fabiochiu/medium-articles huggingface dataset:
Be Kind to Retail Workers This Holiday Season
By: Danny Jackson H.
Tags: Retail, This Happened To Me, Culture, Holidays, Cashier

Be Kind to Retail Workers This Holiday Season

They already have too much to deal with

Photo by Craig Whitehead on Unsplash

I worked as a cashier at a Dollar Tree for two and a half years. I quit a few days before last Christmas, actually, so I had to experience three holiday seasons working retail.

As a result, I think I know what hell is really like.

I knew what it was like to have customers blame me for the prices of our merchandise as if I and I alone were responsible for how much our items cost.

I mean, it was the Dollar Tree, where everything famously costs one dollar. How can you even really beat those prices?

Anyway, I had customers yell at me for the most ridiculous reasons. All that was made worse by the fact that I got sensory overload way too easily during the holidays, multiplying all the stress that I normally got by at least five.

Retail workers always have to deal with the worst of humanity, especially during the holiday season.

However, I did have one customer warm my heart last year. It was an older man who came in to buy a couple of rolls of wrapping paper. Just a two-dollar purchase. But when I was done scanning his items, he held a finger to his lips and motioned for me to ring up the next customer’s purchase.

So I did.

The next customers were a young couple with a screaming child. They looked like they’d had about enough of this world, or at least this holiday season. Joy radiated from their faces when they realized the kind man in front of them paid their thirty-dollar ticket.

It warmed my heart. It made the rest of my shift bearable, which was about as good as could be expected at that job.

I’m not saying you have to pay it forward to make your cashier’s or some other customer’s day. I’m just saying, do something nice for them. If you get frustrated, maybe don’t take it out on some poor retail worker. I can almost guarantee you they’ve already had someone yell at them that day. They don’t need to experience any more of that.

Just treat retail workers as human beings. This is true all year round, but especially during the holiday season.
Making Money With Software Engineering as a Freelancer
Tags: Money, Freelancing, Software Development, Work, Programming

Photo by Allie on Unsplash

Making Money With Software Engineering as a Freelancer

How you can start earning some money as a freelance programmer

Let’s face it, the idea of not working for a boss and being your own boss is very appealing to almost everybody. This is not any different when it comes to programmers. It seems so nice to work from where and any place you want — from cute little coffee bars to snow-white beaches. Or maybe just from the comfort of your own home.

Who doesn’t like that idea?

Working as a freelancer comes with some major perks. One of them is the possibility to have a flexible work schedule. You could start typing code wherever you want and whenever you feel like it. And on top of that, you can decide which projects you want to work on.

It might seem easy, but making money as a freelance programmer is actually quite hard. Once you jump on the freelance bandwagon you all of a sudden start competing with thousands of other people from all over the globe. More often than not those people can do the same job as you but for way less money than you’d do it.

So how can you actually make some money as a freelance programmer?
The Three Silent Assassins of our Diet
By: Reinoud Schuijers
Tags: Diet, Food, Lifestyle, Culture, Health

The Three Silent Assassins of our Diet

Six months of positive restriction will change your life

You probably don’t need an introduction, but you’re getting one anyway. We, as a species, have never been unhealthier than we are today. Which is ironic, considering that we have better access to high-tech healthcare than ever before. We’ve never known more about the human body, metabolism, and illness. And, since a decade or so, we can look up literally all the information we need to take care of ourselves, simply using the internet. Yet we fail, as a group, to do so.

One day, you will walk into that doctor’s office, and you will be diagnosed with diabetes, obesity or cardiovascular disease.

Photo by wild vibez

The reason for this is that, while we are pretty good at avoiding direct threats — we have a tendency to dodge speeding vehicles and leave burning houses — we’re actually quite horrible at avoiding less direct threats. Slow threats. Things that creep up on us and seem harmless at first. Humanity has a blind spot for those.

The three biggest slow threats are actually in our diet. These silent assassins are eating us away from the inside, and we’re failing to see and address them properly. Heck, most of us are even denying it, in quite a similar fashion we deny and dismiss other blatantly obvious problems, such as global warming or plastic waste piling up in our oceans.

But the difference between those global issues and the three silent assassins of our diet is that the assassins are quite likely to get to you within this lifetime. One day, you will walk into that doctor’s office, and you will be diagnosed with either diabetes, a cardiovascular disease, obesity, Alzheimer's or one of many, many other conditions caused directly by our diet.

However, you can prevent this. Quite easily, in fact. You don’t need a diet book or a personal coach. You don’t need to adopt a new training regime, again. And you certainly don’t need to buy supplements, exotic extracts or funky seeds from a remote part of the Amazon rainforest.

What you need is positive restriction: avoid the three silent assassins to massively improve your long term health. But don’t just take my word for it. Get your labs checked today, spend six months actively avoiding the assassins, and then get your labs checked again. It’s not magic — it’s human metabolism and a little bit of science.
NumPy Array — All You Want to Know
By: Renan Lolico
Tags: Array, Operations, Numpy, Python, Matrix

Table of content

What is a NumPy Array

About different dimensions

How to create a NumPy array?

Modifying with reshape

Operations with NumPy

Transposing your array

Conditional with NumPy

Extra

What is a NumPy Array?

A table of numbers of the same type, indexed by a tuple of non-negative integers, also called a multidimensional array.

