fabiochiu/medium-articles huggingface dataset:
A Private Look at the Sexual Experience with Two Different Husbands
By: Marie Lynne
Tags: Relationships, Intimacy, Sex, Lessons Learned, Psychology

My second husband and I attended a concert. A well-known singer had released an album. I’d bought us tickets to surprise him. We’d just gotten married a few weeks earlier.

The light show was fantastic, and the band played many of my favorites. I stood the second half and swayed as I sang along.

He grinned and watched me for a moment. Then he filmed the audience with his phone and included me in the video, even though I’d asked him not to.

“You’re sure enjoying yourself,” he said.

I nodded. “I love this group.” His question surprised me. I thought it self-evident since the venture was several hours away and the tickets expensive.

I smiled at him, but he didn’t notice as he panned the crowd. I considered taking his hand but hesitated, unsure if I should.

A few hours later, as we drove to the hotel, I admired his lean look. Sharing this musical event with him had been special, and I wanted to prolong this sense of closeness.

We walked into the room, and I went straight to the bathroom to change. I’d brought sexy lingerie for the occasion. My heart sunk at the muffled sounds of the TV.

I wore my best smile and stepped out. He didn’t bother to look up as I slid next to him. I cuddled close. He absentmindedly put his arm around me.

I leaned in to kiss him, hoping he’d get the hint.

He glanced at me and flashed a quick smile. “Love ya, Gorgeous,” he said.

“Love you too.”

I sighed and waited for the show to end. As the closing credits rolled across the screen, I gazed coyly at him and then brushed my lips against his. I pulled his head close and ran my hand lightly across his shoulder and down his arm.

“Let me brush my teeth,” he said.

Disappointed, I watched him walk away.

A few minutes later, he scooted beside me. He parted my legs with his hand and stroked my clit with his finger. But I’d wanted more — to touch the softness of his skin and the long length of his penis but knew he didn’t like to be touched. He needed the control.

Yet, I longed to be closer. To be taken by him.

I deepened the kiss as my arousal grew, but he seemed far away. Detached. I tried running my tongue over his lips in hopes I’d stir him.

“I don’t need to cum,” he said, an excuse he often gave these days.

My belly ached with grief as I stifled pangs of rising insecurity. Why doesn’t he want sex? What’s wrong? I tried to think of the last time he’d told me I was beautiful.

I drew closer and embraced him as the pleasure grew. I wanted to share my passion — for this to be our moment. As I leaned against his body, I couldn’t feel any signs of arousal. His penis flopped limply against his leg. When was the last time he’d fucked me? I rubbed the tips of my nipples against him, trying to incite desire.

A few minutes later, I gasped and came.

He kissed my forehead. “Somebody had a good time.”

The emptiness of the comment bothered me.

He pulled me into a hug as if I was his teddy bear. Soon, I heard the soft sounds of sleep.

Hurt, I rolled over and cried silently.
Is Trump Having a Nervous Breakdown?
By: Caren White
Tags: Politics, Government, Trump, Mental Health, Life Lessons

You cannot judge Trump based on normal behavior. He has never lived a normal life like you and me so his behavior, i.e. coping skills, are not the same as everyone else. And while those life skills might be judged as abnormal for the general population, they have worked for him and helped him achieve success for more than 70 years.

What you have to understand about Trump is that his wealth has insulated him from reality. He has always lived in a bubble surrounded by people who tell him that he is the greatest, the smartest, the richest. He has never lived in the real world like other people.

Any time that reality has intruded on his fantasy world, he has always been able to escape any consequences. And because he has never had to suffer any consequences, he believes that he is invincible.

Even his numerous bankruptcies have had no personal consequences for him. The banks would write off the losses and stop lending to him. Trump never realized that banks routinely write off bad loans. They consider it the cost of doing business. In his mind, he “won”, i.e. didn’t have to pay the loans.

His fortune allowed him to hire an army of lawyers and accountants whose only job was to help him cheat, the only way he knows to get ahead, and then to protect him from any consequences.

Even the way he ran his company would be considered aberrant by normal standards. He routinely stiffed contractors and lenders, illegal behaviors that would get most CEOs fired. Trump is not the CEO of his company. He is the owner. You can’t fire the owner.

Owning his own company allowed Trump to live in an alternate reality. He surrounded himself with a group of fawning underlings who stroked his ego and unquestioningly followed his orders no matter if they were illegal. He made the rules. Their job was to follow them.

This is why he had so many problems as president. He didn’t understand that he couldn’t run the government the way that he ran his company. I wasn’t shocked when he violated norms and tried to take illegal actions. That was how he ran his company for years. He thought that he could continue making up his own rules and breaking the laws as it suited him as president.

It’s why he fired so many people. He didn’t understand that government officials, staff and cabinet members were not his employees, obligated only to him. So he kept hiring and firing until he found people who would act like employees, adopt his fantasies and implement his policies.

