fabiochiu/medium-articles huggingface dataset:
No women, no growth — The case for increasing women’s leadership in Latin America
By: World Bank
Tags: Leadership, Politics, Gender, Growth, Latin America

Latin America is up against a momentous year on multiple fronts. On one hand, game-changing national elections in six countries, including three of its largest — Brazil, Mexico and Colombia — are poised to reshape the political scenario in the region. In parallel, the economic agenda is front and center of countries’ efforts to overcome imbalances, implement reforms and accelerate growth. As a backdrop to all this, an important feminist movement is unfolding on the heels of a year marked by discussions on gender equality, with critical implications on both the political and economic spheres.

How do these connect?

Political uncertainties can affect the economy as they tend to curb foreign investment, devaluate local currencies and increase interest rates. On the flip side, fostering gender equality supports economic resilience and boosts growth. It is also critical in achieving development outcomes, as outlined in Goal 5 of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.



Latin American countries have made great strides toward reducing gender inequalities in recent decades. Women have gained a greater foothold in the labor market and in access to health. They now exceed men in years of schooling and in life expectancy rates. And women’s political participation has increased. Despite these advances, however, a wide gender gap remains. According to the Global Gender Gap Report the region still needs to close a 29.8% gender gap, which will take another 79 years.



The figures are a stark reminder that women represent about 50% of the region’s population, but account for 41% of the labor force and earn on average 16% less than men. Moreover, occupational segregation remains high and better educational achievement has not led to higher paying jobs for women. Indeed, wage disparity in skilled jobs — as high as 25.6% — continues to impede women’s economy empowerment.



The gap further widens when moving up the ladder of leadership. Only 29.3% of parliamentarians regionally are women (Figure 1), with considerably lower rates in a number of countries. And this year’s elections marathon may not accelerate progress. As of March, Latin America has no female heads of state. In 2014, however, the region boasted the largest number of women heads of state, with female presidents in Costa Rica, Argentina, Brazil, and Chile. Now, there is little expectation of achieving that again in the near future.
What exactly is Data Analytics?
By: Sanjay Verma
Tags: Data Analyst, Data Analysis, Data Science, Data, Data Visualization

Data Analytics has been the trendy expression for a long time now. Either the information being created from enormous enterprises or the information produced from an individual, every single part of information should be taken advantage of. In any case, how would we do it? That is the where the term ‘Data Analytics’ comes in.

For what reason is Data Analytics significant?

As a gigantic measure of information gets created, the need to understand valuable insights is an absolute necessity for a business venture. Data Analytics has a key job in improving your business. Here are 4 principle factors which enforce the requirement for Data Analytics:

Assemble Hidden Insights — Hidden bits of knowledge from data is accumulated and afterward investigated for business analysis.

2. Produce Reports — Reports are created from the information and are given to the employees for further analysis.

3. Perform Market Analysis — Market Analysis can be performed to comprehend the qualities and the shortcomings of the competition.

4. Improve Business Requirement — Analysis of Data enables improving customer relations.

Data Analyst- Can you be one?

Data examiners interpret numbers into plain English. They take data and use it for deciphering, investigating, and showing discoveries in far reaching reports. In the event that you have the ability to gather information from different sources, dissect the information, accumulate concealed bits of knowledge and create reports, at that point you can turn into a Data Analyst.

On the off chance that you are somebody hoping to get into this fascinating vocation, now would be the perfect time to upskill and exploit the Data Analysis profession openings that come your direction. If you are a software engineer who is looking to up his game, head on over to www.lrned.io . Being India’s fastest career accelerator, it not only makes you one of the elite, it also helps you get decorated positions in decorated companies. So, head on over to www.LrnEd.io and apply now!
Methods and Uses of Feature Scaling
By: Abhishek Kathuria
Tags: Scikit Learn, Data Science, Machine Learning, Sklearn

We know that a lot of machine learning models are based on Euclidean Distance between the two points, excluding some cases such as decision tress, etc.

Euclidean distance is the distance between two data points. It is the square root of the sum of square of coordinates, that is, the square room of the sum of square of abscissa and ordinate.

A graphical representation of Euclidean Distance

W hat is Feature Scaling?

It refers to putting the values in the same range or same scale so that no variable is dominated by the other.

It is mostly used in the categorical data where the categories are assigned simple integers such as 0,1,2… which might represent different categories. But the problem is that when we put this through a machine learning model, it may interpret it as the weightage or something else . For instance, it may use 0 as the least preference and 2 as a high preference. After all it’s a machine! So to avoid that, we use feature scaling.

In this tutorial, we will be using SciKit-Learn libraries to demonstrate various feature scaling techniques.

Importing the data

import matplotlib.pyplot as plt

import numpy as np

import pandas as pd

dataset= pd.read_csv("C:\data/data.csv")

dataset[:5]

As we can see that the column “Age” and “Estimated Salary” are out of scale, we can scale them using various scaling techniques.

