fabiochiu/medium-articles huggingface dataset:
I am Human And I am Imperfectly Perfect: A Contemplative Piece
By: Yasmeen Elgerbi
Tags: Humanity, Nature, Poetry, Imperfection, Poem

Photo by YUCAR FotoGrafik on Unsplash

In my imagination, the sea is always peaceful

The sun shiny

The moon full and bright

The sky clear and blue

In my imagination, nature is always perfect

And when the sea is stormy, I will remember her peacefulness and patiently wait for the storm to pass

I will not be upset at the sun when she doesn’t shine

I will not abandon the moon when she’s not full or bright

And I will always cherish the sky, even when she’s grey and depressed

Then how come I get upset at myself when my sky is grey

And how come I judge myself when I am not shining bright

For I am nature embodied in human form

And nature doesn’t apologize for her storms

The sun doesn’t take permission when she needs to hide behind the clouds

The moon always shows up, even when she’s not full

And just like nature

I don’t have to judge myself when I am feeling low

I don’t have to apologize when I have my storms

For I am nature

And nature is imperfectly perfect
What The Heck Is Securityness?
By: Rob Leon
Tags: Get Your Tech Right, Security, Small Business, Managed Service Provider, Startup

What The Heck Is Securityness?

If you’re looking to improve the securityness in your business. It’s time to get started.

SECURITYNESS

This month I’ve been working with clients on upping their “securityness”.

If that’s a word.

Securityness — All things related to keeping your business compliant and secure.

Some clients are startups that work with Fortune 500 clients.

Other are established businesses in regulated industries.

And some are just businesses that need some structure to reduce their liability exposure.

Whatever the case it’s always an interesting challenge to align a compliance rule or regulation with the tech in a business.

In the most simple terms, it all comes down to policies, procedures, and training.

Unfortunately, this is an area where most small businesses and startups struggle.

It’s tough to invest in something so important when it indirectly affects your revenue.

Or does it?

But that’s for another day.

Along the journey this month I’ve come across the following tech industry statistics on cybersecurity that relate to policies, procedures, and training.

If some of these ring true for your organization, you’re not alone.

15 CYBERSECURITY STATS THAT IMPACT YOUR BUSINESS

Regular security awareness training reduces cybersecurity incidents by 70% 62% of businesses do not do enough cybersecurity awareness or phishing resistance training The number one cause of a data breach or cybersecurity disaster is human error 86% of company information security officers list improving security standards as a top priority for 2021 45% of workers receive no security awareness training at all 78% of employees are aware of the risks of suspicious links in emails but will click them anyway 93% of security professionals agree that strong human (people) and machine security protection (apps) are the most effective way to prevent disaster Even the “least effective” programs have a seven-fold ROI Most cybersecurity awareness training programs have a 37-fold ROI 49% of workers doubt their ability to identify a social engineering attack 80% of businesses have experienced an increase in cybercrime Cybercrime damage is expected to reach $6 trillion by 2021 30% of companies will experience at least 1 data breach each year Data breaches have increased worldwide by 50% GDPR violations have cost companies more than $126 million in penalties

These stats aren’t made up.

They’re real and can impact your business for better or worse.

If you want to improve your securityness the roadmap is clear.

You’ll need policies, procedures, training, and tech.

Improving your securityness is a continuous process.

And the first step is just getting up the hill.

Once you’ve reached that first plateau it gets easier.

It really does.

The unfortunate thing is that most companies never think it’s important enough to even try until it’s too late.

If you’re looking to improve the securityness in your business.

It’s time to get started.

Be safe out there.

🌴
Mother and Daughter Unite After 17 Years.
By: Thomas E. Mcdaniels
Tags: Happiness, Family, Emotional Wellbeing, Transformation, Spirituality

What would happen if everyone added “kindness to their to-do list for today?

What if everyone followed through?

Wow! We would all have a fantastic day. I am sure we could use a wonderful day. I sure could.

Well, everyone that reads this could make a fantastic day for someone else. Right? Yes, we can.

We are writing about inspiring moments of kindness. And I have a terrific moment to share. Before I share what happened, allow me to challenge you to create a new moment for someone to write about.

We can go out today or tomorrow and do random acts of kindness to change the world for someone.

Are you ready to make a difference as my friend did?

My story is about a young lady I met at church. Let’s call her Mandy. Mandy loved a rough life. Very rough. Nothing had gone right for Mandy since her childhood.

Mandy’s mother had given her away as a child. Mandy moved from foster home to foster home. Mandy also suffered from severe abandonment and low self-esteem.

Mandy’s circumstances continue to spiral at age 16 with the use of drugs. Mandy begins to abuse drugs while in the shelter and performs sex acts for money.

Photo by Possessed Photography on Unsplash

Eventually, Mandy is kicked out of the shelter with a bus ticket to wherever she wants to go. Mandy calls a friend who is in a women’s shelter in Texas.

Mandy heads to Texas and asks to stay at the shelter of her friend. The shelter agrees to allow Mandy to remain there for a few days. At the shelter, Mandy finds a loving environment with some kind people. This type of environment is strange for Mandy.

