal with at least some of it.

Here, I decided to explain another step of writing the letters. What often helps is going back to re-read the letters and approaching them from a 3rd person perspective, as if you are not the one who wrote all those feelings out. What I find is that it often helps me understand my feelings in a different way than before: maybe I was being too petty, too hormonal, too exaggerated. Or maybe I was reasonable.

That is when it becomes clear that those letters, at times, do come at moments of intensity, and when those happen I don’t know what feelings I can trust. Returning to the letters allows me to understand how influential my feelings are on my behaviour, and how other people’s actions easily affect my temper.

Not only, but it is always nice to look back to see how much I have grown since the last time I wrote one. The difference is often subtle, maybe my humour’s changed or the way I write varies, but the progression of emotions is clear. The best ones are the sequential ones, those to people who have more than one letter, which allows me to see how my feelings have changed towards them with time. Because, though we hate to admit it, we can’t really remember exactly what we felt at every moment. To the boy I’m annoyed at, for example, I can’t even remember a time when we could stand each other. But I do remember us spending a lot of time together, and all I wonder is how I was able to do it. The girl I’m indifferent to today was once the one I loved the most, the best friend in the world, and now we don’t talk anymore.

The truth is that feelings change so much, and how you feel now can often (though not always) influence your memory of the past, including your feelings towards it. Some people I still look back dearly, reminiscing how lovely a relationship we had regardless of how I feel now. Others I wonder how we were even able to stand next to each other. But there was a time when I really liked them, and I wish I had written letters so that I could remember why I felt the way I did.

That’s what I do now. I write to remember why I feel the way I feel now. Towards everyone, even the ones I know will remain in my life for a long time, because even those sentiments will change, and maybe they will leave.

So write, look back, learn about your feelings, see how much you’ve grown, and use these to heal. Read your letters for closure when you can’t have none, for comfort when you can’t find any: because, liking it or not, writing is one of the best ways to heal your wounds and process your feelings.
Taking Responsibility For Recycling During COVID-19 — @OlumideClimate
By: Iccdi Africa
Tags: Recycling Services, Women, Covid 19, Climate Change, Recycling

I’ve been staying at home for the past few weeks with very good reason — preventing the spread of COVID-19 and taking necessary precautions. During this time, you all probably are generating more waste, particularly food and beverage packaging along with Pet bottles, takeout containers and cardboard boxes.

As household waste increases, it’s more important than ever to be mindful of the right things to put in your recycling bin. When it comes to recycling, it’s super important to know exactly what and how to recycle. One contaminated item in your recycling bin can ruin the entire batch, sending it to the landfill instead of the recycling centre — and, just like that, all your good recycling intentions go to waste.
Loopring’s New Relayer Added AMM Support
By: Daniel Wang
Tags: Zkrollup, Amm, Ethereum, Layer 2, Loopring

A few example transactions:

https://goerli.etherscan.io/tx/0x76ea064ba3e4c85940748da165baabdad9af7a81c54e76eeb33073d113a5c5bf: a pool join transaction (add liquidity).

https://goerli.etherscan.io/tx/0x3a589a0cdd0ca43b27ea13f28acb1cb9b11f11f7d783c35e309e106dacc52f8d: a swap transaction.

https://goerli.etherscan.io/tx/0x61c3c89f309b3610fc857fe25e32eac9c3941def5a07e3e8210ea324b0db7862: a pool exit transaction (remove liquidity).

About Loopring’s AMM Design

An AMM swap circuit is now part of Loopring 3.6. The circuit implemented the Balancer curve:

Where

t ranges over the tokens in the pool;

ranges over the tokens in the pool; Bt is the balance of the token in the pool;

is the balance of the token in the pool; Wt is the weight of the token, upgradable by the AMM pool’s managing contract.

Various AMM pools can be implemented differently in their own smart contracts; all pool join and exit transactions are on layer-2 using Loopring’s Transfer transactions. The pool’s smart contract verifies join/exit transactions data onchain and manages pool token issuance; Loopring only facilitates swap transaction settlement. Therefore, AMM pool contracts are not considered as part of the Loopring protocol.

