fabiochiu/medium-articles huggingface dataset:
Music & Blockchain // Box Office Distribution // Ad Blocking on Mobile // Typography Matters at the Oscars // Histography
By: Ben Johnson
Tags: Oscars, Advertising, Marketing Digital, Blockchain, Movies

Ben, CEO

Blockchain is pervasive and as usual music looks to be the first to adopt the coming revolution for payments and rights management.

Mirona, Marketing Lead

We came across a lot of great research while writing our ebook. This one, from Stephen Follows, is particularly relevant when the discussion about release windows is being reactivated with hopes of a reaching decision on the matter soon.

Stephen, Innovation Director

With Mobile World Congress on this week, Ad blocking is once again a main topic of conversation. However unlike in previous years, things don’t look all the doom and gloom. As publishers fight back against blockers it is slowing down adoption of Ad blockers. No real credible solution has been developed yet. We’re rooting for better inventory!

Franco, Digital Designer

In case you’re still wondering how that Oscars blunder could have happened, here is a theory.

Johnny, Lead Developer

I’m a bit of a sucker for visualisation tools on the web, so here’s an interactive timeline of Wikipedia articles on historical events.
Demystifying the Dick Pic
By: William, Dollar Bill
Tags: Inspiration, Penis, Sex, Culture, Humor

Demystifying the Dick Pic

The reality behind the craze

Shutterbut75 — Pixabay

Recently, I read a headline for a Medium publication article that questioned why guys are so into sending dick pics? I confess I didn’t read what the author had to say as there were multiple choices in the digest and I chose something else of more interest.

But then today I found yet another reference to the phenomenon and it got me thinking — which led me to the following revelation. Now I understand why so many guys like to send those images.

I think Jerry Seinfeld and Larry David said it all in what I call “The Shrinkage Episode.” (I don’t know if they called it that themselves.)

George’s weekend date (with whom he has never slept) sees him naked after he’s been in a swimming pool filled with cold water and is beside himself because her first look at his junk was one in which he was his smallest possible self.

And that’s the crux of the situation. Not only do penises come in a variety of shapes and sizes — but your own does as well.

Compare what your stuff looks like after a good icing down versus in full erection, and the difference is almost unfathomable. Women do not have this organ and don’t really understand its incredible variance in appearance. And too often, they can be quick to judge.

Years ago when I was selling adult advertising to the New York hooker community, I would hear endless stories from the girls, many of which featured the obvious (dicks). One which is instructive in this context came from a young courtesan who’d been booked by a huge rock star.

According to her, one look at his in-repose unit gave her the idea that “this is going to be easy.” She then related “but it kept growing and growing until it was huge.”

In her case, she discovered quickly how the man’s manhood had many faces. With George, he’d left a bad first impression. And in the episode, he never got to reveal any other “faces.” That’s why guys love to send dick pics. It gives them the opportunity to show a woman their manhood in its most impressive state.

It could be a dangling, menacing, tumescent organ which will hopefully make the recipient sigh and wonder “how much bigger does that get?” Or the image could be in full erection whereupon she might think “my that’s large and in charge.” And what would she think if he sent a picture of the same organ after it had been exposed to 32 degree cold for a few minutes? I shudder to think.

People talk about first impressions in the business and social arenas — and how important they are. So why would they be less important when a prospective mate is introduced to the junk with which she’ll be oh so familiar if their relationship works out?

The answer is that the first impression is as or more important than it is in both the social and business areas. Hence, the perfect dick pic. Situation effectively demystified.

More absurdity from the author:
Beach
By: Rachael Ann Sand
Tags: Photographer, Self, Nature Photography, Photography, Minnesota

ONE PHOTO | ONE WORD

Beach

Day four snapshot

Continuing my daily photos with a morning visit to the beach, Minnesota- style. It only takes about seven minutes to walk my feet from the back porch to submerge them in Lake Superior. I’m feeling grateful for these opportunities to connect with Mother Earth and get away from screens.

I’m sharing one captured moment with a one-word title each day of my first week as a contributor in Snapshots. I’m looking forward to more engagement with a wonderful community of folks who appreciate taking, sharing, and viewing photographs.

Thanks again for the inspiration Dennett! Find out more about the photo-a-day personal challenge and join us!
Post 4: A Story
By: Katarina M
Tags: Christianity, Religion

During one of my last conversations with my boyfriend about god, I realized that I could not approach the subject without feeling some sort of resentment. I felt like I was just building up walls. Or like there was a veil over my head. This happened because we had met with a man who as close to a saint as they come. The man is Charles Mully, and he is a businessman from Kenya who gave up all of his wealth to save and provide for 10,000 African children who were abandoned on the streets of Kenya. He physically has gone out to save many of these children, and sacrificied the comforts of his own natural family (7 children) to improve the lives of these kids. Most of those children are orphans, were abused, and were starving on the streets. Today, many of them have been able to go to universities and become successful adults. This story may sound too good to be true, but several government organizations have indeed vetted him to see if he is the real deal and not some cult leader — and they found out that he is clean. My boyfriend directed a documentary about Mully which is how I know so much about him and his life story. Mully feels that he was called upon by god to give up his millions and dedicate his life to serving others. He told me this when I met him. My boyfriend decided to shock me by leaving me alone to talk with Mully about god. “What the fuck am I supposed to talk about with this man? I’m considering the possibility of god, but I’ve never felt anything divine! What am I supposed to say?” These were all questions I found myself wondering as I sat next to Mully and spoke with him awkwardly for about 20 minutes. I couldn’t relate to him or his story and what he was trying to say about god. I got frustrated and emotional at this, and wondered why I was tossed in that weird situation.

