fabiochiu/medium-articles huggingface dataset:
Why Should I Care If I Intimidate Men?
By: Vanessa Torre
Tags: Life Lessons, Relationships, Self, Love, Women

Why Should I Care If I Intimidate Men?

I’m not going to feign weakness to endear myself to someone.

Photo by Sarah Cervantes via Unspalsh

My strength and independence were grown out of necessity, not desire for them. I take care of myself and my life because there is no one else to do. If something needs fixing, I fix it. If something costs money, I find it. If my mind gets cloudy, I clear it.

I didn’t wake up one day and tell myself I wanted to be a strong, fierce woman. I woke up one day and I was one. I’m not sure when it happened.

Words don’t affect me nearly as much as they used to. I can’t be bothered with other people’s opinions of me, what I look like, what I wear or what I say. I do what I want.

I’ll be 46 years old in two weeks. This is a right I’ve earned. I’ve come by it honestly.

I’ve been told more than a time or two before that my singlehood is possibly connected to a feeling of intimidation I bring out in men. I’m too bold. I’m too strong. I’m too opinionated. That’s too bad. I’m not stepping backward for anyone.

I’ve found that many men will tell you they love a strong woman up until the moment you demonstrate said strength and then you realize they do not, in fact, love strong women.

I see men drawn to the role of the knight in shining armor. If there’s a lady who needs help, they rush to her side and then find themselves awash in her gratitude. She walks off with her knight and I go read a book.

I can’t pretend to be a damsel in distress just so I have a date on Friday night. I have more interesting things to do.

I don’t know how to be any other way and I don’t want to be any other way. I find it silly to feign helplessness just to stroke a man’s ego to make him think I can’t get by without his help.
HelloGold Foundation Update #10–6th April 2018
By: Harith Kamarul
Tags: Recycling, Hellogold, Thailand, Gold, Blockchain

Tokens

Utility of HGT

The Telegram community poll on suggested utility options has been completed. We’re glad to announce the first feature added to HGT with more to be announced! More detail on that here.

Burning fuel for the rocketship…

Telegram Promo

Our Big Up promo launched on Telegram has helped us to grow a strong and active Telegram Community. At the time of writing, we have surpassed 1,000 members and are hoping to grow even more before ending the promo on 16th April. If you haven’t joined already, head over to the Telegram group and register on the form today!

Aiming for the 120,000 HGT mark next!

Events

We were in Paris early in March to attend EthCC, a big gathering of Ethereum developers and enthusiasts — more than 800 attendees, 200 speakers and lots of engaging conversations. It was a great occasion to meet up with the European Ethereum community and to catch up on latest developments straight from the horse’s mouth. The team was especially interested to see the talk on Gnosis Safe as we are big fans of the Gnosis Multisig! You can find a list of all the videos for the EthCC conference here.

While in Paris we were also invited to present on HelloGold at a meetup organised by StartupToken. It’s always great to have in-depth discussions about the HelloGold mission with others from around the world in person instead of just online.

Harith talking at the StartupToken meetup

At the end of March, Robin was in Beijing to speak on HelloGold at the Fei Niao Blockchain Summit. The energy throughout was palpable — the conference halls were packed with a rapt audience from start to finish. Robin was approached by multiple members of the media including from Jinse, IterDuo, and Shen Lian(Deepchain) and we hope to share with you the articles soon!

In April, the team will be at Blockchain Expo in London as well at the SUSS Global Inclusive Blockchain Conference in Singapore. Let us know if you’d like to meet!

Interviews

Robin appeared on the Bad Crypto Podcast on the 29th of March together with the hosts, Joel and Travis. If you haven’t listened to it yet, check it out here.

Telegram AMA

As voted on by the community, we will be having our first Telegram AMA with Robin on his experience in the gold industry at 11:00 AM UTC, 12th April. Join our Telegram channel where we will soon start to poll for the top questions the community wants to kick off the AMA with!

GOLDX reward distribution

The rewards for March 2018 will be distributed on 9th April 2018. The total allocation will be 1.500 GOLDX, a 29% increase from the previous month.

Please remember to keep HGT in your own wallet and not on any exchanges to receive the GOLDX!
Faith under fire in China. China’s religious communities are…
By: Gianluca Costantini
Tags: Xinjiang, Drawings Conferences, China, Uyghur, Religion

Organized by CSW

China’s religious communities are facing the most severe crackdown since the Cultural Revolution.

Christians, Falun Gong practitioners, Tibetan Buddhists and countless other religious minorities are being harassed, arrested and even tortured because of their faith. As news outlets report the detention of over one million Uyghur Muslims in Xinjiang Province, the situation for religious communities in China only continues to worsen.

Join us in Sydney later this month to hear first hand how religious communities in China are suffering under ever-increasing pressure– and how you can help them.

We’re bringing you first hand accounts from representatives of different religious communities in China and an art exhibition to inspire and challenge you to take action.

