fabiochiu/medium-articles huggingface dataset:
Bend Over!
By: K. Love
Tags: Short Story, Erotica, Love, Sex, Romance

Bend Over!

An Erotic Story

Author

‘Bend over” he commands

I can feel the dominant energy from his voice

and I love it.

So I obey and do as he says

I’ve been waiting for this moment

And my anticipation only rises with every second

Then I feel something getting closer to my clit

Ohh its the vibrator…

There’s current going all over my body

And its only getting more intense as he keeps it on my clit

I’m writhe with pleasure

Then he stops

Now I feel a thick long ‘thing’ getting into my pussy

Oh my goodness!!

Its his cock, its gonna be a great night

He grabs my hips and start ramming me

His cock is getting in and out of my wet pussy

First slowly, then faster and faster

His cock is getting at my G-spot

Oh, I don’t ever want him to ever stop

I’m receiving him from behind

and with each thrust my body is covered in pleasure

Now, I can feel it coming

I’m approach climax and I’m moaning

He also starts groaning too

We are both approaching climax

Then, Oh Yes!!!

We burst out at the same time

He cums on my ass while I squirt so much

We just lie on the bed panting like we’ve run a marathon

Resting to go for second round
Serenity CTO Vasily Alexeev joins Blockchain Expert Committee at the Financial Commission
By: Serenity Financial
Tags: Forex, Ethereum Blockchain, Forex Brokers, Ethereum, Forex Trading

Dear friends!

We’re pleased to announce that on November 30th, the Financial Commission (an independent Forex regulator) appointed Serenity CTO Vasily Alexeev to its Expert Blockchain Committee. This body’s main area of activity lies in developing and promoting self-regulation rules for companies that provide digital currency trading services.

The organizers of Blockchain Expert Committee have recognized Vasily’s valuable input into Serenity’s ICO and the launch of Escrow, as the company’s CTO he effectively managed Serenity’s team of developers during the tech lead-up to the ICO and the development of Serenity Escrow. Another important distinction taken into account is Vasily’s many years of experience in fintech projects, including as the head of the company UpTrader (software provider for brokers and ICO).

Alongside Vasily, the Committee includes Ibinex founder Simon Grunfield (development of software for cryptocurrency exchanges), Etheralabs founder Bryan Feinberg (development and implementation of blockchain projects), the founder and CEO of Tools4Brokers Aleksey Kutsenko, Rambler&Co business development director Dmitri Turkevich and others.
Episode 13: Decentralized Web Browsing, with Blockstack
Tags: Bitcoin, Browsers, Blockchanneltv, Blockstack, Cryptocurrency

On this episode of BlockChannel, Steven McKie and Corey Petty interview Ryan Shea, Co-Founder of Blockstack. Blockstack is a decentralized web browsing experience brought to you by the power of blockchain technology. Ryan and his other Co-Founder, Muneeb Ali, both share a vision of a decentralized web; one where individuals control the data that encapsulates their private identities. Learn how they plan to create this system with Blockstack, and how they grew to begin this great venture.

Show Links:

Blockstack: blockstack.org

Blockstack Slack: chat.blockstack.org/

Ethereum Name Service (ENS): ens.readthedocs.io/en/latest/introduction.html

Intro/Outro Music by Umai: Thebaygerian — 002-chief-umeh-x-typicalshit

Show Sponsor(s):

Cryptodex: cryptodex.io
Why You Need a Social Media Goal
By: Andy Smith
Tags: Happiness, Metrics, Focus, Design Thinking, Goals

Although social networking tools are widely used to incite action, the people who use them most effectively have one thing in common: a laser-like focus. A single focused goal provides direction, motivation, and operational guidance. As big, daunting, and impressive as some social media campaigns seem, each started small, with a few people and a goal.

There are five elements that comprise a focused goal:

Humanistic: Focus on who you want to help rather than jumping to solutions. Empathize with your audience to develop Points of View (POV): [USER] needs to [USER’S NEEDS] because [SURPRISING INSIGHT]. Questions to ask about your audience to cultivate a human-centered approach: What is she like? What keeps her up at night? What do you want her to do? How might she resist?

Actionable: Use tactical micro goals to achieve long-term macro goals. At the beginning, don’t focus on that long-term goal. Research shows that imagining the process of reaching a goal is more effective than envisioning the outcome.

Testable: Identify metrics that will inform your actions and help evaluate success. Run low-cost trials to test your assumptions. Set performance metrics to measure progress, and plan how to solicit feedback from your audience before you launch. Surveys are a great tool. As Avinash Kaushik, author of Web Analytics 2.0

says, “The best surveys ask three simple questions: why are you here? Were you able to complete your task? If not, why?” Establish deadlines, and celebrate small wins along the way.

Clarity: Keep your goals clealy focused to increase your odds of success and generate momentum. Research shows that the reason why many don’t achieve their goals is not that they don’t try hard enough or think strategically enough, but simply because the embarked on too many goals or set conflicting goals. Start with the simplest behavior you can change at a low cost.

Happiness: Ensure that your goal is personally meaningful such that the thought of achieving the goal would bring happiness to you and your audience–in some way.

