fabiochiu/medium-articles huggingface dataset:
A History of Winter
Tags: Literature, Winter, Stanford, West, Poetry

By Juliana Chang

We start with a girl sitting in uncut grass. It is spring. The grass is sweet, like melon rinds. We start with a chariot, and an old god who gets drunk off resistance. We start with abduction.

Two months later, Demeter wanders through Eleusis looking for her child. She cannot help how her feet freeze the ground barren, the way her sorrow withers the grain dry. As she walks the streets, she hands smiles to the starving villagers like a peace offering. Or an apology. They say this is how winter first came; unfolded from a body that did not know the next time it would bend around its daughter. Winter, born in helplessness.

Your face is stony as the professor clicks on to the next slide, his voice already reciting the next story, Persephone’s emptying an afterthought of his syllabus. When he speaks of winter, you do not think of uncut meadows or withered lands. You think of dimming skate parks and vodka painted bedrooms, of thick hands and the way they cracked you open. There are no myths to explain why you don’t go home for Christmas, no seeds tumbling from your tongue as you describe the metal rooms and recorders, the way the police lost your name with every retelling. When he lectures on the hymn with grey trees bent in mourning, you forget to ask him, for who?

We start with a girl, unopened, uncut palms.

It is winter.

Juliana Chang ’19 is a member of the Stanford Spoken Word Collective.
Allow Love to Flow From You to You
By: Ruchi Thalwal
Tags: Poetry, Love, Life Lessons, Self Love, Spirituality

The great bounds of love

that you unknowingly shower

wherever you leave your footprints

The spontaneous laughter

The long caressing hugs

The genuine love

The sparkle in eyes

They all communicate

Much greater than words

Stop adjusting for the others

Give them time to accept your authentic version

No need to hide that giggle or tear

Be free from fear of losing someone

You can never change people

their beliefs or patterns

All you can do is

Turn to the most loving person

Stand in front of the mirror

Adoringly gaze into your eyes

Say out loud your gratitude

Express your suppressed emotions

Let the love flow

From you to you

You are the most important person

If you don’t fill this one person with love

How can you splurge it on others

Learn to say No

Accept yourself unconditionally

Become your best friend

Listen to yourself intently

This person in the mirror

is that person with whom you live 24X7

Don’t you want it to be happy

Just like your partner, child, or bestie

Treat yourself as your priority

Not selfishly

But in delightful love

Unconditionally acceptable of self!
It’s a great time to be in a committed relationship with a toaster.
Tags: Humor, Food, Baking, Social Distance, Comics

Though, honestly, when isn’t it?

https://www.dieselsweeties.com/ics/1002/
Goddess of the Mediterranean
By: Denica Yay
Tags: Poetry, Mediterranean, Sea, Migration, God

I conquer dreamers’ hearts and minds.

I conquer conquerors.

I know the magic to spellbind

the darkest sorcerers.

It’s dim and cozy in my soul.

At core I’m tender.

I rule my sea from shore to shore

in sweet surrender.

My waves run by in blissful motion

but I love danger.

I favour with discrete devotion

courageous strangers.

My waters know the cruel wars

of dying cultures;

the tragic drowning of lost souls

in search of fortune.

I know that humans are not bad.

They act from fear,

but fear is the biggest threat.

It nurtures evil.

My sea is made for love and sailing,

and happy living at the coast.

I beg you: stop the nasty reigning

over what was never yours.
Home Is Where The Heart Is
By: Christie Li
Tags: Advice, Life Lessons, Life, Self, Christmas

Home Is Where The Heart Is

To those unable to spend their Christmas together with their loved ones this year

Photo by Jonathan Borba on Unsplash

2020 is surely a shitshow, yet we’ve all made it to Christmas again.

For those who don’t know me, my dad has been working in China all along. I haven’t been able to see my dad for one whole year. In return, my dad had been stuck alone in China for one whole year.

Sure, I miss my dad a lot. Words can’t even express how desperately I hope for him to be reunited with us; the thought of him spending this holiday alone and counting down new years alone is killing me.

Yet, because of this, I realized the things about my family that I had been taking for granted all these years.

Therefore, this is a piece dedicated to those parted away from their loved ones for whatever reason, or wherever you are.

If you ever feel lost and down, just remember, you’re never alone.
Portfolio Explanation & Objectives
By: Coin Hunter Research Group
Tags: Investing, Cryptocurrency, Portfolio Updates, Crypto Portfolio, Bitcoin

The portfolio is not real, does not take into account any fees and does not constitute investment advice. Please invest responsibly. Any questions or feedback send to info@coinhunter.tech

Overview

Bitcoin was just the first iteration of digital assets, and it’s innovation has paved the way for an entirely new asset class. There has been an eruption of digital assets that hit the market and position themselves as having a unique network value. The sheer volume over a short period has caused a clutter of noise and speculation, ultimately leading to extreme volatility in this young market. And without official regulation, even some ‘slight of hand’ projects have thrived, leaving investors with empty pockets. Our aim, through our research, is not only to cut through the clutter and find the projects that we believe will ultimately succeed in the space but formulate a calculated investment plan and strategy around this emerging asset class. *Note: We take a long-term approach and steer away from short-term plays or hype projects. This strategy is best suited for people who believe in the digital asset class for the long-term. Patience is your ally.