Which is how he ended up where he is now, hunkered down in the White House, surrounded by a bunch of whackos, strategizing how he can overturn the results of the election. This may not be normal for the rest of us, but it is perfectly normal for him. He isn’t having a mental breakdown. He is continuing the behavior that has worked for him his entire life.
Oh, It Stings…A Lot
By: Josh Kiev
Tags: Motivation, Life Lessons, Positive Thinking, Tiny Life Moments, This Happened To Me

A Tiny Moment of “Here’s What You Get When You Never Stop”

Photo by David Bruyndonckx on Unsplash

The Moment

It can take a lot to question if things are working out or if there is a path through all of this uncertainty. I sit here looking beyond the tree line and don’t know why or when the fix is arriving. I know asking why or when rarely yields comfort. What and how are more suitable, but sometimes it feels trite.

Perhaps, it is merely the ride with its bumps and twists. Maybe there is nothing after all. The pursuit of things can be rewarding, but then there are the odds always weighing in on you. Maybe it’s time for some action?

The Reflection

You take on a lot moving through life. You get knocked down and disappointed all the time. You rip through scabs, feel old pains, and discover new ones. You lose most of your friends. You don’t win that first place ribbon. You remember being in a lost, dark, room. You can smell the winter and its isolation. Potential gain rushes past you. The absence of motion puts you in the thick of painful thoughts and memories. I mentioned that this would sting. I promise there will some uplifting thoughts appearing here shortly. Give me a second.

When you don't stop, you don't have a lot of time to feel bad. It can be a wonderful thing. If you always seem on the go, you don’t have time to watch the screen of misfortune. The solution has a downside. The more you do, the more there are opportunities for disappointment.

You can look up or down. Sigh or scream. Why would I take on any more? Enough is enough and enough is too much! Oh, wait, you never stop. Keep moving. You get what you get and you do what you do and it will never be enough because nothing will ever be enough.

What do you get when you don’t stop? You get more and more of both sides of joy and pain. Try to find what is enough. You get experiences from the struggle. That’s what you get!

The Takeaway

A smiling, supportive, friend is enough.

A genuine family member is enough.

family member is enough. Donuts are definitely enough.

Back sweat (eww)while working in the garden is enough.

Feeling better after an injury heals is enough.

Every day breathing is enough.

Teardrops are enough.

Josh Kiev is an actor, chef, and wants you to know that you are enough.
Checklist For Testing BigData Systems
By: Nayan Gaur
Tags: Test Strategy, Mapreduce, Testing, Big Data, Hadoop

Big Data is always the buzzword in the software industry primarily due to a large amount of data generated which can not be processed with traditional computing methods. Big Data has a characteristic of 3 Vs ie. Volume (amount of data), Velocity (Speed of data in and out), Variety (Range of data type and sources).

Having said that, testing big data systems comes with altogether new complexity, it requires a lot of skills. There are no structured strategies to test such systems as your scripts, checks and validations will depend on business logic, however there are certain methods or checklists to take care while testing big data systems. This article will primarily revolve around such checklists and strategies.

Note — This article will NOT cover the HOWs and implementations.

Before diving into checklists, lets also quickly discuss the components of any application handling big data -

Data Ingestion, is the layer where data ie large amount of data, will be injected to Big Data systems. This data can be structured, semi-structured or unstructured and storage can be Hadoop, MongoDB or any other storage. Its also called pre-processing stage where testing things is very critical, if we go wrong at this stage whole pipeline would get affected with incorrect analysis.

Data processing, as the name suggest, in this layer the processing of ingested data happens. Processing like aggregation of data based on business rules and eventually the formation of key value pairs which will be processed through map-reduce jobs.

Data Visualisation, once the data is processed as per business rules, the processed data gets ETL to either directly to data warehouse or some systems has target source as an indeterminate step through which data get loaded to data warehouse thereafter so that the meaningful information can be extracted through business intelligence and analytics.

Big Data pipeline
Los Moodboards venden historias y productos
By: Mijail Rodriguez Hernandez
Tags: Storytelling, Mood Board, Lifestyle, Marca

in In Fitness And In Health
Pandas, Dask or PySpark? What Should You Choose for Your Dataset?
By: Alina Zhang
Tags: Machine Learning, Pandas, Spark, Data Science, Big Data

Do you need to handle datasets that are larger than 100GB?

Assuming you are running code on the personal laptop, for example, with 32GB of RAM, which DataFrame should you go with? Pandas, Dask or PySpark? What are their scaling limits?

The purpose of this article is to suggest a methodology that you can apply in daily work to pick the right tool for your datasets.

Pandas or Dask or PySpark

< 1GB

If the size of a dataset is less than 1 GB, Pandas would be the best choice with no concern about the performance.

1GB to 100 GB

If the data file is in the range of 1GB to 100 GB, there are 3 options:

Use parameter “chunksize” to load the file into Pandas dataframe

Import data into Dask dataframe

Ingest data into PySpark dataframe

> 100GB

What if the dataset is larger than 100 GB?

Pandas is out immediately due to the local memory constraints. How about Dask? It might be able to load the data into Dask DataFrame depends on the datasets. However, the code would be hanging when you call APIs.

PySpark can handle petabytes of data efficiently because of its distribution mechanism. The SQL like operations are intuitive to data scientists which can be run after creating a temporary view on top of Spark DataFrame. Spark SQL also allows users to tune the performance of workloads by either caching data in memory or configuring some experimental options.

Then, do we still need Pandas since PySpark sounds super?

The answer is “Yes, definitely!”

