fabiochiu/medium-articles huggingface dataset:
How Shopify is Loading the Bases for a Swing at Amazon
By: Murto Hilali
Tags: Technology, Shopify, Business, Ecommerce, Online Shopping

How Shopify is Loading the Bases for a Swing at Amazon

3 ways the e-commerce sweetheart is setting up for a Canadian invasion

Created by Author

I’m Canadian, which means I drink milk out of a bag, ride a polar bear to school, and my blood type is maple syrup. It also means I was founded in the same place as e-commerce platform Shopify.

Created by Author

Shopify is the company powering online stores and POS for 1,000,000+ business, including brands like Allbirds, October’s Very Own, and Heinz.

In 2019, they made it clear that they were coming after Amazon, but tackling a company that sheds/gains the value of the American airline industry in a single trading day is a feat of Herculean proportions; how could Shopify do it?

Although Amazon is likely to be the first $2 trillion company in the world, Shopify has made some key moves in the past few months that might pave the way for the Canadian Invasion.

1. Including a ‘BNPL’ installment system

Created by Author

BNPL: Buy now, pay later.

Shopify’s plans for ‘Shop Pay Installments’ were recently unveiled at their Reunite conference. The payment service would customers pay for items on Shopify stores in 4 monthly installments with no interest.

BNPL firms like Klarna and Afterpay have made interesting splashes in recent years, but the payment structure alone doesn’t seem like enough to be the foundation for long-term business, especially with Visa and Mastercard getting in the ring.

Offering BNPL as a feature for your Shopify store, however, is a gangster move:

Lower item prices generally boost average order value — if you feel like you’re spending less per item, you’ll spend more money on the basket overall.

— if you feel like you’re spending less per item, you’ll spend more money on the basket overall. Merchants get a kind of monthly recurring revenue , a hallmark of a great business.

, a hallmark of a great business. It allows consumers to separate the pain of paying with the pleasure of consuming by slotting in more time between the use of the product and the payment for it — again, it increases sales.

Smart move by Shopify — especially in these times of unemployment and financial insecurity, this system could be very attractive to consumers.
APIS Monthly Report #7, January 2019
By: Apis Team
Tags: Blockchain, Notice, Cryptocurrency, Kor, Finance

APISplatform

Official publication for APIS, the world-first masternode…
Bringing decentralization together!
By: Martin Sterlicchi
Tags: Internet, Software Development, Decentralization, Blockchain, Internet of Things

Decentralization coming together?

The Dysrupts team has created a meetup network to bring together decentralization enthusiasts from many different tech areas to share experiences, build connections, and overall have a great time!

Our focus at Dysrupts is on creating offline distributed networks through mobile technology, and we want to bring people together who are interested in sharing, learning, and bringing multiple perspectives to decentralization across all forms of computing technology .

The meet up network welcomes people with interests and expertise in areas from the Internet of Things to edge networks, or even block chain to swarm intelligence.

This week we established two meetup groups: Decentralize Maryland and Decentralize New York City. It has only been a couple of days and we already have nearly 30 members across both groups!

Our first event will be a general kickoff to gauge members’ areas of expertise and develop our agenda going forward. After that we plan to have a different theme for each event that focuses on a different area of decentralized technology.

So if you are in the area, then definitely sign up for the Decentralize New York City meetup or the Decentralize Maryland meetup!

Interested in joining the network and creating a meetup group in your area? Let us know by contacting Martin at martin@dysrupts.com!
Folded Into the Mist
By: Daniel A. Teo
Tags: Unsettling, Winter, Prose Poem, Imagination, Poetry

Folded Into the Mist

A poem

Photo by Filip Zrnzević on Unsplash

Dragging oneself

on the calloused finish of tar

the road speaks volumes of

being more animate than

a pavement asphyxiated by chalk white

A trifling constitution of

asphalt and concrete and pebble

concretizing itself into an underaged Blizzard.

His pulled apart sandals orientates the feet

to align with the yellow strips

on the side of the road

as they battle themselves to rid

of the branch lodged into a vein

through the small opening of the antiquated footwear.

The sound of the wind stays turbulent against the eardrums

accompanied by a continual noise

of the unabating hail plummet

engulfing itself into human fingers

trying to nail deep into his earlobes

in an attempt of pulling themselves in

to tug at his devastated brain.

Undeterred by the curtain of fabric layers

and only a mere portion of exposed skin where eyes are

the cold still perforated the jacket

and its sleeves barely clinging on from the threads.

For what he thought was an escapade

to seek desired tranquility,

he instead becomes chewed, swallowed, and spit out

by the snickers of the Oak Trees

with their canopies thrown over his shadows

till they form their own silhouettes.

The frost forces the brain to lose its senses

to the point where it is no longer able to discern

the mental chortles with the physical sneers

hurled at the forlorn boy in the woods

struggling to keep his thoughts contained

before they spill unceasingly onto the snow

like his footsteps corrugated with ichor and scar tissue.