How it works

We provide a hypothetical portfolio that we track. We started with $10,000 USD on December 1st, 2017. The portfolio is not real, it does not take into account any fees and does not constitute investment advice.

Core and Satellite Approach

At Coin Hunter, we use a similar strategy to the traditional core and satellite approach used commonly amongst wealth managers. For us, this involves building a large core portion of stable, time-proven, and fundamental coins aided by two smaller satellite portions which are inherently riskier but provide much more upside potential. If significant profits are yielded through the satellite positions, the philosophy is to strengthen your long-term holdings by distributing them back to the core position. We also maintain a cash buffer to allow us to capitalise on market dips or to take money off the table if we believe the market is overvalued.
Save Our Country with a Heavy Dose of the Pledge of Allegiance
By: Andy Mcwain
Tags: Elections, Election 2020, Politics, Trump, Pledge Of Allegiance

In the U.S., school children know the refrain that finishes with the words “liberty and justice for all” is important enough to put your right hand on your heart, stand up, and take off your hat.

If we want to convince the current occupant of the White House to accept the will of the people in our upcoming election, agree to a peaceful transfer of power, and get all of his junk packed up and ready to go by January 20th at noon, then here’s my plan:

Every day between now and then, someone needs to remind him of the Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag.

Say it, yell it, sing it, chant it, hum it. Tweet it at him…

Don’t really care who does it or how. Maybe we should all do it.

Journalists could shout the pledge in his direction near Marine One, attempting to be heard over the din of helicopter blades. People can chant it to him on the 2020-he-really-should-still-be-quarantining campaign trail. Send him a letter, if you must. And yes, tweet it at him… and his enablers.

Better yet…

Are there any “adults in the room,” gainfully employed in the White House — with salaries paid by taxpayer dollars — who still care about democracy more than partisan politics? Those who aren’t working remotely? If so, they can play along too.

Good.

Then anyone walking into a meeting with POTUS, or V-POTUS can look around the room, find a flag, put their hand over heart and chant these words LOUD and PROUD:

“I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one Nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.” — The Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag

If you, Ms. Mr. Mrs. government employee, do this task for us — the collective American electorate and citizenry — we thank you.

Emphasize any words that grab you. It’s entirely up to you, but I’m thinking these could work with a slight bump:
Still Can’t Get It Right
By: Leigh Vandebogart
Tags: Love, Poem, Postcards, Lit Up, Poetry

Friday night

a forgotten stamp on an envelope.

Following Monday

a missed address on a postcard

Current state of mind

unable to navigate

simple demands

of the United States Postal Service.

Where do unaddressed postcards go?

Some landfill, probably,

adding my wasted words

onto the heap of garbage

only rats and seagulls love.

My written words

promptly smudged

When I said

‘I missed you’

Please

Feel it deep in your bones

as truth.

I did.

I do.
Opening the Invisible Cultural Cage
By: Bella Linda
Tags: Chance Encounters, Visionary, Liberation, Authenticity, Revolution

I have always been fascinated with observing the behavior of my fellow human beings. As a child, I often asked my parents why adults were so freaking “booooring”. I didn’t know a better word for what I observed back then. Now I know I meant spurious. I remember being mostly amused by detecting adult’s inauthenticity. It seemed like a game — a weird version of hide and seek — to me.

The more I started to pay attention to my own public habits as an adult, however, the grimmer the picture got! What seemed like rational acts of politeness at first glance, turned into craven attempts to save face on the second; yet after the third, fourth, and fifth glance it doomed on me: Our species has jailed itself. Very subtly, an invisible cage of norms is strangling us… corrupting our posture, making our lips stiff, spoiling our voice.

“Unfortunately for our species, our cages are often cultural and of our own making.” — Robert Scaer

As we are dependent on our tribe, it makes sense that our subconscious wants us to adapt to the perceived normal to ensure our survival. Yet, interestingly, recent somatic research unveiled that suppressing our instinct to express that comes with being a human animal is making us miserable and sick in the long run.

So what actually is normal? And who made these norms in the first place?
I Need You
By: Kd Lit Yogi
Tags: One Line, Poets Unlimited, Poetry On Medium, Poetry, Freedom

lovethispic.com

Need is a feeling

Need is an experience

Need is selective

I need you and you and you

You need me and her, him and them

We need each other and this Earth

Need is not a choice

Give freely and we will need less

Give openly and we will be free

Give freedom and we will progress.

**Response to NEED prompt by Terijo, more than one line though**
Gift tips
By: Martino Pietropoli
Tags: Comics, Drawing, Cartoon, Illustration

Did you find this article interesting?

If you liked it and if you feel like it, leave some claps to help whoever wrote it to pay his Lamborghini Urus.

Thank you!
Comunicarea patrimoniului cultural indigen în mediul online: o prezentare generală a politicilor GLAM
By: Brigitte Vézina
Tags: Openglam, Traditional Knowledge, Română, Muzee

Open GLAM presents global perspectives on open access to the cultural heritage in Galleries, Libraries, Archives and Museums (GLAMs). Submissions are welcome so please get in touch.

