fabiochiu/medium-articles huggingface dataset:
This is the Season
By: Amy Jasek
Tags: Spirituality, Poem, Festivals, Poetry, Christmas

I’ve been taking a break from Medium this month, but when I noticed Darshak Rana’s prompt of Christmas on Spiritual Secrets, I decided to poke my head back in for a sec and say hi. Thank you, Darshak Rana, for tagging me!

I hope all my writing brothers and sisters are having a joyful December! I hope all of you wonderful readers out there are, too. Merry Christmas!!
Vagabond
By: White Feather
Tags: Travel, Spirituality, Life, Poetry, Adventure

Adrift on the prairie ocean

I search for place

I search for mountain

I search for view

But I no longer search for home

That is within me

Instead I long for movement

I want to see mountains from all sides

I want a journey

Each day a new place

I want to lose myself

In immensity and distance

I want to be a traveler

A vagabond

A stranger in a strange land

I want to have wheels

I want to see and feel

And touch

I want to be both present

And far away

I have decided to return

To my endless journey

That had been interrupted

When I stopped moving

With that decision made

It will be so

I will pack lightly

And release my mooring
You Belong
By: Ani Vidrine
Tags: Nature, Personal Growth, Spirituality, Life, Poetry

You Belong

Poems From the Porch

photo by Richard Burlton on Unsplash.com

The day is grey and cold, but the lake is no less beautiful than when the sun illuminates it.

There is a bell clanging in the distance and intermittent waterfowl sounds.

Some of the ducks are playing tag, skimming over the surface, then gliding in to float again.

The waves are dancing patterns on the water, which is flowing in a different direction than usual.

I want to stay outside because it is my last morning here, but the chill has become uncomfortable.

Two flocks of ducks are tightly grouped together in separate pods. I wonder if they are cold, too.

It seems that they stick together when times get tough.

It reminds me of how we banded together after the hurricanes this year, and all the years before.

Now the two ducky flocks have joined one another and are swimming in a huddle.

There is room for you, too,

and for me,

in our own human huddle.

We are not alone.

We belong.
For Love and Compost
By: Jane Woodman
Tags: Sonnet, Sonnetry, Garden, Love, Marriage

For Love and Compost

a sonnet of resurrection

In the author’s garden

Now as the last light quickens final growth

As first light did more slowly in the Spring,

So do we two at this age quicken, both

To see each other’s good in everything.

A garden’s not a life, yet in the leaf

That rises with the Summer’s heat to fall

When Autumn’s chill surrounds it, our belief

In one another’s mimicked by them all.

Death seems to come in Winter, yet we see

The good one season does the next in soil

Enriched by last year’s elements set free

By processes that lessen our own toil.

So ever-growing love gives us a vision

Of self-renewing natural life’s precision.
Using Sequelize as ORM
By: Ringga Gustavino
Tags: Sequelize, Database, JavaScript, Software Development, Postgres

1. Sequelize has a CLI

Sequelize has a CLI (Command Line Interface) where I don’t need to really create the folders manually like models, seeders, migrations, and config. It’s a seperate npm package with the core Sequelize package, so I don’t really notice it until I read the bottom of their documentation. All you have to do is

$ npm install sequelize --save

$ npm install sequelize-cli -g --save

$ sequelize init

Sequelize then creates the model, migration, seeder, and config folders. By default it will be created in the root of your project. If I want to set where the folders should be, I only need to create a .sequelizerc file in the root of my project. We can also generate and run the seeding and migration of the database. It’s very convenient in my opinion.

2. Sequelize is ORM only

Unlike some ORM like Waterline (Sails JS) or Loopback, Sequelize only have one main purpose that is to help with database queries and management. I’ve used Sails JS Waterline before and it only supports basic queries (as of version 1) very well but hard to use for a more complex query that I can do in Sequelize, maybe because it focuses more on the whole framework. I haven’t tried other ORM yet but for me personally, Sequelize is a good ORM to use if you don’t really use any framework that include an ORM of their own like express. It supports most of the main stream SQL databases (Mysql, Postgresql, SQLite).

3. Very flexible, yet simple

One of the thing I also loved from Sequelize is that it can perform a more complex query without me having to create a raw query for it. Even though some complex query are not so straight forward, but many were straightforward such as upsert, find and count, ordering based on joined table, and so on. The database configuration is also straightforward and I can create database based on the environment that I’m running it on.

4. A big community

Sequelize have a big community and had helped me a lot when I needed to do something and cannot seem to find the right way to do it. It’s been my saviour for almost two years and any weird questions I asked to google seem to have an answer in Stackoverflow or their github repo issues. It’s a mature ORM (stable version 5 as of now) I must say and also well documented to get started.
My Mom’s American Dream
By: Lorraine Vargas Townsend
Tags: Work, Culture, Diversity And Inclusion, Women Leaders, Latinx

Like most Hispanic women, my story starts with my mom, Flor.

At 13 years old, she emigrated from Colombia to the Panama Canal Zone in 1963 when it was a U.S. territory. When she arrived, she was adopted by her older sister, my Tia Alba. Mom dropped out of the 8th grade because the courses in English were too hard for her, and she just couldn’t keep up.

