fabiochiu/medium-articles huggingface dataset:
One Month With Tidal
By: Alex Rowe
Tags: Music, Tech, Streaming Music, Music Industry, Streaming

FLAC VS OGG

Tidal uses FLAC, the Free Lossless Audio Codec, to present most of its music if you subscribe to the $20-a-month premium tier. It’s a standard, sort of like Zip, that compresses music without destroying any information whatsoever. The final uncompressed audio stream will be completely identical to whatever source you created the FLAC from.

Ogg Vorbis, the audio system behind Spotify, is a lossy codec. This means that when the music is compressed, certain information is thrown out in order to reduce the filesize. Typically, information that’s thrown out is either outside the audible human hearing frequency range, or so buried in the mix as to be effectively inaudible anyway. The result is a much smaller file that should still mimic the original’s audio quality.

The debate over lossless vs lossy encoding has raged online for years and years, with each having its proponents.

The nice thing about FLAC is that you can be sure that you’re getting all of the data. It requires more bandwidth and more storage space, but you don’t have to worry about missing out.

However.

The reality is that, for 99.9 percent of users, a well-compressed lossy file is completely indistinguishable from a lossless one. And the Ogg system was designed by Xiph.org’s Christopher Montgomery, a true wizard of audio compression, to hit the perfect sweet spot between audio quality, decompression performance, and efficiency.

FLAC was designed originally for archival storage. How can we keep perfect copies of all these digital masters or a collection of CD’s without needing rooms and rooms full of shelves?

Also, FLAC and Ogg are both maintained by Xiph.org. The same company. And they’re both crafted to present a perfect end-user listening experience.

An Ogg file with the right amount of bitrate (which Spotify’s paid tier accomplishes and which their free tier gets very close to) will show you all the flaws/delights in an original master just as well as FLAC.

So Tidal’s hi-fi offering is really there for purists, who want a bit-perfect match for what would have come on a CD.

I can’t hear a real difference between them. They both sound exceptional, regardless of playback equipment I used in my vain quest to tell a big difference. A road I’ve gone down many times in the past, too.

“Your hearing SUCKS!”

No it doesn’t. I can hear out to 16.5khz, not bad for a 34 year old, and I’ve worked in audio production for 15 years. You can absolutely hear the difference with badly encoded lossy tracks.

But with enough bits? They’re wonderful. Just like FLAC.
What Getting Older Means
By: Jeff Barton
Tags: Life Lessons, Inspiration, Lifestyle, Aging, Life

Getting older means your eyebrow hair grows longer and crazier.

And your ear hair too.

It means it’s not as easy to get up from couches and beds.

Or in and out of cars.

It means weird colored veins in your legs.

Getting older means realizing your own mortality.

It means your body doesn’t heal like it used to.

It means injuring your back bending down to pick up dog poop.

Getting older means you can’t tell the age of people younger than you anymore. But they look at you like you’re ancient.

It means learning not to care about what others think.

It means getting up in the middle of the night to use the bathroom. Every night. Because your bladder has somehow miraculously shrunk.

Getting older means when you read something, you have to lean back a little. Or move what you are reading forward.

It means being excited about a new grocery store opening. Or a coffee shop.

Photo by Clark Young on Unsplash

It means yelling at cars to slow down as they speed down your street.

It means figuring out you’ve wasted too much time worrying about meaningless crap (see above).

It means falling asleep on the couch. At 8:30 p.m.

And waking yourself up from your snoring.

Getting older means learning how to be yourself. And liking that self.

It means being put in the “Masters” category for running.

It means you realize you’ve spent too much time working and “trying to get ahead.”

Getting older means forgetting what you walked into a room for.

And remembering it two hours later.

It means starting sentences with the phrase “when I was your age…”

It means wearing socks with sandals.

Photo by The Creative Exchange on Unsplash

Getting older means Sudoku and crossword puzzles.

It means documentaries on PBS. Nature especially.

It means “Netflix and chill” actually means what it says and not something else.

It means using phrases younger people use to try to sound cool.

It means finding out “getting older” is a state of mind.

Because getting older means getting better.

Getting older means you understand how precious life can be. And to not waste the life you’ve been given.
Токены Olympus Labs стали доступны на Radar Relay, децентрализованной системе ретрансляции — безбиржевого обмена токенов
By: Olympus Labs
Tags: Russian

Olympus puts the power of blockchain in the palm of your hand-with a groundbreaking blockchain-based financial ecosystem and d-app marketplace for investors and developers.

