fabiochiu/medium-articles huggingface dataset:
What Was Life Like Before Social Media?
By: Erika Sauter
Tags: Culture, Life, Technology, Social Media, Opinion

Life was mysterious because everything we did wasn’t open and available to people we didn’t even really know. I would take showers, eat food and it was this private thing, my own thing and there was no competition in doing it.

We didn’t wake up in the morning to horrid push notifications about politics and the world going to shit inducing panic and rage. We didn’t have round the clock access to millions of opinions.

We had the opportunity to be curious about the world and seek out answers on our own using old school resources such as the set of encyclopedias we had at home. That was back in the day when encyclopedia sales were door to door. Now there’s Quora for questions, which was launched by former Facebook employees.

We used our imaginations. When was the last time you set your tablet down to build a blanket fort or cardboard box igloo for no reason other than because you can? Play is important for growth even in adults, but we rarely make the time for it to happen. Instead we decompress after a hard day through our thumbs by scrolling.
A faithful companion
By: Abhinaya S.B.
Tags: Wanderlust, Travel, Poetry On Medium, Traveling, Poetry

I’m by her side

As she surfs new turf;

I am her guide

Leading her to scenic locales.

I am her friend

Through moments tense and carefree;

I overextend

To cover her splurges across the sea.

I am a domestic dog

Wagging my tail at her lovingly,

Needing an occasional tug

When I decide to throw a fit.

I walk by her

Day and night,

I’m there for her

When no one’s in sight.

She can find in me

The things she thought she lost —

She can discover in me

Delightful surprises from her past.

I am a journal

Only she can read,

And smile like a crazed criminal

In mirth, in joy, in ecstatic pleasure;

I am a painting

Whose beauty only she can understand.

For others, I’m just a ragged old thing

As all they can see is a rickety travel bag.
Remorse Is Regret’s Big Brother. The Friday Fix 50 Word Prompt: “Forget…
By: Cristo Lopez
Tags: Life Lessons, Memories, Life, The Friday Fix, Brothers

Bandaged-over cruelty 50 years ago

Hid without remorse.

Then a dream pierced my memory.

I had tossed my little brother into some bushes.

I had forgotten his scream, the blood, the forever scar.

“Don’t tell Mom!” I threatened.

I needed to apologize.

“I remember,” he said.

“It’s okay now.”
Zcoin — KnowledgeBot Rewards Distribution Starts March 11th
Tags: Bitcoin, Blockchain, Zcoin, Knw Token, Cryptocurrency

The Zcoin and Knowledge teams would like to thank everyone for participating in Zcoin’s first KnowledgeBot Quiz Game. We will have details in the near future of when the game will resume after distributions have been sent.

Zcoin KnowledgeBot rewards distribution will begin on March 11, 2019. Before March 11th, any users who have engaged in Zcoin’s Knowledgebot Quiz Game, please take the steps to verify your Telegram username and Zcoin wallet address in your Knowledge Account. Follow the step-by-step guide below to setup your telegram username and Zcoin wallet if you have not already, please feel free to message the Knowledge team directly on Telegram for assistance.

For support: https://t.me/Knowledgeio

Step 1 — Verify Your Telegram Username in the Knowledge Account

Once logged in navigate to the “Profile” tab in your Knowledge Account. From here click “Social Networks” and add your Telegram Username.

After adding your Telegram Username, click the shield icon where a pop-up will display with verification details on telegram. Add the pin you receive in telegram and press save. When the shield icon turns green your Telegram username has been verified!

Step 2 — Setting up your Zcoin Wallet Address in the Knowledge Account

In the profile tab of the Knowledge Account there is a “Wallet Addresses” section where you can place your Zcoin wallet address and save it to your account. Once entered, click “Save” and your wallet address has been registered!

Once finished with this step, you are ready to receive your Zcoin (XZC) winnings!

Installing a Zcoin (XZC) Wallet

Don’t have a Zcoin wallet but won KnowledgeBot rewards? No problem! Create a new Zcoin wallet using Zcoin’s official guide linked below!

View Zcoin official wallet guide: https://zcoin.io/zcoin-installation-and-usage-guide/

What if I miss the March 11th deadline, will Knowledge keep my Zcoin winnings?

No, you can fill out our general KnowledgeBot Rewards form and we will service your support need directly within 2 weeks of submission.

KnowledgeBot Support Form: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdrgjpd6bcH0GrdmuHu9et6uLbWAd8ghXPY0FkD5zxoPlqquQ/viewform

Quick Links:

Create Knowledge Account:

https://account.knowledge.io/sign-up/

Learn More About Zcoin (XZC):

https://zcoin.io/

Learn More About Knowledge (KNW):

https://knowledge.io/
How to Deploy APIs with Flask, Docker and Google Cloud
By: Tds Editors
Tags: The Daily Pick

I knew I wanted to do two things in the process of writing my bachelor’s thesis: improve my programming skills and work with time-series data prediction.

By Luiz Scheuer — 6 min read
Latest picks: In case you missed them:
By: Tds Editors
Tags: Data Science, Machine Learning, The Daily Pick, Towards Data Science, Editors Pick

Get this newsletter By signing up, you will create a Medium account if you don’t already have one. Review our Privacy Policy for more information about our privacy practices.

