fabiochiu/medium-articles huggingface dataset:
Robin Hood (2018) • Blu-ray + DVD
By: Sam Lenz
Tags: Movies, Film, Review, Culture, Robin Hood

Robin Hood (2018) • Blu-ray + DVD

A war-hardened Crusader and his Moorish commander mount an audacious revolt against the corrupt English crown.

Imagine Michael Bay directing a medieval Dark Knight trilogy in the style of Baz Luhrmann? Your tolerance to whatever your mind conjured right now will greatly inform your enjoyment of Otto Bathurst’s Robin Hood. At times, Robin Hood plays like it’s been sat in Lionsgate’s vault since 1990, only to be dusted off and released with various VFX enhancements. At other times, it plays like screenwriters Ben Chandler and David James Kelly changed a handful of words from Batman Begins (2005) and The Dark Knight Rises (2012) the night before their deadline. Or else it’s happy to evoke memories of the Robin Hood films of yesteryear, but at least this Robin Hood has an English accent.

Accurate accent and all, Taron Egerton (Kingsman: The Golden Circle) is immensely likeable as Robin Hood, or “Rob” as he’s called in an attempt to modernise the character. Even in projects unworthy of his talents, Egerton tends to shine because he has so much charisma; so his winking, smug take on the classic arrow-shooting hero is one of this film’s high points. That’s when Egerton is being allowed to have fun.

Ben Mendelsohn is also a great as the villainous but incompetent Sheriff of Nottingham, even though we’ve seen him play similar roles in both Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016) and Ready Player One (2018) just lately. It would be nice to see him in something different, as he’s been pigeonholed by Hollywood too prematurely. It’s worth noting, however, that Mendelsohn continues to be cast in such roles because he plays them so incredibly well. The Sheriff may be a thinly-written villain, but Mendelsohn knows how to chew scenery and ensures the character has some spark to him.

Unfortunately, the rest of the cast flounder in either boring or poorly-written parts. Jamie Foxx (Baby Driver) is very extroverted as Rob’s confidant, John, but he’s burdened with a backstory that makes both his performance and his character uneven. Eve Hewson (The Knick) gets nothing to do as Marian, written as nothing but an attractive love-interest, while F. Murray Abraham (Homeland) is totally wasted in a forgettable secondary villain role. But the actor given the worst treatment is Jamie Dornan (50 Shades of Grey), who’s saddled with one of the worst character arcs in recent memory as Will Scarlet. A pivotal decision Wil makes in the third act comes out of nowhere! Daniel Day-Lewis himself wouldn’t have been able to sell the lines Dornan has to.
Racist Algorithms Still Flourish in 2020
By: Dave Gershgorn
Tags: Technology, Research, Algorithms, Racism, AI

Racist Algorithms Still Flourish in 2020

It's more than just math

It’s understandable to think that algorithms that power Google searches or determine who gets an organ transplant can’t be racist or cause harm because they’re just math. But research has shown time and time again that algorithms pick up and echo the structural racism present in our society.

Investigative tech outlet The Markup wrote about some of 2020's most egregious examples of racist algorithms, including those used in policing.

For instance, Google’s advertising portal associated the phrase “Black girls,” “Asian girls,” and “Latina girls” with porn. But not the phrase “White girls.”

In medicine, Black patients are erroneously thought to have a higher risk for certain diseases, often derived from racist assumptions in past research. This can make it harder to get organ transplants. When this is coded into algorithms, racism is automated.

Read more at The Markup below:
2019 年的 6 個熱門產品設計原則
By: Jasmine Lin
Tags: Product Design, 產品設計, 設計思考, Design, 設計

由於現在新創崛起，坊間到處都是想解決相同 use case 的產品，這時候就會把焦點放在「感覺」 — 使用者在使用時是否開心。

Delightful 可以是一些小巧思，例如開場的小動畫，或是 error state 風趣的標語。

也可以是產品整體的設計，例如美麗的品牌視覺設計，或是親切一致的文案口吻。

然而，delightful 不能構成迴避困難問題的藉口，哈佛商業周刊在 2010 年的文章 Stop trying to delight your customer 中提到，客戶很少對極有魅力的產品成為虔誠的擁護者，但非常多人會因為糟糕的品質就放棄該品牌。

用戶忠實度跟企業如何履行他們最基本、最核心的價值高度相關，而非閃亮亮的服務體驗。

Loyalty has a lot more to do with how well companies deliver on their basic, even plain-vanilla promises than on how dazzling the service experience might be.
Manajemen Queue untuk Menghandle Concurrent Request dengan Kue.js
By: Alif Irfan Anshory
Tags: Nodejs, JavaScript, Asynchronous, Concurrency, Queue

Easy read, easy understanding. A good writing is a writing that can be understood in easy ways

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Relax, Dog
By: Sara Harvey
Tags: Comic, Dogs, Cartoon, Brooklyn, New York

I’m going to sit outside his or her door, and play it loud.
The Town that Outlawed Yellow
By: Jill Kelley
Tags: Weekly Prompts, Artificial Intelligence, Pentina, 50 Word Stories

The Town that Outlawed Yellow

What became of the sun?

AI generated image created by thispersondoesnotexist.com

“Daddy, why is the sun green?”

