fabiochiu/medium-articles huggingface dataset:
Four Potential NBA Draft Second-Round Sleepers
By: Brandon Anderson
Tags: NBA Draft, Television, Sports, NBA, Future

That’s a swing of over +27 Net Rating per 100 possessions for Paul Reed. Put another way, Reed was worth more than a full point extra every four times DePaul went up and down the court with him out there. When he left, the offensive rating plummeted from 107 to 90 while the defense fell apart, from 101 to 112. And don’t forget, Reed wasn’t even supposed to be the star of this team — Romeo Weems was the #53 RSCI recruit but struggled through a rough freshman year, leaving Reed to carry the Blue Demons.

Reed made a serious impact on both ends for DePaul, but he should be especially impactful on the defensive end in the NBA. Take a look at DePaul’s Four Factors defensively with Reed on the court:

The EFG% leaps out. DePaul opponents shot over 7% worse effective field goal percentage with Reed out there on defense, and nearly 7% true shooting as well. The offense was 6% EFG better with Reed out there, so that’s a net of +13% EFG with Reed.

Notice all the green on that bottom line, especially in contrast with the previous years. Reed took a serious step forward this year. DePaul was better on defense at every level with Reed. They also allowed fewer assisted buckets. Reed wasn’t just blocking shots. He was taking away some looks completely and affecting many others.

Using the Pivot Analysis database, we can find NBA player comps for draft prospects with a similar size and defensive profile as Reed. The names are a who’s who of no-name NBA weakside defenders and playmakers:

Andre Roberson

Chris Boucher

D.J. Stephens

Gary Clark

Kyle O’Quinn

There are no stars on that list. Just a whole lot of really good defense and guys that stuck around the league a long time because their defense was always valuable. Paul Reed will stick around, too.
We Grew Up
By: Brianna R Duffin
Tags: Seasons, Mental Health, Growing Up, Love, Poetry

September was the month of tears never to be shed

Secret missives, hidden letters never to be read

But when I think of happiness, I see my favorite song

And it still brings me back to the September that made me strong

And the monsoon that struck a match to the wasted time

And days I looked at the mirror like it was a crime

(And sometimes I still don’t see my truth

As I’m saying farewell to my youth)

Photo by Luke Porter on Unsplash

But my lips are locked, no one knows the reason for tears

There is not a soul that as yet can assuage my years

I may remember how to smile perfectly

But how to breathe I’ve forgotten completely

What a precious commodity must it be- a place in this big world

A place in this world of your very own, a safe haven from the cold

But still, you have this way of breaking into mine

You break down my walls and suddenly it’s all fine

Because you see beauty when I view the world in gray

And you keep being the blue on the cloudiest day.

Photo by Brigitte Tohm on Unsplash

But through it all you never get why; you can’t seem to figure it out

It’s because I’d give anything to stop waiting for rain in the drought

I see in an ocean of a mind in you, and I’d like to jump into it

But people like you have a penchant for ruining me- just a little bit

Now I’m going over possibilities, losing my mind

You make it hard for me to make conversation- should I lie?

At least should I pretend I’m not thinking all the thoughts in my head?

Should I at least pretend not to care about everything you said?

Isn’t it so strange to think someday all those words could be gone?

Isn’t it so strange that everything right could start to feel wrong?

Take me back to the tree house, even when we roll our eyes

Take me back to the band playing under the garage lights.

All I hear is slamming doors until I put my music on

It’s all that heals me when I’ve been trampled, thrown away again.
The United States is a Sick Country Full of Selfish Sociopaths and Assholes
By: Markus Scorelius
Tags: Narcissistic Abuse, Discrimination, Family, LGBTQ, America

I’ve had enough torture, I want out of America.

I apologize for the length of this, but I had several dozen things I had to get off my chest. It seems to be the American way lately, to overwhelm people with more than any reasonable person should be expected to put up with.

I have lost all trust in the people of this country. I have reason to believe that if I stay, I will die, murdered through incompetence or indifference. The USA has a long history of being petty and vindictive against me.

I don’t fear for retaliation from any official organization. It’s the unofficial mobs of narcissists, idiots, jealous, uninformed, selfish, or just plain evil people that frightens me.

I have been held back for years, constantly discriminated against in matters of employment, housing, and socially. Banks lie to me, delaying availability of my paycheck for as long as possible. Auto shops have closed their doors as I’ve pulled up saying, “We don’t serve your kind here.”

Random violent gangs of teenagers, right-wing bros, and extremist religious groups have attacked me at various moments throughout my life. Two threatening to kill me, the last threatening to kill me in the name of God.

What is left of my aging family has cut me off. My father disowned me at the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, calling me an embarrassment to the family, telling me that I wasn’t worth being kept alive for the next 2–3 months as my new job was delayed due to Covid-19.
The hunt for the UNKNOWN SQL in Oracle
By: Michal Táborský
Tags: Oracle, Performance, Sql

If you are looking at your AWR report or browsing thru performance views in your Oracle Enterprise Manager console, chances are, that some of those SQLs, eating at your CPU or I/O bandwidth are marked as UNKNOWN. This is frustrating, to say the least, but in cases when these mysterious queries are killing your database, it may become a matter of life and death to find out just what does the Oracle do.