Check your inbox

Medium sent you an email at to complete your subscription.
As a UX Designer, What Is My Place In Scrum?
By: Willem-Jan Ageling
Tags: Serious Scrum, Are You Serious, Scrum, Agile, UX Design

Does this sound familiar to you? If so, then your Scrum adoption may need some tweaking. Here’s a pivotal snippet of the Scrum Guide to elaborate:

“The Scrum Team consists of a Product Owner, the Development Team, and a Scrum Master. Scrum Teams are self-organizing and cross-functional. […]. Cross-functional teams have all competencies needed to accomplish the work without depending on others not part of the team.” — Scrum Guide 2017

For Scrum Teams to be successful all skills to produce and increment must be within a team. If a UX designer works outside the team, then this impedes them. If a Scrum Team wishes to be effective, then the UX designer should be part of that team too.

You may wonder why this is important. Well:

“The team model in Scrum is designed to optimize flexibility, creativity, and productivity.” — Scrum Guide 2017

This may not be a sufficient answer to you. Because it doesn’t state why this is the case. Then this definition of Scrum can help:

“Scrum (n) : A framework within which people can address complex adaptive problems, while productively and creatively delivering products of the highest possible value.” — Scrum Guide 2017

Scrum Teams have all skills required to accomplish the work in a complex product environment. If your team is depending on skills outside of the team, then this hurts their creativity and productivity. It weakens the ability of the team to deliver products of the highest possible value. Here are some aspects to this:

During the Sprint, if unforeseen complexity occurs, the team needs to come up with a solution on the fly. Without everyone in the team, this may impact the quality of the product negatively.

Time-to-market of features will increase due to ping-ponging with people outside the team. Feedback on the UX requires additional steps that are bound to take more time than with everyone in the same team.

If someone with a pivotal influence on the state of the product resides outside of the team, a team can’t take full responsibility for what happens to the product. This also negatively impact creativity.

UX arrives at the stakeholders in a fragmented way and not as part of the complete product. With that, stakeholders can’t inspect a “Done” product resulting in wrong decisions about the direction of a product.

Conclusion

A UX designer should be part of the Scrum Team. All skills necessary to build your product should be in the team. To depend on skills not part of the team cripples the creativity and productivity of the team. In the end, this hurts the value of the product.

You may have too few UX designers for all your Scrum Teams. This can’t be an excuse to exclude them from a Scrum Team. If you can’t resolve this, then let other people step up. Perhaps the existing UX designers can educate colleagues. Whatever you do, make sure that the UX designer skills become part of the team.
Staying D.R.Y With Before_Action
By: Lucas Leiberman
Tags: Coding, Ruby on Rails, Ruby, Software Development

A popular mantra when learning Ruby is to be D.R.Y(Don’t Repeat Yourself), we do this in order to avoid looking like our friend Clint Eastwood up above. When building up a Rails application, you find yourself repeating code statements often; especially in your model controllers. Let’s take a look at a few CRUD actions in a controller for a post model within a blog application :

As you can see, we are already repeating ourselves in the actions ‘show’, ‘edit’, ‘update’, and ‘destroy’ in the very first line of each action . In each of these methods we are calling:

@post = Post.find(params[:id]

to acquire a post instance. To D.R.Y our code up in the controller, we can add a controller filter that is run prior to each action. Filters are methods that can be run before, after, or around controller actions. For the purpose of this instance, we want to use a “before” filter since we want this code to run before our actions.
In Praise of Older Siblings
By: M. H. Rubin
Tags: Siblings, Family, Children, Birth Order, Sibling Relationship

In Praise of Older Siblings

Through sheer dumb luck, you might enjoy the benefits of going last.

1965

I have an older brother and an older sister, by 6 and 8 years respectively. It’s common wisdom to recognize that the baby of the household is spoiled, the center of attention... but one of the less widely discussed benefits is that having older siblings lets you see into the future. The phenomenon is real.

It takes a few forms.

First, most obviously, in your younger years they’ve just completed all the grades of school you’re entering. You have the benefit of their textbooks and notes, and sometimes even them, for homework help. If you go to the same school as they did, whatever impression they left on their teachers will be unearned by you. If they were trouble, you’re going to have a tough road. But if they were impressive, as mine seem to have been, you are a fond reminder and can bask in that glow. An unbelievable benefit over even your more academic peers.

When my brother was studying for the SAT, I would help come up with silly mnemonics, flip index cards, and quiz him. How could I help but learn ridiculous vocabulary like “laconic.” That’s an unintended consequence.

Siblings also introduce you to things, giving you a leg up — their interests may or may not become yours, but at least you got to find out: playing piano? musical theater? photography? weed? Whatever they’re doing, you’re trying.
Rockwall Investment Review: 4 Things You Should Know Before Investing
By: Nigeria Bitcoin Community
Tags: Bitcoin, Scam, Scam Alert, Review, Crypto

Welcome to my Rockwall Investment Review.

Is Rockwall investment a scam? Is it legitimate?

Can I trust them to deliver on their promises?

These and many more questions have come pouring in my mail and as a response; I decided to gather as much information as I can on Rockwall, and I am glad to share my findings with you.

