fabiochiu/medium-articles huggingface dataset:
Anthem Associates make incredible impact, raising $610K+ on #GivingTuesday
By: Anthem Foundation
Tags: Volunteering, News, Philanthropy, Givingtuesday, Giving Back

The results are in! Anthem associates came together this #GivingTuesday to show that — even apart –generosity brings us together.

2,460 Anthem associates participated in #GivingTuesday, raising over $610,000 to support 524 causes and millions of individuals across the country, exceeding last year’s total.

The Food Bank of Southeastern Virginia and Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield and its associates created a food drop-off assembly line. Volunteers packed the cars to create a safe and healthy environment for hundreds of families.

While some gave donations, others gave their time and talents. 2,600 volunteer hours and 240 Acts of Goodness were logged on this single day.

The generosity of Anthem associates this year on #GivingTuesday is a reflection of our year-round commitment to our local communities. Anthem Foundation is thrilled to announce that we have officially surpassed our goal of $5 million raised and 100,000 volunteer hours logged through our Associate Community Engagement Programs in 2020!

While this year has presented unparalleled challenges, we continue to come together to strengthen those around us and ignite positive change. Although #GivingTuesday is behind us, we still continue to giving back to those that need it most.
Reflections From The 2020 SEO Scholars Achievement Benefit
By: James Gutierrez
Tags: Empowerment, Leadership, Philanthropy, Careers

As a previous graduate from the SEO Career Program (Seizing Every Opportunity) program, I have gained firsthand knowledge about the transformative power of the program’s focus on education, empowerment, and mentorship. My participation in the program undoubtedly helped me to forge the path to entrepreneurial success. Thus, serving on the San Francisco’s branch’s Advisory Board has been my way of “paying it forward.”

Recently, I was bestowed the privilege of speaking a few words at the 2020 SEO Scholars Achievement Benefit. Held virtually, the annual event recognized Kenneth Lin, CEO and Founder of Credit Karma. Lin was awarded the SEO Corporate Leadership Award.

Below, explore our conversation:
How to Foster Successful Corporate Philanthropy
By: Kimberly Springsteen-Abbott
Tags: Corporate, Kimbery Springsteen, Philanthropy, Business

In recent years, more and more companies have learned the benefits of corporate philanthropy. When businesses give to a charitable cause, they boost brand awareness and create positive vibes around their products. Not all corporate philanthropy is the same, however. To maximize the benefits of this increasingly common practice, it’s important to do it right. Keep these tips in mind as you launch a corporate philanthropic campaign.

Be Sure to Strategize

The first step to any philanthropic project is to strategize properly. The charitable work should not be a side project for the corporation but a major component of its general vision. People up and down the organization should come together to develop a workable, lasting plan.

Include Your Entire Team

The charitable effort should not be relegated to a single department. When the whole company works together, the disparate viewpoints lead to a greater variety of ideas. What’s more, when everyone is on the same page, it is much easier to carry out ambitious projects. If everyone in the company understands the project’s goals, then the work becomes central to the company’s mission and even its culture.

Engage Local Communities

Charitable projects offer a great opportunity for companies to forge a closer relationship with their local communities. When corporations and communities come together for the common good, everybody wins in the end. The corporation benefits from greater trust and support from its neighbors, while the community earns the support of the major financial players in its midst.

Make a Lasting Difference

Corporate philanthropy is most effective when it launches long-term projects that make a lasting, tangible change. Helping people in the short term is great, but it doesn’t leave a mark. People might be better off, but nobody will remember who helped or why. Running an educational clinic, for example, might be useful, but once the clinic is over, there’s no way for the philanthropic act to live on in people’s minds. On the other hand, by building new school facilities, a company creates a monument to its benevolent nature.

When companies engage in corporate philanthropy, everyone comes out ahead. Follow these tips to launch a project that really makes a difference.
Data for Good: Toward a Sustainable Ecosystem, Beyond Philanthropy
Tags: World Data Forum, Sdgs, Philanthropy, Data

Data for Good: Toward a Sustainable Ecosystem, Beyond Philanthropy

This post is part of a series highlighting sessions from the 2020 UN Data Forum. Watch every session or read our summary.

Summary: Leaders from major corporations discuss how large companies in industries such as finance and telecommunication can leverage the data they have for global development. In particular, these entities have access to timely information that can be leveraged for policy decisions. However, concerns about privacy and monetization must be considered.

Speakers

Key Takeaways

Richard Benjamins, Telefonica

We are at a point where, due to COVID, privately held data is being shared at unprecedented rates. But, thus far it has largely been ad-hoc and we don’t yet know if that is sustainable in the long term.

Stefaan Verhulst, The GovLab

Make the business case and finance such changes. We must make it systematic and sustainable, but also responsible.

How do we organize ourselves from a supply side and match our work with the demand side?

“Data for Good” initiatives often get started because there is access to data, not because there is a pressing question that people are trying to answer.

It is often difficult to find the contact person at corporations who has access to the data that could be useful to answering important development questions. How do corporations organize themselves to participate?

