fabiochiu/medium-articles huggingface dataset:
Difference Maker: Guest Submission from Jason Gieschen, Special Olympics International Global Messenger and Athlete
By: Dan Bellows
Tags: Special Needs, Advocacy, Respect, Inclusion, Special Olympics

50 years ago, Eunice Kennedy Shriver started Special Olympics. She came to our world and looked at us with dignity. She saw our abilities. She knew that just because we learned differently, we still had feelings. She gave us a chance. She changed the world.

Now, Special Olympics, continues to make a difference with the “Spread the Word to End the Word” campaign. This campaign is 10 years old. We ask and encourage everyone to sign the pledge to end the word. Have you heard about it? If you have, then we have been doing something right. If not, then we have more work to do. What is this word that we need to end? The word is “retard” or “retarded.” Like many others, I have been a target of this word. “Hey, retard!” or “You’re retarded.” Or when it was not directed at me but to some action, like “That is so retarded” is very hurtful. I don’t like writing the word. I don’t like hearing the word. I don’t even like saying the word when I am explaining to others how offensive it is. If you have ever been bullied, abused, or hurt by someone, then you understand how certain words remind you of those sad memories. Over time, the hurt will heal but who can know what scars remain?

Mental retardation is not a derogatory term but a medical diagnosis referring to people with an intellectual disability. It later morphed into the slang word of “retard” by many mean-spirited people who thought they were being funny. That slang word was and is used to put people down. It is not funny. It is name calling. It is ugly. It is sad. It became so repulsive that the government passed legislation to strike it from official documents and replace it with the term intellectual disability.

That change was a big step in making a difference. I wear a bracelet that says, “Difference maker, today is the day, I am the one.” You can make a difference too. You can choose to sign the pledge to Spread the Word to End the Word. Choose the other R-word — Respect. I invite you to come to our world. I invite you to sign the pledge. I invite you to be a difference maker. Today is your day. You are the one.

Jason Gieschen

Sargent Shriver International Global Messenger

Special Olympics Athlete

If you have a story, video, photo, poem, essay, guide, dance, (or anything else) to share with the world, follow the three easy steps in this link or publish your story on Medium and email it to spalumbo@specialolympics.org. If you prefer, you could also put your story into a word document, let us know whether you would like it published under your name or anonymously, and email it to spalumbo@specialolympics.org.

Pledge your support to end the R-Word here.
CodeFund integrates with Discourse
By: Eric Berry
Tags: Advertising, Open Source, Discourse, Funding

One of my favorite open source applications over the years has been Discourse. They follow the same SaaS business model as Ghost, Sentry, and Travis CI.

SaaS means Software as a Service. In this model, the codebase itself can remain open source, but you offer paid services such as charging for use of a main hosted site or for handling the hosting of dedicated instances for customers. Typically, paying customers also get priority support.

You may not have heard of Discourse, but you’ve very likely used them. They are one of the most popular forum platforms used by open source communities such as Ember, Atom, Twitter, and Docker. It’s even a “One-click App” on Digital Ocean.

Screenshot of Discourse forum

Back in April, the Discourse team reached out to me to help their forum communities find additional ways to generate funding. We were invited to write a plugin that integrates CodeFund’s Ethical Advertising platform into Discourse. Earlier this month, we built the integration directly into the official ads plugin.

Unlike the other ad options within the plugin, CodeFund focuses on three things:

Unobtrusive ads (text-based) Relevance to the community NO TRACKING! This means no cookies, re-marketing, profiling, or any of the other garbage that is typical in the ad space.

How to get started

If you have a Discourse forum and would like to integrate ethical advertising, fill out the form at https://codefund.io/register/publisher. The requirements for approval are:

Must have at least 25,000 page views per month

The community must programming / open source related

To install the plugin, follow the instructions at https://github.com/discourse/discourse-adplugin.

Finally, I would like to personally thank the whole Discourse team for their incredible product and hard work to help push open source forward!
7 New Design Tools and Resources to Bookmark Today
By: Pankaj Singh
Tags: Design Thinking, Web Design Resources, Web Design Tools, Web Design, Web Development

Subtlety is the soul of most impactful designs. Perhaps for that reason alone, the conversation around design, has mostly been in the background of Data Science, Artificial Intelligence, IOT and so many other so-called sexier technologies of the last decade. Not to take anything away from those disciplines. But for some reason, the design conversation has been in this unique position of being the second most important thing in the industry. At least this was the case until ‘mobile applications’ arrived. And since then shadows have started to clear off from the talks about user experience and designers.

With that thought in mind, I ended up doing some research around modern day development in design tools and resources. During which I came around some pretty cool new tools that I was completely unaware of. Fair warning, am not a professional designer, though I collaborate with some at my work and marketing community in general. So without further delay, these are the 7 coolest and modern design resources I believe, any beginner or a pro designer should know!

