fabiochiu/medium-articles huggingface dataset:
December 2020 General REIGN Update
By: Clayton Besaw
Tags: Forecasting, Data, Politics

The REIGN Dataset (Rulers, Elections, and Irregular Governance) covers political conditions in every country each and every month. We update the data set monthly to reflect the most recent political events, such as coups, world elections, and changes in political leadership. We also provide monthly election coverage and track leadership changes in a series of updates called International Elections and Leaders.

Thomas Cole, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

This month we will be taking a break from the usual monthly updates to prepare for the 2021 annual release for REIGN. We are in the process of integrating new data and forecast information into our monthly REIGN offerings and will release a new mapping tool in our Datayo open-source data analysis platform.

In our 2021 release of REIGN, we will be providing the following features for the first time:

Election related violence indicators and the forecasted risk of election related violence for all countries experiencing national elections for the chief executive in 2021.

Newly derived variables measuring the presence of armed conflict within a country-month and the relative level of political violence.

A new forecasting measurement that predicts the risk of incumbent loss for all upcoming elections related to the chief executive.

For our readers and data-users, thank you for continuing to use our work and for sending us your feedback and bugs throughout the year. We look forward to updating REIGN for 2021 and continuing this project.

As always, please feel free to reach out to me (cbesaw@oneearthfuture.org) with any questions or comments. Enjoy the holiday season and we look forward to a productive 2021!
New Etheremon world
By: Minh Do
Tags: Art, Gaming, Blockchain, Releases, Ethereum

As one of the ways to improve user experience as well as to commit to our goal of building Etheremon into a magical world for our players, we are focusing on features that can iron out barriers for new users and make the gameplay more seamless and exciting. Today, we are glad to introduce you to the Etheremon World Map (Beta version) as follow:

Etheremon World Map

The first region of ​​Etheremon has been officially released today, 7 March. This map consists of all available game modes. Future features and game modes will also be developed in this map. Current features include:
Uncomfortably numb
By: Ben Edwards
Tags: General

I am numb and have been since the first word of this tragedy came across my radio on my commute in to work last Tuesday. I feel like I should be angry or filled with sorrow, and I am in my thoughts. I just don’t *feel* it like I should. I wish I would have cried — yelled when I heard the news — but I was just sort of startled — but not even surprised. What is wrong with me? Am I afraid now? No. Should I be? Probably so, yes. If not for me then for the U.S. and other countries’ soldiers that will be fighting and dying in the coming months/years — for their families — for the Afghani people who have never wished this act on us but now may suffer for it. Sure there is some concern that biological or chemical weapons could be used on the American (or any) population, but that just doesn’t seem real. It should, I guess.

Besides numbness there is a feeling of helplessness overcoming me. An idea that I am awash in a tide whose course is predetermined and non-changeable — a tide unleashed by the American public and its allies in a united outcry, parroted back by the politicians and media (or is that the other way around?) and no matter what I may do or say we are all bound to crash into our “destiny” for better or worse — a destiny that could bring us into the most deadly war the world has ever seen. And to think, me, numb to it all.
#13: Amazon Takes on Fashion; Driverless Cars; Poetry at 37,000 Feet
By: Culture Trip
Tags: Poetry, Fashion, Technology, Review, Film

© Luke Hayes

This week, we visit the London Design Museum’s exhibition California: Designing Freedom, which chronicles Silicon Valley’s influence on our lives. And, in considering how much technology has saturated our day-to-day, we look at how driverless cars will change the landscape of our cities, and if Amazon can conquer high fashion in a digital space. Next, we review both high and low-brow offerings in horror movies to surprising results, and share a personal reflection on celebrated poet John Ashbery’s recent passing.

The show ‘California: Designing Freedom’, now up at the London Design Museum, is a considerate examination of the tech capital.

The introduction of autonomous vehicles could change the city in ways we maybe haven’t contemplated.

As the retail giant’s find. fashion brand launches its first ad campaign, the venture may find it has to take more that the usual steps to find audience.

The new Darren Aronofosky film Starring Jennifer Lawrence is full of shocking material that is also hard to turn away from.

There are some chilling moments in the cinematic remake of ‘IT,’ but the film ultimately fails to deliver… here’s why.

A personal reflection on the celebrated poet who passed away on September 3
Is It Monday Yet?
By: Rose Butcher
Tags: Poetry, Crush, Poetry On Medium, Feelings, Dating

Is It Monday Yet?

A Spoken Word Poem — About What Just Happened…

Photo by Jan Huber on Unsplash

“Goodnight…”

Is it Monday yet?

I find myself asking… myself

I don’t think there can be anything between now and then

As complex or as life imbued

As the hour and a half long conversation

That we just ignited and allowed to soar

It could have made electrical currents

Travelling beyond any fathomable mileage per hour

To perfectly orchestrated connection points

Tremble with intimidation

We have spoken only once

But ever since

The muscles in my entire face

Have forgotten how to function

I’m trying to teach them all to behave accordingly again

And adhere to reason

Following my orders

But the childlike sprite in me is being willfully ignorant

It just smiles like a loon

Knowing fully well

That it has been given the inexplicable permission

To revel in an unfiltered state of ecstasy

And when my brain tries to make sense of what’s just happened

Little puffs of breath escape

Being ridden by pin-drop giggles

Carrying a secret glee that had been hiding inside me this whole time

This is where the magic starts

For our minds need to connect before our hearts

And there’s so much I want to say to you before I forget

So… is it Monday yet?