JoAnn C. Stonier, Mastercard

The discussion outlines how private corporations with access to important data balance data security and privacy with the potential for good. Stonier states that working with more than one partner is difficult.

Mastercard doesn’t talk about “Data for Good” anymore, but instead talks about the social impact aspects of the business.

Pedro Antonio de Alarcon, Telefonica

There are multiple ways to manage the data provision options: to businesses (contract), mandatory (government), partnerships, pricing models, etc.
How to Promote Positivity in Difficult Times
By: Victor Alston
Tags: Philanthropy, Victor Alston, Positivity

Going through a difficult period in your life can affect your overall outlook on life. Rather than letting temporary events leave you feeling depressed or anxious, keeping a positive mindset will encourage you to create welcome change. Here are a few tips for staying positive when your life events don’t go as planned.

Escape the Victim Mentality

One of the biggest reasons people have so much difficulty escaping bad situations is that they take on a victim’s role. When you accept that you’re a victim, you’re giving up your ability to change the situation. Instead, take responsibility for those circumstances, so you’ll be able to determine how to change the outcome.

Meditate Daily

When you meditate, a couple of different things happen to help you attain a more positive mindset. First, the act of clearing your mind and focusing on the moment helps reduce the stress and tension you’re feeling. Reduced stress helps you look more objectively at the situations in your life, which brings you to the second benefit of meditation. As you meditate, you may discover solutions to your problems that you hadn’t previously considered.

Look for Positivity in Your Life

No matter how bad things may seem, you do still have positive things in your life. When you take the time to look at your life’s current state, try not to focus on the negative aspect of things. Instead, look for positive changes that have also come along. Focusing on these positive influences in your life will help you bring more of that to you. When you feel gratitude for having positivity in your life, you’ll be more open to receiving more of it. Sometimes it can be helpful to recite thanks for the good things in your life, whether you do this before eating dinner or bedtime.

Many people believe that we attract more of what we focus on in our daily lives. If you dwell on the negativity in your life, you may be attracting more negative forces towards you. Taking on a more positive mindset will bring more good things into your life by the same token. If you take the time to recognize these feelings consciously, you’ll have the power to bring the changes you want into your life.
Effects of Coronavirus on Philanthropy in 2020
By: Richard Simon
Tags: Rick Simon Chicago, Charitable Giving, Philanthropy, Charity, Philanthropy In 2020

We can’t simply rely on personal and philanthropic organizations to handle an epidemic like Coronavirus. They have neither the purview nor the scope of world governments, but that doesn’t mean that private donors don’t have a part to play in the recovery efforts. They especially have a role to play in the early days of a disaster before the governments mobilize and in the aftermath when federal funding tends to dry up. For that reason, it’s essential to consider how COVID-19 is impacting philanthropic spending.

A conducted in the wake of the recession from 2009 to 2011 showed a decrease in the overall amount of money donated. However, it also indicated that while individuals ended up giving less in total, they gave about as much proportionally to their income. Even when faced with tighter budgets and leaner opportunities, the desire to give remained solid. The major distinction came in where money was spent. More individuals gave to charitable organizations where the need was the greatest — like economically disadvantaged communities and food banks — than they would outside of an emergency situation.

That means that artistic and cultural organizations may see a drought in donations, we can reasonably expect to see more money funneled to the most immediate societal needs. And whether it’s due to the nature of the pandemic, differing financial circumstances, or some unknown variable, some charitable organizations indicate that donations have risen since COVID-19 was first identified as a global problem. Schwab Charitable, an organization that provides advice for philanthropic contributions, saw an uptick of 50% in giving between February and June of 2020.

So what does that tell us about charity in a crisis like this? Principally, it’s an indication that we need to be smart about where we spend our money. An outsized problem like COVID-19 may divert more donations to health and human services, but without an immediate concern to identify that money is spread more scattershot. The same holds true for the current pandemic. It can be hard to know exactly where your money will be best used in an outbreak like this. Whether it means simply doing your research or hiring an advisor to oversee your philanthropic spending, a little bit of effort can significantly improve the value of every dollar you spend on doing good.
Philanthropy Spotlight: Mzuri Wildlife Foundation
By: Michael Luzich
Tags: Africa, Social Impact, Charity, Philanthropy

As a firm believer in global wildlife sustainability, I was a Board member with the Mzuri Wildlife Foundation (“MWF”). This extraordinary Foundation was established in1969 with a profound desire to promote wildlife conservation. The Foundation also works to educate the next generation of outdoor sports enthusiasts about conserving wild game animals and their habitats. MWF’s goal is to ultimately achieve harmonious relationships among wildlife, people, and the environment in which we all live and thrive.

To achieve their goal of promoting wildlife sustainability and providing economic alternatives to poaching wild game-such as teaching beekeeping to locals-MWF invests in African-based conservation programs that have a lasting benefit. The programs they fund engage women and youth in the outdoors while also educating individuals and communities on the absolute necessity of conserving natural resources. What most attracted me to the Foundation was their conviction that teaching a single child to appreciate wildlife could positively alter a child’s behavior and the behavior of their family, friends, and community.