She has never been loved and accepted by anyone.

Mandy requests to become a client of the shelter. The rules are strict but fair, and Mandy begins to experience personal healing and hope. The staff and counselors dig into Mandy’s life, and they discover a troubled but talented young lady.

Mandy is slowly changing. Mandy finds her spiritual life and connects to God. Her new God connection is another step of healing in Mandy’s rehabilitation and spiritual transformation.

Mandy opens her heart to the staff. In her vulnerability, she begins to share about her mother. She shares the story of how her mother abandoned her and left her with CPS.

The shelter staff follows up on Mandy’s childhood and begins to search for Mandy’s mother.

One of Mandy’s commitments is attending church. Mandy loves her church family and is a regular attender. Mandy does not miss church.

Back to Mom.

The shelter finds Mandy’s mother. The big surprise — the mother lives 30 miles from the shelter. What? Yes.

The staff at the women’s shelter contacts Mandy’s mother and invites her to see Mandy. The mother agrees to see her daughter. Mandy and her mom have had no contact for 17 years.

The story gets better.

Mandy’s mother is invited to meet Mandy at church. Not only at church, but at church during a service. The plan is for the pastor to call Mandy up for prayer.
The Medium Singularity
By: Paula Light
Tags: Humor, Satire, Self-awareness, Meta, Statistics

meta thoughts

Image credit to ebenezer42 | pixabay

It’s coming; I can feel it. I eagerly away the moment when I cross the Medium singularity. No, it won’t be an army of robots taking over, but that shining moment when I have more followers than followed. Yes! I am nothing but a vain, insecure egotist obsessed with stats. Like everyone else here, especially those who say they aren’t and they’re only writing for “fun” — omg they are the worst! You know they secretly stare at their earnings in the middle of the night praying to notch up from $4.00/month to $400 and then $4,000.

Oh wait, that’s me again. Lol! It is only a matter of time before I can quit my day job, write articles titled “5 Tips to Increase Your Earnings,” which become immediately curated, and watch all that lovely money flow into my bank account. I could smush those articles together in a book, fling it onto Amazon, and make even more cash. I’ll become my own cult, sucked into a wormhole of navel-gazing and self-admiration. Maybe I should just quit my job now, since this is going to occur imminently. I’m already looking at condos…

I wonder if I’ll become one of those people who don’t respond to comments because I’m just soooooooo important, not to mention busily writing my next article, titled “5 Hidden Tricks to Medium Success.” Will I even clap for my onslaught of compliments, or decide, nah, can’t be bothered? Maybe I won’t even read other people’s writing anymore because, eh, who cares? They will follow me anyway and pore over my every word. Naturally I won’t follow anyone back again. Maybe I’ll even unfollow some — like that one account I just saw who had 50 followed to like 4000 followers. Why is the number 4 so important in this post. Weird!

Ooh, I just got another follower! It’s happening, people.
Wouldn’t It Be Nice • 4
By: Mark Starlin
Tags: Humor, Other Stories, Law, Money, Life

Wouldn’t it be nice if you pulled the “Do not remove under penalty of law” tag off your mattress,

and the stitching ripped open,

and you discovered that your mattress was not stuffed with cotton,

but was actually stuffed with $100 bills.
Bancryp takes part in the Blockchain Summit 2018 next to big names of the Brazilian financial market
By: Ramon Oliveira
Tags: Android

Bancryp takes part in the Blockchain Summit 2018 next to big names of the Brazilian financial market Ramon Oliveira Follow Dec 6, 2018 · 1 min read

Bancryp was present at the event promoted by Blueprintt on November 28th and 29th in São Paulo, next to big names of the Brazilian financial market.

With the subject “Here comes a Brazilian cryptobank”, Bancryp’s CEO Elvis Lopes spoke about the challenges of establishing the first Brazilian cryptobank and making cryptocurrencies accessible to the everyday life of people in a simple way through Bancryp’s solutions.

Check out the pictures of the event:
Ambrosus: The L1 Sensor was tested, Improved NOP scripts, Ambrosus Smart Pallet introduced, The One-Pager for Enterpreneurs
Tags: Ambrosus, Blockchain, Cryptocurrency, Blockchain Technology, Cryptocurrency Investment

Hello, guys! Nice to see you in our Ambrosus update again! Not so many news have appeared during the past two weeks, but their Progress update depicts tangible development improvements. Efforts from the past months have begun to pay off specifically with regards to the Ambrosus L1 Sensor, which was tested by a large Korean company. Ambrosus team is aiming to build scalable distributed, community-driven IoT infrastructure, but they also work directly, or via intermediaries and partners, on securing adoption and integration of the infrastructure amongst the corporate and public sector stakeholders, in addition to the wider community, to build a diverse and truly decentralised ecosystem. Moreover, new and more stable updates of bridge validators have been implemented on the product environment. This allows the transaction processing speed to increase, and for less time lost in converting AMBs. Besides, the blockchain core team is currently implementing a number of fundamental changes within the Explorer to make the Atlas node management user-interface (UI) available to Ambrosus node owners in the near future. Ambrosus was proved convenient for enterpreneurs: One of the objectives of Ambrosus is to unleash the creativity and entrepreneurship and to permit anyone anywhere to build new projects and businesses at the intersection of blockchain and IoT. The Ambrosus Smart Pallet was introduced. It is a cutting-edge data collection and management solution characterized by its ability to intelligently monitor products on a pallet in communication with the pallet itself, and even between multiple pallets at the same time. They are moving forward on their roadmap, setting new milestones. Additionaly, Ambrosus team is planning some events and in the coming months of August and September, Ambrosus and ChipLess team members will be touring East Asia. The road to decentralization continues. The number of social media subscribers slightly decreased, but the community is still active — there are a lot of AMB-believers. Let’s believe together with Paradigm!
Backgrounds and introductions
By: Jan Schultink
Tags: Layout, Story

