fabiochiu/medium-articles huggingface dataset:
American Express Interview Experience (SELECTED!)
By: Sakshi Saxena
Tags: Internship Experience, Internships, American Express, Coding Interviews

First Round — Coding Round

Duration — 90 minutes

In this round, we were given three questions of medium level to solve on the platform Codility. The major twist is that only 1 or 2 test cases will be visible to you and the rest will be hidden. So, you really need to think and cover all the edge cases. There was no negative marking and you will be able to see the results when you submit so that you get an idea of how you performed. The main focus was on the correctness of the answer and not on the performance of the solution. They basically want to see how you approach the question.

Question 1: The question was super lengthy so I don’t remember much but here’s a rough idea of what was required. Basically, there is a cleaning robot that is cleaning a rectangular grid of size N*M. Rows are numbered from 0 to N-1 (from top to bottom) and columns are numbered from 0 to M-1 (from left to right).

The robot was supposed to start from the top-left corner facing rightwards. It should move in the same direction unless an obstacle comes, i.e. there is an occupied grid. When it is unable to move forward, it is supposed to rotate 90 degrees clockwise and repeat the same unless it hits an obstacle. You need to return the number of clean squares.

Assume that — N & M are between 1–20 and the top-left cell is empty.

Question 2: Merging two sorted lists with K and L elements respectively that take (K+L) milliseconds. The final list was dependent on the order in which the merges were performed.

For example, list 1 consists of 200 elements, list 2 consists of 400 elements and list 3 consists of 600 elements.

All the three lists can be merged by using three different ways into one final list and I had to find the method that merges the fastest.

1. Merge 1 and 2, then merge with 3.

2. Merge 2 and 3, then merge with 1.

3. Merge 3 and 1, then merge with 2.

When the number of merges was less than 2 then the merge time was assumed to be zero. I was supposed to return the shortest time to merge the three lists into one.

Question 3: Decomposition of a positive integer, say A, which is a set of unique positive integers whose sum is equal to A.

For example, 11 has twelve decompositions.

11 = 1+2+3+5, 1+2+8 and so on.

An odd decomposition of A is maximum if there is no other odd decomposition with a greater length. In the case of 11, the lengths are 3 for 1+3+7 and 1 for 11. I was supposed to return the array of the maximum odd decomposition of A and it should be in ascending order. If A does not have any odd decomposition, it should be empty.

I was happy with the first round as it went well for me. I was able to solve two questions correctly that passed all 8 cases with 100% accuracy. I wasn’t able to answer one question due to time constraints. Total 7 students were shortlisted for round 2 which was the technical round.
Buying a Bitcoin emits 195x as much CO₂ as buying an iPhone
By: Yann Eves
Tags: Carbon Emissions, Environment, Research, Technology, Crypto

Buying a Bitcoin emits 195x as much CO₂ as buying an iPhone Yann Eves May 2·3 min read

Today a discussion on Discord about NFTs and environmental impact respectfully erupted into a situation XKCD portrays well:

Well, it turns out I was the wrong someone on the internet.

My hypothesis was that CO₂ emissions of cryptoassets are much lower than a large US tech company like Apple when adjusted by market capitalisation¹.

To work this out I decided to compare Bitcoin with Apple and Microsoft. While Ethereum is more relevant to NFTs, reports on ETH carbon emissions are scarce and tended to be proportional to Bitcoin anyway.

At the end of 2020, Bitcoin (BTC) had a market cap of $539 billion², Apple (AAPL) $2.3 trillion³, Microsoft (MSFT) $1.9 trillion⁴.

And the estimated total CO₂ emissions (CO₂e) for 2020 for Bitcoin 35.89 Mt CO₂e⁵, Apple 22.6 Mt CO₂e⁶, Microsoft approx. 12 Mt CO₂e⁷.

While the carbon emissions for Bitcoin came up higher than I’d expected to find, my confirmation bias had convinced my limited ability in mental arithmetic that low emissions and high market cap meant I was about to nail this stat. I wanted to show crypto has a fraction of the emissions relative to tech giants. But the opposite is true.

Rounding to one decimal place, Bitcoin emits 6.7 times as much CO₂ as Apple, and 10.6 times as much as Microsoft. That is staggering.

And thus circling back to the headline you clicked on. An Apple iPhone 12 Pro late-2020 would set you back $999⁸ and one Bitcoin would cost $29,001.72⁹. On the basis that either choice supports the underlying institution and their overall carbon emissions, the decision to buy one Bitcoin versus an iPhone 12 Pro emits 195 times as much CO₂.

Does that mean cryptoassets are doomed technology? No, this spells the need for established institutions to adopt and support crypto. The demand is there. Meanwhile, we need to be more cautious of the actors we currently enable in crypto networks and the corners they’re willing to cut in the pursuit of profit.
Carbon in Context: The Logpile Chart
By: Duncan Geere
Tags: Carbon Emissions, Programming, Earth Day, Data Science, Data Visualization

Welcome to Earth Week on Nightingale, the journal of the Data Visualization Society. In honor of Earth Day on April 22, we are publishing earth-related data-visualization content all week. Data viz can enhance our appreciation of the planet, illuminate our relationship to it, and call us to action to preserve it. After all, we only have one and it means the world to us. You can keep up with all of our Earth Week articles here.