Full details:

Saturday 24 August

11am–1pm

Uniting Church in Australia, 180 Liverpool Road, Ashfield, NSW 2131

The doors will open at 10:30am for you to visit the art exhibition in the grounds before the event starts at 11am. The event will be followed by a light lunch at 1pm.
What’s On — LGBT+ & sports and other news
By: Pep Sanz
Tags: Leicester, Lgbts, Transgender, Refugees

Another month, another update! Here’s what we’ve been doing these last weeks at the Centre:

#ShineBrightInColours campaign for March: LGBT+ people and Sports

This month we are using the red colour of the rainbow flag, which represents Life, to talk about LGBT+ people and sports. With interviews, posters and resources, we are trying to raise awareness around what can be a quite challenging field for LGBT+ people. Have a look on social media to see what we’ve poster already!

We also invite you to play a game…Click here for more information!

‘Free to Fly’, a new LGBT+ group for Asylum seekers and refugees

Free to Fly is the new group for LGBT+ refugees and asylum seekers. The group is on every Thursday from 1.30pm to 4.00pm at the Leicester LGBT Centre. We would love to see you there!

Trans Inclusion Toolkit for schools

Thanks to the partnership developed between Leicestershire County Council, Leicester City Council and the Young Transgender Centre of Excellence (YTCE), a project run by the Leicester LGBT Centre, a new toolkit for trans inclusion is now available for schools across our region.

A national document, developed by over 10 organisations and local authorities, this toolkit provides guidance on how to support trans children, including information about toilets, referral pathways and bullying, amongst many others.

The young people of the YTCE have been integral in the creation of this toolkit. As one of them states:

‘This toolkit is really diverse and can be used to educate both staff and students alike’.

Lisa Vine, Project Lead of the YTCE said: ‘It has been absolutely fantastic to work at a national level to produce something that will change the lives of so many trans young people and any young person who needs support around their gender identity.

I am so proud that our young people from the YTCE played such a vital role in the creation of such an important piece of work. It is fantastic that they’ve been able to express themselves and have their voices heard’

Check the rest of the news and events of the Leicester LGBT Centre by clicking here. If you want to be the first one to receive all the news, don’t forget to subscribe to our newsletter at the bottom of our main page on our website!
Effective Data Validation in JavaScript
By: A. Sharif
Tags: JavaScript, Web Development, Functional Programming

Basic Validation Functions

Let’s take a look at the following example, where we want to guarantee that the provided user name has a minimum length of 8 characters:

const checkUserName = data =>

data && data.length > 8

? data

: “Minimum of 8 characters required!”; // validate the username

checkUserName(“User A”); // => “Minimum 8 characters required!”

This validation function already works as expected and returns the appropriate error message if the provided input is invalid. Now let’s take a look at another situation, where we might want to define a different message.

const checkUserName = (data, errorMsg) =>

data && data.length > 8

? data

: errorMsg; // validate the username

checkUserName(“User A”, “Minimum of 8 characters is required!”);

// => “Minimum of 8 characters is required!”

Again, we can dynamically define the error message when needed, but we also might want to be able to define the validation function itself. This would leave our checkUserName function to have no concept of what a user name actually is.

const runValidation = (data, validation, errorMsg) =>

validation(data) ? data : errorMsg; // validate the username

runValidation(

“User A”,

data => data && data.length > 8,

“Minimum 8 of characters required!”

); // => “Minimum of 8 characters required!”

We renamed our checkUserName function to runValidation, as this function is independent of any context. It expects the data, a validation function and an error message.

Taking a closer look at runValidation, we might notice that if we wanted to run checkUserName with different data, we would have to redefine the validation function and error message every time as well.

But we’re mainly interested in defining the specific validation function and error message once, and then running that function with different data.

Our next attempt is to enable providing data as against a defined validation function.

const runValidation = (validation, errorMsg) => data =>

validation(data) ? data : errorMsg; // validate the username

const validateUserName = runValidation(

data => data && data.length > 8,

“Minimum 8 characters required!”

); validateUserName(“User A”); // => “Minimum 8 characters required!”

This approach ensures that the validation function can be defined once and run multiple times with different inputs. If you recall, we’re calling validateUserName with just the data, just like in the very first example now.

Our current implementation ensures validation functions to be built dynamically and this is already quite useful. But in the next section, we will see how we can improve this concept and the overall convenience.
The Most Problematic Things Men Have Ever Said to Me
By: Jessica Lovejoy
Tags: Life Lessons, Relationships, This Happened To Me, Women, Dating

In Maggie Lupin’s story “I Ditched My Date in the Middle of Dinner”, she faced a scenario familiar to many women. A man made an inappropriate comment, but he was convinced his words were actually a compliment. He couldn’t understand why his date was so offended that she walked out of the restaurant on their first date.

I’m proud of Maggie for keeping her cool and having the courage to walk out on him. It wasn’t her job to sit him down and explain all the things wrong with his backhanded compliment. Not on a first date. Not at his age. He should know better. Her story got me thinking…

Is it our job to explain to someone we’ll never see again why their behavior or words are problematic?

When we don’t call someone out and tell them why we’re offended, we’re only sending them off to talk to someone else in that way. I understand the benefit of making an effort to show someone why their words are inappropriate. But how much of a difference can you actually make?

I’ve heard backhanded compliments and sexist comments from a casual fling or first date many times.

