fabiochiu/medium-articles huggingface dataset:
Increase Your Concession Revenue Per Cap By $1.25 Within A Week
By: Isabella Jiao
Tags: Theater, Revenue, Startup, Testimonials, Success Story

Interview with Jon Pickel, Owner of Tower Drive-in Theater and FanFood venue partner

“First night, we set ourselves up to fail — and it turned out to be our busiest night so far.”

You can watch Jon’s full interview here.

It’s only been a week since FanFood debuted at Tower Drive-in Theater, but one in five customers are already ordering on the app instead of at the concession stand.

“I was skeptical in the beginning whether FanFood is going to increase my sales,” said Jon Pickel, owner of Tower Drive-in Theater. “So far we are seven nights in and my [revenue] per cap of the whole night has gone up by about $1.25.”

Another added bonus? The long lines that used to be at the concession stand are now gone.

In fact, getting rid of the concession line was the initial trigger for Jon to start exploring mobile ordering solutions for drive-in theater. He had been brainstorming with his team for the perfect product that could cut down long lines without hurting sales (which, in the conventional world of concession sales, are correlated). That is, until he came across FanFood at a drive-in theater convention in Florida.

“I think [FanFood] would work,” Jon said. “That’s exactly what I need.”

Despite the conviction, Jon kept his anticipation low on the first night when FanFood was implemented. There were doubts in his head as to whether the app could actually work — since it was his first time seeing a mobile ordering app in action at a drive-in theater (frankly, ours too!).

“It turned out to be our busiest night so far.” Jon recalled.

Although it rained for two nights consecutively thereafter, customers’ high adoption rate of the app and their enthusiasm to try it out has been consistent. On busier night, it’s common that over 20% of all theater attendees were ordering on FanFood—and people absolutely loved receiving food in their car seats.

When was the last time you’ve been to a drive-in theater? Or have you ever??

“I’d be handing out flyers about FanFood at the ticketing booth, telling them to download the app,” Jon said. “The vast majority said ‘that’s cool! I’ll do that!’”The theater has not held back on their marketing push either. Fortunately, Tower Drive-In has maintained a huge loyal customer base on Facebook, where people go to check out the showing schedule. FanFood is also given a prominent spot on the theater’s website to inform people of the new service. And the technology of the app is simple enough that anyone could pick it up in no time.

“Y’all hit a pretty good home run on how that [the app] works,” Jon told us.

If there are topics / questions you’d love to see us explore on our blog, write or tweet at us @fanfoodondemand!
Allow Me Breathe How I Need To
By: Stephen Uba
Tags: Justice, Racism, Equality, Society, BlackLivesMatter

The brutal truth, one we all have to acknowledge, is that there is never really an objective way to protest. Protesting comes from a place of suffocation, it stems from a situation where a group of people have been repeatedly treated illegitimately and unfairly.

Society in its very core, has an obligation to each and every member breathing in it, and society has no moral high-ground to criticize the actions of anyone it suffocates, and fails in its duty to uphold with dignity.

You can’t tell people how to breathe, when you’re fully aware and live in a society that systematically profiles a certain colour of people and outlaw their futures by turning a blind eye towards the necessary policies and justice clearly needed.

You can’t tell people how to breathe, when all they’ve known is suffocation surrounded by oxygen masks, and strangulation by the oxygen masks designed to help them breathe.
If it’s magic that you’re hoping for
By: Amy Knight
Tags: Pandemic, Lyrics, Poetry, Christmas, 2020

If it’s magic that you’re hoping for

I wrote a song for Christmas 2020…

What would I give?

What would you really like from me?

If I could fly there

I would hide there

underneath your tree.

I would love to watch you open something

big and sparkly

but if its kisses that you’re wishing for

I’ll blow them at the screen.

I made a wish for you

upon a shooting star.

I wished for snow

and mistletoe

and to be where you are.

I would you love to hold your hand

and watch the fire on Christmas Eve,

but if it’s magic that you’re hoping for

you know I still believe.

We are miles apart this Christmas,

it wouldn’t do to break the rules.

I’ll still be here for you this Christmas

just call me up, I’ll be your fool.

I’ll drink to me and you this Christmas

I’m never giving up on love

and though it might not snow

and there’s nowhere to go

our star is rising up above.

Words and music by Amy Knight

© Amy Knight 2020

Watch the video on IGTV
SelfieCity โปรเจ็กต์วิเคราะห์การเซลฟี่จาก 5 เมืองทั่วโลก
By: Punch Up
Tags: Data Analysis, Data Visualization, Selfie, Culture

in Both Sides of the Table
METAL MONDAY
By: Carolyn Chen
Tags: Music, Spinning, Fitness, Exercise, Metal

It’s not Monday, which is a good thing in life, but maybe less effective for my titled post. Oh well. Anyway, in the past few weeks, I have been in a bit of a music drought, not in the sense that I can’t find anything to listen to, but more in the sense that I don’t have a go-to artist/album/playlist, like I typically do. Instead, I’ve been going through a lot of old playlists and have also been pretty into Spotify’s Daily Mixes (made just for me!). It’s a good blend of new and familiar tracks and I guess that is what I need now.

