fabiochiu/medium-articles huggingface dataset:
Beware: There Are Still Trans Fats in Foods Claiming “Zero Trans Fats”
By: Shelley Moore
Tags: Life Lessons, Wellness, Personal Development, Healthy Lifestyle, Food And Drink

Beware of sneaky trans fats.

The nutritional label on the package may state zero grams of trans fats but that may not be the case.

Artificial trans fats have been suspected of contributing to many health issues since they were invented, but it wasn’t until the 90’s that the evidence began to mount.

Studies show that artificial trans fats are harmful to human health.

The largest source of artificially produced trans fats is found in packaged and processed food. On most food labels artificial trans fats are listed as partially hydrogenated oils.

After years of research on the damaging effect of trans fats on human health, in 2015 the Food & Drug Administration (FDA) could no longer deny the overwhelming amount of evidence. Artificial trans fats harm human health.

The FDA gave food manufacturers three years, by July 2018, to eliminate artificial trans fats from foods. (1)

Here’s where things get tricky…

Under the new mandate, companies do not have to disclose trans fats if the product contains less than 0.5 grams of trans fat per serving. (2)(3)

What does this mean?

Even though the product may still contain trans fats, companies can claim Zero Trans Fats.

The FDA allows manufacturers to claim zero grams of trans fat on the nutrition facts label if the product contains less than half a gram of trans fat per serving. Although it may appear small all of these grams add up to a future of poor health.
A Quiet Place (2018)
By: Simon Cocks
Tags: Culture, Film, Horror, Review, Movies

A Quiet Place (2018)

A family is forced to live in silence while hiding from creatures that hunt by sound…

A few years ago, if you told anyone John Krasinski (mild-mannered Jim from The Office) would be behind one of the most ingenious horror premises yet invented, they’d think you’d gone mad. And yet, A Quiet Place is one of the most impactful big-screen experiences in years, with Krasinski directing a nerve-shredding creature feature that masterfully sustains tension and suspense.

Often appearing much like a silent film, A Quiet Place grabs your attention to tell a story where every character relies on non-verbal communication. It’ll have moviegoers fearful of any popcorn crunching coming from nearby! This creative tale of survival is so gripping you’ll constantly be listening out for danger, eyes glued to the screen.

The concept is very straightforward: we’re thrown into a post-apocalyptic nightmare future, where most of human life’s been extinguished by ruthless monsters that hunt using sound. To survive, you have to be as quiet as possible, as making too much noise results in certain death. It’s as simple as that.

We follow a family of five surviving on an isolated farm. Evelyn Abbott (Emily Blunt), her husband Lee (John Krasinski), and their children Regan (Millicent Simmonds), Marcus (Noah Jupe), and Beau (Cade Woodward). The seriousness of the threat is perfectly portrayed in a brutal opening sequence, while the exposition is kept to a minimum as the smart script trusts its audience to put the pieces together.
¿Cómo permitir a adultos mayores cumplir sus sueños de viaje?
By: Antoine Guy
Tags: Virtual Reality, Viajes, VR, Realidad Virtual, Digital Marketing

in Both Sides of the Table
Evropská unie zase dohnala a předehnala!
By: Martin Pánek
Tags: Eusoc, Politika, Notes

in Both Sides of the Table
We Are Under Lockdown Again and I Found Myself Secretly Happy About It
By: Auriane Alix
Tags: Life Lessons, Lockdown, Self, Covid 19, Life

We Are Under Lockdown Again and I Found Myself Secretly Happy About It

For 3 selfish but relatable reasons.

Photo by @unitednations on Unsplash

We, humans, are excellent at lying to ourselves. Yesterday, I was doing a night jog, one of the meditative kind, and I witnessed a strong example of me playing politically correct with myself. Lockdown, round 2 had just been announced in France, and I thought I was upset about it. It’s hard when exceptional circumstances turn into a recurring situation.

When I paid closer attention to the thoughts and feelings running through my head, I surprised a part of me to be secretly happy about it.

I was confronted with a perfect example of the gap that exists between how we think we should feel and how we really feel.

My reaction is selfish. I know it is. A lot of people are devastated by the news. But I have to be honest: a part of me is selfishly happy to be forced to stay at home again.

Even if it postpones my digital nomad project once again. Even if the other part of me is very annoyed to see its freedoms restricted again. Even if the situation we have been living in for almost a year now becomes endless.

And I have three selfish but relatable reasons for this.
October Crisis: Why An Apology is the Right Move
By: Brigitte Pellerin
Tags: October Crisis, Politics, Canada, Pierre Trudeau, Quebec

October Crisis: Why An Apology is the Right Move

50 years later, it’s time to recognize the War Measures Act went too far

Image credit: Photo by Library and Archives Canada PA-117477 The Montreal gazette), Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=34529483

Relationship Lesson #4549: It’s not because your ex suddenly yanks your chain that you have to respond. Sometimes, ignorance is the best course of action. Unless of course you come to realize, time and proper emotional distancing helping on the empathy front, that maybe they have a teeny bit of a point.