The Foundation is not uni-dimensional, however. span conservation and sporting life enthusiasts, tree-planting programs, encouraging outdoors-women, sourcing water for wildlife, and training dogs to detect poachers.

Board members and supporters of the Foundation spend time in the field, learning the obstacles and hardships that wildlife and the sporting community face, monitoring progress, and ensuring grantees have the support they need. By building strong connections and relationships with grantees, the Foundation stays accountable and ensures grant monies are used effectively.

By partnering with community-based efforts, the Foundation can use a single grant to make a major difference to a project’s success. Facilitating efforts by volunteers rather than paid employees means the Foundation can maximize the benefit of the donated dollars they receive.

After decades of hard work and dedication to sustainability, the Mzuri Wildlife Foundation has raised over $5 million for grassroots wildlife conservation and other programs. I have been proud to work alongside leaders and advisors working together to sustain global wildlife.
Research Before You Give
By: Rick Flynn
Tags: Nonprofit, Corporateintegrity, Philanthropy, Givingtuesday, Giving

Giving Tuesday is upon us once again. Non-profit organizations will be reminding you of all the good they do and ask you for your help. While it’s easy to get swept up in the excitement of the latest cause du jour, or fall for a slick marketing campaign, take the time to find out about the organization wanting your dollars.

My eyes were opened when I learned many years ago that those nice people ringing the bell outside of the grocery stores, with the big red kettle, were working for an organization that spent time and money working against LGBTQ rights and causes. I made a decision not to support an organization that went against what I stood for and I started researching any organization I considered supporting.

Not every organization may openly work for something you’re against, but you can learn a lot about an organization by taking a look at what they do and how they operate. Not just the mission statement they post on their website, but what they actually do. This might require a little digging, but it will be worth it.

Some things you can do are:

Find out how much of the money you give will actually go for the cause you’re giving to. What does the leadership of the organization look like? Is it top-heavy and overpaid? Is it diverse? How are the employees or volunteers treated? Do they feel valued? Are there obstacles, or red tape getting in the way of clients or users of the service? Does the organization act transparently and with integrity when facing a challenge?

Another option for Giving Tuesday is helping to support individuals suffering from financial losses during the pandemic. There are many out of work or struggling artists, actors, performing arts professionals, small business owners or food service staff who could use your help. If you aren’t comfortable giving to them directly, consider giving to a service benefitting them, such as a food pantry or local meal provider.

Giving feels good; just make sure you know what you’re giving to.
It’s Not Just Another Tuesday…
By: Death Penalty Action
Tags: Social Justice, Death Penalty, Philanthropy, Givingtuesday, Protest

A Stripped Down #GivingTuesday​ Message… This is Our “Why.”

Death Penalty Action has been on the front lines on the question of federal executions since the current president was inaugurated in January, 2017.

We knew it was just a matter of time before federal executions would resume. We looked around and saw a gap in the anti-death penalty movement.

Who would lead when federal executions resumed?

Who would provide tools to allow anyone who wanted to take action to do so?

Because of YOU, Death Penalty Action has filled that gap.

Death Penalty Action has been there through all of the executions of the past six months, and we’ll keep at it for the next six weeks. And here’s the good news. As awful as the current federal execution spree is, the fact is that there is a light at the end of the tunnel.​

Our job is NOT to change anyone’s mind. Our job is to find those who agree with us and get them to *do something*. And we’re doing it. Because that is how our movement will win.

Everything we’ve been up to is laying a foundation for what’s possible when the killing stops on January 20, 2021. We’ve got a plan. Together we will abolish the death penalty.​

Thank YOU for being a part of this work.

It’s #GivingTuesday. If you are inclined to participate, I ask for your generous consideration today. Click here to support Death Penalty Action today.

Yours in the Struggle,

— abe

Abraham J. Bonowitz, Director

PS: If at all possible, please join the Death Penalty Action Sustainers Network. Check the box to set your donation to occur automatically each month, and join 51 other Death Penalty Action Sustainers who make a smaller monthly donation occur automatically. Our goal is to double the number of Death Penalty Action Sustainers by January 1st. Will you join us?

PPS: http://deathpenaltyaction.org/federal-death-penalty
My Association of Charitable Foundations conference talk.
By: Cassie Robinson.
Tags: Leadership, Philanthropy, Community, Future, Funding

“I’m going to now invite you to close your eyes.

We are going to travel, in our imaginations, to 2030. But this is not to be the 2030 of the dystopia we can more readily imagine, but rather a place we hear far less of, the 2030 that turned out OK. I invite you to imagine that the years between now and then are a time of remarkable social transformation, which was unimaginable at the end of 2019 and in the first few months of 2020.