Loopring 3.6 will match regular orderbook orders with AMM pools natively without the need for extra funds to do arbitrage. Orders can be filled partially with other orders and partially with AMM pools. It’s the relayer’s job to facilitate order routing for the best price and/or based on user preferences.

Loopring 3.6 can even do swaps between multiple AMM pools that support the same tokens. More all about Loopring 3.6 here.

As part of a native zkRollup implementation, Loopring’s AMM swap transactions will be super-efficient. We’ll share more details later.

Next Steps

We are optimizing our smart contracts to minimize the gas cost per pool join/exit transaction. This is likely to finish within a week. We’ll improve test coverage to make sure liquidity providers can withdraw money in all scenarios, including exchange shutdown. We’ll perform stress testing to ensure the throughput and cost meets our expectation. Most importantly, such tests will likely identify issues in our relayer.

We plan to launch Loopring 3.6 on the Ethereum mainnet in December. The initial launch will not have a ZKP trusted setup. A trusted setup will begin once all known issues are fixed.

For a technical workshop video on our zkRollup AMM, you can see here.
10 Killer Elixir Tips #8
Tags: Tips, Programming, Coding, Functional Programming, Elixir

Let’s bump for more.

4 — Bangpipe <|> Left and Right

As we know elixir is free language, where you can build anything you need. But, be careful It is just to show you something is achievable.

It is a LEFT and RIGHT Pipe

We usually end up with some sort of results in the format {:ok, result} . This can be found anywhere in your project sooner or later.

If you pipe it to the function obviously you will end up with an unknown expectation. I am talking about run-time errors. Our |> is not smart enough to check it for whether is a direct result or {:ok, result} .

Let’s build it for the GOD sake but not for your client.

⚠️ Don’t use this ever and don’t do write macros until you write new framework.

iex> defmodule Bangpipe do

defmacro left <|> right do

quote do

unquote(left)

|> case do

{:ok, val} -> val

val -> val

end

|> unquote(right)

end

end

end

This Bangpipe I mean <|> is defined to do the task. Before sending the result to the function in right, it is performing the pattern matching over the result to identify what kinda result it is. I hope you understood what actually the result I am talking about.

We can also do re definitions on elixir operators. Check above URL.

How to use ❓

Just import Bangpipe the left-right pipe will be loaded. Copy and paste to experience it in live and fast into iex

iex[6] import Bangpipe

Bangpipe iex[7] data = {:ok, [1,2,3,4,5]}

{:ok, [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]} iex[8] data <|> length

5

“Good programmers write the code & great programmers steal the code”

This tip is copied from the Elixir Lightening Talk

Bangpipe <|> execution

5 — mix hex.info

This is highly recommended command to check out what hex version is installed and how it is build with.

Why is that useful?

I have had experienced a bug in the project in my machine but not from my co-programmer though we work on the same project. The actual problem is we are using different hex versions. I come to know this by running mix hex.info in both systems. That saved a lot of time.

mix hex.info
Why Your Childhood Determines How Well You’ll Succeed in Life
By: Victoria Kurichenko
Tags: Life Lessons, Culture, Psychology, Science, Education

I was born in the '90s. I spent my entire childhood playing outside with kids from the nearest neighborhoods. We knew each other well since most of us ended up studying at the same school.

When I reached the 5th grade, my mom decided to transfer me to another educational institution with a better ranking. Back then, I didn’t understand why I had to leave my friends and move to a private school. I had difficulties getting along with new classmates.

Despite the emotional shock, I’ve successfully graduated and received a college scholarship. These days, I’m working abroad as a marketing manager at a UX agency.

Once I asked my mom about my childhood friends. I was curious how they were doing. Her answers surprised me a lot.

Some of my friends got married and already had kids. Besides, they had a regular 9–5 job while their parents looked after their babies. Nothing special.

Others got addicted to alcohol, dropped from college, and seemed to have no plans for the future.

Even if we met again, we would have nothing to talk about. Everyone’s life has changed drastically.

I wondered why some people succeed in building a bright future, while others could not even graduate from school? After all, we’ve all grown up in the same neighborhood.

I’m sure you can also recall a similar situation when someone you know climbed a career ladder faster than others.