Afterward, my boyfriend and I had a very long talk on the way home. He could see the inner turmoil I was going through and was confused about why. Our discussion was long and focused on my boyfriend’s beliefs and experiences and mine. I told him I felt something of a spiritual world before, but definitely nothing close to god. He said that that was probably because I never truly reached out. Then I told him a brief story from when I was a kid. The only time I remember trying to reach out to god and pray was when I was about 6 or 7 years old and I was trying so hard to do a cartwheel. I mentioned this in my previous post, but it still sticks with me. I said, “please God, help me do a cartwheel.” It worked. Maybe I was meant to keep that memory even until now, or maybe it was just myself giving me the confidence to do so.

I still don’t know why I reacted so harshly to Mully.
What is XON?
By: Kumiko Yasuda
Tags: Cryptocurrency, Xonio, Xonio Token, Xonio Tech, Bitcoin

Entering the token economy brings about some common questions, among which some are largely about volatility. Participating in the current crypto market largely relies on a person’s risk tolerance. Here at XONIO, we perfectly understand the importance of managing price volatility of digital assets. That is one of the reasons why we created XON.

XON is a price-stable digital asset integrated in the XONIO Ecosystem. It serves as the native currency of XONIO Mobile, where users can purchase a wide array of digital goods from the XON Store, and is used to convert to XONIO Tokens, an tradable ERC20 token.

Benefits of using XON
Lined With Silver
By: Lisa Bolin
Tags: Hope, Writing Prompts, Poetry, Home, Love

It’s on the third floor,

my little nest,

my place of rest,

my home.

It’s through the door,

and up the stairs,

leaving all my cares,

on the mat.

He’s the one I adore

a warm embrace,

his shining face,

my home.

It’s the place I soar,

my love-filled heart

a brand-new start,

love acrobat.

On a far-flung shore,

my current den,

silver-lined, zen,

my home.
What NOT To Say To Parents Of Trans Kids…
By: Bridget Sampson
Tags: Parenting, LGBTQ, Equality, Transgender, Life

“It’s probably just a phase. Your kid always had social and emotional challenges. This could be just another way they’re trying to get attention. It’ll pass.”

I’m ashamed to admit it, but part of me hoped that was true in the beginning too. Then I went through the long, eye-opening process of educating myself on all the medical, scientific, therapeutic, sociological, and other sources of credible research to learn the truth. It’s all out there if you want to learn it too. Just ask me and I will happily give you piles of reading, research, documentaries, and much more.

Please know that this is NOT something someone does to get attention. There may have been emotional issues that were attributed to other things that we now realize were due to the gender dysphoria that our child was too afraid to admit to, in some cases, too afraid to even contend with in their own mind.

Please avoid the word “phase” when talking about someone who’s coming out as transgender. I’ve personally never seen or read about a case where it was just a phase or an attempt to get attention, and I’ve studied this a lot now. You can read more about my journey, the mistakes I’ve made, and some of what I’ve learned in my last Medium article, What to Do When Your Kid Comes Out as Transgender.
What does immutability really mean?
By: Aphinya Dechalert
Tags: Programming, Education, Software Development, JavaScript, Technology

Weak and strong immutability is a real thing

Weak and strong immutability refers to how much an object can change.

When the object’s properties are unchangeable but its values are open to doing so, this is regarded as applying weak immutability.

A complete freeze of an object, in contrast, is a hard and strong application of immutability.

This is different from const .

How? const is immutable from the get-go. It is also often associated and applied to primitives, that is things like String and Boolean . At the moment of its assignment — that’s it — nothing about it can change.

This is handy for things like hard and fast values like pi and system of measurement conversions.

Objects, however, are created to be mutable by nature. It can be shaped and molded until the developer is satisfied enough to turn it into an immutable object.

Think of it this way — a mutable object is like wet clay. You can shape it into whatever you want. Once you put it in the kiln, the shape becomes immutable.

You can, however, still paint it. The appearance can still change.

In this phase, its immutability factor is weak. But this doesn’t disregard the fact that it is now an immutable object. The shape is now set but the re-assignment of color is still possible. Once you glaze it, that’s basically it — you can’t technically paint it and you can’t change the overall shape. At this point, it is considered strongly immutable.
Trump, once out of power, will be a long-term problem for Republicans
By: Michael Greiner
Tags: Politics, Culture, Trump, Donald Trump, Government

Photo by roya ann miller on Unsplash

Can we really imagine him supporting other presidential candidates?

Fast forward to 2025. My guess is that Trump will have lost the 2020 election and Democrats will have at least held onto the House, if not also won the Senate. Obviously, change will be afoot.