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“Light chaff and falling leaves or a pair of feathers”
By: The Hairpin
Tags: Poetry, Featured Poet, Gail Wronsky

by Gail Wronsky

on the ground can spook a horse who won’t flinch when faced

with a backhoe or a pack of Harleys. I call it “horse

ophthalmology,” because it is a different kind of system —

not celestial, necessarily, but vision in which the small,

the wispy, the lightly lifted or stirring threads of existence

excite more fear than louder and larger bodies do. It’s Matthew

who said that the light of the body is the eye, and that if

the eye is healthy the whole body will be full of light. Maybe

in this case “light” can also mean “lightness.” With my eyes of

corrupted and corruptible flesh I’m afraid I see mostly darkness

by which I mean heaviness. How great is that darkness? Not

as great as the inner weightlessness of horses whose eyes perceive,

correctly I believe, the threat of annihilation in every windblown

dust mote of malignant life. All these years I’ve been watching

out warily in obvious places (in bars, in wars, in night cities and

nightmares, on furious seas). Yet what’s been trying to destroy

me has lain hidden inside friendly-seeming breezes, behind

soft music, beneath the carpet of small things one can barely see.

The eye is also a lamp, says Matthew, a giver of light, bestower

of incandescent honey, which I will pour more cautiously

over the courses I travel from now on. What’s that whisper?

Just the delicate sweeping away of somebody’s life.

— Poetry, Oct 2012

Gail Wronsky is the author of ten books of poetry, prose, and translations, including ‘So Quick Bright Things’ (What Books, 2010), ‘Poems for Infidels’ (Red Hen Press, 2004), and ‘Dying for Beauty’ (Copper Canyon Press, 2000).
B21 Move into New Headquarters at Gibraltar World Trade Center
Tags: Gibraltar, Fintech, Bitcoin, Cryptocurrency, Blockchain

We are delighted to announce that the B21 team has officially moved into the new office at the World Trade Center (WTC) in Gibraltar.

The World Trade Center is a member of the World Trade Center Association in New York and is part of a community of over 323 WTC’s in 90 countries around the world. The state of the art building is home to some of the most prestigious fintech companies, top online gaming companies, as well as some of the leading startups in the fintech and cryptocurrency sectors, some of which, we now have as our neighbours.

Located at just a 10-minute walk from the Gibraltar international airport and less than a 5-minute walk from Gibraltar’s buzzing center, the WTC offers a world-class business environment, which will allow B21 to expand both locally and globally.

The ‘Rock’ of Gibraltar is renowned for its high-quality regulatory environment and its success in the e-commerce business, most notably in the online gaming, e-money and payments sectors. Gibraltar has become home to some of the largest brands in the world, and as a territory that embraces innovation and entrepreneurial drive, it is an attractive center for investors and is currently rising as the new crypto capital of Europe.

The main aspect that has seen Gibraltar take the lead as one of the European Hubs for crypto-related business is that earlier this year Gibraltar became the very first jurisdiction in the world to launch regulations for Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) related businesses, such as cryptocurrency. Any crypto related company/any business using blockchain technology in Gibraltar must now be licensed by the Gibraltar Financial Services Commission and follow regulatory standards.

These regulations are set to raise the bar for the entire industry, as prominent countries keep a close eye on the small but very powerful rock!

We are proud to be part of the World Trade Center community and such a world-class business environment, and are very excited about the future of B21 and the Crypto industry within Gibraltar.

We have now settled in nicely to our new office and welcome any of our neighbours to pop past, say hello and find out more about B21! Just be sure to bring your own coffee, we are still awaiting the installation of the B21 coffee machine ;-)

If you have any questions about B21, your personal wealth manager for cryptoassets, join our Telegram group

Image Source : https://www.worldtradecenter.gi/
Is nomophobia as silly as it sounds?
By: Victoria Gray
Tags: Wellbeing, Unplug And Recharge

Is nomophobia as silly as it sounds?

No. And this is why we should take it seriously.

If I told you about someone who was stressed or anxious if they didn’t have a bottle of alcohol with them constantly, would you think they have a problem? What if I said they couldn’t go to the bathroom or to bed without it? What if it was a pack of cigarettes instead? Or some other socially-identified drug? Would you be concerned about their health and wellbeing?

Rightly so, I think most of us would think that person has some issues that need to be dealt with. But for some reason we don’t seem to feel the same way if it’s a smartphone that person can’t be without. Being attached to a smartphone may sound trivial but some people are willing to go to some surprising extremes to keep their phones with them at all times.

Nomophobia is shorthand for ‘no-mobile-phone phobia’ and yes, it is a real thing. The term was coined in 2010 during a research study on the anxieties of smartphone users, commissioned by the UK Post Office. Back then, they found that almost 53% of British mobile phone users admitted to feeling anxious when they “lose their mobile phone, run out of battery or credit, or have no network coverage.”

For more recent stats, we can look at a 2016 study by Bank of America. It showed that over 70% of the 1,000 sampled usually sleep with their smartphone nearby: 55% of those keep it on their bedside table, 13% keep it in their bed and 3% said they sleep with it in their hand. Almost one-quarter of respondents said they’ve fallen asleep holding their phone at one time or another. In the morning, 35% said their smartphone is the first thing they reach for. If you don’t think that’s concerning, would your opinion change if it was a beer or some pills instead of a smartphone?

