fabiochiu/medium-articles huggingface dataset:
Converting an Array to JSON Object in JavaScript
By: Lane Wagner
Tags: Webdev, JavaScript, Languages, Front End

Converting an Array to JSON Object in JavaScript

If you have an array of data but the program you’re communicating with requires an object, don’t fear, we’ll go over some easy conversion methods.

The post Converting an Array to JSON Object in JavaScript first appeared on Qvault.

JSON, or “JavaScript Object Notation”, is one of the most popular data exchange formats, particularly in web development. If you have an array of data but the program you’re communicating with requires an object, don’t fear, we’ll go over some easy conversion methods.

Quick Answer — JS Array to JSON

Arrays are actually valid JSON, so if you just need to prepare your array in order to make a fetch request with it, it’s as easy as using the JSON.stringify() method.

const resp = await fetch('https://example.com', {

method: 'POST',

mode: 'cors',

headers: {

'Content-Type': 'application/json'

},

body: JSON.stringify([1, 2, 3, 4, 5])

});

The JSON.stringify() method converts a JavaScript object, array or value to a JSON string that can be sent over the wire using the Fetch API (or another communication library).

Weird Answer — Array to JSON with indexes as keys

If you didn’t want the direct string representation of a JSON array, perhaps you want an object where the keys are the indexes of the array. For example:

["apple", "orange", "banana"]



// becomes



{

"0": "apple",

"1": "orange",

"2": "banana"

}

To get a JSON object from an array with index keys you can use the Object.assign method in conjunction with `JSON.stringify` following code:

const array = ["apple", "orange", "banana"]

const jsonString = JSON.stringify(Object.assign({}, array))

// jsonString becomes

// {"0":"apple","1":"orange","2":"banana"}

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Coming Soon: Trade CryptoWars items with WAX Tokens
By: Wax Io
Tags: Blockchain, Cryptocurrency, Ethereum, Videogames, Bitcoin

OPSkins™ today announced that the Crypto Collectibles™ for CryptoWars will be available on the marketplace, and tradable with WAX Tokens.

CryptoWars is a fully decentralized strategy game built on the Ethereum blockchain. In CryptoWars, users can build villages, summon armies to protect their e11 tokens and battle enemies to steal their tokens.

With the integration of CryptoWars onto the OPSkins platform, WAX Tokens gain additional utility and more players are incentivized to join the ecosystem.

OPSkins is rapidly becoming the go-to marketplace to trade Crypto Collectibles, also known as non-fungible tokens or NFTs. CryptoWars is the latest game using NFTs to be added to OPSkins and whose in-game virtual assets are tradable with WAX Tokens. The first NFT was CryptoKitties in December 2017, and there are more to come. OPSkins boasts over two million weekly transactions on its platform, has millions of active customers, adds 200,000 new users each month and offers over five million items available for purchase using WAX. WAX allows anyone to create a virtual goods marketplace, onboarding millions of gamers to the growing cryptocurrency space.

About CryptoWars

CryptoWars is the first strategy game to fully run on smart contracts. Build your village, summon your army, protect your e11 tokens and attack your enemies to steal theirs. “A portal just opened up and a medieval army emerged to shatter your world to almost nothing. Now it’s in your hands to rebuild your civilization — a new chance to reclaim what’s yours. Travel from realm to realm and rise from the ashes.” For more information, please visit https://cryptowars.e11.io/.

About WAX

WAX is a functional utility token that supports a decentralized platform, enabling anyone to operate a fully functioning virtual marketplace with zero investment in security, infrastructure or payment processing. Developed by the founders of OPSkins, the world’s leading marketplace for online video game assets, WAX is designed to serve the 400+ million online players who already collect and trade video game assets and Crypto Collectibles. With the inclusion of the WAX simple exchange widget, gamers will have access to a worldwide market with blockchain trust and transaction verification. For more information, please visit https://wax.io and http://www.opskins.com.
The least interesting man in the world
By: Mike Harms
Tags: Business, Marketing, College Football, Content Marketing, Advertising

I used to love those Dos Equis ads. The Most Interesting Man in the World was a marketing unicorn — a commercial that people consumed like entertainment.

All ads aspire to such heights but few achieve them. Except the eTrade Baby. He was next level.



The Most Interesting Man in the World was someone I wanted to emulate. He was Mysterious. Worldly. Dangerous. He was James Bond with flavor.



Then they exiled him. Sent him off in a rocket ship. Gone for good, I thought.



Except he’s back, but not in a good way. The Most Interesting Man in the World was body snatched and replaced with a younger, hipper, Grecian Formula version.

Out with the old, in the with the…Boooo!

The makeover is a transparent effort to engage Millennials. It’s transparent even to me, and I wear corrective lenses. But Millennials see through overt pandering too, sans bifocals.



The Most Interesting Man in the World was a seasoned wanderer, a grey haired rogue. Version 2.0 has jet black hair and a bro beard. He looks as seasoned as…Michael Phelps?