© Rambling Rose Butcher, 2020
Most Valuable Lesson
By: Tomas Rendon
Tags: Demo Friday, Education, Matlupb, Doctor Berry

The most valuable lesson that I learnt during Dr. Berry’s class was that It’s not what’s on the outside, it’s what’s inside that really counts and matter. He is not the kind of teacher that you see regularly at the university wearing formal shirts and pants, short hair and a watch on one arm. No, he is just one of a kind. His unique style allows him to stick out from most people not only in the university, but also in the whole city in my opinion. When you see a tall guy walking down the boulevard of the UPB, rocking a fantastic afro, with a huge scarf around his neck and bunch of bracelets, you immediately know that he is Dr. Berry. He doesn’t care what people think about him, he prefers to stay truth to himself rather than pleasing other people. He is the embodiment of confidence, and that’s why his classes had been an amazing adventure for me.

Undoubtedly, assisting to his classes is an enriching experience because, more than teaching you about theory, he shows us strategies that we, as teachers in training, may use during our classes and, beyond that, Dr. Berry also helps us with our insecurities and worries. For example, in one of his tasks, we performed a slam poem for the rest of the class, and most of us talked about the struggles that we face on daily basis. This was a very touching moment for me and my classmates because most of us have been together since first semester and we are very good friends, and with activities like this one, we are able to solidify even more our friendship.

On the other hand, Dr. Berry also makes me question about the type of teacher that I aspire to be when I graduate. He made me think that being teachers not only means that we will be in charge of promoting ideas in students; encouraging their creativity, imagination, provide them with tools so that they know how to function in today’s societies, and guide them to taking good decisions, we also have to take into account the social difficulties and struggles the students face every day, and that affect their performance during classes.

For this, and many more reasons is why I believed that every student at UPB should have the opportunity to assist to one of Dr. Berry’s classes, because I promise you that you are not going to be the same after you leave. His jokes, his pop culture references during class and the way he perform them makes you think you are not really in class, but an extra-dimensional environment were being safe and having fun is what’s important. I always remember that people said that you will never remember all the good teacher taught you, but you will always remember how they made you feel, and I will never forget him or his classes. I hope I get to be like him with my students one day.
Inspiration
By: Gloria Difulvio
Tags: Writing Prompts, Poetry, One Line, Poem, Inspiration

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True Love Can’t Wait
By: Jakel Wayne
Tags: Religion, Relationships, Marriage, Love, Sex

If you are a Christian, you’ve probably heard the phrase true love waits, which is meant to encourage sexual purity before marriage. But the dark secret is if you can wait very long, there is probably something wrong. You are probably not sexually attracted to them. Or you may not love them, even though you may have convinced yourself you do.

It’s a red flag you shouldn’t dismiss because these things don’t magically change on the night after you walk down the aisle and say, “I do.”

Photo by freestocks.org on Unsplash

Long engagements are common these days. We want to save enough money to go on a better honeymoon than our friends did, to buy a house together immediately on the nicer side of town, and have our wedding on a beach in the Bahamas.

If any of that rings true for you, maybe your true love is material things and not the person who is providing them. Or maybe you’re in love with the fantasy you always dreamed your wedding or married life would be. Because true love doesn’t wait for the perfect circumstances and ideal life.

True love doesn’t want to continue another day without facing the whole journey together. True love links arms and embraces tomorrow, whatever may come. And true love burns with a sexual passion.

If you‘re not having a problem keeping your hands off of one another, you have a friend but not a lover. On the other hand, if you’re having sex but very little else in the way of a relationship, you have a lover, not a friend. You need both for a good marriage.

If you’re going to wait for sex until after marriage, bravo. But for God’s sake… make it count. Wait for someone you actually want to have sex with. And then don’t waste away the years because life’s circumstances aren’t Instagram-perfect yet.
I can only explain it in 45 minutes…
By: Jan Schultink
Tags: Sales Presentation, Presentation, Presentation Design, Investor Presentation, Story

I often get this issue in client discussions. So we start out, and in that first meeting, it often turns out that the client can explain it in 5 to 10 minutes. The difference? Me impolitely interrupting monologues where I got the point already, and asking questions inviting conversation about issues that are not covered.







How to do it without the help of a probing presentation designer? Take a radical approach to how much time you spend on each element of your story. If a certain section is incredibly important, but at the same time totally obvious, old news, and well known, cut it to the minimum. On the other hand there might be a tiny detail that is completely counter intuitive and merits a total 5 minute deep dive.







You are not writing an essay about your brilliant idea, you are racing against the clock to explain your idea in 5–10 minutes.







I admit that this is easier to do in 1–1 conversations than in formal presentations. Test your story in 1–1 conversations with smart people before pitching it to larger audiences.
Elon Musk: ‘Several Thousand More’ Starlink Public Beta Invites to Go Out Soon
Tags: Technology, Internet, Starlink, Elon Musk, Satellite Technology

In another tweet, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk also estimated the public beta for the company’s satellite internet service will expand to the southern US in early 2021.

