fabiochiu/medium-articles huggingface dataset:
Can an Experiment Lead to Lasting Love?
By: Jemma Jorel
Tags: Sobriety, Breakups, Relationships, Love, Experiment

Can an Experiment Lead to Lasting Love?

Testing a new approach to romance

I’ve always been one to try new things.

I tend toward the more obscure menu items, explore new neighborhoods on my days off, and look for alternative ways of doing repetitive tasks. There’s something about novelty that brings me into the present moment, that makes me feel alive.

Even in love, I’ve tried all kinds — a drummer who worked for the highway department, a Doctor’s son who became a cop, a Middle Eastern importer, a long-haired bike shop owner. There was the Basque soccer-player-wine-aficionado, the New Englander with VIP hosts at casinos nationwide.

The love was real, but my approach was haphazard and it never lasted. They were generally good guys, but I always ended up feeling like I wasn’t getting what I needed. What were we doing wrong?

I wouldn’t say I had too low of standards (although starting a relationship with someone living in a halfway house probably wasn’t the best call). I always had an eye out for someone passionate, funny, good-hearted, strong, healthy and smart. But I never got the courage to ask hard questions up front. I wanted companionship and romance, but I didn’t really consider the qualities that could make a relationship grow stronger over time. I certainly didn’t embody them.

Instead, it was a courting that would be unsustainable for the long term. The early days were boozy dates and hormones and hurried to a sense of ‘we’re a thing’, without nearly enough inquiry into who this person would become (or revealing who I would become) when the novelty faded. I may have fantasized about forever but it became clear in time that forever wasn’t good for anyone involved.
A Green Thumb in the Eye of the Storm
By: Will Schmit
Tags: Poetry, Gardening, Covid 19, Community, Resistance Poetry

photo by Jeeray Tang at Unsplash

I planted strawberries

for the inheritors of the earth

whether they be meek,

or Martians.

These modern poems require letters

to stand up for themselves

six feet apart or six feet

deep in the heart.

The truth has roots in the dirt,

a hope for blossoms, fruit.

The springing ground cover sends feelers

into town under the safety of bees.

Now the rain cleanses everything

outside the window. The streaking glass,

our new caretaker, frames

heaven as episodic.

My tiny green love aims

for your blue glove. The promise

of tasting good seems trivial

until breakfast.

The garden rows spell help.

You can only read it from above,

only believe it in the palm

of tomorrow.
Alternative Black History Month Facts
By: J. Garcia
Tags: Satire, Opinion, Alternative Facts, Trump, Political Satire

Ten Alternative Facts for Those Who Disagree with the MSM.

Africans sailed the ocean for the Americas to steal gold. Upon arriving in the Americas they decided slavery was better than returning (too hot over there). Slaves were well fed and taken care of by their masters. Healthcare was great in times of slavery. Amazing. Slavery was not a source of contention when crafting the constitution. Kumbaya. Frederick Douglas invented blueberry jam. Amistad is the name of the special relationship whites and blacks cultivated from the foundation of the United States of America. Rosa Parks liked the back of the bus but felt like it was not fair for the whites to always have to sit in the front. Also she was really Mexican-American. Come on. Rosa. Really? A mule (donkey) and 40 acres of land was enough to jump start the economical fortunes of thousands of slaves once slavery was abolished. Martin Luther King Jr. would have been okay with a drive to Washington instead.
I’m A Brand!
By: Mark Starlin
Tags: Marketing, Satire, Poetry, Promotion, Writing

Once I thought I was a writer

I didn’t understand

Being human’s so old school

I need to be a brand

Brands aren’t just for business now

They’re for people too

Don’t worry if you don’t know how

We’ll sell you what to do

Start with an ocean of self-promotion

Add a trilogy of FOLLOW ME

A battering ram of sign up for spam

And a newsletter that’s FREE

Don’t worry about writing

That’s just a little bait

Use it to get them signed up

Just tell them that it’s great

Everything you do now

Must be to sell yourself

Use social media

If you want to gain some wealth

Be on Twitter, on Facebook

Put selfies on Instagram

Sure, it takes a lot of time

But it’s all part of the scam

Hammer home this message:

You must follow me

If you want the good stuff

Only followers can see

It’s eighty percent marketing

And twenty percent talent

You have to sell, sell, sell, sell, sell

If you want to make your rent

Don’t worry if you don’t like it

Most advice is strange

In another year or two

All the rules will change
Dreaming of Summer. Late November. The weather seems to…
By: Florin Popa
Tags: Storytelling, Travel, Photography, Writing, Blue Insights

Late November. The weather seems to have sucked the color out of everything. I’m living among shades of grey. But I dream in color.

I wander across Miradouro de Santa Lucia, the terrace overlooking Alfama and the Tagus river. Where street players and singers gathered every evening. Where I’ve waited for sunrise. Where I’ve stood silently at night, listening to a song together with other passers-by. A moment of connection created by a human voice and a guitar.

Then I continue on to Portas do Sol, the larger square from which numerous streets branch out downwards, to the river, or upwards, to Castle Sao Jorge.

There’s a small coffee shop, right here on the corner. They open really early and they serve coffee and pastel de nata. They only speak Portuguese but we understand each other in the universal language of people in need of caffeine.