You got 30 minutes with a senior executive to present your case in a highly politically charged issue. Many people bring a very long deck that starts slowly, industry trends, backgrounds, history, until finally at 25 minutes we get to the real issue.

These type of presentations are not TED talks were we take the audience on an inspirational journey. Everyone in the room pretty much knows the background and history (if they did not, they could have read it the night before in your document), probably knows the arguments both sides are making.

Your 30 minutes is best spent showing why the combination of your arguments is the best one. You need to get the point early in your presentation, and have at least one slide that puts all the options, pros and cons on a page. Other slides in the presentation are backups for the points you are making.

Yes, that one slide can be busy, but it should not be unreadable.
Learn about instruments and the art of creating music
By: Sean Devlin
Tags: Music, Education, Musicians

Learn about instruments and the art of creating music

July 19 from 10:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. at Marie Fleche Memorial Library

Residents of Berlin interested in learning about musical instruments and what it takes to create music are encouraged to visit http://berlinborolibrary.org/events-and-programs/.

All ages are eligible to meet Linda Millenbach, local musician, from 10:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m., July 19, at Marie Fleche Memorial Library and learn about the topic.
It’s time to de-stress…
Tags: Newsletter

It’s time to de-stress…

November has been wild y’all!!

Hi friends,

To be honest, I don’t even know where to start. November has been wild guys! I don’t know about you guys, but during the US election, I didn’t sleep. I think I only got some shut-eye from the 8th? Then came travelling from South Africa to the UK. Settling in, celebrating my 25th birthday and finishing my assignments. I think today is one of the first days I have felt present, and it’s already the 27th? Madness.

But I had a great chat with my therapist today, and she reminded me of the importance of remembering everything we have accomplished under these trying times.

It’s also so critical that we take a few minutes a day to breathe (from your nose) and unwind. I am going to promise myself to stop ignoring the ‘breathe’ notifications on my watch today and appreciate where I am. I hope you join me on this. I think we deserve it, don’t you?

We made it guys. We will continue to make it.
Photowalk: Point Arena Lighthouse
By: M. H. Rubin
Tags: Black And White, Art, Travel Photography, Photography, Photowalk

Thanks for browsing! For more of my photography, my portfolio is at www.byrubin.com and my Instagram is “droidmaker”

If you like these, you might enjoy:
Submission Guidelines
By: Zack Chapepa
Tags: Misplaced Identity, Writing

[Updated 16 June 2020]

Welcome, dear writer/reader!

Below you will find some guidelines on how to submit to our publication.

Before you start, consider visiting our Facebook page and leaving a like. For your work to be considered we suggest you do since this is also how we grow the community.

Follow this link to the Facebook page

Your body of work is still a part of Medium and is subjected to their terms, but if you submit with The New North you get to benefit from the unique readership that is loyal to our publication.

We don't really ask for much, just your own expression without limits. At the same time remember this work should be original/not plagiarised, including the media you associate with your submission. If the media is not yours, make sure you credit the source. You will also submit original work that is not published elsewhere, with the exception that your work may have been published on your personal blog outside Medium.

2ugust from Pinterest

Formatting and Presentation

Presentation plays a big part in valuing your work. Submissions should be properly presented with a good format and with above decent proofreading. The right header image, clean paragraphs, good spelling should be something you’ve figured out before submitting. By default, any post must have a header image that is properly credited— a few exceptions are given to stylistic choices, but this should be kept at a minimum.

Poetry should have lines for verses, a clear heading and image.

Tags should also be included in the submission and this is a priority since you would not want a wrong tag to be included in your post that you did not want to have. As you may have guessed, if you don’t include a tag with your post. The editors will choose one they feel would go well with the post.

Submission Days

On a normal week, posts are published on a deadline of two days, hours even in a good week. Mondays, Wednesdays and Saturdays are dedicated to publishing. Posting before stated days means your post can have time to be reviewed and can also be published first. In the case that a post goes for long without being published a number of things may have happened.

The Editors may have not received the post, or the post may have been lost in the sea of notifications. In this case, reaching out can help. Leaving a note with a tag will notify the Editors (a feature for tagging on Medium is putting the @ symbol then typing the username for the account you wish to tag).

There is some backlog to go through before posts can be published. A small note will be included on the publication where this is the case.

