fabiochiu/medium-articles huggingface dataset:
3 ICOs Worth Seeking During the Bear Market
By: B. Brighton
Tags: ICO, Blockchain, Investing, Ethereum, Bitcoin

In 2016 only $106 Million were raised through ICOs; by the end of 2017 the amount blew up to $3.7 Billion — a whopping 3000% increase. Funds raised since the beginning of the year are already double that of all of 2017! With that, the demand for blockchain specialists has grown to the point where at the moment for every blockchain developer there are 14 jobs available.

There are several problems that render attempts to solve the crisis using traditional methods inadequate. The first is the pace at which the blockchain world is growing and changing, making it difficult and impractical for traditional universities to keep up with it — they simply can’t be constantly updating their curriculum and will struggle to find qualified teachers who aren’t lured by the premium on blockchain salaries. On the other hand, the lack of standards on non-accredited online courses exacerbates the problem by producing many poorly-trained developers and reducing the confidence of employers in such certificates.

Academy is the world’s first fully-U.S.-accredited school for blockchain. This status ensures the quality of their certifications since their programs are undergoing a rigorous academic vetting process. It also allows them to offer courses and programs to traditional universities. They have a 10-year track record of building online courses and have recently acquired SoftUni — Eastern Europe’s leading provider of IT education which won numerous awards, including Forbes Business Awards: Best Startup Business (2015), Innovation for Talent Development: Innovative Enterprise of the Year (2016), and has built a name for itself by providing the booming IT sector in the region with excellently-trained developers.

What are the benefits of the ACAD token?

For Students:

Priority course placement over students who opt to pay in fiat

Reduced course fees

Gamified Learning incentives

Developer job placements

For Corporations / Governments / Organisations:

Priority Course Placement for Staff Retraining

Priority Access to Trained Developers — bid for access to top 30% cohort

Opportunity to Shape the Curriculum through Advisory Node System

When a token is used for payment at Academy:

70% of that token will be burned

15% of the value will be credited to a dedicated scholarship fund

15% of the value will be credited to a community development fund which provides partial funding for the Incubator Accelerator program.

TOKEN SALE

Token — ACAD

Price — $2.00

UNSOLD TOKENS WILL BE BURNED

Platform — Ethereum

Accepts — ETH, BTC, BCH, LTC, FIAT($USD)

Hard cap — $50 Million USD
Sabbath: For Others
By: Oasis Church Birmingham
Tags: Christianity, Jesus, Faith, Life, Resources

Sabbath: For Others

Recordings, notes and application questions

Each week, we produce notes, discussion points and application questions for the Sunday talks — helping you go deeper into everything we’re looking at together and resourcing our Small Groups during the week. Use the embedded player to listen to the talk, or click here to visit Soundcloud and download it on a PC. You can also subscribe to Oasis podcasts on Spotify, iTunes or Podbean for listening on the go, and you can find the accompanying Powerpoint presentation for this week’s talk here.

Key Passages

Matthew 12:1–21

Notes

The rhythm of rest that sabbath provides is not simply about looking after our own needs. Sabbath preaches to us our dependence upon God, His sufficiency for us and the freedom that comes from receiving what He freely gives, rather than forever striving to be in control.

But Sabbath is not about ‘looking after number one.’ The flow of grace is always ‘down and out.’ Freely God gives Himself to us as the source and shaper of all our rest (Jesus being the Lord of the Sabbath). And this is then to be passed on to others enabling rest to be the experience of those around us too.

In the above passage Jesus passes on rest to those in need — the disciples through the cornfield / the man with the shrivelled hand / the sick who gather to Him. He is the fulfilment of God’s promise to provide for the bruised and barely alight (V20–21)

In Jesus’ discussion with the Pharisees, He references care for creation in defending the reality that God provides rest for all He has made. As those created in God’s image and liberated by the Lord of the Sabbath from self-justification based on our work, productivity, reputation etc, we too get to embrace a life of both enjoying and passing on rest.

Practically, this shapes how we treat: Other individuals, communities, creation.

Our weekly practice embodies trust in the finished work of God on our behalf and His faithful provision / protection for us. It therefore serves as a:

Witness to those around us (set against a society obsessed with reputation and productivity)

to those around us (set against a society obsessed with reputation and productivity) Sharing opportunity — inviting others in on what God has given us (including being generous with our material and relational/family gifts)

opportunity — inviting others in on what God has given us (including being generous with our material and relational/family gifts) Grace moment — it is not deserved or earned, but simply given from a willing and loving heart.

moment — it is not deserved or earned, but simply given from a willing and loving heart. Creation care — the need for rest is built into God’s creation. Stewarding well recognises this.

Application Questions
Visiting Beautiful Alabama in 2018
By: Anthony Dezenzio
Tags: Travel, Alabama, Attraction, Vacation, Places

For anyone planning a vacation in the South might want to consider Alabama. The state offers visitors with tranquility, beauty and a relaxed atmosphere combined with excellent shopping, dining, and recreational activities. Gulf Shores and Orange Beach located along the beautiful Gulf Coast are Alabama’s most popular vacation spots providing visitors with plenty of outdoor activities and fine local cuisine.