The warmth of his shaky exhales

elude his mask to be

immediately subjugated by the Blizzard beyond that of the cloth,

hungering for a fireplace

that which he had abandoned

back in the cacophonous darkness.



Only for him to plod further into the woods

— another darkness

Mumbling prayers to Gods he never worshipped

to miraculously give him the strength to subdue the

unyielding winds rupturing his knees

bringing him to the ground

where he listens to the rumbles of cars beyond the tree trunks

a gleam of hope in a place he can never reach.

The words help escape his cracked lips noiselessly

for the noise to be forcefully propelled back into his throat

and leave him strangulated by his own words and thoughts

together with the shrubs drying out from the cold

green long evanesced from their leaves

to only lie in numbing tribulation

sinking into the ground

and look beside them

a boy

already folded into the mist.
5 Karakteristik Gereja Ramah Anak
By: Obed Nugroho
Tags: Anak, Gereja, Education

in In Fitness And In Health
Awakening
By: Anchal Sood
Tags: Life Lessons, Contemporary Haiku, Self, Haiku, Poetry

This enforced solitude has been an awakening. Why do we focus on being our best versions for others? Cook a feast for friends, host the best parties, even make efforts to look our best.

For the first time ever I am my own companion. Looking after myself. No strings attached. Simple self-care. Focussing on things that matter and make me happy.

I have rediscovered my best friend in me. Have you?
Why Not Black Labeling
By: Joanna Vang
Tags: Bazaar Of The Bizarre, Labeling, Invisibility, Poetry, Workplace Culture

Why Not Black Labeling

Poetry

Image by edith lüthi from Pixabay

Invisibility has its reason

there is no disgrace

in degradation

molds of wax effigies

ostracize the depicted

on stage the puppet show

with triple costumes

black labeling the deviants

aged twelve years in old oak casks

with blended maturity

and hidden sweet vanilla flavor

to dance on your tongue

Joanna Vang 2020
My Unnatural Interest in Cracks
By: M. H. Rubin
Tags: Wabi Sabi, Art, Tikkun Olam, Zen, Photography

I’ve thought a lot about cracks. Cracks are gentle reminders of our impermanence, of the steady drumbeat of entropy. We cling to the Earth as if it were static, and act surprised when it is not. We all break under the alchemy of time, the pressures of life. Cracks are snowflakes, unique fingerprints of our modernization, and each tells a story if we only stop moving and look down. They’re so ubiquitous they’re invisible. But not to me. They’re part of my photographic mantra to slow down and pay attention.

A friend gave me a little book on wabi-sabi in 1994, which deeply affected me. It perfectly articulated the joy in all these imperfections. But it wasn’t until 2015 I first learned about kintsugi, the Zen art of repairing broken ceramics with gold. I liked how the artform cherished flaws, highlighted the cracks and transformed the mundane into the precious. This felt like an important human lesson.

But my crack exploration was reborn that year when I made the connection between these beautiful fractals, the Zen aesthetics, and the Jewish concept of tikkun olam — literally translated: “to heal the world.” Tikkun olam reminded me that the world is broken in myriad ways and it is my obligation to fix it.

So I made very large prints of cracks I liked, and I got a needle and thread, and began to suture them up. This was my work to heal. They looked a little bit like my head after my brain surgery. I wasn’t that into how they looked when done, but I really enjoyed sewing them. In particular, while I sat in my living room and pushed the needle through the photographic paper, I loved the way the thread twisted, and the shadows cast on the paper while I worked. So I grabbed my camera, thinking I’d document the process.

While suturing up the cracks is tikkun olam, it is also kintsugi. The world, even broken, is precious and worthy of reverence, maybe more-so. We heal the world not because the cracks are bad, they are the very essence of humanity; we heal the world because it is our job.

What I discovered was that the process of sewing them was more interesting than having them sewn. And the images of me working seemed more enigmatic than anything I could have imagined, almost “Uelsmann-y” surreal. And that became my project — not to create a mixed-media object, but to make a photograph to document my sewing up of cracks. Tikkun olam isn’t the healed world, but our work to fix it. This is my response.
Survive
By: J.D. Harms
Tags: Image, Understanding, Survival, Poetry, Loneliness

For all the little deaths that pass by

you get excited for that future

stream/ Solitude

& solace finding something for you

bringing you to some

place where the naked go

Taking place

oh, it’s all taking places

& you are realizing your dictionary

doesn’t tell you

you’re about to have this moment

where you must last

longer than it will
Death is my Employer
By: Nosh Komen
Tags: Work, Humor, Short Read, Haven, Comedy

Death is my Employer

Everyone hates my greedy employer

Photo by Павел Сорокин from Pexels

Death is my employer. Probably, the oldest employer in the universe.

Its existence determine whether I will work on not.

I respect him, I have to work diligently otherwise I will be fired.

I am a doctor.

I studied for 4 years at medical school. As if that’s not enough, I was further trained as a resident for another 4 whole years. Still, that was not enough I spent another 2 years to be a sub-specialist. To be fully employed by death, it took me a whole decade.