Social media, when used effectively, is incredibly powerful. But your social media efforts will only accomplish what you set out to accomplish with them. So before you post your next Facebook status ask yourself: what is my goal?
AXNET lists PundiX with NPXS/ETH and NPXS/TUSD pairs
Tags: Bitcoin, Blockchain, Ethereum, Cryptocurrency, Tech

AXNET’s Decentralized Exchange has now launched PundiX’s NPXS Token available for immediate trading, deposit & withdrawal. NPXS will have the following pairs in our decentralized exchange: NPXS/ETH & NPXS/TUSD

The AXNET DEX allows traders to get access to a high-speed trading engine, with a centralized user-experience, while keeping custody of their funds. Users can connect their wallet via Meta-Mask, Trust Wallet, Ledger, Creating a New ETH account, or importing their private key(Not Recommended).

About NPXS

Pundi X project is a global hardware based ICO that tries to address the issue of cryptocurrency payment channels. Existing crypto cards and payment methods relies on the traditional banking payment channel hence there is an urgent need to create a blockchain based cryptocurrency channel. Their ecosystem is spread out based on the device that is installed on physical locations and also the usage it brings (buy, sell and use of cryptocurrency and virtual services).

About AXNET:

Asset Exchange Network OÜ (AXNET) is a licensed virtual currency to fiat exchange with a licensed virtual wallet platform based out of Estonia. We service our traders worldwide by giving them the first hybrid trading platform that offers both a Centralized and Decentralized exchange that allows our traders to toggle between the two. We are listing traditional BTC, ETH, and USDT pairs with also fiat pairs like USD and EUR through our license and banking networks. We are also launching TUSD pairs for our decentralized exchange to give a stable-coin trading experience.
Where God Lives
By: Matt Leclair
Tags: Poetry

Where God Lives

© Matt LeClair 2012

I wrote a poem today.

It was not a love poem, thank god.

Mouth full of fresh avocado

breath a better liar than a lover

tongue a better lover than a life coach

septum of my heart the great divider,

fingers the breakers of rules.

I failed so I could be here -

that’s how important this is.

I wrote a poem today.

It was the accident I was waiting for,

killing all the passengers slowing me down.

I’m giving up all I might have been to be who I am.

Shepherd moon lit me a city,

glowing under dust of snow and fallen shards of stars,

ground up husks of former selves lusting and craving for more

than our current reputations.

We all have reputations even

when we don’t know what they are.

I was forgotten inside myself too

for so long, there but not there,

skipping ahead to memorized scenes in a mediocre spy film,

tattooed with reminders and ignoring them all

so I could live life familiar in fear and disguise.

But this summer I flow fearless

in the safe space between your legs,

praying under a star factory,

emboldened by epic moments in the mottled patchwork light,

a shadow that looks like the sun.

There will be no time for this tomorrow

so my challenge right now is to greet god as if we’ve never met,

as if no one I loved ever left me or died,

as if everyone new I run into might carry a message for me…

look to the stars at night and forgive.

I wrote a poem today.

Not a love poem, thank god,

but a greeting to the man at the grocery store

as if he matters to me

or flatters me as much as a lover (or as little).

A greeting to the child who cannot speak yet who is my equal,

speaking to the insane as if they are capable of sanity,

seeing the artist as the same as myself,

fabulously and mysteriously attractive,

seeking to know what I can before this all goes away,

dust back to glorious dust,

gorilla suits receding in the mist,

evaporating evidence of an orgasm or childbirth,

deceased grandmothers, the Soviet Union, all relationships,

dying stars exploding, everything real exaggerated.

God is going away,

then coming back, then going away again

and then coming back.

God appears to us when we reach,

when we stretch, when we struggle, when we build things

that could never have existed without our sweat and cooperation.

So when your curves called out to me across the Playa

and I recognized your feminine legs,

spread apart, white as never touched by sunshine,

I chose to change course and steer my bicycle toward you.

I like risky propositions,

so I summoned my strength to help, to hold you high like a wrench

to the sky so you might turn lighting bolts

into lucid dreams into real things,

metal objects in the desert calling us together,

summoning the parts of ourselves we know as divine.

We are just people who know how to bring out the best in each other.

I wrote a poem today.

It was a love poem, thank God.
Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday
By: Chetna Jai
Tags: Gratefulness, Everyday Life, Life, Poetry, Creative Writing

Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday

No two days are the same

Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

Every day is a different feeling, a different mindset

Sometimes I take it a day at a time, sometimes I’m forging ahead

Sometimes it’s two steps forward, one step back

Seems like I’m in limbo, and have been for the longest time

Like my goals, desires and timelines keep moving away, every time I creep closer

I’m going somewhere, but end up going nowhere

Can I escape the cycle?

Just start by waking up each morning, being grateful for the day

Be the best version you can be TODAY
Praying
By: Anna Rozwadowska
Tags: Existentialism, Escape, Self, Resistence, Poetry

Take me anywhere, souls need replenishment,

soul needs waking, early in the p.m., soul needs walking human form

I gave you my last, you took everything first,

God lest the person breathe, going through, so much,

the torch is the umbrella, waiting for rain to wash your sin.