Most commonly, these queries are LOB operations. That is, they represent reading and writing the actual CLOB or BLOB data by the appropriate oci functions. The question then stands: what table? And this is where this little post comes to the rescue.



We will start with the only thing we are able to get from the report — the SQL ID, which is a hashed fingerprint of our culprit. It looks something like “2v82uk48x55vt”. Regular SQL queries can be viewed by querying the system view V$SQL (or GV$SQL in RAC environments).

SELECT SQL_TEXT

FROM GV$SQL

WHERE SQL_ID='2v82uk48x55vt';

This, however, will not work for those unknown SQLs. The query will come up empty. All hope is not lost yet, though. There are other places to look. One of them is the X$KGLOB table, which is part of the library cache.

SELECT KGLNAOBJ

FROM X$KGLOB

WHERE KGLOBT03 = '2v82uk48x55vt';

This query will yield a value, which on the first look, looks like gibberish. It will read something like “table_4_9_15f8c_0_0_”. On the second look, this string containts one interesting part and that is the fourth underscore separated segment: 15f8c. This, in fact, is the hexadecimal representation of the object_id of the object involved in the operation. Now remains only to query the DBA_OBJECTS view to find out, which table is being operated on.

SELECT OWNER, OBJECT_NAME, OBJECT_TYPE

FROM DBA_OBJECTS

WHERE OBJECT_ID=TO_NUMBER('15f8c','XXXXXXXX');

And there you have it, the schema and the name of the table, which was causing that unknown SQL in your stats.
«But we have never had to put a wall up to keep our people in, to prevent them from leaving us»
By: Tommaso Lana
Tags: Telefunken, Germania, Berlino, 26 Giugno 1963, Jfk

in Both Sides of the Table
Three people walk into a hackathon…then create a blockchain startup — Ahau
By: Sera Jeong
Tags: Hackathons, Digital Identity, Genealogy, Decentralized Apps, Blockchain

To stay up-to-date on the progress of our technology, follow us on Twitter and our Telegram Announcements channel, plus join our community on Centrality’s Official Telegram, Instagram, Reddit and Facebook.

One crisp October morning, three people showed up to a hackathon as part of Blockworks, New Zealand’s largest blockchain conference. They paired up to develop a blockchain-solution over the course of the day. Their idea, a platform that enables tribal organisations to identify and connect with their members, was selected as one of two winners of the competition. As part of the prize, Āhau was selected to participate in the Centrality Accelerator programme, where for the next six months they turned their idea into a fully-validated proposition ready for capital investment. It just goes to show that you never know where chance encounters can lead! Here is the team behind Ahau on how they’re building a dApp on Centrality’s platform.

How did your team meet?

We met at the Centrality Blockworks Hackfest, and came together on an idea to provide access, storage, and transparency of cultural heritage and identity information.

What brought you guys to the hackathon?

For me, hackathons are all about learning something fast. I was there to learn blockchain development and the current blockchain ecosystem

- Co-Founder and Business and Product Lead, Ben Tairea

I thought the hackathon would be a great platform to pitch and explore the ideas and an opportunity to work with varying talent in the industry and awesome mentors. It could turn out be a life changing event!

-Co-Founder and Development and Technology Lead, Sam Kaw

I had a desire to better understand how blockchain could help us solve some big problems especially among Māori and indigenous peoples

-Co-Founder and Relationships and Investment Lead, Kaye-Maree Dunn

What were your expectations joining the Centrality hackathon?

Our expectations were to leave with some new skills and ideas on how to get started with blockchain development, and meet some like minded people to share ideas. I don’t think any of us expected to win the hackathon and be invited into a business accelerator.

What Centrality protocols does Ahau leverage?

Āhau leverages Centrality’s identity, communications, payments protocols in our platform.

Why are those protocols critical for Ahau’s tech stack?

Using the identity protocol we will be able to provide tribal groups a method of verified online connections. We can then provide in-app communications and payments for tribal activity.

Why blockchain?

Blockchain can help revolutionise the way Māori and indigenous communities access, store and manage our own data in a way that aligns with our own values and protocols.

Transparency and data sovereignty are now requirements for organisations managing tribal and whanau assets.
The Heaven Versus Hell Diaries #4
By: Karen Madej
Tags: Diary, Hell, Fiction, Heaven, Short Story

The Heaven Versus Hell Diaries #4

Angel makers

Photo by Jordan Bauer on Unsplash

Jensen and Lady Lucifina

Jensen stops reading. “Mother, she was pregnant. If you’re listening, I’ve got this double murder case, the wife, Maude, was pregnant. I think Deus is meddling. Have you noticed anything strange?”

“No Jensen, but I will check the statistics.”

“Thank you, Mother.”

“How are relations with Chrissy?”

“I’ve had better relationships with hellcats, but for an angel, I suppose she’s bearable. I think she may have stolen my cross, though.”

“You must retrieve it, Jensen, it is imperative.”

“Very well, Mother.”

“Jensen, in addition, you must impregnate her, it’s vital for the plan to work.”

“Yes, I know Mother. I am doing my best.”

“Try harder, we must have a new saviour.”

