fabiochiu/medium-articles huggingface dataset:
How a Divorce Changed the Course of Christianity as We Know It Today
By: Kamna Kabir
Tags: History, Marriage, Religion, World, Christianity

The most celebrated divorce case in history remains that of King Henry VIII and his wife Catherine of Aragon, who was also the widow of Henry’s brother, Arthur. The marriage had failed to produce a male heir.

Catherine was pregnant six times altogether but each time it resulted in either a miscarriage or a short-lived baby. Henry was getting old and was desperate for an heir. He was looking for a way out of his marriage and marry Anne Boleyn.

His argument was that since he married his brother’s widow, this was against God’s will and resulted in a cursed marriage. He tried hard to seek confirmation from the Church that if a man marries his brother’s wife, the couple will be childless.

This did not bode well with Pope Clement VII and he sent out a letter to King Henry VIII warning him of excommunication, not to mention the disgrace and condemnation by the people.

Divorce in the royal family was looked down upon and was not consistent with the Catholic faith of that time.

A decade earlier, he was rewarded the prestigious title of Fidei Defensor, or Defender of the Faith by the Church because of his contributions towards opposing protestant reformation.

And now in 1531, Henry was so preoccupied and infatuated that he was ready to pay excommunication as a price for his love for Anne and a potential heir. Pope Clement VII would not budge.

In 1532 Henry banished Catherine and married Anne and in 1533 Anne was crowned as the queen of England.
The Once Extremely Simple Nuclear Launch Codes
By: Daniel Ganninger
Tags: Military, History, Government, Politics, United States

It’s hard to fathom, but the United States once chose 00000000 as the password for its computer controls of nuclear-tipped missiles, and it stayed that way for nearly 20 years. Strange, but true.

In 1962, John F. Kennedy signed the National Security Action Memorandum 160, which authorized that nuclear weapons had to have something called a Permissive Action Link, or PAL. This was a security device that would prevent unauthorized arming or detonation of intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBM) without the correct code and correct authorization.

The reason for the PAL was to ensure that if some other government got hold of the nukes, they wouldn’t be able to launch them. It was also in place so that US military commanders couldn’t launch an ICBM by themselves, and the missiles would never be in the control of one person. The PAL was believed to be an extremely secure device if it was in place.

The problem occurred, as it often does with anything dealing with the government, that the military simply neglected to fit the PALs to many of the nuclear ICBMs. Half of the missiles in Europe continued to be secured only by mechanical locks. The missiles in the Minuteman silos in the United States were fit with a PAL under the direction of the Secretary of Defense for Kennedy, Robert McNamara.

When he left, however, the Strategic Air Command, which oversees most of the United States nuclear military strike force, changed the codes to 00000000. This extremely easy code was even written on a checklist, so no personnel would forget it.

The reasons were twofold. One, there would no need for presidential approval if there was an attack, and two, if the lines of communication had been destroyed, there would still be the ability to launch the missiles. Under the Strategic Air Command’s thinking, this ensured that launching nuclear missiles would be quick and easy.

A former Minuteman launch officer named Dr. Bruce Blair broke the news in an article in 2004 about what was once the very lax nuclear launch code. He had also written an article in 1977 warning that it could take just four people to launch a missile. This was the same year all the PALs were activated, and the codes were miraculously changed.

Sources: Today I Found Out, ArsTechnica, Huffington Post

Want to delve into more facts? Try The Wonderful World of Completely Random Facts series, here on Medium.
5 Rules of Networking Relationships
By: Robert Merrill
Tags: Networking, LinkedIn, Human

I was asked recently about how to network. You know, that smarmy slimy act of swiping someone’s business card so you can endlessly harass them until they buy your stuff.

Or… there’s a better way…

Way back in 2008, I wrote up a (rather chatty) blogpost where I included the “rules” of networking relationships because of a situation that happened where I was working with a new account manager at a recruiting agency. He asked me some interesting questions about networking and adding people to my “network” (like its a jar of butterflies or something)

After a bit of thought, I replied to him that while I am very open about adding people to my network, I build my network very carefully and treat it not as a means to an end, but as a thing in-and-of itself, to be developed, cultivated and nourished for the value it inherently has. “These are people,” I told him, “with hopes and dreams and passions. If you can tap into that, without violating some simple rules of relationships, you will have an inexhaustible supply of resources at your disposal.”

And, those Rules of Networking Relationships?
Winter’s Revenge
By: Mary Keating
Tags: Viral Video, Microfiction, Truth Or Dare, Centina, Friendship

Winter’s Revenge

A Democrat evens the score

Jeffrey Blum on Unsplash.com

When they resumed Truth or Dare, Emily assumed Diana, her bestie, forgave Emily for daring Diana to flash her breasts at their local bar. I mean, how long could a viral video last? Emily thought.

Months later, Diana dared Emily to lick the Democratic headquarters’ statue’s behind.

“But it’s bitter cold. Won’t my tongue get stuck?”

“Oh, no. It’s copper. You’ll be fine.”