Orange Beach - Photo Credit: Pixabay

A little further along the Gulf Coast lies the port city of Mobile. Visitors can explore some of the city’s unique attractions, museums, and downtown Mobile’s historical section. Be sure to sample the seafood that the city is known for.

Situated in the northeastern part of Alabama close to the town of Bridgeport is the Russell Cave National Monument. The park is a popular location spot for a weekend getaway. Encompassing some 310 acres, the park was established on May 11, 1961, by land donated by the National Geographic Society. The region was once home to prehistoric people dating back to 1650 A.D. Visitors can explore the park or hike on one of the nature trails. A number of interesting artifacts can be viewed inside the visitor center museum.

Russel Cave Monument — Photo Credit: Wikimedia Commons

A visit to Birmingham, Alabama’s largest city is not to be overlooked. Visitors will find a number of attractions sure to please even the most discriminating. Among the most popular attractions is the Alabama Jazz Hall of Fame with exhibits showcasing the accomplishments of some of the greatest jazz legends of our time including the great Nat King Cole, Duke Ellington, Lionel Hampton and Erskine Hawkins and featuring the music that made them famous.

Birmingham Skyline — Photo Credit: Pixabay

Another attraction not to be missed is the Vulcan Park and Museum. The park is home to the largest cast iron statue in the world. The statue is made up of 100,000 pounds of iron and stands 56 feet tall. Spectacular views of Birmingham can be seen from the top of the park.

Vulcan Park — Photo Credit: Carol M Highsmith

Other area attractions include the Talladega Superspeedway and the International Motor Sports Hall of Fame situated next door.
XinFin is trending on Entrepreneur Global
By: Xinfin Xdc Hybrid Blockchain Network
Tags: Blockchain, Xinfin, Blockchain Technology, Digital Wallet, Latest News

XinFin’s XDC FIAT Value and Multicurrency Blockchain Wallet With Multisig Support is Built For Mainstream Enterprise Adoption

Today, we are continuously being occupied with more up-to-date and better digital wallets. However, when it comes to security and real-world usability of these digital wallets, most of them fail to prove its applicability in real world. Integrated over one-of-its-kind XDC protocol, XinFin’s Wallet product is not only a security compliance but has also found its usability across various industries.

Be it Banking or Power, Solar or Tourism, Aviation or any diverse application across trade and financing, XDC Wallet can be used by individuals, corporates and financial institutions to facilitate both internal and cross border real time settlement including trade, financing, business transactions, equity transaction settlement and remittances.

XDC Wallet: The Overview

Devised upon XinFin’s flagship hybrid blockchain network protocol, XDC Wallet puts on the map a number of features in terms of security and high throughput coupled with low transaction fee as compared to other financial transactionary mediums.

XDC blockchain based wallet can be integrated into industrial arenas with extended operations as well as with standalone businesses. XinFin provides option to set up Wallet on Private blockchain with or without changing any current running system to leverage blockchain based use case.

Ousting Cash, Uncovering Perks

The growing concept of going cashless has brought digital cryptocurrency wallets to the forefront. Blockchain based XDC Wallet is no exception. It comes with the convenience where individuals and organizations can make payments through XDCE tokens at both brick-and-mortar establishments and online purchases. They can cash in on the loyalty points and rewards they get by performing token based transactions. XDC Wallet is the most feasible solution for all kinds of establishments and institutions including banks, organizations, multi chain restaurants, stores, travel, hotels and online purchases and any other transaction record trail needed for the audit.

XDC Wallet — a Regulatory Compliance

Blockchain based XDC Wallet is a powerful tool — all thanks to its built-in smart contracts and peer to peer workflows. Running on a strong FIAT regulatory compliant XinFin network, XDC Wallet will gladly accept all merchant integrations with absolute interoperability with distinct payment and settlement systems as per compliance. XDC Wallet will also support KYC, AML and other standard regulations and norms.

Read the full article here: https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/317193
寶島金融FMF 雙週報00007期
By: Formosa Financial Team
Tags: Blockchain, Newsletter, News, Crypto, Fintech

in In Fitness And In Health
Deadpool, 2016 — ★★★★½
Tags: Fox Broadcasting Company, Hugh Jackman, Ed Skrein, Deadpool, Action

You believe in second chances? Well… Ryan Reynolds must. Every day you don’t get a chance to jump ships from comic book houses and erase the green stain with shiny, sparkling red. And you know why is it red? so that the bad guys don’t see him bleed.

Deadpool is a simple story. A guy gets a girlfriend, then he gets cancer, then he seeks a cure, which turns out to be shady and that deforms his face and then he takes revenge. Boom. Done. That is the extent of the story. It is not even worth calling this a spoiler because the movie isn’t about the story. It is about the delivery.

I wish our censor board to have some flesh between their ears. This is rated R, or A in India, why the heck do we bother the language aspects then? Watching it in cinema halls wouldn’t be a smooth ride. You’d hate the incessant cuts and blanked out swear words but you’d love the action. I choose the other path, watching it at home.

The movie has some of the craziest actions shots with the cockiest running commentary. Everything about this film is fresh and unhindered. It starts with the opening credits. A toppled car, frozen in time is where the credits start, with the most sincerely insincere words. The movie gets a hang of you that very instant.

