fabiochiu/medium-articles huggingface dataset:
Why, How and When to Scale your Features
By: Sudharsan Asaithambi
Tags: Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Data Science, Data Analysis, Business Intelligence

Feature scaling can vary your results a lot while using certain algorithms and have a minimal or no effect in others. To understand this, let’s look why features need to be scaled, varieties of scaling methods and when we should scale our features.

Why Scaling

Most of the times, your dataset will contain features highly varying in magnitudes, units and range. But since, most of the machine learning algorithms use Eucledian distance between two data points in their computations, this is a problem.

If left alone, these algorithms only take in the magnitude of features neglecting the units. The results would vary greatly between different units, 5kg and 5000gms. The features with high magnitudes will weigh in a lot more in the distance calculations than features with low magnitudes.

Tiny Features vs Mega Features

To supress this effect, we need to bring all features to the same level of magnitudes. This can be acheived by scaling.

How to Scale Features

There are four common methods to perform Feature Scaling.

Standardisation:

Standardisation replaces the values by their Z scores.

This redistributes the features with their mean μ = 0 and standard deviation σ =1 . sklearn.preprocessing.scale helps us implementing standardisation in python.

2. Mean Normalisation:
Desarrollo de Software Aplicado a las Empresas de Seguridad Privada.
By: Milton Rodríguez
Tags: Software Development, Security Guards, Digital Transformation, Apps, Web Development

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WhatsApp Messenger: More than 2 billion people in over 180 countries use WhatsApp to stay in touch with friends and…
NSAttributedString vs NSMutableAttributedString
By: Steven Curtis
Tags: Swift, Programming, Software Development

This post is about explaining what that is, and how you can use it to help you in your production Apps. That is — make your Strings look good!

Difficulty: Easy | Normal | Challenging

Prerequisites:

Know what a String is, and have some experience in using it in Swift

Terminology

Character: A character, usually associated with a letter of the alphabet.

NSAttributedString: is a piece of text that has attributes (like links or fonts) that apply to portions of text.

NSMutableAttributedString: is an NSAttributedString with additional methods for mutating the content.

String: A collection of Characters.
We May Be Getting Older, but We Don’t Have to Give up the Things We Love.
By: Dr Jeff Livingston
Tags: Aging, Soccer, Health, Humor, Sports

We may be getting older, but we don't have to give up the things we love. We should prepare for some expected changes. If you are middle-aged and still think you can play contact sports, expect the onslaught of bizarre and sometimes hilarious injuries.

Michael Burg, MD asked physicians to share some of their funniest moments. Here, I share how the Google machine “helped” me manage a sprained butt cheek and diagnose my sneeze-induced traumatic rib injury.

Getting older may lead to some unexpected aches and pains, but the joys of one last ESPN Highlight Reel moment are worth all the ice packs and bandaids.
✅Lesson 10| What is a bitcoin wallet?
By: Matteo Ek
Tags: Cryptocurrency, Money, Cryptoprofessor, Bitcoin

Bitcoin wallet is an application, website or device designed for management of bitcoin transactions. The wallet provides following services: storage of the bitcoin address (account number) and its private and public keys on user’s computer in the wallet.dat file, transactions execution, providing information about the current balance and past transactions, storing backup keys.

💰There are different types of wallets. 💰

🖥Desktop. Desktop wallet is a program that is installed on the computer, it stores transaction data and automatically updates the information according to the blockchain. It’s the first, proposed by the very creator of bitcoin, and the safest way to store cryptocurrency. There are thick and thin kinds of desktop wallets. The first store the entire blockchain on the computer, the latter takes the necessary information for executing transactions from the Internet server.

Thick wallets:

Bitcoin Qt (Bitcoin Core) is the original BTC client developed by Satoshi Nakamoto. High security, high resource intake.

Armory — Bitcoin Core + advanced functionality.

Thin wallets:

Electrum

DarkWallet — creators promise maximum anonymity possible.

📲Web wallets allow you to redirect storage of all information to a specialized web resource and have an access to the wallet from different devices. In this case, security of your assets and data is completely entrusted to the selected resource.

Blockchain.info

Coinbase is a popular crypto exchange that has a wallet service. Recently the exchange has received a lot of criticism from users for not implementing the SegWit protocol to speed up transactions and increase the network bandwidth.

BitGo

Xapo — provides an opportunity to create a payment card for the wallet.

📱Mobile wallet can be created on your smartphone and used for payments in stores that accept cryptocurrency.

Bitcoin Wallet — for Android.

Some web wallets have developed their applications, which perform the function of a mobile wallet (like Blockchain).

💾There are also hardware wallets — special devices that store information about bitcoin-address and keys, and paper wallets — the same information printed on paper.

Wallets can be distinguished into cold and hot. Cold wallets impies offline storage of funds and keys on one source without Internet access (paper wallets, thick desktop wallets, flash drives), and due to this they guarantee greater security, hot ones are all wallets with Internet access (web, mobile, thin wallets), they are suitable for frequent operations with cryptocurrency assets.
by Martino Pietropoli
By: Martino Pietropoli
Tags: Art, Female, Drawing, Sunday

First thing in the morning: a glass of water and a cartoon by The Fluxus.

