fabiochiu/medium-articles huggingface dataset:
Use Your Pain as a Source of Growth, Not Suffering
By: Yeva Volkova
Tags: Writing, Healing, Change, Creative Writing, Creativity

Use Your Pain as a Source of Growth, Not Suffering

Writing, as every kind of art, is a healing process.

Photo by Christin Hume on Unsplash

“You can end suffering by stop focusing on yourself and focusing on something you want to serve — you family, your wife, your children, your mission, your life.” — Tony Robbins

Three years ago I graduated from college. I couldn’t wait for that moment since I started school. I thought that after that I’m going to live my life and finally be free.

But it didn’t happen.

Instead of leaving home and traveling as I planned, I stayed all the following winter in my bed. Italian winters are like that — it’s impossible to go out of the bad. At home, it’s colder than in the streets.

So I stayed with my parents while some of my classmates moved to other cities and started university or different courses.

Failure. This was what I felt at that moment.

I stopped being in touch with my friends as I was so ashamed of doing anything in my life. I had no money and I could not find a job.

Days passed while I was trying to understand how to go out from that situation, what was wrong, and what to do next. I was only 19 but I felt like they were ‘the-nineteen’ — you’re already old and everything depends on you. 19 was the age when my father became ‘father’. Maybe it was in my blood feeling older and taking more responsibility than I should.

During that period I remembered all the fantasy stories that I wrote in high school. I read them again and a flame lighted up. The world that was inside of me for years in one moment arose, and all my stories made sense and completed each other.

As I had free time, I started to write again. This is how it started.
The Storm
Tags: Scfriends, Writing, Healing, Peace, Writing Prompts

I woke to turmoil

the earth trembled

my bed rumbled

the sky was in conflict

a thundering turbulence

The pillow smothered

my pounding head

wishing for quiet

hoping for peace

hiding from reality

Hours later the tumult continued

reluctantly I rose to meet obligations

to tend to business in spite of

the whirlwind and ruckus

I walked outside to

a sky of blue

a world at peace

I stood in my own silence

realizing the storm

was within

not without
Why a trainer or nutritionist isn’t step one for weight loss 🤔
By: Rebecca Thomas
Tags: Health, Exercise, Food, Weight Loss, Life

Don’t worry, I’m not advocating anti-expertise nonsense. It’s more a matter of bringing in help sequentially and as-needed.

There’s an excellent reason why going directly to either for weight loss probably won’t work: their focus is narrow to their professions and therefore, their advice will be as well.

In simple terms: when you’re a hammer, everything looks like a nail.

Or, the information can be stellar, but there is little congruity to your actual life and therefore, like all the good information you’ve read before, it doesn’t stick.

I learned this 12 years ago when I hired a nice and knowledgeable personal trainer as part of my own efforts to lose weight. I faithfully showed up for all six of my sessions to ‘work out’. The problem was that I didn’t particularly enjoy the gym, and more importantly, I hadn’t figure out what joyful movement meant to me or how I might make that a practice.

No surprise, I didn’t go back.

Years later, when my fitness had naturally evolved into something I needed help with, I turned back to expertise. A trainer helped me work out some areas of weakness so I could conquer the hills with ease. I’ve gotten help with foot pain, and fascia work as well.

That good information keeps me going, but it’s no substitute for building a structure that supports a healthy weight.

That’s what my program teaches. That’s step one.

You might notice that ‘nutritionist’ and ‘trainer’ are another way of focusing on food and exercise to the exclusion of the other factors in your life that contribute to weight gain (even if their advice is solid and science-based). The programming by diet culture runs deep.

Here’s the thing, once I’d completed my 50 lb weight loss I was struck by how eating and movement were much less complicated than I’d imagined. It was my thinking, boundaries, self-talk, time-allocation, principles for food choices, and so much more that were the keys to my success (10 years and counting!).

I invite you to check out my program. I’ve built something truly different, comprehensive, and smart.

If you’re sick of experiencing weight anxiety and all the mental space this issue takes up in your life and psyche, this is an effective and durable way forward.

Yours in optimism and good health,

Rebecca
DreamTeam Digest Issue 20
Tags: Gaming, Blockchain, Esports, Game Development, Token

Dear Contributor,

Here is a quick DreamTeam update. Since the last digest, we have launched the DreamTeam Coaching Tool, released a guide with five use cases for the DreamTeam Token, had our project included in some industry publications, and more.

Check out the details below.

DreamTeam announces the Coaching Tool

Having worked for over a year with professional teams, DreamTeam knows what it takes to be at the top in competitive gaming. The DreamTeam Coaching Tool can be used to set goals and improve with guides, making it possible for teams to reach goal after goal in order to continuously improve. With the DreamTeam Coaching Tool, all teams will finally have access to a tool similar to those used by professional teams. Learn more.

5 use cases for the DreamTeam Token

It’s been a while after we released the DreamTeam Tokenomics Paper with in-depth information of what the DreamTeam Token (DREAM) is. In our newest article, we briefly talk about five use cases for the DREAM token. Find out more here.

Can gamers do what the financial industry couldn’t?

