#Application Research Measures

[dandelionsresilience]

Good News - July 22-28

Like these weekly compilations? Tip me at $kaybarr1735 or check out my new(ly repurposed) Patreon!

1. Four new cheetah cubs born in Saudi Arabia after 40 years of extinction

“[T]he discovery of mummified cheetahs in caves […] which ranged in age from 4,000 to as recent as 120 years, proved that the animals […] once called [Saudi Arabia] home. The realisation kick-started the country’s Cheetah Conservation Program to bring back the cats to their historic Arabian range. […] Dr Mohammed Qurban, CEO of the NCW, said: […] “This motivates us to continue our efforts to restore and reintroduce cheetahs, guided by an integrated strategy designed in accordance with best international practices.””

2. In sub-Saharan Africa, ‘forgotten’ foods could boost climate resilience, nutrition

“[A study published in PNAS] examined “forgotten” crops that may help make sub-Saharan food systems more resilient, and more nutritious, as climate change makes it harder to grow [current staple crops.] [… The study identified 138 indigenous] food crops that were “relatively underresearched, underutilized, or underpromoted in an African context,” but which have the nutrient content and growing stability to support healthy diets and local economies in the region. […] In Eswatini, van Zonneveld and the World Vegetable Center are working with schools to introduce hardy, underutilized vegetables to their gardens, which have typically only grown beans and maize.”

3. Here's how $4 billion in government money is being spent to reduce climate pollution

“[New Orleans was awarded] nearly $50 million to help pay for installing solar on low to middle income homes [… and] plans to green up underserved areas with trees and build out its lackluster bike lane system to provide an alternative to cars. […] In Utah, $75 million will fund several measures from expanding electric vehicles to reducing methane emissions from oil and gas production. [… A] coalition of states led by North Carolina will look to store carbon in lands used for agriculture as well as natural places like wetlands, with more than $400 million. [… This funding is] “providing investments in communities, new jobs, cost savings for everyday Americans, improved air quality, … better health outcomes.””

4. From doom scrolling to hope scrolling: this week’s big Democratic vibe shift

“[Democrats] have been on an emotional rollercoaster for the past few weeks: from grim determination as Biden fought to hang on to his push for a second term, to outright exuberance after he stepped aside and Harris launched her campaign. […] In less than a week, the Harris campaign raised record-breaking sums and signed up more than 100,000 new volunteers[….] This honeymoon phase will end, said Democratic strategist Guy Cecil, warning the election will be a close race, despite this newfound exuberance in his party. [… But v]oters are saying they are excited to vote for Harris and not just against Trump. That’s new.”

5. Biodegradable luminescent polymers show promise for reducing electronic waste

“[A team of scientists discovered that a certain] chemical enables the recycling of [luminescent polymers] while maintaining high light-emitting functions. […] At the end of life, this new polymer can be degraded under either mild acidic conditions (near the pH of stomach acid) or relatively low heat treatment (> 410 F). The resulting materials can be isolated and remade into new materials for future applications. […] The researchers predict this new polymer can be applied to existing technologies, such as displays and medical imaging, and enable new applications […] such as cell phones and computer screens with continued testing.”

6. World’s Biggest Dam Removal Project to Open 420 Miles of Salmon Habitat this Fall

“Reconnecting the river will help salmon and steelhead populations survive a warming climate and [natural disasters….] In the long term, dam removal will significantly improve water quality in the Klamath. “Algae problems in the reservoirs behind the dams were so bad that the water was dangerous for contact […] and not drinkable,” says Fluvial Geomorphologist Brian Cluer. [… The project] will begin to reverse decades of habitat degradation, allow threatened salmon species to be resilient in the face of climate change, and restore tribal connections to their traditional food source.”

7. Biden-Harris Administration Awards $45.1 Million to Expand Mental Health and Substance Use Services Across the Lifespan

““Be it fostering wellness in young people, caring for the unhoused, facilitating treatment and more, this funding directly supports the needs of our neighbors,” said HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra. [The funding also supports] recovery and reentry services to adults in the criminal justice system who have a substance use disorder[… and clinics which] serve anyone who asks for help for mental health or substance use, regardless of their ability to pay.”

8. The World’s Rarest Crow Will Soon Fly Free on Maui

“[… In] the latest attempt to establish a wild crow population, biologists will investigate if this species can thrive on Maui, an island where it may have never lived before. Translocations outside of a species’ known historical range are rare in conservation work, but for a bird on the brink of extinction, it’s a necessary experiment: Scientists believe the crows will be safer from predators in a new locale—a main reason that past reintroduction attempts failed. […] As the release date approaches, the crows have already undergone extensive preparation for life in the wild. […] “We try to give them the respect that you would give if you were caring for someone’s elder.””

9. An optimist’s guide to the EV battery mining challenge

““Battery minerals have a tremendous benefit over oil, and that’s that you can reuse them.” [… T]he report’s authors found there’s evidence to suggest that [improvements in technology] and recycling have already helped limit demand for battery minerals in spite of this rapid growth — and that further improvements can reduce it even more. [… They] envision a scenario in which new mining for battery materials can basically stop by 2050, as battery recycling meets demand. In this fully realized circular battery economy, the world must extract a total of 125 million tons of battery minerals — a sum that, while hefty, is actually 17 times smaller than the oil currently harvested every year to fuel road transport.”

10. Peekaboo! A baby tree kangaroo debuts at the Bronx Zoo

“The tiny Matschie’s tree kangaroo […] was the third of its kind born at the Bronx Zoo since 2008. [… A] Bronx Zoo spokesperson said that the kangaroo's birth was significant for the network of zoos that aims to preserve genetic diversity among endangered animals. "It's a small population and because of that births are not very common," said Jessica Moody, curator of primates and small mammals at the Bronx Zoo[, …] adding that baby tree kangaroos are “possibly one of the cutest animals to have ever lived. They look like stuffed animals, it's amazing.””

July 15-21 news here | (all credit for images and written material can be found at the source linked; I don’t claim credit for anything but curating.)

[insipid-drivel]

Warhorses: Which horses are actually good candidates, anyway?

This post is in honor of @warrioreowynofrohan, who asked the question in the comments under my guide, "Horses: Since There Seems To Be A Knowledge Gap". Their question, "Given what you said about too much weight breaking a horse’s spine, how did that work with knights in plate armour?" is one I'm going to try to answer here, since the answer can be very nuanced depending on where and when you're talking about.

Also, while I was a stable hand for years as well as a rider, I never had the opportunity to directly learn more ancient styles of tacking, horse training, and combat, so I don't have any direct experience to draw from with regard to horses used for military purposes. I'm still gonna do my best here with what I know, and research what I don't.

As I've covered in the past, large horses (draft horses) make less-than-ideal warhorses, and so do carriage horses like the elegant and dramatic Friesians.

Let's begin by addressing this from the perspective of creative writing. For you writers and content creators out there, an essential part to the continuity of any historically-themed work you do involving horses will be depicting breeds of horses that didn't exist before a certain time in history. I'm going to approach this question from the stance of, "Medieval-type era warhorses". Horses were used in warfare as late was World War II, but actual horses you ride into battle with knights and archers and bannermen? We actually have to drop the subject of specific modern breeds altogether aside from using them for comparisons.

When discussing warhorses, various cultures have approached them differently. Some cultures will value a specific type of horse above all others, such as the Mongolian Steppe Horse or the American Mustang. Other cultures, which may be from biomes and territories where multiple types of horses are needed for different forms of warfare and tactics, value whichever horses can get their jobs done without their riders getting killed.

Carrying vs. Pulling:

Horses have been used in warfare since as far back as 4000 BC, but their first applications were more as chariot horses. Humans have been riding and working with horses since before we even had stirrups to more easily ride them with! As archaeologists and anthropologists make more discoveries, the more we learn that we humans have been working closely with horses since before we had specialized tools to ride them with. The very first warhorses pulled chariots or carts, which is much easier for a horse's anatomy to handle compared to carrying a heavy weight like an armored rider on their backs, which puts stress directly on their spines where they have very little supporting muscle for supporting a lot of heavy downward weight.

Warhorse Size Categories:

Really, any breed of horse can apply to a niche in warfare if it's needed enough. Even very small, delicate horses have had their place in the history of human combat! Before I continue, it's important to know that there's a unique unit of measuring a horse's height. Rather than measuring a horse's height in centimeters or inches, they're measured in units called "hands". A single "hand" = ~4 inches/10.16cm, and a horse's height is measured based upon the distance between the bottom of their hoof to the tallest part of their shoulders, just at the base of the back of their necks. We don't actually include neck length/head height in a horse's measurements with traditional measuring.

Another rule of thumb: The average horse cannot safely carry anything heavier than about 30% of their total body weight. This is a serious factor to take into mind when deciding on a type of or breed of horse for a mounted warrior of any kind: You need to factor in the OC's starting body weight, and then add on the weight of armor, weapons, and any armor the horse itself may wear along with the weight of its tack.

Light-Weight Horses:

A few examples of lightweight horse breeds whose ancestors have historically been used in combat are Arabians, Barber Horses, and the magnificent Akhal-Teke. Lightweight and delicately-boned horses like those are best applied for military maneuvers that require precision, speed, and endurance, and the rider themselves should specialize in some form of combat or reconnaissance that doesn't require them to wear heavy metal or laminated armors. Archers are good candidates for riding smaller horses, or lightly-armored swordsmen like an Ottoman Janissary.

Central-Asian and North African horses also benefit from having a higher tolerance for hot climates. They can absolutely suffer from heatstroke and cardiac arrest from being forced to run and work in extreme temperatures and should always be provided with the same protective measures in a heatwave as any other horse, but they have a little bit of an edge over horses descended from freezing and temperate climates.