There are at least two advantages of Pandas that PySpark could not overcome:

stronger APIs

more libraries, i.e. matplotlib for data visualization

In practice, I would recommend converting Spark DataFrame to a Pandas DataFrame using method toPandas() with optimization with Apache Arrow. Examples can be found at this link.

It should be done ONLY on a small subset of the data. For example, the subset of the data you would like to apply complicated methods on, or the data you would like to visualize.
Weekly Machine Learning Research Paper Reading List # 3
By: Durgesh Samariya
Tags: Research, Machine Learning, University, Science, Academia

Weekly Machine Learning Research Paper Reading List — #3

Authors: Lei Duan, Guanting Tang, Jian Pei, James Bailey, Akiko Campbell, Changjie Tang

Venue: Data Mining and Knowledge Discovery Journal

Paper: URL

Abstract:

When we are investigating an object in a data set, which itself may or may not be an outlier, can we identify unusual (i.e., outlying) aspects of the object? In this paper, we identify the novel problem of mining outlying aspects on numeric data. Given a query object 𝑜o in a multidimensional numeric data set 𝑂O, in which subspace is 𝑜o most outlying? Technically, we use the rank of the probability density of an object in a subspace to measure the outlyingness of the object in the subspace. A minimal subspace where the query object is ranked the best is an outlying aspect. Computing the outlying aspects of a query object is far from trivial. A naïve method has to calculate the probability densities of all objects and rank them in every subspace, which is very costly when the dimensionality is high. We systematically develop a heuristic method that is capable of searching data sets with tens of dimensions efficiently. Our empirical study using both real data and synthetic data demonstrates that our method is effective and efficient.
Not Invited
By: Laura Mcdonell
Tags: Self-awareness, Emotions, Friendship, Included, Perspective

I Hate it When I am Not Included

Photo by Mockaroon on Unsplash

It bothers me when

I am not

invited

or

included.

I

know I shouldn’t

care

so

much.

But,

I do.

I

hate

that feeling

of being

left out.

It brings up

memories

of

when I

was

younger

and girls talked

about going to places

that I

was not

invited.

When

I go

back

to the

raw

feeling of

what

it was like when

they

talked

and giggled

about the fun they had.

I hate the feeling

of being

left out.

Not asked.

Not invited.

And not included.
Why Do Things Fall?
By: Mukut Mukherjee
Tags: Astrophysics, General Relativity, Gravity, Physics, Science

Lines, curved and straight

Understanding straight lines hold the key to gravity. What is a straight line? What is the distinctive feature of a straight line that separates it from non-straight lines? The question might seem silly and obvious at first, but let me warn you, it is not.

Imagine two straight, parallel lines that never meet. Now imagine a curved line. We certainly know that the straight line is completely different than the curved one, but not always.

A spherical globe

Look closely at something spherical, something curved, a globe for example. Take a minute and look at the picture. Which lines look straight? The latitudes or the longitudes? Even though the latitudinal lines may seem straight, they are not. Why? Because they turn, and straight lines, by their very definition, do not turn.

So then, straight lines on a plane are not exactly the same on a sphere or curved surface.

It is important to create this mental distinction of straight lines on surfaces of differing geometry.

With the previous observation in mind, let's try to imagine a straight line on a curved surface. For simplicity, let’s use a cone as our curved surface. Keep in mind that the line should never turn. Got a picture in your head? Most probably you did not. Rather get a piece of paper with a straight line drawn on it and fold the paper into a cone. It should roughly look like the one in the picture below.

Cone Geodesics, Source: Wolfram

See it now? What does our straight line look like now? We had a straight line on the coordinate plane, but on the cone, there is no straight line. Well, the straight line obviously is on the cone since all we did was just fold the paper, but once folded into a cone, it no longer resembles a straight line.

Let me introduce you to Geodesics. A straight line on a curved surface is a geodesic. This means that any straight line when plotted on a curved surface, remains straight but does not look straight.
3 Reasons Why You Should Be More Like Bamboo
By: Jordan Gross
Tags: Mindfulness, Mental Health, Self Improvement, Life Lessons, Inspiration

3 Reasons Why You Should Be More Like Bamboo

What looks weak is strong.

Photo by Michael Payne on Unsplash

Have you ever wondered how sharks keep their teeth so white without going to the dentist? Well, even if you haven’t, I bet that’s all you’re thinking about now.

It turns out actually, that sharks do indeed go to a dentist, just not the same kind as you or I. Most notably in the coral reefs of the Pacific and Indian Oceans, “cleaner fish” showcase themselves with their bright colors and set up underwater cleaning stations. Sharks let them know it’s safe to approach, and the cleaner fish then eat the mucus, bacteria, and fungus off the sharks’ pearly whites.

The relationship is mutually beneficial. The cleaner fish get a meal, and the sharks get a mouth free from danger. This is known as symbiosis.

Symbiosis is the art of living and working together to create an advantageous relationship. Parents help children grow up and children (hopefully) help parents when they grow old. Bees gather nectar from flowers and help pollinate more flowers in the process. I believe that writers should have symbiotic relationships as well.