It’s happened so many times I’ve realized trying to tell a 36-year-old man why he shouldn’t say things like that is not really my job.

It’s not my responsibility to sit a grown man down like a child and hand them a bulleted list of reasons.

I wanted to share some of the messages I’ve received over the last few years. They’re not pretty messages, and it doesn’t feel good to repeat them. In every one of these texts, I just blocked the sender while wondering, “How have you made it this far in life?”

If a man or woman is a grown adult, and they haven’t learned how to respect others yet, then I wish them the best of luck. But it’s not my job to teach them.
I Chose to Have Children at an Older Age
By: Elle Silver
Tags: Women, Family, Motherhood, Parenting, Equality

I Chose to Have Children at an Older Age

Every woman has the right to decide when the time is right for her.

Photo by Jessica Rockowitz

There were certain benefits to waiting until I was older to have children, even if my kids don’t see it that way.

“How old are you?” my ten-year-old son asked me the other night while I was putting him to bed.

“Forty-nine,” I said.

“That’s old, isn’t it?”

I like to think of myself as still young but I can’t deny I’m almost fifty.

“Why didn’t you have us when you were younger?” he asked. I heard the regret in his voice.



I explained that when I was younger I wasn’t ready. That was why I waited until my late-thirties to become a mother. The truth is more complex. Things got in the way of having children earlier. I suffered from depression through my teens and twenties, into my early thirties. That depression impacted my ability to find a stable partner. I was still coping with childhood issues regarding my father. Life abroad also made it difficult to settle down. I was living the life of a transient expat.

I was not in a good place emotionally at the traditional age when many women become mothers. At age twenty-five, twenty-six, thirty, I was in no shape for motherhood. This is not to say that I don’t believe I wouldn’t have grown up fast had I gotten pregnant. Motherhood does this to a woman — it forces her to grow up. Motherhood forced me to grow up. There are just so many responsibilities associated with being a mother; a woman can’t help but become more accountable.
สร้างแอพแชตด้วย Node.js และ socket.io
By: Chai Phonbopit
Tags: Nodejs, Bulma, Expressjs, Pug, Socketio

Learn and share about technologies that power the world, read more at https://devahoy.com

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And Avoid Half-Death
By: Doug Vidlas
Tags: Poetry, Inspiration, Death, Humor, Resistance Poetry

Have a rich fantasy life and

act incessantly so that you precipitate outcomes.

Favor sensations that you can control,

and as such, avoid the dentist’s office.

Let wideness be your companion and take up space,

because we all can’t really be larger than life.

Get dressed in the dark daily,

giving your own eyes a break (but not those of others).

Tend to blink a lot in bright light

and enlarge your vision by opening your eyes wide.

Always hold back in some small, defiant way

in dealings with the ones you say you love.

Wear innocuous headphones to shut out the world,

because l’enfer, c’est les autres.

Invent a word each day but tell no one its meaning.

Drown your sorrows because they don’t deserve any air.

Write platitudes when you should be doing other work.

Keep inspiring others, even when they think you should expire.

Let your occasional pearl of wisdom at least be a cultured one.

Avoid sardines because it’s too sardonic

to eat any being in its entirety.

Vary your pants just like any good dog would do.

Change your phone number regularly, because

it doesn’t affect your ability to call others.

Blow away all of your device’s cookies for the sport of it.

Call others obnoxious because it takes one to know one.

Smile when it’s least expected and perhaps inappropriate.

Be wary of skills assessments in case you don’t have many.

Speak of the deformities which no one wants to hear.

Try to ignore conspiracies unless you started them.

Admire the pretty and do the ugly.

Have a beautifully strange day as often as possible.

Consider not worrying about what people will think.

Chase the ambulance because at least

it means that you are not in it.

Be mouthy only in writing, and think before you ink.

Stop acting your age if you’re old

and start doing so if you’re young.

Lastly, don’t even think of going on a cotton ball diet,

and avoid half-death.
Panda
By: Kahli Bree Adams
Tags: Poetry On Medium, Haiku Fusion, Poetry, Nature, Haiku

A crazy collection of haikus from traditional ‘5-7-5' 3-liners to modern adaptations and interpretations. Topics range from humorous to melancholy, the whole shebang.

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<Blockchain Government> published in Korea
By: Myung Sahn Juhn
Tags: Bureaucracy, Blockchain, Government

I published a book <Blockchain Government> in Korea. This is the first book on the implications and implications of blockchain technology to governments and bureaucracy.

Here is the abstract of the <Blockchain Government>.
All About Exo
Tags: Food, Future Of Food, Paleo, Brand Interview, Cricket

Want to win 36 Exo protein bars made with cricket flour? Enter the Exo giveaway.

What follows is a 5 question interview with Exo.
Kevin Hart’s I Can’t Make It Up
By: Ryan D'Souza, The Savage Vibe
Tags: Book Review, Books And Authors, Kevin Hart, Books, Audiobooks

Photo by WestConn from Flickr

It begins in North Philadelphia. He was born an accident, unwanted by his parents. His father was a drug addict who was in and out of jail. His brother was a crack dealer and petty thief. And his mother was overwhelmingly strict, beating him with belts, frying pans, and his own toys. -GoodReads.com

I found this book recommended to me on Amazon. Amazon trying to chip off more money with their YOU MAY LIKE THIS TOO Algorithm.

