fabiochiu/medium-articles huggingface dataset:
Why Should I Go Zero-Waste?
By: Matthew Tirona
Tags: Economics, Circulareconomy, Zero Waste, Pollution, Environment

Photo By Artem Beliaikin on Unsplash

What is Zero-Waste?

Zero-waste is when you send nothing to the landfill. Zero-waste focuses on reducing what we use, reusing what we have, recycling what we can’t reuse, and composting what we can compost. This will allow humanity to live in a circular economy, similar to nature.

Zero-Waste Helps Our Environment

Going zero-waste can help our environment and protect our natural resources. By going zero-waste, we mimic nature, which is a zero-waste system. Zero-waste will also reduce pollution, which is vital to aquatic ecosystems.

Zero-Waste Helps Our Economy

Zero-waste can open up many more jobs when compared to landfills.

Recycling creates 10 times more jobs compared to landfills.

Composting creates 2 times more jobs compared to landfills.

Reusing creates 30 times more jobs compared to landfills.

Going zero-waste will transition our economy from a linear economy to a circular economy. In a linear economy, we use our natural resources once, then dump them somewhere else. In a circular economy, we are reusing our natural resources, which allows for indefinite use. In a linear economy, we will eventually run out of resources and will be forced to transition to a circular economy. Going zero-waste can help transition ourselves to a circular economy.

Zero-Waste Saves You Money

By going zero-waste, you will save money in many categories

By ditching paper towels, you can save $50-$150.

If you spend $3 on a water bottle every day, you will save $1095 by using a reusable water bottle.

The average American spends about $7200 a year in food, however, we waste 25% of that. If we don’t waste any food, we can save about $1800 every year.

By using reusable grocery bags and coffee cups, you can save $50-$100, depending on how often you shop and buy coffee.

Conclusion

Going zero-waste will help the environment, help the economy, and save you money. You will benefit from going zero-waste, both emotionally and physically.
GV Design Sprint, one side of creativity
By: Andrea Bravo
Tags: Creativity, Creative Process, Design Sprint, Google Design

Last week, I came to experiment with GV Design Sprint, an express methodology to foster creative processes, by Jake Knapp. This methodology is a very powerful tool, as in just one week, you can review the cycle of the product, from research and ideation to user-testing: a powerful accelerator.

As a supervitamin programme, Google Design Sprint keeps a high pace, sets objetives and looks for results over a short period of time. It is a very focused programme which fosters participants to use one part of their creativity, the one related to conscious focused attention. Spontaneity or mind-wandering are not welcome into the programme, this led me to write this post.

“Creativity is not a simple process but a set of complex stages and cognitive mechanisms.” Dr. Shelley Carson

During the creative process, cognitive neuroscience research has proven that creative thinkers tend to reduce their cognitive activity in the prefrontal cortex (the area of the brain responsible for taking decisions). This leads to the brain making connections in a more freely way, with a defocused attention.

The brain of conventional thinkers, however, keeps information properly organised and categorised. When it comes to thinking outside the box, the conventional brain shows, according to research, much activity in the prefrontal area, meaning that the rational mind is trying to “think” to get new ideas. Some individuals even show a higher activation in those areas, meaning that the person is “thinking hard” to get an idea. Though, research has proven that reducing the mental activity is how you can foster connection-making leading to novel ideas.

Dorte Nielsen “The secret of the highly creative thinker”

In the Google Design Sprint, I experienced the time and objective constraints in the ideation process which made me think that something could be improved there. I am not trying to make a whole new method, but just pointing out that to foster creativity, and more in individuals not trained in this process, maybe some guidance in the process of ideation would be an optimal solution. Just some explanations on how to relax the mind so as to foster the generation of new connections, thus new ideas in the brain.

Relaxing and defocusing the mind, we can get better ideas.

On this topic, I highly recommend to check Dr. Shelley Carson TED Talk “Quick start guide to creativity”.
Are You Prepared for The Rokularity?
By: Phil Autelitano
Tags: Roku, Content Marketing, TV, News, Streaming

Though the Connected TV era is just beginning, it’s only a matter of time before every television in America — and the world — is “connected.” With Roku being the primary platform for Connected TV, it’s only a matter of time before every TV is connected via Roku. Just like most TVs have a DVR, so too will they have Roku. It only makes sense, the same guy —Anthony Wood — invented both, and I’m sure he’d love to see a little Roku button next to every one of those little DVR buttons he’s responsible for on devices everywhere. That said, Roku isn’t going anywhere, well, anywhere but UP. Very soon, as all other Connected TV devices continue to drop off, Roku will become the de facto standard platform for Connected TV and EVERYONE who has a TV and the Internet will be using it. This merging of Internet and Television entertainment will come to be known as The Rokularity.

With Roku being the “Windows” of Connected TV, it is sure to have it’s “Mac” nemesis. Whether that’s actually Apple TV remains to be seen. But who cares? All the action will be on Roku. As I type this, Roku is making plans to go public… ‘nuff said.

Where were you the day the Internet was invented? Where were you the day it became “mainstream?” Where were you the day Mobile became a way of life, or Google and Facebook became household names?