Splitting the data

from sklearn.cross_validation import train_test_split X=dataset.iloc[:,2:4].values

# A matrix of all the independent variables

Y=dataset.iloc[:,-1:].values

# A matrix of all the dependent variables X_train,X_test,y_train,y_test = train_test_split(X,Y, test_size=0.25,random_state=0) X_train[:5]

Various methods of feature scaling:

1. Standardization

It is also called Z-score normalization. It calculates the z-score of each value and replaces the value with the calculated Z-score. The Z-score can be calculated by the following formula:

Where σ is the variance and x̄ is the mean.

The features are then rescaled with x̄ =0 and σ=1

Library used: StandardScalar

from sklearn.preprocessing import StandardScaler

sc=StandardScaler()

X_train1=sc.fit_transform(X_train) X_train1[:5]

2. Min-Max Scaling:

It is also referred to as Normalization. The features are scaled between 0 and 1. Here, the mean value remains same as in Standardization, that is, 0.

The formula is given as:

Library used: MinMaxScaler

from sklearn.preprocessing import MinMaxScaler

scaler = MinMaxScaler()

X_train2=scaler.fit_transform(X_train)

X_train2[:5]

3. Binarizing

It is used for binary thresholding of an array like matrix.

Library used: Binarizer

from sklearn import preprocessing

X_train3=preprocessing.Binarizer(0.0).fit(X_train).transform(X_train) X_train2[:5]

4. Normalizing

It is used to rescale each sample. Each sample (i.e. each row of the data matrix) with at least one non zero component is rescaled independently of other samples so that its norm (l1 or l2) equals one.

Library used: Normalizer
Abstract
By: Vaghawan Ojha
Tags: Poetry, Poetry On Medium, Art, Love, Life

Come through the windy face of the sky,

Reflect yourself into my eyes,

Floating bubbles stroking your hair,

Transforming you into a lucid dream

Of angles,

I will lay, perched,

Here,

This earth, into my breath,

In the lack of imagery dream,

Be my abstract,

My abstract,

Dear;
Small Multiples in Power BI: Supercharge Your Dashboards
By: Žiga Milek
Tags: Finance, Power Bi, Small Multiples, Data Visualization, Webinar

Examples of small multiples in Power BI

Sales in 8 markets

Take a look at the this simple example:

First, there are eight charts representing sales in eight countries, which is the defining feature of small multiples. The second mandatory feature is that they are rendered using the same scale, meaning the Y-axis needs to have the same maximum across all the charts.

Just a glance is enough to see that the US is the biggest market with planned 25 % growth. Germany, on the other hand, has lower growth potential despite being a similarly large market. France has been declining for the past 3 years and this is expected to continue.

On-time delivery of products

Let’s take a look at another example to really show you the power of small multiples. This one displays on-time delivery performance in relation to the goal:

The company’s goal is to have 80% of its products delivered on time across all categories. The goal is visualized with the dashed line.

Once you have information aggregated on a single screen, you can start working on making it more meaningful. For example, using a combination of a line and area chart — called the Hills and Valleys Chart — emphasizes the positive and negative variance in relation to the goal.

The red and green variances make it much easier to spot what’s going on. We can see that the Cell phones category had serious issues that were resolved, while Video games are on an improvement trend.

Retail sales by category

Another great example of using small multiples is sales. Below is a sales dashboard for a retail company:

One look is all it takes to see that women’s fashion segment is in serious trouble.

Multiple KPIs

Until now we dealt with small multiples that visualized a single KPI, like market share, sales category and similar. This is the simplest type of a small multiples. The data is simply repeated over and over for all categories.

The next example is a bit more complex. We are visualizing multiple KPIs of the profit & loss statement:

This is dashboard is harder to build because KPIs can have different meanings. For example, while revenue growth is normally marked in green, any growth in costs should be marked in red because that’s a negative trend in a KPI.

When creating a small multiples dashboard like this, you need to be pay attention to the type of the KPI and know when its meaning should be reversed.
Random, meaningless junk.
By: Danell Tenyenhuis Black
Tags: Grief, Memories, Love, Loss, Short Form

Random, meaningless junk. Or is it a time capsule? I choose to call it a time capsule. The children and grandchildren of the original owner can assign their own meaning. I believe that they, like me, will see the meaning and value of the items I have preserved. My hope is that my daughters will look through it and imagine their father alive and vibrant. And his future grandchildren will get a glimpse of the Opa/Nonno they will never know. Yes, I could discard much of the box and no one would know. But if he chose to keep these items, don’t they have meaning? I will let those who open the time capsule decide for themselves. I think they will understand the value.
6 Quotes by Aristotle That Will Help You Develop Your Wisdom
By: Mighty Knowledge
Tags: Life Lessons, Self Improvement, Philosophy, Inspiration, Ideas

6 Quotes by Aristotle That Will Help You Develop Your Wisdom

Philosophy for life

Image by morhamedufmg from Pixabay

Aristotle (384–322 B.C.E.) was a Greek philosopher, considered to be one of the greatest philosophers of all time. Along with Socrates and Plato, he laid the foundation for all of western philosophy, even until today.

The word “philosophy” literally means the “love” (philo in Greek) of “wisdom” (sophia). At the fundamental level, philosophy is the study of how you can live through wisdom. That means really trying to understand and answer a few core questions: Who are you really? What is your character? What is right and wrong? What is wisdom and how can one acquire it? How can one live through wisdom?