The publication might be on a break. In this case, an email is sent to followers to notify when the publication is not publishing any posts.

Submitting a post

To submit a post, send a profile link and the link to the post you want submitted to newnorthmedium@gmail.com. If you are already included as a writer, that means choosing the publication on the editor window in the post.
Remains of Ancient Fortress Unearthed in Northeast Iran
By: Maryam Khy
Tags: Culture, Iran, History, Archaeology,  North Khorasan

The remains of an ancient fortress dating back to the Achaemenid era have been discovered in northeastern Iran.

The historical ruins were found in Rivi area in North Khorasan province, says Mohammad Javad Jafari, the head of the archaeological team working at the site.

Click here to read the rest of article.
Cutting the Jargon at the World Health Organization
By: Hattaway Communications
Tags: Communication, Archive, Jargon, World Health Organization

Cutting the Jargon at the World Health Organization

How the world’s leading health watchdog translated its technical vocabulary into everyday language.

When the World Health Organization (WHO) decided to strengthen its communications in order to enhance its impact, the first step the global institution took was to begin “cutting the jargon.” WHO’s leadership felt that the specialized vocabulary used in the public health field made it harder to communicate with non-experts about the life-and-death issues it addresses.

It was a wise move. Psychological studies show that anything which inhibits fluent mental processing of information demotivates people. We are wired to preserve our precious mental energy, and will tune out complex ideas and unfamiliar language that taxes our brains. Simplicity in language is absolutely critical. Jargon kills communication.

That’s because unfamiliar language poses an obstacle to mental processing. When you hear a word you don’t understand, your “working memory” looks it up in your internal dictionary of stored ideas and language. This distracts your brain, and you literally don’t hear what is being said. You’ve experienced this if you’ve ever read an entire page in a book, then realized that you hadn’t really been paying attention — and had to re-read the material.

WHO asked the Hattaway team to share these lessons with its staff around the world. In workshops with medical experts, our trainers showed examples of jargon in WHO’s public content and demonstrated how to translate technical vocabulary into everyday language — without losing the meaning that the organization intended to convey.

For example, content about the health effects of pollution said, “The health sector can play a central role in leading a multisectoral approach to prevention of exposure to air pollution.”

Our team showed how to translate this idea by putting people in the picture (“health experts” instead of “health sector“), using concrete words rather than abstract terms (“governments, business and other organizations” instead of “multisectoral”) and using action verbs to replace complex nouns (“clean up the air” instead of “prevention of exposure to air pollution”).

The new, jargon-free sentence conveyed exactly the same idea with greater clarity and motivating power: “Health experts can play a key role in working with governments, businesses and other organizations to clean up the air we all breathe.”

Today, the world’s leading health watchdog is putting these simple but powerful lessons to work for good. Helping people understand public health threats empowers them to take actions that keep them healthy. Conveying important information to policymakers who are not experts in the field makes it easier to enact policies that protect the public’s health.

Cutting the jargon out of public health messages will help make the world a healthier place.
Como o ambiente de trabalho influencia na credibilidade da sua empresa
By: Agência Bang
Tags: Home Office, Empresa, Escritório, Credibilidade, Trabalho

in Both Sides of the Table
When You Choose
By: Bridget Webber
Tags: Insights, Poetry, Short Story, Personal Development, Self Improvement

This marketplace is full.

Stuffed to the brim.

So you forage,

gather armfuls of everything.

But,

somehow,

the ingredients profuse,

confuse.

They don’t go together,

and there’s nothing to eat.

This wardrobe is fit to bust.

Stacked high with clothes.

Skirts,

dresses,

everything.

But,

even so,

you’ve nothing to wear.

This day is packed,

with an unknown schedule.

It consumes the air from your lungs.

Yet,

there’s nothing of worth here at the end of the day.

Though,

when you choose,

ingredients,

garb,

and what to do,

you are fed,

clothed,

and life gains meaning.
Sales and Fear cannot go hand in hand
By: Pravin Singh
Tags: Salesforce Productivity, Sales, Fear

Photo Credit: Thinkstock

Let’s talk about the different fears that we have as salespeople. And then, we will talk about how we build an immunity to those fears.

Spend time around one who has overcome the fear — your sales leader.

It’s easy to say — don’t be afraid, it’s ok. We are in sales, we have to do it!

It is highly unlikely that you are convinced with those lines. If you are afraid, it is likely that there is a real danger attached to that fear. You may fear making cold calls, asking for referrals, asking for commitments, or revealing that you have a higher price early in the sales process. This is very common. When you sit with someone who has overcome such fears, first you will understand that there’s nothing bad that can happen, at least personally. Then, you would learn how they think about what they’re doing, how they approach it, and how they succeed in taking action without fear.

List down your Fears

Pick up a pen and paper, start writing what you fear in descending order — what you fear the most on top and so on! Then write down the dangers invited by those fear factors. Now rate them based on their occurrence as you anticipate. While you do this exercise, you are parting the fear to some extend already. You would start to realize that the dangers aren’t as damaging as you think it would be.

Now, What’s the Real Danger?

