fabiochiu/medium-articles huggingface dataset:
American Crisis Playlist #27
By: Terry Barr
Tags: Politics, Music, The Riff, Playlist, Soul

First, I should have included The Staple Singers’ “Respect Yourself” in this week’s list, because when it comes to 126 Republican members of the House, and sixteen state attorney generals, “respect” is just another word for believing you’ve got nothing to left to lose. And now, all we’re losing is thousands of more lives every day while politicians of the red kind keep sucking up to the loser in charge by insisting that they are protecting democracy while he is clearly subverting it.

Respect yourself and the rest of us.

The election is over. There was no fraud.

So thanks Staple Singers, because it takes musicians to help us see certain lights.

Honestly, and now there are members of congress, like my birth state Alabama’s Mo Brooks, who will try to challenge the election once more on Jan 6 when Congress meets to affirm the electoral college’s vote, which is occurring tomorrow. I mean, what the f**k is wrong with Alabama? Neil Young asked almost fifty years ago, and while that offended Lynyrd Skynyrd and a few others, no one has ever fully addressed what’s going wrong with Alabama. Maybe if your favorite football team is winning, that’s all you really care about.

Well, I care about the football team, too, but it’s only a minor joy in the midst of so much sorrow. And shit, Mo, how are the Covid cases in Alabama doing and the non-mask wearers? You doing anything about that? No, just go ahead and waste everyone’s time by posturing about an election that…

Trump Lost.

And you who backed him, you lost, too.

Just like my candidate and I lost four years ago. Yes, I whined and complained and redoubled my therapy, but I also accepted the outcome. I hated it, but accepted it, and I don’t necessarily think that my attitude and grip on reality make me a better person that Mo or the OP, but they don’t hurt.

Oh, and The Proud Boys are hanging on, taking unscheduled (or so they say) White House tours and fomenting chaos on city streets. Proud of what, by the way, boys? And why “boys” and not “men?” Or does that say it all?

Maybe I’m just bitter because my fantasy football team got kicked out of the playoffs, but I least I can decipher fantasy from reality.

And actually, the bold roast coffee blend helps. Real Men drink bold roast.

Whether I am bold or not, proud or not, I feel like a better person when I let it all hang out and when music finds me and I, in turn, find and repurpose it.

So here you go, #27 with no apologies.

And be looking in The Riff for a special New Year’s edition where our man decides what his first list of ten perfect songs will be. Clues following.

AMERICAN CRISIS PLAYLIST #27
A LinkedIn Limerick
By: Brett Cb
Tags: Branding, Funny, Marketing, LinkedIn, Humor

Photo by Jay Clark on Unsplash

Let’s all scream about our personal brand!

“It’s all about ME!”, give no one a hand

But when the likes disappear

And the comments are all smear

Maybe the #LinkedInlife ain’t all that grand
Through the Mist
By: Joshua Theodorus Kurnia
Tags: Courage, Poetry, Dog, Mysticism, Morning

Frosted dusk misty horizon,

Fallen leaves breezing, seconds gone.

Opaquely white creeping about,

Hovering, filling holes & touts.

A peak, a slither, a revelation

Sniffing while parting way through elevation.

Confident, alone on a mission

The last remains delicate, yet rationed.

Sneaking like a drunk

Eyes fixed pass wandering skunk

Oblivious sweat while nerves take over

Conquering the mystic mist forever.
Atom Update: 7/12/18
By: Shane Hampton
Tags: Technology, Dev Update, Atom, Fintech, API

Nucleus Update

The team has spent a lot of time doing the legwork on a fairly large project to implement more robust data access controls within the Nucleus API. We have designed a new framework that will control access to data on two levels:

Endpoints that a user can call and data that users are authorized to view Actions that a user can take on specific underlying accounts to which they are associated

This framework leverages “roles” or “authorities” that control access to every service on the Nucleus platform. Roles will also limit what data is returned when retrieving data, based on the role or authority of the caller. Users representing other underlying parties— such as financial advisors, registered agents, or enterprises building consumer-facing application with Nucleus — will have the ability to gain access to specific accounts. This access is granted with varying levels of control based on the corresponding client-account association type.

The Nucleus team aims to put this new framework in place over the next few development sprints. We’ll keep you all updated on our progress!
What is the best IDE for developing in Dart and Flutter?
By: Tremaine Eto
Tags: Technology, Software Development, Software Engineering, Programming, Coding

According to The State of the Octoverse report put out by GitHub based on data from users of its site, Dart — a client-optimized language developed by Google for mobile, desktop, backend, and web applications — experienced a 532% increase from 2018 to 2019, which was the highest jump overall (Rust came in second at a very respectable 235%).

With Dart (sometimes called Dartlang) being such a language on the rise with hoards of developers trying it out, the question arises: what is the best IDE for developing in Dart? For that matter, what about Flutter, which is Google’s UI development kit that uses the Dart language?