Aristotle wrote and said many things to try to answer those questions. There is much to be learned from his attempted answers which are saved today in the form of quotations. The following are 6 quotes by Aristotle that will help you develop your own wisdom.
The Case for Data Regulation: Lessons from History
By: Dragos Tomescu
Tags: Privacy, Data Science, Study, European Union

Every major, and perhaps most minor, advances in technological development have come with drawbacks. Farming provided us with food security but forced us to settle and live in communities, resulting in low-hygiene living areas where diseases could spread quickly throughout communities. Antibiotics allowed us to defeat many previously fatal diseases, and made many surgical interventions a low-risk procedure, yet abusing them lead to resistant strains of bacteria.

As a (future) data scientist, you might be very much excited about what the stream of personal information can offer. As am I. And so should we all. After all, data science is set on the path for a momentous change. From health sciences to personal management, data science applications can do much about improving our life. Data availability is at an all-time high and increasing. Computational technologies enable us to process data easier than ever, and some of the results are nothing short of remarkable.

Yet, as it has been illustrated in Cathy O’Neil’s Weapons of Math Destruction, a book discussing the (mis)applications of algorithms, there are several ways of misusing it. Legislation could help prevent misuse. But legislation can be slow to adjust, and it is constrained by the tradeoff between safety and innovation. Over-regulate and you will constrain innovation; don’t, and you will allow room for misuse.

As of May 25th this year, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is coming into effect throughout the EU. In a nutshell, the new legislation is aimed at protecting privacy by empowering individuals to seek information with regards to the data held on them as well as how it is used by the organisation in question. It also gives individuals the “right to be forgotten”, as long as information isn’t in “the public interest”. The legislation applies to all organisations operating within the EU territory, regardless of their official location, and failure to comply can result in penalties of “up to 4% of annual global turnover or €20 Million (whichever is greater)”. In addition, it forces organisations to keep internal records, notify subjects of data breaches within 72 hours and data-intensive organisations are required to appoint a “Data Protection Officer”.

Knowing that your customers are watching you makes you think twice about how far you’re willing to go.

This is a major step forward. Granting people access to their information, and how it’s being used, should uphold organisations not only to act within the law, but to a higher ethical standard. After all, knowing that your customers are watching what you do with their data makes you think twice about how far you’re willing to go.

Or does it? In many respects, this is a similar scenario to the ‘chase-up’ between regulators and financial institutions over the last two centuries or so.
Exposure to the Blockchain? Yes, but HOW MUCH?
By: Kenny Hearn
Tags: Iconomi, Ethereum, Blockchain, Bitcoin, Investing

We get this question a lot from our clients. Like most things in life it depends on the individual. However, here we provide some guidelines.

Whether governments or institutions like it or not, the Blockchain technology revolution is here to stay. That much we are certain of and we love disruption (here is a great read: Anti-fragile). Smart contracts and the applications using this technology will shape a new future in how we interact with one another and the physical reality around us. Smart contracts coupled with smart hardware will enable the “Internet of Things” to really integrate into improving lives on the planet.

Back to the point — How much?

To me it really depends on how much longer you think you have left on the planet and what level of certainty you need in your life. These two aspects are the barometer one should use on the age group scale we provide below.

The more time you think you have left on the planet, the greater the benefit and value one will be able to derive from using the Blockchain, over and above the financial returns (side note: Remember value will be generated out of interacting with the system not necessarily out of ownership as it has been in the past).

Secondly, the more certainty you as an individual needs in your life will determine what level of exposure you can palate. Trust me, things are going to be volatile!

Individual Blockchain Portfolio Exposure:

Under 30 years: 10–25%

30–40 years: 5–20%

40+ years: 2–5%

No matter what age you are — look for all the many ways to start generating side income streams from the Blockchain ecosystem. It is designed to reward those who interact with it! Use it or lose it. But, watch out for the scammers, they are out there guys — a simple Google search should do the trick. More on this to come!

Pura Vida!

If you would like to get in contact:

Chat with us on our Telegram group: https://t.me/asymmetryam_AAAX

Email us at: info@asymmetryam.com

Visit us on Facebook and Twitter

Disclaimer: Any content published by Asymmetry Asset Management or its affiliates is not intended to constitute individual investment advice and is not designed to meet your personal financial situation. The opinions expressed in such publications are those of the publisher and are subject to change without notice. The information in such publications may become outdated and there is no obligation to update any such information.
As Facebook’s David Marcus leaves Coinbase, could there be a secret card
By: Ref Crypto
Tags: Coins, Blockchain Technology, Blockchain

As Facebook’s David Marcus leaves Coinbase, could there be a secret card

“Who knows, one day an acquisition of Coinbase could be in the cards,” observed Ryan Gilbert, a partner at Propel Venture Partners and who is a small investor at Coinbase.

Gilberts was expressing his thoughts after news broke that David Marcus, head of Messenger at Facebook, was resigning from being a member of the board of directors at Coinbase. But as David Marcus leaves Coinbase could there be some huge partnership news that are bound to hit us any time soon.

