fabiochiu/medium-articles huggingface dataset:
For Alternatives
By: Leona M.
Tags: Life, Poetry

For Alternatives

in another lifetime i’ll be that girl

she keeps pestering me asking

what about her?

what about her?

i am you but, i am running from myself

trying to appease you to no avail

over and over again, i will say

the universe has spoken

now i must make my peace

who ever said dreams die didn’t know that

the love in one’s soul is never gone, it transforms

so i planted those seeds but i can’t help what grows

from the dirt, i’ll rise again, i’ll be better, & try again

to become the girl you always yearned for me to be
by Martino Pietropoli
By: Martino Pietropoli
Tags: Autumn, Saturday, Art, Graphic Design, Illustration

First thing in the morning: a glass of water and a cartoon by The Fluxus.

Follow
Dancing with the Devil’s Advocate
By: Kittie Phoenix
Tags: Life, Poetry, Decision Making

Dancing on a razor’s edge

With a legion of demons

In the pale moonlight

Looking for delicate balance

Under diamond-forming pressure

In a place with no way out

Waking before dawn’s light

Surrounded by a tangled blanket shroud

In a room without a view

Appeasement of the double-minded dictator

Brings no relief to inner heart-quake

Communication with a former life

Lends no peace to mind-force hurricane

Silence for the sake of no pain

Gives impression of pyscho-sociopath to storm

Wrap my heart in peace so I rest

Give wisdom to a divided soul discerning

Stop the madness with clarity of truth
Web Scraping TripAdvisor, Text Mining and Sentiment Analysis for Hotel Reviews
By: Susan Li
Tags: Machine Learning, Sentiment Analysis, Text Mining, R Programming, Data Science

The above visualizes the common bigrams in TripAdvisor reviews, showing those that occurred at least 1000 times and where neither word was a stop-word.

The network graph shows strong connections between the top several words (“hawaiian”, “village”, “ocean” and “view”). However, we do not see clear clustering structure in the network.

Trigrams

Bigrams sometimes are not enough, let’s see what are the most common trigrams in Hilton Hawaiian Village’s TripAdvisor reviews?

review_trigrams <- df %>%

unnest_tokens(trigram, review_body, token = "ngrams", n = 3)



trigrams_separated <- review_trigrams %>%

separate(trigram, c("word1", "word2", "word3"), sep = " ")



trigrams_filtered <- trigrams_separated %>%

filter(!word1 %in% stop_words$word) %>%

filter(!word2 %in% stop_words$word) %>%

filter(!word3 %in% stop_words$word)



trigram_counts <- trigrams_filtered %>%

count(word1, word2, word3, sort = TRUE)



trigrams_united <- trigrams_filtered %>%

unite(trigram, word1, word2, word3, sep = " ")



trigrams_united %>%

count(trigram, sort = TRUE)

Figure 7

The most common trigram is “hilton hawaiian village”, followed by “diamond head tower”, and so on.

Important words trending in reviews

What words and topics have become more frequent, or less frequent, over time? These could give us a sense of the hotel changing ecosystem, such as service, renovation, problem solving and let us predict what topics will continue to grow in relevance.

We want to ask questions like: what words have been increasing in frequency over time in TripAdvisor reviews?
Re-animate
By: Ian Cunnold
Tags: Scrittura, Poetry On Medium, Prompt

Photo by Hanxiao on Unsplash

Re-animate

in response to the Sunday prompt by J.D. Harms

I took a look at a T-bone steak sitting on my plate,

I thought my high-tech BBQ had braised that baby great,

I set upon that tenderloin with fork and pointy knife,

When suddenly… it mooed at me,

“Gimme back my life!”

Well, that got me to thinking

about ‘inanimate,’

how things change from ‘existing’

to a silent inert state,

from cows to food, from trees to beams,

complete transition to extremes,

inanimation often seems

to be life’s only fate.

I went out to a swanky bar to have a drink or three,

when a ‘woman of refinement’ sat down right next to me,

she was draped in mink and pearls,

peek-a-boo bra and starchy curls,

(now my sordid tale unfurls)

when she said to me…

“What does a lady have to do to get a drink ‘round here?”

Her come on gave my loins a leap,

t’was music to my ear,

I said, “here’s where you might begin;

re-animate that lifeless skin!,

give that mink it’s pride again! …

and I’ll buy you a beer!”

Re-animate! (that word sounds great!)

restore life to its fore,

animate to inanimate doesn’t work for me no more,

I know this rhyme was stupid but I hope it made you pause,

and remember that your bear skin rug once used its teeth and claws,

and the next time you dine on sirloin,

it won’t stare you down and say,

“Before you eat my tender meat…

Beware you’ll be like me one day!”

By Ian Cunnold
Trump’s Possible Impeachment Over Mueller’s Firing
Tags: Robert Mueller, Politics, Mueller, Impeachment, News

Would President Trump get impeached if he fires Mueller or would it not be an issue at all?

Democrats and also some Republicans have spoken about the possible consequences of firing Special Counsel Robert Mueller. Most of it centers on a possible impeachment. Even Liberals are against the move.

Trump had ordered Mueller’s firing over the summer but then retracted it as he cannot directly fire Mueller without cause. He has taken a different approach with a direct attack on Mueller and his proceedings. And has shown that he could remove those who are against the order and could also fire his national security adviser, his secretary of state and other top F.B.I. officials involved in the investigation. However, his impeachment is still unlikely.

