fabiochiu/medium-articles huggingface dataset:
7 UX & UI trends on e-Learning
By: Teresa Mira
Tags: Trends, Elearning, UI, UX, Design

Starting with the premise that any e-Learning platform should make learning easy so the students can focus on the content (which is what matters the most to them) and the fact that the pace of our lives today influences when and how we learn — it’s easy to distill that the interface should act as a real learning facilitator and be adaptable to any learning “space”.

Taking this into account I’ve clustered some interesting characteristics and best practices of some of the best e-Learning platforms I’ve found:

01. PLAYFUL
vincent_van_gogh — analogueMan. A picture is worth a thousand…
By: Mac Daniels
Tags: Van Gogh, Art, Digital, Future, clarkart.edu

Long ago, before photography … a painter must’ve seemed like a wizard.

To be able to record an image, record light, shadow, color! — on to bare canvas, or even a piece of wood? What a miraculous thing! There are modern-day artists living among us now doing the same thing. What’s different about these folk, what’s the magic? Some say we’re all artists — we just don’t know it.

Take Vincent van Gogh, self-trained for the most part: in the words of Don McLean, “They would not listen, they did not know how” …. well, they’re listening now. Van Gogh’s works are some of the priciest pieces on the planet.

How is it that my HD picture of a lazy French restaurant I took with my digital camera is worth little or nothing compared to van Gogh’s blurry ole painting of the same scene that’s worth millions?

By John Russell (1886) [Detail] Wikimedia Commons

By all accounts life was difficult for van Gogh. But he brought something to the table; he added something to a picture of which even the best camera lens is unaware: himself. His interpretation of a scene or subject, his relationship with it — there — on canvas.

But this was over 100 years ago. Surely we’ve outstripped van Gogh by now with our technical wizardry … haven’t we progressed beyond the antique, analogue ways — to a better, more advanced, digital way? Now-days anyone can take a picture and share it with everyone — at near light speed. There are so many digital photos out there, of a value not necessarily proportional to their resolution.

In van Gogh’s day cameras were a relatively new thing and being a photographer was difficult work — part chemist, part pack-animal, part picture-maker. There was a lot of gear involved and many photographers lived shorter lives due to the harsh chemicals needed to make a photograph.

I’m old enough to remember when being a photographer was still an esoteric pursuit, a peculiar occupation — some sort of sorcery performed in ‘a dark room’ — and for those who had some money because photos weren’t cheap to develop.

These days, just point and click: immediately a digital image shows up on a color screen, as if by magic — all powered by electricity and stored in some type of binary code. If I could go back in time 100 years and show this to an old-timer there would be no doubt as to my magic powers. Were I to go back too far, I might be hanged for practicing witchcraft.
💀 I’m Receiving Death Threats on Medium
By: Rolli, Https, Ko-Fi.Com Rolliwrites
Tags: Crime, Coronavirus, Medium

It started late last year…

No matter what topic I perused on Medium, I occasionally came across posts by questionable men selling a wide variety of illegal drugs. Fentanyl, Oxycontin, morphine, cocaine, heroin. You name it, people were selling it:

Initially, I simply flagged the ads — and forgot about them.

Over the next several months, as posts like the above grew exponentially more common (disturbingly, they were often paid, member accounts), I began writing regularly to Medium, urging them to do something about the problem. Medium, however, failed to either respond or act, and nothing changed.

So I took matters into my own hands and, in a variety of posts, began exposing the accounts myself.

At this point, my readers — and I’m very grateful— began flagging the accounts en masse, resulting in a large number of account suspensions.

And so the matter stood — until very recently…

On the evening of April 3rd, I received the following email:

My death threat

The email came from one “Ludwig Bohm.” Startled but curious, I searched for his email address on Medium. This is what I found…

Yes — the search uncovered thousands upon thousands of posts from scores of accounts, all selling dangerous narcotics. The posts had something else in common, too. Regardless of its supposed author, the email contact for every single post is the same, and belongs to — one Ludwig Bohm.

One man is responsible for nearly all of the rampant, unchecked illegal drug activity on Medium. And now that man is threatening my life.

Who knows? The threat could be an idle one.

It could be deadly serious, too.

No doubt unwittingly, Medium’s founders have created a penalty-free playground for drug pushers, rather than a mere happy gathering place for creatives. Until the former can be wholly purged from the platform, it isn’t a safe space for anyone, I’m afraid. Particularly not for those who speak out.

Goodbye for now, friends. With any luck, you’ll be hearing from me again soon…

Author’s Note №1

It would mean the world to me if you’d consider buying me a coffee.

Author’s Note №2

You might like my latest books: The Sea-Wave (for adults) and Kabungo (for kids).

Author’s Note №3

If you like cartoon merchandise (prints, coffee mugs, t-shirts, etc.), check out my online shop.

Author’s Note №4

Death Wish Coffee is the world’s strongest coffee. You’ll love it. ☕☕☕

Author’s Note №5

If you like books, stories, poems, cartoons and coffee, you’ll love my free newsletter. Subscribe today.
How A Black Lesbian Poet Helped Me Find My Truth
By: Patrick Paul Garlinger
Tags: Self Love, Spirituality, Writing, Identity

How A Black Lesbian Poet Helped Me Find My Truth

Your words have more power than you know.

