fabiochiu/medium-articles huggingface dataset:
The Multiclass Definitions
By: Danilo Pena
Tags: Machine Learning, Classification, Advice, Algorithms, Data Science

Photo by Tuân Nguyễn Minh on Unsplash

One of the first lessons a budding machine learning programmer learns is about binary classification. It is the idea that you and your model are trying to classify an input as one of two outcomes. It is a hot-dog or not, should you reject of accept someone for a loan, or do you think a student will pass or fail a class.

Once you get the hang of that, courses start to then teach about multi-class classification. This is the idea that inputs can be classified as one of many outputs — this represents the world more closely. Maybe you would like to predict an image of a number as between 0–9. Or maybe you are curious about what kind of flower that pretty one on your neighbor’s lawn is so you train a model to find out. Some first key lessons include things like one-hot encoding or label encoding.

We are all here to learn, and I recently found the different multiclass and multilabel classifications that I would like to share with everyone. So, let’s dig in.

Multilabel Classification

This set of algorithms can be thought of as classifying your input as part of one or many classes. Think of Medium articles for one second. When authors are getting ready to publish their article, they have to decide a set of tags that represent their article. These could be tags like ‘artificial intelligence’, ‘dumb story’, or ‘Towards Data Science’.

Now, Medium or someone with some time could train a model that could learn how people tag their articles by doing some natural language processing on their article itself. Their model would then be able to predict or recommend the top 5 ‘labels’ or tags that a new article should have.

The idea here is that there is no mutual exclusivity, and the output can classify the input as one of many things.

Multiclass Classification

Conversely, multiclass classification does have mutual exclusivity. If we extend the Medium analogy a little bit further, the same model would only predict or recommend one of the tags instead of many.

This type of problem is more commonly talked about within the machine learning guides out there because the training sets may have a defined ground truth. For example, if you have a classifier that is predicting dog breeds, you would want the model to choose one output instead of two.

Interestingly, there are a couple of sub-classes within this set of methods. There are one vs. one and one vs. all/rest classification. Here are a couple of links that succinctly explain these differences. In essence, the are smart ways to divide the multi-class classification into easier sub-problems, particularly binary classification problems.

Multioutput Regression

This classification method is similar to multiclass classification but instead of a class that the model is predicting, the model is spitting out a number or continuous variable for the result. If you are looking to create a model that outputs stock price of Apple as well as the momentum of the next move, this may be the way to go.
An Aussie in Austin: SXSW Day 5 Round Up
By: Jonathan Butler
Tags: Empowerment, Digital Marketing, SXSW

We’ve made it, day 5 of SXSW Interactive 2016. It’s been absolutely exhausting and entirely enlightening in equal measures. Being immersed in an environment where everyone is so passionate about digital and it’s role in the world for five days has been truly something.

Looking at the overarching themes of the festival, it feels that whilst the industry as whole had been focused on obliterating the gap between the human and technology through wearables and ‘connecting everything’ up until this point, this year’s SXSW has proved that we’re already started to preempt, making sense of, or even surpass, our natural world. Technology has never been more human with all eyes on core emotions, social responsibility, facilitating community, whilst always being authentic.

There’s little patience for those who don’t jump on the train and tech still has a few inequalities and flaws, but the future is very exciting indeed.

UX tipZ: Delivering a great experience isn’t the same as providing accurate information.

Abstract musings: What if law was open source?

Important reminder: Giving the user too many options is tiring but if you make choices for the user you need to be transparent and knowledgeable.

Perfecting your Process: Things don’t need to be perfect when it’s launched, you just need to be able to respond quickly when the flaw is identified.

Strategy FTW: The empowerment theory that is used in education, legislation and other areas of public services can also be a good framework for digital. Does your process or product empower the individual, organisation and community?

Cutest Tech: IBM’s pop up at SXSW had the adorable robot, Pepper, who can shake hands, fist bump and go for a walk.

IBM’s Pepper

Daily Insight: People spend the least with cash, a bit more with card and the most with contactless technologies.

SXSW tips for next year: Pick your favourite 3 sessions for a day, go to at least one workshop, ALWAYS research the speakers (don’t be seduced by a great topic title) and make time to experience the pop ups.

And that’s a wrap! We’ve aimed for breadth over depth in our daily reports so please feel free to contact Deepend if you wish to discuss anything about SXSW in more detail.
Adorable Japanese Cat Thinks He’s A Dog but is Really Marley K
By: Reuben Salsa
Tags: Salsa, Satire, Humor, Absurd, The Bad Influence

THE SALSA DIARIES #4

Adorable Japanese Cat Thinks He’s A Dog but is Really Marley K

The tail is wagging the dog

Photo by Madalyn Cox on Unsplash

“You’re cat looks depressed.” A rather blanket statement from the one-eyed Janet, former sex-fiend to the under-privilege and reality star of ‘I’ve Lost An Eyeball At Work’. She hadn’t been the same since the summer of 2010. Back then she was an optimistic woman who had two eyes and a savior complex.

