fabiochiu/medium-articles huggingface dataset:
A Picture Is Worth a Thousand Words
By: Elizabeth Tobey
Tags: Photography, Medium, Design, Writing, How To

It’s no secret that we’re obsessed with words here at Medium — but that’s not the end of the story. As many photographers on Medium have shown, pictures can help bring words to life or tell a story all on their own.

Whether you’re looking to use images as a highlight or the foundation of your story, this primer is our official guide to making sure the visuals of your story look great every time. We’ll start with the basics and move our way to more advanced features. This will be a living guide that we’ll edit and update as we launch new photo features, so don’t forget to save it to your bookmarks on Medium.

Adding an image

The first step to creating beautiful visuals in your Medium story is easy: You need to get the image into your draft. If you’re writing on Medium from a web browser, you can hit the + button to the left of your cursor to find the camera icon, then copy and paste the image from your computer or the internet directly into your draft. You can also drag and drop an image file from your desktop or from a folder. If you want to place an image from our mobile apps on iOS and Android, hit the “image” button above your keyboard to bring up your camera roll, then select your picture to be dropped into your story.

Image grids

Sometimes, you want to feature a set of images or photos together. On desktop and in our mobile apps, you can create image grids to display multiple images. You choose the photos and order, and we’ll optimize the formatting and layout on every platform to make the gallery look beautiful.

Image by Winnie Lim

Once the images are in your Medium story, you can click and drag to reposition any image until things look just right.

To create an image grid on web, select multiple image files in the order you’d like them displayed during the upload process (using the CMD or CTRL button) or drag images already placed in your draft on top of one another.

On our iOS editor, select multiple images in the order you want them displayed after clicking the image icon. Medium will then decide how many images should be in each row and organize the thumbnails to look awesome together.
A Traitor Free
By: Republican Renegades
Tags: Military, News

On May 17, 2017, Pvt. Bradley Manning, who now identifies as Chelsea Manning, will be released from a military prison at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas.

Manning is being released early, serving only 7 of his 35 year sentence, thanks to a final act by President Obama who commuted his sentence. Manning, convicted of leaking over 700,000 documents to the notiorious group Wikileaks, was found guilty on 20 charges, including six of them which fell under the Espionage Act on July 30, 2013, three years after leaking the documents.

Now free, most people would accept Manning to return to civilian life. However, this is not necessarily what will be occurring. For the time being, while his court-martial conviction is still under appeal, Manning will remain on active duty, will be stationed to an undisclosed army post, and will continue to receive tax payer funded health benefits, which include continual treatment for his transition from male to female and gender reassignment surgery. The federal government has yet to respond to the appeal and it could take years for this to be settled, and all the while Manning will continue to receive benefits. The only silver lining in this series of events is that Manning will not be paid during this time.

President Obama, who did have the authority to commute the sentence, should not have commuted the sentence of Pvt. Manning. What Manning did by leaking the documents to Wikileaks was not just incredibly embarassing to the United States, but a complete and utter betrayal to every brave soldier in the United States Army. The commutation of Manning’s sentence and his subsequent release will only embolden future leakers with the belief that betraying the United States does not come with stiff penalties, and will ultimately cause even more leaks to occur.
The Data Behind Donations During the COVID-19 Pandemic
Tags: Small Business, Gofundme, Covid 19, Gofundme Announcements, Fundraising

In early March, GoFundMe CEO Tim Cadogan wrote in a post that the first months of the COVID-19 pandemic “have tested humanity in ways most of us have never known.” Since then, the public has rallied around each other to provide unceasing support for friends, family members, and even strangers in need — all while navigating the pandemic firsthand.

To better understand the GoFundMe community’s ever-changing response to COVID-19, we are sharing data on pandemic-related fundraisers and donations over a six-month period. Here is what we learned:

Outpouring of global support

Between March 1 and August 31, 2020, the GoFundMe community responded to the widespread impact of the pandemic by raising over $625 million through over 9 million donations for frontline workers, small businesses, causes, organizations, and more.
How Valve Makes Billions in Passive Income
By: Joe Mccormick
Tags: Money, Business, Gaming, Target Market, Marketing

How Does the Loot Box System Work?

As I previously mentioned, a new case is released in an update every couple of months that will see a new selection of skins implemented into the game for players to use. These cases can also be given to players for free at the end of a match, but require a virtual key to open.

The keys for cases can be purchased from Valve for £1.99, but can also be purchased from other players on the Community Market — which is usually more expensive. When you open the case, a random item will pop out, which will have a rarity assigned to it.

Common items are indicated by the colour blue, uncommon items are indicated by purple, rare items are indicated by pink, very rare items are red, and the rarest item in the collection is shown with the colour gold — this is usually a knife skin or a pair of gloves, and will sell for hundreds of pounds.

The item will also have a condition assigned to it, which can be seen with the description when looking in your Steam Inventory. These conditions are — Factory New, Field-Tested, Minimal Wear, Well-Worn, or Battle-Scarred.