The few other clients are locals taking a few minutes on their way to work. I am the only outsider here, sipping my coffee outside while the owner is still cleaning up and arranging the tables. But I feel like being where I should be.

The sun has risen right in front of me. I have this whole morning ahead, like drinking spring water with your bare hands, like virgin snow on the mountain. Everything can still happen. I’ve lost so much and I’ve lost myself so much, but here at this small table with its cheap tablecloth I feel like everything is still possible.

“Obrigado”, I say to the coffee shop owner. I continue in English, telling him how much I loved the pastel. He’s nodding and smiling. He doesn’t have a clue what I’m saying but understands it’s a compliment.

I go off the main road into narrow back streets that zigzag uphill. Beco de Maldonado, Rua dos Cegos, Calçada do Menino Deus… It’s like going back in time. I could imagine myself walking these streets 30 or 50 years ago. Nothing would need to change to account for the passage of time.

There’s nobody outside but the houses are alive. There are voices inside, there are noises of people cooking, cleaning, just going about their normal lives. The first fallen leaves of late summer are blown away by the breeze.

There’s something in me that would like to cling to this moment, that would like to stay frozen in this snapshot like a fly caught in amber. I’ve always had a hard time letting go of things that I love. Accepting that they come and go.

But right here, surrounded by pigeons flapping their wings in the sun, I just leave things be and I let go.

Text and photos by Florin Popa
Monero Gateway Opens On Waves
By: Waves Tech
Tags: Waves, Cryptocurrency, Fintech, Blockchain, Monero

The gateway will enable Waves users to deposit, store, trade and withdraw Monero from the Waves blockchain ecosystem.

A Monero (XMR) gateway has now been added to the Waves Client, allowing anyone to use the popular privacy coin within the Waves network.

Monero is one of the foremost cryptocurrencies to offer anonymous transactions. It uses ring signatures to obscure sender and recipient, and its success has seen it rise to a current market cap of $3 billion — comparable with DASH, the other leading privacy coin.

XMR can now be deposited to a dedicated Waves gateway, where it is held on a secure server and used to back corresponding Monero tokens on the Waves blockchain at a 1:1 ratio. These Monero tokens can be stored in a hot or cold Waves wallet, sent to other users, or traded on the built-in DEX against bitcoin, WAVES or any other token in the Waves ecosystem.

When you have finished trading and want to hold your XMR in an external wallet, simply withdraw your tokens via the gateway. To download and explore the Waves wallet, visit https://beta.wavesplatform.com.
What Is the Future of AI in IoT?
By: Mo Works
Tags: Business Inteligence, Artificial Intelligence, Big Data, Automation, IoT

The new digital world has already become a reality and artificial intelligence technology is spreading with great speed. With the active development of artificial intelligence, the concept of the Internet of Things is also gaining popularity.

In this article, we will discuss the relationship between these two breakthrough innovations, and what the prospects for their further interaction will be.

Find out more on Moment.
Is segregated witness necessary to implement the Lightning Network?
By: Segwit Resources
Tags: Blockchain, Bitcoin, FAQ

Lightning Network (LN) uses payment channels with Hashed TimeLock Contracts. Both of those things are currently usable on Bitcoin mainnet without segregated witness.

However, without segregated witness or another signature malleability fix, LN channels have to deal with situations where transactions get mutated (“malleated”), which makes them get stuck at various steps. Preventing them from getting stuck permanently requires either introducing trust (which we don’t want to do) or setting some annoying timeouts that limit the efficiency of channels and downgrades the user experience.

Some other relevant benefits of segregated witness in the context of Lightning are:

Channel monitoring: Users of Lightning typically have to watch their channels in order to avoid letting their counterparty broadcast a previous state, effectively defrauding them. To prevent against this users require that the txid of the transactions involved be known in advance and preferably immutable so that, once handed over to monitoring peers, additional user intervention is not necessary and penalty transactions can be enforced.

More block space: Meaning more channels can be opened or closed in any particular block.

Also, fixing malleability for upgraded software makes designing LN-compatible (and any Bitcoin-compatible) wallets much easier in general.
Startups that were founded by designers you didn’t know about
By: .Dsgnrs. Team
Tags: UX, Startup, Entrepreneurship, Designers, Design

Think of any successful and famous startup and, most likely, their founders were either engineers or business people. Nonetheless that trend is reverting. Products and services that you use on daily basis are now created and delivered by startups whose founders are designers. Here you can see some of these companies and their founders.

Enjoy! 🤘

Youtube

Founded by Chad Hurley, during his tenure at Ebay, Hurley designed the original PayPal logo.
An Idea (by Ingenious Piece)
By: Shaler Houser
Tags: Sex, Poetry, Gluttony, Lust, More

Photo by Samrat Khadka on Unsplash

The jab was a pounding gut punch, hurting with lust

Freshly painted face, luscious lips of platinum

Blossoming abound, swelling into the bountiful bust

Circumference covered, launching fierce assassin

Furious consternation, loving the masturbation

Skating her way, sashaying never fall

Devoted disorientation, dumbfounded elimination

Pile-driving madness, mushroom man standing tall

Man-crushing hips, mouth watering wantonness

Sex thesaurus won’t suffice, delirium tremors fuck desire

Postal Service service, her shaved regions mountainous

On this desert fucking island of no water, I’ll sit and retire

Gliding objectification, mesmerizing trepidation
Matching latch
By: Fresh Receptive
Tags: Poetry On Medium, Poetry, Chalkboard Espresso, Soulmates, Buckle

Chalkboard challenge

Matching Latch

A response to the one-line poem prompt, Buckle

Photo by Mike Lorusso on Unsplash

Find the corresponding latch to attach

- two become one-

perfect match.