It was the spring semester of 1992, and I was a sophomore at Washington University in St. Louis. I had enrolled in an Introduction to Women’s Studies course, and the professor assigned us an essay by Audre Lorde, self-described as a “black, lesbian, mother, warrior, poet.” Little did I know at the time that my life was about to be altered dramatically and irrevocably — for the better — and I would learn first-hand the power of language to shape the world.

In a brief yet profound piece, “The Transformation of Silence into Language and Action,” Lorde shared what her daughter said about the dangers of speaking: “Tell them about how you’re never really a whole person if you remain silent, because there’s always that one little piece inside you that wants to be spoken out, and if you keep ignoring it, it gets madder and madder and hotter and hotter, and if you don’t speak it one day it will just up and punch you in the mouth from the inside.”

Those words flashed through my mind like a bolt of lightning. After reading them, I uttered to myself for the very first time, “I’m gay.”

The early ’90s were a different era. Public support for the LGBT community (the “Q,” “A”,” and “I” didn’t come until later) was scant. Gay students were losing scholarships from the Reserve Officer Training Corps, and the infamous Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell military policy was just around the corner. Only five years earlier, in Bowers v. Hardwick, the Supreme Court had held that the 14th Amendment in no way protected gays and lesbians from anti-sodomy laws; gay sex was still a criminal act in many states. At the time that “I’m gay” was passing across my lips, the media often whispered homosexuality and AIDS together in the same breath, as if synonymous. It’s hard to convey what it feels like to have never thought of your sexuality without also thinking of AIDS or being arrested by the police. For all those reasons, accepting that I was gay wasn’t easy.

But by sharing her daughter’s powerful message, Lorde cracked open my consciousness and wrested from deep within me a truth I had not even been able to say to myself, much less to anyone else. In a single sentence, she altered the course of my life, for which I am eternally grateful. During the next three weeks, I came out to everyone I knew and discovered the freedom and joy, and the occasional pain and rejection, that comes from speaking one’s truth.

Lorde’s impact on my life is a testament to the power of our words to change the lives of others for the better. Her words taught me three powerful lessons about language:
How Sybil Attacks Affect Social Media Startups. A Tru Story.
By: Mattison Asher
Tags: Social Media, Technology, Debate, Startup Lessons, Startup

Last night, TruStory experienced its first Sybil attack. In a Sybil attack, one person creates multiple accounts in order to exploit a network. In the case of TruStory, one person created multiple accounts and then had his accounts constantly agree with the arguments created across his other accounts, thus artificially boosting how much it seemed like people agreed with his arguments.

This attack came after the single largest day of growth for the application. The growth was largely driven by a hotly contested claim that was the featured debate: feminism is a greater threat to humanity than climate change.

As one might guess, this claim attracted a crowd with incredibly diverse perspectives. Growth for a social media company always brings in people with varying view points. In particular, the one person performing the Sybil attack went on to create a slew of accounts with controversial, and to be quite frank, outright racist/antisemitic, names:

Accounts created by single person

Here is an example of an argument made by one of the attacker’s accounts:

We want to be clear that the TruStory community did not downvote this user’s arguments because of the content itself. The TruStory community is not against users posting controversial arguments and having those arguments be discussed in a productive manner in accordance to the values of TruStory.

The primary reason the community downvoted this user’s arguments was because the attacker had created accounts purely for the intent of upvoting their own arguments, which in turn would artificially accrue him TRU points and make it seem like more people agreed with his arguments.

This sort of behavior goes against the values and mission of TruStory, as the community wants TruStory to be a place where people can have productive debate on controversial topics without artificial manipulation.

We are creating mechanisms to ensure that users cannot easily create a significant amount of accounts to constantly agree with each respective account’s arguments.

TruStory is all about bringing people to together discuss controversial issues in a rational manner. Come see what other hot debates are happening now!
Mini-LED is Coming to the iPad Pro. And I Don’t Care.
By: Mark Ellis
Tags: Gadgets, Apple, Tech, iPad, Technology

My iPad Air 4 revelation

Over the last few weeks, I’ve been testing an iPad Air 4. I love it. Which is odd, because I’ve been using a 12.9" iPad Pro, fully decked-out and with the Magic Keyboard for the last year or so.

I’ll be offering more in-depth thoughts about this switch soon, but the thing I love the most about the Air is the smaller form factor. In comparison to the 12.9" Pro, it’s beautifully portable and a joy to grab and consume content from, no matter where I am or what I’m doing.

Sure, I miss Face ID a little bit, but Touch ID is just as secure and intuitively placed on the power button.

However, there was another element of the iPad Air 4 which concerned me: the screen. Unlike the iPad Pro’s 120Hz ProMotion display, the Air features a 60Hz panel.

Having used the Pro for so long, the difference between the two devices was immediately noticeable. The 60Hz screen made the Air feel slower than its super-fast A14 Bionic processor suggested it should be and, if anything, actually made the new device feel older.