The banking and finance industries are now realizing that esports might actually beat them in bringing the adoption of blockchain to the masses. Find out how esports can do it and how DreamTeam is leading the charge here.

DreamTeam is bringing financial transparency to esports

A major issue that continues to plague gaming and esports is financial transparency. As such, it’s no secret that quite a few professional gamers are having difficulty getting paid, but it looks like the solution is here. Find out how a handful of companies, including DreamTeam, are implementing blockchain solutions to change that here.

Can esports support the mainstream adoption of Blockchain?

Esports and gaming might be the “killer app” one of the newest technologies has been waiting for. Find out what DreamTeam and other companies are doing to make it a reality in this Forbes article

Gamers and technological innovations

Is esports the “killer app” blockchain has been waiting for? With gamers often being the first to embrace new technology, DreamTeam can find itself at the forefront of the esports revolution.

Find out how DreamTeam is using blockchain to help gamers in the rapidly growing world of esports here.

Blockchain solutions continue to attract significant investment in esports

With the esports industry becoming more and more valuable, gamers are starting to talk about other ways to protect their assets. And investors are listening. See who is investing in new technologies, including the $5M invested into DreamTeam here.

About DreamTeam:

DreamTeam — infrastructure platform and payment gateway for esports and gaming.

Stay in touch: Token Website|Facebook | Twitter | LinkedIn |BitcoinTalk.org

If you have any questions, feel free to contact our support team any time at token@dreamteam.gg. Or you can always get in touch with us via our official Telegram chat.
To Hope, to Endure and to Believe That the Best Is yet to Come
By: Jocelyn Soriano
Tags: Life, Hope, Christianity, Religion, Spirituality

“Faith is a loyal Wife.

Charity is a Mother.

Hope is a little girl, nothing at all….

And yet it is this little girl who will endure worlds.”

— Charles Peguy, The Portal of the Mystery of Hope

One day, I'm going to run and shout and dance with joy! On that very day when I shall know everything God has ever done. On that very day when I shall see His face!

On that day, I shall have no more questions. On that day, I shall have no more doubts. On that day, all my fears shall be vanquished at last.

And I shall know that in every moment of my life, God Himself has watched over me. I shall know that there was never a time when I was forsaken. Never a time when I was alone or unloved.

O, how I look forward to that day! How my heart leaps in anticipation when tears shall be no more and death shall forever be cast away.

What joy, indeed! O, what great joy. When I shall leap without tiring and when I shall raise my arms in strength.

On that day, I shall see! I shall truly see. And my eyes shall no more know of darkness.

Who knows how close I am now when all these things shall finally take place? Who knows how close the day of our eternal bliss?

It can happen tomorrow or it can happen today. It can happen sooner than we ever expected it to come!

Why waste our time then in being anxious? Why spend our days as though God has not prepared a glorious future for us?

Lift up your eyes and hope. Endure the present moment and let God lead us where He deems best.

There is so little time. So little to offer Him. So little to do everything we could still accomplish in this life for Him.

May we live each moment fully. And may we never forget where we're going.

We may cry today, but all of our sorrows will one day turn to joy. We may suffer for a while, but every suffering borne in love would yield an eternal and priceless good.

Surrender fully and fear not giving up everything for the love of Him. The poorer you are, the richer you shall be. For it is in our brokenness that He can make us whole. And it is in our emptiness that He is able to fill us to the full.
Gorgeous Women, Stunning Photos
By: Nikki Tate
Tags: Show, Art, Photography, Exhibition, Climbing

Canmore is chock full of climbers (and skiers, mountain bikers, hikers, kayakers, and, yes, a few tourists). I’m here because of the climbing: a few years ago I fell in love with a climber and we moved here together so it would be easier to climb even if all the time we had was a few hours in an afternoon.

How cool to see one of my favorite local climbers, Rebecca Ferri (I know her as Bexx) exploring her artistic side in this fabulous exhibition.

These intimate portraits capture the essence of what it means to be a strong woman. [Nikki Tate]

Taking her inspiration from Brené Brown’s book, Braving the Wilderness, Ferri explores strength and vulnerability, determination and community, and beauty and confidence through her striking black and white photographs.

These are terrific portraits — each bringing out the unique qualities of the women featured.

Each image is presented alongside the woman’s answers to a series of questions. [Nikki Tate]

Interviews Add Another Dimension

While an image conveys a great deal, the accompanying commentaries provided by the women add another layer of complexity as they share in their own words what climbing means to them, the challenges they face being women climbers in what was traditionally a male domain, and a little about themselves outside the climbing world.

While some women have been climbing for decades, others are new to the sport having taken it up relatively late in life. Yet others are youngsters, just starting out (the thirty-one women featured range in age from nine to seventy).

The show runs until August 28. It’s upstairs at Elevation Place and is free and open to the public during EP’s regular hours. [Nikki Tate]

There were lots of familiar faces in the mix (Canmore is a small town) but there were also plenty of women I have yet to meet.

Their stories are by turn touching (climbing, for some, was a critical element in the path to healing), inspiring, and motivating.