Simone Maffescioni, 2020

Response to one-line poem prompt ‘buckle’

Thank you to Fierce Force 💃🏼and Chalkboard for the prompt:
Deploy Your Next.js App on GitHub Pages Using the GitHub Action
By: Naveen Da
Tags: Nodejs, Github, Programming, Web Development, React

Quick Summary

I was working on my portfolio by using next.js on the Github pages, I face some issues while deploying the projects. So I decided to write a blog to help others.

Links

Portfolio: https://naveenda.github.io/

Source Code: https://github.com/NaveenDA/naveenda.github.io

Let’s Start the Project

Create a Github repo that contains your Github username and .github.io .

like my GitHub username is NaveenDA and my repo name is naveenda.github.io

2. Go settings of the repo and scroll down up to Github page section. And choose the gh-pages as the branch and folder as root then hit the save button.

3. Clone this repo on your local machine by using

git clone https://github.com/yourname/yourname.github.io.git

5. Create next.js app by using create-next-app

npx create-next-app src

It will create a src directory and generate the required folder.

6. Go to src directory and run this command npm run dev , it will run our application on http://localhost:3000

Now you can see this page.

We are going to deploy this page.

7. Commit this code and push to the server.

git add .

git commit -m "Initial Project Setup"

git push

8. Now need to create the next build every time we push something on the master branch and deploy that build github-pages . So that we are going to use Github Actions

9. Create .github directory in your repo root directory

10. Create workflows directory inside the .github directory and create the file intergrate.yml

11. Paste this code on the intergrate.yml file.

12. Commit this code and push to the server

git add .

git commit -m "Add github Actions"

git push

13. Go to the action tab in your Github repo, now you can able to see the running Github actions.

14. Now go to URL https://username.github.io

15. Now see some 404 errors

16. For some reason (I don’t know), Github server a file within the _next directory as 404 response. To solve this issue we need a CDN to serve the Static files. So that we are going to use Statically.io

17. Inside our src directory create a file called next.config.js and paste this code and replace your repo URL with mine.

18. Now commit this code and push to the server

git add .

git commit -m "Add CDN"

git push

Wait until Github actions complete the deploy and then navigate to the URL https://username.github.io

19. I am kidding, there is no step 19. We did it!
Announcement #7 in Hindi: Bitbns Pool Sales
By: Vaibhav Seth
Tags: Cryptocurrency, Bitbns, Cryptocurrency Investment, Cryptocurrency News

Official Medium Account of Bitbns — Fastest and easiest way to trade cryptocurrency in India. https://bitbns.com/

Follow
Subatomic Love
By: Patrick M. Ohana
Tags: Poetry, Particle Entanglement, Water, Love, Molecules

Subatomic Love

From molecules to particles

Image by Robert Couse-Baker on PxHere

A river otter slides across an ice pool in Japan

not knowing, methinks, that the water below

is the same as the ice above

Is it really alike

Surely it’s H₂O in two states

solid above

liquid below

Its gaseous form exists in the otter’s breath

where it helps life thrive within this spacetime

Further inside this vapour of life

molecules of love expand before they fall

Further still between forces and interactions

particles oscillate and race

according to quantum calls

for more, much more love

through particle entanglement

doublets loving each other

across the mind-boggling universe

seemingly lost to each other

yet passionately bound

more intensely than atoms in a diamond

You know, Dr. Mehmet Yildiz

this to be true even without

all the required proofs

given that human poetry

transcends every universal law

while always merging

with the poetry of the universe

but only considering those

lasting implications for love

Patrick M. Ohana
Stand up! No, Sit Down!
By: Pito Salas
Tags: Lifespan, Life, Heart, Health, Sitting

You know the old joke that today they say something is good for you, tomorrow it’s bad, and the day after it’s good again? Recently there was a lot of press that sitting 3 hours a day could take years off your lifespan. “Sitting for More Than Three Hours a Day Cuts Life Expectancy”, so said the Wall Street Journal:

“Sitting down for more than three hours a day can shave a person’s life expectancy by two years, even if he or she is physically active and refrains from dangerous habits like smoking, according to a study to be published on Tuesday in the online journal BMJ Open.” (from the Wall Street Journal)

Yeah but I thought: nowadays, a major part of the economy involves sitting for more than 3 hours. Start with office work. But add truckers, and pilots, and other kinds of drivers, people working in many kinds of factories, I mean, are we all doomed?