Quick Design
Solving the Blockchain Regulatory Crisis with MOBU
Tags: Security Tokens, Blockchain, Cryptocurrency, Ethereum, Bitcoin

An increased interest of the public in the cryptocurrency market is to purchase tokens at a cheap price during their Initial Coin Offering stage. Not unlike IPOs by listed companies, the tokens offered are heavily discounted, often far below expected market value, and allow the platform developers to easily raise money for development and other costs associated with creating a start-up. Differences in governmental approach towards the legality of security tokens has left a confused market with backers, buyers and investors alike apprehensive about the status of the tokens they hope to acquire in the ICO stages.

The Legal Challenge and MOBU

The issue stems from the fact that tokens, in most jurisdictions, exist in legal grey areas. Not completely falling under the regulatory umbrella of tangible securities, initially there was little reaction from governmental bodies on overseeing ICOs. But with such large numbers and monetary values, governments are now forced to look into this.

Some have declared tokens as proper securities and some are outright rejecting them. Yet, all actions and motions point towards one thing: increasing market presence means tokens are here to stay, and regulatory bodies will need to adapt laws to protect investors from fraud.

MOBU’s answer to the regulatory crisis is a perfect harmony of ICO and security regulation. The platform’s facilitation of releasing compliant security tokens makes it easier for organizations that seek to raise capital through blockchain technology and platforms.

Using smart contracts, MOBU follows all the regulatory requirements and therefore will only allow security tokens that are legally compliant to be issued through its platform, giving everyone involved confidence in the investments listed.

With its partnership with CIVIC, a third party KYC and AML verification ecosystem, and an inbuilt restriction on which wallet addresses can trade the tokens, MOBU gives confidence to businesses releasing security tokens — only whitelisted parties and individuals can trade the securities after the ICO, giving the digital tokens an additional layer of security and compliance.

With a security token meeting all the regulations and other legal requirements like its traditional counterpart, MOBU is poised to help governments and regulation bodies treat digital tokens just like regular shares of a company, increasing the availability and ease to move institutional money through in droves to the industry.

Website: https://mobu.io

Telegram: https://t.me/mobuCHAT

Twitter: https://twitter.com/MobuICO

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MobuICO
All Hail NewConstitution
By: The Establishment
Tags: Donald Trump, Life Lessons, Humor

Thou shalt not commit adultery unless thou art a celebrity, in which case, they let thee do anything.

Article 1

I am the Lord your POTUS. Thou shalt have no other gods before Me until 2024 at the latest. And if I can get the deal Xi got in China, maybe longer still.

Article 2

No false idols. No graven images. No piñatas. No collusion.

Article 3

Thou shalt not tweet the name of the Lord thy POTUS in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh His name in vain, and will ruin his failing business.

Article 4

Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labor and do all thy work without union representation, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy POTUS, and all shall golf at Mar-a-Lago. No exceptions.

Article 5

Honor thy POTUS and thy FLOTUS, for verily they love all children of the world, regardless of any messaging on the back of their jackets.

Article 6

Thou shalt not murder (potential exceptions for rage against immigrants, gays, Muslims, Mexicans, Children of Ham, headscarves, those who don’t conform to gender norms, anyone inside a Planned Parenthood).

Article 7

Thou shalt not commit adultery unless thou art a celebrity, in which case, they let thee do anything. In any case, thy followers shall maintain that thou hast repented.

Article 8

Thou shalt not steal (elections, sweetheart deals for POTUS family members, and Supreme Court appointments excluded).

Article 9

Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor (POTUS and staff excluded). Thou mayst, however, conveniently forget the content of meetings with the representatives of foreign governments under oath when necessary for the protection of POTUS. Thou mayst also “ad lib” without any consideration of veracity of statements made during meetings with heads of state of neighboring countries.

Article 10

Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbor’s. Thou shalt make a deal to acquire such items at a value agreed upon by both parties. If the parties cannot agree on a price, the richest of the two taketh all.

Article 11

The right of the people to keep and bear Arms, of whatever kind, in whatever amount, and for whatever purpose, shall not be infringed (exception: Children of Ham pack at their own risk).

Hear, then, and abide by the NewConstitution.

And may POTUS bless NewAmerica!
Vai Passar
By: Dimas Augusto
Tags: Otimismo, Esperança, União, Vai Passar, Fé

in In Fitness And In Health
The Use Case for Switch Statements
Tags: Technology, JavaScript, Software Development, Programming, Web Development

Switch vs. If-Else

When we start looking at this debate from a readability standpoint, things get quite interesting. We’ll go over two examples to get a sense of what the differences in code can look like between a switch statement and if-else:

As you can see in this example, the switch block seems much less chaotic and thus more readable. There are a few reasons for that.

The first is that we’re checking for the value of a single variable, and that’s exactly what a switch was made for. You might have also noticed that the OR check is way more elegant in the switch statement.

The second reason is that as the logic chain gets larger — and with five else-ifs, we can say it’s pretty large — the if-block tends to get really messy. Part of this has to do with the number of curly brackets that we need to use to get this piece of code to work. When it comes to large logic chains, the switch statement seems to be much more readable.