Before going further, I will like you to be aware of the fact that I am in no way affiliated with Rockwall or any of its services. All information you will find in this review are products of thorough research, intended to give you a better understanding on what Rockwall is about.

This Rockwall investment review will illuminate the grey areas, secrets and hidden features that the admins of this platform want hidden from you.

In the end, you will have a better understanding of what Rockwall is about, so you know what to expect should you choose to get involved with them.
Bonus Calculation Rules
By: Sharik Khan
Tags: Blockchain, Investing, Bitcoin, ICO, Cryptocurrency

If you invest in PEP Network during Pre-Sale, you can earn a lot of bonus depending upon the amount that you invest and the no. of people you refer to PEP Network. You can refer your friends till the end of the sale. All your referrals will be counted & PEP tokens will be allotted during token generation event according to the calculation rules given below

Investment Amount Bonus:

3000$ ≤ Invested Amount ≤ 4999$ worth Crypto; Bonus: 10% 5000$ ≤ Invested Amount ≤ 9999$ worth Crypto; Bonus: 15% Invested Amount ≥ 10000$ worth Crypto; Bonus: 20%

Referral Bonus:

For 1 to 5 persons referred; Bonus: 10% For 6 to 10 persons referred; Bonus: 15%, For 11 and more persons referred; Bonus: 20%

Calculation Rules

Total bonus an investor can avail is the Maximum of Investment bonus & Referral bonus

For example : John invests 4000 $ worth crypto using code#1

He immediately gets 10% bonus.

So the total PEP token he gets = 4000 * 10 + 10% (4000 * 10) = 44,000

Let’s say , later he refers 6 friends. So he is entitled to 15% bonus, but he actually got 10%

This additional 5% is adjusted and he is allotted 4000 * 10 + 15% (4000 * 10) = 46,000

The adjustment will happen during Token Generation event.
A Child’s Eye
By: Rita Duponty
Tags: Blue Insights, Poem, Children, Imagination, Poetry

Till this day no normal

person would believe

what I am about to

say…

A giant eyeball, iris

and all was tracking

me as I ran home

across the yards.

Creepy and frightening

I ran with the speed of

lightning.

My legs weakened,

my heart raced, as

I looked up at an

eyeball without

a face.

Was this a momentary

fixation of a wild

imagination of a child?

Or, was the moon

merely winking to

remind mankind

of its splendor and

appeal from a place

far away in the sky?

© Rita Duponty, 2020
Initial Coin Offering : Gift or a Curse
By: Manav Kalra
Tags: Blockchain, Bitcoin, Ethereum, Venture Capital, Bitcoin Mining

With the rise of ICO’s bulling down on Venture Capital, it gave rise to a new growth opportunities in the emerging nations using blockchain as a cost effective and systematic record keeping software governed by the people.

As great as the above sounds, there’s always a cost attached to anything you gain. As ICO’s were a new and emerging way of funding new startups by the people for the people, without a layer of verification there’s a bit of havoc in the market, leading a rise of scams and failed products with great marketing or ponzi strategies, but if the product is not user centered or user driven, it will not be able to keep the interest of the people in for long.

As it’s said ‘History Repeats Itself’

It surely does, if you match the conditions of how every astonishing technology emerges there’s a fight between the legality and illegality for the same.

Startups can raise the money either way but the reason why they opt in (or maybe why they should opt in) of crowd-funding is because of the word ‘crowd’ as the people who buy the ownership in the company can directly engage with the company as there own, creating an emotional attachment with the company that stays with them.

When we as a team were thinking of launching donut between the people, we had the same question, why do we need to do a crowdfunding round?, why do we need the public to invest in our company?

As we have seen it’s harder to maintain the trust between the people when the stocks are listed publicly and can be influenced with the slightest tremor in media. No doubt why ‘Tesla’ our favourite automotive giant is going private at a 74 Billion valuation only because it’s hard to keep an eye on the goal with fluctuations in stocks happening on the other end.

So, it wasn’t because of the money, as we were getting our operation cost covered by the ventures, yet we denied!

We decided to take the risk of giving out 51% stake of our company out to our users and provide them a sweet spot in the company as it grows with them.

Our aim has been to create decentralized systems, so giving out 51% control of the company to the users is supposedly the best decision we have taken, earning the trust of our users by keeping our software open source making it accessible to the public anywhere around, the stakes are to be given out to the people so they decide what to do with the company.

Isn't this the true meaning of decentralization !

If you want to own the peace of the company or work along side us, reach us out here
Universal Mobile Token is Available on Live Coin Watch
By: Bubbletone Blockchain In Telecom
Tags: Bitcoin, Cryptocurrency News, Cryptocurrency, Token, Token Economy

We are happy to announce that the information about UMT token is now presented on Live Coin Watch.

Live Coin Watch is one of the best real-time crypto price indexes with graphs & historical data for 2000+ coins, including Bitcoin, Ethereum, & altcoins, from major cryptocurrency exchanges.