I am impressed on living, give me the narcotics,

leave me and impress upon me faint deliverance,

thereby I have a chance at this living,

take me anywhere, I need love’s touch, you, touch,

no need for far away places, I am golden like the sun.
Before The User Journey: Rich Picture, Service Ecology & Blueprint
By: Andrii Rusakov
Tags: Service Ecology, Service Blueprint, Service Design, Design Thinking, Rich Picture

Digital age realities force organizations to make a shift in approaches to their challenges. The ability to “solve problems right” is challenged by an essential need to “solve the right problems”.

The user experience can’t be isolated from an environment where the interaction takes place. Experience designers, same to their colleagues from other creative fields, need tools and skills for understanding and mapping those environments.

NN/g Design Thinking 101 describes the generic design approach with understand, explore and materialize stages. Google Design Sprint, IDEO Design Thinking and IBM Enterprise Design Thinking frameworks are aimed to structure divergent and convergent thinking processes. However, we still need to remain flexible with exercises for reaching our goals.

Empathy to the users can be increased with understanding details of the surrounding environment. Investigate and map the service before deeper dive into experiences within.

This article proposes modifications of original Rich Picture, Service Ecology and Service Blueprint exercises for collaborative mapping and illustrates them on simplified healthcare facility service example.

In the cases with distributed team structure, you may leverage to digital collaboration tools like Miro or Mural

Rich Picture

Origins

Rich picture technique is a part of the Soft Systems Methodology (SSM) developed by Peter Checkland and Brian Wilson aimed to help analyze complex situations with multiple views on a problem. It should build understanding and describe a situation in terms of Structures, Processes, Climate, People, Issues, Conflict.

The usual artifact is a whiteboard or paper drawing that supports “As Is” state explanation and has a similar representation to the context diagram.
5 Shocking Facts You Didn’t Know About This 5th Century University
By: Radha Kapadia
Tags: Teaching, History, Learning, Buddhism, Education

The work of Narsimha Deva, Nalanda carried the title of the only international university in the world for over 800 years. Students from all over the world would come to gain the rich and holistic knowledge imparted at Nalanda. There were around 10,000 students and 2,700 faculties from countries like Greece, Mongolia, Japan, China, Korea, Indonesia, Greater Iran, Persia, and many more.

2. A huge library divided into 3 buildings

Image by Nalanda

The greatest and prestigious library in the world was at the heart of Nalanda. It was called Dharma Kunj — meaning — Mountain of Truth. The Library was divided into three buildings standing up to nine storeys. These buildings were called Ratnasagara — Sea of Jewels, Ratnajanaka — Delighter of Jewels, and Ratnodadhi — Ocean of Jewels. These buildings owned massive volumes of religious manuscripts and books about Astrology, Economics, Maths, Literature, Geology, Medicine, etc.

3. It was attacked thrice by invaders

Image by Nalanda

A renowned repository of flourishing knowledge is bound to be envied against by the adversaries. In hope of uprooting Buddhism and Buddhist knowledge, Nalanda was attacked thrice. The first attack was by Huns led by Mihirakula, However, the loss was restored with better facilities by the Gupta Dynasty. The second attack was made by Gaudas which again was restored by the Buddhist King Harshavardhana. But during 1993, the utmost destruction was made by the Turkish leader Bakhtiyar Khilji.

4. Massive loss yielded by Khilji’s attack

Images by Wikipedia

Image by Nalanda

Khilji was an illiterate person who was hired for his military and killing skills. With his help, the Turkish army destroyed the roots of knowledge of Buddhism and Ayurveda from the country. They ransacked and looted Nalanda. Countless monks were burned alive and many were beheaded. The world-famous library of Nalanda was also set on fire.

5. The library kept burning for 3 months

The third attack, took along with it, the jewels of Nalanda. When Khilji set the library on fire, all the knowledge collected by mankind went up in flames. The library’s vastness can be understood by the fact that it took 3 months for the books and manuscripts to burn down entirely. Due to the loss of the religious texts, Buddhism — one of the major religions of India faced setbacks for hundreds of years.
敏捷開發的第一步 -- Scrum ABC
By: Yu-Song Syu
Tags: Agile, Scrum

Kuma老師的軟體工程教室

Welcome to the Kingdom of Software Engineering
Featured AI2er: Luca Weihs
Tags: Career Advice, Interview, Featured Ai2er, Research Scientist

Featured AI2er: Luca Weihs

Luca is a Research Scientist on the PRIOR team.

Luca Weihs is a Research Scientist on the PRIOR team.

What put you on the path to your current role?

My path was a bit circuitous –I entered undergrad convinced I would become a mathematics professor. I then realized I liked machine learning, AI, and programming, so I went to graduate school for statistics; this may sound like a strange decision but I promise that it more or less makes sense. I was fortunate to get an internship at AI2 during the institute’s early days by reaching out to the CEO Oren Etzioni directly, and I’m now able to spend all my time researching interesting problems at the intersection of reinforcement learning, computer vision, and embodied agents.