I was confused many times and asked my parents, “Why did it happen this way?” However, the answers were rather odd:

“Their parents did not take care of them well enough. They might have spent too much time outside with strangers or they were not lucky.”

These statements sounded like excuses, not the actual reasons why some people are more successful than others.

I wasn’t the only one who raised this question. Apparently, extensive research studies were conducted to find the answers. Here’s one of them with quite interesting implications.
I Am Here To Disturb The Peace
By: Sylvia Wohlfarth
Tags: Writing Prompts, Politics, Scfriends, Poetry, Self-awareness

Show me the peace to disturb

Where does it reign?

Is it that of complacency or that of the heart?

Is it the mantra of “everything is fine,

This is all mine to keep and protect,

Till death do us part?”

Long live the stoicism of selfish gain.

Or is it the dispassion of the blind.

Eyes and ears impermeable to the truth.

“See no evil, hear no evil,

So, why should we care?”

Safe in the knowledge and ignorance

That whatever attempts to seep through,

There’s enough fake news out there.

Yes, show me peace in all its forms,

And I will gladly disturb it and passionately

Rock the boat disgarding flostsam

With words of reminders and warnings.

And braving all storms watch it sway

Ever so slowly, ever so gently

Into its place of tranquil equilibrium.
November 10th Is The Day!
By: Debbie Walker
Tags: Life Lessons, Inspiration, Podcast, Middle Pause, Writer

November 10th Is The Day!

That is the launch of our podcast, STOMP!

Logo created by Meg Stewart

Welcome, Beloved!

Middle-Pause is branching out into new frontiers and beyond! The podcast is called STOMP! (Stonger Together On Middle-Pause). We have recorded two interviews so far. The next one is between our two wild and crazy superheroes, Marvelous Marilyn Flower & Margie Pearl, The Merry Minion!

We have 456 followers of the pub as of today. Tell all your friends, followers, and family about Middle-Pause, and let’s hit over 600 by the end of the year!!

I am going to write a post about our journey together. It’s about fulfilling a dream to help the woman in the middle of her life. We write to encourage, inspire, and empower that woman to live her dreams.

We write to inform women about her health in this phase of her life. We write to uplift her spiritually, and encourage her in a mental health crisis.

We write encouraging stories about women who take action, even if it is as small as a kind word that can be life-changing for another. I thank you for being with us on this path to success (which is a relative term).

Any success for one of us is a success for all of us! For that matter, let’s celebrate each other.

Actually, we are a day late but let’s have a birthday celebration! Our resident Spiller of Wisdom, Marvelous Marilyn Flower, is one year younger!

Let’s give her a big Happy Birthday!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Photo by Gaelle Marcel on Unsplash

It time to celebrate our writers…drum roll please…

How are You Celebrating your Favorite Fall Festivals? — Marilyn Flower

How to Bolster Your Creativity with Light — Debbie Walker

You Are Created for Greatness — Debbie Walker

Our purpose is to encourage, inspire, and empower you to live a life of meaning and purpose. Whatever that is to you.

Leave any comments, suggestions, or just send us virtual words of love and support (We sure need it!) at middlepause51@gmail.com, follow us on Twitter https://twitter.com/MiddlePause, & https://www.pinterest

Remember, To engage is to empower!

Also, if you are in a crisis of managing work, family, parenting, caregiving, disability, racism, or menopause; check out how I created an oasis of peace in my life.

Until next time…

Peace & Blessings!

Your Superheroes!

From Debbie, Margie, Marilyn, and Meg
How To Scrape Aliexpress Data in just 3 steps
By: Hiren Patel
Tags: Aliexpress, Web Scraping Tools, Web Scraping, Data Mining, Data

Introduction:

Over the past decade, the e-commerce market has been continuously evolving in a way that has completely changed the purchasing behavior of the customer. Entering the e-commerce field has now become very easy but to survive in this unexpectedly grand competition is very difficult.

So, the question is:

How does the seller survive in this competition?

What are the skills required for the seller to predict the ever-changing behavior of the customer?

And the most important, how do you monitor your competitors?

For all these questions, the only answer is: Analyse the various data of products and their trends, as well as the data of customer reviews and ratings.

