fabiochiu/medium-articles huggingface dataset:
6 Scientific Keys That Will Help You Never Give Up on Your Goals
By: Desiree Peralta
Tags: Advice, Life Lessons, Inspiration, Personal Development, Self Improvement

Do you remember your goals for this year?

If you met them all, congratulations. But if you’re like most of the people I know, chances are you’re still as far from your goals as you were a year ago.

But don’t blame yourself.

Staying motivated to move forward with our plans is much more difficult than it sounds.

That without forgetting all the information you will find around social media and all those “influencers” that are totally wrong or even bad for your motivation.

For this reason, I have looked for 6 scientifically proven ways in which you can achieve your goals this next year, which will help us to be motivated all year long to complete them.
“Hello, this is Sweden”
By: Clayton Carroll
Tags: Video Marketing, Content Marketing, Online Marketing, Digital Marketing, Sweden

This week’s digital marketing success story is about The Swedish Tourist Association.

What Can We Learn From The Swedish Tourist Association: A new way to give references.

Example: The Swedish Number campaign that spanned 79 days earlier in 2016:

Basically, random Swedes signed up to be phone “ambassadors” and field phone calls. Anyone in the world could call the Swedish number and talk to a random resident about Sweden.

Here’s the wild part, those who signed up to field phone calls on behalf of Sweden received no instructions.

No training. No coaching. No script.

Pure Sweden (I’m from Michigan).

Why Was This Campaign Effective?

The agency behind the promotion, Ingo Stockholm, received an award at the Cannes Lions Festival honoring those in creative communications, advertising and related fields.

Even the Prime Minister of Sweden fielded phone calls and President Barack Obama of the United States mentioned the campaign during a speech.

The Bigger Picture: Could Some of Your Customers Become Phone Ambassadors?

Think of your die-hard fans. Those customers that sing your praises to everyone. Would one or a few of them be willing to give this a try?

A business could mimic Sweden if a phone number was setup to automatically transfer calls to a pool of customers or someone’s call got transferred to a customer.

Imagine something like this on your website or promotional material:

“Call and talk to a customer that knows more about our company than us.”

This would generate some phone calls and maybe one sale you might not have otherwise gotten.
Rebirth
By: Jun Wu
Tags: Poetry, Poems On Medium, Rebirth, Values, Poem

When you pace back

and forth between cubicles

of shame, it’s death

by a thousand

paper cuts that simply

doesn’t align with

your values.

With a quick snap of

the wrist, you are reborn

into the twilight of your

senses.

You know what you like

and refuse take no for

an answer.

Like a brand new baby

emerging from the

mother’s warm womb,

you embrace the world

as if you are the only one

that survived.

Love pours out as you

remember death is only

a short step away from

the glorious life that

you inhabit now.

Your values, oh those,

that haunted your days

before are now dripping

from your sleeves like

diamonds.

You walk, steadfast

into the future of

unknowns.
7 Ways to Build Multiple Income Streams Through Crypto
Tags: Money Mindset, Blockchain, Side Hustle, Cryptocurrency, Passive Income

Most people don’t necessarily have the time or desire to become traders, constantly glued to their screens watching daily price action. Others trade occasionally but have realized it’s much harder to do so in a bear market. What most people do want are longer term, low-risk investments within the crypto space without quitting their day jobs.

Crypto provides plenty of options. You don’t need to be sitting in front of a screen and analyzing charts or coding to make money with the methods I’ve outlined below. That said, many (but not all) of these strategies are centered around projects that are still nascent. This is both good and bad. It’s bad because there are few use-cases and tried and true examples, so you’ll have to do your own exploring through trial and error. It’s good because it means if you find a niche and dive in to one area, then you can be an early adopter and increase your earnings in 2019.

Here are a few ways that you can get started.

1. Affiliate Income

Crypto affiliate programs pay you for making referrals when someone makes a purchase or registers for a service. On blockchain platforms where amplifying network effects is key to increasing traffic and revenue, affiliate programs are generous. Referral commissions range from 10 to 75 percent.

How to set it up:
Cibertucídides
By: Lautaro N. Rubbi
Tags: Technology, Cyberattack, Cybersecurity, Foreign Affairs, International Relations

Ph.D. and MG. in International Relations. Expert in International Security and War. Special interests in new technologies, productivity, and philosophy.

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It was NOT a Whirlwind
By: Lakesha Mathis
Tags: Poetry, 100 Naked Words

I wish we’d all stop using “whirlwind” to describe the not so instantaneous moments in our lives that seem to surprise us even when they don’t.

I am exhausted of comparisons and what using words like whirlwind does to our ability to simply live our experiences.

“There is no such thing as a life that’s better than yours”, J Cole harmoniously growls.

It’s true. And only your witness of the experience can validate that.

Just live.