What’s the most surprising or interesting thing that has happened with your work at AI2 recently?

Over the last 6 months, we’ve been working on a new framework called AllenAct for embodied artificial intelligence research. This project was mainly designed for our own use, but at some point, we realized “hey, this is pretty cool, we should let other people use it!” It was surprising to me how quickly we were able to come together and make it a reality after that. Everyone at AI2 really embodies the mission to create “AI for the Common Good.”

What are you looking forward to with your work in the coming months?

Our team built the open-source AI2-THOR library, which allows researchers to train AI agents in simulated environments. AI2-THOR has always been very rich and interactive, but we have some new improvements in the pipeline that will enable so many interesting new research directions. I’m very excited to see how far we can push embodied AI research towards the goal of having agents who can successfully interact with and understand the real world.

A screenshot of a simulated kitchen with food and wine on the counter in AI2-THOR.

One piece of advice you’d give an aspiring research scientist?

If you aren’t excited about your research, then no one else will be either. Always ask yourself why you value the work you are doing, and don’t be afraid to realize that you should be working on something else.

What do you consider the most underrated activity or place in Seattle?

Likely not underrated for anyone who lives in Seattle, but the International District has some really great restaurants (Seven Stars Pepper, Harbor City, Tamarind Tree) and a fantastic grocery store (Uwajimaya). The pandemic has really given me a greater appreciation for grocery stores: >40k unique items, consistently stocked, and air-conditioned; just amazing.
Taking on Scrittura
By: J.D. Harms
Tags: Scrittura, Editing, Submissions, Changes

Taking on Scrittura

At Shaan’s request.

Photo by Andrew Neel on Unsplash

Let me begin by saying I miss having Shaan’s voice & energy here these days. He was/is a remarkably strong writer for one so young. I wish him all the best in his future endeavours.

Shaan asked if I would be willing to take the helm of this publication &, because I would hate to see it go, it is my great pleasure to have agreed to take it on. I have been writing on Medium since 2018, though I really only began publishing in earnest in the late Spring of 2019. Most of you already know/have read/assume my devotion to the poetic form. I am contemplating removing the “Photographs”, “Fiction”, & “Essays” tabs, as well as the “Nonfiction”. The majority of our contributors tend to submit poetry, so unless you object strongly (& please tell me if you do), I will be trimming down Scrittura’s homepage.

That said, Medium is a multi-medium site, so this decision has more to do with what I consider to be my own rank ineptitude at judging the photographic form, & the relative rarity of other kinds of submissions. However, please note that I won’t be publishing stories that have no picture accompanying them. Having a way to connect readers visually with your work is helpful for getting people interested in your stories. I find, more often than not, I won’t read deeper into a piece that has no visuals. But make sure you’ve given proper credit to the photographer, even if that was yourself.

I won’t be publishing stories that have no picture accompanying them.

If you are already a writer for Scrittura, than you’ve gone over our submission guidelines. Let me reiterate: I will not publish hate-speech, or stories that discriminate on the basis of sex, race, etc., anything that violates the rules Medium has set for what is acceptable for publication.

I would ask you all, too, to please sign your work. This can be as simple as writing your name at the end of your submission. This can be the slightly more elaborate, though very common, hyperlinking your name to your profile page (this is done most quickly by: @ followed by your name/email). The benefit of this, of course, is that when someone clicks it, they are directed to your profile page, which comes with all that you have published so far.

Please sign your work.

My final order of business (today, anyway), is to let any of you know that if you’ve got any interest in being an editor here, please feel free to contact me. Right now the submissions come in at a pace that I can handle, though the hope is, still/always, that more readers & writers will want to come here to play. Let me know.

For the moment, that’s what I’d like you to know/think about. I look forward to reading more of what you all have to offer.
John MacArthur: slavery could be good?
By: Jonathan Poletti
Tags: Spirituality, Christianity, Religion, Slavery, Race

Here’s Evangelical head honcho John MacArthur in 2012. Be sure to note the connection to marriage.
Seminary Productivity: Sabbath, Family Time, and the Power of Rest
By: Alan Bentrup
Tags: Work, Church, Family

Today is the last Friday of summer, with classes and craziness beginning next Tuesday. I needed this week to rest, recharge, and get ready.

There is ample evidence that vacations and rest are good for you, including that taking vacations can prevent heart attacks. Rest and relaxations also help boost productivity.

This has become a growing edge for me. In my 10 years working in the business world, I rarely took my full vacation time. For a good part of that decade I was running a solo office and didn’t think I could get away. I am now getting in to a line of work where demands of ministry don’t always follow a 40 hour work week.

This past weekend my family and I went on my field ed parish retreat to Shrine Mont, a beautiful place in the Shenandoah Valley. It was good to get away. Our lives are hectic and constant, and being surrounded by nature with limited access to technology was refreshing. I hope to do this more, as it both helps me and perhaps will set an example for my children and future parishioners.

I ended the week by taking our oldest on our annual “big boys trip.” He and I spent two days in Philadelphia, watching the Phillies play the Nationals (go Anthony Rendon!) and then enjoying Sesame Place.