You can’t pinpoint the success of the Internet, or Smart Phones and mobile, or Google, or Facebook, to any one day or event. It’s a process that happens over time, and while most people are totally oblivious to it. They hear about it here and there, and then one day they realize that “thing” they’ve been hearing about here and there is suddenly EVERYWHERE.

Then they kick themselves in the ass for missing the boat.

There aren’t that many of those boats in our lifetime. Connected TV (and Roku) — The Rokularity — is one of them. You don’t want to miss it this time around.

So if you’re not making plans to incorporate Connected TV — mainly a Roku channel or application — into your current business and marketing strategy, you are, in effect, missing the boat.

Don’t be a Dick.

Don’t miss the boat.

The Rokularity is Happening Now.

— P.

Phil Autelitano is Founder and CEO of Mediarazzi. We develop content, channels, and applications for Roku and Connected TV. To find out more about launching your own Roku channel, visit our website at www.Mediarazzi.com

Follow @PhilAutelitano
3 ICO passes and why: Drep, Tolar-Hashnet & Vault12
By: Jason Cameron
Tags: Ethereum, ICO, Cryptocurrency, Bitcoin, Blockchain

Well, another week in crypto. Currently the marketcap is floating around $340-$350bln and it seems we’re moving sideways forming a kind of base.

June is ‘event month’ here in the UK with a blockchain conference or summit almost every week. I’ll be attending a few and it would be great to catch up, if you’re around. I’ll be sharing the events I’m attending in my telegram group so come join me there to find out where I’ll be.

In today’s post I’ll be sharing 3 ICOs I’ve taken a look at and have decided to pass on with the reasons why. In no particular order, here they are:

Drep [DREP]

Drep project looks solid. Team is world class and the partnerships are exciting. However, I may be missing something but I don’t see any real value in the idea. I’m not keen on it and why it needs it’s own blockchain just for reputation. The partnerships are great but are they use case partnerships or investment partnerships? I can’t tell. So as much as I love the team, I won’t just through money at a team and see what they build, I have to see a strong use case for the project also, especially in crypto, which in this case I don’t, so it’s a pass for me.

Tolar-HashNet [TOL]

Tolar has done well in getting the project out there, having won Ian Balina’s ICO pitch competition, which is probably the main reason it’s now in people’s conversation. However, the team does not impress me and really how many fast blockchains are going to be built? What is the main purpose for another fast blockchain? This space is too saturated and there’s no X factor with this project, for me it’s a pass.

Vault12 [VGT]

This is a great idea, much needed in this space. The backing is very strong, team is proven and overall I think this project is solid. BUT, it’s a security Dapp and most security dapps don’t perform well in the market and I really don’t see there being the demand for this as far as the token utility/demand is concerned, for there to be a significant increase in value over time — I don’t think people are not going to be running to exchanges to stock up on VGT to use or hodl. I would have much preferred this to be tokenised security, with an ownership/revenue stake in the company, that would be more valuable for me. It’s a pass.
The Greatest Customer Complaint in History
By: Binit Acharya
Tags: Technology, Social Media, Marketing, Public Relations, Business

The Incident

In 2008, Dave Carroll, a Canadian musician was flying on a United Airlines flight. From the window, he saw some baggage handlers throwing guitars. He asked the flight attendants about it, but they told him that there was nothing that could be done.

After he got off the flight, he saw that the guitar was broken. It took him $1,200 to fix it. United didn’t compensate him at all. They didn’t even bother to give him a penny for it.

After nine months and several complaints, he decided to show his anger to the whole world — the Canadian way! He released a song called United Breaks Guitars and uploaded it on YouTube. It started getting millions of views. He released two other songs about the same incident, totaling three songs.

He was going viral overnight. It was witty, creative, and arguably the best customer complaint ever. It is said that it ended up costing the company $180 million or 10% of its stocks within 4 weeks of the video being posted on YouTube.

Was it entirely because of the song? I don’t think so, and there is no way to know. But the song very clearly had a great impact on that downward slope of stocks, even if it was not entirely because of it.
Dressage horse has the shit kicked out of him back at the stables by cool racehorse
Tags: Dancing, Horse Racing, Olympics, Sports, Horses

Dressage horse has the shit kicked out of him back at the stables by cool racehorse SportsPickle Follow Aug 15, 2016 · 2 min read

LEXINGTON, KY — An American horse that competed in the Rio Olympics in Team Dressage, or horsey dancing as it is more commonly known, was beaten up and given a saddle wedgie by the other horses in its stable today upon returning home from the Olympics.

After getting back to the stable late last night after a long flight to Kentucky from Brazil, Mr. Danceskin was found red-eyed in the corner of his stable this morning by his groomer.

“Unfortunately, bullying is a very real problem in the horse community,” said Mr. Danceskin’s trainer, Trish McDowell. “The thoroughbred racehorses are seen as the cool jock horses and more sensitive and artistic beauties like Mr. Danceskin can be singled out and mistreated. He’s been dealing with this since he was a colt. Apparently not even making the Olympics is enough for these asshole racehorses.”

McDowell says Mr. Danceskin will have the last laugh or whinny, as the case may be.

“All of these racehorses are inbred and have weak, brittle leg bones that can snap at any moment and bring about a premature death,” she said. “And when that happens, Mr. Danceskin will literally be dancing on their graves.”