The rarity and condition of the weapon you receive will determine how much it will sell for on the Community Market; with a Factory New, gold weapon being the most expensive. Minimal Wear is also sought after, as the light scratches can make an interesting effect on the weapon’s skin.

Finally, a weapon also has the ability to have Steam’s “StatTrak” brand attached to it, which is simply a screen on the side of the weapons that counts how many kills you have achieved with a weapon (as seen in the Desert Eagle screenshot), and can also bump up the value of the item.
Top 3 posts of the week — November 17th, 2019
By: Luka Leskovšek
Tags: Instagram, Social Media, Metrics, Top 3, Life

Making Instagram.com faster — part 1.

by Glenn Conner

I always try to analyze and learn from solutions that other people have to think of and successfully implement. It is especially useful if the authors are talking about how big companies are approaching these challenges. Here we have Glenn Conners’s first part of his optimization journey — and until today, there are four parts altogether. Hopefully, more articles are coming in the upcoming months. All platforms that are content-heavy — especially with images and videos; are sooner or later going to hit some performance issues. In this part, Glenn is talking about image prefetching and about prioritizing the preloading flow — basically, place them in the order that they would be needed.

I’m impressed with the gains they got with implementing a proper prefetching strategy and can’t wait to read other posts. And I encourage you to read the whole series!
The Affair — Night & the Moon
By: Praveen Prabhakar
Tags: Darkness, Love, Night, Poetry, Life

She is out in her silent groove,

A beautiful artist is on the move,

When the sun goes missing,

She starts passionately kissing,

To every nook and corner of the street,

Every possible pathway,

Every window that cherished sunlight,

Drawing pleasure from the fading daylight,

She spreads her giant canvas,

Time for her to express,

Painting black over the diminishing twilight,

She admires her first stroke,

She paints more of it,

No other color,

Just desire for black all over,

With every stroke, it turns pitch-black,

Brushing aside the last hint of light,

The black beauty dances in her dark gesture,

Slow and steady her dark fantasy takes over,

Minds attract the sense to relax,

The ones away return home,

There is togetherness,

There is love,

There is wine,

There are stories,

There are stars,

And many more secret admirers join the party,

But her masterpiece is for the lunar deity,

To once she fell in love for his dark blemishes.
Buddha
By: Ulf Wolf
Tags: Meditation, Buddhism, Zen, Zezen, Buddha

Raised by trolls in northern Sweden, now settled on the California coast a stone’s throw south of the Oregon border. Here I meditate and write. Wolfstuff.com.

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Education Token HODL Payout & Moving Tokens to Private Wallets
By: Dr. Michael J. Garbade
Tags: Bitcoin, Ethereum, Exchange, Blockchain, Education

This is the first month following the announcement of the Education Token Hodl Reward Program and interest payments will be made this week. We are currently checking the wallets of those that signed up to receive 0.25% interest if they hold at least 20,000 Education tokens.

However, we have noticed that many of these wallets are exchange wallets. As per the rules of the HODL program, tokens held in exchange wallets are not eligible. As such, we are reminding persons who signed up for the HODL program and hold their tokens in an exchange wallet to transfer them to their private ERC20 wallets so that they can be eligible for the reward program next month, though they will remain ineligible for this month.

Exchange wallets are perfect for holding a small amount of tokens but it is dangerous to hold large amounts of tokens in these wallets. Exchanges can be hacked. If that happens their customer support will be unable to help you and your tokens will be lost. We encourage anyone who holds tokens in an exchange wallet, whether they are eligible for HODL or not, to move their tokens to a private ERC20 wallet for safety reasons.
Introducing Hornet — a lightweight IOTA node
By: Jakub Cech
Tags: Iota, Software Development, Research And Development, Cryptocurrency, Dlt

The IOTA Foundation understands the need to fundamentally reshape the requirements of our software ecosystem to attend to the demand for the adoption of our technology. Partners and established companies from different industries expect a mature ecosystem of tools to use our technology and build on the Tangle, IOTA’s underlying data structure.

Along with our ongoing work on different pieces of our technology stack, like client libraries and MAM, we have always invested in ensuring participation in the Tangle through node software is as seamless as possible. The reference implementation, IRI, has undergone many changes and improvements over the last year with the goal to make the participation in the Tangle and the set up of private networks much better experiences.

We are also working on our highly performant node offering written in Rust. Called Bee, the first version of this node software will be out next year.

IOTA counts on a thriving ecosystem of developers contributing to tools and applications for anyone interested in innovating with our technology. The IOTA Foundation supports this ecosystem through the Ecosystem Development Fund.

Introducing HORNET

To evolve and diversify our node software offering, the IOTA Foundation has been supporting the development of a node implementation written in Go. This implementation — called Hornet — is now available as a beta version here. This is a more lightweight take on our Java node implementation (IRI). The functionality is on par with the latest version of IRI, with the exception of local snapshots, which will be added soon.