Let’s be honest — the real danger is

To let your opportunity run to alternatives Deprive your potential customer from your amazing offering Losing your business and your commission

We fear while we make calls that we will be rejected, we will be questioned about our value, existence, benefits blah blah blah but in reality the real danger is that by not making the call, you don’t produce the results you are capable of, for your company, or for your prospective client.

We are afraid to ask the potential buyer how serious they are about the product/service we’re discussing and whether or not they’re going to be able to get the support and necessary budget. There’s the risk of offending your contact, but the greater risk is in not asking and later finding out that you’ve both spent months on an initiative that’s not going to happen.

There’s no harm in discussing the associated cost beforehand. That helps you and your potential buyer to set expectations and acts like a factor to continue/discontinue the initiative. Remember, it’s a loss on both sides if potential buyer figures out that he/she cannot afford your service at a latter stage.

Fear is a powerful motivator. It can motivate you to avoid taking an action that may harm you. It can also motivate you to act, while not taking the action will harm you.
Americans Are On Our Own, and We Know It
By: Jessica Wildfire
Tags: Society, Coronavirus, Government, Politics, News

Americans Are On Our Own, and We Know It

We keep on going, because we have to.

Yesterday I came across a heart-breaking tweet from a nurse who described admitting a 5-year-old who’d “coded” for an hour before her parents finally brought her to the hospital. The nurse bewailed the parents’ ignorance and dropped a couple of sailor words while pleading with people to take the pandemic seriously and stop with the Christmas parties.

The conservative, conspiracy-barbed backlash against her was so severe that she had to delete the tweet.

They were outraged at her bad language.

In case you don’t know, “coded” means the five-year-old was in serious or critical condition. Read the rest of the thread, and you’d see the family knew their child was sick for days. Nobody wanted to leave their precious holiday gathering to take her to the ER.

As a parent, this horrifies me — the idea that someone would put their selfish need for baked ham and eggnog ahead of their own flesh and blood. That said, it doesn’t surprise me anymore. Millions of Americans are sacrificing their families in the name of freedom and tradition. The rest of us sit back and watch with bewildered awe at their reckless judgement. We tell ourselves we don’t know what they’re thinking.

Let’s be honest, we know. It just makes absolutely no sense. It never will. We’ve given up trying to reason with them.

We’re leaving them alone.
Super Sleeper: My Latest Self-Motivational Game Design
By: Victoria Ichizli-Bartels
Tags: Healthy Lifestyle, Gaming, Ideas, Motivation, Self-awareness

Super Sleeper — A self-motivational game

A side-note: A self-motivational game is a real-life project or activity you turn into fun games for yourself.

Another side-note: components of the game, according to Jane McGonigal, are the goal, rules, feedback system, and voluntary participation, where the latter means the will to embrace the first three while playing the game, as well as the possibility to leave or come back to it at will. (Source for this definition is Jane McGonigal’s New York Times bestselling book Reality is Broken.)

Goal

Your quest is to become a Super Sleeper. You receive this status if you sleep more than seven hours a day (24 hours) — naps during the day count.

If you sleep more than seven hours for five weeks in a row, you get the Mega Sleeper title. If you manage more than that, for example, ten weeks in a row, then you can invent further fun titles for yourself. (My son and I contemplated such terms as Giga and Tera Sleeper but haven’t decided on the rules for those yet, because I haven’t reached the Mega Sleeper’s status yet.)

Rules

You lose the Super Sleeper status, and the corresponding streak count goes to zero if you sleep exactly seven hours or less a day.

The streak element is inspired by how the popular language learning app Duolingo uses it:

“A user’s streak is a measure of how consistently they use Duolingo. A streak starts at zero and increases by one for each day the user meets their daily XP [experience points] goal. It resets to zero when the goal is missed unless a streak freeze is bought in advance.” — “Streak” on Duolingo Wiki, Duolingo Fandom

The third side-note: I haven’t incorporated the “streak freeze” element into my game design yet, but I might in the future.

Feedback system

There are several score systems in this game. All of them are based on a point system. One point equals ten minutes.

So if you sleep exactly seven hours, then you get forty-two points (six points for each hour).

Here is the score I recorded this morning:
Diabetic Cyborg Life 8/10: Hope Can Win!
By: Adam, Diabetic Cyborg
Tags: Health, This Happened To Me, American History, Covid 19, Election 2020

In roughly 85 days the 2020 election will occur on November 3rd, 2020. As of 99 days till then, on July 27th, 2020 Trump and Biden are in a dead tie in Texas. I remind you that the state is blood red in all political happenings and functions, yet now it is a swing state in this election.

As of 99 days to the elections, all swing states with Biden and the new swing state of Texas look to be in his hands to lose. People may say Hilary was ahead at this point, but her perceived win was in polls and judgements that make even those poll heads do a facepalm. Nate Silver and pundits that showed her victory as a sure thing now see their errors, and I hope they will not repeat them.