Emily shivered jumping from Diana’s car into the arctic air. She ran past the bundled tourists.

What’s one quick lick? Emily thought just before her tongue adhered to the ass’ ass.

Soon, cellphone flashes filled the square.
Why Trump is Not The Real Threat to American Democracy
By: Sikander Hayat Khan
Tags: World, Politics, Donald Trump, Election 2020, Government

And this begs the question — what will you do when the next Trump comes along? Because this one might go to prison and you can rest assured that another one will be coming. Why? Politicians want power. And there’s a base of 73 million ready to give it to them. Add to that it takes record-breaking numbers to beat that, and you’ve got a recipe for an almost guaranteed victory every time.

Firstly, you can’t count on people suddenly seeing reason. Remember how I said I saw tyrants “come back from the dead” and win elections? They were in exile for ten years. They went from invincible to irrelevant. And yet…You see, you can’t explain these things using rationalism. They are, by their very nature, irrational. Take all that’s happened in America in the last four years and you’ll see what I mean — gun violence, racism, politically-motivated hooliganism, fascism, democracy being held at gunpoint and 286,000 people dying from Coronavirus. You’d think that this would be enough for people to realise what Trump is and what he’s doing to America.

Secondly, like I said, you can’t count on Trump going to prison being the solution. Personally, I have a hard time believing that he will. But that’s just because I’ve seen that it takes a completely fearless opposition and judiciary to put away people like him. In our world, the rich and powerful somehow always find a way. But putting that to one side, Trump being out of the running, in any case, isn't going to put a damper on Trumpism. Sure, the movement will die down for a while. But that’s only till they find their next champion. And given that Trump is leaving behind a crystal clear roadmap to power and a base that’s ready to hand it over, that won’t take long.

Your best bet is to vote the way you did this time. Why? Remember how I said Trump left his successors a roadmap? The only reason going down that path is going to to be enticing for politicians is because they know the vote-bank that comes with it is good enough to win. You need to show them that it isn't. Because the version of America Trumpists are fighting for will likely never die. What you can do is stop it from becoming a reality.

It’s about understanding politics and how it works. You see, if Trumpism keeps losing, there will come a point where politicians will have to sit back and wonder if it’s even worth it. Why should they alienate half the population (with the winning vote) by standing with the losing side? And this goes both ways. If the message for democracy keeps losing, then even the “good” guys will wonder if it’s worth it. I mean, if they’re running for president, that's what they want, isn't it? To be president?
Chance
By: Lubna Yusuf
Tags: Tanka, Poetry, Art, Chance Encounters, Micropoetry

Chance

Tanka

Line Art Lubna Yusuf

Snowfalls in the Sun

your story ends to begin

between now and then

you will meet yourself again

life’s a strange chance encounter
5 Inspiring Women Leading the Tech Industry
By: Vantage Point
Tags: Inclusion, Diversity, Technology, Women In Tech, Inspiration

5 Inspiring Women Leading the Tech Industry

Women we admire

Even in 2020, the tech industry continues to be male-dominated with the lack of diversity most notable at the top. In a recent study, the percentage of employed women across all job sectors in the U.S. has increased to 47%; however, at the five largest tech companies on the planet (Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Google, and Microsoft), the workforce is just 34.4% women.

The National Center For Women & Information Technology did a recent study on diversity in the workplace that depicted the daunting statistics of women in the workplace. According to the study, women of color make up only about 11% of the computing and mathematical workforce in 2019, with Black women comprising 3% of that total.

Although these numbers have improved, more representation is imperative. To shed light on some of the women inspiring this necessary change in tech, Vantage Point has compiled a list of five women we admire.
Wild thing
By: Antoinette Nevitt
Tags: Nature, This Happened To Me, Relationships, Weeds And Wildflowers, Poetry

Wild thing

A poem about a chance encounter in the woods gone bad

You were beautiful enough

for a bouquet,

until my body swelled

and then exploded

red and weeping

into a purple

rage.

I caught

your fire inside,

until I had to elevate my feet

to send the blood

back to my heart.

I took the pills

to sleep

and to forget

why I ever thought

to leave the path

to stumble into you.

My fault is

I am drawn

to wild things

despite the chance

of ending up

a mess.

But I underestimated

what a lovely little

weed like you

could do.

Now I know.

My question is:

do you?

