fabiochiu/medium-articles huggingface dataset:
The long and the short of it
By: Rj Verity
Tags: Words On Writing, Writer, Writing, Rj Verity, Writing Tips

This week I decided to take a shortcut. Or rather, I decided to stop working on my first novel — temporarily — and enter a short story contest. I was itching to actually finish something. Working on a short story from beginning to end was the perfect opportunity to test what I think I have learnt about writing fiction.

It started as a simple idea, and I didn’t really know where it was going until reaching the end

Thanks to Joe Bunting’s 7 Steps to Write a Short Story, I wrote the basic story in a couple of hours: I was so happy to reach the end. Now Novel’s 10 steps to a great read helped me crystallise my intriguing scenario and determine who (or what) I was writing for. The benefit of writing the story with no preparation was that it just poured out of me. It started as a simple idea, and I didn’t really know where it was going until reaching the end. I wrote it from the heart and was surprised how emotional I felt.

But — typical me — as always I was concerned about the structure. I was curious to understand how it should differ from that of a novel. Philip Brewer’s article on short story structures was a guiding light. I particularly liked his reference to Joseph Campbell’s Hero’s Journey, and how not all of these steps need to be explicit — it can simply be enough to imply them:

The hero is confronted with a challenge, rejects it, but then is forced (or allowed) to accept it. He travels on the road of trials. gathering powers and allies, and confronts evil — only to be defeated. This leads to a dark night of the soul after which the hero makes a leap of faith that allows him to confront evil again and be victorious. Finally, the student becomes the teacher.

The odd thing is — my short story is nothing like a hero’s journey. It is about family life and how the dynamics change as people come and go. But I applied the hero’s journey structure, and it worked beautifully.

It was important to get the dialogue right

Because my story is about family dynamics, it was important to get the dialogue right. The 9 Rules for Writing Dialogue by Novel Writing Help encouraged me to give each of my characters an agenda and speak using their own language.

Thanks also to Marcy Kennedy for her advice on writing good inner dialogue — making sure you:

only use inner dialogue for the point of view character, and

only share thoughts that advance the plot.

The short story was written, edited and cut several times — with thanks to hubby for reading several versions, and to ProWriting Aid for a final sense-check on editing.

At the end of the writing process, I was both elated and exhausted.

Maybe in a year, or in ten years time I will read my first short story again and scoff at its flaws and immaturity. But right now I’m feeling rather chuffed.

First short story: ✔

First novel: work in progress.

Originally published at www.rjverity.com on September 8, 2017.
Java: String Equality
By: Akash Panchal
Tags: Programming Tips, Programming, Coding Interviews, Java Fundamentals, Java

Good to Know

A pool of strings, initially empty, is maintained privately by the class String.

When the intern method is invoked, if the pool already contains a string equal to this String object as determined by the equals(Object) method, then the string from the pool is returned.

Otherwise, this String object is added to the pool and a reference to this String object is returned.
NAC Pool User Guide
By: Thi Nguyễn Bảo
Tags: Bitcoin

Raffles Place, Singapore — Nami’s phenomenal growth since the end of 2017 is proven in our products to deliver the best performance and increase profits for investors. In addition to Nami Assistant, nami.trade, nami.exchange, nami.today, Nami Ecosystem has just added 3 new products: nami.mining, nami.fci20, nami.options, dedicated to investors who are holding NAC in NAC Pool. Details about 3 new products available here.

Wanna join Nami ecosystem but have no idea how to register? Well, let’s go through the article and follow 6 simple steps below!

Click on each image to see details

—

About Nami Corporation

Nami Corp. is a global FinTech Corporation working on Investment and Technology based on Blockchain. It’s not just a single platform, we have created the whole Ecosystem to help Contributors and Traders around the world to utilize their experience and their money with the slogan “no spread, no swap, no commission”.

Inside our Ecosystem:

Nami Assistant — Virtual Assistant for Traders

nami.trade — Investment and Trading Platform with Blockchain Technology Integration

nami.exchange — Crypto-Fiat Exchange Community

nami.today — Cryptocurrency Media Channel

nami.options (Coming soon)

nami.labs (Coming soon)

nami.mining (Coming soon)

nami.tv (Coming soon)

__

Press Contact:

Email: Press@nami.io
A Simple Framework for Accessibility Success (part three)
By: Todd Chambers
Tags: Accessibility Design, Inclusive Design, UX Design, WCAG, Product Design

Action

Now that the team is aware of what building an accessible product means and have fully adopted the mission, it’s time to begin putting an action plan together.

Be warned, moving from thinking and discussing to doing, can be daunting. If your team is going to be successful they are going to need a bias toward action. A mindset that anticipates progress and recognizes that movement trumps inaction every day of the week.

As in the previous sections, we’ll rely on questions to frame our discussion. The difference here is that we’ll need to fight the urge to remain in a state of discovery. Once the following questions are answered, action must follow.

Question One: How can we ingrain accessibility thinking and testing into the earliest stages of a project?