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“I’ll Always Be a Tool & Die Maker”
By: Radio Open Source
Tags: Work, Manufacturing, Massachusetts

By Max Larkin

In advance of our radio show on the future of work in the United States, we (Conor Gillies of WBUR’s Stylus and I) visited Peter Forg Manufacturing, an unusual factory (est. 1881) between Park Street and Rev. Nazareno Properzi Way in Somerville, Mass., about half a mile from Harvard Square. It is, in the words of its receptionist, “an anachronism.”

We went to record a short audio segment to play during our show with the technologist Ray Kurzweil and the economist Andrew McAfee. Here that is:

For three years in and out of college I lived right across a lot from the Forg Mfg. building. I knew it as a metal-stamping factory that opened unpredictably on weekdays, but always early. I quickly forgot how apocalyptically loud it is during hours of operation.

Many of the neighborhood’s old warehouses are now being repurposed as condominiums and businesses that serve the city’s whimsical youth, places where you study “circus arts” and do high-priced indoor rock-climbing. The receptionist (17 years employed there) conceded that the plant could benefit from free advertising on public radio. Everyone who lives on Properzi Way in Somerville knows Peter Forg is there, still rattling China cabinets 130 years after its opening. Set backthe street it looks semi-abandoned, though, awaiting its second life. (Plus, when you see ‘Mfg.’ don’t you think, gone?)

The firm is now run by Dave Forg, who lives in Lexington with his wife and children, and who represents the fifth generation of Forgs to direct the stamping of metal in Somerville. He started there in his early teens, and, but for a brief interlude in business school, he’s received his paychecks from the firm ever since.

Dave began our tour by scrounging around a little to find something — a yellow rake designed to rip down shingles — that comes out of Forg as a recognizable consumer product. (They only make the teeth of the rake.) He employs a little more than a dozen people —mostly men over 55 — and since most of their products is contracted and sold to other manufacturers, they are part of a makers’ economy in America that is largely invisible to the people who buy things. We will not necessarily know if it closes.
Pearlescent White
By: Adam Ray Cronk
Tags: Illumination, Poetry On Medium, Snow, Mystery, Poetry

Delicate and flitting

on a breeze in the eve,

illuminated by moonlight

as it wafts through the trees.

From up above

near an old silver bell,

fell pearlescent white

flakes of old oyster shells.

Glistening like pearls

and of the nacre they’re made,

oft playing games

not unlike charades.

I could not wrap my head

around what I had seen,

whatever this was

seemed to be playing tricks on me.

They floated like a feather

and never touched the ground,

unaffected by gravity,

free and unbound.

The days past rainfall

left a mist in the night,

where wisps conjured up

by the scurrying of sprites.

Peering through the veil

and iridescent shifts,

saw the snow come alive

in the colors of the mist.

The snowfall is what I saw

in the twilight stage,

of a pearlescent white

upon the verdant sage.
Medium: Diversity and Inclusion
By: Raquel Munoz
Tags: Diversity, Inclusion, Corporate Culture, Company

At Medium, we strive to be the best place online to find interesting ideas and perspectives you won’t find anywhere else. As a company, we believe that diverse perspectives deepen our understanding of complex issues, and great ideas can change the world when you create a welcoming space for them. Diversity for us includes, but is not limited to, gender, ethnicity, race, culture, socio-economic background, religion, age, physical ability, veteran status, country of origin, primary language, sexuality, political preference, education, and family makeup.

In the past year, Medium has gone through a lot of changes but we’ve remained constant in our commitment to diversity and inclusion. We’re dedicated to building a team that not only embraces but seeks out a diverse group of people. We’re committed to being a place that welcomes and includes all the things that make each of us unique.

In 2016, we signed the Tech Inclusion Pledge, and as a part of that pledge, we wanted to share with you our 2017 numbers. To us, this means more than just signing a pledge; it’s an ongoing promise to which we are committed.
Keir Starmer Says He Learned His Leadership Abilities From Donkeys
By: Michael East
Tags: Labour Party, British Politics, Keir Starmer

Labour Party leader Sir Keir Starmer has claimed that he learned many of his leadership skills from donkeys.

Speaking with Rupert Murdoch’s Times, Starmer is seemingly trying to present an open and personable image as he continues to court the billionaire racist. Sadly, he seems to have only generated headlines that sound like they came from The Onion alongside producing a whole new contender for Accidental Partridge of the Year.

Recanting how attempting to stable an ass at night can be “quite an exercise”, Starmer proudly proclaims that the leadership skills that have left him 6 points behind Boris Johnson come from his experiences with donkeys.

There has been no word from Labour on if there are plans to move the 2021 Labour Party Conference to the Tories stomping grounds in Blackpool. Nor whether the likes of Jess Phillips are to be put into service offering rides up and down the promenade.

While few would dispute that the majority of the Parliamentary Labour Party is staffed by asses and the noise that usually comes from centrists can undoubtedly be compared to the braying of a distressed mule, a more serious point is to be made. That being the continuing flirtation between the Labour leadership and the right-wing press.