A 4th-wall break inside a 4th-wall break!” he says. “That’s like, 16 walls! — Deadpool

There are 23 fourth wall breaks in the film, and some of them are truly hilarious. From the reference to the green lantern to commenting on having just the two x-men because studios lacked funds, he does it all.

What is Deadpool without his sense of humor? Ryan Reynolds has embodied Deadpool like Hugh Jackman has taken over Wolverine. His comic timing is good, and he deserves praise for much of his role is without direct facial expressions. I love Morena Baccarin. I had first seen her in The Mentalist, and she took my breath away. No complaints there. The villain is okayish, generally paled by Ryan Raynold’s screen presence. The supporting cast is not bad either. I particularly liked T. J. Miller’s portrayal of Weasel.

The music plays well with the theme of the movie. I have nothing much more to write about this film. It was an out and out entertainer. There would be sequels, but I liked this origin story. With its fourth wall breaking satirical style, this movie franchise can be amazingly great if handled well. The same cast and crew are returning for a sequel. I am hoping for something great.
Catching Winds in Indonesia : ALAX in Bekraf Festival 2019
Tags: Indonesia, Crypto, Gaming, Blockchain, Alaxblog

When one thinks of Indonesia, one can’t help but think about a vibrant melting pot of culture, good food, and probably Bali. But ALAX saw something else in Indonesia, we saw a treasure trove of creative talents silently churning out awesome games for the world’s stage. So there we are on 4th — 6th October 2019 to scout and network with the industry’s top creatives, at Bekraf Festival 2019 in Vastenburg Fortress, Solo, Indonesia where game studios all over Indonesia under the banner of Bekraf, Indonesia’s Creative Industry Government Agency came to showcase, share, and cowork with one another alongside with other industries like music, fashion and many others.

This year, this creative and vibrant festival was done in such a unique setting inside an ancient colonial Vastenburg Fortress made centuries ago. Such a setting is symbolic of how the old should set the stage for the new, just like the old world should set the stage for the new world where cryptocurrency and blockchain becomes the norm.

Over the last 5 years, Indonesia has gone through a resurgence of creative as we saw top talents from the archipelago making waves all over the world. In music, we saw Rich Brian and Niki making hits in the US with 88 Rising, and also in the gaming industry, where games made in Indonesia like Dreadout becomes global sensation and even played by the likes of PewDIePie. In the festival we saw first hand those up and coming hit games in the making as we network and shake hands with various game studios that we will onboard in the coming weeks.

One of the centerstage of the event was the game prime center where Indonesia’s finest game developers are showcasing their games. Dreadout once more becomes the main attraction of the spot but there are so many other awesome mobile games that was featured and playable on it as well. ALAX has shook hands with many of them and currently following up for onboarding our new developers friends.

During the event, ALAX was privileged to be given access to a limited seat sub-event for game developers lead by speakers from Dicoding where we discuss on the future of gaming with AR, game publishing and monetisation. ALAX saw that indeed game developers in Indonesia also share the same pain points with game developers worldwide, among them are high fees, slow withdrawal and publishing fees. ALAX exist to fix those problems. Hence we are having quite a good reception during the event as developers are open for our new and refreshing way of publishing games on the blockchain.

Expect more updates coming from Indonesia as we are now part of Indonesia’s gaming ecosystem and will be actively engaged by the community. Are you game developers from Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore or beyond and wants to get a better and fairer platform for your games? Then wait no more! Drop our Partnership Manager Ashley Reeves a message at ashley.reeves@alax.io
【妊娠36～39週目（10か月）】いよいよ出産へ。おしるしと前駆陣痛とおぼしきもの
By: Aya Satoh Hoshina, ほしなあや
Tags: Pregnancy, Diary, 日記, 日本語, 妊娠

in In Fitness And In Health
Why do cryptocurrencies fork?
By: Matt Hussey
Tags: Blockchain, Bitcoin, Fork, Cryptocurrency, Crypto

As part of our ongoing series exploring the basics behind Bitcoin, today we’re exploring forks.

Why does a cryptocurrency fork? 🔱

Most cryptocurrencies are open-source , which means there isn’t one person or group who controls how the currency should evolve. 🤷

That can make things tricky, for a number of reasons.

Deciding on what problems to fix or solve first 🔧

What to do if miners solve a block at the same time 😕

What happens if the network the currency is built on is hacked 👨‍💻

This leads to a fork: or a change in the underlying rules of how the blockchain works.

But not all forks are created equally. 🍴

Soft Forks

Soft forks are what happens when the software the blockchain is built on is upgraded. 💾 ➡️ 💿

What’s unique about soft forks is they allow users on the platform to upgrade over time. They’re effectively backwards compatible.

In a nutshell, most things remain the same, bar a few tweaks, and the community is on board and happy with the changes. 👨‍👩‍👦‍👦

Hard Forks

Hard forks meanwhile, are changes to the blockchain that are not backwards compatible, and it forces everyone on the network to upgrade to the newest software in order to keep participating. 🕹️➡️ 🎮

Those who don’t upgrade, don’t get to participate. If there are enough members in the previous version of the blockchain, two versions now exist. 👯

Some of those forks can be planned, and are referred to has Planned Hard Forks, where as sometimes there is no plan in place, and they fall into the Contentious/Unplanned Hard Fork category.