If you have a software development background you might be familiar with the term shift-left. It’s the idea that testing should begin as early in the development lifecycle as possible. It’s the first part of the maxim “Test early and often” coined by Larry Smith.

And while the above advice was given nearly two decades ago, it’s routinely ignored by product design teams. Often sacrificed for speed to market.

Testing is hard. It requires planning and coordination. And, if testing reveals critical issues, it may mean a halt to progress to explore alternative strategies or tactics.

Regardless, successful product teams acknowledge this risk and embrace the process. Small problems found quickly are fixed cheaply and even big problems are more efficiently remediated the earlier they are addressed.

Photo by Amy Hirschi on Unsplash

Some ways you can leverage the power of early testing:

Include disabled participants in initial research interviews and invite them to be a part of design sprints and discovery sessions Include assistive technology in usability reviews Add an accessibility feedback mechanism on the current website or app to get live input from real users, especially If you’re building a new version of an existing product. Equip the development team with browser-based tools to check their code as it’s being written Incorporate automated and manual WCAG compliance testing (including assistive technology testing) into QA and UAT processes

Question Two: How can we capture and document accessibility opportunities so that acting on them is both easy and repeatable?

Find and map all the process points that can benefit from accessibility improvements. Remember, this is not just an exercise in writing compliant code but rather in designing better experiences. The more opportunities your team can find to engage an inclusive mindset, add rigor, and document the output, the better your product will be for your customers.
Zen 230
By: Susan Brearley
Tags: Inspiration, Travel, Ideas, Photography, Poetry

Susan Brearley is a brilliant strategist and entrepreneur, a published book author, writer, seasoned editor, essayist, occasional comedy writer, and an accidental poet. She’s the happy owner of between 1 and 20 top writer badges on Medium, on any given day.

She is Chef, Elder and Program Director at Elf Works Lane Retreat Center, where she coaches and mentors people, helping them identify and create the life they were born to live, on the planet we all want to live on.

She is currently based in the mid-Hudson Valley, New York.

Stay in touch. Become a part of her Mighty Network. We bring together amazing womxn who inspire each other, so we can all lead the way into living the lives we were born for.
Become a Better (Healthier) Developer
By: Fernando Mendoza
Tags: Health, Programming, Software Development, Learning, Improvement

Know when to pause

Focus has become a truly valuable resource in today’s world, where it’s not easy to make up for the time we waste doing “non-productive” activities. Not only does it help us achieve progress, but it also makes the process to this objective a lot smoother and easier.

Photo by Max Saeling on Unsplash

We all know this moment where we just can’t get to do something and feel like going to sleep at 5pm. In this scenario, being able to take a break seems like a dream come true.

On the other hand, I’m sure you’ve also experienced the opposite: you are fully focused on what you’re doing, being productive and getting stuff done. Just thinking about stopping feels like a betrayal to ourselves, since we believe that we must make sure to make the best out of this rare moment of focus.

Furthermore, we love getting breaks and being able to do enjoyable things, yet when someone on our team takes one, the world is falling apart for everyone else. We tend to see relaxation as a coin with two sides; either something extremely lazy, or something extremely lucky, but I believe that we should see breaks as something that helps us be productive.

Some time ago, I remember reading about “productive procrastination”. I know, it sounds like it doesn’t make any kind of sense (isn’t each the complete opposite of the other?). But if you think about procrastinating in the sense of doing some other activity which is not work related, but is still something productive, it stops being procrastination and instead it becomes an activity which provides value to your day while giving a reset to your mind.

This activity can be anything you want as long as it gives you some sort of value. Some examples of this can be:

Going for a walk.

Talking to colleagues or friends.

Reading or listening to podcasts.

Learning something new or practicing a skill.

As much as we like to be productive and focused on our tasks, we must realise that rest from now and then is as important as completing the tasks themselves. If you were to “be productive” for 10 continuous hours a day, in the best scenario you’d likely find yourself burned out and out of ideas. When it comes to programming, you definitely don’t wan’t this to happen.
Developer to Team Leader: What you’re Not Told
By: Eder Barro
Tags: Promotion, Leadership, Teamwork, Team, Developer

As many engineers have experienced before, I faced a dilemma. It was whether to continue being focused on the pursuit of technical excellency or to give a try to the managerial side of the industry. I wondered if it was possible for me to have a bit of both sides at the same time, so I decided I would like to take on the challenges of becoming a team leader.

The team leader role is defined in a different way, depending on the workplace. Here at Docplanner, being a team leader means that part of my time is still reserved for coding, while the other one is devoted to helping the team in staying motivated, being efficient, and in the best possible condition for achieving the goals the team has, as well as, each one’s professional goals.

I read quite a lot about what to do when you want to become a team leader and about the set of skills required to be a good one. But when the time came for me to step up into my new role, a few surprises were waiting just around the corner.
Tips for Working at Home Now That You Don’t Have a Choice
By: Sidney Switzer
Tags: Work, Remote Working, Productivity, Covid 19, Self Improvement

Without a game-plan, remote work can be miserable.

While many of us were already used to working from home, COVID-19 has drastically increased the amount of home workers.

