fabiochiu/medium-articles huggingface dataset:
Trapped By Love
By: Pamela J. Nikodem
Tags: Relationships, Poet, Love, Poetry, Writer

Trapped By Love

A Prompt of Poetry

Gates locked, blocked, sealed

Alone upon the rock, seated by the sea

Each day the storm rolls in

Each night the fog locks the view

No gates open, no not today

Trapped, trapped by love.

Windows open, the mist wafts by

Over the window sill, comes the raven.

Storms return; the Raven shrill calls

Each night, the shivers my spine unlocks

Cascading into darkness, gates locked.

Trapped, trapped by love.

Attending devotion, concealed in foam

The waves crest over the land forlorn

Inward, forward broken asunder

Each day repeats the crying thunder

A window open, the road closed.

Trapped, trapped by love.

Awaiting direction, leaning in, listening

The creaking, groaning of the gates swing

wide open in the direction of hope

Leavening the echoes of the Raven’s knocks

Each breath coming in gulps of fresh air

Rushing into the arms of my loves

Trapped, trapped by love.

~Just a thought by Pamela
DIMCOIN Listed on Cryptaldash!
Tags: Cryptocurrency, Blockchain, Trading, Exchanges, Altcoins

The CryptalDash Exchange is the first integrated cryptocurrency exchange in the world. It enables cross-market views and execution. You can trade within their exchange or via integrated third-party exchanges.

DIMCOIN is available in the following pairs:

DIM/BTC

DIM/CRD

DIM/USDT

DIM/DASH

DIM/ETH

We would like to thank the CryptalDash team for their support and integration!
Empty Podsters
Tags: Humor, Family, Comics, Love, Life

Written by

Almost famous cartoonist who laughs at her own jokes and hopes you will, too.
All you need to know about the seeding methodology used in Wimbledon 2019 — In depth data driven discussion about the method and its effectiveness
By: Indika Jayasinghe
Tags: Sports Analytics, Wimbledon, Tennis, Rankings, Data Driven

As shown above, this formula doubles the ranking points earned on grass courts since 25th June 2018 and adds 75% of the points earned from the highest achievement on grass in the year before. This allowed Federer to collect 2360 additional points and leapfrog Nadal by 180 points to achieve the all-important second seed. In addition to Federer, 2018 runner up Kevin Anderson and 2017 runner up Marin Cilic benefited handsomely, based on the seeding methodology.

Why do you need a surface-based seeding methodology at Wimbledon?

Quite a few current and past players including Nadal, Djokovic and Patrick McEnroe expressed their disappointment regarding the surface-based seeding as they believe all major tournaments should use a consistent methodology for seeding players.

Let’s compare player performances on different surfaces and the opportunities available on grass courts to evaluate the necessity of a surface-based seeding methodology.

Player capabilities and performances vary based on the playing environment

Due to high degree of variations in the surfaces, even the best players tend to prefer certain court types, compared to the others. For example, if we compare the performances of Federer, Nadal and Djokovic in different surfaces, we can clearly see that even though their overall win percentages are similar there are noticeable differences in performance within each surface type. While Federer loves grass, Nadal dominates in clay and Novak has the advantage on hard courts. Same trend can be seen among majority of other players on tour including Murray (grass), Cilic (grass), Wawrinka (clay), Thiem (clay) and Del Potro (hard).

Win Percentages of Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic on Each Court Type

Limited of opportunities to gain points on grass courts compared to other surfaces

In a calendar year only six weeks are allocated to grass court tournaments and Wimbledon Championships account for two of those weeks. Therefore, in addition to Wimbledon only 1250 ATP rankings points can be gained, even if a player wins all four grass court tournaments on offer as shown in the chart given below.
Thursday. Don’t be evil
By: Martino Pietropoli
Tags: Humor, Thursday, Drawing, Art, Illustration

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

Follow
10.26 Presidential Social Intelligence Battleground Tracker — Post Debate Comparison
By: Adam Meldrum
Tags: Joe Biden, 2020 Presidential Race, Donald Trump, Debate, Social Listening

10.26 Presidential Social Intelligence Battleground Tracker — Post Debate Comparison

A pulse of how potential voters in battleground states are discussing the Presidential candidates

Please read the background post on this project if it is your first time reading.

Past posts:

— Our initial dataset from the week of 7.3 was detailed here.

— Data from the week of 7.11 was detailed here

— Data from the week of 7.19 was detailed here.

— Aggregate data to date through 8.14 was detailed here

— Language data from the weeks of 8.07 & 8.14 was detailed here

— Aggregate data through 8.25 was detailed here.

— Language data from 8.21–8.28 was detailed here

— Language data from 8.28–9.04 was detailed here

— Aggregate data through 9.5 was detailed here

— Language data from 9.04–9.11 was detailed here

— Aggregate daily support gained/lost data through 9.17 was detailed here

— A first look at Supreme Court Data was detailed here

— A deeper dive into Supreme Court Data was detailed here

— A language comparison between voters in NC and FL was detailed here

— An overview of the pre-debate top issues was detailed here

— Aggregate daily support gained/lost data through 9.30 was detailed here

— Post debate issues and sentiment were detailed here

— Trump’s COVID diagnosis and recent campaign issues flow was detailed here

— A language analysis of data from 9.25–10.2 was detailed here

— Aggregate data through 10.11 was detailed here

Battleground States in our Analysis: AZ, CO, FL, IA, ME, MI, MN, NV, NH, NC, PA, TX, WI

Date Source: All data is publicly available and anonymized for our analysis from Twitter, Facebook, Online Blogs, & Message Boards.