That bothered me. For about ten minutes. Then, I continued to use the Air as my main iPad, and the difference in Hz soon became less evident (even when occasionally switching to the iPad Pro). After a while, it simply wasn’t a ‘thing’ any more.

This fascinates me. ProMotion is a brilliant feature when you first discover it. An iPad with a 120Hz screen feels more buttery-smooth than ever… but, with hindsight, that’s only when flicking through your app screens or scrolling web pages. I know it also comes into play during video playback, but I can’t say I’ve ever noticed a difference.

Just like 60Hz, 120Hz quickly disappears as a tangible user benefit or disadvantage. By comparison, Mini-LED is likely to have less of an immediate impact during that first encounter, which means it’ll be even less likely to impress the uninitiated.

This begs the question: what should Apple be doing with the next iPad Pro if Mini-LED is going to be such a non-event?
Talking to Latinos Today
Tags: Zubi, Henry Gomez, Startup, Gtb Talks

Talking to Latinos Today

Henry Gomez | Director of Strategic Planning, Zubi

GTB welcomed Henry Gomez of Zubi and other key panelists to share their thoughts and experiences on Hispanic culture, collectivism, and other key insights of this ever-growing segment.

As a global agency with offices in Spain, Latin America, and Central America, this was a great opportunity to learn from our sister agency.
Fathers, Kittens, and Loss
By: Kathryn Dillon
Tags: Grief, Loss, Healing, Cats, Writing

Slapstick

“A kitten is chiefly remarkable for rushing about like mad at nothing whatever, and generally stopping before it gets there.” — Agnes Repplier

My dad first met Buster and Bella when my family came to visit that Thanksgiving. We’d just moved into our first house, a few miles away from the rental property where the kittens had found us. We still hadn’t unpacked, but I brined and roasted a turkey anyway. My dad cracked up over Buster, who ran and skidded across the shiny hardwood floors, sliding several feet before somersaulting, spinning around and doing it all over again.

“Buster KITTEN,” he chortled. “Like Buster KEATON!”

Yes, the antics of our crazy little kitten-boy had reminded us of slapstick comedy, and the name seemed appropriate. My dad immediately picked up on it and enjoyed pointing it out to other people who didn’t quite get it.

It cracked him up every time he said Buster’s name.

Loss

These days, we have only three cats, and one parent between the two of us.

Buster, technically a “senior’ cat at 10 years old, has grown more reserved, but he still has plenty of cattitude. We like to say the devil’s in the tail, and his is always held high. Bella was born a bob-tail, so we figure Buster got most of the devil. His nickname since the early days has been Gatito Diablo.

My dad never liked cats when I was growing up. We were dog people, through and through — and big dogs at that. It wasn’t until the cat my sister and I adopted in college temporarily moved in with my parents that he suddenly became smitten. That cat was never allowed to leave, and lived to the ripe old age of 21, in the lap of luxury.

I wish he could see Buster now. I imagine he’d still have a chuckle over the name, but instead of enjoying the antics of a kitten, he’d find a comfy chair in a sunbeam, where an elderly man and an elderly cat could have a quiet afternoon nap together.
50 Powerful Call-to-Action Phrases
By: Nicole Wagner
Tags: Inbound Marketing, Conversion Rate, Call To Action, Phrases, Marketing

Are you looking to increase your conversion rate? Call-to-Actions are an essential part of the conversion process, but what kinds of Call-to-Actions should you put on your website? CTAs should be simple yet effective, and should catch the attention of your visitors. The formula for a successful CTA page title consists of combining such sales buzzwords as “free,” “discount,” “offer,” “gift,” “guarantee,” with action-oriented words like “click,” “download,” “request,” and “send.” Listed below are 50 powerful Call-to-Action phrases that visitors can’t resist clicking on.

Download now Click here Join now Download here Start now Click here for details I urge you to… Get a free… Talk to an expert Immediate download While supplies last Money back guarantee Money back guarantee, no questions asked Get it now! Act quickly Free shipping Shipping discount Come in for a free consultation Come see us today Reserve your spot now Come in today Start your trial Start your free trial Offer expires… Satisfaction guaranteed We’d like to hear from you I can’t wait to hear from you Limited availability Limited time offer Best value For more details call… Please don’t hesitate to call We’re waiting for your call! Send for our free brochure Send for our free catalog Subscribe to our email list Subscribe to our newsletter Send in your application today! Apply here Order now and receive a free gift Tell us what you think Take our quiz! Sign up online at… Get started today Request your FREE quote today Just reach for your phone Members only/Subscribers only Contact us It’s important that you respond promptly Download our eBook for more information

Now that you know what attention-grabbing Call-to-Actions look like, you can implement your own. Don’t just copy and paste the CTA phrases from the list above. Tweak the CTA phrases so that they apply specifically to your company and your products and/or services. For example, instead of just saying, “Start your free trial,” you can say “Start your free trial with (insert company name here) so your CTA is more personalized. Use these phrases as a template for your website’s CTAs, sit back, and watch the clicks roll in!
Introducing Origin Protocol
Tags: Marketplaces, Product, Sharing Economy, Startup, Peer To Peer

Since the beginning of the Internet, online marketplaces have created virtual town squares where buyers and sellers can meet, connect, and ultimately transact. Online marketplaces in the sharing economy have especially thrived in the past few years. Companies like Uber, Airbnb, Getaround, Fiverr, and many others have reached regional and global scale, positively impacting millions of users. Collectively, tens of billions of dollars of transactional value flow through these household names every year.