I invite you to imagine that a cascade of change was unleashed, some triggered by crises like the Covid-19 Pandemic that reset our patterns of work, travel and showed us how much communities can come together. Other change has been triggered by the School Strikes for Climate, the Sunrise Movement and other local but connected projects and movements across the globe, so that a momentum has built that has become unstoppable. The pressure for this positive change has come from business, from local government, from communities, from schools and universities. A hunger for a new culture has built and spread rapidly after a few global crises that jolted us into the collaborative action we needed.

Cities have been reimagined, and new relationships exist between rural communities and their nearest towns. As cars were designed out of city centres, huge amounts of space in need of alternative uses has opened up. The change that’s unfolded has been underpinned by social, climate and racial justice, community involvement and empowerment, and has been focused on building a new, just, diverse, more resilient economy from the ground up. It’s been a 10 years characterised by remarkable change that future generations will sing great songs about, and tell great tales about the courageous and focused people of this time. It’s a time when we feel we’ve been doing everything we could possibly have done.

Take your imaginations for a walk through the streets, the public spaces, the village community, the High Streets, the city centres, parliament, a community space, the local park, the health centre of this 2030 of your imagining. Use all your senses, what can you see……. feel……touch… smell…..hear…..taste of this future world?

Stay in that moment.”

“Now you can open your eyes, and I invite you to describe what you saw, to draw or to write, or both, something of what you imagined. The essence of it. Something specific from it. It could be as simple as a word. And if you can, please share it on Twitter, with the tag #SocialDreaming.”
Which American City has the Most Gun Stores?
By: William Chon
Tags: Yelp, Los Angeles, Culture, Data Science, Guns

Which American City has the Most Gun Stores?

As a consumer, Yelp provides helpful information when you’re looking to visit a business for the first time. Whether it’s looking for a new place to eat Chinese food, a new gym to join, or a place to get your haircut — Yelp is a great resource for making a very personal decision on whether or not you want to visit a business.

Yelp data becomes fascinating when you take a macro view. This requires scraping business data across hundreds of American cities. By doing this, we have one of the richest business datasets that covers a majority of America. One of the major benefits of having a dataset like this is that we can answer questions we might be curious about such as:

What regions or cities of the US have the highest concentration of gun and ammo shops?

In this article, I wanted to focus the spotlight on Southern California.
98% of Anti-Gun Activists are Totally Sure the Bullet Comes out the Back of the Gun
By: Planet X Media
Tags: News, Politics, Belief, Anti Gun, Guns

CALIFORNIA — At a local anti-gun protest, Planet X decided to go out onto the scene and try to find out what these activists knew about guns. After interviewing hundreds of protesters, here are the results.

As it turns out, about 89% of them have never shot a gun, about 62% have never touched a gun, and about 40% have never even seen a gun in the flesh. Also, 99% of them are beyond terrible at Fortnite and Call of Duty. But Planet X wanted to go deeper and see what they knew about the guns themselves.

Some of them didn’t know the difference between automatic and semi-automatic. Others didn’t know what a bump stock, or a silencer were. However, 98% of all the activists were in total agreement that when you shoot, the bullet comes out the back of the gun.

Here’s a handy-dandy graph showing our findings and results:
The Minnesota Freedom Fighters Are Armed and Patrolling Their Own Neighborhoods
By: Dave Gershgorn
Tags: Protests, Minnesota, Society, Community, Guns

The Minnesota Freedom Fighters Are Armed and Patrolling Their Own Neighborhoods

A group of about two dozen armed Black men—made up of a retired firefighter, a security guard, a veteran, a health care worker, and others—have started to keep watch over local businesses and offer security to protesters in north Minneapolis.

They’re calling themselves the Minnesota Freedom Fighters, and they stepped up after the local NAACP chapter asked for help protecting local businesses from fallout around the protests of George Floyd’s murder in May.

“You just never know when something is going to happen,” said Minnesota Freedom Fighter Randy Chrisman. “As a Black man, I have the same rights as others to also carry a firearm, and I do it.”

The U.S. government has long resisted Black gun ownership. In 1969, FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover called the armed Black Panther Party the greatest internal threat to the country, and then-President Ronald Reagan even got the NRA on his side to enforce gun control regulations targeted at Black people.

Read more about the Minnesota Freedom Fighters here:
“If anything happens I love you” — the unemotional response
By: Cliona O'Regan
Tags: NRA, Netflix, Guns

Recently, many people on social media recommended watching the 12-minute Netflix film “If anything happens, I love you”. I just finished it.

I have to say: I didn’t shed a tear. Not a single one. But every single TikTok that recommended this little movie included a person crying. Many tears. Messy faces. Messy red faces, from all the crying.

SPOILER: The short film is basically about the grieving process of two parents who have lost their daughter in a school shooting. The film makes perfectly clear you know it’s set in the U.S, there is a huge flag in the school.

And perhaps that is the reason why this short film could not trigger a massive emotional response: I am not American. I don’t know this. I don’t know this fear, going to school every day. I don’t know this grief, having lost somebody. And I am unbelievably grateful for that.