Technology Partners: Eyesover & Relative Insight
Haftanın Grafiği 13 -Bağlantı Haritası
By: Veri Okuryazarlığı Derneği
Tags: Veri Görselleştirme, Data Visualization

in In Fitness And In Health
Venture investment round
By: Mark Lee
Tags: Ethereum, Bitcoin, Tbxnews, Blockchain

We would like to bring to your attention that Tokenbox is currently getting ready for a venture investment round.

At this stage, the platform is 65% ready.

Already implemented:

KYC

Know-Your-Customer procedure

Multi-currency Wallet

Buy crypto using bank cards, store & exchange

Trading Terminal Alpha

Multi-exchange aggregator

Tokenbox was found at 2017 and aimed at helping non-qualified investors to process crypto assets trading by using a single terminal. Users can either trade themselves, or invest in existing tokenized funds or create their own fund. A multipurpose exchange aggregator has been developed exclusively for the Tokenbox platform — in order to achieve a necessary amount of liquidity.

As of the end of January 2019 the company’s head count is 21 employees. 11 of them are highly qualified software developers, able to complete the platform’s development according to the project’s Roadmap.
Brilliant advice from another Illumination writer
Tags: Lessons Learned, Writing Tips, Creative Writing

Brilliant advice from another Illumination writer

Yesterday, as an editor for Illumination, I came across a submission from Nosh who wrote eloquently about an aspect of writing. Comparing public speaking to writing, he explains how we lose the advantage of body language, visual clues and performance when we write. The words we use have to somehow convey the whole message.

‘When you write the same story, you lose the most important components of communication. You start from scratch, it’s you, words, and the distant audience who can neither see you nor hear the tone of your voice.’

‘That is why, writing is not about what you know, it’s more of how you tell a story you know.’

This is a powerful message to all writers. Read it here:

Writing isn’t All About What You Know | by Nosh | ILLUMINATION | Dec, 2020 | Medium
What If I Rather Be Ice?
By: Gb Rogut
Tags: Poetry, Life, Winter, LGBTQ, Life Lessons

What If I Rather Be Ice?

A poem: Thawing a frozen heart

Photo by Ron Whitaker on Unsplash

What if I have already

made a home

in the cold?

I know what it feels like

to stand under freezing rain,

no home to go to,

no arms to cry in,

no hope

I know how to do that…

I have learned

to withstand the storm;

this is who I am now

What would become of me

if suddenly

sunshine hit me

with all its might?

I fear

I would disappear;

I would vanish

into thin air

I fear…

Let me stay quiet

in this place,

until oblivion

takes over

and no one

ever

remembers my name.

This story is a response to Prism & Pen’s writing prompt Thawing a Frozen Heart

Other stories so far —
Plato’s 3 Big Ideas for Making Life More Fulfilling
By: Mighty Knowledge
Tags: Ideas, Philosophy, Self Improvement, Life Lessons, Learning

(2) Let your lover change you

“He whom love touches walks not in darkness”

The most common idea of a romantic lover is someone who accepts you just the way you are. All your flaws, mistakes, and feelings are accepted, even understood, by this one person. We often look for people who are familiar to us. They share the same hobbies and passions, like the same things, and on a deep level, they remind us of our own families. It’s a perfect match of personalities.

Plato argues against this type of romantic love, saying that it is ultimately flawed and doesn’t truly benefit us. If your partner always accepts you, then how can they help you improve? Acceptance might feel comfortable, but it also means that your partner never helps you see and fix your mistakes. If your partner is too similar to you, then you won’t get the chance to try anything new or to see things from a different perspective.

Plato instead says that the ideal lover for you is a person who has very good qualities that you yourself do not have. You can learn a lot from such a person because your differences are contrasted. The good qualities that you lack become far more obvious. This may hurt at first, but it ultimately helps you point out areas for improvement.

If you’re a shy person dating someone brave, then their bravery will rub off on you. You see their courage, learn from it, and then eventually adopt some of that quality yourself from being so intimately close to it. If you’re someone who always works extremely hard, being with someone who is more relaxed will help you to unplug and experience the less serious, more joyful parts of life.

Plato sums this up by saying that a couple shouldn’t necessarily love each other so perfectly as they are right now. Instead, they should be committed to helping each other reach their full potential. They should seduce each other into becoming the best version of themselves. The presence and experience of someone who helps you to become the best version of yourself is the most fulfilling kind of relationship there is.
The Guilt of Being Happy in Spite of Grief
By: Leona Brits
Tags: Self, Grief, Relationships, Self Love, Personal Development

The Guilt of Being Happy in Spite of Grief

My guilt is not rational, but it’s real

Photo by Artem Bali, on Canva

All my life, I’ve been truthful and loyal to my beliefs. I pursued my dreams and did what I had to do to move forward, to grow: as a woman and a human being.

For me, life only makes sense if you’re happy or, at least, investing in being happy.

For a long time, I wasn’t a happy person. Still, I never gave up on trying to be, even growing up in a not-so-happy household, having suffered abuse, betrail, illness, and loss. My life has been hard, but I always kept my head up and my hopes high.

After losing the love of my life, five years ago, I lost our house; I was utterly broke and hopeless, I saw no way out for me. I was living again with my mother, that was, herself, grieving my father’s death. He had died four months earlier.