“Well, sweetheart, it used to be yellow before yellow was outlawed.”

“Eww, that’s gross.”

“Yes, it was, but now we have the mighty Spectrograph-Prism-Disruptor to blend the blue sky into the sun.”

“Look, Daddy, I see something yellow! Quick! Squash it!”

Squash.
Wordnik is a new online dictionary and more
By: Pito Salas
Tags: Life

Just came across Wordnik, what looks like a mega dictionary. Maybe it’s more of a meta dictionary. It’s part of the zeitgeist, don’t you know? You might like it.
Freelancer
By: Gavin Annand
Tags: Gaming, Games, Video Game Journalism, Videogames, Games History

That weekend was one of the best memories I have of Freelancer. For three days we played practically non-stop, exploring the galaxy, taking missions together and eventually attempting the most lucrative and dangerous trade route in the game. We were not prepared for the journey and were frequently defeated by pirates along the trade route, but working together to try and achieve that “big score” made us all feel a little bit like Han Solo. Three days of Freelancer with no sleep and little more than pizza and fizzy drink had left us exhausted, but these are the types of memories that remain with you forever.

Freelancer has given me countless hours of enjoyment over the years. The open-world, although simplistic by today’s standards, was exactly what I was looking for in 2003. Not only that, but the game was supported by a vibrant and active modding community for many years after its release (some of whom are still active today).

Freelancer’s aesthetic was very much science-fantasy rather than science-fiction. A popular style in many space-sim games at the time (and a style that continues today) was to replicate the famous NASA images that depicted the non-visible spectrums of our own Universe. Games like Freelancer took that approach to the extreme, and the result was that every region of the game’s Sirius Sector had a unique feel. Bretonia, modelled after Victorian Era Great Britain, was painted in endless shades of brown, resembling the thick smog of the Industrial Revolution. Meanwhile, Kusari space was modelled on Japanese culture, and this influence was reflected in the design of their ships and space stations. Rheinland reflected the industrialist, utilitarian German Empire, while Liberty featured an approachable modern Western aesthetic, to appeal to Freelancer’s key market. In hindsight, this stereotyping was perhaps somewhat simplistic, and even a little insensitive (unintentionally, I’m sure). However, setting that aside, it was this sharp delineation of style that gave the game a lot of its flavour. No matter who you were, every player could find a place in Freelancer that felt like “home”.
7 Simple App Marketing Ideas
By: Walid Ashik
Tags: Marketing, Startup, Productivity, Programming, Business

7 Simple App Marketing Ideas

I got 200,000 downloads using some of these ideas

Photo by Yura Fresh on Unsplash

Ever since I’ve published my first app in the app store, one thing I always scratched my head about is what the simple steps are that I can follow to promote my app without spending any money.

When you’re a developer and you’ve put a tremendous amount of hours into a simple project, it’s very difficult for you to spend money on it, just for marketing. Developing is hard and real work. But I’d say most of the success relies on this later version of the job, marketing.

No matter how unique or great an app you’ve developed, if people don’t download it or people don’t know about it then your app is a great flop. I’ve seen many mediocre apps have hundreds of thousands of downloads and I’ve also seen many great, quality apps barely get 5,000 downloads.

Why?

Because those great apps developed by indie developers who have high engineering and app developing skills don’t have any level of marketing or business knowledge. On the other hand, the not-so-good app has a unique marketing team to spread it to the rest of the world.

When I’ve developed my first app, Quote Writer, I got into this trouble. I had no idea how to promote an app without spending money. After releasing the app it didn’t go very well. But, a few days ago I’ve hit 200,000 downloads, a milestone which has been an incredible journey for me. After publishing my app, when I saw my app wasn’t doing as expected, I realized I needed to learn marketing, especially simple marketing that works for any app.

I learned, applied, and experimented with many free app marketing ideas in the last couple of years, and here are the top seven simple marketing ideas that you can apply on your own app.
Urgent Announcement!
By: Ramon Oliveira
Tags: Bancryp, Bitcoin, Blockchain, Criptobanco, Xbanctoken

Attention, dear community:

A number of Bancryp customers have reported attempts of fraud and scams during the last few weeks. We have identified at least three fake accounts on Telegram and WhatsApp which offer Bancryp products and services in exchange for money or cryptocurrencies. In some cases, the accounts even used the names of Bancryp members.

We would like to remind you that our official channels are:

Telegram: @BancrypInternational

@BancrypInternational Instagram: @bancryp

@bancryp Facebook: Facebook.com/Bancryp

Facebook.com/Bancryp Twitter: @bancryp

Bancryp does not contact users in order to ask for money or cryptocurrencies. Do not trust anyone who contacts you in any such ways and do report it to our team through the official channels stated above.

Stay tuned to our official channels:

Telegram: https://t.me/bancrypEN

Facebook: https://goo.gl/uSFiLb

Instagram: https://goo.gl/UfKeSr

Twitter: https://goo.gl/8CbCms

Medium: https://goo.gl/tUawqp

YouTube: https://goo.gl/LmkeD2

Online Support: http://bancryp.com/
19 ESSENTIAL New Tools For Entrepreneurs & Startup Founders
By: Ryan Mccready
Tags: Tech, Startup, Entrepreneurship

A while ago we started a new ListHunt series that finds the best new tools for startups and founders from the past week. The main driving force behind this new series was that we were finding a bunch of great tools, but they did not fit into the demographic that we were catering to with the daily ListHunts.