I don’t know what emotions I would feel or what actions I would take, would I be in a country with such a situation. I can make predictions that I’d probably be angry and use memes to get my point across, but nothing is 100% sure. What I do know for sure is: When every single young American watching this movie can not stop crying for 20 minutes and a young German girl has no emotional response whatsoever except “ooh thats sad” (and I cry about basically everything, I am a waterfall), something is fucked up.
Blood That Framed the Innocent
By: Bella Harp
Tags: Help, Médium, Poetry, Guns

when will I stop being accused

when will they prove me innocent

please, someone, help me find justice

now I have a question does this gun do the killing

or will the person behind it who pulls the trigger do it

why is it that people will accuse an innocent object

just because it had to bend to the will of its master

why must the innocent have to be blamed for the blood that was shed when the real murderer was not the gun

but the one who controlled it and pulled its trigger

that is the real murderer

please, someone, tell the truth

tell them I didn’t do it

please speak for me

as I have no voice please speak the truth
Won’t You Be My Neighbor?
By: Big Book Of Bad Decisions
Tags: Chicago, Comedy Writing, Colts, Gangs, Guns

Won’t You Be My Neighbor?

Chicago. Winter of 1992.

I had just moved into a new loft. 3000 square feet with killer views and a freight elevator I could get my Harley up to my apartment with. It was in a terrible neighborhood near the corner of Sangamon & Lake, but the place was so cool and I was in my early 20’s. You know, that age where you’re positive you know better than everyone else? I didn’t just carry a gun to and from my car. I carried it in my hand.

Anyway, this gangster rap group had moved in below me. Back in those days, it was not easy to stay up partying later than me. Bars closed at 4 AM and 5 AM on Saturdays and I was out 300+ nights per year. My old oak floors were their ceiling and you could see into their unit through small gaps in the boards. I put up with a few days of their after-hours partying and shitty music before I lost my temper. To say I was drunk was an understatement. It was Chicago. An average night out was 9 cocktails. In ’92, my drink was Absolut Citron rocks with lemon and I drank rivers of it.

I jumped up and down on my floor as hard as I could, dropping copious amounts of dust into their unit and probably knocking things off shelves.

ME: SHUT THE FUCK UP! SHUT THE FUCK UP! SHUT THE FUCK UP!

This didn’t go over very well with the gang members. A minute later, they’re banging on my door. I look through the peephole and there are 4 of them. 2 of them holding 40’s of OE8.

In situations like this, you’re either a lion or an Impala. Growing up a skinny redhead, you learn these lessons early. They were neighbors and weren’t going anywhere, so I had to handle this. I couldn’t outfight them. I couldn’t ignore them. I couldn’t really out anything them, so I decided to play the crazy card.

I pulled a gleaming 6" nickel-plated Colt Python .357 Magnum from my desk drawer. It was my most cinematic pistol. My dad used to take me to see all the Dirty Harry movies and it felt like the right choice.

I was as white as paper, had hair past the bottom of my rib cage, and stood 6 feet tall 118 Lbs. Like Jesus, (only armed and drunk.) I was wearing white Brooks Brothers Oxford cloth boxer shorts and nothing else.

They continued to pound on the door. Very quietly, I unlocked the deadbolt and walked backward 20 feet from the door. In a high-pitched, musical register, I shout…

ME: COME INNNNNNNN!!!!

They open the door and see me standing with the pistol at my side. Smiling my biggest craziest smile, cocking my head left & right.

With a big toothy grin, I say…

ME: SUP FELLAS? ANYTHING I CAN DO FOR YA?

The fourth guy in the hallway muttered.

GUY 4: This mufucka crazy. Let’s bounce.

And bounce they did. I’d see them in the freight elevator from time to time. I’d say hi. They’d look at the floor. Let me be clear. I do NOT recommend this technique, but it worked this particular time.
I’ll print my normal capacity magazines if that becomes a national law.
By: Eric Rhodes
Tags: Guncontrol, 2a, Second Amendment, Guns

I’ll print my normal capacity magazines if that becomes a national law. The 10 round limit is both arbitrary and unreasonable. If you’re defending against on person, sure, 10 rounds is probably fine. If you’re defending against four, which let’s be honest is not an unreasonable number of people to imagine ganging up on someone, you are pretty much shit out of luck.

Additionally, since magazine capacity is only really tied to mass shootings, less than 3% of gun deaths, and would have virtually no effect on the majority of gun deaths, you are limiting a right, and yes, you are saying the second amendment is a right here, without a real promise that it will work. You are using a low level of scrutiny instead of a medium or high one, which says that the state must tailor it’s limitations to specific effects and be the least restrictive means possible. Forcing people to only have low capacity magazines is neither of those.
Distribution of Ammunition (AMMO)
By: Ruletka Token
Tags: Airdrop, Bullets, Games, Cryptocurrency, Guns

Airdrop

There will be a one-time airdrop [1] to RTK holders that will be based on 2 snapshots of the RTK holders’ list, each with specific rules regarding wallet eligibility. Following these rules, the final list of eligible wallets and their claims to the airdrop will be reconciled after both snapshots have been taken; 10% of the AMMO supply will be distributed to the wallets in this final list.