The original version traveled to exotic lands and had epic adventures. Version 2.0 travels to exotic places, so he can tailgate and watch college football on TV.
Riders Share Review: Rent Your Motorcycles Out to earn Passive Income
By: Dana Hooshmand
Tags: Passive Income, Marketplaces, Side Hustle, Sharing Economy, Motorcycle

This is my review of Riders Share, a motorcycle sharing platform that lets you rent out your motorcycle for passive income. (Well… somewhat passive.)

In summary, I really enjoyed my time with Riders Share. In a few months, I made back the value of my vehicle — which wasn’t expensive, but was priced low, and was quite popular as a result.

If you’re wondering whether you can make money or whether someone will trash your bike — stop worrying. Sign up to Riders Share. You’ll have a blast!

I’ve moved this post on earning passive income by renting out motorcycles to my personal blog.

Go have a look to find out:

The business case for renting out motorcycles: How to justify buying that second (or sixth) motorcycle

How to justify buying that second (or sixth) motorcycle What motorcycles to rent out for maximum profit

for maximum profit How insurance works for both you and the rider

for both you and the rider What skills you’ll need — it’ll be better if you do your own maintenance

— it’ll be better if you do your own maintenance Tips on pricing so people will rent out your motorcycles as often as possible

so people will rent out your motorcycles as often as possible Tips on getting the most out of your rentals (like what gear to have on hand)

(like what gear to have on hand) Why it’s OK to let people take your bike out. The Riders Share community is awesome :)

The Riders Share community is awesome :) Why Riders Share is better than just renting out privately

If you want to read more, the link to the full post is here. Enjoy, and let me know if you have questions.
Export Webmaster Tools Crawl Stats
By: Rob Hammond
Tags: SEO, Google

Google’s Webmaster Tools offers some fairly handy crawl stats charts, which can be useful in diagnosing crawl issues that Google has with your site.

How accurate the stats are is up for debate (as with all WMT data), but sometimes an indication can be enough to identify an issue.

Anyway, although the crawl charts offer some nice visuals, on their own they don’t give you much in the way of insights, and there’s no export option.

Well read on and I’ll show you how to fix that in 3 simple steps…

Step 1:

Log in to your Webmaster Tools account and navigate to Crawl -> Crawl Stats.

Step 2:

Open up the source code of the page, then select all of the source code and copy to clipboard.

Step 3:

Paste the HTML code for the page into the crawl stats conversion tool, and hit ‘convert to CSV’.

This will export a CSV file containing 6 data columns — the first 3 contain relative numbers of the site’s performance, so you can chart them against each other (see below); the second 3 columns show the same numbers as reported in Webmaster Tools.
3 Life-Hacks About Sex From a Neuroscientist
Tags: Neuroscience, Sex, Mental Health, Self Improvement, Sexuality

I was sitting on a park bench when I discovered that my brain is my biggest sex organ.

I remember closing my book and looking between my legs. Of course, I was wearing jeans so all I saw were the inseams of my pants.

For most of my life, I thought the pelvis housed humanity’s biggest sex organs. And as a sex scholar, I devoted a lot of research to how our private parts work. While I kept my mind…in mind…it was never my main focus. In fact, one of the reasons I love sex so much is that it quiets my cluttered brain.

Then Dr. Nan Wise came along. She’s a sex therapist and renowned neuroscientist who spent the last decade tracing our brain’s connection to pleasure. As I read through her research, three simple life-hacks stood out to me. Of course, just because they are simple doesn’t mean they are easy.

Sex can be so vulnerable its scary, but the rewards are well worth the effort.
Royalty
By: Joe Barca
Tags: Sonnet, Poetry, Scrittura

Royalty

A sonnet

Photo by Andy Newton on Unsplash

damsel in distress, my heart expanding

poet more or less, my words romancing

kingdom for your love, this night commanding

bodies of the night, our skin is dancing

chaos in the land, the moats are filling

swimming in our tears, we find our village

hearts break open wide, our eyes are spilling

homes burn to the ground, our families pillaged

holy war calls out, my time for battle

sword is my command, my glory storming

queen is in the tower, bed boards rattle

a night without control, a child forming

banished evil foes are finding cover

king arrives at home, impales her lover

Joe Barca
BDD — Testando o comportamento do sistema (Parte 1)
By: Raphael Amoedo
Tags: Test Driven Development, Tech, Bdd Development, Tdd, Bdd

Written by

a.k.a. Ralph Avalon — https://github.com/ralphavalon — Developer at OLX — Passions: Best programming practices, Clean Code, Java, Python, DevOps, Docker, etc.
Haiku This! Mountain
By: Sandy Knight
Tags: Mountains, Haiku, Poetry, Haiku Hub, Haiku This

Haiku This! Mountain(s)

3 lines — 17 moras, in classic haiku form, convey your perspective on mountain (s).