With our audience made up of a lot of founders and people in the startup community it was an easy decision to start this new series. We know that building a startup takes up a ton of time and you do not have time to look through all the new tools. That is where we come in, making your life just a little less hectic!

Share files, get feedback and take projects from concept to completion. Collaboration starts with your files on Hightail. Upload your project files to create a Space then share the unique link to bring your project team together in one place. Everyone can view images and stream videos instantly or download the files. Take collaboration out of email and bring everyone’s opinions together in Hightail. Inline commenting, including video timestamps, ensures feedback happens in context, getting you to .FINAL faster.

Learn More Here
§6 Sean Penn, Author
Tags: Sean Penn, Writer, Books

Earlier this week (05.04.2018), Sean Penn became the proud author of a novel. In the run up to its publication, Bob Honey Who Just Do Stuff received critical condemnation from all who had the apparent misfortune of being tasked with reviewing it. ‘All’, that is, apart from Salman Rushdie, Sarah Silverman, Bill Maher, Douglas Brinkley and Art Linson whose comments on the novel are used as part of its marketing blurb.

The novel was discussed on the BBC’s Front Row with Cathy Rentzenbrink who provided an example of Penn’s apparent propensity (ahem!) for alliterative diarrhoea:

“Whenever he felt these collisions of incubus and succubus, he punched his way out of the proletariat with the purposeful inputting of covert codes, thereby drawing distraction through Scottsdale deployments, dodging the ambush of innocents astray, evading the viscount vogue of Viagratic assaults on virtual vaginas, or worse, falling passively into prosaic pastimes.”

For reasons that are perhaps clear from this extract, rather than address the novel’s literary merits and inferiorities, Rentzenbrink and Stig Abel (Front Row presenter) discussed how the very fact that Penn has written a novel is a gesture that is part of broader phenomenon of actors (principally male actors, it was noted) turning their hand to this form and process.

The discussion rightly pointed out that for Penn, the creative process of writing a novel gave him a break from collaboration (an imperative of acting) and the imposition of a director’s vision etc. Front Row pointed out that the problem with this is that Penn’s novel amounts to an unedited “ideas-dump”, with no unifying theme or narrative thread beyond his own exuberant delight in working alone with no accountability to anyone other than himself. He agreed with Stephen Colbert that the novel is something of an ‘improvisation’, however many critics feel he has fallen short on realising the Beat and Gonzo-style he appears to be emulating.

It wouldn’t be right to comment or speculate further on the novel’s literary qualities without having read it myself, however, it is of note that the trend of actors to turn to writing novels (a phenomenon that despite being identified seemed to perplex Rentzenbrink and Abel’s discussion) can be seen as an instance of the broader tendency of actors to seek recognition beyond the remit of their craft. This was addressed in ANOW Seminar №2, where we discussed Johnny Depp’s great cultural deed of bringing further recognition to the life and work of the late Hunter S. Thompson. Indeed, Hunter S. Thompson’s name that comes up again in relation to this novel, with Salman Rushdie suggesting that Thomas Pynchon and Hunter S. Thompson ‘would love this book.’

The fact that a literary review of this novel cannot seem to escape the phenomenon to which it is a part would suggest that as a cultural artefact of contemporary celebrity Bob Honey Who Just Do Stuff should, in one way or another, be treated seriously and certainly not dismissed on literary grounds.

/Pete Watt
The Zhuangzi: A Therapeutic Text for the Ages
By: Dylan Skurka
Tags: Philosophy, Chinese Philosophy

Photo by Richard Dorran on Unsplash

When a drunken man falls from a cart, he may be hurt but he will not be killed. His bones and joints are no different from those of other men, but the degree of harm done by the fall differs radically, for the spiritual in him forms one intact whole. Having been unaware that he was riding, he is now unaware that he is falling.

For every inspirational speech I’ve heard, every pithy Instagram caption I’ve stumbled upon and every grandiose solution to the meaning of life I’ve come across, nothing quite hits me like the quote above.

For one, when else have you ever heard of drunkenness being framed as a virtue? Who else has pulled off measuring a person’s character by how well they can unintentionally fall out of a moving cart?

And yet eccentricities aside, there’s something more going on here. Might we see ourselves as neurotic foils to the drunken hero of this story; hot messes that are so constantly afraid of “falling” in our respective lives that we create more problems for ourselves than if we just took things in stride?

The passage in question comes from the Ancient Chinese philosophical text the Zhuangzi and is in many ways a taste of what’s to come if you read it: stories of misfits who are portrayed as role models, mysterious open-endedness, a sprinkle of humour. But most of all this passage exemplifies the Zhuangzi’s ability to seek out a taken for granted belief you may have about the world and turn it on its head.

Now reading something that incessantly forces you to question everything you believe in without really providing you with anything straightforward to replace it with might not sound very appealing and is certainly a far cry from the platitudes and cookie-cutter solutions we typically see churned out by the modern self-help industry. Yet it is for this very reason, I would argue, that the Zhuangzi is so uniquely therapeutic.

