fabiochiu/medium-articles huggingface dataset:
Ever Heard of the Kentucky Meat Shower? No? Well, Good News, it’s a Nightmare
By: Funny Or Die
Tags: Meat, Kentucky Meat Shower, Funny Weird, Funny Original Articles, Sky Meat

Obviously, you and I and everyone else who has been or will become haunted by this information have a lot of questions. So, answering the most important question first, yes, people did eat the sky meat.

Because, I mean, when chunks of red mystery meat fall out of the sky what are you gonna do, not taste it?

Two men who were never identified turned up the next day to test it and said it was either lamb or deer, however a local hunter said he was positive it was bear. I don’t know who was right, and honestly that doesn’t matter. What matters is that they willingly ate the sky meat and deserve our respect.

The second question is, what the fuck?

There has to be an explanation for this, right?? Well, three months later a Leopold Brandeis examined one of the samples and said it wasn’t actually meat at all, but instead a kind of flesh-colored cyanobacteria called nostoc that “swells up into a translucent jelly whenever it rains.” Except, if you’ll recall, it was not raining when the meat fell from the sky.

So get the hell out of here, Brandeis, you useless nerd.

Shortly after Brandeis’ theory was made public, notable and experienced histologists examined the samples and agreed that it was, in fact, meat, and that those particular samples were likely from either a human infant or a horse — which is about as helpful as Amazon Alexa saying, “It’s either snowing or hot as the surface of the sun,” when you ask her what the weather is today. That doesn’t really narrow it down a whole fucking lot.

Do I need a coat or sunscreen?

Is it flesh from a human baby or a goddamn horse??
Following the Lakers win last night, I was all set to write a post about how it felt like the…
By: M.G. Siegler
Tags: Goat, Michael Jordan, LeBron James, NBA, Sports

Following the Lakers win last night, I was all set to write a post about how it felt like the LeBron v. Jordan debate was now over. Not because either was clearly on top, but because well, two roads had clearly diverged.

Their careers are just so different now. 6–0 in the Finals versus championships with 3 very different teams. But there are like a thousand other differences; some big and some small.

I’m glad I didn’t end up writing that post because Zach Lowe wrote it about 1000x better than I could have:

Look, I’m clearly biased being that I’m from Cleveland. Not only once and future home to LeBron James, but the victims of Jordan’s “The Shot”, which I watched as a kid. The Cavs had some great teams in the late 80's/early 90s, but they didn’t have Jordan so they’re lost in time. Still, I feel like this debate is now only a debate in the way that peanut butter versus jelly is a debate. Sure, some people like one and not the other. But they’re just entirely different. And that’s why they go well together. As do Jordan and LeBron in the history of basketball. Sort of a boring, nuanced take, I know.

As Lowe puts it:
If You Want to Become a Better Programmer… Stop Programming
By: Zachary Minott
Tags: Creativity, Advice, Strategy, Software Engineering, Programming

If You Want to Become a Better Programmer… Stop Programming

Counterintuitive advice that will help you think better

Photo by Alexander Popov on Unsplash.

Diluted to its simplest principle and practice, programming consists of problem-solving and critical thinking.

If you think about what makes someone a good critical thinker and problem-solver, it’s their ability to imagine and apply creative solutions to a particular problem to reach that milestone solution.

In other words, what really weeds out a great developer from a not-so-great one is this one simple thing: the ability to think.

I’m not here to lecture you about the obvious things that you probably already know leading up to development, such as the planning phase or the architectural phase. I’m also not going to be telling you how important it is to take breaks so that you can allow your unconscious mind to work out the ideas in the background.

You already know these things.

Instead, what I’m going to unveil to you is what is too regularly ignored among budding programmers in this industry. That which isn’t too obvious. The one thing that contributed the most to accelerating my programming career.
Smile
By: Sanjit Sengupta
Tags: Poetry On Medium, Creative Writing, Poetry, Covid 19, Lockdown

Smile

Have you noticed?

Photo: Sanjit Sengupta

Don’t get me wrong.

I know the importance of masks

And do wear them as advised.

But have you noticed?

People avoid eye contact

And smile less

Behind masks.

I wonder why?

Maybe they think

It is a wasted effort.

I disagree.

Masks and social distancing

Are great.

Smiling with the eyes

Is better.
On the Future of Programming
By: Emma Beauxis-Aussalet
Tags: Artificial Intelligence, Programming, Track Insight, Voice Interfaces

Voice operators have incredibly transformed our society because they remodelled our work environment, our access to information, and finally, our sense of community. Our work environment is inevitably transformed: we barely need to type on a keyboard anymore, thanks to voice-ops, and we barely need to use a mouse either, thanks to track-cams. Ergonomically, typing text with our voices rather than our hands is incredibly healthier. No more slouching and RSI, but instead, improved breathing capacity and blood oxygen balance.