Oh don’t panic just yet. “Don’t Blame Sitting — Yet — for Shorter Lives”, so said the Wall Street Journal a short while later:

“Headlines last week suggested that people who spend a lot of time sitting were in mortal danger. Sitting too long each day could shave two years off one’s lifespan — or, for the glass-half-full crowd, sitting less could extend life by two years, the media reports said. The study that led to the news accounts cautioned that no such conclusion could be drawn from the available research. Sitting studies haven’t yet fully gotten off the ground, thanks to technological, cost and ethical limitations. Yet the evidence so far all points in the same direction: that sitting more is tied to higher mortality. But that doesn’t mean the act of sitting itself is deadly. Instead, it could be that people who spend more time sitting are less healthy to begin with, or that those who sit less are using that time in healthier ways such as exercising.” (fromthe Wall Street Journal)

Phew. That’s a release. I can sit down again!
10 Funny Festive Songs To Get You In The Holiday Spirit
By: Funny Or Die
Tags: Funny Music Videos, Funny Music, Holiday Spirit, Holiday, Funny Festive Songs

Originally published 19 December 2018

There are a few key ingredients to getting into the holiday spirit: decorations, a selection of festive mixed drinks, at least one of which has to have dairy in it because somehow we as a society have just decided that heavy cream, raw eggs, and alcohol is an okay thing to drink as long as it’s December, and a killer playlist.

Nothing against the crowned king of holiday tunes, but Bing Crosby’s warbling can get a little repetitive after a while, and you’re not exactly going to pump up the mood by throwing on Nat King Cole’s O Holy Night.

So to help make your holiday a memorable one, here’s ten of our favorite funny, perhaps a little unconventional, holiday songs.
In-game Chart Highlights ⚽: Croatia vs England on the World Cup 2018.
Tags: Betonchart, Soccer, ICO, Betting, Sports

Croatia has reached its first World Cup Final. See our chart in action 📈 in their match vs England.

We are the first to use the latest football innovations 🏃 to make in-play football betting not just possible, but precise and more involving than ever! Get a real profit, just because you know which team is better right now.

🚩 Change the sports betting with us now on: betonchart.com
Infographic: Why you should mix social media & SEO?
Tags: SEO, Infographics

Social Media has an impact on SEO. Whereas it is hard to clearly determine how strong this influence is, what is sure is that social media can help increase your rankings. Social signal has become a strong signal of relevance for search engines as these websites get a boost in their traffic. Discover here the relations between social media and SEO and why you should mix them.

Infographic retranscription

SEO & social media are intimely connected. As both inbound strategies, they work on naturally attracting visitors. Efforts spend on SEO can improve your social media reach and your social media presence can increase your search ranking.

Why integrate social media into your SEO strategy:

1# Develop you external inbound links

Social media encourage people to link to your content and it thus help grow your authority to Google. Link building improve you social signal

2# Improve your position in the SERPs

Google favors popular social media updates in the top sections of its SERPs. Optimize your post for Google and get indexed!

3# Increase your traffic

The more qualitative followers you will have, the more likely they will be to come visit your website and increase your traffic.

4# Google loves Google+

Google seems to favor content embeded on its social network. Be sure to ad the content you want to be ranked for!

Tips for Social Media optimization:

Joshua Berg, SMO expert, has shared his REALSMO model to increase your social performances:
How to Properly Care for Your Vulva
By: Remington Write
Tags: Confessions, Advertising, Womens Health, Health, Women

Here’s where I learned how to care for my lady bits: television. Remember Summer’s Eve Fresh Scent. Summer’s Eve Sweet Romance. Massengill Extra Cleansing. Mastrelle Flora Plus? Oh, right, before your time.

Well, those brands and dozens more used to line the shelves in the drugstore next to the lady diapers, aka sanitary napkins. And we bought it. Oh, baby, did we buy it. I certainly did because ewwwwwwwwwww!

No one in my family explained anything beyond the basics of using sanitary napkins during “my time of the month” and my mother’s solution to crippling period cramps was a large glass of homemade red wine, room temperature, drink it down fast and go to bed. When I first experienced a discharge during ovulation I was convinced I had cancer and was going to die.

Did I ask my mother about this?

Oh, hell, NO!

I just went around wondering when the pain would start and how long before it got so bad I had to tell someone. Eventually, I didn’t die but it was years before I understood what the discharge was or that it could be off-putting to anyone interested in going down on me.

I also stopped using douches as word finally got past the “experts” in advertising that douching was unnecessary and bad.

Here’s the exquisitely embarrassing part of all this ignorance and reluctance to talk about bodily matters: I was well into my twenties before I understood that I should simply go to the bathroom and rinse my vulva thoroughly if it’s been a while since I’d showered and before some unsuspecting person was going to have their face between my legs. And this was after boyfriends complained that I wasn’t very “nice” down there.

I was that clueless

Could I have been the only totally ignorant woman thinking that if douching was bad then not douching was natural and whatever happened down there was what was supposed to happen? It still hurts to “say” this out loud, but I was going around for years simply expecting partners to accept that certain substances building up in the course of a day in all those delicate little folds of skin were natural and ok. Because I hadn’t yet put my mouth on those pretty folds yet I didn’t know that, while natural, those substances aren’t anything we want in our mouths.

Face red, head hanging.