By happenstance of Mueller’s dismissal and Trump not getting impeached, lawmakers could demand that Mueller’s evidence be turned over to Congress and could press to censure the president. Congress could also pass a law to reinstate an independent investigator in the executive or legislative branch which Trump would have to sign. Congress could also leverage its influence on the Justice Department nominees and pull strings to safeguard the evidence gathered by Mueller. Then, Mueller could be called to testify by relevant committees and a public disclosure of his investigation could be given to Congress which would be extremely difficult for Trump to stop.

Several Democrats are for the impeachment but the minority have a little leeway. Most Republicans think the move too implausible to happen. Ultimately, it would most likely be determined after the people vote in November.
Huawei is abandoning CDN
By: Ken Lai
Tags: Ken Lai, Cdn, Networking, Huawei

Companies drop their products while they are benefit-able, it seems that Huawei is abandoning CDN from its main stream products in China.

Lacking of clients may be one critical fact that this product cannot provide sufficient profit for Huawei. From this aspect of how many new client a product has been sold while no expansion for old clients, only considerable one is China Mobile Sichuan. Less R&D force for less profitable product principle makes CDN have less support. Last year, why Huawei suddenly gave up and quitted before bids may come from that competitors pushed new features and better promise for future support.

Deliberate coupling is a double blade with sharper side towards itself. Huawei decided to make an integral system which almost includes every aspect of CDN, but makes a sale of the whole system should depend on its reliability and performance, not the system limitation on purpose. When consulting with Huawei, they preferred to sell the system as an all-in-one system and push others out of the business. Separate sale for components usually considers as customized development, which is required for abundant extra money. Why? From an anonymous employee of Huawei, it has been designed as this. I would say this is a fallacy because no company can take the entire market.

I also want to mention one more thing. Its main competitor Cisco has deployed its CDN widely. They may not be as large as Huawei’s CDN in Sichuan for one on one comparison, but it seems a smarter idea for market. Meanwhile, keep in mind CMS system failure from Huawei if you are really interested in its product.
How to solve Two-Sum Algorithm in JavaScript
By: Anastasia Orlova
Tags: Two Sum, Problem Solving, JavaScript, Data Structures, Algorithms

I think we all can agree on this: Two-Sum Algorithm is sort of a classic data structure challenge. In my blog, I’d like to share two approaches to solving it. The first one is a so-called “brute force” method, and the second one represents a more elegant solution

So, our problem is: Given an array of numbers and a target number, find the sum of two numbers from the array that is equal to the target number. May not sum the same index twice. Return these numbers.

Create a working solution with nested loops (Time complexity: O(n²))

Here, I’m using nested for-loops to check all possible sums in the array. Once I get the right pair, I return them. If nothing matches, an empty array is returned.

function twoSum(nums, target) {

let result = [];



for(let i = 0; i < nums.length; i++) {

for(let j = i + 1; j < nums.length; j++) {

if(nums[i] + nums[j] === target) {

result.push(nums[i], nums[j])

}

}

}

return result;

};

2. Use an Object-based solution (Time coxplexity: O(n))

A more sophisticated and time complexity friendly approach is solving this problem by using an empty object. That will give us O(n) in time complexity.

function twoSum(nums, target){

//FIRST STEP: create an empty Object



let numObject = {}



//SECOND STEP: use a for-loop to iterate through the array



for(let eachNum in nums){

let otherNum = target - nums[eachNum] //we'll check for otherNum in the object and if it's there, we got it and can push in our result array. if(otherNum in numObject){

let resultArr = [];

resultArr.push(otherNum, nums[eachNum])

return resultArr;

} numObject[nums[eachNum]] = eachNum //NB! adding key/value has to go after the if-statement to avoid adding the same index twice. We add the value or a new pair on each iteration.

}

return "not found";

}

Hope it was helpful!

Source:
Vice weiß, warum Westdeutschland wichtiger ist
By: Silvio Schwartz
Tags: Bundesland, Vice, Vergleich

in In Fitness And In Health
What is FundersToken?
By: Fst Network
Tags: Tokenization, Blockchain, Cryptocurrency, Ethereum, Bitcoin

With our seamless blockchain business infrastructure, FundersToken is the ultimate blockchain solution. We are a software company based in Singapore working hard to simplify entry into the blockchain ecosystem for entrepreneurs of all types.

We launched FundersToken to accomplish one massive goal: open up the floodgates of mainstream adoption to one of the most innovative technologies of our lifetime, the blockchain. We think tokenizing your business shouldn’t only be reserved for those who have the resources and know-how to do so.

With FundersToken, business owners will be able to create a mutually beneficial partnership with their customers through personalized smart contracts, and we couldn’t be more excited for the journey ahead.

The Problem We’re Solving

It’s no secret that blockchain technology can unlock an endless amount of opportunities for companies of all types. The issue though is the barriers to entry for blockchain are still extremely high. If you or someone on your team doesn’t have a very specialized skill set, the upfront cost is simply out of reach for many entrepreneurs, even those who would benefit the most from the blockchain (artists, content creators, etc.). That’s where we come in. Through our modularisation, FundersToken allows for individuals who can’t code to still reap the benefits of this groundbreaking technology.