Most of the occurrences described as instant, have taken much longer to develop. The results seem instant but the work has been on going.
Morpheus Labs in Top 15 Amongst More Than 500 Startups Globally
By: Morpheus Labs Team
Tags: Technology, Blockchain, Cryptocurrency, Accelerator, Huawei

We’re excited to be part of the Huawei Spark Program that aims to incubate and accelerate deep startups in the Asia Pacific! This is a great opportunity for us to gain direct access to many respectable mentors in various areas of the business.

To learn more, watch this video below.

Organised by HUAWEI CLOUD in partnership with Enterprise Singapore and Startup SG, Huawei Spark was launched in August 2020 to call on deep tech companies in the Asia Pacific to participate in the accelerator programme at the online HUAWEI CLOUD Summit 2020 Singapore. Morpheus Labs has gone through a rigorous selection process and was chosen to be in the top 15 amongst more than 500 startups globally, as a very promising startup by the accelerator programme.

The Morpheus Labs team has spent the first two years of its business in building and developing the low code development platform, named Morpheus Labs SEED, where developers and enterprises alike could use the platform to design, deploy and run blockchain applications and solution implementations. The time has come that Morpheus Labs will seek greater market validation and set foot in the emerging technology market.

Morpheus Labs will receive Cloud resources from Huawei, including hardware support including AI modules and AI-based intelligent industry solutions, along with open-source software support such as AI framework, database and OS to develop their own applications, services and hardware appliances, not limiting to technical, training, external webinar support, as well as go-to-market support. Morpheus Labs will also get access to its wide-ranging enterprise client portfolio globally. On top of that, the company will be able to reach over 600 million Huawei mobile users through the Huawei Mobile Services (HMS) system and Huawei App Gallery, and millions of enterprise users across the globe through Huawei’s Cloud marketplace.

With Huawei’s additional support and resources, Morpheus Labs will be the go-to platform for blockchain solution implementations, providing the following:
Virtual Learning: What is Our Goal?
By: Jennifer Smith
Tags: Virtual Learning, Education Technology, Innovation, Education, Teaching

Photo by Charisse Kenion on Unsplash

It’s not what we are good at, teaching through a flat screen. As educators, we know that in-person engagement is key to learning, and multiple intelligences help kids learn. Some kids learn best when moving, others when writing, some when just listening. We must pull all of these elements together in a virtual environment to succeed.

Now, we have transitioned to virtual learning and some of us to hybrid learning. Although we have discovered many different approaches to teaching through this disastrous time, don’t throw the baby out with the bath water. While what we normally do in classrooms does not always translate to virtual learning, teachers will be most effective if they continue to use the strategies they know best. In my geography classroom, I typically use a lot of movement. We do songs, dances, and chants to help cement our knowledge of directions and definitions. On my virtual platform, I could create a video of me performing these steps as my method of teaching and post on a platform for students to view. Or, I could skip the idea entirely and find another approach. But, I know the methods I typically use work really well for students. So, why change them?

As we find ways to use our new online platforms, we have to be realistic. Students will not follow a “next step” module and learn effectively. Independent learning works when we are pursuing a passion or are interested in the topic. When we are not, however, or if we are confused, we need engagement for questions and conversation. Engagement spurs ideas and innovation. We cannot assume students will even complete modules effectively. I, myself, have been assigned online lessons with videos, and I forwarded through them just to complete the modules quickly. However, if someone had engaged me personally, asked for my ideas or opinions, I would have been a more active learner and actually taken to the content.

Regular, in person, school provides accountability that virtual school does not offer. Accountability is not just a checklist. Rather, accountability is being an engaged participant in your learning. It is interacting with others, it is questioning, processing. Not just completing a module “to-do” list. That is just task completion. We are not trying to teach task completion, or we should not be. Rather, we should be teaching collaboration, problem-solving, and innovation. Completing a task-oriented lesson does nothing to build this skill set.

Use the tools with which you are familiar. Use the tools you know are developmentally appropriate for students and will engage them in their learning. Adapt, but do not completely change. Do not eliminate paper and pencil. Encourage doodling while you are talking online. Encourage using different colored pens and pencils. Question, discuss, explore. Encourage creativity. Build, create, design.

In the past few months, it has become evident that our future needs for these kids to be creative problem-solvers and innovators. It’s up to us to help them.
Unknown Number
By: Franco Amati
Tags: Poetry, Life, Prose, Scuzzbucket, Communication

Photo by Plato Terentev from Pexels

Could you be the ex I’ve been ignoring

calling from another phone?

Or that wily debt collector

hounding me about a student loan?

Unknown number,

I know not who you are.

But your efforts are always wasted.

I really don’t know why

you leave a two minute voicemail

with nothing on it.

If you really are my friend,

then just text me, you son of a bitch.

Or email works too…

How long does it take for you to learn

that even my grandma

won’t talk to an unknown number.

Give up!

Your job is pointless!

All you do is waste my time.

I’d rather be writing or reading

or watching porn

instead of deleting your ghostly messages.

Your best chance is to wait around

for when I’m looking for employment,

that precarious time when I’ll answer anything

just to see if some asshole wants me

for a stupid interview.

