fabiochiu/medium-articles huggingface dataset:
Wave After Wave
Tags: Nature, Wave After Wave, Poetry, Dreams, Spirituality

The muted pall of a sunless sky

casts no shadows to follow me around.

Only the cold atmosphere makes itself known.

Tangling my heart with vines,

encircling my ankles in eddys,

swallowing the whole of me into its womb.

—

(290)
Education goes a long way to understanding automation
By: Jody Padar
Tags: Artificial Intelligence, Data Science, Data

Photo by Thomas Kvistholt on Unsplash

In my journey into the technology space, I feel so under-skilled. I’m confident in my leadership abilities and in my accounting and cloud systems knowledge, not to mention radical practice management skills. But all this stuff about data, artificial intelligence and algorithms is intimidating — especially when the folks talking about it all are significantly younger than me. Did you know that accounting analytics could appear on the CPA Exam soon?

So, what does a Radical CPA do? She goes back to school to learn more and figure it out.

It’s proving to be challenging, yet interesting.

I’m taking this 400-level accounting data analytics class and it seems like I need a stronger math/statistics background. I hated stats in college, and still hate it now.

I’ve rallied my husband — who has a master’s degree in some sort of IT — to help me. We spent all afternoon working through the homework together. The next morning, the first words out of his mouth were, “We need to finish those Excel problems.”

We finished the homework, and I said, “It’s so much easier when you help me.” He replied, “I think it’s easier when you aren’t involved.” A couple that does data together, stays together? Not sure about that!

I’ve already learned a ton of new Excel skills and it’s only the first month. I know I’ll never have to program in R, a computer programming language. I’ll probably never quite grasp the math, but with a varied group of people on my team and good delegating skills, I’ll never be without help. It’s really about understanding the opportunities.

As the leaders of today’s firms, we have to learn these new skills so we can remain relevant and ultimately create more value for our customers and firms. How can we be the best business advisors when we don’t even have a basic understanding of these new tools?

For as much as I’m cursing the math, I’m loving the new world of data that my eyes are being opened to. For example, the ability to solve a problem by creatively utilizing tools to find potential answers.

Watch out, I’m dangerous — I can see so many real-world applications and I just might have a new data project for my tech team to tackle.

It’s really frustrating to see all these folks creating fear around data analytics, AI and bots, when it’s really just a new application of the accounting and business skills we already have. It’s just a different approach. Why are you afraid to learn about it?

The best way to combat fear is education. So, what class are you going to take?

Jody Padar, CPA, MST, is CEO and principal at New Vision CPA Group and the author of The Radical CPA and From Success to Significance: The Radical CPA Guide. She is now the accounting ambassador and bot advisor at Botkeeper. You can follow Jody on Twitter @jodypadarcpa.

This post originally ran on Accounting Today, February 2019.
Dance with a Shadow
By: Rhonda Skinner
Tags: The Rebel Poets Society, Trauma, Dance, Poem, Shadow Work

Dance with a Shadow

A poem

Digital Collage by Author, Copyright All Rights Reserved

Withering sunset

Bitter pill

Dance with a shadow

An inescapable view

Unclinch your throat

Allow the poison to run through

Time is a fleeting friend

The act of a court jester

An ego trip of the vain

Vile discontent

Pose for the camera

and embrace the prison walls

Captive sight

Captured by fate
Will the Sun Rise Tomorrow? Introduction to Bayesian Statistics for Machine Learning
By: Matthew Stewart, Phd Researcher
Tags: Data Science, Machine Learning, Statistics

Bayes’ Rule

Bayes’ rule tells us that we have to start with some inherent probability about how likely an event is to happen (before the fact). We call this a prior probability. Progressively, as we are presented with new observations and evidence, we update our belief based on looking at the evidence and deciding how likely our current stance is. This updated belief is called the posterior probability (after the fact).

Going back to our Sunrise problem, every day we observe that the Sun rises, and every time it happens we are a little more sure that it will rise again the next day. However, if one day we find that the Sun does not rise, this will drastically affect our posterior probability based on the new evidence.

This is expressed mathematically in the following form, which looks daunting at first but can be abstracted: our updated belief is based on our initial belief and new evidence presented to us based on our current belief (the likelihood). The likelihood says the new evidence that I have, how likely is it that my belief is correct? If I believe that the probability of the Sun not rising tomorrow is a million to one, and then it happens, the likelihood that my belief (my model) is wrong is very high, and the posterior probability will be updated to predict that it is more likely it will happen again.

Bayes’ theorem.

This is a pretty nifty idea, and it is present in many different places, especially when it comes to humans and their beliefs. For example, let’s say your friend messages you telling you that one of your favorite celebrities has died. Initially, you might be upset and also slightly skeptical. As you go about your day, you read the newspaper and it tells you that the celebrity died, and this belief will then be enforced further. Perhaps you then see interviews on the television of their mourning family on the news, and your belief will be enforced even further. However, if you instead see the person being interviewed on television about a rumor being spread that they had died, your belief that what your friend told you would be lowered.