To get information about UMT, click here: https://www.livecoinwatch.com/price/Bubbletone-UMT
Stellar Adopting Mobius DApp Store Web Auth Protocol
By: David Gobaud
Tags: Bitcoin, Blockchain, Ethereum, Stellar, Fintech

Stellar is adopting the Stellar Web Auth Protocol (SWAP) we developed for our non-custodial DApp Store 2.0. You can read the details in Stellar Ecosystem Proposal (SEP) 10.

The SWAP allows a Stellar account holder to prove they own an account and create an authenticated session to communicate with a third-party. This for example enables wallets to automatically transmit know your customer (KYC) information to an anchor and facilitate seamless exchanges between different types of assets, including highly regulated assets such as securities that must comply with complicated KYC and anti-money laundering (AML) regulations.

One of the great things about the SWAP is that it uses Stellar transactions to encode the auth challenge and response which means it works with any Stellar supporting wallet including hardware wallets such as the Ledger Nano S.

We’re excited to see the Stellar ecosystem rapidly develop and natively support complex and valuable real-world assets. We look forward to seeing many real-world assets on the Stellar blockchain and watching how the technology expands the global economy by connecting 2 billion unbanked people that have a cell phone and facilitating nearly instant international trade and commerce that was previously impossible.

Credit for developing the SWAP goes to Mobius developer nebolsin!

Mandarin

Stellar正在采用 Mobius DApp 商店 Web Auth协议

Stellar正在采用我们为免监管DApp Store 2.0开发的Stellar Web Auth协议(SWAP)。您可以在恒星生态系统计划(SEP)- 10中了解更多细节。

Stellar Web Auth协议（SWAP）允许Stellar帐户持有人可以证明他们拥有该帐户，并创建经过身份验证的会话以与第三方进行通信。 例如，钱包能够自动将KYC信息传输到锚（anchor），并促进不同类型资产之间的无缝交易。其中包括高度监管的资产，如必须符合复杂KYC和反洗钱（AML）法规的证券。

SWAP的另一个好处是它使用Stellar转账来编码验证查询（auth challenge）和响应。这意味着它可以在任何支持Stellar的钱包上使用，甚至如Ledger Nano S之类的硬件钱包.

我们很高兴地看到Stellar生态在快速发展并原生支持复杂而有价值的现实世界资产。 我们期待在Stellar区块链上看到更多现实世界的资产。观察这项技术如何通过连接20亿拥有手机的无银行账户的人，以及促进几乎即时的国际贸易和商业活动，从而扩大全球经济。

开发SWAP的功劳归功于Mobius的开发者nebolsin！
JET8 Weekly Update — September 13, 2018
Tags: Decentralized, Technews, App Store, Weekly Updates, News Articles

Eclectic speaker line-up for the DEN Summit 2018

If the collection of keynote speakers announced for the inaugural DEN Summit is anything to go by, the event will be setting a precedent for thought leadership in a number of fields.

Taking place at the National Gallery in Singapore this October 18th, the event has attracted a mix of speakers from a range of industries and backgrounds - all presenting their unique perspectives on the theme ‘Networks are Communities’.

Approaching the subject from a social, industrial, technological, cultural, and artistic perspectives, the speakers will touch on the role that decentralised engagement networks play in the future of community building and global connectivity.

Keynote speakers

Julius Wiedemann is the Executive Editor of Design and the Director of Digital Publications for TASCHEN publishing. As an advisor to the JET8 Foundation board, Julius describes himself as being fascinated with the ‘intersection between culture and technology’.

Dr. Bob Deutsch, Cognitive Anthropologist, founder of consultancy Brain-Sells, and author of the book The 5 Essentials: Using Your Inborn Resources To Create a Fulfilling Life - will present his insights on community and human behaviour.

Senta Slingerland, brand architect, consultant, and former Director of Brand Strategy for Lions Festivals, brings a deep understanding of advertising and its associated psychology to the event. Senta is an advocate for creativity in the community as a force for change.

Angela Hucles, two-time Olympic Gold Medalist, humanitarian, and former president for the Women’s Sports Foundation has become a regular speaker on topics of sports leadership, equality, inclusion & safe spaces, and the impact of sports on personal growth and development.

David Hertz is a chef, social entrepreneur, and founder of Gastromotiva, the first socio-gastronomic business in Brazil to offer empowerment through gastronomy- transforming lives and communities. As founder of the Social Gastronomy Movement, Hertz is dedicated to using food as a medium for social change.

Genevieve von Petzinger is a Canadian paleoanthropologist and rock art researcher who studies some of the oldest art in the world. Her work contributes to understanding human cognitive evolution, tracking ancient patterns of migration, and exploring the origins of symbolism and graphic communication.

Victor Zabrockis, Chairman of the JET8 Foundation, is a vanguard of app design, system architecture, UI and UX, Victor has been crafting digital experiences for over 20 years. Founding businesses from Brazil to Southeast Asia, he has pioneered new web-based technologies, creative branding, and user experiences that have revolutionised the marketing and advertising industries.
To my friend on her wedding day
By: Mick Champayne
Tags: Best Friend, Life, Life Lessons, Weddings

👰🏼

To my oldest and dearest best friend,

Holy cow! I mean, seriously, Saturday you’re getting MARRIED and (to get cliché,) embarking on a new chapter of your life. When did life become so real? You’ve come a long way since our days in middle school and it reminds me of just how important you are to me; how much I love, respect and admire you.