If you’re not yet a contributing writer at Haiku Hub we’d love to have you! Please follow the publication and request to be added on any Haiku This prompt story or the Submit guidelines page. We’ll be glad to add you promptly, ;) Namaste!
XPA Exchange Tutorial: A GIF Guide to XPA Assets
Tags: Crypto, Xpa, Exchange, Stablecoin, Bitcoin

With our new XPA Assets feature, you can mortgage your XPA to get XPA Assets: fiat-pegged cryptocurrency assets that stay stable even when the market crashes. We have a variety of different currencies on offer for a full range of international users (USX is pegged to USD, JPX is pegged to the Japanese yen, etc) so that investors can distribute their holdings over different fiat coins, just like their digital portfolio is full of different cryptocurrencies.

If you want to keep your investments safe with XPA Assets, here’s how you do it:

Step One: Import or Create Your Wallet

Step one: importing a crypto wallet

First, you need XPA. Import your wallet or create a new one and buy some XPA on the exchange (there’s a guide right here) or use however many you already have.

Step Two: Mortgage Your XPA

Mortgaging your XPA.

Find the Mortgage tab on the menu at the upper right. Once you’re there, choose however much XPA you want to mortgage and go.

Step Three: Choose Your Currency

Mortgaging your XPA.

Choose among HKX, TWX, USX and JPX. You can split your XPA Assets among different currencies: you can see how much you can receive from mortgaging your XPA , then choose how much of any XPA Assets you want to withdraw from the smart contract.

How to Regain Your XPA

Repay your XPA Assets.

If you decide that you want to exchange your XPA Assets for XPA, just go down to the very bottom and repay XPA Assets back into the smart contract.

Easy, right? You can get XPA Assets right now at xpa.exchange. Message us on Twitter or Telegram if you have any questions!
Touchstones
By: Tarrant Smith
Tags: Poetry, Poetry On Medium, Love, Couples, Relationships

Photo by Martin Sanchez on Unsplash

In the kiss goodbye

and the welcome-homes —

In the silence

resting comfortably between us.

The gentle looks

and the no-reason text

you sent midday —

that thoughtful gesture,

just because…

In the beautiful kindness

of a flaw overlooked

and your warm hand

upon the small of my back.

The rituals of cohabitating hearts,

— love’s touchstones
How You Can Make One Million Dollars
By: Daniel Ferreira
Tags: Entrepreneurship, Money, Self Improvement

First of all I am terribly sorry but I can not actually help you achieve that impressive sum that one million dollars is.

After I have defrauded your expectations, please do not think less of me and carry on a little further.

Why do you want one million dollars?

What a stupid question it is, you may wonder, who wouldn’t want to have all that money just to spent on whatever you fancy. But no, let’s really answer this question. So, let me reformulate it:

What would you do with one million dollars?

Well that is a bit more concrete. So let be honest with you, I personally would buy a house, a posh car, some good looking clothes, and take a long vacation. It seems pretty straight forward. Your answer may vary but I suppose it wonder differ much. But I wonder, how much do I need to do those exact things? Well after checking some prices online I come to the conclusion that with two hundred thousand dollars I would be able to do all that I mentioned above. Now my point here is:

How much is one million dollars?

Well, that is quite an hard question to answer because when we try to match it of the common world (number of pounds of vegetables, packs of cigarettes, etc) it soon loses all meaning. So, let me put it other way:

You (mostly likely) will never make you one million dollars

Sorry for ruining your dream when you first began to read this text, but if have an average salary and you saved it to the last penny, assuming that you save it whole, you will never even came close to one million dollars at the of your work life.

So why did you went out of your way to write something with a title that is a lie? What is wrong with you?

You may be thinking this by this point.

When you opened this text you had an expectation of some sort of how you can change your life by having more money, and that is ok. It means you care about your future. However, maybe you should start by rethinking your goals.

Figure out what you actually need and not some imaginary goal that will drain your life
Parable of the Soils
By: Devin Mitchell Durbin
Tags: Toxic Relationships, Positive Relationships, Poetry, Lifestyle, Tangled Thoughts

It’s got a call like gravity

tugging deep inside us.

anchoring one to the ground and centered

It’s a tether to reality

the key to combating anxiety —

Like the taproot,

if left unchecked

what once was sweet

soured.

Sucking up all bad

killing man like flowers.

It matters where ones planted

A parable of soils explains,

our roots affect growth.

Like friends committing treason

and home infested with weeds

suffocate, killing us out from underneath.

Never soaring like a bird with clipped wings.
7 Ways to Define Success: What Does Success Mean to You?
By: Kathleen Welton
Tags: Quotes, Weekly Prompts, Success

So what is success? And what does being successful mean to you?

According to Merriam-Webster, the definition of success is as follows:

Degree or measure of succeeding

2. Favorable or desired outcome; also: the attainment of wealth, favor, or eminence

3. One that succeeds

Does having wealth mean success? Does currying favor equate to success? Does being eminent or superior guarantee success? How does one succeed?

Here is another definition of success for today’s times that can help to answer the question of what success means:

Simplicity

Understanding

Compassion

Courage

Energy

Service

Strength

Here are some thoughts from others about how to think about defining success as well as how to think about achieving it.

1. Simplicity

“A little simplification would be the first step toward rational living, I think.”

— Eleanor Roosevelt

2. Understanding

“Any fool can know. The point is to understand.”