Powerful Design

Ferri has done an excellent job of teasing out common threads through the series of questions she asked and recurring themes in the text were beautifully reflected in the simple design of the exhibition as a whole.

The choice of a simple black background and consistent lighting brings the images of these different women together and you know immediately these women are part of a sisterhood.

The final question asked of each woman was open-ended and it is in these final paragraphs that some of the most intimate and touching stories were shared.

I found myself thinking I could be friends with all of these women! [Nikki Tate]

As an author, I found myself thinking — Book! Book! I hope this is just the beginning of a new chapter in Ferri’s world. I would love to see her complete another series of photos and continue to collect stories of women climbers.

These images would make a fabulous coffee table book… just saying!

Want a little more information? Here’s an article that ran in the local paper:
Bones
By: Nate Ragolia
Tags: Purpose, Backpacking, Life Lessons, Poetry, Love

Bones

by Trevor Allred

Photo by John McSporran via Flickr. Creative Commons: Some rights reserved.

My young face,

I am 13, grimaced

in the dust. I am walking

with a pack 3/4 my body weight with people I don’t know

how to talk to.

I wish something was different; I don’t know what.

It is night at 12K feet above sea level, and I am thinking

of the brunette girl I passed by today.

She had a smile that made me happy like sleep

and sunglasses that hid her face. Where did she go?

What’s her name? I think of her

as I fall asleep, and, when I wake up,

I find only the moonscape of the high Sierras

and a rising sun.

My fingers are too icy to use.

Patting out the setup of my stove for breakfast,

I want to hold something warm, I want something

to break the stone

in my hands.
10 Writing Hacks to Stay Productive
By: Desiree Peralta
Tags: Writing, Ideas, Advice, Productivity, Creativity

1. Set achievable goals

There is nothing that demotivates more than having unattainable goals. Being realistic is the best way to stay productive and with your head held high.

Why? Because if you say that you are going to earn $10,000 dollars in a month, and you have never even reached $1,000, it is obvious that it will be difficult for you to achieve it. And if the month is ending and you haven’t been able to get anywhere near that goal, then you will feel sad and frustrated.

The best thing is to go step by step, you don’t want to run 10 kilometers if you haven’t run the first one yet.

Also, never set goals that you cannot control. You can control how much you write, or how much you publish, but you cannot control how many views you will have, so it is not worth focusing on that. Always put your mind on achieving goals that you can do.
Losing Heritage in the 21st Century
By: Architects For Change
Tags: Architecture, Palmyra, Notre Dame, Paris, Heritage

This was the case of Norcia, a medieval walled town in Perugia, Central Italy. After a massive earthquake left the city in rubble, decisions needed to be taken regarding the reconstruction. According to Cecilia Anesi, an investigative journalist, the controversy lies in how to respond after a crisis. She feared that by adopting new methods of reconstruction, the city will lose its historical center (Kirchgaessner, 2016). Eventually, after receiving generous funds and with efforts of volunteers from France, Greece, and Hungary, the basilica was restored to its original design using earthquake-resistant techniques and materials.

What Must Be Done to Protect Heritage from Natural Disaster?

According to the ICOMOS conference of “Cultural Heritage and Natural Disaster”, risk preparedness and prevention planning are crucial. Warning systems, preparation, and management programs may not prevent the occurrence, but they will lessen the effect of such disasters (ICOMOS, 2007). UNESCO also points out the need to act in order to safeguard heritage sites of cultural importance; it lists strategies for risk reduction, disaster preparedness, recovery, and reconstruction.

For more information on the UNESCO Strategy visit the following link: https://whc.unesco.org/en/disaster-risk-reduction/

Call for Action

As the world grieves the great catastrophe, there are several other heritage sites falling apart, or holding on by a thread and left at the mercy of humanity that is nowhere to be found. How much should humanity suffer? How many other Notre-Dames must fall before we realize that actions must be taken?

Figure 7: Palmyra, Syria, Before and After its Bombing.

It seems as though the world has turned its back on the rest of Heritage. Even though great sorrow over the fate of Notre Dame, an icon of the Gothic era, is definite, this empathy was not shared when the ruins of Palmyra were destroyed, when the museums of Iraq were looted and damaged and when Libya’s heritage was being shattered and plundered.

It has become certain that the Arab world’s reaction towards the issue of Heritage loss is muted; lesser attention is shown in the news and on social media, and lesser global empathy and intervention is publicized.

It is about time that we take a united stand when it comes to dealing with our heritage, or what is left of it. It is our duty to preserve, restore and safeguard all icons of world heritage equally. To do so we must pose in the face of our governments and form a pressuring entity for our global community to treat the issue of heritage preservation is a way that respects and honors people’s common history and memory.
Artis Turba Platform V2.0 in the making
By: Artis Turba
Tags: Artis Turba, Blockchain, Cryptocurrency, Exchange, Bitcoin

Artis Turba platform V2.0

The Artis Turba Platform V2.0 Upgrade is Coming Soon!

This will ensure that we can handle the increase in user signups, a smoother and faster user experience, an even more secure platform and even better trading engine.