For Mom, life in the U.S. looked a lot like what you’d imagine for a typical brown immigrant pursuing the American dream. When she was 18, she got her GED, married my father (a U.S. citizen), and then migrated from Panama to the state of Georgia, eventually settling in Texas. They got divorced when I was four.

Mom and the three of us

After the divorce, she spent her time cleaning motel rooms and cooking food at a truck stop in Magnolia, Texas. Mom’s pay was meager. She was barely keeping up with the bills, and after the divorce, Dad vanished without a trace and never paid a dime in child support for us three kids. As I was starting kindergarten, we were evicted. My mom, Abuela, my two siblings and I packed our belongings and moved in with my Tia Alba. She had a great house, and it was a full house.

Moving in with my extended family after an eviction may sound like the start to an immigrant sob story, especially to a person born in the U.S., but that home was my safe haven where I could be both Colombian and American. It was where I felt the deepest sense of belonging.

Tia Alba is the matriarch of our family and her home was a slice of Colombia in Houston, Texas.

The sound of cumbia music in the background when Mom and her sisters danced together, the smell of sancocho, frijoles, and arroz con pollo simmering on the stove, and the taste of delicately sliced carne wrapped in plantain leaves that had been slow-roasting on the grill for hours on end — these are the senses of my childhood.
Epicenter Major 2019 Data Analysis
Tags: Epicenter Major, Dota2 Tournament Analysis, Dota 2, Gaming

Vici Gaming is the Champion of Epicenter Major 2019

Sorry for the late analysis, as usual, we will see how the meta affects the quickly released 7.22d patch.

Due to the massive 7.22 patch, many heroes have been tried out, seems like a healthy meta at this point.

Overview

Games: 97

Total Heroes: 117

Picked: 105

Banned: 91

Untouched: 7

From datdota.com
Daily Bit #116: Be The Whale
By: Daily Bit
Tags: Blockchain, Bitcoin, Cryptocurrency, Crypto, Fintech

Word On The Street

If You’re a Whale, I’m a Whale

Ahhh, Wednesday. Hump day for society, dump day for the crypto asset market. Although yesterday’s contraction of $20 billion was smaller than Sunday’s Slide, it was enough to send retail traders into a firestorm.

The life and lies of the average joe

No matter the willpower to ignore intraday price movements, retail investors have the tendency to gravitate back towards chart formations — and emotional trading — if pressed hard enough.

This week has been a full court press. When volatility amps up, people do what they do best: talk. In January, the narrative was that the markets sold off due to the Chinese New Year. Leading into April, the decline was written off as taxes. Now with regulations hanging over ICOs like guillotines, people are turning to that tale to rationalize the decline.

Another thing about retail investors: Unlike institutions, retailers don’t have the skills and patience to produce long term returns. Plus, the golden rule of only investing “risk capital” is often broken, exacerbating slides when they occur. That gives way to the classic “staircase up, elevator down” mapping.

Institutions have brains — big, big brains.

A terrific skill to acquire is to learn how to think like institutions. One of the first steps to accomplishing that is understanding that the narrative being pushed in online forums probably isn’t going to play out as most think.

Here’s why: Too many people are in on the secret. As a whale, why share profits with the fish? It’s easier to remain seated on the sidelines, let retail investors chew each other up, and then buy in lower as more lose faith in the market.

That’s possibly what we saw in early April where the many proclamations of a “bottom” led to a surge in prices. Folks got excited about a comeback, got greedy, and there were no whales to support the upward push. In fact, it’s more likely that they were the ones who caused the dump to occur.

So, how can you win? Be the whale. It’s easier said than done, but the ability to look above the Frey like Jon Snow can help prevent against impulsive investments. By that notion, it makes sense that we won’t see the first big players break into the market until the masses stop caring if they were going to enter in the first place.
Using Gatsby-Image With Contentful
By: Tom Settle
Tags: Contentful, JavaScript, Gatsbyjs

Why gatsby-image is so good and why you should be using it

Recently I have been building a new site similar to a blog-style site (more of a news site), and am of course using Gatsby and then switching my CMS to the more popular Contentful. I was able to easily set up all the content and pull it into front-end, but my site was performing poorly on the lighthouse audit because all my images where being dynamically loaded directing into a <img src={}/>.

This caused the page on load to stutter into loading all the images and it felt choppy. I had always seen gatsby-image but honestly, I could never get passed what was given to me in the gatsby-starter and was only using it for local image files like logos or any image saved directly to my codebase.

But let me show you my struggle of getting to use gatsby-image with dynamically loaded images from a CMS and truly how easy it is.

My old GraphQl query

allContentfulBlog(sort: { fields: [date], order: DESC }) { edges { node { title coverImage { fluid(maxWidth: 980) { ...GatsbyContentfulFluid }

} } } }

The coverImage is the image I am grabbing and was just directly referencing the file url. Like I said before this was resulting in poor performance and was not taking advantage of the Lazy load feature of gatsby-image .

Adding gatsby-image

First, make sure gatsby-image is installed on your project (it should be with most all gatsby starters).

If not npm i gatsby-image .