— Albert Einstein

3. Compassion

“Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a harder battle.”

— Plato

4. Courage

“Success in not final, failure is not final; it is the courage to continue that counts.”

— Winston Churchill

5. Energy

“Don’t mistake activity with achievement.”

— John Wooden

6. Service

“The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.”

— Mahatma Gandhi

7. Strength

“You will succeed if you persevere; and you will find joy in overcoming obstacles.”

— Helen Keller

And lastly, here are the wise words about success from the poet Emma Lazarus:

Success

— Emma Lazarus

Oft have I brooded on defeat and pain,

The pathos of the stupid, stumbling throng.

These I ignore to-day and only long

To pour my soul forth in one trumpet strain,

One clear, grief-shattering, triumphant song,

For all the victories of man’s high endeavor,

Palm-bearing, laurel deeds that live forever,

The splendor clothing him whose will is strong.

Hast thou beheld the deep, glad eyes of one

Who has persisted and achieved? Rejoice!

On naught diviner shines the all-seeing sun.

Salute him with free heart and choral voice,

‘Midst flippant, feeble crowds of spectres wan,

The bold, significant, successful man.

Best wishes for discovering your own meaning for success — and for persisting and achieving it!
Chipped, cracked
By: Trisha Traughber
Tags: Life Lessons, Family, Poetry, Loss, Love

Chipped, Cracked: Trisha Traughber 2019

Young you learn

sometimes and without trace,

explanation or final

whisper, the grown

disappear, leaving you with the smallest

crumbs — a Christmas gift from a time

someone you looked up to

traveled the world to bring you back

the small trinkets

of her exploits, and you the child

held that tea set from the Sonoran

desert heavy in your hands, tracing

the clay and the painted flowers.

Time spins her wheel, spattering

the clay, these artifacts chipped,

scattered, and you still hold them, tracing

the rough edges where a piece of the perfect

exterior had fallen, knowing that she

was out there

somewhere — that piece had splintered

from your heart

and gone.

And yet you are now

grown and so, as you trace

fingers over the earthen

expression of love left

from your simple and single-minded

childhood where love is love,

it should come as no

surprise that sometimes the grown take

flight, lift off, depart, never

to return, without a whisper even,

terminal, too short for now.

That the times of always being

somewhere, possible,

at the reach

of a child’s fingertips

would end in a phone call from one,

to another, until

the news finds you dragging your childlike

digits over the smooth earthen relic

to linger on the rough

place where something

is missing and you realize the day

you thought you would

see her again is

never, and grown or no,

you are not prepared

for the feeling of this piece

lost.

© Trisha Traughber 2019 words and image.
Open Source Data Science Masters, Hybrid AI, Algorithmic Ethics & More featuring Clare Corthell
By: Sam Charrington
Tags: Machine Learning, Data Science, Artificial Intelligence

This week features an interview with Clare Corthell, Founding Partner of Luminant Data, recorded live at the Wrangle Conference. We cover her background and what she’s been up to lately, the Open Source Data Science Masters project that she created, getting beyond the beginner’s plateau in machine learning and data science, hybrid AI, the top 3 lessons from her time as a consulting data scientist, and, a recurring topic both here on This Week in Machine Learning and AI and also at the conference: Algorithmic Ethics.
The Biggest Release since Mainnet Launch
By: Team Nimiq
Tags: Blockchain, Nimiq, Payments, UX, Bitcoin

The Biggest Release since Mainnet Launch

Team Nimiq is thrilled to release a major update to our apps that will significantly improve how users can use their NIM as well as how developers can integrate Nimiq.

The update comes packed with new features, improved and hardened security concepts, and an open API that allows third-party apps to integrate Nimiq features and handle NIM directly in the browser. And it’s all wrapped in a brand new user interface making it easier than ever to use your NIM.

This post will focus on the top features from a technical perspective. Stay tuned for an in-depth article about the UX/UI/product progress and an article about features and releases in the next weeks.

So, what’s new?

Accounts with multiple addresses

New architecture and Ledger integration

Nimiq Login Files

Changeable passwords

Logout interface

QR-Code generator and scanner

Open API for 3rd-party integration

Nimiq Checkout

Message signing support

One Account, many Addresses

With standards-compliant BIP44 private-key derivation, one seed now supports an infinite number of addresses. That means, with all new accounts you can manage more than one address under one account. For a more in-depth introduction into Hierarchical Deterministic Wallets, please refer to this article.

With this update, it’s now easy to get your funds, payments, and transactions organized without the need to backup and store a key for each of those addresses. Instead, it’s only one account and one backup. While enjoying this convenience, you still have the freedom to create several multi-address accounts and, for example, separate your savings from your daily allowance and your business expenses. This way, you can store the backups of each of these accounts accordingly.

Multiple addresses are now also supported for Ledger hardware wallets!

Old Accounts, New Accounts

With the introduction of multi-address accounts, conventional single-address accounts turn into legacy accounts. They are still supported but will not inherit new features such as the Login File and will not be developed further in the future. Team Nimiq recommends all users to upgrade by creating a new multi-address account and transfer their funds.