The Hornet team is a combined team consisting of members of our community, and one developer from the foundation:

Maximilian Hase (muXxer#1289)

Alexander Sporn (alexsporn#6593)

Sebastian Fuchs (IoTMOD#0279)

Luca Moser — IOTA Foundation (Luca Moser [IF]#4960)

The Hornet team did an amazing job building the node software. We are very happy to have Hornet as an addition to our existing ecosystem, and we look forward to seeing how Hornet evolves in the upcoming months and years!

You can read more about Hornet in this blog post.

As always, we welcome everyone to stop by on Discord . You can follow the development of Hornet on the #hornet discussion channel.

Follow us on Twitter to keep track of all the latest news: https://twitter.com/iotatoken
4 Easy Ways to Research What Your Reader Wants in a Headline
By: Cynthia Marinakos
Tags: Productivity, Creativity, Business, Headline Hacks, Marketing

4 Easy Ways to Research What Your Reader Wants in a Headline

Write headlines that make them feel you’re reading their mind

Illustration by Cynthia Marinakos.

We’ve all done it.

I used to do it all the time.

The biggest mistake marketers and writers can make is to spend a tonne of time and effort on fantastic content — yet write a headline as an afterthought.

It’s like cooking the most scrumptious meal — say a gorgeous eight-hour cooked pulled pork — and slopping it all on a plate. Alternatively, it could be placed on a bed of creamy mash with gravy dripping lusciously and a side of crunchy, cool coleslaw.

We eat with our eyes, and it takes less than a second to decide whether to stay or go.

How do we know what they’ll like?

We’ve got to tune into what our readers want. What they’re already wondering.

As a copywriter, a technique I use often to make sure what I write resonates with the audience, whether it’s a customer looking for curtains or a mechanic, is to note how they speak. Pay attention to how they write.

You see, our readers aren’t professional marketers that carefully craft messages they think people want to hear. Our audience has a need they want to be fulfilled. A problem they want to be solved.

They’re focused on what they want and need. And describe it in the simplest way they can.

When we know how they describe their need and the solution they’re looking for — in their words, rather than ours — it will feel like we’re in their heads.

I want to share with you four free, quick, easy ways to research what your reader wants to hear and how to use that research to write headlines that naturally entice your reader because it seems you’re reading their minds:

Industry forums Google searches Notice what people say Reviews

You can also use these four ideas to write content for articles, blogs, landing pages, social media posts, and more. I do it often when copywriting for clients in any industry. Let’s dig in, shall we?
Crypto Tales: Success Story of Navjyot Singh
Tags: Blockchain, Storytelling, Cryptocurrency

Hi,

I completed my graduation in 2017 and then i worked in EY for few months. Then i decided to leave that co and pursue my post grad. At this time a friend of mine introduced me to crypto world

In 2017 December , a friend of mine told me about bitcoin and he said that crypto currency prices never fall and it always rises.i got intrigued by his wordings and straight away i decided to put some money. I invested at the top of the bubble. I bought bitcoin at rs 12 lakh and xrp at 220+.

Later i realized how wrong my friend was.. i invested around 100k and in 4–5 months i was left with around 28k.. i was really sad and heart broken.but i decided not to quit.. i started reading books and spent a lot of time on trading view .com.. learned about arbitrage and all trading skills..

As i started learning ,things changed for me. Finally i started to take profits on my trades and from holder i became active trader. In October i got back to break even .. i was 257% up in few months.[ From 28k to 100k again].. all thanks to arbitrage and many successful trades.

Since October i have not looked back..

Currently i am at 500k. Made around 80% in last 3 months and around 400% in 1.4 years. I am really happy that i made this much money in bear market..

It was not a easy journey for me.. i had sleepless nights , all day learning about trading , keeping my alarms ready for arbitrage and waking up at midnight to do arbitrage. But i am happy that i did it as i learned a lot.

A message to all those who are in loss. Its not difficult to make money in bear market. Just keep learning .. If you will see my exact bottom of 28k in October 2018] , then i am exact 1685% up since last October. Everything is possible.. good luck.
Money Doesn’t Motivate
By: Michael Gugel
Tags: Psychology

I guarantee you’re not gonna be a great poker player if money is the only thing that keeps you going.

I’ll prove it to you. A study by M.I.T. researchers had students try to beat a series of challenges. They did stuff like memorize strings of numbers, solve word problems and shoot basketballs into a hoop.

If the students had average performance, they’d get a small reward.

If they were significantly above average, they got a medium reward.

And if they were way above average, they got a big cash prize.

You’d expect that the bigger the reward, the better the students would perform, right? In other words, if the big cash prize was $5,000, you’d think the students would perform way better than if the prize was only $100.

The study had a surprising result. If the students were required to do even a little bit of thinking, the large cash prize led to WORSE performance.

Now that’s a really surprising result. So they replicated the study across the world. They tried it in India were the huge cash prize was 2 months salary. Again, the higher cash rewards led to WORSE performance. The only time cash incentives actually work is for purely physical labor.

There is a catch though. You do need SOME money to be motivated. You need just enough so you don’t worry about paying your rent and you can just concentrate about thinking about poker.