I can be a terrible father, with big expectations and a short fuse. I’m also pulled in many different directions, and my sons sometimes end up on the short side of my attention. I want to build memories with my boys, both of the routine everyday things we do and also in the adventures we sometimes take. This was the latter, and judging by the photo above (taken after 10 hours at the park) I would say that he enjoyed the adventure. And while not exactly “restful,” it was certainly wonderful time away from our everyday life.

As I embark on year two of my education, I am hoping to continue the small routines of sabbath that we’ve created (such as Friday night family movie, where I don’t do anything except watch a movie of my boys’ choosing). I also hope to take more opportunities to get away (by myself, with Elizabeth, and as a family).

These moments of down time are good for the soul, and also good for productivity.
Adventures in photography
By: Samantha Weald
Tags: Advice, Photographer, Cameras, Camera Lens, Photography

I’m in no way a professional photographer. But I do consider myself an avid paparazzi of my friends and families lives. Taking pictures of the people and places I love is one of my favorite pastimes — and I’m so lucky to get to travel for work and adventure through life so thoroughly that I always feel I have something to capture.

But what to use to photograph those moments? Here I dive into the three camera’s I’ve owned so far, and what I like, love, and loathe about each one…

Camera # 1: The Panasonic Lumix LX100

Above: the Panasonic LUMIX 100 / Below: the FUJIFILM X100F

In 2016, right after we got married and I turned 28, team Weald gifted me my Panasonic Lumix LX100 camera — it was my first mirrorless camera and instantly became my travel buddy and first pick for any photo opportunity.

I love this camera, and would absolutely recommend it to anyone looking for a small, compact, travel camera that does just about everything well for under $1,000.

Why do I love this camera so much? First of all, it’s tiny. It literally fits in a fanny pack and can make it way atop multi-pitch climbs, through 15 mile hikes, and in small clutch purses without feeling like a drag. This camera is the epitome of take it with you everywhere.

Second, the 24–75mm zoom lens is great for it’s versatility, but I love it even more because 24mm is my preferred shooting range. It’s slightly wide, giving me an ability to capture the full extent of my vision. And as I more often than not am photographing Ryan doing something outdoors, this helps frame him within the scope of the adventure. As a portrait camera, it’s probably not great. But I am the first to admit that true portraiture (usually known for a more 50mm focal length — aka closer and more cropped) is a little too close for my taste. And if I’m being truly honest, more artistic than I’m probably capable of =)
JavaScript: String.replaceAll has Landed in All Major Browsers
By: Ozan Tunca
Tags: Ecmascript, Programming, Nodejs, JavaScript, Frontend

What Were the Alternatives So Far?

Dating back to the early days of JavaScript, the prototype of String provided us with a function called replace that essentially does the same thing as replaceAll , but it replaces only the first occurrence of the searchValue . Example:

This is useful but undesirable if you want to replace all occurrences of a text. One solution to that problem is to use a RegExp to define the searchValue . The same example as above can easily be rewritten with a RegExp to achieve the same behavior as replaceAll :

This works well for our case. It is also obvious to anyone who has some basic knowledge of regular expressions.

Let’s make things a bit more complicated. Say we have a case where we need our searchValue to be dynamic. For instance, assume that we get our searchValue as a parameter instead of hardcoding it. In this case, creating a regular expression from this variable gets a little more complicated. An example:

This works. What the code does is also still quite clear. But generating a regular expression dynamically is not always straightforward. Special characters in the given string can easily mess with the regular expression:

It still works, but the way it works is a lot more cryptic now. The users of the function must know that they have to sanitize the string before passing it to the function. The other alternative to this is to have removeFromText() sanitize the received input. In that case, however, we make the implementation of removeFromText() unnecessarily complicated.

The last alternative to solve the problems described above is to chain .split() and .join() to achieve the same behavior as replaceAll :

Now this one covers all our use cases. The drawback of this one is that what the code does is a lot less obvious. Splitting a string into an array only to merge it again seems wasteful and doesn’t tell us anything about replacing a string. It is more of a hack than doing what we want to do directly.
7 Simple Ways to Improve Your SQL Query Performance
By: Shubham Pathania
Tags: Database, Software Development, Sql, MySQL, Programming

7 Simple Ways to Improve Your SQL Query Performance

Understand what’s happening behind the scenes

Image by Simone_ph from Pixabay

As a full-stack developer, I often deal with databases. The database is one of the major parts of an application that can make or break it. Also, it demands proper optimization to make your application lightning fast. SQL optimization is a process of using SQL queries in the best possible way to get accurate and fast database results.

For better database performance, you need to emphasize your queries. An inefficient query might drain the resources and cause slow performance or loss of service for other users if the query contains errors.

It’s vital to optimize SQL queries for minimum impact on database performance. Some of the biggest performance bottlenecks usually boil down to several causes like missing indexes, poor schema design, and inefficient queries.

There are simple steps that you can take while writing queries to improve the overall performance of your application. In this article, I am going to discuss a few techniques that you can opt for to achieve better database performance.