I think my Luck was aligned right or maybe my boredom did pay off good returns that day. Because I did click on the Look Inside option available for the book. Scrolled my mouse at light speed to Chapter One, titled

as BIRTH OF A SEX SYMBOL.

Now that right there is a Genius Chapter Title.

It’s Witty, Cocky and most of all gets the attention of the reader.

And as I kept reading further, I was envious. I won’t lie to you, the first feeling I felt running through me as I read Chapter One was that Damm Why can’t I write like that ?. This is funny, interesting and most of all REAL.

And that’s what this book is REAL. The book spends no time on BS but right from the start manages to let us in Kevin Harts World. It takes you on a Journey filled with giggles but not leaving its emotions, It’s what we call an Emotional Roller coaster. A story of an imperfect man going from Nobody to one of the Biggest Super Stars on the Planet.

Now the book is a definite recommendation but (yes there’s a but-but it’s not the but that ruins everything after it but) you have to listen to the Audio Book Version of I Can’t Make This Up.

Because It’s one of the best Audiobooks I have ever heard. It’s Read by Kevin himself and he gets the book Alive. It’s a whole different experience listening to him narrate the whole story because it’s not a narration or book reading but it’s more like an enactment. Like a Movie Script Performed just for you.

What’s fascinating is Kevin’s relentless optimism, an optimism that’s now a part of him. The man, the myth, the legend stripped down from all his stardom is just a kid from Philadelphia who figured out that Consistent Hustle, Patience, and Optimism are the true workings of life.

Quotes From The book
#TimetoTalk
By: Inspirited Minds
Tags: Islam, Mental Illness, Mental Health

Sometimes the isolation and stigma around a mental health issue can feel worse than the issue itself. That’s why we all need to talk. That is why we are encouraging all to get involved in Time to Talk Day coming up on Thursday 5 February.

The idea is that we all take five minutes to have a conversation about mental health with a friend or colleague.

Talking about mental health doesn’t need to be difficult and can make a big difference. Time to Talk Day is a project organised with the Time to Change organisation, which challenges mental health stigma and discrimination.

5 ways on how you can get involved in Time to Talk Day
If You Want To Be Inspired By A Quote Today, Then You Can Use This Quote To Inspire You
By: Eizza Misa
Tags: Life Lessons, Motivation, Life, Inspiration, Quotes

Photo by Meta Studio 35 on Unsplash

If You Want To Be Inspired By A Quote Today, Then You Can Use This Quote To Inspire You

It’s a quote from Dr. Seuss — you know there’s plenty of them

In a few days, it’ll be 2021. And if you’re like me, then perhaps a little part of you wants the pandemic to end on December 31st too. But we both know that’s not going to happen.

You’re reading this now, and that means you still have time in your hands. Many people have lost precious time this year, a few may have wasted it over worrying too much, and perhaps a few are running out of it.

No one really knows how much time we have in our hands to live out our dreams. So let this year be a lesson for us to cherish time and its precious value. And when 2021 comes, you’ll know how to spend it wisely.
5 Fiction Recommendations for Black History Month
By: Violet Daniels
Tags: Education, Fiction, Books, Equality, Race

A brief history of Black History Month

Black History Month (BHM) began in 1915 and was established by a historian called Carter G. Woodson and started as a celebration of the achievements of African-Americans and recognising black contributions to history.

In 2020, it has morphed into celebrating anyone who has been left out of the “mainstream, white-centric” narrative and is now commemorated in the UK, Canada, Ireland and The Netherlands. Like many commemorative events, however, BHM often serves to perpetuate problematic mindsets. Naturally, it celebrates figureheads like Martin Luther King and Rosa Parks and doesn’t make way for the plight of ordinary people. Moreover, it can promote the idea that black history is something to only be celebrated in this particular month.

Writer and journalist, Yomi Adegoke, has spoken about the problems surrounding BHM in the UK because it often only focuses on African-American History. Due to the limitations of our national curriculum, that focuses on the Civil Rights movement and barely mentions the history of Black Britons, it becomes easy for us to perceive BHM in the UK to be borrowed from the US. But this does not make way for our own diverse and complicated Black British history.

Additionally, it has the tendency to be narrow in scope, in suggesting that Black History began and ended with the transatlantic slave trade. This is, as Akala, Reni Eddo-Lodge, David Olusoga and many others have argued, a direct result of the prevailing sense of nationalism which is embedded within any national curriculum — but particularly, here in the UK.

Even when teaching children about the importance of BHM, we are perpetuating a sense of nationalism. Akala draws attention to the deep history of the Nottinghill Carnival and how that sprung out of anti-racist movements in the UK, and the efforts of William Cuffay, a black man who led the Chartist movement in the nineteenth century — all of which is excluded from our national curriculum. Teachers are encouraged to present ‘British values’ however, this doesn’t allow for the diversity of black voices to be presented.