But even then, unknown number,

I’ll probably just hang up on you.
Reflections of the Chambermaid
By: Emily Bracale
Tags: Hospitality, Emily Bracale, Comics, Routine, Cleaning

Grand Prize winner of Winning Writers North Street Book Competition, for the creative nonfiction/ graphic memoir Our Last Six Months. ourlastsixmonthsbook.com

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14 Ways to Add Social Proof to Your Sales Funnel
By: Bailey Richert
Tags: Sales Funnels, Online Business, Selling, Online Marketing, Digital Marketing

14 Ways to Add Social Proof to Your Sales Funnel

Social proof comes in many forms.

Photo by George Pagan III on Unsplash

Were you ever on the fence about buying a product but were ultimately convinced to make the purchase after hearing a friend tell you how much they liked owning one?

You were subjected to a form of social proof, your friend’s testimonial, which influenced your decision to buy.

Many entrepreneurs running businesses online don’t have the pleasure of meeting most of their potential customers in person to give them a face-to-face sales pitch. They must rely on other ways to convey that their products are the real deal, and subsequently, that the risk of purchase is low. The way this is done is often by showing social proof: showing potential clients that others trust your company and have found your products to be of high value.

Social proof comes in many forms, and there are many different ways to utilize it through your sales funnel.
Variational Autoencoder Demystified With PyTorch Implementation.
By: William Falcon
Tags: Machine Learning, Hands On Tutorials, Deep Learning, Data Science, Hands-on Tutorials

ELBO Loss — KL Divergence term

Let’s first look at the KL divergence term.

The first part (min) says that we want to minimize this. Next to that, the E term stands for expectation under q. This means we draw a sample (z) from the q distribution.

Notice that in this case, I used a Normal(0, 1) distribution for q. When we code the loss, we have to specify the distributions we want to use.

Now that we have a sample, the next parts of the formula ask for two things: 1) the log probability of z under the q distribution, 2) the log probability of z under the p distribution.

Notice that z has almost zero probability of having come from p. But has 6% probability of having come from q. If we visualize this it’s clear why:

z has a value of 6.0110. If you look at the area of q where z is (ie: the probability), it’s clear that there is a non-zero chance it came from q. But, if you look at p, there’s basically a zero chance that it came from p.

If we look back at this part of the loss

You can see that we are minimizing the difference between these probabilities.

So, to maximize the probability of z under p, we have to shift q closer to p, so that when we sample a new z from q, that value will have a much higher probability.

Let’s verify this via code

and now our new kl divergence is:

Now, this z has a single dimension. But in the real world, we care about n-dimensional zs. To handle this in the implementation, we simply sum over the last dimension. The trick here is that when sampling from a univariate distribution (in this case Normal), if you sum across many of these distributions, it’s equivalent to using an n-dimensional distribution (n-dimensional Normal in this case).

Here’s the kl divergence that is distribution agnostic in PyTorch.

This generic form of the KL is called the monte-carlo approximation. This means we sample z many times and estimate the KL divergence. (in practice, these estimates are really good and with a batch size of 128 or more, the estimate is very accurate).
A confessional prayer
Tags: Pain, Authenticity, Mess, Prayer, Faith

March was a low month for me. I don’t want to go as far as to say it was a “dark” month — but it was definitely a time of soul searching and soul trembling.



I spoke at New Life Lakeview & Lincoln Park this past Sunday on James 1:1–8 (Here’s the message if you want to listen: LINK). I told everyone during that time that I’m literally living out the James passage in my day to day right now.



Which is good. Difficult, but good.



About 3 weeks ago I had a night of tearful prayer. I drove around for about 2 hours weeping tears that have probably been stored up for years. I’m not a big crier, so this was huge for me. I ended up sitting on the steps of Holy Name Cathedral, late at night in the city, journaling, getting things out and down.



Here’s part of what I poured out to God:



I feel broken…so I give the pieces to You.

I feel lost…so I give my way to You.

I feel shame…so I give my stains to You.

I feel alone…so I give my need for connection to You.

I feel confused…so I give my contemplations to You.

I feel hopeless…so I give my aspirations to You.

I feel anger…so I give my wounds to You.

This is my genuine sacrifice.

This is my genuine, living sacrifice.

This is all I got.

This is what’s real.

And I give it to You.



That’s where I was three weeks ago. In a different place now — but I needed to go through that to get here today. And that’s a good thing.



Difficult, but good.



Just felt like someone would maybe be encouraged by hearing a little of what’s been going on inside of me.



If you’re in a similar place, send me an email. I’d love to hear and share.
Streaming Payments and the Future of Interoperability, MIT Bitcoin Expo ‘18
By: Sathya Peri
Tags: Blockchain, Altcoins, Cryptocurrency, Ethereum, Bitcoin

Talk given by Evan Schwartz

Evan Schwartz is the co-inventor of the Interledger Protocol. He spoke on Day 2 of the MIT Bitcoin Expo.

Websites have multiple different payment methods

Common Question — Do you have Venmo? → Are we on the same payment network?