First and foremost, working from home is a privilege.

Anytime you start feeling stir-crazy, remember that the alternative is being at a job that is exposed to the public daily. There are many employees who don’t have the option to work from home. Practice being grateful that you are in the position where you can.

That being said, working from home (especially when you aren’t used to it) can be difficult. Add kids, a spouse, and a dog, it can be downright impossible.

By implementing just a few of these strategies you can help mitigate some of the pain from this swift transition.

1. Don’t work more than you normally would.

Photo by Victoria Heath on Unsplash

You may be inclined to view all that commute time as extra time you could work. Or you might have trouble separating your work time from your home time.

If you work more than you normally would, you will be miserable.

Do good work. Work just as much as you would have, but don’t turn your 40 hour week into a 50 hour week just because you are in the comfort of your own home.

2. Dedicate time for work.

Photo by insung yoon on Unsplash

By setting a specific amount of time for when you will work, it will be easier to follow a routine. If you work a 9 to 5, continue to work that 9 to 5. If you have flexible hours, try to make those hours at the same time every day.

Any normalcy you can maintain in this time will help you be more productive.

3. Dedicate space for work.

Photo by Ryeon Goo on Unsplash

As anyone will tell you, you need your own space for working.

Your brain already thinks that couch=Netflix. It also thinks kitchen=food. And bed=sleep.

By dedicating a specific area for work, this will ensure you can actually work. This will also signal to others in your house when you are “at work” and when you are “at home”.

5. Find a morning routine to get you in the work mood.

Photo by Christiana Rivers on Unsplash

Without realizing it, you likely had a morning routine everyday before work. Getting dressed, commuting, your office coffee. Every step of this morning routine helped you get into the mindset for work. You need the same thing at home.

Don’t stay in your PJs. Get dressed. Fix your hair. Make your coffee and breakfast.

Whatever floats your boat. Just don’t roll straight out of bed to your desk.

6. Communicate your needs to any housemates you have.

Photo by Jakub Kriz on Unsplash

While adult housemates may be easier to communicate with than children, an important discussion needs to be had with everyone you live with.

Do you need people to be quiet during conference calls? Do your children understand that you are home, but that doesn’t mean that you are free like you usually are when you’re at home?

Upfront conversations about expectations and logistics around you being home will save many disputes from happening.

Good luck! And stay healthy!
Communicating the WHY
By: Gospel Powered
Tags: Events, Church, Communication

I work in a communications role at my church. It’s kind of hard to pin down what I do exactly…I wear a lot of hats. But basically, I’m responsible for making sure the gospel message our pastors are preaching reaches its audience, using a variety of mediums to get there.

This “communications role” has evolved over time, but in the space of one night, the way I went about doing my job was completely revolutionised, and it started with this TED Talk (watch it below).

In this talk, the speaker presents his “Golden Circle” model of getting a message across. It’s a great talk, and with 24 million hits, there are clearly others who think so too, but it’s actually not a new idea.

The idea is this: start with the “why”.

A big part of my job had always been communicating to the church about our upcoming events, whether that be through email newsletters, making brochures, or promotional videos. My advertisements would go something like this:

[TITLE OF EVENT]

Come along to [EVENT] on the [DATE] at [LOCATION].

For [AUDIENCE/DEMOGRAPHIC]

[COST]

[ANY EXTRA INFO HERE]

And I thought people would just come along! I mean, it was going to be a great event! They’d love it! And they should want to come too, if they truly want to grow and mature as Christians! Plus, I’d clearly demonstrated the legitimacy and value of the event with all the effort I put into design, typography, color palette and layout.

But this talk was the start of me realising that, for the most part, people will only come along to something if they are persuaded, and are captured by the why of an event.

You will always get your hard-core faithful, who will turn up to any event, most likely early, and will always be the last to leave. But for your average Christian, still maturing on their journey, they probably need to be convinced.

Why is this event happening? What is its purpose? Why is it worth my time? Why could I not just attend a similar alternative? What’s so special about this? Why should I sacrifice my time to attend? These are the kinds of questions our audience need answered before they can get excited about attending an event.

I could sit here and explain the psychology behind it all, giving examples of successful companies who have been doing this for years, but you’re better off listening for yourself. Take 20 minutes to watch this video, and hopefully you’ll see why this is the way I now advertise all our events.

[STATEMENT ABOUT THE CURRENT PROBLEM OR SITUATION]

[SUGGEST AN ALTERNATIVE OR SOLUTION]

That’s why we’re hosting [TITLE OF EVENT]

It’s on [DATE] at [LOCATION]

[SPIEL ABOUT WHAT WILL TAKE PLACE, AND HOW THE PARTICIPANT WILL FEEL OR BENEFIT]

For [AUDIENCE OR DEMOGRAPHIC]

[EXTRA INFO HERE]

[CLOSING PHRASE INCLUDING A CHALLENGE OR CALL-TO-ACTION]
About Me — Angela Randall. Aussie Francophile in the UK with half…
By: Angela Randall
Tags: Freelancing, Introduction, Writing, Writer, About Me

Image via Author @ AngelaSmange on Instagram

Table of Contents

· Quick Bio

· Work With Me

· Medium Stories to Read

· What I’m Up to Now

· Stay in Touch

Hi, I’m Ange.