In the second example of switch versus if-else, we are comparing a string, which is not a great use case for the switch statement most of the time.

If the data type is usable for a switch and all options have constant values, you should always use — or at least take it into serious consideration — a switch when you have at least two options to differentiate between.

Most of the time when you’re comparing a string, all options don’t have constant values, which is why this isn’t a good use case for a switch statement.

Here’s my take on switch statements: I’d use a switch every time if I’m switching on the value of a single variable with at least two options with constant values to differentiate between. That’s what the switch construct was made for. Otherwise, stick with multiple if-else statements.

Another reason some programmers use switch statements is that they find them more pleasing aesthetically. This can be a good reason to use the switch statement as well since it makes the code more readable to you.

Personally, I like combining the switch statement with an enumeration since it’s very readable. The following example just looks very clean to me:
Fotoğraftaki büyük hata nerede?
By: Mehmet Gözetlik
Tags: Tasarım, Marka, Audi, Kurumsal Kimlik, Tipografi

Future-proof invisible design systems, data-driven strategies, powerful visual identities, and memorable experiences to connect people to your brand.

Follow
【ELA Airdrop & Trading Campaign】World Premiere of ELA at 12:00, Jan 30th (GMT+8)
By: Huobi Global
Tags: Blockchain, Announcements, Huobi, Elastos, Bitcoin

Dear users,

Elastos (ELA) will be launched on Huobi Pro on January 30, 2018(GMT+8). Deposits will be available from 12:00, January 30, 2018 (GMT+8). ELA/BTC and ELA/ETH trading will be available at New Zone from 10:30, February 1, 2018 (GMT+8). Withdrawals will be available from 12:00, February 5, 2018 (GMT+8).

Surprise 1:【ELA Airdrop to BTC users】

We will snapshot your BTC assets of your OTC account, Pro account and Margin account（BTC loan will not be airdropped) at 10:30, February 5 (GMT+8) and airdrop ELA at a ratio of 1:1 i.e. 1BTC will get 1ELA for free. ELA will be given in 3 working days to your Pro account.

Surprise 2: 【￥2 million ELA for Trading Rewards】

During 10:30, February 1 to 24:00, February 2 (GMT+8), verified users whose cumulative trading volume (Buying + Selling) over 1ELA can get 1ELA for free. We will give 24000ELA (worth of 2.4 million RMB) in total according to the order of trading volume during the campaign. Rewards will be given in 5 working days.

Surprise 3: 【ELA Trading Campaign Rewards TOP100】

During 10:30, February 1 to 18:00, February 7 (GMT+8)，verified users whose ELA trading volume rank TOP100 (Buying + Selling volume without executed volume by your own) will receive the following awards:

TOP 1 1000ELA（￥100000）

TOP 2–3 200ELA（￥20000）

TOP 4–10 100ELA（￥10000）

TOP 11–20 50ELA（￥5000）

TOP 21–50 30ELA（￥3000）

TOP 51–100 10ELA（￥1000）

Lucky Awards：Ranking TOP 8、18,28,38,48,58,68,78,88,98 can altogether equally share 1000ELA（￥100000）

Ranking will be updated on this page every work day before 18:00. Final rewards will be given within 7 working days after the promotion.

* Above promotion is subject to Huobi Pro’s final interpretative decision. Huobi Pro reserves the right to disqualify any person who is known or suspected by Huobi Pro to be cheating or violating any rules and regulations set by Huobi Pro.

What is Elastos? Click here: https://www.huobipro.com/en-us/assetintro/#ela

Risk Reminder:

Investing in digital assets comes with high risks due to huge price fluctuations. Before investing, please have a full understanding of all the risks of investing in digital assets and be prudent of your own investment decisions.

Huobi.pro-Official (Telegram Group): https://t.me/huobiproofficial

Enjoy your trading on Huobi Pro!

Huobi Pro

January 30, 2018
Origins of the Human Race
By: Virtual Mosque
Tags: Islam, Human, Holy

Origins of the Human Race

The Holy Quran says that man was created from water

Scientists have recently carried out experiments with fish to see if they can survive on land. After rearing them on land for a whole year they saw that the fish developed different characteristics which are required for surviving on land thus proving the truth of the Holy Quran.
Did We Actually Know Ourselves Better as Kids?
By: Marija Martincevic
Tags: Self Improvement, Personal Development, Life Lessons, The Masterpiece, Inspiration

The campaign against me

After I refused to take my classmates’ advice, the campaign against me started. Daily teasing, name-calling, isolating — the list goes on. You name it, it happened.

Today it is a lot clearer to me that 12-year-old boys at school have difficulty understanding what is going on when one of their classmates embraces her femininity.

However, back then, it was very frustrating to try to comprehend why this was all happening, and my parents’ explanation of “this is their way boys show you that they like you” fell flat.

So I stopped trying to understand what was happening to me and focused on myself. I spent my time writing, doing theatre, and of course, shopping for shoes.