The Real Clear Politics site has a “Direction of Country” poll that tracks “Right Direction” and “Wrong Track” polls where people see that administration is going. Trump was in the “Right Direction” until late February as COVID began making people sick across the US. Since his “Wrong Track” poll is blowing up and at 68.8 percent on July 27th, 2020, and on 23.3 percent in the “Right Direction.”

Let us hope these numbers hold up and trump is gone in 2021!

live video
Daily Wrap-up of Blockchain News
By: Pavel Romanenko
Tags: Blockchain, Cryptocurrency, Ethereum, Bitcoin, News

SEC to decide on 9 ETFs in the next two months, Microsoft Azure introduced a proof-of-authority algorithm, Opera is integrating a built-in crypto wallet. This is today’s wrap-up of blockchain news.

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is to decide on nine bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETF) in the next two months#Regulations #ETF

Microsoft Azure introduced a proof-of-authority (PoA) consensus algorithm to their Ethereum ledger product #Enterprise #ETH #Adoption

Opera is integrating built-in crypto wallet in it’s desktop browser#Adoption

Crypto exchange ShapeShift acquired a startup which makes exchange of bitcoin for other crypto assets more efficient #Crypto #Exchanges

Thailand’s new licensing system is reported to have attracted 20 crypto exchanges #Thailand #Regulations
Flowchain weekly report III
Tags: Blockchain, Flowchaincoin, Dlt, Flowchain, Token

Summary of this week

This week, CEO Jollen and we had a discussion about what parameter would affect the token price.

The problem could be further clarified by looking for the definition of “token” and studying its feature. Through the research and understanding of its features, we may find some clues to the token pricing and evaluation.

Research on the underlying technology

The reason is the technologies applied in the token are various, and so does the type of tokens.

“I think the technology behind a token is the most important factor of its value. The 90% of the value of a token is in its underlying technology, that is, only 10% is in the token itself.”, said Jollen.

Related to the Blockchain history

As we looked into the history of blockchain several weeks before, it is an application of “Distributed Ledger Technology” that can record transactions and other information between two parties efficiently and in a verifiable way.

A blockchain is originally a protocol for inter-node communication and validating new blocks.

A good blockchain should satisfy the “Decentralization, Security & Solidity”, and the introduction of a token is not necessary.

We focus on the utility token on a blockchain platform for some specific technical uses. For example, file coin, BAT or FLC.

There are some advantages of introducing a token such as increasing token agents’ loyalty and the liquidity of token in the crypto market. And the stabilization of utility token could help build a healthy blockchain ecosystem.

Efficient Market Hypothesis

Agents hold token for different reasons; one of them is the expectation of appreciation.

I wondered whether the crypto market was efficient or not, and were there any opportunities for insider trading.

Suppose the market is efficient, the efficient market hypothesis, or EMH, is available on this market whereby token prices could reflect all information.

Therefore, a token would always trade at their fair value on exchanges, making it impossible for investors to either purchase undervalued token or sell a token for inflated prices.

To simplify, we could suppose the parameter affecting the token price was based on its underlying technology.

Transaction velocity Consensus Network userbase Liquidity

The conclusion to the weekly report

It was a nice experience that we discussed what is the definition of token and what factors affect the token price.

We had a lot of imagination about the token pricing formula look like, but we need to conduct the research step by step.
Component-based illustration using Sketch, Part 2: Concept & Design
By: Rizki Mardita
Tags: Design, Components, Sketch, Design Systems, Illustration

In the previous article, we talked about the principles of illustration, style, characteristics and a short intro about the illustration components and usages.

Once we agree with those things, let’s move and dive into the concept and design process.

📒 Illustration Concepts

Before we decide what kind of illustration we will make. Here are some ways we need to do:

Step 1: Topic

Create some topic lists. This step gives a big picture of what we will create and helps us to determine the stories of the topic.

Define topic in 1 sentence (e.g. Something went wrong).

Step 2: Story

Create stories from each topic. Brainstorm together with the teams to find the most innovative ideas. Generate as many unique and distinct ideas as we can and convert ideas into stories.

Define the story in 1 or 2 sentences (e.g. Network experts are fixing the server).

Step 3: Component

Find the object in the illustration story and put it into the component list (e.g. Expert 1 (Man), Expert 2 (Man), Server, Server room as a background). Collect all the objects into component libraries.

This step keeps us focused on consistency and reminds us that our illustrations are component-based.

Step 4: Design Specs

Summarize the topics, stories, and components. Convert into the design specs to make designers easier to understand what they need to do. Here’s an example of the design specs:
Leadza Monthly — December (2017 results)
By: Victoria Fast
Tags: AI, Chatbots, Marketing, Virtual Assistant, Facebook Ads

With lots of feedback, thoughts, ideas and support from you, today, we are happy to share our results for the whole 2017 year, which was actually started in August for Leadza.ai virtual assistant.

Milestones in 2017

A ugust

Made 100+ interviews. Launched a private beta with core optimization tips: optimization tips based on age/gender performance, optimization tips based on platform/device/position performance and predictive budget allocation.

S eptember

Reached first 400 users. Added creative optimization tips and launched tips summary. Passed “310–101 Facebook Advertising Core Competencies exam” and became a Blueprint certified member.