And in the midst of such stressful times (so much so that it feels almost cliche to say it by now), what more can we really ask for than some unconventional wisdom that can take the edge off a little bit? With that said, I should probably stop talking now and let the text speak for itself: here are a few of my favourite quotes from the Zhuangzi, a therapeutic text for the ages.
by Martino Pietropoli
By: Martino Pietropoli
Tags: Saturday, Illustration, Summer, Humor, Cartoon

First thing in the morning: a glass of water and a cartoon by The Fluxus.

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About
By: Tom Connor
Tags: Tom Connor, Bio

Hi I’m Tom… process engineer who is curious about the world and what makes it work. I love learning about problem solving, design thinking; machine learning and productivity tools and tricks to magnify the impact you can have.
[INTERNSHIP] รีวิวฝึกงานตลอด 4 เดือน ที่ ARTISAN DIGITAL
Tags: Artisan, Intern, Review, Digital Marketing, Internships

We are a full-scale digital agency based in Chiang Mai, Thailand, specializing in software development, design, and digital marketing consulting.

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How You Can Heal Through Creativity
By: Arlene Ambrose
Tags: Creativity, Healing, Self, Mindset Shift, Mental Health

How You Can Heal Through Creativity

Connections Between Creativity and Healing

Black Girl Magic by: Pierre Jean Louis

Creative therapies have been linked to decreased anxiety, depression, stress levels, increased immunity, self-worth, and social identity.

I’m a registered nurse, writer, and spoken word poet. I dabble in various forms of creative arts.

I’m most balanced in my health and emotions when I’m creative. I’ve called it the sixth vital sign.

Creativity isn’t optional, but now a necessity for my health.

Creativity is a non-negotiable part of holistic health, especially for women. John Gray, author of Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus says that women have twice as much stress as men. Cortisol, the stress hormone, is twice as high when she walks into the house. She’s thinking about everything she has to do.

It may not necessarily be that she has more stress, but that she feels more stressed. This is why socks on the floor or dirty dishes may send her through the roof. It’s added to her list of stressors, while it may not be a big deal for her partner.

This may contribute to women losing attraction and sexual desire for their partner.

The quickest way to a woman’s heart and libido is doing anything that promotes less stress- it’s probably the same for men as well.

Hey, let’s stop stressing each other, and ourselves out.

Gray, suggests one of three de-stressors women can do for themselves is to,

“do the things they love to do.”

Enter creativity.

Throughout documented history, people have used stories, drawings, dances, and chants as healing rituals.
The first sentence in the Pulitzer winners of the last 10 years
By: Linda Caroll
Tags: Advice, Inspiration, Books, Writing, Reading

Good writing should start strong…

Almost every list of good writing tips says some version of that.

Sometimes they just say start with a bang. Or they suggest you chop the first paragraph. So many first paragraphs are slow. Or they say the first sentence only exists to get you to read the next one.

It’s true. Of course, the second sentence has one job, too…

To get you to read the next one. And it goes on that way, all the way through. Each sentence should make the reader want to keep on reading. And so it goes, sentence by sentence. Line by line.

Bird by bird, buddy. Bird by bird. — Anne Lamott

I think a book has a little more leeway

A book can have the odd boring sentence or paragraph that drags it’s sorry butt across the page. But if the parts before that were good, and it picks up speed fast enough, we’ll slog through.

Essays, maybe not so much. Online, even less.

Too easy to click away, close the tab. Bored, done.

But it got me wondering. Did Pulitzer prize winning authors start with a bang? Do they start strong?

So I dug into the Pulitzer winners for the last 10 years with fingers crossed the rule would hold up. That they wouldn’t start out droll and boring and win a darn Pulitzer for inflicting that upon the reader.

For your writing inspiration…

The first sentence in Pulitzer prize winning books from the last 10 years.

1. Pulitzer Winner, 2019

First there was nothing. Then there was everything.

— The Overstory, Richard Powers

2. Pulitzer Winner, 2018

From where I sit, the story of Arthur Less is not so bad.

— Less, Andrew Sean Greer

3. Pulitzer Winner, 2017

The first time Caesar approached Cora about running north, she said no.— The Underground Railroad, Colson Whitehead

4. Pulitzer Winner, 2016

I am a spy, a sleeper, a spook, a man of two faces.

— The Sympathizer, Viet Thanh Nguyen

5. Pulitzer Winner, 2015

At dusk, they pour from the sky.

— All the Light We Cannot See, Anthony Doerr

6. Pulitzer Winner, 2014

When I was still in Amsterdam, I dreamed about my mother for the first time in years.

— The Goldfinch, Donna Tartt

7. Pulitzer Winner, 2013

Citizens, gather ‘round your loudspeakers, for we bring important updates!

— The Orphan Master’s Son, Adam Johnson

8. Pulitzer Winner, 2012

There was no Pulitzer awarded in 2012. An interesting tidbit on that, which I’ll include at the bottom. An interesting read for writers, perhaps…

9. Pulitzer Winner, 2011

It began the usual way, in the bathroom of the Lassimo Hotel

— A Visit From the Goon Squad, Jennifer Egan

10. Pulitzer Winner, 2010

George Washington Crosby began to hallucinate eight days before he died.