Medium-Weight Horses:

Medium-weight horses started showing up in the archaeological record around about the Iron Age, where chariot warfare was becoming an increasingly utilized form of mobile combat, and people needed bigger, stronger horses capable of pulling heavier loads - such as a chariot with two passengers rather than just one. As cultures began to develop heavier-duty armors made of metals and laminated materials, it also became important to breed horses that were tall and stocky (muscular and with relatively short spines compared to their height), and therefore more capable of carrying riders in increasingly heavy armor. Medium-weight horses were also essential at the dawn of the gunpowder age when the cannon came into use in siege warfare for pulling the heavy, iron cannons into position.

Medium-weight horses are really where we see the beginnings of knights and other warrior classes on horseback come into the forefront of warfare. When you have a horse that's big and strong enough to carry heavier armor and heavier weapons along with a rider wielding them, you have a much deadlier force at your disposal. Strikes from a sword or spear from the back of a galloping horse basically results in a sword capable of cutting through enemy soldiers like a hot knife through butter.

Important Note: Traditionally, cavalrymen wield blunt swords when attacking from a charging horse's back. When a horse is charging at full speed, the sharpness of a blade becomes less important than the blade's ability to stay in one piece when it impacts hard armor and bone. A blunted edge basically turns a cavalryman's sword into a thin club that's better at holding up against smashing through multiple layers of armor and bone compared to a thinner, more delicate sharpened edge that can shatter from a high-speed impact.

Heavy-Weight Horses:

The direct ancestors of modern draft horses, such as the Shire Horse, only began to appear around about the beginning of the European Medieval Era, and were far and away not even close to the enormous sizes of the draft horses we have today. Any horse counts as a "Heavy-weight" classed horse if its weight exceeds 1500lbs/680kgs.

Heavy-weight horses were really more bred for pulling enormous weights rather than carrying knights. While yeah, there is some evidence that suggests that heavy-weight horses were used by heavily-armored knights, historians argue a lot about whether it was a rule or an exception (such as with Henry VIII, who continued to ride well after he had begun to weigh more than 350lbs/158kgs, and even went to war in France in his final years on horseback). Generally speaking, medium-weight horses tend to be the right balance of agile and strong for carrying someone that's going to actively be fighting. Heavy-weight horses were bred to be a lot more tolerant to the chaos and frightening stimulation of the sounds of battle, but medium-weighted horses generally tended to be more suited to moving efficiently through dense packs of soldiers and weaving around other horses.

Ponies:

While actually being the smallest class of warhorse, ponies were essential when it came to carrying cargo and working as pack-horses. In certain forms of terrain, such as mountains, large horses pulling big carts full of supplies or soldiers could often be extremely impractical. In situations where an army needed to move on foot and form a narrow line in order to travel, ponies were able to traverse much narrower and rougher terrain while carrying smaller loads to their destination, when heavier horses would struggle more under their own weight and dexterity.

Europe-Specific Terminologies:

If you're a writer reading this and writing a piece set in the European Medieval age, there are specific terms used for the different classes I listed of warhorses above that I'm gonna list:

Destriers: The Destrier was a universal term for the iconic knight-carrying, jousting horse. They were also sometimes referred to as "Great Horses" due to their reputations in combat settings. Destriers could have just about any appearance, but were rarely taller than 15.2 hands, or 62inches/157cm. They were capable of carrying heavily-armored knights (although knights in full plate mail rarely rode into battle and stayed on the horse the entire time - they tended to specialize at grouping up and killing a lot of footsoldiers swarming them at once and preventing breaks in defenses from being overwhelmed by an oncoming army; in the case of Edward the Black Prince, we have substantial evidence in the form of his surviving brigandine that a mounted soldier or knight was more likely to wear chainmail and brigandine with a tabard on their body with their arms, feet, and heads the most heavily armored in plate when they intended to fight on horseback, making them a little lighter and more maneuverable, but I may be waaay off base there because I'm thinking of more of Italian soldiers who used full plate and how they applied it in battle more than any other example) and wearing armor themselves.

Interestingly, the sex of a destrier was often chosen strategically. Stallions (horses that haven't been neutered) are more aggressive, and could both act as combatants on their own if their knight was dismounted or killed, but could give away an army's location if they were attempting to move stealthily. Stallions whinny and shriek a lot when they're horny or arguing with each other, which is most of the time.

Mares were often chosen by Muslim armies for being much less vocal, and therefore much more capable of stealth. Geldings (neutered males) were the preferred mounts of the Teutonic Knights, a Catholic military group, since they couldn't be stolen and used to breed more horses for the enemy army.

Coursers:

Coursers were the most common Medieval European warhorse. It's important to remember that in Medieval Europe, most armies were almost entirely comprised of common men - serfs subject to the will of their landlords, not far removed from slaves in many ways - who couldn't afford the highly-prized and expensive Destriers. Coursers were usually a bit lighter than Destriers, but were still strong enough to carry someone wearing armor. Coursers were also a little more utilitarian, because they were also sometimes used in hunting as well as warfare, so they had a valuable use outside of warfare that the owner could benefit from.

Rouncey:

A rouncey was an all-purpose horse that could be used for leisure and travel-riding as well as be trained for war. They were a lot more likely to be found on the farm of a serf or independent farmer of some kind, as they could fill a lot of different roles depending on what they were needed for. Their sizes weren't really important as much as their ability to get the job done.

It's also critical to remember that, when talking about warhorses, we're usually talking about eras long past. In general, thanks to resource availability and incredible advances in medicine, modern humans are significantly taller, and therefore heavier, than people from the European Medieval era and prior. While fatness was valued in many cultures for its suggestion of wealth, most working-class and serf-class people worked intensely physically-demanding daily lives just to maintain their own homes. They were a few inches shorter on average than we are today, had greater fluctuations in body fat distribution depending on how harsh or bountiful the harvest season had been and the season in which a war was taking place (the average person's weight would swing by 30lbs or more on average every year prior to the industrial era), and cavalry were usually chosen based upon skill in the saddle as well as physical size when considering the application of medium or heavy armor being placed on the horse's back and body.

[literaryvein-reblogs]

Writing Notes: The Five-Factor Model of Personality

Culture is transmitted to people through language, as well as through social norms which establish acceptable and unacceptable behaviors which are then rewarded or punished (Henrich, 2016; Triandis & Suh, 2002).

With an increased understanding of cultural learning, psychologists have become interested in the role of culture in understanding personality.

The 5 Personality Traits According to this Model

OPENNESS TO EXPERIENCE

Refers to a person's imagination, feelings, actions, ideas

LOW score: More likely to be practical, conventional, prefer routine

HIGH score: More likely to be curious, have a wide range of interests, be independent

CONSCIENTIOUSNESS

Competence, self-discipline, thoughtfulness, goal-driven

LOW: Impulsive, careless, disorganized

HIGH: Hardworking, dependable, organized

EXTROVERSION

Sociability, assertiveness, emotional expression

LOW: Quiet, reserved, withdrawn

HIGH: Outgoing, warm, seeks adventure

AGREEABLENESS

Cooperative, trustworthy, good-natured

LOW: Critical, uncooperative, suspicious

HIGH: Helpful, trusting, empathetic

NEUROTICISM

Tendency toward unstable emotions

LOW: Calm, even-tempered, secure

HIGH: Anxious, unhappy, prone to negative emotions

Applicability

The idea that personality can be described and explained by five traits (OCEAN) has important implications, as does the fact that most personality tests were constructed and initially tested in Western countries.

Western ideas about personality may not apply to other cultures (Benet-Martinez & Oishi, 2008).

2 Main Cultural Approaches for Researching Personality

Etic traits - considered universal constructs that are evident across cultures and represent a biological bases of human personality. If the Big Five are universal then they should appear across all cultures (McCrae and Allik, 2002).

Emic traits - constructs unique to each culture and are determined by local customs, thoughts, beliefs, and characteristics. If personality traits are unique to individual cultures then different traits should appear in different cultures.

Using an Etic Framework

Cross cultural research of personality uses an etic framework and researchers must ensure equivalence of the personality test through validation testing.

The instrument must include equivalence in meaning, as well as demonstrate validity and reliability (Matsumoto & Luang, 2013).

Example: The phrase feeling blue is used to describe sadness in Westernized cultures but does not translate to other languages.

Differences in personality across cultures could be due to real cultural differences, but they could also be consequences of poor translations, biased sampling, or differences in response styles across cultures (Schmitt, Allik, McCrae, & Benet-Martínez, 2007).

Personality Test/Measure Used: The NEO-PI

Most of the cross-cultural research on the Five-Factor Model (FFM) and Big Five (OCEAN) has been done using the NEO-PI (and its subsequent revisions; i.e., it is an assessment tool developed to measure the 5 dimensions of personality according to the FFM) which has demonstrated equivalence, reliability and validity across several cross-cultural studies (Costa & McCrae, 1987; McCrae, Costa & Martin, 2005).

Research using the NEO-PI found support for the entire Five-Factor Model in Chinese, Dutch, Italian, Hungarian, German, Australian, South African, Canadian, Finnish, Polish, Portuguese, Israeli, Korean, Japanese, and Filipino samples, in addition to other samples (McCrae, Costa, Del Pilar, Rolland, & Parker, 1998).

NOTE

Personality tests rely on self-report which is susceptible to response bias like socially desirability responding.

To evaluate this possibility, McCrae and colleagues (2005) recruited students from 50 cultural groups and modified the NEO-PI to be in the third person (i.e., he, she, his, her):

The research participants were asked to complete the form on someone else that they knew very well (McCrae et al., 2005).

The same 5 factors emerged in this study.

These results provided empirical support for the FFM and for the use of self-report instruments when conducting cross-cultural personality research.

There was no reason for the students to respond in a desirable way because they were answering questions about someone else.

Sources: 1 2

[shiut]

Homunculus Research (the kinda scientific edition)

Time for me to do the thing that I do where I think way too much about barely explained fictional science and try my best to apply actual science to it. For fun.

So, here is my biological summary for the homunculi of Rain Code, which will be mostly non-canon speculation.

What is a homunculus? A homunculus is an artificially created, cloned individual using the genetic information of a human for the purpose of developing immortality and regeneration applicable to military use.