Anyway, one constant in my music life has been my emo mainstays. I’ve been listening to some emo tracks almost everyday and weirdly enough, my new foray into spinning has actually increased my emo exposure.

Let me explain.

I typically hate spinning or any sort of instructed exercise, but was recently introduced to the Monster Cycle in NYC and have been obsessed. It’s still spinning, but it’s definitely a more alternative/laid-back crowd and they have unique emo and metal themed rides, which are right up my alley.

While I’ve always been into emo/screamo, I am not sure that I would really consider myself/my music tastes “metal.” Given this, I was a bit anxious when I signed up for the “Metal Monday” ride as part of me was self-conscious that I would not be “metal” enough; however I realized that maybe metal wasn’t as intense as I had thought.

A lot of the songs that were played during the ride were more of what I would call “90’s hair metal”. Not as much screaming as screamo, but pretty intense guitar and drum riffs. Also, part of the Monster Cycle is that they play the corresponding music videos during the ride, which is unique and a pretty good distraction. I spent quite a bit of my ride watching these videos and semi-analyzing them. A few things I noticed, which maybe are obvious to true metal fans, but were new and interesting to me:

There is a large overlap between metal and horror. Pretty much every music video had some element of horror in it, whether it was monsters, disturbing images, etc.

Metal videos like featuring the theme of death. I guess that one might have been obvious. But, it almost seemed cliche after a while. Three of the videos we watched were set in graveyards and one was in a run-down church that definitely had a death vibe

The videos always feature an “objectively hot girl”. I guess this is not specific to metal videos, but still kind of interesting that they would still be featured in them

Anyway, those are a few of my insightful learnings from my recent Metal Monday spin class. I think some of the cliched aspects of the music videos actually made me feel that metal was less intense than I thought.

I actually loved the class, had one of the best workouts ever, and realized that maybe I am intense enough for metal (or it’s intense enough for me). Good day.
Measuring Statistical Dispersion with the Gini Coefficient
By: Tds Editors
Tags: The Daily Pick

By Eduardo Coronado Sroka — 12 min read

There seems to be a general misconception that Bayesian methods are harder to implement than Frequentist ones. Sometimes this is true, but more often existing R and Python libraries can help simplify the process.
Data for Good: the Next Corporate Social Responsibility
By: Data Clinic
Tags: Volunteering, Data Science, Data Clinic, Technology, Corporate Culture

Data for Good: the Next Corporate Social Responsibility

Data and technology has revolutionized the way we live our lives and do business. Should community service follow suit?

Data Clinic was born out of the desire to give back beyond the typical Corporate Social Responsibility model of community service. Working at Two Sigma, a financial institution built on the principles of innovation through data science and engineering, a group of employees set out to lend these same skills to nonprofit and public-sector agencies that could greatly benefit from them. What began as a proof-of-concept is now a fully staffed team backed by hundreds of Two Sigma volunteers, engaging in year-round partner projects and open source research. Happily, the broader data-for-good space continues to grow, as more and more organizations, universities, and meet-ups contribute to the advancement of social issues through data and technology. Click here to read more about Data Clinic’s origins and our vision for the future of skills-based giving back.
Some Poems Spill Out
By: Sylph Hemery
Tags: Poetry On Medium, Creative Writing, A Cornered Gurl, Poetry, Free Verse

Some Poems Spill Out

Free Verse

Photo by Paweł Czerwiński on Unsplash

My crammed heart, chokes, splits open.

Dis-enslaved blood bestrews the naked page.

The wine red drops speak in tongues,

Ecstatic searchings for sacred words with hands

To hoist me up,

To steady the teeterings and quakes,

To sate my spine with pristine dignity.

In these words, I stand without cowering,

Scoured of hunching shame, brave.
Losing your little brother
By: Berna Demiryol
Tags: Life Lessons, Wellness, Grief, Self Care, Life

Losing your little brother

And searching for your gift

Every story you write starts in your head first. This one I am writing now, been in-writing for the last 12 years.

I lost my baby brother 12 years ago, today. November the 14th. We put him down in the loving care of Earth 3 days after, on the 17th of November. That is my birthday. I remember hearing my parents talk from a distance, murmuring between the two whether they should push the funeral to the 18th so I would not live with this memory forever. They were in deep sorrow for the loss of their only son while they also knew the dark cloud this would set on all my birthdays until the day I die. Would it have changed a thing, if we had moved it to a day later? Instead of blowing candles, laughing and joying over my 35th, I cuddled and wept with my parents, husband and two toddlers. In 2008 November the 14th, I forever lost the joy of celebrating my birthday. This is why I do not put my birthday on social media profiles to get celebratory notes from friends and I rarely offer people my birthday unless I am asked.