A couple of months back, an idea came to me in a dream. That sounds ridiculous, I know, but it’s true. I woke up one morning with a clear-as-crystal picture in my head of a kind of chart that I hadn’t seen before.

The problem that it turns out my unconcious mind had been working on was finding an alternative to logarithmic scales. Log scales are great for those who understand them, but the vast majority of the general public do not. Surely there was a better alternative for allowing the easy comparison of vastly different quantities?

My solution, which I call a logpile chart, stacks a series of left-to-right linear scales in a pile on top of each other. Each scale represents just a tiny fraction of the one below it. This allows the viewer to come to a graphic with a quantity in mind and quickly find others that are comparable — putting that quantity in context.
Eight cutting-edge technologies that capture carbon
Tags: Carbon Emissions, Carbon Capture, Sustainability, Climate Change, Zero Carbon

Eight new technologies that could lead to negative carbon emissions

Combating climate change effectively will take more than simply reducing greenhouse gas emissions. We are going to need to enable negative emissions. Here are eight cutting-edge technologies that are aiming to do that.

1 More forests

The world’s forests have absorbed as much as 30% of annual global human-generated CO₂ emissions over the last few decades.

Regenerating depleted forests (reforestation), planting new forests (afforestation), and protecting and helping existing forests thrive through active management can all contribute to forest growth.

A recent report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) estimates that reforestation and afforestation could potentially capture 0.5 and 3.6 billion tonnes of CO₂ a year at a cost of USD $5 to $50 (£3.90 to £39) per metric tonne.

2 More bioenergy with carbon capture and storage

Biomass can also help industries including power generation lower emissions. During its lifetime it absorbs carbon from the atmosphere (often enough to offset emissions from transportation and combustion).

Combined with carbon capture and storage (CCS or CCUS) technology, biomass becomes a negative carbon emissions process, known as BECCS.

Europe’s first BECCS pilot project at Drax Power Station.

Drax Power Station is partnering with carbon capture company C-Capture to develop BECCS technology. This could help turn Drax into the world’s first negative emissions power station.

The IPCC estimates that between 0.5 and 5 billion metric tonnes of carbon could be captured globally this way at a cost of $100 to $200 (£80–160) per metric tonne.

3 Increased ‘blue carbon’

Coastal vegetation such as mangroves, salt marshes and sea grasses sucks in and store carbon in soil at a greater rate than plants on land– known as ‘blue carbon’.

Efforts are underway to turn these ecosystems into carbon sinks that can remove more emissions from the atmosphere. For example, Apple is currently supporting a mangrove expansion project in Colombia.

4 Boosting ocean plants’ productivity

The oceans are already believed to be one of our planet’s biggest carbon sinks — full of plants that use CO₂ to photosynthesise. Now projects are attempting to make them even more efficient.

One approach involves injecting iron nutrients into the oceanto prompt a bloom in microscopic plants called phytoplankton, which float in the upper part of the ocean absorbing the CO₂ absorbed from the atmosphere. When the plants die they trap the absorbed carbon on the seabed.

5 Enhanced rock weathering
A Road to Protect and Reduce Carbon Emissions
Tags: Carbon Emissions, Gas, Stock Market, Climate Change, Stocks

Sponsored Post:

Climate change, which is causing sea levels to develop and making extreme weather more likely, represents a major threat. The best way to address climate change is to drastically reduce our greenhouse gas emissions — mainly methane and carbon dioxide. It is difficult to undo the damage that has already been done, but by preventing further emissions we may be able to diminish the severity of many of the dangers. (1) Therefore it demonstrates how energy-efficient windows, doors, and skylights, also known as fenestration devices in the industry could reduce energy consumption and emissions. The University of Florida discovered that energy-efficient fenestration goods cut energy consumption by 774 Gigawatt hours in the past 30 years by analyzing government statistics and state and local energy codes. How could CCS be deployed broadly to potentially help reduce U.S. emissions more quickly? Here you could learn more about our environment.

ExxonMobil believes, and experts agree, that carbon capture and storage (CCS) could play a critical role if the United States and other countries are to meet the emissions-reduction goals outlined in the Paris Agreement. For the past three years, ExxonMobil has been assessing the concept of multi-user CCS “hubs” in industrial areas located near geologic storage sites, such as depleted oil and gas reservoirs. (2) Unfortunately, energy used in buildings from heating and cooling your home to keeping the lights on in the office is responsible for over one-third of all carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions in the United States. Slashing building CO2 emissions approximately 80% by 2050 would therefore contribute significantly to combating climate change. How could this potentially help the environment? Know more about it here.