It was finally during the last year of high school that the bullying stopped. Then during graduation, I donned a pair of strappy 4-inch silver stilettos — needless to say, they were very hard to miss, and I felt fantastic.

I remember walking up on that stage to receive my diploma, beaming, and I looked at the room for a second. Staring at the graduating class of 11', I realized that I was closing this chapter of my life with very few friends and many memories I wished to forget.

One thing was clear as day, however — I knew who I was, and I knew where I was headed. That thought alone was all that I needed to be immensely proud of the way I had handled those 05 years.

I accepted my diploma with a massive smile on my face and walked off the stage, ready to jump into my next adventure.

Photo by Tim Gouw on Unsplash

I set my goals in college

My very first college session started in the fall, and although my commute involved a 15-minute uphill hike, that did not deter me from wearing my footwear of choice.

Upon entering the building for the very first time, I had two main goals:

I wanted this experience to result in my getting admitted into Mcgill’s Bachelor of Commerce During my time in college, I will write, direct and produce my very own musical

My focus was solely on my journey, and while working towards my goals, I was unapologetically myself.

By that point, I knew that I was never going to be the girl that everyone adored (and let’s face it — is anyone really that girl?), so I stuck to what I knew best: being myself — the unnaturally optimistic student that got good grades and had an unhealthy obsession with Broadway.

Throughout this experience, I started drawing in a circle of amazing people who enjoyed my presence in part due to my quirks.

One of my favorite stories happened in gym class — I was under the impression that we were only having an introductory meet and greet, so I wore a flared dress and heeled sandals.

They blindfolded us and had us do an obstacle course outdoors. Saying that it was challenging was an understatement.

I met one of my dearest friends during that obstacle course, and to this day, we still laugh about the fact that we started talking as a result of my showing up to gym class while wearing a pair of heels.
Being a Woman is Ruining Your Career
By: Diane Lee
Tags: Diversity, Gender Equality, Power, Work, Women

Just because you are promised something doesn’t mean you’ll advance

If I had $1 for every woman screwed over by “promises of something more” in the workplace, I’d be a gazillionaire by now. But we continually fall for it. We believe that our leaders will keep their word and honour the commitments they make to us. That what is promised to us will come to pass. Instead, someone else is given that role, given that promotion, given that project and we are given a shrug and a Sorry. I did everything I could to make this happen, but it was out of my hands. I call it out for the bullshit it is. There was never any intention of you being given that role, given that promotion, given that project because if there was, it would have happened! It would have been given!

“Promises of something more” in the workplace mirrors the dating world. You hook-up with someone, you have a great time, they take your number and promise you more, but it never happens. You are devastated. But they seemed so keen and interested and genuine, you say. I thought this was going somewhere. Cue devastation. Of course they seemed so keen and interested and genuine because they wanted something. You are broken-hearted because you trusted that someone and they did not deliver on their promise. The same thing happens in the workplace ad infinitum.

The only way you can win at the “promises of something more” game at work is to get every single promise that is ever made to you in writing. If a role is promised to you, get it in writing. If a promotion is promised to you, get it in writing. If that project is promised to you, get it in writing. Even if it’s you who has to do the actual writing: Just confirming the details of the conversation we had this morning. I expect to take up [insert role/promotion/project here] on [insert date here] as agreed. And I will be paid [insert amount here] and have access to [insert resource requirements here]. I’m looking forward to this challenge. Thank you for the opportunity. Trust no one with your career except yourself. Ultimately the only person who has your best interests at heart is you.

Getting everything in writing — even it’s an email or a text or a scrawl on a napkin with signature — is the only way your “promises of something more” will actually become the “reality of something more”. If it’s not genuine, then the person who promised you something more will look like the complete and utter dick that they are. Which is much, much less than what they actually deserve.
Serenity CTO Vasily Alexeev on cryptocurrency ban in Russia
By: Serenity Financial
Tags: Central Bank, Russia, Bitcoin, Cryptocurrency, Ban

Central Bank of Russia and state financial watchdog Rosfinmonitoring are preparing an initiative to ban cryptocurrencies as a means of payment in Russia. In a conversation with Deventer.org, Serenity CTO Vasily Alexeev talked about the possible ramifications of the new legislation for fintech companies and cryptocurrency holders.

If the matter goes beyond words and actually reaches State Duma, this bill may join the list of other legislative initiatives of recent years that are strict, yet technically unfeasible.

Currently, all cryptocurrency transactions are already conducted in the informal economy: they cannot possibly be taxed since Russian law doesn’t recognize cryptocurrency as an asset. Moreover, it’s fundamentally impossible to learn who, when, and what for made a payment in Bitcoin, not to mention who owns what wallet.

It’s important to understand that to create a cryptocurrency wallet, it’s enough to generate 12 random words using special software. Access details to such a wallet exist only in your head, and no one can prove that you have them, while you still can receive funds and, if necessary, send them using these 12 words.