© Antoinette Nevitt, All Rights Reserved
Weekly Crypto Quick Hits
Tags: Bitcoin

All the latest news from around the blockchain community

Top 10 Crypto Deals in 2017 Returned Over 136,000% on Average, Report Shows

Investing in ICOs remains the highest risk-reward play in crypto with the top 10 ICOs in 2017 averaging a return of over 136,000%. To put this in perspective, a $10 investment in a project that delivers this return on investment (ROI) would net a perspective investor with over $1.3 million. The contrast to these success stories must be noted however, with fraudulent ICOs still very much a problem due to a lack of regulation in the industry.

https://cointelegraph.com/news/top-10-crypto-deals-in-2017-returned-over-136-000-on-average-report-shows

US SEC Commissioner Dissents From Agency’s Rejection of Winklevoss Bitcoin ETF

U.S. Securities and Exchange (SEC) Commissioner Hester M. Peirce has dissented from the recent rejection of a proposed Bitcoin ETF. Peirce cited multiple and admittedly logical reasons for this dissent, such as potential legal overreach by the SEC and the evaluation of Bitcoin by exceptionally high standards that traditional commodities markets may not even be attain. This notable public dissention should be welcomed by the blockchain community as it eagerly awaits the approval of a Bitcoin ETF.

https://cointelegraph.com/news/us-sec-commissioner-dissents-from-agency-s-rejection-of-winklevoss-bitcoin-etf

Google Bans Crypto Mining Apps from Play Store

In a move that highlights the varied reaction major tech companies are having to cryptocurrencies, Google have followed Apple’s lead and banned crypto mining apps from the Play Store. This move is greatly contrasted with the recent lifting of a cryptocurrency advertising ban by tech giant Facebook. Understandably traditional businesses may feel threatened by the rampant emergence of cryptocurrencies and the blockchain technology that underpins them. This definitely won’t be the last such act, as blockchain technology projects seek to disrupt many major markets.

https://www.coindesk.com/google-bans-crypto-mining-apps-from-play-store/
Discover Data: 6 Great Graphs on Campaign Financing
Tags: Data Science, Campaign Finance, 2016 Election

The 2016 U.S. Presidential Election is now under a year away. This post digs deeper into the data surrounding a very important topic — campaign financing.

These interactive graphs were made using Plotly’s web app and APIs. To securely share graphs and data within a team and make interactive dashboards, sign up for a Plotly Professional plan or contact us about Plotly On-Premise.

1. Where Does the Money Come From?

Short answer: It comes from many different places.

Long answer: Most of it comes from securities and investment firms, lawyers and law firms, and real estate. The graph below provides an example of the funds contributed to Senators Chuck Schumer and Dick Durbin.

Learn to make grouped bar charts like this one in Plotly or with our APIs for Python and R.

2. Campaign Finance Enforcement

In Oregon and Washington, office candidates must file to twenty-five separate parties when a monetary contribution is received; New Jersey, North Dakota and Illinois are more lax with this policy, requiring just two filings.

Find out how to make choropleth maps like this one in Plotly or with our APIs for Python and R.

3. Campaign Contributions by the Tax Preparation Industry

Could money in politics be to blame for complicated tax returns?

In 2011, Rep. Jim Cooper (D-TN) introduced a bill that would have streamlined tax returns for most individuals. The so-called “return-free” filing bill never even came up for a vote in the House Ways and Means Committee, which has jurisdiction over the IRS. Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) and Sen. Dan Coats (R-IN) included the proposal in their failed 2011 tax reform bill. Rep. Cooper’s office said congressional inaction was due, in part, to opposition from tax preparation companies like Intuit and H&R Block.

Learn to make a simple line graph in the Plotly web app or with our APIs for Python and R.

4. Total Contribution Receipts for Presidential Candidates

The winner of a presidential election, has on average, received 52.7% more in campaign contributions than the loser.

Find out how to make bar charts like this one in Plotly’s web app, Python or R.

5. 2016 Presidential Candidates: The Money Race, Democrats

So how do the top 2016 Democratic Presidential candidates stack up against one another? While Bernie Sanders lags Hillary Clinton significantly in terms of campaign contributions (i.e. total receipts), he remains competitive in terms of overall support.

Learn to make a graph with multiple y-axes in Plotly or with our APIs for Python and R.

6. 2016 Presidential Candidates: The Money Race, Republicans

So how do the top 2016 Republican Presidential candidates stack up against one another? Though Donald Trump has received less in campaign contributions (total receipts) than the other candidates, he leads the pack in terms of support.
This is “The Last Chance”!
Tags: Gaming, Releases, Blockchain, Etheremon, Art

But we have to let you know that a large number of 3 species Legendary MON are migrating from Etheremon Adventure sites.

Here is the name of 3 Legendary species:

Venirox

Quadrossal

Zedakazm

We still do not know where are they going, but the only thing we are sure is that you will be unable to catch these Legendaries from the current sites in the Adventure Mode after this 21 January 2019 (approximately). So if you want to own those MONs, you better do it fast!

Note :

You can catch those Lengendary MONs now in Adventure Mode, until 21 Jan

After 21 Jan 2019 (approximately), those 3 Legendary Monsters will vacate those Adventure sites they are living now

Well, we don’t have much time left, less talk and more catch!

Go go go Mon-Seekers!

Cheers,

Etheremon

— — —

Follow us:
Guide to Apps on the Orbs Network, Part II: Writing a Front-End Part
By: Sergey Bolshchikov
Tags: Smart Contracts, Cryptocurrency, Blockchain, JavaScript, Ethereum

Transaction is like a write-to database, which is why we also need to pass our public and private key in order to sign the transaction. We specify the contract by its name and the method that we want to invoke (sendMessageToChannel in our case). Lastly, we pass the array of arguments that will be passed to the specified method during invocation.