Keyguard and Ledger

The overall architecture of the Keyguard has been reworked leading to a new structure:
LINQ API in C#
By: Sankhadip Samanta
Tags: Aspnetcore, Dotnet Core, Csharp, Linq, Microsoft

LINQ API

Language-Integrated Query (LINQ) is a powerful query language introduced with .Net 3.5 & Visual Studio 2008.

What is LINQ

LINQ API is a query syntax kit at the language level in C# and VB.NET to retrieve data from different sources(database). If we are using LINQ API, we don’t need to worry about data sources like ADO.NET, SQL, and many other databases. LINQ Query results in objects. Specifically, it lets us stay in an Object-Oriented Approach irrespective of Data Sources.

Standard Query Operators

Standard Query Operators are methods defined for IEnumerable and IQueryable types. There are more than 50 operators available in the LINQ API list which make code more concise and readable.

While using the LINQ API, we have two ways to implement them

Query

Method

Although syntax written in Query is converted in Method Syntax at compile time. Today we will look into some Query Operator to get familiar with LINQ API implementation.

For more detailed information about LINQ API visit

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/standard/using-linq
Oracle and KPMG Cloud Threat Report. Snapshot teaser, this report makes such an interesting read.
Tags: Cybersecurity, Oracle, Technology, Cloud Computing, Data

A traveler of both time and space...to be where I want to be…find me another space in another time.

Follow
Freeholder Mary Ann O’Brien Announces Annual County Job Fair
Tags: Business, Families, County Job Fair, Business Needs, Headlines

Freeholder Mary Ann O’Brien announced on Friday, Oct. 14 that the Burlington County Freeholder Board will be hosting their annual County Job Fair on Friday, Oct. 21 through the County’s Workforce Development Institute. The event will be held from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Burlington Center Mall on Route 541 in Burlington Township.

“As Burlington County’s regional business needs continue to grow, so do our efforts to meet those needs,” said Freeholder O’Brien. “The Freeholder Board is proud to once again provide residents of varying talents and backgrounds the opportunity to meet with over 40 employers from diverse fields such as health care, hospitality, retail, finance, skilled trades, transportation, technology and more.”

“Events like the County Job Fair, which connect the County’s talented workers with employers looking to hire, are a critical part of our efforts to strengthen our economy,” added Freeholder O’Brien. “We encourage everyone to come out and see what these companies have to offer, and show these companies that Burlington County has a skilled and eager workforce that can support them.”

“In past years we have seen an overwhelmingly positive response from this free event, and we expect the same this year,” Freeholder O’Brien continued. “It is also important for residents to feel the personal impacts of improving our local economy. If even just a handful of our citizens find jobs through this job fair, we can consider the effort a success.”

For a list of current employers, please visit: http://rcbc.edu/jobfair.

For more information, and useful jobseeker tips, visit: http://rcbc.edu/jobfair/jobseekers.
App Directory Spotlight — Nuzzel, CareerLark & Backtrack
By: Slack Api
Tags: Productivity, App Directory, Slack

Apps built on Slack’s platform are meant to help you complete a whole slew of tasks on any given workday — without having to leave Slack. This can range from helping you expense a travel receipt from last week’s conference to coordinating a team-wide coffee run.

Today we’ve invited our friend, the Slack Platform Know-It-All, to tell you about three new Slack apps that make your working life simpler, more pleasant and more productive.

First up is Nuzzel, an amazing companion app for Twitter.

Check out Nuzzel in action:

Next up on this week’s featured app is CareerLark, your handy tool for collecting micro-feedback on Slack.

See, it really is that simple!

Last, but certainly not least, is Backtrack — an easy way to keep track of expected package deliveries!

…tada!

Looking for even more apps? Our App Directory has you covered. If you’d like to publish an app to the App Directory you can submit here. So long for now!
NumPy 102：基礎陣列處理
By: Yao-Jen Kuo
Tags: Numpy, Python, Data Science

Quickstart tutorial - NumPy v1.18.dev0 Manual

NumPy's main object is the homogeneous multidimensional array. It is a table of elements (usually numbers), all of the…
If You Want to Be Rich, Be Thoughtful
By: Michael Thompson
Tags: Inspiration, Life Lessons, Relationships, Leadership, Life

When I began writing in earnest, I was petrified to share my work with others. What would people say about it? Would my friends make fun of me? I was so riddled with self-doubt that I didn’t tell anyone about my blog until a year after I first created it.

However, one day I crossed paths with a man who in our shared town of Barcelona had the reputation for being as kind as he was clever. Our encounter was brief — I questioned the impression I had made on him.

A few months after we met, to my surprise, I received a ping that he had left a comment on one of my articles: “This is good.” A few weeks later it happened again: “Keep at it.”

These messages may seem small but they played a big role in helping me gain the confidence to stand firmly behind my work.

Fast forward to today and I’m exactly where I want to be in my career. Each day I get to do work I care about surrounded by people I love.