I had to memorize thousands of terms, ethics, spellings, procedures, diseases, communication skills, etc.
How to protect yourself from scammers. Tips from SocialMedia.Market
Tags: Bitcoin, Blockchain, Social Media, ICO

Recently we have discovered scammers in our Telegram-chat, who posed as members of the SocialMedia.Market team. We consider it’s our duty to protect users from fraud, so we have prepared easy tips that will help you not to get caught in scammers toils.

Password and ETH-wallet

SocialMedia.Market Support NEVER asks for the password and address of your ETH-wallet. Our support can request only the address of your email or user-id, which is indicated in the personal account (screen 1). This information is enough for us to solve any problem related to the operation of our platform. All other user information is confidential and we recommend you to block any user who requests this data.

Screen 1

Official website and personal account

Pay attention to the URL of the site you are following. The address of our official website is https://socialmedia.market. The address of the user’s personal account is https://ico.socialmedia.market. All other URLs are in no way connected with our project and are scam sites.

Technical Support Accounts

Our technical support team are not anonymous and work under their personal accounts. Pay attention not only to the names but also to their usernames.

Here are the names and nicknames of the entire technical support team:

Roman: @RomanSMMSupport

Alex: @Alexander_SMM

Oleg: @OlegSMMSupport

Liz: @Liz_SMM

Dmitry: @DmitriySMMSupport

The names of the core team who can also answer you in the Telegram-chat:

Dmitry Shyshov: @shishovd

Alexandra Morozova: @aleksandramorozova

Victor Perehod: @Perrehod

Maksim Churkyn: @mchurkyn

Yehor Shyshov: @yssvv

Digests and email addresses

Weekly we make digests. If you receive such letters, pay attention to the address. All emails and official notices we send from — info@socialmedia.market.

For communication by email, our technical support service also uses the address — support@socialmedia.market.

In addition, our managers can use personalized corporate emails with the domain @socialmedia.market.

Be careful and do not share your personal data to unverified users! For all questions, please contact us on Telegram-chat. Stay tuned and follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Linkedin.
You are allowed not to like things.
By: Tracey Folly
Tags: Personal Growth, Life Lessons, Personal Development, Self Improvement, Self

You are allowed not to like things.

You are allowed not to like things that are good for you; that doesn’t give you a free pass to avoid them.

You are allowed not to like working out, but if you want a fit body, then you have to exercise. Sitting on the sofa watching Netflix may be more fun, but it won’t get anyone closer to their fitness goals.

You are allowed not to like eating salad and grilled chicken instead of cheeseburgers and fries, but if you want flat abs instead of a protruding belly that overflows the elastic waistband of your jeans and yoga pants, then you’d better opt for the salad once in a while.

You are allowed not to like going to the dentist, or the gynecologist, or your annual checkup, but unless you want a mouthful of rotting teeth, an undiagnosed gynecological condition, or a question mark where your clean bill of health should be, then you ought to make and keep those appointments as if your life depends on it — because it does.

You are allowed not to like things that are none of your business; that doesn’t make it your business.

You are allowed not to like your boyfriend’s friends, the way he dresses, and the fact he leaves his dirty socks and wet towels on the bathroom floor of his own apartment. That doesn’t mean you get to choose his friends or his clothes, and you certainly don’t get to make demands about where he leaves his dirty socks and wet towels — unless it’s your apartment, too. That’s a different story.

You are allowed not to like the amount of makeup your girlfriend wears. You are allowed not to like the length of her skirt or the length of her hair. You are allowed not to like how often she calls her mother and whether she pays more attention to her dog than she does to you — but you are not allowed to demand changes. That’s not your call.

You are allowed not to like your coworkers’ politics, but you aren’t allowed to berate them for it. You are allowed not to like your coworkers’ work ethic, but you’re not allowed to berate them for that, either. You are allowed not to like the way your coworkers laugh or sneeze or eat egg salad every day for lunch, but unless any of those things give you a rash or send you into anaphylactic shock, then you aren’t entitled to complain.

You are allowed not to like things; that doesn’t grant you entitlement.

You are allowed not to like people, places, or things. That doesn’t grant you entitlement. It’s not your place to build walls or belittle immigrants. You aren’t entitled to an Uber driver who speaks English as a first language and provides you an iPhone charger upon demand.

If you don’t like to eat healthfully and exercise, then you aren’t entitled to a fit and healthy body.

If you don’t like your partner, spouse, or coworker’s habits, then you aren’t entitled to “fix” them. You are, however, entitled to vote with your feet. Get a new habit, a new hobby, or a new job. Get a new attitude.

You are allowed not to like things; you’re just not entitled to act like a jerk about it.
Are you hacking yet or are you still safe?
By: Martin Reinhardt
Tags: Continuous Integration, Security, Hacking, Continuous Improvement

Not least after Spectre and Meltdown the question arises: Would I already be hacked or haven’t I noticed it yet? So why not make a virtue out of necessity and adopt your own systems? The learning curve is steep, but it helps to recognize and minimize risks.