The main difference between the NumPy’s array and the standard array is that the second only handle one-dimensional arrays and offers less functionality.

About different dimensions

Before we even start talking about NumPy arrays, it’s necessary to know what types of dimensions we have. Yes, they have different names and can cause some misunderstandings later. First, let’s start with the Scalar.

Image by Renan Lolico — Medium

1. Scalar

Also known as a zero-order tensor; It can be any number with/without unit, quantity, or even a function of a vector, for example. Has magnitude, but no dimension.

2. Vector

The first-order tensor; Usually is an ordered array of single numbers represented as a row (or column) of a matrix. Only one dimension required.

From vectors and beyond, all will have magnitude and dimension;

3. Matrix

The second-order tensor; Is simply a rectangular array of numbers with multiple rows (or columns). To make it easier, a matrix is ​​composed of several vectors.

4. Tensor

Encapsulates scalar, vector, and matrix. They can represent anything ranging from zero to N dimensions, making them really useful in Deep Learning. Tensors can be of different orders, but commonly we use the third-order or fourth-order; The last one is even more complex.

How to create a NumPy Array?

There are several ways to create arrays. You can generate data from scratch and use the data generated to fill your columns or use data you already have and transform it into a NumPy array. Let’s discuss each one.

When you already have data

This is specifically simple: just transform your data into an array. For this example, I will create a series with Pandas. Let’s check.

Image by Renan Lolico — Medium

How nice! We converted our series into a ndarray! Now we can start applying our set of mathematical tools to this data! One more thing: If you don’t know what a Series is, click here to learn.

Generating data from scratch

Creating new data is extremely useful when you need to work with operations, conditions, and loops. Instead of generating a full list of numbers, just pass the start, stop, and step parameters to the NumPy array. Some functions don’t even need these parameters! Let’s check them out.

1) np.arange()

Do you want to generate an array of elements with evenly spaced values? So try the np.arange() function. It is extremely useful when you need to create quick lists. Let’s check the code.

From the NumPy documentation:
Bitcoin Price Analysis for 18 June 2018 Based on daily chart analysis
By: Akhil Nayak
Tags: Cryptocurrency, Bitcoin

Bitcoin Price Analysis for 18 June 2018 Based on daily chart analysis

BTC has RSI value of 31.2 close to the oversold region.

It has been observed that as and when BTC price touches the 6450 level, the bulls’ pressure in terms of volume get reduce.

• A good breakout will be considered only if BTC value crossed the 6500 level with very good volume.

• The price is moving in a symmetrical triangle and it is getting tighter as it is reaching the end, which may lead to either side breakout.

The major resistance for today’s trading can be seen at 6500 and 6630 levels whereas the key supports are to be found at 6350 and 6265 levels.

Did you find our technical analysis useful. Let us know what other analysis you would like to get.
Why You Need Plants in Your Home
By: Ashley Lauren
Tags: Self Improvement, Lifestyle, Health, Minimalism, Plants

Why You Need Plants in Your Home

They’re more efficient than even the fanciest air purifier.

What’s in the air in your home?

Ah, how nice it is to get home from a long day of work, kick your shoes off, and take a deep breath of clean air… or is it? Your air is likely guilty of having at least a few (if not all) of these volatile organic compounds (VOCs), which, according to the EPA, are up to 10 times higher in concentration indoors than outdoors:

Formaldehyde: found in floor lacquers, plastics on home appliance and home application settings and even seemingly harmless things such as plywood, paper towels and napkins, paper bags, waxed paper, and tissues.

Ethanol: detergents (dishwasher and laundry), glass cleaners, surface cleaners

Benzene: naturally, it’s produced by forest fires and volcanoes. In the home, you’ll find it in glue, carpeting, paint, paint strippers, rubber lubricants, adhesives, and cigarette smoke

Trichlorethylene: in printing inks, varnishes, adhesives, and used as a degreaser that’s used most often in[home appliances and mechanical items; it’s also used to make refrigerant, which found in air conditioners and refrigerators.

Toluene: heard of TNT fireworks? Toluene is what’s used to make fireworks so flammable! But, in the household, it’s used as a solvent, pain thinner, correction fluid, and adhesive.

Carbon disulfide: tap water treated with chlorine (which is most tap waters) — use a charcoal or carbon filtration system to get rid of this!

Butanal: emissions from burning candles (unless they’re cotton-wicked or pure beeswax), stoves, cigarettes, and barbeque grills

Dichlorobenzene: deodorizers and mothballs — use cedar chips and lavender instead

Xylene: not as much in the home as out on the road — it comes from car exhaust, whether the car is running or in idle but it’s sometimes used as an alternative to toluene in synthetic enamels and anti-rust coatings. It’s also used in rubber, leather, and printing industries.

Ethylene glycol: detergents, pesticides, windshield fluid, antifreeze, adhesives

Acetone: paint, wallpaper, furniture polish, nail polish, nail polish remover

Unfortunately, this is just the beginning — read up on the list of all known volatile organic compounds here. It’s also not just in your home — it’s pretty much everywhere you go, from offices to schools (ever heard of sick building syndrome?) and even restaurants. That’s why addressing the issue in your home, where you spend a large part of your time, is a great starting point.