O ctober

Implemented our killer feature “Automated tips implementation”. Launched our blog on Medium. Were accepted into the Bootstrap track of FbStart. Won people’s choice award on Go Tech Go Global Pitch.

N ovember

Reached 1000 users. Released Lookalike audience builder. Became a winner of the Russian Startups Go Global 2017 Pitch session.

D ecember

Launched on Producthunt.com. Showed our first case study. Pitched at 13th IIDF.vc demo day.

Wow, that was really a nice start this year, are you agree?

And here are some more amazing features that we have released in December…

Improved predictive modeling

Leadza can now better predict key campaign metrics like the number of actions and cost per action for the next day for which we use different prediction models. We updated our ML to more powerful choose of optimizations tips. Unlike rule-based optimization approach the system can take into account different metrics simultaneously and find the optimal balance between your KPIs.

Subscription to preferred ad accounts

Now you can choose which ad accounts to optimize. Just subscribe to those which really matter for you at the moment and get ultimate tips to improve your advertising results.

Campaign level budget allocation

We have found that many users want to optimize their Post Engagement campaigns. But usually what they do is running a new campaign for each post they promote. That’s why we simplified our predictive budget allocation. Now the system automatically recognizes campaigns with the same optimization goal and action type and suggests your to allocate budget on the campaign level. Enjoy!

Referral program

Tell your friends to try Leadza using the SHARE button inside the app and get 60$ “Pro” account for free for each three authorized friends.

Still optimize campaigns manually? Try Leadza now!

We’re really excited about all the new features we’re adding to Leadza. Feel free to let us know what you think in the comments below and stay tuned for our updates in January! 💥
Flashbulb Memories: Vivid But Wrong
By: The Team W
Tags: Memory, Flashbulb Memory

In this podcast episode we talk about a type of memory called “flashbulb” — strong, vivid memories of emotionally charged events that are often inaccurate. And we discuss how collective memories might be changing as media technology changes.

(If you want to read more about memory, check out this blog post on the topic.)

Your browser does not support the audio element.

Human Tech is a podcast at the intersection of humans, brain science, and technology. Your hosts Guthrie and Dr. Susan Weinschenk explore how behavioral and brain science affects our technologies and how technologies affect our brains.

You can subscribe to the HumanTech podcast through iTunes, Stitcher, or where ever you listen to podcasts.
KeeperDAO v1 is Live
Tags: Game Theory, Arbitrage, Defi, Ethereum

The growth of DeFi applications brings increased dependence on arbitrageurs and liquidators to ensure orderly liquidations, provide liquidity backstop, and facilitate good market health. However, until now, this has been an opaque market with multiple challenges faced by traders:

Opportunity cost of capital. Market participants need to have funds set aside in order to capture opportunities when they arise, and large liquidation opportunities are capital intensive in nature. Without a predictable and consistent liquidity pool to draw upon, the DeFi space is subject to gap risk, such as on March 12th.

High entry barrier. Maintaining infrastructure to continuously scan and execute liquidation and arbitrage transactions are operationally and financially costly, making it hard for the average investor to partake in these activities.

Gas costs. Executing profitable trades are mainly dependent on bidding up transaction fees in order to obtain priority queuing for the next Ethereum block (Priority Gas Auctions, ‘PGAs’). Large sums of money are spent in PGAs in order to win trades, increasing costs and reducing profit for all. Before today, keepers have been locked in a “race to the bottom” for profits.

KeeperDAO presents a new way to solve these problems. At the heart of KeeperDAO is a communal liquidity pool. Anyone can borrow from the pool to leverage on-chain opportunities (eg. liquidating a position in Compound, taking over a Maker CDP, rebalancing a SET basket, or taking advantage of arbitrage between Kyber and Uniswap). Profits from the on-chain opportunity are guaranteed to be returned to the pool (through a mechanism similar to flash loans). In this way, the KeeperDAO Liquidity Pool acts as an insurance fund for DeFi.

There are significant economic advantages to joining the keeper liquidity pool.

Shared Capital and Profit. By utilizing the liquidity pool, keepers are able to capture opportunities that are larger than what they could capture individually.

Reduced Competition. The second function of the liquidity pool is to reduce competition in PGAs. Consider two uncooperative keepers that are trying to capture the same on-chain opportunity. Profits are not shared, so the keepers will participate in PGAs that ultimately minimize their profit. By pooling capital, profits are shared proportionally, and the keepers no longer have to engage in gas wars that will consume their profit.

In order to align the incentives for the 2 stakeholders in the KeeperDAO system (keepers and LPs), we aim to introduce a native governance token. The token will allow token-holders to propose and vote on all protocol upgrades, as well as administering the profit share between LPs and keepers, alongside new system proposals.

We will be releasing more information on this over the forthcoming weeks; stay tuned for more!