So if money doesn’t motivate people, what does? There are 3 main factors that are important to motivation.

Autonomy — do what you want to do, when you want to do. Challenge & Mastery — humans just like to get better at stuff. Purpose — what’s the big picture, what do you want to accomplish in life?

To be a motivated professional poker player, you need to be self-directed, have a unyielding desire to master the game, and have a clear sense of purpose (not just “I want to make a lot of money”).

Check out the video below for more info:
What is Cryptography ?
By: Belavadi Prahalad
Tags: Crypto, Cryptocurrency, Security, Cryptography, Education

Cryptography is the practice and study of techniques for secure communication in the presence of third party adversaries.

More generally, cryptography is about constructing and analyzing protocols that prevent third parties or the public from reading private messages.

Cryptography is both an Art and a Science.

Modern cryptography exists at the intersection of the disciplines of mathematics, computer science, electrical engineering, communication science, and physics.

Cryptography when spoken about in common tongue, is described as a mystical golden cloak of security that when donned on magically becomes secure.

This isn’t true.

Understanding cryptography to be a simple add on is a widely misconstrued conception.

Cryptography on its own is pretty much useless unless it’s part of a bigger use case. Cryptography when inculcated in the right way protects the integrity of the system and its key value points.

Security of a system is dependant on many factors apart from just cryptography such as architecture and dependencies.In some cases, even bad cryptography can be much better than the rest of the security system.

Cryptography is only truly useful if the rest of the system is also sufficiently secure against the attackers.

Cryptography is extremely important to get right, even in architectures that have other weaknesses.

This makes implementation of cryptography an extremely complicated and lengthy , but a necessary process.
Digital Assets Payment Industry Research Report
Tags: Trading, Digital Asset, Payments, Cryptocurrency, Blockchain

About TokenInsight

Founded in 2017, TokenInsight is a Leading Data & Tech Driven Blockchain Financial Institution. TokenInsight pioneered a complete blockchain industry classification system, covering more than 1,600 projects, releasing more than 300 rating reports, and conducting in-depth studies into 10 major industries.

TokenInsight’s data, ratings, and research reports have access to more than 70 data platforms worldwide, including Messari, Delta, Binance Info, AICoin, Huobi Info, etc., with a monthly PV of over 30 million. TokenInsight has officially joined the Data Accountability and Transparency Alliance (DATA), initiated by cryptocurrency ranking site CoinMarketCap.

If you like our research, please follow us on:

💡Official website: https://www.tokeninsight.com

📌Official LinkedIn page: https://www.linkedin.com/company/tokeninsight/

🔎Telegram: https://t.me/TokenInsightOfficial

🗺Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/tokenInsight

📕Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/TokenInsight/
Service designer skillek — mit igényel és mit fejleszt bennünk a service design?
By: Ágoston László
Tags: Design Thinking, Transformation, Service Design, Mindset

Our publication is a (kind of) personal journal of meet. We tell stories about our work to inspire you. We also tell stories about our mistakes so you don’t make the same ones. We tell our stories but want to hear yours too. So let’s meet.

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Try out a Different Perspective —Just for a Change
By: Gurpreet Dhami
Tags: Positive Thinking, Philosophy, Mental Health, Psychology, Motivation

Sometimes, trying out a different perspective is all we need, in order to transform our lives. The following is what I would like you to try out and see for yourself, just for a change.

All your life so far, you’ve kept thinking only about your own happiness. Why don’t you try thinking about other’s happiness, just for a change?

All your life so far, you’ve kept fluctuating between the past and future. Why don’t you try clinging to the present moment, just for a change?

All your life so far, you’ve kept ignoring the wise pieces of advice. Why don’t you try some out and see results for yourself, just for a change?

All your life so far, you’ve kept finding all of the happiness outside through sensory pleasures. Why don’t you try finding some of it inside through self-realization, just for a change?

All your life so far, you’ve kept finding faults in the rest of the world. Why don’t you try finding some faults in yourself, just for a change?

All of your life so far, you’ve been loving everyone based on judgements. Why don’t you try loving them unconditionally and see how it feels like, just for a change?

All of your life so far, you’ve been giving precedence to nourish your body with healthy food. Why don’t you try giving precedence to nourish your mind with uplifting knowledge, just for a change?

All of your life so far, you’ve always flown in the sky of self-praise after reaching success milestones. Why don’t you try staying on the ground of humbleness next time, just for a change?

All of your life so far, you’ve always been working either in the form of job or business only to get recognition and nothing else. Why don’t you try working for the sake of serving the world and see what happens, just for a change?

All your life so far, you’ve been labelling yourself in many ways and then getting overloaded after gaining the elevated sense of doership. Why don’t you try labelling yourself “A simple human through whom things are getting done” and feel the lightness while dissolving the sense of doership, just for a change?

All your life so far, you’ve been saying, “There is no God !” Why don’t you try saying “Maybe God is there. But I don’t have those eyes yet that can see God”, just for a change?