Next, simply on the page that you are rendering the image elements…

import Img from "gatsby-image" Change your query to use gatsby-image

Contentful is one of the handfuls of CMS that gatsby-image supports directly so this is very painless. Instead of using file { url } we will use fluid { ...GatsbyContentfulFluid }

allContentfulBlog(sort: { fields: [date], order: DESC })

{ edges

{ node

{ title

slug

date(formatString: "MMMM Do, YYYY")

coverImage { fluid(maxWidth: 980{

...GatsbyContentfulFluid

}

title

}

}

}

}

The fluid tag is for images that are fluid to their containers you can also use fixed and a range of others found in the gatsby-image docs.

Lastly, using this query you can map through the results and add to the <Img /> component we imported. It will look something like this.

{allContentfulBlog.edges[0].node.tags.map(tag => (

<Img

fluid={allContentfulBlog.edges[0].node.coverImage.fluid}

key={allContentfulBlog.edges[0].node.coverImage.fluid.src}

alt={allContentfulBlog.edges[0].node.coverImage.title}

</Img>

))

}

These are the necessary props for the component, key={}, fluid={}, alt={}

Once those are all populated, your images will now be loaded using gatsby-image! and it makes such a great difference I am in the process of changing all my images to use this because the performance difference seriously is insane.
Are you using SVG favicons yet? A guide for modern browsers.
By: Antoine Boulanger
Tags: Pwa, SVG, HTML, Front End Development, Icons

You should be using SVG favicons. They’re supported in all modern browsers right now.

Also, you probably don’t need all these icon links and sizes you’re copying from projects to projects. Let’s find out what’s the absolute minimum required, word by word.

Icon

The main favicon can be an SVG of any size. The type type=”image/svg+xml” is unnecessary.

<link rel="icon" href="favicon.svg">

Mask icon

For Safari, it’s a bit different. You need to add a mask-icon . It’s also an SVG, but it has to be made of a single colour and placed on a transparent background. The browser adds the colour of the attribute.

<link rel=”mask-icon” href=”mask-icon.svg” color=”#000000">

Touch icon

The icon for iOS devices as well as favourites from browsers new tab page and more. You only need the 180 x 180 size, and the sizes attribute is superfluous.

<link rel="apple-touch-icon" href="apple-touch-icon.png">

Manifest

The manifest.json provides information about your web app or website. These lines are mandatory to pass Lighthouse’s test. The icon linked is used by Android and Chrome. The largest size 512 x 512 is the only one needed.

{

"name": "Starter",

"short_name": "Starter",

"icons": [{

"src": "google-touch-icon.png",

"sizes": "512x512"

}],

"background_color": "#ffffff",

"theme_color": "#ffffff",

"display": "fullscreen"

}

The theme-color meta is still required for Android’s Chrome browser colour.

<meta name="theme-color" content="#ffffff">

Done

That’s it, that’s all the icons you need for the current modern browsers, everything else is unnecessary. The msapplication-TileImage can be added if you want a different icon in Windows tiles otherwise the apple-touch-icon is used. The TileColor isn’t used anymore.

Everything else

Sadly, not everyone is on modern browsers yet BUT it can be easily resolved by dropping a 32 x 32 favicon.ico at the root of your website. This works everywhere else, even at your grandma’s.

Dark mode

To finish, here’s a tip for dark mode. One of the benefits of an SVG favicon is that you can change the colour with CSS. Using the prefers-color-scheme media query, the colour of your favicon changes with the users dark or light mode. This method won’t work with the mask-icon since the colour is in the attribute but Safari adds a white background if there isn’t enough contrast.



<style>

path {

fill: #000;

}



path {

fill: #fff;

}

}

</style>

<path fill-rule="evenodd" d="M0 0h16v16H0z"/>

</svg> http://www.w3.org/2000/svg " width="16" height="16"> path {fill: #000; <a href="http://twitter.com/media" class="cm jw" rel="noopener nofollow">@media</a> (prefers-color-scheme: dark) {path {fill: #fff;

Result

Here’s the final result. Copy this in the <head> of your website and don’t forget to place a favicon.ico at the root. ✌️
Our First Month Live!
By: Seth Rubin
Tags: Bitcoin, Crypto, Cryptocurrency, Ethereum

MARKET Protocol by the numbers:

525 registered users, 2000+ unique website visitors

$200,000+ locked in smart contracts over two contract expirations

250+ trades in SBTC and LBTC

Traded on two exchanges — MPX and DDEX

Podcasts — Listen to Seth Rubin on Wyre Talks and BlockCrunch

We had some great support on twitter from Erik Voorhees, Andrew Keys, Kieran Daniels and more.

Week 1:

We made a bunch of changes to the GUI to address some of our most common questions about leverage and price. Now traders can easily see max gain, max loss, leverage and implied price via tooltip.

Bitcoin ripped! We nearly breached our Price Cap of $14,000 three days into trading before screaming off of the highs. One savvy trader put on some perfect trades I highlighted in the best trades of week with 35x leverage!

Week 2:

The v2 roadmap was posted in our blog post What’s next for MARKET Protocol. We implemented blocknative to handle web3 connectivity states. We released the first version of MP Tools as an easy way to learn more about LBTC and SBTC. You can see the implied price of bitcoin and how much leverage is implied at different prices.