When it comes to energy sources, coal is the biggest producer of greenhouse gas emissions in the United States. Between 1885 and 1943, coal was the primary source of energy in the country, and although petroleum and natural gas have since won market share, coal remains one of our three primary energy sources. Only in the early 21st century did natural gas outpace coal and renewables start to take off, decreasing our dependence on coal. This environmental and energy industry could be a start for reducing carbon emissions? See the trending news about the environment. Check the disclaimer on my profile and landing page.

Source 1: https://www.eesi.org/articles/view/u.s.-leads-in-greenhouse-gas-reductions-but-some-states-are-falling-behind

Source 2: https://energyfactor.exxonmobil.com/insights/partners/houston-ccs-hub/?utm_source
Premium Data for Carbon Offsetting
By: Anton Root
Tags: Carbon Emissions, Innovation, Tech For Good, Climate Change, Carbon Footprint

One stop shop for data on carbon offsetting.

Carbon offsetting is a model with great potential — it’s one of the few (somewhat) successful systems out there that have been able to put a price on carbon emissions, and encourage polluters to pay. The lack of transparency and the number of projects with questionable track records, however, have made people skeptical of the industry.

We’ve set up AlliedOffsets in order to help provide much-needed clarity around the projects, credits, and prices of those credits, and to begin to get at the question of credibility and quality. I’m excited to announce that we’ve developed a Premium Data Dashboard to showcase the data on thousands of projects from around the world.

The interactive demo of the Dashboard can be found here. It shows a sample of our data for three countries: Peru, South Africa, and Indonesia. The data points include:

Credits issued vs. retired per vintage

Reseller availability and pricing

Wholesale price estimates

Volume and vintage price adjustments

Additionality scoring based on project methodology

Project proponent contact info

Verified SDGs for each project

Macro-level (country) data

Credit retirements / issuance over time, with comparisons to previous periods

Account-level transaction and retirement data

Country pricing comparisons

In addition to all the other data points we’ve had in the past (like breakdown of projects by registry, type, and country; estimated annual emissions reductions; project size; and more)

Sample project profile page.

For us, this is just the start. In the next weeks, we’ll be adding a lot of exciting data, including:

New registries (did you know there’s a registry for French forestry projects?)

CORSIA eligibility

Advanced quality scoring

Co-benefit analysis for projects (based on NLP analysis of PDDs)

CDM transaction data

Geospatial project analysis

Project news archives

Verifier and validator analysis

Continuous updates

And much more!

To date, we’ve given most of what we have away to the public via our Project Directory. This is something we’re committed to doing indefinitely, as a way to provide a useful tool for the marketplace. The Premium Data Dashboard is meant to be a product for those firms and organisations seeking to gain a superior, data-driven understanding of the market which has so far not been accessible to the market.

If you’re interested in learning more, check out our Dashboard demo here, and reach out to carbon@alliedcrowds.com to schedule a walkthrough.
CarbonDefi, the ONLY cryptocoin that donates 1 Million $ to help reduce carbon footprint.
By: Smart Trading
Tags: Carbon Emissions, Carbondefi, Investment, Carbon Footprint, Cryptocurrency

CarbonDefi, the ONLY cryptocoin that donates 1 Million $ to help reduce carbon footprint. Smart Trading Apr 25·2 min read

The developers of CarbonDefi announced today that they will donate 1 Million $ to different organizations that are fighting against carbon pollution. This is the first crypto in history that will make such a generous donation.

Different ONG will be selected by the holders involved in the project . There will be a poll on their website . The first 10 organizations after the vote will receive 100 000 $ each worth of CarbonDefi coins.

Andrew , one of the Dev team told us: “CarbonDefi supports three types of carbon reducing projects; each plays an important role in the fight against climate change:

1 . Energy Efficiency

​Energy efficiency projects reduce energy use now, providing the most cost-effective ways to reduce carbon emissions .

2.Forestry

​Forest conservation removes CO2 from the air and into trees and soil, helping communities and wildlife. Deforestation accounts for 20% of global carbon emissions. The CarbonDefi team will donate for planting 1 million trees .

3.Renewable Energy

​Renewable energy — wind, solar, hydro, methane reductions — reduce carbon emissions .

The projects we support are third-party validated . They will verified to meet the highest standards. We need the community help to grow CarbonDevi. Once the crypto reaches 1 $ value , we will start with the donations.

If we work hastily and put our political, economical and personal will to it, the objective to limit global warming to +2°C is within our reach. Inaction would cause a +6°C increase (with no reason to stop it from going up more). Intensive, climate action? We could go back to under 1°C and reestablish biodiversity. Our planet is incredibly resilient, and so are its inhabitants. Let’s prove this right. Invest in CarbonDefi today !
Matthew 7:1-5
By: Ben Bear
Tags: Americanism, Trumpism, Patriotism

Matthew 7:1-5

This is some world class mote-finding, Gregory.