Before leader Yves-François Blanchet got sidelined due to a positive COVID-19 diagnosis (his wife also contracted the virus; as far as anyone knows both are now fine), the Bloc Québécois was in the process of demanding an apology from the federal government for having used the War Measures Act to arrest and imprison nearly 500 citizens throughout Quebec 50 years ago, without warrants and often without much by way of cause either.

And since the prime minister who did that is the father of the current one, there’s bound to be sparks.

The Bloc, of course, knows this. I mean, it’s pretty obvious.

I’m kind of glad, you know. If it hadn’t been for that, we’d all have slept through the separatist party (the other one) selecting a new leader to take them to the promised land. Just like we entirely missed the 40th anniversary of the first referendum back in May.

Whaaaaa?

Yeah, no. Not even Quebecers marked that one. In fact, and this may be the most ironic moment of 2020 at least as far as Canadian politics are concerned, the only mention I noticed in my perusal of Quebec media was a special feature in the Montreal Gazette, a touching piece about the man photographed crying in that legendary photo from May 20, 1980.

The PQ leadership race may not mean a great deal to you, and perhaps it’s also not of particular significance to most Quebecers, but to the 35,000 or so members of the party it matters. They have a choice between four candidates (all white males, sigh) who appear earnest and serious enough, even the guy whose night job is to make people laugh onstage.

The October Crisis, on the other hand… If you’re old enough to remember, you certainly have an opinion on it.
July 2018 Revenue Report & Analysis
Tags: ICO, Bitcoin, Investing, Cryptocurrency, Blockchain

Our revenue report and analysis is here, and keeping with tradition we’re breaking down the past month’s revenue, while showing the entire amount, the 10% that is distributed to token holders, and the amount of revenue per 100 CPAY. As always, we’ll close this piece out with our outlook for the future.

The numbers

Total July 2018 revenue: € 132,486

July 2018 Revenue share: € 13,249

Share per 100 CPAY: € 0.01

Distribution date: August 4th, 2018

Analysis

When looking at July’s revenue compared to June’s we’ve seen a significant drop off (by more than 30%). The primary reason for this downturn was a substantial decrease in business from one of our main B2B partners. As for the remaining revenue streams, they were virtually unchanged from June’s figures. Exchange operations have predictably exhibited growth proportionate to BTC’s price rally during the end of July. We expect our aforementioned B2B partner to return to their previous levels, but it is unclear as to when this will exactly happen. Regardless of their recovery, we’ve recently acquired three big partners and their integration should be finished this coming August. Taking everything into consideration, we expect our B2B revenue to at least return to the previous levels, if not higher, soon.

Future Outlook

Looking forward, our Russian card programme is in the final testing stage. Meaning, we’ve ordered and have begun testing the first batch of cards as well as fixing minor bugs and hiccups in the backend. The results of the pre-order look promising and so far about 2,000 people have signed up to get their Russian prepaid cards.

During the past few weeks, we’ve undertaken a new strategy to improve our “buy cryptocurrency with a debit or credit card feature.” After a thorough evaluation, we collectively came to a decision to change up the dynamics of this service. We identified that our terms (fees, limits, etc.) are some of the most friendly out there, and we came to the conclusion that some proactive and aggressive marketing is the last step to take for our target consumers to realise this. We’ll be releasing an updated version of this service very soon, so stay tuned.

ETH integration is imminent and technically speaking everything is ready, but we just need to do a few more things with our processing wallets, fine tune some security settings, and we’ll be ready to launch. After this, we’ll be on our way to ERC20 integration (good news for CPAY holders).

As for our EU and Singapore cards, our CEO has spent the last month travelling between London and Singapore to finalise this deal. Meetings with their (card issuers) executive boards went excellently and showed that our partners and we are moving in the right direction and we’ll keep the community informed of every bit of news we receive from our partners.
Cake Experience Roadmap (Design Thinking) explained
By: Ahmed Ahsan Khan
Tags: Design Thinking, Experience Roadmap, Customer Experience

Photo by Deva Williamson on Unsplash

Cake Experience Roadmap (Design Thinking) explained

Have you ever wondered how the term cakes can be used in a professional project? Well It is being used in design thinking and that too in a formal way. There are three types of cakes that are used in design thinking:

1. Cup Cake,

2. Birthday Cake and

3. Wedding cake.

But what does these cakes mean and how are they used under the umbrella of Design Thinking? We all know that products don’t come into existence in a splash of a moment and it takes time for it to start, grow and mature. When planning for a project, we define the project into phases. In design thinking, this is where these cakes come into play. That’s also called “A Cake Experience Roadmap”. The idea for this experience roadmap is to provide a meaning and relevant experience to the user at the end of all the phases.

A Cake Experience Roadmap:

Cup Cake:

A Cupcake is a tasty treat at a low price that the customer can take and eat on the go. Cup cake is something we know that we will build and deliver to the client. These are the must to have features of the product or project. Design thinkers know that they will build these features in our product or implement it in our service. A cupcake should be sharp enough and you should be confident about achieving and building it.

Birthday Cake:

A birthday cake on the other hand is the second stage of the cake experience roadmap. Birthday cake itself is affordable and joyful treat which you can share with a group for a celebration. Birthday cake is something the design thinking team thinks that they will build this.