All your life so far, you’ve been only thinking to change yourself but never really did that. Why don’t you really try changing yourself and see if it brings a difference, just for a change?
Voltaire is listing the ABC chain as BCH
By: The Voltaire Team
Tags: Hard Fork, Bitcoin, Bitcoincash, Cryptocurrency

The contentious Bitcoin Cash hard fork occurred shortly after the 15th November at 16:40. After 2 days of tense hash battle, it is apparent that the chain with the sustained longest proof-of-work is the ABC chain. As per Voltaire’s policy to support Nakamoto Consensus, we’ll be listing the ABC chain under the BCH ticker and all future pairs (ETH, GUSD, LTC) will be paired likewise.

BCH Deposits and Withdrawals Continue

Voltaire has resumed BCH deposits and withdrawals. This means you can use your Bitcoin Cash coins as usual and continue to take advantage of no trading fees on our BTC/BCH pair.

There has been a change in the number of network confirmations required on a deposit to withdraw your coins from Voltaire:

Deposits require 1 network confirmation to start trading

Withdrawals require 6 network confirmations on any deposits

We’ll relax this measure as soon as we observe an increase in network stability.

If you have not split your coins, you may continue to use Voltaire as normal but please be aware that you may broadcast transactions on both networks unintentionally. In the period between Voltaire adding support for the SV chain and the transaction you make, your coins on the SV chain (BSV) will not be available.

SV chain support

We’re working to allow users to deposit and withdraw coins on the SV network. All users who had BCH in their Voltaire account at the time of the fork will receive coins in their SV balance in a 1:1 proportion. Voltaire will list the SV coins under the BSV ticker and will introduce a BSV/BCH trading pair before the end of the year, in line with our roadmap to support Ethereum and Litecoin.

Nakamoto Consensus

We respect the decision of companies in the space to continue to support the SV chain and are open to the possibility that the SV chain may overtake the ABC chain in the future. Our partnerships and upcoming integrations with HandCash are still go.

If you have any questions or concerns, please reach out at hello@voltaire.cash

Happy trading!
Consensus 2018, the Blockchain summit of the year!
By: Roberta Quintiliano
Tags: Coindesk, Bitcoin, Blockchain Technology, Cryptocurrency, Consensus

Today we want to remind you about one of the best worldwide event for the cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology.

We’re talking about the Consensus 2018, the blockchain technology summit that will feature more than 70 Countries and more than 4,000 attendees among professionals, start-ups, investors, financial institutions, enterprise tech leaders, academic and policy groups who are building the foundations of the blockchain and digital currency economy.

About Consensus

Consensus 2018, organised by Coindesk, will take place in New York between the 14th and 16th of May 2018.

The first interesting and positive data of this year is the increase in participants which recorded a 125% growth.

This important summit will not be just an opportunity to talk about important topics such as the state of blockchain, the new Icos Process, the use of blockchain in government etc (you can find the full agenda here) , but also to make New York the capital of the blockchain.

Expectations for the Consensus 2018

Last year Bitnovo attended the Consensus 2017 summit and it was a great experience not only for the interesting topics covered, but also for the positive effects that this event contributed to bring in the cryptocurrencies market.

Bitnovo at Consensus 2017 — May 22–24, New York Marriott Marquis

If we think about the positive feedback reached last year, just after the Consensus 2017, when the price of Bitcoin passed from 1,068 $ in April to 2,728 $ in May and the cryptocurrencies showed growth in the range between 10% and 70%, it is not difficult to predict how all the experts in the sector, as well as the whole crypto commuity , wish for a positive effect on the dynamics of the cryptocurrency market.

The co-founder of Fundstrat Global Advisors Tom Lee himself believes strongly that, by the end of the year, the price of bitcoin will reach $25,000.

We only need to wait, cross the fingers and… let’s see what happens ;)
How to Harness the Soothing Power of Memories
By: A Singular Story
Tags: Mental Health, Relationships, Lifestyle, Psychology, Self

In our never-ending quest for happiness, we often overlook the fact that it can never be a permanent state.

And that knowing how to identify it is contingent on being intimately familiar with its polar opposite, sadness.

The black dog of depression chewed up five years of my life. And yet, there were infrequent and isolated manifestations of bright, sparkling joy in the middle of darkness.

I remember every single one of them vividly.

Watching the sunset at the back of a ferry in the middle of the Strait of Juan de Fuca on my way back to Seattle from Victoria, BC; eating the most delicious cup of coconut pudding made in a little hut in downtown Vancouver; petting a tabby cat in a bookstore in Kitsilano…

Canada, it seems, is a joy-inducing destination for me, a gentle contrast to my harsh American life, a place where please and sorry are still part of daily exchanges between humans. So much so that even buses apologize for being out of service!

I hoarded happy memories so I could draw strength from them again and again during those endless stretches of housebound time that were the hallmark of my depression.

Back then, I wasn’t sure I’d ever recover the ability to be a human in the world.