You are my sister. Okay, not by birth. But you’ve always been my rock and someone I can share things with without judgement. So I know Josh is a lucky guy. I hope he knows that life SUCKS without you—you don’t know how much I hated when we fought in school, only because I missed you so much—and that all the good things in life won’t mean a thing if he is not sharing them with you. Also, I don’t know if I’d remember half the things we’ve done or said if it weren’t for you.

You are a person worthy of all the love in the world and that you make him happy — even if you don’t believe it, you do! You make people happy. You let people be themselves around you, and you can make anyone laugh so hard that they pee their pants (speaking from experience here).

My wedding advice for the Big Day: Feel every moment, wonderful or otherwise. Take it all in and breathe. It’ll be crazy and a whirlwind, but it will be so much fun! Things will go great, and some thing’s you’ll be annoyed about. But it won’t matter and no one will remember that stuff. This is one of the only times when everyone you know and love will be in the same place! I’ll be sure we all get a picture together this time.

Regardless of how old we are, where we live, or who we’re with, we’re together for the things that really matter. I am incredibly privileged to witness and be part of this big event (!!!) dedicated just for you. You will be such a beautiful bride and I am going to cry my eyes out (I’m a baby grandma). I want you to know that no matter what, I’ll always be there for you and I will always love you.

All my love,

Mick
Flutter: Build your own Switch
By: Alex Melnyk
Tags: Plugins, Widget, Flutter, Build, Switch

So there is a container that changes a background color with animation from grey to green and from green to grey, a white-colored thumb with a shadow that slides from left to right edges and vice-a-versa, also it expands on long-press and slides on swipe on it.

Tappable background

There is the GestureDetector to detect a tap on Switch when a tap is detected it sends a reversed value up, so each time user taps it inversing current value.

In the “didUpdateWidget” compare the current value with the old one and if they are different start animation with the forward/reverse methods in the animation.

Color animation reacts to value changes and animates background color in the “AnimationBuilder” that helps to update a state for the animated widget.
A Note on Upgradable Smart Contracts
By: Arsalen Hagui
Tags: Blockchain, Programming, Ethereum, Solidity, Crypto

A Note on Upgradable Smart Contracts

The importance of proxy contracts

Photo by Reinis Birznieks on Unsplash.

Although Ethereum has done well to bring immutable logic to software development, bugs are constantly found within contracts. Plus, there will be significant costs of migration if there wasn’t an appropriate plan beforehand. Therefore, this value has to be considered at the design of the product and then cautiously implemented. Security and evolutivity are crucial — especially when it involves people’s funds.

The relevance of immutability in any business model is out of this scope. Rather, this article highlights the technical side of it.

Since there are no high-standard development tools to prevent mistakes from being committed or to enable incidents to be identified one step ahead, this issue has restricted smart contract programmers’ ability to iterate on their applications.

There are, however, some heuristic techniques and patterns used for safer development, such as a graceful destruction of the contract or by having a custodian address to pull funds whenever an emergency occurs.

Yet in terms of upgradable immutability, there exists one common paradigm: proxy contracts.
Why Google’s new app logos are pretty (&) bad
By: Markus Hofmann
Tags: UX, Branding, Logo Design, Icons, Usability

The culprit: A very restrictive design system

After spending a while trying to create usable icon designs within Google’s icon design framework, I realised it’s just too restrictive for its purpose. Icons are often used in small sizes of just 16 x 16 pt in case of the favicon in the browser. For such a small area, an icon design system needs to leave enough flexibility to create clearly recognisable icons in at least one of the categories of distinction listed above. — Let’s look at the issues in Google’s approach:

Problem 1: Use all the colours

Most other brands use colours to differentiate between their apps. Each app gets one primary colour—a system that is established and works very well. Google misses this opportunity by forcing all of its primary colours into each icon. It’s nearly impossible to create distinct icons when every icon ends up being a rainbow.

Google could fix this by having a better distribution of colours, where each app gets assigned a primary colour which needs to make up around 80 percent of the colours in its icon.

Problem 2: Always use outlines

Every icon must be constructed using thick lines and all should have a negative space in the middle. — How many distinct shapes does this allow to create in the limited space of an icon? You’ll always end up with something square-ish or circle-ish. Not enough variety.

Google could fix this by allowing a greater variety of stroke widths, allowing more distinct shapes (as seen in the Gmail icon), creating a finer grid allowing for more weighted colour distribution, etc.

The core of the problems: Brand over Usability

The bottom line is simple and very surprising for Google: The icon design system is designed so users can easily differentiate any Google app from a non Google app. It’s not designed to differentiate various Google apps from each other.

I think that’s the wrong approach. Users are rarely using multiple providers equally. Google users will primarily use the Google tools, therefore primarily need to distinguish between the Google apps, rather than distinguish them from say Microsoft Office apps.