Chrissy

Jensen is such a snake. I hate the way he has of saying my name, makes my skin crawl with cockroaches. How is it possible for someone to lose stuff so often? Shoes, one at a time, of course, keys, never the same place twice, time, he loses track of that, all the time! I did enjoy the look of loss on his face when he couldn’t find his cross. He’ll never find it.

“Thank you, Deus, for giving me this opportunity to take an eye from one of the sons of Lady Lucifina. You know what they did to my sisters. I will take my pleasure in bringing Jensen and his godforsaken mother to their last breaths and then make them beg your forgiveness. Protect me from his fake love. Amen.”

Deus

In his new accommodation, Deus is in a meeting with St Peter, former Pearly Gatekeeper.

Chrissy, she is such a blessing. Her enthusiasm for revenge is quite refreshing. “Peter, make a note to restore the wings of Chrissy’s sisters when she delivers Lucifina’s son.”

“Do we have a date for that event my Lord?”

“We do not, Peter. Nevertheless, pencil it in for next month after we have analysed the latest figures from Purgatory. When things go the way I plan, I should have the power to oust the usurper.”

“Yes, my Lord.”

“Update me on the violent deaths and new births plan, will you. Who’s next?”

“Well, my Lord, there was that spree, which is still ongoing, another two score and four to go before we meet the target for this month. Plus the new recruits, friends and relatives of Amelia, have been busy.”

“Amelia? Remind me of her surname.”

“Dyer, my Lord.”

“Ah, yes, used to work for the other side, nice of them to help us out. Where are they operating?”

“Hospitals, my Lord.”

“Good, there should be plenty of fodder for the new Angel Makers. Update me with the figures ASAP.”

“Certainly, my Lord.”
Broken Waters.
By: Efe Nakpodia
Tags: Nature, Business, Poetry, Banking, Life

banks direct

the flow of

watermarked

currency

the way

riverbanks

direct

the flow of

water currents

you are roughly

sixty percent water,

as i am, and we have

owned too many

watermarked

documents since

the beginning…

ever since our

waters broke

now tell me;

what forces

direct the way

your waters flow?

who currently

owns the deed

on your birthright?

where on earth

is your riverbank,

your sovereignty?
Punching with presidents
By: Tomas Mcintee
Tags: Data Analysis, Presidential, Taft, Funny, Us History

Jesse Kelly ruled out Teddy Roosevelt because he’s an obvious good pick. But who else is a good pick? I say Abraham Lincoln, Andrew Jackson, George Washington, or William Howard Taft. I can already hear the likely reactions:

Wait, Taft? The famously fat “bathtub” president? What?

As a numbers guy, I like to be systematic. We’ll get to what’s special about Taft in a minute. First, note that presidents are typically distinguished elder statesmen. While many served in the military, most of them were past their physical prime.

What makes someone good in a brawl?

To score all the presidents systematically, I came up with two basic indices: Body and violence. Then I combined them to produce a composite score.

Body, given by height (in inches) minus age at inauguration (in years) plus the square root of how many years they had left in their natural lifespan at that point. This last factor may seem odd, but it’s a crude proxy for health relative to age. Size is usually an advantage in a fight, while age and health are the biggest likely limiting factors for an elder statesman engaged in fisticuffs.

For presidents who were assassinated or are still living today, I simply took the average natural remaining lifespan, based on a life table. Finally, I assigned a twenty point penalty to FDR’s body score on the basis of his partial paralysis.

Artist’s depiction of future president Teddy Roosevelt and company charging up the hill on the battlefield.

Violence, given as 10 points for each of the following: Military service of any kind at any point in their life, seeing ground combat action, having killed someone outside of ground combat, surviving being shot, and participating in a duel. A number of presidents had a documented interest in wrestling or other martial arts; for this, I added 10 or 20 points, on the following rubric:

10 points: Documented as competitive or at least serious hobbyists.

20 points: Capable enough to win championships or obsessively trained as a mixed martial artist while in office. (The latter being Teddy Roosevelt.)

Distribution of brawling scores. Lincoln and Roosevelt are clear outliers here.

After building these two indices, I had a minor issue to address: The range and variance of the violence scores (0–50) was significantly larger than the variance of the body scores (6.4–34.7). To equalize the impact of the two factors, I multiplied the body score by a factor of 1.6 before adding the two together. Composite scores then ranged from ten to one hundred.

The full ranking of presidents
WHAT’S IN MY BAG?
By: International Rescue Committee
Tags: Syria, Greece, Refugees

This year, nearly 100,000 men, women and children from war-torn countries in the Middle East, North Africa and South Asia have fled their homes and traveled by rubber dinghies across the Aegean Sea to Lesbos, Greece.

Refugees travel light, for their trek is as dangerous as it is arduous. They are detained, shot at, hungry. Smugglers routinely exploit them, promising safety for a price, only to squeeze them like sardines into tiny boats. Most have no option but to shed whatever meager belongings they may have salvaged from their journeys. Those allowed to bring extra baggage aboard often toss it overboard, frantically dumping extra weight as the leaky boats take on water.