This is all thanks to someone taking just a few minutes out of their day to give another human being a boost.
Politicians And Their Spirit Animals.
By: Petr Swedock
Tags: Humor, Politics, Elections, Funny

Aahh… The spirit animal. Totem of the soul. A representative of an individual's finer character and nobler motives. Avatar of a personal essence. Everybody's got one. Or, I should say, almost everyone: Barack Obama doesn’t have a spirit animal since all the spirit animals want to be Barack Obama.

After several quarantined days of eating nothing but tuna fish and single malt whisky, a couple of illuminating conversations with the wallpaper, and an email from NetFlix confirming that I had, in fact, run out of things to watch¹, I fell into a trance. In my trance, I was in an old Sioux spirit lodge and I saw Abraham Lincoln conversing with Grover (the muppet, not the president). They turned to me. While Grover started beatboxing, Abe rapped out the secrets of the universe. I forgot much that I knew and learned much that I didn’t and I emerged from the trance with a superpower: the ability to discern a politician's spirit animal.

A’right, as superpowers go, it’s more of a so-so-power, but whatever. It’s mine and I like it.

While the effects of the trance last, I offer to you, my loyal reader, this — Either a guide for the perplexed by the bewildered or a guide by the bewildered for the perplexed. Or something that will both bewilder and perplex you… Or just a reason to repeatedly write perplex, a thoroughly awesome and quite underutilized word.
Steps to convert freelancing into a career
By: Ahmed Khan
Tags: Freelancing, Career Advice, Careers, Freelancers, Content Writing

Freelancing is the same as owning a business. In the initial stages; you will have to carry many tasks by yourself related to marketing, making invoices, you’ll have to negotiate a contract by yourself, manage your website, create a network, and with it on-going learning that will provide you to understand the digital market better.

Following are some significant steps to convert freelancing into a career.

1. Don’t plan just jump in

If you wish to become something the main step is to start, actions count this step as the first and the most important core step to becoming a freelancer which at the start you may doubt and even hate. Yes, jump in and take notes, involve yourself in the process don’t leave your job at this stage just maintain it, for the time being, make up some startup cost that you may require as an investment later when you pursue freelancing as a career.

2. Make a plan

Now you are a step ahead, which makes you well aware of what is required to become a better freelancer. Design an outline, clarify your goals. Question yourself what you wish to achieve make up your mind to face hurdles and execute plans for the sake of long-term freedom and peace. This is the time you must give to your insecurities or else later on the journey will get tough.

3. Set your Rates

In the initial stages of freelancing, you’ll have to be more patient with rates. Do good research about the right rates to compete in this big global market. For that, you will have to undercharge at the beginning. Experts prefer to provide your services at hourly rates. Measure the estimated time you spend on particular projects, this will help you in becoming a full-time freelancer.

4. Focus on your Ideal clients

Get to know your customers, and with whom you best work. This mainly depends on work style and pay rate, not on your mood. Learn to provide value to your clients with quality content this part will make your journey a lot easier.

5. Promote your self

You don’t need to play ads about your service over the local newspaper; you can promote yourself without any type of investment over social media platforms, be willing to reach out to the scoped audience that will benefit your freelancing career.

6. Create a strong Network

Keep a strong connection with your audience to get referred by them to their family and friends that is going to bring a lot of new work. Make a community that inspires you to grow. Give importance to small talks that will ace your communication skills.

Conclusion

With this said, you are assured to convert freelancing into a professional career. But for a successful freelancing career, you may know it’s more important to be patient throughout the journey. You will see failures, don’t lose hope, or doubt your skills. Learn what you lack. At times you will see your clients leave. The hardest part is finding one. And if you don’t set your mentors this will end up leaving you with complete loss. From today create habits that profit your freelancing career.
Some people say they didn’t learn anything from university.
By: Rana Dey
Tags: Writing, Mental Health, Reality, Education, Creativity

Some people say they didn’t learn anything from university

I for one am not going to lie. I have become a master in paraphrasing because of my university.

My current job ends on January 30, and my next job doesn’t start until September 1. But somehow I should be able to afford healthcare, rent, and bills for two months without any assistance? Just another example of how academia isn’t set up for the poor.

Picture By The Business

Let me tell you my different thoughts after I graduated from computer engineering, and after about 7–8 years later; first: I didn’t learn anything in university to do my job.

During my university days, I read almost anything I wanted to read, sometimes at the detriment of my main course work. I managed to graduate. I didn’t learn much from my course but some of the things I learnt from reading wide still stays with me today. However, Going to university is not just about the end qualification is it? Nothing will ever replace the learning that goes on from sitting in a group listening to the views of others. That should include someone in the room who actually knows the subject! This reminds me of the image I still remember that was presented in one of the seminars during undergraduate years.

Considering to gather more information what I did?

I used to take more notes (at university) then I gradually took less, got no worse results. For my blog, I never took notes as such. By notes I mean reading something, scribbling in the margin, writing possible connections to other work, etc. The closest is summarising.

Then I started comparing me to my peers- I don’t have as good a working knowledge of excel or anything practical to make money or any skills really.