However, voice-ops introduced considerable acoustic stress in our work lives. Office work is like a permanent meeting. Whether colleagues interact among them or with voice-ops, work sounds like a gigantic call centre. Fortunately, in most public spaces voice-ops are mostly used with courtesy and parsimony. Sadly, in our social lives, noise-cancelling headphones and microphones are replacing face-to-face interactions. We spend most of our time equipped with noise-cancelling headphones, incidentally shunning each other. We let human touch turn into a vocal presence.

We also turn our books into vocal presence. When texts are read by voice-ops, we cannot explore their content at our own pace. Voice-ops unravel the inner rhythm of our reflections. Fortunately, we have algorithms that render pauses in speech more naturally, and at a controllable pace. Yet pauses are imposed, and we understand less of a text when hearing it rather than reading it in silence [1].

Fortunately, written texts remain largely present in our environment: our newspapers, our books, our reports. Yet, more and more of our texts are written by machines: by web searchers, by summarisers, by data analysers. They layout our news briefs, write our reports, and tweak our ads. They write books too now: handbooks with Virtual Reality add-ons, school books with lessons and exercises, or novels with plots and well-crafted suspense.

The machines writing our texts, and our voice-ops’ words, have a seemingly real personality of their own. Although sometimes their awkwardness betrays their artificial nature, machines look all the more alive: with an awkwardness of their own as part of their personality.

Text machines and voice-ops can create the illusion of a companion, a seemingly real interlocutor. Most people spend at least 20% of their vocal interactions with voice-ops, and 40% of their reading time on machine-generated texts [2]. This amounts to the time we spend with close family members: machines are part of the family. They can as well have a role in our psychological balance. Machines can generate artificial voice tailored to influence our emotions, for example to mitigate anxiety and anger or help us fall asleep [3,4,5]. Voice-ops can also provide solace to the lonely and the depressed [6,7]. They take part in our social and developmental fabric. Children can start learning and playing with voice-ops from kindergarten, but we do not know yet how this can impact their psychological and cultural development.
MongoDB — Can not connect the database by Mongodb ODBC Driver Windows
By: Aman Khanakia
Tags: Mongodb

Hello Friends,

So many users are complaining that they cannot connect to the Mongodb with the ODBC Driver so today I am gonna write this tutorial as I was also stuck with the MongoDB ODBC connector issue on windows and did not find any help over the internet. So after debugging lots of hours i finally able to connect with the MongoDB ODBC with my server. So, first of all, you need to download these prerequisites.

Download and Install Community Server https://www.mongodb.com/download-center/community

Download and Install https://www.mongodb.com/download-center/bi-connector

Download and Install https://github.com/mongodb/mongo-odbc-driver/releases

Go to Environment Variables and add these ones to the Path

C:\Program Files\MongoDB\Server\4.0\bin

C:\Program Files\MongoDB\Connector for BI\2.1\bin

Now create a mongosqld query you can read more about this here https://docs.mongodb.com/bi-connector/master/reference/mongosqld/#bin.mongosqld

mongosqld --mongo-uri "mongodb://13.251.86.51:27017" --auth --mongo-username lucian --mongo-password sFEUOTB6 --mongo-authenticationSource admin

Open Command Prompt and run the above query until it fully samples the whole schema and shows you all the collections names in the cli like this

After that open ODBC Administrator and Create a System DSN you can read more here https://docs.mongodb.com/bi-connector/master/tutorial/create-system-dsn/

Now Test the connection. That’s all. 🙂

I hope you found my article useful. Please don’t forget to clap the article.
Navigating Major Life Transitions
By: Sara Potler Lahayne
Tags: Meditation, Change, Daily Routine, Wisdom, Wellbeing

It feels like the world has changed so much in the last ten years, let alone the last 3,000, when Heraclitus uttered the first iteration of, “change is the only constant in life.”

Many changes can feel daunting, scary or overwhelming — like preparing for first-time motherhood while writing a curriculum overhaul and leading organizational growth from California to Texas to Tennessee.

Let me tell you straight from the heart: it’s been an incredibly challenging time. I’ve had to adjust my focus, work with my team (my team in the office and my team in my husband), and develop new strategies for success — at work and at home.

Image courtesy of Unsplash

But I also feel that I could not be more prepared for such a herculean task; in fact, I’ve been preparing for this every day of my life.

Flexibility. Openness. Empathy. Forgiveness.

These are all core elements of our work at Move This World, and we practice them individually and as a team every day of the week. We practice laughter. We meditate. We workout. We Move This Day. We work, and we play.

It’s what has allowed us to change locations, shift our model, and work around the world while staying focused on our greater mission.

At the end of the day, we don’t really know when major transitions are going to take place. We might have hints or ideas, but life comes at you quickly.

The only way to prepare for the inevitable is to be proactive, to work the mental muscles every day.

We need to be flexible. We need to be open about our needs. We need to have empathy for those around us, especially those supporting our goals. And we need to forgive ourselves for not meeting our standards every single time.

But how? It requires daily practice, like daily meditation or reflection, literally celebrating failures with a high five and literally practicing our flexibility by stretching, or taking the time to listen to our colleagues, friends, or supporters even when we have a million things running through our heads and a thousand butterflies in our stomach.