Quick Bio

I’m an Aussie in the UK, who had a long stay in France for 8 years and I’m still looking forward to a lot more travel.

Somewhere between the vegemite, the croissants, and a whole lot of cheese, I started freelance writing for a living while I had kids. Despite moving into marketing, running my own businesses, and freelance business consulting, I’m still doing writing on the side.

My educational background is originally in event management, then internet studies and journalism, and most recently including marketing, human resources and an MBA that’s not quite finished yet.

I write mainly about business, with a focus on marketing, culture management, organisational development, decision-making and business analysis.

Work With Me

I write, and I do freelance marketing and business consulting. If you want to work with me, get in touch. More details here: AngelaRandall.net.

Medium Stories to Read

Here are some of my most-read Medium articles.

What I’m Up to Now

These /now pages will keep you up-to-date on what I’m doing with myself professionally and personally — and they come with playlists!

Stay in Touch

I’m @ AngelaSmange on Instagram, or there’s LinkedIn or Twitter.

Also see AngelaRandall.net and Smange.com.

So, come say hi!
CEO Susan Akbarpour Joins The 36th Annual Monetary and Trade Conference: Cryptocurrencies in the Global Economy
By: Janine Just
Tags: Global Economy, Fintech, Bitcoin, Cryptocurrencies, Blockchain

On April 19th, Mavatar CEO and co-founder Susan Akbarpour joins fellow crypto experts at the 36th Annual Monetary and Trade Conference: Cryptocurrencies in the Global Economy.

At this conference, traditional financial groups and those on the cusp of crypto join forces to learn how advancing technologies fit into the global market. While crypto offers transparency and speed for payment and funds, there are many questions around regulation, fraud and how crypto affects private and public information.

Susan speaks at Session 1: Bitcoins and Other Cryptocurrencies, which will include the following topics:

An update on Trends and Developments. Recent price volatility, the Korean Cryptocurrency, the new futures contract

Payments and Clearing Systems. Platforms and new developments

The economics. Currency vs. commodity, Utility tokens, myth or reality, Supply and Demand, cost of mining, cryptocurrency utility

As discussed at Fintech, the key to a viable token is does it fill a void in the market? Is the token doing something that makes it easier and more seamless way to solve bottlenecks, remove middlemen and adapt to the market? The void mCart Token fills is facilitating micro payments to expand the reach of user generated advertising as millions share and recommend products on social platforms already. Monetization this influence has creates an explosive sales force instead of outdated advertising models that GDPR will ban soon anyway.
The Problem With Missing Moon Rocks
By: Daniel Ganninger
Tags: Facts, Nature, Space, Articles, History

Another edition of the Knowledge Stew Roundup is here, your collection of stories that have been added to the Stew. Before we get to the stories, here’s a look what has happened to many of the rocks that came back from the moon.

After the Apollo astronauts returned from their missions to the moon, they brought back moon rocks from their journey. During the Nixon Administration, 270 moon rocks were gifted to foreign countries and 100 were given to each of the 50 states. Out of the 370 rocks given out, 184 of them are either lost, were stolen, or are unaccounted. 160 of these rocks have disappeared in other areas of the world, and 24 have been lost in the United States.

While efforts have been made to locate the rocks, it has been difficult to reacquire them. One rock that ended up in Honduras was believed to have once belonged to Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceausescu. Another rock was lost that belonged to Ireland. It inadvertently ended up in a landfill there. The Irish observatory where it was being housed in Dublin had burned to the ground. So far, 77 of the rocks that went missing have been tracked down.

Stories Dropped in the Stew

Hallucinogenic Honey From a Really Big Bee

The largest bee in the world makes some really dangerous honey.

Why is it Called the District of Columbia?

Why is the United States capital in the District of Columbia, and how did the district get its name?

The Longest Train in the World

BHP Iron Ore set the longest train record between the Yandi mine and Port Hedland in Western Australia in 2011.

The World’s Oldest Living Vertebrate

The elusive Greenland Shark is the world’s longest-living vertebrate.

Little Known Things About Albert Einstein

Did you know these facts about Albert Einstein?

What Exactly is INTERPOL?

INTERPOL is quite different than how it’s portrayed on TV and in movies.

VEGEMITE, The Uniquely Australian Treat

How did this interesting spread become so popular in only Australia?

Fast Facts:

The Vatican is the only country in the world that has ATMs where the transactions can be completed in Latin.

A private pilot named Justin Kirkbride, survived after his plane crashed in the mountains of Colorado. He walked six hours to get assistance and then got on a search and rescue Air Force helicopter that also crashed during the search. Both crashes happened within the span of 24 hours.