“What do you mean Janet?” I asked back. I hated people who claimed to have an affinity with animals. The horse whisperers are plain weird. I was never into sleeping with pets even if I did occasionally like to stroke a python. Janet had that new-age glow of one who knows.

“You can tell by the way she sits staring into space…almost as if she had a longing…” Yeah. A longing to be long gone from this conversation. I blame Marley K. I met her for lunch a year ago and she seriously spooked my cat.

It was to be one of the longest, most depressing lunches I had ever attended in my life. Another lover of animals, Marley had stared deep into Velvet’s eyes and then slowly crushed her spirit. Her endless chatter of impending doom had done a number on my adopted cat.

It began with the eggs. One long diatribe on the over-easy nature of life and how the egg represented the sad state of America. Once proudly sheathed in eggshell, only to be cracked and split apart as the yoke wobbled inside the white system of oppression. And then it got fried. Unable to break free of it’s crusty and aged patriarchal lining as it slowly cooked from the inside. A white rage that destroyed everything in its path.

You can imagine how the desert went.

Marley held Velvet aloft and forwarned her of the white man's oppression that would decimate the feline population. No cat was safe while whitey was busy erecting the purrfect system of inequality.

“Yes my dear, all white people are racist to cats,” she cooed to Velvet before she looked at me with that ‘I’ve had an inspiring thought’ moment. Little did I know, this anti-cat statement would form the basis of her entire thesis on race and systemic injustice.

Back at the Chateaux, Janet was in the process of trying to cheer Velvet up. Since Velvet had transitioned, the only activity she longed to do was lick her own balls. Unfortunately, they were long gone along with her need to hump every neighborhood pussy in sight. She truly was depressed. And angry. I was about to warn Janet not to get too close as Velvet seared with rage against white people, especially ‘Karens’.

It was too late of course.

Janet was about to suffer another workplace incident that involved an animal and loss of an eye.
月薪4萬也可以在彰化買房？結婚挑好房就該這麼規劃！
By: Tony Zeng
Tags: 結婚, 買房, 生活, 房屋, 彰化

in In Fitness And In Health
The magic of graphs
By: Anastasia Orlova
Tags: Data Science, Newbie, Graph, Data Structures, Algorithms

geeksforgeeks.org

I believe that a graph is probably one of the most complicated data structures. One can say, it even looks confusing (check the picture at the top!), with all these messy elements aka nodes and lines. Ironically, this is one of the most commonly used data structures in the real world.

Where can we meet these mysterious graphs? Well, almost everywhere. Here are some vivid examples you’ve more than definitely encountered.

social networks (Facebook, Linkedin, etc.)— every time you see a friends recommendation (technically that means, you share a lot of friends(=nodes) with this person, so the system suggests you’d like to add this very person to your friend list as well)

(Facebook, Linkedin, etc.)— every time you see a friends recommendation (technically that means, you share a lot of friends(=nodes) with this person, so the system suggests you’d like to add this very person to your friend list as well) location on a map/routing (Google Maps, Apple Maps, etc.) — direction is a route between two or more nodes you’d like to navigate between

(Google Maps, Apple Maps, etc.) — direction is a route between two or more nodes you’d like to navigate between streaming services (Netflix, HBO)— every time you get a new movie recommendation (same genre(=node) as you usually watch)

Sounds exciting but wait: what is actually a graph?

Wikipedia says that a graph is a data structure that consists of a finite (and possibly mutable) set of vertices (also called nodes or points), together with a set of unordered pairs of these vertices for an undirected graph or a set of ordered pairs for a directed graph.

Well, this doesn’t make a lot of sense. To put it simply, a graph is a collection of nodes(=elements) and connections(=lines) between these nodes. It has no starting point/head. However, there is a terminology useful to know.

Vertex — a node.

Edge — a connection between the nodes.

Directed graph — a graph that has a direction to the edges. It is a one-way connection often represented with arrows that indicate the exact direction (or, polarity). A good example of a directed graph is Instagram where following is not mutual by default.

researchgate.net

Undirected graph — a graph that has no direction to the edges. That represents a two-way connection. A strong example of an undirected graph is mutual friendship on Facebook.

researchgate.net

Unweighted graph — a graph that doesn’t have any values assigned to edges. All the graphs above are unweighted.

Weighted graph — a graph with values assigned to edges. Probably the most common example of a weighted graph is Google Maps — here, a value is a distance between two places. Knowing the distance helps to choose the best and shortest way to a destination. Here is how a weighted graph could look.

hyperskill.org

To wrap this short graph introduction up, here is a fun fact: a tree data structure is also a type of graph!

Source:
How Much Are Women Really Earning From Their Side Hustle?
Tags: Work, Side Hustle, Careers, Women, Money

By Nick Levine

On average, women with a side hustle add nearly £4,000 to their annual income, new research has found.

However, on average men are earning 25% more than this. The research by Superscript found that men earn an average of £5,227 a year from their side hustle compared to women’s £3,945.

Side hustles are most lucrative in London, where people add an average of £6,500 to their annual income.

Unsurprisingly, young people have embraced the side hustle boom most readily. A third of side hustlers in this age group say they’d eventually like to take theirs full time.