It is little over a month since Starmer wrote a column for the racist Daily Mail where he stated that he didn’t ” just want all our children back in school, I expect it”.

20,000 school children are now self-isolating as they can’t get access to COVID-19 tests with 82% of headteachers stating that they have children missing classes.

Starmer, like Blair before him, believes that the endorsement of the likes of Murdoch and The Daily Mail is essential to the Labour Party winning power. It is a belief that is betrayed by the fact that Jeremy Corbyn was within a few thousand votes of winning the 2017 election. Such a victory would have come despite the most virulent and vicious political campaign of media propaganda seen since at least the days of Harold Wilson.

To this end, Starmer continues to go cap in hand to the exact same press that defamed and conspired against his predecessor. He grovels before the very same people who aid and abet the very social ills that the Labour Party is supposed to stand against.

It is a betrayal of all those targeted by these so-called newspapers over decades of outright abuse.
Do you put cream and sugar in your Apocalypse Juice? ☕️
Tags: Preppers, Humor, Coffee, Apocalypse, Comics

More from rstevens Follow

I make cartoons and t-shirts at www.dieselsweeties.com & @rstevens. Send me coffee beans.
Let Go
Tags: Growing, Moving On, Reflections, Poetry, A Cornered Gurl

Ya Allah

Give me the strength to let go

Let go of the past

And its mistakes

The future

And its what-ifs

Let go

Of the things I have no control over

Of the things I can’t change

Let go

Of the pain

The regrets

The maybe I should have

Let go

And live in the moment

Let go

And allow you to take over

Let go

And have faith

Let go

And embrace it all

Let go

And learn

Let go

And move on.
Judgment
By: Tyrone Graham
Tags: Weights And Measures, Blind Denial, Passing In Review, Poetry, Thoughtless Largesse

If you enjoyed this feature, click the little heart ❤ to recommend it to others.

Helping promote writers!

Please follow the author and Written Tales to continue to read more wonderful tales like this. Thank you for your kind support and don’t forget to subscribe to the Written Tales Weekly!
How to Destine Our Life
By: Darshak Rana
Tags: Spirituality, Spiritual Secrets, Destiny, Law Of Attraction, Letters

SPIRITUALITY | NEWSLETTER

How to Destine Our Life

Spiritual Secret #7

Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

Dear Spiritual Souls,

I can’t believe it’s Tuesday again. I hope you all progressing in your spiritual endeavors. Last week, I was studying spiritual knowledge about creating destiny. Churning this profound knowledge, I discovered many facets of destiny.

So, I am sharing my home-work about creating our destiny in this Tuesday’s letter.

We know these famous lines:

Sowing the seed of intentions….reaps thoughts

Sowing the seed of thoughts…reaps actions.

Sowing the seed of actions…..reaps a Sanskaar (habit)

Sowing the seed of Sanskaars….reaps destiny.

So, who has the power to create destiny?

WE!

Yes, we were the creators of our destiny. The power of creations lies in our realization. When we realize the consequences of our Karma, we will change them for the better. But very often, we get carried away by the force of emotions or our weaknesses and perform the wrong Karma. Due to this sinful Karma, when the evil consequence comes in front of us, we blame God's destiny for our failures and pain.

But who forced the consequence in the first place?

We!

When we understand our Karma process and its effect on us, we will create a beautiful destiny for ourselves.

We must remain aware of our Karma, good or bad, and change them instantly before it fructifies. Commonly, we stay aware of our actions, but we forget that our thoughts constitute Karma too.

Because our thoughts are energies, we create positive or negative energy depending upon the thought's quality. As a result, these energies vibrate in the universe and manifests into a reality in the form of an event or circumstance. Here we did not sow the seed of action but the thought. Hence, we must be cautious of our thoughts, too, because they are continuously writing our destiny.

The seed of Sankaars (habits) is actions.

The seed of actions is thoughts.

The seed of thoughts is intentions.

Hence let’s make our intentions pure and divine, so they create a healthy and peaceful destiny for us effortlessly.

On that note, see you all on the next Tantalizing Tuesday!

Until then, keep creating beautiful destinies for yourselves.

Om Shanti!

(I am a peaceful Soul)

Best Wishes,

Darshak Rana
Three ways to improve your batting strike rate
By: Parita Pithwa
Tags: Cricket, Gully Cricket, Cricinsights, Cricket Tips, Grassroots

India, where cricket is known to be a religion, there is a cricket hero in every street.

Each aspiring cricketer has a dream of playing like a pro and have a strike rate > 100. But it is not only about the quantity of the runs or quality of runs. Both go hand in hand. You have to be aware of your strengths and weaknesses and keep practicing in both areas.

Here are three simple yet effective ways to improve your batting strike rate.

1. Know your strengths

Best way to improve in anything to find your strengths and make it better and work on weaknesses to be ready to play under any situation.

Identify your strong areas on the wagon wheel and keep practicing to be the best in what you already know.

The same way, also identify your weak areas and start practicing it so you avoid being predictable by bowlers and fielders of the opposite team.

Wagon wheel Insights by CricHeroes

Know your favourite bowling type and your performance against Spin vs Pace.