Although I eventually did, I still use the same coping strategies today. Whenever exhaustion gets the better of me, I think of the tingling joy I felt skipping down the street in Lisbon with Portuguese electro-pop between my ears last January.

When your happiness drought lasts as long as mine did, collecting moments that make you feel good is one surefire way to store up joy for times when it may not be so abundant.

Summoning the power of happy memories doesn’t mean you live in the past but that you’ve chosen to ground yourself in contentment instead. And focusing on what makes your heart glad tends to bring forth more of the same.

When my stepmom’s Stage 4 cancer becomes a little too heavy to bear, this is what my parents do, too. She and Dad are fond of recalling travel anecdotes gathered over two decades and spanning the entire globe.

Like a shot in the arm, past happiness never fails to make them both perk up. Within minutes, the atmosphere can go from downhearted to shared mirth because they’re both natural storytellers and funny people. Plus there’s nothing I love more than asking questions about all the places I yet have to visit.

And just like that, we’ve weathered another storm.
Аяллын давлагаа Gen-Z
By: Tsend Altankhuyag
Tags: Post Millennial, Gen Z, Tourism Future, Nomadays

I am a lover of all being. I am and always will be the optimist. Co-founder of a start up project "Nomadays".

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“What Happened” by Hillary Rodham Clinton
By: David Cuthbertson
Tags: Reading, Books, Politics, Autobiography, Book Review

A Book Review

“What Happened” by Hillary Rodham Clinton

This book, written for catharsis and therapy after a loss, makes for a fascinating read.

Photo by David Everett Strickler on Unsplash

With the US Presidential elections approaching, I thought I’d refresh myself on what happened the last time, at least from the loser’s perspective. Hillary Rodham Clinton needs little introduction, and I felt some trepidation in reviewing her 2017 book, What Happened. I had followed the campaign from a distance and eventually assumed that Hillary Clinton would become president. I was wrong; many were wrong; she was wrong, and this is the book she published: an outcry from both sides of the US political divide. However, when the audiobook became available, I thought I would give Clinton the chance to tell me, in her own words, What Happened. So, here we are, with her post-action report about what went wrong, who messed it up for her, and what could have been done better.

Listening to Clinton tell her own story about the process of gaining the Democratic Nomination, the call to Donald Trump to concede, to give her concession speech and then to finally go home to mourn her loss is such a far cry from any experience I have read before. She was eminently more qualified than her opponent; she had made it to the final night as the frontrunner, thought she had it in the bag, won the popular vote by a wide margin, and yet still lost; I found that both absolutely awful and fascinating in equal measure.

As the Evening Standard said at the time:
Smoked Salmon
By: Robert Bush
Tags: Satire, Microfiction, Crime, Humor, Short Story

Smoked Salmon

100 word story

Photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash

Janis stole from the supermarket.

She didn’t mean to, but when she got back to the car there was a 12 pack of toilet rolls hanging on the hook at the front of the trolley; not on the bill.

The following week a bag of potatoes hung there, and then a cooked chicken.

The fourth week some smoked salmon was hidden under a loaf of bread.

As she was leaving the store a voice from behind said, ‘Excuse me, Madam?’

She froze, her bowel vacated involuntarily and horrifyingly.

She turned.

‘I was wondering, would you care to donate to Oxfam?’
Baby
By: Tracy Aston
Tags: Children, Life, Tragedy, Fiction, Short Story

Baby

Flash Fiction

Thanks for Your Like on Pixabay

I can hear my parents talking about names. I listen to them whenever I’m not asleep, well, I have no choice. They’re excited about my arrival and they’ve decorated a room especially for me. They’ve done it out in green. It’s not because they don’t know I’m a boy; they don’t believe in blue for a boy and pink for a girl. And they’ve bought clothes and toys and a wooden cot and a mobile of coloured animals to hang above it. But I won’t need any of those things, not even a name, because I’m not coming out.

She has noticed her stomach seems to be getting smaller. We are at the doctor’s. He’s sending her for a scan. Now she’s ringing the man who thinks he’s my father. I can just hear him saying he’s in a meeting. She starts to cry. He says he’ll meet her at the hospital as soon as he can.

If I come out he will look at me and say he wants me tested and she will break down and tell him I am not his. Then he will leave her. She will grow to resent me and that resentment will turn to hate. By the age of ten I will be out of control and skipping school. She will be called in by the teachers and will say it’s my fault she has to take tablets. And when she has a nervous breakdown they will put me in a home. I will keep running away until they put me in a foster home where there is a boy and a girl.

They will blame me for everything they do wrong and each time the parents will believe them and the father will hit me with his belt and I will ask to go back to the home. But when I run away again they won’t find me.

When I am fourteen I will be on the street, living on food I’ll steal from the barrows at the market. I will get hassled by men and I will sleep under the bridge where no one comes, except women, brought there by businessmen in their company cars.