Since the contract is implemented in Go language and it has different types from JavaScript, orbs-client-sdk provides utility function (e.g. argString) to normalize types between different languages.

With the transaction object in our hands, we can actually send it:

const response = await orbsClient.sendTransaction(tx);

At the end we can verify the response by reading transaction status and execution result. If the values are “COMMITTED” and “SUCCESS”, then out transaction has been executed successfully.

Fetching messages

In the previous part, we’ve been able to send the message. Now let’s try to display them in a live manner. We will start with just fetching the first batch, say, first 50 messages. Then we will improve the solution by using pagination and polling for live updates.

Fetching the first batch

Similar to sending a message, we start with creating a query. It’s different from transaction, because we are doing a read action and it doesn’t require the consensus between nodes. Therefore it’s much faster:

In order to create a query, we are calling the corresponding method of the orbs client and passing our public key, contract name and the method that we would like to invoke on the specified contract. Lastly, we pass the array of arguments, very similar to what we’ve seen in createTransaction. In our case we specify the channel name and range of messages, say we want to get the first 5 messages.

When we send the query, we should expect the array of messages in return in JSON format.

We have the Messages component whose purpose is to render the list of messages. As soon as get a response from our query and update the state of the App component, messages will be rendered on the page.

There are two flaws with our current implementation — when a user sends a new message, we need to refresh the page in order to see it; when we have more than 5 messages, we won’t see them too. We can solve it with pagination and polling mechanism.

Pagination

Pagination, in a nutshell, is a mechanism of fetching only chunks of data instead of fetching all at once for a better performance.

The method ‘getMessageForChannel’ supports from and to arguments that allows us to specify the chunk of messages that we want. We start with the first message, and going to fetch 5 messages every time.

As soon as we get a response, we update the value of the message cursor with the amount of messages received and append new messages to the ones that we loaded previously:
Coming of Age with ‘Y tu mamá también’
By: Jon Alexander
Tags: Film, Fiction, Travel, Culture, Art

For movie lovers of my generation, few films were as impactful as Alfonso Cuarón’s Y tu mamá también (2001). It was pure movie bliss, and as teenagers starved for action, it presented us an exciting world we could only hope we’d one day get to experience.

On the surface, you can say that Y tu mamá también is about two horny teenage boys who take a road trip across Mexico with an older woman. She teaches them a lot along the way, mostly about sex.

However, if you delve a little deeper, you’ll find that Y tu mamá también has much to say about the tension between freedom and responsibility, the line between doing what you want to do and doing what you have to do. It’s a line I sometimes struggle crossing, even as I’m consciously aware that no one has put the line there but myself. Still, I ask the same questions: Do I have another drink at the bar and risk a hangover at work the next day? Do I spend the money I just saved on a spontaneous weekend getaway? What does adulting look like, and am I doing it? Do I have to do it?

In the film, the two teenage boys Julio (Gael García Bernal) and Tenoch (Diego Luna) are too young to have real responsibilities and don’t bother to ask these questions. They both have girlfriends, but the kind you know won’t stick around after school. When their girlfriends go on a trip to Italy together, Julio and Tenoch rejoice their newfound freedom.

At a wedding, the boys meet Luisa (Maribel Verdú), the older woman who is married to Tenoch’s cousin. To impress her, they speak of a secluded beach called “Heaven’s Mouth” and invite her to go find it with them. As someone with responsibilities, she declines.

But eventually Luisa learns that her husband cheated and decides to join the boys on their journey after all. What else does she have to lose? Later in the film, it’s revealed that she also has terminal cancer. She throws caution to the wind because this may be her last chance for a great adventure.
May Day
By: Background Noise Comics
Tags: Labor, Cartoon, Comics, Work, Humor

An updated version of our comic from May Day last year.

May Day (in America) commemorates a labor protest that led to the 8 hour work day. But does anybody work anything like a 9–5 day any more?
The Lost Temple
By: Michael Junkroski
Tags: Spirituality, Progressive Christianity, New Age, Religion, Christianity

Psalm 138 (CEB)

I give thanks to you

with all my heart, Lord.

I sing your praise before all other gods.

I bow toward your holy Temple

and thank your name

for your loyal love and faithfulness

because you have made

your name and word

greater than everything else.

On the day I cried out, you answered me.

You encouraged me with inner strength.

Let all the earth’s rulers

give thanks to you, Lord,

when they hear what you say.

Let them sing about the Lord’s ways

because the Lord’s glory is so great!

Even though the Lord is high,

he can still see the lowly,

but God keeps his distance

from the arrogant.

Whenever I am in deep trouble,

you make me live again;

you send your power

against my enemies’ wrath;

you save me with your strong hand.

The Lord will do all this for my sake.

Your faithful love lasts forever, Lord!

Don’t let go of what your hands have made.