Let’s get started.
How to Make Chocolate Butter. If everyone loves butter and everyone…
By: Carla Notarobot
Tags: Chocolate, Chocolate Butter, Butter, Cooking, Quarantine

Blend

Pour the cream and salt in a stand mixer or food processor and blend on a low speed (slowly increase the speed to high) until the cream until it begins to separate after about 4–5 minutes. If it hasn’t begun to separate in that time, don’t worry, turn up the speed on your machine and keep blending.

Keep going whipping and after about 4 minutes it should be almost completely separated. You will see buttery solids in a cloudy liquid (buttermilk).

Add

Once the buttery solids are separated, pour in the ice cold water (this will help the butter further separate) and blend for another minute or so.

Strain

Pour the buttery solids into a fine mesh strainer resting over a bowl. The cloudy liquid is buttermilk — so, save it for pancakes or marinades if you would like. Squeeze the buttery solids together into a large ball until you have squeezed out as much buttermilk as possible.

Optionally, place the butterball into the dishtowel and continue squeezing out butter milk until the ball is dry.

Mix again

Place the butterball back in the mixer/food processor and blend at a low speed and slowly add in the cocoa powder and melted chocolate chips. Blend for 20–30 seconds until well combined and occasionally scrape down the sides of the bowl.

Enjoy

Eat with toast, toaster waffles, cake, cookies, Texas Roadhouse Rolls…….plain….I won’t judge.

Storage

Place in an airtight container and store in the fridge.
What Are the Requirements to Make the Inc. 5000 List?
By: Jena Apgar
Tags: Kartra Queen, Inc 5000, Requirements, Inc 500, Inc Magazine

Who doesn’t want to show off their company to the world as a fast growing, mover and shaker, king of the domain?

Everyone right?

I know I do!

But finding the requirements and understanding them can be a wee bit frustrating, so spelled them out for you in a simple list with links for more information.

First…

Why the Inc. 5000 List?

I think Inc. says it on the application page right now during the pandemic best…

“You Are America’s

Entrepreneurial Benchmark

For almost 40 years, through good times and challenging times, entrepreneurs have remained the key influence over the economy and the Inc. 5000 list has remained the key benchmark for entrepreneurial success. For many finding success in adversity is the fuel to keep going, reaching, and lifting us all higher.

That’s why, more than ever, we need you to be 5000 strong. Show the world what you know: Because of your hard work and dedication, we’re more resilient than ever.”

Inc. 5000 List is your first major milestone as an entrepreneur.

You din’t just make it on a personal level, you made it on a national level and you likely required a team to pull you up that high.

You created jobs.

You turned the economic engine of this nation.

You rock!

When You Make the Inc. 5000 List, You Get…

“National and Global Recognition: Exposure in national, local and industry media. All honorees receive a dedicated company profile on Inc.com.

Exposure in national, local and industry media. All honorees receive a dedicated company profile on Inc.com. Greater Productivity: Boost employee morale. Improve recruiting opportunities. Tout your achievements.

Boost employee morale. Improve recruiting opportunities. Tout your achievements. Sales Advantages: Stronger sales momentum. Credibility with prospects and investors you can’t buy at any price.

Stronger sales momentum. Credibility with prospects and investors you can’t buy at any price. Invaluable Networking Opportunities: Share ideas with exclusive community of Inc. 5000 business leaders. New sales and partnership opportunities through high-quality networking.”

All of the requirements must be met, and be verifiable and true for your company to qualify to make the Inc. 5000 list in any given year.

Inc. 5000 Company Requirements:

Be privately-owned, based in the United States, independent (not a subsidiary or division of another company)

Have started earning revenue by March 31st of the first year

Had revenue no less than $100,000 in year 1

Had revenue no less than $2,000,000 in year 4

Revenue in year 4 exceeds revenue in in year 1

Should these change, I will update the list.

Click here to apply and learn more about the Inc. 5000 list.

*Please note that revenues must be under one LLC or corporation. Common Paymasters are not eligible for the Inc. 5000.
The Spirit of Crypto
By: Lucien Lecarme
Tags: Bitcoin, Blockchain, Spirituality, Cryptocurrency, Technology

You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.

Richard Buckminster Fuller

Is Blockchain technology, Cryptocurrencies and Bitcoin the first design of this new model?

Let’s go back first

Prometheus created fire

Swords could now be made to cut trees and kill animals to obtain food.

But the same sword could also kill humans.

The double-edged sword of technology was created. Nuclear power gives us a great amount of relatively clean energy, and it also created the atomic bomb that destroyed Hiroshima. Technology can liberate us in the same amount that it can enslave us.

As we are approaching a technological era, it is good to keep remembering this:

Technology is as good as the intentions behind its use

Behind what problems technology can solve lies a deeper, more profound question

What does it mean to be human?

The old story of humanity is getting obsolete

as we are entering a time in between stories

What role can you play in this transition?

And how can technology help? What role can technology play in moving towards more unity, equality, empowerment, connection and redistribution of wealth?