These companies have undoubtedly changed the world for the better, providing suppliers with new income sources and giving consumers a diverse set of new services with just a few taps on their smartphones (food delivery, on-demand massage, carsharing, ridesharing, homesharing, freelance gigs, etc.).

However, as centralized businesses, there are also several significant shortcomings with these sharing economy marketplaces. They charge heavy transaction fees (typically 20–30%), are susceptible to censorship and regulation, and have failed to reward early buyers and sellers that are responsible for their successes (e.g. the first 100 drivers on Uber or the first 100 hosts on Airbnb).

Today, we are introducing the Origin platform, built on Ethereum and IPFS. Our vision is to enable the sharing economy of tomorrow, one that is fully decentralized and free of onerous transaction fees, is censorship-resistant, and rewards network participants for contributing to the platform.

Origin empowers developers and businesses to build decentralized marketplaces on the blockchain. Our protocols make it easy to create and manage listings for the fractional usage of assets and services. Buyers and sellers can discover each other, browse listings, make bookings, leave ratings and reviews, and much more.

We envision a future where open-source code can replace multi-million (and billion) dollar businesses. Smart contracts will become the new virtual town square where buyers and sellers can meet, connect, and transact. We are excited about the decentralized sharing economy and hope you are as well.

Matt and Josh

Founders of Origin

Learn more about Origin:
4 Steps to Reach Exceptional Levels of Performance
By: Younes Henni
Tags: Life Lessons, Self Improvement, Productivity, Education, Personal Development

2 — If You Cannot Be The Best, Focus on Being Unique

Do you think you cannot be great because you failed at winning a gold medal? or because you lose a contest of the best painting? Did you come last at the annual competition of the entrepreneur of the year?

Another misconception that many of us have is to think that, to become great, we must become the best in a particular field. This is not necessarily true. Evidence shows that another way to achieve tremendous success is to offer a unique combination of several valuable skills. A combination that is rare or that no one else has.

Scott Adams, the author of “How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big” says the following: “Everyone has at least a few areas in which they could be in the top 25% with some effort. In my case, I can draw better than most people, but I am hardly an artist. I am not any funnier than the average standup comedian, but I am funnier than most people. The magic is that few people can draw well and write jokes. It is the combination of the two that makes what I do so rare. And when you add in my business background, suddenly I had a topic that few cartoonists could hope to understand without living it”.

By mixing three different skills (i.e. drawing, comedy, and business), Scott Adams made himself truly unique in the market. He then managed to launch a great career as a cartoonist.

You can follow the same strategy in life. If you can’t win by being the best at a particular field, you can focus on being unique. If you combine three different skills that you are fairly good at (i.e. each skill puts you in the top 25% of the population), you can create a profile that is rare and valuable in the workplace (25% * 25% * 25% ~ 1.56%).

With this system, your set of skills puts you in the top 1.5% of the population! You drastically reduced the level of competition and it is easier for you to stand out.
How I Got a Promotion Without Working Any Harder
By: Tiffany Dawson
Tags: Remote Work, Startup, Career Advice, Work, Women In Tech

What I Failed to Understand for My Whole Career

I had two big and detrimental misconceptions about career progression:

You get promoted based on how long you’ve been working. You automatically get promoted when you’re good enough.

For my whole career, I sat around waiting for my turn to get recognised with a promotion or for someone to notice I was doing a good job. Either way, I handed the keys to my success to other people.

I know I’m not alone in this. If you’re reading this, it’s likely that you care a great deal about your career, yet you’ve never been taught how to actively work towards your next career step.

When I say “actively working towards a promotion,” I don’t just mean working extra hard, working extra-long hours, or doing extra stuff. In fact, to get a promotion, you don’t have to do any of that! How do I know this? Well, that’s where my story comes in.
Crypto Funds Medium List
By: Florent Moulin
Tags: Cryptocurrency, Blockchain, Venture Capital, Marketing, ICO

Crypto Funds Medium List

The first list of 120+ Medium accounts of funds that currently invest in early-stage crypto projects (equity & token sales)

At the Crypto Writing Agency, we are currently building the most comprehensive list of funds that invest in Blockchain. Our list will be online in a couple weeks and will include 1000+ funds, their investments, their social media accounts, adresses etc…

If you are looking to raise funds, launch an ICO, or if you are just curious about what crypto funds are posting here is a preview of our final list with the first Medium list of funds that invest in early-stage crypto projects.

This list includes:

https://medium.com/@NewAlchemyCap

https://medium.com/@suna_said

Feel free to clap and share if you enjoy this list!
Very simple Python script for extracting most common words from a story
By: Tirthajyoti Sarkar
Tags: NLP, Machine Learning, Data Science, Python, Text Analytics

Very simple Python script for extracting most common words from a story

Simple Python script without the use of heavy text processing libraries to extract most common words from a corpus.