Romans 12.1–2 (CEB)

So, brothers and sisters, because of God’s mercies, I encourage you to present your bodies as a living sacrifice that is holy and pleasing to God. This is your appropriate priestly service. Don’t be conformed to the patterns of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds so that you can figure out what God’s will is — what is good and pleasing and mature.

Click here to watch the video performance of this story.

I was running as fast as my worn-out sandals, and the crowd would allow, out of breath, out of money, and I guess, finally out of luck (Luck! Ha!). After a lifetime of seeking it had come to this: hightailing it down the murky streets of Marrakesh, chased by mercenaries who believed I had desecrated their Temple. Which I hadn’t. Well, not much, anyway. And it wasn’t intentional.

How was I to know that no human had entered the Holy Cavern in 1500 years? Rumors referred to it as the Lost Temple. So, imagine my surprise to discover it wasn’t lost, but hidden. And guarded.

Like I said, a minor desecration. And apparently, the wrong Temple. Again.

I sidestepped into a narrow alley just as the mercenaries whizzed past me, weapons drawn. As luck would have it (Luck! Ha!), a merchant was passing by with a cart full of textiles. I jumped in and quickly covered myself until we arrived in the boisterous town square. I slipped out of the cart and bartered with the merchant for some new clothes.

Then, I headed home to Casablanca, disappointed. Again.
5 Ways ASMR Boyfriend Videos Made Me More Affectionate
By: Phoenix Huber
Tags: Technology, Self Improvement, Love, Inspiration, Relationships

5 Ways ASMR Boyfriend Videos Made Me More Affectionate

“You know me; I’m just full of compliments for you”

Photo by Yogendra Singh on Unsplash

I was worn down, feeling about as sensual as a rusty old rake. (But don’t worry, I was about to discover ASMR!)

I wrenched my clumsily-taped broken car key from the ignition and went to check in. Motel 6 — Paso Robles, California. “Just one night please,” I told the attendant.

Lola the Toyota Corolla had been my home for the past 2+ years.

It was not the most conducive environment for conducting “personal business.”

I’d scrunch up a sleeping bag in the driver’s seat. I’d pray no cop would come by as I masturbated under cover of darkness. (Not that I had much to get off to anymore. Achieving orgasm felt like coaxing a cat into frigid bathwater!)

Tonight, things would be different. Tonight, I would slide into that pearly white, forgotten plush paradise called a bed. And I would be free.

It was there, floating on queen-sized clouds, that I discovered my very first ASMR video.

I know, I’m making it sound like I discovered anti-gravity or something. But those ASMR videos changed me. They made me more sensual, more relaxed, and above all, more affectionate.

I have Ricky Odriosola to thank. Let me explain 5 reasons why.
ShapeShift Exchange in Atomic Wallet
Tags: Trading, Blockchain, Cryptocurrency, Ethereum, Bitcoin

Atomic Wallet is distributed platform with built-in Atomic Swap, but not all of the coins are supported yet, that’s why we have additional exchange options provided by ShapeShift service.

ShapeShift is a company that offers instant exchange of a variety of digital assets via web and mobile platforms. ShapeShift’s goal is to be the fastest, most private, and most convenient way to swap digital currencies, and the exchange rate will always remain competitive.

In this article you’ll know how to Exchange all your assets with ShapeShift in one secure interface.

There is two exciting features:

1. Instant Exchange

2. Fixed Rate

Let’s take it in order

1. Instant Exchange

Exchange your crypto-assets with floating rate. Within a deal perform trade rate can floating and you’ll probably receive less or more than you initially want. You can win or lose some gap, it depending on the trade course.

Take a look how to Instant Exchange assets by ShapeShift right in the Atomic Wallet UI:

— Just click on the “Exchange” tab in the left menu, there will be two tabs from above.

— Choose the “Instant Exchange”, click on Ticker of Coins and choose the trading pair.

— Then click on “Choose service” tab to set the ShapeShift service.

— Set the amount (pay attention to the fee and the min amount) and click the “Exchange” button ⇩

— There will be pop-up confirmation “Your exchange request was accepted” ⇩

— In a few seconds, there will be new pop-up confirmation “Your money has been exchanged!” and Hash of the transaction will appear. It says that exchange is performed and you just need to wait some time while there will be transaction confirmations at block explorer. You can click on the Hash to open the web-page and check it out ⇩

— After that, you can click on the “History” tab in the left menu and see that your assets were sent and other assets were received ⇩

2. Fixed Rate

Exchange your crypto-assets with a fixed rate. If you have a deal and the floating rate is not appropriate to you — exchange your assets exactly with such a course as you set at the exchange moment. It will not changed.

We are happy to provide you with the most convenient way to hold and manage all of your cryptocurrency assets!