Wedding Cake:

A wedding cake is the third stage of the cake experience roadmap. It is a custom-made cake which is build for a once-in-a-lifetime occasion. It requires a lot of planning and hard work for creating such a masterpiece. Wedding cake should be blurry. Design thinkers are not sure whether it will be built or not. Maybe they built this or maybe not. Giving wedding cakes directly to the user is a really big venture. Therefore we go with small little phases from cupcakes to birthday cakes and then finally to the wedding cake.
Week 6: Synthesis and Decision-Making
By: Elise Colbert
Tags: Testing, Decision Making, Ideas, Design, UX

After completing our paper prototype interviews last week, we were excited to start looking into the information we discovered. We spent the end of last week and majority of this week synthesizing our data and coming up with key insights that came out of the first round of testing last week. We came up with a deck of our main insights about how users expect to see a mental health product. Once our insights were put together, we came up with a set of hypotheses to look into in our next round of user testing starting next week.

Of the six ideas we tested, two really stuck out during the paper prototype interviews. One utilizes location and user-generated ratings to identify calm areas to destress near you. The other is a journaling app that deletes your entry after you’re done writing it. Both are relatively simple ideas that build on several clinical best practices for dealing with stress and anxiety — namely, journaling, going outside, walking and reflecting. With two such different ideas, we were unsure what to do next. Do we keep testing both?

We reached out to Adam for guidance at this step. He told us that now was the time to take a “leap of faith”. This meant we had to choose one idea to pursue further for the next round of testing and to iterate on for the rest of the summer. With such a big decision, we turned to the trusty pro/con list for each idea.

Even after the pro/con list was done, there was no clear winning idea. They had similar numbers of pros and cons, which made the selection less straightforward than we anticipated. Once again, Adam provided some valuable insight: when choosing a path to go using pros and cons, look at the cons. Are they interesting design challenges or are they real obstacles that will impede on your product as a whole? With this in mind, we set out to a silent, anonymous vote where we would put either “P” for the place idea or “J” for the journal idea.

Which one won?

With a unanimous vote of seven “J”s, we have decided that we will be pursuing the disappearing journal idea.

We are super excited about this development and are starting to formulate a game plan for the rest of the summer to test, design and develop this idea. Next week we will begin by making our next round of prototypes (higher fidelity this time around), then will move to testing and synthesis at the end of the week.

Check back next week to see how our next round of prototyping and testing goes! Until next Friday:
TDD : Mock and Stub, explanation at the day of 22nd May 2019
By: Juan Pakpahan
Tags: Android

Well, maybe this is the last time I share things about our project since it has ended last week.

Stubs and Mock are the common thing used in testing. It is not a real data, just a pretend object only for testing purposes, or as we call it, Test Double.

According to Martin Fowler in his article at https://martinfowler.com/articles/mocksArentStubs.html,

Stubs provide canned answers to calls made during the test, usually not responding at all to anything outside what’s programmed in for the test. Stubs may also record information about calls, such as an email gateway stub that remembers the messages it ‘sent’, or maybe only how many messages it ‘sent’. Mocks are what we are talking about here: objects pre-programmed with expectations which form a specification of the calls they are expected to receive.

The data cleaning method used in our project needed a dataframe from a csv file which was uploaded by the user. So how do we test it? we make a mock data that represents the real data. I personally do it like this

And the test for the data cleaning

AANDD, it actually passed

When we do the unit testing, we don’t have to use the actual data from the user’s uploads. The purpose of testing is to test whether our codes can perform correctly as we expect it to be, as long as the mock represent the actual data, it’s good.
Code Smell 14 — God Objects
By: Maximiliano Contieri
Tags: Refactoring, Programming, Code Smells, Clean Code, Software Engineering

Code Smell 14 — God Objects

An object that knows too much or does too much.

Photo by Francisco Ghisletti on Unsplash

Problems

Cohesion

Coupling

Solutions

Split responsibilities.

Follow Single Responsibility Principle.

Follow The Boy Scout Rule.

Examples

Libraries

Exceptions

Sample Code

Wrong

Right

Detection

Linters can count methods and warn against a threshold.

Tags

Cohesive

Conclusion

Libraries were fine in the 60. In Object Oriented Programming we will distribute responsibilities among many objects.

Also Known as

Large Class

More info
Three Top Stories from Last Week. My top three from the past week
By: Jonny Mccormick
Tags: Blogging, Recommendations, Writing, Top 3, Writing Tips

Here are the three stories that stood out most to me:

How a small country had the power to move a whole apartment building

This story from Andrei Tapalaga ✒️is a really fascinating read about how an 8000 tonne building was moved on makeshift railway tracks to assist with town planning in communist Romania.

It’s published in History of Yesterday which is a publication dedicated to exploring history — especially those parts that have been overlooked or forgotten.

I think this publication could potentially become massive and I’m excited to see where it goes.
Bitcoin ETF 란
By: Ico Oxygen
Tags: 비트코인, Bitcoin, Etf, Exchange, SEC

in Both Sides of the Table
“I Am Not Smart Enough to Be a Programmer”
By: Szymon Adamiak
Tags: Software Development, Programming, Learning To Code, Self Improvement, Education

Photo by engin akyurt on Unsplash.