I was never so unhappy as I was five years ago. I knew I had to do something: it was time to take care of myself.
Stop Complaining! Conserve Your Energy for Something Useful
By: Leann Zotis
Tags: Let It Go, Life Lessons, Take Action, Complaints

How many gripes and complaints can you list in 60 seconds or less? Are you even aware of the wasted energy you are expending?

Photo by Christopher Ott on Unsplash

There is a lot going on in this crazy world we live in today.

Some of it is good — some of it is not so good. Mainly, it depends on your own personal perspective.

Life may seem a little more challenging today because it is so much easier to find ourselves inundated with input and information. We have access to data from around the world with just a few key strokes. Some of it matters to us — a lot of it doesn’t. I see this as a love/hate scenario.

I love being able to read a book, check the latest news feeds, write and publish my own thoughts at will — and much, much more — with a few clicks on a keyboard.

I hate being bombarded with the latest news feeds, being harassed by antagonistic viewpoints, and receiving a deluge of propaganda from every direction — all from those same keyboard clicks.

And, with that — I will cease to complain (bitterly or mildly) about the current state of the world.

I invite you to do the same.
Beauty
By: Kathy Jacobs
Tags: One Line, Love, Poetry, Beauty

Beauty is…

Twins growing fast

A well written story

A mother’s smile

A spouse’s loving eyes

A happy memory

A best friend’s voice

A beautiful picture

A homemade mint chocolate cake

….. Love in all its forms

Want to join in? Check out Chalkboard’s One Line Poem section, where you can find a new prompt every Tuesday. Want to see/contribute to a previous prompts? Find them there too!
Shadows of an Empty Home
By: Bradley J Nordell
Tags: Poetry, Time, Existentialism, Past, Loneliness

Shadows of an Empty Home

The loneliness that only grows

Photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash

I wish I could tell you,

that I don’t weep at night

that those shadows in my room,

do not laugh nor stir nor echo

my internal soliloquy

of a bitter heart

I wish I could tell you,

that I’m stronger than I am

that neither palladium

nor diamond,

could shatter my bones

But this loneliness ebbs inside

bringing me to my knees,

as another dream slithers by

cradling me in it’s palace of lies

I wish I could tell

that this place,

was not a place of ghosts

that I could leave,

and never return

But I was born to tragedy,

yet smile upon all horizons,

knowing that, like the tortoise,

I will remain,

crawling on scattered skulls

of prophetic hieroglyphs

Plato was right,

and I was wrong

Reality is not made nor created,

but exists in many forms

the outer realm, absolute but impermanent

the inner, subjective, and unfortunate

that which watches the clock spin

and faces greeting merry grins

the decay of worlds upon

empty parchment.

I know,

none of this is real,

I know,

I am but a mustard seed

tossed in a garbage disposal.

I know truth

as heavy as mount Olympus

as transitory as lover’s breath

I feel and taste and touch

reality of true love that seems

at times, too much

For here in the shadows

of an empty home,

waiting to be filled,

with a fool's hope,

yet again

and again

and again

I repeat the ways

of a broken man,

who knows only

the atom

the word

the eulogy

the verse

of shadows,

death and rebirth.

© Bradley J Nordell 2020
Hello To My New Georgia Neighbors!
By: Josh Freedman
Tags: Humor, Georgia, Special Election, Politics, Satire

Photo by Tony Mucci on Unsplash

Howdy, neighbors! I’m so excited to move to Georgia. I’m moving here because I really want to live in Georgia, and not at all because there is a double special election that will determine control of the entire US Senate, and new residents are allowed to register to vote. No — it’s because I love Georgia.

The air down here just feels freer, you know? Back in Boston, the liberal elitism was so stifling: I couldn’t even buy a coffee without the barista asking if I wanted real milk or oat milk! Now that I can work remotely because of the pandemic, I realized that the weeks following November 3, 2020, were the perfect moment to live out my lifelong dream of moving to Georgia, forever.

I forgot to introduce myself! I’m Josh — I mean, Christopher. Definitely not a Jew, see? Christopher. Incidentally, I am not only not Jewish, but also very Christian. And I want real milk, because I’ve never even heard of lactose intolerance.

By the way, which one is my mailbox? I’m expecting some important documents soon. I just don’t want it to get mixed up, you know, in case I get some sort of really important document in the mail that I have to return in person or via mail by January 5th, or postmarked by January 5th and received by January 8th.

That’s a very nice giant Trump 2020 flag hanging there, more than a month after the election. I’m sorry for your — ah, never mind. Congratulations on your victory.

Once I get settled, I’ll have to ask for your recommendations for the best local barbecue. I’m talking real Georgia barbecue, not any of that Carolina stuff — which, the internet tells me, is extremely different. Just to be clear: that bumper sticker on my car that says “Kale Yeah, I’m a Vegan” is sarcastic. I hate vegetables, but I love Georgia.

I’m upset that you would even think that I moved here just to vote in this election. The Secretary of State and the Elections Office made clear that moving to Georgia with the sole purpose of voting in an election is illegal. I am an upstanding American citizen who simply adores the state of Georgia and, as of the new voter registration deadline, is 100 percent committed to living here, from this day forward, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, until death do us part. Check out my bicep tattoo — that’s right, it says “Georgia!”