Download and start using it at https://atomicwallet.io

Stay tuned and follow us on:

Medium: https://medium.com/atomic-wallet

Facebook — https://facebook.com/atomicwallet

Twitter — https://twitter.com/atomicwallet

Join our Telegram chat: https://t.me/atomicwalletchat
Indefinite
By: Lubna Yusuf
Tags: Poetry, Tanka, A Cornered Gurl, Philosophy, Life

Indefinite

Tanka

Line Art Lubna Yusuf

They say life and death

come to us but only once

yet I have met mine

in every morning’s new life

between indefinite deaths
Capital of Northern Renaissance Humanism — A Look at Renaissance Nürnberg
By: Kevin Shau
Tags: History, Albrecht Durer, Culture, Renaissance, Art

Regiomontanus and Astronomy

Regiomontanus, woodcut from the Nürnberg Chronicle

The Renaissance was the age which gave birth to what later historians call the Scientific revolution. Regiomontanus (1436–1476), or Johannes Müller von Königsberg to give his official name, was perhaps the most important astronomer between the ancient Ptolemy and Nikolaus Coperincus. Before moving to Nürnberg, Regiomontanus traveled to Italy and the court of Hungarian King Matthias Corvinus. He studied the ancients, collected their works, built scientific instruments, and connected with important Italian mathematicians of the era. Working with humanist Bernhard Walther, he established the world’s first scientific printing press and becoming among the earliest to popularize science (a role now held by people like Steven Pinker, Neil deGrasse Tyson, and Michio Kaku). Regiomontanus and Walther also both observed the comet of 1472, trying to estimate its distance from the Earth.

Comet of 1472, as depicted in the Nürnberg Chronicle (1493)

Regiomontanus wrote one of the first textbooks on trigonometry and was a major influence on Nikolaus Copernicus. He spent the end of his life in Rome. He built a sundial for the pope and contributed to planned calendar reforms. Had he not died soon after he got to Rome, his contributions to the eventual Gregorian calendar might have been more substantial. That project took the Catholic Church another century.

Regiomontanus placed great emphasis on both empirical observation and learning from the ancients.

“ You who wish to study great and wonderful things, who wonder about the movement of the stars, must read these theorems about triangles. Knowing these ideas will open the door to all of astronomy and to certain geometric problems.” -Regiomontanus, ‘On Triangles’ (1464)

Martin Behaim and the Oldest Surviving Globe

Cartography became an increasingly significant area of expertise in the Renaissance as explorers set out to the farthest reaches of the globe. Contrary to popular misconceptions, medieval people knew the world was round (the flat Earth idea was popularized by Washington Irving’s account of Columbus in the nineteenth century). Martin Behaim was a textile merchant and cartographer. He was adviser to the king of Portugal and actually went on a trading voyage to Africa. He created his famous globe (now in the Germanic Museum in Nürnberg) betwen 1490–1492, after returning to Nürnberg from his trip to West Africa. This globe, known as the Erdapfel (or ‘Earth Apple’) depicts the world as Europeans knew it at the time — without the Americas. Intriguingly, this globe would become obsolete soon after it was produced. While Columbus did not realize right away that he landed in the Americas and not Asia, the true extent of the voyage was realized over the following years.

This globe depicts more than 2,000 locations, is heavily influenced by the ideas of Ptolemy, and includes various monsters as well.
A Visual Celebration of Nightingale’s First Year
By: Alexandra Khoo
Tags: Data Science, Information Design, Data Visualization, Dvsintro, Data

Sign up for The 'Gale

By Nightingale

Keep up with the latest from Nightingale, the journal of the Data Visualization Society Take a look
Genomik Data Science ve Transkripsiyon Faktörü
By: Ömer Özgür
Tags: Data Science, Deep Learning, Veribilimicat, Genetics

JunD

The protein encoded by this intronless gene is a member of the JUN family, and a functional component of the AP1…
One Short Motivation Story to Read After Any Rejection
By: Saeed Ahmad
Tags: Personal Development, Life, Jobs, Career Advice, Careers

Photo by Steve Johnson on Unsplash

I’ve seen a lot of people not getting a job, rejected, or something like that.

I agree that there are a lot of challenges here and everywhere, but, nowadays there are so many opportunities around you that you can avail and really shine in your field. If you are a software engineer, there are many hackathons, coding competitions, open-source events where you can participate for free without any pre-requisites of hard and fast coding skills, and incredible genius.

If you are a content writer, write content-writing contests or similar keywords in Google, and you’ll see thousands of results that can open up doors of opportunities for you.

If you are a machine learning engineer, data scientist, or data analyst, there are numerous online places where you can go and participate to showcase your data-related skills.

If you are a student looking for scholarships, there are hundreds of scholarships worldwide. You just need to email the relevant people, and you’ll see how supportive they are.

Takeaway

In my opinion, there’s no shortage of opportunities nowadays. You need to have a good mindset and be willing to work.

If you have these two things, nothing can stop you from landing a job or achieving any career-related goal that you have.
How to create a custom Slack command using Google Cloud Functions and NodeJS
By: Andrew Bliss
Tags: Express, Slack, Google Cloud, JavaScript, Google Cloud Fun

So now let’s talk about the response we can send back to slack.