“My path to becoming a full-time yoga teacher has very much been shaped by how I was affected by the COVID-19 lockdown,” said Emma White, the owner of Root to Rise Yoga.

“I certainly never thought that a year after signing up for a yoga teacher training course, I would have taken voluntary redundancy in order to start my own yoga teaching business! I love that I can spend all of my time focussing on building and creating something that is my own, and on doing something that I love.”

Overall, the research found that three in 10 side hustles were started during lockdown. This figure rises to nearly half in Northern Ireland and the North East.

Cameron Shearer, co-founder and CEO at Superscript, said in response to the research results: “The prolonged economic fallout of the pandemic continues to hit younger people the hardest. Thankfully, they are a determined and entrepreneurial generation and it’s admirable to see the ambition and resolve in those starting ambitious and exciting side hustles in order to make ends meet.

“This trend may prove to be a turning point for the future of business,” Shearer added, “with so many unafraid to go it alone with their own businesses.”
Write For Us
By: Zack Shapiro
Tags: Programming

Photo by Burst on Unsplash

We’re always looking for great content to help programmers get better at what we do everyday.

Ideas

Here are a few ideas to get the creative juices flowing:

Tutorials on how to do something interesting, hard or complex with your favorite language or framework.

Actionable advice for other engineers on non-code-related aspects of the job (negotiation, dealing with imposter syndrome, how to be a good manager, remote work, etc.)

Deep dives into the inner-workings of things we take for granted everyday like Express, how CSS renders or the SwiftUI runtime.

Styleguide

Instructions before you submit:

Read: The Better Programming Style Guide and Suggestions before reading the following tips below:

Your Medium account should have your name, a bio and a picture of you.

Your article should have a title and a subtitle.

Please remove all personal calls to action in your post such as “sign up for my newsletter” or “follow me on Twitter.”

If you include code snippets, use GitHub gists, paste the URL of the gist into your post and press enter. It will render the code as part of your post and include syntax highlighting if your gist is named with the correct file extension ( .css , .js , .swift , etc.).

, , , etc.). Please add a nice cover image that you have the rights to use or are Creative Commons. We recommend sites like Unsplash. Please give the photographer credit. See the top of this post for an example.

At the bottom of your article, please include a Resources section with any links that you mentioned in your post for quick reference by the reader. GitHub repos, Playgrounds, JSFiddles and gists are highly recommended.

section with any links that you mentioned in your post for quick reference by the reader. GitHub repos, Playgrounds, JSFiddles and gists are highly recommended. Make sure the article read time is longer than three minutes.

Diversity and Inclusion

Better Programming strives to be an inclusive place where everyone feels welcome to read, write, and teach others.

If you represent an under-represented group in startups, tech, or STEM, we highly encourage you to submit an article and contribute to Better Programming.

We are looking for clear, helpful advice and believe that everyone has something to teach.

Submission

Before you submit: We’ve written a small guide on subjects that we will not accept and the reasons why. You can find them here.

When your post is ready, submit a draft via our submission form.

If you don’t hear back from us within three days, please assume that we kindly passed on your submission.

Note: If you have already published a piece with Better Programming, there’s no need to use this form again. Just click the … menu in the top right of Medium, click “Add to Publication” on your article, and we’ll get the notification and respond usually within 24 hours.

We look forward to your submissions!
Peace Treaty
By: A.J Thomas
Tags: Relationships, Love, Peace, Emotional Turmoil

Image from Pexels

Peace Treaty

I just give up. You win. I don’t want to fight anymore. I don’t care if I win or lose. I just want to be at peace.

I sit here in pitch blackness,

Dark malevolent thoughts,

Race through my head,

Spiraling out of control,

At tornadic speeds,

Whirling around in my brain,

The thought of losing you,

Haunts my every dream,

My worst fears,

My terrifying nightmare,

Is seeing the door of your love,

That used to call your heart home,

Slamming shut with the force of a massive wind,

That blows me right out of your life,

Or I see you with someone,

Who is not me,

It breaks my heart,

Already battered and bruised,

Each one leaves its own battle scar,

Every slur, every fight,

Is a wound that will never heal,

I will forever carry,

In remembrance,

I wouldn’t take back,

Anything that happened,

For it gave me strength,

It endowed wisdom into me,

I will forever be a warrior,

But I refuse to go into battle again,

My days of war are no more,

I lay down and surrender the white flag,

I call a truce.
An Insightful Meta-Analysis of All Arguments on Social Media, ever
By: Markus Scorelius
Tags: Debate, Logic, Ego, Arguments, Social Media

And how is this person going to respond to your sticking up for yourself? One option is:

“What? Do you think, you’re better than me?”

The culturally unacceptable, but correct answer is “Yes, yes I do.”

Well, aren’t you? I would certainly hope so. That guy’s a bitter bully. Probably an alcoholic, likely beats his wife. I hope that you are a better person than him.

Instead, you could try the response which is closer to culturally acceptable: “No, no, I didn’t SAY that.” Those words just piss off the bully, make him turn red and toss his can of beer on the ground, snarling.