By Michael Kan

There’s good news for users waiting to try out SpaceX’s satellite internet service. The company plans on inviting more people to the public beta test.

“Several thousand more Starlink beta participation invitations going out this week,” SpaceX CEO Elon Musk tweeted today. In a follow-up tweet, Musk also estimated the public beta will expand to the southern US, such as Florida, likely by January when the company has more satellites up in orbit to power the broadband network.

Currently, the public beta is targeting the northern US, where SpaceX has better satellite coverage. This past weekend, the first crop of early test users gained access to the service, and have confirmed Starlink can indeed supply broadband speeds at over 100Mbps with the latency hitting around 30 milliseconds.

But the real selling point is how the system can deliver fast broadband to remote areas that have little or no access to steady internet. As SpaceX launches more Starlink satellites into orbit, the company expects it’ll be able to deliver 1Gbps download speeds to almost anywhere on Earth.

To receive an invite for the public beta, interested users can go to Starlink.com and sign up for the email newsletter, which can notify you about upcoming availability. However, the beta isn’t free. The company is charging test users $99 a month for the service, and another $499 for the satellite dish and router.

According to test users, the Starlink public beta is covering certain parts of the following US states: Idaho, Michigan, Minnesota, Montana, Oregon, Washington, and Wisconsin. SpaceX is also aiming to bring the public beta to southern Canada too.
by Martino Pietropoli
By: Martino Pietropoli
Tags: Humor, Comics, Cartoon, Thursday

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

Follow
Self-Education 101: 5 Steps To Start Teaching Yourself
By: Andrew Kuttain
Tags: Education, Learning, Self Education, Reading, Self Imrpovement

I remember when I was first getting into the gym back in highschool, I had a friend who was my training partner for the summer. They were it as one could be, and the attention they got confirmed it. Other people would tell them about their PR’s (personal records), how sore they were, their “splits” (what you train each week), and would often ask them for gym advice every chance they got.

Based on their physique, I figured that they knew what they were talking about. After all, how could someone so fit not? I was there to learn from them!

So I followed them around the gym, copying every exercise they did. Until one day, mid-set during an exercise (My oddly vivid memory tells me it was a Rope Pushdown) they muttered “Is this for my biceps?”

Rope Pushdowns are for your triceps. So I corrected them on it, and their response was equally as surprising:

“What’s the difference?”

I wasn’t sure how to explain that, so after we finished at the gym I went home and opened up a few tabs on basic human anatomy and muscle functions. After a little while of reading and watching some videos, I had a better understanding of the human body.

Over the course of the summer the dynamic changed from my gym partner showing me around to me teaching them the in’s and out’s of the human body and gym program design. Every time they asked me a question, I’d either already know the answer, or would promptly go home to learn about the subject myself. By the end of the summer, I was one of the few knowledgeable people on human anatomy, and the go-to resource for physical fitness. And my own results showed for it as well.

Teaching yourself is tough, because it requires a lot of personal willpower and incentive (not to mention the constant anxiety of “is this information right?”). But when you do teach yourself a subject, it slowly integrates into your life over time, sharpening your capabilities. As Nassim Taleb says (and what I repeat to myself with every book I finish):

“W hat I learned on my own I still remember.”

Self-education is one of the most life-changing habits you can participate in. Not only because it is the exercising of agency, of actively doing something instead of passively waiting (or trying to find immediate solutions). It’s learning for its own sake, of getting a better understanding of the world and yourself. Self-education can be as simple as learning how to tie a tie for your kids grade 8 graduation, or as large scale as teaching yourself a new language because you plan on moving to a new country. In any case, the habit itself is a beneficial one to have.

There isn’t too much on HOW to educate oneself, although there’s plenty on the values and results of it. Self-education is an individual process, so it’s up to you to decide how you want to do it. I’m sharing my approach with you today, in the hopes that it’ll spur some interest in self-education and creativity with ways you can apply it yourself.

So, let’s jump into it. Here are my 5 steps to self-education.
Half-Light
By: Jessica Lee Mcmillan
Tags: Poetry, Literary Impulse, Change, Cosmos, Li Theme Submissions

Equinox is but a pause between shades,

our souls dipped in sun and moon.

I resisted unfolding in half-light,

resisted incompleteness

to feign myself whole,

resisted my burgeoning skin

that blooms the body ceaselessly

with each manifold dawn.

Shaped in light temperatures,

we are conduits of luminary weight

in levity under glowing eyelids

grown heavy in formless shadow.

How good to accept winter sun

beneath the routine cloud;

to undo the skyless room in glare,

erratic brightness regained

shining the ebb of migrating soul.

After daily composure,

how good to receive the moon;

yesterday’s radiance melting

into gleam of tomorrow,

body anchoring beam

of joint times on star-laden skin

in the medium of midnight,

the contours fall away.

When we fall asleep holding hands,

amorphous under fabric,

we are unpaired of give and take,

we are both the wax and the wane,

neither of us holding shape.

The shine on my face and yours

once lived in light-pulsed veins,

a torch for the returning light.