Few arrive at their destinations with anything but the necessities of life. The International Rescue Committee asked a mother, a child, a teenager, a pharmacist, an artist, and a family of 31 to share the contents of their bags and show us what they managed to hold on to from their homes. Their possessions tell stories about their past and their hopes for the future.
Ready to run: How Glitch is making it easier to run apps in the cloud
By: Anil Dash
Tags: Programming, Coding, Glitch, Cloud Computing, Web Development

Making Apps Easy

Traditionally, cloud web services have just been too damn hard to get started with, from figuring out exactly which services you need, to trying to guess how much all of those complicated pieces are going to cost. But just like Glitch simplified version control and coding collaboration and app deployment, we’re simplifying the ability to run real, reliable apps in the cloud.

There’s no provisioning, no cost calculator, no “call us for prices”. If you look at other cloud hosts, they’re super powerful, but they’re full of jargon — I don’t even know what a Dyno or a Droplet is, honestly, and the thought of learning that stresses me out. How the hell do I guess how much “compute” I need to purchase for an app that I just created? For a normal person, it’s confusing and just acts as a barrier.

How about this, instead: you pay us ten bucks, and we run your apps.

That’s our new paid plan at Glitch. For paying members, we boost your apps so there’s no rate limits, you get more storage and memory for apps that need them, we keep them always available and running smoothly for you, and you even get a nice shiny upgrade on your Glitch profile so everybody knows you’re a member of the friendliest coding community on the web. You’ll also be first in line for the equally exciting new features we’ve got planned.
COSS.IO ARX SWAP Announcement May 13th, 2019
By: Coss Team
Tags: Crypto, Bitcoin, Ethereum, Cryptocurrency, Blockchain

Dear Communities,

First of all, we wish to thank you for all the feedback we have received over the past week regarding both companies coming together.

There were a lot of mixed reactions to our proposals. This process has also led to an erosion of trust between two good communities and the team. This is the last thing we want, and that is why we have spent a lot of time, internally and externally, to come up with this conclusion.

You have made your point. Two major feedback on the merger and token swap:

1. Little or no token dilution — both COSS as well as LALA / ARAX holders

2. Favorable Swap Ratio — especially when it comes to CFT vs LALA

There was a whole host of other feedback on other aspects of our business. We have taken them fully into consideration. We have also worked on multiple iterations alongside our financial and legal advisors.

We have decided not to hold a vote.

While we have tried our very best to be as democratic as possible in this process, we realized that it is impossible to please everyone. As democratic as that process may be, as business owners, we owe it to you, to make good/tough decisions, and do what is best for everyone, as best as we see fit and move forward.

We will have ONE token (ARX) across the entire ecosystem, BUT we will NOT increase the supply above the already existing 200M COSS tokens.

How can this be achieved: We will use the founders and team’s existing tokens and future funding pool to keep an equilibrium. The total token supply will not get diluted. This means the majority of the new ARX token will be in the circulating supply, from day one.

Other changes to be noted:

Fee Split Allocation (FSA) of 50% for everyone- The new ARX token will still have the FSA you know and love

Trading Fee Discount for everyone- We are incorporating CFT’s token use case into the new ARX token

The Time Deposit (TD) feature will be removed

A percentage of our profits will still be used to buy back tokens in the open market. The use case for these tokens shall be evaluated at a later stage by the company

With these changes, we project a higher revenue, which will allow us to rebuild our company war chest over time. For now, we have enough finances to cover our development and team expenses.

The plan is to look into various other planned features and implement them if/when we feel the time is right. We are here for the long run, and we are building for the future.

These are our final numbers:

The new MAXIMUM supply will be 200M ARX
5 UX Tools for Easier Remote Collaboration
Tags: Work, Ux Tools, Design, UX Design, UX

Whether it be designing or developing, collaboration is one of the key ingredients for creating user-focused products. Given the circumstances, most of you must be working from home, and this means efficient, effective tools are required for brainstorming, idea-sharing, prototyping, and testing.

Here’s a list of five UX tools, in no particular order, that can assist in remote collaboration for your UX process.
Lo spirito di Ida
By: Davide Metrangolo
Tags: Monumentvalley Ustwo, Senza Categoria, iOS, Llinkpost, Blog

Don’t treat the user like an idiot with tons of boring levels and repetitions and built-in frustrations. Experiment with exciting visuals, perhaps inventive typography and bright alluring colors, to create a unique personality.
Todos contra Olham
By: Cátedra Alarcón
Tags: Saavedra, 2015, Underworld, Juego De Roles

in Both Sides of the Table
Meet the Master Committee!
By: Roy Klaasse Bos
Tags: Study, Education

A Local and National Network

As the Master Committee is a brand new initiative you may wonder how it actually came about; at least I did so I asked Robbert (Secretary & Treasurer). “Well, honestly it’s kind of a boring story. During the Thursday afternoon drinks Nigel (program coordinator JADS, Ed.) told us about the activities Pattern was organising after which we got in touch with them.”

Even though their founding story might not be that spectacular they have big plans for this semester: “We are planning on organizing activities to connect students with companies, but also with other bachelor and master students. After all, the long term idea is that Pattern’s board will consist of a variety of student backgrounds and that it will mainly operate from Den Bosch.” With that said, Jennifer (President) emphasizes that they don’t want to limit themselves to the Brabant region: “In Amsterdam, Rotterdam and Utrecht you currently don’t find any similar data science programs like JADS offers which leaves tremendous opportunity to put our master students in the spotlight and collaborate with the industry. For example, through guest lectures, inhouse days and hackathons.”
Page Manager — Creating Pages. Under any Project, you can create…
Tags: Prototyping, HTML, Learn, CSS, Bootstrap

Under any Project, you can create multiple pages.