What is a homunculus made of and how? A homunculus is created from gram-negative bacteria and human cells through complete recombinant DNA cloning. This technique is achieved through taking the genes of the human donor and incorporating the information into a bacterial chromosomal DNA and plasmid(the secondary circular DNA molecule of bacteria used for gene replication and transfer). Additionally, the incorporation of the enzyme telomerase and protein p53 is applied.

What contributes to a homunculus's regenerative properties and immortality? Homunculi exhibit accelerated initial growth and healing thanks to the bacterial hybridization of their cells. Bacteria have one of the fastest replication rates, and can replicate at a rate of about every 10 minutes compared to the average human cell's replication rate of every 24 hours. Gram-negative bacteria also have a complex layering of membrane that allow them to be more resistant to antibiotics and a more sturdy structure. Bacteria have the ability to go through inactivation, where they go into a state of metabolic dormancy that protect them and allow them to be able to wait out periods of extreme conditions and nutrient scarcity. Telomerase, the 'immortality enzyme', is utilized for its function in restoring the length of telomeres. Telomeres are a protective chromosomal cap that normally erode with each cell division, and it's this shortening that causes DNA damage and aging in humans. Telomerase repairs this erosion and allows cells to divide indefinitely. However, because of telomerase's link to increased rates of cancer, additional copies of the gene responsible for the production of p53 protein is also incorporated. P53 is a tumor suppressor that allows damaged cells to repair themselves before dividing, which prevents the spread of cancerous cells.

Why is homunculus blood pink? Gram-negative bacteria is identifiable for its bright pink color by using the gram staining method. This is because the characteristic cell wall structure of gram-negative bacteria which makes them so resilient also causes the bacteria to display the color of the safranin. Homunculus researchers may apply a gram staining process to the circulatory system of homunculi for the purpose of identification and observation.

Relevance of gram-negative bacteria in gene cloning and military research. The most commonly used strain of bacteria used in gene cloning research is the gram-negative bacteria such as e. coli for its ready availability, ease of growth and manipulation, and simplicity. Gram-negative bacteria such as e. coli has a history in military research, in cases such as a probiotic when an army surgeon isolated a strain found in a soldier who, unlike his comrades, did not develop an illness from an infectious outbreak.

What is the zombified state of imperfect homunculi? It is the result of cell inactivation that, while it is a protective measure for the cells, the slowed or halted metabolic state causes the low-functioning mental and physical faculties that present zombie-like symptoms, and is currently difficult to impossible to reverse in imperfect homunculi due to their varying degrees of cellular instability.

Why do imperfect homunculi require compounds found in human flesh for nutrients? Plasmid stability in DNA cloned cells is often influenced by the original donor's genotype. Imperfect homunculi cells may include defects in the cell division process where the stability of the human DNA contained in the cell plasmid results in incomplete DNA replication, whereas each division causes informational gaps in the gene and interrupt protein synthesis. These gaps can be filled and repaired by taking and incorporating the required information from a healthy human cell through the process of horizontal gene transfer. Human matter must be consumed and broken down in order for the homunculus cells to initiate this process. The lack of these nutrients can cause the homunculus cells to go into a state of inactivation.

Why are imperfect homunculi vulnerable to sunlight? UV has been known to exhibit antimicrobial effects. Many bacteria, especially gram-negative bacteria, are averse to sunlight. Exposure to the UV radiation in sunlight results in the damage or solar induced inactivation of unstable homunculus cells.

Written, hopefully, as simplified and concise as possible for readability. I feel like I'm forgetting more things I wanted to address, but maybe I'll just leave it here and just make more parts if I think of it :P

[evidence-based-activism]

I constantly see posts about women being afraid to walk alone at night and men’s rights activists jumping in to talk about how it’s more dangerous for men and that strangers don’t pose a significant risk to women. Is that true?

Hi!

So, the answer to this is somewhat complicated. The short version is: women and men have similar overall victimization rates, but men are more likely to be victimized by strangers. This is a result of differences in exposure to possible stranger victimization, such that women actively reduce their exposure to stranger perpetrated crime more than men.

---

Stranger Victimization Statistics

The Bureau of Justice Statistics has an NCVS Dashboard [1] which facilitates questions like these. Using this dashboard, I found:

Aggregating across sex, strangers committed ~45% of all violent victimizations compared to ~45% of violent victimizations committed by known individuals and ~9% unknown.

Strangers were the offender in over a third of all violent victimizations for women.

The overall rate of violent victimizations is the same across sex.

The rate of violent victimizations by strangers is (~1.5 times) greater for men than women.

But the rate of rapes by strangers is (3 times) greater for women than for men.

It's fairly well established that women are more likely to be victimized by an intimate partner/family member than men, and since women and men have similar rates of victimization that difference had to be offset somewhere.

However, this difference in stranger victimization rates is rapidly closing [2]. The rate (number/1000 people) of stranger victimization in 1993 was 57 for men and 20 for women. By 2010, this had closed to 10 for men and 5 for women.

Further, when women talk about "being afraid to walk alone at night", I believe they are generally referencing their fear of being raped. This is notable, because because rate of stranger rapes is much greater for women than men.

---

Victimization Rates as a Function of Exposure

However, the above statistics give a fairly simplistic approach to the issue, in that they assume equal exposure to and effect of crime victimization.

To highlight this: there is a theory in criminology called the routine activities theory which aims to explain differential rates in criminal offending. Put simply a crime occurs when there is an intersection of a "likely offender", a "suitable target", and a lack of a "capable guardian". Thus crime rates depend not only on the offender but also on the exposure rate of potential victims.

And while the routine activities theory is primarily aimed at explaining offending, some researchers have applied the concept to victimization rates as well. In this application, victimization rates are a function of the a group's/individual's exposure rate (i.e., how often they are exposed to potential offenders and environments conducive to offending).

You need only apply common sense to see how women -- who spend less time alone outside the home and who often modify their behaviors to avoid potentially dangerous individuals [9, 10] -- would be exposed to less potential stranger victimizations and therefore have a lower rate of stranger victimizations.

Importantly however, we don't have to rely on common sense, as there has been research on this topic!

One paper [3] creates a mathematical model for the concept I described above, concluding that "fear of crime correlates better with victimization rates when adjusted for exposure" and "an inverse relationship between fear of crime and the usual measured victimization rate ... is caused by rational behavioral responses to crime." That is to say, when people have a greater potential risk for victimization, they take measures to reduce their actual victimization rates.

This article [4] further supports this model, finding that "routine activities are significant predictors of females’ risks".

Another article [5], confirms that "fear of crime is more strongly positively related to [exposure] adjusted than conventional victimization rates" and "some groups with relatively low conventional rates can have high victimization rates when adjusted for exposure to risk". They also indicate that "women’s fear may reflect not just the perceived risks of such a crime; it also may reflect the fact that personal victimization can have more serious consequences for women".

Another article [6] indicates that much of the variance in women's fear of crime can be "largely attributed to women having had negative experiences with strangers". The author also suggests "that knowing someone allows for a false sense of security in that one may feel that they can predict more accurately, and thereby possibly control, the behavior of someone if they have met in the past" to explain why women don't tend to report fear of those closest to them.

And this article [7] specifically acknowledges that "for females, the threat of victimization appears to be affected by rational choices to both avoid places that they are likely to be victimized and engage in defensive behaviors to protect themselves from victimization."

Beyond all that, a simple explanation for the difference in stranger victimization between men and women lies in the significant victim-offender overlap [8]. That is, a substantial portion of people who are victims of a crime are also offenders. This ties into the routine activities theory; people who are engaging in risky (criminal) behaviors are more likely to be victimized themself. This is important because, as we've previously established, men are much more likely to be perpetrators of crime, therefore it makes sense that they'd also be more likely to be victims.

I should note here, however, that despite their disproportionate representation among offenders, men are only more likely to be victimized by strangers. Women are more likely to be victimized by intimate partners and other family members, and women and men are equally likely to be victimized by acquaintances. [1]

All of this suggests that men are able to significantly reduce their victimization risk and avoid a substantial portion of victimizations simply by not engaging in criminal behavior. I recognize there are some situations in which it is not possible -- or at least very difficult -- to avoid all criminal behavior. However, I am highlighting this fact because this doesn't appear to be even a possible option for women.

---

Victim Blame

So, in other words, men have a higher rate of stranger victimization (but not overall victimization) most likely as a result of their higher engagement in risky behaviors (e.g., crime) and reduced engagement in safety behavior (e.g., avoiding walking alone at night) as compared to women.

Notably, this all suggests that if you held exposure rate constant, women are at greater risk for stranger victimization in any particular situation. However, fearing this victimization, partly due to more severe effects of victimization, women take greater precautions to reduce their exposure. This leads to a reduced rate of actual victimization, which leads people (MRAs) to call us "paranoid" and suggest it's really only men who are at risk.

But our lesser rate of stranger victimization is only because we are taking these precautions. Also importantly, not taking these precautions leads people to blame women for their victimization. This article [11] found that "less respectable" victims were blamed significantly more for their assault. This review [12] concludes the same with reference to women who "deviate slightly from ... the traditional female role" or who consume alcohol prior to their victimization.

In short, women are criticized for their "paranoia" if they take precautions to avoid victimization and for their "negligence" if they do not.

References below the cut:

Bureau of Justice Statistics. Generated using the NCVS Dashboard (N-DASH) at www.bjs.ojp.gov.

Erika Harrell. Violent Victimization Committed by Strangers, 1993-2010. Bureau of Justice Statistics , Dec. 2012, https://bjs.ojp.gov/library/publications/violent-victimization-committed-strangers-1993-2010.

Balkin, Steven. “Victimization Rates, Safety and Fear of Crime.” Social Problems, vol. 26, no. 3, Feb. 1979, pp. 343–58. DOI.org (Crossref), https://doi.org/10.2307/800458.

Like-Haislip, Toya Z., and Karin Tusinski Miofsky. “Race, Ethnicity, Gender, and Violent Victimization.” Race and Justice, vol. 1, no. 3, July 2011, pp. 254–76. DOI.org (Crossref), https://doi.org/10.1177/2153368711409059.