Therefore, BHM has the potential to “pigeon hole” the struggles of people of colour in its annual commemoration of cornerstone moments and events. However, it is still important for raising awareness. Bur governments and national curriculums around the world, need to be less distorted by presenting their own national values, as this obscures the overall picture.
Call for Submissions: Equality after Election Day
By: Our Human Family
Tags: Equality, Call For Submissions, Election 2020, Racism

The Call for Submissions and Pitches

On the morning of November 4, will Americans wake to wipe the sleep from their eyes, amble out of their homes and into the streets, join hands, and sing “I’d Like to Buy the World a Coke” while basking in the warmth of the rising sun? Will all be forgiven in the name unity?

Gotcha!

Even I am not that naive, but you have to admit I had you going for a second.

Truth is all the people you know — the good, the bad, and the ugly — will still be there; online, at work, on the subway, in the grocery store, and at home. And so will you. No matter who wins this November, we still have to live together. Will America make bigger and better strides toward equality? Hopefully, we’ll do it better. Have you given thought to a proper modus operandi? You know what they say, “Fail to plan, plan to fail.” Just sayin’.

Let’s write about it! Yes, I’ve already started writing my article, but it’s not a party unless more people join in the fun (submit articles).

For possible publication in Our Human Family, without getting into the weeds of who you did or didn’t vote for or why, submit your thoughts as to whether you think it’s possible to salvage our broken relationships or not, and how you plan to advocate for equality in your virtual and/or in-person relationships beginning the day after Election Day. We’ve seen and been the best and worst of our fellow Americans (depending on who you ask) and now that we all know a little more about one another than we did previously, how will you move through your world? Will you be on Team Rainbows and Lollipops? Or Team Whoop-Ass? Or maybe a mash-up of the two? Perhaps you’re a student of the Marcel Marceau School of Diplomacy and Activism? Or will you transfer to that remote district office in the South Pacific?

Come on. Tell us . . . we’re all one, big, happy human family, right? If you can’t tell us, who can you tell? Inquiring minds want to know:

Your strategy for advocating for equality over the past four years. How that strategy has worked out for you, the hits, the misses, the near misses. (We invite you to change any names you like so as not to incriminate the guilty.) Is there anything you would have done differently; more this, less that . . . Knowing what you know now, how will you proceed after the election.

Submission Guidelines

If you’re currently a writer for Our Human Family, you know the drill. Potential first-time OHF writers, everything you need to know can be found in our Submission Guidelines. We look forward to receiving your submissions and pitches! Word count range: 100-2,400 words. (Yes, a minimum of 1–0–0 words, color photos are mandatory.)

Deadline

As soon as you can get it written through November 4. We’ll buff up the drafts and begin posting articles as soon as we receive them.

Love one another.

Clay Rivers

Our Human Family, Founder and Editorial Director
Build your dataset from COCO
By: Wafaa Arbash
Tags: Dataset, Machine Learning, Data Labeling

If you haven’t heard of the Universal Data Tool yet, it’s an open-source web or desktop program to collaborate, build and edit text, image, video, and audio datasets with labels and annotations.

This is our seventh community update! By releasing these videos, we hope to engage the community and encourage new contributors.

To watch the full video:

New Feature: Import dataset from COCO(Common Objects in Context)

This new feature allows you to import and build your datasets using the “import from COCO” option. You just need to add the keywords of the object you want to import e.g., cats or dogs, then click “Add Samples.”

New Feature: Remove Invalid Image Samples

This feature allows you to automatically remove invalid image URLs that are not showing any images. Just go to transform data and click on “Remove Invalid Samples,” It will do the work.

New Feature: Universal Data Tool has a new URL

Sometimes it’s a bit annoying to type the long URL names in the web browsers, and with this new update, we have a new short URL for our tool, and that is udt.dev. The good news is that the old URL works fine too!

Other updates:

More documents are on docs.universaldatatool.com: As promised, a vast quantity of documentation is available on using Universal Data Tool for your projects.

As promised, a vast quantity of documentation is available on using Universal Data Tool for your projects. Fixed Hotkeys: Clearing hotkeys now works (thanks @congdv!)

That’s it for our seventh community update, be sure to follow us on Twitter or join our Slack to hear more!
Kaggle Session 4 (Toxic Comments Classification)
By: Han Li
Tags: Kaggle Session, Machine Learning, NLP

Hi All! Can’t believe we have just finished our fourth Kaggle Session! Time flies! This week we covered the toxic comment classification in our Kaggle session. If you are interested in Natural Language Processing, you should definitely take a look at this one!

Here are our slides and code.

Feel free to comment below and follow our Facebook page!
Shawnee High School to host jazz festival
By: Chris Franklin
Tags: Shawnee, Jazz, Festival, Music

Shawnee High School to host jazz festival

Festival to take place April 7 and begin at 5 p.m.

Shawnee High School will host their annual jazz festival Friday, April 7, 2017. Jazz bands from the Lenape School District, as well as several other districts, are scheduled to compete. The program includes many popular jazz standards and features some very accomplished young musicians, including talented members of the All-South Jersey Honor Bands. Also, there will be a guest performance by local favorite, M-Town Jazz.