However, the internet generates millions of user data every day. And, analyzing all this data is not practically feasible. The only solution to this problem is web scraping. Web scraping will help you to analyze the data in the most organized manner in just a few clicks.

Are you wondering, how to do web-scraping?

Don’t worry….

Here is the complete step by step guide on how to scrape Aliexpress product data.

In this tutorial, we will build an AliExpress product Scraper to scrape product data like title, price, image, ratings, etc.

We’ll build this web scraper using ProWebScraper.

This AliExpress Details Scraper will scrape the following fields, from the AliExpress product page:

Title Rating Reviews Orders Price Images

Below is a screenshot of the data which we will be scrapping.
Space Archaeology and Heritage Management with Prof. Alice Gorman
By: Clayming Space
Tags: Space Junk, Space, Heritage Management, Space Exploration, Space Debris

If you would like to get in touch with Professor Alice Gorman and/or check out some of her work as well as the references made in the episode, the links below will help you get there.

On her work:

If you wanted to deep dive into some of the mentions made in the episode, links to them below:
Compassion: What the heck is it?
By: Monk Enō
Tags: Life Hacking, Personal Growth, Mindfulness, Compassion, Words

Lilikoi Blossom

In my circles compassion is defined as your ability to be in the presence of the suffering of others. To become more compassionate we deepen our understanding — our ability to stand-under the situation at hand.

Nurses, regardless of label or culture are thought of as compassionate. This is because while we are hurt, broken or dying they remain by our side focused and together enough to provide the care. They can stand-under our pain and suffering.

There are many confused ideas about compassion. A quick google of ‘meaning of compassion’ returns:

sympathetic pity and concern for the sufferings or misfortunes of others

Unpacking this, sympathetic yields:

feeling, showing, or expressing feelings of pity and sorrow for someone else’s misfortune

Your alarm bells are going off now, because oh-my-god we are entering feeling feelings territory and they could possibly show!

Now we have a two-fer on pity:

the feeling of deep distress caused by loss [sorrow])” and “cause for regret or disappointment

Distress, regret and disappointment are never high on the feelings I hope for today list. Moving on to the verb, concern: “worry, make anxious” yields nothing one hopes for daily either.

So in a nut shell; Compassion is the feeling of distress and anxiety that arises when you witness others misfortune.

How long can you stand-under your arising compassion?

We have many strategies to deal with compassion:

Ignore-ance being the first and foremost; after all, we literally cannot save the world daily or even in this lifetime. Crossing the street or not making that visit to the hospital are more common examples.

For things we cannot ignore in our daily travels we often pay it off; change in a cup.

For those events we have to face, we turn it into a cause for a time. Some even declare the cause their ‘life purpose’ and establish movements and the obligatory non(wink)profits.

Rare are those who can be present to a situation, take an action (or non-action) not based on their own needs and then let it go afterwards.

Compassion is a journey and the best starting point is compassion for yourself.

Do not ignore yourself; someday I am going to … Do not pay yourself off; ice cream will bury almost any feeling. Do not get lost in a cause and find you have only ignored yourself in a more creative way.

May this deepen your understanding and your relationship to the world.
Mercy
By: Katie Fricas
Tags: Funerals, Death, Family, Comics, Sex

Spiralbound

Comics for life, brought to life by Edith Zimmerman.
How we archive and compress Couchbase data?
By: Ahmet Rende
Tags: Database, Platform, Sql Server, Couchbase, Powershell

Before the script, We should talk about “why we need archiving data.”

Maybe you don’t know, I’m working at an e-commerce company. We get lots of orders daily. That means lots of data :)

We use Couchbase for the order database. Every order is a large JSON document because it stores lots of detail. After a while, the database will be too large. That time you cannot manage this database even if it is sharded. You also experience performance issues. As a result, your business is affected.

Large databases are a troublemaker all the time :) Imagine that; your database has a high transaction volume. You have an incident at peak time. You analyzed it and decided on creating a new index. You have no time. Your manager is asking when will finish it?

So, if your database is large, the index creation takes too long. If your database is small, the index creation takes no time or quick.