Be it a refraction or illusion,

we are born in bed of lumens,

cast as endless rays remade

in margins of teeming half-light.
Mental Illness Does Not Kill
By: Mason Sabre
Tags: Mental Illness Awareness, Mental Illness, Self, Suicide, Bipolar

Mental Illness Does Not Kill

You just need to get off your backside and stop moping … According to my grandmother

Photo by Sharon McCutcheon on Unsplash

Yesterday, I got a phone call to say that my ex-stepmother had been found dead. She was my late father’s ex-wife. I had not seen her in about two years, and really, aside from being married to my father, and being the mother of my younger brother, I never really had much to do with her. She was always a little crazy.

Children, especially children of the 80s, were taught that people with mental illness were crazy. It’s strange to think this time period wasn’t so long ago, but the way things have changed now is for the better. Back then, when we knew someone had a mental illness, we were warned away from them by our parents, told they were weird. As children, we’d make up stories, ponder if they murdered people and kept the body parts in the freezer.

Children have wild imaginations at the best of times, but it seemed when we were kids, it was a whole lot worse than how they are now.

There used to be a man on the next block of houses to us. I always found him interesting. He said weird things, had weird ideas, and me, being a future writer, found this fascinating. We weren’t supposed to go near him, talk to him and the idea of going into his house would reward you with a good smacking off your parents when you got home.

It never stopped me. He had a dog and a pool table, and I liked to talk to him. I didn’t think he was weird at all, or maybe it was just that my own weird was developing even then. We had long conversations, shared books, played endless hours of pool. I know I was a child and he was a lot older, but looking back, I think he was just kind of lonely.
Morpheus Labs Explained Part 1
By: Morpheus Labs Team
Tags: Crypto, ICO, Blockchain, Cryptocurrency, Bitcoin

In a new series of articles we went want to give you more insights and background about Morpheus Labs.

In today’s post we take a look at the Morpheus Labs vision for a Blockchain Platform as a Service (BPaaS).

Blockchain is a cryptographically secure distributed ledger technology that allows businesses and government to streamline their business processes built on top of a new generation of applications and cross entity services. It provides trust, accountability and transparency by using a shared ledger among the distributed network of participants. We believe the power of the blockchain will fundamentally change the way we interact and conduct business. The way forward is to build an inclusive society in which anyone can access this technology in a cost-effective manner.

The blockchain platform will provide corporates, banks, financial institutions and government entities easy access to a platform that enables them to develop, test and manage blockchain applications using different blockchain protocols supported by the platform to achieve rapid prototyping, cost efficiency and a fail-safe environment. This way, organisations can stimulate and encourage innovation.

The platform will support distributed hosting for blockchain network nodes and off-chain applications while providing a centralised platform service for developing, managing and regulating blockchain networks. Ultimately, our platform will enable anyone to partake in this revolutionary technology.

In future articles of the Explained series we will discuss topics such as:
Dear Dildo,
By: Jupiter Grant
Tags: Poetry, Dildo, Masturbation, Sex, Explicit

Dear Dildo, I love you,

I’m glad that you’re mine.

When I’m feeling horny

You make me feel fine.

I can always rely

on you to be here,

To fill up my chasm

with your silicone spear.

Whenever I’m lonely,

With no one to love

You fit right inside me

Like a hand in a glove.

Dear Dildo, I cherish

the shape of your curves

The way that they tickle

that bundle of nerves

that sit deep within

my slippery walls

whenever you wander

in my hallowed halls.

Oh Dildo, sweet Dildo,

You never cajole

Or get too impatient

to enter my hole.

You don’t ever rush me

Or make me feel guilt

If by chance I don’t come,

Or I squirt on the quilt.

You are ever-ready

to bring me sweet pleasure,

Or just stroke and soothe me

in moments of leisure.

And like a clairvoyant

You always predict

Exactly which way

I want to be dicked.

If I want it hard,

Or I prefer slow

Then like a mind-reader

You seem to just know!

We are so connected,

It’s really uncanny

The way you are so

in tune with my fanny.

I’ve had other dildos

I have to confess

But I declare, Dildo,

that you are the best.

You make me relaxed

With ecstasy sweet

That eases my tension

And helps me to sleep.

You‘re so therapeutic;

My favourite self-care

Whether teasing my love-bud

Or my derriere.

But Dildo, in closing,

And I mean no affront

I love you best when you’re

inside of my cunt.
Breaking
By: A Maguire
Tags: Poetry

Fracture in silence,

exclusion,

the everlasting echoes of a careless word.

Widen and split in the dark,

that void of waiting,

of wanting,

an empty world of forsaken.

A cry unheard, from no throat issued.

Repair repudiated in disdain,

for unveiled threat,

excised topics.

Brittle edges no longer fit

and will not heal,

bleeding out,

drop by drop,

to a tuneless melody.

Façade crumbles to ash,

the currency of emotion,

devalued to the dust on the floor.

The signposts were there,

every street,

even rivers,

ran in a single direction,

always away.

Doubt’s unwinding path

leads to distrust and on to despair,

warmth vanishing with respect,

a gaggle of geese on a southern wing.

Fallen, on knees torn. Don’t cry, don’t move, don’t look.