In this article, we will seek to answer these questions by presenting facts about each IDE (and text editor) as well as opinions from real users online; it will not be a comprehensive and complete look, but it will cover the basics.
A Tiny Anthology of Five Very Unordinary People
By: Ben Kassoy
Tags: Humor, Storytelling, Family

Bone

At our prom after-party, I grabbed Bone by the back of the neck without warning and pulled him in for an open-mouthed kiss. At that moment, before he could pull away, I extended my digital camera out in front of us — this was 2007 — and perfectly captured what would years later become known as a selfie.

Bone — who is straight; so am I — was cool with the ambush and even that I immortalized it on camera. In fact, he asked me for the photo and gave me a framed copy of it on my next birthday.
About Me — William Spivey. Politics, Race, And The History You…
By: William Spivey
Tags: Biography, Introduction, About Me, Writing, William Spivey

About Me — William Spivey

Politics, Race, And The History You Won’t Find Elsewhere.

I’d rather write a 2,500-word essay on a historical subject than 500 about myself. That said, there are a few things I’d have, you know. I am a combination of contradictions, humble and arrogant, quiet but cocky, opinionated but entirely without an opinion depending on the subject. The one thing anyone who knows me would agree on is that I love to write. It’s the only way to get out the thoughts that would otherwise allow me no sleep at night.

I’m excited that I’m a published author, contributing a chapter in; “Fieldnotes On Allyship: Achieving Equality Together,” which is available at Amazon. I credit the editors for making me sound intelligent, and they agree with me that they have. I have also written an essay for the publication; Our Human Family: Issue 2 and have manuscripts for two historical fiction/sci-fi novels that sneak in a whole lot of history most people don’t know.

What I mostly write about are the issues of politics, history, race, and education. I was blessed to have attended Fisk University, where I was surrounded by the murals of Aaron Douglas, the premier artist of the Harlem Renaissance who was on the Fisk faculty at the time. Other famous Fisk instructors have included; W.E.B. DuBois, James Weldon Johnson, Arna Bontemps, and L.M.Collins. Would that I have latched onto all the knowledge surrounding me while I was an undergraduate, but I was more concerned with playing basketball and other pursuits.

I must have absorbed something by osmosis because I developed a love of history and politics. Dr. Collins wielded a mean red editing pencil and pushed me to enter a university-wide essay contest on “The Value of a Liberal Arts Education.” I won the $200 cash prize, which was big money those days. The lasting memory was the proud look on Dr. Collins's face when handing me the envelope.

After that point, I wrote for my own pleasure with being published far from my mind. Now I write to try to make a difference. To educate those that have been misled and to share my opinions on matters of importance. On occasion, I might mock a politician or try my hand at satire.

My most widely read piece is about the history of the forced breeding of enslaved people in America, which has been viewed by over 518,000 people over the last year. Anyone wishing to support my work can contribute at https://ko-fi.com/williamfspivey0680.
Our Data Plans for the 2018 Election
By: Cameron Wimpy
Tags: Politics, Data, Elections, Medsl Guest

Gerald Ford keeps watch over the vote tally for the Fifth District Republican Primary in 1948. (Wikimedia)

Among the many things we are doing at the MIT Election Lab, gathering, cleaning, and disseminating data are activities that never stop. We plan to make available to the public a variety of datasets that will provide context and clarity to the election results as they come in. These datasets are part of the public goods we provide to the election science community. We hope they will be widely used (with attribution, of course!).

I detail our plans for this effort below.

For starters, to help provide social context to the returns, we are producing a series of county-level demographic datasets using data from a variety of official sources — mostly the U.S. Census Bureau. The idea is that these data can be downloaded and easily merged with election returns, once available. These datasets will include measures of educational attainment, employment, income, nativity, population, rurality, and sex.

To provide political context, we will also be including some historical election returns, for those who wish to analyze vote shifts by county, district, state, etc.

Also in the works are a series of datasets centered around elections laws and policies. These include measures of early voting, election day registration, voter ID, vote by mail, online registration, and a series of online lookup tools for voters. Several of these will also give careful readers a potential early look at some of the components for the next release of the Elections Performance Index.

When it comes to the 2018 midterm election returns, we will provide election night results in an easily usable form from all states that make them available. We expect that this may take a day or two after the election, but that should not stop anyone with earlier access to returns from merging in the contextual data we will already have available. These data will likely be pushed out in several iterations so please check back often.

To find our data, the quickest place to access it as it becomes available will be our GitHub page for the 2018 election. We will eventually post the certified election returns on our Dataverse and website, but the quickest turnaround will always be on GitHub. The contextual data will be posted the day before the election, and we will start posting available returns as we get them.

We encourage free and open use of our data (although we ask that you mention that it came from MEDSL), and please always let us know if you have ideas for how we can improve. You can file issues in GitHub or get in touch directly. If you are less interested in data and more interested in findings, please keep an eye on our various social media outlets (as well as this Medium page) to see our own analyses of the election.
GTB Day 2019
Tags: Marketing, Gtb London, Gtb Day, Wpp, Design

4th of July. Not only U.S. Independence Day, but coincidentally also “GTB Day” in London. For one day a year we celebrate a different kind of independence in our London office: the chance to try something new, away from the everyday.