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Why an Oil Well Is Like an Apartment
By: Danny Schleien
Tags: Economy, Emissions, Oil, Science, Climate Change

Oil is without question the most important product on Earth. It has unleashed a wave of industrial progress and prosperity for over a century. Billions of people depend on oil every day to fuel their livelihoods.

Oil is also an extraordinary product from an economic perspective. To understand why, let’s compare it to other types of businesses you interact with on a regular basis.

Before Chipotle sells you a burrito, Chipotle has to buy the appropriate ingredients and employ people to form the burrito. Before Apple sells you an iPhone, Apple has to buy the appropriate materials and employ people to make the phone. Before Allbirds sells you a pair of shoes, Allbirds has to buy the appropriate materials and employ people to make the shoes.

You get the point. This is the typical consumer-centric way to make money. All of these examples involve the sale of goods, but the same applies to service-based business models too — lawyers, doctors, hairdressers, photography, etc.

When we think about the economy, we usually associate it with these sorts of businesses. They require some combination of labor, capital, resources, and a collection of inputs I’ll collectively call ingenuity.

Apple has to constantly innovate and improve its product. Same with your local restaurant or hairdresser.

These kinds of businesses are hard to maintain. Owning and running a business usually isn’t easy.

But there are other, easier ways to make money from an economic perspective. What if you simply had to invest upfront in something but could collect money off of the resource forever once you owned it?

This is how your landlord makes money. And it’s also how money is generated in the most evil industry of them all:

Fossil fuels.
Dreams
Tags: Poetry On Medium, Poetry, Dreams, Perspective, Blue Insights

Dreams

A poem

Not all emotions are well defined

Some sentiments are hard to understand,

It is like a fog exists, within our minds.

Especially, with deeper passions

Of love and affection, not lust or infatuation

But the type of bond that is undying.

When relationships rattle and become unsteady

Our foundation shakes,

And our life becomes imbalanced.

For the anchor, that keeps us stable

Is now loosely fitted, and prone to collapsing.

Our lives follow suit,

Vision becomes skewed, we lose all direction

The mist settles in,

And nothing is clear to see.

Dreams communicate to us,

What we yearn

And who we are.

They do not lift the fog that clouds our visions,

But they provide clues

To our desired destination.

Like footprints in the sand,

Our dreams guide us

Around the confusion, and through the fog.

If we can correctly decipher

These visions that come to us in our slumber,

Then perhaps, we may navigate

And make our thoughts

A little clearer,

Restoring balance, through understanding.
The Gradient View at Morning
By: Christopher Mackinnon
Tags: Colors, Experience, Poetry, Nature, Self

An early rise refracts along a silvertone line

With a cool, cool grey on the balance of the neutral outdoors

Radiating while every gradient drains.

I look out at this expanse

And tap into what’s being set up by the day.

I walk within the scope of the minute

And breathe within the confines of the hour.

I won’t pull a curtain down

On all this in a heartbeat.

I won’t blur the signal

And cancel out the subtle shades of this view.

I’ll keep a watch on this rolling expanse,

The riverbed existing in a submarine offing —

Because I know the green I look upon

Will still be there when the gradient drains away.
Part 2: Still playing a key role in South Sudan, meet Brigadier Best
By: Ministry Of Defence
Tags: UN, Case Study, Peace, Military, United Nations

What does the United Nations do to protect civilians?

“One of the biggest pillars if you like of our mandate — there are six main pillars to the United Nations — is protecting civilians, and rightly so during the conflict. And it’s still absolutely a requirement now, and one of the aspects we intervene to protect civilians on a daily basis, but you might recall the protection of civilian sites, certainly, the UK components up in Bentiu but also Malakal will focus on some of the protection of civilian sites, and often we had a number of these sites around the country which are co-located with some of the UN camps. Because that’s where the civilians fled to during the various cycles of violence, and at its height, there was probably 200,000 civilians refugees in these UN camps, and they developed into a thing called protection of civilians at the site.

We are at an interesting time at the moment, so those sites are about to transition to government-run IDP camps (Internally Displaced Person camps) and there are many of those around the country. But the key point being is we’re transitioning those camps from UN-protected and UN-run to government-run, where we will continue to provide the humanitarian aid to those people.

On that wider point about a population of 11 million people, seven million of those required humanitarian assistance on a daily basis, and probably about four-and-a-half million of those people within the country are food insecure or acutely food insecure, which means that they don’t know where their next meal is coming from. So, that requirement absolutely remains, however, the positive thing is because to those civilians on those sites is not the same as it was, we’ve assessed that we can slowly transition those to government control which is a really positive side, and hopefully over time it will encourage those people to return to their former home locations or indeed return to what they see now as safe locations.

So that’s a big thing around protecting civilians and that’s very much a positive of the direction that South Sudan is going at the moment, albeit a relatively fragile piece, and particularly the protection of women and vulnerable people, which was also a focus of that protection of civilian sites.”

What about Conflict-Related Violence in the region?