Payments at their core are disconnected. banks !=<> blockchain !=<> mobile money

Architecture of the Internet

hourglass architecture

Fundamentally disconnected → the Internet Protocol (routing layer) connects the various networks (Wifi, Bluetooth, Ethernet) to the transport layer, then to the application layer

Interledger Protocol (ILP)

Applying the Internet’s design to enable streaming payments across every payment network

Architecture of Interledger

similar to Internet architecture

Bottom layer = systems of value = blockchains, banks, payment channels. Interledger connects various ledgers to the transport layer, then to the application layer

What ILP can do? Enable streaming payments

Subscription models

At their core bundle up payments — its easy, convenient

People with low usage ($$ more per use of service) are paying for people with high usage ($$ less per use of service)

In reality subscription models are profiting off the discrepancy of people with high usage and people with low usage

Pay per use

*user experience needs to be good* for pay per use services

When money is sent from network to network → really ILP packets are sent that create obligations which are settled afterwards

Simple payment channel update

Person A sends Person B the packet through a connector

Person B gives Person A the pre-image

Person A signs a payment channel update

Interledger spun out of Ripple

What can you do?

ILP Boston Community Meetup — https://www.meetup.com/Boston-Interledger/

Video Link — https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xaNi1Blw6V0

If you liked what you read, give us a few claps 👏👏👏 maybe 50 if you’d like ❤️❤️❤️ Follow @MITBitcoinClub and @gosathya on Twitter. More coming soon!
Preserving Wildflowers
By: Tima Loku
Tags: Poetry, Wildflowers, Poems On Medium, Summer, Love

Photo by Kelly McCrimmon on Unsplash

She is carefree,

picking wildflowers

under the bright blue summer sky

the eye of an artist,

she knows exactly what she wants

as clouds drift us by

she brings the flowers home,

not yet having mastered, the art —

of letting pretty thing go

-not like I have-

and I hold the book open

as she places flowers

pink, yellow and blue

between pages

ready to be pressed

ready to be preserved

held between my gaze

and the golden sunset light

she shines -

and I burn the image to my mind

quietly knowing

we are the wildflowers

endeavoring to prolong our summer

before all this ephemeral love —

falls away

maybe tomorrow

leaving behind

only

the sound of soft petals

embracing the earth.
Starting Together
By: Jan Kiekeben
Tags: Process, Agile, UX, Lean

In the previous article I discussed how and where we should focus our attention when preparing initiatives. I described some measures that lead to unwanted consequences and emphasise the shift in mindset towards investing in initiatives. Another area where teams optimise their processes is linked to how they kick off an initiative and the boundaries they put in place to achieve their planned outcomes. This area is basically the aftermath of the preparation phase and, again, teams tend to introduce measures that look conclusive, but do in fact cause unwanted effects.

The core concept of starting together is a term I borrowed from John Cutler (read about it on his blog). But before we dive deeper into his concept, let’s have a look at which interventions we tend to introduce while kicking off a new project.

One measure taken as a consequence of preparation done with a lot of design beforehand involves getting started on the first tickets once an engineer is available. The thinking goes that ‘he/she could get started with task X, with others joining in once they finish their tasks’. It sounds smart as everything seems to be prepared and clear, right? It could even mean we have a week or two head start before even planning to start an initiative. Optimising for starting on engineering at any time reinforces the upfront design process since engineers can only get started at any time if the solution has been designed and all the details have been defined.

Another measure we tend to optimise for is removing all uncertainty and ensuring 100% predictability by conducting kickoff meetings weeks before actually working on something. It also sounds smart because in that meeting, we can address any unresolved issues and give the upfront design team time to clarify them. However, the team is generally busy working on other things, so pulling them away from those tasks isn’t likely to be welcomed with open arms. This also leads to loss of energy that a kick-off can give to the team building up to a new topic as it will still take some time for the wheel to actually start turning. Sometimes the upcoming initiative may even be turned on its head, meaning the whole kick-off was a waste of time.
Lessons I learned as a product design intern at SurveyMonkey
Tags: Product Design, Surveymonkey, Design Thinking, Design Internship, Teamwork

My typical day in SurveyMonkey — Communication & Collaboration

This summer, I had a chance to work as a product design intern at SurveyMonkey. It was a challenging but fulfilling journey, so I’d like to share some of the things I learned about being a team player in tech. It is my hope to help others those trying to start a career in product design, especially non-native English speakers like myself.

A little about SurveyMonkey

With an energetic and supportive culture, SurveyMonkey prioritizes design. Every product area in the SurveyMonkey suite has a dedicated design resource. This summer, I worked on the core product experience.

I was fortunate to have a responsive mentor who worked closely with me and always gave me support. I also had a helpful manager who always answered my questions, not just from the aspect of design, but also communicated our values and gave me guidance on my career path. I had a whole design team that were not only work partners but also friends outside of work.