When I am sixteen I will meet a girl called Stacey who I will really like but won’t sleep with in case I make a child I can’t take care of. I will be caught breaking into a shop and be sent to a detention centre where I will cut myself. A psychologist will come and talk to me and I will try to say what I think he wants to hear so he will let me out. But he won’t, and I will stop speaking and I will keep cutting myself. Then they will watch me to make sure I don’t kill myself. They will say I’m depressed and give me tablets which I won’t take because they remind me of my mother. Then when I am let out, I will climb to the top of a block of flats and throw myself off.

The doctors can’t explain why I am slowly disappearing. My parents get angry with them then cry. I am getting smaller every day. I hope it won’t be long before I can no longer hear them crying. But their marriage will grow stronger because of the loss of me. He won’t leave her again and she won’t get pregnant by a man she turns to while he’s gone.

They won’t risk trying to have another child but will adopt a boy, and they will be happy for most of their time. And the boy will grow up knowing he is loved.
How to swap ERC20 NPX to BEP2 NPX
By: Napoleon Group
Tags: Ethereum, Tutorial, Binance Chain, Binance, Binance Dex

Dear Napoleonians, after our listing proposal was approved by Binance DEX validators, we are pleased to announce that our token bridge to swap from ERC20 tokens to BEP2 tokens is ready to use.

⚠WARNING⚠: The bridge is only for NPX token, DO NOT send any other tokens to the bridge. Please note, the Swap will only be in one direction if it goes from ERC20 to BEP2, the token will remain BEP2.

Follow these steps:

Step 1. Please visit the official website of the token bridge at https://napoleonx.ai/swap

or go to our website and click on the tab “SWAP”

You will see the interface of the token bridge, if you do not have a Binance Chain address, you can click the “Don’t have an account? Create one” button which will redirect to https://www.binance.org/en/create . You can use TrustWallet or anyone who support the BEP2 tokens.

Here is a short video that explains how to create one in case you have some problems. https://youtu.be/wK7F9cMzlj8
Easy Ramadan Prep for Busy Moms — Biscuits & Banarsi Style
By: Islamic History Notes
Tags: Ramadan Crafts, Ramadan, Kids

Ramadan is only a week away!

I haven’t been able to get into the Ramadan Spirit so I thought i’d make a guide for myself and other Moms who want to be hyped for Ramadan!One of the reasons that I’ve been dragging my feet is because there is so much to do that it seems over whelming! so if making the 20,000 Samosas, decorating the house, while catching up on spiritual goals feels daunting…your not the only one!

Follow these easy instructions to get you caught up in the Ramadan Spirit in no time Inshallah!

1. Jam those Ramadan Nasheeds — (Click here for our favorites)

2.Organize a Samosa Fest — Call your family and friends and arrange a samosa making party (click here to see how one family makes it their annual tradition)

3. Decorate your house for Ramadan (click here for our guide)

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www.ranoon.com[/caption]

4. Make Ramadan baskets for your neighbors! (Our guide to making Ramadan Baskets)

5. Start your Ramadan Journal — a Journal in which you write the duas that you want to make during the blessed month
Tell Me What You Want Them to Hear.
By: Alicia Mejia
Tags: Alchemy, Healing, Writing, Poetry, Listening

Co∙creation.

Tell me what you want them to hear.

And I’ll tell you what I hear that I think they show know.

To know you.

Better.

To understand you.

In the way a moth understands the flame.

Drawn.

Compelled.

Enveloped in your halo of light.

Tell me what you want them to hear.

That I may weave your words.

The tapestry that is you. Wrapped around your shoulders. To do with what you wish.

To take on. To put off.

A mating call. A mate’s call.

Let them come. Let them sit.

By your fire. Feel the warmth that is you.

Unpack your gifts.

Set forth your medicines.

Tinctures and chants.

Instincts and brews.

The knowing and knowledge that is your lineage.

The hard earned.

Tears squeezed through to wash your pages.

Apothecarist. Alchemist. Attuner.

Spill forth, that they may receive.

Gather their belongings. Dry their own tears. Warm to the touch.

Felt to the heart.
F*** Product Owner
By: Chokchai Phatharamalai
Tags: Fake, Scrum, Large Scale Scrum, Product Owner, Agile

in Both Sides of the Table
A Lesson for 2020 from 2012
By: William B. Turner
Tags: Ohio, Mitt Romney, 2016 Election, Republican Party, Donald Trump

Barack Obama and Mitt Romney

“If you’re basing your entire campaign on white people, it leaves you little margin of error.” Donald Trump? No, Mitt Romney.

Many years ago, in 2012, just after the election in which Barack Obama beat Mitt Romney to win his second term, Slate published a very interesting article that merits revisiting as we think about how to beat Trump in 2020 and who is most likely to do so.

The answer, unsurprisingly, comes down to African American voters. Romney was quite certain going into the election that he was going to win, despite lots of polling data indicating otherwise. The Romney campaign believed that most polls overestimated the number of Democrats in general, and African Americans in particular, who would turn out in 2012. For some reason, they thought African Americans had lost their enthusiasm for Obama between 2008 and 2012.

It seems reasonable to suspect that Romney’s campaign staff did not have a strong representation of African Americans.