What you should do is lower yourself in submission to the bully and claim, “no, of course not.” The judge of your sincerity, your interlocutor, may respond in one of two ways, mostly dependent on your acting ability.

He will either: 1) chose to believe you and back down, or if his ego has been exceptionally wounded, 2) he will escalate.

The above seems like a rather strange and arbitrary method to determine what course of action to follow or which side wins an argument. It’s like the Republican party, or Narcissists: What should be the losing proposition is given much more consideration and power than it should be given.
What To Do…
Tags: Relationships, Humor, Politics, Religion, Comics

Written by

Almost famous cartoonist who laughs at her own jokes and hopes you will, too.
Introduction to MongoDB and CRUD Operations
Tags: Mongodb, Crud, Database, NoSQL, Shell

Introduction to MongoDB and CRUD Operations alpertellioglu Follow Oct 29 · 4 min read

How to use mongo shell in command line

If you haven’t installed MongoDB, or you want to check if it is running, you can read the previous article before reading this one.

After the installation, while MongoDB is running, you should be able to access mongo shell by just typing mongo in command line.

Access the Mongo Shell:

mongo

Now, you should see “>” character in the beginning of the row.

In mongo shell you can type “help” to see some most common commands.

2. Help Command:

>help

help command outcome

As you can see in the above table, we can request for the name of existing databases.

3. Show Database Names:

>show dbs

If you haven’t add any database yet, your result will be something like this:
Give blood with the American Red Cross before the holiday season
Tags: Headlines, Families, Red Cross, Holiday Season, Blood Donation

Many regular donors delay giving between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day because of holiday activities. This often causes a drop in donated blood available for patients. Therefore, more donations are needed in the weeks leading up to the holidays to help ensure the blood supply is sufficient through the winter months.

For blood donor Katie Osorio, giving a little bit of time is worth it because she’s giving someone a chance at life. “Someone’s mother, brother, sister, father or the love of someone’s life has been given back to their loved ones all because I gave something that I could. It takes so little from me and gives a world back to another.”

To make an appointment to give blood, download the Red Cross Blood Donor App, visit redcrossblood.org or call 1–800-RED CROSS (1–800–733–2767). Donors are encouraged to make appointments and complete the RapidPass online health history questionnaire at redcrossblood.org/rapidpass to save time when donating.

How to donate blood

Simply download the American Red Cross Blood Do nor App, visit redcrossblood.org or call 1–800-RED CROSS (1–800–733–2767) to make an appointment or for more information. All blood types are needed to ensure a reliable supply for patients. A blood donor card or driver’s license or two other forms of identification are required at check-in. Individuals who are 17 years of age (16 with parental consent in some states), weigh at least 110 pounds and are in generally good health may be eligible to donate blood. High school students and other donors 18 years of age and younger also have to meet certain height and weight requirements.

Blood donors can now save time at their next donation by using RapidPass to complete their pre-donation reading and health history questionnaire online, on the day of their donation, prior to arriving at the blood drive. To get started and learn more, visit redcrossblood.org/RapidPass and follow the instructions on the site.

About the American Red Cross

The American Red Cross shelters, feeds and provides emotional support to victims of disasters; supplies about 40 percent of the nation’s blood; teaches skills that save lives; provides international humanitarian aid; and supports military members and their families. The Red Cross is a not-for-profit organization that depends on volunteers and the generosity of the American public to perform its mission. For more information, please visit redcross.org or cruzrojaamericana.org, or visit us on Twitter at @RedCross.
Teaching information design and data visualisation: a magical brief
Tags: Data Visualization, Latch, Information Design

Teaching information design and data visualisation: a magical brief InfoDesignLab Follow Jan 3 · 5 min read

In 2010 we established a course in Information Design and Data Visualisation at Central St Martins in London. That course marked the beginning of a wonderful teaching journey in universities and organisations around the world, offering hands-on experiences aimed at students, scientists and professionals working in environments that require presenting information in effective ways in order to capture the imagination of an audience.

Fresh from a Postgraduate Certificate in Teaching in Design Higher Education, we were very conscious about the type of learning environment we wanted to create and, after many workshops, it was clear to us that kicking off any course with a data visualisation brief centred around gross domestic product, CO2 emissions or crime rate would probably paralyse many participants. The complexity of the content would easily become a barrier, making students stuck on the content rather than on the process of exploring and testing organisations that would enable them to tell a story they wanted to tell or to discover a story they needed to tell.

During the past decade we have written and worked with students on many briefs, but there is one that we have become especially attached to. The goal of that brief is to explore the organisation of a data-set and see how that can affect the stories we tell. Most importantly, the aim is to show that the number of ways in which we can organise information is not infinite, we can explore the data systematically, we can smell the data, have fun and get lost if necessary, before jumping on final solutions too fast. If Richard Saul Wurman’s thinking and LATCH come to mind, that is exactly where we try to head with the students by the end of the day.

The brief seems to allow every single participant, whether novice or experienced, to feel confident about the data-set, creating the premises for an engaging learning environment, sparking curiosity, pushing participants to fill the gaps by asking questions about the data-set, mastering the data in no time and immersing oneself in it.