David, as he was resigning, said that he was leaving Coinbase to avoid a possible “conflict of interest” seeing that he also has blockchain projects role at Facebook.

“While Facebook hasn’t talked publicly about its plans in blockchain, speculation has swirled that the social network could make a big splash in the fledgling market, through a potential acquisition of Coinbase,” reported CNBC.

Over the years, Facebook is known for its keen eye on any developing startup that is driving social interactions. Given the example of Instagram and WhatsApp among others.

With Facebook valued at around 500 billion US dollars and Coinbase standing at around 8 billion US dollars, Facebook is well poised if an acquisition card is at all on the way.

Apart from Facebook’s strong wallet status, Coinbase has an impressive record, and it’s the kind that would give Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s CEO, one or two sleepless nights.

According to data from Altana Digital Currency Fund, as of December 2017, Coinbase had a little over 13 million users indicating an impressive percentage increase from 2016 when the number of users stood at 4.7 million. With Facebook’s appetite for rapidly growing user-focused platforms, an acquisition could not be too far away.

But even if the possibilities of an acquisition could be available, Facebook is yet to entirety clean its image concerning the privacy of user data after the Cambridge Analytica scandal.

For Coinbase and Facebook, there is no indication of any being acquired or acquiring, for now. Coinbase continues to expand the number of digital coins listed and Facebook continues to explore the possibility of using the distributed ledger technology to manage data privacy.

As David Marcus leaves Coinbase, do you think we should expect some unique partnerships between Facebook and Coinbase given Facebook’s appetite for fast growing user engaging startups?

Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below.
[NodeJS] Express source code — Router, Route, Layer
By: Franky Tse
Tags: Expressjs, JavaScript, Self Improvement

Relationship between Router, Route and Layer

You may think there is an app.get function in application.js so that this function can be called. Yes, it is. However, the author used a clever way to avoid declaring a bunch of HTTP verb action functions in application.js. A function methods.forEach(...) has been used. When we use require function, that js file is going to run once. When it comes to methods.forEach() in the runtime, it will set up those bunch of HTTP verb actions function into the app object. Therefore, it can delegate the HTTP verb action function to the router[method] function.

Using debugger to show the function after app.get

function to handle different HTTP verb action

A router has been initialised by the function lazyrouter() . One thing worth mentioning is that there is a router stack(actually an array in JS) for saving routes. After that, the route method in the router will be executed and make a new Route and use a Layer to wrap it. Route also has a stack to store the functions that should be called when matching a specific route.

Therefore, The relationship of Router , Route and Layer can be shown as follow:

relationship between Layer, Router, Route

Router stack is inside express application. The bottom one should be app router, maybe other routers on top. In each router, there is a route stack which to store the functions that need to be executed when endpoint gets hit.

Conclusion

We have covered several things in this article. Here are some key takeaways. May be the topic next time will focus on req and res mechanism. If you have any questions or comments, please comment down below or reach me on Twitter(@frankytse_07). See you.
#WhatIWantedToWear: Auntiji
By: Alok Vaid-Menon
Tags: Transgender, Gender, Wiwtw

Here’s the thing: being fabulous doesn’t protect you. Compliments don’t keep you safe. The thing about being a transfeminine person is that everyone always remarks on how “fierce” or “fabulous” you are, but few people ask how you are getting home. Every day I look at my closet I have to ask myself how I’m getting home. Every day I look at my closet I have to ask myself how I’m feeling that day. Am I ready to endure constant street harrassment? Am I ready to be gawked at? Am I ready to have people take photos of me without their consent? Am I coming home late?

I hate how our society evaluates peoples’ gender identities based off of what they look like. If I had it my way I would dress femme every single day. But I don’t, because I can’t. Often I’m too afraid. Often I’m too tired. When I look at people on the subway I try to think about all of the outfits that they would have worn, could have worn, how they could have fashioned their bodies if we lived in a world where being different is demonized.

Today I had a photo shoot in my house. What I love about being at home is that I can wear whatever the hell I want! I’m that girl who will call you over for tea and be wearing the most extravagant outfit. People will ask: “Where are you going?” I wonder: Why do we have to be leaving somewhere to be dressed up? Being at home makes me feel most safe.

When I left the house after the shoot I decided to wear the outfit on the right. I knew that people would probably read me as a gay man. But I knew that would probably get me home without being followed. Sometimes that feels like enough.

**I use the gender neutral pronouns “they/them**
Globalization in ASP.NET Core
By: Gonzalo Zamudio
Tags: Software Development, Net Core, Aspnetcore, Microsoft

Globalization in ASP.NET Core

How to globalize an application in an agile and simple way

This post is a follow up for Persisting data in .NET Core, focusing on the globalization of our application. Let’s have fun!

Introduction

While working on a project using ASP.NET Core we needed a simple way to globalize the application. In .NET, the most common way is to use .resx files, is through Visual Studio.

Visual Studio offers a very useful tool to manage, add, and edit or remove key-value tuples that allow one to use the functionality very easily.