We are refreshing and realigning the Artis Turba Brand, this will ensure that it represents what we do and how we do it across all platforms. Be sure to stay tuned for more updates as we go forward.
Our Application for a Home Loan is Done — Now We Wait
By: Christina M. Ward
Tags: This Happened To Me, Inspiration, Life Lessons, Short Story, Family

The submit button has been engaged, and now we wait.

We wait for some cyber-human to approve or disapprove our application for a USDA home loan; the no-down-payment, barely-there credit, desperate people loan that we just pray will change the future of our family.

No pressure. (Tell that to the nerves that are twisting me in two.)

The road to get here has been paved with poverty.

If my boyfriend and I are able to buy a home, he will be the only member of his family to have managed home ownership. To have begun his career working in a box factory, a bowling alley, and about a dozen other low-paying jobs, any kind of economic stability is the product of a lot of sweat and hard-ass determination. I am proud of him.

I am the oldest of 5 children. We grew up modestly poor, but happy. I got pregnant with my first child at 17. The economic struggle since then has been a defining factor in my life. It has been, at times, soul-crushing.

From rags to what we feel like will be absolute riches — just to own a modest home would be a miracle for us. The economic disaster of Covid-19 may be the thing that changes it all for us. The stimulus check went to credit work so we will qualify for a loan. We hold onto the hope that a home will be available in our price point — one hopefully with functional walls, floors, and a roof.

It may not be pretty — but it would be ours.

So now, we wait. In prayer and expectation and hope — we wait. Hope is a powerful force. Faith unleashed is immovable. And with a little luck, our futures might just change.

We’ll find some home that no one else wants and we’ll cherish it. We’ll paint an accent wall. We’ll plant flowers. We’ll plant a tree. We’ll polish the old wood and make it our own. For the first time, we’ll feel secure.

I can’t wait.

For more reading on our family’s determination:

About this author:

Christina M. Ward is a poet and naturist from North Carolina. Her work has been featured in the Cameo literary magazine, the Arrowhead literary magazine, Vita Brevis Poetry Magazine, Scarlet Leaf Review, The Frightened Traveler blog, and in Wolff Poetry Literary Magazine. Her first poetry collection organic is available on Amazon.
Artificial intelligence in biotechnology
By: Carlos Villegas
Tags: Tech, Future, Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Science

Although talking about artificial intelligence sounds futuristic, there are already applications that are changing industries, one of these is biotechnology.

From the research and development of new medicines to the sequencing of the human genome, artificial intelligence has disruptively entered biotechnology.

What is biotechnology?

In a very simplified and general way, biotechnology is:

“An area of ​​biology that focuses on the use of organisms or living beings for the generation of products.”

Although the definition may sound a little strong or ethically compromised, this has been the greatest advancement of the 20th century, which has allowed people to extend their lives to more than 80 years.

The application areas of biotechnology can be:

Medicine (Health)

Agriculture

Industry

Ecology

Space exploration

Bioengineering

Bioengineering is an application of biotechnology that is based on the use of technological tools other than biological, mainly derived from informatics to be able to carry out processes.

One of the main barriers that may exist within biological research is the analysis of information and certainty in data.

Computer science has found that by using related methods and technologies, research and clustering of data can be optimized to produce better results.
Meeting the Fake Randy Meisner
By: Michael Lortz
Tags: Crime, Music, Fraud, Celebrity, Rock

A few months ago, UltimateClassicRock.com wrote an article about the tale of Lewis Peter Morgan, a man who impersonated Eagles bassist Randy Meisner for years. There doesn’t seem to be any new news about Morgan or Meisner, so I am not sure why UltimateClassicRock decided to post the tale.

But other websites have also written about Morgan’s attempt to impersonate Meisner. According to SFGate.com, Morgan was arrested in 1998 for being a Meisner imposter.

In 2006, Morgan was seen at a poker tournament according to Gambling911. In 2014, Nolan Dalla also wrote about meeting the imposter.

Between 1998 and 2006, I also met someone who claimed to be Randy Meisner in a bar in Tallahassee, Florida. It might have been Lewis Peter Morgan. I wrote about meeting this man in a college paper I wrote in 2001.

Here is what I wrote:

After interviewing Jenine, I met a man who claimed to be a founding member of the famous rock and roll band the Eagles. He introduced himself as Randy Meisner and continued on about how he was taking a Greyhound bus to Tempe, Arizona to go to Lake Tahoe with 70’s singer/ songwriter Jackson Browne (12). A week later I did research on Mr. Meisner, who was indeed a member of the Eagles. However, the man at Fatty and Skinny’s claimed to be 63. Randy Meisner is 55 years of age. I also read an online article about an imposter in Atlanta claiming to be the classic rock band’s bass player. Was the individual I met really Randy Meisner? Or merely an imposter?
Tombstone Blues
By: Mike Essig
Tags: Humor, Satire, Death, Literature, Poetry

Send me dead flowers…

He wanted his tombstone

to exhibit just the facts, Ma’am.

No cherubs or platitudes,

meaningless dates or military service.

Only the really important stuff.

Which toenail had the fungus.

His endless dreams of falling.

His penultimate decision about

the imminent existence of God.