Week 3:

We had our first expiration go off without a hitch settling bitcoin at $10,330.50. Holders of open positions began redeeming their collateral. Next, we launched on DDEX bringing SBTC and LBTC to a new set of users.

We’ve had over 100 people sign up for our MP rewards program. MKT tokens are currently held by over 250 accounts. Read our v2 roadmap for more information.

v2 Roadmap

Week 4:

We were happy to be part of the first AMA in the DeFi the World Series initiated by DeFi Labs, DOS Network and Hydro Protocol on WeChat alongside with Anton from Kyber Network.

We are also proud to have our first third-party implementation — an exciting project building a BTC hash rate index on top of MARKET Protocol. Please take a look at CarboClan’s Tokenized Synthetic PoW Mining Contract.

We would love to get you trading.

Are you hodling Bitcoin? Use LBTC to get 3x the exposure for the same collateral. Think we’re going down from here? Now you can profit from a decline in price.

We are offering one on one help on trading with leverage or anything else. All we ask for it a little feedback. Reach out on Discord, Telegram or Google Hangouts. Please grab 15 minutes here.
Give Thanks Anyway
By: Rev Dr Sparky
Tags: Thanksgiving, Gratitude, Humor, Life, Spirituality

Give Thanks Anyway

Whatever, Pollyanna. (Rolls eyes.)

Photo by Guillermo Latorre on Unsplash

By now you’ve probably read all you can stand to read about how nostalgic you must be for those holiday gatherings you used to enjoy (maybe you’re not), or what you should do to have your holiday gatherings safely (you probably won’t), and you were just idly websurfing and feeling guilty when this notice popped up.

And here we are, asking the same old question:

Do we HAVE to give thanks when we’re not feeling thankful?

Let the Rev Dr Sparky help you with that — real quick, though, because we’re all being bombarded with messages about how we must feel and think and behave and “Believe!” (according to the bossiest home decor items ever).

Yes: give thanks anyway: just because you CAN.

As far as I know, we people are the main conscious witnesses to THE Ultimate Reality Show: this amazing Creation.

We’re in the Live Studio Audience of this cosmic drama that’s been running for billions of years over billions of light-years — which we all thought was mainly for the purpose of lighting up our night sky. That’s pretty great, you have to admit.

Sometimes I even feel I have a tiny part to play in this Show, but I don’t know what it is, and it doesn’t matter.

I’m just glad I somehow got a ticket to the Stardust Explosion Dark Energy Mystery Wave Reality Show. They weren’t cheap! And I’m thankful that you’re here, too. Otherwise, who’d I have to talk about it with?

Photo by Greg Rakozy on Unsplash

Share the Congregation of the Real World

Look, I don’t know who you hang out with, but I’ll bet you have friends who deserve to be part of Realigion for the Rest of Us.

Share this newsletter with them and encourage them to sign up. Reassure them that we’re too distracted to flood their inboxes, and we don’t do spam.

Thanks for being you. Whoever that is.
The Lovely Story of a Sandwich and a Bird
By: David B. Clear
Tags: Comics, Cartoon, Humor, Animals, Food

If you enjoyed this story, subscribe to my newsletter to get notified whenever I publish something new.
Supporting Trump at All Costs
By: Michelle Wuesthoff
Tags: Politics, Religion, Christianity, Abortion, Donald Trump

Evangelicals and conservative Christians have long held the overturning of Roe v. Wade as their priority and mandate, politically-speaking. Many within this sector have also seen themselves in the midst of a long, drawn-out culture war, losing ground year by year to an increasingly secular — or at least, less Christian — society. Early on, Trump honed in on these two things in order to secure his largest and most influential support base, and it worked. He’s stayed on-message and on-task in this regard, and in so many words, has promised them to restore America to the “Christian nation it once was.”

This sector of the church earnestly believes that abortion is the greatest evil of our time, and therefore, it is of the utmost importance and urgency to overturn its legalization. Many would give just about anything to have more conservative justices on the Supreme Court bench in order to stop this sanctioning of murder.

Nationally recognized church leaders and prophets have reinforced this for years, drawing biblical parallels between Old Testament stories and our current political climate. Believers have been taught to focus on the bigger picture — the spiritual battle that is raging — rather than what one sees in the physical realm. Support Trump for what he will inevitably bring about, and essentially ignore the rest.

But by doing so, I believe with my whole heart that we’ve unwittingly made a deal with the devil. We’ve exchanged the prospect of overturning Roe v. Wade for something far worse than legalized abortion.
New Jobs During Covid-19.
By: Lisa Martens
Tags: Careers, Covid Diaries, Humor, Jobs, Comedy

New Jobs During Covid-19.

One-liners.

Photo by visuals on Unsplash

Needed: Person to fill empty stadiums with cardboard heads so athletes feel like there’s an audience.

Seeking: Person to troubleshoot Zoom calls during fitness classes.

Needed: Excited, energetic team member to teach the art of de-escalation to the community to reduce the need to call the police.

Now Hiring: Mask designer. Experience preferred. T-Shirt design experience acceptable.

Seeking: App creator to match roommates based on how much they believe in Coronavirus and defunding the NYPD.