Good news — plants can eliminate them up to 90% of VOCs in the air — and in 24 hours, no less (try finding an air purifier that’s that efficient)!

NASA, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, Penn State, and study centers for heavily polluted locations in Asia have all reported the effectiveness of plants in reducing VOCs inside homes, offices, and commercial buildings. I’ll save you the time of combing through all those studies by pointing out the major WOW findings:
I said, “Do you love me to my cat.”
By: Toni Crowe
Tags: Cát, Pets, This Happened To Me, Love, Women

I said, “Do you love me to my cat.” Asking for a friend,” I posed this question as I shooed him right before he scarfed a massive hairball into the middle of my bed. The darn cat does all kinds of things that make me think I’m serving at his pleasure. If I’m sitting anywhere, when I get up, the cat is in my spot. Sometimes I must pick him up to move him out of the way. When he eats, he doesn’t want me to make noise or walk around: he stops eating and disdainfully blinks at me. But when I’m eating, the cat is all over me, demanding attention while attempting to climb into my lap. I can hardly write because he sits on my arm, puts his face on mine, then sprawls across my keyboard. Who is the pet here? Maybe it’s me.
Designer Tackles Disposable Coffee Cup Dilemma–And Her Solution is Steaming Hot
By: Seashell News
Tags: Environment

These solidly designed hot beverage cups aren’t the disposable kind — yet you don’t have to bring them back after leaving the shop, and you won’t need to pay extra for the privilege.

As a means of preventing millions of single-use paper cups from being thrown into a landfill, architect Safia Qureshi created CupClub: a reusable takeaway coffee cup program.

While the eco-friendly concept may sound strange at first, it works sort of like a bike sharing scheme.

The cups are made of sturdy recycled polypropylene. All the consumer has to do is finish their drink, and drop it off at a designated collection area. The cups are then collected, washed, and used again for the next customer. The program is working brilliantly in offices and university campuses, where masses of people work and buy their drinks in the same area.

The cups can be used up to 132 times before they are recycled once more. Remarkably, the cups only cost about 21 cents each for the retailer, which is a fraction of what single-use cups, lids, and stirrers cost. The cups contain a chip so the container’s life-cycle can be tracked.

The designer told Dezeen: “You just drink and drop. You go to your favorite coffee shop… You order your coffee with the Cupclub product. The barista will remind you to put the cup in one of the collection points when you’re done, and that’s it. Our orders are directly with the retailer; consumers don’t pay any extra.”

“It makes you a bad designer if you make something that can’t be recycled; if you have no idea of what’s going to happen to your product after it’s been used. You’re not completing the picture or showing responsibility. Why are you doing what you’re doing?” says Qureshi.

CupClub, which was hailed for winning a portion of this year’s $2m New Plastics Economy Innovation Prize from the Ellen MacArther Foundation, has already started implementing the project in businesses and universities across London. They currently have a capacity to serve up to 6 million drinks during their first year.

“Most packaging you see isn’t really designed. It’s just there. No-one’s really thinking about end-of-life. You just don’t get very sophisticated designers looking at everyday products. There’s loads out there for designers and architects to do, instead of getting really excited about chairs. We don’t need more of those. Where is the design thought? The stuff we interact with everyday is all being done by very standard design teams. As designers we obsess over certain categories instead of looking at the whole encompassing world that has been created for us.”
5 Years and Up: Celebrating Our Tenured Team Members
By: Main Street Hub
Tags: Startup, Team, Culture, Company Culture, Professional Development

5 Years and Up: Celebrating Our Tenured Team Members

Some of our earliest employees reveal why they chose to work and stay at Main Street Hub

In today’s competitive workforce, where highly-skilled young people tend to explore a few different companies in order to gain new skills and accelerate their careers, we’re proud that at Main Street Hub, we have so many employees who have chosen to stay on our team long-term.

Main Street Hub was founded in 2010 by our Co-CEOs Andrew Allison and Matt Stuart when they were students at Stanford Graduate School of Business. They wanted to create a business with a higher purpose — one that was mission-driven, values-centric, and where all employees could make an impact. The team started out small, but we are now powered by over 600 employees in Austin, TX proudly serving 10,000 small business customers — helping them elevate their brand online through compelling and creative social media content, authentic online review responses, and professionally-designed, branded email marketing.

We believe a strong culture starts with a strong team, so we’re celebrating some of our earliest team members. Whether it was their first job out of college, exactly what they were looking for when they decided to make a change, or the job that moved them from their hometown to Austin, TX, these Hubsters are telling the stories of how their journeys began at Main Street Hub.

They talk about what those first years were like at a high-growth, fast-paced, startup environment and why they’ve stayed. They discuss their favorite aspects of the team, the mission, and the company overall — and along with other reasons, why having a common goal of helping local businesses thrive and building lasting friendships has made Main Street Hub feel like home to them. From Product to Customer Success to Content to Sales, meet some of our most tenured team members:

Starring:

Jessica Billeaud, Senior Product Marketing Manager

Laura Brehmer, Executive Assistant

Clement Carrington, Manager, Platform Operations

J King, Sales Representative

Molly Koerner, Manager, Content

Jordan Lloyd, Senior Manager, Onboarding

Sarah Milbrath, Product Marketing Manager

Andy Moore, Manager, Customer Operations

Megan Venable, Manager, Training and Quality Assurance

Check out some throwback photos of these tenured team members:
Apprenez à nouveau (ça vaut le coup)
By: Mathieu Nebra
Tags: Entrepreneurship, Education, Learning

in In Fitness And In Health
Rekap AMA: Crypto Expert X DAO Maker Indonesia
By: Dao Maker Indonesia
Tags: Dao Maker, Indonesia, Cryptocurrency, Blockchain, Community

Who is DAO Maker?