—Tinkers, Paul Harding
INKTOBER CREARY 2020
Tags: Challenge, Inktober, Art, Cryptocurrency, Blockchain

Hello Crearians,

October has already started and, therefore, it is the ideal time to get on top of our creative habits by following initiatives like Inktober.

What is the Inktober?

The Inktober is a challenge that invites artists to improve their drawing skills. This challenge was originally created by the artist Jake Parker in 2009 and the initial proposal consisted of publishing a drawing made with ink on social networks every day of October.

Each year, the artist proposes a list of daily themes to draw throughout the month of October.

Despite its name, the massive participation in the challenge has resulted in not only hand drawers following it, but it has also expanded to many styles and techniques including the digital part.

Inktober Creary 2020

At Creary we would like to collaborate with this initiative by encouraging you to strengthen your habit of drawing and to include it in your daily routine.

Therefore, we invite you to share on Creary.net a minimum of 10 projects from the list, which we show you below in the image, on the corresponding day using the hashtag inktobercreary2020

At the end of the month, we will delegate 5000 CGY ($170) for 1 year to those users who participate in this challenge and meet the following requirements:

- Publications must be original and made by the author who publishes them.

- Very simple publications or that are suspected of having been created quickly, disinterestedly or using any type of trap to deceive us will not be accepted.

The delegated reward can be reversed in the following cases:

- After receiving the participation, it is found that the user is impersonating another artist.

- Encourage hatred and have criminal attitudes in the community.

- De-energize more than 5000 CGY. This shows that the user no longer needs delegation to thrive in the community.

The Creary team reserves the right to reject those entries it deems appropriate due to malpractice on the part of the participant.

We hope to see you in Creary participating in this famous challenge that will surely help you to reserve a space for your true passion in the hectic daily routine.

JOIN THE INKTOBER CHALLENGE

Versión en español
The Balance of Opposites
Tags: Japan, Haiku

The Balance of Opposites

A study of a ‘Way’

“It is said the warrior’s is the twofold Way of pen and sword, and he should have a taste for both Ways. Even if a man has no natural ability he can be a warrior by sticking assiduously to both divisions of the Way.”

“When you appreciate the power of nature, knowing rhythm of any situation, you will be able to hit the enemy naturally and strike naturally. All this is the Way of the Void.”

“I studied morning and evening searching for the principle, and came to realize the Way of Strategy when I was fifty. Since then I have lived without following any particular Way.”

— Miyamoto Musashi, Book of the Five Rings

Miyamoto Musashi was a ronin (an unattached Samurai), fighting duels as physical philosophy. His unique fighting style, with sword in each hand, was known as the “Ni Ten Ichi Ryu” school, and Musashi remained an undefeated warrior, artist, philosopher and teacher. He wrote his classic Book of the Five Rings around 1643. His life exemplified balance in all things at all times.

Probably Musashi’s most famous duel was against Ganryu (Sasaki Kojiro) in 1612. This Long Sword expert was beaten by Musashi using only a wooden pole, and great balance between mental and physical strength and agility, and therefore psychological outmaneuvering — Musashi’s ‘lateness,’ moving at deliberately slow speed, then quickening rhythm, made Ganryu lose his self control and therefore the dual. The combination of skill and psychology became Musashi’s trademark.

Sculpture commemorating the duel of Ganryujima between Musashi Miyamoto and Sasaki Kojiro. Hosokawa Sansai Governed Buzen prefecture at the time this dual took place and gave Musahi permission to fight the duel.

Many believe that he fought and survived against numerous Tokugawa forces during the early 1600’s until the Edo era, when he increasingly spent his time seeking the wider truths of his “Way,” and continued his study of Zen Buddhism. “To move the shade,” “Holding down a shadow,” and “Time can be passed on,” are three of his fighting philosophies.

Two further quotes from Musashi’s Book of the Five Rings give further meditative value — on the balance of opposites.

“When you have come to grips and are striving together with the enemy, and you realize that you cannot advance, you ‘soak in’ and become one with the enemy. You can win by applying a suitable technique while you are mutually entangled.”

“If the enemy thinks of the mountains, attack like the sea; and if he thinks of the sea, attack like the mountains. You must research this deeply.”

A ronin, perhaps, by nature, Miyamoto Musashi was also a Shokunin, who believed a true Samurai learnt many crafts, and learnt them well. Tasio Odate defines Shokunin as the following: “The Japanese word shokunin is defined by both Japanese and Japanese-English dictionaries as ‘craftsman’ or ‘artisan,’ (…) both spiritual and material, in that no matter what it is, the shokunin’s responsibility is to fulfill the requirement.”
I Got Life
By: Jm Miana
Tags: Spirituality, Self, Philosophy, Mental Health, The Bad Influence

Change Your Frequency

Forget everything I have written above.

We are way more than material things.

We are not our jobs.

We are not our salaries.

We are not our car.

We are not those holidays we posted on Instagram.

We are not a product.

If there is anything to learn from this situation is that material things do not last long, and it’s completely pointless to devote our valuable existence to just hoard things that can vanish at the blink of an eye.