Oh, wait a second — you’re new to the neighborhood, too? I had no idea you moved down here from Brooklyn a few weeks ago. I could’ve sworn you were totally a local, with that heavy Southern drawl, that “I Love Georgia” t-shirt, and the knee-high cowboy boots. Not to mention the giant crucifix on the outside of your barn that says “I Am Totally A Jesus-Lover.” You know, I was a little worried about fitting in after moving here, because most people seem pretty similar to my friends in Boston, but I think I’ll be just fine after all.

Also, if you happen to be driving back north on January 6th, could I get a ride?
Do You Carry Confetti In Your Pocket?
Tags: Children, Wisdom, Life Lessons, Heal The Earth, Logic

Do You Carry Confetti In Your Pocket?

Children are our best teachers.

Children as teachers — Image by Enrique Meseguer from Pixabay

My friend, Pam Grout, who I told you about before, writes stories that speak to my heart. She and I share a belief in miracles; about how children are our best teachers, and a few other values. I can never get enough from her great stories.

Today I opened the email she shared, and that story had me nodding for the greater part of the day.

Is There Confetti in Your Pocket?

She mentioned a mother on Twitter sharing a story that she just had to share with her readers. Cool.

This evening I visited Twitter, and you know what, I bumped right into Anna, the mother who shared that story. She wasn’t someone I followed, but now I am. We’re cool.

Since posting it on Monday, people have retweeted Anna’s 50+K times and given it 423K❤️s — Viral! Wow!

For my efforts, I got a ❤️ from Anna. Hehe. Check it out here.

Are you carrying confetti in your pocket? We all should for good news is everywhere.

Perhaps you’d enjoy this one as well. Happy Thanksgiving.

I Wish You Miracles.
Formosa Financial寶島金融 <> CoolBitX庫幣科技- 合作夥伴宣佈
By: Formosa Financial Team
Tags: Fintech, News, Cryptocurrency, Blockchain, Partnerships

in In Fitness And In Health
Bitcoin Technical Analysis
By: Ledgerfund Technical Analysis
Tags: Bitcoin, Trading

As we can see in this chart, Bitcoin is at a crucial support level. The 50MA and 200MA on 1D chart are also converging and further fall in BTC price can lead to a death cross. RSI is also moving in unison with BTC price and a further break below 35 will lead to continued downtrend. Next support level of Bitcoin is currently at 7700.

We, at Ledgerfund run one of the biggest Crypto Hedge Funds in the world and give returns in bitcoins. To know more about how you can invest your bitcoins in this fund, refer to our website: https://ledgerfund.io
Advent Week Four— Love
By: Janis Cox
Tags: Faith, Bible, Advent, Christianity, Poetry

Love came down in the form of a BABE. God gave His only Son to us. The Incarnation. Love at its highest.

Love at its highest.

By reading through God’s Word, we can know more and more about this love. And we also learn how we need to show the same love to others.

After reading today’s scriptures, I wrote this poem. Love is this week’s Advent Week Four.

This is an abecedarian poem. I use the first letter of the alphabet to help me work through my thoughts.

Today’s scriptures:

Luke 1:46b-55;

1 Samuel 1:1–18;

Hebrews 9:1–14

Journey of Faith

Anyone can

Believe. It only takes a

Choice to say ‘yes’.

Don’t wait though.

Eternity is your goal.

Faith isn’t easy.

God is patient but

He wants true conviction.

Instead of rules and regulations,

Jesus came to give us the

Knowledge of God, about true

Love and to bring

Meaning to our lives.

No one will be left out if they say ‘yes’.

Open hearts and

People will see the truth.

Questions are allowed and welcomed.

Remember your past.

Study God’s Word.

Testimonies are needed

Until the choice is made.

Victory is assured

Whenever someone

eXercises the choice to believe.

You’re saved at the end.

Zed.

©Janis Cox 2020

May I pray for you and me?

Father, you said we only need belief the size of a mustard seed. Help us to make that choice and stick with it. Help us say ‘yes’ and then spread our love to others. Help us not fall away. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Read the rest of my Advent poems.

Week One

Week Two

Week Three

Join us to learn more about God in our lives. Facebook Growing through God’s Word.

Join me in learning to enjoy art, particularly watercolour. Monthly Art Creations.
Why Web Dev Preprocessors are So Important?
By: Onur Dayıbaşı
Tags: Sass, Webpack, JavaScript, Web App Development, CSS

Preprocessors are so important certain days. Because web developers want to code complex definitions in fast, dynamic and more readability code. Browsers understand HTML, CSS, and Javascript. But developers always require high-level languages for making big things. It’s similar to Assembly → C → Java

Less, SCSS, SASS Preprocessor converts stylings to CSS

JSX, ES6, ES7, TypeScript Transpiler(Babel) converts to JS2015

ESLint Javascript linter to validate EcmaScript and Java

Webpack is a tool and one of its responsibility manages preprocessors and loaders.

What SaSS / Less provides our code? different than CSS

Variables: You can use variables. This gives flexibility. You can generate custom color names or custom sizes for common usages.

Samples were taken https://sass-lang.com

Nesting: Provides hierarchical styling and prevent name repetition

Samples were taken https://sass-lang.com

Imports: Code splitting. You manage CSS styling code into small pieces files and if required import from other files. @import

Samples were taken https://sass-lang.com

Mixins: Another version of multiple compositions of different logic. How to inject common styling logic to element, class, etc. @include and @mixin mechanism provide this.