Stafford, Mark C., and Omer R. Galle. “Victimization Rates, Exposure to Risk, and Fear of Crime.” Criminology, vol. 22, no. 2, May 1984, pp. 173–85. DOI.org (Crossref), https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1745-9125.1984.tb00295.x.

Scott, H.S. (2003). Stranger Danger: Explaining Women's Fear of Crime.

May, David C., et al. “A Gendered Assessment of the ‘“Threat of Victimization”’: Examining Gender Differences in Fear of Crime, Perceived Risk, Avoidance, and Defensive Behaviors.” Criminal Justice Review, vol. 35, no. 2, June 2010, pp. 159–82. DOI.org (Crossref), https://doi.org/10.1177/0734016809349166.

Jennings, W. G., et al., On the overlap between victimization and offending: A review of the literature, Aggression and Violent Behavior (2011), doi:10.1016/j.avb.2011.09.003

Logan, Tk, and Robert Walker. “The Gender Safety Gap: Examining the Impact of Victimization History, Perceived Risk, and Personal Control.” Journal of Interpersonal Violence, vol. 36, no. 1–2, Jan. 2021, pp. 603–31. DOI.org (Crossref), https://doi.org/10.1177/0886260517729405.

Jacobsen, Shannon K. “Gendered Responses to Fear of Victimization? A Comparative Study of Students’ Precautionary and Avoidance Strategies in Suburban and Urban Contexts.” Violence Against Women, Jan. 2024, p. 10778012241228284. DOI.org (Crossref), https://doi.org/10.1177/10778012241228284.

McCaul, Kevin D., et al. “Understanding Attributions of Victim Blame for Rape: Sex, Violence, and Foreseeability 1.” Journal of Applied Social Psychology, vol. 20, no. 1, Jan. 1990, pp. 1–26. DOI.org (Crossref), https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1559-1816.1990.tb00375.x.

Grubb, Amy, and Emily Turner. “Attribution of Blame in Rape Cases: A Review of the Impact of Rape Myth Acceptance, Gender Role Conformity and Substance Use on Victim Blaming.” Aggression and Violent Behavior, vol. 17, no. 5, Sept. 2012, pp. 443–52. ScienceDirect, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.avb.2012.06.002.

[mariacallous]

In the context of a turbulent and unsatisfying three years in office, the incredibly awful September in progress might rank as the three-party German government’s grimmest month yet. After elections in the east that issued record results for the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party—another vote, in Brandenburg, looms on Sept. 22—the government is also reeling from the fallout of two Islamist terrorist attacks that left three dead and eight wounded. One of those attacks involved a Syrian asylum-seeker whose petition for protection in Germany had been denied; he had links to the fundamentalist Islamic State, which claimed responsibility for the attack.

Now the government has announced its response: starting on Sept. 16, Germany will unilaterally impose border closures, for six months, on all nine of its borders with other European countries. Incoming foreign nationals will be screened according to arbitrary criteria, and rejected applicants will be forced onto Germany’s next-door neighbors.

Although some details remain unclear, Germany’s plan amounts to an unprecedented step. Eight of the neighboring countries are EU members, and all of them are part of the Schengen regime that guarantees freedom of movement across borders within the bloc and recognizes the right to political asylum. Meanwhile, Germany’s mainstream opposition party is demanding an even more severe policy—one that would essentially prevent the country from accepting any new asylum applicants onto its territory at all.

“Until we achieve strong protection of the EU’s external borders with the new common European asylum system, we must strengthen controls at our national borders,” said Germany’s interior minister, Nancy Faeser. Her proposal involves expedited procedures at the German frontiers to determine whether each person who arrives may enter and apply for political asylum.

According to Faeser, the planned border screenings will limit illegal migration and “protect against the acute dangers posed by Islamist terrorism and serious crime.” There will be more deportations during this period, she said, but they will conform to EU law. But some experts disagree. European law expert Alberto Alemanno, a professor of European law at HEC Paris, told the Guardian that the German controls “represent a manifestly disproportionate breach of the principle of free movement within the Schengen area.”

And Sergio Carrera, a research fellow at the Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS), a Brussels-based think tank, told Foreign Policy that the border closures will most probably have a knock-on effect across the continent: “There’s the risk of these measures triggering a race to the bottom. Where’s the end point? We’re talking about rights that go to the very heart of what the EU is all about.”

The new measures at the German borders ratchet up pressure on European Union norms that are already strained. According to EU law, free movement within the bloc is guaranteed within the Schengen area, which encompasses most EU member countries (except Cyprus and Ireland) as well as Switzerland and Norway. Foreign nationals claiming political persecution have the right to apply for political protection in the country through which they enter the EU. But the bloc’s member countries may suspend Schengen’s guarantees in the case of “internal security concerns” as long as those concerns are proportional and legitimate and the suspensions temporary. Brussels must be briefed in advance.

Germany has had periodic border checks in place along the Austrian border since 2015—a response to the refugee crisis of 2015-16. Last year, in response to heightened migration flows, Germany established checks on its borders shared with Poland, the Czech Republic, and Switzerland. In fact, across the European Union, member states have temporarily restricted internal border crossings 404 times since 2015, according to German daily Die Tageszeitung.

Germany’s move would take another step toward turning the exception policy of internal EU border checks into the rule, argued Christian Jacob of Die Tageszeitung. A European Parliament study issued last year claimed that this was already happening and that a “systematic lack of compliance with EU law” could undermine rule of law guarantees.

One result would almost certainly be a chain reaction across the bloc. Walter Turnowsky, a migration expert at Denmark’s Der Nordschleswiger, a German-language newspaper, fears exactly this. “Officially, the announced German border controls are also temporary, but ultimately the announcement means the end of free travel across the EU,” he said. “From now on, governments will claim: ‘Well, Germany controls its borders too,’” so they will do the same.

The new German measures aim to stop non-EU citizens who have already applied for asylum elsewhere in the bloc from entering Germany by bus, train, or car from Schengen zone neighbors. (Currently, only third-country nationals who have invalid papers or don’t intend to file for political asylum are refused entry.) Under the new measures, the migrants would be returned to the country where they entered the Schengen area and originally applied for asylum, which are usually one of the EU’s southern external border countries, such as Bulgaria, Greece, Italy, or Spain.

German border guards would detain the foreign nationals at the border—perhaps even in a kind of jail, apparently for no longer than five weeks—until their status can be verified. Foreign nationals who had not previously applied for asylum but who claim political persecution could then enter Germany and apply for protection, which German courts would rule on at a later date.

One of the looming questions is what criteria German police would invoke to screen those parties interested in entering the country. Since not every person traveling into Germany can be stopped, “it will be people who look different, regardless of citizenship,” said Carrera, of CEPS. “A certain racial appearance will make some people suspect. This is racial profiling, and it is illegal.”

Against the background of its fierce battle in eastern Germany with the AfD, Germany’s conservative opposition, the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), has opted to steal the other party’s thunder by endorsing measures very much like those of the far right—and until recently entirely taboo. Claiming that the government’s measures do not go nearly far enough, the CDU argues that no people—none at all—should be permitted to enter Germany in the absence of a visa or European passport.

This would de facto end the country’s commitment to offering asylum. In order to make this flagrant violation of international law at least appear to conform to EU regulations, under the CDU plan, Germany would declare a state of emergency as a result of internal security threats. This, the CDU believes, would legalize the across-the-board rejection of unwanted third-country nationals.

The proposal also goes a gigantic step beyond the limitation of movement in the EU, effectively eviscerating the right to political asylum.

“This kind of measure, and those the government are taking, will be investigated and could come before the EU court of justice,” Carrera said. “The EU will determine whether the security concerns really justify such a breach of EU law.” Other experts have said that Germany will not be able to prove that the recent attacks or the numbers of asylum-seekers—which have fallen this year—actually threaten the state’s internal security and thus justify (or indeed, are really aided by) these measures.

One of the many problems with the new German modus operandi: Neighboring states will have to accept people refused by Germany back onto their territory—and Austria, for one, which has general elections on Sept. 29 (and where polls indicate the situation for migrants is getting even worse, with a very strong showing of the far-right Freedom Party likely) said forget it, it won’t take them.

Poland is also up arms at the prospect of traffic jams at the borders that would obstruct commercial and private transportation. Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk called the German move a “de facto suspension of the Schengen Agreement on a large scale.”

The Belgian daily Le Soir seems to hit the nail on the head: “With governments like this, there’s no need for the far right to be in power. The pressure of elections and the fear of extremes are causing those in power to run around like headless chickens, with migrants as the only means for decompression.”

EU expert Thu Nguyen, the deputy director of the Berlin-based Jacques Delors Centre, told Foreign Policy that unilateral decisions taken by Germany—the EU’s most populous state—are entirely unproductive. She noted that the EU’s Pact on Migration and Asylum, a set of new rules passed this year for managing migration and establishing a common asylum system at a bloc-wide level, addresses some of the concerns about immigration raised by Germany and other EU states, including by facilitating faster procedures for asylum applicants at the continent’s external borders.

After all, Germany—including the CDU’s parliamentary group in the EU, the European People’s Party (EPP)—was essential in drafting the pact, together with the 25 other EU member states. When the pact came in front of the European Parliament earlier this year, EPP parliamentarian Tomas Tobé said that “the absolute best way to help support a European migration policy is to be loyal to the whole migration pact.”

[system-of-a-feather]

I’ll bite… why do you feel like endos are real? As they do claim to have a trauma disorder just without the trauma which to me seems pretty ableist or at least disrespectful to DID/OSDD systems.

(LONG POST WARNING)

Well to start, most aren't claiming to have a trauma disorder / DID / OSDD but rather that they experience themselves as more than one and I don't believe that DID / OSDD holds sole ownership to the ability to experience oneself as more than one. A lot of endogenic people knew about their experiences as more than one before really even knowing DID / OSDD existed (or at least past the stigma of "Multiple Personality Disorder" that has no implications to trauma because ya know). I think the term "endogenic" has implications that do a disservice to the group as it kind of implicates innately the idea that trauma is the only inherent way to exist and experience oneself as more than one, when honestly I firmly believe that is not the case.