Right now, Russian companies operating within the legal framework that accept cryptocurrency do it through foreign intermediaries who receive cryptocurrency on their wallets and sent fiat money to the companies. In all likelihood, this arrangement will remain legal.

And even if the bill is worded in such a way as to ban this, it would hardly be a devastating blow for these companies, since in this case, they lose only a small fraction of their payments. Companies that cannot operate legally are a different matter: for instance, online casinos, or pirated content websites. Cryptocurrency payments may make up a substantial part of their income. However, they already have nothing to lose: breaking one more law won’t change anything.

Read full article
The Guru Crew
By: Martin Rushton
Tags: Poetry, Stlprompt, Haiku, Poetry On Medium, Contemporary Haiku

©MartinRushton 2020

For the prompt “I’m Turning Japanese” from

Martin is The Rude Poet, based in the South of England. Most of my work is from prompts or random comments made on social media.

I love a challenge, so if you want to give me a prompt for another poem,

please respond with it below. I do reserve the right to refuse 😉
COSS exchange introduces trading on advanced MetaTrader 5 terminal
Tags: Trading, Mt5, Cryptocurrency, Coss Exchange, Metatrader

COSS users will be able to trade crypto, forex, indices, CFDs, commodities and more

MetaTrader 5, also known as MT5, terminal offers advanced trading tools to traders

COSS exchange is glad to announce the introduction of trading on the advanced MT5 terminal for all its users.

The MT5 terminal is a platform used by professional traders all over the world to trade multiple markets. COSS users will now be able to trade forex, indices, CFDs, commodities along with the most popular cryptocurrencies through their COSS accounts.

Trading on the COSS MT5 terminal will be available across web, Windows, iOS and Android applications.
Shall I Put These Feelings Into Words
By: Jude C. Ifeanyi
Tags: Poetry, Illumination Curated, Thinking, Life, Musings

Shall I Put These Feelings Into Words

A poem

Photo by Clément Falize on Unsplash

Shall I put these feelings into words?

Shall I have a moment of grief,

Day after day I’m lost in thoughts

Of when I will rest in peace

Shall I put these feelings into words?

Shall I refrain from bliss?

A germ of love shimmers in my heart

So pure it’ll blossom in paradise

Shall I put your feelings into words?

Shall thou acquiesce a kiss?

A bed of rose, a pillow of thorns

Still, I’ll be your humble prince

Shall I put these feelings into words?

Shall I speak from my heart?

“Ashes to ashes, dust to dust”

Whence love has played her part

Shall I put my feelings into words?

Shall I let my epitaph speak?

A hymn, a verse something better than words

That’ll immortalize “Rest in peace”

Shall I put these feelings into words?

Would I ever be heard?

My words are the only immortal seeds

That lives on when I’m dead
Webpack Essentials — Updated for 2020
By: Yuri Ramos
Tags: Webpack, Programming, Software Development, Nodejs, JavaScript

Hashing

Nowadays, we use webpack to build our resources as it’s very easy to use. So here comes the concept of hashing in webpack, which allows us to generate new hashes for each chunk across the new build. You can set up a basic webpack config that will do above for you.

Hash: 9dsn348s34378y99

Version: webpack 1.10.1

Time: 76ms

Asset Size Chunks Chunk Names

main. 9dsn348s34378y99.js 1.43 kB 0 [emitted] main

vendor. 9dsn348s34378y99.js 1.43 kB 1 [emitted] vendor

[0] ./src/index.js 46 bytes {0} [built]

[0] ./src/vendor.js 40 bytes {1} [built]

What’s the problem with this config implementation? The hash 9dsn348s34378y99 will be recreated with another random hash every build. To increase the performance of our application, we can only update the chunks that were previously changed in the development side, so that next time the user opens our app after a new deployment, the user doesn’t have to download all the assets again from the server. They should only fetch resources which we have made changes for.

Webpack provides three types of hashing:

hash

chunkHash

contentHash

I will briefly explain the difference between these hashes.

Hash

Hash is corresponding to build. Each chunk will get the same hash across the build. If anything changes in your build, the corresponding hash will also change.

chunkHash

chunkhash is based on the webpack entry point. Each entry defined will have its own hash. If anything changes for that particular entry point, then only the corresponding hash will change.

contentHash
Mark Cuban should run for president of crypto — Daily Crypto Links — 1/16/18
By: Will O Leary
Tags: Cryptocurrency, Bitcoin, Mark Cuban

After a holiday weekend hiatus, the daily links are back to distract you from today’s bloodbath. As of this writing, nearly everything except Tether is down, which as Vladislav Ginzburg wrote a while back, is not a coin to trust.

While the headline to this column is very much tongue-in-cheek, Cuban does seem to be getting serious about his relatively newfound crypto bullishness. Responding to a question on Twitter about when fans of his NBA franchise, the Dallas Mavericks, would be able to purchase tickets to games with Bitcoin, Cuban replied simply “Next season.”