You can imagine how Trump will behave. Just as he wielded his Twitter account like a weapon during the Obama Presidency, he will continue to do so once he is out of office. He will revel in positioning himself as the government in absentia, offering on-going critiques of the Democrats’ actions.

In some ways, this role will suit Trump better than his current one. He loves to be bombastic, making statements without regard for their impact on others. As President, such behavior has consequences. As a private citizen, it makes for good copy.

He will still enjoy many of the trappings of the respect we award former Presidents. He will get Secret Service protection and will enjoy the adoration of his hard-core fans. After all, even Sarah Palin still has hard-core supporters. But her 1.5 million Twitter followers is dwarfed by Trump’s 61.3 million.

As the 2026 election approaches, you can imagine the various Republican candidates seeking to unseat the Democrats making a pilgrimage to Trump Tower, kissing the ring in an effort to gain his imprimatur. But Trump, as he has in the past, will play it coy.

At some point, a Republican candidate will start to get traction and excitement will start to rise among the party faithful for this hopeful. Will Trump, with his massive ego, really be able to just sit back and support the party?

Certainly, both Trump’s personal unpopularity along with the unpopularity of his policies will be a weight holding back the candidacy of any future Republican. As a result, Republicans will inevitably need to create some distance between themselves and Donald Trump.

Imagine Trump’s response. He will view the slightest deviation from his orthodoxy as a betrayal and will communicate his displeasure to his die-hard supporters. Those supporters will still make up a significant part of the Republican grassroots, thus creating a political problem for any Republican candidate.

This will become a double-edged sword to Republicans in the future. On the one hand, the U.S. population is getting more and more liberal, both due to demographics and as a reaction to Trump. This will only push the Trump supporters further to the right, and they continue to make up a majority of Republicans. As a result, his political legacy will be a burden to future Republican candidates.

On the other hand, he will not be a good party soldier, cheerleading from the sidelines much as Barack Obama and even Hillary Clinton have been. He will want the party to be all about him at a time when it needs to focus on its next candidate.

For Democrats, then, in the long term, Trump will be a gift that just keeps on giving.

If you liked this post, you might also like:
What’s Polymorphism in Java. A quick reference for one of the main…
By: Federico Haag
Tags: Programming, Software Development

What’s Polymorphism in Java

A quick reference for one of the main OOP pillars.

The second principle of Object Oriented Programming is Polymorphism.

An OOP language is polymorphic meaning that it lets you perform the same operation in different ways.

Method overriding

A class that inherits methods from its parent can override the code of a certain method to customize its behavior.

Method overloading

One class can have many methods declared with the same name but different parameters. In this way when you call “method X”, the actual code that will be runned it will based on the parameters you are passing to the aforementioned function. Obviously you can’t have two methods with the same name and same type&number of parameters.
The Never Ending Call of Duty
By: Ben Shelley
Tags: Gaming, Call Of Duty, Features, Videogames, Digital Life

What keeps people coming back?

Consistency. You know what you will get with Call of Duty. You will get a simple experience that is pushed throughout the year via the Zombies and multiplayer additions. Roughly every quarter you will get an expansion pass update until the next iteration arrives.

As humans, we enjoy what we know. It is unfortunate to say but people do not enjoy change. Change thrives within the few until it eventually breaks through the glass ceiling and influences the majority. Call of Duty is regular, easy to jump into and play, it appeals to the mass, rather than the minimal that Zelda does.

Call of Duty follows the Disney model. Find a successful formula and then continue to do the same thing every year, making only minimal changes. Without serious competition, they are able to get away with this and in the absence of anything else, I foresee Call of Duty remaining on top for many years to come.

A final thought

Call of Duty will not stretch you offline. Online it will challenge your patience, as you will be up against professional gamers who play for hours a day, but the single-player experience is easy. Yes, you can up the difficulty but then, who wants to be in a real war? Not me, the idea of being shot fills me with terror and therefore I sit behind a keyboard and not in front of a gun.

Call of Duty is addictive. Much like that addiction to eating biscuits at 11 am every day, I just can’t help it. The experience is familiar and easy. It tricks my brain into considering what I have completed as being an achievement. It is not, but with limited time it helps you unwind. Much like how my fiancée chooses to watch Made in Chelsea to unwind, I chose Call of Duty.

Call of Duty is a game to recommend to all. Even for hardcore gamers who consider themselves above it. The consistent nature of the experience makes you realize that in a similar vein to the Mission Impossible franchise, it will provide a release for a few hours. It will not be intellectually stimulating, but sometimes, you just need to put your feet up.
Glove
By: Dasha Tolstikova
Tags: Family, Comics, Memories, Winter

dasha is a brooklyn based author and illustrator. to see more drawings of people lying on floors go to: www.dashatolstikova.com

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Mencicip Mie Ayam di Dunia Maya
By: Indra Buwana
Tags: Indomie, Mie Ayam, Kuliner Nusantara, Kuliner, Kuliner Jogja

in In Fitness And In Health
Setting Haproxy Using Power Of Ansible☺
By: Gupta Aditya
Tags: Load Balancing, Ansible, DevOps, Automation, Load Balancer

So hey guys hope you all are doing in today's article we are going to set haproxy using ansible so in future as many new controller node added in controller group they get entered in haproxy server. Let's get started with practical how-to implement this.