How he became a hermit.

Why bourbon was the best medicine.

How, after 66 years, he found a voice.

His two or three best puns.

The virtues of solitude and celibacy.

The best sex he ever had.

Who really killed the Kennedy’s.

How he came to fear cassowaries.

Just the things that really mattered.

The things that actually made a life.

This might require a billboard

intsead of a tombstone.

Little enough to ask for eternity.
180 Websites in 180 days
By: Tyler Maxwell
Tags: Programming, Front End Development, HTML, Coding, CSS

Photo by Curtis MacNewton on Unsplash

I am stealing this idea from Jennifer Dewalt. I don’t know her personally and I hope this doesn’t make her mad at me. So here is my riff on Jennifer’s idea. April 7th was the first official day of my job search. The boot camp I attended offers a money-back guarantee; if I don’t find a job in six months I get the thousands of dollars I paid in tuition back. There are strings attached as you can imagine, but I look at the ‘strings’ as strategies. To be perfectly candid, the lazy programmer in me truly hopes I don’t have to make 180 websites.

Making a website every day is not one of those strings, but I think it’s the perfect endeavor for me. I don’t claim to be artistic. However, if I am presenting myself as a ‘full-stack’ web developer, I should try to learn some of the aspects of design!

Please check out day one. Thanks for reading!
Skapa innovation med öppna data i offentlig upphandling i Sverige
By: Pierre Mesure
Tags: Civictech, Transparency, Public Procurement, Open Data, Sweden

Working on democracy with @digidemlab, hacking the Swedish Parliament with @DinRiksdag and organizing meetups and hackathons through @civictechsweden

Follow
Med Writer Weekly Newsletter 23–29 November
By: Mike Ortega
Tags: Writing, Writer, Newsletter, Ｍedium, Writing Tips

Earning by writing on Medium is more difficult

Photo by NeONBRAND on Unsplash

Looking at completion on this platform, you have experienced than stats and learning is falling down. This happened after new Medium changes. Many writers struggle to earn more on Medium. Some left platform and stop writing completely.

But, we offer you a middle way.

We believe in less friction and more satisfaction. If you’re really struggling with your medium earning our small team can provide you solutions. You can read articles about increasing views and earning on this platform which is available on ‘The Med Writer’.

Why ‘The Med Writer’

We offer you a table for expressing your views and emotions on the medium. We are eager to help you with your writing and pushing you forward.

When people of the same profession come together for common good, then it is helpful for writers as well as readers. We request you to activate in our community.
Whalesburg — Une plateforme de minage de crypto-monnaies 2.0
Tags: ICO, Blockchain, Cryptocurrency, Whalesburg, Bitcoin Mining

La vision de Whalesburg :

“The Whalesburg solution brings security, exceptional user experience, and — for enterprise level miners- instant scalability. The difference between Whaleburg and other well-known players in the space (…) is that Whaleburg offers, for the first time, an all-in-one solution.”
Mercury Prizes Announced: I’m Sorry, Who?
By: Dave Bry
Tags: Music, Thom Yorke, Mercury Prize

The short list for England’s Mercury Prize has been announced and basically nobody has heard of any of the ten bands up for the prestigious album-of-the-year award. Not even the record geeks at Pitchfork. (Most well-known: Bat for Lashes. Silliest name? Led Bib.)

The Mercury folks seem to take pride in such inscrutability, as last year, the obscure Seldom Seen Kid album from the group Elbow beat out Radiohead’s magnificent and much-loved In Rainbows.

So in protest, let’s watch the new song Radiohead singer Thom Yorke debuted this past weekend at the Latitude Festival-which is also in England! It’s reportedly called “The Present Tense.” And featuring lyrics like, “As my world comes crashing down/I am dancing, freaking out…” it doesn’t get much Yorkier than this.
Ensemble Learning and Random Forest
By: Ashutosh Dutt Mishra
Tags: Machine Learning, Random Forest, Ensemble Learning

Photo by Dennis Kummer on Unsplash

This is an adaptive learning methodology to combine several algorithms to extract better results than the individual performances.

The main motto of ensemble methods is as follows:

To decrease the variance(bagging). To decrease the bias(boosting) To improve predictions(stacking)

The Ensemble method can be applied in two ways:

Sequential: In this method, the dependency of base learners are exploited. This involves the evaluation and reweighing of the unimportant examples. e.g. Adaboost. Parallel: In this method, the independence of the base learners are exploited. This involves the evaluation by simply averaging the outputs of the base learner. e.g. Random forest.

The ensemble can be of two types :

Homogeneous ensemble: In this, we have single base learning algorithm like random forest which only uses the decision tree algorithm. Heterogeneous ensemble : In this, we have different base estimators algorithms.

Techniques used in the ensemble learning:

Bagging : Bagging stands for bootstrap aggregation. One way to reduce the variance of an estimate is to average together multiple estimates. For aggregating the outputs of base learners, bagging uses ‘voting for classification’ and ‘averaging for regression’. Boosting: Boosting refers to a family of algorithms that are able to convert weak learners to strong learners. The predictions are then combined through a weighted majority vote (classification) or a weighted sum (regression) to produce the final prediction. Stacking: Stacking is an ensemble learning technique that combines multiple classifications or regression models via a meta-classifier or a meta-regression. The base level models are trained based on a complete training set, then the meta-model is trained on the outputs of the base level model as features.