As to why I firmly believe that it is not the case that trauma and DID/OSDD is not the only way to experience oneself as more than one, there are a number of perspectives I can offer.

From a discussion of the theory of structural dissociation (ToSD) / academic stand point...

the ToSD is not a "Theory" like Gravity and Evolution. The name is actually misleading as it is using Theory in a more colloquial sense; the ToSD when talked about in almost all literature that I've read that references it talks about it as a >model<. The difference between a theory and a model is large.

A theory is something that is constantly and reliably able to be a solid means of not only understanding the world but also predicting large phenomenon. There have been multiple active attempts to disprove it or find flaws in it and none of which have worked. They're age old and have been proven day in and day out to have reliably accounted for every form of discrepancy - at least on a majorly applicable level (as even Gravity seems to have its confusing mishaps when you get to the very high level stuff that I won't even pretend to understand in the slightest as I'm not a physicist).

A model on the other hand is something that is used to best understand, navigate, and conceptualize a concept - often for more practical usage. A model is designed to usually specifically target a specific definition of a phenomenon and experience - and in this case "the dissociation of self of individuals who have experienced trauma and how that causes the phenomenon of alters and dissociated parts". It is not making claims about "the only way for people to experience themselves as more than one" because 1) models don't really intend to be fool proof, they attempt to practically explain and describe an experience in a way that is helpful to apply practically (ie in theraputic practice); by this very nature, the models are suggesting a base framework that often apply and help people who match the specific definition of the phenomenon it is meant to address (ie clients that have gone through trauma and likely have dissociated parts) and 2) the theory is addressing individuals who experience themselves as more than one due to a history of trauma and how that trauma then results in the brain dissociating from itself for survival. It is NOT addressing "all of humanity and human experiences and psychological experiences" - it is just discussing how trauma affects the brain to develop alters. The two discussions and topics are very different and in an academic setting have EXTREMELY different requirements.

Additionally, an issue with the ToSD is that while its a great model for people who have DID/OSDD, it's a laughable theory and hypothesis in most psychological fields that are a lot more into more solid and quantifiable measures. I've actually talked with one of the people that had done research that basically paved the way for children's testimonies of CSA to be taken seriously and accepted in court about the ToSD and they poorly withheld a laugh on the topic. Same said person had actually talked and known either Van Der Hart or Van Der Kolk (they didn't remember which one exactly) and all that. What I got from the conversation with them was that, yes the ToSD works beautifully as a clinical model and it helps a lot of clinicians understand and help people with DID/OSDD navigate their experiences, but the ToSD in a non-clinical academic setting makes SO many assumptions that are absolutely not backed by current more "harder" psychological research that its funny.

There is a LONG list of issues with the assumptions ToSD makes on an academic setting that make it a joke to those on a more non-clinical academic setting but here are a few:

What the FUCK is a "dissociative barrier"? Yes on a clinical sense we know what that is, but where is a "dissociative barrier" in terms of neurology and neurobiology? What functions in memory (both theoretical and physical) actually work to be a "dissociative barrier"? What mechanisms in the brain make it possible? What is a dissociative barrier in terms of developmental psychology and developmeental psychopathology? How is it that trauma manages to "make a dissociative barrier" in children? What concepts of developmental psychology and memory / identity development actually are in play to make this "dissociative barrier"?

Do people even have consciousness - or - more realistically asked, are people actually conscious or do we just feel as if we are conscious? (<- very hot topic in consciousness research in more neuroscience based fields) And assuming we DO have a consciousness, what and where is that located and how does consciousness work on a physiological level in a typically developing child as opposed to a person who experienced trauma? Assuming THAT is figured out, how do we know that that trauma is the only thing that could have caused the consciousness to develop atypically? Additionally, ask all those questions AGAIN for the concept and idea of "identity" as consciousness and identity are two different research topics. Assuming that we DO NOT have a consciousness, how does the false experience of consciousness work and why do we experience it like that? Following from that, why is it that trauma can disrupt and warp that false experience? Additionally, how does it disrupt and warp that false experience? And again, how do we know that trauma is the only thing that can cause that disruption / warping to occur?

My FAVORITE and most frustrating one, but how do we even know we ACTUALLY forget things and what is the mechanism for forgetting things? What IS forgetting? Do we loose neuronal pathways when we forget and is the information truly just gone? Do we just struggle to find the information and thus we fail to recall the information? Then again, all the obvious "okay then how does this mechanism of forgetting get disrupted and warped by trauma".

(added this while writing the third perspective but) How does the modern development and factor of internet usage affect dissociation and any of these mechanisms of developing identity, self, consciousness, memory, etc? How does this new factor impact other neurodivergencies and mental health conditions in regards to that?

None of those questions are well addressed to a standard of research that most non-clinical fields consider ANYWHERE near valid or qualified to make any level of generalizing statements.

I personally largely identify and intend to go into research for developmental psychology / psychopathology after I sort things out in my life some and I LOVE these questions. I have a lot of my own hypothesis as to how those questions are answered and my hypothesis on how those mechanisms are disrupted / develop in children who experience trauma have me almost 100% certain that there are other mechanisms to developing dissociated states of self.

Of course, I'm withholding that from this portion of the discussion because those hypothesises are not founded and again, just sitting in my head rent free until I get to actually research them myself. (Which I do entirely plan to do when I figure my life out more)

From a cultural / spiritual / philosophical standpoint...

The claim that everyone normally experiences themselves as "one" unless trauma occurs seems really honestly White / Western / Christian-centric to me and the idea that the only way to experience themselves as anything other than "the normal experience and development of one person" is to have horrible trauma just... really leaves a shitty taste in my mouth as a person of color.

A large number of non-white non-christian/catholoic centered cultures that have a large emphasis on "the singular soul and repentance" and all that shit have cultural norms and beliefs that already state that it is not weird at all to experience yourself as more than one. As in, there are cultures that ALREADY experience themselves as more than one that have been doing so for AGES before DID/OSDD and hell even MPD were even suggested; ages before the field of psychology was even born.

I personally have a large problem with the claim that people have to have trauma to experience themselves as more than one as it comes off as a very colonizer perspective to experiences that do not inherently have any harm in them (ie experiencing oneself as more than one). Experiencing oneself as more than one (or I guess technically less than one) is something that can be pretty central to a lot of non-white/western cultural experiences and are just an innate part of how they live and life. To state that the only way people can have their culture is to be traumatized (which is the indirect claim being made when the claim that the only way to experience oneself as more than one is through trauma) is just... really disgusting and white-colonizer brained.

Personally, as a Buddhist, I inherently don't subscribe to the idea that there even is a "me" and a "you". I inherently believe that the concept of "being one person" is a means of suffering that people benefit from unlearning as the concept of identity and self does little more than restrict our natural means of existing and thus causes large suffering. As a result, I don't see myself or anyone else as "more or less" than one because the concept, in my spiritual-philosophical-cultural perspective, is not real and anything reinforcing it is not really dpoing anyone huge favors. As a result, I think everyone is everything and everyone is parts of a whole of everything. I think we experience ourselves as one because that is part of the natural expression of our existence. I also think we experience ourselves as more than one because - sometimes - that is just a natural expression of our existence. I ALSO think we experience ourselves as more than one because sometimes that is a good way to understand our natural selves and learn from the parts we are otherwise more disconnected from. A part of Buddhist practice is the dismantling of this concept of self and moving your perception of self away from the way you experience life and the world.

At the place where I am in my practice, the very essence of syscourse is really kind of silly to me because it's like arguing about the color of the blue-black / white-gold dress. Talking and debating it and investigating the question can lead good insights into our experiences and how we approach them, but in the end of the day, the thing we are discussing is an illusion and the effects it has on us and why we see it that way and its not really something any more important or impactful or worth sweating over than a fun thought experiment.

From an advocate standpoint...

A large part of the people who are endogenic are people who are also neurodivergent and/or experiencing notable mental health issues - those of which are not fully 100% investigated into how they affect the development of large topics like self, memory, etc. AND are very diverse and complex experiences. I don't think we should be telling someone who thinks that their experiences of being more than one is tied to their neurodivergency or other mental health conditions that they are wrong and should experience themselves differently - especially since dissociation is honestly pretty prominent in the AuDHD branch of disorders and I personally think it is hard to conclusively say that some level of experiencing oneself as more than one is related to having AuDHD. (not saying that it is either, just that its such a large topic that needs more exploration before I'd feel confident saying that AuDHD doesn't cause some form of experiences that one might experience as being more than one).

I personally see very little purpose and value within infighting of mentally ill groups and clusters when almost every disorder needs more research - particularly in a lens that is not white-western centered and interested in a more sociological / cultural lens.

I find no threat in people experiencing themselves as more than one as someone who has DID / OSDD anymore than I feel threat at otherkin for experiencing themselves as a non-human as someone who acts, lives, and behaves like a bird because of trauma and because I was largely raised by birds (and arguably because I'm autistic but thats one of those things you can't 100% be sure I would have been like without trauma). The reason I am "basically a bird" is entirely due the circumstance of my trauma and how I was raised and that certainly sucks (though I do enjoy it and find it a beneficial part of my life), but that doesn't mean that I don't share some experiences with people that identify as a bird for fun, for cultural reasons, for spiritual reasons, or due to another neurodivergency

Just generally speaking...

I love to see people expressing themselves in unique ways and honestly specifically in ways that do not conform to "normal" society. I think its really cool and neat that people express themselves how they like and express themselves in ways that challenge pointless and/or unnecessary social rules and norms and I believe the norm of being a "consistent singular individual in society" and just general individualism is honestly just such an unnecessary social norm.