These practices ground us, they reconnect us to what’s truly important, and prepares us for what’s to come.

Transitions are difficult. Period.

So is having the emotional capacity to navigate them.

That means you have to be ready.

Anytime, anyplace.
Stoic
By: Ann Litts
Tags: Meditation, Life, Nursing, Self-awareness, Yoga

Photo by Patrick Hendry on Unsplash

“A person who can endure pain or hardship without showing their feelings or complaining.”

That’s the definition of stoic according to Dictionary.com. And pretty much the place I learned to live at for many years.

Simply because I reasoned out — showing emotions and feeling the feelings got you no place. It made nothing better. It didn’t fix anything, like bringing your mother back from the dead — so in truth — emotions were just wasted energy.

On top of that — it made you look weak in a world where the weak become prey. Especially when you’re a teenager — and plus — it made your eyes puffy and blood shot. Not a good look.

I became Stoic. And I rocked it. I became a professional Stoic when I became a nurse. Nurses are great in a crisis because emotions and panic are not in their realm of being. That stuff just does not go down. We are Stoic. Bam! There it was again.

I was stoic through All The Things. My daughter’s illness. The dogs and cats that died. The move to NC. My father’s death. My divorce. All of it.

Right up until I wasn’t. Something inside of me snapped — and I was done with being stoic. I was in therapy at the time when it hit me, maybe because I was in therapy — who knows? But I remember the day I curled up into a little ball on the floor and couldn’t get up any more.

Emotions grabbed hold of me and claimed me. I couldn’t shake them — the inmates had taken over the asylum. I was hurt, and angry, and so NOT stoic.

Some people were kind and understanding, others were less so. I didn’t care, I was done with giving fucks about anyone else. Or anything else. I had slipped into an emotional survival mode.

It took years to burn off the emotional sludge from the stoic build up. I’m probably not healed even yet because from time to time there are moments when anger or pain will flare at some perceived injustice.

But I’m better. WAY better. Meditation, yoga, and finding a connection to The Universe has helped me find middle ground. The place where I can feel things again without the after burn of unresolved historical C4 thrown in.

Being stoic is a myth — its crap and sooner or later — you will implode. Count on it. And you’ll be amazed at how little it will take to ignite that blaze.

In this life, in this world — we reward the strong with praise and admiration. We tell people to ‘get over things’, ‘move on’, ‘man up’, ‘soldier on’, ‘be brave’ — the idioms for this phenomenom in our culture could fill a book.

What we really should be doing is supporting each other and holding space with love and tenderness for our friends, family, and co-workers as they feel the feelings they need to feel to heal the traumas of their lives and become whole again. And for ourselves as well.

It never matters what the question is — Love is always the answer.

Namaste.
How to Structure GraphQL/Serverless App Using Typescript.
By: Mirco Guidetti
Tags: Serverless, GraphQL, Scalability, Structure, Typescript

How to Structure GraphQL/Serverless App Using Typescript.

In this article, I will share a scalable and modular solution to structure a GraphQL application.

Photo by André Sanano on Unsplash

When you create a new project structuring your code is probably the first task.Of course, if you’re using a framework, you will probably have it out of the box. However, when writing micro services, I find frameworks too bloated because they come with many things that you probably don’t need.

What is GraphQL?

GraphQL is a syntax that describes how to ask for data, and is generally used to load data from a server to a client.

In short, it lets you:

Reduce network costs and get better query efficiency. Ensure you’re never sending more or less than the client needs. Describe your API with types that map your schema to existing backends.

In this article I am going to use ApolloServer to build the GraphQL server.

What is Serverless?

With Serverless comes the following:

No server management (no need to manage any form of machine) Pay-per-execution (never pay for idle) Auto-scale (scale based on demand) Function as a unit of application logic

Step 1: Configure the Serverless template

Create a new folder to store your application and create a serverless.yml file.

Step 2: Create config files and install dependencies

Create the tsconfig.json and package.json and run npm install

Step 3: Create handler function

Create a src folder and inside create a functions folder.

GraphQL shrink your APIs down into a single HTTP, so we only need to create a single handler inside the functions folder to handle all the requests, for convention we call it search.ts

Step 4: Create GraphQL service

Create a new folder services and inside create a graphql folder, as the project grow we might need to add more folders like (middleware, utils) so to keep everything clean and tidy we create a subfolder inside graphql called modules

At this point your project structure should look like this:

Inside graphql folder create the following files:

Step 5: Create your first module

We are going to use a collection of albums as an example, inside modules we need to create a folder called album which is going to be our first module and inside we create the following files:

At this point we almost done, we only need to export our module.

Create a file inside modules called index.ts with this:

Step 6: Final step run the application

Run npm start from the root of your application and head over to localhost:3000/local/search you should see the GraphQL playground.

Every example comes from the https://github.com/Mircoguidetti/graphql-serverless-scaffold Github repository
分散ガバナンスの重要性
By: Stratis Karadakis
Tags: Governance, Japanese, Ethereum, Decentralization, Blockchain

DAOstack is designed to catalyze the future of collaboration. It's a platform for decentralized governance that enables collectives to self-organize around shared goals or values, easily and efficiently.