Practice your shots against the type of bowling that makes you feel under pressure. It will improve your ability to stay in the game for long and play steadily under pressure.

Batting Insights by CricHeroes

2. Master your calculations

Yes, you heard it right. Finally, the math that you learnt in your school will come in handy here.

Don’t try to hit a 4 or 6 on every ball. Just try pushing 1s and 2s initially, learn the bowler’s style and wait for the bad balls (full tosses, long hops & half volleys).

Here, insights like following can help.

On which ball you are most likely to hit a boundary?

On which ball you are most likely to get out?

Performance Insights by CricHeroes

3. Presence of mind and strike change

Practice makes one perfect. But it is also important to have a presence of mind on the ground and play according to the situation.

Don’t look at fielders, look at gaps.

If you want to hit the ball through the gaps, you will have to focus on gaps and not fielders. Drive them nuts and create tension among them.

An aggressive approach can be risky but if you have wickets in hand and the target seems far away then go for it.

Playing safe can also be the key in many situations but don’t forget to rotate strike. According to Gary Palmer, a cricket coach, by running singles regularly you can reach to strike rate of 100 easily and then 2s, 3s and boundaries can easily shoot it up to 150.

Well, these are some of the simple yet effective tips to improve your strike rate. Maybe you know them already, but never consciously focused on them. Now is the time with the help of CricInsights from CricHeroes.

Apart from above, what do you do regularly do to improve your strike rate? Share it in the comments and help others!
Tonight’s Comic Is About How to Be Hot
Tags: Comics, Self Esteem, Friendship

More from rstevens Follow

I make cartoons and t-shirts at www.dieselsweeties.com & @rstevens. Send me coffee beans.
In The Ghetto
By: Mimi Bordeaux
Tags: Life Lessons, Travel, Prose, Art, Life

Ghosts ghouls grottos giving you an alter day to the pep Pepsi call of sweet sugar replacement so sickly makes one throw up into a Fauve colourist scheme it’s Freddie Fandango from Fritz, Mania the hallow court of St Germain opening display let’s adore the art for its very own special mystifying mosaic catch the muse before she disappears it is said Picasso led the blind Rimbaud read to the rich such manifestations only appear once a year have a cup the sacred cup of denial kiss her feet who’s feet? The one’s of Her Lucidity look out we’re late!
Content-Based Recommendation Systems
By: Yoav Navon
Tags: Data Science, Recommendation System, Machine Learning

Photo by Jeff Sheldon on Unsplash

Content-Based Recommendation Systems

Michael J. Pazzani and Daniel Billsus

This paper discusses content-based recommendation systems in general. It explains how to represent items with structured data, and how to generate structured data from non-structured. For example, for natural language text, the tf-idf method it’s discussed. Afterward, it discusses two approaches to keep a user profile, with a model or a history of the user’s interaction. Finally, different popular models are presented as ways to create a content-based recommender system. Decision trees, KNN, Relevance Feedback, Linear Methods, and Naïve Bayes are proposed as classification learners.

The methodology for content-based recommender systems is explained as follows:

… [the models] learn a function that models each user’s interests. Given a new item and the user model, the function predicts whether the user would be interested in the item…

Isn’t that inefficient? To provide recommendations for a user, with this approach the system would pass all items through the model to see if they are a match or not for the user. Some pre-computation seems necessary, as the number of items can be really large.

For all the models presented, there is no scalable way of adding new items for the users, the only way would be to recompute the model all over again from scratch. You would like for example your Decision Tree to adapt to the new items that the user likes.

It’s surprising that the Naive Bayes method does well as the authors claim. That's because, for text, the algorithm assumes that all words are independent of each other, and that is of course not true, as some words are extremely more probable if they are present after another particular word. Maybe some way to address this would be to group all words that tend to appear together (with some clustering method maybe), and use only one as representant of the group.
Smiling Face Guy
By: Alessandra Pereyra
Tags: Micro Fiction

The guy of the smiling face walks around the town smiling. Asks for some groceries, goes out for some lunch.

He crosses the street, and enters the store. He talks to the girl he still loves. He will charm her with his talk, and his smile will become hers.

And thus, off she goes, to the man of her love. Smiling.

The man of the smiling face goes back to his home, and makes dinner. Catches up on his reading, and watches TV. And when midnight falls, deep into his bed, he removes his smiling face. The man with the sad face cries into sleep, prepared to do it all over again. Every day, till kingdom come. For her.
The First Time I Got Fingered
By: Meaghan Ward
Tags: Relationships, Erotica, This Happened To Me, Sex, Sexuality

The First Time I Got Fingered

Was the first time I came for someone besides myself…

Photo by Gaetano Cessati on Unsplash

At seventeen years old, as a senior in high school, I finally started exploring my sexuality with other people — but not with other high school boys.

I was daring and dangerous and often made questionable choices, like meeting slightly older guys on the internet and what the internet offered back in 1999 was local IRC chat rooms based on topics.

I was going through my goth phase at the time, so that’s where I was looking for someone to meet, and I found him in a guy named Matthew.

We talked online for a few weeks before finally deciding to meet at a restaurant nearby where I was working at the time so that I had a plan for escape if I needed it.