This is an essential aspect of science, theories are proven through experiments and simulations, and the more people who do these experiments and verify the theories gradually make these theories more robust and believable. Whereas, for example, someone who is religious may decide that they do not need empirical evidence (of the same kind at least) to believe in something, and we call this faith.

It is interesting how something so pervasive in our everyday lives can be so fundamental to statistics and machine learning, but it is, and we will discuss why. First, however, we need to look at some problems that occur with Bayes’ theorem for very low probabilities.
Christmas
By: Kit L.
Tags: Poem, Poetry, Haiku, Writing, Christmas

Haiku is a form of poetry usually inspired by nature, which embraces simplicity. We invite all poetry lovers to have a go at composing Haiku. Be warned. You could become addicted.

Follow
Bipo(lovers)
Tags: Mental Health, Love, Depression, Bipolar Disorder, Relationships

September 13th, 2006:

He was still in middle school, 13 years old, even though we were both born in 1992. I was 14, and had just started high school. I went to a school all the way on the other side of town. I didn’t have any friends there but a handful of Chinese kids ended up as my classmates in high school — so naturally, we all gravitated towards each other and they still are my best friends, 10 years later.

A few of these friends attended a church where they had a mutual friend, living in a different city. At that time, my friends and I would get home from school, immediately log on the computer and chat online with each other for HOURS. (What is so interesting about a 14 year old’s life?)

Anyway, somehow I got introduced to this 13 year old boy from their church. I apparently was much more outgoing than I am now and sent this 13 year old kid (whom I had never met before) an email; thus our friendship began.

Is it possible to fall in love with someone only through a computer screen? Is it possible for a young teen to even “be in love”? I found myself “falling in love” with this boy I had never met — we would chat for hours every afternoon and talk on the phone during the late hours of the night, while our families slept.

He was the first boy I ever said those three little words “I love you” to and meant it. He was my first boyfriend, my first love; I was his first kiss. I think young love is a pure innocent love, devoid of all the hardships associated with adult love. But then I got “sick.”

I am diagnosed with Bipolar I, ADHD, generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), anorexia nervosa, and struggled with substance use and dependence (specifically cocaine and opiates). I like to joke that I’m basically a walking DSM and that being neurotypical would be so boring. However, I’ve learned boring is good; once while manic, I was arrested on 4 felony charges.

I ended up attending an out-of-state university and he stayed in state for college. I guess we just lost touch; we didn’t talk for the next decade.
In which Meesho Product folks drop some truths and debunk myths about the Product Management life
By: Mangala Dilip
Tags: Product, Startup, Meesho, Culture, Product Management

Mayank Gupta (Senior Product Manager) and Movin Jain (VP-Product) answer some of internet’s biggest questions regarding Product Management

We are back with the second edition of Meesho’s Truth Vs Myth video series and this time around we have our VP- Product Movin Jain, who leads Search and Personalisation at Meesho, and Senior Product Manager Mayank Gupta, who leads the retention and engagement efforts on the Meesho App, busting some common myths and dropping some profound truths about the world of Product Management.

So, what are you waiting for? Click the link below to watch Episode 2 of Truth Vs Myth on our YouTube channel right away. And subscribe to our channel for more.

Want to join Movin, Mayank, and team Meesho and help create 20 million entrepreneurs in 2020? Then apply here. We are hiring!
Here’s Why You’ll Never Be Lovable Enough for The Narcissist
By: Leah Njoki
Tags: Self, Relationships, Dating, Marriage, Narcissism

Here’s Why You’ll Never Be Lovable Enough for The Narcissist

Hint: It’s got little to do with you.

Photo by Mike Lloyd on Unsplash

I remember it as if it was yesterday. As I sat sipping my chai latte, he stood up and towered over me. The anger on his frowned face intense enough to put me on the edge.

For Pete’s sake, what is it this time? Today is supposed to be different. I thought to myself. I could feel the all-too-familiar twist of tension and anxiety slowly rising from within.

A huge chunk of our one-year relationship had been marred by moments of wrangles and constant strife.

Earlier in the day when he suggested a coffee date, I thought this day would be different from many others. That it would bring a gentle breeze of fresh air into our troubled relationship. That today we could breathe if only for a moment. That we could be a normal couple.

However, within the first hour of our coffee date, I caught a glimpse of something in his face. A dullness. A wave of anger. Then I realized I’d been wrong to think it was ever possible to be a happy couple.

This was how the cookie crumbled:

“This is the last time I’ll ever take you out!” My now very angry boyfriend was yelling, putting his cup down. A minute later, he stormed out of the coffeehouse.

Later on, I came to learn that he’d walked on our date because according to him, I’d been busy looking at other men.

Anyway, as I sank in my chair, as confused as ever, I tried to wrap my mind around what had just transpired. Two hours went by as I unloaded my thoughts in self-reflection, carefully following the trail of our relationship for the past one year.