GTB Day has been a tradition in the London office for the last six years. Starting in 2013, GTB Day gives team members an opportunity to try new brainstorming and ideation techniques, challenge linear thinking, and create new inter-team bonds. Each year we work with a different brand, approaching them for a brief and dedicating the whole agency to the experience. This gives everyone a chance to work with new people, try out different types of roles, and mix it up.

“It’s very important that you meet and get to know people you haven’t met before, take the chance to do something you don’t normally do.” -Paul Confrey, President GTB EMEA

This year our partner brand was Enervit, one of the world’s oldest sports nutrition companies. The agency split into 21 teams, across three briefs, with each team being led by our best young talent.

We kicked off the day with Smirk Experience founder Sam Carrington, a comic who showed us techniques on how to communicate like a stand-up; with open palmed body language, raised eyebrows, and never ending with a question. We then broke up into our teams and dived into the briefs.

The teams were given half a day to answer three mega briefs. Short on time, the team leaders were trained to use a GTB variation of a User Experience ideation exercise known as the Crazy 8 method of rapid ideation.

After only a few hours, it was time to present. Each group chose a team member who is not usually ‘front of house’ to present and were given eight minutes to deliver their idea in front of a judging panel. The winning idea for each of the three briefs went through to the final round and was presented to the entire agency. This year the winning team won by a landslide, receiving 48% of the popular vote.

After a competitive day of creativity and collaboration we feel more prepared to work within tight deadlines and have created valuable new bonds and friendships in the agency. The confidence created by these bonds are the driving force behind us creating better work for our clients, and most importantly for ourselves.

Check us out on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook for more GTB happenings.
Sacred Baptism
By: Presley Thomas
Tags: Christianity, Baptism, Queer, Faith, Fear

Photo by Ryan Loughlin on Unsplash

Sacred is an anagram for scared. Many of the things I consider sacred now were once a cause for fear. I was not a cradle Episcopalian, swaddled in grace through infant baptism, but asked instead to toe-walk a narrow plank toward the aisle before my first decade: a young southern baptist.

My twin brother and I didn’t want to give our wicked older brother the satisfaction of salvation. After a visit from the pastor, our baptism was planned. For Baptists, immersion is the only option, dunked in the name of one-in-three: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

I still remember that big blue tub behind the altar, a place where I might want to host a cocktail party now. My palsied feet were clinging to the cinder block, so I didn’t baptize myself first by accident, short enough to sink. The pastor’s hands held my shoulders. The shower-curtain gown flared out in the water, exposing my swimsuit I only wore in the heated pool for physical therapy.

Baptism was a different kind of therapy, a cure for sin. The water was cold as if to remind me of the chill I woke up in weeks ago, imagining myself buried by my favorite cartoon character. The spit-talking mallard said I would be fine as he buried me alive. It was the only comfort I remember as my heart beat faster and faster. I cried aloud and woke up in a sweat. Baptism, they say, is a kind of death. I wouldn’t know what it truly meant to be reborn after many years. Fully accepting myself and sexuality for what it was — holy and god-given.
10 Surprising Things About Riding in a Self-Driving Taxi
By: Hope King
Tags: Technology, Artificial Intelligence, Cars, Google, Autonomous Cars

I recently took my first ride in a self-driving car while in Phoenix, Arizona, where Alphabet’s Waymo has been operating the world’s first commercial self-driving taxi service since early December.

Waymo has not publicized the exact number of cars in its self-driving “Waymo One” fleet. But the company has approximately 600 self-driving vehicles on the road across the country and says most of them operate in the Phoenix region. Waymo uses Chrysler Pacifica minivans and announced a year ago that it was ordering 62,000 more.

My trip spanned 4.4 miles and took about 15 minutes. In the car with me was my videographer Doug, a Waymo spokeswoman, and one safety driver at the wheel.

View of our ride from the passenger side of the Waymo One vehicle.

The trip would normally cost $8.92, or $2.27 per mile. (For this demonstration, we hailed and controlled it from a Google Pixel phone supplied by Waymo.) For comparison, an afternoon Uber trip I took from my hotel in Scottsdale to Mesa the day before cost $24.32 (excluding $3 tip) for 18.1 miles. That comes out to about $1.34 per mile. Riders we spoke to in the Pheonix area said Waymo rides were fairly priced, and that they appreciated not needing to tip.

My experience was very similar to using any number of ride-hailing apps. You open an app, request a ride, get in, and get out. The big exception, of course, is that the person behind the wheel never touched it. Waymo’s autonomous system, outfitted on a hybrid Pacifica, did all the work.

Here’s what I found surprising:

1. The ride was uneventful. Most reviewers of these rides have said the same thing, but it’s important to note because it’s SUPPOSED TO be uneventful, as a typical car ride should be.

2. There was a children’s car seat. How many taxis do you know that come with a built-in car seat? The Chrysler Pacifica minivan design has three-row seating, with passengers sitting only in the middle or back rows. The car seat is great for parents, but for some riders we talked to, it limits the number of people who can take a ride.
GoChain Now Officially Supported By Trezor
Tags: Trezor, Ethereum, Wallet, Bitcoin, Hardware

It’s official! Trezor has released a new firmware update for devices containing, among other improvements, full support for GoChain!