I’m probably very late to this party and everyone everywhere already knows this, but there might one or two slow learners like myself out there.

Don’t use soap. Don’t douche. Do pop into the shower quickly and rinse that sweet baby nice and thoroughly. Get in there with your fingers and make sure all those folds are clean and ready for pleasure. A bidet would be ideal but this isn’t Europe so just get in the shower. And for the eight other women in the world who hadn’t yet put this together, you’re welcome.

The rest of you, please be kind.

© Remington Write 2020. All Rights Reserved.
Lessons From Processing 300 Million Messages a Day
By: Chris Cooney
Tags: Analytics, Spark, Big Data, Amazon, AWS

Coalesce/Repartition

Most S3 slowdowns are due to the number of files you’re trying to write. It is more efficient to write larger files than lots of small files. One mechanism to splits up your files is called spark partitioning. A single data frame can be broken up into multiple partitions, which are useful because they improve concurrent processing over your nodes.

Alas, when you’re trying to write out to S3, each of these partitions will be written out as one file. If you have a lot of nodes running, you could end up writing many more files than you need to. So, how do you reduce your number of partitions? You have two options.

Repartition — Repartition is one mechanism for changing the number of partitions in your dataset. It can be used to increase or decrease the number of partitions.

Coalesce — Coalesce can only be used to decrease the number of partitions. In this use case, it fits perfectly.
How To Excel at Idea Management in Writing
By: Shivendra Misra
Tags: Life Lessons, Blogging, Self, Ideas, Writing

Ideas = Freedom

Most writers fall off the horse in the first few months, not because they’re not seeing results. (Yes, sometimes that can be disheartening).

But more than that, deep inside, they know that they cannot go for long if they don’t hear cha-ching every day (or every week).

They know that their creative juices are about to end and if they don’t earn money now, there won’t be anything to motivate them further.

Then they start reading a lot of “How to Make a Full-Time Living on Medium” posts only to lament their small following and the hard work that lies ahead.

Yet, the way to fix this is not to quit or searching for ‘hacks’ to make your readership explode overnight.

The way to fix this is to have more ideas.

The more ideas you have, the more excited you are about writing. If you already have an idea about what you’re going to write the next morning, your mind automatically links thoughts in your sleep.

As a result, when you sit down to write, you’re not thinking how hard it is to fill the page, but you’re banging the keys and getting your best work out.

Ideas keep you going. Ideas provide freedom.

The more ideas you have, the more confident you become. You know it in your heart that you cannot run out of things to write about. You can go on for months and not burnout.

Why? Because this is how creativity works—

Creativity creates creativity.

The more you use it, the more you have it. And so once you’re on this wave, you just have to keep riding it.

Dan Kennedy, the famous copywriter, spent one hour every day filling his sales pipeline. He had so many clients that he could never get to them. Yet, filling his funnel gave him the peace of mind and the confidence that he can go on for months even if his sales aren’t working well.

Similarly, if your writing is not getting traction (and in the beginning, it will not) you know that there are many more shots to take. The shots are only limited by the number of ideas you can generate. And truly, there’s no limit to ideas.

This, at least for me, is a life-changing insight. If I can only work on one thing, I’d work on generating ideas. Because once that’s done, other things will take care of itself.

But if the ideas aren’t there, nothing will happen.
Generation X, Boomer Parents And All Versions Of Christ
By: Cameo Contreras
Tags: Christianity, Spirituality, Jesus Christ, Culture, Religion

I have a confession to make; for a long time, I didn’t care for Christians. There was something about the self-righteous religious spirit of many of them that irked me; strange considering if asked about my religious affiliation Christian was the little box I’d always check. The label in my eyes had been thoroughly tarnished by many, and I preferred to say I had “a relationship” with God. Growing up in the ’80s in Southern California, I had a first-hand look at a cultural shift happening worldwide: the Jesus Movement. It’s this movement in particular that has attributed to so many negative aspects of the Christian experience; because Christianity, well let’s face it, has an image problem.

The catalyst for the movement was the direct work of former hippies, baby boomers, who proudly claim to have been “tripping on acid” or LSD when they first had their encounters with God. These encounters often led to the creation of communal “Christian” living, and while most were nothing more than what they professed to be, others gave way to harmful cults and a lot of damage. Men and women motivated by their own self idolization managed to take the Word of God and pervert it, using it as a tool that caused life-long trauma and pain in many individuals, families, and children. The result is what’s been called “church hurt,” and it’s effects are broad and varied.

My generation, Gen X, remembers the ever-present weekend television evangelists Jim and Tammy Faye Baker who made the fortunes picking the pockets of their faithful flock, and others can recount such controversial ideas and lifestyle messages as Quiverfull Parenting, Joshua Harris with his ‘Purity Culture,” message. His guidelines for biblical dating were seen by many outside the belief system as sexist and anti-feminist. Both movements arguably viewed a woman’s role as fundamentally inferior to her male counterpart, and while God does call a woman into her own role, subservient to her husband, there is also a distinct role set apart for him that mandates he treats her with love and honor. Harris would later apologize for his previous teachings, saying he was wrong to have believed as he once did and calling it a toxic belief system.

The more extreme cases?