Snapshot 1 (taken on October 15th, 2020):

• All wallets that held RTK during this snapshot are eligible to receive collectively 5% of the AMMO supply, based on their ownership share of the RTK supply

• The liquidity provider wallets have been included

• The project treasury wallets have been included

• All eligible wallets MUST claim the airdrop by sending 0.1 RTK to the claim address below. If they claim before snapshot 2 they will be included in the official airdrop; if not, there will still be a 3-month grace period to claim, after which it will be no longer possible. Any unclaimed tokens will be added to the project treasury.

claim address: 0x1133E5EA52656b28920A0CeD7Cb4Da8CBc94eF25

Snapshot 2 (scheduled for December 6th, 2020):

• All wallets holding RTK during this snapshot will be eligible to receive collectively 5% of the AMMO supply, based on their ownership share of the RTK supply, except for all wallets included in snapshot 1

• The liquidity provider wallets will be included, also those already included in snapshot 1

• The project treasury wallets will be included

• Eligible wallets do NOT need to claim the airdrop

• The 10 median [2] wallets in terms of RTK holdings will be airdropped DOUBLE amount of tokens, if eligible.
The Distinction Between Military and Civilian Firearms
By: Mark Houser
Tags: Policy, Civil Rights, Politics, Gun Control, Guns

It’s a common trope of American political discourse: a politician will emphatically declare his respect for the Second Amendment. He will deny that he’s “coming for your guns.” (After all, he knows that gun-grabbing is unpalatable to many Americans.)

But, in his very next breath, he’ll backpedal a bit — surely, civilians don’t need and ought not possess “military” firearms, those notorious “weapons of war.” And…well, yes, he will come for those guns.

Clearly, the politician believes that there is a real, categorical distinction between military and civilian firearms. Many American voters do, too. Moreover, they think this distinction matters.

There are two problems with that perspective.

In all of American history, there has never been any substantial distinction between military and civilian firearms. Rather, there has always been tremendous overlap of guns used by the military and guns used by civilians. Civilian weapons are routinely adopted by the military and vice-versa. Firearm features and characteristics are neither intrinsically “military” nor “civilian.” Consider the iconic photograph of Malcolm X with his M1 carbine — is that a military firearm or a civilian firearm? Obviously, it’s both, and many of the same characteristics that made the carbine militarily useful also made it useful to civilians. Of course, an artificial distinction can be constructed by legislatively defining certain weapons or particular features/characteristics as “military.” That’s what assault weapons bans and similar laws attempt to do. But such a constructed distinction ought not matter anyway: American civilians have a right to own military arms. Existing and proposed laws to the contrary are blatantly unconstitutional — the Second Amendment isn’t about duck hunting or target shooting.

Please keep both points in mind whenever you hear a politician speak of this distinction as if it’s real or meaningful. At best, it’s ignorant. At worst, it’s deliberate obfuscation or deception for the sake of political gain.
Black Ops Cold War’s Big Camo Issue
By: Drake Benton
Tags: Treyarch, Gaming, Games, Call Of Duty, Guns

Black Ops Cold War’s Big Camo Issue

Every year in the Call of Duty franchise, developers create many weapon camo challenges for players to grind through. These camos are used to decorate your guns and more or less “flex” to show how much of a grind you have been on since the game’s release. Usually, there is one camo everyone aims for in any Call of Duty game (per the last few years). That being the highly coveted Dark Matter camo, which is unlocked after every weapon camo challenge has been completed with each weapon. This can take a lot of a player's time but can be worth it depending on the design of that year's version of the Dark Matter camo.

With the release of Call of Duty Black Ops Cold War, a new version of the Dark Matter camo was released. This year’s version was dubbed “Dark Matter Ultra,” which you will see below.

Taken from Dexerto

Right now, it seems that everyone and their brother (including myself) are willing to grind out every weapon challenge in the hopes of saying that they have unlocked the Dark Matter Ultra camo. There is only one problem, though: a bug has reset camo challenges for any given weapon, more than once.

I can speak from experience when I say that it is absolutely frustrating when I finished the gold camo challenges on the XM4 assault rifle, and it ends up being taken away from me the very next day. This has happened to me twice already (which I have video evidence of), and I’m afraid that it may happen again if Treyarch does not fix this bug in the December 10th update. Just after typing this, I ended up hopping back on to the game and once again unlocked the gold camo.

I understand that this game hasn’t been out long and that they had less time to develop the game, but I wish they could’ve fixed these issues within the first small patch update that came out the weekend of launch. The thing that worries me the most is the possibility of grinding out all of the camo challenges only for the game to reset once more and take everything that worked so hard for, away from me or any of the other players who have committed to the grind to get Dark Matter Ultra.
Edition 70: animal crossing the road to happiness
By: Ellen Minkin
Tags: Email Newsletters, Philippines, Archive, Newsletter, Guns

WEATHER

Deadly typhoon leaves whole villages underwater in the Philippines

Sun Nov 15

A deadly typhoon swept through Southeast Asia last week, leaving at least 67 people dead in the Philippines as it continued its destructive path towards Vietnam this weekend. While Typhoon Vamco weakened as it made landfall in Vietnam, the long coastline makes Vietnam susceptible to flooding and attracts dangerous storms.