How do I update my Trezor?

Please follow the instructions on Trezor’s website here. Trezor Wallet interface will offer the firmware update for your Trezor One. Please make sure you have the correct recovery seed nearby before starting the update process.

The GoChain team appreciated the hard work Trezor has put in to continute supporting projects in the ecosystem. They are a major player when it comes to sorting your funds safety and security. We are honored to be implemented into their product. Thank you, Trezor team!
Eczema Infographics — You Must Read To Stop The Suffering From Eczema skin
By: Nav Gosal
Tags: Eczema Treatment, Health, Eczema, Skin Treatment, Skincare

Eczema is a very common chronic skin disorder, affecting about 34 million Americans. It can appear in people of all age groups, but it is more common among infants than adults. Its symptoms include dry skin, redness, swelling, flaking, blisters, cracking, crusted sores and regular itching. It can affect different body parts like the face, hands, ankles, back of the knees, neck and upper chest. While eczema is often inherited, various factors can also trigger it, such as allergies, environmental irritants, sweating, and emotional stress. Eczema outbreaks can be a chronic or serious skin condition.

Eczema: All You Need to Know in 5 Minutes

Sources

Baby Skin Conditions

What actually works for eczema — An infographic

Source

Managing Eczema Infographic

Source

Eczema Skin Disorder [Infographic]

Source

Eczema Infographic — Everything You Need To Know About Eczema

Source

Amazing Foods That Help Ease Eczema (Infographic)

Source

Everything You Should Know About Eczema

Need to Know About Eczema [Infographics]

As we all know that most of the people in USA are suffering from this disease and they do not know reason behind and its prevention. Here we offer you all the aspect of eczema which can help you fight this disease and get back to your usual life.
Basic Attention Token
Tags: Cryptocurrency, Advertising, Brave Browser, Basic Attention Token

More than 600 million devices have ad-blockers installed, which combined with inadequate targeting hinders opportunities and harms advertisers.

The problem

More than 600 million desktops and devices have ad-blockers installed, which combined with inadequate targeting, hinders opportunities and harms advertisers as well as the websites themselves that will not profit unless there is a view or a click.

On the other hand, users are mistreated, under constant risk of malvertising and ads cutting their phone batteries by 21%. Publishers are being exploited by giants by the likes of Facebook or Google which they can take over roughly 70 cents of each dollar made from an advertisement. Basic Attention Token is developed on the Ethereum platform and built on an algorithm that rewards users with tokens based on their level of attention on an ad. It is beneficial to, and reciprocates all parties. However, these only occur on a unique browser, Brave, which blocks trackers and third-party ads. Users are in full control and choose the type of ads they want to be exposed to, resulting in a tailored advertising experience.

Brave browser

All parties involved are currently at a disadvantage. Publishers do not get the full share of the revenue as a large chunk is taken by third party ad services. Brave helps with targeting and keeping the suited audience as well as giving generated income directly to the publishers for free.

Albeit not directly profiting, advertisers objectively gain most from this platform. This is due to aforementioned tools that will allow upfront, tailored advertising reaching audiences willing to participate. Advertisers will also have the knowledge of what they are investing into without violating users’ privacy or collecting their detailed personal information.

Customers have developed distrust towards any kind of advertisement. They mostly find them irritating, insignificant and fraudulent. Brave and BAT will allow customers to view advertisements they choose without intrusive pop-ups. What is more, they will be rewarded to see the content directly matching their interests, whilst having their privacy protected.
The Best Decision I Ever Made Was Barely My Own
By: Marcs Wilkinson
Tags: Workingholiday, Travel, Personal Development, Finding Yourself, Spontaneity

In the fall of 2011 I moved back home after yet another summer of painting, a diploma in business administration to my name. Much to the dismay of every parent of a wheel-spinner, I’d opted to finish my stint at business school with the amicable (albeit less concrete) diploma in General Business Management. This decision was not made in haste, I’d done just fine in those 2 years working in teams, grazing across the topics and jargon of the business world, and had only to choose my area of specialization to complete the BBA. Choose now; Accounting, HR Management and Leadership, or Marketing. I’d taken 200 level courses in these disciplines, and it dawned on me that making this choice would lead me into the business of business. But what of my dreams?

Before moving to Vancouver Island (when I started spinning my wheels) I’d taken up painting as College Pro Painter. An acquaintance (now friend, I MC’d his wedding) was a fresh-faced franchisee of the amateur painting outfit that gives real entrepreneurship experience to university students, and he staffed up with myself and a couple other students who had never painted. Over the course of two summers I’d seen his excitement turn to disappointment and stress, a hard earned lesson that ended in bankruptcy and an early end to the summers painting. I took a few things from this;

A lesson — Be a friend and be the boss, but do both distinctly. A trade — Painting was a blast and gave me the confidence to blast holes in apartment walls without fear of repercussion. It kept my summers full and my skills had clear value. Better skills, more valuable. A mantra — Do something that you actually care about. That opportunity that seemed okay gets nasty quick when it keeps you from great stuff happening all around you. The ladder of priorities in this finite lifetime is greasy for inconsequential work.