Advantages of Learning to Code

The advantages are countless, and everyone can find something that draws them to coding. Here are some of my favorites.

You can become a professional software developer

It’s the most popular reason to start programming. It was also my reason.

Five years ago, I quit my job as a lawyer and looked for some other career path. Programming seemed like a perfect choice — I could learn it at home, at my own pace. And I didn’t need a degree to find a job. The market for programmers is as close to a meritocracy as possible.

In many countries, programmers can make a decent living. The market for developers is booming and the salaries are high, so becoming a programmer is an excellent motivation for learning to code.

It may help you in your current job

How much time do you spend doing repetitive and mindless things in your job? I bet it’s quite a lot. If you know how to code, you can automate many of those things.

I don’t mean only spreadsheet data manipulation. You can automate much more, from creating or renaming multiple files to getting the data from the web. To get some inspiration on the things you can do, read a classical book about Python: Python Automate the Boring Stuff with Python.

Even if you don’t have anything you can automate (and you probably do), you can benefit from learning to code. You can simplify or automate the work of others and get a promotion or even create a new job position — especially for yourself.

Programmers can create their tools, and it makes your possibilities endless.

It can provide additional income

Do you have an idea for an app? If you know how to code, you can make this idea a reality. It may not become the new Facebook or TikTok, but you can easily add it to the App Store and Google Play and start earning.

The chances are your idea isn’t all that great, but it doesn’t matter. Earning even a little bit of money by creating things is delightful. And who said you could only build one app? With a few of them, you can create a nice additional income stream that doesn’t require too much work to maintain.

It’s fun

Some people like to solve puzzles. Programming is excellent for them, as many problems are just that. Some people like building things. Programming is also perfect for them, as programmers create software daily. Some people like to help others. Being a programmer facilitates that. You can build an app someone needs and make a difference in the world.

Whatever your reasons, you can find fun in programming. The ability to create something out of nothing is exhilarating. Learning to code is also a reward in itself. You can almost feel your mind growing when you familiarize yourself with new concepts and tools.
Amardeep Parmar on Karate, Curiosity, and Japan
By: Richie Crowley
Tags: Mindfulness, Leadership, Self, Writing, Happiness

Amardeep Parmar on Karate, Curiosity, and Japan

“Make something that other people want to share.”

Role Models with Richie Crowley is ushering in a new roster of Role Models, and this week’s guest is Amardeep Parmar

Amardeep is a top writer in Advice, Writing, Inspiration, Life, Self Improvement, and Productivity. He has been published in The Ascent, Publishous, MindCafe, Better Marketing & The Startup, just to name a few. Amardeep is a curious soul who writes to relate and to educate.

I hope you enjoy our conversation!

Explore Amardeep’s Pieces

Join Amardeep’s monthly newsletter

Follow Amardeep on Twitter

Engage with Amardeep on Quora

Stay curious with pieces from Mindful Growth

Thank you

Yet to watch the latest episode of Role Models with Richie Crowley?
Midnight Musings
By: Ngang God'Swill N.
Tags: Feelings, Love, Pain, Poetry, Moving On

Midnight Musings

When old feelings surface.

Photo by Romain Lours on Unsplash

Sometimes I miss you, all that you are, that we were; and the tears come easy. Sometimes I wonder what it is we would have been, what could have been. I wonder if you share my idle reminiscing, if you sit in silence in memory of our time together, if you wonder what could have become of our fairy-tale romance. If you cry in secret and clad your broken heart with smiles and laughter.

I know I gave my all, even pieces I shouldn’t have given; I was drowning in forever symphonies and teenage pleasures. I loved you with all of me, and I loved you beyond reason; frankly a piece of me has surely never stopped loving you, a piece that still longs for you even as I key in these words. In a way, you broke me and stole a part of my soul; I am never complete without you, not really. Some part of me still hopes, but reason and time have curbed its excesses and charted a course for my heart; away from you.

There wasn’t a thing I couldn’t do for you, no length I couldn’t reach to hold you down. Every minute with another was a dress rehearsal; I saw you in every smile, tasted you on every lip, felt your warmth in every caress. I was addicted to loving you and afraid to admit that forever was just a dream; with you at least.

I wept for you several violent acid flows from my very heart. You reached to the well of emotions within my being that burst springs of bitter-sweet sentiments, flooding my soul, and staining sheets upon sheets of paper. I was strung up on the possibilities of us, so much so that the shattering of my heart and dignity before my very eyes was a sight I could bear to witness.
Who Are We?
By: Elizabeth Simins
Tags: Queer, Anime, LGBTQ

What Is AniGay?

Our mission at AniGay is simple: To let you in on our conversations about queer anime! We have a ton of thoughts, and we want to present them in a slightly more polished form than is possible on Twitter. So AniGay will host our interpretations, analyses, and theories as well as glimpses into our adjacent research, and anything else we feel like writing and publishing, as long as it’s related to queerness in anime.