Samples were taken https://sass-lang.com

Extend/Inheritance: @extends

Samples were taken https://sass-lang.com

Operations: +, -, * , / and % . you can use

Samples were taken https://sass-lang.com

Functions: UserDefined or Builtin Functions Some of Build in functions

Samples were taken https://sass-lang.com

And Other At Rules: @error, @debug @warning and Flow Controls (@if . @else @each @for @while)

What’re the advantages of Babel?

Babel is javascript compiler and it’s mainly used to convert ECMAScript 2015+ , React JSX or Typescript code into a backward-compatible version of JavaScript in current and older browsers or environments

Babel has 3 stagings when compiling; parsing, transform and print. And it has plugins mechanism

You can use all the advantages of other languages and no think how to run on the current or older browsers

Transform Plugins

ES3, ES5, ES2015, ES2016, ES2017, ES2018, Modules, Experimental, Minification, React, Other

Syntax Plugins

What’re the advantages of ESLint?

ESLint parses codes and validates according to defined rules. So you can fix problems without running and increate code readability
Ripple CEO feels Bitcoin’s influence over altcoins prices could end soon
By: Matteo Ek
Tags: Ethereum, Cryptocurrency, Blockchain, Bitcoin

Ripple’s CEO Brad Garlinghouse thinks that strong correlation between bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies prices will soon be broken as market participants will recognize the differences between cryptocurrency assets.

In an interview with CNBC Garlinghouse said “There’s a very high correlation between the price of XRP and the price of bitcoin, but ultimately these are independent open-sourced technologies. It’s early, over time you’ll see a more rational market and behaviors that reflect that.”

Ripple, a tech company in San Francisco that utilizes blockchain technology to rewire bank-to-bank money payments across borders that settle faster than regular transfers with what it calls an “internet of value.” According to data from CoinMarketCap Ripple’s XRP, a token that banks on the network can use to transact quickly has the world 3rd largest market capitalization after Bitcoin and Ethereum.

The company is striking out against the conventional banking networks. Their increasingly widespread adoption by financial institutions gives them a firm basis to expand. According to Garlinghouse, in 2018 Q1, Ripple has signed 20 production contracts with new firms. Reportedly, on Wednesday the company announced a deal with Kuwait’s largest bank, adding to companies like MoneyGram that are already testing XRP for cross-border payments.

The number of listed digital coins on CoinMarketCap exceeds over 1,500 cryptocurrencies, Garlinghouse predicts that 99 percent of that cryptocurrency projects won’t exist in 10 years. Ripple’s CEO noted that “There’s gonna be a bit of correction along the way here where a lot of the players in the space that don’t solve a real problem are going to get washed out”.

Some of the cryptocurrency projects have been accused of swindling investors through fraudulent Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs). Authorities in the United States have been trying to crack down on falsified ICOs. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) clarified in March that it is looking to applicable securities laws to ICOs, crypto exchanges, and digital wallets.

Jay Clayton, the SEC chairman and a former Wall Street deals lawyer, said one of the biggest surprises of his first year heading the agency has been learning about the levels of fraud surrounding ICOs.
CoinsConvert pe mobil
By: Coins Convert
Tags: Mobile, Coinsconvert

EN:

Stay connected to your favorite CoinsConvert exchange! The CoinsConvert mobile app allows you to trade anytime, anywhere and keeps you updated with real-time market data.

Features:

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Truth On Fire
Tags: Peace, One Line, Race, BlackLivesMatter, Poetry

This is a response to the timely “Flames” prompt by Shweta. My thanks to the entire Chalkboard community for their ongoing creativity and inspiration. If you enjoyed this post, follow more of my work here.
San Diego: Customizing Its Own Portal and Building a Smart City
By: What Works Cities
Tags: San Diego, Local Government, Government Innovation, Data, Cities

San Diego: Customizing Its Own Portal and Building a Smart City

2018 Certification Level: Silver

By Kristin Taylor

The City of San Diego has its own way of getting things done. While many of the cities leading the way in data-driven governance have been at this work for years, San Diego was a late bloomer. Most of the City’s open data efforts began in 2014, as Mayor Kevin Faulconer was taking office. Since then, Mayor Faulconer has created a Performance & Analytics Department, and the work has taken off. The City passed an open data policy and, soon after, hired Chief Data Officer Maksim Pecherskiy to begin implementing it.

Councilman Mark Kersey, who was the principal sponsor of the City’s open data policy, says, “One good thing about being late to the party is we could look to mistakes other cities had made. We didn’t just want to dump data out there; we wanted to put it out there in formats that people could actually utilize. The data belongs to the people, so they should be able to access it.”

After coming on board, Pecherskiy’s first order of business was to launch the City’s open data portal, and thanks to his background in programming, he brought a fresh perspective to the task. After reviewing several vendor options, he found that none allowed him to realize his vision. So, he set out to build his own, basing it on an open source project developed in Philadelphia. The portal, which only costs the City around $7 a month to host, launched with an initial 44 data sets voted on by the public for priority release.

Pecherskiy has also leaned on open source code to automate the publication of data sets to the portal. Most cities, he explains, have to publish data sets internally and then externally via distinct processes that can consume between 10 and 20 staff hours per month. But Pecherskiy has made it so that any public data sets automatically publish in both locations, saving time as well as reducing the potential for human error. Staff receive daily email digests with the most updated data, and residents gain access to new data sets nearly in real time. Pecherskiy says there’s also the potential to tie the automation to performance by triggering emails to management when data fall below a certain level.