This isn’t enough for us to declare Bitcoin a fixture of US commerce, sports, major events or anything else just yet. But, if it does come to fruition, it places Cuban squarely at the forefront of Bitcoin commerce due to his own celebrity and the massive reach of both the NBA and professional sports. Bitcoin maximalists may be wary of centralizing around any one person, but the road to digital currency’s success may include some strategic hitchhikers.

The Bitcoin community should be salivating at the idea of an NBA franchise coming on board at such an early and volatile stage. The 2018–2019 NBA season will begin in October, with tickets going on sale in the months prior. That’s a lot of time for Cuban to potentially reverse course. Nonetheless, it would be an enormous win for the crypto community to have both Cuban’s and the NBA’s validation. Read more about it here, courtesy of Bitcoinist.

Follow us on Twitter for more frequent updates and commentary @UncryptWill and @Uncrypt_Vlad.
DeFi Warp Finance Recovered 75% of Stolen Crypto Assets
By: The Crypto Basic
Tags: Cryptocurrency News, Altcoins, Decentralized Finance, Crypto, Defi

The decentralized Finance Platform Warp Finance reported that it recovered $5.85 million worth of crypto assets from $7.7 million stolen from the Protocol last week.

On December 18, the DeFi Warp Finance Protocol was attacked using flash loans.

Taking a look… https://t.co/UzyDETcmur This is the second attack whish uses multiple flash liquidity,

flash swaps via Uniswap and flash loans via dYdX We will see very complex things via @AaveAave V2 batch flash loans 🙂 https://t.co/jAjWa3WAi6 - Emiliano Bonassi | emiliano.eth (@emilianobonassi) December 17, 2020

The hacker was able to withdraw stable coins worth $7.7 million from the platform. Over the weekend, the Protocol’s developers said they were able to recover most of the stolen crypto assets.

Securing the lost assets was the responsibility of the Warp Finance team and they will return approximately 75% of the users deposited assets.

Recovered crypto assets will be distributed to affected users in an amount proportional to the amount of W-USDC and W-DAI held at the time of the attack.

The developers of the Protocol intend to compensate users for losses and will distribute debt tokens of the platform (IOU) to each victim. IOU tokens will be distributed in the coming days. According to the developers statement, the attack involved several flash loans taken through the dYdX platform and several quick swaps through Uniswap.

The DeFi industry is actively developing this year. Recently, the dappradar portal released an annual report, according to which the volume of transactions in DeFi has increased more than 12 times in 2020.

Originally published at https://thecryptobasic.com on December 22, 2020.
Tonight’s comic isn’t bored enough to start baking bread yet.
Tags: Quarantine, Humor, Cooking, Comics, Food

More from rstevens Follow

I make cartoons and t-shirts at www.dieselsweeties.com & @rstevens. Send me coffee beans.
Analyst’s corner digest #1
By: Igor Arkhipov
Tags: Technology, Software Development, Business Analysis, Business, Enterprise Architecture

Most popular

1) 6 things a Business Analyst should know about the client before a project starts, by Pushkar Anand

Photo by mnm.all on Unsplash

A common scenario in the software world: A company has decided to partner with an IT provider for implementation of an enterprise software. The Statement of Work (SOW) is signed.

As a business analyst, there are some things you should know about your customer during this discovery phase, which are not often written on a statement of work or business requirement document.

→ Pushkar lists those areas in his article.

2) 4 types of requirements you will use on all projects, by Igor Arkhipov

As an analyst, it is your job to work with requirements. However, different people in the business will have very different expectations of what those requirements will look like. The reason for that: there is no such thing as a universal definition of a “requirement”. Instead, there are different levels of requirements a business analyst needs to work on to be effective.

→ Read more in the story by Igor.

3) Can structuring knowledge contain the tide of current information overload?, by Manoj Kumar Lal

There are tonnes of information available and many times people do not have the confidence and patience to search for the information they need, so they end up recreating more and reinforcing the current information overload. Is structured knowledge as a consolidated knowledge repository used for different needs of a person or an organization a solution to this problem?

→ Manoj explores a method of Knowledge Driven Development (KDD) as a way to overcome the information overload.

4) Business Analyst’s role in RFP (Request for Proposal), by Suhas Kerurkar

Business analysts are the least decorated warriors in the RFP process who define the functional expectations and confirm the feasibility.

Usually, business analysts are part of the RFP process teams on both sides — the issuer and the responder.

→ The story by Suhas explains the high-level responsibilities which business analysts perform on both sides of the RFP.

5) Why Digital Transformation fails without Architecture, by Wolfgang Göbl

When people discuss digital transformation, they talk mostly about innovation, agility and new technologies. Companies put a tremendous amount of effort into initiatives that should make them more agile and innovative, but often do not keep their innovation architecturally sound.

→ Read more in this insightful story by Wolfgang Göbl.

6) CX: a new challenge for EA?, by Igor Arkhipov

Photo by NASA on Unsplash

Research shows that Customer experience (CX) has become a key element in product and services design, helping them significantly exceed their business goals.

Still, many companies struggle to implement customer-centricity.