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How many of us are struggling to get this synthesis in place?
By: Mike Meyer
Tags: Politics, Innovation, America, Diversity, Journalism

How many of us are struggling to get this synthesis in place? The only hope for this country is to break free of the 20th century entanglements but that will not be allowed. The oligarchy is a parasite that feeds on us but they are weak. First they had to destroy hope and then destroy faith in our ability to rule ourselves. That allowed them to gain control and then destroy our electoral process while denouncing all social change. Controlled poverty will do the rest. The media has been turned into a propaganda machine and only a grossly distorted charade remains of the rest of the planet for those who are told to trust nothing else.

It will take more than the farce of our complicit, corrupt political parties and another sham election to change this. A clear majority sees the future but we are powerless to change. How can this be?
Intention
By: Samantha Lazar
Tags: Cancer, Poetry, Family, Loss, Teaching

Intention

A poem

Photo by Graham Padmore on Unsplash

Well published in genetics

Standing room only service

For the energy of awe

How could she have done it all?

Legacy living on

in the expectations

of their two beautiful girls

A harpist plays

“Somewhere Over the Rainbow” —

Funerals are for the living

Two months prior

Very much alive

To me, she said

Look out to the sea.

High above ancient cliff temples

built for the cult of Poseidon

Where the girls,

full of theatrics

Retold Greek myths

into the bus microphone

Got us all laughing

Grandmother, mother

How travel releases,

And my heart,

so full of romance-

I looked out at a ship

following

Santorini breezes

Someday, I thought,

as I make this life up

as we go along

Their Durham mansion

Filled with awkward

exchanges

Cousins bashing

each other with pillows

laughter of classmates

All the kids upstairs

who will teach me,

be my daily bread

masking, playing hostess

before off to the family’s

Summer lake house

I shake his hand-

Dad school shopping

the day before

A first time task for him

Folders and locker shelves

Decorations of daughters

I will be with her more

than anyone

I will be her teacher

I will read her expressions

Yes, and help her through this

transition

I am out of place here.

A hired bartender for

every occasion

Taking care of the details

As life moves on.

I was not in Cotillion

Didn’t learn to come out

dance special steps

This is the way we grin

and show

and show

On Thursday nights while

Society sisters went wild

I aimed my canvas

toward the orange back-lit

figure posed

and I drew him

charcoal bleeding.
Brewers Make Another Perfectly Justifiable Trade
By: The Brewer Nation
Tags: Brad Miller, Sports, Brewers, MLB

Mark LoMoglio/Icon Sportswire

Following Sunday’s loss in Philadelphia, the Milwaukee Brewers announced a trade with the Tampa Bay Rays.

The Brewers sent Ji-Man Choi to the Rays in exchange for Brad Miller (and cash). Below is the text of the official press release.

This trade is perfectly acceptable and possibly quite shrewd. In Choi, the Brewers had a usable depth piece who participated and contributed during some Interleague games in American League ballparks while Eric Thames was on the Disabled List. He directly contributed to more than one win, including supplying the game-winning RBI in last Saturday’s win against the Phillies with his pinch-hit grand slam.

To be fair though, with Thames set to return from the DL on Monday, Choi was the fourth option at first base and perhaps even the sixth option to play left field just among the other players rostered on the current 25-Man. If everyone is healthy, he doesn’t have a role with the big league club.

Brewers General Manager David Stearns was able to turn that asset over into a different kind altogether in Miller, 28, a veteran infielder who is two seasons removed from hammering 30 home runs while playing passable defense at shortstop. Miller was designated for assignment by the Rays on Thursday so that they could call up one of their top prospects — conveniently far enough behind the generally assumed Super 2 deadline — and continue seeing what they have in their system.

Miller had played defensively at both second and first base for the Rays this season, and in fact hasn’t played shortstop since that 30-home run season of 2016, but his experience and versatility fit right in with Stearns’ typical veteran acquisitions over the years. Miller has been much better at the plate against right-handed pitching over his career, though he hasn’t been awful facing southpaws to this point in 2018.

With the ability to contribute at multiple positions including very possibly giving the Brewers any offense at all from shortstop — a position which entering play on Sunday was slashing .193/.242/.275/.517 in 2018 — for the cost of a reserve player is the kind shot that Stearns has shown a willingness to take during his tenure at the helm of Milwaukee’s ship.

