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Destroy the Palm Trees - Five Reasons Why Palm Trees Need To Go Away

  I'm here to tell you about a vegetable menace that is the AIDS of the plant world. If you live in most parts of North America, these plants have you surrounded. They're butt-ugly brown sticks thrusting phallically into the sky in unnatural rows, crowned by a spidery fright-wig of spikes. They look like a raspberry on a stick.  I'm talking, of course, about the omnipresent palm tree, found everywhere in your city. It doesn't matter what you hate, this tree embodies it.  The palm tree is the…
Score: 26.98

How To Build An EDH Deck For Magic: The Gathering

      Ready For Commander?  Commander, also called "EDH" (stands for "Elder Dragon Highlander," an outdated in-joke), is the most popular format of the collectible trading card game Magic: The Gathering, counting over-all formats.  While EDH doesn't appear much in competitive formats when the tournament is over, and the last booster box handed out, look for the players to be huddled up in the corner over a Commander game.  It has every reason to be popular; it is the only MTG format created entirely by the…
Score: 26.42

Best Magic! the Gathering Sealed Products - A Guide to Strategic Investment in Magic: The Gathering

    "Many Magic: The Gathering players ask the question…" Don't you ever get tired of mocking the Professor of Tolarian Community College with that opening? The answer is no, we don't. Even though we love the Professor, and this post is partly inspired by his YouTube channel's content, he's just irresistible to mimic. Not to mention, if he were here reading this, he would probably disagree with the majority of what we're going to be saying here.  The Professor, spoiler alert, usually poops on Wizards…
Score: 12.71

Thailand VS Philippines in language, culture, money, and love

Moving to Thailand or the Philippines and how the English language, cultural influence, cost of living, and relationships could affect your choices.        It is never as easy as choosing a pros and cons list or just doing what works for others.    If one is considering the possibility of moving to Asia and becoming an official Expatriate (or expat for short), two popular choices are:   Moving to Thailand Moving to the Philippines   I use these two more specifically because I have lived in both countries.  In…
Score: 10.3

The Biggest and Best Lego Sets Ever

    This may come as a shock to some of you, but… I'm a geek! Geeks are marked by a natural inclination for complex, involved toys and expensive, solitary hobbies. But in between building the ultimate gaming PC or tinkering with Arduino kits to make custom Christmas light patterns, there's one hallmark geek toy that doesn't get brought up much.  I'm talking, of course, about Lego. Sure, we all remember the canonical brick building toy from our childhoods. Back when Legos just came in a loose bucket of…
Score: 8.65

Social Media Activism

#MeToo: Did Anything Change?

2 words… 2 words and what was once known as a pound sign lit up the internet, was stoked by celebrities and ignited the world into discussing a topic that once was too taboo to even speak behind closed doors. Though this movement has proven to make major waves in the world of the celebrity - with the big name arrests of Bill Cosby and Harvey Weinstein - what is happening for everyone else? What about the everyday woman without the money, power, and influence behind her?The first time I was…
Score: 1.06

It Is Indeed Time To Police Social Media

    It is time we faced the music, Internet fans: We broke everything. Social Media was a mistake. None of us are close to understanding how or why, but apparently we have created a monster.    Social media seemed harmless enough when it came along.  Social media was nothing but an extension of the exact same Internet we'd had for decades. Believe it or not, there is very little difference between modern Reddit and Usenet circa 1990. There's also very little difference between modern Twitter and an AOL…
Score: 1.05
Parenting

Helicopter parents

by Dominus

Parents love their children. They want to protect the young ones from everything that can harm them and teach their adorable little humans everything they need to know to become responsible, self-sufficient adults. Parents teach the child the proper way to do things and then they have to give that same child space to practice on their own. That means that in some situations the child has to be left alone to find his/her own solutions to increasingly more difficult problems, based on what they…
Score: 1.84

Post-Apocalyptic Parenting in a COVID-19 World

This may well be the year when the American people learn to appreciate street smarts over book smarts.        Because kids right now can learn important lessons about how badly the adult world has lost it right now.   We have Betsy DeVos in charge of the Department of Education, which is like putting a fox in charge of the henhouse. We have the "demon seed" lady replacing Dr. Fauci as our national pandemic expert. The US is heading into the worst peaks of COVID-19 infection while the rest of the world…
Score: 1.36

Why You Should Homeschool Your Pre-School Aged Child

        Stay-At-Home mom life is extremely difficult, isolating, and much more complicated than it sounds.   Many of these moms do not get the credit they deserve. Caring for children all day is extremely taxing on the mind and body. Many stay-at-home moms crave a taste of freedom and desire for their children to begin a curriculum early in life.   This is why many desperate mothers place their pre-school aged child in a program that claims to prepare children for kindergarten. However, more and more…
Score: 1.15
Oregon

8 Must-Visit Places in Coastal Oregon - Perfect Getaway with Outdoor Explorations and Wanderings

On my first full day in Oregon, I met a woman who asked me how long I would be staying. I replied that I would only be there for the summer while I completed my internship. She then proceeded to warn me, with a sly smile on her face, that I should be careful or Oregon will steal my heart and I will not want to leave.    I went back home at the end of that summer, but the words spoken prophetically by the woman in the cafe rang true. I did not go to Oregon expecting it to steal my heart the way it…
Score: 1.0
Ruby on Rails