Inside the product design team, there were intense collaborations and communication. There was a lot of design critiques, brainstorming, and whiteboarding sessions to ensure every aspect of the product (design patterns, user behaviors, and experiences) were aligned and consistent. Research is another big part of the design as well. It helps us understand the needs of our users in a much better way so that the required product can be tailored appropriately. Most importantly the team supports each other and works through problems together.

Meet the product design team at SurveyMonkey
TechCrunch Disrupt 2019 & Last Reminder to Remove All Your LEDU From Gate Exchange
By: Dr. Michael J. Garbade
Tags: Ledu, Events, Blockchain, TechCrunch

TechCrunch Disrupt 2019 & Last Reminder to Remove All Your LEDU From Gate Exchange

TechCrunch will be holding their Disrupt conference in San Francisco from October 2nd until the 4th. This conference for investors, developers, founders, and industry leaders is all about delivering breaking news and building communities.

Featured guests will include Marc Benioff of Salesforce, Aicha Evans of Zoox, and Will Smith. Additionally, LEDU team will be attending the conference to learn more about game-changing technologies emerging in the near future.

Attendees of this conference will have the opportunity to learn more about the trends that are guiding today’s tech world while also networking with fellow conference go-ers. The presentations will be a mix of industry analysts sharing their business expertise and startup founders introducing their projects.

If you are also attending Disrupt, let’s meetup to discuss LEDU or crypto in general. We’re always excited to have a chance to meet more people in the space, and would love to chat. If you’d like to meet up, send an email to “tokens@education-ecosystem.com”.

Additionally, this is a final reminder to all LEDU holders on the Gate exchange to move their tokens before we execute our token swap. With Education Ecosystem conducting a token swap that will replace the current smart contract, all the current tokens will be locked soon. Anyone holding LEDU in Gate should move their tokens to a private wallet before the token swap. We are unable to make any exceptions for those who forget to move their LEDU from Gate.
Chynge (CLPX) to be Listed on BitForex in October 2018
Tags: Fintech, ICO, Stellar, Blockchain, Cryptocurrency

As part of the crowd sale of our Initial Coin Offering (ICO), our community and token buyers naturally want to know where their Chynge CLPX (say “clips”) tokens can be traded. Chynge is cognizant to this critical demand from our community, and we have gone through a rigorous process in selecting crypto exchanges. Hence, we are proud to announce Chynge’s listing on BitForex crypto exchange for our community to trade our CLPX tokens.

In selecting an exchange, the first criteria for Chynge is the quality followed by the quantity of the tokens that the exchanges list. As with any exchange, it starts with getting the listing of tokens correct and then the customers will sign up and trade. BitForex sports an impressive list of tokens that draws customers, and BitForex’s readiness to support Stellar were critical points for selection.

Both BitForex and Chynge are based in Singapore. This brings immediate advantages such as being close enough to work together to create novel financial products and solutions for our respective customers. Being in the same regulatory jurisdiction also allows us to share common business processes for customer due diligence and transaction surveillance to combat money laundering, terrorism financing, and illicit activities in the dark web and deep web.

Chynge is honored that BitForex shall be listing CLPXs on its digital assets exchange. BitForex is well respected by token issuers and its peers in the industry. Furthermore, the Chynge listing marks BitForex’s first Stellar.org project amongst their Bitcoin and Ethereum businesses.

“When we embarked our blockchain project on Stellar we knew it would be challenging to find exchanges that supported Stellar and those that would support our project. The leadership at BitForex shared the vision that Stellar would be a dominant platform and I am moved that BitForex starts with Chynge,” said Joe Tusin, CEO and Founder of Chynge.

To learn more about Chynge, please visit: http://www.chynge.net

Read the Whitepaper: http://bit.ly/chynge_whitepaper

Join the Chynge community on Telegram: https://t.me/chynge
Adrift
By: Nell Minow
Tags: Sailing, Movies, Movie Review

C

If I ever decide to pursue a PhD, I think I will go for a combined film/economics degree and study the correlation between the quality of a film and the star also being the producer. There will be plenty of data.

Shailene Woodley produces and stars in “Adrift,” based on the true story of a young couple sailing across the Pacific Ocean in the early 1980’s, who were caught in a deadly hurricane. There is obviously a lot of appeal for an actress in a story of the struggle to survive with the opportunity to show courage, resilience, and determination. But the back-and-forth flashbacks weaken the intensity of that struggle and a weak script with a Gothika Rule-worthy twist ending make even a story of survival more disappointing than inspiring.

Tami (Woodley) is a free spirit as we see when the immigration official in Tahiti asks her what her profession is and she replies, “Whatever job pays me enough to get me to the next place.” She has been traveling full-time since she graduated from high school five years earlier, most recently as chef on a schooner. She meets Richard (Sam Claflin), a British Naval Academy drop-out who worked in a boatyard so that he could build his own sailboat and has been on the water pretty much full-time ever since. Though he tells her that being at sea alone is mostly being “sunburnt, sleep-deprived, seasick, or all three at once. And after a few days, there’s the hallucinations.” But there is something both of them find irresistible in sailing into the horizon, and both have an unquenchable desire to see what the world has to offer. In one of the movie’s best scenes, she says a sunset at sea is red (as in “Red sky at night, sailor’s delight”), and he makes her see all the different shades and colors within the red. While she teases him about it later, she loves seeing the world through his eyes. And he loves her spirit of adventure.