This is why when chatting with Akshad Singi, I knew it was an opportunity to both teach and learn. By working together instead of competing against one another with our writing, I believe we can share a message that can benefit more people. Thus, we have decided to join forces to provide two articles that promote the same concept: why we should be more like bamboo.

When discussing bamboo, I couldn’t help but consider whether or not the relationship between pandas and bamboo is symbiotic as well. Sure, the pandas eat the bamboo, but the bamboo get to feed an endangered species. Bamboo also gets the opportunity to be further studied and assessed for its tremendously unique qualities, as I will discuss in the remainder of the piece. While reading, consider your symbiotic relationships and wonder how and why you can be more like bamboo.
The “Pharma Bro” Who Loved Me
By: M.G. Siegler
Tags: Romance, Martin Shkreli, Crime, Journalism, Christie Smythe

Like the rest of the internet, I read the above piece earlier tonight. At first, I had to hold myself back from quoting basically the entire thing on Twitter. It’s so salacious and mind-blowing. We’ve all heard various stories of Stockholm Syndrome. Or people drawn towards prison inmates for various reasons. And in a way, this also reads like a fairly textbook case of negging (even just professionally, at first) by Martin Shkreli. Again, at first, this reads like a combination of all three, in a way.

At the same time, this isn’t your typical no-name person getting ensnared in such a trap — or series of traps. This was a reporter at Bloomberg with a basket of serious bylines, who broke many of the early stories about Shkreli to the world. Did she just get in too deep and couldn’t find her way back?

But the more I think about it, the more I think this isn’t as scandalous as it might seem on the surface. I mean, in many ways, yes, this is nuts. But I think it’s okay to feel less badly for Christie Smythe (though certainly not for her family) because there’s a pretty clear path where she is actually playing a calculated game to leverage such coverage (and obviously the subsequent hoopla) to take control of the situation. Not just over Shkreli, which, if the reporting is accurate, she has not talked to in months and seen in over a year.¹ But over her life professionally as well. As the article notes, at first she could not sell the book on the matter. She’ll clearly be able to now!

This whole thing — from the premise, to the Elle photoshoot complete with a dress from “The Vampire’s Wife” — is beyond bizarre. It crosses so many unsavory lines. But I’m not sure who — if anyone — to sympathize with. My guess would be that we’ll all find out soon enough in the subsequent drama that unfolds, likely extravagantly and loudly.
This Is The First Brainchild Of Breaking Rainbow Productions
By: Breaking Rainbow Productions
Tags: Marketing, Entertainment, LGBTQ, Media, Philosophy

After a year of development, British writer/producer Stu Laurie and his husband Kevin have joined forces with American media company MADE, LLC to form Breaking Rainbow Productions. This brand is dedicated to telling stories from LGBT creators or about LGBT protagonists, and the first creation of this new label is this publication on Medium called, “TheGAZE.”

Find Us @lgbtGaze

Part of the magic of this partnership has been the exchange of ideas between the founders of MADE (Kristen & Matt Berman) and Stu Laurie. As a gay writer, Stu brings a personal connection to the source material. Matt and Kristen believe that talent is valuable regardless of its creators’ identity. They have often been asked, “How’d a straight couple end up making gay movies?!”

The truth is, they didn’t. Matt and Kristen sought out talented people who could help them fulfill their mission of producing innovative media. Stu and his husband have a dedication to telling stories from the perspective of LGBT people and unearthing talent from all over the world.

To bring a new perspective to issues of LGBT rights and identity, this publication will explore LGBT issues throughout history. From famous LGBT figures throughout time who accomplished great feats to the current legislative battles around the world which effect LGBT people, we will take an investigative & creative approach to finding newsworthy stories.

Stay Tuned…

Original content from TheGAZE is right around the corner! Breaking Rainbow Productions has an exciting group of projects in development as well. To any new writers, directors, producers, or artists that are looking out for opportunities, we are working diligently to provide them.

From the BRP team, we look forward to sharing amazing stories with you.

❤
Now you can develop your own dApp, that will work on dApp Builder Platform
By: Dapp Builder Team
Tags: Token, Blockchain, Development, Ethereum, Dapps

We have launched the Custom dApps development environment on the dApp Builder website. If you are blockchain developer and good in Solidity, HTML and JavaScript you are able now to create your own dApp such as our Voting, Betting, Multisignature Wallet or Custom Token dApps.

Now we are improving our marketplace to allow developers to publish their custom dApps there. Soon blockchain developers will be able to sell their own dApps in our marketplace for Ether or DAP tokens.

But you are able to try our development environment and to start developing of your custom dApps on dApp Builder platform right now.
6 Programming Habits That (Surprisingly) Not Many Developers Have
Tags: Programming, Software Development, JavaScript, Technology, Startup

6 Programming Habits That (Surprisingly) Not Many Developers Have

Distinguish yourself from the herd

Photo by Burst on Unsplash

When it comes to being a good programmer, there are certain habits that immediately pop up in your mind. There are some habits that most programmers would agree are great to have, but in reality, most of them don’t have these habits themselves.

As we all know, we are defined by our habits. To become a better programmer, we should try to build great programming habits.