ONE DAY I DID CONTACT MY SCHOOL ON HOW SHOULD I GO FROM HERE AND I WAS ADVISED: DEPARTMENTS ROLE IS NOT TEACHING THINGS TO GET A JOB, INSTEAD TO TEACH CORE CONCEPTS — I agree with that and they did it well.

Here is my rebuttal- core concepts, and all other things are learnable via from internet, books, courses, by doing, etc…..

What I realised after getting a job?

a. As long as employers will respect the “Books I’ve read & YouTube videos I’ve watched” section of someone’s resume, sure.

b. Most of my marketable skills were self taught. Although writing this out it’s kind of depressing, I didn’t learn anything useful at university… apart from critical thinking (which probably makes it all worth it, if only personally, not professionally).
Take a trip to the Caribbean with this seafarer
By: Ministry Of Defence
Tags: Caribbean, Aviation, Case Study, Military, UK

I began my Royal Navy career 24 years ago. My first deployment was on RFA Argus. I got to travel all around the warm waters of the Mediterranean and up to the frozen seas of Northern Norway.

After my time on Argus, I was selected to attend higher-level Engineering Technician Training before rejoining the front line as part of the Commando Helicopter Force (CHF) maintaining Mk4 helicopters. During my time on CHF, I deployed on multiple tours of Operation TELIC in Iraq.

During this time I also deployed on HMS Ocean to conduct amphibious jungle training with the Royal Marines in the jungles of Sierra Leone and deployed to Akrotiri in Cyprus to assist in the evacuation of British Nationals from Lebanon in 2006.

I then had the pleasure to deploy to Norway for Arctic warfare and survival training, living and operating aircraft in temperatures as low as -36 degrees.

45 Commando during fight phase of artic warfare training.

On return from the frozen environment of Norway, I deployed on multiple tours of OP Herrick in Afghanistan, based at Camp Bastion and Kandahar Air Field.

As the lead engineer for the squadron in theatre, it was my responsibility to provide availability of aircraft to support ground forces and assist in the training of the Afghan National Army.

In late 2018 my career went full circle when I was appointed to my current role and drafted back to RFA Argus. Joining this time in the position of Flight Commander, leading the embarked Naval party where I had begun my career 22 years previously.
Fuel for Creativity
By: Tre L. Loadholt
Tags: Conversations, Poetry, Food, North Carolina, A Cornered Gurl

If I bade them,

“bring the fattened calf,”

a baby cow would have

laid before us, chopped

to perfection — marinade

wafting across the table,

meeting our conversation

in the middle.

The cold air shifting outside,

still sitting in our bones,

filling our blood with

its intensity.

biscuits pop up out of

nowhere begging for

butter and organic jam.

Spoons clank, forks chirp

and whistle, the sound of

coffee being slurped by

a dozen lips—

peace in the midst of turmoil

turns into art.

We sit back,

our proverbial burdens

laid down, jumping from one

shoulder to the next,

crooning about what Writers need

when all we needed at that

moment was fuel

for creativity.
Add Interactive Maps to Your Website
By: Anurag Kanoria
Tags: JavaScript, Programming, Web Development, Technology, Software Development

Installation

To install the library, we need to add a few things to the head section of our HTML file.

CSS file

2. Leaflet JavaScript file (Should be placed after the above CSS file)

That’s all the files we needed to add.

Now we can element to help display the map. You can provide a unique ID to the div element.

This element would be used to display the map.

Also, make sure the element has a height property such as given below:

<div id="htmlmap" style="height:50vh"></div>

In this article, we will be using Mapbox to get apt tile layers. However, to get the tile layer, we need an access token (which is free to obtain). You can create an account and get the access token by going here.

Additionally, I will also be adding my custom CSS file as well as an index.js file.

The final HTML file should look something like this:
Dodge’s Imminent Image Revolution
By: Danillo Almeida
Tags: Future, Cars, Design, Trends

Among all the divisions the car market has, some are more important than the others. Body style, for example, is usually tied to buyer profile, so it’s interesting to group cars according to it. But we can also mention powertrain type (combustion, electric etc.), purpose (luxury, high performance etc.) and country as divisions, although the latter has been blurred by globalization.

Over the years, we’ve also divided makes and models in generalist and luxury. Basically, each one offers body styles, performance standards and purposes of its own, so they’re like two car markets within one. This division is particularly interesting because many automakers have tried to move its borders back and forth and, more recently, Dodge appears to have drawn a whole new border.
It’s Not About the Robots
By: John Thomas
Tags: Tech, Jobs, Technology, Books, Robots

David Ewing Duncan’s new book, Talking to Robots, explores what the relationship between humans and robots could look like in the future.

Photo by Franck V. on Unsplash

The scientists of the future have a message for the people of the present: “As it turns out, it really isn’t about the robots.” This message is actually the answer to a question that we — those of us living in the Early Robot Era (ERE) — propelled forward through time in one of the imagined futures in David Ewing Duncan’s new book, Talking to Robots: Tales from our Human-Robot Futures. The question from present-day humanity is this: “Can you tell us which will be more important in the future: humans or robots?”