The Brewers and Rays were able to execute a mutually beneficial trade, one in which Stearns grabbed a player who could benefit the big league club in Milwaukee in ways that Choi simply can’t. It doesn’t get much more sensible than that.
Day 22 Of ‘A Photo A Day For 30 Days’ Challenge
By: Divina Grey
Tags: Creativity, Nature, Beauty, Photography, Photos

I follow this tree through all of its seasons. This year, I’m remembering to snap pictures of its growth. Does anyone know what kind of tree this is? And… does life get any more picturesque than this?
The Poet’s Pen
By: Priyanka Srivastava
Tags: Writing Life, Writers On Writing, Poetry, Poet, Writing

The Poet’s Pen

those few words trapped between light and darkness

Photo by Tatiana on Unsplash

those poems which wait

to be caressed by the moonlight.

the stars waiting for their turn

to be chiseled by the poet’s pen.

that art waiting to see the light.

that story which

starts on the page from a dot

and later waits to marry that light

trapped in poet’s mind.

that light which happens

after the darkness, that poem

I need to meet again.
Productivity with Python: From Your Daily Notes to Anki Flash Cards
By: Lucas Soares
Tags: Learning, Productivity Hacks, Productivity, Programming, Python

Photo from Free Photos on Pixabay (left) and by Andrej Lišakov on Unsplash (right)

Productivity with Python: From Your Daily Notes to Anki Flash Cards

A programming approach to automate turning your notes into Anki flash cards.

Automating Flash Cards

Flash cards are a great tool to enhance memorization of all the information one might care to remember and learn.

The power of this system is that it implements scientific findings related to concepts like spaced repetition and concrete feedback, both paramount for memory retention.

I have been a big fan of this system for a while now, and recently I posted an article about it, but one thing that has bothered me regarding my workflow routine is the data entry process.

Since I don’t like switching work environments from my regular notes or scripts to writing flash cards on Anki, I wanted an automatic way to turn them into neat Anki flash cards that I could import directly to the app on my desktop.

From Notes to Flash Cards with Python

To start things off, if you are new to flash cards, go check out my post here.

If you are not familiarized with Anki, take a look at their website and download the free app (not affiliated):

Ok, now let’s get started with our main topic.

Since I am a big python fan, I asked myself: “Can I write a script that turns a markdown or python file into an Anki flash card?”

Yep! I only have to translate the files into one of the acceptable formats that Anki can understand, one of which is a simple .txt file!

Photo by Photo Boards on Unsplash

You write a .txt file separating each question and answer with a “;” and you are ready to go!

Below, I will walk you through my process of turning my Notion pages (markdown files) and my python scripts into neat .txt files that can be imported to Anki as nice flash cards automatically.

The process: from everyday workflow to Anki flash cards

First, let’s take a look at the entire process in terms of input and output:
Episode 78: Learning to Swim in the Lightning Pool
Tags: Lightning, Scalability, Bitcoin, Investing, Blockchanneltv

Press Play! And be sure to follow and subscribe wherever you listen to BlockChannel.

On this episode of BlockChannel, Mckie and Dee invite back Olaoluwa Osuntokun, CTO of Lightning Labs, and technical advisor to Amentum Capital. Their team recently scaled bitcoin payments in a huge way, and have released the Lightning Pool, and a decentralized money market for Bitcoin to find a real-time lending rate. The Lightning Pool combines a myriad of technologies the Lightning engineering team and community have worked on, and allows Lightning to be more friendly for mainstream usage. Try to keep up as Olaoluwa breaks down exactly how it all works. You’ll need to watch this episode twice…

Show Link(s):

Lightning Website: http://lightning.engineering

Lightning Pool Announcement: https://lightning.engineering/posts/2020-11-02-lightning-pool/

Intro/Outro Music “Mom’s Whiskey” by Marlon Craft:

https://soundcloud.com/mcraftmusic/moms-whiskey-feat-kota-the

Show Sponsor(s):

Vanmoof: http://Vanmoof.com

Disclaimer: This is not investment advice, it is an engaged discussion on new technology; BlockChannel reminds you to always do your own due diligence before investing in any crypto-related project in the industry.
Global digital payments are waiting for the drastic changes. Overview by Bitupper
By: Andrew Zhuk - Bitupper.Com
Tags: Digital Payment, Banking, Blockchain, E Payment, Bitupper

The development of digital technologies has led to the fact that banks are no longer the main driving force in this market. The main role is played by a non-banking organization. Satisfying new consumer expectations (for example, one-click payments), causing some changes in the value creation.

Globally, the digital payment space is mainly influenced by five large-scale trends, which are expected to dramatically change this industry in the near future.

Ongoing digital / technological revolution

It is expected that by 2020 the number of users accessing Internet services via smartphones will reach 3 billion against almost 1.9 billion in 2015, which is 65% of the world’s adult population.

The emergence of non-traditional players in the market

In the payment market, a large number of players from different industries, device manufacturers (Apple, Samsung), technical firms (Google, eBay, Alibaba), retailers (Starbucks, Walmart), telecommunications companies (Vodafone, Orange) and start-ups (Square, Transfer-Wise) become more active. It is expected that the number of fintech startups will double and reach up to 1,000 within 5 years, and funding will increase 6X times, reaching $11 billion US.

Higher customer expectations

Today consumer expects the best experience that companies can provide, even in financial services. There is a growing need for an intuitive and convenient user interface and design, as demonstrated by the experience of large market participants.