→ This essay by Igor questions if the practice of enterprise architecture should adapt and evolve to better support CX processes.
Sometimes Shouting Isn’t the Answer
Tags: Research, Expertise, Digital Marketing

Did you know that the average American is exposed to 8,000 ad messages a day? The thought alone is staggering. That being said, though, it also provides you with a unique opportunity.

The key to a successful ad message — digital, broadcast or otherwise — has nothing to do with who shouts most loudly. Consumers are already being bombarded, and joining in on the competition’s noise-making will only ensure that your ads will be forgettable.

Instead, it’s more effective to create experiences your consumers can relate to — advertisements that cause them to feel something. If you can trigger an emotional response, whether it’s joy or sorrow or nostalgia, you have a greater chance of making a memorable impression. Make them laugh. Make them cry. Make them do anything but tune you out.

You’re well aware that your brand offers more than just an attractive price point, but how often do you take advantage of that in your advertising? Here are three ads we’ve created that fall outside of the stereotypical local dealer advertisement. Facebook is a great medium for reaching out to your consumers in creative ways. For this particular client located in the Boston area, snow is a serious concern every year. We were able to leverage that in a fun way that drew attention to the 2017 Volvo XC90’s excellent safety ratings and available AWD.One of our clients has a digital outdoor board, so we decided to come up with a few unsolicited, creative ideas they could run with little to no cost. This ad draws parallels between gluten-free food being a sometimes healthy option, while the Prius is a “healthy option” for the environment.We developed this traffic report concept in an effort to disrupt the medium rather than following the same formula so many have used over and over again. By starting out with the breaking traffic alert, we also had the opportunity to catch people’s attention through unexpected means, capturing more viewers from the moment the ad airs.
Shower
By: Ak, Aaska Aejaz
Tags: Humanity, One Line, Peace, Poetry On Medium, Religious Freedom

If you liked my piece and want to read more so, here’s a link to another of my Chalkboard’s piece!
The Baby Mountain Chickadee Rescue
By: Erika Burkhalter
Tags: Mindfulness, Other Doors, Nature, Short Story, Photography

The Baby Mountain Chickadee Rescue

Life in the Yard

Me, holding the fledgling Mountain Chickadee

Some of you might remember this little character from “A Life at the Fountain,” (link below). He is a Mountain Chickadee. And from what I can tell, he and his lady are a bit out of their natural territory. They tend to inhabit mountainous areas, lush with pines.

We do live in the low foothills in Southern California. And we have several pine trees on our property. So, perhaps they feel at home. They love to eat oiled sunflower seeds and mealworms, so I provide them in abundance.

Mountain Chickadee

My kitty, Bisou, is the gentlest soul. He once caught and killed a rat and had an existential crisis. I think he had no idea that it was not like a toy. Since then, he does occasionally bring in lizards and rats and sometimes birds. But, they are always alive and most of the time are not injured at all. We do keep most of our bird feeders in the front yard, where they cats can’t get to them. But, we have a few in the back too.

So, the other day, little Baby B brought in a tiny little blob of fluff, which we immediately rescued. I took him outside and cradled him in my palms for about a half an hour. He was unharmed. I thought he must just be in shock because he did not fly away. Instead, we communed, peering into each other’s eyes. He opened his little beak, and I thought, “this is a baby!” I tried to feed him a mealworm, but it startled him and he took a wobbly flight over to a terra cotta pot. Then, he swooped again and landed on the wrought iron fence.

I realized that flight was new to him, and I wondered if he had “just” fledged. Perhaps, these might be some of his very first attempts. I went upstairs to get my “real camera,” (only had an iphone handy at first). And by the time I came back down, he was gone.

A safe landing

I worried about him that night, but he did seem old enough to survive.

And the next day, lo and behold, the two adult Mountain Chickadees appeared at the feeder, accompanied by two half-size little ones. I am pretty certain that this is him, in the photo below, because he seems very comfortable with me.

Our little flegling

Today, my gardener, who didn’t know the story, told me about “one of those little black and white birds” who was so friendly. It let him get right up near him.

I am excited to watch this little guy grow up. I really felt such a connection with him for those minutes in which I was able to shelter him in my hands.
Field
By: Vaghawan Ojha
Tags: Love, Poetry On Medium, Life, Poetry, Art

Image Source: here

It was a crabgrass field,

And you a purple thistle,

Hurt were you of seasons,

Joyful were you of those wounds,

When the night fell through the heart of all those distant pines,

You would be alone,

Among the silent screeches of cricket,

And the field filled with cold solitude,

Almost a bare sound of the night,

Kissing your petals,

You would realize,

Only in extreme darkness,

You would know the light,

A burning moon had its flame,

Upon your face,

The beauty which grows in the absence

Of the world is the most beautiful one,

And you would unfurl a million facades,

Like the sound of a reed,

Traveling through the blood veins,

Transcend was your presence,

Divine was your beauty,

Indecipherable by any eyes,

A naive man was I,

A hopeless wanderer,

Though beyond any goals,

Taking both misery and joy altogether

In my shoulders,

never thirsty,

to test your fragrance,

But there I sat in contemplation,

to witness you grow,

and wither,

There I found my soul,

Watching over your life,

And let all the light go away

And away, ever swaying

Timeless,

It was utterly dark,

I see, millions of thistle

Making love in that darkness now;