You cared no longer.
Zeus Protocol Partners with DICE Money, A Social Mining Protocol
By: Paul Almasi
Tags: Venture Capital, Blockchain, Cryptocurrency, Ethereum, Bitcoin

As our projects grow, our teams are continuously looking for technology partners that are committed to providing solutions to the blockchain ecosystem.

DICE Money is a revolutionary off-chain cryptocurrency built on social clusters. With the global ecosystem of operator nodes currently forming, the need for strategic technological alliances will be increasing.

Zeus Protocol, is a 2nd layer network for Ethereum, which focuses on providing the network with key innovations to support applications with scalable computation, interoperability, identity and off-chain information. Their first solution, ZeusID, will provide their partners and clients with decrypted on-chain identity and insightful reputation analytics, which will give them incredible advantages over their competition.

“A partnership between the two projects could have the potential to ensure the genuinity of all operator nodes within the ecosystem without compromising its flexibility or reducing any of the inherent benefits that the DICE model brings.” Konstantin Dimitrov, CEO

Both projects have talented and experienced teams, which makes them an ideal fit for a strategic partnership. Both teams are looking forward to helping each other achieve their goals within the blockchain ecosystem.

Stay tuned for more updates!

Email: Business@ZeusProtocol.com

ZEUS Protocol:

Website: https://zeusprotocol.com/

Telegram: https://t.me/zeusprotocol

Twitter: https://twitter.com/zeusprotocol

GitHub: https://github.com/ZeusProtocol

DICE Money:

Website: https://dice.money/

Telegram: https://t.me/DICEmoney

Twitter: https://twitter.com/DICEsup
Blockchain Futurist Conference Exclusive: D-Tube
By: Evan Schindler
Tags: News, Blockchain, Toronto, Censorship, YouTube

About D-Tube

DTube is a decentralized streaming video platform linked to Steemit (the decentralized social media) which allows users to upload videos easily and make money (or cryptocurrency) via the upvotes or likes on their post.

We sat with DTube’s Community Manager, Scott Cunningham, to discuss the future of decentralized media platforms and the influx of users due to censorship of certain voices on Youtube, Twitter and Facebook.

See D-Tube’s functioning video platform here: https://d.tube/
Oceanmoist
By: Aaron Quist
Tags: Relationships, Passion, Love, Sex, Poetry

Oceanmoist

A found-poem compiled from a gorgeous Ann Marie Steele poem.

Photo by Matt Hardy on Unsplash

Press through

my rhythm

of contentment

and fall

on knees

inside

senses yearning

to abate

your still

wet and swirling

pressure

consuming

our

salty, throbbing

firmness.

Wet…my…lip…s.
5 rules to create an empowering kid experience without gender-bias
By: Max Masure
Tags: Inclusion, Nyc Events, Gender Bias, Gender Equality, Kids Activities

Pip’s Island is a new interactive theatrical adventure in Times Square, geared toward kids ages 4–10 and their caregivers.

The magical doors officially opened this week, and I got a chance to experience it with my kid (4) during a preview.

Here are 5 reasons it was such a meaningful journey:

1. Gender neutral terms, content, and accessories

From the moment we were welcomed, my heart felt full and safe. They never used the words “girls” or “boys.” Here, we are all “Explorers” and “Explorer Assistants.”

I was amazed by the website itself, which conveys that idea of children being children, and how, as adults, we can be the best advocates for them by giving them power and tools to solve problems.

Pip’s Island, the Map room: Explorers jackets

The decor in the Map Room, where the kids dressed up in their Explorers jacket and a connected watch was a very magical space with adventurers’ items made out of wood- my all-time favorite. I was already dreaming of journeys and discoveries.

The staff was very attentive and caring toward the kids: they asked Jo to spell her name so they could write it down on her Explorer’s jacket.
Donald J. Trump, Christianity, and Identity Politics
By: Matt Reicher
Tags: America, Politics, 2016 Election, Church, Life

A July 2016 Huffington Post article noted that 78% of white evangelical voters said that they would vote for Donald Trump in the 2016 election. Exit polls from that election year cited by the Washington Post show the final tally to be just over 80%. That likely swung the pendulum to candidate Donald Trump, making him President of the United States.

Those evangelicals, historically linked to issues championed by the Republican party, had found a ideological kindred-soul-of-sorts to push their initiatives. According to a recent New Yorker article, Trump’s Populist (and decidedly Nationalist) policies, his strong, singular approach to governing, and tendency to push every debate into a good v. evil battle all appealed to this group. As far as they were concerned, the president checked off the right boxes to benefit them. His “end of times” gas lighting speaks directly to their concerns.

Trump has a litany of morality warts that stretch back for decades, but white evangelicals by-and-large continue to look the other way. At first glance it would seem that they would have been turned off by Trump’s many moral deficiencies, but that simply isn’t the case. The only realistic answer to their continued coexistence is their shared ideologies. His immoral behavior is cast aside for his willingness to acquiesce to certain political beliefs.

Republican candidates share standard policies, but this relationship is a uniquely Trump thing. He offers something the others don’t. Any of them could put forth virtually identical conservative principles, but none can match Trump’s ability to dominate the news cycle. Because he believes in winning and losing over right and wrong will say and do almost anything to get to sit in the big chair. The others had no real chance of winning.