San Diego also took an unconventional approach to starting its 311 program. The City has never had a designated call center for complaints, so residents often resorted to calling 911 or a nonemergency police number, but the latter was also answered by emergency operators. A resident satisfaction survey showed that 80% of San Diegans didn’t even want to make phone calls to report problems, so the City bypassed the traditional 311 model altogether and went straight to launching its Get It Done app. “We didn’t want to create a new call center that would likely become obsolete in the near future just because that’s how cities have always done it,” says Almis Udrys, Deputy Chief of Staff for Innovation & Policy.
Caramelized cabbage with bacon and feta
By: Peter Flom
Tags: Bacon, Cooking, Food, Recipe, Cabbage

Free image from PeekPx (I forgot to take a photo of mine)

This recipe started with one from Helen Rennie, who is one of my favorite food youtubers. But I changed it a lot.

Serves one very hungry person or two more normal appetites as a main course.

Ingredients

(all amounts approximate)

6 ounces bacon OR 6 ounces duck bacon and 2 Tbsps. olive oil (I get duck bacon from a farmer’s market near me. It’s delicious and much less fatty that the usual bacon)

1 head cabbage, core removed, sliced into strips about 1/4" wide

1 tsp salt

1/2 tsp red pepper flakes

1/2 tsp caraway seeds

4 ounces feta cheese, crumbled

juice of 1 lemon

Method
Template for an Open Source Project README File
By: Chris Simpkins
Tags: Software, Open Source, Software Development, Template, Github

photo by Roman Kraft https://unsplash.com/photos/X1exjxxBho4

Courtesy of Billie Thompson, here is a template to get a quick start on your next open source project README documentation.

Contribute

You can contribute to this Github gist here.
Week 94: It’s Okay If It Isn’t Perfect
By: Aaron Charles
Tags: Imperfection, Short Story, Drinks, Cooking, Marriage

You might think making a few cups of hot cocoa would be a pretty simple task. I guess it should be. But this week, Sarah and I learned that simple tasks don’t always go smoothly. Things aren’t perfect, and there’s no reason to make it seem like they are. Stuff goes sideways sometimes, but that doesn’t mean we can’t find the pleasure of simple moments in the middle of it all.

Hot or Cold and Too Much Whipped Cream

We needed a quick recipe this particular night, and it just so happened to be one of those cold, wintery Indiana nights. What’s perfect for just such a night? Hot cocoa of course!

The one thing about hot cocoa — it should probably be hot.

We had a mix that called for a warm glass of milk to pour the cocoa into. So, I put a mug of milk in the microwave and watched it intently. I thought I saw it start bubbling, so I took it out to pour the chocolate in.

Sarah asked me if I had heated up the milk enough. I said of course I had! Then I poured the cocoa mix in and realized I was mistaken. It became a clumpy mess. I had been bamboozled by some phantom bubbles.

Sarah heated hers up longer, and I did the same. Finally the mix was perfect (or so we thought) and we were ready for toppings.

That’s when Sarah got a liiiiiiiiitle bit crazy with the whipped cream.

She put so much on that it overflowed the mug. It even began melting down into the cocoa. But, nevertheless, we went on.

We set our mugs up on the counter to grab a nice photo for this post’s header image. That’s when we noticed the skid marks below the mug.

Accepting Imperfections

It was a simple recipe — hot cocoa. It should have been easy. It should have gone off without a hitch.

But life doesn’t often work like we think it will, does it? Even the things that should be simple can sometimes present challenges. How do we react in those moments?

This week was a good reminder to me that it’s important to accept imperfection. That’s not to say we should wallow in them and never seek to change. But we should expect that things won’t always go as planned. Problems will arise. We simply need to take them as they come.

We ended the evening sipping hot cocoa on a cold night while sitting next to each other on the couch. No matter what had happened earlier…

…that sounds just about perfect to me.
Dad is Finally Home
By: Binit Acharya
Tags: Relationships, Family, Life, Love, Fiction

Dad is Finally Home

Fiction

Photo by Sebastián León Prado on Unsplash

It’s been five years since my father went to UAE. He went there to earn for my family. I am tired of waiting for him. The calls stopped coming for days. “Maybe he’s busy,” my mother said when I asked her why he isn’t calling us anymore.

My dad couldn’t find any job in our country. He hadn’t acquired any skill, and manual labor didn’t pay enough to put food on the plate. People like him had to go to the gulf countries for jobs. Even if they’re notorious for the inhumane condition they provide to laborers, he had no option but to take that risk.

He had also stopped sending the money. The money he sent was the only source of income for me, my mother, and my sister. I had strange thoughts that day. I had a dream. I don’t want to remember it, but it keeps flashing before my eyes.

“Is money important than Daddy?” I ask mom. There’s silence in the room. “He works until he sweats a river every day, Thomas. He’s doing it for us. He will be back after he earns enough for us,” my mother tells me.

I miss every moment with him. Even if we were poor, we were happy. I remember how every day after work, dad used to bring me one candy. He always encouraged me to become a better person. For me, my father is my hero.

Today, I feel like something wrong has happened. I am worried that something has happened to him. Why else would he not call me?