This is possible only when working in Windows, so we were forced to investigate alternative options since manually managing the .resx files can be annoying. Through our research, we found the possibility of using JSON files. With a simple configuration, there is no need to depend on any external tools, only a text editor and a small library which we developed based on this post and this repository.

Configuring the project

The first step is adding the LocalizationCultureCore NuGet package to the project.

Next, we have to edit the Startup.cs and set the location of the JSON files in ConfigureServices.cs method:

In this example, the folder titled Resources contains the JSON files, so we will have to create it in the root of the project. The second line that we add allows us to use localization in views. Also, if you want to set a default culture, you can do it as it’s done in the last line of the example above.

Adding cultures

If we want to use multiple languages, we must add, for each one, a JSON file with the corresponding culture name. For example: en-US.json , fr-FR.json , es-MX.json , etc. Inside each file, we must put the keys that we will use later in the views and the controllers and their respective value, refer to the following example:

Using localization in controllers

In order to add the functionality in a controller, we will add the reference and update the constructor method:

And in the ViewData the value of that key is stored, according to the language that is configured.

Using localization in views
Truths Unveiled
Tags: Interfaith, Poetry, Revelation, Poem, Truth

Truths Unveiled

A poem.

Envision now; distortion ended,

which blocks the eye within the brow.

Fortunes now mended,

to receive the knowing clearly,

without doubt, shame, or fear.

Lies and deception disappear,

so revelation comes in swift.

The sight, the truth, the gift,

turns confusion into clarity for the significant shift.
Distract Ourselves
By: Kamga Tchassa
Tags: Poetry, Self, Social Media, Distraction, Poem

Photo by Neil Soni on Unsplash

Distract Ourselves

A Poem

Let us distract ourselves to death.

For there is no tomorrow.

Get screens — borrow, steal, or beg.

The news must be followed.

You’re not living if you don’t have the new tech.

It’s being trendy, not hollow.

Be not afraid to voice your thoughts on the net,

Your opinions all matter! How can it be shallow?

Today’s Nikki, tomorrow’s someone getting canceled — “ooh, wonder whose next” ? How could they kill The Sopranos?

Load the notifications, urgent text!

Let the comments bubble up volcanoes!

So, let us distract ourselves to death.

Like there’s no tomorrow.

Get screens — borrow, steal, or beg.

The news must be followed.

Until moon dust settles the deck,

Until silence is all the big bang left,

Until entropy is reversed,

Until time stops to matter — and there’s not today, yesterday, or tomorrow.
Allow Me To Contradict
By: Artemis Inks
Tags: Mental Health Awareness, Short Read, Depression, Poetry On Medium, Poetry

Oh, My dear reader,

that constant who never leaves your side,

are they loud today?

My Dark Inky friend has been awake for days.

I look after it, I calm it, I do everything they tell me to.

But that doesn’t change the fact:

I will always live with my Dark Inky friend.

There is one thing I can rely on.

They will always awaken and raid my mind for days on end.

But, allow me to contradict.

I can always depend on them waking,

I can always depend on them sleeping.

Eventually, they will grow tired.

And as they sleep,

that is when we live.

Artemis Inks
Julian Assange’s ‘Autobiography’ is Just 50 Hours of Interviews
By: Choire Sicha
Tags: Fake Autobiographies, Julian Assange, Autobiographies

Despite acres of publicity and buckets of scandal, Julian Assange’s unauthorised autobiography sold just 644 copies last week.

Created with Assange’s cooperation (according to its publisher Canongate the Wikileaks founder spent more than 50 hours being interviewed for it) but published against his wishes, the book went on sale last Thursday amid widespread coverage and serialisation in the Independent.

— Wait. Did we “know” that Assange’s “autobiography” was based on “more than” 50 WHOLE HOURS of interviews? I mean, gosh, that’s 2.12 whole days! We probably did know that, but I guess maybe it was glossed a bit in the promotion? Fully ridiculous! Alice B. Toklas spent more time writing her autobiography. Also, sure doesn’t leave him with much of a copyright claim against the book, does it now. This guy!
3 Mysterious British Paintings That Will Spark Your Creativity
By: Katya Korovkina
Tags: Art History, Art, Museums, Visual Design, Culture

A Bigger Splash (1967)

David Hockney is one of the most popular artists nowadays. He’s one of my favourite painters, too, as his work is both very joyful and strange. Being a great experimenter and educator of the art world, Hockney has been using iPad to create hundreds of paintings since 2009. Luckily he’s British, too, so Tate owns some of his work.

A Bigger Splash is David Hockney’s best known masterpiece, which he had made after visiting and falling in love with California. The painting stirs the imagination: there’s nobody in sight, and the scene is almost perfectly still — apart from the splash. The palms, the heat, and the sunlit house make the situation look so inviting, and yet something is haunting about it as if there is a secret a viewer has to solve.

A Bigger Splash by David Hockney © Tate

David Hockney used some special techniques to contrast the dynamic splash and the dead still surroundings. First of all, he painted the blocks of colour with a paint-roller, applying two-three layers of acrylic until it was opaque. He then was painting the splash for two weeks, accurately reproducing it from a photograph with small brush strokes. A wide border around the picture is left uncovered by paint, which makes it resemble a polaroid photo.