At stake is a voting bloc of around 80 million people — a group that traditionally votes for Republicans in significant numbers. The two found each other. Although he was once on the other side of many of the beliefs he now espoused, evangelical leaders took him at his word that he’d have their interests in mind. In Trump evangelicals had a mouthpiece for their core agenda, and he had the votes to become President.

Trump is an astute politician who knows how to game the system. He claims to be an outsider, but is cut from the same cloth as his contemporaries. The moves he has made to position himself as the white evangelicals candidate-of-choice seem like little more than pandering. His history doesn’t jive with the teachings of the church. When looked at pragmatically, he falls well short of its moral positions.
Cómo aumentar tu audiencia en Medium
By: Medium En Español
Tags: Medium, Español, Consejos

A Story of a Fuck Off Fund

You will be the kind of woman who can tell anyone to fuck off if a fuck off is deserved, so naturally you start a Fuck…
a handful of peace
By: Nupoor Raj
Tags: Poetry, Peace, Creative Writing, Peace Of Mind, Silence

Photo by Pablo Orcaray on Unsplash

such tranquility…

pleasant silences

help rejuvenate

brings the soul back into the lifeless bodies

time and again

a handful of peace…

when you are full up to the brim

about to drain

all you need is

a handful of peace…

©Nupoor. All rights reserved.
How To Run Angular e2e Tests In Docker
By: Bhargav Bachina
Tags: Programming, Software Development, Angular, Web Development, Docker

Docker Basics

I want to write enough docker to understand this article. If you are already familiar with Docker, skip this section.

Docker is a software tool that facilitates the environment which creates, runs and, deploys container-based applications. A container is the specific unit of software which packages code and all the necessary dependencies to work in a standardized way. It can run in any environment quickly and reliably, and it’s a runnable instance of the image.

You can find the docker installation instructions from here for all the operating systems. Once the docker is installed on the machine, you can do the following.

Pulling and Removing Images

A Docker image is a file system with multiple layers, and each layer is read-only and builds on top of the previous layer. A running instance of an image is called a container. You can run multiple instances of images as containers at the same time.

You can pull any docker image from the Docker hub with this command. A Docker hub is a central repository for the docker images.

// puuling an image

docker pull <image name> // listing images

docker images // remving images

docker rmi <image id>

Here is an example of pulling and removing the busybox image. If you don’t specify the tag, it will pull the image with the latest tag from the docker hub.

Docker pull and delete images

Creating an Image with Dockerfile

Dockerfile is used to automate the Docker image creation. Docker builds images by reading instructions from the Dockerfile. Let’s create a simple Dockerfile from which we can create an image. This is just a busybox which sleeps for some time.

Dockerfile

These are the commands for the creation of an image and running this container. You can exec into the running container so that we can execute commands.

// Image creation

docker build -t sample-docker . // Running the container in a detached mode

docker run -d sample-docker // You can exec into an running container

docker exec -it <container name> /bin/sh

Creation of Docker image from Dockerfile

Pushing Images into Docker Hub

You can create an account on the Docker Hub and push images into that repository with these commands. You need to login to your Docker Hub account before pushing the image with docker login command.

docker push

Docker Hub

Docker Volumes

Every container has a writable layer on top of all the read-only layers, and it is tightly coupled with the host system. It is difficult to access or move data, and it is no longer persisted when the container stops or killed. We use volumes to persist the data across containers or containers are killed.

Volumes are saved in the host filesystem (/var/lib/docker/volumes/), which is owned and maintained by docker. Any other nondocker process can’t access it. But, As depicted in the below, other docker processes/containers can still access the data, even container is stopped since it is isolated from the container file system.
Is KVM virtualization slowing down CPU computations?
Tags: Benchmark

When it comes to pure CPU computations, KVM is doing a great job at providing maximum performance when tuned properly. And when it comes to raw CPU performance, Cinebench R15 is just one of the best benchmarking tools: CPU bounded, slightly RAM dependent.

Not tuning properly CPU pinning and NUMA nodes may lower the Cinebench R15 scores by about 10 to 20% (Geekbench 4 may also get… 70% lower scores, when it comes to use hugepages).

We will take our 20 core machine as the baseline:

CPU topology of our 20 core server

Quanta Freedom Ivy Bridge (2x 10c/20t, 3.1/2.7GHz) with aircooling

96GB RAM

2x 525GB SSDs

Host machine: Ubuntu 16.04 with stock kernel

Virtual machine: Windows Server 2012 R2 Datacenter, using KVM, with replicated host topology (2 sockets, 10 cores, 2 threads)

Baremetal machine: Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 Datacenter, without Hyper-V role

Cosmetic differences may be brutal for those who did not use Windows XP or Windows 7 for a while:
How to use PySpark on your computer
By: Favio Vázquez
Tags: Data Science, Machine Learning, Pyspark, Spark

How to use PySpark on your computer

I’ve found that is a little difficult to get started with Apache Spark (this will focus on PySpark) on your local machine for most people. With this simple tutorial you’ll get there really fast!