Such blunder is especially uncommon for Google, which usually priorities usability above almost anything else (apart from profit?). This goes to the extent where even shades of colours are tested instead of having a designer chose. It’s really surprising Google didn’t test and spot the issues with its new icons before releasing them.
Why Is It Important To Dismantle White Supremacy To Save The Planet?
By: Rebecca Stevens A.
Tags: Capitalism, Equality, White Supremacy, Climate Change, Racism

Core values of white supremacy are competition, capitalism, winning, and war. The one aspect that underpins all of these values is a thirst for blood, violence, and conflict. One must not forget that white people plundered, enslaved, violated, raped, and killed black and brown people to establish dominance. They lied, cheated, and betrayed to steal entire empires, natural resources, and swathes of lands from black and brown people. And they still continue these abhorrent practices to this very day. They play by the criminal’s rulebook to get what they believe they are entitled to because they believe they are superior — or at the top of an artificial racial hierarchy, they constructed.
Отчет о ходе реализации проекта QuarkChain: 21 сентября — 5 октября 2018
Tags: Blockchain, Blockchain Sharding, Blockchain Technology, Russian, Quarchain

QuarkChain provides a secure, decentralized and scalable blockchain solution to deliver 100,000+ on-chain TPS

Follow
It Has Begun
By: Shalom Gauri
Tags: Short Story, Citylife, Rain

The clouds rode the wind and raced across the fading strip of sky, squeezing between the dark building that leaned in on me. The sun looked uncomfortable in his seat, shifting constantly, causing shadows to leap from wall to wall, pouncing on innocent windows. Maybe he was simply restless…like the rest of us. Everything around me hurried past, failing terribly in the act of business.

I turn the corner and enter a bleak street. It is devoid of color except for the flowers on window sills, that wished not to droop, but couldn’t care to stand straight and tall. Among these crouching flowers, there appears to be a face peering straight out at me. Her eyes follow me drearily, allowing not a single expression to flicker across her bored face. I quicken my pace and leave her behind. The trees looked ruffled and baffled, swaying awkwardly and the leaves underfoot crunch complainingly, grumbling like cranky children.

I sigh. Not because I’m sad, not because I’m depressed, but because of having nothing better to do. *Sigh*. The city sighs with me and for a moment everything stops. Silence, stillness, nothing more. Everything, everything in the entire universe pauses. Except for Time. Time never stops.

Tick-tock. Tick-tock. Tiicck — toock…and it began. Finally began. The rain.

Deep down inside, we were all waiting for it. Foot-hopping-ly, nail-bitingly, hair-tearing-ly waiting for it. The skies break into a smile, restlessness and frustration is sucked up into the clouds.

To some the sky was crying. Time enough to sit sorrowfully by the window or to trudge broken-hearted away from your partner… never turning to look back. To others it was something to be forgotten. Open an umbrella, and get on with life! To many others it was a time for joy. Not the kind of joy that bursts out, erupts in the air and ends in song. No… this joy was different. This was a suppressed joy. A “smile-to-myself” kind of joy.

The mud and leaves squelched noisily and happily, no longer flattened out, but simply pressed into the ground. The stones glistened a soft grey-blue, standing out among the fallen leaves of burnt colours. The music of the trees fills the air, as they pass raindrops from leaf to leaf, swaying in the goose-bumping wind. Flowers of all colours now unite in a un-nameable shade. They stand straight and light on their lacy stems, and a thin sheet of mist gathers itself around them. The city is now spotted with innumerable mirrors of puddles, aflame with the merging red and orange headlights. Up above, the clouds too are one, hiding the sun but letting through selective rays of shimmering, golden dust. It is like a transparent curtain, creating a light show for the gods.

The world lies wet and quiet. The smell of awakened earth weaves itself into the mist, which rests warm and thick like a blanket, subduing the constant beeping of traffic, calming and relaxing a once restless city… the rains have arrived.

Photography by Aditi Elassery.
What Does it Mean to Parent Like an Autistic?
Tags: Parenting Advice, Parenting, Autism Acceptance, Autism Spectrum Disorder, Autism

What Does it Mean to Parent Like an Autistic? KBronJohn Follow Oct 11 · 2 min read

I wrote the book and titled it, How to Parent Like an Autistic, but what does that mean? And why would anyone want to?

How to Parent Like an Autistic book cover. Designed by K.Bron Johnson, copyright 2020

I wrote it simply with the premise that autistic people know what is best for us the vast majority of the time, if not all the time.

With so many forums like, “Ask an Autistic” we know neurotypical (NT) parents want to understand what is going on in their child’s minds. It’s best to ask people with firsthand experience, aka Autistic Adults. Autistic adults know what works best for us and what worked best for us as children. We also remember what harmed us.

This is my biggest piece of advocacy to date because not only is it empowering NT parents by giving them insights into the autistic mind and what to do, but by extension, will hopefully bring greater understanding to child development and lead to happier, better adjusted autistic adults. I want to see the next generation of autistic people with improved mental health, not suffering from PTSD, and not committing suicide at such high rates. We deserve better. I hope this book brings people on the path to make things better.

I truly believe autistic children thrive when they are unconditionally accepted for who they are. I believe they need autistic mentors and friendships. I also believe autistic parents are the best at supporting autistic children and we share many common beliefs and practices about parenting. It was with this idea that I started surveying autistic parents for my book.

Parents need support as well, and this book can either serve to guide them along the right path to make sure they are doing the best for their autistic child, or affirm that they are doing it exactly as an autistic would.