A lot of the people know DAO Maker, previously ICO DOG for years already, however we never formally introduced…
Introducing: Saarim Aslam
By: Saarim Aslam
Tags: Personal Growth, Storytelling, Autobiography, Life, Self

Introducing: Saarim Aslam

An assistant psychologist and writer.

Saarim Aslam

About

Growing up, I was always passionate about sports and fitness. I remember always playing football and cricket on the roads with my cousins on the weekends — often getting in trouble for hitting cars and windows with the cricket ball or football!

My mum and dad, thankfully, got me swimming at a very early age and despite initially being scared of the water, I went on to represent London and South East Region of England in swimming competitions, training 4–5 times a week and sometimes in the early hours of the morning before sixth form.

I also have a passion for music. I learned how to play the guitar and I went on to perform in talent shows and for charity.

As I went through school and sixth form I never really knew what I wanted to do in the future. I decided to try different things to see what I would like. I did work experience in a dental practice, I volunteered at a care home for people with mental health difficulties but I also had dreams of being a professional footballer or swimming in the Olympics.

During sixth form, I started studying psychology. Right from my first lesson, I knew this was the career path for me and I went on to graduate with a first-class honours degree in psychology, from university. I am currently working as an assistant psychologist for the NHS in the UK — which I love.

My role involves providing psychological support to family members and carers of people with psychosis on identified problems such as anxiety, sleep, depression, self-care etc.
Cinnaminson Board of Education adopts budget with tax increase
By: Jack Tomczuk
Tags: Schools, Education, Budget

Cinnaminson Board of Education adopts budget with tax increase

Residents with an average assessed home will see an increase of about $92

The Cinnaminson Township Board of Education voted unanimously April 24 to adopt a 2018–2019 budget with a 2 percent tax increase for residents.

Homeowners with an average assessed property of $232,338 will pay $91.62 more under the approved budget, which equates to an extra $7.64 a month.

The bulk of the $51 million budget comes from the local tax levy, but the district did see an increase of about $226,000 in state aid thanks to Gov. Murphy’s budget plan. In total, the state’s contribution to next year’s budget is slated to be $9.3 million.

“We’re certainly appreciative to the state for recognizing districts like ours that have been habitually underfunded for years,” Superintendent Stephen Cappello said during his budget presentation.

The share of the budget funded by state aid is still far below what the district saw in years past, Cappello said. He said the state covered 32 percent of the budget in 2001 and now only picks up about 20 percent of the tab.

“It’s not a time to politicize the school funding formula, but clearly there is a disconnect between the demands that are expected of school districts today — which are even greater than they were 16, 17 years ago — and the amount of funding there is to support those,” Cappello said.

Resident Dan Silvio, the only member of the public to speak at the meeting, questioned whether district officials examined all the ways they could cut back before implementing a tax increase.

“I always see what’s needed, but I’ve never seen what’s not needed,” he said.

“There are a lot of seniors in this town that can’t afford another $100,” Silvio added. “Every year it’s always going up. It’s never going down, or it’s never neutral.”

Cappello said he was open to meeting with Silvio and any other interested taxpayers to discuss the specifics of the budget.

“I can tell you, as a superintendent, I am very fiscally minded,” he said. “We are constantly looking for areas to identify inefficiencies.”

The budget plan approved last week will maintain all personnel and programs from the current year’s budget, Cappello said.

He said it also includes the addition of an engineering program at Cinnaminson High School and a special education program at Eleanor Rush Intermediate School, along with funding for the replacement of buses and maintenance of school facilities.
[CodeChain X Bithumb] Series A Investment and Strategic Alliance Partnership
By: Jaewon Park
Tags: Codechain, Events, Sto, Blockchain, Bithumb

We are thrilled to announce that we have closed our series A round with strategic investments from Bithumb, a global cryptocurrency exchange, who is now expanding its digital securities businesses across the globe. This deal has positioned CodeChain as the only project backed by two of the biggest exchange operators in Korea.

Through our new strategic partnership, CodeChain will provide the technical infrastructure so that the security tokens issued in the highly regulated financial markets can be traded in a regulatory-friendly and secure manner.

CodeChain is a purpose-driven blockchain network with built-in issuance and exchange protocols so that digital assets issued on CodeChain can be programmed and customized to comply with the regulations of the jurisdictions the businesses are operated.

Apart from our new strategic client, we have initiated projects with B-Seed partners, Makestar, STBase, Art Together and many more. So stay tuned for more exciting news!
Spirit
By: Sean Zhai
Tags: Poetry On Medium, Spirituality, Nature, Haiku, Environment

Haiku is a form of poetry usually inspired by nature, which embraces simplicity. We invite all poetry lovers to have a go at composing Haiku. Be warned. You could become addicted.