As my parents were a guest at my house at the time, I had nowhere, no physical place to process my grief; cry as loud as I want, get the sadness out of each and every cell of my physical and spiritual being. Express my anger, disappointment, sadness, and loss of hope for the future and in a visible way that somehow provides some sort of relief. But I had to be strong for them. We all played our roles when we were together. And we were together a lot. We put our strong-masks to remain collected when the person inside each of us is crying mountains but silently. Do you know what that is like? My only escape was my car. There were so many days when I put the music up at a deafening height to let my emotions loose. That was my ritual to process deep grief. It is a miracle I did not have any accidents in one of these many many drives. I do not recommend it.
Bad designers, climate change, triangle-shaped designer — and more UX this week
By: Fabricio Teixeira
Tags: Startup, Customer Experience, Design, Hot This Week, Product Design

Bad designers, climate change, triangle-shaped designer — and more UX this week

A weekly selection of design links, brought to you by your friends at the UX Collective.

Are bad designers hiding behind the term “UX”? →

UX Designers have gotten so used to not being responsible for the final look of the product, that they have dangerously distanced themselves from the visual design craft.
A Time Requiring Renewed Calls of Faith for All Americans, No Matter Your Origins
By: David Cenicola
Tags: Politics, God, Faith, Leadership, Community

Until we can proclaim once again, that we are ONE NATION, UNDER GOD, for all the world to see, we will be vulnerable to the death thrust upon us by terrorist nations. All of our leaders must renew their faith and lead us in Godly ways; otherwise, we will have forfeited our protection from the One True and Loving God.

We need to return to being peaceful communities of faith, with our staunch American values, which we had always held. The best of America was when our villages of humble, temperate citizens did what was best for themselves and their families by doing what was best for their neighbors and the world.

Without God’s grace and mercy, we are left tearing each other apart. God does not see race — he sees our values and principles. He rewards temperance and love and is punitive to those who believe in self-righteous indignation. Taking matters into your own hands is a danger to those who do, because it is the humble who serve the greater good who will prevail, and not the ones who boastfully scowl and denigrate history, no matter the color of their skin.

Our history was blessed by God because we had the power to stick up to evil most of us alive today can only hope to begin to comprehend. Because we had faith in a loving God who provided us with the good things that made our lives so rich — that is what got us to be leaders of the world in the first place. God rewarded us for such.

Evil men cannot be defeated by rewriting the history of others associated with their times.
Thou Shalt Not COVID-19 Thy Neighbor’s Wife
By: Sara Harvey
Tags: Politics, Humor, Funny, Covid 19, Satire

Photo Rene Asmussen on Pexels

Donald Trump said it, I believe it, and that settles it. It’s safe to go back to church! With a few guidelines that won’t curb your rights as an American servant of Christ.

John the Baptist Presbyterian acknowledges the pandemic afflicting New Yorkers, but God is mighty to shield our suburban bodies, made in His image, in our over-capacity sanctuary. Still, please, breathe “small.” Big breaths are the chief transmitter of coronaviruses.

Also, keep some distance between yourself and other people. Consider Saint Francis of Assisi, who held up his palm to bless the poor and keep them a foot away. Where else would the sparrow alight? Though, if Mary Matilda wants to kiss everyone on the lips — not everyone follows rules in this age of grace, nor should they have to.

I, Pastor Jake, wrote these guidelines, not Dr. Anthony Fauci or the World Health Organization. They’re hunches straight from God, so sing “small” with confidence. Though, that’s impossible for our exuberant Mary Catherine!

Another safety idea — hold a funeral home fan or a teen study Bible in front of your mouth when you talk. Use a bulletin, at least, if you talk to the elderly or immunocompromised. They’re in church, just like you, for the nice feeling of a familiar place without strangers, as our Lord commanded from the cross. As for actual masks, if yours offends someone, pluck it off.

Our afterglow with the Walker Family, missionaries to New Zealand, is canceled because the Walkers refuse to return to America. Instead, we’ll hold a healing service. Let Brother Craig shine the light of God’s love into your soul, and directly into your body.

Otherwise, everything at Saint John’s is back to normal, as is God’s will, because we’re all really just over this pandemic. Can I get an amen? Praise Jesus, who taught us to pray as He did, Sunday mornings and Wednesday nights at 7 pm in the white-steepled chapels of Palestine.

Two housekeeping announcements — we’ll use paper plates from now on during the Sunday potlucks due to the 100,000 American viral deaths. Thank you, Mary Elouise, for your mouthwatering yeast rolls! And we will be projecting the lyrics to our praise songs onto the display around the pulpit, where I will appear as a hologram.
WHAT DOES THE MOST HIGH REQUIRES FROM HUMANITY?
By: J. K. Woods
Tags: Christianity, Tndl, Yahweh Elyon Yeshua, God

“KOSMIC UNIVERSE. HENCE, HE CAN DO ANYTHING HE DESIRES WITH THE THINGS THAT ARE IN HIS POSSESSION, BECAUSE HE IS EL-YON, THE GOD OF ALL AGES! WHAT DOES THE MOST HIGH REQUIRES OF HUMANITY? THE THIRD VOICE IN REVELATION 14 :7 SAID OR PROCLAIMED, WE SHOULD FEAR THE MOST HIGH GOD AND GIVE HIM GLORY. THEREFORE, AFTER YOUR REPENTANCE, SALVATION, REDEMPTION, WHAT IS YOUR REQUIREMENT FROM YOUR CREATOR? IT IS TO FEAR, AND GIVE HIM PRAISE, GLORY, HONOR, WORSHIP, THANKSGIVING AND MUCH RESPECT.” (TNDL)