If you have not checked my previous article on ansible I recommend you to read that first in that we have talked about how to configure yum that is necessary for any practical and in that we have also covered how to automate docker using ansible.

First, we have to set our inventory file for that we have made two groups controller and webserver so that when we run playbook we can specify the groups because we don't want our backend server to also install the haproxy server.Once the inventory is setup repeat the same steps to set up an ansible configuration file and checking connectivity.

Inventory setup

Once All the steps are done make a new folder from the command:-

mkdir/folername

Files in Folder

Inside that folder, we need to have one file called haproxy. cfg we need this because when we set up haproxy manually we go to /etc/haproxy/haproxy.cfg and enter our backend server IP so for this reason we have make clone of copy in our folder we will edit this file and send it to haproxy controller and then start the service.

Now lets setup playbook to configure haproxy server

Playbook

Here we have use controller in host this mean all IP in controller groups will be set up as haproxy server yum module we have use to install haproxy software template module is used to copy Hadoop. cfg to target node service module is being used to start the service.

Now you might be thinking why we have used template we can use copy modules too for copying file to target Node well you are right we can use it but if only want to copy the file as it is then copied module is good but when target file has variables in it then template module is intelligent enough to detect them.

Will attach a GitHub link at the end for all files so you can clone and enjoy 😎

As you can see in the Hadoop. cfg file we have use for loop entering IP in configuration file this is template of jinja language

groups is pre-created variable in ansible having all ips from inventory to get specific group IP then you can use groups[‘group name’].

As you can see in the above image haproxy is not configured on the controller node.

As soon as we run our playbook haproxy get configured.

Guys, here we come to the end of this blog I hope you all like it and found it informative. If have any query feel free to reach me :)

Github link:-https://github.com/guptaadi123/Ansible.git
Руководство по созданию кошелька PirateOcean
By: Komodo Platform Rus
Tags: International, Pirates, Wallet, Cryptocurrency, Arrr

Pirate Chain (ARRR) is an independent blockchain using the mining algorithm Equihash, dPoW. Pirate Chain (ARRR) is by general admission the most anonymous cryptocurrency with privacy by default. The Tor network is supported.

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✅ Lesson 8| What is a block?
By: Matteo Ek
Tags: Cryptocurrency, Cryptoprofessor, Bitcoin, Ethereum, Blockchain

A block is a set of data bound together into one single piece in the blockchain. New blocks are constantly added to the end of the the blockchain, and each new block contains information about all the latest transactions that have not yet been included to the previous blocks, plus information about everything that happened in the previous blocks. Once the block is recorded, it can’t be changed.

The block consists of a header and a list of transactions. The block header consists of its own hash (encrypted code) and the previous blocks’ hashes, hashes of the transactions and service information. Miner himself selects among the new transactions those ones from which he will create a new block.

The first place in the transaction list is always occupied by the transfer of the award to the miner who solved this block with a link to his wallet (it is called a generation transaction). Each transaction additionally contains the information about the commission for the creation of the block and the link to the previous transaction (for example, in the Bitcoin network it is a reference to the transaction from which the transferred now bitcoins came from before).

The block is solved, accepted and added to the blockchain if the numerical value of its header hash is equal to or less than a certain number. This number is periodically adjusted. To correct the number, a special parameter called “difficulty” was introduced. Recalculation of the difficulty is needed in order to maintain constant intervals of blocks generation (in Bitcoin — 1 block in 10 minutes), despite the fact that the computing power of the network permanently varies. Every 2016 blocks (approximately every 2 weeks) the network adjusts difficulty for which each Bitcoin client compares how much faster/slower the blocks were generated comparing to the standard values and, based on this data, the difficulty is changed to the greater/lesser.

Finding the correct hash is possible only by a random search method. When the correct solution is found, the hash is sent to all nodes of the network for verification and then the block is added to the chain, and its hash will be used by the following block. If several miners find the correct solution, then the one that was found faster is accepted, and if the correct blocks are found simultaneously, then a fork (branching of the chain) is created. But two simultaneously existing chains of blocks are impossible in the blockchain, therefore, as soon as one of these two chains adds the new block (and this chain becomes longer), it will be automatically accepted by the network, and the second chain will be rejected.
Words Hanging
By: Melinda Smith
Tags: Audio, BlackLivesMatter, Poetry, A Cornered Gurl, Racism

Toes hang above the ground

Just out of reach

Inches away from relieving the weight of a hanging body

We are lynching Black people again

Once we had the courage to call it what it was

Now we cower behind words like

Suicide

Resisting arrest

If only he wasn’t

And I wonder how we can say these words

Even now

While the sun’s rays

Are interrupted from reaching

Our pink cheeks

Intermittently

By the man swinging from that rope?

The creak of the tree that bears his weight

Is the only honest thing left

I regard the tree and I wonder

How many more rings she will grow

And if the ring to mark these days

Will always be marred by this rot

Tattooed in sin

Will it hold words like

Never again?