Additionally, even if you’re an experienced computer programmer, bugs are bound to arise. With our battle-tested modules, you’ll no longer have to worry about spending countless hours debugging your code.

No matter who you are, we’re confident FundersToken can take your business to new heights.

A New Kind of Customer

By empowering businesses of all kinds to develop their own smart tokens, the most loyal customers of these businesses will have the opportunity to join the ecosystems they support through the development of smart contracts. Rather than just exchanging money for goods, customers will now be able to take on the role of investors.

We call these loyal patrons “funders”, which is one of the reasons why we coined our company name. By cutting out the middleman and rallying around your funders, your business will have infinite possibilities when it comes to your smart tokens. Whether you’re an artist who wants your audience to use their tokens to purchase your latest and greatest work, or an investment bank looking to decentralize, FundersToken makes your goals more accessible than ever before.

Final Note

History has shown the typical roll-out for disruptive technologies begins with innovators and early adopters, but the only way for technologies to reach their full potential in the marketplace is by becoming accepted by individuals from all walks of life. Here at FundersToken, we’re dedicated to streamlining mainstream adoption of the blockchain.
Add email newsletter subscribe form on Medium
By: Piotr Grudzien
Tags: Email Marketing, Digital Marketing, Newsletter, Blogging, Personal Branding

Itemsy now allows you to embed the sign-up form for your email newsletter on Medium. All you need to do is paste the link to your profile:

Below, you can learn how to use the Itemsy newsletter creator to send out emails with inspiring link curated by you:

Finally, here is what you newsletter sign-up form would look like in action:
CryptoKitties. Meow.
By: Blair Marshall
Tags: Newsletter, Cryptokitty, Blockchain, Ethereum, Bitcoin

CryptoKitties. Meow.

Issue: 013

News:

CryptoKitties has taken over the Ethereum network…seriously. Reports show CryptoKitty transactions accounted for 12% of all network transactions, more than any other application on the network. One kitty was sold for over $100K.

While this may seem like a joke, it does show some of the power and promise of blockchains and the Ethereum network.

These kitties are an example of a truly rare digital collectible. Users are actually spending their ether. Users are hungry for an actual usable decentralized application.

If you are interested, you can buy, sell and breed your own kitties here.
My Number One Tip for Jokes
By: Britni Pepper
Tags: Number One Tip, Humour, Jokes, Timing, Funny

Seriously now, humour revolves around a “bistatic percept”, where two conflicting positions intersect, and the happy enjoyment of the joke arrives when the listener realises that a word or phrase exposes the alternate meaning, which is usually something unexpected.

This can be a play on words such as a pun, where one word has two meanings. Much as I enjoy these “Dad jokes”, they are more usually met with eye-rolling groans than delighted guffaws.

For maximum impact, the pun-chline — or the moment when the two perceptions intersect — should be placed right at the end of the joke. Preferably the last syllable of the last word of the final sentence, so as to maximise the listener’s investment in one particular perception, only to expose it as having a dual meaning at the finish.

If you are telling the joke, do not give the slightest hint that there is another way of looking at it. The punchline should be delivered as if it does not turn the key in the story to expose an alternate perception. Your listeners will either grasp it instantly, or mentally rewind the last few seconds to spot the exact moment when everything changed.

And if they don’t laugh, you have chosen the wrong audience. The sort of joke you swap with the girls at a hen’s night may not play quite so well at a funeral, for example.
What is “Plogging” and Why Runners Should Try It
By: Bradley S.
Tags: Running, Earth, Recycling, Volunteering, Fitness

Running

What is “Plogging” and Why Runners Should Try It

It’s not as weird as it sounds

Running through my neighborhood, I will often gasp at the amount of garbage I see along my normal route. Bottles, cans, wrappers — it’s as if people just throw things on the ground or out of their car window when they are done with them. One day, I decided to bring a garbage bag and gloves on my run to clean up my neighborhood on a casual three-mile run.

Turns out, other people do this and it’s called “plogging.” The word is a combination of “jogging” and the Swedish phrase “plocka upp” which means “picking litter.” For the last few years, the phenomenon swept across Sweden where plogging clubs have assembled in many cities and villages. The trend is now popping up in other parts of Europe and even America.

The concept is pretty simple, go on a run and pick up things along the way! Because you may need to stop abruptly, this may not be ideal on a training run where speed is a concern. However, it’s ideal on a fun-run where no pace needs to be kept or on a recovery walk after a racing event. All you need is gloves and a garbage bag and once you fill it up, throw it in the garbage or recycling bin.

It’s a great way to mix up your running routine and do something good for your community. You may be thinking…why should I clean up after people when I didn’t make the mess? How is this my problem? If you love the Earth, or more importantly your neighborhood, it's a great way to rise up and be the one to make it beautiful. I love my part of Chicago, so seeing my normal running path nice and tidy warms my heart.

If you are someone who loves volunteering, you may have been let down by this year’s events. This is a great way to contribute good deeds by yourself or with others you are quarantining with. If you are not usually into volunteering, think of it as good karma to pay back all those poor folks who pick up our cups who can't seem to make it into the garbage can at race events!