Here are six great programming habits that you should try to build to stand out from the pack.
Business Change Marketing: Grab The Long Tail and Hold On!
By: Jeff Yablon
Tags: Marketing, SEO, Business Process

What if I told you to pay more attention . . . pay lots of attention to the “long tail” ? Would that mean anything to you? If yes, keep reading. If no, keep reading and pay very close attention, because this is the single most important issue for your business’ growth and your business change that you will encounter.

Any time. Ever. It’s that important.

What’s the long tail? As the picture in your mind suggests, it’s a connection to something that you can grab from far away. And why does it matter? Here’s the example:

One of the things that this company does is computer support. Another thing we’re very good at is management consulting. And then there’s the place where those two items converge . . . and they do.

So let’s say we decide that the world “needs” to know that, and we take steps to drive traffic to this web site. Let’s say those steps include concentrating on the phrases computer support and management consulting. Bad idea. “See you on the unemployment line” bad.

Why? Because those are broad phrases. They mean too many different things to too many different people. They’ll attract attention, for sure, but we’d be competing with many, many other companies trying to do the same thing, meaning both that our message will get lost, and that the people we attract won’t necessarily be the people we wish to land on our virtual doorstep.

If you believe that the only bad attention is no attention, that doesn’t matter. And if you believe that you’re good enough at weeding out the people who waste your time to make attracting the wrong attention a mere byproduct, then I applaud you. But what if you buy the phrase “computer support” from Google, pay six dollars every time someone clicks on your link, and manage to get three thousand people to your web site with twenty-nine hundred and nine-seven of them being people who simply won’t ever buy your services? And that’s the GOOD outcome?

The long tail is where you get lots of people to pay attention to you by grasping at the “tail” you hang out there. For example, if you search for “kindle censorship” on Google, the very first result points you to a blog post here from a few months ago. It’s part of our long tail, and if you clicked on either of those links you helped extend that tail for us. Is there direct impact on our bottom line? No. And that’s what the long tail is. You’re out there. People notice you. And then . . . you make sure they stay around once you’ve gained their attention.

Pay attention to your long tail. If you need help, we’re glad to provide it; Answer Guy SEO Consulting and Search Engine Optimization works.Just make sure you dangle that long tail out there if you want your business to keep growing.
The Virus vs The Virus:
By: Dave Pell
Tags: Politics, Trump, Social Media, Media, Coronavirus

The Virus vs The Virus

A Trump Twitter Timeline

Here’s a look at what the President of the United States was Tweeting as America’s Covid-19 body count continued to mount. The below examples are not exhaustive. But they are certainly exhausting.

March 28: 2,000 American Covid-19 Deaths

March 31: 3,000 American Covid-19 Deaths

April 1: 4,000 American Covid-19 Deaths

Editor’s note: All Were Not Saved.

April 2: 5,000 American Covid-19 Deaths

Editor’s note: Oil would soon move into negative value territory.

April 3, 6,000 American Covid-19 Deaths

Editor’s note: This was when the president urged people to get out and vote during a pandemic Kelly lost..

April 4: 8,000 American Covid-19 Deaths

Editor’s note: We’d later learn that this drug killed more than it saved.

April 5: 9,000 American Covid-19 Deaths

April 6: 10,000 American Covid-19 Deaths

April 8: 14,000 American Covid-19 Deaths

April 10: 18,000 American Covid-19 Deaths

Editor’s note: It turns out, no.

April 11: 20,000 American Covid-19 Deaths

April 13: 22,000 American Covid-19 Deaths

April 15: 23,000 American Covid-19 Deaths

April 16: 30,000 American Covid-19 Deaths

April 17: 35,000 American Covid-19 Deaths

April 19: 40,000 American Covid-19 Deaths

Editor’s note: He was not right on ventilators. Nor, testing.

April 21: 45,000 American Covid-19 Deaths

April 24: 50,000 American Covid-19 Deaths

Editor’s note: Liberate Georgia?

April 25: 52,000 American Covid-19 Deaths

Editor’s note: He repeatedly called it a hoax.

Editor’s note: For a guy who criticizes the media, Trump really buried the lede here. This was the Lysol moment.

Editor’s note: Yes, please stop.

Editor’s note: Donald Trump just accused someone else of lying.

April 26: 55,000 American Covid-19 Deaths

Editor’s note: Perhaps he’d consider working less hard?

Editor’s note: The UV Light paired with Injected Disinfectant = Wheels Off.

Editor’s note: Fox is not biased against Trump.

Editor’s note: Someone misspelled Nobel Prize. In fairness, he was referring to Pulitzers anyway.

Of course, none of the Tweets are as damning as the spoken comments on the matter. See this video from The Recount for a reminder. And keep in mind that this video material was all gathered before the president’s mused about putting disinfectant inside our bodies.
Why children need the outdoors now more than ever
By: Ian Mcdermod
Tags: Nature, Outdoor Education, Environment, Child Development, Outdoors

Provoking care and curiosity for the environment

California Chaparral Photo by Ian McDermod

When I would teach children about the natural environment, I set the stage as all of us being “field scientists” who are being tasked to learn about the different ecosystems around them. Being based in Orange County California, the primary ecosystems we would study included explorations of the chaparral, riparian, and oak woodland ecosystems. In each of these ecosystems we would hike, identify plants and animals, and journal to record our observations.