Even though it had been many happy seasons painting, time and time again picking up the brush and cutting through the West Coast summers, I felt like I was on someone else’s path.

I had found that first summer job in Victoria on my own, and was buying whites shortly after the interview. The next summer my foreman called me up and told me our manager was putting together a crew at a new company. She was a blast to work with and we got on well, so I switched on autopilot and we had many good times and sunny days. The following summer that manager decided to start his own outfit and I was honored to be a part of that first crew. I realized then that I was on his path, taking the opportunities handed to me and letting the time burn away.

The relationship I had when I’d moved out that way was a few months behind me, my older brother had moved to the coast, and I was having an Eat Pray Love moment. I was riding my BMX more and spent my days like any dirtbag should hope, but with winter around the corner and money in short supply, I liquidated and moved back to my ancestral home, a city surrounded by the country, Calgary, AB.
Hello, world.
By: Rachel Cantor
Tags: Nodejs, Software Development, Webpack, Redux, React

Welcome to the Pico engineering blog!

At Pico, we’re creating a new layer in the media tech stack, building tools that help publishers move away from ad revenue and toward direct reader engagement.

This will be a place for our engineers to share helpful how-tos and anything else that interests the team.

Our tech stack is growing, but here some of the frameworks and libraries we’re currently using:
stardust
Tags: Cosmos, Poetry On Medium, Poetry, Space, Stars

we are made of the cosmos.

we are made of explosions of red giants –

the last breath

of a dying star

up in flames,

and the rage of a galaxy being torn apart.

our blood contains the waters

that once sustained the planets;

and our bones the dust of forgotten stars

that hang in the empty spaces

of the endless cosmos.

we are made of fire and ice,

the earth and the sky,

and the rains that fall between.

we are planets,

we are stars,

we are the destruction of universes,

and the creation of galaxies.

remember, we are powerful.

& we are infinite.
TARP: A Love Story
By: Chris Arnade
Tags: Life Lessons, Our Classless Society, Love, Financial Crisis, Banking

I first heard about TARP by rumors whispered across the trading floor and trading chatrooms, “Something spectacular is coming. You will love it.”

I was, like most bankers then, at a low, jilted by my past relationship with LUFM (Largely Unregulated Free Markets). I was looking for a rebound.

TARP wasn’t known as TARP then. It was still unnamed. But the talk was clear. It was a beautiful thing, an acronym that understood our needs.

It emerged from the rumors in September of ‘08, debuting in D.C. as the Emergency Stabilization Act. Autumn in NYC is a wonderful time to fall in love.

Like any banker, I can tell you when I first saw it, first caught a glimpse of my future love. It was on C-SPAN, late in the trading day. I was smitten immediately.

Why not? It was everything a banker could want. It was simple and rich. It understood OUR needs. $700 billion unconstrained dollars. We all swooned.

Those early days, like the start of any relationship, were rocky. TARP stumbled at first, failures that confused everyone.

It came for a vote on Sept 29th. Trading floors stood silent and watched C-SPAN. Everyone gave it the respect it deserved.

The vote started out badly, but we were confident. It would pass, we were told. It had to pass. It needed to pass. This was our new love after all.

As the vote unfolded, we wilted. It hadn’t passed. The trading floor erupted in disbelief. No, no, no. Not our TARP!

We ran into conference rooms to look for assurance from distant knowing voices in D.C. Our lobbyists were clear: Don’t worry.

(Binghamton, New York)

This is too important not to pass. We are too important for it to not pass. Don’t worry.

That early stumble should have been concerning. Maybe it wasn’t everything? Maybe TARP had a darker side. Or, maybe it was corrupt?

No. We all admired how it picked itself up and moved forward from defeat. It only bonded us tighter. It wasn’t just beautiful. It was also ours.

TARP passed a week later and was signed into law with the plebeian name of Public Law 110–343. We all danced for joy.

It was now a marriage. TARP and Wall Street. And it proved, like any good marriage, to be a union of equals.

Both contributed. Both helped each other. Both supported each other in times of weakness. Both gave each other meaning.
Snipsl — Founder’s Interview
Tags: UX, Startup, Interview, App, Design

S: Thanks for your honesty! Our first project was Snipsl, what made you bring this project to Significa?

M: Well to be honest, I was put on a spot. The agency I planned to use, cancelled the project, so I needed a quick replacement. I remembered our conversation and thought I give you a chance. Within three weeks you guys delivered the entire design for our Android App — I was blown away by both speed and accuracy. I could see you guys really spent a lot of thinking on it, it was not only nice to look at it, but thought through, which is what surprised me the most. I didn’t expect that from a design in Porto.

S: Now I know why you decided to let us design both the iPhone App and the Snipsl Authors Platform as well, am I right?

M: Yes, you had me “on the hook” 😉

S: A lot of people fear that with a portuguese team, communication is difficult — how was your experience with us?

M: I agree, I had the same fear, but I was positively suprised. You immediately joined us on Slack, always participated in our stand-ups and integrated yourself into our team.

S: Why did you look for a team in Porto, was it the costs or the weather?