At the very moment she said that, Danceskin jumped up and began doing the Samba, his heels gleefully kicking this way and that.

“There you go, Mr. Danceskin,” she said. “I love your spirit. They’ll never beat you down.”
Footprints
By: Deborah Barchi
Tags: Poetry, Relationships, Change, Love, Haiku

“The longer I live, the more beautiful life becomes.” (Frank Lloyd Wright) Non-fiction pieces, personal essays, occasional poems and short fiction that explore how we feel about how we age and offer tips for getting the most out of life.

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Attention To Detail
By: Krystopher, Dash
Tags: Marketing, Columbus Ohio, Entrepreneurship, Burgers, Baking

Every month I committed to trying a different restaurant in Columbus. The restaurant of the month was Bareburger. I am a big fan of paying attention to details. I planned on taking more photos while I at the restaurant, unfortunately, there was a group of cops having lunch and weren’t too keen on cameras even looking like they are being pointed in their direction. Shout-Out to Alex though!

After leaving Bareburger, I stubbled across this candy shop downtown called MMelo. One of the things I am always on the lookout for is small business owners with dope shops and spaces, especially those that are minorities.
Rise and Shine
By: Federico López Frey
Tags: Cryptocurrency, Bitcoin, Marketplace, Blockchain, Sports

After several months of hard work, Globatalent is finally ready. We launched our Marketplace, the first platform where idols and clubs allow fans to be part of their projects and share profits.

A Blockchain ecosystem in Sports industry? Until a few months ago, it sounded at least wired. But Globatalent’s goal is to achieve equality in sports, in order to provide every athlete or team the opportunity to fulfill their dreams.

It seems like yesterday when Globatalent was just an idea, “and some people telling us that we were completely crazy” -as CEO Sunil Bhardwaj explained-. But now we have a full functioning Marketplace with active projects and a lot of room for improvement.

Right now, our growing number of users can support David Vega -a spanish promising tennis player-, Europa Point FC -a Gibraltar team that wants to reach Champions League- and Zentro Basket Madrid -a benchmark in European Basketball Academies-. And soon they will be able to choose from much more options.

Globatalent has also its own Cryptocurrency: the GBT. After listing in Latoken last november, now GBT’s are also listed in Bitforex and CoinMarketCap, with really positive expectations after seeing how this cryptocurrency developed in the market.

Fox example, GBT reached Market Capitalization (the current price of a coin times the total number of coins in the market) in CoinMarketCap and escalated more tan 1400 positions in less than two months. This represents a huge vote of trust for the path that Globatalent is transiting.

Of course, there is still a long way to go and hard work to do. But Globatalent Team is motivated with the idea of transforming the world of sports as we know it and begin with a new era, in which everyone has the opportunity of making their dreams come true. Join us!

Do not forget to follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn and Telegram!
Analyzing your data
By: Ashish Gusain
Tags: Matplotlib, Seaborn, Data Visualization, Data Science, Visualization

BOX PLOT:

import seaborn as sns

sns.boxplot(x=”drive-wheels”,y=”price”,data=df)

Box plot gives us information like the five lines in each box from the x-axis represents the min value, 25%, 50%, 75% and the max value respectively. The lowest line is the minimum price and the top line represents the max price. In the first box, 17000 is the median price, 25% cars have price below 13000 and 75% cars have price below 22000. Max price is 36000 and min price is 7000.

SCATTER PLOT:

Scatter plot basically represents relation between 2 features in a 2D plane.

import matplotlib.pyplot as plt

x=df["engine-size"]

y=df["price"]

plt.scatter(x,y)

plt.xlabel("engine-size")

plt.ylabel("price")

plt.title("Scatter plot")

CORELATION:

pearson coefficient — to check corelation between 2 features on the basis of corelation-coefficient and p-value.

corelation coefficient has +ve relation if it’s value is nearly equal to 1, has -ve relation if it’s value is nearly equal to -1 and no relation if it’s value is nearly equal to 0.

p-value shows strong certainty if the value is less than 0.001, moderate certainty if the value is less than 0.05, weak certainty if the value is less than 0.1 and no certainty if the value is greater than 0.1.

corelation coefficient close to 1 or -1 and p-value less than 0.001 is considered strong corelation.

import seaborn as sns

ax = sns.heatmap(df.corr(), vmin=-1, vmax=1, center=0, cmap=sns.diverging_palette(20, 220, n=200), square=True)

Corelation coefficient values of each feature with each feature is given above. The boxes that are more coloured are more co-related and hence must be used as a feature.

DISTRIBUTION PLOT:

This is basically used to check our results and visualize training output and test output together for better understanding.

x axis has y/yhat output values and y axis has frequency

import seaborn as sns

from sklearn.linear_model import LinearRegression

lm = LinearRegression()

X = df[[“horsepower”, “curb-weight”, “engine-size”, “highway-mpg”]]

Y = df[“price”]

lm.fit(X, Y)

Yhat = lm.predict(X)

axl = sns.distplot(Y, hist=False, color=”r”, label=”Actual Value”)

sns.distplot(Yhat, hist=False, color=”b”, label=”Fitted Values”, ax=axl)

We used linear regression to fit our training set. From the figure below, we can clearly get how the price gets changed. Also, we get to know at what price the frequency is higher or lower both before and after training.