First we need to send back a JSON payload. Inside this payload we can configure many things, but for this article we will talk about a few.

response_type: 'in_channel'

This means that when you type the Slack command, it will respond to everyone in that channel and not just yourself. If you just want to see it for your user leave this out.

We can also send attachments as parts of our response, and Slack will format them for us when it displays the message in the channel.

By setting the author_name we can show who sent the command.

We can send images, links, and text. The most important part of this response is this:

text: `The CPU is at ${stats.CPU}%`

We want to alert the channel of the CPU % of our servers. You can do this with any metric or stat you want. How many users are on the system. Send an email to the dev team when the server gets over a certain CPU %. Of course you probably want to set up some kind of monitor system in Google Cloud to take care of this, however this is just an example that you can message in Slack and have your team stay up to date with your systems.

You can read the documentation for all the response fields you can return in the JSON payload here:

Before you are done, remember to add the Slack token to your list of environment variables. Once you are done creating your function, it will show you the URL that you must call in order to get the Slack command to work.

To get the Slack token we must first create a Slack command.
This Up and Coming Cryptocurrency can Potentially Eliminate Volatility in the Cryptocurrency Market
By: Pam Phua
Tags: Cryptocurrency, Dice, Blockchain, Bitcoin

Cryptocurrencies are inherently volatile. Years of movement in traditional stock markets can be encapsulated by a single month in the cryptocurrency market. This is due to a multitude of reasons. With no intrinsic value, it is difficult for investors to judge how much a cryptocurrency is worth. Hence, with no benchmark on value, the value of the cryptocurrency is completely dependent on market demand, and this results in large fluctuations in prices. In addition, there is a lack of oversight, so market manipulation which changes prices can occur as well. This volatility, while good for speculators hoping to earn a quick buck, prevents cryptocurrency from being a replacement for real world currency. It is difficult to price products as the value of cryptocurrencies change so frequently. For example, in 2010, someone bought pizza for 10,000 Bitcoins. This was worth USD $40 at the time. But now, just 8 years later, Bitcoin is worth USD $6,800 as of the time of writing. If the customer had held on to the Bitcoins, he would have become a multi-millionaire! As you can see, this volatility harms cryptocurrency from being a real-world replacement. With that, we would require a fundamental shift in the way a digital currency works. This may finally have happened with DICE money.

To start off, what is DICE? DICE is an acronym that stands for Digital Certificate and it is a cryptocurrency that is not based on Blockchain technology. It consists of small blocks of bundled data that have their own intrinsic monetary value, similar to how coins and banknotes from central banks carry intrinsic values from their central banks. However, the value of DICE does not come from a central authority but instead comes from the computational power required to bundle data together into a data block. In addition, DICE can not only be stored digitally but it can also be converted to offline form in the form of notes. This makes DICE a viable replacement for cash as it works in the same way. This is in contrast to traditional cryptocurrencies, which require users to transfer currency from one digital wallet address to another.

As DICE becomes more prevalent as an exchange medium for goods and services, its value becomes more stable and less volatile. This finally allows for cryptocurrencies to break free from being just a speculative investment to finally fulfilling its purpose of being a new currency. Who knows? DICE may eventually be the one to replace cash as the dominant form of money in the economy.

Find out more about DICE at:

FB: https://www.facebook.com/DICEsup/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/dicesup

Medium: https://medium.com/@DICEsup

Telegram: https://t.me/DiceMoney
Remember How Trump’s People Told You Those Massive Corporate Tax Cuts Were Going To Pay For Themselves? They’re Not. On An Almost Unimaginable Scale
By: Eric J Scholl
Tags: Business, Donald Trump, Taxes, Economy, Politics

Remember How Trump’s People Told You Those Massive Corporate Tax Cuts Were Going To Pay For Themselves? They’re Not. On An Almost Unimaginable Scale

U.S. corporate tax revenues are dropping more sharply than they did during the Great Recession, which was the biggest economic downturn most of us have ever seen.

The New York Times reports that taxes paid by corporations have plunged to “historically low levels” in the first 6 months of this year, due to the Trump/Republican tax cuts.

Here’s a graphic from the Times:

And the economy is booming. Which at most other times would mean the government would be flooded with tax revenues. Of course that economic boom is partly due to the tax cuts, so should that effect ever cool off, the numbers would drop off even more and it could turn into a real revenue drought.

We should point out that some benefits to corporations in the new tax law were frontloaded, meaning the write-offs available immediately were greater than they will be in the future. So that could lead to a small uptick in revenues later on. But again, that can happen only if the economy continues booming.

But as we’ve repeatedly contended, how this plays out doesn’t really matter to a lot of Republicans: they see it as a win-win no matter what. Because should the Treasury’s coffers run dry, it’ll give them a chance to start slashing away at programs like Social Security and Medicare because — they’ll argue — they don’t have a choice anymore. It’ll be the only fix available for a crisis they themselves created (but that part of it won’t matter). Speaker of the House Paul Ryan has made no secret of the fact that he wants to attack social programs. However, the President has said those programs are sacrosanct and won’t be touched.