Page Manager lets you switch between multiple pages.

To open the page manager, click the page name on the top bar.

With Page Manager you can do the following:

Edit Page Headers (Like adding external stylesheets, fonts, scripts) Edit Page Name Delete Pages.

Creating a Page

To add a page to your site, click the Create new page icon on the top bar.

Then type “yourpagename.html”, that’s it.

Editing or Modifying Page Settings

To modify or edit page settings, click on the page name on the top bar. It will open the page manager where you can see the list of pages of you’ve created.

Then Click on the edit icon right to the page name in order to edit the page name or page header content. Here you can add meta title ,description external stylesheets, fonts, scripts, stc…

Deleting a Page

To delete a page, click on the delete icon right to the edit icon in the page manager to delete the page permanently.
Programming Languages
By: Degreat Yartey
Tags: Girls Can Code, JavaScript, HTML, Programming

A simple intro to programming languages and programs

credit: VisualHunt.com

Language

In short programming languages are languages we speak to the computer. They consist of keywords that specify commands the computer should follow to complete a little task.

Program

A program can be seen as a sentence or paragraph or book of a language or languages, that contain series of programming keywords that the computer follows to complete a bigger task.

A Concrete Example

Keywords in the English language: the, room, tomorrow, sweep. Those words individually make sense a bit, but leaves a normal human in a trance. This can be perceived as keywords in a programming language.

Now, when we form a sentence with some of those keywords, we then know an action we can perform to make impact. Like: “sweep the room”. This can also be perceived as a program.

Languages and their power

HTML/CSS/JavaScript: Almost all the apps we use nowadays are powered by these three musketeers. Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Google+, etc. use these languages. They are very easy to learn. And you can create something great instantly.

Java: This language is used to write Android, desktop and server applications. You can advance to this after grasping some programming fundamentals from JavaScript or Python.

Python: This is another powerful programming language that has been adopted to a wide range of industries. From Artificial Intelligence to games to 3d programs and server applications.

Other languages include Kotlin, C/C++, Go, etc. Every language has its own strength and weaknesses. So when choosing a new language to learn, take into consideration that it can accomplish the goals you want to achieve and the support the community provides when in need of help.
Summer to Fall
By: Amy Jean Porter
Tags: Fall, Summer, Nature, Poetry, Art

Summer to Fall

The changing of the seasons, illustrated

The viburnum was midsummer, a month or more ago. Its tiny flowers like birthday candles, blooming out on long days.

Summer wasn’t what it was supposed to be, sipping 7-Up, riding dirt bikes, making holes in the sand by the lake. Oh but that was thirty years ago. We are the backstage crew now. The digging endures — kids did their swimming, lounging, fighting, laying upside down on the couch, head on the ground feet up, faces licked by the dog, growing out of shoes, snacks, scrapes, hot dogs. It was a sweaty one. They probably didn’t notice. Is it a virtue to have or not have air conditioning? The end of summer is abrupt.

I learn the laurel’s spots are “fruiting bodies.” They are galaxies in small scale.

A few weeks in and the jet lag of back-to-school is settling out. September has been dry. The leaves are brown and crisp like potato chips, not the burst of yellow cheer we need. Spiders are back making their babies in hidden corners, stretching their strings. I sweep them down. Long division appears in a backpack. The tiger moth caterpillars are white and mysterious, devouring the hydrangea. I wear gloves and toss them into the gravel. Do they enjoy that moment of mid-air? Many of them will make it to flight, fluttering up at each footstep.

On the river, the cormorant appears. Where did you come from you not-a-duck sneak, slipping in from somewhere. No one likes you. You are not the bright egret or handsome heron. Your pierce-blue eye tells true, I know more than you.

We buy shoes, boots. There will be stews and baked things soon. The plants make a last burst of growth before the cold comes. It is a midlife crisis. We enjoy the late blooms and final tomatoes of their enormous efforts. Mist hovers where cool air touches warm ground. Halloween approaches. Christmas lists have begun. Fall snaps into place and is a relief of sorts, though winter looms. The moon falls brighter than the sun.

(Previously: Spring to Summer)
History’s Toll
By: Randy Shingler
Tags: Passion, Spiritual, Poetry, History, Self-awareness

Feeling currents wash over me

Soothing currents exuding passion

Spiritual presence, gentle warmth,

Mere speck placed in the universe

Fleeting fates within history’s toll.

Present realities, references we have

To navigate through raging shoals

And in soaring flights of fantasies,

Transpicuous awareness of surroundings

And the colorful characters entertaining.

Gazing out into wild blue horizons

Reminiscing, histories gone before

Precursors to events occurring now,

History continues tolling with chimes

Listening to its ever-present melodies.

Where are universe’s specks journeying?

What kinds of legacies will they leave?

As universal melodies continue playing,

Fleeting fates within history’s toll.
早餐店加盟 — 一個人與世界競賽的圓夢計畫
By: Henry Hu
Tags: Buzz Marketing, Project The Lab, Content Marketing, Digital Marketing

Co-Founder of Chigyosha Marketing Copr. based in Taipei. Addicted in data mining and content marketing. Passionated by visions and dreams.