What is special about the brief is the data, because the data is the group attending the course. This is how we prepare for it.

The Brief

We collect data beforehand through a survey that students have to fill in by hand. We ask things such as age and country of origin, but also dreams, favourite colors, mood, favourite dishes, expectations regarding the course, a personal definition of information design or data visualisation and so on. We end up collecting a fairly big amount of quantitative and qualitative data, including richness and diversity of handwriting. Each student will receive one hand-out with the collection of answers from all the other students, as a simple Word Document. Most of the time participants mingle to gather extra data from the group.
Why Men Call Black Women Gold Diggers When They Set Standards
By: Allison Gaines
Tags: Race, Dating, Black Lives Mater, Womanism, Women

Why Men Call Black Women Gold Diggers When They Set Standards

Is it really all about the money?

Men feel a little too comfortable calling Black women gold diggers. While they often offer an excuse, it always involves a common element — the woman committed the grave sin of wanting something. Then, the misogynoiristic flood gates open. American culture created dangerous stereotypes about Black women. She is either sassy, angry, or hyper-sexual. Oh, and also, she has hulk-level strength; she can endure anything. All of these tropes dehumanize Black women.

Many Black women get caught up trying to disprove each trope, stuffing themselves into boxes. Worse, even, Black men often attempt to tone police Black women’s behaviors. She cannot get upset because then she is an angry Black woman. If she feels sexy and confident, then she should watch out, or else she will drag down the entire race with her risqué outfits and high heel pumps.

The gold digger trope is dangerous because it implies that Black women are so strong that they should need nothing from their partners. If they need help with bills or want gifts, or money for some self-care, they are just in it for the bread, the cheddar, the cheese, the C. R. E. A. M.

The truth is, Black women make less money than any other group of Americans. Wanting to know that someone is willing to invest their time and money is not gold digger behavior — stability is what many women want. However, when Black women want assurances, society often treats them like gold-digging harlots. This trope should stay in 2020 with all of the other horrible things this society should shake off.

The stereotype goes that Black women are only after men’s money, and men need to be wary of them as a result (Bowen, 2018).

When men call Black women gold-diggers, they make it socially acceptable to denigrate and generalize Black women’s character. Users exist but promoting a narrative that most want money is dangerous, oversimplifying complex relationships. The gold-digger stereotype finds it’s way to the frontline when a Black woman sets standards for what she expects from a partner.

Society still treats Black women like hand-maidens; she can receive gifts but never ask for anything she wants or needs. They call Black women gold diggers to stop them from setting standards in the first place. Describing Black women as gold diggers created a clear message — do not ask, want, or expect anything.
ETH and USDT now available on SerenityPay.io
By: Serenity Financial
Tags: Crypto Exchange, Ether, Cryptocurrency, Ethereum, Bitcoin

Two new cryptocurrencies — ETH and USDT — have become available on the cryptocurrency exchange platform SerenityPay.io along with BTC. Other ERC-20 tokens can also be added at request.

Serenity team has expanded the list of cryptocurrencies available to exchange for fiat money on the cryptocurrency exchange platform SerenityPay.io. The currently available cryptocurrencies include BTC, ETH, and USDT. Other ERC-20-based tokens can be added at short notice if requested by a customer. Cryptocurrency can be purchased with US dollars or euros using a bank card.

In the upcoming months, Serenity will focus on upgrading the variety of available currencies and cryptocurrencies, as well as easing the transaction limits and expanding the geographical availability. Subscribe to us on Facebook and Twitter to learn about all the updates firsthand.

About SerenityPay.io

In April 2020, Serenity team launched a simple and user-friendly platform for quick cryptocurrency purchases, SerenityPay.io. The service is targeted at both businesses and individuals. Any website can integrate SerenityPay.io into their platform and expand their available payment options.

If you accept cryptocurrency as payment for your services, but you often encounter clients with no funds in cryptocurrency, you can offer them the services of the cryptocurrency exchange platform SerenityPay.io. Clients can buy cryptocurrency using their bank cards and immediately transfer it to your account if they choose to do so. The funds will be converted into cryptocurrency in two clicks, so the purchase will not require any effort even from those unfamiliar with it.
G20 to adapt to global virtual currency regulations set by FATF in June.
By: Ref Crypto
Tags: Coins, Blockchain, Blockchain Technology, Blockchain Startup, Bitcoin

G20 to adapt to global virtual currency regulations set by FATF in June.

Formed in 1989, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) provides governments with a guideline on how best to monitor and prevent financial aid from getting to terrorists among other financial misconducts. The group is headquartered in Paris. Now, to help streamline cryptocurrency regulations across the globe, the task force has indicated that it will start looking into regulations governing the cryptocurrency industry starting from June the 24th. Earlier on, the G20 had indicated that it will adapt to global virtual currency regulations set by FATF starting from this month.

According to finance magnates, the G20 indicated to the FATF that they will “commit to implement the FATF standards as they apply to crypto-assets, look forward to the FATF review of those standards, and call on the FATF to advance global implementation”.