Think about how many of us runners there are and collectively what impact we could have if we all did this periodically. Runners: Guardians of the Neighborhood!
Notes on G.M. Hopkins : Sprung Rhythm
By: Susan G Holland
Tags: Friends Of Cowbird, Poetry, Susan G Holland, Gerard Manley Hopkins

by Susan G Holland

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerard_Manley_Hopkins

Much of Hopkins’s historical importance has to do with the changes he brought to the form of poetry; which ran contrary to conventional ideas of metre. Prior to Hopkins, most Middle English and Modern English poetry was based on a rhythmic structure inherited from the Norman side of English literary heritage. This structure is based on repeating groups of two or three syllables, with the stressed syllable falling in the same place on each repetition. Hopkins called this structure “running rhythm”, and though he wrote some of his early verse in running rhythm he became fascinated with the older rhythmic structure of the Anglo-Saxon tradition, of which Beowulf is the most famous example. Hopkins called his own rhythmic structure sprung rhythm. Sprung rhythm is structured around feet with a variable number of syllables, generally between one and four syllables per foot, with the stress always falling on the first syllable in a foot. In reality, it more closely resembles the “rolling stresses” of Robinson Jeffers, another poet who rejected conventional meter. Hopkins saw sprung rhythm as a way to escape the constraints of running rhythm, which he said inevitably pushed poetry written in it to become “same and tame.” In this way, Hopkins can be seen as anticipating much of free verse. His work has no great affinity with either of the contemporary Pre-Raphaelite and neo-romanticism schools, although he does share their descriptive love of nature and he is often seen as a precursor to modernist poetry or as a bridge between the two poetic eras.

The Curtal Sonnet is a form invented by Gerard Manley Hopkins, and used in three of his poems…

Enjoy a fifteen minute lesson on the subject of Sprung Verse with Professor Brooker! It’s delightful! — -Susan
Please
By: Ronald Mathew
Tags: Poetry, Poem

we are at an age

of so much information

we’ve mapped the stars

we’ve cured diseases

but why

are we still

heavily affected by minute problems

caused by human stupidity

I wish all of us can learn

not to just be intelligent

but to be wise

this crisis is not an individual battle

it’s a global threat

yet some still act for only their own behalf

please let your consideration of others grow

not just, not only your ego
The Correct Way to Prepare a Sweet Potato
By: Rob Yonkers
Tags: Food Hacks, Cooking Tips, Cooking, Self Help, Food

Most people say that the best way to prepare a sweet potato is to poke some holes in it and throw it in the microwave for 4–7 minutes. This is the way I enjoyed them for years.

Wrong!

I learned this trick from my best friend/roommate's aunt who used to co-own a BBQ joint. (Isn’t this the way it always goes…a friend of a friend of a friend...) I swear, this was the best sweet potato I had ever eaten; smooth in texture, sweeter then any I had had before and no need for any additions to enhance the flavor.
What You Aren’t
By: Yaman Nimer
Tags: Relationships, Heartbreak, Poem, Life, Poetry

You are not the embedded roots,

Why every time the winds blew strong I had to search for you on the other side of the pond.

You are not my day and night,

After so many years and I still can’t figure out when the fuck it is that you’d come and go.

You are not the sun kissing my skin,

My skin is pale and I reek of the smell of lighter fluid and scorched senses from every time you erupt.

You are not the light touch that I miss,

All I feel is the weight of the rubble you’ve buried me under.

You are not my home,

Cause home is where the heart is and it seems you’ve done away with mine and let yours turn black.
The Best Realtor In Las Vegas
By: Shabazz Publication
Tags: Llc, Las Vegas, Realtor

The Best Realtor In Las Vegas AreaMichelle L. Sproul is a licensed real estate agent with National Properties Realty LLC in Nevada, REALTOR® in the Greater Las Vegas Area, and works closely with Housing For Nevada, HFN Inc, who provides you with this lease-option program, rent to own program for housing in Las Vegas, Henderson and North Las Vegas, NV. The real estate agent’s duty it to locate and show prospective buyers homes.
Human, Being on the Zafu*
By: Michelle Berry Lane
Tags: Prompt, Spiritual Secrets, Meditation, Being Human, Poetry

Human, Being on the Zafu*

A Poem About Meditation Practice

The Granite Dells, Arizona, 2018 (by Mike Lane all rights reserved)

I sit

sit trying to not try

try repeating the mantra

mantra is, simply, breath

breath breathed in

in and out of the body

body exhales, vapors condense

condense into clouds above

above like thoughts

thoughts like clouds

clouds moving across the sky

sky clears, then movement

movement in the mind

mind full of thoughts

thoughts like clouds moving

moving on a screen

screen between sky and me

me and the empty blue sky

sky and me and emptiness

emptiness, the deafening silence . . .

. . . silence. . .

. . . a singing bowl

tomorrow, begin again.

(*zafu is a meditation cushion)

This poem was written in response to the Spiritual Secrets Prompt by Darshak Rana for this week’s Spiritual Saturday, “Meditation.”
Food Bank of South Jersey holds 26th Annual Stamp Out Hunger food drive
By: Melissa Riker
Tags: Food, Charity, Donations

Food Bank of South Jersey holds 26th Annual Stamp Out Hunger food drive

Stamp Out Hunger raised nearly 90,000 pounds of food for the Food Bank of South Jersey.

Food Bank of South Jersey volunteers sort through the boxes of donated food.