Given the ever-increasing functionality of our phones and how much they have become imbedded in our lives, it’s easy to imagine how much higher those numbers would be today. Many people are never without their phones, as there seems to be no limits on when we use them — at the dinner table, in the bathroom and even during intimate moments.

Don’t get me wrong — I think smartphones are wonderful things. They provide access to endless information and content that’s useful and entertaining, and they keep us connected. But I do think we need to be mindful of when, how and why we use our phones. And, most importantly, the impact they have on us. We may not consider smartphones a drug but we’re seeing that they can cause similar dependencies and behaviours. By ensuring we have healthy phone habits, we can make the most of what they offer without losing ourselves along the way.

If you’re wondering if you or someone you know has nomophobia, check out this quiz developed by the Iowa State University.
PHORIA joins Willow, Investa and Land Surveys to create the world’s first AR Digital Twin
Tags: AR, Augmented Reality, Press Release, Construction, Technology

Launching at Sixty Martin Place in the heart of Sydney’s CBD, this cutting-edge AR Digital Twin revolutionises spatial data management, cementing smart IoT-enabled buildings as the standard for future developments.

Today Melbourne-based immersive technology studio, PHORIA, announced news of the world’s first Augmented Reality (AR) Digital Twin in partnership with leading digital twin experts, Willow, and pioneering Australian commercial office developer Investa. The Sixty Martin Place: AR Digital Twin operates within the 33-level skyscraper at Sixty Martin Place, Sydney NSW, co-owned by the Investa Commercial Property Fund (ICPF) and Gwynvill.

Investa and Willow developed Australia’s first digital twin for operations at Sixty Martin Place, with contractor Lendlease. Upon building completion, Willow integrated 71,848 digital assets and other data sources with their WillowTwin™ software platform, to create a smart and tech-empowered built environment.

In a new partnership between Investa, Willow, PHORIA and Land Surveys, Sixty Martin Place is set to become the cornerstone of spatial data visualisation in Australia.

PHORIA, who are world leaders in AR technologies, collaborated with Investa and Willow to develop an AR application that could align digital twin data with the real-world environment and enhance the user experience available at Sixty Martin Place.

CEO and Co-Founder of PHORIA, Trent Clews-de Castella, commented on why data integration into an AR Digital Twin is so powerful:

“Our vision for the future is one empowered by spatial data and digital twins. As data persists in our physical world, Augmented Reality gives us fast access to layers of meaningful information. This newfound spatial context informs onsite decision-making like never before, saving valuable time and resources across a variety of industries.”

Experts in 3D scanning and spatial data management, Land Surveys, both scanned and surveyed Sixty Martin Place during construction, before working closely with PHORIA to generate a 99% accurate 3D model of the physical building.

CEO of Land Surveys, Peter Rullo, explained why 3D scanning is crucial to the process of aligning spatial data:
Why Humanity Needs To Outgrow Its Playground Phase
By: Danny Schleien
Tags: Environment, Gardening, Psychology, Nature, Climate Change

I’ve been fortunate to experience many different ecosystems, from desolate deserts to frigid tundras to luscious woodlands.

None compares to the vivacity of a rainforest.

When you step into a rainforest, you feel a sense of wonder as you crane your neck to see trees as high as mini-skyscrapers, trees growing on other trees, plants growing from the air, soil hosting species both visible and invisible to the naked eye, and the creatures we can more easily identify with, namely large vertebrates.

You can hear the rainforest too. You can feel the sounds of silence as you enter a world unencumbered by engines and wheels. You can listen to the birds chirping near and far, the leaves quaking and sometimes falling in the wind, the creatures tiptoeing their way around their natural homes, and the raindrops falling from a life-giving sky.

Life is all around you; it’s above you, in front of you, behind you, and below you. Every corner of the rainforest is alive. You can feel the biodiversity with every sense — sight, hearing, taste, touch, and smell.

You can’t help but feel inspired by nature. You ask yourself how the system works so wonderfully. How did those trees grow so high? How did those plants grow on top of those trees?

Nature naturally sparks curiosity and wonderment. It imbues you with a sense of appreciation and gratitude. You feel so small and vulnerable as a lush expanse of greenery envelops you. You heed the warnings to stay on the trail, trying to minimize your impact on the ecosystem and let nature do its thing.

In sum, you experience a sense of aesthetic enjoyment and develop curiosity as to how this system works.

But soon enough, the temporality of the experience dawns upon you. You step off the trail and jump back into your gas-guzzling car, eating a meal dominated by domesticated animals whose lives were contingent on a systematic destruction of habitats like the one you just entered and exited.

You reflect on how fragile and sensitive the natural world is, a product of that most magical of natural forces: evolution.
翻訳絵本の企画と広報から知る、女性に響くデザイン。～千倉書房～
By: いしまるあきこ, Akiko Ishimaru
Tags: Editing, Japanese, Picture Books, 日本語

in Both Sides of the Table
The Knowledge Ecosystem: New Updates Preview
Tags: Knowledge, Knw, Crypto, Knw Token, Blockchain

The Knowledge Ecosystem: New Updates Preview

Wednesday, May 23, 2018

We’d like to thank all our token buyers, and our community at large for their participation and enthusiasm during our token sale. We are pleased with the current progress and development of the Knowledge Ecosystem with several key rollouts coming over the next few weeks.