Stimulating state regulation

Regulation plays a crucial role in determining the nature and success of payment decisions. For example, PSD2 (the revised directive on payment services) in Europe provides banks and payment institutions with the attacks that underlie their basic relationships with customers, such as checks and payments. It is expected that this directive will create an open environment conducive to a wider choice of customers and transparency of prices. In emerging markets, where cash continues to dominate, governments encourage e-payments.

The rapid evolution of digital consumer payments

Ubiquitous communication, biometrics, tokenization, cloud computing and the Internet of Things are just a few of the digital trends that will influence the consumers interactaction with their partners when making payments.

Bitupper, being on the wave of digital technology development, strives to use all available possibilities to present the world of cryptocurrency more simple, understandable and convenient for each market participant, offering advanced online banking tools in an understandable and user-friendly interface on all platforms.

Bitupper — that simple, for everyone.
Dear Emilie
By: Death Dialogue Writers
Tags: Poetry

Emilie,

Here is how I will remember you.

Alight with the trees.

Always so bright, so filled with song.

Lifting the littles with your unshakeable spirit.

I am so glad I heard your voice one last time.

I am so sad we will never get to do our project of music + poetry as we said we would.

I promise to carry you with me now. It will be easy; you were always so light.

I will remember your incredible gifts.

Your ability to see so much beauty it near blinded;

Your kindness, your warmth, your giving grace.

I will remember so many precious moments. A song in a bedroom, ukuleles and puppets, traipsing amidst sun and trees. Depth and light in equal measure. Art and creation. Smiling — being seen.

I love you. That is unending. Thank you for your time with me.

You will be missed so, so, so dearly.

So much love and holding to the Inmans + Matt + friends + all in this time of grief.

My heart is broken, but you are with me still.
Foresting Signed MOU with Master Node Intermediation Platform — APIS
Tags: Partnerships, Startup Marketing, Cryptography, Blockchain, Brokerage

Foresting CEO, Daniel Eom and APIS CEO, Ronny Yoo Sign MOU

Foresting CEO Daniel Eom signed a strategic business agreement (MOU) with APIS, a master node brokerage platform, on 22nd of June 2018.

Through the agreement, the two companies will share technology and know-how and will further enhance the value of the technology related to the blockchain, thereby strengthening the ongoing cooperation for future growth.

Foresting is a blockchain-based SNS platform that has not been introduced in Korea until now. It is a fair value that contributes to platform growth by breaking away the unfair social media platform value distribution system. Distribution system.

Apis has made access to the master node to enter the public by simple membership. By allowing all types of users, including ordinary individual investors, to participate as master nodes such as DASH (DASH) and PIVEX (PIVX), they have lowered the barriers of the cryptographic market.

“This agreement is similar, but it is a good opportunity to create synergy between the two companies that have been active in other areas,” said the CEO of Foresting. “More collaborators will continue to enter the content market with more economical difficulties. I will try to do it. “
A Wind Blows, But I Stay
By: J. Garcia
Tags: Poetry, Life, Parenting, Adventure, Wanderlust

I withdrew my candidacy for the Consular Fellows position at the state department. It was hard—I really wanted to do this, but I’m done running. There’s no point in it. The wind blows; let it blow, but I can’t take flight with it anymore.

I am here. **Ham sa**

I can stand here and be a father and weather the wind … be weathered by it.

Who is you J?

I’m the father of two little girls, first.

And I want to take flight and travel the world like I did in my twenties, but that is not a life for a child. They need stability. So now, I won’t write in the rainforest, dive from waterfalls, snorkel in the open ocean, or wade through the mud in torrential rains (at least not carefree and wild).

Instead, I’ll sit in the twilight, in my little villa, looking out at the calm waters of my blue-green lake and wonder why the wind has changed directions but I’m still here. I’ll stuff the back-pack that I once bused through South America with hurricane supplies and important documents in case we have to evacuate. I’ll worry about daycare, before and aftercare, grades, allergies, fevers, and college tuition.

But, I’ll also soak in the moments of morning bliss, cuddling, in a sea of sheets, on our bed. I’ll smile at the little wonders of parenthood: a spontaneous “I love you,” a tearful hug, a giggle at discovering a new bug, a why with no answer. A memory bubbling forth that I thought she would never remember. The fights and separations, the time-outs, and the “go to your rooms.” The little hands curling on my one massive finger. The elation of the first cry. The pounding— thump, thump, thump—of the heartbeat.

I’ll stand in the wind.
Dewdrops
By: Somsubhra Banerjee
Tags: Classic Haiku, Poetry, Life, Haiku, Thoughts

Thanks a lot, Sherry, for sheltering so many of my haikus here, at Haiku Hub.
You Need to Overcome Your Fears and Meet a Transgender Person
By: Oren Cohen
Tags: Society, Relationships, Transgender, LGBTQ, Equality

Alexandra was a blond, blue-eyed, transgender woman who came to work at the store a couple of times a week. I would usually see her helping customers and hanging in the cosmetics department.

At first, I didn’t know she was a transgender woman. She had a unique beauty in my mind. Maybe it was my sheltered beliefs or the natural fear of stepping out of your comfort zone, but even though I was excited by her, I wanted to avoid her.