Though inspired by photos, Hockney only uses them as an additional tool to remember information. Otherwise, he thinks a photograph “isn’t real enough”.

“Everything on a flat surface is stylized, including the photograph. Some people think the photograph is reality; they don’t realize that it’s just another form of depiction.”

Another inspiration for Hockney was his trip to Egypt and the composition of Egyptian tomb paintings, where figures and objects are carefully arranged on the flat surface. Many of his later portraits seemed to be influenced by it, as well as by Renaissance art.

David Hockney’s shares a lot of secrets of visual expression and art techniques in his book A History Of Pictures: From The Cave To The Computer Screen, written together with Martin Gayford, a famous art critic.
Breaking down Data Science
By: Emily Zhao
Tags: Data Analysis, Data, Data Science, Data Visualization

The term “data science” first came around in 2001 for a field that’s been around for much longer. Fun fact, the term was coined by DJ Patil, former Chief Data Scientist of the U.S. Office of Science and Technology Policy and UCSD alum! In 2015, the role Data Scientist was ranked by Glassdoor as the number one job in America.

Data Scientists collect, manage, analyze and interpret large amounts of data with a wide range of applications. There are many roles or titles one can have in the data science field — from the more programming-heavy sides such as Data Engineer or Data Architect to the more statistical roles such as Data Analyst or Statistician.

Data Science is a fastly growing field with a diverse array of applications to many fields including business, healthcare, government, telecommunications, sports, and more.

These applications include advertising analytics, recommender systems, image and speech recognition, gaming, healthcare diagnostics, fraud detection, sports analytics, and much more.

Common technical skills among those in data science roles include computer programming (R, Python, SQL), math (statistics and probability), and machine learning.
Beautifully Broken
By: Edie Tuck
Tags: Broken, Worthy, Beautiful, Love, Poetry

Quiet, like the night

You disappear, soundlessly

Into thin air, then reappear

A butterfly with folded wings

Afraid to fly

Simply, you exist

But no peace fills your soul

Only anguish, doubt

And yet your wings

So vibrant and light

Bear witness to your scars

Softly sweet, like a kiss

You want to be seen, loved

But you fail to see that to be seen

To be loved

You must first see yourself

Love yourself

Spread your wings, scars and all

For they are beautiful, like you

Know you are worthy to soar

You shy away, hide yourself

Beneath the cloak you’ve made

Wrapping your wings around you

Like a broken shield

And you sleep
Testing a Chatbot with k-folds Cross Validation
By: Andrew R. Freed
Tags: Watson Assistant, Continuous Improvement, Maintenance, Methodology, Ibm Watson

Use k-folds cross validation to train like a pro! Photo by Sven Mieke on Unsplash

This post is part of a series:

1) Testing a Chatbot with k-folds Cross Validation

2) Analyze chatbot classifier performance from logs

3) Improve a chatbot classifier with production data

In the embedded video I demonstrate doing a k-folds cross validation test with the WA-Testing-Tool.

K-folds cross validation helps you find confusion in your training data and intents. It does NOT predict runtime performance on utterances it has not previously seen, however it can help determine if your initial intent structure is clear or confusing, as well as identify places where additional training is needed. You should perform k-folds during bot development, after you have done enough user research to determine what intents they need from the chatbot but before you distribute the assistant to a broader audience.

In the video I demonstrate how to run a k-folds cross validation test and how to interpret the results. I identify areas for improvement which can include intent refinement (add/remove/merge) or areas where additional training data may be needed. I do not act on these suggestions in this video. In follow-on videos I show how to use production log data to analyze runtime performance and to improve the chatbot from runtime data.

10 minute video on testing a chatbot with k-folds cross validation

(The training data I used came from the Customer Care content catalog.)

For help in implementing these practices, reach out to IBM Data and AI Expert Labs and Learning.
I’m tired of hijab.
By: Ethar El-Katatney
Tags: Hijab, Media, Islam

When I was 19, I stood on stage and talked about being propositioned by a university professor. I said he was a dirty old man and repeated some of the choice phrases women hear every day in the streets of Egypt.

When I left the theater later that evening, I overheard two men:

“Isn’t she ashamed of herself for saying such dirty words when she’s veiled?!”

Photo Credit: Egypt Today (This is me, fyi)

Fast forward five years. I sat on a panel next to the president of Catalonia, speaking to more than 800 people from over 40 countries. And yet later on that day a man raised his hand after my presentation and said:

“You know, we’re doing you a favor.

We’re helping you take that symbol of oppression off your head.”

I’m tired of being the token “omg-look-such-an-articulate-awesome-non-stereotypical hijabi!”

I’m tired of hijab taking up so much space in my life.

I’m tired of speaking about it.

I’m tired of explaining it.

I’m tired of defending it.

I’m tired of being treated differently.

I’m tired of having to prove I’m normal.

I’m tired of being thought stupid and backwards.

I’m tired of the judgments — from both sides.

I’m tired of the opportunities denied.

I’m tired of expectations.