Keep in the loop:

Website |App| Twitter| Discord
Juneteenth
By: Background Noise Comics
Tags: Humor, Cartoon, Equality, Juneteenth, Comics

We gripe a lot about our phones. But there is something to be said for having a fast means of passing along information.
Chalkboard Thoughts — Dec 12, 2020 — Episode 3 — Brexit!
By: Michael De Groot
Tags: Chalkboardthoughts, Europe, Brexit, Stayingaliveuk, Shareyourstory

The U.K. is on the verge of leaving the EU without any kind of trade deal, it’ called WTO Rules, or World Trade Organisation Rules. Nice considering we were all told that by Boris Johnson the deal was ‘oven ready’. Some of you will remember Theresa May who frequently used the phrase ‘Brexit means Brexit’. But actually that’s not what it means at all. Brexit means something different for many people, for some it’s their job they will lose, for others, their business turnover will suffer, for others it means holidays will not be as convenient. I’m Dutchman and have been in the UK for over 40+ years, still have my Dutch Passport and yes I applied and received approval to stay in the UK indefinitely and I’ve never been a big fan of Brussels, however I do believe the whole Brexit matter has been unbelievably badly dealt with. So what does Brexit mean for you?
When a video game sequel is not a sequel anymore
Tags: Sequel, Videogames, Overwatch, Prequel, Path Of Exile

Keep in mind that I didn’t account for the always-expanding story and universe, all the while adding new guns, characters, and mechanics. Arguably, one could say that Warframe is a “mish-mash” of two or more games. And, as expected, this brings some new problems to the players that weren’t there on the original release, the worst of all being that it is necessary to play dozens — or even hundreds — of hours to see what the game really has to offer. At some point, the gameplay is even flipped upside down after unlocking some abilities, forcing a new approach to the maps and enemies.

Path of Exile followed suit over the years, although in a less chaotic way. There were no huge changes to the gameplay loop, only additions and some new mechanics. Considering that both games have a very fair business model, being F2P without “pay to win” items, that is expected for their continual survival.

Just look at the (now defunct) Marvel Heroes. That game was re-released almost yearly as a way to signalize that things changed, and to avoid being punished by low scores that weren’t updated as the game polished its experience.

As told by PCGamesN in this article:

Realising how far they’d come, Brevik had the game rebranded as Marvel Heroes 2015 in order to advertise the fact that this was a true rebirth, and hopefully attract new players and re-reviews. It worked. “It was very successful for us; it raised our Metacritic score to 81.”

During its lifetime, the game was called Marvel Heroes, Marvel Heroes 2015, Marvel Heroes 2016, and Marvel Heroes Omega, each iteration better received than the previous one.
Book Review: Finish & Publish
By: Eric Sentell
Tags: Writing, Finish And Publish, Motivation, Publishing, Book Review

Book Review: Finish & Publish

Editor, Marketer Cara Stein helps aspiring writers become published authors

Cover of Finish & Publish by Cara Stein (used with permission)

I really, really wish this book had existed before I self-published on Amazon.

Author coach and book editor, designer, and marketer Cara Stein promises the following “transformation” for her readers: “the information you need to go from aspiring writer to published author.”

Finish & Publish more than delivers on that promise. Stein distills her experience helping launch over 200 books, writing and marketing 8 of her own books, and running Project Bestseller into a concise guide filled with actionable information and additional resources.

Finish & Publish walks writers of both fiction and nonfiction through the process of planning, writing, finishing, designing, publishing, and marketing a book. She covers formatting and publishing in multiple formats and platforms, not just Amazon.

Stein gets straight to the point with her advice, cramming each chapter with valuable information. She speaks directly to the unique needs of fiction and nonfiction writers when necessary, but mostly she offers universally helpful advice and resources.

Each chapter ends by summing up the “action steps” authors should implement from that chapter. The book also contains links to additional resources. The appendix of resources alone merits the purchase price.

Any author who doesn’t already know publishing inside-and-out could use Stein’s advice and resources to launch both a successful book and a full-fledged writing career.

Below, I highlight the Finish & Publish’s most significant take-aways for me based on my experience writing and self-publishing two books on Amazon. Depending on where you’re at in your writing and publishing journey, you may find some of Stein’s other advice or resources more significant.
It happened abruptly. He’s in the bargaining phase.
By: Lisa Martens
Tags: Health, Short Story, Family, Fiction, Life

It happened abruptly. He’s in the bargaining phase.

If I’m good, she will get better.

Photo by Nyana Stoica on Unsplash

He puts his dish in the sink. He thinks about it. Then he puts his dish in the dishwasher. He puts more dishes in the dishwasher.

He puts his shoes away without asking. I see it and I know what’s happening.

I tell him what a good job he’s doing. What a good boy he is. What a big help he is.

I’m not quite sure how to say the other thing.

That him putting dishes in the dishwasher won’t cure her.

Him putting dishes in the dishwasher will just make it slightly easier for me to turn the dishwasher on.

That’s all it means.

It’s not a tally. There’s no number of chores he can do that will equal a cure for cancer.

It hurts to realize that.

It hurts to realize how powerless you are.

When you expect the world to be pointy, sharp, and meaningful, and instead find out there’s just a dull ache the whole way through. That things just keep happening, and when things are dark, you just find glimmering embers in the dark and fan them.

And hope they turn into flames.

Warm fires to sit around.