M: Well of course I was looking for an option that fit a “startup-budget” without loosing quality. When you guys offered me to actually reduce your rates by 50% and only receive the other 50% after we reach our success metrics, I was quite intruiged. Obviously as a startup founder you are always happy if your partners take part of the risk.

The weather doesn’t hurt though and I appreciate Rui’s great restaurant tours through Porto.
STM32 — Project Setup with CubeIDE
By: Sanskar Biswal
Tags: Microcontrollers, Stmicroelectronics, Tutorial, Stm32, Embedded Systems

Fig.1 STM32F4 Discovery Kit

What is STM32 and Why You Should Use It?

STM32 is a family of 32-bit microcontroller developed by STMicroelectronics. They are used widely in applications ranging from home automation to toys to consumer appliances. The STM32 series is based on ARM architecture which is one of the most popular computer architectures in the industry.

The wide variety of microcontrollers offered by the STMicroelectronics, allow developers to find the right microcontroller for their applications. Be it low power applications for hand-held battery operated modules, or to develop modules for computation intensive tasks, there is a chance that what ever a developer needs, he/she will likely find a suitable option.

The biggest benefit of having the same manufacturer develop such variety of microcontrollers, is that their internal structure will follow the same rule set and thus, their firmware will be the same across a variety of devices. This makes it easier to learn a single tool and utilize it across multiple projects, which makes production faster.

STM32 — Cube IDE

Fig.2 STM32 Cube IDE (Source: www.st.com)

STM32 Cube IDE is a free IDE developed and maintained by STMicroelectronics. In addition to the basic features of an IDE, Cube IDE also has a project initializer, which is used to select the target device, choose required peripherals and finally to configure GPIO names and configurations. When a new project is created, the IDE will automatically generate the startup code needed to run the device. This includes the code needed to initialize the variety of peripherals chosen by the user. This feature allows developers to focus on writing code for their target applications instead of maintaining large code bases for each device initialization.

Note: STM32 Cube IDE can be downloaded from the following link: https://www.st.com/en/development-tools/stm32cubeide.html

Starting a New Project
Should We Prepare for Another IUD Panic?
By: Caitlin Laughney
Tags: Sexual Health, Medicine, Health, Racism, Women

Should We Prepare for Another IUD Panic?

The potential implications of politically induced IUD panic among Americans.

Image from Unsplash

In a shocking turn of events, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg (RBG) has recently passed away at the age of 87 due to cancer-related complications. The loss of RBG has been devastating to many, due to her legacy as a Supreme Court Justice and as a champion of women’s rights.

At this point, it is still unclear what the widespread political repercussions of RBG’s death will look like in the United States. In light of her passing in proximity to the quickly approaching presidential election, many Americans are already thinking about how to prepare for the worst.

In response to RBG’s death, I will discuss two main points:

The emerging phenomenon of intrauterine device (IUD) panic that fluctuates in response to hard-right conservatism gaining power at the federal level in the United States.

An examination of what IUD panic may signify regarding reproductive choice.

I conclude that further investigation is needed to better understand the fluctuating demands of IUDs that appear to be in response to significant political events. I additionally advocate for broader conceptual reflection of the meaning of IUD panics and how they relate to reproductive access and “choice” in America.

Political Shifts Towards Hard-Right Conservatism and IUD Panic in the U.S.

The 2016 IUD Panic

Not too long ago President Donald Trump’s election in 2016 caused a wave of panic regarding access to reproductive health resources.

Research has since shown that long-acting reversible contraception (LARC) insertion procedures increased by 22% in the U.S over several weeks before and after the 2016 election. Months after this election, Planned Parenthood reported a 900% increase in appointments requesting IUD insertion procedures in their clinics.

This evidence suggests that major national-level political shifts toward hard-right conservatism may have not only triggered a wave of fear online but also real actionable change in long-acting contraceptive use among Americans.

Image my own and original post by @grimalkinrn on Twitter in 2016

Another IUD Panic in 2020?

In the wake of RBG’s death and the approaching 2020 election, some women on social media are yet again becoming increasingly worried about their access to reproductive healthcare in the United States.

In an all too familiar echo, some women are taking to social media and recommending that others consider a long-acting form of contraception, such as an IUD, that can outlast another election cycle.

Image my own and original post by @darshanaheena and @talliesinyoung on Twitter a day after the death of RBG (9/19/2020)

Only time will tell whether or not Americans will, yet again, rush to their doctor’s offices for IUDs and LARCs over the next few weeks or even months. However, researchers, healthcare workers, and policy-makers alike should consider monitoring for yet another wave of LARC insertion demands as we approach closer to November.
Free and paid user testing questionnaires templates to get you started
By: Sara Lopes
Tags: UX Research, UX Design, User Testing, Usability Testing, User Experience

During the conducting of a User testing, a designer is expected to pick a representative set of tasks for the participants whose performance with the system will then be measured and in addition its perceived usability of a system.

To collect these quantifiable analytics you can interview the users instead of using a questionnaire (these are not the tasks)but even tho it would be advantageous to build rapport, and get more details beyond quantified measure, it can also take much longer.