As we speak, new models of organizations, of money itself, of decentralized governance, of sustainable ecological responsible production like permaculture, and everything that is set in place to let humanity finally thrive, is being created.

Technology will play a crucial role in supporting these processes, to take out middlemen where they are no longer needed, to validate exchange of value, to turn around pyramids where they need to be turned around.

To redistribute the money from the top of our old pyramidal systems into the wallets of all

But this only will function, will be ready, when humanity will be ready.

Awareness is the technology of the soul

Only with a critical mass of embodied awareness, technology can truly serve us to make the next step, to embrace our new story

Personal empowerment is key in this process since we won’t and can’t rely any much longer on centralized entities that controlled our lives and our beliefs. The trust we once put in them to co-create growth, wealth and freedom has been eroded during the last centuries. Now it will be communities, circles and truer values that will co-create a new reality embracing our new story. Peer to peer.

This is why technology gave us a trustless system: Blockchain technology

Blockchain technology will only serve its purpose when our purpose is clear.

When we have taken back full responsibility for our lives, for our earth, for our connection with each other.

Lucien Lecarme

Join a creative place where spirituality meets technology on Medium with inspiring stories: www.medium.com/spirit-of-crypto

Subscribe to my CryptoTribe when you like to know where this dance will potentially take us. You are part of the solution. We need your gift.

When you like to share your story on this publication, submit by sending me an email lucien@ibizapowerspot.com
Ethereum 2.0に対応したステーキングプロジェクトをスタートさせました。
By: Akihiro Yamase
Tags: Ethereum, Staking, Pos

in In Fitness And In Health
Where Were the Police?
By: Rae Lately
Tags: Police, Politics, Gun Control, Neighborhood Watch, Guns

Where Were the Police?

My Bubble Bursts

Photo by Jay Rembert on Unsplash

Guns are on my mind. Again. Last Saturday in my neighborhood a series of shots. Boom boom boom boom!

On the neighborhood list-serve:

— Were those fireworks?

— I think it was guns.

— People STILL have fireworks?

— That was not fireworks. I hope I am wrong this time.

Sure enough, a house down the street had a van parked at the curb. 7:30 AM and someone put a bunch of holes in it. Then they zoomed past my house (I found out later) while I sipped coffee on the porch with my friend, kid, and dog.

No sirens ensued. Someone probably called 9–1–1, but most likely they were redirected to the non-emergency number.

There are too many guns. I know from my year serving on my city/county grand jury that guns are a major problem. The majority of the cases I heard were somehow related to gun violence. I really hope if/when we have a new administration, gun control rises to the top of the list of existential crises.

It is clearly against the law that felons cannot be in possession of a gun. But that does not seem to stop them from having them or being around them. America is obsessed with violence, trauma, and death.

What if there were no more toddlers accidentally killed by guns? What if school shootings became a thing of the distant past? What if power did not lie in the hands with the biggest weapons?

It is hard to imagine, but I still believe it is possible.

I know law enforcement is overloaded by responding to calls. For once, I would like to feel more proactively protected, rather than justice constantly going unserved.
I’m a Baby Atheist
By: Sarah Levis
Tags: Religion, Atheism

So, atheism. I’m trying very hard to sort this out, so please bear with me.

My parents made my sister and me go to church when we were growing up. Our family was Anglican, which is similar to the Catholic church in that it’s heavy on liturgy, it’s a church that celebrates Holy Communion, there’s a Confirmation service (I was confirmed when I was 14), etc. It’s much more liberal than Catholicism, though; much more liberal than most denominations, actually.

However, the church that I attended in my teens had a pastor and a youth leader whose leanings were more to the Evangelical side of the spectrum, so by the time I’d graduated from high school I was well-versed in the theology of spiritual warfare, laying on of hands, speaking in tongues, and who was and wasn’t going to hell and why. And I couldn’t buy into some of it so easily anymore. It took about six years for me to go from allowing myself to doubt to being able to confidently say, “If there’s something out there, I don’t need to know exactly what it is, but I’m pretty sure it’s not the Christian god,”and at times it was a rough journey.

But when it was done, I thought it was done. “I’m a happy agnostic,” I told people.

But after learning after atheism, and reflecting more on my views on God over the last fifteen years or so…I’ve come to conclusion that I’m an atheist, and have been for a while, in that I believe there aren’t gods. I didn’t consider myself an atheist before because I thought that atheists didn’t believe in gods. I didn’t understand that there’s a distinction between not believing in gods and rejecting the belief that there are gods.

As I understand it, you can both reject the belief that there are gods and be open to the idea that there are gods. It’s saying that you’re not ultimately decided either way, but in the absence of proof for one alternative, you choose the other. I haven’t seen enough evidence to convince me that there are gods, and logic seems to dictate that there aren’t. But I’m open to hearing proof that there are gods. If something about my worldview is obviously wrong, I should adjust it.