Then it dawned on me.

My boyfriend had seen me as a problem all along. Every snide remark, every little mishap said as much. I also realized it was always going to be this way. I’d remain trapped in an endless cycle chasing after his validation. Always toeing the line. Drowning my voice so that his could remain amplified.
Not Distributed in Topics
By: Davy Carren
Tags: Poetry, Love

You are not going to find love

You might get a hint of it

Out there

In the simpering folds of panic’s desperate worry

An inveigling taste perhaps

While the heart waits and waits for it’ll never properly

Want

And the heel’s played again without any

Arclight

Or even an abiding angel to its name

Pass the peas and the skeletons

Get swept up and then over

But you

You are not going to find love

Not out there

With your hurried mind and your misshapen soul

Your perpetually packed bags and your lost hindsight

Not in the top shelf of a well-lit bar

Or the warped plaster and mold of a dingy dive

You

You are not going to find love

Not in delirious conversations about Barthelme in the back of two-in-the-morning cabs

Not in all the happy-hours or parties you’ve ever been bored at

Not in the flick of methamphetamine’s furious fire

Not in a poolroom’s popcorn machine or an alley’s noir-like glint or an airport security checkpoint or a crowded elevator ride

Not even inside what you consider to be your deepest and most romantic thoughts

Love

Love is for the birds and the newscasters and the dogs and the pamphleteers

Love is for Randy Newman and Elvis and The Munchkins and the underpaid groundskeepers and those who sneak on the bus for free

Love is not for you

To find

It is just something that happens

Like a spot of vomit on the sleeve

Or a trapeze artist sipping Beefeater on a trampoline

Before wishing goodbye to all the black dresses of her past

Silent and barefoot and brave

Some squashed eyeball of a thing no longer wandering

Love

Out of it for good

Love

Missed beneath the seashells or a dumpster dripping rain

Love

You’ll never have enough and always too much

Love

With no cash value or interest earned at all

Love

Love

I’m quite sure

It must happen

All of the goddamn time
Breathing space
By: D Abboh
Tags: Breathing, Life, Grief, Poetry

it’s OK — not to be OK sometimes

like when silent grief implodes

becoming an air seeking missile

in a desperate race, with its only target — breathing space

where its anger can free fall and explode

the softest heart oceans deep, wearied bones that crack and creak

bursting veins, bleeding pain

like never ending — driving rain

enter the she-dragon, her tongue a match — ready to strike the Earth into a great ball of flames

breaths of fire like fireworks — painting the most colourful language across the sky

this is your welcome into her silly life, pleased to meet you — loaded with trouble and strife

misunderstood, nonchalant

the heart and mind down in the trenches of their civil war, neither clear — what the fight is for

the day dreamer shadowed by nightmares, screaming loud — running scared

now she’s gone rogue — some might say, armed with such untamed rage

but know — she’s just an ordinary woman, trying to hold on — ready to let go

so, with one hand in her pocket full of grace — and the other balled in a fist — just in case

she exits the room — with her resting bitch face, to find somewhere — with breathing space
A Simplified Explanation of Merge Sort
By: Karuna Sehgal
Tags: Algorithms, Coding, Programming, Coding Interviews, Web Development

This blog post is a continuation of a series of blog posts about Algorithms, as it has been a hard concept for me to grasp as a programmer. Feel to check out the first blogpost about Algorithms, where I provide an introduction of what Algorithms are and an example of an algorithm and the second blog post about Data Structures, where I explained what are Data Structures and what are some types of Data Structures. Also check out the third blog post about Time Complexity and Space Complexity, which I provide an explanation of Time and Space Complexity. I have also written a blog post about Big O Notation. Recently I have written blog posts about Binary Search, Linear Search, Interpolation Search, Sorting Algorithms, Selection Sort, and Insertion Sort.

This blog post I will focus on Merge Sort. I will explain what Merge Sort is, how Merge Sort is associated with Algorithms, try to break down Merge Sort step by step and provide an example.
I Breathe Sky
By: Anna Breslin
Tags: Life, Poetry, Love

I Breathe Sky

A poem

Odilon Redon, Pandora, (public domain)

.

.

i breathe sky,

echoing starlight,

moonbeams,

the remnants

of lost universes

and time

stops being

time.

i breathe

through my heart

standing tree firm,

branches covered

in bright

green leaves

i breathe

through my arms

open to the earth

embracing

this sweet

moment

dancing at my feet,

everything i think,

mean, small,

limited, empty,

full of fear,

the rising oxygen

washes over

with fresh life.

it travels

up my roots,

my trunk, my limbs

my lungs swell

with tulips and roses,

golden flecks of light,

now as every day grows

longer,

i ripen and bloom

at night, ready,

always ready

for the spring

of each moment

to shine.

~

© 2020, A. Breslin. All Rights Reserved
Non-Presidential Considerations For Your Ballot
By: Faith Ann
Tags: BlackLivesMatter, Equality, Politics, Biden, Election 2020

What races can you be more revolutionary with your vote?