When a wealthy friend offers Richard $10,000 and two first-class plane tickets to sail his yacht to San Diego, it seems like a perfect way for them to begin their life of adventure. But we know from the movie’s first shot that they are sailing into terrible trouble. We first see Tami submerged, and then we see her come to, disoriented, in the wrecked and waterlogged hull of the yacht, with Richard gone. Later we will see their tiny ship buffeted about by waves (the special effects are fine but nothing we didn’t see in “The Perfect Storm”) interspersed with scenes of their early romance and scenes of the 41 days adrift, with no way to get help or let anyone know where they were.

I don’t want to spoil the movie’s twist here, but per the Gothika Rule will be happy to share it to anyone who writes to me at moviemom@moviemom.com. I’ll just saw that while I am sure it was a deeply spiritual and sustaining experience for Tami, it comes across poorly on screen, leaving the audience, yes, adrift.
Estética VI
Tags: Español, Poesía, Prosa Poética, Poemas

in In Fitness And In Health
It’s Christmas Morning
By: Deena Thomson
Tags: Poetry On Medium, Poem, Holidays, Poetry, Christmas

A poem

It’s Christmas Morning

On a November day

Photo by Kristina Paukshtite from Pexels

It’s Christmas morning

on a November day

I’ve got this warm feeling

like it’s a holiday

Outside is raining

not a single frozen drop

The sky is all cloudy

but not my thoughts

It’s a holiday feeling

just came over me

Like walking in the sunshine

on a Florida beach

The feeling of Christmas

like days of the past

When you counted down with chocolates

and everyone seemed to laugh

Somebody, somebody

Please

Send Christmas to me

I don’t want this November day

to be a memory tucked away

It’s a wonderful feeling

and it’s not just in songs

Its the comfort of morning

as Christmas day dawns

So here's to Christmas

though it’s a November day

The sky is rumbling

showing off, on display

Outside is raining

not a single frozen drop

The sky is all cloudy

but not my thoughts

I’ve got this warm feeling

like it’s a holiday

Going to keep this warm feeling

for the rest of the day
Elizabeth Thacher Kent discusses her Suffrage Activities in Washington D.C. and London
By: Anne T. Kent California Room
Tags: Local History, Suffrage, Suffrage Movement, Marin County, Voting Rights

Laurie Thompson

In 1911, the William Kent family moved to Washington D.C. after Mr. Kent was elected to serve his first term in Congress. While there, his wife -Elizabeth Thacher Kent- became involved in the Woman’s Suffrage movement.

Elizabeth Thacher Kent, circa 1912. Anne T. Kent California Room Collection.

On a visit to her home town of Kentfield in 1912, Elizabeth addressed a meeting of the Tamalpais Centre’s Woman’s Club recounting memorable experiences from her time in Washington D.C. and of a family tour of Europe during the summer.

Included are several interesting accounts of her suffrage activities:

Elizabeth Thacher Kent at the Suffrage Pickets, Washington D.C., 1917. Anne T. Kent California Room Collection.

I was in the big suffrage parade in New York, and wore the green and white suffrage hat; it cost thirty-eight cents and was a very pretty, becoming and useful chapeau. My two boys came up from college to witness the parade, and teased and joked their mother for marching in line. When the great crowd filed into Carnegie Hall, elder boy remarked to the younger, ‘A spectacle like that makes you think,’ the other gravely responded, ‘it does make one think.’

William Kent Family portrait, circa 1912. Anne T. Kent California Room Collection.

On her experiences in London, Mrs. Kent remarks:

“Notwithstanding the earnest disapproval of my children, I went to a suffrage meeting. The speaker’s stand was a wagon drawn by the most pitiful specimen of a horse. The stand was prettily decorated in white and green, and a small woman….commenced to speak. Two men in the audience who were professional disturbers, hooted and jeered at every utterance, and did all that they could to create disorder and annoy the speaker. They asked me to tell something about suffrage in this country, and I did. Recognizing in me an American and a foreigner, they listened with respectful attention, not even the trained rioters offering to interrupt. The children were much relieved when I got home alive and sound.

Extracted from: Tamalpais Centre Woman’s Club, Marin Journal, 10 October 1912.
Do you want to take back control of your time? Me too.
By: Christiaan Van Eijk
Tags: Mindset, Personal Development, Stoicism, Entrepreneur, Personal Growth

How much of your work-time is swallowed up by responding to outside factors?

Of course we all have to respond to outside factors from time to time. But I know that for me, it feels like I’m doing that MOST of my time.

It makes me feel like I’m working very very hard, but at the same time it annoys me that I don’t get to work on the projects I REALLY want to work on.

It’s feels like filling up on gas, to then waste that gas on taxying other people around all the damn time. Instead of driving towards your own destination.