It is essential that security know-how is built up in the team. The first step is to create an awareness of the problem. Especially for agile teams it is therefore important to establish different control points with automatic security tests. In addition to static code analysis, however, it helps enormously to get yourself into the role of the attacker.

Safe on the road

Remark

At this point we would like to point out again that hacking without the consent of the domain owner is illegal.

In general, you should not install the various hacking tools on your regular computer. It is best to use Whonix or Kali-Linux in a virtual machine. In the following Kali-Linux is used. The nice thing is: Most of the tools are already installed and can be used directly. Alternatively you can use a docker image, which is also the case in this article.

Note

One more note about using Tor: Tor is useful for things like surfing the Internet, but when it comes to using hacking tools like nmap, sqlmap, and nikto, which make thousands of requests, they run very slowly over Tor.

Exploring the site

Even if Hollywood presents it differently to us: Hackers often spend more time preparing the attack than they do with the actual hack. This is primarily about collecting information, such as domain entries: Here is fierce, whois queries of IP addresses and domain names and reverse whois queries to find all IP address ranges and domain names associated with an organization:

First of all, an attempt is made to obtain more information (AXFR request) via the network via zone transfer. This will not work in most cases

Now Fierce tries to find out if a wildcard entry exists

Subsequently, various further subdomains are found by BruteForce

A total of 10 entries were found

Using Whois queries you can now start to find out more about the provider who has registered the domain and probably also operates it:

So now you can search by reverse whois search for further addresses. But since these are expensive, you can also try your luck with Google. Just do reverse search via Google for ip address listings or urls.

Since we do not have a direct Whois record in our case, but only the entry of the hoster, too many IP ranges are listed to us here. However, this can vary depending on the configuration and setup of the company. Finally, the reverse search serves to extend the list of interesting IPs/domains.

At this point, a note on the security of cloud providers. If you try to get more information via DNS at AWS, it’s not that easy:
How to Add a Splash Screen to a React Native App (iOS and Android)
By: Spencer Carli
Tags: React Native, Splash Screen, Android App Development, Technology, iOS App Development

Updated: February 27, 2018

I’m often asked about that last mile of developing a React Native app (actually getting it into the app store). There’s more to it than just building your app and sending it off to Apple/Google — you’ve got to add icons, splash screens, write descriptions, and more before sending it off for review.

Today we’ll cover splash screens on iOS and Android.

Using Expo or Create React Native App? No need to go through all of this — you can follow their docs and be set up in no time.

In this tutorial we’ll be working in the platform IDEs and writing a bit of native code. Don’t worry, I’ll walk you through everything. The final code is available on Github.

I’ll be starting by creating a new React Native app react-native init SplashExample .

Protip: Set up source control before following along! Not only is it a good way to revert changes when you make a mistake but it’s also a great way to see exactly what changed to enable the splash screen.

Splash Screen Assets

In a previous version of this tutorial I showed how to simply use a large image to create the splash screen. This can have issues scaling between the ever growing number of screen resolutions.

So, instead, we’ll start with a single image that looks a lot like our icon. The idea here is two fold:

Make it look like the icon the user taps grows to fill the entire screen making for a seamless transition. Keep it simple. A splash screen should only show for a few milliseconds. It shouldn’t have a lot of information on it — it is, after all, a dreaded loading screen.

With all of this in mind we’ll start with a a square image at three sizes (@1x = 200px, @2x = 400px, @3x = 600px).

You can get those images from Github.

Preparing the App

If you’ve tried to set up a splash screen in React Native then you may have experience a white screen flash before your content loads. If your app has a white background this is often not very noticable, but it’s still a pain. Today we’re going to make it very noticable if we have any flashes of white. To do that we’ll set a dark background color in our app.

Replace App.js with

All this did was set the background color to #4F6D7A , the text color to #F5FCFF , and use light text in the status bar.

The basic app

Adding Splash Screens (iOS)
10 Unnecessary Wastes of Money You May Have
By: Tony Yeung
Tags: Finance, Money, Business, Life Lessons, Investing

4. Your bank

Banks can be evils. They can charge many different kinds of fees (admin fees, card fees, transfer fees, etc). Most of the big banks offer the most expensive fees but the lowest interest rates to the customers. Take a look at your bank accounts and see if there are any better options than what you are having.

Also, you should avoid using ATMs from another bank institutions because you end up paying more fees when you withdraw the money.

5. In-Game Purchases

Games are addictive. It is hard to break this habit. The small amounts of purchases eventually will add up, and you will suddenly be shocked how much money you spent on the game (and then you feel shameful or regret).

You should remove your credit card information from any games or apps.

You can go to YouTube or Google “how-to” finish the level if you are upset by a level you cannot finish.
Joins — You Need to Know Them.. We live in a data driven society…
By: Peter Hui
Tags: Data Analysis, Beginner, Data Wrangling, Data Science, Sql Joins

Joins — You Need to Know Them.

You may not like them but they’ll always be around for you.