Individuals who actually professed to be Jesus Christ or his prophets in some manifestation or another: David Koresh, Jim Jones, and Soko Asahara to name just a few. Asahara’s group was responsible for the Sarin gas attack on a Tokoyo subway in 1995. He would eventually be executed by hanging after being convicted of a number of other attacks. All of these groups left innumerable children harmed and some dead. Mental or physical, each group left people coming out of the other side claiming detriment from their experience with “Christianity.”

The movement, however, was not all bad. Unfortunately, these are the stories we read about, these are the stories that leave lasting impressions for those who’ve encountered real pain.
Gem
By: Jackie Ann
Tags: Poetry On Medium, Spirituality, Poetry, Spiritual Growth, Poems On Medium

pixabay.com

The gem

is a gift

of energy.

The ruby,

the sapphire,

the diamond

reflect to us

what we could be

when have

the bravery

to mine them.

© Jacqueline Ann 2020
Turkey Thighs
By: Lauren Harkawik
Tags: Food Post, Food, Wellness

The TLDR version of this bit is turkey thighs are delicious and you should make them.

Photo by Rubén Bagüés on Unsplash

Until very recently, my experiences with turkey were:

Thanksgiving Turkey sandwiches A combination of the two, usually at a diner, usually called something like “The Gobbler” — a sandwich with Thanksgiving turkey, stuffing, gravy, and cranberry sauce. So American, so diner.

About four years ago, I was at my local co-op, which at the time I was a casual shopper at. I now do all of my shopping there. In part due to the fact that back when I was casual, I picked up some chicken (I know, this post is about turkey — we’ll get there) and grilled it. I took one bite and I was like, “Oh….this is what CHICKEN tastes like.” It was free-range, farm raised, “allowed to grow naturally,” which means it wasn’t one of the sped-up-growth chickens that are in most American grocery stores 🤢. I didn’t know any of this at the time. Becoming a responsible food eater has been (and is) a journey for me.

Tasting chicken that tasted like, well, chicken, set me on a journey of trying other meats from the co-op, which incidentally also tasted like what they’re supposed to. One of those things was turkey thighs, which I had never even heard of (though, presumably my Thanksgiving turkeys did indeed have thighs). I bought them. We cooked them. And they. Were. Delicious.

There are two ways I like to cook turkey thighs:

Roast them in the oven. This takes between an hour and two, depending on the size of the thighs. We put them in a glass baking dish, pour melted butter over them (!), and season them with salt, pepper, and smoked paprika.

Grill them.

Roasting is my preferred method. They come out juicy and amazing, no doubt due to the butter.
I Am Scared
Tags: Scary, Life, Self, Self-awareness, Uncertainty

I Am Scared

Of Starting My Life From Scratch At 29. But I know I have to.

Image Credits: Author

Six years ago, I started my professional life. I was young — eager to meet new people and enjoy the new-found independence. I had my friends from college in the same city where I was working, and I soon became friends with my colleagues too. These people were my all-time source of entertainment and my biggest support system in any moments of distress.

A little over two years ago, I left my job. And with time, I started to lose touch with most of my colleagues. I was traveling most of the time and did not stay in one place for more than three months. My travel days now became my strongest support system — I was meeting new people almost every day. Each day was a new experience. In fact, traveling was fueling my life, and I was completely and madly in love with my nomadic lifestyle. All this time, it never occurred to me that I’ll want to settle at some point.

Six years later, I am 29 now — not as young and as crazy about making new connections any more. Unlike the last two years, when I crashed at my friends’ or parents’ home to avoid extra expenditures and to retain my savings during the non-travel days, I am more financially stable now. I am finally in a position to rent a place to stay and start my independent professional life again — AFTER 6 YEARS.

Why Am I Scared?

Before I comment on what I am scared of or why starting a new life is scary, I’ll give you a little background: I left my office job in 2018. Now I work independently as a freelance writer and a travel content creator. Most of my close friends are either married or, in general, have gotten busy with their lives. So unlike what it was six years back when I first started my professional life, this time there will be no friends in the city and no colleagues with whom I can chill or fall back on.

I am scared of starting from scratch again in a city of strangers, and this time, I neither have the energy nor the excitement to make a new social circle. But I love people, love talking to, and being surrounded by people — at times, it is from these people that I meet, I derive my energy. That doesn’t mean I don’t like a little “me time.” I do enjoy solitude, but I am scared of being alone. The speculation about the future, of whether or not I’ll make new friends, whether I’ll soon get depressed and feel lonely, or in general, I am worried if I’ll be okay. These thoughts haunt me, but somewhere, in my heart, I know I can’t sit in my secure cave forever. I do have to start from scratch, and though it is scary, it will be okay. It always is.
Choosing Choice: Cause and Effect
By: Edie Tuck
Tags: Choices, Life Lessons, Life, Fate, Destiny

I’ve always strongly believed that everything in life happens for a reason. It doesn’t always make sense, and we don’t always agree with it. But there’s always a purpose, no matter how elusive. That’s not to say that I think we all have this pre-determined journey and that our ‘time’ is already marked. No, I don’t believe that at all.