It is incredibly disappointing to me, and many people my age, that if you vote outside of the Democratic/Republican party your vote is essentially wasted. In other words, the race is so tight between the two parties, no third party has a chance to get 5% of the vote…let alone win the election. This is widely the case with the presidential election and federal congressional elections (House of Representatives and Senate).

Although the hope for many is to soon abolish the two-party system, we aren’t yet there. BUT there are lots of races where it is safe to vote for third-party. Or at least it is safe to split your vote between a major candidate and a third-party candidate.

If you live in a state where a red or blue candidate is guaranteed, it is most likely safe to vote third-party. Remember voting this year speaks volumes for years to come. Maybe a Green Party candidate gets 20% of the vote this year, which will increase funding and security for years to come. Third-party candidates don’t have a lot of footing in our country because people are too scared to vote but imagine if this year third-party candidates get 20% of the vote. People will be more willing to fund and vote for third-party candidates in the future.

Voting is long-game. Let’s start being more strategic with our voting. Don’t throw away votes but don’t throw extra votes at people who don’t deserve or need them either.

Personally, I did just that. I begrudgingly voted for Biden/Harris and democrat for other major races in my state…I live in a battleground state so a lot of the races are tight. But for smaller state races which aren’t as tight, I split my vote. I voted one safe vote and one revolutionary vote for s third-party candidate I agreed with. For University positions, I almost exclusively voted third-party because my state has huge student populations that are likely to mirror my mentality.
How to Setup Push Notifications in React Native (iOS & Android)
By: Spencer Carli
Tags: Technology, Mobile App Development, Push Notifications, React Native, React

Looking to set up Remote Push Notifications? I’ve got a post that covers exactly that using OneSignal. This post exclusively handles local notifications.

This week I wanted to try something different and, rather than write a blog post, record a screencast.

Video is a completely different beast than writing and something I’m not (yet) comfortable with. Especially the changed workflow. However I did enjoy putting it together and it can be nice looking over someones shoulder as they think through problems.

The screencast covers how to setup Push Notifications in React Native, for both Android and iOS. It leverages react-native-push-notification to handle the hard stuff. Check it out and I hope you enjoy! It’s just over 30 minutes in length. I would love feedback as to how I can improve these types of tutorials.
Crypto market dynamics: intro
By: Ricky Li
Tags: Bitcoin, Updates, Wepower

By Ricky Li, Ph.D, CFA, Co-founder of Altonomy

Hello, WePower community!

I am Ricky Li, a veteran trader in crypto and commodity market recently joined WePower advisory board. I am also a co-founder of Altonomy, a crypto trading, advisory and asset management firm that has partnered with ICO projects and crypto hedge funds for secondary market service. I hold CFA Charter and Ph.D in Computer Science from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. I do have years of experience in commodities quantitative trading, research and advisory in investment banks, energy firms and management consulting firms. Also it’s worth mentioning, that I am the former director of trading for FBG Capital since 2017. Prior to trading crypto assets, I managed energy derivative product team for CME Group and published various articles and insights about market fundamentals.

My biweekly updates for WePower blog, will be concentrated on the macro market trend related regulatory updates and forward looking factors impact overall market. It will also feature WPR performance for the past two weeks, forward looking events, and factors that could potentially impact the token price.

Most recently, a few events that affected the overall macro market including:

Conrail hack

CFTC investigation into price manipulation of Bitcoin futures price index

SEC official’s claim on Bitcoin and Ethereum not being securities

The low volume on Crypto-Fiat OTC trading for the past month, coupled with fading token’s market liquidity, signaled a very fragile market. With negative news like Conrail hack and CFTC investigation, market quickly responded by crashing to the $6500 support level in BTC, and even more so in ETH.

Market overall is still recovering, even though the SEC comments provided a short term push but still the low liquidity in both OTC and token’s market poses serious concern.

For WPR, the token performed in line with the bearish macro trend and reduced volume overall. But the prospect is still looking solid from fundamental analysis. A couple of facts:

All registered (passed KYC) for the token sale: 86,744

Token sale participants in the final whitelist: 50,637

Token sale contributors: 22,353

A number of registered people currently holding WPR token: 15,621

Among those people: 12,105 are the original token sale participants / 3516 are ones who purchased after the ICO

WPR is the second biggest position (by the number of wallets holding the token) among the original ICO investors and third biggest among all registered people.

The above facts are pointing to the conclusion that the bearish sentiment is impacting the volume traded on WPR because the community and institutional investors are still holding tight on their token.