Photo by Laura Ockel on Unsplash

Where ever you go, data is every where. Look at your car dashboard. It is a dashboard of data. It tells you your speed, mileage and gas in a few simple visuals. Go to a cash register and it tells you how much you have to pay. Go to work and you may be confronted with spreadsheets. Data is everywhere and to appreciate and work with them, you need to understand joins. If you are like me and have worked in this industry, the below may sound familiar to you. :)

Free stock images creative commons

Data comes in various sources, and to combine it into something useful requires clear understanding of the various “Joins” between data sets.

For simplicity sake, joins are can be thought of as a collection of common and different information between data sets.

A “connection” is the common key between the data sets. This connection is required among a vast majority of data sets in order to obtain anything insightful between them. The “Name” column between these two data sets acts as a connection between the two. For there to be a “connection”, there has to be a common column or columns between the two data sets.

I hope the below helps to explain this concept a bit further.

image by author

I won’t get into the technicalities here, but connecting data sets essentially requires you to understand joins and connections. There are a few things you need to worry about when it comes to connecting data sets — but I’ll write about this in another article.
A Response With Feelings Is So Human
By: Pierre Trudel
Tags: Love, LGBTQ, Thee Quest, Humanity, Friendship

Thee Quest-Human Emotions

A Response With Feelings Is So Human

Being different is not being anyone else but “Who You Really Are”

Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

Thee Quest-Human Emotions

The story above, written by my friend James Finn, shares the Human Feelings of two young men that share friendship. Their feelings for one another are just like any other human beings, that love to be together.

I am Gay yes, and I am Trans, yes, but I am human first and foremost. Thee Quest loves to share stories that help bring people together.

Togetherness, not separation, defines what being human beings is all about, right?

The following is my response to this story.
Winter Solstice
By: Kara B. Imle
Tags: Winter, Poetry On Medium, Poetry, Winter Solstice, Solitude

Photo by Author

Rain falls in tireless ribbons

drifting down from a silver sky

like wet tinsel on a sodden tree.

The cold hides inside my clothing

clings to my skin in thin, icy layers

draws its fingers at last into my bones.

And yet I cannot stop looking

cannot help but raise my face to the mist

for a last kiss before going indoors.

There I will throw more wood on the fire

and huddle close enough to combust.

The cold does not easily let go; it beckons me

to walk farther from home

down to the shoreline where grey gulls

roll the wind from wingtip to wingtip

cycling back and forth, circling, crying.

It wants me to gaze up at the hawk

standing motionless in the sky

seeing all.

I know these things, have seen the empty

shells of crabs the gulls pick clean

the hapless feathers of small birds caught out

in death’s lightning: there, then gone.

Today I study the rose hips full to bursting

with bitter seeds, the cargo of spring.

I lick drops of rain from their red bellies

and tap sly fingers against thorns

as if to remind the sleeping flowers: soon

the sun will be reborn.

For now I heft another armload of wood

to build up the fire against the dark.
Let Me Out
By: Tharushi Botheju
Tags: Relationships, Love, Life, Poetry, A Cornered Gurl

Photo by nikko macaspsc on Unsplash.

They rush through my veins.

mercilessly;

wondering irrationally

with undefined—

emotions.

Skin-deep and heavier.

Let me out

from this void

of halted movements.

Keep me under the wings,

lend me a solution for

my never-ending queries.

Hide me from this misery —

emotions.

Fear me,

losing the grip of my sanity

before me,

let me out.

-T.B.
Talking about Money in Lakhs & Crores
Tags: Ideas, Business, Innovation, Diversity, Culture

“I’m pretty sure it costs around 22 lakhs,” I said while talking to my friend about a Mini Cooper model. “22 what ?” she asked.

This was back in 2014, a few weeks after I arrived in Sydney for the first time. Me, like most people coming from the Indian sub-continent, used ‘lakhs’ and ‘crores’ when talking about large denominations of money. My friend, a migrant from the US, had never heard of those terms. She argued that it is not even an English word cause it’s not used in America. I disagreed. I grew up seeing these terms in English newspapers, in school textbooks, in magazines and books. And India is one of the largest English speaking nations in the world.

Are these really English words?

They can be found in the oxford dictionary, so I’ll say ‘Yes’. These words can be commonly seen in English print originating from places like India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Myanmar, and Pakistan. In fact, if we go by the statistics of the population and usage, the term ‘lakh’ is more used in English than the term ‘million ’

What exactly is a lakh?

Originating from the Sanksrit word ‘laksha’, 1 lakh represents the number 100,000. Most South Asian languages have a variation of this word in their vocabulary. In my native tongue, Malayalam, it is called ‘laksham’. English speakers from South Asia are not fans of terms like ‘100 thousand’ or ‘900 thousand’. For them, 1 million is simply 10 lakhs. Whether you are buying a real estate property or biding bit-coins in South Asia, the talk, transaction, and print will be mostly in lakhs.

If it is not in lakhs, it will be in crores.

1 crore is 100 lakhs which equates to 10 million. Similar to the term ‘lakh’, ‘crore’ has its origin in Sanskrit and it is widely used in English conversations about money.