Follow
Crypto Price Rally May Be Due to Unexpected News
By: Ivy Riane
Tags: News, Finance, Cryptocurrency, Bitcoin, Investing

Photo by Andre Francois on Unsplash

The price rally yesterday of more than $1,000 in less than an hour was exciting! I saw a post about it on Steem and took to Google to find more information on what was going on.

Bitcoin passed $8,000 for the first time in quite a while and Steem jumped about 40%. I’ve just got to say that I was more than a little bit ecstatic by this news!

The market is awash right now with speculation and rumor but what is next for all of us? What is next for the crypto industry?

Last I looked, all major coins are in the green now with IOTA leading the pack in growth and the total market cap for the industry jumped to over $300 Billion! Yay!

Why The Jump?

At first, I thought that the price jump was due to the fact that tax season is over in just a couple more days but my research indicates otherwise.

Only .04% of US taxpayers actually have paid taxes on crypto assets so it is likely that not everyone has paid taxes on their capital gains from 2017… at least not yet. Maybe everyone will end up paying their taxes by the deadline… or maybe not.

But, one piece of news that kind of flew under the radar of the crypto space yesterday was that crypto is now considered to be halal under Islamic law. Halal means that it is allowed by Sharia Law.

The opposite of Halal is Haram, which means “to be forbidden.”

This news is huge for the crypto market, no matter how long you have been investing or speculating.

Why?

Because now there are 1.6 Billion Muslim people that have been given permission to invest in crypto if they choose to do so.

Photo by Firdouss Ross on Unsplash

Is It Ironic That the Price of Bitcoin Jumped Right After That Announcement?!

I guess it’s possible, but I don’t think that is likely!

Olga Feldmeier, CEO of Smart Valor, a financial tech startup, had this to say about the rise in price:

“Many speculated that the sentiment around bitcoin was getting more positive, and that it may have been related to Sharia law compliance. Others assumed there was unwinding of a large short-selling position. I personally think that this rise was due to a large institutional investor.”

There is not really a way to tell exactly where the influx of cash into the crypto market came from because addresses in crypto are fairly anonymous, so there is no telling who put the money in but it seems that it is likely that Muslims that are finally allowed to invest will be doing so soon.

I would love to know what you think about the current market trend. What do you think caused the uptick in price and where do you see the market going from here? Are we going to continue to rise or is this a temporary rise?

Tell me your thoughts!

Thanks so much for reading!

Ivy
Music — 2020. The best albums that brought me through…
Tags: Music

The best albums that brought me through 2020.

Synthwave

[5*] ORAX — Film

[5*] Waveshaper — Artifact

[5*] NewRetroWave — Magnatron III

—

[4*] Deadlife — Dark Nation

[4*] Waveshaper — The Disk Hunter

[4*] Deadlife — Singularity

[4*] Deadlife — Variations on the Resolve

[4*] Deadlife — Orphan

[4*] Deadlife — City of Eternal Rain

[4*] Robert Parker — Crystal City

[4*] Robert Parker — End of The Night

[4*] Swayze — The Beginning

[4*] Victor Love — Technomancy

[4*] Carbon Based Lifeforms — Derelicts

[4*] NewRetroWave — In Search of Darkness

[4*] CYBERTHING! — KIRA

Rock / Metal …

[5*] Avenged Sevenfold — The Stage (2016, Metal Prog)

[5*] Avenged Sevenfold — Hail to the King (2013, Metal)

[5*] Pain Of Salvation — In the Passing Light of Day (2017, Metal Prog)

[5*] Pain Of Salvation — Panther (2020, Metal Prog)

[5*] IQ — Resistance (2019, Rock Prog)

[5*] No One Is Innocent — Frankenstein (2019, Rock)

[5*] Muse — Simulation Theory (2018, Rock)

[5*] Nas — King’s Disease (2020, Hip-Hop)

—

[4*] Leprous — Pitfalls (2019, Metal Prog)

[4*] Fish — A Parley with Angels (2018, Rock Prog)

[4*] Fish — Weltmerz (2020, Rock Prog)

[4*] Anathema — The Optimist (2019, Rock Prog)

[4*] Haken — Aquarius (2010, Rock Prog)

[4*] Haken — Vector (2018, Rock Prog)

[4*] Haken — Virus (2020, Rock Prog)

[4*] Lunatic Soul — Through Shaded Woods (2020, Rock Prog)

[4*] Ozzy Osbourne — Ordinary Man (2020, Metal)

[4*] Ozzy Osbourne — Scream (2010, Metal)

[4*] Mass Hysteria — Matière Noire (2015, Metal)

[4*] Mass Hysteria — Maniac (2018, Metal)

[4*] Seether — Si Vis Pacem, Para Bellum (2020, Metal)

[4*] Five Finger Death Punch — 8 (2020, Metal)

[4*] Five Finger Death Punch — And Justice for None (2018, Metal)

[4*] Stereophonics — Kind (2019, Rock)

[4*] Steven Wilson — 12 Things I Forgot (2020, Rock Prog)

[4*] Sam Fenders — Hypersonic Missiles (2019, Rock)

[4*] Deftones — Ohms (2020, Metal)

[3*] The Pineapple Thief — Versions of the Truth (2020, Rock Prog)

Avenged Sevenfold — The Stage (live)

P.S.: ImageMagick code reminder for thumbnails creation:
Essential
Tags: Life, Warm Hearts, Self-awareness, Love, Kindness

During this unprecedented moment in our lives it can be hard to get our heads above the water. Each day is slowly taking its toll on my mind and body. Physically, mentally, and emotionally, I’m at my wits end, but I continue to move forward. People are counting on me. They need me just as much as I need them.