Planned Hard Fork

When the community agrees on a new direction for the blockchain they’re a part of, a hard fork is planned. ↩️

That means everyone agrees to upgrade the software, create a new blockchain, and leave behind the old blockchain. ↕️

One of the most famous planned hard forks was on ETHEREUM . Called Byzantium, it was a hard planned fork that took place in October 2017 to help improve Ethereum’s scalability.

Want to know more?

This is just the tip of the crypto iceberg. Aysha has a a whole host of easy-to-understand articles that make learning about cryptocurrencies, blockchain and DLT technology really bloody simple.

Click here to learn more.
Студиоуз. В этом году мне “подфартило”, получил…
By: Pavel Zaikin
Tags: Students, Education

in In Fitness And In Health
The Dark Intellectual Life of Old San Francisco
By: Christopher Laine
Tags: Poetry, 1980s, Punk, San Francisco, Fiction

I sank into the dark intellectual life of San Francisco. It was the late 80s, and there was nothing one couldn’t do in that haunted place. The 60s and 70s were long gone, so any hippies or swingers were rapidly bloating into middle age. San Francisco had fallen out of favour, and was largely ignored by the world. It was the fucking best. This was an in-between time, a brief moment when San Francisco was able to hide from the rest of America. Rent was cheap. Things were cheap. San Francisco was underpopulated. There was no real major industry, and it subsisted on tourist trade, and the internal dabble of locals. It was a place lost in Avalonian mist. The city smelled like old cigarettes, sea air, engine grease, jasmine tea, antique shops, and library books. It was quiet for a city, introspective and strange.

I fit right in. It was a freak’s wonderland, and I bathed in its aberrant juices. I went to gigs, I smoked weed and snorted speed. I scoured bookstores, libraries. I saw black and white movies, and listened as professors entangled my mind in Hegelian babble. I drank shit whiskey in gulps between swigs of orange soda. I read, and wrote, and lived the life of a city which, back then, seemed like time had given it a wide berth. I rode Muni trains to nowhere, and wandered up and down every place I could find. I saw gods and spirits appear and disappear from street corners and graffiti-stained alleys, and no one thought anything of it, no more than they considered the stragglers in faded all-night diners, or the sad call of a ship’s horn from the churning mouth of the Bay.

— from my upcoming novel “Screens”
Analizando la actividad de programadores en el GitHub de las criptomonedas — Te presentamos una manera eficiente de como hacerlo.
Tags: Santiment, Github, Cryptocurrency, Ethereum, Bitcoin

Insight into the crypto markets. For traders and investors of any level.

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Have You?
By: Gunjan Phukan
Tags: Nature, Poetry, Humanity, Mother Earth, Animals

Have you ever heard of a Passenger Pigeon,

A Tasmanian Tiger, a Great Auk or a Dodo?

It is okay if your answer is no…

Just check out Google for their Photo.

Are your children going to witness

A Tiger, a Panda and a Rhino?

Beg you not to say “God only knows”

Are you going to witness the largest forest fire?

The largest tsunami?

The worst famine & starvation?

Well, physics has its theory,

Every action has an equal

and opposite reaction.

And if you yourself do not want

To be part of a lost history

Respect the Greatest Miracle

Mother Earth

Who is still a mystery…
The Perils of Married Dating–Pregnancy
By: Teresa J Conway
Tags: Cheating, Relationships, Adultery, Pregnancy, Sexuality

How to Cheat

The Perils of Married Dating–Pregnancy

A cautionary tale of stepping out

Photo by Cleyton Ewerton on Unsplash

First and for most, no matter where a child comes from, I think we can all agree that how they were conceived is not their fault. In this story reported in the New Zealand Herald, a proud dad has his dreams of fathering a son dashed when the baby turns out to have different racialize features than both mom and dad.

Hiding cheating at the best of times is a hard task for the experienced cheater, and while an unexpected pregnancy might not give you away, there are a couple of things you cannot hide. Parents with blue eyes cannot give birth to a brown-eyed child because blue is a recessive genetic trait, meaning the parents can only pass on the gene for blue eyes.

Brown-eyed parents can give birth to a blue-eyed child because the brown gene is dominant. If you inherit a brown from dad and a blue from mom, the brown will express itself. If both mom and dad have a blue and a brown, there’s a 25% chance baby can have blue eyes.

The second thing you cannot hide is the racialized traits inherited from mom or dad. Of course, it’s always fairly obvious who the mother is. What is less apparent is who the dad is. What makes us successful as a species is the robustness of how our genes work. Otherwise, we’d never have survived so many thousands of generations of cousin marriage.

Unlike eye color, many traits aren’t so easily explained because of the variety of factors going into making them. Genes influencing skin and hair color exist in many locations along our DNA, so no one factor acts like a flipped switch. It’s more like a series of twenty or thirty switches turning on and off that together determine skin tone and hair color.

How’s all this important? Well, when you read the link to the story below, you’ll read of a dad who not only discovered his son wasn’t his but also found his wife was a cheater — in the birthing room. I imagine that was a bit of a letdown.

None of this was the baby’s fault, but I’ll ask — is that the time you want your husband to discover you’re a cheating whore?

It isn’t. After labor and nine months of pregnancy, you’ll be pretty tired, so that’s the last discussion you’ll want.