I suppose that if you value corporations as people over people as people,

If you value the wealth of the wealthiest Americans over the lives and livelihoods over the 99% of Americans,

If you think militarism, racism, xenophobia, religious intolerance, discrimination, cruelty, denial of FDR’s Four Freedoms, voter suppression, kleptocracy, climate change, despoiling the commons are not bugs but features,

Then I suppose you can make the case that the Left doesn’t want what is best for your idea of America.

But I think the evidence is quite plain that Trump and his enablers want what is best for themselves, at the expense of the majority who do not support Trump, and even at the expense of the majority of the minority who do.

Trump, pathologically immune to any human sympathy, defines his self-worth by “winning.” He keeps score by money, power over, acclaim, and seeing his enemies suffer.

You say the Left hates America because it wants a fairer economy, or health care for all, or access to higher education, or more social mobility, or solutions to climate change, or not sending our troops to manipulate the price of oil or access to the ballot?

I guess that means that loving America and Americans means wrapping yourself in the flag, or groping it, or getting a draft deferment for bone spurs then denigratiing the heroism of those who made actual sacrifices, or using the occasion of 9/11 to brag that now you have the tallest building in southern Manhattan, or using a crisis to transfer even more wealth to the wealthy, and running America like one of the many businesses Trump drove into bankruptcy after he got paid.

I guess that is what making America great again really means.

I grew up in an Old Left household. But I always believed we loved America. But the America we loved was our history of what was best about America: Democracy, Anti-Authoritarianism, Pluralism, Compassion, rule of law, religious tolerance, the Bill of Rights, the Declaration of Independence, The New Deal.

When I was 10, I heard a Marine, who had returned from Vietnam, talk about the use of napalm on civilian populations. I was horrified that my country would do such a thing. I got the biggest “No More Napalm” button I could find, and wore it everywhere. The most common reaction was a question why I did not love my country.

Not so different from others who loved America enough to want it to live up to its ideals of equal protection under the law, freedom of speech, nonaggression and democracy.

At the time of “America, Love It Or Leave It,” our answer was “America, change it or lose it.”

Gregory, do you love America and Americans? Which side are you on?

I think you are better than this article evidences. That’s the Gregory I love.

All best wishes,

Ben
Trump, Covid and the Evangelicals
By: Eric Lamar
Tags: Evangelicals, Trump, Evangelism, Trumpism

Lessons Learned

Evangelical Christians anointed Donald Trump as “The Chosen One” signaling that he is on par, or nearly so, with Jesus of Nazareth and possibly even the risen Christ.

Many Evangelicals are also stridently opposed to the Covid-19 vaccine with one church leader commenting that it would just “kill a lot of stupid people.” (He went on to be hospitalized with the disease.)

Trump was a late comer to both the seriousness of the pandemic and the need for a vaccine. (Even then, he and Melania had their dose in secret at the White House, once again trying to hide his moral and leadership failures.)

The Evangelical opposition to the Covid-19 vaccine is especially ironic given that they have their own vaccine, which they are always hectoring us to take, one to prevent hellfire and damnation, it’s called “accepting Christ.”

Their Christ.

There is neither proof nor evidence that the Christian vaccine, the acceptance of Jesus of Nazareth as the risen son of God, has any effect other than lining the pockets of prosperity gospel preachers and their adherents.

On the other hand, Covid-19 vaccine studies include both evidence and proof that the drugs are extremely successful at both preventing the disease and lessening the effects of it.

Now that all adults in the U.S. have had the opportunity to obtain the Covid-19 vaccine and Trump supporters and Evangelical Christians continue to refuse it, they are guilty of needlessly endangering the lives of children.

It hardly takes a morally perfect person to understand the basic human imperative to protect the young. Yet Trump supporters and Evangelicals deploy religious ideology as a weapon as they carry the disease and expose those who yet to have access to a safe treatment.

Trump, their chosen one, may not be the cruelest U.S. president, the owners of enslaved blacks take that “prize”; but he is, by far, the most intentionally evil.

Christians sought out evil personified and asked us to see him as a savior.

They also embraced a deadly disease and made “taking the cure” for it a sign of spiritual infidelity.

Those are the accomplishments of Evangelical Christianity, a religion which promotes evil and spreads disease.

No thank you.
Imagine if the 100 Surveyed for Family Feud were all Trumpists?
By: B Kean
Tags: Perspective, Society, Satire, Trumpism, Politics

I was recently listening to The Howard Stern Radio Show and Robin Quivers, Stern’s in-booth sidekick for the past four decades, marveled at some of the answers people give on the Family Feud. Often to the most basic of questions, like what do you do before you go to bed, the most off the wall answers can be given:

To the prompt “name things you do right before going to bed,” an off-the-wall answer like “drink a big glass of Mountain Dew,” could be heard although you might be expecting something like, “prayer,” or, “brush teeth,” etc. Both Ms. Quivers and Howard watch a tremendous amount of television so I won’t doubt her when she says there are really whacked answers being given by Americans.