Let’s continue to lift the spirits of those around us. Sending love and positive vibes to all those who may be feeling less than perfect. Together we will get through this.

ShaRhonda 2020.
What To Do After Closing The Deal? Here’s Our Suggestion
By: Fireside Post, Business Satire
Tags: Satire, Sales Development, Sales, Humor, Clients

So you finally closed that big sale and have that feeling of self-accomplishment. After dozens of cold calls, multiple product demos, and countless instances of promising things that your company probably can’t do — you finally got them to sign on the line which is dotted.

You probably even utilized some of those foot-in-the-door techniques.

But what do you do now?

A lot of blogs out there will tell you things like:

| “Keep your promises and be sure you are committed to delivering the product”

or:

| “Stay focused and find new prospects”

or:

| “Try and upsell them because if anything, people love getting things sold down their throat right after they bought your shit”

Of course, these are important. Keep your pipeline fresh. Hunt your new leads like a lion hunting a wounded impala in the Sahara. Since you’re in sales, we assume that you learned your ABC’s from Glengarry Glen Ross.

But for any recent close, the most important thing for you to do is to spend that commission money like it’s coming out your metaphorical asshole.

You just earned some serious cash — goddammit go treat yourself.

Depending on whether you just sold CRM software to your local tarot card reader or a new architecture plan to the Crown Prince of Montenegro — your budget will vary.

Here at the Fireside Post, we put together our hand-picked list of frivolous shit you should spend that hard earned cash on:
You Don’t Need Writing Motivation — You Need a Writing System
By: Rob Stux
Tags: Self Improvement, Life Lessons, Marketing, Productivity, Writing

A Messy Path

About one year ago, I decided to start a blog. I wanted to make sense of my random thoughts and was excited to share my ideas with the world.

Naive as I was, I bought a domain — ok, three(I didn’t like the first two). I started a small Wordpress blog and hoped that people would come to my site.

Obviously, that didn’t work out. Almost no one visited my little blog.

“That’s no problem at all,” I told myself. If people don’t come to me, I will go to them. I realized that I needed to get active on a bigger internet platform, like this one. After I binged hundred of articles, I subscribed to the premium service and eventually decided to publish my first article.

I followed some amazing people, found interesting publications, and published more articles. Every once in a while, I checked my stats (all 20 minutes, cough).

Basically, my activities looked like this:

However, after a few days of following, commenting, and writing, I felt overwhelmed. I was paralyzed by the massive amount of opportunities this platform has to offer. There are just too many good articles, marketing hacks, and writing tips for one person to ever read or implement.

Nevertheless, I wanted to make it work — so I kept running without any particular goal. I had no clue what I was doing, let alone a clear plan.
In Brighton for Labour Conference
By: Paul Mason
Tags: Politics, Momentum, Labour

Paul Mason, journalist, writer and broadcaster

Where to find me…

I’ll be in Brighton for the whole of Labour’s 2019 conference and for The World Transformed. I’ll be filming and writing about the conference but also doing some public speaking and a book signing… updated list below. For media requests, please SMS, DM or WhatsApp me

Saturday 21/9

2pm Trust The People Rally, Hove Lawns

Sunday 22/9

1pm Fabian Fringe: How would Labour defend the UK and use our influence abroad, Holiday Inn

3pm The World Transformed: Daring to Dream: Utopias for the 21st century, Green Door Store

Mon 23/9

12 noon: Clear Bright Future, book signing, City Books, Brighton Conference Centre

Tues 24/9

5.30pm IPPR Fringe: How can the economy be prosperous and just? Hilton Brighton Metropole
Personal Guilty Pleasures
By: Louise Peacock
Tags: Guilty Pleasure, Photography, Food, Movies

Music

Music, like art, is very much an individual taste, but some things, like admitting to still liking Elvis, are a bit funky. My big weakness is …

Abba — I love the sappy, easy to hum tunes of Abba.

Movies

Sappy 1930s' and 1940s’ comedy romances — too many to list all but include “It Happened One Night” with Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert, “Blonde Bombshell” with Jean Harlow.

Mama Mia — Okay now this one isn’t perfect, but I loved it. Great music, lots of fun. Leaves me smiling every time.

Ishtar — This is one of the silliest movies ever, but it actually is a bit of a political statement by the director, making fun of the U.S. government, the secret service, also making fun of the music industry and how a totally talentless pair of songwriters are able to basically blackmail the U.S. government into paying to record an album. Warren Beatty and Dustin Hoffman are perfect as the two musican hacks, and Charles Grodin is super as the sneaky CIA agent. The Director is Elaine May.

Mean Girls. Okay, so this is really a teen movie. Don’t care — love it, and have watched it many times.

Burn After Reading — this one is a Coen Brothers creation. I love it. Doesn’t matter how many times I see it, I laugh. John Malkovich as the paranoid ex-secret service agent; George Clooney as the uncontrollable womanizer, Brad Pitt as the idiotic health club trainer …just to mention a few.