I will not tell you to date inside your ethnic community because that’s just plain racist and stupid. But, if you’re going bareback, it might save you some trouble down the road because babe will more or less look like dad. And really, who cares? They’ll look like you, and that’s good enough for me.

If you do, step out of your ethnic lines, and by all means, play the field! Enjoy the buffet! But whatever you do, I recommend thinking about the pill or condoms.

Spare yourself the headache the whining will bring because you know you’ll never hear the end of it, and then you’ll have two babies on your hands. And that’s the last thing you need.
My Barn Cat Barbara is a Dark Goddess
By: Sean Kernan
Tags: Sleep, Pets, Life Lessons, Humor, Life

Humor

My Barn Cat Barbara is a Dark Goddess

How a stray cat brought a very real solution to my sleep problem.

pic via istock photos

Those who challenged her would die.

Those who dared be small were marked to die. Those who were small, and dared come near her, were already dead.

Her worldview was not clouded; it had purity. It was unadulterated.

She cared nothing of movies, nothing of gossip.

Friends, love, compassion, kindness — all weak, offensively petty notions.

Mercy, merely a roadblock to her brutal whims.

Patience, only to prolong death, a luxury that came at the time of her choosing.

Where violence necessitates intelligence, she stood above all others. Where mercy demands judgment, she was jury and executioner.

Within the chaos, she brought purpose.

She — who extends daggers from her paws.

She — who naps beside her victims — not of symbolism, not of power, not of posturing, but merely of convenience.

Barbara existed as the very thing that defined her: a distilled, pure confluence of laziness, comfort, and violence.

And for that, Barbara was grateful. For that Barbara was — that which she was always meant to be.
Kin: An Investor’s Perspective
By: Will Gikandi
Tags: Community, Cryptocurrency, Kin, Bitcoin

This is a guest post by Kin community member Will Gikandi.

Kin’s token distribution event ended this summer, raising a whopping $100 million.

Two months later, Kin is trading at half its ICO price on EtherDelta. What happened? We will get to that in a minute, but first, let me explain why Kin is my biggest bet this year.

As an investor, I am obsessed with finding assets that are:

Currently undervalued Will have widespread utility — (i.e., demand)

To understand utility, consider Bitcoin, which should be 190 times dead already. Bitcoin lags technologically, but is the leader as the store of value and medium of exchange in crypto. It is the base currency in most exchanges and is the entry-drug for muggles into crypto.

Put simply, we can consider that Bitcoin’s mountain-peak price has been sustained by the demand backing it. Accepting this, let us take Kin through a similar future demand filter.

What is the latent potential behind Kin?

Kin is designed for use in a shared economy — between investors, developers and app users. The Kin Rewards Engine (KRE) incentivizes app developers to port their apps or build new ones in the Kin Ecosystem.

Flow of Kin in the ecosystem

In this model, Kin becomes the base currency used by a growing number of apps that support in-app purchases (think games, stickers, ride-shares, VIP-rooms, premium content, etc.). Users needing to make purchases will have opportunities to earn Kin within Kik, and later on, in other digital services. How big is this level of demand?

In-app purchases are normally done in a compulsion loop, and with a “points currency” to maximize waste aversion and purchases from users. Some industry insiders expect app revenues to surpass $100 billion by 2020, with current in-app purchases comprising 48% of the revenue.

Is this big? No, it has massive potential demand! Simply being adopted by Kik as the first of many developers, Kin could become the most widely used cryptocurrency ever.

What are the risks that Kin needs to overcome?

Should you invest in Kin? (The magic question)

Smart investors do their own research, ignore the hype and FUD, weigh their own risks and rewards and objectively decide whether to get in.

To quote Jake Brukhman of CoinFund, mainstream cryptocurrency adoption will likely happen by offering mainstream consumers a chance to interact with digital currencies in compelling ways, within apps they love.

If Kin is able to attract major developers and create a rich community where Kin becomes the accepted “Bitcoin for apps,” the demand will rival any cryptocurrency we know. This demand will not come from speculation, but from daily use of many popular apps.

The magic word is “IF.” I am willing to bet this happens sooner than later and am part of the few who got in early on Kin.
JEF’s Power Breakfast: Meeting the Chairman of Peilim Portfolio Management
Tags: Market, Finance, Jef, Banking, Jef Activities

Ms. Hanna Pri-Zan talked about the future of financial markets

This morning the Jewish Economic Forum hosted a Power Breakfast with the

Chairman of Peilim Portfolio Management Hanna Pri-Zan at Peilim headquarters in Ramat Gan.

Hanna Pri-Zan talked about the future of financial markets focusing on the challenges of Israel and other countries worldwide.
If You Give a Mom a Virtual School Schedule
By: Audrey Burges
Tags: Humor, Schools, Miscellany, Parenting, Satire

If You Give a Mom a Virtual School Schedule

She’ll probably ask for more coffee…

We’re starting at WHAT time, now? (Image credit: Daria Nepriakhina, Unsplash)

If you give a mom a virtual school schedule, she’s going to ask for a cup of coffee.

When you give her the coffee — oh, you’re busy? No worries, she’ll get it herself, it’s not like she’s got anything else going on — she’s going to need a bigger mug.