As part of its duty, the Financial Action Task Force keeps a record of countries that it deems not to contribute to the ‘greater good’. Currently, the list has 12 countries.

Interestingly, Japan was the first country to call for global cryptocurrency regulations during this year’s G20 meeting in Buenos Aires. It was strongly supported by China, France, and Germany. During this year’s G20 meeting, Mark Carney, BOE’s governor, noted that digital currencies need to be strongly regulated.

As it waits to chair the G20 meeting in 2020, the “Japanese government hopes to take a lead on the issue and is pushing for adoption of new binding rules by 2019 at the latest” reported Reuters.

The FATF will start its discussions by first examining the regulations which were proposed three years ago to see if they can be applied across the current cryptocurrency market.

Nations which have banned cryptocurrencies, like China, will also be discussed by the Financial Action Task Force.

Do you think the global virtual currency regulations set by FATF will help countries that have previously banned cryptocurrencies to lift the ban?

Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below.

Learn more:
Free Me
By: Violet Detorres
Tags: George Floyd, White Supremacy, BlackLivesMatter, Resistance Poetry, Racism

Free Me

A Villanelle

The days of old are gone, but the shackles still remain

Where can mercy and grace be found

White supremacy carries the mark of Cain
Can We Talk About Rough Sex for a Bit, and How it Might Help Your Relationship?
By: Patrick Byron
Tags: Self Improvement, Life Lessons, Love, Life, Sex

I was intrigued by this. What could be the impetus for this popularity of individual women, whom collectively were growing in disdain for male chauvinistic actions and attitudes, wanting to be roughed up in the bedroom.

Now at first I thought this might be a reflection of whom I was dating. Perhaps these women had been abused in the past or something of that nature.

But I found that was not the case, and that this desire for rough sex came from women of all types of backgrounds, class, and socioeconomic status. What could it be?

Yes, dear reader, your belief that 50 Shades of Grey would eventually appear in this article was well-founded.

I never saw the movie. I was forced to take a vow never to see it after rabid fans of the books ran off Charlie Hunnam from taking on the mantle of the titular Christian Grey. The Sons of Anarchy star was a lusty favorite of my lusty girlfriend at the time and she banned me from participating in this treachery.

TV Guide describes the shuttered housewife masterpiece as “ … the tale of an innocent young woman seduced by a handsome, emotionally unavailable billionaire with a taste for riding crops and bondage…” It sure sounds super awesome!

Perhaps this was indeed a basis for the uptick in women wanting some rough di… play. Cosmo, that hallowed arbiter of American women’s tastes, sure thought so, while also citing a study that said nearly 60% of all women were interested in rough sex.

After giving some attribution love to 50 Shades in the article Cosmo brought the doctors in to pound the point home.

“Most women who are into rough sex are into it for a very simple reason: It turns them on,” said one male doctor.

Perhaps realizing that a man would say that Cosmo made sure to bring in some female perspective. And who better to bring in than Claire Cavanah, co-author of Moregasm and co-founder of sex-toy store Babeland, who is quoted as saying:

“To feel that power, that’s a seriously arousing situation!”

The author of the Cosmo article, Chiara Atik, summed up the turning on angle best: “What really makes rough sex sexy is the urgency factor — someone wants you so badly, he can’t stop himself from pinning you to the bed.”

However, she also gave some other compelling reasons: “For many women, who so often grow up thinking sex is dirty or bad, engaging in sexual play in which they’re ‘forced’ into sexual acts can help alleviate feelings of guilt or anxiety.”

Also, when you’re scared or on edge, “your blood circulation increases, your pupils dilate, your whole body is in a state of heightened arousal,” explains Zhana Vrangalova, Ph.D., an adjunct professor of psychology at New York University and founder of the Casual Sex Project blog. “When you add a sexual component to that, it can be very pleasurable.”
Howard University Professor presents Little Known Heroes of Black History
Tags: Black History Month, Incarceration, Prison

As Dr Helen Bond concluded her presentation at RiCI, she was greeted to a standing ovation and extended applause from approximately 150 offenders. As a component of the Black History month activities at RiCI, Dr Bond facilitated a presentation regarding “The Lost, But Fabulous History of African-Americans”.

Dr Bond was born and raised on a small farm in Mansfield Ohio. Currently, she is an Associate Professor at prestigious Howard University in Washington DC. The professor has experience in education and human development in Africa, India, Germany, Bangladesh, and the United States. She also has provided training for teachers in refugee camps along the border of Ethiopia and Somali. Dr. Bond has also published widely in the field of education and human development. She also was selected as a Research Fellow to the Eckert Institute for International Textbook Research in Braunschweig, Germany in 2013.

She conducted research at the Institute on the representation of the U. S. Civil Rights Movement in school textbooks around the world. Most recently in February 2018 she and a team at Howard University was awarded a grant from the Education for Justice (E4J) program at the United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime (UNODC) in Vienna, Austria to develop a board game as an educational tool to help prevent radicalization and violent extremism among at-risk school-aged youth.

Her presentation chronicled contributions made by African Americans that were less renowned historically, (ex. Theophilus Thompson, Maggie Lena Walker), however by no means were they less significant to the cause and advancement of African-Americans both nationally and globally. Those in attendance learned a great deal regarding pioneers who made advancements in arts, business, medicine, and industry.