Random forest Algorithms :

Random Forest algorithm is a supervised learning algorithm. There is a direct relationship between the number of trees in the forest and the results it can get. It uses a number of decision trees and predicts the more accurate result by averaging in case of regression and voting in case of classification.

How Random Forest algorithm works :

Randomly select “K” features from total “m” features where k << m Among the “K” features, calculate the node “d” using the best split point Split the node into nodes using the best split Repeat the 1 to 3 steps until “l” number of nodes has been reached Build forest by repeating steps 1 to 4 for “n” number times to create “n” number of trees

In the next stage, with the random forest classifier created, we will make the prediction.

Takes the test features and use the rules of each randomly created decision tree to predict the outcome and stores the predicted outcome (target) Calculate the votes for each predicted target Consider the high voted predicted target as the final prediction from the random forest algorithm

Advantages of Random Forest algorithm :

Compared with other classification techniques, there are three advantages :
Planes Full of Babies Fled the Vietnam War
By: C.S. Voll
Tags: Immigration, Travel, World, History, Nonfiction

In April 1975, the situation was dire for South Vietnam. The county’s adversary, North Vietnam, had taken more than half of its territory, morale was ebbing, and vital supplies were difficult to obtain. The end was near, bringing with it uncertainty for millions of Vietnamese. On the 3rd of April that year, American president Gerald Ford announced Military Aircraft Command would evacuate orphans from Saigon with cargo aircraft, authorizing the use of two million dollars to fund these efforts. Operation Babylift was born.

A disastrous debut

Only a day after the operation’s inception, the first flight took off from Tan Son Nhat Airport with 320 passengers on-board. A couple of minutes after take-off, at a height of 23,000 feet, rapid decompression took place, only one wing spoiler and aileron remained functioning, and two of the four hydraulic systems failed — the crew fought to keep the craft aloft. Col. Dennis “Bud” Traynor, the pilot, explained this challenging experience (Martin 2015):

“It cut all control cables to the tail. So I’m pulling and pulling and pulling, and my nose is going down further and further and we’re going faster and faster and faster, and I can’t figure this out.”

Because of this development, they chose to turn back to the airport. The Air Force C-5A Galaxy, in its wounded condition, couldn’t manage it though, and the aircraft went down in a rice paddy, breaking into four parts in the process. The impact crushed the cargo compartment. Casualties would go up to 138, including 78 of the children the plane was transporting. An investigation would determine that the cause of the accident was due to the loading door opening and separating as a result of defective maintenance. This was a tragic start to a rescue attempt.

The crash site of the Lockheed C-5A Galaxy. From Wikimedia by United States Air Force (Public Domain).

Driven by fear

Rumors about what Communist forces would do to children, especially the offspring of mixed marriages, circulated in South Vietnam. One mother feared her daughter would “be soaked with gasoline and be burnt” (PBS 2019). Faced with such horrific predictions, some parents chose to get their children into Operation Babylift, despite the project originally being earmarked for war orphans, with the intention of finding their children at a later date. Additionally, other children were put in orphanages because of economic restrains and were still being visited by their parents, but they would also be included in the transportation project.
Is It Fair to End Standardized Testing?
By: Thuy Lien Nguyen
Tags: Proself, Spiritual Intelligence, Standardized Testing, Education, Spiritual Growth

In this piece, I would like to discuss the positives and negatives of ST’s characteristic itself rather than the consequences created from the way we use ST.

There are countless debates on the pros and cons of Standardized Testing (ST) as well as the question “Should we end ST in the education system?”. Reading various opinions about this, I wonder what the essence of ST is. Is the problem the ST itself or the way we use it? In this piece, I would like to explore my understanding of ST and its application in my milieu.

There are many understandings of the term ST. Some mention its characteristic like the definition of Popham (1999), “a standardized test is any examination that’s administered and scored in a predetermined, standard manner” (para. 4). Some view its common form like multiple-choice, true-false questions, short-answer questions, essay questions, or a mix of question types. Some define its purpose as an assessment tool for the large scale of students to evaluate their given knowledge and skills.

In my point of view, ST is an assessment that is built on a so-called standard body of capability with defined criteria and classification, moreover, it is limited by the bank of question- answer or problem-solution.

In this line, I would like to discuss the positives and negatives of ST’s characteristic itself rather than the consequences created from the way we use ST. It is because I think that it is unfair to evaluate an approach based on what is not itself, which is usually the misuse of miseducative stakeholders.

The main positive of ST is its easiness to construct and implement because of its characteristic of standard, which is accurate and well structured. This advantage is more obvious in the age of integrating technology into education. With the support of online platforms, ST can be applied on a large scale regardless of teachers and evaluators’ quality as well as geographical distance. Moreover, ST is also a powerful tool for mapping, evaluating and improving the curriculum due to the comparable data.