I would teach specific curriculum, but our activities and ecosystem exploration were a loose enough teaching structure that it allowed the children’s own curiosity and interest be the limit to the knowledge and experience they walked away with.

Kids are naturally curious and engage with the parts of nature they find provoking to them. In the riparian ecosystem investigation, students would utilize small nets to capture and temporarily hold frogs and small freshwater insects to use for later identification. Just about every kid will happily partake in what is to them an epic adventure of exploring a newly discovered creek to safely find and capture the elusive Pacific tree frog. In all their fun and exploration they often forget they are even doing science. Who knew environmental studies could be so fun!

Photo by Jordan Whitt on Unsplash

Even when catching frogs, sometimes certain students might develop their own fascination or interests.

One student I remember grew bored of looking for things in the creek, and was interested instead in the soil. I gave him a meter that when probed into the ground, measured the temperature, pH (acidity), and moisture of the soil levels. The student then proceeded to probe in multiple different spots to compare the soil by the creek to the soil further upstream on the trail.

This young soil scientist didn’t need me to to assign him this project, he got there from his own questioning and curiosity.

Children will have their own interests about the natural world as long as you take the time to explore that with them. I have met many students who confide to me after our ecosystem explorations that they are interested in studying plants, birds, and mushrooms when the grow up. Spending time outdoors nurtured children's interests, allowed them a safe place to ask questions and explore, and invited them to now care for our fragile ecosystems and the organisms that make it up.
Easy-to-Read JSON With This Chrome/Firefox Extension
By: Fatos Morina
Tags: Technology, Json, Productivity, Education, Programming

Easy-to-Read JSON With This Chrome/Firefox Extension

Print JSON and JSONP nicely when you visit it directly in a browser tab

Img source: Chrome web store

JSON is a very popular file format. Sometimes we may have a JSON object inside a browser tab that we need to read and this can be difficult.

We may need to go and search for an online tool that turns it into an easy-to-read format so we can understand it.

Now, here is a Chrome and Firefox extension that does the formatting and makes your JSONs instantly pretty inside your browser, without having to perform many unnecessary steps.

It comes with support for JSON and JSONP and highlights the syntax so that you can differentiate different attributes and values accordingly. It also comes with the option to collapse nodes, clickable URLs that you can open in new tabs, and you see the raw, unformatted JSON.

It works with any JSON page, regardless of the URL you opened. It also works with local files, after you enable it in chrome://extensions . You can inspect the JSON by typing json into the console.

You can install the extension by going here for Chrome and here for Firefox and then test it, for example, by visiting this API response.

This is what it looks like, before formatting:

Now, take a look at the beautiful JSON response you get with JSON Formatter:

Here is a pro tip: Hold down CTRL (or CMD on Mac) while collapsing a tree, if you want to collapse all its siblings too.

It is an open-source project, so you can view its source code on GitHub.

Thanks for reading!
The Dome Keeper
By: Michael Stang
Tags: Poetry, Sustainability, Ignorance, Tragedy, Sex

Tricks.

Suspended, silent, still,

experienced placed ancestral Gaea, giver of sky and shore,

earthen immaculate goddess sits

a thankless nymph

a mythological whore.

Ancient runes, abandoned schools, their leather binds like memory around her waist. Reshaped bestiary whips and chains against command’s foolish race: half starved sufferers know not the sacred wait, thinking their first mistake. Nature runs deeper in search for her coven, quiet riot down under she feeds the iron to the peat.

Our eternal lay — a harlot’s lot— loveless concubine. Wanton legs slightly bent she watches her blood drool, synergetic seeds, squiggly miracles above the dam to spawn the sprouting pool.

Mother, who art the earth involves no man to mate the living to the daily bread, she will not measure one who carries no balance to the weight. Sky-ladder slot with a warrior’s heart, hussy face cries questions laughs answers. Without her we would die alone, nothing in the darkness of space to save us.

She is biology’s chore, natural as wheat, plentiful as stars; solid gold —a prostitute’s pay. Man shows no food miles, ledgers for the take. Gaea would let him starve but not for probity’s way.
Inspire
By: Ivette Cruz
Tags: Poetry, Self Improvement, Motivation, Life Lessons, Positive Thinking

I am a warrior of life, striving to be a better person every day. Finding my voice on writing.

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September 10–21 Karma Progress. Powerful Bids and Scoring Ratings
By: Karma Project
Tags: Development, Credit Scoring, Blockchain, Features, Release Notes

Hello, dear friends!

We are happy to present new features we have delivered:

Adding pictures

Now you can make your bid even more attractive for potential investors! After all, your very idea, impression and passion determines investment decision, not only numbers.

From now forward you could attach photos and change their order while you are creating a bid.

So, what is your story?

Look, how colorful the bids are now!

In order to simplify your work with documents we added multifile upload.

We created our own multifactorial complicated CMS-system (“Backoffice”) where scoring specialists could analyze information and interact with platform participants in the most comfortable way. Now we’ve made the reason of rejection visible.

For example, if borrower didn’t present all the necessary data (or we have some additional questions), he or she will see what exactly needs to be corrected. After corrections order must be verified again and opportunity to edit any information inside will be restricted during scoring.

Every time before an order will be placed on the market, scoring specialist will evaluate it and put the special ranking separately for borrower and separately for collateral.