I’m tired of hijab.

It’s been a long, hard slog. I’ve been veiled for 15 years. I spent years writing about it, justifying it, hating it, loving it, ignoring it, defending it.

I did theater. Spoken word. I represented. I wrote angry critiques of the representation of Muslim women in media. I didn’t let other people speak for this Muslim woman. I spoke for myself. I wrote award-winning editorials like this one. Whoot whoot.
Speak to Me-Vishuddha
By: Gayle Kurtzer-Meyers
Tags: Poetry, Chakras, Spirituality, Chakrahealing, Mindfulness

Speak to Me-Vishuddha

Throat chakra — communication, self-expression, ability to speak truth

Photo by Joakim Honkasalo on Unsplash

Fear and hesitation

Strife and no designation

What unknowing fools we were

Not to speak up in this world that’s a blur

It was then that I said, ‘no more!’

This internal conflict I need to slay

Greatness and confidence were held in store.

Once you, Vishuddha, told me to go my own way

I long to feel once again.

That soft aquamarine touch of yours

There is just so much to gain.

From that nurturing caress of yours

That once hesitant fool has now evolved.

From a mere prisoner

And has now come to be loved.

Ah, Vishuddha! How you cause one’s courage to spur.
Mongolia’s Economic Future is Chained to China
By: Robert Ritz
Tags: Economics, Data Analysis, Tableau, Mongolia, Data Visualization

Mongolia’s Economic Future is Chained to China

That is, unless Mongolia’s export partners diversify

It’s a rather gloomy title, but it is appropriate. There has been much discussion about diversifying the Mongolian economy to avoid the boom and bust cycle that has become common (see here, here, and here to name a few). Less has been discussed regarding diversifying trading partners.

For those familiar with the Mongolian economy, it is clear that China plays a big role in imports to the country. Yet I believe it is less known by the average Mongolian how closely exports are tied to China as well.

With all of the efforts of diversification, is the economy safer if nearly all of Mongolia’s exports go to one trading partner? Now factor in Chinese government whims to close the border whenever it fancys. This seems to be a recipe for economic uncertainty.

To understand just how closely Mongolia’s exports are tied to China I gathered data from the National Statistical Office and dug in. These data show Mongolia’s export value from 2005–2017 and is broken down by country.

Mapping Exports

First I wanted to visually see where Mongolia’s products and services are going around the world. I animated a global map, showing a new image for each year, and shaded the countries by the amount of exports going to that country. The darker the higher the value.

China remains dark throughout the period while other trading partners get significantly lighter. There is only one country that ends darker than it started, the United Kingdom. Interestingly enough back in 2005 the United States was number two, yet was still far away from the export value of China.

Charting Exports

Let’s take a look at real numbers now. But I warn you, they aren’t any prettier.
Stop Calling me Magical
By: D. Sylvester
Tags: Equality, Workplace, Culture, Womanhood, Race

The straight answer is, no, it does not. I don’t take any pieces of my role for granted. They all make up my experience and give me a wealth of knowledge about a variety of aspects. Certain things keep me humble; other things prepare me for the next level. However, they all matter, but they don’t make me magical.

In another job setting, I had a coworker call me magical because I was able to get the printer to work for her. To me that’s not magical, that’s competency. While I wholeheartedly believe in the power behind “Black Girl Magic,” there is a different connotation when a nonperson of color calls me “magical” for doing something basic.

It honestly reminds of me of the sketch on the Key and Peele where the white man was having a rough time with life, and the black man just magically appeared with the answer to solve the problem and make him feel better. That’s not my job. My job isn’t to make you feel better or create a sense of security. Within the words “You’re magical,” which I’ve heard time and time again, I hear, “You are inhuman, and that’s the only reason you were able to solve the problem I was having.” Within this concept, the nonperson of color doesn’t have to note that the reason I was able to fix the issue is because I had the competency to do so. That my intelligence allowed me to navigate the situation successfully.

In this sense, magical means that I didn’t have to use any of my training/skills. Instead, I was just able to click my heels or snap my fingers and solve the problem.

I do not have magical powers in which to answer your every need.

Photo by Clarke Sanders on Unsplash

The ”Black Girl Magic” movement is a fantastic movement that celebrates the incredible achievements of black women across space and time. Within that concept, the magic that I feel is in self-love. The movement advocates for black women to push back against the stereotypes and injustices that the systems have created to hold them back. That is magic, that is strength, and it has NOTHING to do with solving the everyday problems of white people.
Data Made then Data Maid: Methods of Data Cleaning
By: Emmanuel Diaz
Tags: Ucsd, Data, Ds3, Data Science, Data Cleaning

Dirty data is all around us, it may be obvious in some cases or hidden in others, though data scientists come equipped with the best tools for the job. It’s not OxyClean, it’s data cleaning techniques. We will explore a few in this python notebook, and hopefully we can make sense of what clean data should be.

For the full repo, check here.

^Survey results may be fictional
Introducing Yoshikazu Nishimura, ICOVO CTO
By: Icovo Ag
Tags: English, Ethereum, Blockchain

Chief Technical Officer in ICOVO project, and a system architect at the same time.