Which one are you prefer?
Finansbank’a teşekkürler
By: Evren Yildiz
Tags: Finansbank, Hesap, Banka, Benden, Finans

in Both Sides of the Table
The One Thing Growing up in the Most Dangerous Slump in Nigeria Can Teach You
By: Inspired Kema
Tags: Life Lessons, Philosophy, Self Improvement, Nigeria, Life

Photo by Gideon Olademeji on Unsplash

The first time I came to Ajegunle was to visit my uncle. On arrival, I was instantly reminded of how dangerous the place was when my uncle said:

“Kema, do you have any money in your pocket?”

“Yes,” I replied.

“Remove the money from your pocket and put them inside your bag or hold them in your hands. ‘Pickpockets’ are all over this place.” he continued.

I did exactly as I was told, holding the entire money in my arms until we got home.

Pickpocketing is very common in Ajegunle.

My uncle had once told me of the experience he had while he was heading home from work.

He had a huge sum of money in his wallet that day. After a slight tussle with some people, while trying to get on a bus, the wallet was gone.
How to simulate poor network conditions on iOS Simulator and iPhone
By: Milan Panchal
Tags: Testing, Programming, iOS, Throttling, Network Simulation

While developing mobile apps that require internet connectivity, it's significant to handle poor network conditions. Because mobile app users will likely to have a much slower network than we use while developing.

As a developer, you didn’t want to throw away your invaluable time looking for a location with a poor network to test the app. So there are some ways to simulate poor network conditions during development.

Simulate Poor Network on iOS Simulator

Apple’s official tool to simulate network connections on macOS for testing purposes is the Network Link Conditioner.

1) Steps to install Network Link Conditioner

Open Xcode and go to Xcode › Open Developer Tool › More Developer Tools... menu (or navigate to https://developer.apple.com/download/more/)

Xcode 12 Menu

Search for “Additional Tools for Xcode” package [Note: You may need to sign in first]

package [Note: You may need to sign in first] Download the appropriate release package as per your Xcode version.

Download Additional Tools for Xcode 12

Once the download has finished, open the DMG file and navigate to the Hardware directory.

file and navigate to the directory. Install the “Network Link Conditioner.prefPane” in your System Preferences by double-clicking on the icon.

Install the Network Link Condition

Once you install, a new item has been added to your System Preferences which will allow you to throttle your network connection speed.

2) Simulate network using Network Link Conditioner

To simulate the network, turn on the “Network Link Conditioner” and select the preset profile (100% Loss, Edge, DSL, 3G, LTE, etc.) of your choice.

and select the preset profile (100% Loss, Edge, DSL, 3G, LTE, etc.) of your choice. You can also add a new custom Profile of your choice through Manage Profiles…

Xcode 12 — Network Link Conditioner

CAVEAT:
Does Time Really Get Shorter?
By: Sterling Cobb
Tags: Age, Time, Consciousness

I’ve been thinking about time lately.

Time is interesting because it seems like this defined allotment of the universe we’ve all agreed on that represents moments. Each moment seems to be defined by the collective consciousness that moments exist.

What I find even more interesting is if time can be defined in ratios rather than units of seconds, hours or minutes, it means time really does gets proportionally shorter as we get older.

For example, I remember being a young child waiting in line for Star Wars. It seemed forever but arguably it was forever. For me, the wait was a lifetime! But if you examine time in terms of a ratio of my life at that time, it really was more time.

It’s why elementary school seems like ages, middle school forever, highschool a drag and college a blimp (unless you party, then you might be there a while). When you’re old, you look back and say

“where did the years go, it seems like time moves faster as you get older”

Time is actually a ratio of your conscious existence against the collective consciousness out there. Time does move faster, for you, as you get older.

Every moment that you live represents a smaller and smaller portion of your life. If time is really a measurement of our conscious ration, this means that the ratio gets smaller as your continue and thus makes time go faster. It also means that if you live forever, time will continuously moving faster and faster, like an asymptote. The question is, what line does it continuously move forward towards?

So if you’re super young reading this, now you know why school seems like its taking forever, because it really does. Almost 95% of your existence.

stay tuned.