The definitions of ‘fate’ and ‘destiny’ are quite similar, and it’s true that my belief system used to include them. I wanted to believe that there was a reason why my life was nothing like I wanted it to be — that there was some grander plan I wasn’t aware of, and it would all work out in the end. I wanted to believe that we’re all exactly where we’re supposed to be at any given moment.

Fate: the development of events beyond a person’s control, regarded as determined by a supernatural power.

Destiny: the events that will necessarily happen to a particular person or thing in the future.

Fate claims that we are but puppets in our own lives, going through motions and obstacle courses placed in front of us by some greater power. Although it’s true that there are many events in our lives that are ultimately beyond our control, I don’t know that they’re really “determined by a supernatural power.” What possible reason would any almighty being have for this?

Destiny dictates that no matter what choices we make or paths we choose, certain specific events will find us. There are those who would say, we can’t hide from fate or destiny because it’s part of our pre-determined lifeline. Again, this is still in line with the whole ‘supernatural puppet-master’ theory.

I don’t think so. At least not in the sense that it seems to be implied.

I do believe that events happen that throw us for a loop, derail our plans, and make us question our entire existence. I also believe that in the grand scheme of things, the universe is blessed with the foresight we lack as mere humans and therefore has our backs — most of the time. We often end up calling these events ‘blessings in disguise.’

We are the writers of our own story, the creators of our own journey. After a certain age, when we become old enough to map our own way through life, it is the choices we make, and the doors we choose, that bring us to where we are. Those choices — whether good or bad — are the elements that dictate the outcome of any given situation.

The kind of people we associate with. The places we choose to live, or frequent. The opportunities we either take or ignore. Everything is a pebble on our road of life, and we have the power — should we choose to take it — to create something amazing.

Of course, there are the uncontrollable elements. Genes, luck (good or bad), government, etc. Things we are born with, or that other people control.
E-book : Hibernate Notes for Professionals Book
Tags: Java, Programming, Hibernate, Books, eBooks

E-book : Hibernate Notes for Professionals Book

Download Hibernate’s E-book free by GoalKicker.com

Download Here : http://books.goalkicker.com/HibernateBook/

The Hibernate Notes for Professionals book is compiled from Stack Overflow Documentation, the content is written by the beautiful people at Stack Overflow. Text content is released under Creative Commons BY-SA. See credits at the end of this book whom contributed to the various chapters. Images may be copyright of their respective owners unless otherwise specified

Book created for educational purposes and is not affiliated with Hibernate group(s), company(s) nor Stack Overflow. All trademarks belong to their respective company owners

39 pages, published on January 2018

Chapters
Transformation of Pain
By: John Ross
Tags: Self Improvement, Challenge, Inspiration, Hope, Growth

“If we do not transform our pain, we will most assuredly transmit it.” — Richard Rohr

We all face setbacks in life. Trials. Pain. Suffering.

It’s inevitable.

And while often it’s not fair, it’s up to us as to what we do with it.

It’s not just okay to feel it, to experience it. We need to. We need to acknowledge it, to give ourselves grace in how we feel.

And then we choose what to do with the pain.

Yes, we can numb it. We can stuff it down. And it will most assuredly come out in ways we don’t intend it to. And in that, our pain may spill out and create pain for others.

Or we can take our hardest moments, our hardest days, the things that should have never happened to us… and we can turn them into something good. This doesn’t mean what happened was good or that you can even find good in what happened… but it does mean you can make good and you can choose not to be defined by your setbacks and pain. You define who you are.
ICONOMI at Delta Summit: Overview and Schedule
Tags: Delta Summit, Crypto Index, Bitcoin, Iconomi, Blockchain

ICONOMI at Delta Summit: Overview and Schedule

Join Us at Booth #1

We’re looking forward to welcoming you to Delta Summit, Malta’s leading blockchain conference supported by the Maltese government and one of the biggest blockchain events of the year. Delta Summit starts on October 3, and ends on October 5. The event will take place at the Intercontinental in St Julian’s, Malta. Join us at booth #1 to meet the team.

ICONOMI will be at booth #1

Industry events offer an opportunity for blockchain companies not only to gain greater visibility and connect with new business prospects, but also to exchange ideas and knowledge and to identify future trends.

Share your crypto strategy by co-creating Delta Summit Index with us!

Delta Summit Index will be one of the first crowdsourced crypto indexes in the world. Voting will be open to every registered Delta Summit conference attendee. Attendees will have the chance to vote for the 5–10 digital assets they think will perform best over the next year. The 5–10 digital assets with the most votes will be included in Delta Summit Index. Weighting will be based on the number of votes, with an individual cap of 25% and a required minimum of 5%. For technical reasons, BTC and ETH will be present in the structure at a minimum of 8% regardless of the voting results.

Voting will be carried out using your smartphone to access a dedicated page on the ICONOMI website and using your unique event pass number. Be sure to stop by booth #1 and cast your vote!

Speakers

Join ICONOMI co-founder Jani Valjavec on October 4 at 13:15 at the Exhibition Stage for his talk “Moving Toward Tokenization: The Path Forward.”

ICONOMI CEO Tim M. Zagar will be on the “Tech Innovation & Industry Disruption” panel, where he will discuss the transformative impact blockchain will have on the way we do business. Join the discussion on October 4 at 14:45 at the Exhibition Stage.