However, its negatives also come from its characteristic of standard. ST is effectively used only with what can be standardized such as the body of knowledge of memorable conventions, rules, conducts, methods and facts. In practice, it is very difficult to standardize implicit factors like skills or values. Moreover, ST cannot be used flexibly and deeply with the high-context situation or gifted subject evaluation. Therefore, the result of ST should not be considered as a reflection of the whole ability of a student as well as teaching quality.
What I Learned From a Year Dedicated to Writing a Novel
By: Luke Beling
Tags: Discipline, Writing, Life Lessons, Family, Creativity

I began 2020 with a simple mission: write a novel. I settled on a manageable word count per day (250) and started a story that had long been brewing under the surface. I’m a short-term goals oriented type of person. It’s difficult for me to stay with projects, ideas, or pursuits that span over months. I like to get things done immediately, then move onto the next task. Writing a novel wasn’t only out of my comfort zone; it was out of my universe.

“Writing a novel is like driving a car at night. You can see only as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way…”

— E.L Doctorow

Belief

I first came across this quote when I was a college sophomore in a contemporary novels class. I remember feeling a strange sense of joy swell within, awe-struck at the thought of such a scandalous claim. I raised my hand,

“Dr. Neal, do you really think he didn’t know the ending, and maybe even the middle, upon beginning this novel?”

My old college professor smiled, looked at his shoes for a few seconds to help hide my naivety, then confirmed what I hoped to be true.

“Most definitely. Not all great novels begin knowing where they’ll end.”

I began 2020 with the Doctorow quote at the dawn and eve of every day. A story does not need to be complete to be alive. With it, my confidence flourished, not in the knowing, but the driving, headlights on, aware of my surroundings, careful to veer on corners, and break for deers jumping out of the woods.

One Word at a Time

One of my favorite quotes on the practice of writing is a thought from Stephen King:

“Mr. King, how do you write?” “One word at a time.”

An untimed task or allotment of work whose end is invisible is a large dose of panic for my must-finish-now pace of living — writing a novel has taught me how to sleep with the list as big as it was at sunrise.

In the early months when work or life, in general, kept me from my daily, achievable word count, I was like a wooden house up in flames on a dry, summer night. But as expectations and lofty goals meet reality, we can succumb to the feeling of defeat and watch our plans burn to the ground, or we can give ourselves grace and realize it’s okay to take it slowly.

By no means is this an invitation to laziness or to indulge in wasteful practices like Netflix binges or scores of time sucked into our phones. But suppose inevitable pressures and joys threaten our sacred writing space. In that case, it’s okay to miss a day and get back to it tomorrow when the kids have gone to school or the car’s leaky coolant is fixed.

One-word-at-a-time has given me a new lens to view the other responsibilities of life: pilling papers at work, unanswered emails, and raising three daughters.

The other day while feeling the overwhelming winds, I stopped in my panic and said to myself,

“This is just like writing a novel. One word at a time.”

Though the list of tasks didn’t magically vanish, I breathed a sigh of relief, knowing that small daily steps lead to distances that once appeared too mighty and daunting to undertake.
Sediments
By: J.D. Harms
Tags: Friends, Image, Relationships, Poem, Small Jealousies

Sediments

A Poem

Photo by Steve Johnson on Unsplash

I took your person

and married it to

the chair across from me

Watched

as the waitress treats

you first

pours the liquid flirt

with some abandon

some spilling

I leave the sediments

of your grin where

they fall

where they’ve sprouted

some kind of jealousy

Opening opinions

raving through the miasma

while you’re calm

and planning your evening

when I’m gone

Here I haven’t prepared

for anything

but losing some kind

of control

and that’s where you

will always shine

But I get distracted

too

and there’s someone

I know

someone whose past

can sprinkle a tone

or so

over our wanderings

our posturings

and feelings

go down

the way of the drink
How does the inflection point of quadratic equations relate to the quadratic formula?
By: Carlos Hurtado
Tags: Algebra, Quadratic Formula, Mathematics

The quadratic formula is one of the most useful formulas that are taught since high school, and for good reason. This formula allows to find the values of x for which a quadratic equation equals 0.

The quadratic formula

However, where does this formula come from and how does it relate to the inflection point of a quadratic equation? To determine such questions there are two important things to keep in mind for quadratic equations:

Every quadratic equation has one and only one inflection point Every quadratic equation is symmetric around that inflection point

What is the inflection point of a quadratic equation?

The inflection point of a quadratic equation is the point x in which the quadratic equations reaches either its maximum or minimum value y.

Since the inflection point is the point in which a quadratic equation is symmetric, it is possible to obtain its value from two points of x that are equidistant around the inflection point, and then adding them and divide them by 2 to get the middle value, which is the inflection point. For example, by equating a quadratic equation to c:

Equation I

Of course, the above is solved for x, for which x₁ = 0 and x₂ = -b / a are the solutions:

x₁ = 0

Equation I.I

x₂ =-b / a

Equation I.II

Now the the inflection point, is simply obtained as follows:

Quadratic equation with its inflection point marked as a dash line. Graphed in Desmos.

How does the inflection point relates to the quadratic formula?