I’m still new to the idea of considering myself an atheist, so I think of myself as a baby atheist — not because I reject belief in the existence of babies, but because I’m so new to this, and have such a lot of learning and growing to do!
The Space Between Impeachment and Loyalty.
By: Petr Swedock
Tags: Propaganda, Leadership, Politics, Organizational Culture, Administration

Although comparisons have been made to how the Mueller investigation was similar to the 1990’s Starr independent counsel investigations into the Clinton administration, a stronger parallel is between the actions of the Trump Administration and the Reagan-era ‘Iran-Contra’ affair.

In both the Mueller investigation and in ‘Iran-Contra’ an administration was placed under a microscope and, stemming from the investigation, a host of lower level persons were indicted while the President was not. In the Iran-Contra affair, we still do not know with complete certainty, who directed, orchestrated, and later tried to cover-up, the arms-for-hostages deal. We do know, however, that President Ronald Reagan, in just about every sense of the word, was completely clueless, and may, in fact, have been largely innocent: A cadre of dedicated middle-men somehow took it upon themselves to run guns to one of our enemies to fund another of our adversaries.

Like Ronald Reagan, Trump is similarly clueless, though perhaps much less innocent: Inside the White House his competence and acumen of are both viewed with a jaundiced eye and mitigated with subterfuge. We know this thanks to an anonymous September 2018 Op-Ed in the New York Times, as well as revelations in the redacted Mueller Report. If, as the Op-Ed alleges, administration officials are easily able to steal important documentation off the desk of the President, apparently without his awareness, and orders are quietly countermanded, is it that much of a stretch to think that in 2016, campaign underlings would have their own agenda with respect to Russia of which the Candidate was unaware?

While some of us might be tempted to breathe a sigh of relief at the so-called ‘adults in the room’ working to mitigate the worst of the Presidents impulses, there is no evidence those same adults are similarly working to mitigate the worst impulses of the amoral who may be driving their own agenda through the Trump Administration. In short, the problem may not be Trump, because he may not be in charge: it may be an unelected cohort of competing middlemen in charge.

It is entirely possible that the Mueller report was nothing more than official confirmation of the 2016 Candidates suspected, completely clueless, nature. Such cluelessness would also meet with an explanation of Trumps clumsy, heedless, attempts to obstruct the investigation while in office and his various and competing explanations for his actions, both in the campaign and with respect to Ukraine. The questions become much more dire: did anyone who may have actively blocked Trump’s efforts at obstruction baulk, at all, at the idea that many of the people from the campaign were entirely willing to jump in bed with the Russians?

Both the circumstances of the Trump 2016 campaign and the Iran-Contra scandal display, to a marked degree, a lazy leadership unwilling or unable to deal with details and minutia and a cadre of the amoral willing to fill in their own details and keep the leadership largely in the dark.
Rate Your REST API With the Richardson Maturity Model
By: Dilini Peiris
Tags: Software Development, Technology, Rest Api, Web Services, Api Development

Rate Your REST API With the Richardson Maturity Model

Learn About the Richardson Maturity Model to Achieve the Glory of REST

Photo by Sigmund on Unsplash

The Richardson Maturity Model (RMM), brought forth by Leonard Richardson, who is an expert in RESTful API design, is a method to evaluate the maturity of a RESTful web service according to 4 levels.

Leonard has analyzed hundreds of different web services and has brought forth these 4 levels that can be achieved by a web service. It is considered, the more levels an API can achieve, the more mature it is.

The levels go from Level 0 — Level 3, where it is a plus point for any API that has achieved the highest level. The levels use the 3 factors, URI, HTTP verbs, and HATEOAS to distinguish between levels and can be described as follows.

Figure: Levels of RMM (image from martinfowler.com)

Level 0

The level 0 of RMM is where there is a client and a server communicating with each other using a single URI and a single HTTP method (preferably a POST). This is seen mostly in SOAP-based APIs, where the communications are mostly done through WSDLs and using a single URI to identify an endpoint. The communication is done using Plain Old XML (POX), where the XML contains the configurations needed for calling the endpoint.

If an application supports Remote Procedure Calling (RPC), then that web service has achieved the Level 0 of the Richardson Maturity Model.

Level 1

Level 1 of RMM uses multiple URIs, but a single HTTP (preferably a POST) for the endpoints.

Here, a unique URI is given for each resource, making RMM Level 1 APIs better than Level 0.

Level 2

In this level, separate URIs are given for separate resources, while incorporating different HTTP verbs according to the CRUD usage of those resources.

Level 2 of RMM is the stage where REST principles are being followed, by letting the business entities (resources) be manipulated over the network using different HTTP verbs.

Some Best Practices to consider when developing an RMM Level 2 API can be found in my previous article REST Resource Naming Best Practices.

Level 3

Level 3 of RMM uses all three factors URI, HTTP verbs, and HATEOAS or Hypermedia Controls. HATEOAS stands for Hypertext As The Engine Of Application State.

The point of hypermedia controls is that they tell us what we can do next, and the URI of the resource we need to manipulate to do it [1]. HATEOAS makes endpoint responses to be self-explanatory.

Eg: Think of an API made for a website of a bookshop.

/book GET endpoint returns all the books in the bookshop. The response is a list of Book entities. One book entity can contain a HATEOAS link to retrieve one particular book’s details such as /book/{id} GET.