At the conclusion of the power-point session and brief contest took place in which 8 attendees were awarded a book that chronicles a facet of Black history. Dr Bond was awarded with a Certificate of Appreciation by DWO Wicker.
An Evening Back Home (Egy estém otthon)
By: Joe Váradi
Tags: Love, Memories, Translation, Family, Poetry

An Evening Back Home

We sat and we nursed our wine,

My dear old father drank,

Bless his soul, for just this once —

If I may, heaven thank.

I’d been away for so long,

A stranger to his eyes,

And he’d grown old and frail since —

Alas, how the time flies.

We spoke of this and of that,

Whatever crossed our minds;

Even the thespian life

Among much else besides.

My “profession” always was

A great thorn in his side;

His prejudice and disdain

Years on did not subside.

“Wretched still is that life of

Comedy I dare say!”

Such were the high praises that

My father sent my way.

„I know you oft went hungry,

This your complexion shows.

I’d love to see once how you

Grapple and land some blows.”

To all his learned musings

I listened with a smile;

Stubborn mind! To enlighten

Would take me quite a while.

I recited one of my

Drinking songs to him;

Delighted to see laughter

Fill him to the brim.

Yet he takes no great pride in

Having a poet-son;

Sees a life of such trifles

Plainly a squandered one.

As a butcher his whole life,

No wonder, for such views!

He hadn’t lost much hair

In thinking men’s pursuits.

Later, as our wine vessel

Did empty out at last;

I began to scribble, and

He headed off to rest.

But then, my mother brought forth

a hundred questions still;

Obliged to answer her — I

Set down my writing quill.

And her queries had no end

once she got on a roll;

But this interrogation

Warmed me right to my soul,

Words like so many mirrors,

Gleaming high up above:

Reflecting on the whole world

My mother’s boundless love!

The End
Why I Don’t Want To Live My Best Life
By: Anna Breslin
Tags: Love, Life Lessons, Self, Lifestyle, Poetry

Why I Don’t Want To Live My Best Life

A Poem

Photo by Jonathan Borba on Unsplash

~

.

I don’t want to be my best

self

living my

best life

filtered

for Instagram.

If I smiled all the time,

my frowns would get lonely.

I’d have to start

using Botox to smooth out

all those laugh lines

my best life would bring me.

No, living like that,

I’d have to suppress

all that is contrary

in me.

Besides, I am allergic

to positivity,

everything cloying.

I want to question every-

thing and one

in authority.

I want to know why

and why not,

and maybe I want to

reserve the right

to be very rude

and very loud.

I want to ache and feel

the unbearable pain

of reading the news.

I want to feel everything

in me shatter as I read stories

about lives lost,

refugees imprisoned,

children cheated of enchantment,

safety, and food.

I don’t want to be a best-life

living influencer,

white, trite, and shallow.

I don’t want to be

a paler smiling shade

of white supremacy

in thousands of social

media feeds.

All I want is to do

whatever, whenever,

without compromise.

I want to be an unfiltered,

melancholy,

ungrammatical,

comma splicing

woman of a certain age.

I want no one to tell

in some maudlin

life-affirming confessional

all that burns in my soul,

or how I tuck away problems

in the back of drawers.

I’m not even certain

I could live my best life

if I wanted to.

I have wounds that won’t

scab over and I’m always,

always expecting

another catastrophe,

sometimes I almost crave

that full body-brain

rush of adrenaline.

Trauma is a thread

of my identity

woven too tight to pull

without unraveling

my entire self

and I love my flaws

too much to offer them up

to be someone else.

Best living

sounds so full of denial

and half-selfing.

I think the term was invented

by a marketing team

to sell online courses,

podcasts, and lip gloss.

No, you can take your best life

dream and shove it

on someone else.

~

© 2019, A. Breslin. All Rights Reserved
Easy and Fast result caching using Joblib
By: Karan Pathak
Tags: Tutorial, Ml Pipeline, Caching, Beginner, Machine Learning

Market Need

In our fast-growing world, as the data is growing exponentially, so is the computational time of applying scientific methods to it. Data processing pipelines, undoubtedly, are an essential part of any machine learning project. There is a massive demand in the market today for faster and reliable data processing pipelines. Moreover, organizations expect data scientists to have some data engineering skills, like knowing tools to build quick and dirty data processing pipelines for POCs, in their arsenal.

Ways of reducing computational time

There are primarily two ways of reducing the total processing time of a pipeline:

Caching results

We can avoid re-computing results of computationally intensive functions and cache them on disk to save time. Thus, the next time when we invoke the function with the same input arguments, instead of re-computing the results, cached results will be used.

Parallelizing independent tasks

We can distribute independent tasks (e.g., applying the same transformation to our data points) to run in parallel on multiple GPUs, CPUs, or threads. Parallelization helps us by reducing the overall computational time if we utilize our machines optimally.