Most importantly, we intend to go beyond the canon/non-canon binary, questions of whether characters are positive or negative representation, and other discourse tropes that we find limiting. AniGay is our celebration of anime’s queerness as a medium, and that means we’ll be talking unapologetically about queer anime in all its forms — good, bad, and ugly. Sometimes all three at the same time! Queer anime contains multitudes.
Buşido: Japon Samurayların Felsefesine Kısa Bir Bakış
By: Cansel Ok
Tags: Türkçe, Sanat, Samurai, Savaş, Bushido

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5 Bahasa Pemrograman Terpopuler di Tahun 2020
By: Alterra Academy Writer
Tags: Programming Languages, Codingbootcamp, Alterra Academy, Programming

Alterra Academy is a tech talent incubator that gives everyone (even non-IT background) a chance to be a professional Tech Talent.

Follow
KID Yamamoto Would Have Been 43 Today
By: Edward Carbajal
Tags: Kid Yamamoto, Rizin, Yusuke Yachi, Sports, MMA

Yusuke Yachi’s Touching Tribute to ‘Kid’ Yamamoto

Rizin Confessions №27 shines the spotlight on lightweight competitor Yusuke Yachi, who has been booked opposite Johnny Case at Rizin Fighting Federation 14 on Dec. 31 at the Saitama Super Arena in Saitama, Japan. Yachi remains part of the Krazy Bee camp made famous by Norifumi Yamamoto, who died of cancer in September. While the YouTube program begins with some footage promoting the Darrion Caldwell-Kyoji Horiguchi title fight, the tone shifts to Yachi and his relationship with Yamamoto.

Yachi was on a five-fight winning streak before he lost to Luiz Gustavo Felix dos Santos at Rizin 12 in August — around the same time Yamamoto announced via Instagram that he had been diagnosed with stomach cancer. The loss was his first by knockout, and Yachi admits he hit “rock bottom” with it occurring a little less than a month before the death of his mentor and teammate. In the “Confessions” episode, a tearful Yachi eulogizes Yamamoto: “I’ve now become a fighter on the big stage, just like you. I wish you could watch me make the sport popular once again.” He plans to beat Case and dedicate his win to “Kid.” The episode also includes footage from Yamamoto, who praises his understudy’s training and physique. “MMA fighters should all be like that,” he said. He later credits Yachi as being stronger than most Olympic athletes but admits his doubt about whether or not his training can be replicated by other fighters.

Case compiled a 4–2 record in the Ultimate Fighting Championship prior to his release. He last fought to a majority draw with Natan Schulte at Professional Fighters League 9 in October. Yachi thinks their match could surface as the “Fight of the Night” on New Year’s Eve.

Edward Carbajal serves as the lead MMA analyst for Frontproof Media and holds a black belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and a brown belt in Ishin Ryu Karate. He has covered combat sports since 2014 and has been a fan of MMA since the first UFC. You can follow Edward on Twitter @Carbazel or at his website TheBlogBoardJungle.com.
Carbon Chain: Blockchain Goes Green
By: Joshua Munson
Tags: Bitcoin, Ethereum, Blockchain, Sean Kirtz, Climate Change

Carbon Chain is looking to turn crypto and blockchain green. While Crypto’s blockchain technology is drastically reducing transaction costs, decentralizing financial transactions, and increasing security of financial transfers, it is unfortunately consuming a ton of energy.

Carbon Chain’s research team used their white paper to paint a grim picture for the current state of crypto on the environment.

Bitcoin’s network consumes more energy than 82% of countries on earth. Energy consumption from crypto is expected to double again by 2020. The carbon emissions created by crypto are currently contributing to the release of carbon which in turn is destabilizing the environment. Carbon emissions contribute to climate change and will have long term, costly, negative impacts on the environment.

While Carbon Chain carries the primary benefits of blockchain and crypto transaction’s, it looks to substantially reduce the energy consumption while rewarding investors for doing their part in making the world a better place. Carbon Chain is planning to hold both token buybacks and to be presented at investor conferences to help drive value. ICO investors will also receive a discounted rate for buying in early.

More specific details on the project will be released along with the official white paper in the near future. Follow my blog to keep current on the state of the project.
Kaggle Session (Intro to Pandas)
By: Emily Zhao
Tags: Data Science, Python

Hi everyone! We’re back with Kaggle Sessions. Our first session of the school year focuses on introducing you to the Python library Pandas and how you can solve real-world data science problems with it.
Keep your sanity through big changes
By: Rebecca Thomas
Tags: Life Lessons, Health, Food, Relationships, Weight Loss

Keep your sanity through big changes

I finally wrote it, THE LAST PRINCIPLE

I‘ve now completed the series. It’s been a deliberately slow process because it takes time to know what works and what’s true. A decade later, I think I’ve got it down.

Principle 10: Make peace with changes to your relationships

Let me know what you think.

Does this resonate? What in this series has been the most helpful to you?

Rebecca
What Do Followers Want From a Leader?
By: Paul Myers Mba
Tags: People, Followers, Leadership, Self, Business

There’s a lot of information available about leadership, through books, articles, and online blogs. In contrast, I rarely come across articles or books about being a follower.

So why do people follow certain leaders?

In the book, Strengths Based Leadership: Great Leaders, Teams, and Why People Follow, authors Tom Rath and Barry Conchie described their research. In their research, they asked followers to identify the leader that has the most positive influence on their daily life.