There’s a sound of people talking outside. I look out the window, and I see my dad is back. He has finally come back. I cry and then hug him. I couldn’t control my emotions. “Please open this box,” I ask people carrying his coffin.
Responsibilities of the “Asian Best Friend”
By: Jenny Arimoto
Tags: White Supremacy, Asian American, Friendship, Diversity, Women

“My favorite chink.” As I flipped through my dad’s high school yearbook, I couldn’t believe how many of his classmates left racist handwritten messages. In shock, my sister and I confronted him. How could he be okay with his friends using slurs against him? My dad responded with a laugh. “It was a joke. It’s all in good fun.”

As a fourth generation Japanese American, this is how I was raised. Blend in. Don’t make white people feel bad. And when you feel bad, keep it in. Your grandparents survived Pearl Harbor and the Tokyo fire bombings — keep things in perspective.

I was a shy and timid kid. Inside my head I had grand dreams of being on SNL, but I had come to the early conclusion that it was impossible. Hours of television had taught me that 1. Asians couldn’t be on TV, 2. Asian people couldn’t be funny, and 3. Asian characters weren’t interesting enough to be the main character. I could be the yellow power ranger, but never the pink ranger.

Growing up, I was mostly friends with the other Asian kids in school. It was always easier that way. Then my nightmare happened. I found myself in a middle school where I was the only Asian girl in my class. Alone, I immediately connected with the only black girl. Our friendship was somehow pre-determined by the fact that we were the only 2 POC girls in 6th grade.

It was in this majority white environment that I learned how to interact with white people. I learned that my sense of humor was a tool. By making people laugh, I could prove my worth to the white kids. I was no longer just Asian, I was also fun. At one point, my crush even said that I was “hot for an Asian girl.” S w o o n. I couldn’t believe he thought I was hot, despite my crippling Asian-ness.

What I saw on television and my daily interactions convinced me that I was destined to be the fun, less pretty, ethnic best friend in a white character’s story. I played the role well. Throughout my young adulthood, I worked hard to downplay my Asian-ness and align myself to whiteness. I surrounded myself with white friends and was careful to avoid talking about my feelings. Sharing my feelings would center me and unfortunately that wasn’t in my character description of “funny sidekick.” My job was to support, listen, and make jokes. After all, it was a privilege to call white people my best friends.

In my mid-20s, life seemed perfect. I had made the greatest group of friends via improv class. The word “improv” should be enough to know that my new friends were mostly white. I was going out, doing dollar store quality bits, and laughing more than I ever had. But then the strangest thing started happening. I began having meltdowns regularly. I would cry all day, unable to move. I felt so deeply lonely, which was weird because my social calendar was packed more than it had ever been.
SMS Ham or Spam? SMS Classification NLP Modeling
Tags: Naturallanguageprocessing, Deep Learning, NLP, Spam Classification, Machine Learning

Overview of Problem :

Short Message Service or SMS considered to be the text messaging service component of Telephone or Internet. In our day-to-day life we do receive considerable amount of SMS either from Friends, Telecom or Bank companies regarding our daily transactions or from tons of other sources. Some of these SMS texts are genuine whereas some can lead to fraudulent incidents.

Main task of this case study is making a Machine Learning model which can predict the SMS as HAM or SPAM with the help of text body of SMS. Dataset for this case study can be found at Kaggle. It consist of 5574 English text messages which are labeled as Ham or Spam.

Exploratory Data Analysis :

Main file provided in the problem is spam.csv which consist of SMS target label and Text Body.

We will be processing the text so as to remove any punctuation along with deconcatenation so as to make a complete word for model prediction.

Let is see the word cloud of Ham SMS text and Spam SMS text;

Word Cloud of Spam text can clearly show some unique words that appear in Text body, this mainly includes free, text, call, txt, mobile, reply etc.

Data Preparation :

First, we will load the data from provided csv file.

df=pd.read_csv(’./raw_data/spam.csv’, encoding="ISO-8859-1")[[’v1’, 'v2’]]

— Text Length of SMS Text :

Length of the complete text or words in the text can be considered to be the important feature for our analysis.

def text_length(x):

return len(x.split()) data['text_length'] = data['filtered_text'].map(text_length)

data.head()

Distribution of Text Length for each of SMS text body

We can clearly see Ham text with short text body or they have less text in it. On the other hand, Spam text tend to have lot of words, their mean text length is approximately 25 words.

— Presence of Digit in Text body :

Presence of any numerical words can also considered to be much valuable feature for this classification. Spam texts tend to have numerical words as it can sometimes refer to a phone/mobile number or numbers in specific web link etc.

def text_digit(x):

return len(re.findall(r'\d+', x)) data['presence_of_digit'] = data['filtered_text'].map(text_digit)

data.head()

Presence of Number in Spam and Ham text

From above bar plots, we can see Ham text tend to have No numerical words or can have less number of words as count starts to increase. Distribution of this is more in case of Spam words as seen above.

By adding these two features along with processed text of SMS, we will make modeling for our SMS classification model.
TNDL: “CHRIST, OUR ETERNAL FUTURE RIGHTEOUS KING OF KINGS, REIGNS OVER THE WHOLE WORLD! SEE ISAIAH 11.”
By: J. K. Woods
Tags: Jesus, Religion, Spirituality, Christianity, Love

Isaiah 11 New International Version

The Branch From Jesse

11 A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse;

from his roots a Branch will bear fruit.

2 The Spirit of the Lord will rest on him —

the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding,

the Spirit of counsel and of might,

the Spirit of the knowledge and fear of the Lord —

3 and he will delight in the fear of the Lord.