“I think conflict-related sexual violence still remains a very big issue within South Sudan and an absolute focus for the UN efforts in terms of protecting people, the UN, I think is particularly well equipped in terms of the female representation. There is a real focus on gender and that’s not only within how we operate but also in the values that we uphold, and the help we try to give to the South Sudanese. So it’s an absolute focus and must be because those levels of conflict-related sexual violence remain far too high.”
The diversity question all graphic designers should answer
By: Shamontiel L. Vaughn
Tags: Black Business, Marketing, Education, Multiculturalism, Diversity

The diversity question all graphic designers should answer

Does this material match our target client base?

Photo credit: Craig Adderley/Pexels

When I looked through the marketing business proposal, I knew something was off. I remembered the photoshoots with our marketing staff. I knew who had been in which photograph — and I quickly realized who had been cropped.

Our graphic designer had cropped out the only African-American woman in several group shots, including one image of just hands. She kept lighter-skinned Hispanic employees and plenty of 20-something white people — one in particular. The most commonly used image was of a 22-year-old, blue-eyed and blonde-haired co-worker on the front cover, back cover, and middle pages too.

Give or take one dark-skinned African American woman, two fair-skinned Latinas, and one brown-skinned African-American male, you would’ve thought our entire company was all white — and those images were at the back of the proposal.

It was cheaper to photograph in-house staff than hire models, and our actual employees reflected what the marketing company’s client base (a college campus) actually looked like. The marketing proposal did not.

If you work in the marketing industry, particularly if you’re responsible for visual material, that might become a huge problem. The question all graphic designers must ask is: “Does this material mirror the client base of who it’s for?”

Know what the client base is before choosing images

For an undergraduate university, photographs of 20-somethings make sense. But our client was a school that was well-known for returning students of various races. Approximately one-quarter were African-American, around 16 percent were Hispanic/Latino, and a little more than 6 percent were Asian, along with about 40 percent of white students. The average age of a student here was 33 years old.

I’d been on the campus before and in the classrooms as a staff writer, so I knew what the “average” class looked like. And it definitely was not this marketing proposal. When this marketing company created a marketing proposal for the school, it should’ve reflected prospective and current students. While there were a handful of photographs of women and men in their 30s and 40s, almost all of the images looked like the graphic designer and her own social circle — in her early 20s and all white.
Fundamentos de HTML & CSS — Box Model
By: Gabriel Colombo
Tags: Front End Development, HTML, Web Development, CSS

in In Fitness And In Health
Is Your Smartphone Stopping You from Becoming a Millionaire?
By: Tyler Harris
Tags: Money, Technology, Economics, Smartphones, Business

Is Your Smartphone Stopping You from Becoming a Millionaire?

What you are really giving up by wasting 3 hours a day on your phone like the average American during your working life.

Photo by Eddy Billard on Unsplash

Introduction

This article was inspired by my experience of trying something suggested by Anton Kreil in his video “Ditch the Smart Phone” [1]. I respect his idea and do not want to misrepresent his words, so do yourself a favor and watch that video for yourself. Ultimately, the fundamental idea here is that you are better off to get rid of your smartphone in favor of a “dumb phone” that only does text and calls, so you can allocate your time more profitably.

To many people, the idea of getting rid of their smartphone seems preposterous. Well, I tried the idea of not using a smartphone, and it turns out that he is completely right about every point he makes here.

Over the last couple years, I have transitioned my life to be independent of my smartphone. I even went so far as to buy a GPS unit so I would not have to even use the phone for driving directions. I got my text and phone communications routed through a web-based platform to avoid the phone. I went cold turkey on social media. I turned off my notifications. The only thing I use it for is a hot spot in a pinch when I need to work on the road with my laptop without readily available, secure Wi-Fi and will soon be getting a mobile pay-as-I-go dedicated hot spot device to finally get rid of the phone when it breaks for good.

Personally, I don’t know about you, but it’s super annoying to try to talk to someone when all they do is check their phone the whole time a conversation is trying to happen. It’s pretty clear that they value your time at 0, and a very high percentage of “important” notifications that need their immediate attention are a bunch of junk that doesn’t matter from people not making their lives any better.

Over all time frames, my productivity level and the size of my bank account are inversely proportional to the time wasted staring at a smartphone screen paying attention to people who do not value their time and do not add value to my life, just like Anton said would happen.

Sounds harsh, doesn’t it? Well, it’s true. Let’s explore this idea and figure out the real story about whether or not your phone is keeping you from becoming rich.
Our first acquisition
Tags: Technology, Cryptocurrency, Crypto, Fintech, Blockchain

Expanding Bakkt’s risk management, compliance and treasury operations

As we work to complete our first acquisition, the New Year is starting as deliberately as 2018 ended — punctuated by the closing of our first capital raise.

As those who’ve followed us since our first announcement in August know, our mission is to build the first integrated, institutional grade exchange-traded markets and custody solution for physical delivery of digital assets. In parallel, we’re building a secure, scalable platform for transacting with digital assets so that our regulated ecosystem serves consumers, merchants and institutions.