I was in a tight little black dress, fishnets and Doc Martens, he had purple and black hair, wore a full length black trench coat with a complicated array of O rings and buckles, and the same pair of Doc Martens.

When we walked up to me outside of the restaurant he immediately took my hand and kissed the back of my palm before saying hello, and I was at ease immediately.

The conversation flowed freely over lunch and we lingered over cup after cup of coffee until the sun started to go down and Matthew wanted to take me to his favorite cemetery in Mystic — how goth of him, right?

So, perhaps against my better judgement, I got into a big black Ford Explorer with a guy I’d just met and head off into the sunset to the cemetery.
Android automatic SMS verification - Google’s SMS retriever API
By: Siva Ganesh Kantamani
Tags: Android, Android Development, Android App Development, Android Libraries, Android News

Now Let’s get into action

Step 1

Importing necessary libraries

Following are the mandatory libraries to integrate SMS Retriever API into your project.

Step 2 (Optional) :

Obtain the phone number through hint picker shown as below

Retrieve the phone number in onActivityResult

Step 3 :

Start SMS Retriever

After the user has submitted the phone number, we should initiate SMS retrieval task as shown below

Step 4:

Create broadcast receiver

To receive the message from SMS Retriever API

Register the receiver in manifest file with intent filter com.google.android.gms.auth.api.phone.SMS_RETRIEVED (the value of theSmsRetriever.SMS_RETRIEVED_ACTION constant)

After you received the message in the receiver you can pass it to your activity, where you can finish user authentication.

Step 5 :

Remember AppSignatureHelper class mentioned above, now is the time to implement it. As you have noticed the hashcode of your app in message formate, you can generate this hashcode with command prompt which is a bit complicated for those who don’t have experience with CMD, so we take the simplest way to get Hashcode that is through AppSignatureHelper class, but be aware that you should remove AppSignatureHelper class from your code once you get the hashcode in LOGCAT.

Run AppSignatureHelper class in base application as show below

Things you must do

Remove AppSignatureHelper class from your project before going to production. Debug and Release APK’s might have different Hashcodes, make sure you get hashcode from release APK. Implement before Jan 9th, 2019 and upload to play store, if your app has any of above-mentioned permissions.

WHY you should implement SMS Retriever API

From Jan 9th, 2019 Google will remove apps from playstore with permissions READ SMS AND CALL LOG, if they don’t explain the necessity

Advantages of SMS Retriever API for your audience

With SMS Retriever API, there are two main advantages for Android users, such as

From now not every app with READ SMS permission can access your personal data like messages. Usually, to auto-fill OTP we give access to an android app it’s better to off that permission after the process is completed (else they will have access to each & every message you have in the mobile), but how many will do that. With SMS Retriever API apps won’t ask for READ SMS permission to auto-fill OTP.

If you have any difficulty in implementing or anything I have missed in the process, please let me know in the comments below.
Darkness
By: Patrick Goldman
Tags: Short Story, Fiction, Prose, Poetry, Creative Writing

the darkness

it consumes me

it encompasses me and surrounds me

holds me and grips me

clenches me in an unrelenting embrace of frigid completion

i am enveloped in the darkness though the light within me scratches to break through

begging to deeply inhale and fill my lungs and flush out the darkness

though I cannot breath

the darkness constantly leaves me gasping and grasping

the crushing weight of the darkness sits upon my chest

i continue to fight for the light

to rid my mind of the darkness

the light struggles against the darkness

it fights with vigor and might and passion

nevertheless

the darkness

it consumes me
Celebrating a New Twist on Women Threat Hunters
Tags: Threat Hunting, Women In Tech, Women In Cybersecurity, Black Mambas, Helping Rhinos

Celebrating a New Twist on Women Threat Hunters ThreatQuotient Follow Mar 17 · 2 min read

In our continuing program this month to celebrate women in cybersecurity, I wanted to tell you about an amazing group of women who have put a new twist on threat hunting.

If you follow ThreatQuotient then you know the rhino is our mascot. You probably also know that we love rhinos so much we adopted a baby rhino who was rescued from poachers and is now thriving in a rhino orphanage in South Africa. We are also an official supporter of an organization called Helping Rhinos , through which we have adopted a second baby rhino.

Helping Rhinos has a truly innovative and forward-thinking approach to conservation and ensuring the long-term survival of rhinos in their natural habitat. One aspect we thought particularly timely to tell you about this month is a volunteer group within their organization called the Black Mambas — an all women anti-poaching group.

These 36 African women patrol 50,000 hectares of the Balule Nature Reserve, part of the Great Kruger National Park which is home to the largest population of rhino in the world. Sadly, this also makes the Park one of the world’s largest targets for poaching attacks, with up to 11 different poaching gangs at any one time operating in the area! Every day the Black Mambas walk 20 kilometers, checking perimeter fences for signs of intrusion and alerting armed patrol units if they detect suspicious activity. Does this sound familiar to all you cyber threat hunters out there? Like finding indicators that might reveal an adversary staying below the radar? And tapping into additional services and tools to help you further investigate and take action?