Which leads us to wrap up with a question: how deeply do you trust Trump to keep that promise?
kotlinx.serialization: JSON deserializer with a fallback
By: Alex Vanyo
Tags: Android, Serialization, Kotlin, Software Development, Json

In a perfect world, the consumer and producer of an API would always be in lockstep, only changing with each other and adhering to the strictest of contracts. Alas, we live in the real world, and it helps to be a bit pessimistic when controlling data falls just outside of your grasp.

If you are the consumer of an API, sometimes there might be a reasonable fallback if deserialization goes horribly wrong. In other words, we want a KSerializer that will fall back to some default value if deserialization fails:

This extension of KSerializer is modeled heavily after KSerializer.nullable : it augments an existing KSerializer with a bit of extra functionality. In this case, we wrap the deserialization call in a try/catch , returning the provided default value if any exception occurred during deserialization.

Now, putting it to use: for forwards-compatibility reasons, it can be helpful to allow enums to take a default UNKNOWN value. Like the name suggests, we want any unknown value to be turned into UNKNOWN instead of causing an error:

With the fallback serializer above, that’s all there is to it!

October 2020 edit: Updated to match kotlinx.serialization 1.0.0 interface.

Alex works at Livefront, where we always try to leave data a little bit cleaner than when we get it.
Fierce Love
By: Peggy Mcdaniel
Tags: Poetry, Poems On Medium, Poetry On Medium, Love, Poem

Flicker and Flight is a Poetry Publication that has married the art of Photography. This publication focuses on supporting Nature, Love/Unity, Spirituality, and Growth, through the beauty of Word-Play and Images.

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What is a blockchain-based or decentralized marketplace?
By: Bitbay Official
Tags: Cryptocurrency, Marketplaces, Decentralization, Blockchain

The blockchain economy — the rapidly evolving ecosystem of cryptocurrencies and marketplaces associated with them — is defined by decentralization. At its very core is the drive to replace systems that rely on a central authority with systems that govern themselves, that derive their strength from sharing authority, and that respect individual privacy and freedom.

Read more here…
Tennis Note #33
By: Nikita Taparia
Tags: Tennis, Bias, Data Visualization

Tennis Note #33

Time Violation Warning Study: Motivation & Preliminary Results

“Time Violation Warning, Mr. Nadal.”

Something every single person has heard when Rafael Nadal plays tennis. It makes sense. He always takes more than the allotted 25 s (20 s for Slams) between serves. This is well known. The question is — when is the time violation warning issued? Is it immediately on opening points or much later in the scoreline? Is it in the opening games of the first set or the tail end of later sets? Who issues the most time violation warnings [TVWs]? How often are these warnings issued at Slams, Masters, etc? How often are they issued on various surfaces? How often are they issued between ATP vs WTA? How often on serve vs. return? After warning was issued, did the person the person win the point or double fault? Did they win the game?

These questions are just a sample of my many interests in TVWs but the main problem is a lack of data about any of this [and if there is, please highlight here and send me a comment]. Thus, after witnessing yet another time violation warning on breakpoint, I decided to take matters into my own hands in two different ways.

|GOOGLE FORM| I created a simple form as shown below, with the link here. Every single time you see a TVW, fill out this form. We need diverse data and a lot of entries to make this a better study.

|TWITTER| I extracted all tweets that used the phrase Time Violation Warning in the past and decoded all of these tweets to create a simple database. It is incomplete information but can help guide us in our search for past matches with TVWs. In addition to past tweets, I already have a program in place to extract and save every tweet message and date that relates to TVWs.

Test Case: Rafael Nadal

If you look at the Twitter extracted data, you will notice one thing: NADAL. More people tweet about Nadal when it comes to TVWs, and in quite a bit of detail. Between twitter and the form, we accumulated close to 100 matches involving Nadal [removing any obvious overlaps, giving priority to the form]. From this, I eliminated any entry that had no information about the game scoreline from anyone (either the score or terminology like ‘BP’ or ‘breakpoint’). This left me with 60 matches to analyze, in which 46 matches had the precise game scoreline. Of course, it is important to note that there may be a bit of bias here because most people tweet inconvenient TVWs. Nevertheless, the visuals below illustrate how this breaks down.
Plight of the Muse
By: Viraji Ogodapola
Tags: Poetry On Medium, Life, Prose, Muse, Scrittura

Plight of the Muse

lost, found and lost

Photo by Steve Johnson on Unsplash

I like this new game

of getting lost and finding myself

over and over again…

the last I stared

the ceiling had it all sorted

but the white elephant

in the room, begging

to be ignored

tripped over the catwalk

stepping on more toes…

so the plot keeps changing

but never too long or too close

for comfort, maybe, to comfort

whichever goes

like either could salvage

the happy ending!

I have a good mind now,

to deport it off,

on the next flight imminent

whichever comes first,

flight or next.

oh but why not,

the imminent mind even.

Viraji Ogodapola