Things that will mean nothing when you die and you turn into ashes.

And nobody will remember you by your expensive German car. It will most likely end in the hands of a teen, who will abuse it until the engine breaks down after miles of being neglected.

Nobody will say, “He was very proud of his salary while working 40 years in accounting.” You will most likely be one of the hundreds of employees who did that.

All those idiotic superficial things will be gone.

And you won’t care because you’ll be dead and It won’t matter if there is a heaven or endless nonexistence. If there is a heaven you will be busy being happy and playing cards with Jesus, and if there is nothing you won’t notice it.

So, what do we have?

What is more valuable than all of those stupid material things that drag us down?

Here is the list:

Ourselves.

Our bodies.

Our thoughts.

Our creativity.

Our spirituality.

Those are the only things that can’t be taken away from us, the things we can improve and enjoy every single day.

Anything outside that can be easily blown away by the winds of change.

If we start accepting things as they come and we detach from superfluous things, nothing will bother us in the future.

And we will save a ton in the maintenance of expensive BMWs
80s Kids vs. Kids Today
By: Andrew Hutchinson
Tags: Creativity, Life, Culture, Humor, Comics

Sign up for Coffee and Sunrises

By Coffee and Sunrises

Humor to bring a smile to your face and make your day a little brighter Take a look
Angular base Loading Spinners — Some good options to pick
By: Yugasa Software Labs
Tags: Angularjs, JavaScript, India, Front End Development, Outsourcing

Everytime an app tries to retrieve data from the server, there is a delay. To ensure that users are not bored during this interval, it is important to note that one should employ a loading spinner. This ensure that the app is user friendly and can attract more traffic. This article talks about the top 7 Angular base loading spinners that are available to make a mobile application friendly.

Angular 4 and redux simplified: While using Angular Redux and loading the data via REST API, we can show the loading spinners in between the time of requests. It will involve the following: The setup of Redux with data loading via REST API Custom http service with the authentication of JWT

Loader service with Angular Material Progress bar on each request

ngX loading spinner:

If you are looking for a customizable open source GitHub, ngX is the answer! It is very easy to make it adaptable to your existing framework.

Material Progress spinner:

This is a good option to use for material design as that is what this loading spinner is made for. It is easy and simple use this with a few customizable options.

Loading spinners for firebase data:

This loading spinner is specially designed while working with firebase data. Firebase list observable is used to determine if the data has been loaded by subscribing to it.

Loading spinner, the angular 2+ way:

Trying to build a custom spinner from scratch? Then this is the loading spinner that will help you do it perfectly. It is the simplest and easy way to show a loader in between when user clicks on a button and data gets rendered on the user’s browser.

Angular 2, custom loader as a service:

Here the loading spinner can be used as a service. The loading spinner can be shown using a customized approach. You can create a custom load spinner as a service and can use it throughout the application by just importing that service in the component.

Originally published at yugasa.com on July 5, 2018.
I Miss Eavesdropping
By: Samantha Zabell
Tags: Relationships, New York City, Life, Quarantine, Coronavirus

New York City shut down slowly, and then all at once. There were the obvious things to miss and grieve: birthday parties, vacations, family dinners, movie nights. There were the things you didn’t realize you’d miss: 3D meetings with colleagues, standing shoulder-to-shoulder at the grocery store, petting a stranger’s dog in the elevator.

The big connections disappeared quickly. The small connections faded, quietly sliding into the background while we all wondered why we felt so alone.

I miss eavesdropping.

I was the person reading someone’s text messages over their shoulder on the subway, or listening to silence through my headphones at a coffee shop so that people at the next table would feel comfortable having their conversation at full volume. In parks, I listened to people on walks or sitting on benches as they discussed their marriages, their divorces, their bosses. I shared smiles with people who were like me — overhearing pieces of a stranger’s life, finding something we could relate to, sharing a moment of recognition.

I don’t live alone. Why not just listen in on your partner’s conversations? He paces around the bedroom, on the phone with his mom or friend or coworker. I can hear him. It’s not the same.

Eavesdropping is about connecting the dots. Catching snippets of a conversation or one side of an argument, and letting your mind wander to fill in the gaps. Hearing names and places and dates you have no context for, and allowing these fleeting details to weave themselves together in your brain. It’s about listening in on an experience you’ve never lived through. It’s like watching a movie where every third line is cut, where entire scenes are missing. But it’s there, it’s alive, and you watch.

I miss hearing about the mundanity of life through another person’s eyes.

New York City was the best place to eavesdrop.

Late at night on the subway, a group of friends complain about how far they have to travel for a goodbye party.

Next to me on the bus, a woman texts… someone. Rapidly. Green bubbles flood her side of the screen as she rants and rants, letting out her emotions. I catch every few words.

A family is amazed by how crowded Grand Central Station is—they’re here from somewhere else. Maybe Tennessee, maybe Ohio, maybe Arizona. They’ve seen this in pictures. The brother is arguing with his sister.

There are things I can hear but not understand, because I don’t speak the language. I have to eavesdrop on the emotions underneath, on the intonation and the gestures.

There is so much crying. Always crying.