The other important aspect of their job is working in the local community — where gangs actively recruit their next generation of poachers. Through weekly classes on conservation and trips to the Reserve, the women educate young people on the far greater benefits to their community of rhino conversation over poaching. Their un-armed patrols and programs to raise awareness for the impact of conservation on quality of life (for humans and rhinos) have been so successful that they’ve reduced poaching in the area by 63%!

to learn how you can help these threat hunters on the front lines who are dedicated to making the world a safer and better place for all.
MOAC Chain Project Weekly Update 32
Tags: Moac Weekly Updates

in In Fitness And In Health
Bonus Perk | 10% Rewards on All Amazon Purchases (Christmas 2020)
Tags: Bitcoin, Cryptocurrency, Fintech, Announcements, Blockchain

Bonus Perk | 10% Rewards on All Amazon Purchases (Christmas 2020) Plutus Follow Dec 17 · 2 min read

Christmas is right around the corner, and 2020 is finally coming to an end! To leave the year on a positive note, Plutus is offering a generous reward rate on all purchases at the universally used e-commerce site, Amazon.

Bonus Perk — Amazon

Timeline: 17 Dec 2020, 00:00 BST — 31 Dec 2020, 23:59 BST

Account Type: Premium / Pro

Staking Level 3: 600 PLU

Countries: All Supported Countries

Qualified customers can now enjoy 10% crypto rewards on all 12+ million products sold on Amazon. Those who have staked sufficient PLU (600 PLU) will instantly find the Amazon offer visible within the Perks Dashboard of their web account.

Note: The PLU rewards will be visible in the Pending section of your Pluton Dashboard after the transaction has settled (typically less than 3 days).

It will move to Available after 45 days whilst Plutus does our own internal validation checks. If your staked holdings drop below the required 600 PLU staking threshold during this 45-day period, your rewards earned from this promotional offer will become void.

How Does it Work?

To reap the benefits of our promotional offer, just follow the steps below.

Log in to your Plutus web application

Click on the Perks tab and find the Amazon promotion

Visit Amazon and add products to your basket

Checkout and make the payment via your Plutus Card

If you own 600 PLU, but you are unsure how to stake it to enjoy the benefits, watch our video guide here.

More Information

We have plenty of exciting promotional offers still to come from which you can enjoy significant earnings. Follow us across our various social channels to stay up to date.

Website: https://plutus.it/

Blog: https://medium.com/plutus

Twitter: https://twitter.com/plutus

Telegram: https://t.me/plutus_group

Discord: https://discord.com/invite/JRzs7YQ
Redis Nedir Nerelerde Kullanılır.
By: Metin Ağaoğlu
Tags: Redis Nedir, Queues, Redis, NoSQL, Türkçe

Introduction to Redis - Redis

Redis is an open source (BSD licensed), in-memory data structure store, used as a database, cache and message broker…
เป็นโปรแกรมเมอร์ต้องทำ X มั้ย
Tags: Life, Software Development

I am a product builder who specializes in programming. Strongly believe in humanist.

Follow
A Better Way to Approach Your Goal Setting
By: Laura Bongers
Tags: Goal Setting, Growth, Personal Development, Self Improvement, Success

A Better Way to Approach Your Goal Setting

To keep going you need to make progress visible

Why is it that when we set a big goal for ourselves we end up giving up within a month?

We feel so motivated and inspired to take action, but that feeling lasts for about 5 seconds.

In the beginning, we feel really excited and make some progress for a while, but then we reach a roadblock and we stop. Suddenly everything seems like a huge mountain of work.

We realize that our goal requires a whole lot more effort than we thought it would and that it’ll take months or years to achieve. We start feeling intimidated by the amount of work that must be done to get there.

And as we proceed to get more informed about what it takes to reach that desired outcome we feel even more incompetent.

It’s clear that we are nowhere near our end goal and we don’t even see much progress. So we get frustrated and we quit.

And that’s the problem with setting a big goal and expecting to reach it as soon as possible.

This is also where we realize if we truly want the outcome and we’re willing to dive into the process, or if we only love imagining the end result, the money, the fame, and recognition.
3 Reasons Why Experiential Learning Should Be Part Of The Curriculum
By: Lindsay Wuest
Tags: Video Technology, Learning, Experiential Learning, Education, Assessment

Educational institutions do a great job of teaching facts and figures, but many students don’t get the chance to put that knowledge into action. Rather than requiring them to demonstrate their skills or complete a meaningful task, learners typically prove their competency by answering test questions correctly.

While content knowledge serves an important purpose, paper-based assessments can’t replicate the immersive nature of experiential learning. This concept, which educational theorist David Kolb describes as “a process whereby knowledge is created through the transformation of experience,” is gaining popularity among educators. Experiential learning warrants a place in every institution’s curriculum for three key reasons.

It Puts Theory Into Practice

The ability to recall a theory or concept matters, but it means little if students can’t do anything with that information. Participating in an experiential activity teaches learners how to gather relevant data, analyze it critically, and apply their knowledge to a specific situation. And by immersing them in realistic learning environments, students get real-world experience in areas that interest them.