Apart from enthusiasm for Obama, Romney embraced during the campaign a certain celebrity who had loudly bruited the claim that Obama was not a legitimate president for having been born outside the United States. That celebrity was one Donald Trump.

The Democrat wins when s/he can fire up African American voters. Policies that help African Americans are mostly likely to help everyone else as well. The only obvious example of an idea for which that is not true is reparations, or financial compensation for descendants of slaves, which is obviously a policy that aims very specifically at African Americans, but such compensation would benefit lots of other people in giving African Americans money to spend, which they would undoubtedly do to some extent in white owned businesses.

One of the most interesting points in the Slate article is that Romney believed he needed to win independent voters, so he aimed policy ideas at them. The article focuses on Ohio as a key swing state that has played a crucial role in several recent presidential elections. It states that Romney won independents there, but still lost the state. So the much vaunted independent voters may not be as critical as everyone tends to assume.

It is true that the article also points out how Obama used the power of the presidency effectively, an advantage the Democrat will not have in 2020, but one that Trump may well fail to use well, since he is too stupid to understand the concept.

But the key message is that the Democrats need, above all else, a candidate who can connect effectively with African American voters to win in 2020.
An “Era” of Magic
By: Saloni Joshi
Tags: Poetry, Relationships, Childhood, Writing

An “Era” of Magic

An Ode to my Niece Era, and her parents.

Photo taken by Her Father, Dr. Abhimanyu.

Wide eyes like buttons,

Enrapturing the folks;

Twinkling with innocent strokes

Of mischief and zest.

Her toothless grin peeking,

Through clouds of fluffy cheeks,

Animating her face; her radiance —

Like golden sun streaks.

Gurgles of laughter

At being tickled by Daddy;

Tears and whimsies

to be the center of his Universe;

Early morning long drives,

or virtual rides in the stroller,

Guffawing the whole time;

But her favorite seat

Being Daddy's back;

Alternate rounds

of falling, climbing,

never tiring her ever!

Curiosity, her sparkle;

Little brain full of why’s,

Observing and absorbing

Every teeny tiny detail!

Living up to her name,

Her childhood

an Era of magic,

an enchantment

of her parents' world;

that no wand could ever create!
American Idol Rewind
By: Arin Segal
Tags: Music, Rewind, American, Idol

To all you lovely Idol fans and even those who have just heard the name Daughtry, Yamin, McPhee or Hicks; they will be on AIR to help count down the final weeks of this season!

Every Saturday this May, AMERICAN IDOL REWIND will premiere an all-new episode featuring exclusive interviews with the season 5 top four, as well as never-before-seen footage from one of the most extraordinary years in Idol history. Relive the rise of a rock star, the beginning of the “Soul Patrol” and the birth of “McPheever”!

On Saturday, May 1st, 2010: an unimaginable elimination defined season five like no other with Chris Daughtry’s shocking exit from the competition, and three were left standing- Elliott Yamin, Katharine McPhee, and Taylor Hicks.

On Saturday, May 8th, 2010: AMERICAN IDOL REWIND unveils a one-hour Chris Daughtry special focusing on his electrifying rise from one of thousands of Idol auditioners in Denver to international rock superstar.

On Saturday, May 15th, 2010: There are three contestants left in the competition, and only two spots in the season five finale — it came down to just a few votes, but unfortunately one Elliott Yamin is sent home.

On Saturday, May 22nd, 2010: Only one can be named the American Idol, and Taylor’s amazing victory is one that no one will ever forget- hear from Idol insiders as they break down the competition and share the secrets that led to an American Idol with grey hair.

AMERICAN IDOL REWIND is nationally syndicated-check their local listings or www.tvguide.com/listings to find out where to watch in your area. Encore episodes air on TV Guide Network.
Caught in the middle (Dec 2018) — the CRISPR edited
By: Radhika Patnala
Tags: Posters, Dedication, Science, CRISPR, Art

Caught in the middle (Dec 2018) — the CRISPR edited

A dedication to the two lives that have been changed by one man’s mistake and the unwarranted use of CRISPR.

Now and then, a new field finds itself at a crossroads, where it is put to test, judged, defamed, mistrusted and even used as a tabloid.

Every day we are witnessing some new detail coming to light about the twin girls whose genes were genetically modified by the Chinese researcher He Jiankui. We, as biomedical scientists & molecular biologists, stir uncomfortably in our seats knowing that one of us might have put an entire field of study in jeopardy by being too hasty.

With knowledge comes power, and with power comes responsibility.

I hope that doesn’t happen to CRISPR.

I hope CRISPR as a technology can recover from this because quite simply put, it is one of the most elegant gene editing tools that exist in biotechnology today.

But even more than that, I hope the two baby girls (and supposedly another child) will be ok;

because, for no fault of their own, they will find themselves caught in the middle, perhaps for many decades to come.

For no fault of their own, they will reap the results of one man’s mistake who played with the code of human life even before we understood its language, blatantly disregarding ethical, legal, or even scientific considerations.