There are pre-test Questionnaires where you are expected to learn about the Dimensions of Diversity of your participants, in-test questionnaires and post-test questionnaires which are administered after a participant has finished the tasks. The common goal? Collect quantifiable analytics, by avoiding free-text responses by using numbers that indicated the level of agreement.

1. SUMI

“The Software Usability Measurement Inventory is a rigorously tested and proven method of measuring software quality from the end user’s point of view”

Where? sumi.uxp.ie

sumi.uxp.ie Cost: 700$ ( free for students)

700$ ( free for students) Questions: 50

Available Formats:
Packing for Deep Wilderness Landscape Shoots: Josh Cripps’ Preferred Camera Gear
By: Jennifer Berube
Tags: Photographer, Landscape, Cameras, Gear, Photography

It’s no secret that California’s mountains and coastlines offer photographers amazing scenery like no other place on Earth all year round. And, for wilderness landscape photographer Josh Cripps, there couldn’t be a better place to live and shoot than in the magnificent Sierra Nevada mountain range.

Josh has spent years exploring the mountain wilderness, as well as the expansive California coastlines. He’s also traveled to many countries, where he’s photographed remote locations and led tours. As a seasoned landscape photographer and hiker, Josh knows exactly what’s needed to capture the perfect shot — even in the most unexpected conditions.

Since he can’t lug around a lot of equipment and the weather is often unpredictable, he has had to figure out what works for him when he’s far from home and needs to get the shot.

Can you tell us what equipment is essential to your work?

JOSH: As a wilderness landscape photographer I do a lot of hiking. That means I need cameras and lenses that offer as much dynamic range and detail as possible without being overly large or heavy.
Dark Money Duplicity
By: Peter C. Cook
Tags: Politics, Campaign Finance, Elections, Massachusetts, Unions

Dark Money Duplicity

The Teachers Unions Decry Dark Money, But Spend Plenty Of It

On Monday, the Massachusetts Office of Campaign and Political Finance (OCPF) announced they had reached a legal settlement with Families for Excellent Schools-Advocacy (FESA), a major backer of last year’s failed ballot question to raise the state’s charter school cap, following an investigation that found the group had violated campaign finance laws.

Under the terms of the settlement, FESA paid a $426,466 fine — the largest campaign finance penalty in the Commonwealth’s history — and agreed to dissolve itself. The organization was also forced to reveal its list of donors, which they had previously refused to disclose.

Families for Excellent Schools Advocacy was a 501(c)(4) that supported last year’s ballot initiative to raise the charter school cap in Massachusetts.

As might be expected, the news prompted an outburst of schadenfreude from the teachers unions and their allies, who spent over $15 million to defeat the charter cap proposal. They also seized the opportunity to once again portray charter supporters as nothing more than tools of wealthy political interests.

Barbara Madeloni, president of the Massachusetts Teachers Association, told the Boston Globe, “I’m shocked but not surprised. We always knew that they didn’t want the public to know it was being funded by millionaires and billionaires.”

Meanwhile, the Boston Teachers Union took to social media to revel in FESA’s downfall. On Facebook, BTU shared a statement on the OPCF settlement from “our friends at Massachusetts Education Justice Alliance,” a group which the union just so happens to underwrite.

Plus, Maurice Cunningham, a UMass political science professor and teachers union advocate, penned a widely shared and uber-snarky blog post for WGBH News, in which he called FESA “a dark money front designed to hide millions in contributions from plutocrats,” and said charter supporters “are not poor families eager to improve their children’s schooling but billionaire financiers.”

Let him who is without sin…

The condemnations of “dark money” from the unions and their supporters may not be surprising, but they are certainly hypocritical. Although the teachers unions incessantly decry secretive political spending by their opponents, the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), National Education Association (NEA), and their affiliates have made ample use of dark money to conceal their campaign funding.

Dark money groups are usually 501(c)(4) organizations — or “social welfare organizations” as defined by the IRS — which can spend an unlimited amount to support candidates and issue campaigns. However, since they’re technically supposed to be focused on social welfare activities, they can direct no more than 50% percent of their total spending toward political efforts.
Thyroid Concerns
By: Margie Pearl
Tags: Middle Pause, Thyroid Problems, Health, Mood Disorder, T3 Test

Thyroid Concerns

There are no easy answers.

Photo by David Clode on Unsplash

I have been monitoring my thyroid for a long time and even though I was diagnosed with Hashimoto’s Disease early on, I could not a get a doctor to treat it.

Each doctor thought my levels were close enough to normal that receiving Levothyroxine wasn’t indicated. I was frustrated that my concerns were not taken seriously, but I kept getting my thyroid tested anyway. I knew I was having problems; however, I was not willing to medicate myself.

This graph below shows the normal range of thyroid levels for women and men by age. I’ve included mine for comparison later on.

A Decade of Concern

I had many symptoms of hypo-thyroid: a goiter that makes it hard to swallow, brittle nails, sensitivity to cold, low metabolism, dry skin, and high cholesterol. It’s also hereditary. My mother had been taking thyroid medication her entire life — a fact I also mentioned to my doctors.