Development Updates

On the development front, we’ve improved some of the cloud security measures including encryption of sensitive data and all infrastructure security and monitoring. The dev team has also begun work on the Knowledge mobile and web SDKs, and has made improvements to the Knowledge Ads campaign monitoring dashboard where we are tracking impressions, clicks and conversions for advertisers. There have been multiple code quality and system reliability improvements, as well. We will be making a number of announcements regarding KnowledgeAds, and the Knowledge Marketplace over the next few weeks.

Some additional Trivia Spar updates:

The user points bug that was a critical issue is now resolved

UI/UX improvements

Firebase push notifications have been integrated

Improved monitoring and tracking of events

Better question categorization

Started improvements on questions difficulty level

Launch of KnowledgeBot — Telegram Trivia Quiz Software

Due to the success of our automated Telegram Trivia Quiz during our token sale we have decided to improve upon our initial project, and make it available to the general public for usage on their own channels & groups.

The KnowledgeBot has several key functionalities all managed by one, simple web-based dashboard. We will be making an announcement this week regarding our first pilot participants.

KnowledgeBot functionality:

Reward trivia winners with your ERC-20, or Waves-NG Token

Reward trivia winners with KNW Tokens

Custom automated messages based upon a schedule, or user inquiries

Attach images to automated messages

Keep track of trivia users, response stats, and winnings

Custom bot schedule – Trivia Quiz

Custom trivia questions

Join the conversation: https://t.me/Knowledgeio
NEM Roadshow across New Zealand | Lead the Future Tour.
By: Dalaney Nem New Zealand
Tags: Nem, New Zealand, Announcements, Cryptocurrency, Blockchain

Lead The Future

NEM Roadshow across New Zealand | Lead the Future Tour.

The NEM New Zealand team have organised a Roadshow with Crypto Launchpad and Blue Block.

Travelling New Zealand to share the amazing opportunities that is, blockchain and cryptocurrencies, and not to forget how to harness them.

Touching down first, in Wellington on the 3rd of July and Auckland on the 4th. The team will dive into blockchain technology, bitcoin, ICOs, and smart contracts. With specific NEM user cases and a deep dive into the power of the NEM blockchain.

The Roadshow doesn’t stop there, the following week, we head to the beautiful South Island, appearing in Christchurch on the 10th of July and Dunedin on the 11th of July.
The Road to CI/CD
By: Remco Rakers
Tags: DevOps, Software Development, Programming, Continuous Delivery, Continuous Integration

The Road to CI/CD

Continuous integration is a necessity now. Here’s how to get there

Photo by Reza Namdari on Unsplash.

Remember those days when CI/CD was something developers did because they hated manual, repetitive work? Fast-forward to now and CI/CD is an industry-wide best practice that’s on top of every IT manager’s agenda.

Not without reason, as CI/CD is a powerful concept that helps teams deliver value faster and increase the quality of their output. But what exactly is CI/CD and what do you need to start using it?

First of all, let’s look at the definition: CI stands for continuous integration, and CD refers to continuous delivery or continuous deployment.

Continuous integration is the process of validating software code and its interdependencies in an automated way. This process involves building, testing, and merging code to a central repository without any manual interference.

Continuous delivery is the process of delivering the output of the continuous integration process to the next stage (e.g. a package repository or a release platform). This process is triggered automatically, but manual approval steps are still in place to perform verification checks or accumulate a batch of changes for a release window.

Continuous deployment takes this one step further by removing manual approvals and automating the release process to a production environment.

Different stages of a CI/CD workflow. Photo by the author.

Although the goal might seem to achieve the state of continuous deployment, this is not suited for all organizations, products, and environments. The application’s complexity, dependency on external integrations, or the maturity of an organization’s processes might dictate otherwise.

Let’s take a closer look at the required steps for implementing a CI/CD workflow and the prerequisites to make this a success, starting with the configuration of a pipeline.
How To Integrate A Static Google Map API In Your Rails Project
By: Brodrick George
Tags: Ruby, Google, Maps, Static, Rails

In this tutorial, I’ll be teaching you how to strictly integrate a static google map into your rails project. I will also show you how to change the color of the marker and how to add more if need be. This tutorial will assume you have some previous background information on rails. Don’t worry, this is still a very basic beginner level tutorial and not complicated at all.