This got me to thinking about my favorite topic: Trumpists. Before I will be accused of being obsessed with them, as some Trumpists comment to my articles, I will justify my so-called “obsession” by saying this: I am not obsessed in a way that I can’t stop thinking about them, I more obsessed with the fact that formally normal people, in such a short period of time, lost their minds — and as a patriot and self-proclaimed cultural anthropologist, I want to know how that happened?

That search, however, is not the topic of this article. This article is about the answers I am pretty sure they would give to some very basic questions about our country, and the world, if they producers of The Family Feud asked them. The answers below will only be the most popular answer to the survey question.

Question #1 — Thing Trump loves the most: America

Question #2 — Something not every American should be allowed to do: vote

Question #3 — Things people detonate: Abortion clinics

Question #4 — Name something people are afraid of: Baby-eating Democrats

Question #5 — Name something you shouldn’t learn in school: Critical race theory, evolution (tie)

Question #6 — Name something you should take to church and the movies: A gun

Question #7 — Most popular color: Orange

Question #8 — What’s the best thing about being white? Everything

Question # 9 — Name something a Democrat would hate to happen: Trump gets re-elected

Question #10 — A reason for rebelling against the US government: To save it

Question #11 — Name something that was overhyped: COVID-19

Question #12 — Name the darkest day in US history since 2010: Ben Ghazi attack

Question #13 — Things you find in a Democratic vote counters pocket: White out

Question #15 — What do you do when CNN is on the TV? Turn it off, scoff out loud(tie)

I can go on for hours with this but I won’t; I think you get the point. Toss a shoulder of pork on the smoker this weekend, drop a few dozen radishes into ice water and set with a friend just out of the smoke’s reach; and, while slowly pouring back ice cold beers, make your own list.

It will really show how different, and out of their minds, they really are.
curating spotify playlists is my love language
Tags: Coming Of Age, Dating, Spotify Playlist, Spotify

and i’m dating a boy who uses apple music.

accepting the fact that i’m prone to embarrassment in almost every daily activity i indulge in, has been the greatest leap towards maturity i’ve taken in the past 20 years.

seriously.

up till high school, the cool girl persona was well kept. but it didn't work favorably at all. i mean, falling asleep in every class and dating men way beyond the age of consent doesn't look good in college applications. back then, i considered myself a liv taylor-crazy-aerosmith-wannabe kind of cool, which in hindsight makes me want to choke in my own vomit.

college, on the other hand, saw the rise and fall of what i’ve baptized as medium-tender giulia: a little tougher texture and less juicy inside. but after multiple lockdowns and a gap semester, i’ve finally made peace with the fact that being awkward is my greatest asset. and i will not shy from it at all.

embracing the awkwardness meant that i should take pride in what i consider my favorite embarrassing hobbies: crochet, kpop and curating spotify playlists. we all have different love languages such as being touchy but mine is to lump together a bunch of random songs that remind me of someone i love.

if you belong to my inner circle, you’ve probably received a playlist with your name on it. maybe i send it to you on your birthday, or a heartbreak anniversary. and i’ll admit, any other present could be of better use, but this is MY WAY of saying i love you and i think of you at this moment in time. because once i designate a song in your name, in my brain it belongs to you from now on — and when i listen to it i’ll probably be thinking of you. its yours and yours to keep even if we drift apart.

associating songs with names is risky business. we all have soundtracks to our own lives. so how does one decide who is worth the peril of losing your favorite song? we’ve all sinned AT LEAST ONCE of dedicating a song we adore to an ex. that tune is forever discarded in the dumpster fuck that is your past relationships.

so when i started dating again, i couldn’t help but drift back into my tendency of pairing songs with names. and amidst the high of being in love with someone you adore, i couldn’t share him a playlist. he’s an apple music bitch. maybe this is for the best, i quite usually make a fool of myself in front of him with all my different quirks, so sparing him of the spotify playlist ritual is a blessing in disguise i will gladly take.

(i still made one tho. but just for me — and now you too to hear).
Of What to the Slave is Juneteenth?
By: Semassa Kpatinvo Boko
Tags: Juneteenth, Slavery, Haitian Revolution

Racial slavery remains an under-theorized and misunderstood condition.

We live in the afterlife of slavery. Two hundred years ago, when the slaves in Haiti rose up, they, of necessity, burned everything:

A French officer asks a slave prisoner: “Why do you burn everything?” “We have a right to burn what we cultivate because a man has a right to dispose of his own labour,” was the reply of this unknown anarchist. The slaves burned everything because everything was against them. Everything was against the slaves, the entire order that it was their lot to follow, the entire order in which they were positioned as worse than senseless things, every plantation, everything. Toussaint L’Overture, leader of the Haitian revolution said “God gave Noah the rainbow sign. No more water, the fire next time.” The slaves burned everything, yes, but, unfortunately, they only burned everything in Haiti. There’s was the greatest and most successful revolution in the history of the world, and the failure of their fire to cross the waters was the greatest tragedy in history. — “Perfecting Slavery” by Anthony Paul Farley

Indeed, the slave power that is the United States now threatens an entire world with the death that it has become - and so the slaves of yesterday, today, and tomorrow, those with nothing but their chains to lose, must, if they would be free, if they would escape slavery, win the entire world.