This isn't really one of my large points because I say this with a lot less of a firm and full chest cause I do draw a line with the transID stuff (no I will not be taking discourse on that) but like.. generally speaking, I really love to see the dismantling of the concept that people have to be a "consistent singular individual" around me. For a number of reasons - all three main ones off the top of my head being my views as a person with opinions on academic-research regarding the topic, as a POC Buddhist, and as someone who just would like to stand in solidarity to all mental-oddities - I think it is a really important and productive thing to see the social norm of individuality to be changed from a "norm" to one of my options.

I think a large issue people have with endogenics and what not is that they're "cringe" or "making people with DID/OSDD look like jokes" and while thats a valid feeling to have and people with DID/OSDD aren't "wrong" for feeling that way, I think its largely a miss directed feeling that follows the same flaws of almost any other "respectability politics" and advocates that push for assimilation rather than acceptance in society.

In this sense, I actually like to see endos as having a similar goal of making it so that people don't assume that being more than one is inherently a mental illness which BY THE WAY, as someone who is act final fusion / functional multiplicity / late stage DID recovery, is INCREDIBLY important to me as I am not inherently experiencing a severe mental illness when my severe mental illness is largely considered "in remission / remissed" just because I choose to still experience myself as more than one.

Plus, yeah, some of them are cringe (/affectionate) but I honestly think people need to be unapologetically cringier anyways for society to grow and get over a lot of its prejudices so like, yeah maybe that type of "cringe" isn't my cup of tea but its still an ally in my ideal cringification of society /hj (plus people with DID/OSDD can be cringe too and I clap for them as well)

As a whole, I think accepting endogenics as a valid experience to have is progress to a better more accepting, less white-western centric, happy world as well as one that actually is a safe place for people who are in late stage DID/OSDD recovery to feel free to experience their disorder in whatever way is natural, safest, and works best for them.

It's honestly hard to be pro-functional mulitiplicity and anti-endo on practical sense in my opinion as someone who is At That Place because functional multiplicity kind of requires you do detatch the experience of being more than one from the inherent disorder that caused it and once you kind of get to that point.... its just really hard to still see the anti-endo perspective as it becomes really apparent that there really are some benefits to NOT TRAUMA COPING of experiencing yourself as more than one.

But anyways, I've been writing for an hour and a half so I'll leave it there. I wish I had a better way to tie this up but... *shrugs*

[gacha-incels]

below is a machine translation of the article into english. If you see any discrepancies lmk and I’ll fix it asap. Thanks everyone for your help and continued patience

Ten Million Downloads for the Photo App 'SODA'… Criticism Over AI Being Out of Control Subsidiary of Naver, Snow, Responds Mechanically to AI-Generated Inappropriate Content

Snow, a subsidiary of Naver and the creator of the camera application 'SODA', has come under fire for generating sexually inappropriate images using its AI editing function. The company has stated that it "cannot 100% control AI-generated content," sparking criticism from experts who argue that commercializing an uncontrollable AI service is irresponsible. SODA is a popular camera app with over 10 million downloads on the Google Play Store.

Ms. G, an office worker, complained in an online messenger conversation with Hankyoreh on the 9th, “I didn't expect to feel shame while using the app. It's so unpleasant and traumatizing.” On the 4th, she applied the 'AI background expansion' feature, a paid service of the Soda app, to her photo. The intention was to correct the photo, which was cropped in the middle of her shoulders, to show her entire upper body, but the AI generated a result that made her appear to be clutching her chest with both hands. The rest of the results were normal, but Ms. G said it was hard to get over the shock of the image she suddenly received while using the app.

In response, Snow explained, “Due to the nature of the service that applied A.I. technology, the result was unexpected.” Snow explained that the AI-generated images are filtered to remove offensive or sexualized images as much as possible before they are finally displayed to the user, but this feature did not work perfectly in G's case.

However, experts argue that the issue is more complex. The core problem lies in the AI image generation engine applied to the SODA app, called 'Stable Diffusion'. Developed primarily by the UK startup Stability AI, it was revealed that this model had included explicit content in its training data. Professor Kim Myung-joo of Seoul Women’s University (Information Security) explained, “Unlike other AI models, Stable Diffusion was designed to generate graphic images and included pornographic content in its training data, which has raised concerns since its release.”

Experts are calling for measures like age restrictions on the app to prevent irresponsible commercialization. At the moment, SODA is rated for use by individuals aged 3 and older. Jang Yeo-gyeong, the director of the Information Rights Research Institute, stated, "Even if it doesn't lead to sexual exploitation, consumers who suffer mental harm from AI tools should be able to hold the companies that release these services accountable. Snow's response that 'current technology can't prevent this' is irresponsible."

In response to The Hankyoreh, a Snow representative said, "All companies utilizing AI are struggling to address issues like this. We are working to enhance the service by strengthening filters to prevent similar cases in the future."

plain text in the original Korean

카메라 애플리케이션(앱) ‘소다’(SODA)의 인공지능(AI) 편집 기능이 성적 불쾌감을 일으키는 사진을 생성한 사례가 발생한 것에 대해 이 앱을 만든 네이버의 자회사 스노우가 ‘인공지능 생성물을 100% 통제할 수 없다’는 입장을 내놨다. 통제할 수 없는 인공지능 서비스를 상업화한 것에 대해 무책임한 행태라는 전문가들의 지적이 나온다. 소다는 스마트폰 앱 장터인 ‘구글 플레이 스토어’에서 1000만회 이상 다운로드된 인기 카메라 앱이다.

직장인 ㄱ씨는 9일 한겨레와 온라인 메신저 대화를 통해 “앱을 사용하다 수치심을 느낄 줄 몰랐다. 너무 불쾌하고 정신적 충격이 크다”고 호소했다. 그는 지난 4일 소다 앱의 유료 서비스인 ‘인공지능 배경 확장’ 기능을 자신의 증명사진에 적용했다. 어깨 부분 중간에 잘린 증명사진을 상반신 전체가 나오는 모습으로 보정하려는 의도였는데, 실제 인공지능이 생성한 결과물에선 자신이 가슴을 양손으로 움켜쥐고 있는 듯한 모습이 나왔다. 이 이미지를 제외한 다른 나머지 결과에선 정상적인 사진이 나왔지만, ㄱ씨는 앱을 사용하다 갑자기 받은 이미지의 충격에서 벗어나기 힘들었다고 했다.

이에 대해 스노우 쪽은 “인공지능 기술이 적용된 서비스의 특성상 결과물이 예상치 못한 형태로 구현된 것”이라고 설명했다. 인공지능이 생성한 이미지를 사용자에게 최종적으로 노출하기 전 필터 기술을 통해 모욕적이거나 선정적인 이미지를 최대한 제거하고 있지만, ㄱ씨의 사례에선 이 기능이 완벽하게 작동하지 않았다고도 설명했다.

하지만 문제가 간단치 않다는 게 전문가들의 지적이다. 소다 앱에 적용된 인공지능 이미지 생성 엔진인 ‘스테이블 디퓨전’ 자체에 문제가 있다는 이유에서다. 스테이블 디퓨전은 영국 스타트업 ‘스태빌리티 에이아이(AI)’가 개발을 주도한 모델인데, 개발 단계에서 음란물을 학습 데이터에 포함시킨 것으로 알려져 있다. 김명주 서울여대 교수(정보보호학)는 “다른 인공지능 모델과 달리 스테이블 디퓨전은 그래픽 이미지를 생성하기 위한 목적으로 포르노 영상물을 학습 데이터에 포함했기 때문에 공개될 때부터 많은 우려가 제기됐다”고 말했다.

전문가들은 소다 앱의 이용자 연령을 제한하는 등의 방식으로 기업의 무책임한 상업화를 막아야 한다고 지적했다. 현재 소다 앱은 3살 이상이면 누구나 사용할 수 있다. 장여경 정보인권연구소 상임이사는 “성착취물로 연결되지 않는다고 해도 인공지능 도구로 정신적 피해를 입은 소비자들이 서비스를 출시한 기업에 대해 최소한의 주의 의무를 요구할 수 있어야 한다”며 “‘현재 기술로는 막을 수 없다’는 스노우의 태도는 무책임하다”고 꼬집었다.

스노우 관계자는 한겨레에 “인공지능을 활용하는 모든 회사가 이번과 같은 이슈를 해결하기 위해 분투하고 있다. 유사한 사례가 발생하지 않도록 필터를 더욱 강화하는 등 서비스 고도화를 노력하겠다”고 했다.

[materialsscienceandengineering]

Rubber that doesn't grow cracks when stretched many times

Researchers from the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) have increased the fatigue threshold of particle-reinforced rubber, developing a new, multiscale approach that allows the material to bear high loads and resist crack growth over repeated use. This approach could not only increase the longevity of rubber products such as tires but also reduce the amount of pollution from rubber particles shed during use. The research is published in Nature. Naturally-occurring rubber latex is soft and stretchy. For a range of applications, including tires, hoses, and dampeners, rubbers are reinforced by rigid particles, such as carbon black and silica. Since their introduction, these particles greatly improve the stiffness of rubbers but not their resistance to crack growth when the material is cyclically stretched, a measurement known as the fatigue threshold.

Read more.

[d0nutzgg]

Predicting Alzheimer's With Machine Learning

Alzheimer's disease is a progressive neurodegenerative disorder that affects millions of people worldwide. Early diagnosis is crucial for managing the disease and potentially slowing its progression. My interest in this area is deeply personal. My great grandmother, Bonnie, passed away from Alzheimer's in 2000, and my grandmother, Jonette, who is Bonnie's daughter, is currently exhibiting symptoms of the disease. This personal connection has motivated me to apply my skills as a data scientist to contribute to the ongoing research in Alzheimer's disease.

Model Creation

The first step in creating the model was to identify relevant features that could potentially influence the onset of Alzheimer's disease. After careful consideration, I chose the following features: Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE), Clinical Dementia Rating (CDR), Socioeconomic Status (SES), and Normalized Whole Brain Volume (nWBV).

MMSE: This is a commonly used test for cognitive function and mental status. Lower scores on the MMSE can indicate severe cognitive impairment, a common symptom of Alzheimer's.

CDR: This is a numeric scale used to quantify the severity of symptoms of dementia. A higher CDR score can indicate more severe dementia.