But a person with low thyroid function can present as having mental health disorders like: an inability to concentrate, brain fog, anxiety, sleep problems, and lethargy. I’ve always spoken a mile a minute. I think this is the trait that confused my doctors.

I continued researching thyroid disorders in the hopes that someone would listen to me. That person turned out to be a Black woman who was in a jobs program at the library I worked at a decade ago.

She made sure the break room was empty before approaching the table I sat at. “You know, I think you should have your thyroid tested again. There are three tests and the doctors don’t like to do the full panel. The T3 is really important. My whole life people though it was mental health problems and it was my thyroid.”

Somebody believed me. It was such an unexpected gift. “ Thank you for telling me. How did you know?”

She shrugged, “Just something I noticed. You’ve always been nice to people while I’ve been here and to me. I appreciate that.”

“Has it been that hard?”

“It is never easy to get a job at my age, but I think this will help. You take care.” And off she went to the back room to continue learning to catalog, repair books and all the other things that happen at a library.

10 years of my thyroid levels

As you can see 2015 showed a sharp spike in my thyroid levels. That was the year I sat on the couch for the entire summer. I didn’t even turn on the TV. I wasn’t depressed. I was like a frog in hibernation. I noticed things but had no will to act.

A line graph of my thyroid levels

My doctor called me the same day my test results came in and I’ve been taking thyroid medication ever since. She is the best doctor I have ever had and I hope I have her for the rest of my life.

The thyroid regulates the metabolism and if it is not functioning well, there can be wide mood swings. I wish I had known this decades earlier. It would have saved me years of personal doubt and shame.

I urge you to have your thyroid tested during your health exams — and if there are men in your life have them get tested too.
Aerial drone footage of Black Island Farm | Video
By: Jason Yeaman
Tags: Black Island Farm, Dji, Video, Spark

Black Island Farm, Syracuse Utah.

I spent some time with my family at Black Island Farms in Syracuse Utah. The passivity was so beautiful I decided to take out the DJI spark and capture some drone footage of the property. The venue included live music, great food, hog and turkey races, a tractor ride and a whole bunch of other family friendly fun to celebrate fall.

The Video
I Care, I Do Not Care
By: J.D. Harms
Tags: Image, Editing, Poetry, Musing, Writing

I Care, I Do Not Care

A Poem

Photo by Jr Korpa on Unsplash

By the time you got to these lines

just above the final quote

you had ceased to care

no longer running your red fingers

over the manuscript

Over in the kitchen

I had already coddled death

got out the tea bags, milk, etc.

I don’t know if I saved her

but she was trying to tell me about you

Frustrated by various orders

uncertain what to brand on your t-shirt

or legs, or what perfume to tell

everyone about your protest that

was you alone and some trees

I dented several books

on my way to bring you some food

but of course I can’t cook

so I hope cereal is up your alley

and you weren’t hoping for cigarettes

I care, I thought I told you

but then life got in the way of it

and I forgot so many things

even the definitions you had tried

to make clear long ago
How I Landed a Job at Amazon Luxembourg
By: Krishna Kumar Dey
Tags: Interview, Careers, Coding Interviews, Programming, Amazon

Online Assessment

After a month, I received an email from the Amazon recruitment team about next steps. Many of my friends had already done similar assessments and never heard back, so I was expecting the same. Nevertheless, I decided to take the assessment. It was divided into three parts.

Part 1, Debugging Round (20 mins): In this part of the online assessment, I was asked to find bugs in seven pieces of code.

Part 2, Coding (70 mins) and Work Style Assessment(30 mins): This part of the online assessment consisted of a coding section using Java, Python, C#, or C++. Besides the coding section, there was also a work style assessment, built around Amazon’s Leadership Principles.

Part 3, Work Simulation (150 mins): The assessment consists of a work simulation and a logical ability test. The work simulation section of the online assessment was an interactive video simulation of a day in the life of an SDE at Amazon. I was presented with various scenarios and was asked to select options for how I would respond.

After a month, I received an email stating I was shortlisted for an on-site interview in the Amazon Luxembourg office. My interview was scheduled during the 2nd week of January but was shifted to the 1st week of February thanks to the unavailability of slots.

Reason for being shortlisted

I’m not very sure about that. Doing well in all three rounds was a significant factor. My open-source contributions and internships also helped. Having good projects and leadership roles in my resume was an added advantage.
N2 Build 180 = Sync Status + Diagnostics
By: Team Nirvana
Tags: Beta, News, Developer, N2, Nirvana Notices

N2 Build 180 has been pushed live. This is a maintenance release to addresses a number of sync-related issues that folks have been reporting. 90% of the changes are invisible under the hood type stuff. But the 10% that you can see include:

hovering your mouse over the sync button shows more detailed status info

pressing shift+0 (that’s shift+zero) will bring up a gnarly looking diagnostics panel

That diagnostics panel is for troubleshooting with the dev team. It’s not a very friendly looking dialog box, but for our developers it’s like a beacon of light. It should prove invaluable for helping us figure out how to resolve issues you may be experiencing.

So, please refresh your browsers a few times until you see Build 180.

Thanks everyone, and have a great weekend.