Examples used in this tutorial will be from my mod 2 project at Flatiron School that uses Ruby 2.6.1 and Rails 6.0 (a basic setup that wasn't generated with scaffold).
Defining Functions in Python
By: Joseph Hart
Tags: Python Programming, Python3

Defining functions is a great way to demonstrate your coding ability. It shows you know how to create something that doesn't need to be changed every time to run. I mean that you do not have to change numbers or variables to get the outcome you desire. This could be charting graphs without changing the title or axes, but you programmed the graph to update the title and axes accordingly. Another example is adding all the numbers together up to a certain number. In this post, I’ll show you how to do the latter.

If I wanted to add all the numbers from zero to four, most people wouldn't need python or a calculator to do that. However, what if I wanted to add every number from zero to three thousand? It is possible to do it by hand or by the calculator, but it would take quite a long time. Python is faster, and when we create a function, we can finish this task much quicker.

To start, let’s think about what tools python has built-in that can help us. I know sum(), and range() will be able to help us.

Before I declare my function, I like to create lines of code that will work when not in a function. I want to add all the numbers from zero to ten first.

Remember, the range function includes the first argument and exempts the second argument. So, eleven is not included, but ten is.

What if we have a negative number? We can still add those too.

Negative ten is smaller than zero, so we place that number as our first argument and zero as the second argument. We get a negative 55 as a result.

Now that I have a working code, it’s time to make a function out of it.

Start by defining the function.

My function, numbers, will take an argument ‘ i ’. This ‘ i ‘ is generic for an input that will be in the function.

We know the input can be negative or positive, so we need to account for that by using if, else statements.

If the input is greater than zero, we want the function to run a certain way. We know the range function excludes the second argument, so we want to add one to our number in the range. Without a return statement, the function will not produce a result.

If the input is smaller than zero, we want the function to run a different way. Below, ‘ i ‘ is now the first argument because it is smaller than zero. It is okay to exclude zero because zero does not change the sum of a product.

The resulting function is written as so:

To test it out, let’s give it a number we can do in our heads.

The function works for 1 + 2, so what about 10 like in the previous example?

Let’s try a tiny number.
3 Signs That You Should Give Up
By: Yassine Benfatah
Tags: Life Lessons, Philosophy, Personal Growth, Personal Development, Self Improvement

In the world of self-help, it seems as if giving up is the worst thing you can do. I can tell from the hundreds of times I’ve heard and read the phrase, “never give up.”

I’ve heard every successful person, coach, and guru repeat it. So many times that I became ashamed to even thinking about quitting — I felt that I should follow my purpose at all costs, and If I stopped, then I’m a loser.

But today, how I see things changed. My experiences proved that giving up isn’t always bad. Sometimes, at certain conditions, it’s better to give up and start fresh with a new goal and perspective.

Below, I’ll share these conditions. If you find them relevant, you might seriously consider giving up.
Surface Swimmer
By: Annine Massaro
Tags: Deep Learning, Emotions, Self, Reflections, Poetry

Surface Swimmer

A longing for softness

Photo by Toa Heftiba on Unsplash

Sometimes I wish I could be a surface swimmer

Skimming the edifice of it all

Without going in

I wonder —

Would it lessen the pain felt

Only to deaden an exquisite pleasure

I long to be more like the hummingbird

Elegant stillness

In flighted nectar reception

Instead I am compelled

Not unlike the woodpecker

Insistent, loud and hungry



Capturing a meal

And a resting place

From what lies within
The Reason We Might Never Get Along
By: Luke Brennan
Tags: Politics, Nonviolence, Election 2020, Elections, Life

The Reason We Might Never Get Along

Are we past the point of connection?

Photo by Jennifer Griffin on Unsplash

This week’s Vice Presidential debate ended with a question from Brecklynn Brown, an 8th grade student from Utah. Her question urged both candidates to claim responsibility for polarization in the U.S.

“When I watch the news, all I see is arguing between Democrats and Republicans. When I watch the news, all I see is citizen fighting against citizen. When I watch the news, all I see is two candidates from opposing parties try to tear each other down. If our leaders can’t get along, how are our citizens supposed to get along?”

She ended with a request for leadership that would inspire unity among Americans:

“Your examples could make all the difference to bring us together.”

Brown’s question offered both candidates an opportunity to step away from political platforms and agendas. It gave space for the candidates to be vulnerable, to take a risk, to admit fault, or even to make some awkward and timid acknowledgement of goodness in the opponent.

It feels scandalous to imagine.

Would Pence agree that the Trump administration could do better to fight against racial injustice America?

Is it possible that Harris would search for something she admired in Pence? Even if it were just the color of his tie?
My Neighbor Picasso
By: Mao Tss
Tags: Life Lessons, Slice Of Life, Stalking, Fiction, Short Story

I introduce myself, my name is Victor, I am 63 years old, I have no children, no woman or even dog;

I have lived here for so long,

Since this truck did not see me at the big crossroads, the doctors were not expensive, but I clung to life out of a pure spirit of contradiction.

I never liked the paths drawn in advance, I never supported that another than me know what could happen in my life, so I woke up from the coma in which I had probably taken refuge to forget.