Follow
Why Buying Original Art is Worth It
By: Kathryn Dillon
Tags: Culture, Humanity, Creativity, Society, Art

We had an impulse purchase at the Cleveland Museum of Art earlier this year.

So close…so close to making it out with our wallets intact, but it was five minutes before the end of the Spring Member Party and my husband said, “Hey, let’s hit the gift shop since we get 25% off tonight.”

Then, we saw it.

A gorgeous piece, by artist Scott Goss, celebrating the Cleveland Flats, painted on glass with etching and fusing and slumped to a copper backing. The undulating copper and cool blues and greens spoke of water and serenity.

Of course, when people think of the Cuyahoga River, serenity isn’t the first thing that comes to mind. They usually either remember that it caught on fire in 1969 or that the Flats were the place to party in Cleveland in the 1980s and 90s. The artist’s own statement indicates that this particular series focuses on depicting the deteriorating urban core of America’s aging industrial cities.

But once we realized the artist was local, and from Shaker Heights (adjacent to our beloved home of Cleveland Heights) it was all over. We adore our adopted city and have a soft spot for all things created here.

At the cash register, we learned that we would not get the 25% discount after all, because the piece was displayed on consignment. Gulp. Swallow hard. That’s almost $400 we didn’t plan to spend on art that night or any time in the near future. Well worth it in terms of the actual value of the piece, but a fat chunk of change for people on a budget.

We bought it anyway. We supported a fellow artist.
Courts should refrain from policy matters
By: Vidyuth Chikoti
Tags: India, Supreme Court, Farmers, Farmers Protest, Modi

The role of the judiciary is not to decide on policy or make laws for governance. Our Constitution has wisely decided to separate the judiciary from the legislature, while the job of legislature is to make the laws, the role of the judiciary is to render justice, adjudicate whether these laws are being followed in execution, and prevent governments or individuals from trampling upon fundamental rights. In interfering with the farmers’ laws that the government passed in the Parliament, the apex court is doing exactly what is beyond its mandate, and in choosing to take these types of cases, it is also delaying the important cases in which it is supposed to deliver justice.

“It is a weak society that appeals to judicial paternalism to solve its problems,” said Justice Venkatachaliah.
20161230 — #31daysofgratitude. What a privilege
By: Jenny Lawton
Tags: Gratitude, Happiness, Mindfulness, Haiku, Life

What a privilege

To be able to question

What to do today?
Stro Announces ‘Grade A Frequencies’ Album, Releases New Single, “From Me”
Tags: Music, Astro, Press Release, Brian Bradley, Stro

Stro Announces ‘Grade A Frequencies’ Album, Releases New Single, “From Me”

​New York, NY // Los Angeles, CA — Tuesday, March 27th, 2017 — Today, Brooklyn-bred emcee and multi-faceted actor, Stro, has officially announced his long-awaited album, Grade A Frequencies. In addition to the new offering, Stro has decided to gift listeners with a taste of what is to come, with the advanced release of his single, “From Me”. The Jack Dine-produced record delivers an urbanesque sound cascaded by singer Marco Mckennis’ unrefined vocals. The evocative track comes alive as the song voyeurs into the travails of life, distraction and love lost. Each undulation is quickly met by percussion, and is only parallel to it’s nostalgic aura.

Stro’s new album, Grade A Frequencies will be available on Friday, April 21st, at digital retailers worldwide.

Listen to Stro’s “From Me” here.

Link: https://soundcloud.com/strothemc/from-me-feat-marco-mckinnis

Grade A Frequencies: http://smarturl.it/GradeAFrequencies
The 3 Building Blocks of Effortless Productivity — How to Work Hard Every Single Day
By: Sebastian Hallqvist
Tags: Entrepreneurship, Productivity, Purpose, Business, Self-awareness

I used to be the kind of person who starts many different projects and never finishes them. I would get really excited about something and immediately get to work, riding the initial enthusiasm. “This is it, this is the thing I will spend every waking hour on until it becomes successful,” I thought. I started picturing myself as my heroes, crushing my goals every day, and earning my place at their side.

But that was never what happened.

Instead, I would reach what marketing guru Seth Godin calls The Dip — the point when everything becomes muddled and hard, and nothing is happening despite your enthusiasm.

I desperately wanted to put in the hours. But as the resistance grew, it became harder and harder to do so. The outcome I wanted suddenly seemed less urgent. Despite being a long way from success, it was challenging to fill up my days with things to actually do. Eventually, I would always quit and move on to something else.

I started to question myself. Am I lazy? Do I not have what it takes? Will I end up a failure for the rest of my life? I remember thinking it shouldn’t have to be this hard. At least, I really wanted to believe that.
Halloween
By: Akshay G
Tags: Writing Prompts, Death, Halloween, Fiction, Life

Author’s Note: This story is my second attempt at the October Writing Prompt by the Coffeelicious. I’d written another story back then, but did not enjoy it. I was thinking about the prompt recently, and as stories do, this one, quite literally, erupted underneath my pen. I like this more and I hope you do too.