What is the most used word in all of Shakespeare plays? Was ‘king’ more often used than ‘Lord’ or vice versa?

To answer these type of fun questions, one often needs to quickly examine and plot most frequent words in a text file (often downloaded from open source portals such as Project Gutenberg). However, if you search on the web or on Stackoverflow, you will most probably see examples of nltk and use of CountVectorizer. While they are incredibly powerful and fun to use, the matter of the fact is, you don’t need them if the only thing you want is to extract most common words appearing in a single text corpus.

Below, I am showing a very simple Python 3 code snippet to do just that — using only a dictionary and simple string manipulation methods.

Feel free to copy the code and use your own stopwords to make it better!

import collections

import pandas as pd

import matplotlib.pyplot as plt

%matplotlib inline # Read input file, note the encoding is specified here

# It may be different in your text file

file = open('PrideandPrejudice.txt', encoding="utf8")

a= file.read() # Stopwords

stopwords = set(line.strip() for line in open('stopwords.txt'))

stopwords = stopwords.union(set(['mr','mrs','one','two','said'])) # Instantiate a dictionary, and for every word in the file,

# Add to the dictionary if it doesn't exist. If it does, increase the count.

wordcount = {} # To eliminate duplicates, remember to split by punctuation, and use case demiliters.

for word in a.lower().split():

word = word.replace(".","")

word = word.replace(",","")

word = word.replace(":","")

word = word.replace("\"","")

word = word.replace("!","")

word = word.replace("â€œ","")

word = word.replace("â€˜","")

word = word.replace("*","")

if word not in stopwords:

if word not in wordcount:

wordcount[word] = 1

else:

wordcount[word] += 1 # Print most common word

n_print = int(input("How many most common words to print: "))

print("

OK. The {} most common words are as follows

".format(n_print))

word_counter = collections.Counter(wordcount)

for word, count in word_counter.most_common(n_print):

print(word, ": ", count) # Close the file

file.close() # Create a data frame of the most common words

# Draw a bar chart

lst = word_counter.most_common(n_print)

df = pd.DataFrame(lst, columns = ['Word', 'Count'])

df.plot.bar(x='Word',y='Count')

An example of the code output and plot of the 10 most frequently used words in the corpus. The text is ‘Pride and Prejudice’ and you can see the familiar names of Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy! :)
Enchanted Stream
By: Ivette Cruz
Tags: Life, Blue Insights, Poetry, Nature, Motivation

Free-Verse Poetry

Enchanted Stream

You are never the same

Sitting

at your side

I hear your song

but never

the same song.

I see you

freely flowing

but never

with the same water.

Ripples

crashing on the rocks

but never

the same ripples

and never

the same rocks.

You are

in the same place

but you are

never the same.

You enchant

with your marvel

you bring

joy to my soul.

I will treasure

this moment

my enchanted

stream.
#DrewsViews: Tips for Finding a Queer-Friendly Therapist
Tags: Transgender, Therapist, Therapy, Mental Health, LGBTQ

It’s no surprise that 2020 has been a really difficult year for a lot of people. With all of the curveballs we’ve been thrown, I have no doubt that a lot of people have been struggling with their mental health, and have looked into seeing a therapist, counselor, or other mental health or support professional. While a lot of therapists are really great, there are some who might be biased in one way or another, including being transphobic, or just not know a whole lot about LGBTQ+ issues. As someone who started going to therapy in 2020, here are my 4 tips for finding a queer-friendly therapist!

Look for what you want

This sounds simple enough, but oftentimes people forget that there are a lot of options for people seeking mental health help. When looking up the counselors available to you, try using search terms such as “lgbtq,” “transgender,” or “queer friendly” to find people who publicize themselves as safe for LGBTQ+ people. You can also look into resources online, like databases that specialize in keeping track of available LGBTQ+ friendly counselors.

See what your local LGBTQ+ centers and universities have

My university has free short term counseling that is available for all of their students, and a lot of schools have programs like that. LGBTQ+ community centers, like The Center in Orlando, and JASMYN in Jacksonville, have counselors on staff who can help you. If not, they will know other counselors in your area and be able to connect you with resources.

Consider online therapy as an option

Studies show that it works just as well as in person therapy, and in this digital age, a lot of counseling has been done online. My therapy has been entirely online, and I have had a really good experience. Zoom therapy does have its limitations though, as certain therapy practices, like EMDR, do work better in person, but your online therapist can help you find an in person therapist if needed.

Ask around

A lot of times the best way to find a queer friendly therapist is to ask other queer people. Unfortunately, LGBTQ+ people have a high rate of mental health problems. While that isn’t good, it does mean that we tend to go to therapy. Try asking people in your community who they go to, or who they have heard good things about!

2020 has been a hard year, but therapy has been great for me, and therapy can make your 2021 a little easier. Happy holidays everyone!
The 9,000 Pound Something
By: Jon Armstrong
Tags: Religion, Utah, Culture, Politics

My favorite thing about living in Utah from a sociological perspective is how much power the Mormon Church has and how many members try to simultaneously downplay this power as well as use it when it suits their needs.