It will be ten years in a few days and I am used to the unacceptable. I do not even want to talk to him, his image is enough for me; sometimes he is funny, as if his universe was peopled with unlikely stories that do not tell.

I’m waiting, it’s my way of being in the world.

I wait for the sun for its few rays that penetrate through the louvers of my living room,

the rain for the lapping, the puddles and the smells that emerge in the silence that follows,

the snow, because it will always be snow,

the storm that makes me shudder and tells me that I’m alive.

Oh alive!

There is Irma who comes every day to take care of the material things of my life;

we talk about rain and good weather, that’s good, it’s the subjects that interest me.

I do not engage any more serious conversation because for that it is necessary to be in the life, to have regrets, hopes, convictions,

what do I know?

Me, I’m waiting for Picasso to leave his house, that’s all.

I was the so-called reporter, I traveled the world, the war of men, airports, tidy jeeps, shabby or luxurious hotels.

I have always loved the image, the one that says everything, the one that reminds you of nothing but horror;

and there I found myself full force;

I was always in the breach, between two planes, two wars …

And probably the same fight, run, show, showcase the horrors of war.

The disgusting, the unspeakable, the atrocious, the misery, the despair, it was my livelihood.

To say that it stops, to say never again?

No, I was not a militant, to tell the truth, as time went by, I became stupid, I grabbed images like other butterflies,

it protected me from fear, from wanting to forget me so much I lost myself.

Picasso I feel he could grow wings,

and there …
29 Recreational Wheeled Vehicles, by Sexiness
By: Edith Zimmerman
Tags: Cars, Automotive, Commutes

Spiralbound editor. Formerly at The Hairpin. Also now making a newsletter: https://drawinglinks.substack.com

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Dying
By: Mark C Watney
Tags: Death, Dementia, Piano, Poetry, Old Age

We publish stories, articles, and poetry that are edgy, even uncomfortable to read, that stimulate the heart, mind, and occasionally the colon.

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Middleware in Express Applications
By: Ashraful Islam
Tags: JavaScript, Programming, Nodejs, Expressjs, Web Development

Middleware in Express Applications

It’s not nearly as complicated as it sounds

Photo by Quinten de Graaf on Unsplash.

One of the core concepts of an Express application is middleware, and most of us get confused by it.

First of all, think of middleware as a simple function that will take a request object and pass control to the next middleware function or send a response to the client.

One of the simplest examples of middleware is the route handler function in the Express framework. Those who already have some knowledge of the Express framework are familiar with the following code:

app.get('/', (req, res) => {

res.send({ id: 1, name: 'Ashraful' });

}

In the case above, the get function takes a request and sends a response to the client.

Another example is to get the JSON object from the body of the request we wrote:

app.use(express.json())

express.json() parses the body of the request and sets the object in req.body in the route handler. Here, express.json() returns a middleware function.

We can easily understand the request and response cycle with the following diagram:

Request-response pipeline in Express

Think of it as a pipeline. On one side of that pipeline, we will have our request object. On another side, there will be the response object. In between the request and response, we can place some middleware.

Express comes with some built-in middleware functions. But we can also create custom middleware functions that we can place in between middleware functions to perform some operations. A good example would be performing authentication and authorization with custom middleware.
#13: The 5 Languages of Appreciation in the Workplace
Tags: Company Culture, Employee Engagement, Appreciation, Leadership, Podcast

Dr Paul White is a psychologist, author, keynote speaker, leadership trainer & consultant who has been helping organisations like Microsoft and SHRM “make work relationships work” for the past 20 years.

He co-authored The 5 Languages of Appreciation in the Workplace: Empowering Organizations by Encouraging People with Dr Gary Chapman and based the work on Dr Chapman’s revolutionary and popular The 5 Love Languages. Their book has recently been republished with new insights added from Gallup and other current research into employee engagement and happiness.

Dr White’s work is all about helping people in organisations give the kind of appreciation that helps individuals flourish in their roles — whether they respond best to words of affirmation 💬, quality time 🕰, acts of service 🛠, tangible gifts 🎁 or physical touch 🤝.

“Not everyone feels appreciated in the same way.”

He argues that managers like their jobs more when the people in their team feel appreciated, because there is much less conflict to deal with.

“It’s not just about making people feel good… We want healthy relationships and people working better together.”

Through their research, Drs White & Chapman found that the one thing people don’t want to hear, is “good job” — even among people who feel most appreciated (and thus motivated) through words of affirmation. It’s just too vague, and could lean towards insincerity…

Dr White’s tips for great recognition:

Use the person’s name, and if you’re writing it down, spell it correctly. Be specific about what was done and what the value is. Specify why it is important for you and/or the company. If you’re giving a gift, it needs to be personal & thoughtful.

Another interesting statistic that Dr White has found, is that 55% of people don’t receive appreciation through words of affirmation — “don’t tell me, show me.” Others hate being acknowledged in front of a big crowd, and for a meagre 6% of workers tangible gifts are valued as their top language of appreciation.