School of Rock — love this. I know a lot of folks do not like Jack Black, but he is PERFECT in this. The performances by the kids are great and the whole movie is very entertaining.

Oklahoma — a sucky musical with some amazing songs. The story is a bit weak, but it has some fantastic performances and great show tunes.

Television

WRKP in Cincinnati. I worked for three radio stations and in every single one, all the WRKP characters were found. Yes, even Les Nessman, bandages and all.

Computer Games

Solitaire on the computer. When I am feeling brain-dead, uninspired, or upset about anything, I find that the mindless computer solitaire program is great. I have actually had to ration myself, since I tend to keep at it, obsessively attempting to beat my last score.

Food

You may have guessed, from the lead image, that fresh-baked scones with butter and jam are a weakness for me. Add a little fresh, clotted cream and I will fistfight for them.

But my most yearned after dessert is Pavlova. An amazing creation made with slightly crispy meringue topping, whipped cream, and fresh strawberries or raspberries.
a new writing guide for you
By: Nicole Bianchi
Tags: Creativity, Inspiration, Books, Writing, Writing Tips

Hi there,

Hope all of your writing projects are going well. I just wanted to let you know about the latest article published at Copywriting Secrets.

How to Craft a Conclusion That Will Make Your Writing Memorable

Hope you find this guide helpful. Have a fantastic week!

Cheers,

Nicole
Avoid These Common Cryptocurrency Trading Mistakes
By: Tim Ventura
Tags: Technology, Trading, Cryptocurrency, Bitcoin, Crypto Market

It’s easy to create an account on Coinbase, Binance, or one of the many other cryptocurrency exchanges and start day-trading. In fact, it’s too easy, because it creates a false sense of confidence & security that may lead to making poor decisions with your money.

1. Crypto Trading Is Very Risky

Long-term bitcoin trend from CoinMarketCap

So starting out, my first piece of advice is to realize that cryptocurrency speculation is inherently a gamble, so don’t invest money you can’t afford to lose. The crypto market is highly volatile, and coin prices rise & fall on sometimes an hourly basis, driven by hype, news coverage, and a dozen other factors.

In the long-term chart for Bitcoin shown above, you can see massive gains & losses in value over a period of months that speculators can profit from. What you don’t see on this chart are the daily ups & downs that affect short-term day-traders, and that can be really dangerous.
From The Heart
By: Bruce Noll
Tags: Gratitude, Men, Life, Masculinity, Blue Insights

Male relationships manifest in many forms and in many ways. This is a brief story of gratitude at a time of year when gifts are being exchanged. This is a gift to my ManKind Project brothers for their work as men and for their involvement in my life.

I share a bond with each man in this organization…one that cannot be broken. This bond can be given up, released, but it can never be rescinded or broken. I am indebted to these men for so many reasons but the primary one is they are masters at providing a safe place for me and all men to show up, be themselves, and change the landscape of masculinity.

My story began 6 years ago and I am still on the journey of my life and I would not be where I am without any one of them. These men are not only my friends, but they are also my brothers and the bond we share is not in our genes or muscle, it’s in our heart and spirit.

It’s not what they do or how they do it…it’s why they do what they do that makes them special. Every one of these men is a man who is working on his life, his journey, just like I am. Each of us is seeking accountability, authenticity, compassion, generosity, integrity, leadership, multicultural awareness, and respect. It’s not at all about being a man, it’s about being the man we believe we can be.

These men have made it safe for me to speak my truth, they’ve offered me feedback when necessary, and when I have been in my darkest moments, they have been there to hold me without rescuing me from myself.

I am because they are here, and they have something I need, and I am here because they need what I have to offer. We are gifts to and for each other. We recognize a piece of ourselves when we look into the mirror we present.

I am deeply grateful for their lives and at this time of year I can wish them greetings or I can offer them my love and gratitude.

Thank you brothers for who you are and for the work you are doing to change the world, one man, at a time!
Media Literacy Starts With Students
By: Mcgraw Hill
Tags: Media Literacy, Social Emotional Learning, Education, Classroom, Teaching

Media Literacy Starts With Students

Five Resources to Aid Media Literacy Education

This week, October 26 to 30, we celebrate Media Literacy Week. Hosted by the National Association for Media Literacy Education (NAMLE), Media Literacy Week works to highlight the power of media literacy education and its essential role in education all across the country.

Media literacy is becoming increasingly important in today’s society as media is primarily created and consumed online. Equipping students with the skills they need to be smart consumers of information helps shape them into strong digital citizens capable of evaluating resources for objectivity and participating in safe and healthy digital conversations. To celebrate Media Literacy Week and to support educators as they promote these important skills, we have compiled a collection of educational resources below.

Learn About The Core Principles of Media Literacy Education

Media literacy highlights the importance of accessing, analyzing, evaluating, creating, and acting in all forms of communication. According to the NAMLE, media literacy “builds upon the foundation of traditional literacy and offers new forms of reading and writing. Media literacy empowers people to be critical thinkers and makers, effective communicators and active citizens.”

Understand Why Media Literacy is an Important 21st Century Skill

Media Literacy helps students develop the skills they need to evaluate and consume media. It allows them to determine the credibility of media and safely participate in online conversations. In addition, it encourages strong digital citizenship and proactivism.