“This is not only a showcase for the tremendous musical talent we have in our South Jersey schools but is also a really entertaining evening for the community. We urge everyone to come out and enjoy an affordable night of great jazz music” said Jeanne Hauser, event coordinator and a member of the Shawnee Band Parents Association which organizes the Jazz Fest.

The jazz festival runs from 5 to 10 p.m. Tickets, which will be available at the door, are $8 for general admission and $5 for students and seniors. Seniors with a Lenape Regional School District Golden Pass are admitted for free. The Shawnee Band Parents will be selling hot food and baked goods in the cafeteria all evening. The competition will be held in the Shawnee High School auditorium, 600 Tabernacle Road, Medford.

Event Judges will consist of music department faculty members from area colleges and universities. Between the sets performed by local high school jazz ensembles, Medford’s M-town Jazz Jam will perform. M-Town Jazz Jam includes several professional musicians and music educators who rehearse and perform with the students throughout South Jersey. They are part of the South Jersey Music Education Partnership (SJMEP), a local nonprofit that is dedicated to the development of student musicians through scholarships for private instruction, performance opportunities and mentorships. More information on SJMEP events will be available the night of the jazz festival.
My new roommate
By: Novan Adrian
Tags: Thoughts

in In Fitness And In Health
This Week I Got a Four-Book Deal and Cleaned Rooms at an Inn
By: Shannon Page
Tags: Freelancing, Publishing, Self, Work, Writing

This Week I Got a Four-Book Deal and Cleaned Rooms at an Inn

Just, you know, typical freelancer stuff

Photo by Terrah Holly on Unsplash

Today I will leave a few minutes early for my gig cleaning guest rooms at a B&B across the island, in order to stop at the post office and mail off this signed contract to my new publisher.

Because yay, I got a four-book deal! Outland Entertainment is going to be bringing out my Nightcraft Quartet. The first book, The Queen and The Tower, came out as an indie book last year, but I really want what a publisher can bring me for this project: marketing and promotion, editorial input, and the ability to get into bookstores beyond the one here where they know me.

Also, just the structure of a real deadline is going to be so helpful. I was supposed to have the second book out in the world by now. Instead, it’s still a messy pile of manuscript and notes on my desk (don’t tell my new editor).

The re-released Queen & Tower comes out this fall; then, a book a year starting next summer. Woohoo!
Too many meetings, and no time to get sh*t done.
By: Kasinatha Rao
Tags: Software Development, Productivity, Work Life Balance, Remote Working, How To

Too many meetings, and no time to get sh*t done

Ways to organize your calendar and reclaim your ‘Focus-Time’

‘Zoom fatigue’ is a term that isn’t alien to today’s remote world and there are numerous articles published on the internet on how to battle it effectively. With this essay we will be focusing on ways to organize our calendars better as individuals and teams so that we aren’t overwhelmed with those endless meetings in the form of stand up calls, team retros, 1:1s, design critiques, leadership meetings etc, and find time to actually focus on doing hands-on work.

Photo by Josh Duke on Unsplash

The teams at my organization are distributed across geographies and time zones just like any other global tech firm. Hence staying in touch and collaborating via video conferencing has been the norm even before the start of the pandemic.

My calendar on a regular work week has an average of at least 25 to 30 meetings scheduled!

I also know of colleagues who have way more meetings than that! No doubt phrases such as ‘Not having enough time to do work’ or ‘Too many meetings’, isn’t something new, at least to most of us!

The concept of ‘Focus time’ a.k.a ‘No meetings time’ has helped people at my workplace find time to do hands-on work without being interrupted by meetings. Infact, our company even has the first day of every working week called ‘Get Sh*t Done Day’ just to allow people to work in peace and be more productive.

No meetings on Mondays. Period.

The fact that this being a company wide initiative, it has been ingrained a lot more deeply in people’s minds, and hence easier to adhere to. However, there are exceptions too where a few folks don’t mind having a 30 minute slot (or whatever) booked on their Get Sh*t done days. But, who cares? That’s a personal choice, and its their calendar! There is always that meeting that needs to be prioritized and your calendar has to accommodate it! Isn’t it?

I’ve also known teams who’ve customized their calendars based on what worked well for them. Instead of having just a single day reserved to ‘No meetings’, they would block a fixed slot every day because they found that to be more productive than the former. The bottom line is, being aware of what works for your team irrespective of your team’s size and communicating the ground rules, so that everyone is encouraged to try and stick to it.
6 Unexpected Health Benefits of Indulging in a Hot Bath
By: Jennifer Geer
Tags: Self Improvement, Lifestyle, Life, Health, Wellness

But what about the environment?

I would be remiss not to mention the debates among environmentalists on taking a bath versus a shower. Everyone has heard that showers are greener than baths. According to the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the standard showerhead uses around 2.5 gallons of water per minute.

Which means a 10-minute shower would use about 25 gallons of water. And a standard bath uses about 35 to 50 gallons of water. This all varies, of course. Water-saving showerheads can reduce the water down to less than 2 gallons per minute. And large, soaker bathtubs can hold up to 100 gallons of water.