In the early days of American football in the late 1800s and early 1900s, the game was very dangerous and sometimes fatal. In 1905, there were 19 fatalities nationwide. President Theodore Roosevelt threatened to shut down the game if changes weren’t made, possibly in response to his son being injured in a college game. Rule changes followed in 1906. The number of scrimmage plays were reduced from four to three to earn a first down, and what is thought as the most important change, the forward pass was made legal.

Visit Knowledge Stew for even more great stories, or check out the ongoing The Wonderful World of Completely Random Facts series.
Can Killer Robots Help Save the Great Barrier Reef?
By: Ashley Braun
Tags: Environment, Great Barrier Reef, Robotics, The New New, Technology

Can Killer Robots Help Save the Great Barrier Reef?

Researchers in Australia are using autonomous technology to combat a notoriously hard-to-kill pest

I spot one on a clear September morning, while swimming through the lukewarm waters around the Great Barrier Reef. A striking starfish, the color of cabernet and sporting more than a dozen arms, hugs the side of a gently curving ridge of coral. It looks lovely and dangerous, and not just because I know the long spines covering it are lacquered with venom.

This creature, located a two-hour boat ride from Townsville, off Australia’s northeast coast, is known as the crown-of-thorns starfish. While it’s the first one I have ever seen, it’s far from alone. Since 2010, a plague of them, numbering somewhere in the millions, has been methodically consuming the Great Barrier Reef, representing yet another in a series of existential threats to a coral reef system already wounded by intense hurricanes and weakened by bouts of exceptionally warm waters.

Nor is this the first outbreak. Since 1962, their populations have skyrocketed to “outbreak” status on the reef roughly every 17 years, starting north of Cairns and spreading south in waves, the free-floating larvae carried along by currents. After settling on a reef, they transform into tiny stars, impossible to spot. They don’t start eating coral until reaching at least six months, while still smaller than a dime.

Photo by author.

But from there, they begin to grow and eat in earnest, soon resembling their biblical namesake. The starfish become an army that marches on stomachs extruded from their mouths, digesting the thin layer of living coral beneath them, favoring the quicker-growing corals, the hardest hit by bleaching brought on by rising sea temperatures.

All of which is a way of saying: Clearly, this creature before me needs to die. But the two scuba divers whose task it is to kill crown-of-thorns along this reef are nowhere in sight. Before long, the prickly, peckish villain has disappeared. This is where the killer robots come in.
Miracle of hope
Tags: Passing Pantoum, Pantoum, Poetry, Hope, Life

Pantoum after Rachel B. Baxter

Photograph taken by me

A soul lost in doubt-

A miracle they say,

Chasing the darkness out,

Quickly swept me away

A miracle they say,

When ‘can’t be’ turned to ‘done’

Quickly swept me away

My despair now undone

When ‘can’t be’ turned to ‘done’

A chapter new began

My despair now undone,

I was now hope’s new twin

A chapter anew begins

Chasing darkness out,

I am now hope’s new twin

To souls lost in doubt!
Advice From The Scary Dog!
By: David Montgomery
Tags: Humour, Photography, Dogs, Covid 19, Satire

Advice From The Scary Dog!

Mask It Up

If you must wear a mask — and, I hasten to say, you really must if you give two shits about yourself or your family, friends and neighbours—here are a few very practical suggestions about what not to do from the point of view of an actual mask. THE MASK OF THE SCARY DOG.

First, don’t eat your mask. Ever. Bad dog! It might smell as tempting as the dead things real dogs like to roll in, but it will taste like cotton covered with bad breath and all sorts of nasty bacteria and viruses. Also, if you do put it in your mouth, wash it after. The mask I mean. Also your mouth.

Second, don’t forget to cover your nose.

Huh???

You may think it looks sporty and that it’s easier to breathe that way, but it’s dangerous and everyone will know you’re a narcissistic douche.

Third, when you’ve got a big snout, don’t forget to cover your mouth:

Ooops. (Hey—distraction—did you notice one ear flops down just like my friend Molesley?)

Fourth, it goes without saying, but don’t cover your eyes and pretend this pandemic isn’t happening.

Though I look like a real presidential-style douche, I have to admit this was super fun!

Finally, don’t play with your mask. Not even for treats. Who’s a good dog???

This was even more fun, but Bad Dog. NO!

Oh, the hilarity of it all. By the way, this is the correct way to wear a mask (when you’re already wearing a mask).
How to Not Work on Fridays
By: Choire Sicha
Tags: Handy Advice, Summer, New York City

If you are working on Fridays in summer, you are a tool. That is the truth. But if you ARE working on Fridays in summer, and wondering how to change your life, well, we have the answer for you. Perhaps you spotted Flint Beamon, extolling the virtues of “not really working on Fridays” in the Styles section troll-a-thon today. It went like this: “Scanning the [Thompson Hotel] scene closely was Flint Beamon, 36, a director of events and lifestyle brands for a public relations company [N.B.: That firm is called PR Consulting] that gives its employees Fridays off in summer. He was there to network. ‘People here are usually in the upper echelons in their industries,’ said Mr. Beamon, who is a regular. ‘I’ve struck business deals by the pool.’” So the real money, if we can tell you the secret, is Facebook spam-scam survey pyramid schemes. THE MORE YOU KNOW.