You have to put a stop to your behavior once you react to too many C.S.S.’s.

Yes, I just made that up. “C.S.S.” — Control-Stealing-Signal.

In real life…

A workday where you’re ignoring C.S.S.’s ends with a fulfilled feeling. You get to do what you set out to do. You get to work on your big plans, and you make a move (or multiple moves) in the RIGHT direction.

A workday where you’re NOT ignoring C.S.S.’s feels like the exact opposite. You don’t get to do what you want to do. And you don’t get to work on your own big plans. You don’t make a clear move in the right direction. And it doesn’t give you a fulfilled feeling at the end of the day.

So…

You keep more time to work on projects that matter You become more reliable when it comes to deadlines and schedule’s You end your workdays with a more fulfilled feeling

How will I train myself to accomplish this?

Well… I think there are multiple layers to uncover here. Multiple things I have to work on in order to take back control of my time. But the thing I want to focus on most for the coming few weeks is obsessing less over outcome’s of situations.

I often feel the urge to ‘jump in and save the day’.

Sometime’s things just ‘go as they go’. And sometimes letting things happen, even though you could do something about them… Might be better in the long term.
I heard SegWit was rushed to avoid a hard fork, is that true?
By: Segwit Resources
Tags: FAQ, Bitcoin, Blockchain

The idea around segregated witness has been in development for nearly two years, and variants of segregated witness have been in production and network testing for over a year. The current soft fork implement is, by all accounts, the most tested piece of code to ever make it into Bitcoin.

The original version of segregated witness was implemented in April through June 2015 for the Elements Project. It has facilitated every transaction on the Elements-based sidechains since then.

The new soft fork-variant of segregated witness moved to the multi-user testing stage in December 2015 by activating on the SegNet, a dedicated testnet of which there were 4 iterations.

A pull-request was submitted in April 2016 to Bitcoin Core for review.

Since May 2016 segregated witness was enabled on the regular testnet facilitating tests in a mixed environment with non-upgraded wallets.

At a meeting of twenty Bitcoin Core developers in May 2016 an in-person review of segregated witness’s code and test coverage was performed.

An updated version building on the current state of Bitcoin Core’s development was provided for final review in June 2016. It was merged on the 24th of that month.

Bitcoin Core version 0.13.0 was released in August and was the first release to include segregated witness code. It was followed by 0.13.1 two months later in October.

On November 18th the signaling period for segregated witness began.

The soft fork has been designed to allow individuals to voluntarily decide whether or not they want to adopt segregated witness. A guide is provided to help users make this decision.

Thanks to Murch at http://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/ for the summary
How’s your day been?
By: Gordie Jackson
Tags: Creative Process, Snow, Fear, Brief Encounters, Rehabilitation

I love my leaves / gjphotos

Yes, I saw some snow about an hour ago. Another sign that we are heading to winter.

How was your day? It is a funny old thing what a day brings. The consequences of a situation came to the fore today. I had a fear it would happen though knew it was also important to be brave. There are only so many hours in a day and only so many tasks can be done. Some of the day is paid though when the money stops so does the clock. That means somethings will not be done. What do you do? Do them for free or let them come to the fore.

Tonight we were looking at the passage of scripture that reads, “Fear not him who can kill the body but he who can judge the soul.” Matthew 10 v 28

It is quite a perspective-taking passage as we often fear the small things when in the scheme of things they are but a jot.

I had to buy a pair of gloves as Cee took mine as the steering wheel was too cold and she forgot to give them back.

I stepped into the enclosed waiting room of the station tonight and a Jamaican guy commented to the cafe cashier, “That even the Englishman is cold.”

I listened for a while and could tell this guy was a character. I then said humorously, “Just because I am white doesn’t mean I don’t feel the cold like you.”

We got into an exchange in which I shared to his surprise some knowledge on Jamaica. He was intrigued and came and sat near me to continue the banter. He then informed me that he had done 21 years to which I replied, “You must have been a murderer.” He didn’t disagree. He then informed me that he had turned his life around and was now working with young people to divert them from crime.

It is not often I meet such a loud cheerful character at the train station he was enough to bring cheer to a cold night.

Best day,

g
Teach Me, O Sire
By: Mahesh Cr
Tags: Poetry, Yoga, Poetry On Medium, Poetry Writing, Sri Aurobindo

Such habits I pick from Thee O Sire,

Each running counter to human current;

Every trait of mine rendered obsolete,

Even visage of mine assumes Thy attire!

From Thee learnt contempt for human day,

Unmindful of the Sun’s daily prompting

Or to Nature’s sly lure not submitting,

Always heeding to what Krishna did say.

Of Thy deeds a few I strenuously mime,

Cajoling my clay with repeated will,

To ape Thy works of uncommon skill

Sourced from heaven into human Time.

What courses in Thy mind immortally still,

Seest Thou distant ends made near?

Or unknot tangles making miracles appear

By a mere nudge of Thy supreme will?