I sit by her and hold my hand

Over the word Never

I try to find a way to tell her

That other rings will be marked too

But I cannot find the strength to say it

I can’t say suicide

I can’t say lynching either

Not now, while my pink cheeks bear their silhouettes
“Charlottesville showed that liberalism can’t defeat white supremacy. Only direct action can.”
By: Jess Brooks
Tags: Activism, Racism, White Supremacy, Charlottesville

“No matter its form, rock breaks scissors. A half-century ago, nothing less than radical anti-racism could reduce white supremacy to an outlaw religion. Paper could not do that. The contract logic of liberalism, on its own, was not built for that. On matters of racism and discrimination, capitalism can never serve as the great social fix, because in many instances, the very sectors of the economy that have historically been the most profitable in American history — for instance, slavery, real estate — have also been the most discriminatory…

During the 1970s, we covered and concealed any historically specific grievance with a general promise of “equal opportunity,” ownership, and with law and order. Under liberalism, property rights were still king. Outcry about ongoing exclusion in employment, education, and political and cultural representation were not met with redistributive programs but rather diffuse commitments to multiculturalism. We were not allowed mandatory fair employment law, but rather voluntary affirmative action. We were not allowed historically redressive policy — dare one say reparations? — but rather mere tolerance and the assertion that our greatest problem, after nearly a century of Jim Crow, was ensuring the protection of free speech, even for hate speech.”
Geosearch Support for Limestone (Node.js Sphinx Connector)
By: Govind Chandrasekhar
Tags: Tools, Software Development

Limestone, a Node.js connector to Sphinx search server, is a quite handy library written by Serge Shirokov.

In using Limestone for some of my work recently, though, I found that it was missing proper support for geosearch, i.e., searching by distance given latitude-longitude pairs. I’ve augmented the library to support a geo-search only application that I recently built.

Clone my fork of Limestone from: https://github.com/gc20/limestone.

Sample code:
Coding Mistakes I Made As A Junior Developer
By: Chris I.
Tags: Coding, Programming, Software Development, Startup Lessons, Advice

Coding Mistakes I Made As A Junior Developer

There is hope if you’re struggling in your first job writing code

Photo by Atul Choudhary from Pexels

Your first job in software engineering or data science can be demoralizing. Especially if you don’t have a background writing code.

I often get messages from people asking for advice on how to improve. But what they really need is someone to tell them — “you can do it!”

Below are mistakes I personally made during my first software engineering job. This should make you feel better if you’re having a tough time.
My Biggest CHILDHOOD Error
By: Sabana Grande
Tags: Life, Education, Children, Self, Humor

Photo by Joshua Hanks on Unsplash

When I was a kid, I broke all the windows of my Kindergarten. It was cold. I got severely reprimanded. That wasn’t the worst thing that I had done.

You see, pain is one thing. It lasts a while. You get disciplined — ‘old school’ in my case — and after a few months, it all goes away as people forget and you do new bad things. I didn’t do it on purpose; I was an over-energetic, clumsy — two left feet and two left hands — type of human. Also, our kindergarten didn’t have many windows.

Anyway, the WORST emotion to feel besides pain is shame.

Pain Is Temporary. Shame Is Forever.

It’s not that other people necessarily think of our shameful pasts all the time, it’s that WE DO. And it hurts. It hurts to be laughed at.

Well, despite that I was a very clumsy human, I was very enthusiastic. I wanted to try as many new things as possible. My teacher got me to teach the class one day. I was 7. We were in first grade.

She had to correct our work and it was the end of the day. So she said, “Sabana, you teach the class.” It was a game. I took it very seriously.

The next day I show up half an hour early, after having ‘prepared my materials’, sat at her desk, and started teaching the class. I was writing on the board and all. I was halfway through my lesson when she showed up.

She hit me in the behind with her pointing stick and I scampered off back to my seat. I had to collect all my things which I had planned to teach my students that day. Everybody laughed.

She didn’t hit me hard or anything. It was funny for everyone else but me. My teaching career was ruined.

Well, that’s all folks. Just a little embarrassing tale of a well-behaved kid who believed he was teacher from then on.

Take care.
MapReduce real use cases and design patterns
By: Iván De Prado
Tags: Datasalt

Datasalt was invited to give a talk at the University of Geneva last October about MapReduce, Tuple MapReduce and real MapReduce use cases.

The following slides contains an introduction about Big Data and MapReduce covering the main design patterns, describes real-life MapReduce use cases where this paradigm has proven to be useful, and finally they present the new Tuple MapReduce paradigm and its Hadoop implementation: Pangool

Real-life use cases presented:

Data analytics

Crawling

Full-text indexing

Reputation systems

Data mining

Big data, map reduce and beyond from datasalt
‘The Boys’ Head to Court
By: Felix Quiñonez Jr.
Tags: TV Series, Superheroes, TV, Comics, Television

Meanwhile, The Boys are planning to expose Vought during a congressional hearing. Their star witness is Lamplighter (Shawn Ashmore), who has first-hand experience with Vought’s awful ways. But before the hearing, they plan to recruit another former Vought member with knowledge of Compound-V: Jonah Vogelbaum, (John Doman), who had a hand in Homelander’s creation. Hey, you have to have a backup plan, after all. Because Hughie (Jack Quaid) is still injured, Billy (Karl Urban) convinces him to stay behind and keep an eye on Lamplighter. Although Hughie initially objects, eventually, he comes around. He and Lamplighter hang back and…watch porn.