When I got home that night, I noticed the smiling Jack-o-Lantern in my front yard was crushed. I picked up the remains and walked through the door that opens every Halloween.

The boat-man was waiting on the shore of the river.

“Another one, eh?” he said, never losing his grip on the twig in his mouth. “I was about to push out. Toss him in with the rest.”

I hesitated, still holding the remains of my crushed Jack-o-Lantern. “He’s special. I carved him with my son.”

The boat-man threw his thumb over his shoulder pointing at the other crushed Jack-o-Lanterns. “They all special. Once the day is done, the door closes, they don’t be so special anymore.”

His cold hands brushed mine as he took the remains of my crushed Jack-o-Lantern and tossed it into his boat. He pushed hard with his long oar and was soon riding the river.

I lingered at the shore, refusing to leave until he was safe on the other side. I could still see my special Jack-O-Lantern. Every year when the door opens, my son visits me to carve a new Jack-o-Lantern.

The fog rolled in turning the boat and the Lanterns into faint silhouettes of themselves.

Another man stood next to me — he seemed a little older than I was. He wore the same coat and expression I did with a mustache on his face, the one I was thinking of growing.

“Every year he comes and every year is a new goodbye. Time keeps going, everywhere but here. This is the end, and in the end, we’re all the same.”
DomRaider is on CoinMarketCap!
By: Domraider Team
Tags: Drt, Coinmarketcap, Exchange, Domraider, Domraider Token

As we previously told, DomRaider ICO successfully ended, but for us it is just the beginning. Our team is working on business and partnership developments, and addition of essential staff roles progressing with every day, for the creation of the Decentralized BlockChain Auctions in Real-Time.

And, this morning, this just came in and we are excited! Now our DomRaider Token, DRT is listed on CoinMarketCap, which you can view here.

DRT (DomRaider Token) listed on CoinMarketCap

What isCoinMarketCap?

Coinmarketcap is a website meant for tracking the market capitalisation of various cryptocurrencies. It is a great deal to be listed on coinmarketcap and be a part of an exquisite league of altcoins such as Gnosis, Augur, Golem etc. Our presence on its index will provided us wider visibility resulting in global investments, hence a great value addition to our market value. Such greater acceptability among different exchanges will pour in massive investments resulting in better returns.

This enthusing news comes on the back of the DRT Token being added for trading and exchange on EtherDelta and HitBTC.

As the fuel of the DomRaider ecosystem, the market development of the DRT Token is an important aspect. We will be announcing further development with the DRT token, exchanges, and token listing platforms shortly.

As more and more industry experts evaluate our project, we’re moving closer to making our dream come true and rocking the BlockChain Auctions onto a worldwide sphere!

Stay tuned!

If you liked this article, give it a bundle of “clap” to help people discover it!

Handy links:
Body Song Presents: “Mad Girl’s Love Song” (Video)
By: Dominic Fawcett
Tags: Music, Zine, Khene, Body Song

“Mad Girl’s love song” is the new A-side single, soon to be released by Body Song. Guitarist Jackson Milgaten directed this kaleidoscope inspired dream state of a video and the lighting choices seem to serve the content of this piece very well. The song itself definitely has layers,that’s probably an understatement to be honest. It gently guides you in with a soft spacey flowing synth where it quickly cuts out into naked vocals lifted above a drum beat. Both the guitar and Drum patterns can be chaotic but definitely thought out systematically through the entire track. There is always a moment of sereneness that catches up and slows you back into the moment. Almost to serve as a calming period for the listener to catch up and register everything. Much like the title implies it really does feel like the aspects that come along with being in love with a girl who is, in fact, mad. Things shake and move and everything seems to be shifting when all of a sudden the storm stops and you’re reminded why you loved her in the first place only to be caught back into the chaos. All in all the track runs free with expressions and seems to cycle through a handful of emotions that fit very well with the implications that come along with the title. Peep the video below and see for yourself.
5 Types of Roots You Won’t Believe Exist
Tags: Roots, Science, Biology, Nature, Trees

Last year, in one of my many travels, I found myself wandering through the streets of the beautiful city of Siracusa, in Sicily.

Despite my love for ancient history, what impressed me the most was neither the ancient Greek theatre nor the Temple of Apollo, but the amazing secular trees at Largo Aretusa.

Standing in front of these massive living creatures gave me the chills. Their branches were extremely long and they were supported by what seemed to be extra branches reaching the soil and anchoring them to the terrain.

After witnessing such a beauty, I decided to go back to my hostel and do some research. The trees I was looking at a few hours before were called banyan trees and were a type of fig. Those I thought were branches reaching the soil were actually roots.

This is how my interest in roots started. Here are the 5 most impressive types of roots modification I found in my research

Prop roots

These are the roots I was able to see in Siracusa. Their function is to give extra support to the plant. In older trees, these roots can become thick and woody, resembling an actual trunk. They are commonly found in banyan trees which, thanks to these roots, can stretch their branches farther away from the main trunk, reaching an impressive size.
5 Tips for Component Based Development
By: Pankaj Patel
Tags: Angular, JavaScript, React, Front End Development, Components

Separation of Concern

Code blocks should only do what they were intended to do.

Adding more conditions and parameters can make them lengthy and hard to debug and test.