Thanks.

You can reach me via mail, linkedIn, github.
RxJS Basics in Examples
By: Artem Diashkin
Tags: Observables, Subscription, Asynchronous, Rxjs, Observer

2. Observer

First, we should understand what is the Observer, and the answer is very simple — it contains the next , error , and complete functions…

Observer type

… that can be passed as an object…

Using Observer type

… or as properties (we used that approach in example 1 and example 2).

Using Observer as subscribe function properties

Result:

One

Two

Three

And what is subscribe function? It’s like “run” or “execute” command for the Observable (a stream of data), and you are passing an Observer (how to handle that data) to that subscribe function.

The simplest analogy is [].forEach(callback) :

array → Observable

forEach → subscribe

callback → Observer
Haiku and Tanka for an Ambivalent Carnivore
By: Jane Woodman
Tags: Chickens, Poetry, Ambivalence, Haiku, Tanka

Photo by Collin Leynau on Unsplash

Plucking of chickens

Should be accompanied by

The sound of cellos

My goat woman friend

Calls each of her birds by name

Holds the crippled one

In her arms as it crows up

At the sky it cannot fly
The 8th Blockchain Symposium Seoul 2018
Tags: Alaxblog, Bitcoin, Smartphones, Apps, Blockchain

ALAX is not resting on its laurels! This time our team went to South Korea’s capital Seoul, to talk about our project at the 8th Blockchain Symposium. Besides having a place to present ALAX in depth, our co-founder Matej Michalko participated in the panel discussion with representatives of other blockchain projects (mentioning for example Datecoin, OSA Hybrid platform, Tradelize or Vantage Network). The lively debate, gave all the panelists a chance to pitch in with their ideas and knowledge, presenting the different use cases for blockchain.

ALAX at 8th Blockchain Symposium Seoul 2018

Matej was given two questions relating to both DECENT and ALAX. When asked how is DCore better than Ethereum, he responded in a very original way by comparing Ethereum to a blockchain Swiss knife, while DCore is more of a precise tool, a well forged Sushi knife. He recounted the ways in which they differ from one another, underlining the fact that Ethereum’s blockchain is more suitable if you want to use PoC (proof of concept) for content distribution or release your ERC-20 tokens and scale it up a bit. On the other hand, if you want to go the way of mass production DCore would be a better fit. Comparing the settlement times of DCore and Ethereum, there is a 5 second settlement time on DECENT’s platform compared to Ethereum’s 30 seconds. He confidently stated that DCore has a processing speed of two thousand transactions per second, but as they are still in the process of conducting benchmarks, the final number could be much bigger, probably over 10,000 and somewhere in the vicinity of 20,000.

ALAX Co-founder Matej Michalko and ALAX advisor Peter Pongracz

The question relating to ALAX discussed its focus on emerging markets rather than expanding globally. Our co-founder shared his opinion that blockchain could bring a lot of value to the table specifically when it comes to providing solutions for unbanked users, explaining that using blockchain’s capabilities, such as exchanging tokens for cash, could reduce the huge development fees. Our use case is aimed at solving that. While now developers have to wait up to six months for the payments to be settled, by building ALAX on blockchain we are able to cut that time to 5 seconds. Also by using blockchain, the developer has an overview of how many times his game was downloaded, providing an unprecedented level of transparency and trust, since he doesn’t have to rely on a third party to report the number of downloads, in which case, the number does not have to be true.

Having the founders of different projects under one roof, clearly shows us, that there is a vast amount of real life applications for blockchain ranging from healthcare through trading tools to dating apps. We give it a big thumbs up! What about you?

For more information join our telegram or subscribe to our newsletter. For the most up to date news follow us on social media.
Editing the configuration of a story map
By: Owen Evans
Tags: GIS, Esri, Story Maps, Beginner

And now for the warnings…

Before you forge ahead, be aware there are risks associated with editing your story outside of builder.

Be careful — editing JSON can break your story!

Bad things can happen if you aren’t careful. You can:

Completely and irreparably break your story so that it will no longer load

Delete and lose links to images, videos, or other web content you’ve added or linked to in your story (although you can’t delete the content itself)

Delete and lose the text you’ve written in your story map

Scared yet? It’s ok, this article will walk you through things. If you are careful and follow the tips below editing the JSON can be safe.

Practice Safe Story Editing

Here are some tips for minimizing the risks that something will go wrong:

If you’ve never edited story map JSON before it’s wise to try it a few times on a test story until you’re comfortable with the procedure. Before you start editing, always copy and save your story’s original JSON in a text file in case something goes wrong. Always have a plan for what you’re going to edit. The articles on the Dev Corner blog describe specific changes you can make, so unless you know exactly what you are doing it’s recommended that you leave the training wheels on and stay on the path we’ve lead you down. Be careful not to remove any extra quotes, commas, or brackets — and make sure these always match up when you’re finished. Otherwise, you will invalidate your JSON and won’t be able to save your changes.

How to…

Now that you are ready to edit your story, here are the steps you’ll need to follow.