Eventually, Hughie manages to turn the porn off long enough to see Stormfront and Homelander on TV. He learns that Starlight/Annie has been captured. Lamplighter explains that they most likely have her trapped in a cell that dampens powers unless she’s already dead. Understandably, Hughie embarks on a mission to break out Annie, and Lamplighter tags along.

Conveniently enough, Lamplighter’s fingerprints are still in the system, and they can get into Vought headquarters. Once they’re inside, Lamplighter knows that the only way to free Starlight is to trigger an alarm. To do so, he decides to light himself on fire. This sets the fire alarm off everywhere in the building, including Annie’s cell, allowing her to power up and break out. I have to admit that seeing Lamplighter lament that his statue was removed was kind of sad and funny. Apparently, he wanted to kill himself in front of his statue. Unfortunately for Hughie, Lamplighter didn’t reveal his plan. Poor Hughie was understandably confused and a little freaked out. However, he still had to move forward with the plan and was forced to detach Lamplighter’s hand from his body. Hughie then uses that hand to break Annie’s mom out, and they go searching for Annie.

Unfortunately, Annie has a run-in with Black Noir. (Nathan Mitchell) This was my favorite scene in the episode, but it was also a really frustrating one. As usual, Black Noir was badass, and he brings Annie’s hopes for an easy escape to a grinding halt. It was a genuinely exciting action scene, but it was also yet another time the show writes a check it can’t cash. There was no way Black Noir would have left Annie live, but the show can’t kill her off.

Because of this, Maeve (Dominique McElligott) steps in to save the day with…an Almond Joy, seriously. It turns out Black Noir is allergic to nuts, and this stops him in his tracks. On its own, that would be a funny fact, but it was a really lame way to end that scene. Eventually, Annie and Hughie reunite and make eyes at each other. I’m sorry, but I can’t bring myself to care one bit about their generic, boring “romance.”
My Name is Sam
By: Josie Elbiry
Tags: Life, Alcohol, One Line, Halloween, Alcoholism

My Name is Sam

One-line poetry prompt: Skeleton

Photo courtesy of PXfuel: Google Advanced Image Search

One skeleton rattles,

It tolls a bell and taunts.

It rises from a chair,

A figure shrouded and gaunt

and says:

“My name is Sam, and I am an alcoholic.”

Josie ElBiry 2020

Thank you to Harper Thorpe and Kathy Jacobs for this week’s prompt: Skeleton
Banking on Security Token Offerings (STO)
By: Kel Dennis
Tags: Sto, Banking, News, Security Token Offering, Security Token

Security tokens may be the compromise between the government’s woes and cryptocurrencies. Security token offerings, STOs, are financial securities because they mimic traditional shares. These types of tokens give investors some rights to the company.

STOs are projected to have a market cap of $10 trillion by 2020. 2018 is poised to be the year of the STO; you can find another article I’ve written about this topic here.

Threatened by SEC regulations, U.S. businesses are looking for a regulator-approved alternative to generate capital from crowdfunding.
FINALLY! There Are More Digital Nomads to Date!
By: Lisa Martens
Tags: Dating, Social Media, Relationships, Love, Digital Nomads

FINALLY! There Are More Digital Nomads to Date!

Searching globally used to be weird…now it’s normal.

Before the pandemic, a lot of the time, if someone said they were willing to date someone from “anywhere,” it was a red flag. Scammers and spammers searched for unsuspecting victims globally, and I mean, let’s be honest: Not many people want a long-distance relationship.

I’m sure spammers and scammers are still an issue, but the pandemic has forced everyone to stay at home…which means, oddly enough, that you can browse the entire world. After all, if you’re going to take a risk getting a virus meeting a man, why not go for a change of location while you’re at it?

If you’re stuck at home day after day, do you want to meet up with a man who is down the block…or a man who has space in his tropical home? Or perhaps in a European city? Why just change your fuckbuddy, when you can have a change of scenery?

Also, there’s a bit if a fantasy element to it. Whereas before we were more concerned with meeting the liars and scammers, now we might be more hopeful.

Maybe there’s a prince out there after all — or at least, a kinky partner who is also bored in lockdown.
Songs My Mother Taught Me
Tags: Humor, Comics, Funny, Work From Home, Cartoon

Written by

Almost famous cartoonist who laughs at her own jokes and hopes you will, too.
Pop Culture Mondays/Subscriber Edition
By: Brooke Hammerling
Tags: Martin Shkreli, Pop Culture, Tom Cruise, Bee Gees, Newsletter

December 21st, 2020

Happy Monday my darling subscribers!

And YES omg we are late today but it has been a very long day in a very short week. ANWAY, we have a few crazy things to dig into…and yes OBVIOUSLY everyone is talking about THAT story in Elle this week. If you’re not familiar…buckle up…

For this week’s PCM:

https://brooke.medium.com/pop-culture-mondays-12-21-20-c9d2db9918ac

Have a beautiful and safe holiday!!