Take for example from the code block above, the ContactUs component,

const Contact = ({hovered}) => {

if (!hovered) {

return null

}

<a href="

);

} return (info@time2hack.com ">Contact Us);

Here it is more dependent on hovered prop values for render. Which means this Component needs testing for the various cases of hovered prop.

In this case, it is a boolean prop but it will multiply in case of complex object props.

We can rewrite the component to remove the dependency on the hovered prop.

The Container component should own the concern of render/no-render with itself.

Contact Component's job is to render Contact Us button/link. Expecting it to do more logical things will introduce more edge cases.

We can either use CSS to handle hide and show the button on Hover; as we saw in the previous section.

Or, conditionally render Contact component from the parent component, which is as follows:
ICO Alert Podcast #61: Ray Xiao, Berminal
By: Ico Alert
Tags: Blockchain, Crypto, Podcast

Ray Xiao of the Berm Protocol, Berminal application and a Co-founder of IOST.

My guest today was Ray Xiao of the Berm Protocol and Berminal application. Ray is one of the Co-Founders of IOST, which you can learn more about in a previous podcast we hosted here.

Berminal is the first application built on top of the Berm Protocol and has grown tremendously in the last few months. Berminal allows you to earn tokens just for reading and marking news articles as “Bullish” or “Bearish”, filling out polls, and predicting future price. I’ve been impressed with the quality of news that Berminal is able to feature and had a great time on the podcast with Ray.

The mobile app is well done and can be downloaded today for iOS and Android devices.

Enjoy!

Check out our comprehensive list of ICOs at icoalert.com

Follow ICO data at twitter.com/icoalert

The ICO Alert Podcast showcases exclusive, in-depth interviews with founders of past, present, and future Initial Coin Offerings. The podcast is hosted by Mike Finch, Co-Founder of ICO Alert. If you’d like, you can request a guest to appear on a future episode by emailing podcast@icoalert.com.

Originally published on blog.icoalert.com

https://blog.icoalert.com/podcast-xiao-berminal
Harvard, MIT, Stanford Endowments Invest in Crypto
By: Team Peerfin
Tags: Crypto, Education, Bitcoin, Cryptocurrency

According to a recent report, the endowments of Harvard University, Stanford University, Dartmouth College, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the University of North Carolina have made investments into at least one cryptocurrency fund.

Since the beginning, Peerfin focused on educating and creating awareness about blockchain and cryptocurrency in colleges and university endowment fund managers. While it was tough for many of them to understand the value of blockchain and use of cryptocurrencies for payment, some were interested in understanding the opportunity, and few joined the bandwagon.

We believe that the above investment news is overall good for the blockchain and the market. We also think that colleges based in South East Asia and Europe will start accepting cryptocurrency as a mode of payment for college fees in coming years.

Thank you for reading :)

Join our Telegram channel for more info — @peerfin

Visit our website — www.peerfin.io
Climb Every Mountain
Tags: Fantasy, Ambition, Comics, Challenges In Life, Cartoon

Written by

Almost famous cartoonist who laughs at her own jokes and hopes you will, too.
How I Discovered A Talent I Never Knew I Always Had
By: Shanice J. Douglas
Tags: Life Lessons, Entrepreneurship, Freelancing, Writing, Life

One summer evening, while on a short break at my temporary job in administration in a New York City non-profit, I found myself scrolling down the homepage of the Huffington Post. I was pleasantly surprised to find that they had recently launched a new series of blog posts highlighting black women and their experiences with their natural hair. There was literally only one post published at the time, but almost immediately, I felt a pleasant pull towards contributing.

On pieces of scrap paper, in between tasks, I began writing what would become my submission to this blog series. While I doubted how good my writing could actually be to be published on such a well-known platform, I felt comfortable sharing my journey about learning to re-love my natural hair and by extension, myself, through care and consideration. After all, my little blog was already talking about it. What could it possibly hurt?

“A woman taking notes in a large notebook next to a laptop” by J. Kelly Brito on Unsplash

I received a favorable response the next day from the editor in charge of the series, as well as an invitation to join the Huffington Post contributor platform, which went on to open a slew of opportunities for me that I never thought possible before.

Yeah, I’ve always been good at digging up relevant information and using words to present my findings in a clear, consistent way, but for some reason, I never thought of it as more than just a skill that I needed to use to excel academically.

I had almost a mantra that I held onto tightly for many years, unaware of just how firmly my grip was on it. It went something like, “I don’t have a talent. It’s not like I can go on stage and read a book and write a paper while in a pageant.”. It’s almost as if I refused to acknowledge that these skills that I had developed over years of careful observation, effort, and genuine interest in learning, were just as worthy of admiration as a beautiful voice or a flexible body.
Та бүхэн нойргүйдээд яваад л байх уу?
By: Enkhbaatar Ulziikhishig
Tags: Cardiology, Insomnia, Sleep, Cardiovascular Disease, Sleep Disorders

Humuun.Labb is a startup that strives to help human to use their body, mind and spirit to its optimal potential.

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city
By: Eashan Reddy Kotha
Tags: Life, City Living, Night, Poetry, Haiku

Haiku is a form of poetry usually inspired by nature, which embraces simplicity. We invite all poetry lovers to have a go at composing Haiku. Be warned. You could become addicted.

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