Once each individual identified their ideal leader, Rath and Conchie asked the follower to list three words that best describe what this leader contributed to their life.

Their findings concluded that followers have a very clear picture of what they need, want, and expect from a leader. Here are the top four basic needs:

Trust Compassion Stability, and Hope

Here’s the thing. These four words, with respect to leadership competencies, do not figure in the top four.

By that I mean the top four metrics used to measure effective leadership don't include the four that the very people they lead identified as being the most important.

As such, effective leadership, from the followers’ perspective, is ignored.

Great leaders, who place a priority on relationships, are successful for this very reason.

Trust and Compassion

These needs have meaning for followers, as they aim to align with leaders who can relate to them as human beings. Followers want leaders who demonstrate that he/she cares about them, as people.

Trust is the foundation of any relationship.

The leader/follower relationship is no different. Without a sense of trust, there can be no team. Research has proven that when trust is high in a group or organization, members are more engaged.

In any organization, where employees trust leadership, they’re more likely to be engaged with the organizational goals. From experience and personal observation, teams high in trust spend zero time discussing trust; whereas teams struggling with trust spend a significant amount of time debating trust.
Google Cloud Data Catalog Filesets: unlock its full potential
By: Marcelo Costa
Tags: Data Catalog, Big Data, Google Cloud Platform, Google Cloud Storage, Data Analysis

Google Cloud Data Catalog Filesets: unlock its full potential

Enrich your Google Cloud Storage Filesets with useful statistics about your files

Photo by bendavisual on Unsplash

The Dilemma

Have you ever lost track of how many files you have stored at your cloud provider? Is your Object Storage solution disorganized? Do you have empty buckets you are not aware of? Do you want to better manage your files to be compliant with all those new data protection regulations?

Data Catalog to the rescue!

If you are not familiar with Data Catalog, a recently announced member of Google Cloud’s Big Data services family, there’s a great series on medium that explains some of its capabilities.

With their newest version, users are now able to create Filesets.

from google official docs

A Cloud Storage Fileset is a set of one or more files in Cloud Storage. What will define its cardinality, is the file pattern provided at creation time.

We will talk more about the file patterns and give some concrete examples later on.

In order to Create your Fileset, first you need to have a user defined Entry Group, let’s understand this relationship:

based on google official docs

The Fileset Entry is contained within a user-created Entry Group. So we must create the Entry Group beforehand.

Please follow the instructions at the google official docs, if you want to test it out and create your Fileset entry, there are samples on multiple languages, showcasing how to do it.

Once you have your Fileset Entry set up, you are able to discover it using DataCatalog’s search engine and add business Tags to it, but this raises a question… what if this Fileset Entry does not point to anything?
“In Winston Churchill, Hollywood rewards a mass murderer”
By: Jess Brooks
Tags: White Supremacy, History, World War II, Winston Churchill

“During World War II, Churchill declared himself in favor of “terror bombing.” He wrote that he wanted “absolutely devastating, exterminating attacks by very heavy bombers.” Horrors such as the firebombing of Dresden were the result.

In the fight for Irish independence, Churchill, in his capacity as secretary of state for war and air, was one of the few British officials in favor of bombing Irish protesters, suggesting in 1920 that airplanes should use “machine-gun fire or bombs” to scatter them.

Dealing with unrest in Mesopotamia in 1921, as secretary of state for the colonies, Churchill acted as a war criminal: “I am strongly in favour of using poisoned gas against the uncivilised tribes; it would spread a lively terror.” He ordered large-scale bombing of Mesopotamia, with an entire village wiped out in 45 minutes…

Even his own secretary of state for India, Leopold Amery, confessed that he could see very little difference between Churchill’s attitude and Adolf Hitler’s.”
How to Fail ICO pt.4 [In]efficiency of ICO Advisory
Tags: ICO, Startup, Cryptocurrency Investment, Ico Review

Receive reliable information about the involvement of the advisor in the claimed ICOs and his expertise.

Practically any ICO you might look upon has at least a couple of advisors included in the list of team members. Advisors are aimed to affirm the integrity of the project and add more value to it. They all have available ratings, and any team can observe and make their choice.

How advisors actually work

At first, we opted for a standard approach, so we looked through several advisory services ratings and chose two candidates who promised to have the work done for an affordable price.

The first advisor was to provide the project with PR support. Some of the contract issues: social media, full content creation, PPC campaign, PR Publication and Distribution, top-tier site listings.

What was really done:

Content: he shared a couple of our publications on his Linkedin profile;

he shared a couple of our publications on his Linkedin profile; PR Publication and Distribution: he sent us a couple of media services with the prices. When we checked the prices on the website, it was 200%

he sent us a couple of media services with the prices. When we checked the prices on the website, it was 200% Listings: the advisor said he listed us on 15 sites, but we have never found Alphateca there.

The second advisor was intended to help us with an audit of legal and technical parts.

What was really done:

The advisor performed an audit of the White Paper, gave us helpful advice for modifying it.

Tried to convince us that we could not manage to run an ICO and had to request assistance from his company at the cost of $250 000.