I feel autistic parents will also enjoy seeing their parenting philosophy reflected in the pages, if nothing else than to feel validated and not alone in our unique style.

K. Bron Johnson is the founder of Completely Inclusive, and author of How to Parent Like an Autistic.
Don’t Change Yourself. Improve Yourself.
By: The Blessed Hub
Tags: Personal Growth, Tips, Growth, Identity, Islam

Are you the same person at work and at home? — Are you the same person when you’re with your friends and with your spouse? — Do you feel like you’re forced to behave differently in some situations?

Often, the answer is no to the first two questions, and yes to the last one. The reason is that we somehow feel we have to be different people in different situations. But that’s a lie.

Action: Be true to yourself, improve your strengths. Don’t try to be somebody else. The more clearly you recognise who you do not want to be, then, the clearer your sense of identity and purpose will be.
My Daughter is a Drag Queen
By: Lisa Bolin
Tags: LGBTQ, Language, Drag Queens, Family, Life

Misty became OBSESSED with Ru Paul’s Drag Race in their final year of school.

Everything about it appealed to them. It sang to their inner drama queen (and Misty sure is one of those!). All their life they have managed to make a drama out of everything. This is partly to do with their incredible sensory issues which meant sometimes even getting dressed as a little one was hard: soft fabrics only, socks inside out, no jeans, no hard seams — that kind of thing.

The journey to this point has seen Misty challenge gender stereotypes, societal expectations and find a way of expressing themselves.

Those lashes! (photo: Misty Pical)

I had to do my research on this “women in drag” idea and I discovered journalist Kashmira Ghanda, who explored the world of drag herself for an article, posing that it “comes down to the fact that drag is about more than just a man wearing a dress, but about questioning gender stereotypes and the norms we are expected to conform to — norms that can stifle us all — all while putting on a blinding show.”

It makes sense to me.

My daughter echoes Ghanda’s words, proposing that drag has evolved now to be more than men/women exploring hyper-femininity, now it’s really about exploring gender expression, realizing that gender isn’t binary. Basically Misty thinks it’s a big F**k You! to gender norms and expectations.

And the results are spectacular!
Tokes Platform Transparency Report: Q3 2019
By: Multichain News
Tags: Blockchain, Cryptocurrency

Q3 2019 Summary of Distribution Events

This communication will conclude the Transparency Report series, as we transition our branding over to Multichain Ventures and make modifications to the tokenomic model. Details of these changes have been discussed in prior blog posts, and more information will continue to become available at the Multichain Ventures blog — https://medium.com/multichainventures.

A total of 37,600 tokes were distributed this period, all of which were allocated to our development and community management team members.

Specific transaction details are now viewable at the tokes custom block explorer:

https://explore.tokesplatform.org
Why I Don’t Regret My Tech Degree
By: Kailyn C.
Tags: Business, Technology, Education, Self Improvement, Programming

Why I Don’t Regret My Tech Degree

The $50K university education in IT was worth it

Photo by Brett Jordan on Unsplash.

When someone claims that they taught themselves programming these days, people no longer bat an eye. Similarly, individuals who went through programming boot camps for their jobs aren’t necessarily inferior to those with an IT-related degree.

Does this mean that degrees are no longer a prerequisite for hiring? What’s the value of an IT degree then?

As a recent IT graduate looking back on my university education, I realized that there are aspects that could have been self-explored. There is technical knowledge that is readily available on online platforms, such as Stack Overflow to find answers for questions and YouTube and MOOC courses for tutorials.

However, I wouldn’t dismiss formal education entirely. You see, before university, I didn’t have a technical background. As a beginner to the field, the guidance doesn’t hurt.

During one of my first programming courses, an instructor said, “To those who have never written a line of code, very good — welcome. To those who have, be prepared to unlearn and learn again.”

Simply put, self-exploration can be quite a headache with people picking up bad habits.

Having gone through a rigorous curriculum and experienced the highs and lows, here are three reasons why university was worth it after all.
It’s time old-guard Democrats make way for new blood, says President Obama.
By: Andrea González-Ramírez
Tags: Politics, Alexandria Ocasio Cortez, Obama, Election 2020, Democrats

It’s time that old-guard Democrats made way for new blood, says President Barack Obama. Obama told Good Luck America that Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez should have gotten more speaking time at the 2020 Democratic National Convention. AOC was one of three Latinas who received primetime speaking slots, and her 60-second speech was to symbolically nominate Sen. Bernie Sanders—a preapproved procedural move that nevertheless received some backlash.

“She speaks to a broad section of young people who are interested in what she has to say, even if they don’t agree with everything she says,” Obama said on Good Luck America. That doesn’t mean he’s all in for AOC, however. Ever a believer in big tent politics, Obama also said young, moderate Democrats deserved a platform. “I say that as somebody who used to be the young, shiny cool guy. But now the gray-haired, old grizzled vet.”
Slavery Now Has a New Name, It’s Called “Human Trafficking”
By: Inspired Kema
Tags: Culture, Politics, World, Race, Economy

Slavery Now Has a New Name, It’s Called “Human Trafficking”

The story of human trafficking and illegal migration in West Africa

Photo by Artem Labunsky on Unsplash

We begin the story of exploitation from the most populous black nation in the world. Nigeria.