Evaluate the Credibility of Digital Content

How do you discern the difference between a credible source and media bias? Critical thinking and close reading are key. See below for ISTE’s top resources for evaluating media.

Encourage Digital Citizenship

Media literacy is one aspect of what it means to be a digital citizen. Digital citizenship encompasses the responsible use of computers, the Internet, and digital devices to engage with society. Digital citizenship is an essential skill in today’s technology-dominated world, and helps students develop smart online behavior.

Incorporate Social and Emotional Learning (SEL)

Media literacy and digital citizenship touch on many of CASEL’s core SEL competencies, including social awareness and responsible decision-making. In the below article, coauthors and media education experts Jennifer LaGarde and Darren Hudgins connect media ethics to each of CASEL’s key competencies, while providing strategies for teachers interested in introducing media literacy into their instruction.
It’s Actually a Good Thing The Avatar Creators Left the Netflix Remake
By: Kevin Tash
Tags: Television, Culture, Avatar The Last Airbender, Netflix, Writing

The tl;dr of this is that I honestly just think that with the story decisions Konietzko and DiMartino have made in their universe past the original shows ending, it’s time for them to pass the reigns. Not only for the story decisions I mentioned above, but other bits of the lore they added.

Like how in Legend of Korra, the new backstory for bending they give undermines the lore from the original show. Or how the comics explain that Koh the Face Stealer steals faces because he has mommy issues. Or how DiMartino poorly wrote the explanation of gay rights in the Avatar universe in the Korra comics, which is a whole other issue deserving of its own piece.

It reminds me of how JK Rowling got after the release of the final Harry Potter book, just without the whole transphobic rhetoric. Like why is Dumbledore gay if you never want to actually show or state it in the movies or books? Why do you feel the need to tell us wizards would just shit on the floor in the middle of class and then magic it away because… wizards hated plumbing? It’s unnecessary and weird and please stop.

Now, I know what you’re thinking. You’re thinking “this is why the live-action Last Airbender movie was bad, it’s going to happen again!” and to that I say, calm down. That movie was bad because they didn’t hire the person with the right vision for the remake. As long as the show hires the right person we will be fine.

And judging how Netflix has handled some of their other IP based shows like Daredevil and Umbrella Academy, I honestly think they have a good track record. Just let's all forget about the weird Death Note movie, I think that one was an exception to the rule.

Great things have been made in franchises without the original creators. The new Watchmen show by Damon Lindelof is amazing, The Mandalorian is the most universally beloved Star Wars content since Empire Strikes Back (any Star Wars show or movie not having a divisive controversy is a miracle at this point), the MCU was written with hardly any input from any of the comic writers and artists that created the stories the movies were based on, the list goes on.

To be honest when the show was announced I always thought it was a bad idea. Part of what made the original show so amazing was the lighting in the bottled energy that occurred when the original writing team and animators worked together in that time and place. It can’t be replicated again. They tried with Korra but not all the team came back, and again I love Korra, but it shows and it’s not the same. Nothing could be the same as the original show.
Two ways to confirm the ending of a String in JavaScript
By: Sonya Moisset
Tags: Technology, JavaScript, Learning, Algorithms, Programming

In this article, I’ll explain how to solve freeCodeCamp’s “Confirm the Ending” challenge. This involves checking whether a string ends with specific sequence of characters.

There are the two approaches I’ll cover:

using the substr() method using endsWith() method

The Algorithm Challenge Description

Check if a string (first argument, str ) ends with the given target string (second argument, target ). This challenge can be solved with the .endsWith() method, which was introduced in ES2015. But for the purpose of this challenge, we would like you to use one of the JavaScript substring methods instead.

Provided test cases

confirmEnding("Bastian", "n") should return true. confirmEnding("Connor", "n") should return false. confirmEnding("Walking on water and developing software from a specification are easy if both are frozen", "specification") should return false. largestOfFour([[4, 9, 1, 3], [13, 35, 18, 26], [32, 35, 97, 39], [1000000, 1001, 857, 1]]) should return [9, 35, 97, 1000000].

confirmEnding("He has to give me a new name", "name") should return true. confirmEnding("Open sesame", "same") should return true. confirmEnding("Open sesame", "pen") should return false. confirmEnding("If you want to save our world, you must hurry. We dont know how much longer we can withstand the nothing", "mountain") should return false. Do not use the built-in method .endsWith() to solve the challenge.

Approach #1: Confirm the Ending of a String With Built-In Functions — with substr()

For this solution, you’ll use the String.prototype.substr() method:

The substr() method returns the characters in a string beginning at the specified location through the specified number of characters.

Why are you using string.substr(-target.length) ?

If the target.length is negative, the substr() method will start the counting from the end of the string, which is what you want in this code challenge.

You don’t want to use string.substr(-1) to get the last element of the string, because if the target is longer than one letter:

confirmEnding("Open sesame", "same")

…the target won’t return at all.

So here string.substr(-target.length) will get the last index of the string ‘Bastian’ which is ‘n’.

Then you check whether string.substr(-target.length) equals the target (true or false).

Without comments:

You can use a ternary operator as a shortcut for the if statement:

(string.substr(-target.length) === target) ? true : false;

This can be read as:

if (string.substr(-target.length) === target) {

return true;

} else {

return false;

}

You then return the ternary operator in your function:

You can also refactor your code to make it more succinct by just returning the condition: