fabiochiu/medium-articles huggingface dataset:
Seek and You Will Find
By: Tyler Piteo-Tarpy
Tags: Short Story, Storytelling, Adventure, Fiction, Creative Writing

Seek and You Will Find

A Very Short Adventure Story

NYC Midnight 100-word Microfiction Challenge 2020 (Round 2):

Genre: action and/or adventure

action and/or adventure Action: hugging someone

hugging someone Word: remind

After hugging his sweetheart goodbye, Jim jumped into a biplane and screeched dramatically into the sky.

“When I get back, I’ll be famous!”

“Just get back.”

Lost in thought, Jim suddenly realized he was losing altitude, fast. Miles of dark jungle below, somewhere in there was hidden treasure. He could try going down on water and continuing the search…

“Of course I’ll get back.”

“Sometimes you just need a reminder.”

The propeller rattled to a stop and the nose dipped; Jim’s stomach sank with the plane and he made his choice. Betsy watched him turn around and smile at her.
On This Day — Over One-Third of the U.S. Covered by Transgender-Inclusive Anti-Discrimination Protections
By: National Center For Transgender Equality
Tags: Iowa, LGBT Rights, Transgender, LGBTQ, Ncteotd

This piece was originally published 11 years ago today.

Today Iowa made a historic stride forward in protecting the civil rights of transgender people. With bipartisan support, Iowa’s House of Representatives voted 59–37 to approve a bill outlawing discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity. The Iowa Senate affirmed their desire to see this bill become law with a concurrence vote of 34–16.

“The National Center for Transgender Equality congratulates advocates in Iowa who helped the Hawkeye state become the tenth state to pass a law that explicitly protects transgender people from discrimination,” said Mara Keisling, executive director of NCTE. “This legislation represents a huge civil rights victory for Iowa’s transgender communities, but we must continue to fight for explicitly transgender-inclusive protections on the federal level so people nationwide can access opportunities for employment, housing, and public accommodations without fear of discriminatory practices.”

Governor Culver is expected to sign the bill into law thus making it illegal to discriminate in employment, public accommodation, credit, housing and education based on a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity.

Recognizing the need to curb rampant discrimination against transgender people, now ten states, the District of Columbia and 80+ cities and counties across the country have passed explicitly transgender-inclusive anti-discrimination laws. These laws currently cover over one-third of the US population.
Have Faith
By: Ivette Cruz
Tags: Faith, Micropoetry, Spiritual Secrets, Poetry, Spirituality

I am a warrior of life, striving to be a better person every day. Finding my voice on writing.

Follow
A Go lang Bitcoin tutorial has been published
By: Lin Li
Tags: Golang, Blockchain, Mixinnetwork, Tutorial, Bitcoin

Mixin team has published a Bitcoin tutorial based on Golang. The developer can receive and send bitcoin, and create bitcoin wallet after reading the tutorial.

Create Mixin messenger bot to receive message

How to receive Bitcoin and send Bitcoin in Mixin Messenger

Create Bitcoin wallet and read balance

There are many SDK, tutorials, and open source projects created by Mixin Network community.
Time To Say Goodbye
By: Marla Bishop
Tags: Idea Stream, The Bad Influence, Covid 19, Writing Prompts, Poem

Ideastream

Time To Say Goodbye

Ode to an apple-knocker

Photo by Darren Halstead on Unsplash

You cannae accept you're a loser

Because you a total apple-knocker

A covidiot who caused untold pain and death

with this unnecessary coronapocalypse

Time to stop talking argie-bargie

on Twitter, and elsewhere

We don’t need your concession speech

Just leave and let those with a little attic salt

Find an argute way to free us

from the coronaporn apoptosis

you’ve led us into
The Marine Architects
Tags: Sea, Haiku, Poetry, Fiction, Giabprompt

The majestic inhabitants of the ocean world are truly a source of inspiration for writers. The prompt #9: Marine Life had inspired some awesome creations from our wonderful GiaB writers.

It’s an honour to announce the editor’s picks for Victor’s fortnightly prompt #9: Marine Life. As always, it was not an easy job.

Here we go. The much awaited editor’s picks —

The Magnified Fishbowl by Daniel A. Teo

Fish, Sea, and Eternity by Rhonda Marrone

Ariel and Finding Nemo by Tooth Truth Roopa Vikesh
Anthemis Insurtech Forum: The Future of Life, Health and Retirement
By: Matthew Jones
Tags: Retirement Planning, Venture Capital, Life Insurance, Insurance, Insurtech

In contrast with innovation in property and casualty insurance, lines of business like life, health and retirement are often said to be the ‘forgotten’ part of insurtech. With this in mind, we felt that it was time to shine a light on this huge part of the insurance industry, as well as some of the great work being done to generate efficiencies and improve customer experience.

Our expert session, hosted by me and Ruth Foxe Blader, featured Melissa Danielsen from Joshin, Rich LaVoice from Symetra, and Rhian Horgan from Kindur. We questioned:

How are life, health and retirement insurers preparing themselves for their futures?

Is product innovation the secret to reimagining life and health insurance?

What are insurers investing in today, to future-proof their businesses?

When you stop to think about it, life insurance is both a strange and complicated purchase to make. The options — level term? Variable universal life? The length — compared to a typical home insurance policy lasting 12 months, a typical life insurance policy can be 15, 20 or even 25 years in length. Finally, the benefit — you, as the buyer, never get the benefit you’re buying (that’s right, peace of mind is what you get).

Yet, against the backdrop of all of the above, the life and retirement industry seems to be experiencing change at a rate never seen before. Traditionally, these products have been sold face to face. Amid a pandemic, what does this mean for insurers? As Rich from Symetra shared, it partly means a need to adapt to digital processes, including Zoom. “You have to find new ways to interact — I see a proliferation of digitised tools to enable sellers to be more efficient and effective.”

But: is product innovation enough? As Rhian from Kindur commented, “product innovation is definitely the start, but at times there is so much focused on individual product innovation that we forget what the total customer experience is.” Addressing this, the company has launched Silvur, a new all-in-one retirement planning app that empowers boomers to reach their goals during times of market uncertainty. Now customers can track their retirement goals and increase their retiree paycheck, all in one place.

In health, we’ve observed that innovation goes well beyond the distribution of health insurance. It also extends to the provision of other services that can help to address an individual’s (or family’s) overall wellbeing. Take Joshin, for example. Families download Joshin and get matched with a network of local, experienced and screened caregivers. Families can pay for their Joshin membership through their self-directed Medicaid budget, with a private pay option also available. Date night (together with your sanity) is back on the cards.

To hear more about the impact of technology on the life, health and retirement industries, sign up and listen! If you have missed any of our recent insurance webinars, check out the replays here.
How Much Protein Do You Really Need?
By: Lisa Lindey
Tags: Healthy Lifestyle, Health, Nutrition, Nutrition Coaching, Weight Loss

But how much do you need? It depends on a range of things such as age, sex, how much you workout, etc but here’s a rough guide:

The recommended minimum protein intake for sedentary, generally healthy adults is 0.8 grams of protein per kg of body mass. That’s about 55 grams of protein per day for a 150 pound person. That’s just the baseline amount you need to function.

During high intensity training the protein intake would increase to about 1.4 to 2.0 grams of protein per kg of body mass. That would be about 95–135 grams of protein for a 150 pound person.

If you are over 65 you should aim for around 2 grams of protein per kg of body mass to help replace the lean muscle you naturally lose as you get older.

Should you try to get all of your protein in one sitting? No. The ideal amount of protein to eat at each meal should be around 35 grams. Focus on getting around 25–35 grams with each meal and supplement with some protein rich snacks during the day. Anything more than 35 grams isn’t absorbed by the muscles.

Does it matter if I get my protein from protein supplements or whole foods? Whole food protein is usually preferred to supplements due to their slower rate of absorption and because of the more complete micronutrient profile. But, especially people who follow a vegan/vegetarian diet, you may need to supplement. I personally use a protein powder everyday (I follow a vegan diet) in the morning and try to get the rest of my protein through plant based whole foods.

I hope this clears up any protein confusion. If you have any other questions about protein or nutrition in general let me know!

Sources

https://www.precisionnutrition.com

https://www.menshealth.com/nutrition/a19525156/how-much-protein-can-your-muscles-absorb/
Episode 69: The Evolution of Mix Tapes, with Audius
Tags: Audius, Blockchanneltv, Ethereum, Music, Entertainment

Press play! And be sure to subscribe no matter where you’re listening.

On this episode of BlockChannel, McKie, Dr. Petty and Dee finally may have found someone who can bring crypto + music & audio to the masses. We’re joined by Roneil Rumburg, CEO of Audius, and an all around incredibly nice guy. He’s sharp: he understands Ethereum; he built on Bitcoin back in the day; and is familiar with the music industry. His team realizes the barriers that stand between Audius, and mass adoption — and we think he just might succeed. We discuss the platform, his vision for the future, and have some laughs along the way.

Show Link(s):

Audius Website: https://audius.co

Intro/Outro Music “On The Way” by OvaEastMeech:

https://soundcloud.com/ovaeastmeech/im-on-the-way-1

Show Sponsor(s):

Amentum: amentum.org

Disclaimer: This is not investment advice, it is an engaged discussion on new technology; BlockChannel reminds you to always do your own due diligence before investing in any crypto-related project in the industry.

More ways to listen to BlockChannel 🎧:

⚡️Overcast: Subscribe on Overcast

⚡️Spotify: Subscribe on Spotify

⚡️iTunes: Subscribe on iTunes

⚡️Stitcher: Subscribe on Stitcher

⚡️Google Play: Subscribe on the Play Store

⚡️Tunein: Listen on Tunein
Under the hood of React’s hooks system
By: Eytan Manor
Tags: JavaScript, Web Development, App Development, Functional Programming, React

Now that we got that simple encapsulation mechanism covered, I would like us to move to the core of this article — the hooks. Right off the bat I’d like to introduce you to a new concept:

The hooks queue

Behind the scenes, hooks are represented as nodes which are linked together in their calling order. They’re represented like so because hooks are not simply created and then left alone. They have a mechanism which allows them to be what they are. A hook has several properties which I would like you to bare in mind before diving into its implementation:

Its initial state is created in the initial render.

Its state can be updated on the fly.

React would remember the hook’s state in future renders.

React would provide you with the right state based on the calling order.

React would know which fiber does this hook belong to.

Accordingly, we need to rethink the way we view the a component’s state. So far we have thought about it as if it’s a plain object:

React state — the old way.

But when dealing with hooks it should be viewed as a queue, where each node represents a single model of the state:

React state — the new way.

The schema of a single hook node can be viewed in the implementation. You’ll see that the hook has some additional properties, but the key for understanding how hooks work lies within memoizedState and next . The rest of the properties are used specifically by the useReducer() hook to cache dispatched actions and base states so the reduction process can be repeated as a fallback in various cases:

baseState - The state object that would be given to the reducer.

- The state object that would be given to the reducer. baseUpdate - The most recent dispatched action that created the baseState .

- The most recent dispatched action that created the . queue - A queue of dispatched actions, waiting to go through the reducer.

Unfortunately I haven’t managed to get a good grasp around the reducer hook because I didn’t manage to reproduce almost any of its edge cases, so I wouldn’t feel comfortable to elaborate. I will only say that the reducer implementation is so inconsistent that even one of the comments in the implementation itself states that “(it’s) not sure if these are the desired semantics”; so how am I supposed to be sure?!

So back to hooks, before each and every function Component invocation, a function named prepareHooks() is gonna be called, where the current fiber and its first hook node in the hooks queue are gonna be stored in global variables. This way, any time we call a hook function ( useXXX() ) it would know in which context to run.

Hooks queue implementation in a nutshell.

Once an update has finished, a function named finishHooks() will be called, where a reference for the first node in the hooks queue will be stored on the rendered fiber in the memoizedState property. This means that the hooks queue and their state can be addressed externally:
Slackjaw Humor Writing Challenge: The Winners
By: Alex Baia
Tags: Humor, Satire, Writing, Comedy Writing, Comedy

In August, we announced The Slackjaw Humor Writing Challenge, a 30-day extravaganza of focused comedy writing, open to all, with a $1,000 grand prize and two $500 runner-up prizes.

After reading and reading and reading (and re-reading) the 380 (!) entries, we realized we needed to add a dozen $100 finalist prizes and 20 honorable mentions. The entries were that amazing.

That said, our panel of judges (Megan Broussard, Sarah Hutto, Keaton Patti, Michelle Spies, sarah james, and yours truly) reached a clear consensus.

Here they are: the winners of the inaugural Slackjaw Humor Writing Challenge — which we are revealing two-at-a-time, starting Oct. 9.

Trophy by Emily Clouse

The Winners
SpaceX’s Starlink to Receive $886 Million From FCC to Improve Rural Broadband
Tags: Technology, Satellite Technology, Spacex, Internet

The FCC awarded the money in an auction to fund high-speed internet projects in rural America. SpaceX will receive the funding to supply broadband in underserved areas across 35 states.

By Michael Kan

The FCC is giving SpaceX’s satellite internet service, Starlink, $886 million as part of an effort to bring high-speed broadband to rural America.

The money will come from a $9.2 billion fund the FCC created to subsidize expanding high-speed internet to underserved rural areas across the US. On Monday, the regulator announced the results of an auction in which telecom providers pledged to provide service to an area at a given performance tier and latency.

Ultimately, the agency awarded the money to 180 bidders. SpaceX was among the big winners; over the next decade, it’ll receive $886 million to supply broadband to 642,925 locations in 35 states. But Charter Communications will receive the most funding: $1.2 billion to bring high-speed internet to over 1.05 million locations in 24 states.

The fund is designed to improve internet speeds for 5.2 million homes and businesses used by over 10 million Americans. More than 85% of the destinations will receive gigabit-speed broadband, according to FCC. The remainder should get download speeds of least at 100Mbps and uploads at 20Mbps.

“We structured this innovative and groundbreaking auction to be technologically neutral and to prioritize bids for high-speed, low-latency offerings,” said outgoing FCC Chairman Ajit Pai. “We aimed for maximum leverage of taxpayer dollars and for networks that would meet consumers’ increasing broadband needs, and the results show that our strategy worked.”

To receive the funding, the participating companies had to commit to supplying broadband in each location at a certain speed and latency. The winning bids were then given to providers that offered the best performance.

According to the FCC’s rules, the resulting internet service plans must also be priced similarly to what Americans pay for in urban areas. In addition, the winning bidders must begin supplying the high-speed internet to 40 percent of the required number of locations by the end of the third year during the funding cycle.

In SpaceX’s case, the company has already been offering the Starlink service to invited beta users for $99 a month and a $499 upfront fee. The satellite internet network can currently run at over 100Mbps and higher, but the eventual goal is to offer 1Gbps internet speeds.

Currently, the Starlink beta is available only to users based in the northern US. The company plans on expanding the trial to more states early next year. Interested customers can go to Starlink.com to sign up for the email newsletter, which has been handing out beta invites.
3 Ways to Look at Yourself as a ML Practitioner
By: Claudiu Clement
Tags: Machine Learning, Data Science, Statistics

3 Ways to Look at Yourself as a ML Practitioner

Listener, Artist, or Composer?

This idea I first saw it in this book here, but I think it is so good, all of you have to read it.

Obviously, not all ML practitioners are created equal, and there are at least a few different types. Below, we will look at a split in three in analogy to three types of interactions people have with music.

The listeners

The great wave of machine learning open-source software, online courses, and cloud-based tools allow the newcomers not to worry about the specifics of ML pipelines.

The availability of off-the-shelf tools is a blessing and a curse in the world of ML. That is because while there are easiness and accessibility with which inexperienced users can benefit from machine learning, it is safe to assume some of them don’t really know much of what they are doing nor understand. Jumping into the wrong conclusions about their data/model is, thus, very common.

These are called listeners because just like in the case of music, the users are able to choose different types of algorithms, discern between the surface differences between them and benefit from their usage.

The artists

Compared to the listeners, the artists are courageous enough to plug and play different methods and analyses into the pipeline. Very important for this category is how well they master the math behind the tools used. They don’t really go very deep into the bits and pieces of the methods used but have a good understanding of what is the mechanism behind and what needs to be tweaked to improve the performance of their model.

These are called artists because just like a violin singer where highly skilled practitioners can bring their instrument to life and excite an audience, they can spice things up a little in their ML practice.

The composers

Here come the masters.

You can listen and have fun. You can play the violin and be great at that. But it may be that creating your own pieces of music is not something very accessible. Same for ML practitioners.

The creators of:

Markov chains and Markov processes — Andrey Markov First Neural Network — Marvin Minsky Perceptron — Frank Rosenblatt Many other great concepts…

are what fall under the category of composers. Not only that they enjoy “listening to music”, “playing” it perfectly, but they also “composed” masterpieces.

Chances are, you may not be a composer now, but with discipline and passion you can do it.

Final thoughts

This is a pamphlet and should be treated as such. It does not really matter what type of ML practitioner you are if you love what you’re doing and your work provides values.

If you like my work, consider reading other posts of mine:

Until next time, keep learning.
Air
By: Sebastián González De León
Tags: Health, Poetry, Poetry On Medium, Covid 19, Poem

We breathe one drop of air at a time.

We breathe the air that now comes with a “Warning: Toxic” sign.

The air, which we now much discuss on how to clean.

The air, we fear when we step out.

We flip a coin in the air. “Will I get it?”

We flip a coin. Hope for the best.

Our luck seems to depend on the trajectory of the dime

Our luck is now silent. It no longer says “hello”

We breathe into the silence of the air.

We breathe into hope that we will be fine.

I listen to my breathe.
Andy Warhol Foundation Expands Grant Program to Cleveland and Denver
By: In Kind
Tags: Culture, Nonprofit, Andy Warhol, Art, Community

For budding artists and their communities, getting a foot in the door can be difficult. There is no set and defined pathway for an artist to become successful and until artists figure out how to monetize their work, money can often be a barrier to entry for artists who haven’t yet had their first commission or big sale. Fortunately for Cleveland and Denver area baristas with dreams of making it in the art world, the Andy Warhol Foundation is expanding their grant writing program to their cities!

Artists and art communities in the Cleveland and Denver area now have the opportunity to apply for grants provided by the Andy Warhol foundation for the Visual Arts. The foundation’s regranting program has a reputation for focusing on small artists and collectives that may otherwise fall under the radar.

There are currently twelve of these programs, located in Albuquerque, Baltimore, Chicago, Houston, Kansas City, Miami, Minneapolis, New Orleans, Philadelphia, and Portland, and now thanks to the recent expansion, Cleveland and Denver too.

Grants are available for as much as $10,000. These grants help small artists and communities who might otherwise be unable to complete their projects. An example of this is the, “A Color Removed” project. It focuses on removing the color orange from Cleveland. While this may not make sense to the average person, it is really a conversation about deconstructing symbols (orange is a symbol for safety) and coming up with new ways to make a safer city.

The grants have also helped small art communities pay rent, purchase supplies, throw gallery events, put down new sidewalks, grant wheelchair access, and much more. These grants are vital to artists who might not be focused on the high profile, attention getting exhibits that most grants tend to favor.

The Andy Warhol Foundation for Visual Arts plans to distribute $1.4 million to various programs. Most of the money will go towards grants, but a significant amount will also go to the programs doing the regranting, in order to pay for overhead and general outreach.

The Regional Regranting Program has been around a surprisingly long time. The program has been ongoing since 2007, and has so far delivered over 6.4 million dollars to various organizations. $3.6 million of this provided direct support to as many as 848 artist projects.
Supporting A Grieving Friend
By: Jenni Brennan
Tags: Grief, Grief Support, Mental Health, Grief And Loss, Relationships

Supporting A Grieving Friend

Always Bring The Donut

“Can I ask you a random question?”

A question like this at the end of a therapy session is always enough to make a therapist’s heart stop. But today’s question was one that is probably on the minds of many people out there.

“My friend just had a death in the family and I want to do something for him. Is it appropriate for me to bring him a donut from his favorite bakery?”

First of all, I’d be hard pressed to find a time in which is wasn’t appropriate to bring someone a donut from their favorite bakery but that’s not the question right now.

Second, of all. “Yes. Yes. One thousand times yes. Bring the donut. Always.”

The most important thing any of us can do when someone we love is grieving is show up. Call them. Text them. Bring them donuts. Bring them dinner. Sit with them in silence. Sit with them and talk. Sit with them and cry. Sit with them and laugh.

It doesn’t matter what you do so long as you sit with them in their grief and let them feel heard and seen.

If you are questioning whether bringing your grieving friend a donut is appropriate, go get one right now. You won’t regret showing up for them and it will likely mean the world to your friend.

If you have a friend who experienced a loss a few months ago or the anniversary of that loss is coming up, now is probably a great time to bring them a donut too. Lots of people show up in the beginning following a loss but then the world moves on, often leaving the griever behind. Chances are that you’ve got people out there that you care about, right now, who are grieving alone and in silence.

Bring them the donut. Always.
FT.com — 11 facts
By: Ft Product
Tags: AWS, Project, Https, Ft, Heroku

1/ It is served over HTTPS, and all the *.ft.com assets are served over HTTP/2.

2/ There’s no pre-production environments — just localhost, a build pipeline and production. Boom.

3/ The presentation tier comprised of around 80 independent services, all orchestrated to feel like a single, coherent user interface.

4/ It’s shipped a few hundred times a week.

5/ The bulk of the code & tooling is written in node.js.

6/ Infrastructure is a mix of Heroku, AWS (mostly Lambda, Dynamo, ElasticSearch, Kinesis) with a whole bunch of supporting SaaS providers.

7/ There’s an MVT framework built in to the stack, so each feature can be modified for a user or cohort and it’s impact measured against a control group.

8/ One team owns all aspects of the request chain, from the user’s browser all the way to the application (DNS, CDN, routing, presentation tier, hosting etc.).

9/ It’s a fast, progressively enhanced website, and we understand the consequences of it becoming slower.

10/ We removed all the routing cruft from the URLs and rely on HTTP Vary and friends to server different flavours of the site to different people.

11/ The UI is built upon a lovely in-house component framework.
How I am learning not to judge!
By: Belinda Peter
Tags: Epiphany, Storytelling, Stereotypes

How I am learning not to judge!

Day 5: Life Lessons

A faithful friend and reader, sincerely wished my posts would have more defined beginnings, middles and ends. And as I read his words I remembered Sarah Kay quoting Jean Luc-Goddard, saying every story has a beginning, a middle and an end. But not necessarily in that order.

So, I’ve already given you the end it’s in the title.

I am learning not to judge.

Here’s the middle! And hopefully the beginning will find itself in the end.

I’m going to try to narrate the story of the girl in the picture photographing her freshly pedicured feet and then I’m going to tell you about the day I photographed my freshly pedicured feet.

There’s a difference. One is the story I would have read (ok, read as read) of a picture like that. The other is my story.

It must be a lazy Saturday. An idle mind is definitely the Devils workshop – prompts the dumb blonde to take a picture of her feet. She must either be really silly or really vain. The kind that believes winning a beauty crown is one step closer to world peace. Beauty and brains definitely can’t coexist.

It was a lazy Saturday and maybe even an idle one. It was my closest friend’s birthday and her fiancé had planned the celebrations from across the sea. It included my pedicure! It was an incredibly special day for two reasons – it came in the middle of a really stressful work life. And the fact that the new guy in the scene understood our friendship.

That picture to me is so much more than pretty feet – it’s encouragement, friendship and comfort and even well laid birthday plans. But it’s also an epiphany.

Every time I have judged a trope I have come to be it.

I tell people I dislike my name cause it doesn’t personify me. Belinda brings up a the picture of a blonde cheerleader (who takes pictures of her feet and posts it on social media) in my head.

A head that’s obviously been fed one too many tropes. A head that believes its too cool to be a blonde cheerleader.

But also a head that doesn’t want to be put into a box anymore.

Because the story isn’t in the five hundred words the picture is worth – it’s behind and beyond the picture.
For What’s Real
By: Jane Woodman
Tags: Compost, Poetry, Garden, Sonnet, Reality

That old advice to “tend your garden” grows

More true with every passing year that finds

Monsanto owning seed and land alike

Already having bought too many minds.

If we can loosen grip of corporate greed

On honest farmers’ lives that struggle so

To live and give us good food that we need

And save the seed they need for next year’s growth,

Mythology of motherhood aside,

If we escape those corporate shackles, too,

Sweet earth that isn’t corrupted can provide

Our loving care returned and life renewed.

Feed and conserve soil’s creatures great and small:

The compost heap is mother of us all.
A Recap: Gitcoin at ETHDenver
By: Vivek Singh
Tags: Tech, Blockchain, Ethereum, Technology, Open Source

A Recap: Gitcoin at ETHDenver

The Burner Wallet, Kudos, and Grant Matching, oh my!

Gitcoin was built in Colorado. It’s a big part of our culture and history, and we showed up ETHDenver in a big way to celebrate!

2019 has a lot of fantastic events lined up — and they all have to live up to high expectations set this weekend at ETHDenver. Set in the Sports Castle, 1,500 participants (including 750 hackers) shuttled into 6 floors including three hacking floors, a chill room, a Maker Space, and lots of interesting conversations about Ethereum and the future of the internet.

We won’t be able to cover everything in this article, but did want to cover the fun experiments we had at the event!

The BuffiDai Wallet: Buying Food With Crypto

Austin Griffith, Director of Research at Gitcoin, unveiled the Burner Wallet earlier this year as a quick and easy onboarding to crypto payments, built using MakerDAO’s DAI and POA Network’s sidechain, xDai.

At ETHDenver, the Burner Wallet rebranded as the BuffiDai Wallet and was used across ETHDenver to buy meals at the several great food trucks at the venue. Here’s a view of the wallet in use, from the lens of the wallet itself. 🤯

As it was used by each person at the event, it naturally was something folks thought about for hacks and happy hours. A particularly interesting project created a Burner Wallet for private transactions — while the MakerDAO Dappy Hour used the wallet to pay for beer at the event, while a monitor updated with the latest and greatest stats on purchases for the night.

A highlight of the weekend and, arguably, the year, for crypto is the Burner Wallet. UX improvements are not coming — they are here.

The ETHDenver Kudos Game!
Rewind, Play, Pause
By: Hugo Cornejo
Tags: Film, Movies, Comedy

Airport (1970)

I’m a big fan of credit sequences that make an effort to remind us of the film we’ve just seen. Disney films are usually very good at it, bringing some elements of the story or hinting to some of the scenes or characters.

But I love it even more when (typically in comedies) the credits contain actual clips from the movie. Delicious way of remembering the good jokes we’ve just laughed at.

Extra points for freezing the image for a second to overlay the name of the actors and actresses.
Parents Grow Up Too
By: Krishna Betai
Tags: Parents, Poetry, National Poetry Month, Life, NaPoWriMo

Photo by Natalya Zaritskaya on Unsplash

Growing up,

We never realise,

That our parents

Grow up too.

For we are

Too young,

In our formative years.

Too lost,

In our adolescence.

Too busy,

Living, the time of our lives

In our twenties.

We are born

In their thirties,

If only we could hear their stories

As they reminisce

The days of the past decade.

We have no sense of time,

While they cross their middle ages,

As we learn to walk, to talk,

To feel, to befriend,

To learn of the world and its oddities.

We become too overwhelmed,

Rather busy, creating memories

Of the first drive, the first love,

The first job, the first car,

The first home.

And when it’s time

To return the ocean of love,

We realise that we’ve forgotten

To watch them grow

As they have watched us

Silently, patiently.

We never know

When the wrinkles adorned their skin,

When the strands of hair fell, gracefully,

And wisps of silver took their place.

When the crescent under their eyes

Grew heavier, as they grew wiser.

When they lost the freshness

And vigour of their youth.

When a pair of spectacles

Perched on their noses.

When their bodies

Could no longer run.

In our journey,

We forget about theirs,

Even if, all along,

The destinations were

To carpe diem.
Public vs. Private: Is Procurement Any Different?
By: Bertrand Maltaverne
Tags: Procurement, Government, Public Procurement, Business

Key Characteristics of Procurement in the Public Sector

At first glance, procurement in the public and private sectors are very similar. The purpose of procurement remains the same: to source goods and services from the supply market while maximizing value for money. To achieve this, procurement relies on the SRM² model, which is based on three main pillars:

An understanding of customers and suppliers

Value-based experiences

Being a facilitator or enabler

However, upon closer consideration, some specific characteristics and differences emerge when comparing procurement in the public and private sectors:

As illustrated in the Venn diagram, there is an important overlap in public procurement that does not exist in the private sector. Firstly, citizens benefit, directly or indirectly, from public services that are funded by their taxes. Secondly, these services are performed by suppliers from the private sector that are also taxpayers and benefit from these services. The dependency on taxpayers’ money explains why people expect public institutions to demonstrate frugality and put public funds to good use.

The funding and governance aspects explain why procurement in the public sector is risk averse. The likelihood that a misuse of funds will end up in the press is much higher than in the private sector. This is because public affairs affect everybody, which makes them a potential target for media outlets that act as a watchdog. Additionally, such incidents can be exploited by nongoverning politicians and supporters to increase their chances in the next election.

Risk aversion, therefore, plays a key role in shaping procurement practices in the public sector. One of the consequences of this approach is that process interests tend to overwhelm other interests. On the other hand, this also explains why the public sector is more advanced than the private sector in areas like digital procurement. The imperative for transparency and fairness is a strong motivation for organizations to use electronic portals to publish RFPs and RFQs, as well as communicate award decisions. Of course, this approach also introduces potential hindrances that do not exist, or exist to a lesser extent, in the private sector. For example, many countries have rules for contesting awards. As a safeguard mechanism, these regulations have merit. However, they also have drawbacks (e.g. requirement for publishing decisions, waiting time) that can limit speed and agility, which are essential to organizations in the private sector.
Mountain Kids are Foolhardy Miners
By: Andrea Juillerat-Olvera
Tags: Mountains, Poetry, Scrittura, Poem, Risk

I am a child of the mountains

quite at home when encircled by

breath-stealing heights

precipitously perched on craggy rocks

always happy with the sky a little closer.