The Food Bank of South Jersey recently partnered with the National Association of Letter Carriers and the United States Postal Service for Stamp Out Hunger®, the country’s largest single-day food drive. The event raised nearly 90,000 pounds for the Food Bank of South Jersey.

Local residents supported the FBSJ by leaving bags of non-perishable food items next to their mailboxes or on their porches for their letter carrier to pick up and deliver to the FBSJ. In South Jersey, food insecurity affects nearly 200,000 — including 20,000 seniors and 57,000 children.

“We are so grateful for the support Stamp Out Hunger receives each year,” said Tom Sims, Chief Development Officer, Food Bank of South Jersey. “We truly appreciate the United States Postal Service and the National Association of Letter Carriers for helping to make this food drive happen each year, and we appreciate our sponsors who made this year’s Stamp Out Hunger food drive so successful.”

This year’s event sponsors included: Aetna, Beneficial Bank, Subaru, Westmont Associates, Inc., ShopRite, RLS Logistics, State Farm, Dunkin’ Donuts, Jefferson Health and PSE&G.

Stamp Out Hunger is a nationwide food drive held in 10,000 cities and towns in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands and Guam. Over the past 25 years the event has raised nearly 1.6 billion pounds of food. It remains as important as ever, with many people facing economic struggles. Hunger affects about 50 million people around the country, including millions of children, senior citizens and veterans.
11.13 Presidential Social Intelligence Battleground Tracker — Final ‘Support Gained/Lost’ Aggregates
By: Adam Meldrum
Tags: Joe Biden, Donald Trump, 2020 Presidential Race, Social Listening

Project Background

Support Gain/Lost Overview

The “Support Gain/Lost” metric is built by analyzing the language used in social posts about the presidential candidates. As battleground voters use language to indicate support for a candidate, our systems register “+1” in “Support Gained” for that date. A post expressing negative support is registered as “-1” in “Support Lost.”

These numbers are based on holistic expressions of support gained/lost, or shifts to neutral, from a unique social account. Only shifts in categorization are registered per social account after an initial signal is measured. (EX: a post from someone supporting Trump is not counted two days in a row.)

There are 6 metrics we monitor on a daily basis across each state:

— Previous Non-Supporter to Neutral: (a post indicating a previous non-supporter has moved to a more neutral stance on a candidate)

— Suport Gained: (a post indicating support gained for Trump or Biden)

— Support Lost: (a post indicating support lost for Trump or Biden)

— Previous Supporter to Neutral: (a post indicating a previous supporter has moved to a more neutral stance on a candidate)

— Net Daily Gain/Lost: (the daily net of Support Gained v. Support Lost)

— Net Daily Neutral Shift: (the daily net of “Shifts to Neutral”)
Two Ways to Overcome Embarrassing Yourself by Your Inflated Ego Unchecked Stupidity
By: Richard Armstrong
Tags: Life Lessons, Personal Development, Self Improvement, Choices, Self

Even when I didn’t know, I made something up. Have you been there, done that?

Over the years, wisdom has snuck up on me. Now I’m wise enough to know little about more and more. Of course, this helps my curiosity to open up my search to understand what I don’t know.

Today I finished reading Rick Rigsby’s book, Afraid To Hope. I recommend this for your 2021 reading lists.

This one statement in the whole book is worth the price of the book. Rick’s comment is an eye-opener.

Ego is the anesthesia that deadens the pain of stupidity. Rick Rigsby, Ph.D.

Dictionary.com defines stupid. Having or showing a great lack of intelligence or common sense.

One of the significant drawbacks of an inflated ego is that you are the only one who believes what you said. Everyone around you knows how stupid your statement was.

Two ways to stop future embarrassment of yourself from an inflated ego.

Ask more questions, give fewer answers. Read more, talk less.

My challenge is to increase your self-esteem and lessen your ego.

Richard
Drive
By: Christopher Raley
Tags: Parenting, Thesceneandheard, Children, Poetry, Photography

A year before my son

gets his driver’s license,

and white Mount Lassen

rules his range like stoic God,

sometimes seen, sometimes hidden

in veils of racing grey cloud.

We drive up to the park,

as to the very foundation

of heaven, but I slow

just before the gate

and take the gravel road

loggers know,

connective vein between highways

on the park’s north and south ends.

We swap seats. With rain

intermittent to slush,

he takes the wheel, and we

traverse steep wooded inclines

to a meadow I remember

at the base of Brokeoff Mountain.

He drives to what he’s heard of

as if driving to legend.

Rain overwhelms ruts.

Streaming falls of white water

break cold and fast through timber.

I speak to encourage

and sometimes to caution, yet

this boy can drive

like one whose feet feel road,

whose hands discern response.

He trusts more than sees graded truth,

breathes more than fears

weather’s sharp force.

We draw near to the meadow,

climbing that single, narrow

way that goes secretly,

until winter’s remnant pack

blocks our ascent

like old hearts I’ve known.

My son’s mind spins its gears.

He talks of impossible ways

around and further on

to what he has never seen,

but I am silent next to him,

who have with me the memory.