Needed: A vegetable washer who knows not to use bleach on produce.

Now Hiring: Person who will disinfect microphones 🎤 at outdoor events. Previous experience with microphone condoms preferred.

Seeking: Men can create OnlyFans accounts too — Haven’t you heard?

Join Our Family! We are searching for the perfect person to sit in our break room and console people who come in crying after a customer refuses to wear a mask.

Have you ever wanted to work in a park? Join our team and make sure nobody gets close to one another with an exciting job in social distancing enforcement.

Seeking: People to record interviews, since that’s pretty much the safest form of television to create right now.

Now Hiring: Someone to create fake sporting events so people have something to gamble on.

Seeking: Someone to 3D Print some money.

Have you always wanted to work outside? Disinfect playgrounds this summer! $1000 signing bonus. No health benefits. But hey, you’ll have so much Lysol on you, there’s no way you’ll get sick!

Desperately Needed: Virtual sobriety sponsors, preferably one who can create encouraging memes.

Now Hiring: Distancing Wedding Planner. Now is the best time to have a small wedding and not have to invite your extended family! Create the perfect small, socially-distant wedding for a fraction of the price. And avoid problematic uncles!

Join the Team! We are looking for someone who will tell someone why the unemployment website isn’t working. No, we aren’t going to invest in actually fixing it.

Seeking: Nannies who will teach and protect and cook for and bathe your children from six feet away. The whole time.

Now Hiring: A bystander who will stand in parks and tell officers, “They did buy food, not just booze. They already ate the food,” whenever the officer gives people trouble for public drinking.
Happy Hanukkah: Blurry Photos of Me Masturbating in the Back of My Synagogue
Tags: Judaism, Hanukkah, Photography

in In Fitness And In Health
A Quarter of All Europeans Is Going To Own Crypto Soon
Tags: Bitcoin

The British market analysis firm Ing just conducted a survey of the crypto market in Europe, USA and Australia. The main findings are that the number of cryptocurrency owners is going to more than double in the near future. At this time 9% of the participating Europeans have virtual coins, but soon the share of investors is going to climb to a quarter. The graph tells us that the people of Benelux are the most crypto-sceptic, while the fresh currencies are deemed the most trustworthy by the Turks. Even though the research was based on a balanced age group and nearly 15 thousand participants, what comes as a surprise are the differences in basic awareness. When asked if they have heard about cryptocurrencies, a mere 38% of Belgians replied that they have, but on the other hand, so did a whopping 79% of Austrians. (Austrian Post has just included crypto buying and selling to their services.) Of course a lot more ‘experts’ are male. Slovenians unfortunately weren’t a part of the research, as we would undoubtedly be somewhere at the top when asked the same question. The opinions regarding the safety of investments and salaries aren’t unexpected: other forms of investment, such as shares and gold, seem a lot less risky to the participants, and a great majority would still prefer to receive their paychecks in the form of a tangible currency.
The Importance of Walkable Cities
Tags: Metropolis, Cities, Transportation

One of the key NewCo themes is presenting forward looking and innovative companies that are “of the city”. We closely monitor trends, like the one we see here in the Bay Area: many more companies are moving to San Francisco up from Silicon Valley because it is easier to hold on to key talent and personnel. And in Detroit: the story there is all about the re-sizing of that city as it re-emerges into a sustainable scope, which is all centered into the tight geography of downtown Detroit. In both cases, this is happening because key talent and younger people entering the work force value a walkable lifestyle. Case in point, many studies are showing that millennials are driving at a much lower rate than any previous generation.

This story about Los Angeles was a pleasant surprise when it hit my inbox earlier today: The city that once ripped up its rails and public transportation infrastructure is steadily making its way up the ranks of walkable cities! As this story points out, cities that have walkable centers see higher real estate values in addition to providing more aesthetically pleasing areas, places where the community can gather and opportunities for small businesses to flourish.

What do you think? Does the walkability of a city impact your decision to live, work, visit? Let us know your thoughts.
ECOMI Collect part 4: Marketplace, Purchasing, and Pricing
Tags: Ecomi, Blockchain, Token Economy Weekly, Token, Token Economics

Creating Your ECOMI Collect Account

It probably comes as no surprise that new users must register an account with ECOMI Collect to begin their digital collection. This process has been kept deliberately simple, allowing the user to register manually via email, or by using the single sign-on service provided, allowing you to register with the click of a button using your Facebook, Twitter, or Google accounts.

Once registered, the user will also be prompted to enter their preferences for specific brands and interests. In doing so, content, games, and collectibles will be tailored to your suit your interests, and ensure you don’t miss a chance to acquire your favourite characters and artworks!