To advance that effort, I’m pleased to share that we have entered into an agreement to acquire certain assets of Rosenthal Collins Group (RCG), an independent futures commission merchant with nearly 100 years of earning clients’ trust. In December, RCG announced the sale of all its customer accounts to Marex Spectron, one of the world’s largest commodity brokers. As part of that transaction, our aim was to purchase certain valuable assets related to developing our platform. We expect to close the transaction in February, and are excited to welcome members of the RCG team to Bakkt.

How does this advance our work? First, it will enhance our risk management and treasury operations with systems and expertise. Other aspects of the transaction will contribute to our regulatory, AML/KYC and customer service operations as we help enable digital asset acceptance by bringing more choice and control to buyers and sellers.

This acquisition underlines the fact we’re not standing still as we await regulatory approval by the CFTC for the launch of regulated trading in our crypto markets. Our mission requires significant investment in technology to establish an innovative platform, as well as financial market expertise to deliver the most trusted fintech ecosystem for digital assets.

Our vision is to bring digital assets into the mainstream by enabling efficient transactions between consumers and merchants. Distributed ledger technology (DLT) has the potential to contribute to a lean, modern transaction platform that is compatible with existing merchant infrastructure. While DLT and cryptocurrencies are early in their development, we are committed to expanding the use of this technology to promote choice by building a fair, efficient platform for digital assets globally.
Así fue el Behance Reviews Buenos Aires
Tags: Grolsch, Alejandra Leston, Posca, Estudio Visualmente, Espacio Cabrera

in In Fitness And In Health
Beyond the Flat Earth
By: Mark Peters
Tags: Satire, Humor, Flat Earthers, Earth, Conspiracy Theories

Beyond the Flat Earth

A field guide to all the Earthers

Flat Earthers: Believe the Earth is flat.

Hollow Earthers: Believe the Earth is full — of aliens, dinosaurs, and fun.

Mearthers: Believe Earth is actually Mars, and Mars is actually Earth. Also called Switcheroo Earthers.

Invisible Earthers: Believe Earth cannot be seen by aliens, which is why they never visit. Also called Peekabearthers.

Nerfers: Believe the Earth is a soft, cushiony planet and therefore safe for children of all ages.

Eggers: Believe someday Earth is gonna hatch.

Birther Earthers: Believe Mother Earth was not born in the United States.

Juggled Earthers: Believe Earth and the other planets in our solar system are being juggled by a massive celestial circus clown, which would explain a few things.

Falling Earthers: Believe Earth is plummeting through space at speeds we can’t feel or comprehend. What happens when we hit the universe’s floor? That all depends if you’re a Bouncer or Splatter.

Bouncers: A subset of Falling Earthers and Juggled Earthers, believe the Earth is made of rubber and will bounce off God’s roof or whatever harmlessly.

Splatters: A noisy contingent of the Falling Earther, Juggled Earther, and Egger communities are not as optimistic.

Denim Earthers: Believe…duh. Also called Jearthers.

Turders: Believe Earth is the poop of God.

Turduckearthers: Believe Earth is a planet inside a space duck inside a cosmic turkey.

Turduckdoodlers: Believe Earth is a planet inside a space duck inside a cosmic turkey that was eaten by a celestial poodle, who is a good boy.
Yousaf and Feroza
By: Khalil Ahmad Kakar
Tags: Lovestory, Life, Fiction, Love, Fiction Writing

Yousef’s voice mingled with the other voices in the bazaar, and although he knew he needed to shout louder to be heard, he didn’t. He called out to customers half heartedly, gesturing at the beautiful rug he had hung over his shoulder for display, as he sat at the door of his shop, waiting to attract the attention of buyers.

As he listened to the voices of the bazaar drown his own out, he slowly fell into a daze and found himself thinking about Feroza, his beautiful, lovely, strong Feroza. How she would sit on the floor, and tie each knot on the wooden loom oh so carefully while humming softly. Her beautiful long braided hair falling on her back, she would glance at him from time to time and smile, and his heart would flutter.

Days and nights passed, and his Feroza would sit at the loom, humming and smiling and knotting, while Yousef would watch her in awe. Finally, the rug was completed one day and she handed it to him, and proudly sent him off to the shop where he could sell it.

𝘖𝘩 𝘍𝘦𝘳𝘰𝘻𝘢, 𝘩𝘰𝘸 𝘤𝘢𝘯 𝘐 𝘴𝘦𝘭𝘭 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘳𝘶𝘨 𝘵𝘰 𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘰𝘯𝘦? He thought to himself, sighing. 𝘏𝘰𝘸 𝘤𝘢𝘯 𝘐 𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘰𝘸 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘤𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘮𝘢𝘥𝘦 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘣𝘦𝘢𝘶𝘵𝘪𝘧𝘶𝘭 𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘥𝘴 𝘵𝘰 𝘧𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘶𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘳 𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦 𝘴𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘯𝘨𝘦𝘳𝘴’ 𝘧𝘦𝘦𝘵? 𝘞𝘩𝘰 𝘸𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳 𝘬𝘯𝘰𝘸 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘣𝘭𝘦𝘴𝘴𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘴 𝘬𝘯𝘰𝘵𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘳𝘶𝘨?

Yousef was suddenly shaken out of his daze by the loud voice of the man in front of him, leering at the rug and asking “How much?”

Yousef was silent for a few moments, observing the leering man with disgust.