Before I’m accused of being a bitter former-Mormon, let me state that my interest in this topic is purely anthropological. It is a fascinating study of human dynamics. There is a hegemony here. To deny that is an extreme expression of denial and ignorance. It’s how humans here treat and respond to this hegemony that fascinates. It’s not necessarily the beliefs or the practices of those beliefs, but the cultural implications of a homogenous society. There is no separation of Church and State in Utah. The Mormon Church is too powerful a lobby to let that happen. The membership is vocal. Even in the most segregated neighborhoods in urban centers, I can’t think of anywhere else in the United States where an organization/creed/religion has such a reaching political and social power with it’s constituency. Perhaps within the African American community or maybe in the South or the Jewish community in Los Angeles? Either way, there is no other State in the Union whose government is made up of such a majority.

Also, many friends who are practicing Mormons are more open than those portrayed in the media. Just like any other subculture, there is a stereotype. One sees it daily, but my closest Mormon friends have a relaxed vibe that isn’t the stereotypically uptight, stoic and conservative used in sound bites and stories the world over. I’m not trying to disrespect anybody, but rather point to this cultural uniqueness and observe.

There is an almost passive-aggressive quality to the power, from both the membership and the leadership of the church. Issues have a way of being made larger and taking on an evangelical nature. Just read these stories (hopefully, the links will stay active longer than a day or two)…

It’s true that if one lives in Utah, no matter what your belief system, or lack thereof, you can’t ignore the Mormon cultural impact. One is affected always. It is utterly compelling to observe.
Looking At Sasha
By: Little Fiction
Tags: Nonfiction, Relationships, LGBTQ

I now consider it bad form to center my life around someone. It is a sort of embarrassment to think of Sasha when I think of my days as a teenager; like sisters or married people we were with each other constantly. This is another thing I remember very clearly, sitting in Sasha’s parents’ house when we were seventeen, Sasha standing at the stove stirring a stick of butter into a pot of rice. Sasha made the simplest foods, white rice and chicken, pilaf and brownies, no dishes without small mountains of salt heaped atop them. At home she wore corduroys and t-shirts she had gotten for free at fundraisers and community service events. She had parents from somewhere in Eastern Europe. Her family was the type that covered their refrigerator door in photos, the table was large enough only for four, her mother always left small bowls of M&Ms out in the theme of the season — red and green at Christmas, and pink at Valentine’s. Her mother didn’t like me, or didn’t like that Sasha had a boyfriend but liked me better than him.

My dailiness with Sasha: it was this bodily feeling of the whirlpool, the sense that my body knew itself to belong to her, and beside it the whisper of fear. The fear is why it is so strange to think of Sasha in my car after Tasty Burger, the smell of French fries and salt, the house she no longer lives in, and my voice, why now? After prom night we had a party in my mother’s barn. Back then we lived on a farm on the west side of town; the horses were sleeping on the bottom floor, and we nestled into the attic. She had found out whatever there was about me to find out, it had to do with the look I gave her in that moment on the golf course when she was about to swing, the compact muscles of her back, her bare arms. It wasn’t something I felt I could tell Sasha — Sasha who had brought me with her to the country club for golf, Sasha who led food drives and organized the annual antique car show in the center of town in the summertime. I didn’t mean to tell her but she knew, and after prom we were so pretty and bright and slick with our own hopes that she could not help but look it in the eye.

Then we were tired and lost in the barn attic. Looking at each other like new animals, raw skin, half-blind eyes. She went outside on the grass by the paddocks. She wore her boyfriend’s tuxedo shoes below her pajamas, enormous boats of shoes, walking back and forth on the low wooden walls my mother had put up around the vegetable garden to keep out the rabbits. It was bluer than it was dark.

In the diary entry I wrote after prom night it’s hardly anything like I remember it. When she pulled the butter out of the fridge I wanted to say “I love you,” when she cracked the eggs I wanted to say “I love you,” when she flipped the pancakes I wanted to say “I love you,” when Evan put his arms around her I wanted to say “I LOVE YOU.” I wanted to say, “you look beautiful.” I wanted to say, “please.” After breakfast when everyone had gone she threw her phone at me and left the barn while I cried and my lip bled.
6 must-reads for new technical leaders
By: Catalin Ionescu
Tags: Technical Leadership, Management, Technology, Books, Programming

3. It Doesn’t Have to Be Crazy at Work — by Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson

It doesn’t have to be crazy at work is that one book among our suggested list that will go against everything you will read and learn from the other resources.

Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson, the co-founders of Basecamp, argue that a successful, profitable company shouldn’t require it’s employees to work crazy hours, forfeit holidays, and live in constant stress. They argue that there’s a calmer way of running a business, where you sacrifice insane short-term growth in favour of sustainable, continuous long-term growth.

If there’s anyone who can talk about sustainable growth, it’s these two. Basecamp has been around 21 years (yes — Basecamp was founded in 1999!) and it had $25m in revenue this year, with $0 outside investment and 63 employees.