Eager to make the ICO world more healthy and trustable with this project. B.S. in Mathematics & M.S. in Computational Molecular Biology. Started career as a database consultant Oracle. In 2013, established Comps Co., Ltd. and Comps Pte. Ltd. for software development specialized for academic projects related such as Machine Learning, Natural Language Processing, and Voice Synthesis technologies.

In 2018, spun off blockchain related business to G. U. Lab. G. U. Lab is aiming to provide tools supporting the development community, such as a wallet app, an integrated development environment, and a Dapp browser.

Released “Tachyon Wallet” which supports Ethereum and ERC20 tokens. Won the Best Innovation Award at Global Blockchain Summit 2016 in Shanghai. Published “Blockchain Application for Beginners — Smart Contract Development on Ethereum” (SHOEISHA in 2017)

(Global Blockchain Summit 2016 DEMO)

Interview and panel discussion @Blockchain Expo Europe 2018

If you any questions, feel free to contact us on Telegram. We look forward to receiving your message
How To Check for Palindromes in JavaScript
By: Anastasia Orlova
Tags: Data Structures, JavaScript, Software Development, Palindrome, Algorithms

Solving a palindrome algorithm is one of the most common data structure tasks during a technical interview. In this blog, I’m going to break down one of those algorithms and share with you my method of solving it. It might be not the smartest and the most efficient way, so feel free to come up with any other!

First things first: what is a palindrome? It is a sequence of characters that reads the same backward or forward. Our task is to find out whether a given string is a palindrome. Return true if the given string is a palindrome. Otherwise, return false.

So, our first step is to remove all non-alphanumeric characters and turn everything into a lower case in order to check for palindromes. Luckily for us, to complete this task we have two build-in methods.

function findPalindrome(string) {

let cleanChar = string.replace(/[^A-Z0-9]/ig, "").toLowerCase();

}

Our second step is to reverse our “clean” string. In this case, split(), reverse() and join() methods come really handy. The split() method splits a string into an array of strings. The reverse() method reverses an array. The join() method joins all elements of an array back into a string.

function findPalindrome(string) {

let cleanChar = string.replace(/[^A-Z0-9]/ig, "").toLowerCase();

let reversedChar = cleanChar.split('').reverse().join('');

}

Our third and last step is to compare two strings and to check if our string is a Palindrome.

function findPalindrome(string) {

let cleanChar = string.replace(/[^A-Z0-9]/ig, "").toLowerCase();

let reversedChar = cleanChar.split('').reverse().join(''); return (cleanChar === reversedChar)

}

That was my quick guide to solving a palindrome algorithm. Hope it was helpful!

Source:
Criminal justice reform and the 2018 midterm elections
By: Adriana Navarro
Tags: Prison Reform, Politics, Criminal Justice Reform, Election 2018, Midterms

What’s the problem?

The United States has the highest incarceration rate in the world, surpassing China and Russia.

Source: The Skimm

Source: CNN

In fact, if all of the entire U.S. prison population lived in one city, it would be one of the top ten most populated cities in America.

Source: Prison Policy Initiative

Out of all the people in state prisons, about 55 percent of prisoners were incarcerated on account of a violent crime according to the data from Prison Policy Initiative. In local jails, only about 24 percent of the inmates have been convicted according to the same data.

Source: The Pew Charitable Trusts

The costs of incarceration add up, and can cause states to seek out other options besides public prisons. According to the New York Times, states such as Mississippi have created contracts with private prisons to reduce spending.

According to a 2016 Justice Department report, private prisons are more dangerous for inmates and guards than public prisons. When reporter Shane Bauer went undercover as a guard at a private prison, he revealed that the cost-cutting of prison funds had lead to poor living conditions and didn’t encourage guards to ensure the safety of the prisoners. The Obama Administration had started to phase out private prisons, though Attorney General Jeff Sessions has since rolled back some of those efforts.

Although criminal justice reform is an issue with bipartisan support, the U.S. is still working on a way to solve it.

What does the left think?

Some on the left take the approach of decriminalizing drug possession and even legalizing marijuana as an approach to cut the number of people incarcerated for non-violent crimes.

Source: Pew Research Center

According to the Pew Research Center, the majority of Americans do support the legalization of marijuana, regardless of their political party.

What does the right think?

The party is split between relaxing some criminal justice laws and keeping them strict.

Source: Pew Research Center

This includes the question of whether or not to shorten the minimum time of a sentencing for nonviolent crimes and reforming federal drug laws. According to the Pew Research Center, 45 percent of Republicans support legalizing posession of marijuana.

Source: Pew Research Center

Many Republicans also still stand by the death penalty as well, a stance that over half of Americans support.

Something both sides agree on:

Source: The Pew Charitable Trusts

Both sides can agree that there should be a reform of the criminal justice system, including better programs for transitioning former inmates.

Source: Pew Research Center

As for the opinion on drug policy, 67 percent of Americans from both political parties in 2014 thought government drug policy should focus more on providing treatment for people who used hard drugs such as heroin or cocaine than prosecuting the the users according to the Pew Research Center.