Heater purrs, and blind rain

spatters windshield

while I wait for him to see

and turn back.
Qatar condemns mass shooting in Las Vegas
By: Shabina Khatri
Tags: Las Vegas, Qatar

Photo for illustrative purposes only. Credit: Mandalay Bay Resort

Qatari officials have denounced this week’s shooting in Las Vegas, saying they stand with the US in its efforts to “maintain security and stability.”

The attack killed at least 59 people and injured 500 others, and is being called the deadliest mass shooting in modern US history.

Police said the gunman was Stephen Craig Paddock, a 64-year-old white Nevada resident who killed himself when officers stormed his hotel room.

Islamic State has claimed credit for the attack, but offered no evidence. American authorities say it appears Paddock acted alone.

Condolences

In a statement, Qatar’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs also expressed condolences to the families of the victims, Gulf Times reports.

The Emir and several other senior officials also sent their sympathies to US President Donald Trump and those affected.

Qatar’s national carrier is expected to begin flying directly to Las Vegas next year.

Thoughts?
Öppna upphandlingsdata kan motverka korruption och bluffakturor
By: Digidem Lab
Tags: Open Data, Procurement, Open Procurement, Civictech, Data Visualization

Network 🕸️ of people working with technology 👩‍💻 for the common good 👍 and digital tools for community 💞 + democracy 🖐️ + transparency 🔎

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Little Potboiled Ghost from Louisa May Alcott
By: Nina Sankovitch
Tags: Little Women, Louisa May Alcott, Whatever Else

Louisa May Alcott’s life is fascinating to me; fascinating in how rich her experiences were and in the contrasting flatness of her work. Her life was interesting but her writing is damn boring. She was raised by transcendentalist parents and counted among her family friends Thoreau, Emerson, Nathaniel Hawthorne and Margaret Fuller. Her family veered into poverty after a disastrous attempt to live off the land (in line with transcendentalist ideals and after her father’s transcendentalist school went too far transcendent for the parents of the students). They ended up living in Concord, Massachusetts in a house bought through fortunately-timed inherited money. From then on it was largely the money made by Alcott through her writing that supported her family. The grand success of Little Women yanked them firmly out of impoverishment. Alcott was prolific in her writing, penning theLittle Women series under her own name, and potboiler romances and moralistic tales under two other names (best if she didn’t mix them up but she actually did mix in a fair bit of moralizing with her romances). She is like the French novelist George Sand, another one who led an interesting life (Sand’s was absolutely thrilling at times), churned out the writings to support her family, and yet whose writings just are not that great.

I read Alcott’s The Abbot’s Ghost yesterday, hoping it would be a fun and scary Victorian ghost story centered around Christmas (the sub, sub title is “A Christmas Story”). It falls far short of the best of the genre, authors of which include the most wonderful Charles Dickens and Wilkie Collins, as well as Dinah Mulock Craik, Rhoda Broughton, Mary Elizabeth Braddon, and Charlotte Riddell. The Abbot’s Ghost contains all the necessary elements: a grand gathering at an ancient estate in England, a disinherited heir, a titled heir (but does he deserve the title?), a scheming beauty, an innocent beauty, a crippled man in need of a miracle (guess what?), a narrow-minded matriarch, and an army man or two. Oh yes, and a SECRET and, of course, a ghost. But there is nothing much more, other than flat physical descriptions, inert characters, predictable plot lines, and a painfully drawn moral conclusion.

My advice: read about Alcott’s life, for example in the book Eden’s Outcasts: The Story of Louisa May Alcott and Her Father, by John Matteson, and let her books stay in the library, warming the shelves.
Naïve Bayes Algorithm
By: Mitul Tandon
Tags: Statistics, Naive Bayes, Probability, Data Science, Machine Learning

To understand Naïve Bayes we need to first know about Bayesian Inference. Bayesian Inference is a method where Bayes theorem is used to update probability for a hypothesis. Bayes theorem is used to calculate the probability of an event, based on prior knowledge of conditions that might be related to the event. Say you want to calculate the probability of getting a parking space on Sunday at 5 PM. Then how will you calculate probability of this event? Yes you are right! Bayes theorem!.

Mathematically Bayes theorem is written as:

Bayes Theorem

Here ‘B’ is a condition and ‘A’ is an event. In above example ‘B’ can be either “Sunday” or “at 5pm” as these are the two conditions that affect the outcome that is ‘A’: whether you will get a parking space or not. But what if you want to consider both the conditions simultaneously? This is where Bayes theorem runs into problem. In order to make use of Bayes theorem when considering both the conditions simultaneously we have to make an assumption.

Assumption:- All my conditions should be “conditionally independent”.

I specifically mentioned the term conditionally independence and not mutual independence because there is a difference. Conditional independence means that outcome value (whether you will get a parking space or not) should explain all the dependence between conditions. For example:- getting parking space on Sunday and getting parking space at 5 PM are not mutually independent. One condition may lead to other. That is the chance to get parking may reduce at 5 PM if it is Sunday. But if I check conditional independence both features dependence is explained by outcome attribute that is getting a parking space. Therefore I can say that both are conditionally independent.

Naïve Bayes uses Bayes Theorem at it’s core for predicting outcome value which is dependent on several features simultaneously and to do so it has to follow the above assumption. That’s why it’s called naïve!