There are people who carry on whole conversations with dogs, with babies, people who you think are talking to themselves only to realize they have those tiny earbuds in.

There are people planning meals in the grocery store aisles, excited to cook things I would never attempt.

These half-scenes and unfinished scripts are gone, for now, and I miss them. I miss hearing about the mundanity of life through another person’s eyes.
Ubcoin Advanced AI module: new features
By: Ubcoin. Cryptocurrency Reimagined
Tags: Artificial Intelligence, Ubcoin Product

Ubcoin is working on developing and implementing all of these new AI features into marketplace for your safety and convenience:

Finding similar items by picture

You liked sunglasses on someone you met in a coffeeshop? Take a picture of them, upload the picture to Ubcoin Market — and our AI system will find you similar glasses that you can buy.

Eliminating fake reviews

Reviews from buyers determine how much attention and trust a seller can get. It can lead to the spread of fake reviews on the marketplace — and the AI system fights with that.

Smart matching

Ubcoin Market will have a database of job offers and candidates. Artificial Intelligence module will do the effective matching.

Also we do not forget about other AI features that we discussed with the community previously:

Content Moderation

Listings about drugs, weapons, pornography, etc. — the system detects them by text or image and immediately blocks them or sends to an employee to double check.

Price Forecasting

Ubcoin artificial intelligence system does market analysis and recommends the optimal price of goods and services to sellers.

Personal recommendations

System analyses your behaviour on Ubcoin Market, builds a predictive model and shows you in the first place listings that can be interesting you.

Improving Quality of Photographic Content

Small sellers are often limited by quality of their mobile phone cameras. To improve quality of pictures Ubcoin Market implements the Super Resolution technology.

Identifying Suspicious Behaviour

Scammers can duplicate some other people’s listings changing a few details or contacts. System notices that and stop this behaviour.
Bitcoin Volume Sets a Record Reaching Nearly $44 Billion in 24 Hours
By: Jake Davis
Tags: Money, Future, Finance, Trade, Bitcoin

Photo by Clifford Photography on Unsplash

On Feb. 17th, 2020, nearly $46 Billion were traded using the currency Bitcoin. The mark was reached though the price was a little over 50% of the record price of $19,700. News like the social media giant Facebook announcing a crypto token called Libra has caused traders to stir with the prospect of a practical use for cryptocurrency.

Though a lot of us don’t see social media as practical, we as cryptocurrency traders see the public’s usage will create a volume boom. That means blood is in the water, and sharks are swimming. Speculation rules the market.

Photo by Chris Liverani on Unsplash

The record high is a little over a year after a lull in trading volume beginning July 2018 and ending February 2019 saw the hope for Bitcoin dwindle as support after support fell for the price. Bitcoin was dying, and traders were scared that the HODLers had done the unimaginable, and stagnated the market.

Lightning Network promised faster speeds and volume grew with the hashrate ever since the lull ended. Back then the promise of the new network brought traders who, over time, built the volume off of the lightning speed of transactions. Sooner or later it’s going to happen again, but for now we can enjoy the fact that everyone has come to the arena to see the show and make the dough.

Photo by Michal Soukup on Unsplash

Cryptocurrency itself is a system that can make or break the back of a business. Casinos added cryptocurrency as a layer of security and loyalty that has paid off for industry giants like Cloudbet. The internet has other casinos, like MyBookie, that will take USD. Still, the loyalty of a $50,000 match play with a currency not everybody has is enticing enough keep the gambling industry buzzing.

Perhaps the sporting industries big game season (Super Bowl, BCS, March Madness and NBA All Star Game) has spawned a gambling boom which has in turn sent traders hunting BTC to sell to would-be gamblers. Then again it’s a growing industry, and some unseen interactor has shown up and is unseen…for now. No matter what is causing the Super March Madness All Star Championship Bowl Tournament of Traders, it’s exciting and I’m gonna go watch it.
Who Are We America? or A Belly of Discontent
By: Samantha Wallen
Tags: 100 Naked Words, Immigration, Poetry, America, Writing

Photo by Samantha Wallen Angel Island North Garrison Barracks

Who Are We America? or A Belly of Discontent

I never wrote about Angel Island. Well, that’s not true, I wrote one line and it was this: I went to Angel Island State Park for the 4th of July holiday.

That’s as far as I got. I never wrote about standing in the barracks building in the North Garrison with its thin windows, cracking pale yellow walls, and creaky floor. I never wrote about how it was so quiet you could hear our history of detainment emanating from the walls. I didn’t capture the way it whispered a pattern into my brain that reminded me, we have done this before — we have made a habit of choosing people to keep out of the promise of America. We did it then. We are doing it now.

I didn’t write about the despair that hung in the air, or the way you could feel the mass of broken dreams piled on the metal cots stacked hundreds to a room where more than 175,000 Chinese lived and slept and wept for weeks, months, and even years trying to get into America.

I didn’t write about the poetry. How it was carved into every wall and is still visible over 100 years later. How it expresses in words the unnamable. The anxiety, the fear, the grief of containment. I didn’t name how this moved me. I didn’t name all the ways it connected me to the soul of another across place and time.