“It’s not for sale”, he finally responded. “It’s just a showpiece. I’ll show you more designs inside,” he said, gesturing towards the inside of his store.

The man scoffed and walked away, shaking his head and muttering angrily under his breath.

Yousef sighed, feeling a bit relieved. He adjusted the rug on his shoulder shouting half-heartedly once again, his voice getting lost amongst the other shopkeepers in the bazaar, and hoped that his voice wouldn’t reach anyone so that he could keep the rug for just another day.
Dream On
By: Yaman Nimer
Tags: Poetry, Life, Poem, Love, Heartbreak

I keep escaping to dreams

where I am lost

and I am found

but with you,

always

with

you.
All-Mart Comic: buttsharpies
By: Natalia Noa
Tags: Art, Adult Coloring Books, Work, Buttsharpies

My husband tells me about the weirdest things. When I, like everyone else, got into the new coloring book craze, I purchased several packages of Sharpies. Now maybe the coloring book fad had something to do with this or maybe people on the internet are just weird, because soon after my purchase, my husband made a joke about a subreddit called “buttsharpies.” Knowing what buttsharpies was must have warped my mind because shortly after learning about that subreddit, this encounter took place at work:
I Wanted to Forget but Chose to Remember
By: Simran Kankas
Tags: Short Story, Fiction, Memories, Love, Fathers

I Wanted to Forget but Chose to Remember

A 50-word Micro-fiction: Prompt- ‘Forget and Remember’

Photo by Helena Lopes on Unsplash

This is the day when I lost your mother and became your father.

This is the day I wanted to forget but chose to remember, he thought.

Caressing the hair of his one-year-old son, he whispered, “For you. Happy birthday, son.”

His beloved wife had died in childbirth.
[Notice] Free LNC Airdrop Event
By: Exnomy X Linkercoin
Tags: Coin, Event, Blockchain, Linkercoin, Airdrop

Free LNC Airdrop Event

Monthly 2% airdrop for Bitnaru LNC Holders + Pre-registered ETH accounts

We are happy to announce monthly 2% free airdrop to LNC holders for 3 months.

This airdrop event is to increase the number of LNC from 100 to 102 in each month (2%).

Bitnaru LNC holders will automatically get additional LNC 2%. The holder of LNC in private ETH wallet must register their ETH account address to the below link.

https://forms.gle/vNAghY9GKfCfQo5fA

Please check the snapshot schedule.

2019/12/31 GMT 12 PM 2020/1/31 GMT 12 PM 2020/2/29 GMT 12 PM

All exchanges except Bitnaru such as HITBTC, Ether Delta, DEXHI and others does not support this airdrop event.

The LNC tokens stored in private wallets should be registered the ETH account address.

Thanks
Swytch October Update- Prepping for V1 software release
By: Dwight Sproull
Tags: Cryptocurrency, Sustainability, Renewable Energy, Blockchain, Environment

Blockchain Shift Miami

Swytch has chosen a strategy that may seem odd compared to many blockchain projects; we decided to actually build our product after we finished the token allocation event back in July rather than breathlessly talking about building it. Our team has been diligently working since late last year on the software, and has continued to make progress with the help of our technology partners and the informative experience we’ve had with our pilot programs. On November 1st we are launching V1 of our software, and the technical documentation will follow soon afterwards. This is a huge milestone, and we’re looking forward to iterating and improving our software to meet the needs of our users and make Swytch the best solution for incentivizing sustainable behavior.

In the news

Swytch announced a partnership with Ben.co to enable seamless adoption of the Swytch token. You can read about the partnership here

Evan won the 2018 Block Talk Award for Top Social Entrepreneur

Evan was a guest on two podcasts: Smart Grid Today and Energy Cast

Swytch was mentioned in a Greentech Media article about top blockchain partnerships to watch

An article about Swytch was published on the Xtrabytes blog

Evan will be speaking at World Crypto Con in Las Vegas Friday, Nov 2 (1:15–1:40pm)

Jay Dauenhauer, host of Energy Cast

What has the rest of the team been up to?

Peter attended the Microgrid Summit and Verge 2018 on Oct 17th on behalf of Swytch

Dev team has been working hard to finish the testing and cleanup of V1 of Swytch’s software

Luke and Eric went to the Miami Blockcon Shift conference

Community team has been developing an outreach plan for getting grass roots environmental organizations to promote the adoption of Swytch

Evan spoke at and attended the following events:

Impact Investment Summit in Las Vegas

Blockcon Santa Monica

Reed Smith Energy Conference Houston

World Blockchain Vegas

Thanks for reading, please follow us on Telegram, Facebook, and Twitter to get more frequent updates and take part in our community!
Arch
By: Michael Stang
Tags: War, After Effects, Romance, Clarity, Prose

Steam spiraled up passed flutes made from slate off the side of the mountain. Chicory Du Monde from Vendee smuggled quick at ease, hot by leaded windows. A Breton Kouign-amann between them. She and he nibbled with fingers and saw no one but themselves.

Above the cafe’s single rooms gave rise to fermented fluids; temping but they were traveling ahead of the storm.