It Simplifies Assessment

Experiential activities takes the guesswork out of assessment because students have no way to cover up holes in their understanding. With a test, instructors don’t always have insight into what students are thinking, so they can’t measure their comprehension beyond the right or wrong answer. During a hands-on learning experience, instructors can more authentically assess student comprehension because they have the opportunity to see how learners approach a problem, identify where things went right or wrong, and adjust their future teachings accordingly.

It Involves Reflection

Giving students a realistic, hands-on experience is often the focus of experiential learning, but reflection is arguably the most important part of this process. In order for learners to make meaningful connections to the content and develop a deeper understanding of it, instructors need to give them time and space to reflect on their experience. This period helps students take more control over their learning.

Bongo’s proprietary video technology helps instructors create experiential learning exercises involving real-world practice and self-assessment. To learn more about how to leverage our video software for experiential learning, visit Bongo’s website.
“The Internet is Here to Stay,” says Ron Burgundy
Tags: Cybersecurity Podcast, Simulation Hypothesis, Hacker Podcast, Riz Virk Podcast, Tech Podcast

via Derek Bernard: In a world where the nature of our being in this place we call reality is so often taken for granted amidst the need to sustain the status quo, Riz Virk (zenentrepreneur.com) explores the very real possibility (and in some schools of thought, a very real PROBability) that what we experience as “real” is in fact a simulation akin to a video game with it’s quests, achievements, and leveling up through our experiences.

“What is Science and what is Religion? Both are attempts to try to find the truth about our physical reality and what is inside or outside of that reality and what the rules are. In the Simulation Hypothesis what science is actually discovering is what we in the video game world would call a physics engine.” — Riz Virk

“The Simulation Hypothesis is a model that we live in an information-based reality that’s being rendered for each of us may end up coming closer to explaining these things than a lot of other models that are out there.” — Riz Virk
Análisis Técnico de Bitcoin del 3 de septiembre. Cuidado con el optimismo.
By: Cristóbal García
Tags: Bitcoin, Trading, Altcoins, Elliot, Criptomonedas

in In Fitness And In Health
Why bitcoin is taking the lead again
By: Ico, Crypto News
Tags: Trade, Bitcoin, Market, Cryptocurrency, Crypto

As a result of trades on Thursday, bitcoin for the first time since last year took a share of 45.66% in the total volume of cryptocurrency market. Obviously, with a general drop in crypto-market up to $ 279,091,792,181, it is bitcoin that causes the greatest confidence of users. There are several reasons for this.

First, at the end of March the cost of transaction in bitcoin network decreased to a record amount of 1 satoshi. This is due to the introduction of Segregated Witness scaling technology: the share of SegWit-transactions is already 30% -35% of all transactions on the network.

Secondly, bitcoin is becoming increasingly widespread in real trade: this is happening in the European Union and Asian countries. The last example is the new service of the Korean crypto-exchanger Bithumb, which allows users to pay for purchases using cryptocurrencies in 6,000 stores across the country.

In a situation where bitcoin will become increasingly common, its forks will not be needed. Now this is already happening with Bitcoin Cash: OKEx and KuCoin crypto-exchangers have already eliminated illiquid pairs with this cryptocurrency.

Subscribe to be the first to read news of blockchain and crypto industries & join our Telegram channel.
My Sky Over The Years
By: Rochelle Silva
Tags: Growing Up, Nature, Imagination, Sky, Poetry

I sang of the star which was,

“Up above the world so high,

Like a diamond in the sky”.

And of homes on the range,

“Where the skies are not cloudy all day”.

Wrote about “Uncle Sun” with his smiling face,

Who brought day and night without fail.

Beheld the joy of flying a kite,

On August days with smiles bright.

Shouted with joy at rainbows,

And thought that clouds formed shapes galore.

Over the years, my sky changed too,

And became my stratosphere,

And the place for the ozone layer,

Or Orion and the Big Dipper.

But no matter how old I grow,

I’ll always be thankful,

To the beautiful sky,

That is always there,

For all of us,

And wish with all my heart,

“Oh! May I always laugh and sing,

Beneath God’s clear blue sky”
Here’s three unnamed tech giants which I’m assuming you can name.
Tags: Technology, Tech, Comics, Ethics, Social Media

I would apologize to Elon, but he’s terrible.

http://www.dieselsweeties.com/ics/847/
It’s Okay.
By: Taruni Sharma
Tags: Life Lessons, Poem, Self Improvement, Life, Poetry

It really is.

To breakdown once in a while.

To let the world forget your mind.

To hear wrongs & feel trapped.

To love so much & lose yourself.

To cry when no one’s watching.

To have no clue of what’s happening.

To forget why you started IT.

To feel the pain and take it all in.

It’s okay.

To be vulnerable sometimes.

To lose people & to lose your mind.

To hide the hurt & pretend the smile.

To harden your heart , become arrogant with time.

To understand, life isn’t easy for all.

To give it time to turn back & crawl.

To have a heart but still using the brain.

To let it rain as humanity is strange.

To hold hands, just your own.

To be alone & trying to control.

To mourn the loss of who you use to be.

To be weak & accept our destiny.

To realise that everything happens for a reason.

It’s okay. You’ll be happy again.

It’s just another season…