We use crosswise evaluation based on the most relevant databases:

•Federal Migration Service;

•Database of the Unified State Register of Legal Entities, Unified State Register of Private Entrepreneurs (Federal Tax Service);

•Real estate database of Rosreestr (The Federal Service for State Registration, Cadastre and Cartography);

•Federal Bailiff Service;

•Federal Tax Service;

•Federal Service for Financial Monitoring;

•Unified Federal Register of Data on Bankruptcy;

•Unified information system of Government procurement;

• Automobile Inspection Service (STSI);

•Credit reference bureau (3 largest bureaus: NBKI, Equifax, OKB);

•Etc. (more than 20 databases).

In next publications we will provide full description of the the rating criteria, stay tuned!

Cheers ^_^
4 Ways to Love, Your Enemy
By: Meghan Gause
Tags: Self Improvement, Mental Health, Life, Love, Forgiveness

4. Find common ground

Heck, a few of my best friends to date, are my old enemies. After forgiving them, sympathizing with them, and understanding them, we found out we actually had a lot in common.

Finding common ground allows you to see past the hate and anger and look at that individual as a human, and possibly, one you actually love after all the debris is cleared out.

Make new friends with old enemies. Once all the grunt work I stated above is completed, then there is room for growth — love.

Endgame

Sure, there are bad people out there; not every enemy is meant to be loved. However, there shouldn’t be anything stopping you from getting the peace of mind for yourself, and from possibly benefiting them as well.

This world is consumed with hate; we need more love. And what better way is there to show appreciation than bestowing it upon an enemy?

In order to love ourselves honestly, and others, we have to understand and accept the nature of humanity. When people are scared, hurt, or sad, they attack.

Rid yourself of the hate and anger and spread the love.

I haven’t been happier since I have let go of all my hate. Some instances, didn’t pan out. My enemies brushed my approach off, and that’s OK. As long as you find it within yourself to heal, accept, and forgive them, you can show the maximum amount of love, by being an example.
Step by Step Facial Recognition in Python
By: Ulku Guneysu
Tags: Python, Python3, Facedetection, Face Recognition, Data Science

Step by Step Facial Recognition in Python

A simple how-to using Python, Pillow, and a few lines of code…

In this article, I will guide you to create your own face recognition in images. For this purpose, I will use the Python face recognition library and Pillow, the Python Imaging Library (PIL).

I chose to use Visual Studio Code since I need to use integrated terminal. First, I start by setting a virtual environment and install pipenv on my terminal.

Run pipenv shell to start your virtual environment and install the face recognition library.

For this tutorial, I created two folders named known and unknown . The first folder includes pictures of some of the more well-known people in politics like Barack Obama, Donald Trump, Bernie Sanders, Joe Biden, and Elizabeth Warren. The latter includes different pictures of the people from the first folder, some of the 2020 Presidential candidates, and some SNL characters (played by different actors) of Donald Trump, Barack Obama, and Bernie Sanders.

I will run a match on the known and unknown folders to see if there are any pictures of known people in the unknown folder. I can do this by command line easily by running:

This will go through all the images and show us the matches in the second folder from the first one.

As you can see from the output, Bernie_SNL.jpg —which was performed by Larry David—is matched as Bernie Sanders. To avoid that, I will check the distance of each match, which essentially tells how much of a match the images are, by running:

face_recognition — show-distance true ./img/known ./img/unknown

I can see the decimal value of distance between matched images.

I will add the flag and change the tolerance so the matching algorithm will only accept the values under a certain number. Adjusting tolerance helps get more accurate results.

As seen in the above image, Bernie_SNL.jpg did not match with the real Bernie Sanders.jpg .

If I just want to get the names of the people in the images, I will use:

face_recognition — show-distance true ./img/known ./img/unknown | cut -d ‘,’ -f2

to get the output below.

Let’s move one of the unknown people, Andrew Yang, to our known folder and run the code above again. As you see below, Andrew Yang will also be defined as a known person and it will show the matches from the unknown folder.

If we want this process to go faster we can add — cpus flag to our command line.

Now I will create the Python files to work with the facial recognition library.
Comparing for Loop with ES6 forEach Method
By: Sagar V
Tags: JavaScript, Programming, Web Development, Software Engineering, Software Development

Before starting, let’s check what is for loop and what is forEach.

For Loop

For is a keyword, to create looping statements, just like while and do…while. JS engine can directly understand what it is.

forEach

forEach is a function defined in Array.prototype , just like all other functions. The engine can’t understand it directly. It needs to get the function definition in order to execute it.

For vs forEach

Choosing one over another will have huge impact on performance. When you have to deal with an array of bigger size, choosing the right one matters.

Let’s see an example below.

//create an array with 100K entries

arr = [];

for(var i = 0; i < 100000; i++){

arr.push(i);

} //for loop

console.time("For Loop");

console.groupCollapsed();

for( i=0; i< arr.length; i++ ){

console.log(arr[i]);

}

console.groupEnd();

console.timeEnd("For Loop"); //forEach

console.time("forEach");

console.groupCollapsed();

arr.forEach( x => console.log(x));

console.groupEnd();

console.timeEnd("forEach");

The above code will log 1–100K on the console along with the time it takes to execute the function. The result is given below (on a laptop with 6Gb Ram)

forEach took 6 more seconds to execute it. logging on console usually takes some time. So 50+ seconds are reasonable. Let’s see another example.