SES: Socioeconomic status has been found to influence health outcomes, including cognitive function and dementia.

nWBV: This represents the volume of the brain, adjusted for head size. A decrease in nWBV can be indicative of brain atrophy, a common symptom of Alzheimer's.

After selecting these features, I used a combination of Logistic Regression and Random Forest Classifier models in a Stacking Classifier to predict the onset of Alzheimer's disease. The model was trained on a dataset with these selected features and then tested on a separate dataset to evaluate its performance.

Model Performance

To validate the model's performance, I used a ROC curve plot (below), as well as a cross-validation accuracy scoring mechanism.

The ROC curve (Receiver Operating Characteristic curve) is a plot that illustrates the diagnostic ability of a model as its discrimination threshold is varied. It is great for visualizing the accuracy of binary classification models. The curve is created by plotting the true positive rate (TPR) against the false positive rate (FPR) at various threshold settings.

The area under the ROC curve, often referred to as the AUC (Area Under the Curve), provides a measure of the model's ability to distinguish between positive and negative classes. The AUC can be interpreted as the probability that the model will rank a randomly chosen positive instance higher than a randomly chosen negative one.

The AUC value ranges from 0 to 1. An AUC of 0.5 suggests no discrimination (i.e., the model has no ability to distinguish between positive and negative classes), 1 represents perfect discrimination (i.e., the model has perfect ability to distinguish between positive and negative classes), and 0 represents total misclassification.

The model's score of an AUC of 0.98 is excellent. It suggests that the model has a very high ability to distinguish between positive and negative classes.

The model also performed extremely well in another test, which showed the model has a final cross-validation score of 0.953. This high score indicates that the model was able to accurately predict the onset of Alzheimer's disease based on the selected features.

However, it's important to note that while this model can be a useful tool for predicting Alzheimer's disease, it should not be the sole basis for a diagnosis. Doctors should consider all aspects of diagnostic information when making a diagnosis.

Conclusion

The development and application of machine learning models like this one are revolutionizing the medical field. They offer the potential for early diagnosis of neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer's, which can significantly improve patient outcomes. However, these models are tools to assist healthcare professionals, not replace them. The human element in medicine, including a comprehensive understanding of the patient's health history and symptoms, remains crucial.

Despite the challenges, the potential of machine learning models in improving early diagnosis leaves me and my family hopeful. As we continue to advance in technology and research, we move closer to a world where diseases like Alzheimer's can be effectively managed, and hopefully, one day, cured.

[gardenletter]

Yandere Body gard x reader ❤️‍🔥🔪🩸

You were the 3rd child of the CEO to a very powerful company. You weren't the heir of the company by any means but you are the brains. You come up with the plans, measure the stocks... EVERYTHING. But because of your important position you are the number one target to rival companies. You have two older brothers who are the 1st and 2nd heirs. Your oldest brother Callum the face of the company (a VERY HANDSOME one at that) and he was very concerned about your safety as a loving brother and your boss. So he did suggested a bodyguard. You were first opposed to the idea, but there was an act to take your life one night and that overweighed your pride. With Callum's connection, he contacted a few trusted agencies. AND this is where Alessio comes in. He is a very deadly man and usually works on the darker side of the job. Oftentimes working for mafia or mobsters but at the moment was unemployed so he got a notification about a new gig. He opened your file and GOD he was sucked in. They provide a picture of you, basic details of who you were and why you were hiring, and that was enough to get him hooked. He finds your social media and God, he went through every thing finding your favorite food, favorite color even baby photos. And the more he looked the farther he fell. He had to get the job at any cost.

He immediately applied and got scheduled for an interview....

You have interviewed 20 applicants so far and all of them SUCK ASSsssss... To say it kindly, they just try to hit on you or don't meet your needs. There were about two applicants left for the day and you are wayyyy over this but then .... A tall man enters with slicked back, dark hair with a black suit and rolled up sleeves. His tattoos slightly peeking from under his rolled sleeves , he has a strong toned body with veins visible on his forearms and hands. He gives you a warm smile and gently sits across from you.

Let's just say you got lost in his eyes and drooled a little.(sorry lol)

He gently cleaned the drool from your chin and snapped you out of your thoughts.

" oh I-Im so sorry I didn't mea-"

"don't worry Miss/Mr/Mix l/n ready to start the interview?" he says with a smile

"yes, yes of course Mr. Longo"

Poor Alessio can barely contain him self .he is cool and collected on the outside but is internally screaming and going totally fan girl hehehe

Your interview was amazing, he is everything and more than what you need and want. Of course he is more than fitting for the job BUTTT he definitely did research on the interview and knows EXACTLY what to say.

"well Mr.Long I will get back to you later" you smiled

"please call me Alessio"

"ok Alessio"

and When you said his name he almost fell to his knees . He is barely composing himself so he takes his leave. You completely forgot about the last applicant and told your brother that you chose Alessio. (Last applicant: 😶🥹😭👍)

Alessio got to his home and realized he got sent an email. He almost lost it when he read his approval email saying he got the job.

"AMORE MIO YOU WILL BE MINE"

There will probably be a part two if people show interest in the story and my character hopes you are all doing well.

Love gardenletter 💕

[fitzrove]

Lol the Finnish public sector and university system are getting destroyed rn and I was already feeling unwell mentally but I feel more unwell now ajjdkdkfl

Going into more depth for universities and in their case it's:

Making the previously pretty robust student welfare system shit (= people won't have enough money to live on because the living expenses support is cut so drastically, there will be more pressure to work during your studies. But it's already hard to find suitable student jobs and because the cost of living is crazy, a lot of students struggle with poverty as is. Not to mention the strain of work PLUS school especially for people who are mentally ill etc...)

Reforming the entrance examination system. The Finnish university system was already wrecked one time in 2015, combining random ass subjects into Multidisciplinary Degree Programmes (tm) so you're forced to study a lot of stuff you're not even interested in and specialising is difficult. Like, it's an actual issue for applying to master's degrees abroad, like if someone was studying ie. sociology, they wouldn't have enough BA sociology studies to qualify for a master's degree abroad, because in Finland they also had to do such a huge variety of random ass other subjects. ANYWAY: the new entrance exams are making it EVEN WORSE. Now, for every "historical-cultural" subject there is one single nationwide entrance exam; same goes for political science/law/etc. So if you apply to study polsci you have to take the same exam as every law student in the country, which 1) makes it a poor measure of motivation for the actual specific subject you're going to study 2) filters out dedicated applicants with specific interests and favours random people who are good at studying and just want Some Kind Of Degree (also I'm suspecting that polsci departments will get filled with people who only applied to that as a backup for law). Also, the exams will have a huge emphasis on multiple choice questions and machines will correct them, essay writing skills or critical thinking are not really evaluated. Like I feel like this is actually going to have an impact on Finnish science some years down the line, people won't have enough motivation to get a strong enough basis and skillset in their own subject to do good and relevant research later..........

Making it impossible to be enrolled in two degree programmes at the same time. In some ways it's fair (there are people who are using that system for ill) but in some ways is catastrophic - it will make it really hard and daunting for people to switch majors (in Finland you can't switch within the university in most cases, you have to reapply to the university as a whole with the entire incoming cohort - which in Finland is not just recent high school graduates, getting into some programmes is so hard there that many people try 2-5 times, building up a huge applicant pool). So there's more pressure to know at 19 what you want to do for the rest of your life (especially given the huge emphasis put on the first-timer quota)

://////

[xiaq]

(this can be answered publicly) Hey X, pardon me if you’ve answered this before, but I was just curious on how you ended up transitioning from academia to tech and what role you started with in tech? Also, so you have any advice for someone looking to break into tech from a non-STEM background? Thank you!

Hey! I haven't answered it publicly but it's a popular question, so I will now (warning, long answer is long).

So I was so fed up with academia for sundry reasons I won't get into here but I wanted a career that would allow me to A. retire some day (something that paid generally well), B. would allow me some measure of work/life balance without high stress, and C. Would ideally let me use my communication/writing/speaking/presenting skills in some way.

My parents and my partner all work in tech and were like, "did you know that we desperately need people with your skillsets in the tech world?" and my partner, who works in technical sales was like, "You would kill at my job, I am not lying." And I was like, every job listing in technical sales that I see requires either a degree I don't have or past experience I don't have, or both, and my mother was like "Do you know how many mediocre resumes from unqualified men come across my desk? Apply for the damn positions anyway." So I reworked my resume to focus on applicable skills/experiences and wrote a cover letter for each position I applied to saying "hey, I know I'm an odd candidate but let me tell you why that's a good thing." And I got a lot of positive responses!

I was interviewing at 2 different tech places when I accepted the offer for my job now. I had an initial screening call interview with HR, then a zoom interview with the hiring manager, and then I was given access to a limited demo environment and had a week to teach myself the software and put together a demo for a fake customer which I did for the hiring manager (my future boss), one of my current peers, and the VP of the org. I was offered the job the same night I did my fake demo. So in total it was a 2 week interview process, and I started working 2 weeks later. **

I'm a pre-sales solutions consultant, which basically means I'm paired with a sales guy who does all the money and business value talk with customers, while I get to learn about a customer's data problems and then demo for them how our products can address those problems.

The learning curve was (and still is) steep. But it was basically like going back to school, and I've always loved learning new things. The job is super fun. It fulfills all of my wants I listed above with the added bonus of being completely remote (aside from occasional travel to meet with customers for in-person demos). The people I work with are supportive, management is communicative and constantly giving me feedback/talking about my trajectory. I've won internal awards, already received two raises and one promotion and I haven't even been there a year. I'm making more than double what I did as a professor and the concept of retirement doesn't feel like a laughable pipe dream anymore. I miss teaching a lot, but I'm healthier, happier, and better prepared for the future now. And my work is genuinely fulfiling because I'm showing people how they can fix problems. Also, playing with data management software and putting together custom demos is neat. It's like all the best parts of a college project--research, making a preso, knocking everyone's socks off while giving the preso, but I'm getting paid for it. I'm glad I followed my mom's advice.