Once she dumps the dirty paintbrush water out of the bigger mug because no one ran the dishwasher last night but it’s fine, really, she’ll open her work calendar.

When she checks her work calendar, she’ll notice that Morning Meeting is scheduled at the same time as Required Staff Meeting.

Which is also Yank Sodden Pull-ups Off the Toddler Time.

And every other Wednesday is Wacky Hat Day?

She’ll probably start crying.

When she starts crying, she’ll notice that her laptop camera is on, and that the lighting in the dining room/office/school room/art room/sandcastle-building area is terrible.

When she realizes that the lighting is terrible, she’ll decide she needs a ring light.

She’ll start researching one.

When she has researched enough to make a simple decision much harder, she’ll probably want to take a nap.

She’s going to need more coffee.

When she gets up to get more coffee, the toddler will assume she’s not working.

He will ask her to play with him.

She’ll probably start crying.

When she starts crying, the toddler will bring her his dump truck to make her feel better.

The dump truck will make her cry harder.

The dump truck will also remind her that today is trash day. She’s missed the last two trash days, and Pull-Up Mountain is developing fault lines.

She’ll race outside in her online meeting shirt and striped pajama bottoms just in time to flag down the trash truck.

The trash truck driver will smirk and say, “Someone’s a little off schedule these days, huh?” while he waits for her to lug the trash bin to the big grabby hook.

She probably won’t wish that the big grabby hook would go rogue and maybe cause just a little bit of mayhem, not enough to hurt anyone, of course, but just to make things reaaaaaallllly inconvenient for a while, and who’ll make jokes about being “a little off schedule” then, huh?

Not her. Because when they go low, she goes high.

God, she wishes she was high.

She probably needs more coffee.

And chances are, by the time she gets back to her mug of cold coffee, it will taste like Crayola paint in every color of the rainbow.

She will drink cold rainbows while she looks at the color-coded virtual school calendar.

She’ll decide to bake some cookies.
Motherhood— My Gift of a Lifetime
By: Allison Ditmer
Tags: Motherhood, Prompt, Pregnancy, Family, Parenting

My husband and I were in our early 30’s when we felt we were ready for babies. Of course, we had no idea what that would entail. We were sure that we wanted children. We had multiple years to grow as a couple, learn how to pick our battles, and enjoy all-inclusive vacations that serve you the cute cocktails right on the beach.

Now that we were ready, out went the birth control. Because this quickly became my focus, all I could concentrate on every month were my cycles and trying to get pregnant. The added personal pressure and heightened awareness did nothing to help the process but naturally, as a planner, I couldn’t help myself.

Oh how that quickly became my first lesson in motherhood and I didn’t even know it at the time. The lesson of making plans and the plan not quite panning out at all on the time table you wish it to.

Over that same year, I saw my sister-in-law get pregnant. I continued to count the days in my cycle getting my hopes up with no positive pregnancy test. There were tears, there were prayers, and I felt all-consumed with the desire to say I was expecting.

Not until I started being open with friends and family that my husband and I had been trying for months, only then the self-imposed shame started melting away. In fact, it’s from being vulnerable and sharing what I felt was a weakness that gave me new insight. Better connections bloomed with those closest to me struggling in silence as well. It also widened my perspective to other ideas in tracking my fertility that I know aided in that long-desired double pink line I had been waiting for.
March — June 2020 Burn Report. During the peak of the pandemic we had…
By: Locktrip.Com, Loc Token, Official Blog
Tags: Hotel, Travel, Locktrip, Ethereum, Bitcoin

During the peak of the pandemic we had paused our burn reports as bookings came to a halt. Now it is time to have a look at how the burn mechanism performed throughout the different stages of the crisis and where we stand now.

About the Mechanism

Every booking made on our marketplace triggers a LOC burn equal to 3% of the booking value. These are specifically bought from exchanges and sent to the parking wallet.

When the customer checks in to the hotel, we consider the booking as final and the parking wallet executes the final burn transaction. If the customer cancels the booking, the parking wallet returns the balance into circulation.

Burn Rate

The burn mechanism continuously removes LOC from the circulating supply, driven by booking volumes.

Up until February, we saw a strong upwards trajectory for the burn rate. The mechanism was just gearing up towards its potential when the unexpected Covid crisis put the entire world on lockdown.

The result was a slowdown of burns in March and a complete stop in April — at the peak of all restrictions. Most bookings were cancelled and did not yield any burns. Read about how we handled the Corona crisis here.

In May and June we saw a V-shaped recovery. How was that possible? There are two reasons for this:

While we did not see the same booking activity compared to pre-covid levels, the average booking value was higher — making up for it. The LOC price saw a drop during the pandemic, which boosted the impact of each booking on the economy. Despite the numbers being small, it presents a great case-study for the adaption capabilities of the burn mechanism.

Back in December we discussed such a behavior in our LOC Economy 2.0 announcement, where we shared a dedicated simulation for force-majeur events and their impact on the LOC economy. Who would have thought that we would be seeing a real-world example that quickly?

Cumulative Amount

Another fundamental metric is the cumulative amount that has been removed from the circulating supply.

Aside from the short slow-down in April, the overall performance seems to be unaffected by the pandemic.