The quadratic formula gives the values of x for which the quadratic equation equals 0. Such values are equidistant around the inflection point x = -b / 2a, so it is possible to add or subtract some value ρ to the inflection point that results in the values of x for which the quadratic equation equals 0:

Equation II

But what is the value of ρ? To answer that question we have to examine the elements of a quadratic equation, usually defined by:

The above can be rearranged as:

Such that:

With the quadratic equation in this form, the values of x, when the equation is equal to 0, are easily found:

With this new information, it is now possible to express the equation II in the following terms:

Equation III

By multiplying both expressions in equation III:

Equation IV

Solving the above for ρ:

Equation V

Finally, retaking the equation II

it is possible to solve the values of x by replacing ρ with the expression obtained in equation V:
Announcement on Soter Hard Fork on ThunderCore Testnet
Tags: Thundercore, Announcements, Blockchain, Hard Fork

Dear Users,

ThunderCore hard fork from PaLa R2.0 to Soter will be deployed on the mainnet recently. The Soter has been deployed on the testnet at 13:51:3 (UTC+8) on 2020/12/06 and it will be upgraded on the mainnet when ready.

Soter hard fork is pure technical improvement on public blockchain performance, security and stability to meet the needs of the rapid development of ThunderCore ecology and the continuous enrichment of its DApps. It helps achieve the goal of Real Blockchain and Real Benefits. Fundamentally different from a hard fork for community divergence, the Soter hard fork results from high consensus of nodes and the intention to secure the mainnet, so no new digital assets or interest groups will emerge. The functions are mainly achieved by the following ways:

1. Performance Improvement

Improve the efficiency of block generation and enhance the network security by measures of removing the fixed gas limit, optimizing TxPool kills queued transactions and distributing proper rewards for proposers and voters.

2. Stability Enhancement (TBD)

Repricing trie-dependent opcodes to make ThunderCore more technical on stability. Main changes are as below:

Related EIP: https://eips.ethereum.org/EIPS/eip-1884

Increase Random number generator gas cost. Random number generator also uses Sload and SStore, can also increase with the changes.

3. Correct Configuration

1) Proposer switches

Multiple proposers are free to switch.

2) New RPC-API

New API for partner. They can first experience the performance and stability improvement.

3) Testnet

Developers can first test their DApps on testnet and quickly make seamless technical integration.

There may be a short outage during the Soter upgrade as nodes sync on the new protocol but all data will be preserved. If you think your project might be affected, please contact us. Thanks for your attention and support!

ThunderCore Team

2020/12/8

[ Website] Thundercore.com

[ Telegram ]

T.me/thundercore_china

T.me/thunder_official

[ Medium ] Medium.com/thundercore

[ Twitter ] Twitter.com/ThunderProtocol
Mercy to All Creations: The Muslim LGBTQ+ Dilemma in Religious Spaces
Tags: Islam, LGBTQ, Queer Muslims, Religious Freedom, Lesbian

Mercy to All Creations: The Muslim LGBTQ+ Dilemma in Religious Spaces

Due to stigma, some will leave Islam due to pressure deaming our existence immoral

Abu Dhabi Mosque in United Arabs Emirates. Photo by: Pavlo Luchkovski on Pexels.com

As Muslims, when it comes to religious spaces, the best place is the mosque. A sacred place where every Muslim goes to be one with Allah. A place of seeking peace and calm in a serene environment where you can go into the holistic vortex of communication with Allah.

But not for LGBTQ+ Muslims like me.

It’s different, even weird, for us to be in a mosque when many people will look at us as if we’re aliens. Firstly, our physical appearance usually shuns us away from the ‘normal’ muslim community. Secondly, there is too much ‘dakwah policing’ from those who are not even selected nor elected by any mosque committee and their eyes are glued on you as if you’re a criminal that has committed the greatest sin upon Allah’s eyes.

One of my friends, for example, was chased away because of her butch appearance. She was chased away while trying to put on the prayer garment (telekung). One makcik came towards her, looked at her from head to toe, and gave a sneering remark: “Kamu ni bukan perempuan tulen, tak leh sembahyang kat sini.” (You are not a “real” woman, so you can’t pray here.)

My friend’s intention to be in a mosque to find solace with Allah was halted by this makcik, who thinks that what she did will gain her reward in Jannah (Paradise).

It’s sad but true. This incident is just one of many others that I can tell you about the dilemma and obstacles we, as Muslims from the LGBTQ+ community, are facing daily.

Due to this, some of us will even go to the extent of leaving Islam because some Muslim people within the sphere are convinced that what they did is not wrong.
Improve Your Security with Casa
By: Nick Neuman
Tags: Crypto, Security, Cybersecurity, Cryptocurrency, Bitcoin

in Both Sides of the Table
never be with those cold and timid souls
By: Robert Merrill
Tags: Quote, Republic, Citizenship

“It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself for a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat.”

“Citizenship in a Republic,”

Theodore Roosevelt’s Speech at the Sorbonne, Paris, April 23, 1910

[I wrote this once before and found it once again. Now you have found it, and should share it, if you think it worthy to do so]