So are you using more water in the bath than the shower? It all depends on the length of your shower, the type of showerhead you use, the size of your bathtub, and how high you fill it.

There are a few ways you can conserve water in the bath:

Plug the drain as soon as you start filling the tub.

Don’t fill it all the way. Use only as much water as you need.

Adjust the water temperature as it fills so you won’t need to empty any water and refill.

If you belong to a gym with a sauna or hot tub, you can gain the bath benefits without any extra water usage. If you want to conserve as much water as possible at home, you can take shorter showers daily, and save your bath for a special treat.

Of course, a five minute shower with a low-flow showerhead will use less water than any bath. But a 20 minute shower with a standard showerhead can use up to 50 gallons, around the same as many bath sizes. So, the question of, does a bath use more water than a shower, isn’t possible to answer depending on all of the many variables.
How to be an Effective Leader
By: Junaid Nabi
Tags: Life, Work, Wisdom, Leadership, Leadership Development

He looked content. He was not bothered that while everyone around him was feasting on entrees, his plate was filled with appetizers. Not many around the lunch table noticed either — except two individuals.

The person in this scene is a colleague, and the two individuals are the leaders of an Aspen Institute Fellowship program that I am undertaking right now. It did not take the leaders of this program more than a few minutes to realize that my colleague was a vegetarian, and the items on the buffet table were mostly non-vegetarian. Although my friend insisted that he was doing all right, they immediately ordered a vegetarian entree, so that he, too, could share his meal with rest of the team on equal terms.

At a cursory glance, this action may seem trivial — however, this is a matter of equity.

Equitable behavior with team-members goes a long way in improving overall productivity. An analysis of workload distribution from the Harvard Business Review revealed that promotion of equity at the workplace was one of the best predictors for team success.

This analysis illustrated negative effects from inequity on both sides of the spectrum: when high-performers are tasked with additional work, they start resenting their own behavior; conversely, when low-performers are deprived of standard work expectations, they start losing interest. It is clear that being unfair in any direction leads to dissatisfaction among team-members.

To be an effective leader, workload distribution should not be the only consideration. Our work is not only defined by what we do, but also by who we are. If you want to be an effective leader, you must focus on the person — and their values.

Team-members should not only be seen as a set of professionals with a particular skill-set, but individuals with preferences and life choices — supporting them leads to increased productivity.

Inequity breeds contempt. There are two ways to look at a relationship between the leader and her followers: transactional and transformational.

Transactional relationships at work, ones that are implemented through legal contracts, sets an expectation of work through the framework that is not built on trust. And, for many instances (such as working with complete strangers), it works. Despite that, it is a poor tool for inspiring team members.

Transformational relationships, on the other hand, are built on the premises of organizational mission and trust; they are, in fact, covenants. In such scenarios, team members do not see themselves as mere “cogs in a machine,” but as active participants in a movement that is bigger than them. It evokes inspiration.

There is a reason only a select group of companies succeed in the long run, and are able to retain high-quality workforce — it is because they do not consider their most important assest (their employees) as workers, but as people.

Later on, I asked my colleague how this gesture made him feel. “I felt like I belonged.”
The American Presidential Election is Causing More Stress Than Ever Before
By: Jennifer Geer
Tags: Psychology, Lifestyle, Wellness, Mental Health, Election 2020

According to the American Psychological Association (APA), 68% of Americans are suffering from something called election stress disorder. Finally, one thing we all agree on. This election season is full of anxiety. Republicans and Democrats both are reporting the upcoming election is a “significant source of stress.”

A lot is happening in the world right now, and when you add in the most contentious presidential election in US history, you’ve got a recipe for anxiety and sleepless nights.

The country is divided. Family members aren’t speaking to each other, friendships have ended, and social media is a minefield of insults.

The unfortunate truth is, there isn’t anything we can do about it besides wait it out. It’s getting closer with each day, yet time is moving slowly. And we aren’t even able to count on it ending on Election Day. If the race is close, we can expect the arguments to continue amid court battles and ballot recounts.

There are many worries this election that we haven’t had to deal with in the past. More people than ever are voting by mail to avoid crowded conditions during a pandemic. There are concerns about delays in the mail causing ballots not to be counted. There are scares over foreign countries meddling in the election, as they did in 2016. There are fears of problems regarding a peaceful transfer of power.

The fears may be different based on which party you follow, but the feelings that come out of those fears are the same. No wonder we are all so stressed.

So what to do about it? The APA has some suggestions. Sadly, none of them include my plans for red wine and chocolate.
Alexander Pfeiffer just joined Team Forest!
Tags: Carbon Footprint, Forest, Cryptocurrency, Carbon Emissions, Climate Change

Our team at Forest.io is thrilled to welcome Alexander Pfeiffer as our advisor. He is currently a specialist at McKinsey’s Energy Insights venture. We pride him for his niche expertise on Global Energy Perspective. As an integral part of McKinsey’s Global Energy and Materials practise, Alexander has advised clients in the energy sector and in energy-intensive industries. His guidance has helped his clients address concerns related to energy transition, clean-tech and climate change.