Community, what are your questions, concerns and findings? I’ve noticed how active you are on WePower’s Market Telegram Group, keep on going and don’t hesitate to share your questions — I will address them in my next Medium post.
Anyone Who Touches Me Breaks My Heart
By: Cheney Meaghan
Tags: Self, Love, Sexuality, Poetry, Relationships

Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash

maybe it’s because I can’t handle being alone

and all the men that I find just don’t give enough

or they are not there enough

it’s either them or me who’s never enough

but I know there’s one word for me

and it is: hopeless.

maybe it’s because I’ve faked so many orgasms

I might have forgotten what a real one feels like

but I still leave them breathless

and so tired they can barely move afterwards

but they still have enough energy

to get up and drive home

or just make me take them there

or they sleep on the couch or the floor

just never next to me

maybe it’s because they all know

I am an easy one to use

every man knows that

the women who can’t even

look at themselves in a mirror

must be good in bed

because they only care about pleasing others

not themselves, right?

maybe it’s because I’ve always hoped too much

to hear someone calling out my name

though none of them ever do

some can’t even get their tongues around it

I try to explain but no one listens

so when I’m screaming and crying:

I don’t know what I’m doing

I don’t know who I am!

they just say baby, come here

and before I know it

their tongue is in my mouth

shutting me up

as if that’s what it will take

to make me whole

maybe it’s because I know

I’ll be used until I die

used for my money or my car

or for my bed or my poems

or for my tongue or for

what’s between my legs

they will take and take

and keep taking

and when I try to say

I deserve better than this

they won’t even know

what I’m talking about.
Seer, tell me, what’s in the numbers?
By: Benjamin Weinberg
Tags: Change, Poetry, Climate Change, Climate Emergency, Environment

Tre Cavalli, Menorca — photo by author

Particles, ratios, percents;

parts per million;

millimeters per year.

Lines on graphs go up and down,

cycles spin round and round.

And the talking heads all nod,

tell us that’s the way it’s always been,

part of the natural order.

Pat us on the head

send us out to play the game.

Two degrees, three degrees,

on a Kelvin scale, the line would never move

How much difference can it make?

Talk to a parent with a sick child and a thermometer

And the talking heads all nod,

tell us that’s the way it’s always been,

part of the natural order.

Pat us on the head

send us out to play the game.

I’m just one, nothing on my own,

together, all us zeros, would be heroes,

lined up, billions strong,

drops in a flood,

gonna sweep it all away.

And the talking heads,

safe behind their walls;

they’ll never line up for water,

they won’t watch their children burn with tropical fever

they won’t pray the levee holds.

Skip along with me

along the edge of catastrophe,

thinking it was meant to be,

and, in end, it will be inevitable.

but it never had to be.

The majority of the burning has come in the last 25 years — since the premiere of Seinfeld. Since the end of the second world war, the figure is about 85%. The story of the industrial world’s kamikaze mission is the story of a single lifetime — the planet brought from seeming stability to the brink of catastrophe in the years between a baptism or barmitzvah and a funeral. Uninhabitable Earth (Wallace-Wells, David — 2019)
How to Break Free From Toxic Relationships
By: Janette Hoefer
Tags: Personal Growth, Life, Psychology, Life Lessons, Relationships

Setting Boundaries Is Essential to Our Health

Boundaries are essential to healthy relationships, well-being and happy life. But setting and sticking to them is a hard task for some of us. Something we need to learn and that challenges us. In this sense, it becomes a skill we need to develop and grow.

Svetlana Whitener, an emotional intelligence executive coach, sums it up as follows:

“Often low levels of self-esteem and the lack of healthy boundaries are closely related. People with higher self-esteem tend to have better-defined boundaries. Establishing personal boundaries reflects the way you take responsibility for your life. You define how you are going to be treated and how you are going to react. Of course, we can’t control every situation in our lives, but in many personal interactions, we have the ability to state, by word or deed, that certain behaviours by others will or will not be tolerated.”

It’s Not Your Fault, but It Is Not Theirs Either

First of all: Let’s not play the blame game. That doesn’t help anyone.

It doesn’t matter why you give to much to your spouse, friend, boss, insert whomever. Mostly it will be a dynamic that is fed by two different personality styles and characters. Most of the time, the other person isn’t on the lookout for someone to drain their energy, attention, work or to take advantage of them consciously. And you are probably not actively searching for someone you can invest so much energy in that it leaves you exhausted.

You might even follow a pattern and see yourself over and over again in similar situations with different people. Same same but different.

It’s not your fault, but it is not theirs either. But you need to get out of that kind of situations. You need to break your patterns wherever they originate from.

And for that, you have to work on yourself and your relationships.

Imprisoned in a Downward Spiral

Why don’t you tell that person that you are overwhelmed or drained? That you are not happy with what is happening? Why are you not honest about your own needs and feelings? Why don’t you address your issues where it obviously would be necessary?

Often we violate our boundaries when we are not in alignment with a person or the people around us and do not value ourselves enough. We start to suffer in silence. We keep going to avoid the hard conversations we would need to have to activate change. It feels like we are backed into a corner, or even more accurate: A downward spiral.

Maybe someday you will blow up, or you have a meltdown, or you flee entirely. But neither the way nor the results are ever desirable.

Getting into setting boundaries and sustaining them is a process that probably won’t go smooth. Most likely, it will hurt. People will feel like you stepped on their toes. They might not understand your change, and they might also not like it at all as you are taking something away from them. But it is necessary. And most healthy. So let’s get on it.
Interpreting Cox Proportional Hazards Model Using Colon Dataset in R
By: Conan Koh
Tags: Rstudio, Regression, Survival Analysis, R Programming, Cox Proportional Hazards

Simple Cox proportional hazard model (Univariate)

Since the data was from a randomized clinical trial, I will assume that the randomization process was effective (e.g the characteristics of the patients between the three groups were similar). Hence, in theory, there isn’t a need to adjust for confounders for a clinical trial that has effective randomization. I will proceed on to plot the survival curve stratified by the treatment regimens as well as generate the Cox proportional hazard model with treatment regimens as the predictor. This is done using the survminer package and the following code is implemented:

graph <- survfit(Surv(time, status == 1) ~ rx, data = colon_1)

OS_plot <- ggsurvplot(graph, xlab = “Time in days”, risk.table = TRUE,

pval = TRUE)

Interpretation: The log-rank test state that the p-value is < 0.0001. This indicates that there is an overall difference between the three groups (Observation, only Levamisole and Levamisole + 5-FU) in terms of overall survival. From the graph, it shows that while there seems to be no difference in overall survival between the observation group and Levamisole group, there is a difference in overall survival between Levamisole + 5FU and the other two groups. The graph also suggests that there is no violation of proportional hazards assumption as the lines do not cross each other (explained in the later section).

Following which, I implement the following code to generate the Cox proportional hazard model and the hazard ratio:

model <- coxph(Surv(time, status == 1) ~ rx, data = colon_1)

summary(model)

Interpretation: The hazards of dying is 1.5% lower for patients who were given only Levamisole as compared to the observation group (95% confidence interval: 0.799–1.22). This difference is not significant (p-value = 0.888). In contrast, the hazards of dying is 40.1% lower for patients who were given Levamisole + 5-FU as compared to the observation group (95% confidence interval: 0.475–0.756). This difference is significant (p-value < 0.01).

The conclusion in the model corresponds to the survival curve, that Levamisole + 5-FU improves overall survival of patients with colon cancer.
The Customer is Not Always Right
By: Jennifer Macdonald
Tags: Customer Behavior, Retail, Customer Service, Business Philosophy, Employee Experience

1. Customers abuse their power.

Customers know that they are supposed to come first. Unfortunately, some of them use this knowledge to abuse their power. They know that management will compensate them in some way when they complain, regardless of whether they’re right or wrong. Many times the manager ends up offering them gift cards for the “inconvenience.” It doesn’t take some people long to clue in that yelling = free merchandise. That’s when they start gaming the system.

In the grocery store where I work, we see the same repeat offenders week after week. They start trying to return things they’re technically not allowed to, get items cheaper than the listed shelf price, or demand they get items for free with no logical reason. And there’s nothing that we, as employees, can do about it. If we try to follow the store’s established rules, the customer goes above our heads by demanding to speak to the manager, who will undoubtedly give them whatever they want to keep them happy.

The customer shouldn’t have the power to override the employees. We are letting customers skirt the rules, and it needs to stop.
How big data and analytics is shaping tomorrow for marketing leaders?
By: Ella William
Tags: Data Science, Marketing, Big Data, Marketing Automation, Analytics

Of the many similarities between Big Data and a Marketer, one thing stands out: both have an insatiable appetite for information. If you don’t know what is broken, you won’t be able to fix it.

In an era where the cliché “Change is the only constant” is relevant more than ever, people are looking at Big Data and Analytics to make their decisions more data-driven. Big Data is evolving into a necessity for the business not just to analyze and predict future outcomes but also to create and shape them. It is slowly becoming the oxygen for a company and the company’s survival, in the long run, might depend on its effectiveness in using big data.

Read More
Contribute
By: Amanda Warton Jenkins
Tags: Wellness, Contribute, Womens Health, Writing, Well Woman

1. What We Love

Your first step in understanding our publication is to read and really study some of the top articles in each of our topical categories (visit the Well Woman homepage, and visit each of the tabs). In general, we hope that your story will fit into one of our main categories. By using these tags, your story will also show up on the associated topic page:

Health

Science

Expert Interviews

Spirit

Productivity

Success (may include entrepreneurship & freelancing, work-life balance, leadership etc.)

We accept unpublished drafts only, so please make sure to hit the 3 dots and choose “add to publication” so we may review your draft and make sure it is suitable for our publication, and your chosen category.

You don’t have to be a woman to write for Well Woman, but please understand that our audience is primarily women. Write your story specifically to our audience.

Each new request is handled manually and will take time to process. Please be patient.
Design Thinking in Agile Development
By: Andy Cochran
Tags: Agile, Planning, Design, Human Centered Design, Nyc Planning Labs

As Planning Labs grows and its development practices spread through the NYC Department of City Planning, it’s important that we document & disseminate how design fuels our core values. This will allow multiple agile teams to build a consistent experience across the agency’s products.

Here are some design methods employed by Planning Labs:

From the start

Design is not an afterthought. It can’t be tacked on at the end of a project. Adding it mid-project can be challenging if not impossible. Before the first line of code is written, design thinking should frame the problem. Who’s the user of this app? Why are we building it? Do we even need to build something?

Human-centered

Throughout the development process, incorporate feedback from real users. We continuously demo and test our products. Our first step in every new project is to put aside notions of functionalities and UI so that we can clearly define the who, what, and why. Most importantly, the who comes first.

18F has a great set of human-centered design methods that we utilize — especially dot voting, which helps stakeholders make difficult prioritization decisions (including features to not build).

Sticky dot voting for ZoLa (green=most important, blue=nice to have, red=not important)

Everyone is a designer

Currently, everyone on our team is a developer to some degree. But the line between Designer and Developer is blurry. Designers might champion our human-centered methods, but it’s ultimately a collaborative effort. It’s the responsibility of everyone to advocate for users.

Design is part of development

Resist the urge to make separate GitHub issues for design and development tasks. Design can’t be separated from development. Design is an implicit part of every dev task. It’s easy to see how design is involved in adding a new button or styling map layers. It’s more complex to see how backend architectural decisions can affect user experience. But every decision we make needs to put the user first.

GitHub issues as user stories

When writing a GitHub issue, consider putting the user first. Almost any issue can be titled with a user story following this format:

“As a [type of user], I want [my goal] so that [my reason].”

This helps keep human-centered design at the forefront — especially with new feature requests. For example: “As a borough planner, I want to copy the URL of a tax lot so I can share its information.”

But even development tasks that have no impact on the UX can be written this way: “As a developer, I want the API to return GeoJSON so it’s easier to consume in the frontend.”

Design (not just development) is agile

Nothing’s ever finished or perfect. Be comfortable shipping apps that aren’t. Don’t become impeded by high-fidelity mockups. Striving for pixel-perfect UI can too often slow down development or force waterfall implementation. You could be spending too much time solving the wrong problem. Instead, make assumptions and test them as early as possible. Then iterate, focusing on continually improving the user experience.
How important is the logo?
By: Jan Schultink
Tags: Presentations, Design, Branding, Fundraising

How important is the logo?

Many early stage startups that need an investor presentation do not have a proper logo and graphical identity yet. Is this a bottleneck for a presentation?

Not really. I do not believe that you need to put your logo prominently on every page of your presentation. Hence, it is not very important in presentation design. The most important design element for a presentation is color. The color scheme will decide how your slides look.

So, pick a color scheme you think is appropriate for your business. It can be done very quickly. Every investor will forgive you if you decide to change it later. In the early days, you can simply use a text logo without any design to show your project’s name. If you are not sure, a temporary project name can be a better solution than a poorly chosen brand name. That brand you chose late at night while brainstorming with the founding team might work great for you, but could be less optimal for your target audience.

Obviously if you are launching in the market than logo, identity and picking the right color becomes (a lot) more important.
Two Sides of the Same Coin
Tags: David Foster Wallace, Thesceneandheard, Poetry, Universe, Beauty

Light… Darkness

Night… Day

Two sides of the same coin

…… A million little particles of stardust . . . . . … . ………….

Settle. ….. . .. . … . .. .. . .. .. . . .. . . .. . . .. .. .

….. .On……. .. .. . .. … ………… …. .. .. .. .. . … … .. .

….. . ..Land .. …. .. …………………….. … … .

……. ……… Quietly

…………… …………………….. ………………………………

……………………………………………………………………

And the gears turn at the hands of

And the levers are pulled by the hands of

And the circle was completed by the hands of

And we embrace the mystery made by the hands of

And we stare up into the millions eyes killed by the hands of

And we spiral out of infinity again and are received by the hands of

And we ride the wave of a never ending math equation drew up by the hands of

A word.

Spoken into the void.

Destroys the wonder of looking into the night sky.

In awe, for guidance.

We are lost with no direction. We stumble around in the dark. Until the light frees us from time.

Then:

You will see your past and future all at once

You will see your present goes as fast as you can name it

You will see yourself in everything that lives

You will see through the illusion of time

You will see everything is happening at once

You will know everything

You will be everything

You are everything

Everything is in you

And you are beautiful
Happy New Year
By: Dylan Higgins
Tags: Life

Each new year gives us a small foretaste of our future glory with Christ, where all is made right. Revelation 21:5 says, “And He who sits on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” And He said, “Write, for these words are faithful and true.” I’m so thankful that the Bible gives us a clear picture of what’s coming! The followers of Christ are being made new! Happy New Year from the Higgins Family at Hill Hårow!
Haha Funny Article
By: Joseph M. Learned
Tags: Mental Health, Psychology, Depression, Awareness, Comedy

So my fiancée (I know, I lied in the subheader) says that I am writing too much about depressing topics.

I told her that my articles are inherently depressing as they are about depression.

How the hell do I write a non-depressing article about depression.

Anyways.

So one stick is breaking up with another stick and says “I’m leafing you” and then the other stick starts to cr-DEPRESSION AFFECTS MORE THAN 264 MILLION PEOPLE WORLDWIDE. (source)

Dang, that really slipped out.

I do write a lot about depression.

But in my defense, depression is a very important issue, and not enough awareness surrounds it.

Oh okay, there I go again. No more talks about depression, anxiety, or mental health.

Time for a fun fact, there are four types of poison. Poison I, II, and III are fairly lethal, but Poison IV is very itchy.

(thanks Reddit)

My fiancée originally didn’t like my facial hair, but she says it’s growing on her. I certainly hope it isn’t-REACH OUT TO YOUR FRIENDS WHO HAVE A HABIT OF SELF-ISOLATION.

Ah, damn, there I go once again.
The Best Achievement I’ve Ever Accomplished
By: Hargun Singh
Tags: Storyofmylife, Life, Storytelling, Creativity, Achievement

Here’s the story: In my third-grade year, my school always had a spelling bee at the end of the year. The spelling bee was for every third grader that scored well on this 20-question quiz. I got all 20 correct.

The quiz was two weeks before the spelling bee actually took place. In the day I found I got accepted, I was so happy. However, my goal now was to get that 1st place award.

During the week you could see me practicing spelling words. My mom said that if I won I could get another pair of Lebron’s, so that made me want to work harder. I quit video games for a week and studied 4–5 hours a day.

When that week was over, it was game time. When the spelling bee started, they randomized your seats. I was the nineteenth person that went.

In the first round, I got the word fruit. F-R-U-I-T. The judge, who was my school’s enrichment teacher, Mrs. Simon said yes. A couple more rounds passed, and I kept getting words right. When it came down to the last two people, it was me and Amy Koomson.

The first three words we both got we spelled wrong, and you had to get two in a row to win. The next word I got was easy. It was scissors. In my head, I was like yes, I got an easy word. The moment of truth came, and the last word was up and if I got it right I would win.

T-U-R-Q-U-O-I-S-E. I had practiced a lot, and that was a word I had practiced. After I spelled it correctly, everyone got up and started clapping. I went running straight to my friends and my family. They all had really nice words to say when they congratulated me. The best part wasn’t when I won, it was when my parents bought me those shoes.
Boxes
By: Robert Faron
Tags: White Objects, Love, Home, Poetry, Relationships

Boxes

A Poem

Photo by Michal Balog on Unsplash

Boxes upon boxes,

Boxing up our goods,

Boxing up our bads,

Opening sorting, keeping, giving,

A new life together begins.

Wrapping paper stuffed in boxes,

Items gathered for the move,

Recycled to save, to keep close, or

To give away.

Lives used well,

Lifted by events,

Dampened by experiences,

Enhanced by results.

Bright new focus,

positions have changed,

New love emerges,

As places saved on new shelves,

Are filled by each other’s joy.

© 2020 Robert Faron
LunarSatoshi — The Crypto Market Scanning Bot
Tags: Trading, Bitcoin, Ethereum, Cryptocurrency, Bots

LunarSatoshi.com interface

About a month ago I set out to create a bot that was capable of scanning the cryptocurrency markets to find coins that met my trading criteria, my “Secret Sauce”. I had tried many market scanners around the web but none were capable of what I was looking for, thus LunarSatoshi.com was born.

In less than a month our community has grown to ~350 members and has made some serious profits.

The LunarSatoshi bot scans the market looking for various TA signals. The scan takes place every 10 minutes.

Think of the bot as more of a filter bot than a call bot right now. It gives you a heads up on coins that could pump soon.

If you’d like to try the bot feel free to join us on Discord: https://discord.gg/XV4StRR
This Life Is For The Living
By: Gal Mux
Tags: Poetry On Medium, Poem, Poems About Life, Poems On Medium

This life is for the living

If you’d be gone today

Those who’ll wake up tomorrow

Will find the sun already shining coz

This life is for the living

This life is for the living

If you feel like

You are owned something by it

Then change your perspective coz

This life is for the living

This life is for the living

When you choose to be a talker

Instead of choosing to be a doer

Just know time won’t wait for you coz

This life is for the living

This life is for the living

Don’t wait to always be the receiver

When you can stand strong and be a giver

And especially give it to yourself coz

This life is for the living

This life is for the living

When you want to complain

Just remember that

You can choose to be grateful instead coz

This life is for the living

This life is for the living

If you feel like

It’s too much for you

Then find the inner strength to keep going coz

This life is for the living

This life is for the living

Don’t live it sad and gloomy but live it bubbly and joyful

Try again and again even when you fail

Shine bright, be colourful and light like a butterfly coz

This life is for the living