I will assume you know what Apache Spark is, and what PySpark is too, but if you have questions don’t mind asking me! Oh, you can check a quick intro I made a while ago here.

The $ symbol will mean run in the shell (but don’t copy the symbol).

Running PySpark in Jupyter

Install Jupyter notebook

$ pip install jupyter

2. Install PySpark

Make sure you have Java 8 or higher installed on your computer. Of course, you will also need Python (I recommend > Python 3.5 from Anaconda).

Now visit the Spark downloads page. Select the latest Spark release, a prebuilt package for Hadoop, and download it directly.

If you want Hive support or more fancy stuff you will have to build your spark distribution by your own -> Build Spark.

Unzip it and move it to your /opt folder:

$ tar -xzf spark-2.3.0-bin-hadoop2.7.tgz

$ mv spark-2.3.0-bin-hadoop2.7 /opt/spark-2.3.0

Create a symbolic link (this will let you have multiple spark versions):

$ ln -s /opt/spark-2.3.0 /opt/spark̀

Finally, tell your bash (or zsh, etc.) where to find spark. To do so, configure your $PATH variables by adding the following lines in your ~/.bashrc (or ~/.zshrc) file:

export SPARK_HOME=/opt/spark

export PATH=$SPARK_HOME/bin:$PATH

Now to run PySpark in Jupyter you’ll need to update the PySpark driver environment variables. Just add these lines to your ~/.bashrc (or ~/.zshrc) file:

export PYSPARK_DRIVER_PYTHON=jupyter

export PYSPARK_DRIVER_PYTHON_OPTS='notebook'

Restart (our just source) your terminal and launch PySpark:

$ pyspark

Now, this command should start a Jupyter Notebook in your web browser. Create a new notebook by clicking on ‘New’ > ‘Notebooks Python [default]’. And voilà, you have a SparkContext and SqlContext (or just SparkSession for Spark > 2.x) in your computer and can run PySpark in your notebooks (run some examples to test your environment).

Running PySpark on your favorite IDE

Sometimes you need a full IDE to create more complex code, and PySpark isn’t on sys.path by default, but that doesn’t mean it can’t be used as a regular library. You can address this by adding PySpark to sys.path at runtime. The package findspark does that for you.

To install findspark just type:

$ pip install findspark

And then on your IDE (I use PyCharm) to initialize PySpark, just call:

import findspark

findspark.init() import pyspark

sc = pyspark.SparkContext(appName="myAppName")

And that’s it. Pretty simple right? Here is a full example of a standalone application to test PySpark locally (using the conf explained above):

If you have anything to add, or just questions, ask them and I’ll try to help you.
Address A Dress
By: Victor Sarkin
Tags: Poetry, Giabprompt, Writing Challenge, Haiku, Archived Prompts

‘Genius in a Bottle’ Prompted Writing Challenge

Address A Dress

GiaB writing prompt #8

Photo by Tamara Bellis on Unsplash

Draped across her form.

Playful allure. Expressing

her soul through her dress.

Admittedly, in some cases, the clothes do make the person. Fatigues imbue the soldier with stealth. A lawman’s uniform makes the police intimidating. Fire-resistant tunics protect fire-people from hostile environments. In all cases, however, it is the insuppressible soul of a person that speaks volumes through the choice of one’s attire. Through dress, one can sense another’s mood, culture, personality, purpose, vocation, and even intention.

The Challenge

We invite any writers to produce a piece of poetry, fiction or non-fiction on the topic of Apparel.

The Guidelines

We cannot publish pieces or reward writers who self publish or publish at another publication, so those pieces have to remain external to the challenge. Only pieces submitted to Genius in a Bottle will be considered for the challenge. If inviting other writers from outside the publication, please ensure they are aware of this.

Poetry is to be limited to 30 lines but can be in any style.

Fiction and non-fiction submissions are to be capped at 750 words.

Please refer to the prompt in the subtitle. Feel free to copy this as a template: GiaB prompt # [insert prompt number and theme here].

When submitting, please ensure that one of the 5 tags is GiaBprompt.

Please ensure a second tag is Poetry, fiction, or non-fiction, as appropriate.

We would like to become exposed to writers and pieces that you have enjoyed in all of Medium. Please tag up to ten writers whose pieces you have enjoyed recently, or who you feel may enjoy participating in this challenge.

For further information pertaining to the challenge, please refer to the rules and guidelines.

And away we go. We look forward to enjoying the paradise of the written word with you all.

Victor Sarkin and Chirag
[Tutorial] How to deposit DRT to HitBTC from your wallet
By: Domraider Team
Tags: Domraider, Hitbtc, Drt, Cryptocurrency, Bitcoin Wallet

As we have previously said, DomRaider token are tradable on HitBTC. To transfer your DRT to HitBTC, you need to make a transaction with an attachment. Usually exchanges do not support withdrawals with attachments, so you have to move DRT to your wallet before depositing it to HitBTC.

Create an account on HitBTC exchange if you don’t already have one. Enable two-factor authentication for extra security.

Go to your “Accounts” page.

Find ETH in your wallets list and create your ETH, click the Deposit button.

Find DRT in your wallets list and create your DRT, click the Deposit button.