Caching results and parallelizing functions in a pipeline may seem complicated and time-consuming, but with Joblib, it becomes a child’s play. Joblib provides easy and smooth functions for building lightweight pipelines in Python.

Note: Caching only works for deterministic functions, i.e., given the same input, the function should return the same output.

Why use Joblib?

Few of the reasons why I like Joblib are:
Stable Coin review — USD Coin (USDC)
By: Cp Processor Team
Tags: Blockchain, Stablecoin, Cryptocurrency, Review, Fintech

-HOW STABLE COINS WORK?-

As part of CP Processors’ series HOW STABLE COINS WORK , we are performing stablecoin reviews of chosen six most notable and active stablecoins to day.

This is all part of our stablecoin initiative, done in the effort to further raise awareness on stablecoins in general, and help people understand how they work and what is their overall potential.

Our second review was performed on the stablecoin USD COIN(#USDC).

Dear readers, this is the second of the six reviews of active stablecoins that we are performing. Hope you will find them useful. Comment, share, like! We would love to hear your opinion.
Our Sins.
By: Lisa Martens
Tags: Fiction, Series, Glass House Poems, Poem, Poetry

Our Sins.

Glass House Poem #2

Photo by Silas Baisch on Unsplash

up here i have had a lot of time

to think about my family’s sins. first

i don’t know my father. that is probably

my mother’s sin. second

my sister, tabitha

pretended to be sick when we were younger

in school. she acted like she had

cancer. she was scared when i was old enough

to go to school because then i would tell on her. i didn’t

but i told her she had to stop —

“but why? i’m not

hurting anyone and this way

i always get the good swing.”

i told her one day

they would figure it out. and she said i was right

and began looking for

an invisible illness to exploit.

my grandmother tried to

sell me. my mom never wanted to tell me

tabitha told me

and my mom does not lie.

i thought it was another cruel game

but when i asked my mom she became

tight

and i knew it was true. she said

there was a rich couple

and my grandma

was on drugs.

“but not the illegal kind,” she explained.

she tried to get the doctor

in trouble for giving her those pills

she called the police

she filled out forms

it wasn’t enough

“what are you saying?” i had asked. “that she

was selling me

for drug money?”

she sighed.

“now you know

why we had to leave.”

but enough

about their sins. their sins are not

the only ones. i live

in a glass house.

i have sins.

i want to leave. i want to escape.

i want to live my own life…i am selfish. i know so. i am selfish to leave

after what my mother has done

for me. i am selfish but i imagine

climbing down the rocks

and running into

a man’s arms. tan, sandy, sweaty.

i carry this sweet secret sin around with me

even though this is a glass house

i manage

to have secrets.
Against The Odds
By: Special Olympics
Tags: Leadership, Parenting, Employment, Athlete, Independence

This guest post is from proud mom Alice who wrote us about her son Zack. Through Special Olympics, Zack has made many friends and learned important skills that have helped him succeed off the playing field.

My son Zachary is inspiring to everyone who knows him. Now in his late 20s, Zack has been part of Special Olympics since he was in middle school. Through training and competition, Zachary learned that, with hard work and practice, he could achieve anything he wanted. This drive and dedication spilled over into all areas of life, helping him to graduate from high school and to earn a degree from our local community college. His participation in Special Olympics also helped Zach to develop skills which have allowed him to be more independent and to hold a job. Thanks in part to these skills, he has been gainfully employed since 2001.

Zack continues to stay active — his current sports including bowling, basketball, soccer, and golf. His favorite is basketball and in the last couple of years he’s developed a sweet 3-point shot.

My son is so kind and compassionate and has more friends than anyone else I know. He has formed some incredibly strong bonds over the last 17 years, and I am certain that many of them will last for the rest of his life. In fact, it was through Special Olympics that he met Anna, the love of his life. They were married last April and are now living independently in an apartment.

Even though the odds were stacked against him, Zachary has accomplished everything he has set out to do in life and more. I am so proud of him!
Holding On
By: Mary Keating
Tags: Labrador Retriever, Dogs, Poetry, Grief And Loss, Pets

“You can come

and pick her up now,”

the receptionist says

over the phone.

We take the short drive

to the vet’s —

shortened further

by my state of mind.

Lately, I can’t remember

how I get from

point A to point B.

Ever since Daddy and I left you

at the veterinary hospital

our lives have been playing out

in clips (clip to clip)

with none of the mundane

scenes in between.

I long for all

the mundane scenes

in between —

to hold them

frame by frame

to memorize

memorialize

every moment

from point A

to point B —

from the moment I first

clipped on your leash

(every pull

every strain

every stretch

every smell

every sniff

every stink)

until the moment I let you go.

In the waiting room

the receptionist

passes me your leash

and a bag.

“Here she is,”

she says in a hushed voice.

I grip your leash

for fear you’ll slip away —

weigh the bag

in my hands

while Daddy settles the bill.

Is that everything?

There has to be more.

The weight of you

was so much more.

As Daddy hugs me

his tears

flow into mine.

“You can let go

of her leash now,”

he whispers.

But I can’t

because it connects

all our clips

from point A to point B

and tethers us together

for a moment longer

than one lifetime

could ever hold.