Since we are talking about numbers and money, the difference in comma placement deserves attention.

Both in the western system and Indian system, the initial places of values are in the order of Ones, Tens, Hundreds, Thousands, and Ten Thousand. After that point, both these numeric systems take different routes. In the western system, the next values are ‘Hundred Thousand’, ‘Millions’, ‘Ten million’ and so on. In the traditional Indian system, it is ‘Lakhs’, ‘Ten Lakhs’, ‘Crores’ etc

In Indian English, both these approaches are mixed and talks are in the order of ‘Lakhs’, ‘Million’, ‘Crores’ and so on. (10 lakh = 1 million, remember ?). So, naturally, the placement of comma differs.

The western system groups digits by threes. The Indian version groups the rightmost digits by three and thereafter groups by two. For example, the western 10,000,000 (ten million) which is referred to as ‘1 crore’ in Indian English, will be written as 1,00,00,000 with commas at the thousand, lakh, and crore places.

Simple summary

If you are a native English speaker and you see a ₹5L in a banknote or business agreement while traveling, don’t interpret that as a mistake.

It is simply ₹5 lakhs (₹5,00,000).

Gain Access to Expert View — Subscribe to DDI Intel
Trying to Start a Novel, Again
By: Sarah Miller
Tags: Northern California, Novels, Marijuana, Smoke Weed, Paranoia

Trying to Start a Novel, Again

A beginning of a novel that may or may not survive

Trees on former campus of the Grass Valley Group

This is not me—this is another person talking. A character.

I really hate the smell of weed. I don’t hate it the way I hate the smell of patchouli or Ciara, a perfume from the 1970s that my great aunt wore. The smell doesn’t make me sick, and it doesn’t disgust me — the smell of pot terrifies me. When I smell marijuana I feel like everything is out of control. I don’t mean this in a reefer madness kind of way; I think pot is kind of harmless. I smoke it sometimes and feel everything from apathetic to mildly regretful to “have more interest in life than usual” in an “oh shit” kind of way. But if I get a really strong smell of pot, I feel scared.

I am trying to figure this out. I might have gotten it from somewhere. So — pot makes people paranoid. Googling for five minutes, I have discovered that pot overstimulates the amygdala, a part of the brain that — allegedly? — regulates anxiety. (And maybe this is wrong, it was five minutes.) So the people who don’t get paranoid when they smoke pot, they probably never get paranoid, even when they should, because they think they’re amazing. TLDR: People who like pot love themselves.

When you smell pot and it’s really strong, what you’re essentially smelling is someone who doesn’t know they have the capacity to be a shitty person. That is why the smell scares me. This makes sense to me. Does it make sense to you? I am afraid it doesn’t. I am afraid you think I’m an idiot. Or maybe I am just really high right now. Just kidding, I’m not high at all. But imagine if I wrote this down and actually thought, wow, this is brilliant, what a good idea, and it didn’t occur to me to think it was stupid. That’s what people who smoke a lot of pot think about the things they make and the things they do.

Or maybe I just associate pot with Northern California and that is what actually scares me. I am afraid of a whole region, of its cedar trees dripping with rain, its dirt roads in shadow, of white people in wool hats sitting around picnic tables, eating, drinking, gathered together but not smiling. I am afraid of a place where it seems like the best thing you can do in any situation is care less than everyone else.
Here’s the One Tax Mistake You’re Probably Making (and How to Fix It)
By: Fox Van Allen
Tags: Taxes

Here’s the One Tax Mistake You’re Probably Making (and How to Fix It)

Do this and you’ll see more money in your next paycheck

(Image: Paramount Pictures)

Getting a huge tax refund check from the IRS feels good — real good. So good you might want to make like Chantalle here from “The Wolf of Wall Street” and just tape it all over yourself.

But if you’re expecting a big check this year, you’ve made a huge tax mistake. A big refund from the IRS in 2018 means your employer withheld way too much in income taxes from your paychecks in 2017.

Your paychecks could have been larger all year long. You could have put that money toward paying down high-interest credit card debt, or reducing your student loans. You could have even put a little bit extra in your 401(k) or Roth IRA.

But instead, you gave the federal government an interest-free loan. It’s a mistake most people make: The average tax refund in 2017 was nearly $2,800.

The good news is that even if you blew it last year, there’s plenty of time left to get your taxes straight for 2018. Here’s what you need to know to get your money right — and start seeing bigger paychecks.

The IRS can give you a quick (free!) tax checkup for 2018

The Internal Revenue Service has a great tool available on its website where, after answering a few questions about your taxes and job, you can find out your tax bill for 2018. It’s called the IRS Withholding Calculator, and it’s been recently updated to account for changes due to the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017.

You’ll want to have a recent pay stub handy so you can answer questions about how much you’re currently being paid, how much you put in your 401(k), and how much in tax is being withheld from each check. If you expect to file jointly or have a second job, you’ll need that extra pay stub as well.

You’ll also be asked questions about major tax credits you expect to claim (such as the Earned Income Tax Credit), and any other sources of income you may have (such as bank interest). A completed copy of your 2017 federal income taxes will come in real handy here.