A few weeks later, during a day she wasn’t working in our store, I heard one of the beauty advisors mention that Alexandra was a transgender woman. I inferred it from the talk about her transition surgery scheduled to a few weeks in the future.

I was dumb-founded.

I didn’t know how to react to the news. How do I talk to someone like that? In Hebrew, the native language I speak at the workplaces I attend, there is always a referral to someone’s gender. Should I talk like I talk to a woman? Man?

I didn’t know what to do, and I sat on this for a while. My biggest fear was having to talk to Alexandra and not knowing how to do it.

I didn’t know that fear would come true a handful of days later.
Inseparable
Tags: Life, Love, Self, Emotions

I touch my face and I feel you…

Like a layer of skin, you are all over me…

How can I peel you off me?
This Is Why You Should Use Imagination In Therapy
By: Toni Tails
Tags: Psychology, Life, Self, Family, Mental Health

As a child, my imaginary world was as real to me as the world around me and much safer. I often said that I wouldn’t have survived my childhood without imagination, and it turns out that I may have been doing a form of self-therapy.

A study by scientists at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mouth Sinai finds that imagining a threat activates the same neural substrate as reacting to a threat that exists in reality. The theory further suggests that imagination might help treat neuropsychiatric disorders like anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

“Imagination is a word that is used in a lot of ways, and it’s hard to define for science in a technical way,” he says. “But imagination is creating possible scenarios in your head. Certainly, when people talk about imagination they talk about imagery, and that’s part of it. But there are also a lot of imaginative processes that don’t have to be sensory in nature. You can think about a hypothetical situation without having to actually picture yourself in it.” — Jim Davies, director of the Science of Imagination Laboratory at Carleton University in Canada

There is evidence that patients can use imagination therapeutically. Jim Davies says that the mind doesn’t distinguish fantasy from reality while imagining things. In Neuron, Dr. Schiller says that when a person uses imagination to mimic a situation, the same brain regions activate when they experience real-life problems.

Because of this, imagination can help;

decrease pain

adjust unhealthy expectations

create a sense of agency

reappraise the past

offer safe exposure therapy

build cognitive framing

Fantasy and reality: overlapping neural mechanisms

Wager says imagination can be a powerful clinical tool.

“This tells us that many of the processes we think are automatic in our brains can be influenced by how we conceptualize the problem, or how we conceptualize ourselves in the situation. We know that imagery and visualization techniques can be helpful, but this is the first step to understanding why scientifically.”

Next steps

Schiller hopes to continue to investigate the neural mechanisms of mental action. She says a more detailed understanding of imagination, sensory or otherwise, can improve clinical therapies and offer new insights into the ins and outs of human behavior.

“Think about decision-making,” she says. “What happens when you imagine outcomes or your experience? Suppose we have a reliable way to measure the neural substrate that underlies imagination. In that case, we can ask a lot of questions in different domains about how our imaginations influence how we think, how we feel, and what we do.”

Wager agrees. “We already know that imagination is a powerful tool — and it matters how you direct it,” he says. “An imagination that is out of control may lead to fears or anxiety. An imagination that is better directed may help avoid them. It’s important we better understand this ability because, more and more, we are learning that the cognitive contents of our brains are important.”

Imagine that.
The All-New ARK.io Website is Live — The Simplest Way to Blockchain
By: Justin Renken
Tags: Cryptocurrency, Blockchain, Crypto, Development

ARK.io has always been the home for our online presence. Today, we reveal an all-new website to bring us into the future with a cleaner look and easier access to important information. In this article, let’s take a look at what we focused on for this release.

Visit our all-new site at ARK.io.

Embrace Simplicity

A primary theme we want to reflect in everything we do is simplicity. We believe that commitment to simplicity gives Blockchain its best chance to flourish for both users and developers. Our previous website served us well but grew busier over time. When planning our new website, we focused on fine-tuning messaging and essential content. We strive to cut through the noise of an often cluttered industry to deliver simple and elegant technical solutions, and we want this to be reflected in our new site.
Waves Association launched in Frankfurt, Germany
By: Waves Tech
Tags: Wa, Wavesplatform, Decentralization

Membership and fees

The Association has its own website: https://wavesassociation.org. Both legal entities and individuals can become members of the Association and participate in the decision-making process. Applicants will need to fill out a form on the website and pay a membership fee (amount to be decided by the Association, depending on the type of membership). Members of the Association are divided into three categories:

Full member. Annual fee required

Community member. Annual fee required

Honorary member. No fee required

Goals of the Association

– Governance. Implement decision-making on the blockchain, such as voting on all major issues and updates, as well as development of DAO-style governance in the future.

– Technology development. Support and development of the Waves protocol and infrastructure, which includes a decentralized network, technologies and various development tools, with focus on the next-generation Waves technology stack — Gravity Hub.

– Toolkit development. Create everything the community needs, enabling anyone to build on Waves and create their own applications and use cases with the ecosystem’s technologies and tools.

– Research and education. Active collaboration with universities, research centers, industry, and governments in Europe and around the world.