Go to the ArcGIS Online Assistant and log in with your ArcGIS account. In the header, click I want to… View an item’s JSON. Locate the story map you want to edit in the left side bar. You can use the search box at the top to help find your story. Scroll down to the Data section of the right panel. Copy the JSON to a text file as a backup. The Copy tool is to the left of the Save button. Click the pencil icon to start editing the JSON. Find the parameters you want to change and edit them. Save your changes. Refresh your story map to view the changes.
Video: The Human in the Machine — Identifying Fraud Victims to Take On Bias in ML
By: Riskified Technology
Tags: Machine Learning, Data Science, Vulnerable, Videos, Fraud Detection

The Human in the Machine: Identifying Fraud Victims to Take On Bias in ML — Reka Eszter Bodo

This is the golden age for data: data points, models, anomalies, patterns and more. We can learn so much from the data, but so can hostile people and organizations, turning the people into the weakest links in fraud detection. The elderly and other vulnerable communities are being scammed in phishing attacks, social engineering, and other fraud attacks. One of our biggest challenges in this age is protecting the users from themselves.

In this talk, Reka shares on how attackers can use the lack of knowledge of those communities, how we can fight it, and what is our social responsibility in protecting them.

Originally from Hungary, Réka has been living in Israel for the last ten years. She made aliyah after years of work and volunteering in the Hungarian Jewish community. Studying Talmud at the Hebrew University and working as a vet technician in JPSCA were short detours before she started working for Riskified as a research analyst three years ago. Her job includes analysing patterns and anomalies, training models and creating optimization to performance by constantly monitoring fraud trends.

This event was a collaborated event with Fraud Fighters IL community.

*Talk is in English
Crucibles of Leadership: From Conflict to Collaboration
By: Harvard Ash Center
Tags: Cities, Crisis Management, Covid 19, Leadership, Coronavirus

Crucibles of Leadership: From Conflict to Collaboration

The Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative is collaborating with Bloomberg Philanthropies’ Coronavirus Local Response Initiative to support mayors as they manage COVID-19. A fifth virtual discussion session held on April 16, 2020, focused on conflict resolution and teamwork.

In the fifth session of the Coronavirus Local Response Initiative, Howard Koh, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Harvard Kennedy School; Jorrit de Jong, Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative and Harvard Kennedy School; Josh Sharfstein, Vice Dean for Public Health Practice and Community Engagement at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health; and Tom Frieden, former director of CDC, president and CEO of Resolve to Save Lives, explored collaboration — across sectors, departments, and levels of government — and the challenges, conflicts, and opportunities for effective leadership and a resilient recovery that come with this work.
The Virus That Crushed the Roman Army
By: Sean Kernan
Tags: Life Lessons, Life, History, Sean Kernan, Military

The year was 164 AD.

The Roman Empire was near the height of its powers. Its borders extended across most of Europe and well into Asia and North Africa.

Marcus Aurelius’s co-emperor, Lucius Verus, was leading an army to the city of Seleucia in what is now Iraq. There had been an uprising against Roman control. He planned to crush all involved.

When his massive force arrived at the gates to Seleucia, the city’s leadership knew they couldn’t withstand the assault of an experienced and well-trained Roman Army. Their losses would be devastating. And so, quite wisely, they surrendered, opened their gates, and hosted the army.

Within days, Verus noticed several soldiers coughing and develop fevers. Some of them worsened and developed sores. A few of them never left the city.¹

As they began their long march home, the disease began to take its toll on other soldiers. There were several stops for extra rest and, eventually, stops to bury the dead.

With tragic irony, the army that had been tasked with defending the Roman Empire would soon be the harbinger of a terrible scourge. As they stopped in local towns to rest, they left an eager contagion to do its work.

The widening impact

After the army reached Rome and dispersed into the city, the virus swept across all of Europe. Entire towns and communities were ravaged. Death toll estimates vary but most agree that around five million died, including at least 10% of the Roman population.²

The Angel of Death depicted visiting during the plague. By Ellie Delaunay. (Source: Wikimedia Commons pic)

The virus was particularly devastating to the military. They lived in close quarters. They trained and fought to the point of exhaustion which weakened the immune system. They also had gaps in rations (nutrition) which further predisposed them to the disease.

Those afflicted typically developed a severe fever, diarrhea, and visible sores that spread across their entire body. Soldiers who survived were often hampered by disabilities and weakness. Their bodies were marked by terrible scars and pockmarks which announced they’d survived the infection. Most scholars now agree the disease was smallpox. But it is commonly referred to as the Antonine Plague.

All offensive military campaigns were postponed. Rome’s fighting force was cut in half. Their recruiting pool ran dry as people became wary of the close confines of military service. People didn’t understand virology like we do today, but most knew to avoid those who were visibly sick.
An American Disease
By: Jimmy Candou
Tags: Perfectionism, Society, Consumerism, Inner Peace, Happiness

I think Americans share a common illness. For some reason, we are raised to believe that people should be happy all the time. I think this is hammered into our brains through the media, with its legions of sunny smiles and perfectly happy lives. If we are not one of the beaming fools shown in advertisements, movies, or sitcoms then we are given a signal that there is something very wrong with us.