(If you’re still putting that off, here’s how you can e-file your 2017 federal taxes for free.)

The IRS calculator will then tell you whether you’re overpaying or underpaying your taxes with every paycheck. It’ll also tell you the number of allowances you should claim for the rest of the year to get closest to paying your true tax bill.

Here’s how to increase your next paycheck

Once you know how many allowances to claim, your next step is to fill out a new Form W-4 and give it to your employer. You can download and print a W-4 (PDF file) from the IRS website here.

After filling out your name, address and social security number, you’ll write the number of allowances the IRS Withholding Calculator told you to take on Line 5. If you’re worried this might not be enough, you can use Line 6 to withhold additional money for taxes in any dollar amount you choose.

The sooner you do it, the sooner you’ll see a bigger paycheck. Just be sure to use that extra cash for something smart!
It’s Time to Claim Your Promised Land
By: Tracy Gerhardt-Cooper
Tags: Faith, Bible, Christianity, Spiritual Growth, Decision Making

Forty years of wandering was done. Two generations after starting the journey, the time had come. The Israelites had finally crossed into their long-hoped-for land.

The crossing is detailed in Joshua 3. Yet in Joshua 18, there were still some tribes who had not yet taken possession of their allotment of the Promised Land.

Joshua addressed them with a pointed question:

“So Joshua said to the Israelites:

‘How long will you wait before you begin to take possession of the land

that the Lord, the God of your ancestors, has given you?’”

(Joshua 18:3, NIV)

This exhortation is surprising to an outsider. If you finally come to a long-awaited place, delaying it any further seems foolish. Of course, they should go in and receive what was promised.

For whatever reason, they didn’t.

Joshua’s words to the Israelites are words for today also. Once God has blessed and shown His favor, we must move and take possession of the promise.

When we hesitate, whether out of fear or a lack of drive, we dishonor God and the gifts He wants to give us.

Step forward in faith to receive the gifts of God. These gifts are meant to be a blessing not only to us but others also. Delaying this step delays our ability to bless others.

Relationships, business ventures, ministry opportunities — these are all areas of life where God moves and opens doors. We must move forward and take possession of the gifts He gives.

Photo by Jordan McGee on Unsplash

When He moves, what is your response? Do you hesitate and worry? Do you put off taking your next step?

I sometimes hesitate. When I was reading the passage from Joshua 18, it resonated with me. I’d never heard this part of the story.

Once it was time to cross the Jordan, I assumed everyone ran into the Promised Land. It was flowing with milk and honey after all. I figured they started living their best lives right away.

Their hesitation makes no sense. Neither does mine.

As I thought and prayed about this, I began to identify areas in my own life where I needed to move because God had already made things clear to me. It was my turn to step into the good plan He’d already laid out for me.

He’s a promise keeper. When He speaks, we can move with confidence.

As you pray and wait for God to move, remember that when He answers, the next move is yours. He is faithful to deliver. We must be faithful to step forward when he does.
Mom Guilt
By: Anna Moriartylev
Tags: Motherhood, Grief, Comics, Mothers Day, Family

Spiralbound

Comics for life, brought to life by Edith Zimmerman.
Architects, Not Just a Matter of Good Design
By: Michael Lewarne
Tags: Architects, Architecture, Client Relationship, Stories And Culture

“The best solution to an architectural problem may not necessarily be a building.” — Cedric Price

The hero shot* says it all.

We design impressive buildings, Nuff Said, right?

Architects deceive.

Too many architects describe their job as designing buildings, with their emphasis on designing. With the description followed by a monologue on the quality of their design work and the importance of design. All true, however, if you were to ask an architect how their tasks for the week break down, I’d hazard a guess that actual design time was well less than 50% of their time. It’s certainly true for me. That’s not to say we’re sitting on our hands, drinking single origin dark roast piccolo’s or flicking through the latest glossy architectural publication fresh out of the plastic wrap. There’s plenty of important work we do for our clients that doesn’t include design.

Here’s the thing, it’s crazy hard taking that hero shot, because it’s crazy hard actually getting a building designed and built well in the first place. That photo is an infinitesimally small and inadequate representation of what it took to get the building to completion. So why is it that this is the story, literally and metaphorically, that architects persist in telling? The story of how beautiful the building is, how extraordinary the design, and how important all that is? It’s an important part of the story but it’s only a part of it. The question that interests me is: Is that the story that clients want to hear?

As an architect, what if instead of solely trying to sell the quality of our buildings and the importance of good design, we sell what we do in realising a building and how we do it? Not only that, but also how incredibly hard it is to do well and how good we are at doing it? We are generalists, we have a broad skillset, we should own that, and declare that. How might we better sell this skillset? These are capabilities that can build a more assured and emotional connection to the profession of architecture. How then might we do that in such a way that resonates?

In light of the recent building failures, the Grenfell, Lacrosse and Neo200 fires, as well as the Opal tower construction problems. What if architects were to describe their job in terms of what we really do when realising buildings. In terms that build an emotional connection to the profession.