But seriously, young people. You know how you don’t work on Fridays? JUST LEAVE. Close your laptop. Tell your boss you have “a thing.” Unless you’re paid by the hour, nobody should work on Fridays in summer, it’s NOT AMERICAN. Stop cracking the whip on yourself for your boss, you’re being a fool. JUST GO WALKABOUT. You’re only young once, and winter is coming.
I just introduced the Justice in Policing Act with my friend Cory Booker
By: Kamala Harris
Tags: BlackLivesMatter, George Floyd, Police, Kamala Harris

I just announced a bill with my friend Cory Booker and the Congressional Black Caucus to hold police accountable for misconduct.

It’s called the Justice in Policing Act and it’s a step we can take on the federal level to hold police accountable as part of a broader solution.

We must also re-imagine public safety at the state and local level. For cities that often spending more than one third of their budget on policing, we must take a hard look at whether some of those resources should be reallocated towards jobs, education, and health care.

My Justice in Policing Act will:

Set a national standard for use of force Expand the ability to conduct “pattern and practice” investigations into police departments with a history of excessive force Expand independent investigations into police misconduct Establish a national police misconduct registry and require states to report use of force incidents Ban “no knock” warrants in drug cases

We must fight for police accountability and we can take a step towards that by passing the Justice in Policing Act at the federal level, but I need your help to get it done:

Add your name today to become one of the first Citizen Co-Sponsors for my Justice in Policing Act. Together we can fight for police accountability and re-imagine what public safety looks like.

This is the first-ever comprehensive police accountability and reform legislation on the federal level to address police misconduct.

I’m proud to have worked on it with Cory Booker and the Congressional Black Caucus. This bill would take an important step towards achieving justice for Ahmaud, Breonna, George, and for those who came before and never got their justice.

Thank you for supporting this important piece of legislation,

Kamala
Phenomenal insanity
By: Rob Estreitinho
Tags: Poetry, Love, Fiction

It was his 35th anniversary and he had just woken up. Not a care in the world, and all eyes on him. He felt special. Almost too special, but never quite. It was just right. He looked around. Four walls. No screens. No windows. One door. One camera. A crew behind it. A jacket that someone had forced him into. No mask. Not a physical one anyway. Just another day in the madhouse.

They had locked him away three years prior. The charge: phenomenal insanity. “Allegedly”. His punishment: enough years with other equally insane — but not quite as phenomenal — people, just until he could regain a sense of shame over his actions. To think that one could give oneself permission to think out loud, refuse to share a photo on social media or tie other people’s shoes just because they got featured on some sneakerhead blog the year before.

The madhouse made him think of home. Except you couldn’t use Facebook there. When you think about it, who would anyway? It’s well known that selfies become much harder when your arms are wrapped around your torso. Plus, his smartphone didn’t support the latest OS, which rendered the whole exercise useless. That now made sense in his head, and in a weird way his mind got numbed by the idea of belonging to a frame of mind that other people finally deemed acceptable. The treatment was working.
How to enable mixed (Light & Dark) theme on Windows 10?
By: Prabidhi Info
Tags: Dark Mode, Tips, Tips And Tricks, Windows 10, How To

Being the developer of one of the widely used OS, Microsoft has added pretty much everything on Windows 10. Windows 10 is a complete package of numerous features. This operating system has such note-worthy features that you don’t have to install other third-party apps. Gaming Mode, Blue Light Filter, Clipboard History, etc. are widely discussed aspects of Windows 10. And now it’s for the Dark theme. Dark theme/Night Mode is the current trend for most of the application (both desktop and mobile-based). There are numerous apps that have already introduced the dark theme on their platform.

Following this with the release of Windows 10 (build v1903), Windows has optimized its theme setting. Previously you could use either Light theme or Dark theme but now you can use the combined light and dark theme.

If you want to learn more about the Dark theme on Android devices, please read, “ 33 Android Apps with Dark Mode Support and How to enable it “.

How to enable/combine mixed (Light and Dark theme) on Windows 10?

To use the mixed theme on Windows 10, you must have an updated version of Windows 10 May 2019. Follow the instruction given below to enable mixed theme:

Click on Windows (flag icon) and type ‘Settings’. Select ‘Personalization’.

On the left-hand side menu, press on ‘Colors’.

You can follow a shorter route.

For Windows mode, I have selected Light theme and for App Mode Dark theme.

Experiment with different options and select the best one. Customize the best display settings for you.
Mouse, and How Tech Fulfills its Promise
By: Anil Dash
Tags: Mouse, Education

Mouse, and How Tech Fulfills its Promise

The whole world is reckoning with worries about where technology is taking us. Mouse helps us find a path forward that helps everyone, by including everyone.

You almost certainly can remember when you first got excited about technology, or about the internet. You discovered that somebody else shared the same eccentric interest as you, or you felt empowered by the idea that you could instantly create things and share them with anyone.