He will not judge by what he sees with his eyes,

or decide by what he hears with his ears;

4 but with righteousness he will judge the needy,

with justice he will give decisions for the poor of the earth.

He will strike the earth with the rod of his mouth;

with the breath of his lips he will slay the wicked.

5 Righteousness will be his belt

and faithfulness the sash around his waist.

6 The wolf will live with the lamb,

the leopard will lie down with the goat,

the calf and the lion and the yearling[a] together;

and a little child will lead them.

7 The cow will feed with the bear,

their young will lie down together,

and the lion will eat straw like the ox.

8 The infant will play near the cobra’s den,

and the young child will put its hand into the viper’s nest.

9 They will neither harm nor destroy

on all my holy mountain,

for the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the Lord

as the waters cover the sea.

10 In that day the Root of Jesse will stand as a banner for the peoples; the nations will rally to him, and his resting place will be glorious. 11 In that day the Lord will reach out his hand a second time to reclaim the surviving remnant of his people from Assyria, from Lower Egypt, from Upper Egypt, from Cush,[b] from Elam, from Babylonia,[c] from Hamath and from the islands of the Mediterranean.

12 He will raise a banner for the nations

and gather the exiles of Israel;

he will assemble the scattered people of Judah

from the four quarters of the earth.

13 Ephraim’s jealousy will vanish,

and Judah’s enemies[d] will be destroyed;

Ephraim will not be jealous of Judah,

nor Judah hostile toward Ephraim.

14 They will swoop down on the slopes of Philistia to the west;

together they will plunder the people to the east.

They will subdue Edom and Moab,

and the Ammonites will be subject to them.

15 The Lord will dry up

the gulf of the Egyptian sea;

with a scorching wind he will sweep his hand

over the Euphrates River.

He will break it up into seven streams

so that anyone can cross over in sandals.

16 There will be a highway for the remnant of his people

that is left from Assyria,

as there was for Israel

when they came up from Egypt.

Footnotes

Isaiah 11:6 Hebrew; Septuagint lion will feed

Isaiah 11:11 That is, the upper Nile region

Isaiah 11:11 Hebrew Shinar

Isaiah 11:13 Or hostility
SofiWay e-krona Project Shortlisted; Sofitto Invited Back for Dialogue with Swedish Government
By: Maša Judar
Tags: Fintech, Technology, Cryptocurrency, Money, Blockchain

Sofitto’s e-krona proposal, developed in partnership with ChromaWay, a company building blockchain technology for governments and the financial sector, has been shortlisted by Sweden’s central bank Riksbank. The proposal was shortlisted alongside those by heavy-hitters like Visa, IBM, Ericsson and the IOTA Foundation. These solutions were evaluated by Riksbank as the most interesting, and companies have been invited back for dialogues as part of the second stage of the e-krona project.

As cash is being used less and less across the globe, the Swedish government is paving the way for the future of currency. Right now, the central bank is looking into its technical and legal options for issuing a digital complement to cash that is guaranteed by the state, the e-krona. Riksbank is interested in making the e-krona available to the general public as part of a safe and efficient, next-generation payment system.

Sofitto and ChromaWay presented Riksbank with SofiWay, a blockchain-based network for instant clearing and settlement of payments. SofiWay has a built-in flexible and extensible architecture, capable of supporting a complex ecosystem of applications and integrations.

SofiWay is a register-based money (ledger) base system, making it highly flexible yet resilient. As part of SofiWay, Sofitto will provide the last mile solution to bring blockchain metadata through the existing financial infrastructure to end-points (POS, ATM), middleware for blockchain data conversion, and smart cards and mobile phone wallets for users. The system will run on ChromaWay’s Postchain, a private high-throughput blockchain.

As SofiWay is based on blockchain technology, it is distributed, making it highly resistant to cyberattacks. It is much more cost-effective and tamper-proof, instilling a higher level of trust among users. The blockchain makes interoperation easy, leaving room for third parties to develop innovative products on top of the system.

Riksbank received a total of 33 proposals. Each was evaluated in line with a wide range of criteria including scope, reference, experience and architecture.

Riksbank is in the second of three stages of the e-krona project. As part of the second phase, Riksbank will polish the e-krona concept further. In 2018, Riksbank is slated to begin drawing up regulations and agreements for the e-krona system. Riksbank could begin developing the e-krona system as early as next year.

Learn more about Sofitto:

Web | Facebook | Linkedin | Twitter
The Border Land
By: Darryl Willis
Tags: Poets Unlimited, Ukraine, Poetry On Medium, Poetry

Photo by Darryl Willis | All Rights Reserved

The Border Land

The land between,

for centuries trampled and abused.

The golden steppes, a killing field:

burning ground and burial mound

razed by Tatar-Teutonic hands,

broken by hammered steel.

Beneath the sky lie fields of wheat

crimson in the setting sun,

but underneath Dnieper-deep

the blood of Bogatyr flow

merging with Hutzul-Cossack: one

dark, dreadful, primal stream.

Those who came left behind

the chaff of grain and broken stems;

but we remain and stand between

East and West with unbowed head.

Raiding kings have come and left

trampled, tore, and done their worst.

But we were here before. The steppes

are ours, bought with blood and heart —

and so we stay: the land between.
Fun Thing To Do at Whole Foods
By: Robbie Pickard
Tags: Humor, Food, Comedy

Unpeel a banana, look at bruises, yell “who did this to you?”

Then point to each customer and say, “was it him? Tell me!”