The idea that there is something wrong with not being happy all the time is incredibly toxic because it makes us feel bad about feeling bad. You can’t expect to be content when there is constant pressure to be content and you can’t expect to be happy when there is constant pressure to be happy. This makes for a sick contradiction a bit similar to a double bind and causes an incredible amount of unhappiness and discontent.

This might not be an accident. Since any amount of unhappiness is considered abnormal, capitalism is more than happy to provide a solution. In fact, the entire system is designed around it. This ‘solution’, as we are all aware, is indulging in a vast array of products that claim to make you happier, all for a few swipes of a credit card. The process goes a little something like this:

Society tells you that you should be happy at all times. Because no human can be happy all the time you eventually feel unhappy. Bam — now you are deviating from the unrealistic standards society has created, which society then convinces you is a problem. Society can then conveniently sell you a solution, in the form of consumerism. You get to ride the glow of a new purchase for a few seconds until the appeal wears off. Back to work to earn more, so you can buy Rinse, repeat.

It kind of makes society sound a bit like a coke dealer, doesn’t it?

The big problem is that we can’t be happy all the time. There are a multitude of reasons for this, from the so-called ‘hedonic treadmill’ to the fact that, well, humans are mortal, and anyone happy when their relatives and friends die isn’t much of a human at all. Shit happens and we don’t need to be happy about it.

Shit, coincidentally, is what people who try to sell us happiness are full of. If the human condition implies that we literally cannot be happy all the time, then why does our entire society seem to treat unhappiness as an aberration? Why do people tell others to cheer up as if unhappiness is a choice that can be revoked at any time?

This is a symptom of the perfectionism inherent to consumerist societies. If we expect consumer choices to provide us with a sense of identity, it is only natural that we might think our whole sense of identity is something that can be maximized given enough cash, enough purchases. We don’t like feeling bad — so in an optimal world, would we not aim to reach a state of maximum happiness?

The simple answer is that trying to maximize your happiness makes maximum happiness impossible.
My Peace
Tags: Peace Of Mind, Poetry, Poem, Love, Thesceneandheard

Sit down with me, and breathe,

No stress you need

Leave your weight of the world on the doorsteps.

This place is called peace, and you’re my special guest

Glad you could come, have a seat and rest

Let me liberate you with a cup of tea and a smile

Let’s tell cheesy jokes, take off your shoes, stay awhile

This place of mine, was hard to find but I’m here.

I invite a chosen few, one was you, is that a tear?

Yes, I know, peace can be overwhelming, crazy huh?

Took me a long time, and when I arrived I was done.

Done with chaos, drama, fighting, gossips and fear

I cried tears of joy, yes, I cried too my dear

Welcome to my peace, I hope you like the vibe

I created it myself, and it was done with love and pride

It’s the most valuable thing I have, peace, an it was free

I felt like a thief who found a treasure, cause how could this be!?

Even the rich don’t look this happy, it’s a shame

Enough of that, let’s get back to you, I’m glad you came

Not everyone enjoys this luxury so very rare

But all the ones who do, come through, it’s fun to share

Is it time for you to go already?

I enjoyed you my dear guest

Come back and see me, when your weary,

I’ll trade your sorrows for my rest…
Join us as a Volunteer Editor
By: Tds Editors
Tags: Writing, Data Science

Towards Data Science provides a platform for thousands of people to exchange ideas and to expand our understanding of data science. Our audience is mixed, consisting of readers entirely new to the subject and expert professionals who want to share their inventions and discoveries.

Now that our audience is significantly larger, we have become aware of our responsibility to present readers with high-quality content. From today, we are inviting applications for Editorial Associate positions on a 6-month, voluntary basis.

If this interests you, read on!
If America Was Great, It Would’ve Been a Landslide
By: Mollie Gray
Tags: Politics, Society, Racism, United States, Election 2020

If America Was Great, It Would’ve Been a Landslide

Regardless of the winner, our 2020 election confirmed the ugly truth we all suspected

Photo by Clay Banks on Unsplash

The 2020 election hasn’t been decided. Trump and Biden are battling in a tightly contested race with a nail-biting finish. Yes, it appears Joe Biden will eke out a victory. That doesn’t negate the fact that over 68 million Americans chose to re-elect Trump. He managed to claim more votes this November than in 2016. Particularly, more white women chose Trump than before.

I can’t say I’m entirely surprised. I wrote this piece in September about Trump’s re-election chances. I’m an anxious pessimist with a habit of dreaming up worst-case scenarios. However, last week while voting, I felt optimistic for some reason. My confidence in Biden scoring a landslide win was growing. I hoped Americans would resoundingly repudiate Trump.

Boy, was I ever wrong!

There wasn’t an overwhelming rebuke of the president’s rhetoric and incompetence. Currently, 47.9% of voters enjoy Trump’s America. Every unconscionable thing Trump has said and done didn’t matter to them. These Americans look at Trump and see the dear leader they want. How horrific.

Voting for Trump in 2016 was bad enough. Americans chose to overlook his every transgression and place him in the Oval Office anyway. They heard him on the Access Hollywood bus talking about grabbing pussies. They watched him demean a Gold Star family who lost their son in U.S. combat. They saw him mocking a disabled reporter. They listened while Trump called Mexicans “rapists” and “criminals.” They stood beside him while he asked Russia to hack his political opponent. I could go on and on ad nauseam.