One important takeaway from the book is that there’s currently a lot of buzz on social media about the crazy attitude and sacrifices needed to build a successful company. There are slogans in support of this, like “Extreme talent isn’t necessary, but extreme commitment is!” The book recounts a tale about Charles Darwin, the legendary evolutionary scientist, who wrote 19 books during his lifetime and is said to have never worked more than four and a half hours a day. The authors think that the solution to this craziness is “pacifism”: focusing on your own business, not the competition.

As a fresh technical lead, it’s your responsibility that your employees have a healthy life-work balance, that their stress levels are not constantly insane (let’s be honest, there’s no entirely stress-free technical job, but the stress can be managed). Your main goal is to protect your employees’ time. “No meetings that can be replaced with an email” is a great rule of thumb for achieving this.
Why Color Matters in Design
By: Andrew Gray
Tags: Design, UX, Design Thinking, Colors, Bad Design

The first thing I notice when I visit myBucknell is this extremely long and blaring red banner.

I immediately feel like I’ve done something wrong.

Further investigation shows that these banners are maintenance alerts warning me that the site will be down at some point. Great. I didn’t break anything. But I also haven’t done anything besides open up the website. So why do I feel this way?

As mentioned before, color can evoke reactions in users. This is why color choice is so important when it comes to design. There are certain colors that are actionable, like green or red. Green is usually a calming color that is used to indicate safety or success. Red, on the other hand, is a very hot color used to show warning, danger, or error.

We have been conditioned by society to think this way. Think about a traffic light. Green means go, yellow means slow down (or to some speed up), and red means stop.

The same can be seen with technology. Battery icons are always green when fully charged and red when low. Closing out websites and deleting posts are almost always done by clicking a red icon. When users see such dialogs the red color encourages them to think twice before making the final decision.

Certain colors are engraved in our brains to make us behave a certain way.

Jakob’s Law

Users spend most of their time on other sites. This means that users prefer your site to work the same way as all the other sites they already know.

If we are used to websites having red as a danger/delete button, then we wouldn’t want to use red as a color for positive actions like creating a post, submitting an assignment, or completing a payment. Thus, design should follow what we know and are used to.

A simple fix.

In my example above, myBucknell grabbed my attention away from my original task and instead, had me focused on the bright red banner. To me, the color red naturally gave me pause due to its connotations. It delivered the message that something went wrong at a glance. Although the alert is important, I do not believe it warrants the powerful red color. With a simple change to the color of the banner, the alert is still eye-catching without causing stress to the user.
The Powerful Advantage of Writing on Paper
By: Na Young
Tags: Habits, Writing, Analog, Paper, Draft

No Distraction

There is no disturbance. That’s the clearest reason I’ve ever returned to paper. The most embarrassing thing about writing on a computer is the ‘touch of temptation’. Just by connecting Wi-Fi, you will be connected to a fantastic Internet world. It looks like five minutes have passed, but thirty minutes have passed. The Internet connection is so time-revolutionary.

I thought computer writing was fast and efficient, but in conclusion, it took longer. Even if I turn off the Wi-Fi and start working, I am connected to the Internet from time to time. The moment the writing is blocked is dangerous. YouTube is fun, and social media, which was not interested in it. But this simple act certainly has some effect on you. It takes not only Internet access time, but also brain warm-up time, time to think about whether to enter or not, and time to focus on work again.
The Rebel Poets Society
By: Mimi Bordeaux
Tags: Women, Storytelling, Sex, Prompt, Kiss

A Rebel’s Prompt: Two Faced Bitches

She Came Through The Window

Calm as a sneaky cat puss purr hear her growl kiss me delight boy can she make you mad rave uppity lady fox bitch on heat game for anything but that’s where she falls over tripping on her own lies dawning hinder foxtrot lovers dawning on her shoulders now red in the neck I could strangle that two-faced CATPISS FUCK LADY who dragged my name through the muddy banks of the yarra indeed the very same one I threw myself over ten over years ago universal force forthright and cunning that’s me I know her every step I am one ahead don’t let it fool you I ain't taken so easily like that bitch a-rollin in it be it dirt well I got shit on my toe I’m rolling around horny wedges between my open sprawling legs sexy slumber radius 50 degrees daylight here she comes slit open with jaws knife split headache trammer boiling brat I fight for my life freedom of grime dust pretty peach butter melts in the mouth of whores get outta mah way chil’ I’m here to stay

Mimi Bordeaux
Poet’s Heart
By: Priyanka Srivastava
Tags: Haibun, Heartwork, Challenge, Writing, Community

Poet’s Heart

Haibun inspired by haibun a heart prompt

Photo by Joshua Sukoff on Unsplash

the date was somewhere in October. I could see the flickering stars in the sky. The night was quiet. The moon looked lonely not an unusual sight for a poet. I collected the stars and emptied them on the page. The poem rhymed with the quietness of the night and I felt elated.

to leave night empty

and ignore the stars you need

to rid poet’s heart.
Purplebricks Are Exiting The Australian Property Market After Just 2.5 Years — What Went Wrong?
By: Mo Works
Tags: Real Estate, Property, Australia, Global Expansion, Development

It has only been two and a half years since online real estate company Purplebricks entered Australia’s property industry, but yesterday they made the big announcement that they are being forced to exit the market, suggesting their global expansion was …

“too rapid and as a result, the quality of execution has suffered.”