She sat back opposite him in her seat and ran a travelers blanket over her knees. Reached the other end and protected his lap too. Tucked the corners where he sat against the leather. The land pursued river interchange and welcomed the coupe through its paces. She loved that car and him driving it. His jaw line strengthened as he gripped the wheel so quick she felt tidal.

Abandoned plateaus, iceberg airfields show passed road-sign cemeteries; the last million dead. Horizon rows of wasted strength felt in the pit of their stomachs. He knew illusion hid the Stratum corked, fossil bones from here to the core. The beneath of France was filled by war.

Quick through clearance to the tarmac, a jet with numbers that needed translation readied to the side.

She thought about the dead superimposed over little cottages and what they meant hand to hand. She thought of the coming tempest, how they were always on the run. Love takes the best glinted gems and angles the cut towards deserving eyes. What did those soldiers deserve?

Her lover extended his hand for her, and she took it and held it firm. She looked up at a universe shared, a life to be within.

We should stay.

Michael Stang 2020
7 Principles of Icon Design
By: Helena Zhang
Tags: Ts, Visual Design, UX, Icons, UI

Well-Documented

Articulate the icon family’s key principles:

Example principles from the Phosphor icon family (a riff on what we covered above): • Clarity. Be clear first and foremost. Make the icon recognizable and readable. Never sacrifice clarity of what the icon represents. • Brevity. Use as few details as possible. Phosphor’s style is reductive. Be concise and intentional with every stroke to communicate the essence of what’s being represented. • Character. Be quirky. Add unique details sparingly to bring a little warmth and play to what may otherwise be a very austere set.

List out the technical rules:

Example technical rules from the Phosphor icon family: • Use a 48 x 48px canvas • Use a 1.5px centered stroke • Use rounded end caps • Use contiguous strokes unless broken segments are helpful for comprehension • Use straight segments, perfect arcs, and 15° angle increments where possible • Adjust curves when necessary to maintain the design principles • Use whole, even number increments for measurements where possible; fold down to 1px and .5px if necessary • Use the following shape keylines: 28 x 28px circles, 25 x 25px squares, 28 x 22px landscape rectangles, 22 x 28px portrait rectangles • Keep a 6px thick trim area

Iterate on these, and make the documentation public if you like:

Tested

Check for consistency. Make sure the icons work in context, at the relevant sizes. Make sure they work in harmony with the larger visual system.

Placing icons next to each other is helpful in proofing for our principles above—clarity, readability, alignment, brevity, consistency, and personality:
The Hubble’s Newest Discovery, Helping Understand the Complex Process of Planet Formation
By: Tristan Kwok
Tags: Technology, Space, NASA, Astronomy

ExoPlanet WASP-39b(left) orbiting around its Sun(right) (Via: http://www.ibtimes.co.in)

Through the use of several Earth, and space telescopes, a team of astronomers were able to analyze the atmosphere of exoplanet, WASP-39b. An extrasolar planet located 700 light years from earth, residing along the Virgo Constellation. What they discovered from analyzing the starlight entering WASP-39b was that there was a significant amount of water vapour in its atmosphere. This new discovery is important to understanding of planet formation due to the makeup of WASP-39b and the similarities it shares with a planet in our solar system, Saturn. Both share a thick gassy atmosphere, a similar mass, as well as a ring system. The discovery of water vapour in WASP-39b’s atomorphere shows that it and Saturn are actually not as similar as we initially thought them to be. It turns out that WASP-39b has 3 times more water than Saturn.

Researches deduced that the water content of WASP-39b, must have meant that its atmosphere was made up of heavier elements in comparison to Earth’s, also meaning that the planet must have formed farther away from its Sun than it already was. Because of this new-found characteristic, space has yet again thrown an intergalactic curve ball. Scientists hope to use this information to guide themselves through to the true process of planet formation.

Sources:

IBtimes, Science Daily, Exoplanet
VWM Rare yet Everywhere
By: Find A Cure For Vwm
Tags: Fundraising, Health, Awareness

Vanishing White Matter Disease (VWM) Leukodystrophy is a degeneration of the brain. VWM is one of 52 different leukodystrophies. VWM has a face around the globe. Currently there is no cure or treatment for VWM. We are in race against time to Find a Cure for VWM ! Time is not on our side; most children born with this genetic disease die at an early age. Research efforts are greatly underfunded and there is little awareness.

Your purchase will help aid and benefit VWM research and spread leukodystrophy awareness. Proceeds from this limited addition Find a Cure for VWM fundraiser: https://onemission.fund/support/find-a-cure-for-vwm/?shopfor=72805 will go to AFTAU towards VWM Research at TAU. To read more about VWM research see: https://english.tau.ac.il/impact/VWM

Note: About a year ago we have joined #SavingChloeSaxby Team : Our goal is to raise $2,600,000 …..but we need your help to get there.