More importantly, the parking wallet saw a strong growth from 645 LOC to 1,085 LOC in the first half of July. This balance is an important indicator of future performance as it represents the amount of LOC waiting to be burnt upon check-in of the customers.

Verify the Numbers

Burn Wallet

Parking Wallet

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LockTrip is a blockchain-based travel marketplace that allows users to save up to 60% on their bookings by cutting out middlemen. Every booking burns LOC proportionally to its booking value, continuously reducing its total supply.
How It Feels to Be Diagnosed with Cancer as a 20-Year Old Virgin
By: Alexander Porter
Tags: Life Lessons, Relationships, Teenagers, Sexuality, Sex

The statistics on virginity

No sexual milestone carries the significance of losing your virginity.

That’s why everyone wants to lose their virginity as soon as possible, right? It’s the unbridled urge of teenagers everywhere. Why else would American Pie have 3 sequels?

Western pop culture will tell you teenagers are in a race to lose their virginity. But is this statistically true?

There’s no shortage of data available as sex has long been a focal point of scientific research and discussion. Much of this focus is thanks to well known sexologist Alfred Kinsey, founder of the Institute for Sex Research at Indiana University in 1974.

Kinsey’s groundbreaking research, while not focusing specifically on virginity, paved the way for a more in-depth understanding of sex and sexuality.

The expectations of his era were such that a woman should remain a virgin until marriage. And so, much of Kinsey’s work was focused on revolutionizing the sexually repressive society in which he grew up.

Sexual liberation in the decades since has eroded the idea of virginity as being saved for marriage. Still, subsequent studies on virginity remain out of sync with the raucous and sex-craved teens Hollywood would have you believe are lurking in the dark.

According to America’s Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the average American male loses his virginity at 16.9. Compared to the average American female at 17.4. (‘sex’ is defined as heterosexual intercourse).

But these numbers don’t tell the whole story.

Diving deeper into CDC data we can see a sharp decline in the number of American high schoolers having sex. Roughly 39% of high schoolers had lost their virginity in 2017. This was down from 48% in 2007.

Of course, this data is too isolated to show a decline in the desire to have sex. It’s possible these figures show an increase in new ways to experiment with sexuality. Sexting and the sexualisation of social media now provide outlets for curious adolescents.

But there is further evidence from a survey of 2,800 sexually active Britons. This survey revealed more than a third of women and a quarter of men felt losing their virginity did not come ‘at the right time’.

Source BMJ Sexual and Reproductive Health

The majority of those polled said they wished they’d waited longer to have sex.

Now here’s the final nail in the sex-crazed cliche coffin. Millennials are more than TWICE as likely to have zero sexual partners at 18 compared to their Gen X counterparts.

This data all points to one thing — young people are having sex later.

So sex is becoming less of a milestone in young lives. How should that frame the conversation on virginity moving forward?
Regarding BitcoinX (BCX) Distribution
By: Huobi Global
Tags: Announcements, Huobi, Blockchain, Bitcoin

Dear users,

Since BitcoinX (BCX) is scheduled to fork at the height of 498888, Huobi Pro will take a snapshot of users’ BTC assets after the fork happens and all address holding bitcoin will receive corresponding amount of BCX at the ratio of 1 BTC：10000 BCX. If you have BTC assets in otc.huobi.pro, you will get BCX in the next 3 days. Please transfer your BTC to Huobi.pro account to ensure a timely distribution. We will also enable BCX/BTC trading after the distribution. If you have BTC assets in Huobi Wallet, you will receive BCX in your Huobi Wallet account.

Regarding SBTC distribution, please refer to announcement: https://www.huobipro.com/en-us/notice_detail/?id=741

Regarding UBTC, BTH and other types of hard fork assets, Huobi Pro will take a snapshot of users’ BTC assets and distribute corresponding hardforked assets to users. We will also support trading of some types of hard fork assets if it gains widespread acceptance.

Regarding our positions on Bitcoin hark fork, please refer to: https://www.huobipro.com/notice_detail/?id=704

The prices of chain split coins are extremely unstable. We hope that users can have a full understanding of the investment risks of chain split coins and be prudent of your own investment decisions.

Huobi Pro

December 11, 2017

https://www.huobipro.com/notice_detail/?id=749
Christmas Almost Wasn’t Going To Happen This Year
By: Speaking Fiction To Power
Tags: Poetry, Funny, Christmas

Christmas Almost Wasn’t Going To Happen This Year

(But It Will, Thanks To Coach Rudolph, That Crafty Reindeer)

Photo by Jon Tyson on Unsplash

Central News Service Exclusive: The “Rudolph song” lyrics needed to change in 2020

At the North Pole, things weren’t quite right.

Trouble was brewing, soon to be a fight.

Most of the reindeer had gotten out of hand;

And Santa, poor soul, couldn’t understand.

First up, Dasher made fun of Prancer,

Said he wasn’t a very good dancer.

Teasing him in an unmerciful way,

Prancer got dizzy, started to swoon and sway.

Then Donner told a joke on Cupid,

“Santa’s going to change your name to Stupid.”

And when Cupid didn’t know what to say,

Donner said, “Can’t wait to be pullin’ that sleigh!”

Then Comet did much the same with Vixen,

That’s when hoofs started flyin’ from Blitzen.

Alas, a big fight was about under way,

Until Rudolph knew just what to say.