Copyright 2019 TNDL
Ta dose crypto du mardi 27 mars — Malte de plus en plus convoité par les entreprises blockchain
Tags: Malte, Bitcoin, Lightning Network, Blockchain, Binance

Here Is Bitcoin's Biggest Flaw: Edward Snowden Shares His Thoughts

Bitcoin's public blockchain may be its biggest flaw. This is according to Edward Snowden, the infamous US…
Performative Activism, It Kinda Is What It Is
By: Tre King
Tags: Activism, Protest, Politics, Injustice, Community

A very human problem

I hate to tell you you’re kidding yourself if you thought everybody cared about your dilemmas. It’s unfortunate, but it’s also the reality. In an era where we see everyone’s issues and every groups plight when the subject gains enough attention it’s not all going to good. So, that leads to people either manipulating a specific groups emotions or a fail attempt to help out or worst just looking apathetic. Once you get passed that, you have to understand how two natural distinction of dealing with emotions work (sympathy and empathy) and they effect the work of movements.

Empathy is a term we use for the ability to understand other people’s feelings as if we were having them ourselves.

Sympathy refers to the ability to take part in someone else’s feelings, mostly by feeling sorrowful about their misfortune.

Everyone is empathetic to the people in their collective group or groups. Sympathetic to the people outside of those groups. A simple example is I’m not a woman, so their plight of men wanting to control every part of their body and them, in general, is one I understand is terrible but can’t act like my feelings of anger or sadness is close to theirs. Because of that, it would be extremely disrespectful to get on social media platforms and cry a river. To help another group of people, you can just help. It’s no need to act like you feel their pain. Want a certain injustice to gain attention, then talk about with some decency and don’t play with people's emotions. What happens is it makes the response not as urgent to the dilemma as it should be. No group of people’s plight is as modern as the media might present at times. But these days, you will receive a round of applause for finding out about a community’s injustices even though it’s been around for generations, definitely if you shed a tear. If you need to be inform about past tragdies like Matthew Sheperd or Tulsa race massacres to “understand” people’s plight then we should think you’re full of it or live in a bubble.

But they do get rewarded for the act

The reason it’s performative because it’s meant to make us feel like we are empathetic, not sympathetic to the problems. Is it right? Is it wrong? Yes, since it’s not sincere and no, because there might not be another way to get people involved or, at best, to hear what the problem is. At the same time, it gives off false feeling of others ”getting involved” when in reality, they’re just hearing your group out, if that. If a person or organization “acts” like they’re hearing a groups plight they receive the recoginzation being “woke”. Which in today climate is it own form of currency. The real problem it takes more than attention, discussion and hearing others out to solve the issues. But people have accepted those as consolation prizes for numerous reasons. All the answers to all the issues would take time, take time to even start. Realistically, mindsets as well will need to change too. Maybe, that's why so many people get star struck by these little performces of activism.
Have an iPad? That Means You Have a Second Screen
By: Gracia Kleijnen
Tags: Apple, iPad, iOS, Productivity, Tools

A new monitor at the local tech store would cost around $90 for one of the cheapest models.

At the top of my mind was renting. Why renting? Since it has become mainstream, it has also become easy and affordable. After a set period of time, you don’t have to worry about what to do with the devalued piece of tech anymore. The rental company does it for you and keeps a device in the circular economy.

German tech startup Grover, for example, rents out nearly everything your heart desires. Monitors also, starting at €7.90 per month, if you rent for the period of at least one year. Renting for shorter periods of time is an option, but the monthly price will be higher. After this one year, and as soon as you’d have reached the full retail price of the device, you have the option to purchase it and become its “forever owner”.

Lately I have become less willing to buy tech. I don’t really care about owning stuff anymore. It used to be an ego tripping tool, just to brag to other people. Now, I just want access to tech, so I can use it.
A WEEK AT WORK!
By: Alex Bradley
Tags: Workplace, Design, Photography, Digital Marketing

Author: Eden Wakefield-James (work experience/ office lackey for the week)

A week at work. Oh, I never knew how tiring it was going to be. BUT, I love it!

I am a 15-year-old student doing work experience here at Univers Labs, and I wanted to give you an insight from a teenager’s point of view of my time here.

I originally wanted to come to Univers Labs because I thought it was a cool place where my mum worked and where I could indulge my love of photography, my keen interest in design and processing strategies.

I was tasked with finding faults in the websites that I would then report to testing. Finding issues or formatting errors that would negatively impact the site and the users made me feel like I had a real, positive impact on the company. For example, the ‘text overlaps’- this results in being unable to see certain parts clearly which might make users miss an important piece of information, ‘the site is not responsive’- ‘the pictures are too pixelated’, WHAT A NIGHTMARE!