A paradox of black life: we exist in a state of perpetual tragedy and yet we are never allowed to mourn. We have restricted grief, but no space for mourning. Because mourning would give us too much power. I know we want something to celebrate, but black celebration has never been the sterile performance that whiteness presents back to us.

There is no “up from slavery,” there is no progress. Our struggles for integration are what make the law. We are made to believe that our blood, our pain, our broken bodies somehow perfect democracy. That we are martyrs, sacrificial lambs for an imperfect but striving country. But the truth is Black Death is what makes this country’s democracy possible. That the desire for integration is the perfection of slavery. A federal holiday for Juneteenth is the perfection of slavery. What can we imagine? What could Juneteenth be if we keep ownership of it? What if all black people went on strike? What if our co-conspirators performed collective acts of sabotage and whistleblowing? What if we burned down a building, one for every extra day that the slaves in Texas were denied knowledge of their freedom? I want to celebrate August 21, 1831, Nat Turner’s rebellion. I want to honor August 21 1971, the assassination of George Jackson during the Attica Rebellion. Freedom is the call and abolition is the only answer. What is burned will grow again, but the best fertilizer is plantation owner’s foot.
For Senator Lisa Murkowski: On “Shameful and Wrong”
By: Katie Bausler
Tags: Senate, Lisa Murkowski, Impeachment

Screenshot of Senator Lisa Murkowski’s Senate Floor Speech, February 3, 2020

Dear Senator Murkowski,

Since the 2016 presidential election I have been compelled to contact you several times about the President selling out our country for his own personal gain. In the Senate Floor speech excusing yourself for acquitting him of impeachment, you acknowledge as much. And then admonish him for “shameful and wrong” behavior. Are you kidding? Shameful and wrong might get you kicked out of the third grade, but apparently not the White House.

It is obvious to anyone paying attention to the litany of testimony by non-partisan civil servants and an upcoming book by the former national security adviser that the case for impeachment is strong. But blaming “the court of public” opinion, you conclude the foundation is rotten and there will be no fair trial. Wait, what?

The President himself has proven time and again to be acting solely in his own interest in everything he touches, from the keyboard on his phone to our degraded and debased foreign policy. The most egregious example of course is the reason for his impeachment by the U.S. House of Representatives. He blatantly, if not proudly, asked for the assistance of a foreign government to hurt the reputation of his possible opponent in the next presidential election.

You go on to state that we are wallowing in “partisan mud” and “that both sides can look inward and reflect on the apparent willingness to destroy not just each other, but all of the institutions of our government.” Senator, this is about much more than different sides. It is about the most fundamental of values: right and wrong, truth and fiction, and ultimately, the life and death of the United States of America. Democracy is not all about one person, least of all the President. “The voters will pronounce a verdict in nine months,” you assure, “and we must trust their judgment.”

Now covering her 8th consecutive presidential election, veteran NPR reporter Mara Liasson concluded that President Trump had total control over if Republican congressional members resign or rerun. The majority of senators are apparently willing to risk the good of our great country and the lives of her people for their own re-election.

It’s not about the kids in cages at our borders, climate change related fires killing off entire communities and animal populations, the promising next generation snuffed out by lack of gun control, or marginalized and disenfranchised Americans without healthcare. No, like our President, it’s all about personal political sustainability at the expense of our republic and democracy. It’s all about them, lying to us, in lockstep with the President. It is shameful and wrong. Shame on you for joining them.

Katie Bausler, Douglas, Alaska
A Guide to 90/10 Rule Legislation
By: Career Education
Tags: Higher Education, Education, Senate, Legislation, Congress

Right now, the 90/10 rule is not applied equally. The premise of 90/10 is built on the idea that if a school delivers a quality education, then someone other than the taxpayer will pay to go there. If that’s the case, then the 90/10 standard should be applied to every public college and university and they should count all their state and local funding into the formula. Public colleges and universities receive billions in taxpayer subsidies from federal, state and local government and yet this is not included in calculations despite the massive distorting effect it has.

Fundamentally, the 90/10 rule itself is a flawed metric that shouldn’t be applied to any school regardless of its sector. Financial aid expert Mark Kantrowitz described 90/10 as “ineffective at measuring educational quality”. But isn’t that what we care about? Providing quality education to students. It also measures “ability to pay more than willingness to pay.” In short, you only count if you’re in the 1%. This disproportionately limits the enrollment of low-income and other underserved populations most in need of career education. We shouldn’t restrict access to education for those who need it most.