From your wallet (i.e. MEW), copy and paste the Wallet address from HitBTC (the one you got during the previous step)

Transfer your DRT from your wallet to this HitBTC wallet adress.

Click the Transfer button, and in the transfer dialog, use your deposit address and attachment for the corresponding fields.

Important: always triple check that you’re using correct deposit address and correct attachment, otherwise your transaction will not be registered by HitBTC correctly.

If you used the correct address and attachment, your transaction will register on the exchange and you will be able to trade on HitBTC

Important: it can take up to 60 minutes for HitBTC to register your deposit. If your deposit takes a really long time to process, contact their customer support.
Prayer for the New World
By: Jackie Ann
Tags: Poetry, Spiritual Growth, New Beginnings, Poetry On Medium, Spirituality

pixabay.com

Remember

when she closed

her arms

and you,

like a child

cried

for your mother

to hold you.

Remember

when you felt

your limbs

unfolding

in the absence

of her protective

covering,

and still

you were

delivered.

Even though

you trembled

at the loss

when the world

you knew

unraveled

and grew

into chaos

and there was

no boundary

solid enough

to hold it

anymore —

In the absence

of everything,

you cut loose

the anchored

parts of you

and in that

delicious

vacancy,

you felt

the wild breath

of freedom, maybe

for the first time.

And that sweet

fullness

reminded you

the shadow

is not

an enemy —

the shadow

is what shows you

where the light

is shining.

The shadow

is its own

strength;

it needs

no defining —

born of smoke

and stardust

where the cosmic

clock is winding.

The shadow

is a wake-up call

when the heart

needs reminding

that the truth

burns at both ends.

Let this be our prayer

for the new world.

In darkness

or light

may you feel

angel’s breath.

In times

of division

may you find

common thread.

And may every

star-kissed wish

ascend

to where even

the most broken

of hearts

can mend.

© Jacqueline Ann 2020
where are the punks?
By: Saigon Garçon
Tags: Self Care, Self Improvement, Travel, Orange County, Inspiration

revolutionaries, counter-cultures, from way back when, where are your names? are you here? are you angry in 2020? can i be angry with you?

as an angsty teen, how did i reject the vengeance of the sun? how did i beat the heat when orange county lacked inspiration? who did i hide with? where did i run to?

photo by author.

“i organize the past to make sense of the present.”

photo by author.

“…i’m tired of curations, bits of bobs fed to mainstream society in a fast food fashion to inch closer and closer to an understanding of themselves. these are traps in tricking you into buying who you are rather than searching for who you are in a place so far from home.”
Effective Ways of Managing Your Terraform State
By: Gaurav Agarwal
Tags: Technology, Terraform, Google Cloud Platform, Programming, DevOps

Managing the Terraform State

There are two types of Terraform state back ends — the local back end and the remote back end.

A local back end is the default Terraform configuration in which Terraform uses your local disk to store the state configuration in a terraform.tfstate file. If you’re the sole admin managing your infrastructure, you don’t need to worry too much about the state, as you can use your local system as the state back end.

A remote back end is an absolute must if you have multiple people managing the same infrastructure. In that scenario, you need to share the state — as you might end up stepping into each other’s shoes, and that exponentially increases complexity with the number of people added.

That does not mean that you should not use remote backends if you are an individual admin. It helps a lot by allowing to store your state in a secured location such as an S3 bucket where the state files are encrypted at rest. It also allows you to access your Terraform state with just an internet connection. You store your Terraform configs in a git repo and the state in a remote backend.

There are two forms of remote back ends.

Standard: A standard back end provides a shared location for storing the state with possible state locking. Standard back ends include AWS S3, Google Cloud Storage, Azure Blob Storage, Artifactory, and many others.

A standard back end provides a shared location for storing the state with possible state locking. Standard back ends include AWS S3, Google Cloud Storage, Azure Blob Storage, Artifactory, and many others. Enhanced: An enhanced remote back end provides the standard back end along with remote operations. These are Terraform Cloud and Terraform Enterprise. These provide a remote Terraform plan and apply for more collaboration.

Let us look at a hands-on example to understand the standard remote back end better.
Managing IPFS Image Uploads With Angular NgRx v8
By: Alex Yevseyevich
Tags: Angular, Ngrx, Ethereum Blockchain, Ipfs, Dapps

Updating to Version 8️

Begin by upgrading our FleaMarketDApp project to the latest Angular version, v8.

ng update @angular/cli @angular/core @angular/material

We want to make sure we’re using Node.js version 12 or later and installing the tools necessary to compile the native node modules.

We also need to update the NgRx library to its latest version, v8.

To enable the dynamic imports for lazy routes we must have the module compile property set to the value esnext in the tsconfig.json file:

"compilerOptions": {

"baseUrl": "./",

"outDir": "./dist/out-tsc",

"sourceMap": true,

"module": "esnext",

....

One cool feature included in this version is that all effects will have automatic resubscriptions on errors.
Branches
Tags: Language, Children, Nature, Grace, Spring

Branches like broken

Sentences,

Fragments of birth-strangled

Spring.

Each morning: new sorrow,

Unfinished grace.

Child-in-the-rain: I am witness to you.