One should clarify what the team needs from advisors: the sphere and the level of the involvement. Generally, advisors can be useful for legal, technical or PR representation. Concerning the extent of activity, there are three types of advisors:

Those who have the top rating, big audience in social networks and recognition in crypto circles. The advisors charge big money and may attract some attention to your project via mention it in social media, showcases or expo. Advisors who charge less money, but have fewer followers and crypto community interaction. Advisors who fully assist the project and become a full member of it. We have not found them yet.

Mistake 7. Do not rely on the rankings only. Receive reliable information about the involvement of the advisor in the claimed ICOs and his expertise.

After the first experience, we changed our strategy and started searching for founders and top managers from the ICOs, which proved to be successful. It was clear that those people had come all the way and could contribute to the development of our project.

Some founders appeared surprisingly benevolent and supportive. They gave us some free advice, showed interest in the project, and the cost of their services was much lower than we would have to pay to the advisors.
The Scaredy-Cat Darkness Has No Chance
By: Jason Park
Tags: Children, Reading, Books, Childrens Books, Christianity

The Scaredy-Cat Darkness Has No Chance

A review of Dan DeWitt’s new chock-full-o-truth children’s book, *The Bright Light and the Super Scary Darkness*

Are you afraid of the dark?

My kids are afraid of the dark, for sure. What’s weird, though, is they don’t start off being afraid of the dark. It’s only when they reach a certain age. My two year-old, she goes to bed like it’s nothing, no problems at all. My five year-old, on the other hand, has to hug our dog and pray so she’s not too scared, and my three year-old boy is very vocal about how scary the dark is until he conks out in about five seconds.

As you can imagine, I was enthralled to receive a new children’s book about how the dark isn’t so scary after all because we have the light that pushes it away. Dan DeWitt’s The Bright Light and the Super Scary Darkness tells the whole story of the Bible with the metaphors of light and darkness. It’s written in a way that little kids can easily understand, yet it holds such deep truth that I could keep reading this to them for years and they’ll consistently understand more and more of what it says about God and the gospel.

In addition to its wonderful message, the illustrations are engaging, my kids loved the “scary” sounds that the darkness made (A happily ambiguous “Screeeek. Smorggggg. Splurrrttt.”), and the book is the perfect length for young kids’ bedtimes. These features make it a great book for reading to kids ages 3 and up. And don’t forget, the darkness is actually afraid of the light, just like Jesus scares away the powers of this world. So get this book for your kids so you can remind them the next time they’re afraid: the darkness is a scaredy-cat!

I received a review copy of The Bright Light and the Super Scary Darkness courtesy of B&H Publishing with a special thanks to Jenaye White, but my opinions are my own.
Who makes the windows in space?
By: People At Siemens
Tags: Software Development, Aerospace, Space, Siemens, Engineering

“There were these pieces of glass, about as thick as cheesecake, made from chemicals and air…” Devon Tooley’s telling us what she’s been up to at work recently. “It’s this ancient process, of making something out of nothing, but we’re using cutting-edge technology to make it even better.” The glass in question will end up as windows on the International Space Station, portals for intergalactic experiments, observations of Earth, and the backdrop to those familiar, whimsical photographs of floating astronauts.

As a Software Product Consultant, Devon works with dozens of clients across the aerospace industry who are experts in their field. They work together to design fixes to push forward the incredible work they’re already doing. “If you’re a rocket scientist, you’re immersed in your work.” They don’t have time to learn about the intricacies of the software facilitating the bigger picture within their work.

Devon also collaborates with her clients to broaden the scope of their work. That could be applying internet capabilities to an airplane wing so engineers can preempt a failure before it happens, smoothing the process of ordering new parts at exactly the right moment or design visualization. “You’d be surprised at the number of customers who still have hand-drawn engineering plans on drafting paper.”
Internet Stories And Lists 4 U
By: Mike Essig
Tags: Lists, Internet, Humor, Poetry, Satire

Read and weep…

16 Ways to a Bigger Sock.

Why You Should Kill Your Boss Now.

7 Ways to Thieve Your Lover.

11 ways to Grow Your Own Bud Lite.

Improve Your Relationships By Selective Murder.

The One Hard Thing Harried Women Want.

How To Get Your Privilege Back.

43 Reasons to Die Young.

How Removing My Tongue Improved My Start-up.

13 Yoga Positions Against Entropy.

Learn to Pick Orgasms From Trees.

33 Reasons to Love Your Shingles.

Genuine Faked Proof Obama Murdered Scalia.

14 Methods For Preventing Dottle.

The Power Of Selective Memory.

Why Internet Lists Make You Stupid.

666 Ways To Fail At Suicide.

The Number One Reason Literacy Is Dead.
Lean into the Unfolding
By: Stephenie Zamora
Tags: Inspiration, Grief, Self Improvement, Happiness, PTSD

“I think maybe I just don’t want to be afraid anymore,” I said to a friend in a moment of deep clarity. “I’m not actually scared of the worst happening, so why not leap wholeheartedly? Why not risk it all and take a chance on what I really want? There’s nothing to lose if I’m not actually scared of losing anything.”⁣

Fear.⁣

⁣It holds us back and keeps us small. It’s natural, biological, instinctual. It’s the reason we stay stuck and stop ourselves from truly showing up. It’s the reason we settle into ruts and routines, digging into those well worn grooves as if our life depends on it… because on a deeper subconscious level, we believe it does.⁣⁣We hold onto ‘what is’ and ‘how things are’ with a white knuckle grip, because surrendering to the unknown induces a level of terror we simply can’t handle.⁣⁣

​Yet, when we choose to face into our fears FULLY and COMPLETELY — acknowledging the worst as absolutely possible — it gives us an opportunity to take back our power, our lives, our selves. Japanese Samurai warriors call this “dying before going into battle.”