I wanted to include as much photography into my work experience as possible, and Univers Labs were more than accommodating. Max, the Head of Production, is also a photography enthusiast, and very kindly took time out of his busy schedule to give me a practical lesson. We went round various buildings in Oxford, and he showed me some techniques he uses to take amazing architectural photographs!



So why is the use of photography so crucial to websites?

Let’s use ‘Jim’ as an example:



‘Jim is a customer and was looking at lawnmowers. However, the pictures on the site were either not loading or too pixelated resulting in him being unable to see what he was buying. Because of this, Jim did not proceed with any payment. Most customers visiting the site encountered similar problems, losing the company money, customer reliability and overall credibility’ — All they had to do was change the pictures! It’s that simple.

Of course, you need a topnotch website to back up the pictures (something Univers Labs seem pretty good at!). But even with a great website, the lack of good images, especially on sites used to purchase goods from, can severely impact sales.

Photography relays information to the user very efficiently, generates more significant interest in the company, and improves overall business. Images are an easy way for customers to understand what products you are selling. It is a reliable marketing strategy which gains the company more sales through strategically placed visualisations.

Many companies don’t have a gallery or anything to portray the products or services they sell. Especially for a website that is planning to sell stuff, it would be a bit silly if you didn’t have any! So, if you want your site to be better than anyone else’s, I would suggest adding some photographs, and some pretty stellar ones at that!

I’d like to finish by saying a big THANK YOU to everyone at Univers Labs for an amazing week. It was a great introduction to the scary word of work and I’m going to miss you all!
George Michael: the artist, the human, the shy boy from North London…
By: First Name_Last Name
Tags: Music, George Michael, Art, Artist

To an artist who took us with him on his search for his true self. Who showed us not be afraid of who we are, with all of our talents and all of our flaws. Who shared his struggles, his victories and his losses. Who dedicated his life to giving us the soundtrack of ours. Who showed us that we can overcome doubts, losses, boundaries, and that is never too late to reinvent ourselves. Who refused to be put in a box. A true artist, who didn’t depend on a camera to show us who he truly was. A man who understood that the position he had earned in society was a privilege — so he gave back. A human who was flawed, who made mistakes, yet did not run away. A gentle soul with a truly special gift, who was made to shine. And shine he did. A north London boy who gave us the best he had to offer: his music.

George Michael, you will live forever.
Why Are Ancient Philosophers Obsessed With Searching for One Principle?
By: Katharina E.
Tags: Philosophy, Ideas, Cosmology, History, Universe

Why Are Ancient Philosophers Obsessed With Searching for One Principle?

No strict distinction between philosophy and science leads to intriguing insights.

Video by Adrian Pelletier on mixkit.co

Throughout antiquity, philosophers referred to earth with the word cosmos.

The earth was not only the surrounding, the place where people lived, but cosmos simultaneously meant order, decoration, and a good composition: it was considered as organized, beautiful, and precious.

The verb “cosmein” described various actions: Building a house, writing a speech, organizing the army. All these things meant also “to organize”, and were strongly associated with human reason.

Cosmos isn’t just beautiful, it is also reasonable.

A special example of organizing is the following:

An illness was understood as the disruption of the harmony of a living body.

According to ancient physicians, every disease was triggered by natural causes. They didn’t believe, for example, that it is a punishment sent by the Gods.

If the body heals and regains its health, it’s regaining its harmony, which was also understood as organizing.

But it is something else than building a house, for example. Because then, someone else “organizes” it from the outside, in this case, the craftsmen.

With the disease, the cause for the healing is the body itself. Medical aid can help the body to heal, but in the end, the healing occurs from within.

This example shows us that order (or cosmos) is not just a new substance, a new entity (raw materials put together result in a house), but also the development of a new quality, a new property (such as the health of a body).

Concerning health, order comes from within, or in other words: Nature brings order. Could it be said then that nature is acting reasonably? It is practicing a reasonable skill? Ancient philosophers were struggling with this question.

From microcosm to macrocosm

Among ancient philosophers the transition from the microcosms to the macrocosms was common:

From observing that “the body has the tendency to heal”, they concluded that also “the earth (or cosmos) has tendencies.” And this exactly is the question which they wanted to answer:

How can we explain and define these tendencies of the world?

And most of the philosophers believed there must be one principle of the world that organizes everything. Therefore they searched for this principle. “Principle” means in Greek: Arché.

They also asked: What type of principle is it?

The order of nature, earth, cosmos: Does it come from within (such as the healing of an ill body) or from the outside (as the craftsman who builds a house)?

In other words, the principle could be both forms: The substance, maintained by the outside, or also the quality, coming from the inside.
Happily Forever
By: Catharine Romero-Perla
Tags: Relationships, Realistic Fiction, Love, Fiction, Short Story

Photo by Nick Fewings on Unsplash

They married right out of college; although more appropriate than marrying right out of high school, their friends were cautiously supportive of their coupling. He was an accounting major, with a job lined up making more money a day than he did working the bar every weekend. She was a chemistry major headed to pharmacy school with scholarships covering the cost of going back. Separately they would’ve been fine, together they were great, and they both knew the love they shared would last a lifetime.

They married on a Tuesday even though prophecy told them not to. His vows were short, sweet, and idyllic. Hers were romantic and fairytale-esque. After saying I do, they kissed as the sun set in the west and the moon rose in the east. During the reception, they couldn’t keep from smiling. Every minute they stole a kiss from one another. When they cut the cake, everyone paused, nervously watching to see who would smash icing up the other’s nostrils. There was a collective exhale when they both politely fed each other a tiny piece of royal buttercream vanilla raspberry cake.

When he carried her across the threshold into their new home, they were naive. They signed their names on the home loan, the mortgage, their bank statements, and their marriage license with smiles. The ends of their lips stretched up to their ears. Happily, they told everyone they were newlyweds. She flashed her ring whenever she had the chance, and slapped her husband’s chest to reiterate her claim on him. After a few months, the novelty of their relationship — marriage faded. They fell into a routine of work, school, food, sex, and sleep. In bed, they would stare into each other’s glazed eyes and their tight-lipped smiles would cut their faces in half. Head. Nose. Chin.

Then one evening it occurred to her as she stood in front of the mirror pinching a pearl into her ear what it was she, they were missing. She wandered over to her husband who stood in the closet deciding between a navy blue or sky blue shirt. She tapped his shoulder and told him to stop getting ready.

She said, our weekly date night is going to be replaced with a weekly unprotected rendezvous. Her lips stretched up to her ears.

He reciprocated a lip stretching smile and placed his hands on her belly.

A baby they said in unison, beaming under the yellow closet light.
Orange is the New Brunch
Tags: Food, Chicago, Friendship, Reviews, Brunch

This past Sunday M and I ventured out to Lincoln Park to a place called Orange, the creator of #PancakeFlight and #Frushi (fruit sushi, who knew). No funny/tragic travel stories this time, as we arrived in Uber and the wait time turned out to be only 15 minutes long (#blessed, I know). True to its name, the restaurant is bright and sunny, and also at a much more reasonable decibel level than The Bongo Room. We manage to snag seats at a table in the elevated section, much to the disappointment of two folks in line behind us who had been eyeing that very table.

I order the Omelet #5, which has apple-chicken-chardonnay sausage, caramelized onions, and whole bunch of other deliciousness. This omelette is even better than the one at The Bongo Room; I think it’s because the chorizo last time was flavored a little too strongly for my liking. However, I do prefer the potatoes at The Bongo Room because these ones are formed in strange, patty-shaped lump (maybe it’s an Orange trademark, because then I see that same patty shape on at least three other people’s plates), and taste rather bland.

My Omelet #5, fresh and hot. Consumed within 15–20 minutes.

M orders the pancake flight and lets me sample a bite of each mini-pancake. Each concoction tastes like heaven to me, except she is not a fan of the brie-topped option. Nor the raspberry one, actually.

M’s Pancake Flight (flights change weekly).

Neither one of us order the Frushi, because it sounds like too strange of a concept, but the table next to us does. It’s very intricate and delicate, but to me, not as worthy as a full-fledged brunch.

While at brunch, a strange thought occurs to me — it’s as if I can see M and I, 20 years down the line, at this very restaurant, reminiscing and telling stories about our lives. M already knows she wants a family (me, I have no clue), so maybe 20 years in the future, we’ll be sitting at that very table, and I’ll be asking her, “M, how do you do it? How do you manage 3 kids AND a job and somehow stay sane?” and hopefully she’ll give me wise advice like the wise person that I already know her to be. M and I discuss my strange thoughts, and our conversation turns to predicting what our friends will be like. Who’s going to be the cool dad, who’s going to be the dad who tries to be cool, etc…it’s quite unnerving, thinking about how much our lives will change in a mere blink of an eye.

In lieu of finals this week, we have decided to forego our traditional (is it tradition by now? I’d like to think it is) Sunday brunch, which will start back up again next quarter. So, until then~!

Notes:

Scrumptiousness: 4.5

Efficiency: 5

Noise level: 5

Decor: 5

Overall*: 4.88
Our Best Nature
Tags: Music, Freeform, Audible Sundays, Photography, Poetry

The colors of new growth are waiting to be discovered… in the wild forests that surround our conflicted hearts. We simply need to nurture each other, along each new road… and allow our best nature to rise above the surface.
星期五談戀愛：The Fur.
Tags: Indie Pop, Neo City Pop, 音樂, 中文

除了歌詞引用了「I don’t care」橋段以外，更重回吉他流行樂，讓人聽了心情明亮，無比快樂。

Friday, friday I found my love

Right on time

I'm running away with you

Hold hands and jump into another space

Friday is never gonna be the same

Saturday is twisted into the swirl

But I don't care
Why I’m Advising Mom.Life: A Breath of Fresh Air for Social Networking (and Blockchain Adoption)
By: Josh Zemel
Tags: ICO, Crypto, Cryptocurrency, Blockchain, Decentralization

For all of the promise of blockchain and crypto, their path to widespread adoption has remained elusive. I hear a lot of talk about how we might better educate a mainstream audience about blockchain, about how the common consumer can come to understand its value. I think that line of inquiry largely misses the point.

What will drive widespread blockchain adoption is not the common consumer coming to understand it, but rather the launch of blockchain-based consumer applications that achieve widespread adoption without the need for users to ‘get’ blockchain at all, or ideally even be aware of it.

Mom.life is just such an application. It is an active social network with a highly engaged user base of 1.4 million moms and moms-to-be across the world who come to Mom.life to be themselves, rant, ask questions, seek advice, make new friends, and connect to other women who share their reality.¹ And Mom.life already has real revenue from major advertisers who are themselves seeing real ROI, enjoying a direct line of engagement with one of the most powerful yet elusive economic sectors on the planet.

The essential purpose of the upcoming Mom.life token economy is to channel that revenue directly to the users of the platform, mainly through mutually beneficial interactions between consumers and brands, such as engagement with content and the exchange of tokens (‘Blooms’) for products.

Huge numbers of moms will become instant users of Bloom tokens — and, by extension, the blockchain — at no cost to them. Meanwhile, the advertising revenue will function as the real-asset backing that gives the token economy value, right from day one.

Of course, this is not only good for the future of blockchain and crypto. It’s great for the moms. And this is what makes Mom.life a truly for-benefit enterprise: here we have a successful social network choosing to largely disintermediate itself and share its revenue directly with its users. That’s an inspiring story that ought to serve as a model for social networking moving forward.

For many moms, the Bloom rewards will be a welcome bonus that will help pay for essentials and further incentivize them to engage with the platform and refer friends. For others — those in more challenged financial straits, including many single moms — it will be a godsend, turning their value-creation on the platform into a vital income stream.

Mom.life thus has the makings of both operating within the highest moral ideals of the decentralization movement and succeeding at rapid adoption where plenty of other right-minded organizations have not.

I suggest keeping an eye on this promising blockchain project. One way to do so is by joining the Telegram. Another is to read this excellent article by Chelsea Rustrum, another Mom.life advisor, for more detail on what makes this such a promising and inspiring project. You can also find the whitepaper and a shorter ‘teaser’ at Momlife.io.
Crawling Across the Cool Morning
By: Gregory D. Welch
Tags: Creativity, Reflections, Poetry, Poem, Morning

The summer heat

is a spider

crawling across the cool morning

wrapping it in its silk

Slowly the spider prepares

to eat up the peaceful chill

wrapping the day

in Katydid calls of heat

The summer heat slowly builds

each layer of its 90-degree weather

as the insects give their warning

the morning is in its final stages

Summer heat and piles of humidity

crawl across the early morning chill

the morning is coming to an end

as the summer heat rises
See the Coronavirus for Yourself
By: Andre Ye
Tags: Python, Disease, Data Analysis, Data Visualization, Data

This plot is very telling of the impact of coronavirus on different age ranges — the distribution for deaths peaks at an older age, around 75 years of age, whereas the peak for those who recovered was at about 45 years of age, and the peak for those discharged from the hospital peaking at 30 years of age.

Note that because it is a distribution plot that must be continuous and smooth throughout, the distribution plots for discharged and recovered to begin in -20 years of age.

This means that a distribution plot, while helpful in that one can view the overall distribution, deceives the viewer, for example, by suggesting that there are people under 40 who died (which is not true in the dataset).

A boxplot, while not showing the distribution, and give us an idea of where the important checkpoints of a distribution (minimum, 1st & 3rd quartiles, median, maximum) are:

df1 = pd.DataFrame(data[data['outcome'].apply(clean)=='death']['age'].apply(apply_int)).assign(outcome='death')

df3 = pd.DataFrame(data[data['outcome'].apply(clean)=='discharge']['age'].apply(apply_int)).assign(outcome='discharge')

df2 = pd.DataFrame(data[data['outcome'].apply(clean)=='recovered']['age'].apply(apply_int)).assign(outcome='recovered')

cdf = pd.concat([df1, df2, df3])

plt.figure(figsize=(5,5))

sns.boxplot(x="outcome", y="age", data=cdf) # RUN PLOT

plt.show()

Note that diamonds represent statistical outliers. It’s clear that each outcome moves lower on the age range. Most people who die are 60 years of age or above.

Let’s find the average age for the three outcomes.

The code for the average age for deaths…

data[data['outcome'].apply(clean)=='death']['age'].apply(apply_int) .mean()

…returns 65.125 . The average age for recovery is 45 years of age, and the average age for discharge is 39 years of age.
The Word-Of-Mouth Marketing Campaign That Built a $9 Billion Company
Tags: Culture, Innovation, Technology, Strategy, Marketing

The Word-Of-Mouth Marketing Campaign That Built a $9 Billion Company

And at virtually zero cost

Fan-made art: Houston versus the world. Source unknown.

Let’s do a super-quick exercise: Go ahead and think of a big purchase you recently made.

It could be a phone, laptop, or anything that required a good amount of research and contemplation before your purchase.

How did you finally convince yourself to buy that product?

Was it because of a collection of positive online reviews? Or perhaps a favorable recommendation by a trusted friend or family member?