Creating a fair and equal standard for all colleges and universities to ensure they provide a quality education for students should be the goal for legislators. The 90/10 rule, as currently applied, doesn’t pass that test.
President Trump Is Promising His Magic-Bullet Healthcare Plan Again, But We’ve Heard This Song Before
By: Senate Democrats
Tags: Healthcare, Trump, Senate, Insurance, Health

In an interview with ABC News, President Trump declared his intention to repeal our health care law and replace it with a yet-to-be-released healthcare plan.

We’ve heard this before. Dating back to the 2016 election, President Trump has consistently promised that his magic healthcare plan is right around the corner, but he always fails to deliver.

We know that right now, the Trump administration is fighting in the courts to end the health law, including getting rid of protections for Americans with pre-existing conditions. That’s right — the Trump administration is trying to end the health law with no plan to replace it. This could have dire results for the American people:

130 million Americans would lose pre-existing condition protections

The uninsured rate would increase by 65 percent

17 million people would lose Medicaid expansion

12 million seniors would have to pay more for prescription drugs

2.3 million adult children would no longer be able to stay on their parents’ insurance

Insurance companies would be able to charge women 50% more than men

President Trump and Republicans across the country must stop working to undermine Americans’ access to high-quality, affordable health care.
It’s Time to Fix the Senate
By: Fred Van Deusen
Tags: Government, Filibusters, Voting Rights, Senate, Democracy

For the last ten years or more we have had to endure a seriously dysfunctional Senate where bills supported by the majority of Americans have been turned away without even a vote. All it takes is for one senator to say he plans to filibuster a bill, and then it requires a super-majority of 60 votes to bring it to the floor. Republican Leader Mitch McConnell has been able to stop virtually any bill from passing, even if it enjoys huge support around the country. Bills to close corporate tax loopholes, expose super-rich donations, expand social security benefits, protect immigrants, reduce wage disparity, stop voter suppression, and prevent gerrymandering, have all been blocked by Republican filibusters.

With a dysfunctional Senate we can not address critical needs in this country to effectively address climate change, reform our immigration policies, and provide equal rights for all citizens. We must fix the Senate.

It starts by changing the filibuster rules to enable a majority of senators to pass much needed legislation. The minority has a right to raise concerns and suggest amendments to proposed legislation. It does not have the right to prevent discussion on the Senate floor. The filibuster rules can be changed by a simple majority vote. Senate leaders need to do that now to pass two critically important voting rights bills — the For the People Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act. This simple rule change can help save our democracy and our country.
Scaling Payments in Black Friday 2019
By: Yalçın Yenigün
Tags: Development, Black Friday, Fintech, Scalability, Technology

Last year I wrote a blog post (https://iyzico.engineering/scaling-payments-in-black-friday-2018-55fc44cd8a47) about our Black Friday’s scalability experience in Payments domain and the post got too many positive reactions. Thus I decided to write this year’s scalability experience at iyzico because I think that the technical writers should write much more about their production experience.

First Challenge: API Request Count Prediction

First, we should predict the hourly request count of Black Friday 2019 and the maximum transaction per second (TPS) of our APIs because we need to optimize throughput by finding and fixing bottlenecks in our APIs and by allocating infrastructure resources. Our data scientist Ömer Burak IŞIK and the data team made predictions by using Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) architecture. Unlike standard feedforward neural networks, LSTM has feedback connections. For more detail: https://pathmind.com/wiki/lstm

Daily API Request Count (Historical Data)

The red and green dots represent some of the special discount days like Black Friday and the blue dots represent the ordinary days on the historical data graph.
Behind the Scenes — Black Friday Madness at Westwing
By: Anne Naumann
Tags: Black Friday, Influencer Campaigns, E Commerce Business, Influencers, Influencer Marketing

Black Friday is a very idea-driven and creative time period also for employees working at the Westwing Influencer Marketing Team, who, every year, challenge themselves to create a unique and extraordinary Influencer campaign to promote the company’s Black Friday Sales on Instagram!

Cards against Black Friday Sale Madness — designed by our Westwing Marketing Department

As the tremendous number of discounts and offers at this black week can drive customers crazy, the Westwing Influencer Team decided to tease this annual shopping insanity with some sarcasm, providing Influencers with their own survival kit — the Westwing Black Box Against Black Friday Sale Madness.

Focus of the black box was a deck of cards named „Cards Against Black Friday Madness “. As black cards described common black Friday situations such as sweating from scrolling through Westwing Black Friday sales, white cards guided the solution as to grab the towel provided in the survival kit. Accordingly, Influencers were equipped with chocolates, a sleeping mask, a stress ball and relaxation tee to overcome the shopping madness. In total, 55 Black Friday Boxes were sent out. Performed by influencers in their Instagram stories, the promotion was designed to loosen up Black Friday Shopping stress by fooling around the annual shopping craziness.

Besides this humorous smack conveyed through the Black Box, the campaign primarily aimed to make followers curious about Westwing and to promote the great Black Friday Deals offered at Westwing.de.