Practical Application of Naïve Bayes

In almost all real world examples most of features are dependent on each other. This would make Naïve Bayes almost impossible to implement in real life. So where is it even used? You might have heard that tasks like document retrieval systems , text based sentiment classifiers are the best place to use Naïve Bayes algorithms. But why? It is because most of words that we extract out of documents are independent of each other. Moreover Naïve Bayes works lightning fast even when there are lots of features and in text based classifiers one can easily get over 40,000–50,000 unique words which means 40k-50k features! Reason for lightning fast speed of naïve Bayes is that it is computationally inexpensive as it only has to compute probabilities.
Connecting Google Cloud Functions With MongoDB Atlas
By: Patrick Collins
Tags: Programming, Google Cloud Platform, JavaScript, Mongodb, Database

How It Works

In a traditional non-serverless environment, a simple way to defend against attackers is to just whitelist your IP addresses. You get a server with a static IP and tell your database that IP is the only one you will accept requests from. Piece of cake.

But in serverless architecture, the requests will always be coming from different IPs. The way Cloud Functions (and other serverless function providers (or “Function as a Service” aka FaaS) work is that every time the serverless function is triggered, they essentially spin up a new VM or instance with all the code you have and run it. This means you can’t whitelist the IP since it will always be different.

The way we are going to still be safe is by using a virtual private cloud (VPC) and adding serverless VPC access. This is a way to virtually pretend that all the services that we need (GCP and MongoDB) are in the same cloud/network. We simply add these services all together in our GCP instance, and then we enable Network Peering on the MongoDB instance.

Original Image from GCP Documentation.

The image above is almost accurate, with the only difference being that the MongoDB instance is actually not in the same virtual private cloud network as the GCP instances. This is possible since we can host another VPC on the GCP that both our GCP instance and our MongoDB instance have access to. This is possible because MongoDB and Google Cloud have a nice integration that allows these additional services to be spun up easily!

We then whitelist this third VPC middleman on our MongoDB instance, and presto! We no longer have exposed IPs to the world! Let’s look into how this is actually done.
The Value of a Life: Breonna Taylor
By: Adrienne Samuels Gibbs
Tags: Breonna Taylor, Police, Police Brutality, Race, Racism

Need we say more?

Louisville and the family of Breonna Taylor came to a substantial settlement regarding the killing of Taylor at the hands of police. The $12 million amount is substantial, but is that enough? While millions might help with burial fees and paying off mortgages, does it really replace a person or stem the tears?

As Trina Curry, Taylor’s aunt, told TV station WAVE3 News: “Justice didn’t end yesterday with the settlement. Justice is continuing to fight. Justice is those officers being prosecuted, arrested, fired. Breonna’s life was priceless.”

The family is pushing for police reform not just in Louisville but nationwide. Meanwhile, the initial fight isn’t over. WNBA star Candace Parker says she, and others, are still pushing for the officers involved to be arrested and charged.

“This season has been dedicated to arrest the cops that are responsible for the murder of Breonna Taylor,” Parker said in a Zoom video call with Yahoo Sports. “I think it’s interesting that this is a step, but this isn’t what our goal was. And obviously we wear Breonna Taylor’s name on the back of our jersey but she represents so many other women that have been killed because of police brutality.”
Create Your Own Google Chrome Extension
By: Souvik Paul
Tags: JavaScript, Web Development, HTML, Chrome Extension, Programming

Photo by Benjamin Dada on Unsplash

In this article, we’ll create a simple Google Chrome extension which will hardly take five minutes. Our extension will display a greeting message to the user.

According to Chrome Developers, Extensions are small software programs that customize the browsing experience. They enable users to tailor Chrome functionality and behavior to individual needs or preferences. They are built on web technologies such as HTML, JavaScript, and CSS.

An extension must fulfil a single purpose that is narrowly defined and easy to understand. A single extension can include multiple components and a range of functionality, as long as everything contributes towards a common purpose.

For this mini project, we’ll create a directory ( myExtension ) in our system with the following files.

myExtension

|------manifest.json

|------index.html

The manifest.json file will contain the following:

{

"name":"myExtension",

"version":"1.0",

"description":"For greeting the user",

"manifest_version": 2,

"browser_action": {

"default_popup":"index.html"

}

}

The manifest file will tell the Chrome everything it needs to know to properly load up the extension.

And, the index.html file will contain the following:

Now, we’ll open Chrome browser and navigate to the Chrome’s menu and open More tools and select Extensions . We have to turn on the Developer mode . Then, we’ll click Load Unpacked Extension and select the directory where we have created the files for this project, i.e., myExtension .

So, we’ll now check our extension after being deployed to Chrome.

In the above picture, we can see that our extension has been added in the browser.

Now we’ll click it and get the following result.

And as simple as that, we’ve created a very basic Chrome extension!

Reference
Sometimes The Only Difference Is One Of A Few Minutes
By: Kerstin Krause
Tags: Daughters, Love, Disability, Faith

I wish there were more people like this woman and Mum and Dad. People who take me as I am. They listen. They can hear my voice even though it's mute. They make me the person I am. Selma, 18 years old, full of plans and faith. Although I can't do much by myself. But I can open my heart and listen. Many people can't do that.

So yes. Believe it or not, there are things I’m capable of.