I simply sit there,

Sharing your cold solitude,

With an eternal smile,

There you’re a million thistles,

And I merely a coarse crabgrass;
My Plant Journal: Dead Nettle
By: Laura Manipura
Tags: Nature, Plants, Nature Writing, Foraging, Herbal

In 2017, I took a 9 month herbal intensive with Suzanna Stone at Owlcraft Healing Ways in Scottsville, Virginia. Early in the course, the students were asked to find a plant to sit with and observe throughout the year.

At first, I chose Stinging Nettle, as I knew she grew in my favorite swimming spot on the James River. I had fond memories of that spot, swimming there with my ex-boyfriend in previous years and clearing a path together through the Stinging Nettle to get down to the water.

But when I got there I found she had been cleared away and instead I found Dead Nettle. This early blooming plant is a gift to pollinators looking for spring sources of food. She is called “Dead Nettle,” due to a resemblance to Stinging Nettle, minus the sting. I found this to be a perfect metaphor for my relationship. Dead Nettle was telling me my old relationship was over, “dead,” and that gentler times were ahead. The sting, or the pain of loss would lesson over time, and now it is time to let go.

I had wanted to take her home, but was hesitant to ask, as my teacher had taught us to do. I did not trust my intention and in large part thought asking was silly. But, when I got home and changed clothes I found a leaf upon my shirt and wondered if Dead Nettle was subtly giving me permission to pick.

Returning to the river a day later; I was prepared with some warm clothes and my favorite blanket. I laid down on the blanket and keeping my eyes upon my new plant friend, I cried awhile. Then, I silently asked permission to pick. The tallest and closest seemed to bow and beckon me to her, but still I was afraid to pick. I asked myself, how do we know? How do I know she is communicating with me? Perhaps it is just the wind and the mind making a story…But then, I often judge myself as being too much of a thinker, too logical, too critical. Does my thinking masculine side keeping me from hearing the hidden messages in plants?

I ask myself why would a plant want to be picked anyway? I imagine myself as dead nettle sitting by the river in the early spring sunshine and quite happy to never move. But hey, that’s just me. No two people are alike, and no two dead nettles are alike. Perhaps one wants to be a teacher, while another wants to feed the bees, and another is tired and just wants to enjoy the view.
Trends Towards Social Impact
By: Nick Woo
Tags: Goldman Sachs, Social Impact, Blackrock, Business

Introduction:

Recently, the trend in the business world has been to go towards businesses that have a social aspect. Whether that be sustainability in the case of BlackRock, or more recently Goldman Sachs and representation. This makes sense financially for these companies, as by 2025 millennials are going to make up 75% of the work-force, and the biggest consumers. Alongside this wave of millennials comes a generation devoted to social impact.

BlackRock:

In BlackRock’s case, Larry Fink has stated that going forward, they are going to put sustainability as one of the top criteria when investing. Fink also associated climate change and climate risk to investment risk. Fink also seems to be a believer in long-term investing and attributes a sustainable company with better long-term investments. BlackRock has also declared they will actively vote against companies that go against their own views.

Goldman Sachs:

Goldman Sachs’ CEO, David Solomon issued a resounding statement: Goldman, the largest underwriter of IPO’s in the U.S., will no longer take any company public if they don’t have a director who is female, or in any way diverse. Solomon hopes that by doing so, it will improve representation in the boardroom and C-Suite. Furthermore, Goldman wants to expand this by 2022 by requiring two diverse members in the boardroom. This is a requirement only in the United States, and Europe, and not yet implemented in Asia. However, it seems that Goldman is going to lose out in the short-term, as most VCs tend to have all-male boards and directors. Leading to business leaving Goldman and into the hands of other banks.

Implications:

I think that as the millennial consumer base starts to expand, more financial companies are going to see a shift towards social impact. Especially because, according to a study done by Nielsen, 73% of millennials are willing to spend more on a product if it comes from a sustainable brand. Fink and Solomon are trying to cash-in early on the millennial market and improve their companies image for a more socially aware work-place and consumer.
Sleeping Together
By: Jane Woodman
Tags: Sleep, Love, Night, Poetry, Free Verse

Sleeping Together

free verse

Photo by Jeffrey Eisen on Unsplash

In these Fall nights

the Moon’s a ship

sailing bright above

waters of darkness

Come out with me now

into the moonlight

breathe the darkness

lying low on the ground

Expel the night then

replace it with light

of silver moon beams

we will sail away

Forever higher flying

to catch the Aurora

to wade in the stars

like bioluminescent water

We won’t return

until morning comes

and the Sun reclaims us

clasped in each other’s arms.