It might seem like a silly question to ask, as the answer should appear obvious enough. But the fact that Duncan felt compelled to ask and respond to this question reveals an anxiety many are battling. Indeed, more than 70% of Americans worry about machines taking people’s jobs.

These anxieties are not altogether unfounded either. Duncan refers to the now famous (or infamous) 2013 University of Oxford study which reported 47% of jobs in the UK were liable to being replaced by automation by the year 2035. With careers like truck driver, bank teller, and even journalist susceptible, it is not surprising people in our day wonder who the future belongs to — humans or robots?

In each of Robots’ 24 chapters, Duncan, the best-selling author of nine books including Calendar and Experimental Man, focuses on a particular piece of tech, beginning with a description of what life is like in an imagined future due to the ubiquity of that technology. Duncan then pauses the fictional narrative to interview a real-life roboticist, scientist, or philosopher from today who explains how the future might get to that point. He concludes each chapter by returning to the fictional narrative and explains how people in the future either reject or embrace the tech in question and the consequences and lessons learned from that rejection or acceptance.

In this way the book is a hybrid of sorts, an ingenious blend of fiction and non-fiction, future and present, a story about serious issues told with disarming humor. In order to accomplish all this, Duncan uses a made-up tense which he dubs the “near-future present.” This tense makes the reader feel as if they are in the future with the narrator learning about the distant past (our present).
İstanbul kanal değildir. İstanbul Boğazı doğla bir su yolu Avrupa ve Asya'nın kavşak noktas Kanal İstanbul bir çevre ve ekonomik felaketin adıdır.
By: Rüstem Yurteri
Tags: Türkiye, Istanbul, Belgesel, Türkçe, Kanal İstanbul

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The Jazz Age’s Scandalous Sex Parties
By: Alexander Yung
Tags: Culture, Relationships, Sex, History, Dating

The Petting Parties

Two Flappers and Their Dates. Chicago. 1928. Source: Reddit

The 1920s gave women newfound freedom, creating a generation of women known as “flappers.” Many women also began earning their own money. As such, women felt no compulsion to marry. These single flappers drank, smoked, dressed in short skirts, dated multiple men, and used slang.

With the rise of the flapper, “petting” parties — a 1920s and 1930s fad — started to become popular. They were first mentioned in a Washington Times story from New Year’s Eve 1915; the reporter asked:

Did you ever hear of “petting parties? That, they tell me, is the name applied in Baltimore to the haunters of cosy corners and “twosing” in general.

Petting parties were actually extremely varied, and they usually stopped before sexual intercourse. But, of course, there was a lot of kissing and fondling. The parties allowed people to explore their sexuality without losing their virginity, get pregnant, or get an S.T.D. And the petting parties could break out anywhere secluded: dance halls, cars, etc.

The drinking, automobile, and petting parties were constantly featured in the writings of the time. In the novel, This Side of Paradise, author F. Scott Fitzgerald mentioned that “great current American phenomenon” ‘the petting party.’ The petting party became so universal the Flappers’ hand-knit, sleeveless jerseys were nick-named “petting shirts.”

And over the next few years, petting parties became extremely popular. In 1924, one study found 92% of college women had tried petting. The petting parties started to get called different names: necking parties in the South, mushing parties in the West, and spooning across the general United States.

Some flappers even started to call it snugglepupping.

Many Americans believed petting parties were tearing the social fabric. Mrs. Augustus Trowbridge, a Princeton professor’s wife, protested against the parties. She called them loose-moraled gatherings with unchaperoned dancing and lipstick. Conservative Americans complained about the flappers’ refusal to settle down and marry like traditional girls.

As a result, the establishment began to crack down on the parties. In Atlantic City, N.J., beach cops threw ice water on seaside petting parties. And in 1921, 15 couples were fined for spooning in Pittsburgh.
ICO Alert Crypto Minute: August 8, 2018
By: Cassidy A
Tags: SEC, Blockchain, Crypto Minute, Opera, Voting

Ukraine uses blockchain for voting trail; SEC postpones decision on Bitcoin ETF; Opera browser to add wallet feature to desktop.

Image courtesy of DailyNews.

Ukraine uses Blockchain for Voting Trail

According to a Facebook post, Ukraine is working on a voting platform using the NEM blockchain. The head of the State Register at the Central Electoral Commission of Ukraine, Oleksandr Stelmakh, is content with how the testing has been proceeding. They are currently running tests and anyone can contribute.

SEC Postpones Decision on Bitcoin ETF

The SEC has decided to postpone the decision on approval of a Bitcoin ETF. They have stated that more time is needed to come to an appropriate conclusion. The new time frame has been pushed to September 30.

Opera Browser to Add Wallet Feature to Desktop

Opera implemented a wallet feature for the Android mobile app in June 2018 and plans to add this feature to the desktop application as well. According to an article on thenextweb, it will support Ethereum tokens, just like the mobile app. The two apps will be able to be connect to each other by use of a QR code.

Data courtesy of coinmarketcap.com as of 12PM EST

Data courtesy of coinmarketcap.com as of 12PM EST

Data courtesy of coinmarketcap.com as of 12PM EST

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