A humble request at last

Should you ever run into us on the street or at a rock concert, don't be afraid. We love company and people around us. I get sad when you ignore us—especially me—or are too ashamed to come closer. There's no need for that. Yes, I missed out on a few minutes of oxygen at birth, but that's all. I'm just a few minutes away from ordinary life. That's how it's always going to be. How awful, you may say. That's not a life. And yet, the only difference between us is one of a few minutes.

My heart is pure. That's why I assume I arrived at just the right time. How about you?

Selma

This story is based on a genuine encounter, while Selma’s thoughts result from my interpretation of a magical moment. No more, no less. I hope you’ve enjoyed the read.
7 Things: Questions That Should REALLY Be Asked In Job Interviews
By: Brett Cb
Tags: Humor, Interview, Life, Jobs, Office Culture

**In the spirit of the classic improv warm-up game “7 Things”, these listicles will cover 7 things, truths, thoughts, or actions we ought to think about a little more often***

What’s your biggest weakness? Why are you looking to leave your current position? Why do you want to work here? All practical questions we have to answer during interviews. Yet if only the best of the best are being hired, why do so many of us have to endure…”subpar” co-workers day in and day out? Maybe hiring managers aren’t asking the right questions.

If I could ask 7 questions to determine if I really want to work with someone, they’d be the ones below:

On an average day, how many hours do you typically waste on personal calls and online shopping?

(Follow-Up Question: Can I at least order something using your Amazon Prime account?)

Sorry boss, I only get cell reception in my office between 8–5 except during lunch!

2. Do you know, or are willing to learn, how to make a pot of tolerable coffee?

(Follow-Up Question: Are you the type of person that finishes off a pot of coffee and just walks away, which will certainly lead to a decaffeinated mutiny?)

We could only afford one security camera, but we chose wisely

3. Once clocking in, how long does it take you to get started on your work in the morning?

(Follow-Up Question: Do you feel that preparing from scratch and eating a 3-course breakfast the 1st hour you’re at your desk counts as “work”?)

There’s practically an entire Whole Foods stuck inside my keyboard

4. How blatant are you when it comes to applying for new jobs while at work at your current job?

(Follow-Up Question: Can you promise not to burn through an entire ream of paper printing your multi-colored resume out?)

3 different color toners were drained in the making of this resume printout

5. Do you usually finish food that you’ve stored in the fridge?

(Follow-Up Question: How much experience do you have cleaning up your own rotten sandwich biohazards?)

Anyone call dibs on this yet?

6. How often do you microwave fish for lunch?

(Follow-Up Question: Can you please not clean, gut, and cook the fish in the kitchen sink before work as well?)

Please “scale” back on this

7. Would you rather rinse out and place your dirty dishes in the dishwasher, OR let them pile up in the sink, next to the sink, or even on the kitchen floor?

(Follow-Up Question: How do you sleep at night?)

“But it’s not MY kitchen duty week!”

Your move, hiring managers.
How to Deal with Regulators: a Coinbase Primer
By: Howard Marks
Tags: Bitcoin, Crowdfunding, Coinbase, Tokenization, Regulation

You will find this amazing. On July 16th Coinbase told Bloomberg the SEC had approved Coinbase’s acquisition of three companies: Keystone Capital Corp., Venovate Marketplace Inc. and Digital Wealth LLC. Out of the three acquisitions, both Keystone and Venovate are broker-dealer firms registered with the SEC and members of FINRA.

This is probably why Coinbase thought they needed approval from the SEC, so they took their army of lawyers to Washington, had a nice chat and then made this announcement. Except that the next day Coinbase told Bloomberg that the SEC never approved these acquisitions. What gives?

Besides the public relations debacle, it shows that the team behind Coinbase is new to this world of regulation. This is strange for a company with a long list of lawyers who formerly worked at these agencies and who for so long has said that they are in compliance with securities laws. So how can this happen?

The first rule of the SEC is that they do not approve ANYTHING. Yes, you heard this right. The SEC allows companies to file a form S-1 to go public, and once the SEC has reviewed it, those companies are forbidden by law from saying the SEC has approved them.

In fact, this is written on the first page and IN ALL CAPS in the filing: The SEC neither endorses or approves this offering.

The same goes for a company that wants to become a broker-dealer. A company aspiring to become a broker dealer will file with the SEC and then await for FINRA to review a separate application they submitted. Once FINRA agrees to allow the company to be a member, then the SEC will recommend the company to become a member of FINRA. Where is the approval? There is none.

So how did Coinbase get into this situation? Perhaps Coinbase’s marketing team still does not understand regulation. Perhaps they are quick to the punch with hot and sizzling news, knowing that they operate in a marketplace mainly driven by hype. Remember when Coinbase announced Bitcoin Cash would be traded on their platform and the company was exposed to controversial rumors that their internal staff were trading in advance of this announcement because Bitcoin Cash traded up a few days prior to the public statement? This is insider trading, which is illegal in the United States, and a flag that Coinbase may not be quite as compliant as they would like us to believe.

So the very first rule of being regulated is to not tell the general public that the company is endorsed or approved by these regulators because they do no such thing. Frankly, regulators are not interested in how successful the business is going to be or not. The job of regulators is just to protect the general public from being defrauded, deceived, and bluntly ripped off by unscrupulous financial firms. That job is simple enough, and one that is hopefully noted by the cryptocurrency marketplace as token trading increasingly becomes recognized as the trading of securities and regulated as such.

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