It’s clear that understanding your co-workers’ languages of appreciation is important, not only for the sake of their growth and happiness, but for the growth and culture of the company as well. Dr White believes that the biggest thing about appreciation is that it should not only be top-down; but peer-to-peer. There are times in life that you need some personal support, and this builds loyalty and trust between people and in their relationship with the company. We need to be acknowledged as human at a fluid, personal kind of level.
Pitch Perfect 1 Review: The Competition
By: Bonnie Lopez
Tags: Music, Comedy, Film, Pitchperfect, Singing

The movie Pitch Perfect consists of an A Capella group symphonizing their way up to be #1. They strive to be the best competing for the golden trophy.

With Jason Moore being the director and Kay Cannon being the writer they produced a humorous series of Pitch Perfect consisting of Parts 1, 2, and 3. Part 1 had to be by far the most melodramatic yet playful film created by him. It possessed a vibrant stage with dazzling lights presenting an understated black and white uniform along with a yellow bandanna wrapped around the neck intended to pop. The A Capella group embodied a variety of personalities and voices, this was the only thing that they had in common, leaving me amused. This A Capella group was known as the

Barden Bellas.

This group competes against another all male group from the same college for Nationals. Beca who wasn’t the most social and involved with school was pressured into joining the Bellas. After a hard loss from the Bellas last year they were forced to recruit. Bella was the piece to the puzzle bringing new ideas to the group. Before making a choice to watch the film, expect a lot of strong language, unappealing scenes, and light but underage drinking, but know that this is the typical college life warped into a movie. While a lot of the scenes can be heavy on the eyes and ears putting all complaints aside this film will have you rolling and maybe even singing along after the movie is over.
Oriented FAST and Rotated BRIEF (ORB)
By: Garima Nishad
Tags: Deep Learning, Computer Vision, Machine Learning, Orb, Algorithms

Basics of ORB | Towards AI

Oriented FAST and Rotated BRIEF (ORB)

Learn how to use the fastest and efficient alternative to SIFT

So first let’s get a general idea about what it does & how it works. Then we’ll see both of these algorithms separately i.e. FAST and BRIEF. Fast and brief, are a feature detection in a vector creation algorithm respectively.

ORB, starts by finding special regions in an image called key points. Key points are the highly-distinctive locations in an image. For example, the edges of an image (where the brightness varies i.e where the pixel values change sharply ).

Key points(Green points) {Image Courtesy: OpenCV}

How does ORB work?

First, it uses FAST to find key points, then applies a Harris corner measure to find top N points among them. FAST stands for Features from Accelerated Segments Test, and it quickly selects key points by comparing the brightness levels in a given pixel area. BRIEF, to create feature vectors.

Feature Detection using FAST( Features from Accelerated Segments Test):

Select a pixel p in the image which is to be identified as an interesting point or not. Let its intensity be I. Select the appropriate threshold value t. Consider a circle of 16 pixels around the pixel under test. (See the image below).

Image Courtesy: OpenCV

pixel ‘p’ is selected as a key point if there are at least a pair of consecutive pixels that are either brighter or darker than p. This optimization reduces the time required to search an entire image for key points by a factor of four.

So, the key points found by FAST, give us information about the location of an object defining edges in an image.

One problem is that FAST doesn’t compute the orientation. So what about rotation invariance? The answer is: Machine Learning a Corner Detector and Non-maximal Suppression.

BRIEF (Binary Robust Independent Elementary Features):

The second part of the ORB algorithm is to take the key points found by the FAST algorithm and turn those into feature vectors that together can represent an object. To create feature vectors, ORB uses a BRIEF algorithm.

It basically creates binary feature vectors from a set of key points. As we already know a binary feature vector, is also known as a binary descriptor, which is just a feature vector that contains only ones and zeros.

BRIEF provides a shortcut to find the binary strings directly. It takes a smoothened image patch and selects a set nd(x,y) location pairs in a unique way and then pixel intensity comparisons are done on these location pairs. For mathematical aspects, you can look up: OpenCV documentation

In short, BRIEF is a faster method feature descriptor calculation and matching. It also provides a high recognition rate unless there is a large in-plane rotation.

Check out its implementation code on GitHub.
シビックテックの立役者たちが集うフォーラム(Personal Democracy Forum 2015) まとめ1
By: Marika Katanuma
Tags: Civictech, Politics, Civic Engagement

in Both Sides of the Table
Help For The Unpoetic Man
By: Mark Starlin
Tags: Poetry, Love, Humor, Valentines Day

Most men can’t write good poetry. We know it’s true. So I have created a royalty-free valentine poem that you can use as your own. Free of charge. Just fill in her name at the beginning, and you’re good to go.

My darling ___________

Your facial arrangement is more than acceptable.

Normal men are intimidated by your beauty. Fortunately, I am not normal.

Your eyes pierce my heart with nuclear force, melting the flesh off my skeleton, leaving a crispy, barely beating heart flopping about, easily squashed by passing vehicles or pedestrians.