My belly is so full of discontent it is difficult to relax. I can only worry silently to myself At times I gaze at the cloud-and-fog- Enshrouded mountain-front. It only deepens my sadness. — Anonymous

I never wrote about how being in the rooms with the poetry of the tired, the poor, the huddled masses yearning to breathe free, awoke in me a kinship that goes beyond any boundary of color, creed or nationality. I forgot to write how this reminded me of the poem that is America. The one that says, “Give us the wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door.” Yet where I stood was the Immigration Station across from the Golden Gate, nicknamed, “the Guardian of the Western Gate.” The one whose job it was to keep people out. Those people.

Who are we America?

This is the question I’ve long had, and have now finally written.

We are who we’ve always been. If we don’t see and remember our history, we can’t recreate a future. If we don’t have voices brave enough to carve this history into our walls, we will never become anything else.

I used to admire the land of the Flowery Flag as a country of abundance. I immediately raised money and started my journey. For over a month, I have experienced enough wind and waves. Now on an extended sojourn in jail, I am subject to the ordeals of prison life. I look up and see Oakland so close by. I wish to go back to my motherland to carry the farmer’s hoe. Discontent fills my belly and it is difficult for me to sleep. I just write these few lines to express what is on my mind. — Anonymous

What history are we carving into our walls now?
How I am Building an Open slack community to help myself and other to learn about crypto?
By: Gaurav Agrawal
Tags: Startup, Cryptocurrency, Bitcoin, Slack, Tech

I am building an open slack community(invitation link here) for crypto learners which grew more than 500 members in its 1st month.

Why I am doing it?

In 2017 Crypto currency market grew more than 1200% a reached more than 500 billion dollars. So there must be something interesting. It got my attention too like everyone else, At first it was money, I created an account on a crypto exchange, put a small amount of money and in few days I almost doubled my investment. Wow that’s good, isn’t it?

But I wanted to learn every aspect of it(tech, business, history, future scopes). I started reading articles and every other source which I found useful. This also helped me to invest in crypto. But the Crypto market is full of Fear, uncertainty and doubt(FUD). So i created a slack community where i can discuss my opinions and doubts with everyone else.

How its helping me and others ?

It really helps to talk to like-minded peoples and most of the time i end up learning something new. Crypto space is big and growing at maximum speed. Every day there are bunch of ICOs going live. It’s very difficult to get all the information by yourself. Our Slack community helped me get to know about many new things. We discuss our various doubts and news, investment strategies and lot of other things. The best part you get to know so many people with different areas. example -devs, traders, VCs, entrepreneurs. It’s a win-win situation for both me and other.

win-win

Adding things to get Information fast

Slack is awesome when it comes to integration and custom programmatic bots and apps. I created a Bot and app which help members to get information quickly while in the discussion.I will list them for now and will describe each one in the future post.

1- Getting the Current price

2-Getting Chart for a currency

3-Getting information about ICOs

4-Getting Price moment Signals (This is very useful for traders)

If you are interested in Crypto space and want to do investment or just learn about it. Come join us here.

❤️ Like, Share, Leave your comment

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And ………
Solstice
By: Victoria Ponte
Tags: Poetry On Medium, Poetry, Solstice, Hope, Blue Insights

Solstice

The shortest day of the year

The first day of winter

Offering a promise

Of a few more minutes of daylight

Each day

Starting tomorrow
Lonely Wolf
By: Timothy Key
Tags: Creativity, Inspiration, Art, Ideas, Design

I had this one in my head for over a week. I started. Stopped. Erased; re-drew. Quit in disgust, and then finally convinced myself that the way to get better at creating art is to practice with many different works. Not agonizing over one piece relentlessly.

So I finished and here it is.

I have a couple things working against me: A. I am still getting used to the Adobe drawing program and 2. I haven’t the foggiest idea how to draw anything.

You can see that I need some work on perspective given the floating highway that seems to defy the suggestion of curves hinted at by the landscape.

Fortunately, our brains just sort of autonomically fill in the gaps and we can kind of see what is supposed to be there rather than what is actually there.

Or, we can claim that we meant to do that and it is simply ART. I will leave you and your brain to leg wrestle over which is the case here.

I am getting the hang of using layers in the software though. And getting introduced to the many different “brushes” and ways to apply color and texture.
The Thingamajigs
By: Aaron Quist
Tags: Creativity, Imagination, Reality, Poetry, Identity

The Thingamajigs

A poem

I can rend the mind

and bend the breath

into the more refined

shape of a reality

gone rogue.

I can lay

my little lines down

in any labyrinthine

geometry my subconscious

deems fit for making

a little more overt,

ostentatious.

I can pull

them ever tauter like

the puppet strings

of a constellation

around the neck

of an eye that has yet

to blink above

me.

I can dream

a lucid lazuli

fantasia into being

and then back again

to blackest black with

a simpler grace.

I can rearrange

the chaos of each

endless nothing into

a sparkling order

never divined before

or since.

This, I can.

And yet,

I’ve always been

told that I cannot —

too content to believe

the others

as if also unaware of

the scheming possibility

that each naysayer is

merely another one

of these jesting

thingamajigs

that my imagination

can’t seem to stop tightening

into the most hopeless knot

I call the soul.