Alexander is currently pursuing a Doctor of Philosophy at University of Oxford, and is conducting qualitative research on Stranded Carbon Assets and their effects on climate and energy policy. He also holds a Masters Degree in Science, where he studied Management with a focus on Corporate Finance, Asset Valuation, and Financial Markets.

We, at Forest.io have a keen interest on environment conservation and we are thrilled to collaborate with a passionate, erudite advisor like Alexander.

Feel free to follow Alexander on LinkedIn.

For more information, visit https://forest.io/.

You can also connect with the team on Telegram, Twitter, Reddit and Facebook. And be sure to subscribe to our newsletter below for important updates!
List of lists of datasets
By: Brian Keegan
Tags: Information Explosion, Open Data

Where should you find data to explore? Here are some of my favorite sources.

Photo by Mika Baumeister on Unsplash

Lists of datasets

Government data
How To Be An Interesting Person
By: Larry G. Maguire
Tags: Creativity, Life Lessons, Work, Art, Success

How To Be An Interesting Person

Paradoxically, if you desire to be successful and interesting to others, then you must give it up and go deep within yourself.

Come on, admit it. You want and need their attention. After all, if you don’t get it you don’t sell, and if you don’t sell you don’t eat.

That’s how we think isn’t it?

Whatever your work, be you employed or self-employed, creative or corporate, you’re supposed to create value for someone else first. You’ve got put the hours in and show everyone involved that you are worthy of the few bob.

This is our belief.

So we work hard to impress. Someone else has the gold, or at least has the key to where the gold is kept, and we’d better impress if we are to survive let alone do well and prosper.

Sure, we all know people who do as little as possible — the disaffected ones — the one’s who have realised the system is fucked but don’t know how to do anything about it.

For the rest of us, a large portion of the adult working population, we sweat it out under conditions of forced competition to win the prize.
My Boyfriend Wanted to Watch Me Have Sex With Other Men
By: Elle Silver
Tags: Sex, Sexuality, Relationships, Love, Dating

My Boyfriend Wanted to Watch Me Have Sex With Other Men

My experience trying to date a cuckold fetishist.

Photo by JJ Jordan from Pexels

Paul-Henri had piercing blue eyes. When he looked at me, he seemed to see right through me.

He saw inside me. He knew everything about me.

He knew I wanted sex.

My husband and I were separated but still living in the same house. I’d been in an almost sexless marriage for years. My husband and I were now dating other people, and I was intent on making up for lost time.

Yes, I wanted sex — the great sex I’d gone without for years in my marriage.

I met Paul-Henri on a dating website. I was honest about still being married. He said he didn’t mind. It turned him on.

I didn’t ask why. I was blinded by my attraction to him. That French accent. When we spoke on the phone and he said, “Would you like to meet for coffee?” it felt like he’d whispered a Rimbaud poem in my ear.

My skin goosepimpled. I responded trancelike, “Oui, I’ll do whatever you want.”

Ultimately, I would until I put my foot down.

No, I couldn’t cuckold him.

Now I understood why he said my being married turned him on.

Paul-Henri had what is known as a cuckold fetish. He derived sexual excitement from watching his wife or girlfriend have sex with other men. He wanted to watch me have sex with another man.

I didn’t learn he had a cuckold fetish until we’d been having great sex for a month. One afternoon, after making love, he asked:

“Will you have sex with another man while I watch?”

His eyes. All along he’d wanted to feast them on me while another man banged me.

His eyes had pulled me in. They’d also become the bane of my existence.

Now I understood why he said my being married turned him on. Still, I couldn’t wrap my head around his request. In my mind, what he wanted meant cheating on him. Men killed women because of that. It just seemed like something a man wouldn’t want.

During the last days of my marriage, I had cheated on my husband. Paul-Henri not only wanted me to do to him what I’d done to my husband — but he wanted to watch it happen.

I told him no. I couldn’t do it. Clearly, I didn’t want sex that much. Or I did — just not with other men. Paul-Henri was enough for me.

Call me a serial monogamist, but I get with a guy I like and I only want to be with him.

I only had eyes for Paul-Henri. The problem was he also had eyes for the men he wanted to watch me have sex with.
Crypto Job Openings Are Booming 🔥💰
Tags: Blockchain, Startup, Cryptocurrency, Bitcoin, Tech

If AngelList traffic is any indication, people are keenly interested in bitcoin job openings today. 350+ crypto startups hiring on AngelList, including Coinbase. Work at Coinbase. Coinbase needs all the help they can get to keep up with demand. Also, CoinList is hiring as well.

If you’re interested in the space regardless of your skill set, read our guide: How to Get a Job at a Crypto Startup.

If you’re an engineer or designer and want to work at a crypto startup, join A-List. P.S. In October’s AngelList Weekly we talked about how Blockchains are the biggest technological breakthrough since the Internet.
Affliction
By: Ivette Cruz
Tags: Creative Writing, Poetry, Relationships, Love, Couples

Affliction

I know you love me

Photo by Ba Tik from Pexels

I know

you love me

my dear

in your version

of love

unfortunately

your love

causes affliction

to my heart

and you

don’t even

perceive it