So I guess my advice is the same as hers: even if you're not "qualified," apply for the position anyway. Make custom cover letters for each position and if there's not a way to include the letter with the app, do some googling and find the hiring manager on LinkedIn and message/email them. The person who hired me said that my cover letter was what got me the initial interview. So that shit works. If you have friends or family working somewhere with open positions, use those connections. Having an internal referral will go a long way to getting your resume looked at. I know we're all like, boo nepo babies, but networking is a huge part of any industry. Use it to your advantage if you have the advantage (no, I'm not working for my parent's companies, but if there'd been an open position I was interested in, I would have applied for it. No shame).

**I also, on the side, applied for the Austin Fire Department because why not. After a whole lot of mental and physical prep, I was accepted to the academy (in the first class, no less, holla) right before I was offered my current job. But I had to be realistic and say that probably wasn't a good long-term career option for someone who is 110lbs and was barely meeting the physical testing requirements who also has issues with getting overwhelmed in high-input sensory situations. So. Into the tech world I went. This side note just to say, I was keeping my options very open and there's nothing wrong with that either, lol.

I hope this helps!

[religion-is-a-mental-illness]

By: Nicola Davis

Published: Feb 27, 2024

When it comes to a typical psychopath, the suited and booted Patrick Bateman from the novel American Psycho might spring to mind, but, according to one expert, the number of women with the neuropsychiatric disorder could be far greater than previously thought.

Psychopaths are generally considered to lack empathy and guilt, exhibit antisocial behaviour, lie frequently and be ruthless, narcissistic and manipulative.

“Psychopaths are after money, power and control,” said Dr Clive Boddy, from Anglia Ruskin University, who is an expert on psychopaths in the corporate world.

While the idea of psychopaths as violent, antisocial criminals has given way to a more nuanced view – with Boddy among those to argue they are often found in big business – the idea that they are mostly male has remained.

“The behaviour of female psychopaths seems to be subtle enough and less obvious than male psychopaths and therefore they’re not recognised as much,” Boddy said.

“A small but mounting body of evidence describes female psychopaths as prone to expressing violence verbally rather than physically, with the violence being of a relational and emotional nature, more subtle and less obvious than that expressed by male psychopaths,” he noted, adding that may include spreading rumours and lies for personal advantage.

Boddy said one problem was that part of the assessment used to identify psychopaths – known as the Levenson self-report psychopathy scale (LSRP) – was skewed towards identifying the disorder in men.

That, he said, was because while the first part of the assessment looked at how emotionally detached, selfish, uncaring and manipulative a person was, the second part – which covered the psychopathic lifestyle – focused on violence and antisocial behaviour.

“The secondary element, and the measures for it, were largely based on studies of criminals who were in jail at the time and psychopathic – so the feeling is, among researchers these days, that those measures are just not suited to identifying female psychopathy.”

There had also been fewer studies looking at psychopathy in women than in men, he said, and assessors may be reluctant to label women as psychopaths.

Some estimates have suggested there could be a 10:1 ratio of male to female psychopaths, but Boddy’s work, using only the first part of the LSRP, suggested the figures were very different.

“It’s almost one to one,” Boddy said, although he noted large-scale studies of randomly chosen adults would be needed to get a more definitive picture.

Boddy, who is due to give a talk on female psychopaths at the Cambridge festival next month, said that while an estimated 1% of men were psychopaths, the diagnosis sat at one end of a spectrum.

“Estimates [using the first part of the LSRP suggest] there are about 23% of men who, although they’re not categorically psychopathic, have enough of the traits to be problematic for society,” he said.

Boddy’s own research, based on surveys of white-collar workers, suggested such traits were not uncommon in females. “Around 12% to 13% of females have enough of those traits to be potentially problematic,” he said.

Recognising psychopathy in women and men was important, Boddy said, not least because such individuals could have a huge impact in the workplace, with employees sidelined, abused and bullied. In addition, he noted, businesses led by such individuals could lose direction, and it could affect how people viewed large organisations.

“They see the greed, untruthfulness and ruthlessness of those at the top and this undermines democracy and the rule of law,” he said.

Boddy advocated for screening to be applied to job applicants to help protect employees.

“Especially the higher up you go in terms of seniority – therefore you have more power and control – the more those sorts of screening tests and psychometric tests are needed,” he said.

[covid-safer-hotties]

Adherence to non-pharmaceutical interventions following COVID-19 vaccination: a federated cohort study - Published Sept 10, 2024

Abstract In pandemic mitigation, strategies such as social distancing and mask-wearing are vital to prevent disease resurgence. Yet, monitoring adherence is challenging, as individuals might be reluctant to share behavioral data with public health authorities. To address this challenge and demonstrate a framework for conducting observational research with sensitive data in a privacy-conscious manner, we employ a privacy-centric epidemiological study design: the federated cohort. This approach leverages recent computational advances to allow for distributed participants to contribute to a prospective, observational research study while maintaining full control of their data. We apply this strategy here to explore pandemic intervention adherence patterns. Participants (n = 3808) were enrolled in our federated cohort via the “Google Health Studies” mobile application. Participants completed weekly surveys and contributed empirically measured mobility data from their Android devices between November 2020 to August 2021. Using federated analytics, differential privacy, and secure aggregation, we analyzed data in five 6-week periods, encompassing the pre- and post-vaccination phases. Our results showed that participants largely utilized non-pharmaceutical intervention strategies until they were fully vaccinated against COVID-19, except for individuals without plans to become vaccinated. Furthermore, this project offers a blueprint for conducting a federated cohort study and engaging in privacy-preserving research during a public health emergency.

[eliteprepsat]

Embrace your uniqueness–it's what makes you stand out

Standing out in the college admissions process involves showcasing unique qualities, experiences, and achievements. The point, however, is not simply to impress college admission officers with your accomplishments and achievements–it’s to show how you’ve invested time and energy to make a positive contribution to your community and the people around you. 

Here are some strategies high school students can use to distinguish themselves:

1. Pursue Passion Projects

Deep Dive into Interests: Engage deeply in a subject or hobby that genuinely excites you. This could be anything from scientific research, artistic endeavors, coding projects, or community service initiatives. Joining one of Elite’s LEAD Extracurricular Programs is a great way to explore and build your interests.

Showcase Achievements: Document your progress and accomplishments. Create a portfolio, blog, or website to display your work. Virtually all colleges ask students to list their accomplishments in their college application. In addition, some colleges allow students to submit an optional portfolio to showcase their talents and skills.

2. Leadership and Initiative

Start a Club or Organization: If your school lacks a club that interests you, start one. Aside from demonstrating leadership and initiative, starting a club allows you to dedicate time and energy to something you truly care about.

Lead Community Service Projects: Identify a need in your community and organize a project to address it. This shows commitment and the ability to lead and inspire others. While service projects are oftentimes done in person, you can also utilize technology to address a cause or issue–for example, provide online tutoring, build a website or app to educate the members of the public about a pressing problem and direct them to support organizations working to address that problem, or host a podcast or YouTube channel discussing an important issue.

3. Unique Extracurricular Activities

Develop Skills: Learn and excel in skills that are not typically taught in school, such as coding, entrepreneurship, or foreign languages. If available, obtain a certification that measures your competency or proficiency in the skills you develop. Certification typically involves passing an exam or test from a recognized organization.

Competitions and Awards: Participate and win awards in regional, national, or international competitions, such as science fairs, math olympiads, or writing contests. Showcase what you’re good at, and go as far as you can. Many students continue to participate in various competitions in college, and demonstrating a high level of interest and achievement will help you stand out from other applicants. 

Internships and Work Experience: Seek out internships and work experiences that provide unique insights or experiences related to your interests. These experiences will not only help you stand out from other college applicants but also help guide your choice of college major and possibly a career after college.

Artistic Creations: If you’re inclined towards the arts, create a substantial body of work, such as a short film, a series of paintings, or a novel. Applicants to fine arts, music, film, and theater programs in college are oftentimes required to submit a portfolio of their work.

Innovative Projects: Develop innovative projects that solve real-world problems, such as a tech solution for a local issue or an environmental initiative.

Cultural Contributions: Engage deeply with your cultural heritage or contribute to the cultural life of your community. Colleges want to build a class of students from diverse backgrounds, and demonstrating meaningful involvement in your community will allow colleges to see how you can contribute to the cultural life on campus.

4. Academic Excellence with a Twist

Advanced Coursework: Take advanced, honors, or college-level courses in subjects of interest. But don’t stop there: apply this knowledge in an activity or project to show its relevance and significance to your life. Enrolling in for-credit honors, AP, and dual credit courses through Elite is a great way to develop your intellectual interest during the summer and school year.

Unique Research Projects: Conduct independent research under the guidance of a mentor or through a research program. Colleges provide opportunities for students to engage in independent research as well as research with professors. Participating in research projects in high school will allow you not only to deepen your understanding of a subject you’re interested in but also to get a head start on research activities in college. 

5. Exceptional Letters of Recommendation

Build Relationships with Mentors: Form strong relationships with teachers, coaches, or other mentors who can write compelling, personalized letters of recommendation. Simply doing well and getting a good grade in the class is not enough, however–you should demonstrate a genuine interest in the subject through discussions and application of the information and ideas you learn in class.

6. Compelling Personal Statement

Tell Your Story: Write a personal statement that communicates who you are, your passions, and your unique perspective. Make it memorable and authentic by including stories or experiences that highlight your unique qualities and how they have shaped you. If you’re considering sharing personal stories of overcoming significant challenges or adversity, focus on your personal growth in overcoming the challenge, not simply on the challenge itself.

Final Thoughts

To stand out in the college admissions process, you should focus on the things that are truly important to you and demonstrate your values and interests. Not only will you be able to enjoy what you’re doing but you will also answer the key questions colleges ask when they review college applications:

How are you changing your world–whether it’s your family, school, or community–for the better?

How will you contribute to and engage with the other members of our college community in the classroom, in the residence hall, and on campus?