Head to Moment to find out more.
Microsoft Excel user? Consider these 5 Productivity Hacks!
By: Don Tomoff
Tags: Microsoft Office, Top 10 Post, Excel, Automation, Productivity

Anyone who uses Excel everyday spends a LOT of time doing the same repetitive tasks. For example:

Customizing worksheet preferences (formatting, printing setup, etc.)

Seeking toolbar ribbon items to perform specific tasks

Analyzing basic datasets

Using the mouse for task-specific items, when keyboard shortcuts are dramatically faster

Keying in data to develop analysis

The presentation below highlights 5 tools for consideration that will fundamentally change how you work with Excel. Yes, behavior change is required (and that is generally not easy), but it will result in much more effective use of Excel.

“Faced with the choice between changing one’s mind and proving that there is no need to do so, almost everyone gets busy on the proof.” — John Kenneth Galbraith

The five productivity hacks are:

ASAP Utilities add-in — “The tools from ASAP Utilities add new functionality to Excel and are guaranteed to save you time and speed up your work.”

Quick Access Toolbar (“QAT”)

Pivot Tables for Data Analysis

Excel template workbook and worksheet

Using a Personal Macro Workbook

Download the presentation here (includes numerous helpful links!)
The Best Comedians Do Something You Don’t
By: Glyn Bawden
Tags: Comedy, Editing, Writing Tips, Review, Writing

What about writing then?

As writers, we should be acutely aware of how detailed our preparation should be. I know that almost every other article on here tells us to ‘edit edit edit’, but it’s true. I’m not suggesting for a minute that we should spend a year in preparation for every article. There would be a lot more starving and penniless writers if that was the case but we should take the time to perfect what we’re putting onto the page as far as possible.

The first draft of ideas that flows onto the blank page should be just that. I know that when I’ve written a first draft of an article, it is more important to get the word and ideas down onto the screen than for them to be spelt correctly. When I come to edit, what is on the page bears only a passing resemblance to English. Then we go back and remove excess words, refine the sentence structure, get a feel for the rhythm of the language. We know what sounds right and, like the comics, when we step out onto the stage that first time with a page of untried material then we should be prepared to get shot down.

We need to be our own worst hecklers. If a sentence doesn't work or the word order sounds wrong, give yourself hell over it. Call it out.

How boring a show would be if a comic stood and talked at the same rate and pace for the whole show. But they vary their speed, sentence length and intonation. Sometimes a joke is funnier if the emphasis is placed on a different word. Your sentences are the same. Change sentence lengths, change emphasis, be brutal with your work and see what works best for you.

It’s easy to spot a writer who is at ease with their style and one who is trying too hard. Read anything by Tim Denning and you’ll see a casual, friendly style almost as if he’s having a chat with you over a drink.

That’s no mistake. It has taken many years of trial and error to arrive at that level of skill.

All we can do is do our best to try and find a voice that suits us and the only way we can do that is by writing down our initial ideas like a comedian, taking those ideas and fashioning them into sentences and paragraphs that our readers will love.
Recreating W.E.B Du Bois’s Data Portraits
By: Anthony Starks
Tags: Github, Design, Data Visualization, Coding, Dvhistory

The code and output are tracked with git, and hosted on github. As progress is made (editing and tweaking, or adding a new plate), the code and visuals are committed. Interested parties may follow the progress and even file issues.

$ git add color.dsh

$ git commit -m 'added color tweak'

$ git push origin master

Design, Then and Now

It’s interesting to compare the tools and techniques used in 1900 with those employed today. Paper, pen, ink, paint, compass, and ruler vs. laptops, text editors, programming languages, source code management, and the Internet.

Also consider the physical layout of the exhibition. As illustrated below, the displays were fairly large physical objects measuring 22 x 28 inches. The re-creations preserve this aspect ratio, yet the overall experience is different: browsing poster-sized displays vs. viewing online or projected on a screen.

Exhibition Layout: Note the display sizes above the bookcase

In general, the re-creation approach is to reconstruct each plate into its component parts (titles, charts, annotations, etc), understand and define the relationships between the components on the canvas, and use built-in chart types from dchart where applicable.

Each plate is re-created to preserve the wording, terminology, layout, and colors of the originals. This included using ALL CAPS for titles and labels and preserving the aspect ratio. There is some variation in the originals hand-drawn type, so I chose Public Sans Bold for titles with the regular weight in gray for subordinate text. In the cases where a serif font was used, I chose the font Charter.

The originals in the book and in the Library of Congress collection documenting the exhibition have a manilla-colored background. I assumed this was due to aging of the original views, so I maintained a white background for the re-creations.

A characteristic of the original visuals is the bold use of the few colors: red, green, black, and yellow are used throughout. In Plate 50, combined with proportions, the Pan-African color scheme is used to great effect: the red boldly declaring the move from slavery to land and homeownership, the green showing the move from laborers to tenants.