Watch this video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tuh899edPOQ&t and read here: https://medium.com/leukodystrophy-awareness/our-fundraising-goal-2fa45fed014a#.nuoki9n71

There are 3 easy ways YOU can support #findacureforvwm fundraiser:

1.You can purchase any of One Mission’s great products — https://onemission.fund/support/find-a-cure-for-vwm/?shopfor=72805 and 40% of what you spend will be donated to VWM research

2.You can donate cash (One Mission doesn’t charge a platform fee) — https://onemission.fund/support/find-a-cure-for-vwm/?shopfor=72805

3.You can share this fundraiser with your friends and family: https://onemission.fund/support/find-a-cure-for-vwm/?shopfor=72805

Thank You!

Originally published at onemission.fund.
A.I. about Voting Systems
By: Vlad Alex, Merzmensch
Tags: Artificial Intelligence, Voting, Ai In Discourse, Published Predict, Merznlp

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Glennda Testone On the Power of Meditation and Good Conversation
By: Thrive Global
Tags: Politics, Social Justice, Thrive Questionnaire, LGBTQ, Equality

Glennda Testone On the Power of Meditation and Good Conversation

The Executive Director of New York City’s Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Community Center on recharging after checking email and the book that changed her life.

When you have the opportunity to ask some of the most interesting people in the world about their lives, sometimes the most fascinating answers come from the simplest questions. The Thrive Questionnaire is an ongoing series that gives an intimate look inside the lives of some of the world’s most successful people.

Thrive Global: What’s the first thing you do when you get out of bed?

Glennda Testone: Kiss my girlfriend and cuddle my dog, Meatloaf.

TG: What gives you energy?

GT: Meditation, exercise, and good conversation with people I love.

TG: Name a book that changed your life.

GT: “Comfortable with Uncertainty” By Pema Chodren. Her words and wisdom sooth me.

TG: Tell us about your relationship with your phone. Does it sleep with you?

GT: Sadly, next to me. It’s my alarm, though I have considered moving it since reading your book…

TG: How do you deal with email?

GT: I do it in the morning and then do something that recharges me; listen to a podcast, go to the gym, read a book.

TG: You unexpectedly find 15 minutes in your day, what do you do with it?GT: Meditate.

TG: When was the last time you felt burned out and why?

GT: Right after the election. I felt the weight of my own disappointment and my communities. I was scared, overwhelmed and deeply sad. I overcame it by regaining my power and agency to make change and improve this world, regardless of the obstacles.

TG: Share a quote that you love and that gives you strength or peace.

GT: “You can’t always get what you want. But if you try sometimes, you might find, you get what you need!”
Online games for designers
By: .Dsgnrs. Team
Tags: Designer, Colors, Games, Typography, Design

How pixactly trained are your eyes?

Pixactly is an online pixel game that tests how well you know your pixels. Try out the quiz for yourself and test your…
Why You Need to Stop Relying on One Income Stream
By: Lu Mar
Tags: Self Improvement, Life, Entrepreneurship, Advice, Ideas

Financial security

The answer is, everyone should have multiple income streams because, if you lose one, you rely on another. If you only have one income stream, e.g., your full-time job, and you lose it: then the panic sets in.

In general, there are many false narratives surrounding extra income streams or side hustles. For example, people may associate them with entrepreneurs setting up a business, which ultimately requires a large start-up cost.

However, there are many side hustles that actually require no money. For example, walking dogs in your local area for extra money costs you nothing. In general, if you have no money to set up another income stream, use your labour.

You do not have to ‘invent’ a new source of income; simply do what people have done forever. They babysit for extra money, or work one shift a week in a restaurant, or work for uber eats when they get back from work.

These income streams are still worth doing even if they do not match your salary because it is far easier to scale a £200 income stream into a £2000 one than start from £0. Especially because the loss of the job will mean extra time to earn said money.

As we saw with the economic decline during the coronavirus pandemic, there was unfortunately large-scale job loss and, therefore, lots of people looking for jobs. Those that already had ties with dog-owners, supermarkets, restaurants, etc., were getting those shifts over those that had just lost their job and had been contacting these employers for the first time.

In addition, extra streams of income give you peace of mind and flexibility that not everyone has. For example, when job hunting, you can take more time to find the perfect job, as opposed to taking the first one that comes your way, because your expenses are covered by your other income streams.

Equally, if something at work is distressing you or simply not satisfying you anymore, you can have the financial capability to walk away immediately, instead of waiting for a new job. The power and ability to prioritise your mental health instead of having the dread of expenses dictate your life is an invaluable one.

Boredom

If you have side-hustles, you will never be bored.

For example, instead of mindlessly watching TV in the evenings, you may be writing blog posts or making YouTube videos. Bonus points if you’re being paid to house sit or babysit while using that time to make products to sell on Etsy.

Using your spare time to generate extra income gives you a newfound appreciation for the value of your time and definitely makes you less likely to waste it. You don’t often hear millionaires or entrepreneurs complaining of boredom.
Tactics for handling your interview nerves
By: Alex Jones
Tags: Interview, Anxiety, Tips, Negotiation, Business

👩🏽‍💻 Sophia

5:35 PM: That’s a great question!! Thank you. I’ll let you know how it goes.

👨‍💻 Alex

9:38 PM: Sure thing! I bet they’ll be excited to talk with you in person and it will be a fun and informative time.

April 18th — Negotiating the Job Offer

👩🏽‍💻 Sophia

9:14 AM: Heya Alex!! I got the job! I am so excited!!