Sterling
増え続けるクラウドファンディングによるジャーナリズムプロジェクト — そのトレンドとは？
By: Marika Katanuma
Tags: Crowdfunding, Journalism, Media

in Both Sides of the Table
Riot Forging New Paths. On December 5, 2019, Riot Games…
By: Bcec Video Games Committee
Tags: Riot Games, Riot Forge, Video Game Development, Third Party

Ruined King: A League of Legends Story Cover Art (Courtesy of Riot Games)

On December 5, 2019, Riot Games launched its new publishing label, Riot Forge. Riot Games created the label to work with third-party studios in developing new games that expand the League of Legends universe. Just a week later on December 12, 2019, Riot Forge announced a new game in collaboration with Airship Syndicate, developer of Battle Chasers: Nightwar and Darksiders: Genesis. That game is Ruined King: A League of Legends Story, a story-driven, turn-based RPG starring some of the most iconic champions from League of Legends. More recently, Riot Forge released an official trailer for the game on October 31, 2020 and an expected game release period of early 2021.

CONV/RGENCE: A League of Legends Story Trailer Thumbnail (Courtesy of Riot Forge)

Riot Forge also announced the development of CONV/RGENCE: A League of Legends Story immediately after revealing Ruined King in December 2019. CONV/RGENCE is in collaboration with Double Stallion Games, developer of Speed Brawl. Even less is known about this game, but what we do know is that it’s a single-player, action platformer game in which players will play as the time-manipulating League of Legends champion, Ekko, and explore the Runeterra region of Zaun.

This is all, of course, great news for fans of League of Legends. Both games have been very well received by the League of Legends community, even with very little known about either game. Fans are very excited to learn more about Runeterra from official lore while playing some of their favorite gaming genres. Why is the development of these games such important news? Well, for one, Ruined King will mark the first single-player game ever published by Riot. Secondly, the existence of Riot Forge and these games is expanding opportunities for independent video game development studios. Riot Games is rising up by branching out, and it is giving smaller studios the chance to rise with it, further cementing the precedent for independent developers working with large gaming companies. Riot Forge serves as a beacon of hope for both players and developers. Whether you’re excited for these new games or couldn’t care less, this is a great sign for the gaming industry.
Case study — Designing referral program for a Music Ed-Tech platform
By: Sagar Bhardwaj
Tags: Referral Program, Product Design, Case Study, UX Design, UI Design

Background context

There are two types of users- Paid (premium) and Free.

As a Free user, you have access to all unpaid courses on the platform which you can complete at your own pace and these are pre-recorded lessons.

you have access to all unpaid courses on the platform which you can complete at your own pace and these are pre-recorded lessons. As a Premium member, you have all the benefits of free users as well as you get access to the live courses with an exact timeline(Specific start and end date).

I had very less idea of how referrals in a product work so I thought of researching about it.

I explored and read a bunch of articles to know

How referral flows work in an app?

What is the design thinking that goes behind it?

How other products do it?

What are different types of incentives?

How to make a successful referral flow?

Incentive is the key part of a product referral design.

Referrals if included in a product with the right incentives on both sides including referrer and referee helps in making a flywheel of growth .

including referrer and referee helps in making a . Referrals are mostly done by the users who are happy and regularly engage with your content or product, so that you don’t have to spend money on marketing to get new users but your satisfied users invite their friends and family to the platform themselves.

with your content or product, so that you don’t have to spend money on marketing to get new users but your satisfied users The flow can be embedded anywhere in the product but I have to keep in mind that it should be at a point where it has maximum likelihood of conversion and also is a moment that happens frequently.

I also found some amazing data while exploring

People are 4 times more likely to buy when referred by a friend — Nielsen

83% of consumers say they either completely or somewhat trust recommendations from family, colleagues, and friends about products — Nielsen

Referrals can be majorly categorized into 2 categories —

Incentivized referrals — Referrer usually shares a unique referral code/link. This unique referral code helps in tracking where the new users came from so that we can provide incentives accordingly.

Non-incentivized referrals — Word of mouth, or social share, or recommendation.

Other questions to consider while designing referral flow
Inicio de la Fase 4: Vuelos Internacionales en el Perú
By: Guvery Oficial
Tags: Vuelos Internacionales

in Both Sides of the Table