As an extra, the Influencer Team cooperated with the influencer @tscherajna to whom they sent a branded ”Westwing Black Friday Pinata”. With a folding rule and all-out, the Influencer smashed the pinata, raffling a 500€ shopping voucher for the black Friday shopping budget of one of her followers — hilarious Instagram stories and pinata-smashing outtakes were published on her Instagram account.
Behind the Scenes — Black Friday Madness at Westwing
By: Miriam Rabung
Tags: Influencer Marketing, Black Friday, Marketing Campaign

Insights from the Westwing Influencer Team

Throwback: Black Friday, the world’s most impactful and busiest Shopping Day happening each year. A sale tradition, for which marketers prepare to outgo their limits of creativity to come up with the most creative and exciting marketing campaigns. A very idea-driven and creative time period also for employees working at the Westwing Influencer Marketing Team, who, every year, challenge themselves to create a unique and extraordinary Influencer campaign to promote the company’s Black Friday Sales on Instagram.

Cards against Black Friday Sale Madness — designed by our Westwing Marketing Department

As the tremendous number of discounts and offers at this black week can drive customers crazy, the Westwing Influencer Team decided to tease this annual shopping insanity with some sarcasm, providing Influencers with their own survival kit — the Westwing Black Box Against Black Friday Sale Madness.

Westwing Black Box Against Black Friday Sale Madness

Focus of the black box was a deck of cards named „Cards Against Black Friday Madness “. As black cards described common black Friday situations such as sweating from scrolling through Westwing Black Friday sales, white cards guided the solution as to grab the towel provided in the survival kit. Accordingly, Influencers were equipped with chocolates, a sleeping mask, a stress ball and relaxation tee to overcome the shopping madness. In total, 55 Black Friday Boxes were sent out. Performed by influencers in their Instagram stories, the promotion was designed to loosen up Black Friday Shopping stress by fooling around the annual shopping craziness.

Besides this humorous smack conveyed through the Black Box, the campaign primarily aimed to make followers curious about Westwing and to promote the great Black Friday Deals offered at Westwing.de.

As an extra, the Influencer Team cooperated with the influencer @tscherajna to whom they sent a branded ”Westwing Black Friday Pinata”. With a folding rule and all-out, the Influencer smashed the pinata, raffling a 500€ shopping voucher for the black Friday shopping budget of one of her followers — hilarious Instagram stories and pinata-smashing outtakes were published on her Instagram account. All in all a super important and successful day for our Marketing Department!
Unlock your 2019 Holiday Messaging Campaigns with Text Coupons
By: Mgage
Tags: Black Friday, Mobile, Retail, Marketing, Smartphones

Mobile offers are an ideal way to drive online and in-store sales because your potential customer is never too far away from their phone. Mobile has officially surpassed desktop for digital order share, with 52% of digital orders coming from mobile devices this season. It is imperative that brands have a robust mobile marketing program in place that includes text messaging.

Why Messaging Matters for Holiday Shopping

Text messaging is proven to cut through the clutter of digital marketing and reach target audiences in unprecedented ways. 98% of all SMS messages are read within two minutes; no other form of digital communication is reacted to like texts.

Texting allows you to meet your customers where they are — on mobile. Receiving a text message from your brand can make a person realize that your product is a perfect gift for their loved one. This is especially powerful if the message includes a coupon, which can encourage them to go to your site and make an instant purchase.

Mobile Coupons Drive Purchases and Revenue

There’s no better way to reach customers through mobile than with coupons because 75% of consumers prefer to receive offers via text. Mobile coupons can be a vital tool for brands looking to increase how much their customers spend on their orders. 77% of consumers spend $10-$50 more when they’re redeeming a mobile coupon.

To read more about why mobile coupons are such an effective form of promotion, check out our blog post on How to Make Your Coupons Irresistible”The Power of Mobile Coupons”.

Sending coupons via text message makes sense for your brand over the holiday season; it also makes sense for your competitors. How do you make sure that your coupons are compelling and drive people to action? The Mobile Marketing Association has put together some best practices for creating digital coupons. Here are a few highlights:

Make the Offer Clear and Prominent: If consumers are confused about what your coupon offers, they won’t redeem it. Use clear and plain English language to lay out the specific terms of the deal. For example, if a person must buy two or more of a product to get a discount, feature that prominently next to the discount amount.

The first thing that a person should see when they open your coupon is the amount of the discount. If you are sending an SMS text message, have the value be the first item in the message. If you are sending a multimedia coupon, design the coupon so that the value is the most prominent element.

Add Excitement with Multimedia: Texting channels such as MMS and RCS allow you to add multimedia elements such as images, carousels, videos, and a full palette of colors to your messages. Use this to create coupons that allow customers to see and experience gifts before they make a purchase.

Are you ready to launch messaging campaigns that will drive your sales over the holidays? Our experts can help you identify opportunities to add text messaging to your existing marketing efforts. Contact us today to learn more.