I know what sealed the deal for me to spend $600 on a Nintendo Switch was my friends continuously telling me that “it was the only gaming console I will ever need.” Eventually, I caved in.

I wasn’t even intending to buy it, considering I still had a functioning and more-than-satisfactory Playstation 4 at home, but therein lies the indisputable power of word-of-mouth.

As you probably know by now, word-of-mouth marketing can be an incredibly powerful and effective marketing strategy. It not only has the ability to pique the interest of but as the name suggests, but it also gets people talking and conversations moving.

In fact, around 60% of consumers research online for reviews and information before buying a product, and an astounding 90% trust brand recommendations from friends.

Yes, word-of-mouth marketing really does have that authoritative power over any consumer. The fact that it is one of the oldest forms of marketing (long before the digital era and even print ads) still used today doesn’t take away from how amazingly compelling it can truly be.

Word-of-mouth marketing: one of the most effective marketing methods today.

In fact, word-of-mouth marketing is so ridiculously powerful, it managed to get a company to be valued at a whopping $8.82 billion and attain hundreds of millions of daily active users with almost zero advertising cost.

Let’s take a look at the curious case of Dropbox, the popular file hosting service, and its rise to global success using mainly word-of-mouth marketing.
Benebit receives top score on TrackICO
Tags: Blockchain, Cryptocurrency, Benebit Ico

Benebit’s upcoming pre-sale scores perfect on TrackICO with a 5 out of 5.

Benebit is a global decentralized ecosystem that enables interaction without borders between brands, companies and consumers and is built on Blockchain technology. Benebit is a disruptive network for the cashback and loyalty market based on blockchain technology. The unbeatable social component of Benebit’s model is professionally designed to meet the highest standards of business/consumer interaction for securely storing and exchanging all kinds of user and brand data for the promotion of discounts, special deals, cashback and loyalty programs. Benebit simplifies and introduces a new way for businesses and consumers to interact, which drives traffic, increases loyalty and trust, and enhances convenience and security.

TrackICO provide reliable information on the top ICO projects for potential token buyers.

By measuring numerous factors, TrackICO gave Benebit 2 out of 2 💚’s for:

In-depth whitepaper Clear goals and milestones Accurate video and project descriptions Well-developed team

Read our ratings on TrackICO here. For more ratings, be sure to check out our post on ICObench.

Join the upcoming Benebit token sale on January 22, 2018.
Too Late to Pick Flowers
By: White Feather
Tags: Relationships, Romance, Love, Loss, Poetry

To pick flowers for her

He got up before the sun

He tried to imagine

That it was a lot of fun

He remembered when he did that

Almost every single day

So very long ago

When everything was play

He wondered why he stopped

Did it become a chore?

Was his love replaced

By a desire for something more?

He wondered what was missing

What fell through the cracks

He thought his love was solid

But it somehow left the tracks

With the flowers in the vase

And a smile on his face

Her morning face told him

She was not in his space

And he was not in hers

He was outside looking in

The separation was complete

He could not undo his sin
Celebrate International Day of Women and Girls in Science: Profile of Five Women in STEM
By: Iccdi Africa
Tags: Women In Science, Women in STEM, Women, Climate Change, Professional Development

WOMEN IN STEM

Science and gender equality are both vital for achieving a stable and prosperous world. We are joining the global community to celebrate women and girls in science and the impact they have on building a better future. We celebrate five women in STEM across Africa to learn more about their journeys in this field.

Francisca Nneka Okeke

Francisca Nneka Okeke is a Nigerian physicist. She is and Professor of Physics at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka and first female head of a department in the University. She was the First female Dean, Faculty of Physical Sciences, UNN, 2008–2010. Read More Here: http://bit.ly/2w7OCfb

Quarraisha Abdool Karim

Quarraisha Abdool Karim (born 28 March 1960) is a South African epidemiologist, known for her many contributions to AIDS research. She is the Associate Scientific Director of the AIDS research center, CAPRISA, a professor in Clinical Epidemiology at the Columbia University, and an honorary professor in Public Health at the University of KwaZulu-Natal. Read More Here: http://bit.ly/2SAMpR7

Segenet Kelemu

Segenet Kelemu (May 20, 1957) is an Ethiopian scientist, noted for her research as a molecular plant pathologist, and outstanding scientific leadership. For close to three decades, Kelemu and her team’s research has contributed to addressing agricultural constraints in Africa, Asia, Latin America and North America. Read More Here: http://bit.ly/2OMIwYl

Ozak-Obazi Oluwaseyi Esu

Ozak-Obazi Oluwaseyi Esu (born 23 April 1991) is a Nigerian electrical engineer who is the technical lead at the BRE Centre for Smart Homes and Buildings (CSHB)[2]. She previously worked at Cundall in Birmingham, designing the electrical services for buildings. Read More Here: http://bit.ly/3borYiO

Margaret Mungherera

Margaret Mungherera (25 October 1957–4 February 2017) was a senior consultant psychiatrist and medical administrator in Uganda. She served as the president of the Ugandan Medical Association re-elected five times and ultimately the World Medical Association from October 2013 until October 2014. Read More Here: http://bit.ly/38ijlV2