But somewhere along the way, amidst all the great things technology brought us, we started to get a lot more worried about the effect that these apps and devices have on our lives. We started to wonder how trillion-dollar companies would ever consider our needs. And we noticed that, well, a lot of the people creating these technologies hardly come from the same world that the rest of us live in.

As it turns out, these problems are related. And they can be fixed. Mouse shows us how. That’s why we need to stand behind Mouse’s work.

To get just a feel for the challenges we’re facing, swipe through the headlines shared in the app below, and see if you can guess which ones are real challenges that tech faces today, and which ones merely seem plausible.
Biography Terrible
By: Choire Sicha
Tags: Things Not To Read, Hitler, Biographies

“Wilson purveys many hoary myths long since discredited by historical research…. Repeatedly, he introduces material that is marginal or irrelevant…. Some of his judgements are simply bizarre…. Wilson concludes with a series of reflections that are breathtaking in their banality.”

— A.N. Wilson’s Hitler: A Short Biography, reviewed by Richard J. Evans.

(via, via)
‘The Playbook’ is About The Religion of Sport
By: Akos Peterbencze
Tags: Television, Mindset, Sports, Netflix, TV Series

Sport is drama in itself.

Netflix’s new documentary series The Playbook: A Coach’s Rules for Life captures the power and impact of any sport through the lens of five legendary coaches. We get to see Doc Rivers talk about the ancient African philosophy Ubuntu that he employed in the Boston Celtics, or how José Mourinho connected and brought victory to the biggest European soccer clubs. We witness Patrick Mouratoglou becoming Serena Williams’ mentor, Jill Ellis coming-out and find happiness as the head of the United States women’s national soccer team, and the Philly-born Dawn Staley earning her spot amongst basketball’s Hall-of-Famers.

Apart from men’s tennis, I don’t follow sport anymore, but I never stopped loving sports films and documentaries. The montages, motivational speeches, hardships, failures, hard work, team spirit, and big wins, I love all. Sport is drama in itself. When you watch portrayals of famous athletes told by great storytellers, that’s when the magic happens.

The narrative approach becomes superior, and those inspiring careers recreate the mixture of adrenaline, pressure, and excitement. Of course, by the nature of the genre, these retellings are a bit superficial and manipulative at times, but if they are told well, they can carry through life-changing mentalities and values.

A few months ago, Michael Jordan’s The Last Dance became a household event for a reason. It was the most epic retelling of the last winning run of the Chicago Bulls in the 90s. The creator Jason Hehir showed that journey in the most compelling way, by giving the spotlight to key players to reflect on their past.

The Playbook attempts to pull something similar from a coaching standpoint but in a less monumental and sensational way.

The episode about José Mourinho portrays the essence of European football without missing any crucial element of the game. Mourinho treats soccer as a religion. He says there is no country on earth that isn’t in love with it for some degree. It’s more than a sport; it’s family, camaraderie, failure and success, but most importantly: it’s life. His mindset and dedication towards the sport are captured without clichés and redundancies. I watched it twice because I loved every minute of it, but also because it reignited the flame inside me that I used to feel when I played.

All the above could be said about any other episode in the series with different words. Every coach has a different approach and mentality, but regardless, sport unites people everywhere in the world. Its pure power is unrepeatable.

I could announce The Playbook as the best docuseries of the year if it wasn’t for The Last Dance. Watching these exceptional talents talk about their losses and victories helps me to find the fragments of that feeling I lost many years ago.

So, trust me when I say that The Playbook is a must-watch for everyone who ever loved sports and insightful storytelling.
Дайджест #6 сообщества Self-Unboxing
Tags: Food, Meditation, Books, Self-awareness, Еда

This school replaced detention with meditation. The results are stunning.

Some schools are replacing detention with meditation, and science is backing them up.
手機的虛擬搖桿真的很難用嗎？ Part.03
Tags: 遊戲互動, 遊戲手把, Game Controllers, 遊戲設計, Game Design

Where did the Quick Time Event go wrong?

The ubiquitous Quick Time Event, something that defies nature but somehow manages to capture our hearts for better or…
Author Accelerator Member Spotlight: Lainey Cameron
By: Terri M. Leblanc
Tags: Books, Success Story, Publishing, Authors, Writers On Writing

Q: Congratulations, Lainey, on the publication The Exit Strategy. You have been working with Author Accelerator on this project for about a year. What moment are you most looking forward to in the publication process?

Lainey: Readers giving me feedback that the book is meaningful to them. I’m already receiving some emails about how women relate to the elements of sexism in this novel.

That gives me such joy, knowing that something I wrote made a connection.
MUZIKA ARTISTS in REAL WORLD
Tags: Music, Kpop, Crypto, Musicians, Blockchain

JayM is one of many contracted music artists with talents and quality skills in music under MAPIA’s exclusive artists management, with the cultivation and further assistance of MAPIACOMPANY, he has reached a new horizon of his life and a new exciting journey of music in South Korea. JayM is one of many living proofs that MUZIKA is able to fulfill its vision and mission for making the music industry a better place for young and talented music artists to self-support themselves financially while realizing a dream of their passion and enthusiasm by following their hearts to do what they love and best at.
Learn how to master groupby function in Python now
By: Wy Fok
Tags: Programming, Python, Data Science, Pandas, Beginner

Learn how to master groupby function in Python now

GroupBy in Pandas is way more sophisticated and powerful than groupby in SQL.