Choosing Trump the first go-around was pathetic and disappointing as it was. After the 1,385 hellish days of his term, it’s a gazillion times worse.

It’s beyond inexcusable. Trump isn’t doing anything for his supporters that merit their unconditional love and devotion. Trump isn’t helping anyone better their lives. Instead, he’s stoking chaos, misinformation, white supremacy, and violence. Trump voters are enthused, not appalled.

It’s heartbreaking. The number of our neighbors who support a president without empathy or a moral compass is maddening. The number of selfish U.S. voters who have little regard for fellow humans is sickening.
WTF Crypto?? 04/06/18
By: Vladislav Ginzburg
Tags: Bitcoincash, Ethereum, Cryptocurrency, Bitcoin, Wtf

Will O’Leary has been toying with a new format for his links posts, 3 To The Moon and 3 Rekt. I am personally rekt that I didn’t think of that because it’s a great format, but even more so after a week of whattt the fuckkkk crypto? For example: Just because the collective IQ of two people having a twitter spat is 250 points or higher doesn’t make a the spat somehow intellectual, it’s just as cringy as when the rest of us do it. Whattt the fuckkk Buterin and Wright? You get it.

So, in the spirit of toying around with new concepts for delivering quick daily bites: I hereby introduce WTF Crypto??

The Reserve Bank of India has passed down a pretty harsh edict to banks in the country: You have three months to unwind any exposure to crypto trading. WTF India? I’d heard you were pretty cold on Crypto, but this is ridiculous! You’ve got a country full of well educated and tech savvy people, and even those who aren’t could really use a bit of that financial freedom that crypto provides. Want to ban alts because pump and dumps — go ahead, but why are you throwing the baby out with the bath water? WTF Crypto?

Bitcoin Cash is planning a fork of itself to allow 32MB blocks. WTF Bitcoin Cash?? Where is this coming from, and don’t give me that “Satoshi’s original vision was 32MB blocks” nonsense. You just forked to 8MB eight months ago, and you’re fighting the same adoption battle Bitcoin and everyone else is. This has nothing to do with scaling, and you don’t need that kind of size or headroom yet. I’ve got a pretty good feeling that this is just a PR response to BTC going onto lightning network, and now you get to say “See!? We’re only scaling on-chain!” Having a hard time seeing this as maintenance and not a stunt. WTF?

SEC puts Bitcoin ETF’s back on the table. They are considering ETF proposals by ProShares for two different ETF products this spring. Why was anything off the table?
3 Useful PyTorch Tensor Functions to Check Out
By: Marcelino Velasquez
Tags: Data Science, Pytorch, Freecodecamp, Python, Zero To Gan

3. Least Squares — torch.lstsq()

“The method of least squares is a standard approach in regression analysis to approximate the solution of overdetermined systems (sets of equations in which there are more equations than unknowns) by minimizing the sum of the squares of the residuals made in the results of every single equation.” — Wikipedia

As wiki says, this is the most common approach to linear regression, a statistical method that analyzes the linear relationship between an independent variable(s) and a dependent variable. Thus it works best with numerical data. Luckily, PyTorch has the torch.lstsq() function to quickly find the least-squares solution between two matrices (a set of features and a set of targets).

An important thing to note about least squares in PyTorch is that when m is greater than or equal to n in the m x n feature matrix, the function will return the least-squares solution (according to the PyTorch documentation). This means that when the number of rows is greater than the number of columns, least squares is returned.

However, if m is less than n in the m x n feature matrix, then the lstsq() function returns the least-squares minimum norm solution or the minimum least-squares solution in an infinite number of least-squares solutions due to the matrix having fewer rows than columns (more on that on this StackExchange page). Out of these infinite solutions, the minimum norm solution is always unique, which is why it’s sought out.

Photo from StackExchange.

You can see that in the notebook if you want, although it doesn’t look much different from the output for the m > n least-squares solution.

Instead, I’ll show you a rather obvious way to break this function:
Private Python Package Repository
By: Vithulan Mv
Tags: Technology, Programming, Python, Ubuntu, Tech

Dependency management

You can control dependencies of packages explicitly regardless of versions deprecation or latest backward incompatible versions. Of course, this can be done by defining versions in requirements.txt, but to make sure that every package we get is as we expected its better to use custom repository.

TLS v1.1, v1.0 Deprecation by PyPI servers

PyPI servers have discontinued support for TLS 1.0 / TLS 1.1 version devices to download packages.

“I am going to see about possibly organizing some scheduled ‘brown outs’ of TLSv1.0 and TLSv1.1 prior to the cut off dates to try and help folks find places that will need updates. Any scheduled brownouts will be posted to status.python.org prior to happening.”

Hence Upgrade Your Python: TLS v1.2 Will Soon Be Mandatory and it has become compulsory now. Devices that has Ubuntu 12.04 or below has TLS v1.1, which means those devices cannot download any python packages from default python package management server. Check your TLS version by running following command in your terminal.

python2 -c "import urllib2,json; print(json.loads(urllib2.urlopen('https://www.howsmyssl.com/a/check').read())['tls_version'])"

There were some workarounds like explicitly saying PIP to download from PyPI server.

pip install --index-url= https://pypi.python.org/simple/ scapy

This worked for a while (During brownout period), then it also doesn’t happen to be working.