The diverse program at Delta Summit features a wide variety of discussions, from the challenges of today to the technology of tomorrow. The full schedule of speakers is available on the Delta Summit website.

DAA Managers Attending Delta Summit

We didn’t want to miss an opportunity to invite our DAA managers, the ambassadors of the ICONOMI platform, to join us at the event and give our supporters a chance to meet them in person.

Managers Gregor Zupanc of the Solidum Prime DAA, Menno Peter Pietersen of CARUS-AR, Michal Novák of Ragnarok Crypto Asset Array, Dr. Achim Illner of Global Crypto One, and Dan Verowski of Third Eye Array. If you want to meet a DAA manager and get some direct insight into what it’s like to manage a DAA, meet us at our booth at the following times:

If you won’t be able to join us at Delta Summit, stay tuned: we have something planned for you too.
FinanceX continued to impress when leading listed Celer Network and Fetch with VND and IDR
Tags: Celer, Financex, Vnd, Bitcoin, Fet

FinanceX continued to impress when leading listed Celer Network and Fetch with VND and IDR FinanceX Follow Nov 25, 2019 · 3 min read

Continuing to lead the cryptocurrency market in Vietnam and Indonesia, FinanceX listed Celer Network (CELR) and Fetch (FET) with 06 trading pairs including up to 04 trading pairs with Fiat (VND, IDR).

FinanceX has really made a mark and well done its role in providing crypto-fiat trading with over 100 different trading pairs. Referring to Fiat trading, no one mentioned FinanceX.

Let’s find out information about these 2 coins:

Celer Network

Website: https://www.celer.network/

Circulating Supply: 3,325,000,000

TRADE NOW:

CELR Token Distribution

Celer Network is a leading layer-2 scaling platform that enables fast, easy and secure off-chain transactions for not only payment transactions, but also generalized off-chain smart contract.

It enables everyone to quickly build, operate, and use highly scalable decentralized applications through innovations in off-chain scaling techniques and incentive-aligned crypto economics.

Fetch.Ai

Website: https://fetch.ai/

Circulating Supply: 340,130,398

TRADE NOW:

Fetch.Ai Token Distribution

Fetch.AI (“the Project”) brings together machine learning (“ML”), artificial intelligence (“AI”), multi-agent systems and decentralized ledger technology to create an economic internet — an environment where digital representatives of the economy’s moving parts (such as data, hardware, services, people and infrastructure) can get useful work done through effective introductions and predictions.

These agents can be thought of as digital entities: life-forms that are able to make decisions on their own behalf as well as on behalf of their stakeholders (individuals, private enterprises and governments for example).

Fetch.AI’s digital world is exposed to agents via its Open Economic Framework (OEF) and is underpinned by unique smart ledger technology to deliver high performance, low cost transactions. The ledger delivers useful proof-of-work that builds market intelligence and trust over time — growing the value of the network as it is used.

Fetch.AI can be neatly interfaced to existing systems with minimal effort, allowing it to take advantage of the old economy whilst building the new: plug existing data in to Fetch.AI and watch markets spontaneously form from the bottom up.

Check out some recent FinanceX articles:

#financex #fnx #fiat #exchange #idr #vnd

FinanceX — Exchange Made Simple
For Awareness, Students To interact With Trans Applicants At Jamshedpur Women’s College
Tags: LGBTQ, Gender Equality, Jharkhand, Transgender

By Cake Staff:

Things are looking up for transgender people in Jamshedpur, the “Steel City” of India.

On 30th May, the town of Golmuri played host to a one-of-a-kind exhibition, as the Family Planning Association of Singhbhum held its third Gender Empowerment Programme. Transgender performers from a number of neighbouring states were present, and artisanal work by members of the trans community was on display as well. And that’s not all. Starting this month, the Jamshedpur Women’s College will hold an awareness campaign to facilitate interaction between students and trans applicants.

Since India officially recognized “the third gender” two years ago, many positive developments like these have followed, including national and state level policies to ensure that transgender people get equal access to healthcare, employment and education.

As one trans shop owner in the state of Jharkhand reminds us, “Most of the transgender community members are school dropouts,” so securing access to discrimination-free education is of utmost importance. Fortunately, a number of educational institutions have responded rather proactively with regards to the same.

Just last week, New Delhi’s Jawaharlal Nehru University added transgender students to their deprivation point system, to help those applying from low-income backgrounds get admission. And if Manabi Bandhyopadhyay, India’s first trans college principal, is proof of anything, it’s that we need trans members of faculty as well.

There have also been multiple attempts to increase trans visibility. Last year, the country’s first transgender band made its debut on YouTube. And more recently, Indian designer Sharmila Nair made the very important decision to have her collection modeled by trans women Maya Menon and Gowri Savithri.

While the main idea appears to be to integrate transgender Indians into mainstream economic activity, it was also an opportunity for to see trans people occupying a public space and being celebrated rather than discriminated. A large part of that discrimination comes from people who know nothing about trans individuals or their lives. If carried out with care and sensitivity, all initiatives like these will hopefully open lines of communication and support for many trans individuals in India.