New communication channels

As the Association will now define the direction and priorities for technology development, all communication about new developments (e.g. Gravity Hub, Waves Matter, etc) will be conducted via the Association.

Production of video news in the Monthly Digest format on the Waves Platform YouTube channel will be discontinued. Instead, reports on development progress will appear on the Association’s communication platforms.

Join the Association

We very much look forward to this next step in the evolution and decentralization of the Waves ecosystem, and warmly invite all community members to participate in the process of shaping and guiding the future of Waves and Web3!

To find out more about the Association or apply for membership, visit https://wavesassociation.org.
Fabio Nicotra, the Sicilian traveller who reads and writes, and who made Read and Write
By: Ac De Fombelle
Tags: Meet The Tribe, Publishing, Software Development, Books, Reading

But that’s not all. And that’s also not why Fabio joined StreetLib in the first place — we don’t actually have a “food-lover” filter when hiring people, I promise! Since joining Streetlib as a Software developer in 2013, Fabio has built and nurtured our StreetLib Write book editor (originaly called BackTypo). As well as being a convenient tool to turn any text file into a proper eBook or PDF file ready for Print, it is also a powerful piece of technology for creating clean and efficient HTML files

As it happens, Fabio doesn’t just build tools allowing people to turn their thoughts into books, he actually does it himself! Passionate about literature, he has written poems, although, quite paradoxically, has never published them.

“I’m a private person, and when I ask myself why I don’t publish my poems, the answer is always because I mainly write for myself.”

He also feeds his appetite for literature by reading authors like Arthur Rimbaud, Henry Miller, Philip K. Dick, Lawrence Ferlinghetti and Anaïs Nin to name a few.

And like a virtuous circle reconciling his passion with his job, Fabio also has been hard at work on our brand new StreetLib Read application. Thanks to his talents, we now empower book lovers all over the world to read their favorite books on any device (web browser, Android and iOS).

Fabio currently spends most of his working hours on StreetLib Write and Read, as they not only need to be maintained, but also still have a huge potential for growth ahead of them. If he finds a way to stretch out time a bit, he might also work with us on a project related to Artificial Intelligence, something he has already tackled in personal projects.

Fabio has also kept in touch professionally with the founder of Kiurma, the company he worked for before joining StreetLib. They are collaborating together on Redis, a popular worldwide open source software project.

I have drawn a picture of a pretty fulfilled life, don’t you think? Well, it doesn’t stop there! Fabio has also added astronomy to his long list of passions! With his own telescope, he has managed to amass a rather impressive photo collection of planets, nebulae and galaxies.
No One Buys Junk — We Only Buy Time
By: Melissa Toldy
Tags: Environmental Issues, Junk, Consumerism, Sustainability, Responsibility

Does it seem fair that I paid a dollar for a dress and then resold it for hundreds of dollars? I asked myself this question when I made my living as a reseller. See, I never knew how much people would pay for the items I found. I listed all my eBay auctions with the same starting price: $9.99.

In the beginning, I didn’t think about the bigger picture, about who would be buying the dresses, or how my business venture fit into a capitalist context. I needed money to pay rent, and I liked vintage clothes — it was that simple. But when bidders competed with each other, pushing the sale price up and up, I sometimes wondered, why are they paying this much?

I didn’t study business in college; I studied English. My Hungarian father brought us Canadian-born kids to Austin with the hopes that we would attend the University of Texas. My older sister and I fulfilled that dream. Like a typical immigrant, Dad hoped we would become doctors. Instead, I unwittingly followed his footsteps.

Dad started a business in his garage — selling obsolete electrical parts. He once told me, “When I was young, my father asked me what I wanted to do when I grew up; I told him I wanted to own a junkyard.” It seems my family has a knack for seeing value in other people’s trash.

In America, people throw out perfectly good items. Where I live currently, in a well-kept Brooklyn neighborhood, you can walk down any block to find a box of free stuff. It’s usually filled with books, sometimes household goods and appliances, occasionally clothing. I often think, I could make a living by taking this stuff and putting it online. And then I remember why I stopped selling vintage clothes.

What’s so special about old, used clothes? For me, I liked the hunt. You never know what you’re going to find when you walk into a thrift store or a donation outlet. Mostly, you’re going to see stuff you don’t want. You have your own taste, and you’re stepping into a place full of abandoned items. Luck is real for pickers, but after hours of searching, you feel like you earned your treasure.

When those hours of searching translated into money, I felt grateful at first. Happy to be my own boss. Over time, I thought about the bigger picture. What was I providing? I tried to convince myself that selling secondhand products was good for the planet, but I suspected that the people buying my dresses were not eco-conscious. They bought vintage because vintage was trendy.

Ultimately, I stopped selling clothes because I don’t care about delivering products to humans. I don’t want to make money by providing goods. I didn’t study English in college so that I could market an idea about what people should wear or how people should decorate their homes. I only ever wanted to write — so that I could understand the world better, and in the process, hopefully, reach other humans who were interested in a thoughtful existence.