I’ve gambled my life to

enter a mountain’s chamber

and lie curled up in a crystalline womb

like a pearl in an oyster

a spy in a geode

an uncanny fetus

returning to its origin.

We dug straight into the vein

ignoring laws of physics in favor of

pure youthful bravado.

One at a time…in and out

snaking slowly down the narrow hole

its termination some 30 feet into

loamy oblivion.

Needing to breathe again

our subtle panic

deftly ignored

on a second by second basis

so that eyes could drink

the glittering walls

hands fleet in the darkness.

Each returning miner brought back

a full sack of gems

never before touched by human hands

the clearest virgin quartz

the most pristine beauties

faceted with mathematical perfection

singularly encased in

a gift wrap of stretchy, orange, clay.

How could we resist?

Roaring down the hill with relief and adrenaline

to the hot springs by the river

where we’d cleanse our loot and dirty hands

comparing takes with an evaluative eye

the fear of the dig washing away from our minds

as the clay washed from the crystals.

Andrea Juillerat-Olvera 2020
Building the World’s First Industry-Wide Travel Database
By: Tyler Mahoney
Tags: Travel, Product Management, Covid 19, Data Science, Innovation

Booking.com and Trivago (w/ KLM, Radisson, and others) are leading the way out of the Covid-19 travel crisis. They are creating an institution for open source innovation, public-private agreements, and cross-sector partnerships. A centralized and free database of all travel data is being created for our local businesses-and our travelers-as they recover. With millions of jobs already gone in the hospitality industry, and possibly millions more, we will all need to come together. Now even the mom and pop shops of the travel industry can see the big data of the world-from your favorite small restaurant in Florence to the old couple running your favorite Palm Springs B&B. The tides are turning in favor of everyone. The AP (Associated Press) of Travel Data, at zero cost, is here. And it’s for the good of the entire world.

This is the first time in history the world’s travel data will be openly and dynamically shared for all of humanity, through an independent institution and outside of sole corporate governance. People traveling the world over will get up-to-date information across the entire travel stack -flights, hotels, rental cars, and restaurants. We can restore customer confidence, useful information drives out fear, and sunlight is the best disinfectant. Given this data will be open to the public, it will also cause a surge in academic research and startup innovation, both things we desperately need right now. Projects these travel giants will then hope to back.

When we start to travel again, you’ll have all the information you need. Let’s forge the future, share our data, and to quote the great astronaut, and Martian, Matt Damon, we’re “going to have to science the shit out of this,” together.

https://www.phocuswire.com/Trivago-Booking-Covid-travel-alliance

If you are in the travel or tech industry, please go here for more information and share out the press release! We need as many publishers as possible to make it work for our customers.

https://covidtravelalliance.com/
labours
By: James Khan
Tags: Rhymes, Poetry, Sonnet, Labor, Aging

labours

a sonnet for survivors

Where are the fruits of our lachrymose labours;

when did they vapourise, boil into vapours?

what were the reasons for mental misfeasance?

why must we throw ourselves onto the sabres?

Why are the clocks like incendiary fuses

marking off minutes mortality loses?

confidence falters as problems assault us,

sat with a notebook of sorry excuses.

Time is the enemy, time is the healer,

life is just blackjack and fate is the dealer,

cash in your tokens or play till you’re broken,

things can get heavy; soltar la mochila.

Always remember when problems encumber-

strength is inside you and age, just a number.
Q&A with the capstone winners of 2020 Most Innovative Project
By: Berkeley Master Of Engineering
Tags: Engineering, Awards, Uc Berkeley, Autonomous Vehicles, Innovation

3-minute pitch for Autonomous Vehicle Perception With High-Definition Radars

The Fung Institute’s Most Innovative Project Award is awarded to the Capstone team that most effectively demonstrates the relevance of the problem they are trying to solve, the originality of their proposed solution, and the potential of their project’s impact. In this year’s online showcase, two winners were selected by MEng alumni, based on the teams’ video or print project pitch submissions. The recognition for best video pitch goes to the Developing An Affordable Alternative For Autonomous Vehicle Localization Using High-Definition Radar Images capstone team, who collaborated with the company Zendar.

About Zendar

Based in San Francisco, CA, Zendar works on building the highest resolution automotive radar in the world. The product utilizes the resolution of LiDAR along with the benefits of radar, such as long-range and all-weather operation, to make autonomous driving safe and accessible for everyone.

Project Overview

Localization of autonomous vehicles on the road currently relies on LiDAR (laser) and camera sensors which simultaneously map the environment around the car. The team proposed an algorithm to achieve an equivalent performance with a technology that is cheaper, easier to install, and less susceptible to adverse weather conditions such as rain, fog, and snow: high-definition radar images. This solution, based on the hardware and software suite of Zendar, breaks the traditional reliance on costly LiDARs.

We had a chance to speak with the capstone team members Bowen Wang (ME), Pierre-Louis Blossier (ME), Johan Gerfaux (IEOR), and David Scanlan (IEOR), about their experience.
The Best Day
By: Brian Kurian
Tags: Poetry, Poem, Love, Relationships, Life

The Best Day

A poem about my wife.