Photo by Maxwell Nelson on Unsplash

One popular feature in the Pandas package is groupby function. I believe that almost everyone using Pandas before must use groupby function also. It is so popular because it provides summarized but detailed results efficiently. As described by the doc of Pandas package,

By “group by” we are referring to a process involving one or more of the following steps: Splitting the data into groups based on some criteria. Applying a function to each group independently. Combining the results into a data structure. [1]

There is also a groupby function in SQL. Therefore for someone experienced in SQL, learning groupby function in Python is not a difficult thing. But the thing is groupby in Pandas can perform way more analysis than in SQL and this makes groupby in Pandas a common but essential function.

The reason that groupby in Pandas is more powerful is because of the second step “Applying”. In SQL, most actions in “Applying” steps are statistically related, like min, max, count, etc. However, in Pandas, “Applying” can perform much more.

From the doc of Pandas,

In the apply step, we might wish to one of the following: Aggregation: compute a summary statistic (or statistics) for each group. Transformation: perform some group-specific computations and return a like-indexed object. Filtration: discard some groups, according to a group-wise computation that evaluates True or False. [1]

In this article, I will cover some groupby applications. These applications do not only show me the insights from the data but also help me identify my next move on analyzing the data.

Let’s begin.

The data used in this article is “student-por.csv” in “Student Alcohol Consumption” from Kaggle. You can download the data from this link.
A Walk
By: Tito Varghese
Tags: India, Love, Memories, Poetry, Bangalore

Lets just take a walk, you and me

A stroll around that park, of all others free

You can hold my hand like that just above the elbow

Lean on my shoulder and match step for step

Lets talk of things we thought we had forgotten

of things we want to forget and of things we never can

Lets talk as if to ourselves but only somehow better

Lets share this space, this moment, this heartbeat

Lets leave what needs no telling unsaid

Lets not wonder of where it will all go to in the end

Lets forget time and promises and all else that isn’t you or me

Lets take a walk, just you and me
5 Tips for Restoring Homes
By: Andreas Anusavice
Tags: Home Improvement, Real Estate, Andreas Anusavice, Florida, Home Renovation

5 Tips for Restoring Homes

Finding a perfect investment property is perhaps every real estate investor’s dream.

For history fanatics, the crown jewel of any investment property is finding a historic home that is tucked away ready to be restored to its former glory.

Andreas Anusavice — restoring a home isn’t a small undertaking.

Restoring a home isn’t such a small undertaking. Dealing with old structures require special care as such structures are full of surprises and costs can add up quickly. However, it is a fact that if renovations are done right, it can turn a nightmare into your dream home.

To eliminate this stressful affair, it is imperative that you seek advice from the experts. Real estate expert Andreas Anusavice notes down five crucial tips for successful home restoration.

Tip 1: Have the Home Inspected

Before making any changes to the house, it is prudent to have an inspector come in and check it out.
I Took a Walk
Tags: Photography, Blog, Outdoors, Walking, Nature Photography

The confirmation of Saint Amy to the Supreme Court spiraled me into depression. Even if the evil one loses one week from today, his abhorrent legacy will live through the Court for decades. America is screwed one way or the other.

Captain Argentina encourages me to concentrate on our little world — on us, our pets, our home, the neighborhood wildlife, my photography, and my writing. Many years ago, he escaped a country with constant political chaos. The populace did not expect the government to be on their side. Government only benefited the rich; the poor were expendable.

My reality was different until four years ago. Yes, the USA was far from perfect but I believed, maybe naively, that we inched towards better. Now, I fear that when I pass, my country will be worse than it was when I was born. Justice and equality are being chiseled away in ways we don’t even know. I am terrified.

I folded myself back into bed after breakfast this morning, planning to stay burritoed there through the day. But, I couldn’t. My body ached for movement. My mind wouldn’t rest. I was anxious and uneasy.

I grabbed my camera and took a walk around the neighborhood, trying to concentrate on this small October world around me.

Is there a lesson here? I don’t know. All I know is that nature posed for my camera. And, maybe, that is enough for today.
Visualizing 1 in 8,000
By: Jan Schultink
Tags: PowerPoint, Presentation Design, Presentation, Design, Data Visualization

Bar and column charts are my favorite data visualization tools. I do not like pie charts, although they are in theory the best way to highlight relative proportions. Both of these graphs break down when you try to visualize very small proportions.

In these cases I fall back on a technique that simply repeats the number of objects on a slide as done in the example below:

Note that especially for small proportions, it is very hard to internalize what things mean. “A 1.3% chance? That’s seems OK. What, 1 in 76? That’s a lot!.” Tap “1/x” on your calculator to translate a probability into a “1 in” number. For example: 2% translates into 1/0.02=50, 1 in 50.

More information on the issue of maternal death here.