👨‍💻 Alex

9:20 AM: Excellent!! Congrats!

👩🏽‍💻 Sophia

9:21 AM: Thank you!

9:22 AM: I did have an offer question for you. It’s a little different of a situation than I’ve experienced before.

Photo by Christina Morillo, modified by Alex

9:24 AM: These folks are very honest, kind and upfront. They’d given a range at the beginning of the interview process.

When the COO gave me the offer, he took his time to explain they do hiring very differently, want to avoid the back and forth, give a fair etc. He also mentioned the offer may be lower than I’m used to, but the benefits of the company are the people you work with, the remote aspect, etc.

The offer was lower than I expected and at the mid-point of the range they gave me initially (he said this was rare, but given my skills they thought it was appropriate). He said he hopes the offer is respectful to me, etc.

Is there a polite way to counter and not put them off?

I’d just like to see if they can move even a few K up and not make it seem like I am negotiating or ignoring his initial spiel he gave me. I knew it would be a step down monetarily, but I hoped a little less than it is.

👨‍💻 Alex

9:27 AM: Hi Sophia, it’s definitely fair for you to negotiate. It’s great that they gave you a range up front, which helps to understand where they’re comfortable.

It sounds like you feel that you are above that midpoint..? If so, it’s fair for you to explain that even their high-end is a step down, but you’re excited about joining them, so you’re willing to find a middle ground.

9:28 AM: That said…

They’re very excited about you at this point. They’ve invested a lot and they clearly feel like you’re the right candidate, so you have room to maneuver.

9:31 AM: When I’m excited about a company and we’re close, I like to use language along the lines of:

“This is really exciting, thank you for the offer! This doesn’t quite match up with what I’m looking for, but if you can get the salary to $X, I’d be happy to accept the offer today.”

That last part is key, it gives them confidence that they’ll get what they want (you) without a lot more back and forth.
Let Them Eat Cake.
By: Allison Gaines
Tags: Poverty, Injustice, Wealth Gap, Equality, Race

Let Them Eat Cake

Exposing the American Racial Wealth Gap

Children and adults agree: Cake is a fabulous, decadent treat.

So, why was the phrase, “Qu’ils mangent de la brioche,” offensive?

The phrase in English is Let them eat cake. However, historians highlight that brioche is not cake. Brioche is buttery, indulgent French bread. Generally, a cake is a much sweeter pastry. Historians also emphasize that no proof exists that Queen Marie Antoinette ever uttered the famed phrase.

“Because cake is more expensive than bread, the anecdote has been cited as an example of Marie-Antoinette’s obliviousness to the conditions and daily lives of ordinary people. But did she ever actually utter those words? Probably not” (Cunningham, 2020).

Nonetheless, people have been using the phrase since 1789 to talk about economic injustice. It reflected the ideology of the elite who were out of touch with everyday people and the difficulties of poverty. Wealthy people, leaning into their privilege, often blame impoverished, marginalized communities for their socioeconomic stagnation. This ideology harms all poor people but disproportionately impacts Black people and people of color.

Wealthy people claim the American Dream relies on luck, charisma, and an abundance of opportunity. This argument fails to meet the issue face to face. While it sounds pleasant enough, this world view blatantly ignores the role of history in determining socioeconomic status. The assertion that wealth and opportunity are proponents of a chance act counter the cries of injustice by underprivileged groups.

Wealth passes down from generation to generation. New money refers to the bizarre occurrence of someone rising out of poverty into the upper echelon. Too often, race becomes an afterthought in discussions about economic stability and growth.

“At $171,000, the net worth of a typical white family is nearly ten times greater than that of a Black family ($17,150) in 2016. Gaps in wealth between Black and white households reveal the effects of accumulated inequality and discrimination, as well as differences in power and opportunity that can be traced back to this nation’s inception. The Black-white wealth gap reflects a society that has not and does not afford equality of opportunity to all its citizens” (McIntosh, Moss, Nunn, & Shambaugh, 2020).

Anti-poverty programs that subsidize essential health and welfare are effective. However, these social programs often lack support from wealthy, white, fiscally conservative citizens. The current, color-blind system fails to address factors contributing to wealth inequality. Scholars judge civilizations on how they treat marginalized communities. Seemingly oblivious of this, America seems reluctant to change the degrading living conditions among its citizens.
XPChain Report (2018/08/19)
Tags: International, Korea, Bitcoin, Blockchain, Japan

✈ Airdrop Application Form 🕖

The Airdrop Application Form submission deadline is 2018/9/01 7:00 (UTC)

Airdrop Application Website: https://airdrop.xpchain.io/

Currently about 5,700 people have submitted an XPC Airdrop Application Form. Excluding duplicates, roughly 76 Billion XPC are estimated to be airdropped.

☝ There was an application from the XP address that is considered to keep assets of others in some transactions, the address is currently under investigation.

🖐 Please do not uninstall your XP-qt wallet until the completion of XPC Airdrop.

Although you will be receiving XPC Airdrop in your XPC wallet, you will still need an XP-qt to complete all of the necessary processes to receive the XPC Airdrop.