Image by olcay ertem from Pixabay

For me, the best day,

was when you looked my way,

we talked and got to know each other,

I couldn’t help but wonder,

if our relationship would last,

or if this romance would be another one to die fast,

time after time,

I couldn’t help but rewind,

to all the girls that came before you,

but before long I knew,

that I didn’t deserve someone like yourself,

perhaps, I should go back to being by myself,

a few months went by and I started to realize,

staying with you would be wise,

who would’ve ever known,

that a few years later, I’d see you in your wedding gown,

we’d have a baby boy whom we love dearly,

even though at the time I couldn't see all of this clearly,

I’m thankful for you each and every day,

I love you, Sierra Lashay.
Hello, I’m Kitzbühel!
By: Daniele Ihns
Tags: Travel, Austria, Kitzbühel, Ski, Tirol

Hello, I’m Kitzbühel!

And I’m about to seduce you

If you like church bells, you’ll like this place! Image source: Wikimedia Commons

They call me Monaco of the Alps. I take that as an offense. How dare they compare me with that ugly pile of architectural mistakes? I’m sorry for the harsh introduction. I’m not normally this grumpy. But these labels really make me lose my temper.

**Note from the author: she does have a bit of an attitude.

Tschuldigung! Just because some millionaires like to take advantage of me, it doesn’t mean that we like each other. They don’t define me. I am much more than that!

**Oops, she heard me. Sorry, please continue…

In 2021, I’ll be 750 years old. Yes, I’m medieval. And I like it. A lot has happened since the time of our first Bavarian settlers.

We make cooler architectural mistakes than Monaco

It feels like yesterday when in 1566 we ordered a 6-ton church bell only to realize later that it was too big for our church tower. Luckily there was no Twitter at that time, can you imagine the hashtags?

We hung the bell on a temporary wooden structure for 50 years until we decided what to do with it.

There was no way we were going to mess with the architecture of our gorgeous baroque church so we had an idea. We built a brand new tower attached to the small chapel in the graveyard.

We, Tyroleans, do have a sense of humor otherwise we wouldn’t have been able to stand the Bavarians for so long.

It was hard work but it was worth it. They say it is the most beautiful-sounding bell in Austria.

The two churches. Photo by the author.

You can still see the two churches next to each other today: St Andrew’s Church with its large body and small tower and Liebfrauenkirche with the large tower and small body.
I am Woman
Tags: Feminism, Poetry, Poetry On Medium, Women, Strength

I am a howling hurricane:

strong, a whirl of energy.

I am luminous lightning:

bright, shining fiercely.

I am the wild wind:

powerful, chilling to the bone.

I am the mighty mountains:

steady everlasting stone.

You cannot

strike me down, for I

am a force to be reckoned with.
A First Step Into Writing Recursive Functions
By: Jonathan Hsu
Tags: JavaScript, Programming, Python, Data Science, Recursion

A First Step Into Writing Recursive Functions

Learn to write functions that call themselves

Photo by vision webagency on Unsplash

Recursion is one of those topics that causes blinking, head-scratching, and overall confusion. The idea of a function calling itself feels like you’re going down a rabbit hole, and the truth is, that’s a pretty accurate feeling for what your function is actually doing.

Even after understanding recursion for years, whenever a problem is solved recursively, I have to stop and take an extra minute to make sure I understand what I’m looking at.

But worry not, as we’re going to break down recursion and go through a real-world example.

I’ll be writing examples in both Python and JavaScript and by the end of this article, you’ll hopefully understand that the article’s title is actually a pun.
Winter’s Dawn
By: Tarrant Smith
Tags: Paganism, Nature Poem, Poetry, Yule, New Beginnings

Winter’s Dawn

a poem

Photo by Ansar Naib on Unsplash

Can you feel the darkness

resting heavy on your skin?

The stars have ceased their chattering,

and we hold our frosted breath.

When evergreen merrymaking has ebbed

and we long for the flicker of morning

seeking that spark of hope on the horizon,

an end to this maddening suspension.

It’s the Yuletide vigil —

a pagan rite from ages past,

when the gods guaranteed nothing

but a sun’s return.

His presence arrives slowest in winter,

to that murky edge of dawn

and so, we huddle longer tonight

than any other for our assurances.

Like a foundling,

he’s too weak to offer us warmth

yet we welcome him nonetheless

once he crests the dividing line.

With open arms and relieved sigh

we softly celebrate.

Hope walks in golden glow

and the interminable gloom gives way.

Such is the cycle of nature, of light and dark,

and the December witch who bears witness.
Winslow Police hope to identify suspect at Citgo Station
By: Grace Maiorano
Tags: Violence, Security Camera, Community, New Jersey, Police

This following information is from the Winslow Township Police Department:

Winslow Police are asking for the public’s assistance in identifying the suspect in this photo.

Around 9:30 a.m. this morning, the subject was at Sicklerville Citgo Station, located at 254 Sicklerville Rd, Sicklerville, NJ 08081. Angered by the cost of his candy, he allegedly threw things inside the store before kicking the front door, causing it to shatter.

If you can identify this suspect, please contact the police through a private Facebook message or call 609–567–0895.