ECOMI Collect Marketplace

Once you have registered your account, you can browse through the myriad of brands and collectibles available. ECOMI Collect will make suggestions based on your preferences, however, you will also have the option to:

Browse through individual brands and character series

View new releases or recommended content

Apply filters to narrow your search results

Each week, ECOMI will release new collectibles, known as an ‘ECOMI drop day,’ ensuring there is always new collectible content available, as well as other digital/virtual goods so you can continue to customize and personalize your digital collectible experience. Of course, all of these will then be available in augmented reality, and in Q3/4 this year will also feature in our in-app gaming. For more information, please see ECOMI Collect Part 3: Augmenting Reality.
My 4-Step Strategy to Learn Any New Technology Quickly
By: Le Van Tuan Long
Tags: Technology, Programming, Software Development, Coding, Learning To Code

My 4-Step Strategy to Learn Any New Technology Quickly

It works for me — I hope it will work for you too

Aaaaargh…there are too many things to learn! — Me, 2019

New frameworks and technologies are constantly being released, each one vying for our attention and claiming to be being faster, safer, and more efficient. As developers, we sometimes feel overwhelmed by the sheer amount of information. We may even experience imposter syndrome.

To keep up with the pace of learning, everyone needs to find a method that works for them. In this article, I’m sharing my four-step strategy for learning to program. This is what works for me. Hopefully, you’ll be able to reference it and chart your own path with it.

Step 1: Identify the Fundamentals

What you learn is more important than how you learn.

Time is limited, so we need to pick our battles.

In every role you take on, there’s a set of fundamental concepts that you have to deeply understand in order to build a strong foundation for future learning.

To identify the fundamental concepts, you need to do a bit of internet digging:

For example, MDN is the best reference documentation for web technologies. If you want to be a web developer, probably you should go through each of the fundamental technologies listed there — HTML, CSS, Javascript, HTTP, APIs /DOM — first.

It might be boring. It might be tedious. It might not be cool and trendy. But it will give you a solid foundation to increase your learning tenfold.
Blocktown Proposal for Zcash 2020 Network Upgrade
By: Greymatter Capital
Tags: Bitcoin, Blockchain, Zec, Zcash, Governance

By James Todaro, MD and Joseph Todaro

This serves as Blocktown’s proposal for Zcash’s fourth network upgrade (NU4). Last week we published a Full Report and Executive Summary supporting our selection of a 10% allocation of the miner’s reward for a “Development Fund” that will go into effect after the halving in October 2020 and replace the soon to be terminated 20% Founder’s Reward (FR).

Proposal for a Development Fund — not a Founder’s Reward

For the past 3 years, the majority of the 20% fee taken from the miner’s reward was allocated to early investors and vested employees in a “Founder’s Reward.” This was compensation for those who took either time and/or monetary risk on Zcash without knowing if Zcash would capture value or even successfully launch. The FR is hardcoded to terminate at the time of the first halving in October 2020.

We are in agreement with the vast majority of the community when we advocate termination/no extension of the Founder’s Reward at the time of the first halving. That is, the Development Fund we propose for NU4 does not allocate a single dollar to angel investors, VCs or vested employees. We consider that debt to be paid in full by October 2020.

TLDR

The NU4 Development Fund will be strictly allocated toward the advancement of the Zcash network and ZEC currency, and not for the enrichment of equity investors, VCs or vested employees.
How The Trumps Nearly Established a Political Dynasty
By: Sikander Hayat Khan
Tags: Election 2020, Politics, Donald Trump, Government, World

America isn't there yet. And it might never be.

But the truth is, it can’t write off these past four years as a one-off. Because, unless he goes to jail, Trump has no intentions of slowing down. He’s going to come back stronger. He’s already playing the martyr with his eyes on the election in 2024.

And even if he doesn't run, he’s paved the way for others like him to. He’s shown that “Trump politics” work. He’s shown that it takes an America that’s rallied together like never before to stop it.

And now, those politicians won’t only see eight years in the White House. They’ll be seeing term after term after term — they’ll be seeing dynasties in the making. Why? Because Donald Trump Jr. has shown that children of a sitting president can play an active role in American politics. He’s shown that they’re capable of rallying support, inciting hooliganism and being the front-runner in a campaign to discredit a democratic election.

It might not seem like much at first, but these factors compound suddenly to turn the children of the “chosen ones” into political forces. Because once the public has gotten used to seeing them in the political arena like this, they don’t bat an eyelid when they run for office — subconsciously, it seems like the natural progression.

And I’ve seen the “heirs” in my country do what Donald Trump Jr. has done — time and again. And you know why they do it? Because they have a sense of entitlement to rule even greater than that of their parents. They grew up in palaces paid for by the taxpayer and were treated like royalty wherever they went — only because politicians and civil servants were scared to death of their authoritarian parents. And when you snatch away what they believe is theirs, they’re willing to bring the country down in flames until they get what they want.

Both Trump and Trump Jr. were showing signs of that. They were ready to tarnish American democracy forever. And in a way, they’ve already succeeded — they showed that you could cross the line and almost get away with it.

If living under dynasties has told me one thing, it’s that it’s only a matter of time before someone tries again.
Inside the Shrinking Newsroom of the Paper That Shapes the Primaries
By: Save Journalism
Tags: Newspapers, Politics, Iowa, Reporter, Big Tech

Tim Alberta of POLITICO MAGAZINE spotlights a reporter at the Des Moines Register who has fallen victim to one of the many consequences of declining newsrooms. Journalist Tony Leys’ experience mirrors that of many newswriters and gatherers across the country. Local papers have been plagued with layoffs by the tens and hundreds, leaving less staff to cover the same geographic area.

When Leys was first asked to “pinch-hit” during the 2004 cycle — filling in for political reporters, when asked, to write about Democratic candidates — he was thrilled. Any journalist who comes to Iowa pines to cover the caucuses, and Leys, who had been with the Register since 1988, was finally getting his shot. He felt fortunate whenever called upon, unsure how often the opportunity would present itself. The next time around, however, in 2008, Leys was pulled into political coverage more frequently. Then, in 2012, he became something of a hybrid, devoting nearly as much time to reporting on elections as he did health care. By the 2016 cycle, Leys was a full-time political correspondent, finding time to cover his regular beat when the presidential churn paused or when a major health-related story demanded it.

Fourteen reporters at the Register are currently assigned to Democratic candidates, responsible for tracking their every move and covering their every stop in the state, but only three of them are practiced political journalists. The paper’s business reporter is covering Bernie Sanders; its agriculture reporter is responsible for keeping tabs on not-yet-declared Montana Governor Steve Bullock; its metro reporter is assigned to the long-shot Maryland Congressman John Delaney, who has all but lived in Iowa for the past two years.

Because of this, what was once a luxury — beat reporters moonlighting as political correspondents — is now essential to the Register’s survival. The newspaper is but a shadow of the behemoth it once was. A decade’s worth of layoffs and buyouts have gutted the editorial operation and purged the administrative staff crucial to running a metro daily.

But from the perspective of the public interest, it’s also deeply depressing. Local journalism is going extinct across America.
Incapacitated
By: J.D. Harms
Tags: Poetry, Image, Memory, Relationships

Incapacitated

A Poem

Photo by Jr Korpa on Unsplash

Barely swinging one foot

in front of the other

every wall…serendipitous

but unpronounceable

You left me here

or I walked away

and the difference can only

be hashed out in the morning

The liquid talk spills

all over the bar, the table

in front of me

I converse, we converse

I soliloquy…

We’ve hammered away

at all that’s wrong with the world

the fact

that we’re not drinking

the whole day away

…and that’s a problem…

Freed from our little, sparse

inhibitions

we’re parading stone cold

sober, too

and we’re here to make a scene

because we just can’t

bear

to be left against just

any wall

we didn’t choose to orchestrate

the passing of a night
Listing Update: CoinEx
Tags: Bitcoin, Blockchain, Ethereum, Cryptocurrency, Crypto

Listing Date & Time: 26th. September

With the eager participation and support from our FuzeX community, FXT will be tradable on CoinEx exchange starting from 26th of September.

Since its establishment in December 2017, CoinEx has been a steady global trading exchange with a strong track record of high rank in trading volume. CoinEx aims to maintain thorough transaction security and stable operation based on a unique transaction system, and abundant user experience.

CoinEx exchange utilizes BCH as its key currency, and the transaction fee is exempted if BCH is utilized. CoinEx now supports multiple languages for user convenience, and are providing trading services in nearly 100 countries/regions around the world.

The FuzeX team is working diligently to list FXT on other global exchanges and is looking forward to deliver good news to the community soon.

FuzeX Team is very pleased to be listed on CoinEx, which is one of the global exchange with its state of the art technology. Thank you again for your support.

For further details on CoinEx, please visit CoinEx Official Website.
Worth It
By: Laina Stanford
Tags: Time Travel, Microfiction, Space Travel, Pentina, Happy New Year

50-WORD MICROFICTION

Worth It

Love Has No Limits

Photo by Andriyko Podilnyk on Unsplash

“Happy New Year, Darling!”

I kissed the photo of my beloved wife taken December 31, 2020. At midnight, she was gone. We met at the Millennium New Year’s Eve Party. Exactly twenty Earth years was all we were allowed.

Knowing our time was limited, I still would not change anything.
[ANN] 2 Billion unsold MED token is BURNT today
Tags: Healthcare, Ethereum, Bitcoin, Blockchain

[ANN] 2 Billion unsold MED token is BURNT today

MED token is burnt as of Jan 20, 2018 / 16:00 (UTC+9)

MediBloc, patient-centric healthcare information platform, had successfully ended its token sale on Dec 15 2017, surpassing our soft cap.

MediBloc team had decided to burn unsold tokens in order to solidify the foundation of our project and protect the interest of token sale participants. The exact amount of unsold MED token was 2,033,615,900 MED, roughly around 20% of total MED supply. As of 4pm January 20th, 2018 (Korea time), the unsold MED token has been BURNT as announced before.

There will be no return once we burn all remaining tokens, so the team at MediBloc was extra cautious in this process.

Total of 2,033,615,900 MED has been transferred to a Quantum Hex address equal to 0000000000000000000000000000000000000001 in two separate transactions. Transaction IDs for the two transactions are as follows.

Transaction 1: b620452ba17916f25532c1ef13953868b54c09f7b9762760a35c2a9552166d77 (10 MED transfer)

Transaction 2: 5ce5208dbf9532f73dbe54b3086cd97b47b759daf6f12861970069bad2414002 (2,033,615,890 MED transfer)

The status of Quantum Hex address 00…01 that holds all the burned MED token can be confirmed through Qtum Explorer.

MediBloc will always do our best to firmly stand by our words. Please continue to support us in our journey to reinventing the healthcare industry.

<MediBloc Team>
Investigating the Growing Divide in U.S. Jail Incarceration Rates
By: Data Clinic
Tags: Data Science, Projects, Data For Good, Criminal Justice, Open Data

Investigating the Growing Divide in U.S. Jail Incarceration Rates

Why have jail incarceration rates grown faster in rural U.S. counties than in urban centers?

The Vera Institute of Justice released a report in 2017 revealing that while small rural counties have lower crime rates than urban centers, they simultaneously have some of the nation’s highest jail incarceration rates. Vera, a research and advocacy organization focused on building and improving justice systems that ensure fairness, promote safety, and strengthen communities, wanted to understand what is it about rural counties, apart from their “rurality,” that contributes to their disproportionately high jail rates. Data Clinic and Vera teamed up to explore factors that could explain this divide, allowing Vera to adapt their research strategy moving forward. Using open data that Vera had compiled on historical jail statistics and open data on state and county characteristics, Data Clinic built a model for jail incarceration rates that accounted for about half of the discrepancy between rural areas and other geographical metro areas. To learn what is the most important factor correlated with incarceration rates, read the whole story here.
How to Use Content and Social to Promote Your Small Business
Tags: Content Marketing, Digital Marketing, Business, Economic Growth, Hashtag

Author: Pratik Dholakiya / Source: Entrepreneur

In the United States, the small business sector represents a significant part of the nation’s economic growth, with an estimated 28 million registered businesses earning 54 percent of annual sales in America. Small business accounts for 55 percent of all jobs and, on average 66 percent of new net job growth on an annual basis, according to the U.S. Small Business Administration.

Given these statistics, there is nothing “small” about small businesses in America, except that these organizations typically follow a lean startup model, beginning as part-time businesses and growing only with time and cautious investment. Because of this limited growth model, hiring a marketing manager isn’t an option, budget-wise, for many small businesses.

However, what they lack in capital, these nusinesses can make up for with creative content marketing.

How can your small businesses leverage content tools and brand messaging to support your growth? Here are several strategies and software packages that every business owner should consider part of an effective marketing plan.

Master social media management.

If delegating social media management to someone on your team isn’t an option, become a master content creator yourself. There are many online courses available on Udemy that start for $10 per lecture, allowing you to learn at your own pace the fundamentals of digital marketing and social media. The courses will teach you what to share and when, to optimize the benefit of professional community management.

Learn what software applications the experts use to preschedule posts, and how to get alerts sent to your phone whenever someone likes or comments on your social media content. Empower yourself (or your staff) to respond quickly to customer questions on important social channels like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

Small businesses that sell online nationally, or internationally, can benefit from looking at metrics or analytics regarding their social media engagement. Learn where your customers are from, what posts have the most traction, the most active days or times for your customers — and more. You can use Sprout Social. The software also comes with comprehensive scheduling applications, competitive reports and more.

Take advantage of newsjacking and trending hashtags.

Starting from scratch with new social media accounts means a slow, persistent build in terms of audience. Don’t be discouraged if it takes time and a lot of effort to gain traction and followers for…

Click here to read more
Binance Weekly Report | Dec. 3–9, 2018
Tags: Bitcoin, Blockchain, Weekly Update, Binance, Cryptocurrency

The Binance Weekly Report is a roundup of the latest updates within the Binance ecosystem. We also provide a recap on some of the biggest news in the blockchain world, in the Around the Blockchain Universe segment. See last week’s Binance Weekly Report here.

1. New preview for Binance DEX

This past week, a new preview of the upcoming Binance DEX went live. Binance DEX is made by the blockchain community, for the blockchain community, with support from Binance developers, as part of advancing our mission to spread the freedom of money. Watch the video below for more details.

2. Binance launches sub-accounts feature

With our new sub-account feature, we are moving one step closer to a comprehensive, full-stack offering for institutional clients. For more information on corporate accounts, reach out to us at corporate@binance.com, or check out our FAQ to learn more.

3. CZ speaks at Forbes Asia Forum, shows Binance tattoo

During the “Forbes Asia Forum: Decrypting Blockchain For Business” in Singapore, CEO Changpeng “CZ” Zhao shared his thoughts on several hot topics in the blockchain world, from stable coins and the current market to the upcoming Binance Chain. He even showed his newly-inked tattoo. To watch the full interview, click here.

And to read CZ’s story on how he got the tattoo, as well as the history of Binance’s logo, click here.

4. Catch CZ and more at the upcoming Binance Blockchain Week.

Want to hear more from CZ and other notable industry leaders? Join us at the Binance Blockchain Week in Singapore from 19 to 22 January 2019. The event will highlight two large-scale events over the four days: a two-day hackathon known as the Binance SAFU Hackathon, followed by the Binance Conference. Tickets will go on sale this week.

5. Binance Labs prepares for #BUIDLers Day

Binance Labs is busy preparing for #BUIDLers Day on December 14, where Season 1 incubation program projects will be revealed. But before that, Labs and Garry Tan, managing partner at Initialized Capital, coached the project teams on their pitches.

Meanwhile, Binance Labs Director Ling Zhang was a featured speaker and panelist at laBITconf in Buenos Aires, talking about funding strategies in the crypto space.