Implement Two-factor-authentication in Rails with Devise, ActiveModel::Otp, and Google Authenticator

by Kevin

Background  There are many gems for implementing two-factor authentication for Rails app out there. But, most of them don't work properly with Devise out from the box.   Some gems offering seamless integration with Devise gem never work smoothly with our existing Rails app. This is why we share our experience and strategy to implement two-factor authentication using Devise and ActiveModel::Otp gems.  This implementation, based on our experience, works very well with the latest Google Authenticator app…
Score: 6.5

Optimize your Rails Code with Bullet Gem and Speed Up your site!

by Kevin

Why Bullet Gem?  For this Rails optimization, we'll focus on optimizing repeated SQL calls to retrieve objects associated with many relationships: N+1 queries problem. The solution to such an issue is an eager loading association.  Unoptimized N+1 affected code takes a significantly longer time as N times additional SQL calls are needed.  But, we should be careful when using that eager loading approach. This because unused eager loading can deteriorate our Rails app performance instead of improving…
Score: 6.23

Step-by-Step guide on how to move from Sprockets to Webpacker

by Kevin

Why we write this guide  There are several reasons The official guide provides very little info. We underestimated the effort to do this. This long post explains our similar experience. Yet, that long post doesn't give a brief step-by-step guide. So, we decide to fill the gap.             1. Add Webpacker to Gemfile  We recommend you to leave the sprockets gem in your Gemfile if it's still needed. Or, if you plan to move gradually. Don't worry because both of them won't interfere with each other.  In our…
Score: 4.23
Podcasting

Five Podcasts For When You Suddenly Have A Lot of Time on Your Hands

When I first began hearing the term Podcast, I thought, what is all the hubbub? It is just people having a conversation, not unlike a youtube video or talk show.  Then, as podcasting grew in popularity - rather rapidly, I must say - I went from skeptical to enamored upon discovering a few that interested me.      I realized podcasts could be creative, educational, inspirational, and downright hilarious. They are a great companion for long drives or days when you are doing work around the house (or in…
Score: 1.26

Four More Podcasts - For When You Suddenly Have A Lot of Time on Your Hands

And here we are, still in quarantine (or at least us non essential folks should be).    I know you are probably sick and tired of hearing that word (quarantine, ugh) and all of its associates, so you will be happy to hear that the pandemic is not the focus. Today, I am writing to offer you what will hopefully provide some much needed entertainment and delight on slow days working from home or during any other downtime you might have.    After several weeks of entering data alone in my home, with only my…
Score: 1.0
Music Reviews

Best Summer Zoom Hangout Albums

by CFC123

Meet up with friends over Zoom and enjoy some of the best music of the 2000s, for gatherings of any occasion! Find your favorite genres and styles below, match the vibe, and let these great records spin. With a little something for everyone, check out the list below and let your tastes be heard!      I'm all about the classic HIP-HOP sound, both from the old guys and the modern greats. I've heard all the best out there, and I want my rappers to be......brash and cocky   Jay-Z – American Gangster     …
Score: 1.03
Music Theory

Compositional Complexity in Technical Death Metal

by CFC123

INTRODUCTION  Outside of the realm of radio airplay and mass consumption, metal bands struggle to distinguish themselves while subjected to ever-shifting standards set by short-lived trends. All groups with media presence seem to have something to prove, and Florida native Chuck Schuldiner was no exception. When denounced by the other members of his band Death, Schuldiner arrived at a creative waypoint; he knew that he wanted something cleaner, and to “move forward musically.”  In 1991, Death…
Score: 3.23
Cryptocurrency

The Future of Cryptocurrency

Last year had been great for cryptocurrencies, especially Bitcoin that has recently hit USD 20,000 last December before crashing down to USD 11,000 and then reaching back the USD 13,500-15,000 mark currently.   Presently, the price of Bitcoin has reached USD 11,381 due to the pressure of regulations from South Korea and China and because of the rumors that government may ban cryptocurrencies.      Nonetheless, not a single day passes by when one doesn’t hear something about cryptocurrencies in…
Score: 1.06
Hack and Slash

God of War: The Grown-up Version

by Dominus

   It is that special time again when the kid in me is allowed to frolic because I get to play, in my opinion, the newest iteration in one of the best franchises that the game gods were kind enough to bestow upon us. I should mention that I am an adult, fully integrated into society, with plenty of problems to solve throughout the day, very busy and all that. None of that seemed to matter when I walked past the games section in a store,  actually looking for a decent vacuum cleaner. My eyes…
Score: 1.31
Museums

How Madame Tussauds Wax Museum Got Started

  Many people like going to wax museums to see the life-like recreations of famous people and celebrities, both alive and dead. But did you ever stop to wonder how wax museums became so popular in the first place? Most people already know about the most famous chain of wax museums in the world which is Madame Tussauds. But did you know that she was a real person and that the way she got started creating wax figures was anything but fun?    The Early Life Of Madame Tussaud    She was born December 1st…
Score: 1.13