Here we have only two options, Upgrading TLS version or using custom repository. After a while upgrading TLS also became impossible since you need to upgrade openssl and python Cryptography module. Upgrading a python module is not possible, so we stuck with a deadlock 😕. This is where custom repository comes to rescue! 😃
Narrowly Esacaping Poison
By: Fierce Force
Tags: One Line, Poetry, Escapism, Alcohol, Alcohol Recovery

But my will shifted,

From weak to strong,

How can I make it even 48 hours?

Of course, my fears? Well they were all wrong.
The Hug
By: Michele Grieve
Tags: Poetry, Relationships, Family, Covid 19, Love

The End of Complacency

Photo by Marco Bianchetti on Unsplash

And when this is done,

we will never take for granted

the touch of those we love.

Never again infected by the corruption of

complacency.
Cryptocurrency Orchard Profit Update: Week 30, 2018
By: Jason Cameron
Tags: Ethereum, ICO, Cryptocurrency, Bitcoin, Blockchain

Here’s an update on the ROI of projects I’ve invested in this year so far:

(Prices taken 26/7/18)

On average these calls are still beating the market YTD by a healthy margin. The reason I compete against the market is because, in my opinion, it’s a better metric to compare against as all other factors are too variable (unless you have a mate who’s up for a challenge).

Overall from my last post on this, YTD ROI is down as we wait for alts to rebound. Right now I’m personally doing all I can to fill my bags and get in position. The alt coin market has some time to go before full bullish, so for me, alts still feel like they are at or near the bottom as I write this.

Latest updates: I’ve averaged down Polymath as I added more at the recent lows. The higher cap coins I’ve added are more cash positions for me, for now, but I will see how they perform the rest of the year and will continue to add to them, as I take profit or come out of coins I’m no longer interested in or fit my thesis.
Designing a More Circular World, Together
By: Chris Grantham
Tags: Circulareconomy, Circular Econonomy, Sustainability, Sustainable Fashion, Design Thinking

Exploring the future of the Circular Economy with the IDEO CoLab

Imagine if your company could make more money, reduce material costs, make the most of its assets, and drive stronger engagement with its customers, all while taking care of the planet and its people. That’s the promise of the Circular Economy — a new way of working that is restorative and regenerative by design.

Many organizations are publicly taking on the circular challenge: Apple recently announced a goal of a closed-loop supply chain, H&M aims to become 100 percent circular and renewable by 2030, and Philips aims to deliver 15 percent of total revenues from circular solutions by 2020.

IDEO, in partnership with the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, has written a playbook on how to design such systems — models that cut waste and pollution, keep products and materials in use, and regenerate natural and social capital — but most established industries don’t know where to begin. We kept hearing:

“The business case for the Circular Economy makes a lot of sense—but the challenge is implementation, often requiring product, service and business model innovation.”

No doubt, it’s hard to imagine what that future might look or feel like. Knowing that, we set out to bring the Circular Economy to life, creating an exhibit of circular products based on questions like, “What if sneakers could be made better than new?” and “What if food packaging was redesigned for online shopping?” Turning abstract principles into tangible prototypes helps us inhabit the future right now.
虛擬貨幣 & 區塊鏈 大師閱讀清單
Tags: Tools, Ethereum, Cryptocurrency, Bitcoin, Investing

虛擬貨幣投資與經濟理論

< Making Sense of “Cryptoeconomics” （待翻譯）> by Josh Stark

< Cryptoasset Valuations （待翻譯）> by Chris Burniske

< An (Institutional) Investor’s Take on Cryptoassets （待翻譯）> by John Pfeffer

< 貨幣流速，評估虛擬貨幣的真正價值 > by 加密羅斯福

< A process for evaluating new tokens （待翻譯）> by Nick Tomaino

< The Token Classification Framework: A multi-dimensional tool for understanding and classifying crypto tokens. （待翻譯）>by Thomas Euler
Saudade
Tags: Poetry, Poetry On Medium, Poems And Stories, Poems On Medium

Photo by Ryan De Hamer on Unsplash

Of her whereabouts I learned

Unexpectedly at the lake’s edge,

Where once she kissed me, smote my heart.

A wandering, shrunken soul scratched her name

Into the sedge of the murky bank., and sung

Of her hair blowing in the north wind

When I found her, she was hanging from the stars

In demon-charged fervour, fever in her eyes.

I shivered as she spoke in Plath-tongued tercets.

Now I hear of her in the stories of the winds

Which blow from the south and the west and the east.

The lake has dried, and the wandering souls

Gather, shrunken, and their songs no longer matter.

© Nikhil 2020
.Net Core Developer Roadmap in 2021
By: Adem Zeina
Tags: Development, Dotnet, Roadmaps, Programming, Technology Trends

How .NET 5 Can Make Your Life Better

.Net 5 will offer everything that you would expect from the .Net core while making it suitable for Mobile and IoT…