Do you think Santa knew what to do?

I can tell you he didn’t have a clue.

“Should I ask them to pull the sleigh?

Surely I can’t save the day.”

That’s when Rudolph took things in hand,

Putting things in a way they could all understand.

He unleashed, in his most Southern way:

“Y’all get yo’ asses hitched to that sleigh!”

(“Not you, Santa.”)

“I’m the coach now; what I say goes!

And forget about any nose that glows.

We’re gonna practice, then practice some more,

We’re gonna practice ’til your asses are sore.”

(“You just sit over there, Santa.”)

Coach Rudolph got them to practice in a way,

That will keep them busy until the big day.

So yes, there will be Christmas this year,

Just thank coach Rudolph for bringing in the cheer.

And if you all promise to be good girls and boys,

You too can look forward to plenty of toys.

And Christmas will unfold as it should,

“If y’all just remember to be good!”

(Don’t make me call Coach Rudolph!!!)

And Now The New Rudolph Song:

You know Dasher and Dancer and Prancer and Vixen,

Comet and Cupid and Donner and Blitzen,

But do you recall

The most heroic reindeer of all?

Rudolph the red nosed reindeer

Had a very wise old nose,

And if you ever saw it,

You’d say it belonged in the pros.

All of the other reindeer

Used to laugh and call him names.

They didn’t know how Rudolph

Could win all their Reindeer games.

Then one foggy Christmas Eve,

Santa came to say:

“Rudolph, with your nose that knows,

Please stop them from coming to blows.”

Then how the reindeer loved him,

As they shouted out with glee:

“Rudolph the Nose-Knows Reindeer,

You’re the baddest ass in history!!!”
Covesting announces its first community contest with a total prize of 3,500 COV!
Tags: Investing, Cryptocurrency, Content Creation, Covesting, Bitcoin

Dear community,

We are grateful to be the foundation behind such a community full of selfless folks –each one of you is a blessing for Covesting’s journey. We would like to take this opportunity to thank all of the supporters of Covesting for all they have done to make Covesting the way it is. We are grateful for the work and moments you create. That is what pushes us to grow.

We have noticed how many erudite and artistic community members there are and for that reason we’re really excited to announce our first community contest!

Rules:

- Covesting’s Community Contest starts on June 28 and closes on July 28

- You are allowed to submit up to 7 entries.

- Entries can be in the form of an Image, Gif, Animation, Info Graphic, Video

- All entries are required to be in English language.

- All entries should have a backup in Twitter.

Are you a good writer? Writing an article counts too! All Writing entries should have a backup on any blogging platform (Medium, Blogger, Steemit, Naver, etc.)

- All material should be original content. Copyrighted material is not allowed.

- Offensive/Misleading material will be disqualified.

What we would love to see in the Covesting’s Community Contest:

• What advantages does Covesting offer

• Engaging content about Covesting

• Covesting’s vision

Examples:

• Covesting Tokenomics

• Legal compliance

• Copy-trading

• Community focused

• Liquidity Aggregation

• Anything related to Covesting
love me as I love you
By: Rebecca Jane Warrington
Tags: Self Improvement, Life Lessons, Love, Life, Short Story

There was a woman named May

Who had a lilt as she spoke

Sarcastic as sin, eyes luring you in

Everyone loved being around May

Her arms enveloped the bereft

Bosom soft as a cushion, soothing their pain

She had enough love to give, all were welcome

Until!

Until the day she grew tired; tired of giving

Drained, sucked dry, her chest deflated and hollow

No one knew what to do, exasperated for her return

Her eyes now closed, breath barely escaping her parched lips

Standing there afraid to touch, her children hovering as vultures do

Prodding her with a single finger, June gasped, ‘come on May what’s got into you?’

July and August in the distance, huffing and puffing

We need you!

May lay with her hand resting on her forehead

I can’t; I’m weary

Hold my hand, give me a cup of tea

Wrap your arms around me

Love me as I love you

But you were always there for us, mutters July

May allows a sliver of light to enter her eyes, she looks up in despair

Her hand reaches towards the sound of their voices

I too need love; I need to know you love me too

September, her youngest rushed in with the tea

Albeit not the best of teas; May begins to come around

July and August can’t cope

A silly woman she is; a drama queen, chirping like a swarm of birds, they walk away

Cradling the tea in her wrinkled, spotted hands, May’s heart begins to warm

June remains behind, leaning down, kissing May’s spongy cheek

Wrapping her arms around her shrunken shoulders

May sighs, now I can love again
The Cancer Moonshot Blue Ribbon Panel galvanizes the thinking of leading cancer experts throughout the nation
By: National Cancer Inst
Tags: Cancer, Cancer Moonshot

The Cancer Moonshot Blue Ribbon Panel (BRP) report outlines 10 bold science initiatives that, if realized, will make major contributions toward achieving a decade’s worth of progress against cancer in five years. By bringing together experts across disciplines and sectors across the cancer community, the BRP built upon decades of scientific knowledge to identify areas of research that are poised for rapid acceleration. Ultimately, the blueprint put forth by the BRP sets the stage for rapid progress in cancer prevention, screening, diagnosis, treatment, and survivorship — all while promoting health equity — to improve the lives of patients and their loved ones.