Coming face to face with the things we most fear and making peace with their possibility, it sets us free and opens us to other experiences and opportunities we could never consider otherwise.⁣

It allows us to drop into wholehearted devotion around creating what we desire… because we’re no longer fearful of what we may lose in the process.⁣⁣Endings are simply new beginnings, as painful as they are. Loneliness is simply an open container for new connections to be formed, as heartbreaking as it feels. Rock bottom is just a sturdy foundation from which to launch again, as devastating as it can be.⁣⁣Lean into the unfolding. As Rumi says in one of my favorite quotes, “Do not worry that your life is turning upside down. How do you know the side you are used to is better than the one to come?”⁣

⁣

You don’t.
ETC Cooperative applying to join EEA
By: Bob Summerwill
Tags: Ethereum, Ethereum Classic, Blockchain, Enterprise, Hyperledger

Hard on the heels of our announcement that the ETC Cooperative are applying to join Hyperledger and that we are funding ETC support for the Hyperledger Besu codebase (and ongoing maintenance of that), we are also delighted to announce that we are applying to join the Enterprise Ethereum Alliance.

We are committed to participating in maintenance of Ethereum software within the collaborative open source workflows which the Linux Foundation has built up over decades.

We see ETC as part of the broader Ethereum ecosystem, not as something apart. While the philosophies of the #Ethereum and #EthereumClassic communities differ, the protocols and implementations are near identical, and collaboration there is pragmatic.

The EEA is an industry body driving for better specification of the #EthereumStack. With the announcement of the Mainnet Initiative the scope of that has explicitly been extended to cover permissionless as well as permissioned use-cases. We want to help in that vital mission.

Standards should be modular. There are many Ethereum networks, both public and private. Not just ETH. Not just ETC. We all share these needs, and intend to do our part within the Coop to drive forward this technology for the benefit of all. Getting past tribalism.

This is a multi-year mission for me personally, going back to 2016, and starting before the DAO fork divided us into two camps. See Cats and Dog Can Be Friends and Ethereum Everywhere. I was the Co-Lead Architect for the EEA during the launch period and then served as the Vice-Chair of the Technical Steering Committee until October 2017.

Me speaking at the EEA launch event, with Shahan, co-Founder of PegaSys in the background.

I believe there is huge potential for synergy in collaboration between these ecosystems. I understand that these moves will not be universally popular, but the ETC Cooperative and I will never do anything which compromises the principles of ETC or which endangers the network.

We welcome feedback!

Bob Summerwill, Executive Director, Ethereum Classic Cooperative
Office Space
By: Jon Armstrong
Tags: Ergonomics, Design, Health, Cube Jungle

Recessional times demand a certain action. Like most of my ilk, I’m shoring up on the client-side of things, hiding out and holding out.

This means taking a job at a company who actually needs what I do. It also means that I’m no longer older than the CEO. It means filling out purchase requisitions and meeting with the company interior designer to pick furniture, none of which is close to anything Herman Miller has ever produced. It means that when said furniture arrives, I have to make 14 phone calls to various people, being careful not to step on toes, to have large men come remove the temporary furniture. Furniture which was sufficient and far more retro than the new, approved furniture.

And then there’s the whole Ergonomic Pretense. Actually spelling the word Ergonomic and printing it somewhere doesn’t mean something is, in fact, ergonomic. Mixing and matching actual ergonomic devices with non-ergonomic furniture is disastrous. A list is in order:

Office chair ripped straight from 1982 Ford Econoline passenger side, including slate blue toxic fabric.

Said chair has multiple levers and adjustments, none of which accommodate a person 75.25 inches tall.

“L” shaped desk that doesn’t accommodate the “ergonomic” keyboard tray.

“Ergonomic” keyboard tray, with dual articulated mouse platforms blocks drawers on one side, won’t allow for actual mouse use on other side. Actual mouse use may vary, depending on if one actually needs to use the mouse. If one does need to actually use the mouse, no actual mouse use will be allowed, due to shaky nature of mouse platform. No design work of any kind is tolerated by said mouse platform.

Mouse platforms are so far away from actual keyboard area, that using them increases likelihood of repetitive stress injury.

Walnut brown Junior Executive desk is made of particle board and weighs 14 tons. Appears to have been designed and manufactured prior to the era of computers.

Fully adjustable keyboard tray does not accommodate Microsoft Natural Keyboard Pro. To put it in any kind of comfortable position requires sitting in painful, monklike position. Despite designers intent to be able to push keyboard under the desk, clearance height and mouse platforms block functionality on both sides.

I’m ready to start designing office furniture. Anybody know a good venture capitalist?