XO,

Brooke
Expressive power of graph neural networks and the Weisfeiler-Lehman test
By: Tds Editors
Tags: The Daily Pick

By Michael Bronstein — 8 min read

Do you have a feeling that deep learning on graphs is a bunch of heuristics that work sometimes and nobody has a clue why? In this post, I discuss the graph isomorphism problem, the Weisfeiler-Lehman heuristic for graph isomorphism testing, and how it can be used to analyse the expressive power of graph neural networks.
02/05/2018: Biggest Stories in the Cryptosphere
Tags: Cryptocurrency, Bitcoin, Ethereum Blockchain, Regulation, Blockchain

by BlockEx

1. Self-regulatory Trade Association CryptoUK Asks MPs To Implement Regulations

CryptoUK, the first self-regulatory trade association for the UK crypto industry, is calling for MPs to apply Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) regulations and guidelines to cryptocurrencies by putting them under the body’s jurisdiction. The proposal was created in response to the Treasury Committee’s announcement it would launch an inquiry into cryptocurrencies. Along with BlockEx, other members of CryptoUK include Coinbase and eToro. Among the proposals, there is a Crypto-License which would be granted to AML- and KYC-compliant crypto exchanges. It was also added that, ideally, the focus should be on the intermediaries, rather than cryptocurrencies themselves, as peer-to-peer policies already exist. The group believes that regulation is fundamental for the industry to flourish.

2. Crypto And Blockchain Will Lead To Cashless Society, Says S Korea Central Bank

The Bank of Korea (BOK), South Korea’s central bank, has been attempting to create a ‘cashless society’ for some time now. It has now announced that crypto and blockchain are being considered as possible tools to achieve the goal. The cashfree society pilot was officially announced yesterday, along with the involvement of blockchain and cryptocurrency for aspects such as payments. An organisation investigating digital currencies and the impact they can have on the financial system has also been established. The ambition is to save on currency producing costs ($47 million was spent in 2016) and improve customers’ experience. The move would also help fight the black market, which is mostly based on cash transactions.

3. Biggest Names In Automotive Industry Launch Blockchain Research Coalition

A blockchain research coalition has been launched by some of the biggest names in the automotive industry. BMW, GM, Ford and Renault have partnered to form the Mobility Open Blockchain Initiative (MOBI). Among the 30 members involved in the project are Bosch, Berkeley (Blockchain), Hyperledger, Fetch.ai, IBM and IOTA. The aim of the project, which was launched today, is to cut costs, as well as improving safety and increasing accessibility for transportation. The aspects they hope to improve with blockchain technology are ‘payments, data tracking, and supply management, to consumer finance and pricing, and more futuristic areas like autonomous vehicles and ride-sharing systems’. Although this is not the first time automakers have joined this type of group, this is the first coalition focused on the industry.

4. Korean Peace Treaty Recorded On Ethereum Blockchain

South Korean developer Ryu

Gi-hyeok has recorded the details of the peace treaty between North Korea and South Korea on Ethereum blockchain. By doing so he made history. At the 2018 Inter-Korean Summit, leaders Moon Jae-in and Kim Jong-un signed the Panmunjom Declaration, which was then recorded through two transactions, in English and Korean.

This news roundup was brought to you by BlockEx.
Test Driven Development — Solving Bugs
By: Liyaqat Mugjenkar
Tags: Agile Development, Test Driven Development, Software Engineer Tips, Software Development, Tdd

A series of short tips / advices for Software Engineers

The Scenario

Peter (First Line Support): Hey Fred, we picked up an issue where the website truncates email addresses longer than 15 characters.

Fred (Engineer): Hi Peter, how does it look on the back office system?

Peter (First Line Support): It looks truncated as well, if I manually save it on the back office system it also truncates it.

Fred (Engineer): Mmm, that looks like an issue with the way we save it. Log an issue and let me check it out :-)

The Way We Could Solve the Problem

Fred could check the code, find the line where Rob accidentally limited the number of characters to 15, patch and off we go.

An Alternate Way of Solving The Problem

Prove the problem exists by writing a test that fails *Tip — create the test method to contain the issue number in its name / comments* Fix the issue Re-run the test If anyone breaks it again your test will fail

Why?

This approach is based on the Test Driven Development methodology of writing the test first before the functionality. Technically it is not the same but is based on the same principle.

I learnt this technique many years ago from a Senior and it made sense and has proven to work. It helps by:

Confirming we have an issue Confirming the issue is fixed When documenting the issue number in the test it helps to reference the issue easily (We could annotate our code and provided you committed with the correct reference we could find the issue it was related to) If someone breaks it again, our tests fail fast

It may seem trivial but consider using this technique when solving your bugs. It may not be possible in all cases but consider it even if you have to mock everything around it to test the issue.
Unsold! My ‘New Yorker’ cartoon idea
By: John E. Branch Jr.
Tags: Cartoon, The New Yorker, Television

Unsold! My ‘New Yorker’ cartoon idea

How I sold a ‘New Yorker’ cartoonist on a ‘New Yorker’ cartoon idea but we still couldn’t get ‘The New Yorker’ to buy it

Now and then, I tinker with ideas for cartoons and captions. Long ago, having noticed that the typical fortune-cookie fortune is unspeakably boring, I thought of a captionless image that would show, in the foreground at left, a restaurant table with a fortune reading, “Call the kids! Something’s wrong — I just know it!” In the background at right, we’d see a woman rushing madly out the door, followed by a man who was perhaps flinging dollars at the cashier on his way.