“We work hard to keep our clients safe.”

Safe in the process, the quality of design, the construction, the materials and so on.

Safe in the change about to be effected.

We are highly skilled and across all aspects of a building project from conception to completion. We don’t just design buildings. In that way we are able to keep our clients safe.

Architects, it’s not just a matter of good design. It goes beyond the hero shot. The story is that the value of an architect is that we are extremely good at realising buildings and we’re across all aspects of this realisation process.
Black Female Professional. Desperately Seeking Mentor.
By: Rebecca Stevens A.
Tags: Black Women, Corporate Culture, Diversity, Diversity And Inclusion, Racism

So today, I’m making a plea. I’m seeking an honest to God mentor who understands. Someone I can learn from and someone who can learn from me. For the relationship to be sustainable, it needs to go both ways.

I would love to find someone who is unafraid to have those uncomfortable discussions around social justice, race, Black Lives Matter, LGBTQ rights, and gender inequalities but to name a few. I’d like to find someone open-minded, who acknowledges and is aware of all the privileges that they might have. I would like to find someone who understands the power dynamic in the world and in the workplace. Someone who sees how white supremacy and white privilege determines who has power and who does not, who is immediately conferred respect and who isn’t, who is immediately trusted and who isn’t. I would love to have a mentor who simply understands, for it is only then that that mentorship will help us both meet our full potential.

If you are reading this and know that you are this type of a mentor, please reach out to me, I would love for you to mentor me. That would be the best Christmas and 50th birthday gift that I could ever wish for. I look forward to hearing from you.

Thank you for reading my perspective.
Candi Dukuh
By: Yacob Wijaya
Tags: Candi, Jawa Tengah, Semarang

in In Fitness And In Health
Stay Away From Me
By: E Barnes
Tags: Short Story, Short Fiction, Life

Dear June,

I’m writing to tell you that Bill has died.

Mama wants you to come to the funeral. She said even though y’all got divorced you should come pay your respect.

Mama don’t know nothing. She don’t know what you are and what you did to that man’s soul. But I do.

I had to see a grown man cry after you left town for good to be with that record producer fella from California. And why don’t you have Billy Jr. call us anymore? Even though it was only on Christmas.

Do his eyes still look like mine?

Stay away, June.

The rumors they are a flying and you’ll just cause me trouble. I still ain’t good with gossip.

Don’t embarrass me. I don’t want them to see me cry when I lay eyes on you.

Just let me remember how we held each other tight those nights before you left.

If I ever see you again I’m taking you with me. And you, me, and Bill will have a lot to talk about in hell.

Love,

Jimmy
Will the Mueller Report Leak?
By: Jackie Thornhill
Tags: Law, Politics, Donald Trump, Justice, Congress

Attorney General William Barr sent a letter to Congress yesterday summarizing the findings of the highly anticipated Mueller report.

Over the 22 months that Robert Mueller served as Special Counsel, his investigation racked up 34 total indictments, seven guilty verdicts or pleas, and earned a net profit for the federal government in the form of cash and seized assets.

Barr’s letter quotes a section of the report that concludes “the investigation did not establish that members of the Trump Campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government in its election interference activities.”

This section appears to put to rest any serious speculation that Trump and his team colluded with the Russian government. On the other hand, Barr’s letter also reveals that the report does not exonerate Trump on potential charges of obstruction of justice.

According to Barr, Mueller “did not draw a conclusion — one way or the other — as to whether the examined conduct constituted obstruction.” Barr also acknowledges that Mueller examined potential arguments for and against potential obstruction of justice cases relating to a variety of actions taken by President Trump.

Mueller’s arguments for or against specific obstruction cases would be particularly useful for Congressional Democrats weighing articles of impeachment, although Speaker Pelosi has made it clear she will only move forward with impeachment if it has bipartisan support.

While he was obviously not being fully transparent, there is one part of Barr’s letter that is simply incorrect — when he asserts that “the Special Counsel’s decision to describe the facts of his obstruction investigation without reaching any legal conclusions leaves it to the Attorney General to determine whether the conduct described in the report constitutes a crime.”

In fact, the Special Counsel’s decision to describe the facts without reaching legal conclusions leaves the decision to Congress. Barr’s claim to the contrary belies his understanding of the legal reality — if he actually believed he had the authority to determine whether or not Trump obstructed justice, he wouldn’t have any problem handing over the full report to Congress.

Wikileaks recently announced a campaign to raise $1 million as a prize for anyone who leaks the report, and there’s no doubt that countless journalists would love to be the first to publish the report. It’s not hard to imagine such a high profile, controversial report leaking —it’s the aftermath that would be even more interesting.

If it were leaked by a mainstream U.S. media organization, would the Justice Department compel reporters to testify under threat of imprisonment as they did in the Plame affair? If it were leaked by Wikileaks, would we ramp up efforts to prosecute Julian Assange and anyone else involved?

The fallout would be immense, and would almost certainly inflict an immeasurable degree of damage on our democracy.