According to the 2018 Global Slavery Index report, Nigeria ranks 32 out of 167 countries with the highest number of slaves (1.38 million people).

At least one million people are trafficked every year in the country.

In West Africa, Nigeria is regarded as the source, transit, and destination hub of human trafficking, with Benin City (the capital of Nigeria’s Edo State), internationally recognized as the country’s ‘nucleus of sex trafficking.’

The story of Anna and her friend Precious (not their real names), told by The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), describes how the two girls were brought from Nigeria to Okah, in northern Côte d’Ivoire, under the pretense of finding attractive jobs. But on arrival, Anna and Precious soon found themselves being trafficked.

In Okah, these girls were forced to have sex with multiple men to pay a ‘$2,600’ travel expense debt for their trip to Côte d’Ivoire. For the period of two years, Anna and Precious were reported to have had sex with at least 11 men each night for as little as $2 per client.

It pains me to say this, but the story of Anna and Precious is all too familiar in West Africa.

Men, women, and children from all corners of the world are deceived and coerced into sexual exploitation and forced labor.

The UNODC reveals that in West Africa, women and girls make up 70 percent of trafficked victims, with girls constituting two out of every child victim.
Asterisk Week 48: About The Blink of an Eye
By: Ana Luíza Azevedo
Tags: Edgar Allan Poe, Weekly Prompts, Poetry, ESL, Creative Writing

I think its eyes just blinked

The National Museum of Ireland-Natural History— Photo: Ana Azevedo

Asterisk Project: International Creative Writing

One more writing prompt heavily inspired by Sci-fi! Gabriela sent us the prompt: I think its eyes just blinked so we could write about it in the week 48 of our creative writing project! Check out the results:

Gabriela Prado

I already lost my sanity. I’m already locked in this tower. I’m already a part of the asylum. I look to all those white walls, all these fancy chairs, all the dust in the corner of the door.

Oh, look, there’s an image in the mirror. Is it looking at me! What should I do? Oh no, I think its eyes just blink. Everything’s black right now. Should I open my eyes?
Are Intention and Mindfulness Enemies?
By: Marlane Ainsworth
Tags: Life Purpose, Life Lessons, Intentional Living, Intentions, Mindfulness

Are Intention and Mindfulness Enemies?

Or friends?

Intention implies a focus, a plan, a goal, determination.

Mindfulness accepts this moment as it is, without judgement.

These are two different states of mind.

Can intention and mindfulness live together? Or are they enemies?

Intention is seen as having power and control and getting things done. Mindfulness can seem passive because accepting this moment sounds like giving up. And not having judgements about things that crop up in our lives can be seen as weak.

So, which state of mind would you choose?

A wise person chooses both.

Imagine a horse and cart, and you in it. You sit on the padded seat, hands in your lap, and wonder where the horse will take you. Probably nowhere. It’ll nibble the grass at its feet and flick flies with its tail for the rest of the day.

Now imagine you have reins connecting you to the horse. The reins represent your intentions.

Intentions get you moving in a specific direction.

When you’re trotting (or galloping) down the road in pursuit of your goal, with the reins of intention increasing your speed, or helping you negotiate a tricky corner, that’s when it’s time to change your state of mind.

It’s time for mindfulness to emerge.

Learn to move from two states of mind: the practical mind that operates at a surface level and deals with intentions and details; and the deeper mind of mindfulness –unconditioned consciousness:

Eckhart Tolle in Stillness Speaks says:

In you, as in each human being, there is a dimension of consciousness far deeper than thought. It is the very essence of who you are. We may call it presence, awareness, the unconditioned consciousness. In the ancient teachings, it is the Christ within, or your Buddha nature.

Have intentions, make plans, flick the reins and guide the cart of your life. But don’t get so caught up in the activity and the desire for the end result that you crash.

Crashes happen because someone isn’t paying attention. They’re not being mindful. They’re not present, calm and aware — which are the ingredients of mindfulness. They’re fuming about the past or focussing on the future, instead of noticing a rock or tight bend in the road.

Living with mindfulness

Have intentions. Make schedules. Plot your course. Flick your reins. Feel the rush of wind on your face.

But spend as much of your life journey as possible in a state of mindfulness.

Mindfulness is alert, curious, unbiased attention.

That’s where universal, timeless wisdom dwells.

With love, Marlane

Thanks for reading! I hope it helps you for the rest of your life. For more articles on Mindfulness, visit me at https://www.marlaneainsworth.com
Ktor in Server-Side Development — Databases
By: Siva Ganesh Kantamani
Tags: Database, Kotlin, Software Development, Ktor, Programming

What Is Ktor?

According to its official website, “Ktor is an open-source framework for building asynchronous servers and clients in connected systems using the powerful Kotlin programming language.” Ktor uses coroutines to perform asynchronous operations and is made by JetBrains.

One of the exciting things we can do using Ktor is to write web services using Kotlin. If you’re new to Ktor, then check out the Ktor basics article first. If you’re looking to use Ktor on mobile platforms, it has an Android-specific artifact. You can learn about it in this article.