Your voice is more melodious than a thousand songbirds trapped in a cave by unrelenting winter gales before they could fly south. I would bottle the sound if the sound was willing to be put in a bottle and sealed with a synthetic cork. Alas, this is not currently possible with today’s bottling technology. Perhaps a digital recorder would suffice to capture the music of your words, but only if a 96 kHz sampling rate was used.

Your character is as flawless as a diamond carved in the vacuum of space by the most advanced alien diamond cutter of all time on the best cutting day of their life which exceeded the quality of their previous best day by a thousand times.

I would gladly allow a giant sequoia tree to fall on me if it would grant me your attention for the half-second before I am crushed.

Do you like me? Check Yes___ or No___.
VE-VE Global License Announcement!
Tags: Branding, Digital Collectibles, Licensing, Ecomi, Ve Ve

We’ve already done a deep dive into tokidoki, and you can expect a number of brand showcases to come in the next few months. However, we can now confirm that at least 4 tokidoki brands will be available as digital collectibles. You may also notice that these licenses not only cover a wide range of tastes and entertainment interests, but their brands also leverage their international fan bases.

From CBS- Star Trek is one of the most recognized and collected brands in the world. Cartoon Network covers some of the biggest names in children's entertainment, with classics like Adventure Time and the Powerpuff Girls.

There aren’t many people who haven’t heard of Warner Brothers, and now through VE-VE, the DC universe is entering the digital realm! And last (for now) but definitely not least, Capcom, who has sold over 50 million games, bring us Street Fighter and Monster Hunter.

But Wait, There’s More!

Sitting there with your jaw down?

Well, it’s time to saddle up!

With these announcements comes one more announcement that you’ve been waiting for…

The registration page to be amongst the first people to use the VE-VE app- and to get your hands on incredibly limited, trial edition digital collectibles- is now open 🙀

Join the waitlist on VEVE.me

If you want to join us on this digital collectible journey, head to VEVE.me now and enter your email to get involved!

We are incredibly excited to share these licenses with you and look forward to sharing their digital collectible counterparts in the very near future. Keep an eye out as we deep dive into these brands in the coming months, give you a first look at the VE-VE app, and continue to share new brands and licenses with you!
Get Better Sleep by Stressing About It Less
By: Azim Rushdi
Tags: Sleep, Habits, Self Care, Self Improvement, Happiness

Why Your Brain Won’t Shut Off?

Oftentimes, you feel sleepy and go straight to your bed. But you end up feeling awake the moment you close your eyes. Why is this the case? Dr. Chris said it could be one of two possibilities:

1. You confuse fatigue with sleepiness.

Picture an average working adult named Bob. Bob works as a plumber. He usually has more clients in the latter part of the day. At 9:00 pm after work, Bob said he feels sleepy. He then jumped to his bed. To his surprise, it took 2 hours before his brain shuts off. Bob thought he has insomnia. But Dr. Chris knows that Bob was not particularly sleepy at 9:00 pm. He was experiencing fatigue.

On another day, Bob decides to run a marathon. He was quite busy with work, so he didn’t have enough time to train. On the marathon day, Bob runs like his life depends on it. He stopped, puked, and quit at the mark of 20 km. Why do you think Bob stops? He stops because of fatigue, NOT because of sleepiness.

Sleepiness, according to Dr. Chris, is having trouble staying awake. Fatigue is more of a physical feeling of tiredness. You can only sleep when you are sleepy, not when you are fatigued. He said, “…often when people feel fatigued they make the mistake of going to bed.”

2. You have sleeping-performance anxiety.

Now imagine poor Bob walking into an empty gym one morning. He took a basketball, started shooting some hoops, and scored 10 straight free throws. He thought that was pretty darn awesome. Now imagine if you put Bob on a free throw line in an NBA championship. The entire team is looking at him to make the two free throws. Although the action is the same, we can almost predict that Bob is going to miss the free throws. There is too much pressure for him.

A similar instance occurs when it comes to sleep. Bob struggles to fall asleep at night. He used to sleep almost instantly back when he was young. As he ages, his bed-conversation tends to get intense. In the past, he read many articles talking about the importance of good sleep hygiene. So he forced himself to bed as early as 9:00 pm every day.

In a recent podcast in the Art of Manliness, Dr. Chris emphasized that sleeping is a skill. And as with other skills, there is a performance that goes along with it. Generally, our performance declines as the stakes get higher. Your sleeping performance declines when you put too much pressure to ensure high-quality sleep. Notice the irony?
Ancient Beasts Say Why You Should Fear Them
By: Kyrie Gray
Tags: Books, Mythology, Humor, Comics, History

Images licensed from Designcuts, altered by author

Ancient Beasts Say Why You Should Fear Them

Dare you face their awesomeness?

Most of us never think about those fearsome monsters from mythology and legends. But our ancestors did. A lot. And why wouldn’t they? Just look at what some of these creatures would do if one transgressed.