In Vietnam, Vamco is the 13th storm to make landfall this year. More than 160 people have died since early October due to a series of storms. Disaster relief agencies say every time they start rebuilding, they have been hit again.

Meanwhile in the Philippines, Vamco is the 21st cyclone to hit this year and the deadliest. More than 25,000 homes were damaged and about $9.7 million in infrastructure was destroyed. At least 40 neighborhoods and 20 towns across the Cagayan province in the Northern region were still underwater days after the typhoon hit. The heavy rainfall and strong winds also caused agriculture damage worth about $25 million.

SOURCES: CNN, NBC News, The Washington Post
10 Questions I not Still Have Gucci-Jeezy Verzuz
Tags: Relationships, Tutorial, Verzuz, Activism, Guns

Gucci Mane. Photo: 2020HHA/Getty Images

Ifyou’re here you already know what this is about. From the moment Jeezy and Gucci Mane were announced as the latest Verzuz battle, people knew that the head-to-head promised more than performative pettiness. (For the uninitiated: 15 years ago, intense beef between the two Atlanta rappers resulted in Jeezy’s friend, Pookie Loc, losing his life.) We were nervous heading into last night’s duel, and it did not disappoint. We got drama, intensity, Atlanta institution Magic City, and a palpable fear for everyone in attendance — thanks in large part to Gucci performing multiple songs dissing Jeezy, including “The Truth,” which explicitly mocks Loc’s murder. Things felt like they were about to go way the hell left, but cooler heads prevailed and they ended up performing “So Icy” together. (Then they co-hosted a superspreader afterparty at Atlanta nightclub Compound, which is another story altogether.)

I’m still coming down from the blood pressure spike, but some pressing unanswered questions from the night remain.
200 iPads 👮‍♂️
Tags: Security, Business, Apple, Legal, Guns

To serve and protect. A mantra for police officers and Apple employee’s alike. On Monday, Apple’s chief security officer was issued an indictment accusing him of offering bribes to secure concealed carry permits for Apple employees.

Thomas Moyer (Apple’s Chief Security Officer) allegedly promised to “donate” 200 iPads to the Sheriff’s Office in exchange for four concealed weapon permits. Based on the rules and regulations on how these permits are given out, it makes sense that the Sheriff’s office would be the recipient of the bribe because the Sheriff’s office has the last say in regards to whether or not you can get a permit, regardless of any formal testing.

According to Moyer’s lawyer, “Ultimately, this case is about a long, bitter and very public dispute between the Santa Clara County Sheriff and the District Attorney, and Tom is collateral damage to that dispute.” His lawyer is maintaining Thomas’s innocence and is shifting the attention on a much bigger case: The solicitation of bribes in exchange for an easier approval of concealed carry permits in the Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Office.

An investigation from NBC Bay Area found this year that donors to the Santa Clara Sheriff’s political campaigns were about 14 times more likely to get a concealed carry weapons permit than those who didn’t donate. As Moyer’s lawyer said, it looks like there is something much bigger going on here. With this, Apple is standing behind their staff and feel certain that “he will be acquitted at trial.”

I am not a financial advisor and my comments should never be taken as financial advice. Investments come with risk, so always do your research and analysis beforehand.
My suicide
Tags: Suicide, Die, Gun, Dead, Crying

My suicide

I want to die

by my looks you want to be me

but you dont know i have nights full of endless

bad dreams so i grab the knife here goes my life

I get the gun this takes a lot of guts

mamas screaming sisters crying while im

in my bedroom dieing

now im sitting on my bed with blood running

down my hands im one inch away from being dead

I woke up from this dream and started to cry

that was my suicide

Photo by Dana Alecu
If You Were TRAPPED by ZOMBIES in a Locked Room With a Gun and 1 Bullet, Would You KILL Yourself?
By: Andrew Meintzer
Tags: Apocalypse, Suicide, Mindgasms Quickies, Zombies, Guns

Here’s the link for my Patreon page:

https://www.patreon.com/user

I was thinking about this thought experiment: If you were trapped by zombies in a locked room with a gun and only 1 bullet, would you kill yourself? It would be the most logical and rational choice, but I think that for most people, the sheer will to survive would overpower what makes the most sense. If it were me, I think that I would shoot one zombie, then use the gun as a club to try to kill the rest of them, even if I ended up dying alone from starvation in that locked room because I could never get out after I killed the zombies. What would you do? Tell me in the comments:

Check out my last Mindgasms Quickie rant about how incredibly dumb it is that some people want Trump to die from COVID-19, regardless of how awful you may think he is:

Check out my Quickie, on the fascinating way that Christopher Nolan’s new movie called Tenet explores the philosophical concepts of free will, determinism and compatibilism in the science fiction realm. One aspect of compatibilism that Nolan seems to promote through the film is the claim that free will and determinism can be compatible and even complement each other. They are not incompatible, as both determinists and advocates of free will argue. So, the message that I see conveyed in the movie is that we create our present and future by using our free will to make decisions, even though their outcomes are predetermined. Yet in spite of this, free will is essential for fulfilling our destinies. This is because the future only becomes predetermined by us using our free will that will lead to some outcomes rather than others. However, the decisions that we are going to make are predetermined. But the predetermined events only occur if we make choices, If we just lay in bed and do nothing, possibly making no decisions, then what we are going to do changes. Our predetermined actions change based on our free will. Yet, our destiny is always our destiny. Our destiny is manifested through our free will by our predetermined actions. This is a fascinating paradox that Christopher Nolan and the other filmmakers explore in the film through mind-blowing science fiction concepts like time travel.:

Here’s the link for my playlist with all of my Mindgasms Quickies so far:
Of All The Things That Go Boom & Pow
By: Andrew Austerman
Tags: Protection, Firearms, Responsibility, Guns

The ArmaLite Rifle platform: Ok. You know this gun. I know this gun. If you don’t live under a rock, with no access to modern media, you’ve heard of this gun. The AR-15. This is the terrifying “ghost gun” that congressman Kevin De Leon talked about so eloquently (Sike). The AR is shrouded in myth, and almost a mystical weapon. Being modeled after the military counterpart, the M16, the “ArmaLite Rifle” has been behind many shootings where the potential for magazine capacity is abused by those from our country we’d like to leave in the past. This weapon however, does have some practical purposes. But if we’re all being honest, it’s not meant for everyday, average uses, like hunting deer, or concealed carry, because frankly, it’s illegal to do either with this weapon. The AR-15 is lethal, and lethal at range. It has potential for extremely large ammo capacity, and it can be fitted out for almost every type of engagement. It is the choice weapon for those of our nation with military experience, and well learned on the tools that rend flesh and target at a distance. I don’t know, didn’t “Uncle Ben” say something about power and responsibility? I hate to be cheesy, but it totally applies here. This gun has a lot of potential for good, and evil, all depending on the user. Personally, I’d like to keep it around, but in the hands of those trained beyond all others, so that in situations where firearms are necessary to protect ourselves where the police state cannot, or will not, the public is not defenseless.
Sometimes to relax I just look at illustrations from old books and the ones I like I send to…
By: Terry Bain
Tags: British Library, Picture, Illustration, Gun, Photos

Sometimes to relax I just look at illustrations from old books and the ones I like I send to Pinterest and I don’t have to explain it to you or even explain it to myself. Posting to the internet needs no explanation.

Hi. Here’s Axel Eriksson. From Resa i Afrika at the British Library.
Yes, your videogames make a political statement. How could they not?
By: Isra N. D.
Tags: Ubisoft, Weapons, Politics, Videogames, Guns

When your videogame already involves killing people there is no way back.

Tom Clancy’s The Division 2, published by Ubisoft.

I have rewritten this article about three times. In every iteration I try to go into details as to why a story about weaponized consumerism and opposing forces killing each other in the next Civil War-like event is inherently filled with politics, but the answer is always easier than it seems, and we don’t have to scan deeply to see how The Division 2 works.

If your videogame makes use of weapons to overcome conflicts presented during the gameplay loop you are already saying something political.

Full stop. Own it. We don’t care about it as much as we care about how weird you get when we bring it up. The question doesn’t even have to do with the idea of the general population possessing life-ending devices. I am solely talking about weapons being there.

The thing with weapons in videogames is that they don’t exist in a vacuum. They are destruction devices. They aren’t shot into the blue for the fun of it, and they contextualize the story in very specific ways. Otherwise you wouldn’t need them, right?

If your videogame has weapons it can be because:

Your characters need them to suppress an opposing force.

Your characters need them to defend themselves from an opposing force.

Your characters need them to kill and terrorize.

Read these sentences out loud and try not to think of the political load they carry. In each and every one of them I can see the us vs. them mentality. The invader, the conquerer, the terrorist.

The ways in which this exogroup — the others— is represented has a strong political connotation: how this opposition is portrayed, their motives, their end goals, changes how we perceive good and evil in a videogame.

When your one and only way to solve conflicts with an opposing force is to shoot them… you are telling us the ancient story of how death and killing imposes the political ideals of the those who win wars.
Obama’s 2013 Speech on Gun Violence at Hyde Park
By: Jennifer Castaneda
Tags: President, Obama, Violence, United States, Guns

Communication major and professional writing minor. Aspiring journalist with an interest in Anthropology as well.
We need to protect ourselves from many things, now more than ever.
By: Rachel Rogers
Tags: 2nd Amendment, Guns, Black Guns

We need to protect ourselves from many things, now more than ever. If a person is only using a weapon for self defense, we should all be comfortable and support that. One more good guy.