//initialize an array with 100K entries

arr = [], a = [], b = [];

for(var i = 0; i < 100000; i++){

arr.push(i);

} //for loop

console.time("For Loop");

console.groupCollapsed();

for( i=0; i< arr.length; i++ ){

a.push(arr[i]);

}

console.groupEnd();

console.timeEnd("For Loop"); //forEach

console.time("forEach");

console.groupCollapsed();

arr.forEach( x => b.push(x));

console.groupEnd();

console.timeEnd("forEach");

The above will simply copy an array of 100K entries to 2 other arrays. Instead of a=arr and b=arr , we push the entries one by one. The time taken is given below.

forEach took more than twice the time taken by for loop.

When you are dealing with a small array, you can choose forEach as it is much simpler to write and they don’t have much difference in performance.

Why do people fall for forEach?

forEach is easy to write. Call back functions are used. No index variable is required. callback functions can directly access values one by one. Little cleaner than for loop.

Things they forget when moving to forEach
5 UX Tips to Master Mobile App Onboarding
By: Agnieszka Cieplińska
Tags: Design, App Design, Mobile, Apps, UX

User’s permanent relationship with the product is one of the toughest things to achieve for product creators. Despite all their efforts, sometimes the journey with the app may end up being even shorter than a one-time date. Data reveals a merciless truth:

1 out of 4 people who downloaded an app never return to it after first use

Of course, stats don’t paint the whole picture, but they appear to reveal some insights about users’ first impressions of apps. The onboarding process is crucial when creating the initial experience. It starts right after user launches your app for the first time. It is a perfect place for you to show your product key features and its value.

However, overwhelming users with information is a great way to annoy them. If you want to lose them in a few seconds, poorly designed onboarding will be a good choice.

But hey! Well-designed onboarding experience increases the likelihood of users’ returns to the app. How to find a golden mean?

hello gif from giphy

Do you want to make users fall in love with your app at first sight? Follow these tips ⏬ ⏬

1. Less is more

This means reducing screens and effort from users. Show the most crucial features, not all of them. Sometimes 5 screens or less is enough. More screens may overwhelm users.

It’s not a secret knowledge — we’ve all been guilty of mindlessly taping dozens of “next” at the speed of light. That’s why you should reduce user inputs to an absolutely necessary minimum. Not everything is important on the entry level.

design by Daniel Tkachenko

2. Users’ value

Focus on users needs. Tell the audience how your app will improve their lives. Show what brings them the biggest value. They’ve already downloaded it — ensure them that they search for a perfect product is over.

Pocket app perfectly shows users’ benefits

3. Let’s play

Encourage users to interact. A series of actions get them engaged. It’s also an easy way of initial user personalization. Gather the most crucial information about the user at this point but in an interactive way.

interactive onboarding from Habitify app

4. “Are we there yet?”

Only a few of us prefer neverending journeys over the feeling of progress. Users may drop the app when the ending of the onboarding is unknown. Just show the progress bar to give them a hint when the process will be over.

design by Dreamworks

and last but not least…

5. Hello!

Welcome your users! It’s as easy is it says. The hello message makes them feel more welcomed to an application.
Ubuntu
By: Jim Mcaulay
Tags: Haiku, Theology, Ubuntu Not Technology, Desmond Tutu, Psychology

Ego says I am me.

Higher self says not so fast.

It’s not I, it’s we.

The higher self says.

I exist because we are.

This is ubuntu.

Together we can.

Accomplish anything.

Alone we will die.
The Top 10 Programming Blogs in 2020
By: Juan Cruz Martinez
Tags: JavaScript, Programming, Software Development, Python, Web Development

The Top 10 Programming Blogs in 2020

Blogs from people that I admire or with large communities

Photo by Joel Muniz on Unsplash

Programming is an interesting field since it gives us the superpower to control computer systems. It can be used in airplanes, traffic control, robots, self-driving cars, websites, mobile apps, and for a ton of other use cases.

Now the main thing is that software engineers have created several programming languages, and each of them is suitable to solve a different problem.

Today, I’m gonna share with you some websites and blogs that write about different programming languages and the best practices when using them.

This list is in no particular order — all of them are great reads!

(This is not a sponsored post. All blogs listed are among my favorite reads.)
Finding Stillness
By: Annine Teresa Raffaella Massaro
Tags: Poetry, Reflections, Poem, Writing, Self

Finding Stillness

A poet’s dive into sensation

Photo by Joshua Fuller on Unsplash

A quiet reserve

This small, silent well stirs

Spinning

And churning the sweetest waters

Dowsing the twisted turning

And burning of flesh on fire

Creates this smoke medicine

Takes disease

Bakes discomfort

Annihilates indifference

Cloaked in disdain

These embers of misery freed

Raining their pleasures glow

Pain’s best friend

An earthen remain

Ashes

Dust

Settle

They wait now —

For the healing to spill over

From containers

No longer contained

For the words

That must stumble forth

By way of fingers that

Can no longer move fast enough

To capture them all on paper