Teach me, O Sire, to be even as Thee,

August, immortal and eternally free.
2018 Year in Review
By: Bj Campbell
Tags: Random

Or, actually, just a garbage repost of a twitter thread to articles you can already see arranged on the front page.
Monitoring the Pandemic Orgy
By: Lisa Martens
Tags: Humor, Covid Diaries, Satire, Sexuality, Sex

Monitoring the Pandemic Orgy

Let’s go over the ground rules

Photo by Dainis Graveris on Unsplash

“Okay. I need everyone wearing n95 masks, people. The ones meant for doctors and nurses. NOT the painters’ masks. Those have a vent…Carl, you’ll kill everyone with a vented mask. Sorry, sorry. I know I shouldn’t use extreme language like that.

“If we’re going to have this orgy, we’re going to do it right. I disinfected all the beds. Everyone is gonna get hosed down with Lysol. Want some Lysol for your dick? Lysol for cock? Lysol for cock? Wanna just…spray it on up there? Will it cause a yeast infection? I mean, probably. You’re worried about infections now?

“Okay. So a few rules. Leave the masks on. Doggy-style whenever possible. Reverse cowgirl…you get the point. No missionary. Missionary is not allowed. No, Carl, don’t woo — This isn’t like some kind of kinky stance. I literally mean missionary is not allowed. Do not breathe on each other.

“We have glory hole walls. Glory hole for dicks and pussies and whatever you want. Stick a titty in the hole. Disinfect the holes. Which holes? All the holes. If it’s got a hole, disinfect it.

“No kissing. Don’t even talk to each other. Definitely don’t say nice things to each other. Just dip in and out like you’re checking someone’s oil.

“We’re all gonna have a great time with some real impersonal sex. Carl, I said no kissing. Oh yeah, that’s the woman you came with? So that’s your wife. Oh no. That is your wife. Carl, is this person in your household? Don’t kiss someone who isn’t in your household! Yes, I get that you technically walked in with this woman. That’s not the spirit of this rule.

“Okay, well…this whole having rules at an orgy is super great. Super fun. It’s in no way pointless and a buzzkill. Have you all ever seen the episode of Friends where they have one super-organized party with rules and one super-fun party without rules? Yeah. Guess where we are. Hey! No! That’s a face-to-face position. Okay, no, it’s not technically missionary, but I’m going to need you to face a wall at once! No touching, people, no touching!

“On second thought, maybe this was a bad idea.”
The Narrow Way
By: John Ross
Tags: Poetry, Christianity, Spirituality, This Happened To Me, Inspiration

I remember the days, full was the way

A lonely trip, I walked that day

We laughed and sang along the way

But as the path grew broader, I did not stay

For something greater, I was called today

I took a narrow path that way

Alone I was, the month of May

Oh, will it forever be this way?

My heart, it sank as I remembered the days

Of laughter and singing along the way

But times had changed and the path grew gray

It was time to find another way

It was narrow and lonely for a time that way

But it was full of hope and purpose that day

I walked the narrow road the rest of my days

And laughed and sang along that way

For hope had come, the sun, its rays

They shined on me and said to stay

For a rainbow it was around the bay

I cried with joy, the narrow way
Being a design chameleon
By: Arushi Singh
Tags: Design Process, UX Design, Designer, Mentorship, UX

Being a design chameleon

Adapting to the ever-evolving field of design

Last month (on Feb 13th to be precise) I had the opportunity to speak at a Women Who UX, Boston event called Women Talk Design. I can’t express how wonderful this experience was. This blog post summarizes the key arguments I was trying to make.

A little background about me. I was a Geeky-Artsy child who studied Engineering in India. However, I wanted to explore my creative side and got through a “D-school” where I specialized in User Experience Design. I interned at Samsung, India and worked at Microsoft, India as UX researcher for a year before transitioning into a full-time role of a UX designer. I am currently pursuing information design and visualization at Northeastern University, Boston, MA. Here are some learnings that I have documented that are hopefully useful for others interested in or are involved with the fast-paced constantly changing world of UX-design.

1. BE A STUDENT

You can learn from everything and everyone

First of all, be like a curious student.

I try to be a human sponge trying to absorb everything that is happening around me and learning along the way.

Someways, I do achieve this is, of course, the traditional learning(seems obvious considering I am pursuing my third formal degree ;-)), attending meetups/talks, by being a passive observer. Attending talks have also helped me think about ideas in ways I wasn’t used to before. You may be out of the student life, but the student life should not leave you, ever.
Unconditionally Selfish
By: Ankit Mishra
Tags: Love, Soul, Life, Selfishness, Poetry

Image courtesy — Nasa

Like a mountain standing tall in his majesty

Kissing the clouds of my Infidelity!

Like a floating cloud wandering in her secrecy

Drinking the wine of my modesty!

Like a temple bell resounding in her divinity

Breaking the doors of my Sovereignty!

Like a river flowing in her rejection

Leaving the marks on my dignity!

Like a solar eclipse in his moment

Coalescing within the layers of its own creation!

Life has taught me

How beautifully it is to be Unconditionally Selfish!