Skipping ahead a few decades, I had another idea, this time in response to the increasing complications of TV shows, especially the floridly baroque, questionably intelligible series Lost, though it came to me some time after that series ended. Through a mutual friend, I got in touch with a cartoonist named Michael Crawford, who had sold many works to The New Yorker over the years. He saw something in my idea but thought my original notion, involving an oracle in a cave, wouldn’t work. Using instead the familiar trope of a sage on a mountaintop, he drew up a very rough sketch and sent it to me, with my original caption idea along with some other jottings. I liked the layout fine, we settled on a caption, and he pitched it to The New Yorker, which, however, failed to see the greatness in it and said no. There’s now an exhibition in New York of cartoons The New Yorker turned down (you can read about it here), so I thought I’d share our own rejected sketch. Because brevity is the soul of wit and all that, our final caption was shorter than what’s shown here: “That’s not explained until the final episode.”

Regrettably, Crawford passed away last year (one appreciation of him is here), so I can’t ask his permission to show this. Personally, I think his reputation is unlikely to be tarnished by it, but many people hate for their unfinished work to be seen, and perhaps he would too. If he’s looking down from one of those New Yorker–cartoon versions of heaven and he’s got a gripe, I hope he’ll get in touch. I want to run an idea past him.
Baking Accessibility into Design at Workday
By: Workday Design
Tags: Inclusive Design, UX Design, Accessibility, A11y

Digital accessibility is often seen as an afterthought, something that is added in by development just before a product ships. However, true accessibility — an experience that is usable by everyone — begins in the design stages of the product development process. Workday has begun to make strides in reversing the afterthought mentality. We’re baking accessibility into the way we approach building our products, starting with design.

How are we doing that? We’ll share with you:

Where our journey in accessibility began.

How we identified the problems at Workday.

How we’ve begun to tackle those problems with awareness, education, and resources.

We’ll give you a glimpse into what we’ve accomplished and where we’re headed next. While Workday is becoming a leader in the accessibility space, we know this is a never-ending journey.

Originally, we planned to present this talk in March at the 2020 CSUN Assistive Technology Conference, which is hosted by the California State University, Northridge (CSUN) Center on Disabilities. Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, we were unable to travel there. However, we’ve since presented this topic at a virtual Boulder UX/UI Meetup in April 2020 and at a virtual Bay Area Disability Inclusion Network Meetup in July 2020. And we’re excited to share it virtually with you here on the Workday Design Blog!

Video

Transcript
New Project: A Modified PIVX Fork
By: Anonymous Duck
Tags: Business, Cryptocurrency, Blockchain, Technology, Bitcoin

“Blocknode is a modified PIVX fork.” — BlockNode Whitepaper

The Blocknode network and rewards system can be adapted for both consumer and employee reward programmes, depending on the business’ need. Blocknode is a 2nd generation cryptocurrency and offers some new features over traditional cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin: By setting up a masternode, the business will be rewarded themselves, by generating new coins and will thus be able to pay the loyalty programme member from newly produced money surplus to income revenue.

To learn more, visit the BlockNode Telegram Channel: https://t.me/BlocknodeChatGroup
Why Socrates’ Confession “I Know That I Know Nothing” is the Highest Wisdom
By: Genius Turner
Tags: Life, Self Improvement, Life Lessons, Relationships, Self

Why Socrates’ Confession “I Know That I Know Nothing” is the Highest Wisdom

Perhaps it requires ignorance and arrogance to know anything for sure.

Socrates — The Master of Those Who Know (Pic: Wikimedia Commons.)

I. A Teachable Moment

Last night while riding the subway, I heard a voice in just above a whisper say, “Ahem, excuse me, fellas, can you guys please spare some change?”

My buddy Josh — seated to my left — as if he were the ventriloquist and I the wooden dummy, spoke on my behalf: “Sorry, dude, we don’t carry around change.”

Given that I’ve long heard Karma was moody, I did my best to stay on her good side. “Here ya go,” I said while handing over the crinkly dollar-bill.

Josh hissed. “Now why’d you do that?”

I offered a shoulder shrug.

“I mean,” Josh continued, “if that bum can say ‘excuse me, can I have some change,’ he sure as hell can say: ‘Welcome to McDonald’s . . . can I help you?’ ”

I smirked, feeling no need to partake in a pointless match of verbal fencing with my pal. But he persisted. “Listen, Genius, just like we had to work hard and bust our tails to get paid, that bum can do the same! I mean, he’s got free-will to work just as hard as we do.”

“Josh,” I fired back, “did you choose your birthday?”

He shook his head.

“Will you choose your death-day?”

He scratched his head.

“And so,” I said while rubbing my hands, “if we mortals get to choose neither our birthdays nor death-days, who’s to say we get to choose how we’ll run life’s race between the starting blocks and the finish line?”

Josh heaved a sigh. “Just drop it, will ya! So tell me, are you trying to say there’s no free-will?”

Without blinking I served as Socrates’ mouthpiece: