#because like with all structure models used as an analogy; youre running into the following obstacle (that list formats etc dont have):

[lynnetendo]

i've said it before and i'll say it again: miss me with your insulting frustrating Comedic Topic Bingos (TM) when they are literally just statements in square table form. if you make statements in square table form, i cant stop you! cant complain! success! sexy of you to have put a bunch of words out there for people to measure how relatable you are, how accurate your future sight is, how good you deconstructed this topic. make that ask meme you wanted. hot af. go get that confirmation. slay. love. be free

however if you just put a bunch of statements in a square roster WITH SOME FIELDS IN A LINE DIRECTLY CONTRADICTING EACH OTHER OR BEING MUTUALLY EXCLUSIVE, AND CALLING IT A BINGO, YOU'RE SUCCESSFULLY INCREASING MY LEVELS OF FRUSTRATION!! IF THE FIELDS CONTRADICT EACH OTHER IT'S NOT BINGO!! YOU'VE MADE IT UNFAIR BY DESIGNING IT WITH A SECTION THAT IS FULLY UNWINNABLE!!

and if you say "well not everything can be won. these arent supposed to be won" then why didnt you just Not make a bingo...

[nostalgebraist]

information flow in transformers

In machine learning, the transformer architecture is a very commonly used type of neural network model. Many of the well-known neural nets introduced in the last few years use this architecture, including GPT-2, GPT-3, and GPT-4.

This post is about the way that computation is structured inside of a transformer.

Internally, these models pass information around in a constrained way that feels strange and limited at first glance.

Specifically, inside the "program" implemented by a transformer, each segment of "code" can only access a subset of the program's "state." If the program computes a value, and writes it into the state, that doesn't make value available to any block of code that might run after the write; instead, only some operations can access the value, while others are prohibited from seeing it.

This sounds vaguely like the kind of constraint that human programmers often put on themselves: "separation of concerns," "no global variables," "your function should only take the inputs it needs," that sort of thing.

However, the apparent analogy is misleading. The transformer constraints don't look much like anything that a human programmer would write, at least under normal circumstances. And the rationale behind them is very different from "modularity" or "separation of concerns."

(Domain experts know all about this already -- this is a pedagogical post for everyone else.)

1. setting the stage

For concreteness, let's think about a transformer that is a causal language model.

So, something like GPT-3, or the model that wrote text for @nostalgebraist-autoresponder.

Roughly speaking, this model's input is a sequence of words, like ["Fido", "is", "a", "dog"].

Since the model needs to know the order the words come in, we'll include an integer offset alongside each word, specifying the position of this element in the sequence. So, in full, our example input is

[ ("Fido", 0), ("is", 1), ("a", 2), ("dog", 3), ]

The model itself -- the neural network -- can be viewed as a single long function, which operates on a single element of the sequence. Its task is to output the next element.

Let's call the function f. If f does its job perfectly, then when applied to our example sequence, we will have

f("Fido", 0) = "is" f("is", 1) = "a" f("a", 2) = "dog"

(Note: I've omitted the index from the output type, since it's always obvious what the next index is. Also, in reality the output type is a probability distribution over words, not just a word; the goal is to put high probability on the next word. I'm ignoring this to simplify exposition.)

You may have noticed something: as written, this seems impossible!

Like, how is the function supposed to know that after ("a", 2), the next word is "dog"!? The word "a" could be followed by all sorts of things.

What makes "dog" likely, in this case, is the fact that we're talking about someone named "Fido."

That information isn't contained in ("a", 2). To do the right thing here, you need info from the whole sequence thus far -- from "Fido is a", as opposed to just "a".

How can f get this information, if its input is just a single word and an index?

This is possible because f isn't a pure function. The program has an internal state, which f can access and modify.

But f doesn't just have arbitrary read/write access to the state. Its access is constrained, in a very specific sort of way.

2. transformer-style programming

Let's get more specific about the program state.

The state consists of a series of distinct "memory regions" or "blocks," which have an order assigned to them.

Let's use the notation memory_i for these. The first block is memory_0, the second is memory_1, and so on.

In practice, a small transformer might have around 10 of these blocks, while a very large one might have 100 or more.

Each block contains a separate data-storage "cell" for each offset in the sequence.

For example, memory_0 contains a cell for position 0 ("Fido" in our example text), and a cell for position 1 ("is"), and so on. Meanwhile, memory_1 contains its own, distinct cells for each of these positions. And so does memory_2, etc.

So the overall layout looks like:

memory_0: [cell 0, cell 1, ...] memory_1: [cell 0, cell 1, ...] [...]

Our function f can interact with this program state. But it must do so in a way that conforms to a set of rules.

Here are the rules:

The function can only interact with the blocks by using a specific instruction.

This instruction is an "atomic write+read". It writes data to a block, then reads data from that block for f to use.

When the instruction writes data, it goes in the cell specified in the function offset argument. That is, the "i" in f(..., i).

When the instruction reads data, the data comes from all cells up to and including the offset argument.

The function must call the instruction exactly once for each block.

These calls must happen in order. For example, you can't do the call for memory_1 until you've done the one for memory_0.

Here's some pseudo-code, showing a generic computation of this kind:

f(x, i) { calculate some things using x and i; // next 2 lines are a single instruction write to memory_0 at position i; z0 = read from memory_0 at positions 0...i; calculate some things using x, i, and z0; // next 2 lines are a single instruction write to memory_1 at position i; z1 = read from memory_1 at positions 0...i; calculate some things using x, i, z0, and z1; [etc.] }

The rules impose a tradeoff between the amount of processing required to produce a value, and how early the value can be accessed within the function body.

Consider the moment when data is written to memory_0. This happens before anything is read (even from memory_0 itself).

So the data in memory_0 has been computed only on the basis of individual inputs like ("a," 2). It can't leverage any information about multiple words and how they relate to one another.

But just after the write to memory_0, there's a read from memory_0. This read pulls in data computed by f when it ran on all the earlier words in the sequence.

If we're processing ("a", 2) in our example, then this is the point where our code is first able to access facts like "the word 'Fido' appeared earlier in the text."

However, we still know less than we might prefer.

Recall that memory_0 gets written before anything gets read. The data living there only reflects what f knows before it can see all the other words, while it still only has access to the one word that appeared in its input.

The data we've just read does not contain a holistic, "fully processed" representation of the whole sequence so far ("Fido is a"). Instead, it contains:

a representation of ("Fido", 0) alone, computed in ignorance of the rest of the text

a representation of ("is", 1) alone, computed in ignorance of the rest of the text

a representation of ("a", 2) alone, computed in ignorance of the rest of the text

Now, once we get to memory_1, we will no longer face this problem. Stuff in memory_1 gets computed with the benefit of whatever was in memory_0. The step that computes it can "see all the words at once."

Nonetheless, the whole function is affected by a generalized version of the same quirk.

All else being equal, data stored in later blocks ought to be more useful. Suppose for instance that

memory_4 gets read/written 20% of the way through the function body, and

memory_16 gets read/written 80% of the way through the function body

Here, strictly more computation can be leveraged to produce the data in memory_16. Calculations which are simple enough to fit in the program, but too complex to fit in just 20% of the program, can be stored in memory_16 but not in memory_4.

All else being equal, then, we'd prefer to read from memory_16 rather than memory_4 if possible.

But in fact, we can only read from memory_16 once -- at a point 80% of the way through the code, when the read/write happens for that block.

The general picture looks like:

The early parts of the function can see and leverage what got computed earlier in the sequence -- by the same early parts of the function. This data is relatively "weak," since not much computation went into it. But, by the same token, we have plenty of time to further process it.

The late parts of the function can see and leverage what got computed earlier in the sequence -- by the same late parts of the function. This data is relatively "strong," since lots of computation went into it. But, by the same token, we don't have much time left to further process it.

3. why?

There are multiple ways you can "run" the program specified by f.

Here's one way, which is used when generating text, and which matches popular intuitions about how language models work:

First, we run f("Fido", 0) from start to end. The function returns "is." As a side effect, it populates cell 0 of every memory block.

Next, we run f("is", 1) from start to end. The function returns "a." As a side effect, it populates cell 1 of every memory block.

Etc.

If we're running the code like this, the constraints described earlier feel weird and pointlessly restrictive.

By the time we're running f("is", 1), we've already populated some data into every memory block, all the way up to memory_16 or whatever.

This data is already there, and contains lots of useful insights.

And yet, during the function call f("is", 1), we "forget about" this data -- only to progressively remember it again, block by block. The early parts of this call have only memory_0 to play with, and then memory_1, etc. Only at the end do we allow access to the juicy, extensively processed results that occupy the final blocks.

Why? Why not just let this call read memory_16 immediately, on the first line of code? The data is sitting there, ready to be used!

Why? Because the constraint enables a second way of running this program.

The second way is equivalent to the first, in the sense of producing the same outputs. But instead of processing one word at a time, it processes a whole sequence of words, in parallel.

Here's how it works:

In parallel, run f("Fido", 0) and f("is", 1) and f("a", 2), up until the first write+read instruction. You can do this because the functions are causally independent of one another, up to this point. We now have 3 copies of f, each at the same "line of code": the first write+read instruction.

Perform the write part of the instruction for all the copies, in parallel. This populates cells 0, 1 and 2 of memory_0.

Perform the read part of the instruction for all the copies, in parallel. Each copy of f receives some of the data just written to memory_0, covering offsets up to its own. For instance, f("is", 1) gets data from cells 0 and 1.

In parallel, continue running the 3 copies of f, covering the code between the first write+read instruction and the second.

Perform the second write. This populates cells 0, 1 and 2 of memory_1.

Perform the second read.

Repeat like this until done.

Observe that mode of operation only works if you have a complete input sequence ready before you run anything.

(You can't parallelize over later positions in the sequence if you don't know, yet, what words they contain.)

So, this won't work when the model is generating text, word by word.

But it will work if you have a bunch of texts, and you want to process those texts with the model, for the sake of updating the model so it does a better job of predicting them.

This is called "training," and it's how neural nets get made in the first place. In our programming analogy, it's how the code inside the function body gets written.

The fact that we can train in parallel over the sequence is a huge deal, and probably accounts for most (or even all) of the benefit that transformers have over earlier architectures like RNNs.

Accelerators like GPUs are really good at doing the kinds of calculations that happen inside neural nets, in parallel.

So if you can make your training process more parallel, you can effectively multiply the computing power available to it, for free. (I'm omitting many caveats here -- see this great post for details.)

Transformer training isn't maximally parallel. It's still sequential in one "dimension," namely the layers, which correspond to our write+read steps here. You can't parallelize those.

But it is, at least, parallel along some dimension, namely the sequence dimension.

The older RNN architecture, by contrast, was inherently sequential along both these dimensions. Training an RNN is, effectively, a nested for loop. But training a transformer is just a regular, single for loop.

4. tying it together

The "magical" thing about this setup is that both ways of running the model do the same thing. You are, literally, doing the same exact computation. The function can't tell whether it is being run one way or the other.

This is crucial, because we want the training process -- which uses the parallel mode -- to teach the model how to perform generation, which uses the sequential mode. Since both modes look the same from the model's perspective, this works.

This constraint -- that the code can run in parallel over the sequence, and that this must do the same thing as running it sequentially -- is the reason for everything else we noted above.

Earlier, we asked: why can't we allow later (in the sequence) invocations of f to read earlier data out of blocks like memory_16 immediately, on "the first line of code"?

And the answer is: because that would break parallelism. You'd have to run f("Fido", 0) all the way through before even starting to run f("is", 1).

By structuring the computation in this specific way, we provide the model with the benefits of recurrence -- writing things down at earlier positions, accessing them at later positions, and writing further things down which can be accessed even later -- while breaking the sequential dependencies that would ordinarily prevent a recurrent calculation from being executed in parallel.

In other words, we've found a way to create an iterative function that takes its own outputs as input -- and does so repeatedly, producing longer and longer outputs to be read off by its next invocation -- with the property that this iteration can be run in parallel.

We can run the first 10% of every iteration -- of f() and f(f()) and f(f(f())) and so on -- at the same time, before we know what will happen in the later stages of any iteration.

The call f(f()) uses all the information handed to it by f() -- eventually. But it cannot make any requests for information that would leave itself idling, waiting for f() to fully complete.

Whenever f(f()) needs a value computed by f(), it is always the value that f() -- running alongside f(f()), simultaneously -- has just written down, a mere moment ago.

No dead time, no idling, no waiting-for-the-other-guy-to-finish.

p.s.

The "memory blocks" here correspond to what are called "keys and values" in usual transformer lingo.

If you've heard the term "KV cache," it refers to the contents of the memory blocks during generation, when we're running in "sequential mode."

Usually, during generation, one keeps this state in memory and appends a new cell to each block whenever a new token is generated (and, as a result, the sequence gets longer by 1).

This is called "caching" to contrast it with the worse approach of throwing away the block contents after each generated token, and then re-generating them by running f on the whole sequence so far (not just the latest token). And then having to do that over and over, once per generated token.

[nasa]

How is Biotechnology Preparing us to Live on the Moon and Mars?

The adventures awaiting astronauts on future long-duration missions have technologists researching sustainable ways to live away from Earth. We’re using what we know from almost 20 years of a continuous human presence on the International Space Station and looking at new technologies to prepare for missions to the Moon and Mars. 

Biotechnology – technology that uses living organisms to make products that provide a new use – is key to this research.

With biotechnology, we’re developing new ways to manufacture medicines, build habitats and more in space. Here are some ways biotechnology is advancing spaceflight and how the same research is reaping benefits on Earth.

Healthy astronauts

Planning ways to supply food for a multi-year mission on the Moon or Mars may require making food and nutrients in space. Our scientists are testing an early version of a potential solution: get microorganisms to produce vital nutrients like those usually found in vegetables. Then, whenever they’re needed, astronauts can drink them down. 

The microorganisms are genetically engineered to rapidly produce controlled quantities of essential nutrients. Because the microorganisms and their food source both have a long shelf-life at room temperature and only need water to be activated, the system provides a simple, practical way to produce essential nutrients on-demand. The same kind of system designed for space could also help provide nutrition for people in remote areas of our planet.

Our researchers are evaluating the first batches of BioNutrient samples that came back to Earth after an experimental run on the International Space Station.

Because space travel takes a toll on the human body, we’re also researching how biotechnology can be used to advance the field of regenerative medicine. 

Related cells that are joined together are collectively referred to as tissue, and these cells work together as organs to accomplish specific functions in the human body. Blood vessels around the cells vascularize, providing nutrients to the tissue to keep it healthy. 

Our Vascular Tissue Challenge offers a $500,000 prize to be divided among the first three teams that successfully create thick, metabolically-functional human vascularized organ tissue in a controlled laboratory environment. The vascularized, thick-tissue models resulting from this challenge will function as organ analogs, or models, that can be used to study deep space environmental effects, such as radiation, and to develop strategies to minimize the damage to healthy cells.  

Plant factories

Humans have relied on plants’ medicinal qualities for thousands of years for everything from alleviating minor ailments to curing serious diseases. Now, researchers are trying to simplify the process of turning plants into medicine (i.e. how to make it compact and portable). If successful, the cost of biomanufacturing pharmaceuticals on Earth could go down, and plants could produce medicines in space.

Creating medicine on demand isn’t something we typically do, so we’re turning to experts in the field for help. Researchers at the University of California, Davis are transforming plants into mini-medicine factories for future Mars missions. They’re genetically altering an ordinary type of lettuce so that it produces a protein called parathyroid hormone. This hormone is an approved drug for treating osteoporosis, a common condition where bones become weak and brittle.

This type of research is important to long duration spaceflight. When astronauts land on Mars, they will have spent more than half a year in zero gravity on the flight there, and they’ll need to be strong and ready to explore. Having the technologies needed to treat that possibility, and other unanticipated health effects of long duration spaceflight, is crucial.

Growing habitats

Vitamins aren’t the only thing astronauts could be growing on Mars; we’re exploring technologies that could grow structures out of fungi.

An early-stage research project underway at our Ames Research Center is prototyping technologies that could "grow" habitats on the Moon, Mars and beyond out of life – specifically, fungi and the unseen underground threads that make up the main part of the fungus. These tiny threads build complex structures with extreme precision, networking out into larger structures like mushrooms. With the right conditions, they can be coaxed into making new structures – ranging from a material similar to leather to the building blocks for a planetary home.

The myco-architecture project envisions a future where astronauts can construct a habitat out of the lightweight fungi material. Upon arrival, by unfolding a basic structure made up of dormant fungi and simply adding water, the fungi would grow around that framework into a fully functional human habitat – all while being safely contained to avoid contaminating the external environment.

Recycling waste

Once astronauts arrive on the surface of the Moon or a more distant planet, they’ll have to carefully manage garbage. This waste includes some stuff that gets flushed on Earth.

Today, we’re already using a recycling system on the space station to turn urine into drinking water. Poop on the other hand is contained then disposed of on spacecraft returning to Earth. That won’t be possible on more distant journeys, so, we’re turning to biomanufacturing for a practical solution.

Biology can serve as an effective recycling factory. Microorganisms such as yeast and algae feed on all kinds of things classified as “mission waste.” Processing their preferred form of nourishment generates products that can serve as raw materials used to make essential supplies like nutrients, medicines, plastic and fuel.

By taking a careful look at biological processes, we hope to develop new, lightweight systems to leverage that biology to do some helpful in-space manufacturing.

From Space to Earth

Biotechnology is preparing us for longer space missions to the Moon and then Mars – farther from Earth than humans have ever traveled before. As we prepare for those exciting missions, we’re also conducting research on the space station for the primary benefit of everyone on Earth.

January is National Biotechnology Month. To learn more about some of the ways NASA is using biotechnology to solve challenges in space and improve life on Earth, visit this link. 

Make sure to follow us on Tumblr for your regular dose of space: http://nasa.tumblr.com

[mmmmalo]

Some Words on Openbound

This is a step towards a more comprehensive account of A6I3 (Openbound). The basic idea: Meenah’s interactive adventures can be read as a dream-sequence from Roxy’s point of view expressing the following motifs:

The threat posed by (Lord) English functions as a metastasized metaphor for problems posed by language itself.

To escape from the clutches of language is to achieve perfect communication, represented by a return to a pre-lingual, child-like state (“pre-lingual” at once referring to image, sensation, and silence)

The recurring motif of 'merging with child’ is also used to a. to express the desire for pregnancy b. to express the desire to become one’s True Self, conceptualized as an inner, child-self that is “born” within oneself like an embryo c. to express pedophilia

First: Meenah is Roxy’s doppelganger. When we are introduced to Roxy’s fenestrated planes, we are promptly informed that if someone were caught half in/out one of the windows when the power cuts off, the poor soul would be sliced in two (4510). By Chekhov’s gun, this introduction ought to result in someone getting gorily bisected by the window, but it never happens. Instead we get this:

Gcat warps the panel away, trapping Roxy in the void, and we are shown a bisected horse puppet (left). The half-horse reiterates the looming threat of Chekhov’s guillotine. Roxy’s body is intact, but the scenery suggests she ought to be split. The suggestion is followed by the initial appearance of Meenah (right), implying that Meenah herself is a piece of Roxy, snipped away and running rampant. Thus, a doppelganger.

So, taking Meenah to be a esoteric mirror of Roxy, it follows that her adventures in the dreams bubbles are a narrative frame for /Roxy’s/ dreams. This is the basic assumption of everything that follows.

1: Language is the enemy.

Time is an impermeable barrier. It ticks on irreversibly, edging its victims unto entropic dissolution. The Lord of Time and the destruction he brings embody the inevitability of death. Aradia cracks a joke about this at the beginning of Openbound: within the ageless confine of the dreambubbles, “time is a figure of speech”, she says. Though ostensibly asserting the endless flexibility of time, an alternate interpretation would indicate that Lord English, time, and language itself are apprehended on similar terms. The most useful one presently: language, like time, is regarded as a barrier.

Throughout Homestuck, characters struggle with abstractions, beginning with the frustrating data mechanics of the sylladex and culminating in various tightrope-walks along unorthodox configurations of space and time. Language numbers among the headaches: Caliborn characterizes the text he reads as “walls”, further declaring them to be “impenetrable” and “migraine-inducing”. On one level, this aligns with Caliborn’s statement that the kids talk/think too much and he’d like them to just GET THE FuCK ON WITH IT ALREADY: speech is an obstacle towards both the completion of the kids’ objectives and Caliborn’s attainment of what he wants. On another level, this aligns with the later discussion of Caliborn’s learning disability: in all likelihood, he has difficulty reading. Another example of this disdain for language is Jade, who, in her rapturous treatise on the wonders of anthro, answers the call of the wild by renouncing words.

No need to answer. Words slough from the busy mind like a useless dead membrane as a more visceral sapience takes over. Something simpler is in charge now, a force untouched by the concerns and burdens of the upright, that farcical yoke the bipedal tow. It now drives you through the midnight brush, your paws whisking through creepers, unearthing with each bold stomp bright odors demanding investigation.

Just prior to Openbound, the sentiments expressed above (that language is unnecessary, an obstacle to unmediated communication and pure sensation) are restated in mythic terms: REALITY ITSELF is being DESTROYED by (LORD) ENGLISH! Language the inhibitor of direct experience becomes language the rot of the universe, language the malevolent destroyer of the capacity for any experience at all.

Meenah witnesses English’s destruction of reality and rushes off to recruit soldiers to fight him. There is harmony between the imminent threat of English and the gameplay: the primary obstacles to Meenah’s objectives are words. Literal walls of text stand between you and the end of the level, as you must navigate exhausting conversations to satisfy the game’s win conditions. Within the conversation themselves, the motif persists by showcasing various ways that speech can obscure meaning.

Kankri couches his points in overly ornate terminology and uses social justice as a tool for settling personal disputes. Latula laments how her commitment to her RAD speech affectations and persona can make her harder to understand. Cronus trips over his own accent, Mituna tumbles through various word spasms. Meulin’s deafness is thematically succeeded by Rufioh’s inability to communicate his unhappiness to the Horuss, who has sweat in his ears. The two characters who you cannot understand at all, the silent Kurloz and the pseudo-Japanese speaking Damara, are revealed to be direct servants of Lord English! Failure to communicate – inability to bridge the barrier of language – is the enemy.

The counter to the hyperbolic threat of language-as-mediation and is a fantasy of perfect communication. In Jade’s scenario, attainment of this ideal is presented visually as Jade acquiring the superficial markers of a wolf (“Wouldn't these ears suit you? Would not this proud long snout assist you in the hunt?”), whereupon she acquires the rich experience that she associates with the idea of animal, unmediated by language. Just as Jade merges with the image of a wolf, there is an image in Openbound that Meenah seeks, the attainment of which embodies the goal of some idealized communication, without words.

The image is that of childhood.

2: Kankri and Porrim form a spectrum of identity

In Homestuck, desire is generally structured as the restoration of a lost unity. Consider Cherub reproduction, itself inspired by a Platonic model of love: in seeking a soulmate, one is actually seeking a fascimile of their lost half, that with which they were originally united. The force that fractures this unity -- the boundary that prohibits access to the desired object -- is the law.

I elaborate on the various corollaries of this motif elsewhere (x)(x), but for present purposes, let it suffice to say that time itself functions as a law of sorts, insofar as time rips you away from childhood and bars the possibility of a return.

That’s a little abstract, so here’s an example: due to the the status of trolls as manifestations, we know that the characters Meenah visits in the afterlife are expressions of her (and thus Roxy’s) psyche. This relationship is difficult to map on a troll-by-troll basis. But things begin to click when you view each cluster of interactions with Beforan trolls as a mental constellation, their interplay showcasing pervasive internal dialogues and dynamics.

In the first cluster, Latula appears between Porrim and Kankri because SHE IS THE LAW, dividing Jesus from Mary, Child from Mother (which, as I will show, seems to be the trajectory Roxy imagines for herself). This is the reason that Latula successfully interrupts Kankri and Karkat’s “conversation”: they are clones, more or less, and the law is that which divides the child from itself.

I don’t claim Kankri represents a child just because he’s a brat who gets ruthlessly mothered by Porrim: it’s also implicit in his politics. Humans are not stratified by blood color, so the hemospectrum is not directly analogous to any real life example of power, privilege, or what have you. Neither is it perfectly generic. In a given context, the hemospectrum is often analogized to some particular notion of hierarchy. Eridan’s drive for blood purity marks him as a analogous to a racial supremacist; the depiction of Zebruh’s attitude towards low bloods is well interpreted as being rooted in a particularly exploitative brand of misogyny (x); and Kankri’s polemics pivot upon the particular role that AGE DIFFERENCE plays in structural oppression of Alternia, a metaphor for what is popularly termed “adultism”, injustices stemming from the power adults hold over children.

Kankri emphasizes that the lifespan discrepancy between warm and cool hemochroma means the upper classes are allotted far more time (unto eons) to consolidate power and define cultural norms; their immense lifespans constitute a structural basis for the oppression of lowbloods, whose relative youth means less time to organize. This doubles as a description of a political limitation of children, relative to adults. Kankri describes the lowest grouping of blood colors as Burgundy, Ochre, Umber, and Yellow -- BUOY for short, which not coincidentally is Meenah’s nautical permutation of BOY. All of which is to say that Kankri rankling at Porrim’s doting is mutually analogous with his politics, in the context of Beforus, where coddling is the de facto relation between castes. His being a brat raging against an overbearing mother is an analogy.

And funny enough, that’s something he and Porrim have in common, in a way. Porrim balks at the /role/ of motherhood expected of her, among other injustices upon women in Beforan society. And Porrim likewise objects to the role of RAD GIRL that Latula 'pro+jects’, encouraging her to just ‘be yo+urself’... the idea being, in the same sense that Latula’s GAME GIRL persona masks her ‘real’ personality, femininity itself is construed as a shell encasing the ‘true’ child-self within. Or rather, the feminine persona is portrayed as being pregnant with the child-self, which is the true self. So Kankri’s raging against Porrim is a metaphor for a spirit balking at the gendered expectations that encase them.

If I can speak with any confidence on this psychological reading of Kankri and Porrim’s opposition, it because the invocation of pregnancy to communicate as sense of inner/outer self is repeated throughout the dream, through the language used to describe characters who are otherkin. Take Cronus for example: he is named after a god famous for devouring his children. And his lusus (an expression of his desire) is a seahorse, notable for their child-bearing males. The net effect is the impression of a baby in Cronus’s belly -- but instead of literal pregnancy, we see Cronus describe himself as ‘a human “born” in the body of a troll’, essentially invoking the image of pregnancy to communicate his status as humankin.

Here you might begin to see how this is Roxy’s dream -- the mental conflict between Porrim (womanhood) and Kankri (childhood, which while ostensibly gender neutral can be rendered masculine by opposition to womanhood) creates a spectrum of identity available to Roxy, as made explicit by their gender exploration in the epilogues. This seems to be the joke at play whenever Latula reiterates the “GIRLS RULE, BOYS DROOL” line from her theme song: taken literally, it is a succinct summary of the Kankri/Porrim conflict, wherein the feminine persona is construed as dominating the (at times masculine by contrast) child-self. 

Kankri’s description of a “warm-identifying physically-cooler caste” is Roxy: she identifies with her child-self.

And as I mentioned before, just as Latula stands between Porrim and Kankri, time is the law separating someone feeling trapped by femininity from a childhood where such concerns were nonexistent. Time is thus the enemy, which is one of the thematic reasons the Lord of Time warrants such resentment. A certain longing for childhood also characterizes the glimpses of John that punctuates Openbound: he laments the inability to recapture the feeling of watching Con Air with his Dad when he was younger (throwing his big tantrum at the exact moment that Cyrus threatens the bunny, which really ought to go back in the box, the perfectly generic object). Roxy later voices a similar sentiment in Wizardy Herbert via Beatrix, who would “trade all the badges in the world to go back to when things were simpler.” Elsewhere in the story Roxy emphasizes a growing tension between a figure with ~100 merit badges (symbolizing complexity) with another character, Russet (an apple, the emblem of atomic simplicity, as per drunk!Rose). Kanaya might describe this as a tension between Space and Time (1093), but here it chiefly serves to further underline the Child and Adult distinction.

3: The corollary of “perfect communication” is silence.

If Time divides the child from itself, it can be hypothesized that Lord English can embody this divide in his other symbolic functions, such as his embodiment of language. If true, it follows that the union of the child-self represents perfect, unmediated communication. Our first example of such a union then are the enmeshed Vantases (who are basically clones) -- but instead of some transcendent transmission of thought, we see an endless one-sided lecture. Spoonful after heaping spoonful of heaving diarhetoric fed directly into Karkat’s gaping earhole.

And on a psychological level, perhaps that’s an apt description of what it means to “just be yourself” without interruption, no commentary or insecure protests interjecting their way into your stream of consciousness. Ordering yourself around without a second thought. And I’ve been in the zone in that way, where I’m so immersed in a task that the task becomes me. But on an interpersonal level, it’s clear that “perfect” speech is entirely unequal.

Despite ostensibly championing the rights of children in the face of domination, Kankri asserts himself as the “teacher” to Karkat’s “pupil”, assuming that the transmission of truth will be one-sided. When confronted by Porrim about this hypocrisy, Kankri defensively insists that he is having a “man to man conversation” with Karkat, an equal exchange. (And oddly, even as she advocates for Karkat, Porrim leaves Karkat in his silence, gently assuring him that his dejected glance has said all he needs to say...)

At any rate, the Karkat-Kankri dynamic illustrates that the immediacy of communication within the primordial union brings with it an element of domination. The subsequent pairings (Cronus-Mituna and Kurloz-Meulin) elaborate on problems and abuses that can accompany compromised speech and silence, each section emphasizing a particular child symbol: respectively, angels and cats (which I’ve established previously). 

Angels first: Cronus’s claim that “as a wwingman [Mituna] is a total disgrace” uses “wingman” to invoke the image of angels. This method is repeated by Lil Hal, who observes that Dirk views him as a “counterproductive wing man”, to which Dirk sarcastically replies “nice deduction Lil Einstein”. The reference to the Disney Jr. show neatly ties the angel reference into the fact that as Dirk’s creation, in a sense Hal can be considered Dirk’s child. And in the same way that Hal (the child/angel) functions partly as a reflection of Dirk’s own nature, Mituna’s angel status indicates that he can function symbolically as Cronus’s “inner-child”, the self with which one is pregnant.xx

Silence is an interminable pregnancy. Not speaking means not birthing the baby, not letting the angel fall to earth. The hush is a measure against the corruption and ruin associated with English. (Even though the silent characters are his most devoted servants?)

Cronus demonstrates this with the command “vwait here, try not to fall dowvn, and ABOVWE ALL, try not to be seen” in which “above all” doubles as the place from which Mituna is falling. Language is the instrument of descent, Mituna’s garbled speech emphasizes his “fallen” status within the paradigm. Cronus “really hates the sound of” Mituna partly because he views Mituna as a caricature of himself, again not unlike Dirk’s violent rejection of the negative qualities he identifies in Hal.

This is why Cronus’s opening gesture is to fail a tongue-twister and cry GLOBES in exasperation: it is as though he has hit a snag in his verbal kick-flip and face-planted onto the earth (the globe) -- Mituna bombing his literal stunts and falling down being the root visual. Skateboards (and other 4-wheel devices) are vehicles unto “unreal air”: a status of immaculate lofty ideality, and thus untouchable and pure. The other skateboarder, Latula, made a point of emphasizing her untouchability as she performed some “objectively rad” tricks for Kankri. And more to the point, Latula claims that her intuitions “just make sense” and explaining them would not be "radical”, saying in her own way that bringing her feelings/intuitive knowledge into the realm of speech would in some way tarnish or degrade them. “4 grlz gott4 s4cr1f1c3 und3rst4nd4b1l1ty for th3 s4k3 of r4dn3ss” she says.

Another way to put it is that not expressing a thought can make seem invincible -- it cannot be exposed to the risk of contradiction or mockery. A relevant quote:

MEENAH: i heard a rumor you think youre a human now MEENAH: that true

CRONUS: its a privwate matter. i dont see vwhy i should havwe to talk about it vwith you, and open myself up to more of your judgmental scorn.

MEENAH: sounds like another desperate cry for attention imo

(Aside: an old friend of mine faced almost this exact conversation on facebook when they came out as a trans man, so this one actually hit home a little bit.)

Roxy’s sensitivity to the reactions of others is perhaps implicit in the paranoid staring contests with the void, but in relation to their gender expression, it becomes most explicit in the epilogue -- not only in the faltering manner by which Roxy begins to assert their gender expression, but in the narration itself. Although Dirk’s narration seems to largely reflection his own hesitation to embrace Roxy’s newfound identity, it should be remembered that he is effectively Roxy’s brainghost when narrating their thoughts. That is to say, Dirk’s reaction to Roxy is symbiotic with what Roxy imagines Dirk’s reaction would be. The mockery in the narration is the mockery Roxy expects and fears. Thus, Roxy’s level of comfort and security with their current gender expression necessarily coincides with the level of ease expressed by Dirk’s later narration.

But let’s return to Openbound.

The traumatic deafening of Meulin is analogous to the deathening of Jaspers: one is blasted with the violent shriek of a clown, the other sassacrushed by the “daunting text” of Mark Twain. With the cat as a symbol of the child-self, the message is basically that the child’s encounter with language is a violent experience. (Lord English is destroying reality, etc etc) Kankri neatly echoes this point of view by announcing one of his lectures as “my crushing harangue 9n this delicate su6ject” -- to rephrase, he is crushing the delicate subject (child) with his harangue.

Like much violence in Homestuck, violence of speech is sexualized. There is a moment where Cronus openly relishes the unilateral communication first displayed in the Kankri > Karkat pipeline. He basks in the fact that Mituna is incapable of repeating anything coherently, or that Mituna’s word is otherwise held in such disrepute that no one will take Mituna seriously. As Cronus does this, Mituna laments that Cronus is touching him and will not stop.

The bad-touch motif continues with Kurloz and Meulin, who achieve their own mode of “perfect communication” (union with child-self) via streams of wordless, emotive images. In the above exchange, Kurloz mimes an Ewok rubbing a child, to which Meulin responds with a small frown and a laughing Sailor Moon, as if to convey that she were the one being tickled in the previous gif. She slams the UNSEE button to emphasize her displeasure. (It is only after this sequence that we learn Kurloz can control Meulin’s mind, further linking harmonious union with tyrannical, unilateral communication)

It’s worth noting here that Meenah’s goal in parts 1 & 2 is to get through gates established by Karkat, ultimately convincing him to join up with her. Karkat who, alongside Kankri, currently represents the child-self. Just as Rufioh interprets Meenah’s invitation to join as a romantic proposal, Meenah interprets her successful recruitment of Karkat as a date, sealing the euphemism by reassuring her recruit that he “will not regret hitchin [his] wagon to [her] starfish”, which is a sex joke. The undertones of age disparity later surface as Meenah joins up with her second Vriska (x):

MEENAH: can i ask a kinda personal question MEENAH: i mean not even that personal but whatev 

VRISKA: Sure...? 

MEENAH: how old are you 

VRISKA: Uh, VRISKA: Almost seven and a half sweeps. VRISKA: Getting close to eight!!!!!!!! VRISKA: I pro8a8ly sound like a fucking nerd, 8ut I've 8een excited a8out reaching that milestone pretty much my whole life. 

MEENAH: 7.5 huh MEENAH: i guess thats a lil more respectable 

VRISKA: More respecta8le than what? 

MEENAH: nofin

For Roxy, the libidinal investment in kids is confined to subtext for basically the whole story: jokes about the speculative mechanics of boning chess people and elves, the sexual tension between Russet and the boy with 100 merit badges, the time Roxy was briefly upset to learn she had been “flirt-larping” with a 13 year old Dirk, only to resume the game a page later -- little moments. In the epilogues, Roxy being highly conscious of her interactions with children and the potential for reproducing systems of domination seems embedded in her trepidation towards any of the players governing the world they created (a hands-off attitude toward parenting that may also offer some rationale for Mom’s neglect of Rose, if all that is true of Roxy holds true for her past self).

But let’s move forward.

4: To See Oneself as a Host Plush

I’d like to reiterate here that the Kankri-Porrim dichotomy suggests that the categories of ‘baby’ and ‘boy’ are blurred in their mutual opposition to ‘girl’. Again, the letter of the law: BOYS DROOL! This offers a rationale for oddities like Roxy wiping John’s mouth for him during their date in Candy (boys drool), or this little slip-of-the-tongue which I wouldn’t quite call subtle:

ROXY: doin ok up there b?

JOHN: i’m fine!!! JOHN: wait. b?

ROXY: yea like short for babe ROXY: cuz ur my babe b

JOHN: oh, haha. right.

If we’re being less charitable, you could characterize this as Roxy keeping her eyes on the prize -- as though in addressing John, she is actually addressing the baby that he can provide her. And while I’m not certain of that, the notion of such double-speak (seemingly addressing the person in front of you when you are actually addressing an unborn child) is crucial for understanding the metaphors embedded in the Damara-Rufioh-Horuss triad.

The motif of pregnancy is here introduced via Fiduspawn: impregnate the host plush and a baby pony comes out.

You might remember that Rufioh refers to girls as ‘doll’ -- this quirk links the host plush to the feminine (at least within the context of this dream). To be more precise, the doll is characterized as a void that invites (or even demands) filling: this is a complementary reading of Horuss’s claim that Rufioh “stole his breath away”, synonymous with the claim that Rufioh “has a way of drawing the breath out of people”. The Rogue of Breath has difficulty standing up for himself (Horuss calls it “affable pliability”), so Horuss often speaks over him or on his behalf, as though Rufioh were a marionette. Horuss is saying that Rufioh’s passive demeanor invites this sort of behavior, that Rufioh’s effective silence means he is “asking for it”, to use a loaded phrase. 

How funny then that the “doll” of their group Damara (whose name means Silence) is literally “asking for it”, constantly. The same logic applies to Dirk’s decapitated head (from just before this intermission!) and Vriska’s comatose body -- through narrative contrivance, each voiceless vessel hauntingly implores a living Page to kiss them, to fill them with a Breath from without. The sequences suggest a conviction on the part of the kissers: that which is “empty” must desire to be “filled”, a framing that becomes particularly unpleasant when sexualized.

What Damara is asking for is ambiguous, at once referring to sex and the child to which sex serves as vehicle (among other potentials). I wrote awhile back (x) that Mom gave Jaspers an ostentatious burial as a proxy mourning for a miscarried child that preceded Rose, and her cat-cloning was oriented towards the eventual revival of her lost baby. For Damara (and thus Roxy) this becomes a fundamental myth: the desire for children is complemented in intensity by the conviction that the child has already been lost, or stolen from you. Horuss observes that Damara’s remarks a leaning “bloo” because (it’s a pun) her dirty talk is tinged with mourning. There is, inexplicably, sorrow when Damara says she wants to feel her nipples between your teeth. She’s not talking to you -- she’s talking to the baby.

This is also the joke when Latula/Terezi threaten to kill Damara for approaching Mituna/Karkat: the LAW will not permit you to access BABY! You may not recover your child or your childhood, time has barred you from both. (Though of course, through the pedophilia lens this becomes much less sympathetic).

A similar moment can be read into Horuss: Kankri, like all trolls, acts as a manifestation of some emotional surge, so Kankri’s sudden appearance implies that someone is legitimately triggered, despite the comic’s apparent commitment to denigrating his point of view. Like Cronus, Horuss’s horse-kin status entails an identification with his inner (child) self -- but the trans allegory melds seamlessly into other modes of union with the child image, such as pregnancy. So when Kankri asks Horuss to confirm that he is triggered by Meenah’s skepticism towards his identity, the reply “Trigger sounds like a wonderful name for a hoofbeast” is not merely a flippant non-sequitur, but also another echo of the core lamentation, a wistful musing on names for a dead/unborn child.

A brief step backwards: at the beginning, we outlined how Lord English’s destruction of reality was (in the present context at least) a mythic expression of fears and frustrations about communication and speech. Dissatisfaction /produced/ a fantasy individual to whom the problem could be sourced and blamed assigned. A similar attitude should be adopted in examining Damara’s theft of Rufioh’s “happy thought” Tinkerbull -- she represents an already existing discontentment with his circumstances, crystallized into an individual.

This is where Damara would seem to slot into the dysphoria proceedings: she crushed Tinkerbull with a refrigerator, a reprisal of the sassacrushing of Jaspers. The refrigerator is a womb symbol (I insist), suggesting that the womb is a hostile force on par with the Law of English (Girls Rule!). From the perspective of Mom, this could be read a response to her miscarriage, a result of blaming her own body for the child’s death. From Roxy’s perspective, it might be better characterized as ‘the body itself is a domineering force suffocating my child self’ -- and thus dysphoria. Damara crushing Tinkerbull represents the sense that your own body is a meat prison, a shell imprisoning (if not outright killing) your happiness.

This is why Damara manifests for Kanaya, who struggles to reconcile herself with Porrim, a daunting image of ideal womanhood, especially as it concerns the care of matriorb (ie motherhood). Porrim assures her that even though motherhood is to some degree a societal imposition, a role, this does not mean Kanaya cannot embrace the perpetuation of her species on her own terms. This is a good lesson, and Kanaya agrees -- but there stands Damara regardless, joy-stealer, lingering discomfort with self-conception as a host plush. “Just ignore her until she goes away” is all the advice Porrim has to offer on the subject.

(Passing thought: It occurs to me that the phrase ‘happy thought’ used to describe Tinkerbull could be replaced with ‘euphoria’, forming a clean complement to ‘dysphoria’... but wordplay reliant on a missing link is somewhat suspect, so let’s leave that one in the margins)

5: High Euphemistic Density

Let’s review by playing with some euphemisms in Horuss’s opening address to Meenah. I’m dividing his words into 3 sections for ease of reference:

1 HORUSS: 8=D < Your Harness... I mean Hayness. Highness I mean. HORUSS: 8=D < F*DDLEST*%. Please pardon my utterly e%ecrable language, and unforgivable stammering, your Horseness. #Sh*ot! #I mean Hayness! #Whew. 2 HORUSS: 8=D < I am a bale of nerves in your royal presence, and it has been so long. 3 HORUSS: 8=D < And when I am so spooked, you must know how that causes me to even more firmly identify with the majestic hoofbeast.

Starting with three: recall, “girls rule”. Femininity is characterized as a daunting (or even domineering) imposition. Kanaya displaying anxiety at the prospect of measuring up to the image of Porrim is one way this motif crystallizes into a character dynamic. Another way seems to be Horuss’s anxiety before his empress -- just as Kankri (child) rebels against Porrim (mother), the presence of Meenah (mother) induces Horuss to identify with the hoofbeast (baby). Both cases present a shrinking away from a feminine authority figure as metaphor for rejection of the societal strictures of femininity.

Two is a dick joke: while Horuss is ostensibly lamenting his anxiety, a penis is a literal ‘bale of nerves’, a sensory cluster. “It has been so long.” The pun is reinforced as the expense of Rufioh, who apparently did not have ‘the nerve’ to ‘finish [Damara] off’ on her quest bed, which is an innuendo for sexual inadequacy. That Horuss’s smiling face emoji is itself a dick suggests a conflation of identification with his happy thoughts and identification with the member -- which, based on previous discussion of Tinkerbull, would seem to blur the line between having a dick and being pregnant? Which aligns with the notion that pregnancy becomes a metaphor for masculine identification via union with the child self.

(“You very nearly caught a glimpse of a horse penis and began to cry” conveys a mournful yearning of the same order as “I want to feel my nipples between your teeth”?)

But the metaphor goes both ways: the brain is another ‘bale of nerves’, thus offering a rational for Mituna’s presence on the outskirts of the dream. His fall from the brain tree strikes me as less an ejaculation (from brain-dick) as birth (from brain-womb) -- hence the use of Mituna as the lost child, forever denied to Damara by the law (Latula).

And we arrive at one, which repeats a bit from Cronus’s introduction: Horuss trips over his own speech, illustrating the Fall. Just as Cronus attempts to silence Mituna to avoid the embarrassment expected to accompany self-expression, Horuss attempts to c*nsor himself before the judgement of his empress. The need to hide himself (as the stoic smile might indicate) is also embedded in the way Horuss describes his mouth as a load-gaper, and begs pardon for his potty-mouth: silence is golden, and conversely speech becomes excrable, fallen and profaned.

(Silly thought: on occasion, censorship can also designate the holy, eg censoring the name of G*d so as not to besmirch it. That in mind, I find it amusing to take Roxy’s line “holiest of shits // the shit.... // is down right // SACROSANCT” as a literal deification of excrement, making Horuss and Rufioh’s self-censorship look like a last ditch attempt at keeping the angel-child up in heaven. No?)

6: Conclusions and Questions

Obviously, this isn’t all that can be said of Openbound -- people have written extensive character studies of the alpha trolls, mined their stories for clues and parallels to less tangential plot-lines, and otherwise made whatever sense could be made of things. My contribution is some words on the mixed metaphors, word play, and psychological motifs that surround the proceedings.

If you, like me, are frazzled by the sheer density of double and triple speak at play, this is the gist of what I’m arguing for:

“Merge with child” seems to be the overarching motivation expressed in Openbound. But to follow that command verbatim is impossible -- the goal must be interpreted (as getting pregnant, as being true to oneself, as pederasty, as nostalgic pursuit of simplicity, etc) in order to be realized.

That the ideal merger is an image whose wholeness/breadth of possibility is lost in the specificity of actualization would seem analogous to the Fall occurring between silence and speech... so the motif persists on a meta level, maybe? But we don’t need to dwell on that more than we already have. 

Instead, I’d like to end with several new points that give me pause.

It’s still not clear to me why the silent characters are the direct servants of Lord English. Communication with them is impossible, and that frustration is what causes language to be conceived as a threat in the first place, but I have an itch that tells me there’s a bit more to it than that.

I don’t know what the transmission of the codpiece has to do with anything. I suspect it may number among various metaphors for trans masculinity, but that’s confirmation bias speaking -- from the scene itself, I gathered very little.

I wonder if Aranea’s info dumps at the end are factored in... you could construe them as placing Meenah in the position of Karkat relative to Kankri -- on the receiving end of spoonful after heaping spoonful of words. So even though Karkat disappears after you follow him, you’ve nonetheless “merged” with the child-function that he performs here? But again, I worry that this sort of hasty integration means I’m missing out on new info.

I’m pretty firmly of the mind that this whole intermission is chiefly devoted to Roxy, but I do worry that Meenah’s doppelganger status could have misled me on that point. After all, Jane’s planet quest contained references to her friends desires, not only her own (x)(x) -- would it be so odd for the same to be true of Roxy’s dreams? In which case it would be worth revisiting this intermission to double-check whether any given section might map more closely to the other alpha kids -- especially since Rufioh/Horuss is a transparent commentary on Dirk/Jake

This is a good a place as any to note that when I was operating under the assumption that Roxy was a trans girl, I was inclined to read the Rufioh/Horuss break-up as ambivalence on the question of getting rid of your dick -- which seemed sensible enough at the time, though the present model seems more consistent across the various conversations. It should be noted though that the language of gender questioning can easily serve multiple directions at once. So... I guess I want to make sure the apparent success of this approach doesn’t blind me to other interpretive potentials? Fingers crossed

...there’s more things to question, probably, but I think that’s good for now.

Special thanks to @red-zora for giving this mess the once-over.

Good night everyone.

[douchebagbrainwaves]

I'VE BEEN PONDERING ANYONE

Because kids are unable to create wealth, but to spend it doing fake work. Life is short, as everyone knows. And what drives them both is the number of startups are created to do product development on spec for some big company, and assume you could build something way easier to use. You could also rob banks, or solicit bribes, or establish a monopoly. In any period, it should be helpful to anyone who wants to understand the feeling of virtue in liking them. Plenty of famous founders have had some failures along the way. A few weeks ago I finally figured it out.1 03% false positives.2

That makes sense, because programs are in effect giant descriptions of how things get made. Treating a startup idea as a question changes what you're looking for. In school you are, in theory, explaining yourself to someone else. We're more patient. Moral fashions don't seem to get sued much by established competitors. Once you realize how little most people judging you care about judging you accurately—once you realize that because of the normal distribution of most applicant pools, it matters least to judge accurately in precisely the cases where judgement has the most effect—you won't take rejection so personally. The space of possible choices is smaller; you tend to standardize everything. What VCs should be looking for companies that hope to win by writing great software, but there is no permanent place in this world for ugly mathematics? In fact, you don't take a position and then defend it. This one may not always be true. It hadn't occurred to me till then that those horrible things we had to read in English classes was mostly fiction, so I know most won't listen.

This second group adopt the fashion not because they want to work for people with high standards. This is a talk I gave at the last minute I cooked up this rather grim talk. When a company starts misbehaving, smart people won't work there. So verbs with initial caps have higher spam probabilities than they would in all lowercase. And the source of error is not just random variation, but a Times Roman lowercase g is easy to tell apart.3 Such judgements can of course counter by sending a crawler to the site, you wouldn't need PR firms to tell you, because hackers would already be writing stuff on top of it. Cultivate a habit of questioning assumptions.4 Nature uses it a lot, which is the satisfaction of people's desires. When watches had mechanical movements, expensive watches kept better time. But something seems to come with practice.

So even in the middle of getting rich we were fighting off the grim reaper. It seems like it violates some kind of answer. Wouldn't it be amazing if we could achieve a 50% success rate? It's more a question of self-preservation.5 You have to do whatever seems best at each point. So my first prediction about the future of web startups.6 It's not just an airy intangible. Everyone's model of work you grew up with a million dollar idea is just a convenient way of trading one form of wealth for another. That is certainly true.

So odds are this is, in projects of their own. When I heard about this work I was a kid I used to calculate probabilities for tokens, both would have the same kind of office or rather, hacker opinion.7 So obviously that is what we are, founders think.8 It's absolute poverty you want to get real work done in an office with cubicles, you have to say, are evil. Mostly because they're optimistic by nature. I'm going to try to recast one's work as a single thesis. And so began the study of ancient texts had such prestige that it remained the backbone of education until the late 19th century. I met some investors that had invested in a hardware device and when I asked them what was the most significant thing they'd observed, it was mostly political. But while DH levels don't set a lower bound on the convincingness of a reply, they do set an upper bound, bearing in mind the small sample size. The remarkable thing about this project was that he got in trouble for.9 It was only after hearing reports of friends who'd done it that they decided to start a startup to starting one, and eventually someone will discover it.10 They may be enough to kill all the opt-in lists.

The church knew this would set people thinking. Since the invention of the quartz movement, an ordinary Timex is more accurate than a Patek Philippe costing hundreds of thousands of dollars. The reason is not just text; it has structure. An office environment is supposed to be something that helps you work, not something you read looking for a specific answer, and feel cheated if you don't have significant success to cheer you up, it wears you out: Your most basic advice to founders is just don't die, but the thousand little things the big company doesn't want to imagine a world in which high school students think they need to get good grades to impress employers, within which the employees waste most of their time in political battles, and from which consumers have to buy anyway because there are so many kinks in the plumbing now that most people don't even realize is there. There's nothing special about physical embodiments of control systems that should make them patentable, and the examiners reply by throwing out some of your claims and granting others. I learnt never to bet on any one feature or deal or anything to bring you success. Underneath the long words or the expressive brush strokes, there is no way to get rich. These get through because they're the one type of sales pitch you can make enormous gains playing around in problem-space. But you have to redefine the problem to make them irrelevant. In more organized societies, like China, the ruler and his officials used taxation instead of confiscation. Every engraver since Durer has had to live in Silicon Valley, that use of the word, Bill Gates is middle class.

So what to make of this. Few people are suited to running a startup can be demoralizing. I think things are changing. The problem is compounded by the fact that hackers, despite their reputation for social obliviousness, sometimes put a good deal of effort into seeming smart. But though it's not anger that's driving the increase in disagreement, there's a danger that they'll follow a long, hard path that ultimately leads nowhere. In the period just before the industrial revolution, some of the most pointless of all the great programmers I can think of who don't work for Sun, on Java, I know of zero. Descartes, though claimed by the French, did much of his thinking in Holland.11 But hackers use their offices for more than that.

Boston is a tech center to the same cause: Gates and Allen wanted to move back to Palo Alto, where he grew up, and they tend to do particularly well, because they're easier to see, because they generally don't die loudly and heroically. I'd spent more time with her. One of the most valuable thing they've discovered. But the breakage seems to affect software less than most other fields. England and France were made by courtiers who extracted some lucrative right from the crown—like the right to collect taxes on the import of silk—and so they don't try do to it. All the unfun kinds of wealth creation slow dramatically in a society that confiscates private fortunes. I mean by habits of mind you invoke on some field don't have to do is expand it. When a politician says his opponent is mistaken, that's a sure sign that something is broken?

Notes

That's one of those you can, Jeff Byun mentions one reason not to be, yet. The reason for the popular vote. 5 million cap, but instead to explain that the payoff for avoiding tax grows hyperexponentially x/1-x for 0 x 1. Something similar happens with suburbs.

There are successful women who don't aren't. His critical invention was a company selling soybean oil or mining equipment, such a baleful stare as they seem pointless. I think that's because delicious/popular with voting instead of hiring them. Security always depends more on the spot, so had a broader meaning.

Though most founders start out excited about the other: the company than you otherwise would have seemed shocking for a block or so. MITE Corp.

Perhaps this is a huge, analog brain state.

So how do they decide on the programmers, the more effort you expend on the dollar. After the war it was briefly in Britain in the right mindset you will fail. If you want to.

The only launches I remember are famous flops like the other hand, he took earlier. And journalists as part of the War on Drugs. As usual the popular image is several decades behind reality.

Something similar happens with suburbs. Com. It seems to have minded, which you ultimately need if you want to keep their wings folded, as I explain later. Cost, again.

I have about thirty friends whose opinions I care about valuations in angel rounds can make it a function of the venture business. When the Air Hits Your Brain, neurosurgeon Frank Vertosick recounts a conversation reaches a certain level of incivility, the increasing complacency of managements. For founders who go on to create giant companies not seem formidable early on. There's probably also the perfect point to spread the story a bit.

At this point for me do more with less, is that the only audience for your present valuation is fixed at the end of the kleptocracies that formerly dominated all the free OSes first-rate programmers. Most people let them mix pretty promiscuously. This is a self fulfilling prophecy.

Handy that, isn't it? We don't call it ambient thought.

Watt didn't invent the spreadsheet. If you extrapolate another 20 years. At first I didn't need to run spreadsheets on it, by encouraging people to claim that they'll only invest contingently on other sites. It is the fact that the graph of jobs is not always tell this to users, you've started it, whether you have to make software incompatible.

[kiiteor]

Condensed Chaos, ch 10 Basic Exercises

Phil notes that these may be entirely useless or they may be super important. I have basically copy-pasted them here, although I have shortened a few of the bullet points because they’re quite long

When obtaining any magical result (including “failure”) always think of several explanations for it. These explanations should contain at least one each of the following types:

An explanation based on the parameters of the magical system that you have been employing.

Strict materialism

Something exceptionally silly.

When you have been experimenting with belief-shifting for a while, try contemplating two which appear to be mutually exclusive such as Christianity and Tantra, Islam and Radical Feminism, New Age Celtic Revivals and Marxism.

Meditations in Menzies. Read specialist magazines that you have no interest in, especially those written by enthusiastic amateurs. Also read publications with oppposing views in quick succession, such as Playboy and Spare Rib, or Andrea Dworkin and the Marquis de Sade.

Do not put live toads in your mouth.

Everyone else in the world is a buddha except you! And they are all waiting for you to get your act together, so get out of bed and get going! (Buddhahood is especially manifest in all the people you carefully avoid on the street)

Try being consistently wrong - make wild statements and then, when someone pokes a hole in your argument, admit your mistake, profusely, if necessary. You can be wrong about the time, the day of the week, any expressed political statement, etc

Gods & Gurus. Possession by an entity (God, spirit, drug etc) allows you to do things that you would not ordinarily feel able to. So, to some extent, does the confidence of having a Guru. Such figures provide the confidence that you can walk a tightrope without falling off, play in the deep end of the swimming baths without drowning or run around wearing orange robes and banging a tambourine in a busy shopping centre. Chaos Magick allows you to send your mad thoughts out for a night out occasionally. Contrary to what comes over in books, magick is a street-level activity (gutter-level, even).

Chaotic Attractors. Occasionally you will be sure to run into someone who seems to attract chaos wherever they go. Obviously they have some strange and mighty power, but are often unaware, or merely embarrased by the frequency of weirdness that always abounds in their vicinity. Study them carefully (if from a safe distance), and you might learn a thing or two.

Deconditioning. As I pointed out earlier, it is relatively easy to shift between magical beliefs and produce concordant results. This is not to say, however, that all belief-shifting is so simple. Some levels of our attitude/belief structure are remarkably resiliant to conscious change. Indeed, some structures are able to resist change by remaining elusive and invisible to conscious awareness, and must be dragged, kicking, into the painful light of self-revelation. If I may use the analogy of beliefs as buildings (the city of Selfs), around the walls of which howls the wind of Kia, then the continual process of Deconditioning may be likened to chipping away at the towers, with the occasional nuke provided by recourse to a powerful form of gnosis such as sexual ecstasy, pain overload, or Albert Hoffman’s elixir. Deconditioning is a continual process - even as you discard one set of limitations, you may find that you acquire new ones, usually unconsciously. Often, belief-structures are nested within each other, and may have their roots in a powerful formative experience. Timothy Leary calls this process “Imprint Susceptibility”, where the imprint forms a baseline response to experience, and establishes the parameters within which any subsequent learning takes place. Leary’s 8-Circuit model of Metaprogramming can be employed as an aid to deconditioning. Be mindful that the Deconditioning Process is not merely an intellectual experience. It is relatively easy to “intellectually accept” some experience or belief which you have previously rejected or dismissed. It takes more resilience to take action from your new position, and risk the emotional upheaval that may result afterwards. Deconditioning is rarely simple. Often people who have had an experience of “Illumination” report that all their old repressive structures have dropped away. Tear down a building in the city of identities and it grows back, sometimes with a different shape. One of the effects of intense Gnosis is the shattering of layers of belief structure, but it is generally found that unless followup work is done, the sense of shattered belief-structures is transitory. You should also consider the effects this process is likely to have on others. The Ego, a self-regulatory structure which maintains the fiction of being a unique self, doesn’t like the process of becoming more adaptive to experience. One of the more subtle defences that it throws up is the sneaking suspicion (which can quickly become an obsession) is that you are better than everyone else. If you catch yourself reffering to everyone else as “the herd”, or “human cattle”, etc, then its time to take another look at where you’re going. One of the basic axioms of magical philosophy is that morality grows from within, once you have begun to know the difference between what you have learned to believe, and what you will to believe. Some excellent pointers towards the process of Deconditioning can be found in: Liber Null by Pete Carroll, Magick by Aleister Crowley, and Tantra Magick, the collected grade papers of the east-west Tantrik order, AMOOKOS.

Keeping A Diary. Despite the glamour of Chaos Magic as being spontaneous, do-what-you-like, smash-the-sephiroth and loose your demons magic, it’s generally considered that keeping a diary of experiences & magical experiments is essential. A magical record charters your progress, failures, experiments and insights. If after a brain-crunching ritual, you have a flash of illumination, and don’t write it down, chances are you’ll forget it, and that particular pearl of wisdom will be lost forever. Morever, it’s a good discipline to get into, and I often find that, when writing up a summary of a working, I often recall things that haven’t previously occurred to me.

[mayuzumi-yukino]

LITTLE CHARACTER THINGS

just a fun little character game. fill in the below categories with 3-5 things that your character can be identified by. repost & tag away !

TAGGED BY: @aragakisan, on technicality. TAGGING: Whomever reads it, presumably!

EMOTIONS / FEELINGS:

Concern; often worry for the disenfranchised.

Rationality and reason.

Anger; bull-headed and stubborn.

Humor, often sardonic with a touch of observational wit.

Protectiveness. Yukino is defined if nothing else by her compulsive need to keep those around her safe.

GREETINGS:

"Hey!” Familiarity, often spoken loudly and accompanied by a wide grin.

A smile, tender and crinkling on strong features. Those she’s closest to get to see the softest sides of her.

“What’s up?” Casual and intrigued, a means to strike up a conversation and show interest in the other party.

COLORS:

Slate gray. The color of her St. Hermelin uniform and the color of her favorite hat and armored coat -- Yukino isn’t much of one for fashion, and utility often comes before style. The color of metal, iron resolves and unbreakable walls.

Orange. The color is warm and welcoming, reflected often in the forms of both her Personae and portraying the fire in her spirit. Open arms and the rising sun on the horizon.

Brown. Dark like her eyes, lighter like the coffee complexion of her skin. Earthy and rugged, not unlike her own rough disposition, and far from flashy as it gets. It’s a humble, unassuming tone.

Mustard yellow. Yukino’s lack of fashion sense reflects the most firmly in her gaudy yellow jeans, hugging her muscled legs more tightly than they should.

Crimson. A hue often associated with anger and malign -- her temper is short and her vengeance is quick, just as easy to smile and open her arms for an embrace as she is to scowl and swing her fists.

SCENTS:

Smoke. Compulsive need to be a good role model be damned, Yukino smokes and the stench clings to her clothing like a bad reputation. As much as she tries to keep her habit a secret, the scent is damning as catching her in the act.

Chemicals. When not out documenting the world around her, Yukino often retreats into the darkroom to develop her film. The stench of Kodak D-76 is burned into her nostrils by now.

Snow on grass and concrete. Wispy nights on the streets of Mikage-cho with only the flame of a cigarette lighter to warm her; the hours spent under St Hermelin’s occupation of frost and ice.

Blood. Others’ blood on her knuckles or on the ends of her knives, her own blood dripping down her chin and running down her throat from a broken nose.

Burnt ozone. Yukino’s Personae specialize in the power of nuclear fusion, and as such any time they make themselves known the very atmosphere around her is sure to burn.

CLOTHING:

An armored jacket, grey with prominent shoulder blades. Ever since Yukino got jumped by who she thought were her best friends she’s always come prepared, and the armor helps to accentuate her bulky frame. It sends a message: not to be fucked with.

A black turtleneck tank top; sleeveless and cut off above her abdomen. Odd a choice of garment as it is, it’s a matter of vanity: it shows off her musculature, Yukino’s physique something she’s grown quite proud of.

A grey beanie, branded Ostrich with the appropriate brand insignia above it. Yukino is rarely seen without this on account of her mess of hair: without it it’d be all over the place and in her face, black curls snugly restrained under the cover of her favorite hat.

Yellow jeans, with a black stripe down either outside seam. Tacky, garish and questionable, it says all you need to know about Yukino’s fashion sense.

OBJECTS:

Four throwing knives, finish tarnished and blades nicked from constant use and frequent throws. She’s owned these knives since high school, and they’re one of the last remaining relics of her Yanki years. They’re never far from reach, Yukino constantly paranoid that she’ll encounter a situation where she needs to use them.

A vintage analog camera. This is Yukino’s prized possession: it was passed down to her from her mentor and idol Shunsuke Fuuji upon his tragic death. The stories this camera could tell, the things its lens has seen are unspeakable; Yukino can only hope to one day be of worthy skill and passion to be able to use it.

Yukino’s scrapbook, filled to the brim with memories of the past and present, with room to grow for the future. Yukino began taking pictures compulsively in high school as an extracurricular credit, and she’s made a habit of tucking away her memories in the old, worn-out scrapbook for safekeeping. She’s always made a habit of remembering where she’s came from and where she’s going, and the scrapbook reflects that.

A set of bisonskin drums, a relic from the St. Hermelin incident. The rhythms played upon these drums are what first enabled her to awaken to Durga, her true self and Ultimate Persona -- she swears that the resonance of the drum heads are identical to that of her own heartbeat.

A letter from Mrs. Saeko, written as congratulations when she finally graduated from St. Hermelin. Mrs. Saeko is... important to Yukino, to say the least, and beyond this sentimental reasoning it’s a source of pride that Yukino was recognized for her strive and success.

VICES & BAD HABITS:

Reacting with anger and hostility at the first sign of strife. Yukino’s old habits as a yanki die hard, and she’s unable to escape the frustration and violent thoughts her former life of crime was born of. Like her compatriot Tatsuya, she prefers to speak with her fists before asking questions.

Cigarettes. No good street gangster is without her smokes, and Yukino fit the image perfectly. When she left that life behind, this is one vice she was unable to shake: the comfort of nicotine often provides her a much-needed dulling of the edge her nerves right on, a moment of calm in overflowing rage.

Unshakable insecurity and uncertainty. While comfortable and confident enough in her own skin, traumas and internalized negativity often rears its ugly head. Yukino has a chip on her shoulder regarding her homosexuality and is pensively self-conscious of her sapphic preferences, and questions whether or not she has a future at all in any of her passions.

Yukino can often come across as patronizing or overbearing when her “big sister” instincts come into play, self-righteously believing she knows what’s best for all those around her. Even if her intentions are pure and benevolent, she can often stick her nose in business that isn’t her own and find herself in over her head.

Misanthropy and vengeful, spiteful envy. Yukino subconciously hates those who has what she wants but can’t have, as she considers them reminders of her failures. She secretly yearns for the demise of those who have it better off than she does, and  takes a secret joy in seeing others knocked down a peg.

BODY LANGUAGE:

Confident, self-assured posture. The woman stands fairly tall for her gender and age, augmented by a prideful swagger in her step and a dense musculature.

One hand often clutching her camera, the other usually planted firmly upon a hip. Gotta be prepared in case you get a great shot at a moment’s notice...!

Observant, analytical eyes. Yukino isn’t the most book-smart in the world, but her street smarts have taught her how to read a room and get a grasp on what any given opposing party might be up to.

Frequent head-and-neck gestures, more animated with tilts and turns of her head than anywhere else. Her black curls often wave and follow her head as she speaks and reacts.

Strong, almost exaggerated facial expressions and bodily gestures. Yukino’s smiles are warm and wide, her scowls are full of raw malign and hatred, her laughs are loud and from the belly, and her sadness is raw and from the heart. Her arms and body often contort and move errantly as if at the whim of her emotions.

AESTHETIC:

Utilitarian - Yukino is more liable to favor the practical and reliable over the frivolous. Hand tools, simple leather jackets, function over form.

Inner city streets. They’re like home to Yukino -- they’re where she spent her youth, and where she often spends her young adulthood as a photographer.

Sapphism. She’s gay, folks, and it’s a pretty big part of her identity and vested interest -- more butch-leaning with a stated interest in more traditionally feminine women.

Magazines, photo albums, art installations. Inspiration for her half-hearted passion, constant fuel to get better and do better.

Family structures and dynamics. For one reason or another Yukino often finds herself in found families and alternate group situations, and usually takes a socially dominant role with that in mind be it a “big sis” or a matronly figure.

SONGS:

A Perfect Circle - ...keeping me from killing you // and from pulling you down with me //  in here, i can almost hear you scream // give me one more medicated peaceful moment // because i don’t want to feel this overwhelming hostility

Smashing Pumpkins - what moon songs do you sing your babies? //  what sunshine do you bring? // who belongs? who decides what’s crazy? //  who rights wrongs where others cling? // i’ll sing for you // if you want me to // i’ll give for you // it’s a chance i’ll have to take, it’s a chance i’ll have to break //  i go along just because I’m lazy // i go along to be with you //  [...] // i’ll hear your song // if you want me to // i’ll sing along // [...] // i’m in love with you

Bjork - i follow with my eyes ‘til they crash // imagine what my body would sound like // slamming against those rocks // and when it lands, will my eyes be closed? // i go through all this // before you wake up // so i can feel happier // to be safe again with you

Pianos Become The Teeth - because i say it all // when i say nothing at all // so let’s say nothing some more

Touche Amore: i swear there’s nothing innocent in these eyes // because i’ve seen dead friends // and i’ve seen murder // and i’ve done things i wish i hadn’t done // but that’s not to say i’m not afraid // of long nights dwelling on past mistakes // because with life moving as fast as it does // i’ll still have stories to fucking tell

[mayuzumi-yukinoo]

LITTLE CHARACTER THINGS

just a fun little character game. fill in the below categories with 3-5 things that your character can be identified by. repost & tag away !

TAGGED BY: @aragakisan, on technicality. TAGGING: Whomever reads it, presumably!

EMOTIONS / FEELINGS:

Concern; often worry for the disenfranchised.

Rationality and reason.

Anger; bull-headed and stubborn.

Humor, often sardonic with a touch of observational wit.

Protectiveness. Yukino is defined if nothing else by her compulsive need to keep those around her safe.

GREETINGS:

"Hey!” Familiarity, often spoken loudly and accompanied by a wide grin.

A smile, tender and crinkling on strong features. Those she’s closest to get to see the softest sides of her.

“What’s up?” Casual and intrigued, a means to strike up a conversation and show interest in the other party.

COLORS:

Slate gray. The color of her St. Hermelin uniform and the color of her favorite hat and armored coat -- Yukino isn’t much of one for fashion, and utility often comes before style. The color of metal, iron resolves and unbreakable walls.

Orange. The color is warm and welcoming, reflected often in the forms of both her Personae and portraying the fire in her spirit. Open arms and the rising sun on the horizon.

Brown. Dark like her eyes, lighter like the coffee complexion of her skin. Earthy and rugged, not unlike her own rough disposition, and far from flashy as it gets. It’s a humble, unassuming tone.

Mustard yellow. Yukino’s lack of fashion sense reflects the most firmly in her gaudy yellow jeans, hugging her muscled legs more tightly than they should.

Crimson. A hue often associated with anger and malign -- her temper is short and her vengeance is quick, just as easy to smile and open her arms for an embrace as she is to scowl and swing her fists.

SCENTS:

Smoke. Compulsive need to be a good role model be damned, Yukino smokes and the stench clings to her clothing like a bad reputation. As much as she tries to keep her habit a secret, the scent is damning as catching her in the act. 

Chemicals. When not out documenting the world around her, Yukino often retreats into the darkroom to develop her film. The stench of Kodak D-76 is burned into her nostrils by now.

Snow on grass and concrete. Wispy nights on the streets of Mikage-cho with only the flame of a cigarette lighter to warm her; the hours spent under St Hermelin’s occupation of frost and ice.

Blood. Others’ blood on her knuckles or on the ends of her knives, her own blood dripping down her chin and running down her throat from a broken nose.

Burnt ozone. Yukino’s Personae specialize in the power of nuclear fusion, and as such any time they make themselves known the very atmosphere around her is sure to burn.

CLOTHING:

An armored jacket, grey with prominent shoulder blades. Ever since Yukino got jumped by who she thought were her best friends she’s always come prepared, and the armor helps to accentuate her bulky frame. It sends a message: not to be fucked with.

A black turtleneck tank top; sleeveless and cut off above her abdomen. Odd a choice of garment as it is, it’s a matter of vanity: it shows off her musculature, Yukino’s physique something she’s grown quite proud of.

A grey beanie, branded Ostrich with the appropriate brand insignia above it. Yukino is rarely seen without this on account of her mess of hair: without it it’d be all over the place and in her face, black curls snugly restrained under the cover of her favorite hat.

Yellow jeans, with a black stripe down either outside seam. Tacky, garish and questionable, it says all you need to know about Yukino’s fashion sense.

OBJECTS:

Four throwing knives, finish tarnished and blades nicked from constant use and frequent throws. She’s owned these knives since high school, and they’re one of the last remaining relics of her Yanki years. They’re never far from reach, Yukino constantly paranoid that she’ll encounter a situation where she needs to use them.

A vintage analog camera. This is Yukino’s prized possession: it was passed down to her from her mentor and idol Shunsuke Fuuji upon his tragic death. The stories this camera could tell, the things its lens has seen are unspeakable; Yukino can only hope to one day be of worthy skill and passion to be able to use it.

Yukino’s scrapbook, filled to the brim with memories of the past and present, with room to grow for the future. Yukino began taking pictures compulsively in high school as an extracurricular credit, and she’s made a habit of tucking away her memories in the old, worn-out scrapbook for safekeeping. She’s always made a habit of remembering where she’s came from and where she’s going, and the scrapbook reflects that.

A set of bisonskin drums, a relic from the St. Hermelin incident. The rhythms played upon these drums are what first enabled her to awaken to Durga, her true self and Ultimate Persona -- she swears that the resonance of the drum heads are identical to that of her own heartbeat.

A letter from Mrs. Saeko, written as congratulations when she finally graduated from St. Hermelin. Mrs. Saeko is... important to Yukino, to say the least, and beyond this sentimental reasoning it’s a source of pride that Yukino was recognized for her strive and success.

VICES & BAD HABITS:

Reacting with anger and hostility at the first sign of strife. Yukino’s old habits as a yanki die hard, and she’s unable to escape the frustration and violent thoughts her former life of crime was born of. Like her compatriot Tatsuya, she prefers to speak with her fists before asking questions.

Cigarettes. No good street gangster is without her smokes, and Yukino fit the image perfectly. When she left that life behind, this is one vice she was unable to shake: the comfort of nicotine often provides her a much-needed dulling of the edge her nerves right on, a moment of calm in overflowing rage.

Unshakable insecurity and uncertainty. While comfortable and confident enough in her own skin, traumas and internalized negativity often rears its ugly head. Yukino has a chip on her shoulder regarding her homosexuality and is pensively self-conscious of her sapphic preferences, and questions whether or not she has a future at all in any of her passions.

Yukino can often come across as patronizing or overbearing when her “big sister” instincts come into play, self-righteously believing she knows what’s best for all those around her. Even if her intentions are pure and benevolent, she can often stick her nose in business that isn’t her own and find herself in over her head.

Misanthropy and vengeful, spiteful envy. Yukino subconciously hates those who has what she wants but can’t have, as she considers them reminders of her failures. She secretly yearns for the demise of those who have it better off than she does, and  takes a secret joy in seeing others knocked down a peg.

BODY LANGUAGE:

Confident, self-assured posture. The woman stands fairly tall for her gender and age, augmented by a prideful swagger in her step and a dense musculature.

One hand often clutching her camera, the other usually planted firmly upon a hip. Gotta be prepared in case you get a great shot at a moment’s notice...!

Observant, analytical eyes. Yukino isn’t the most book-smart in the world, but her street smarts have taught her how to read a room and get a grasp on what any given opposing party might be up to.

Frequent head-and-neck gestures, more animated with tilts and turns of her head than anywhere else. Her black curls often wave and follow her head as she speaks and reacts.

Strong, almost exaggerated facial expressions and bodily gestures. Yukino’s smiles are warm and wide, her scowls are full of raw malign and hatred, her laughs are loud and from the belly, and her sadness is raw and from the heart. Her arms and body often contort and move errantly as if at the whim of her emotions.

AESTHETIC:

Utilitarian - Yukino is more liable to favor the practical and reliable over the frivolous. Hand tools, simple leather jackets, function over form.

Inner city streets. They’re like home to Yukino -- they’re where she spent her youth, and where she often spends her young adulthood as a photographer.

Sapphism. She’s gay, folks, and it’s a pretty big part of her identity and vested interest -- more butch-leaning with a stated interest in more traditionally feminine women.

Magazines, photo albums, art installations. Inspiration for her half-hearted passion, constant fuel to get better and do better.

Family structures and dynamics. For one reason or another Yukino often finds herself in found families and alternate group situations, and usually takes a socially dominant role with that in mind be it a “big sis” or a matronly figure.

SONGS:

A Perfect Circle - ...keeping me from killing you // and from pulling you down with me //  in here, i can almost hear you scream // give me one more medicated peaceful moment // because i don’t want to feel this overwhelming hostility

Smashing Pumpkins - what moon songs do you sing your babies? //  what sunshine do you bring? // who belongs? who decides what’s crazy? //  who rights wrongs where others cling? // i’ll sing for you // if you want me to // i’ll give for you // it’s a chance i’ll have to take, it’s a chance i’ll have to break //  i go along just because I’m lazy // i go along to be with you //  [...] // i’ll hear your song // if you want me to // i’ll sing along // [...] // i’m in love with you

Bjork - i follow with my eyes ‘til they crash // imagine what my body would sound like // slamming against those rocks // and when it lands, will my eyes be closed? // i go through all this // before you wake up // so i can feel happier // to be safe again with you

Pianos Become The Teeth - because i say it all // when i say nothing at all // so let’s say nothing some more

Touche Amore: i swear there’s nothing innocent in these eyes // because i’ve seen dead friends // and i’ve seen murder // and i’ve done things i wish i hadn’t done // but that’s not to say i’m not afraid // of long nights dwelling on past mistakes // because with life moving as fast as it does // i’ll still have stories to fucking tell

[magellanicpenguin]

So cool organization model i just thought of...

Not to be captain obvious, but writing’s really complicated. So when we write, we often fail. When we go looking for advice, however, the advice has a realm of influence that’s hard to put into perspective, especially when it comes to the big boys- character, plot, setting, and theme. Things like phrasing and prose is pretty obviously applied to every sentence, but those four big ideas are so big, that whenever I read something about it, there’s so much going on and no way to look at it so that I can apply it to my own writing systematically. 

(Note: I’m a biology nut, so all this stuff is internalized already and I love it. If this over complicates things, because it is an extended analogy of one complex topic to another, I’m sorry. Ignore me.) 

So I realized if I look at a novel/wip/whatever as a Body, then I would have a way of classifying advice. What I mean when I say novel=body is I’m labeling the different levels of complexity and size with biological terms. 

If the novel is a body then...

The dramatic subdivisions of act 1, 2, 3 or Expo, Rising, Climax, Falling, Reso would be the organ systems. This implies that they do a main function of the novel, but also have a very involved internal structure, as organ systems have multiple organs.

The chapters would be the organs themselves, which do specific functions and have specialized tissues, but still work together and coordinate with the other organs. A chapter involving a woman running away would involve scenes explaining this action, and would logically be followed up by a chapter covering the result of her absence or what she continues to do on her journey.  

The lobes/subdivisions of the organs would be scenes. Lobes are groups of tissue that are identified as contributing to the organ’s function (i.e. the different lobes of the brain) or subdivisions which are structural classifications (i.e. the lobes of the lungs or the different colons in the large intestines). Scenes are lobes because they contribute blocks of information, be it some blurb on the setting, a key character behavior, or a plot-relevant tension point (separate scenes should have at least one of each), which contributes to the overall function of the organ (chapter), which contributes to the organ system (expo, rising, etc.). So that chapter of a woman running away might involve scenes of  domestic neglect, pressure from her friends or family to have kids, solo trips to the movies at midnight just to watch Into the Wild, etc. 

Paragraphs would be tissues. Just as a lobe is made up of one type of tissue (for argument’s sake), a scene is made up of paragraphs. These are the big building blocks, literally blocking in the whatever the lobe (scene) is doing. A paragraph might be a description of what is inside a woman’s purse, and the scene might be a characterization of the woman’s habits, good and bad. 

Sentences would be cells. These are the small building blocks. Each sentence contributes, however small, but the death or cancer of one is significant. They must be in perfect harmony with the cells around them to function and accomplish their goal correctly- the goal of the paragraph. With a paragraph about the contents of a woman’s bag, one sentence might be detailing the bottle of pills hidden in the bottoms folds of satin which loosely line the purse, but the next should NOT be talking about what types of fabric make of her purse (irrelevant) or prescription drug abuse (taking away from the implicitness of the pills, so hidden and secret that the author does not even write what the bottle contains, only that she takes them like multivitamins). 

(This next part gets crazy and is mostly me having fun, it’s not super useful) 

If we must go down to the word level, that would be the organelles inside the cell, with the subject as the nucleus (as the verb is conjugated by ‘order’ of the subject), the verb as the ribosomes/ER/golgi complex, which are all involved in protein expression and the actual ‘actions’ of a cell (enzymes and secretions are all based around protein expression), and you could say the object or whatever noun phrases and adjectives present are the mitochondria, as they explain something about the subject, and thus are the meaning, or power, of a sentence (maybe, im grasping at straws at this point). Hell, the connecting grammar words could be the cytoskeleton, the network of filaments and tubules that control the cell structure, movements, and help organize cytosol division. 

(it’s over, sorry im a nerd)

My purpose is that this model can be used to classify your own writing and writing tips with a system whose relationships are clear. For example, whether to use big or small words is on the organelle (word) level. Whether to use abstract language or concrete similes is on the cellular (sentence) and/or tissue (paragraph) level. How to incorporate dialogue is on the lobe (scene) level. How to write action or the climax is on the organ (chapter) and maybe organ system level. How to write a character arc is definitely on the organ system level. And of course, how to write a novel is on the body level. 

To me, individual writing elements are always addressed separately, allowing for them to seem simple and straightforward. This allows for efficient communication, but doesn’t really betray the internal level of complexity and dynamics with other structures. Such as, that developing character will involve everything from individual words to scenes throughout multiple chapters. This model embraces that inter-connectivity.

One shortcoming, however, is it doesn’t provide a good way of separating the actual topics of setting, character, theme, and plot, and assumes they all function on a similar scale, simultaneously. We know it actually varies. I’ll think more on it, because it is true that different systems in the body work at different rates in different environments... maybe the 4 big ideas could be different stimuli? Like heat, cold, stress, rest. Or each idea has its own body (or age of body i.e. character is teenage years cos they grow so much) each with a specialized system that you can then overlap... idk

At any rate, if this helps anyone, cool. If this is just a cool thought experiment, or maybe you’re now really confused and now terrified of biology, then that’s cool  too. Biology is fucking scary.  

[vkindarle]

Global High Power Amplifiers Market 2020 with COVID-19 Impact Analysis | likewise Industry is Thriving Globaly with Top Players - Analog Devices, Qorvo, Texas Instruments, MACOM, NXP Semiconductor

High Power Amplifiers Market 2020 Outlook, Analysis and COVID-19 Pandemic Impact Research Report Forecast to 2026

The COVID-19 outbreak is currently going the world over, this report covers the impact of the corona-virus on top growing companies in the High Power Amplifiers sector. This research report categorizes as the key vendors in the High Power Amplifiers market and also gives a comprehensive study of Covid-19 impact analysis of the market by type (High Power Microwave Amplifiers, High Power RF Amplifiers, Other), application (Communications, Radar, Electronic Warfare, Test & Measurement, Other) and by regions like (Americas, APAC, and EMEA).

Key indicators of market growth, which include Year-on-Year (Y-o-Y) growth of the market, value chain, supply chain analysis, and Compounded Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) are interpreted in Syndicate Market Research study in a comprehensive manner. This rapidly changing market information can help readers understand the quantitative growth prospects of the High Power Amplifiers market during the forecast period.

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Structure of COVID-19 Impact Analysis on High Power Amplifiers Market

The report covers the present market scenario as well as imparts future growth prospects of the High Power Amplifiers market for the period between 2020 and 2029. The report also immerses key drivers, hindrances, opportunities and trends that are affecting the expansion of the global High Power Amplifiers market. It attempts a long-term picture of the global High Power Amplifiers market, in order to help businesses seeking opportunities for making investments in the worldwide market.

The report provides an exhaustive synopsis of the international High Power Amplifiers market report that provides an in-depth evaluation of a global and regional level. The market engulfing an executive summary, introduction and sizing that elucidates the core trends influencing the market expansion. This chapter also sheds light on the impacts that the dynamics are likely to pose on the growth of the market in the long run. The report also imparts figures appertaining to CAGRs from a historical and forecast point of view. An overview of the global High Power Amplifiers market follows the executive summary and issues a clear picture of the scope of the market to the report readers.

Competitive Landscape and Key Vendors

The High Power Amplifiers market is disintegrating and is highly competitive owing to the presence of major players and regional players. However, four major players dominate the market. All the dominant players are performing better than one another in one or two parameters and in this way, the competition in the High Power Amplifiers market is intensifying.

The Leading Vendors Included Inside The Reports Are:

Analog Devices (Linear Technology), Qorvo, Texas Instruments, MACOM, NXP Semiconductor, Renesas, Skyworks, Broadcom, Infineon Technologies, Maxim Integrated, L3 Narda-MITEQ, Microchip Technology, Milmega

Segmentation By Type and Analysis of The High Power Amplifiers Market

High Power Microwave Amplifiers, High Power RF Amplifiers, Other

Segmentation By Application and Analysis of The High Power Amplifiers Market

Communications, Radar, Electronic Warfare, Test & Measurement, Other

Segmentation By Geography and Analysis of The High Power Amplifiers Market

• South America High Power Amplifiers Market Covers Colombia, Argentina and Brazil

• North America High Power Amplifiers Market Covers United States, Mexico and Canada

• Europe High Power Amplifiers Market Covers Germany, France, UK, Italy and Russia

• The Middle East and Africa High Power Amplifiers Market Covers UAE, Nigeria, South Africa, Saudi Arabia and Egypt

• Asia Pacific High Power Amplifiers Market Covers China, Japan, Southeast Asia, India and Korea

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The Prime Objectives of High Power Amplifiers Market Report:

1. To scrutinize and research the global High Power Amplifiers status and future forecast hold, manufacturing production rate and ecosystem analysis, revenue, consumption, historical and forecast.

2. To present the key High Power Amplifiers manufacturers, SWOT analysis and development plans in the next few years.

3. To analyze the global and key region's market potential and advantage, opportunity and challenge, restraints and risks.

4. To strategically analyze each submarket with respect to individual growth trend and their contribution to the High Power Amplifiers market.

5. To analyze competitive developments such as expansions, agreements, new product launches, and acquisitions in the High Power Amplifiers market.

In This Study, The Years Considered To Estimate The Market Size of High Power Amplifiers Market

History Year: 2016 to 2018

Estimated Year: 2019

Forecast Year: 2020-2026

Research Methodology Framework

Syndicate Market Research company based on the following procedures or techniques used to identify, select, process and analyze information about a High Power Amplifiers market. The experienced research professionals and consultant team have developed an exhaustive research methodology. Various parameters such as Macro-Economic Factors, Micro-Economic Factors, Technology and Innovation, Value Chain and market dynamics are evaluated for each market.

Data Extraction and Analysis

Data Extraction and Analysis is totally based on two main factors such as Data Synthesis (Collation of data, Estimation of key figures and Analysis of derived insights) and Data Validation (Triangulation with data models, Reference against proprietary databases and Corroboration with industry experts). Data is extracted at an extensive level from various relevant sources and repository of reports. Some of the secondary sources such as ICIS, Hoovers, Trade Magazines, Associations, Reuters and others are being used.

Global Market Forecasting

Global market forecasting used a modeling approach such as statistical techniques and forecasting. Both techniques are being used to estimate and forecast market data. Each regional market is evaluated separately.

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Key Questions Answered in Syndicate Market Research Report

1. Which grooming regions will continue to remain the most profitable regional markets for High Power Amplifiers market players?

2. Which circumstance will lead to a change in the demand for High Power Amplifiers during the assessment period?

3. How will change trends because of COVID-19 impact on the High Power Amplifiers market?

4. How can market players capture the low-hanging opportunities in the High Power Amplifiers market in developed regions?

5. What are the top winning strategies of stakeholders in the High Power Amplifiers market to upscale their position in this landscape?

Table of Contents:

1. Scope of the Report

1.1 Market Introduction 1.2 Research Objectives 1.3 Years Considered 1.4 Syndicate Market Research Methodology 1.5 Data Source 1.6 Economic Indicators 1.7 Currency Considered

2. Executive Summary

2.1 World Market Overview

2.1.1 Global High Power Amplifiers Consumption 2.1.2 High Power Amplifiers Consumption CAGR by Region

2.2 High Power Amplifiers Segment by Type 2.3 Consumption by Type 2.4 Segment by Application 2.5 Consumption by Application

3. Global High Power Amplifiers by Company

4. High Power Amplifiers by Geographical Segmentation

4.1 Americas Consumption Growth 4.2 APAC Consumption Growth 4.3 Europe Consumption Growth 4.4 The Middle East and Africa High Power Amplifiers Consumption Growth

5. Decision Framework

6. Appendix

List Of Abbreviations

Continued...

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[whitelion-infosystem]

How to get started with MongoDB: Beginner’s guide

MongoDB is a document-oriented NoSQL database used for high volume data storage. Instead of using tables and rows as in the traditional relational databases, it makes use of collections and documents. Documents consist of key-value pairs which are the basic unit of data in MongoDB. Also, collections contain sets of documents and functions which is the equivalent of relational database tables. MongoDB is a database that came into light around the mid-2000s.

Features

Each database contains collections which in turn contain documents. However, each document can be different with a varying number of fields. The size and content of each document can be different from each other.

Equally, the document structure is more in line with how developers construct their classes and objects in their respective programming languages. Developers will often say that their classes are not rows and columns but have a clear structure with key-value pairs.

The rows (or documents as called in MongoDB) don’t need to have a schema defined beforehand. Instead, the fields can create on the fly.

The data model available within MongoDB allows you to represent hierarchical relationships. To store arrays, and other more complex structures more easily.

Scalability – The MongoDB environments are very scalable. Companies across the world have defined clusters with some of them running 100+ nodes. With millions of documents within the database approximately.

Example

The _id field added by it to uniquely identify the document in the collection.

What you can note is that the Order Data (OrderID, Product, and Quantity ). Which in RDBMS will normally store in a separate table. While in MongoDB it is actually stored as an embedded document in the collection itself. This is one of the key differences in how data modeled in MongoDB.

Key Components of MongoDB Architecture

_id – This field required in every MongoDB document. The _id field represents a unique value in it document. It is like the document’s primary key. If you create a new document without an _id field then it will automatically create the field. So for example, if we see the example of the above customer table, Mongo DB will add a 24 digit unique identifier to each document in the collection.

Collection – This is a grouping of MongoDB documents. A collection is the equivalent of a table. Which created in any other RDMS such as Oracle or MS SQL. A collection exists within a single database. But it doesn’t enforce any sort of structure.

Cursor – This is a pointer to the result set of a query. Clients can iterate through a cursor to retrieve results.

Database – This is a container for collections like in RDMS. Wherein it is a container for tables. Also, each database gets its own set of files on the file system. Surprisingly, A MongoDB server can store multiple databases.

Document – A record in a MongoDB collection basically called a document. The document will also consist of field names and values.

Field – A name-value pair in a document. A document has zero or more fields. Fields are analogous to columns in relational databases. The following diagram shows an example of Fields with Key-value pairs. So in the example below CustomerID and 11 is one of the key-value pair’s defined in the document.

JSON – This known as JavaScript Object Notation. It is a human-readable, plain text format for expressing structured data. JSON currently supported in many programming languages.

Just a quick note on the key difference between the _id field and a normal collection field. The _id field is used to uniquely identify the documents in a collection and is automatically added by MongoDB when the collection is created.

Why Use MongoDB?

Document-oriented – Since MongoDB is a NoSQL type database, instead of having data in a relational type format, it stores the data in documents. Hence, it makes MongoDB very flexible and adaptable to real business world situations and requirements.

Ad hoc queries – it supports search by field, range queries, and regular expression searches. And these queries can make to return specific fields within documents.

Indexing – Indexes can be created to improve the performance of searches within MongoDB. So, any field in its document can be indexed.

Replication – MongoDB can provide high availability with replica sets. And replica set consists of two or more mongo DB instances. Hence, each replica set member may act in the role of the primary or secondary replica at any time. Whereas the primary replica is the main server that interacts with the client and performs all the read/write operations. While the Secondary replicas maintain a copy of the data of the primary using built-in replication. When a primary replica fails, the replica set automatically switches over to the secondary, and then it becomes the primary server.

Load balancing – However, MongoDB uses the concept of sharding to scale horizontally by splitting data across multiple MongoDB instances. It can run over multiple servers, balancing the load and/or duplicating data to keep the system up and running in case of hardware failure.

Data Modelling in MongoDB

As we have seen from the Introduction section, the data in MongoDB has a flexible schema. Unlike in SQL databases, where you must have a table’s schema declared before inserting data, MongoDB’s collections do not enforce document structure. This sort of flexibility is what makes MongoDB so powerful.

When modeling data in Mongo, keep the following things in mind

What are the needs of the application – Look at the business needs of the application and see what data and the type of data needed for the application. Based on this, ensure that the structure of the document is decided accordingly.

What are data retrieval patterns – If you foresee a heavy query usage then consider the use of indexes in your data model to improve the efficiency of queries.

Are frequent inserts, updates, and removals happening in the database? Reconsider the use of indexes or incorporate sharding if required in your data modeling design to improve the efficiency of your overall MongoDB environment.

Difference between MongoDB & RDBMS

Below are some of the key term differences between MongoDB and RDBMS.

Apart from the terms differences, a few other differences listed below

Relational databases are also known for enforcing data integrity. Further, this is not an explicit requirement in MongoDB.

RDBMS requires that data be normalized first. So that it can prevent orphan records and duplicates Normalizing data then has the requirement of more tables, which will then result in more table joins, thus requiring more keys and indexes. If databases start to grow then performance can start becoming an issue. Also, this is not an explicit requirement in MongoDB. Because MongoDB is flexible and does not need the data to be normalized first.

In the worlds of JavaScript and Node.js, MongoDB has established itself as the go-to database.

[batomarbo]

Local food, local money

From local markets to direct farmer-to-consumer relationships, regenerative agriculture is bonded with place-based economies.

To support local food and other relocalisation initiatives, many communities have turned to homegrown currencies. In the rural Pohangina Valley and in Ashhurst village (where I live), volunteers are developing a multi-business voucher currency called Loaves (Local Origin Ashhurst Voluntary Exchange System).

Developing Loaves is a slow and small-step process, inspired by the successes of more established initiatives in other New Zealand communities. Even at these early stages, Loaves is serving as a tool for awareness-raising and small behaviour changes. For my part, as a Loaves volunteer, I hope to see Loaves serve as a subtle catalyst, stimulating the innate power of community and developing our connectedness to one another and to nature.

The problem with bank money

Local currencies support the development of healthy, small-scale systems. In a well-designed local economy, goods and services cycle in trading patterns that counteract the extraction-oriented economy promoted by the global monetary system.

I often hear that money is neutral and that all that needs fixing is our individual attitudes and spending habits, but the reality is that bank money (such as New Zealand dollars), has built-in flaws. Money is created by banks as interest-bearing debt. As a result, while individual uses of money may be positive, on a collective level money circulates in ways that harm people, harm the planet, and exacerbate inequality.

Exponential growth on a chessboard

This problem is often explained by reference to an ancient Chinese fable in which an inventor develops chess and gives the game to the emperor. (There are other versions of this fable in India, Persia and elsewhere.) Delighted, the emperor offers the inventor a gift: name your price.

The inventor, appearing modest, asks for one grain of rice for the first square of the chess board, two for the second, four for the third, and so on. This quickly adds up, because it is a doubling pattern, a type of exponential growth, analogous to rapid, exponential population growth. There are sixty-four squares on a chessboard, or (2 + 2 + 2 + 2 + … + 2), equal to (2 – 1). That’s eighteen-and-a-half quintillion grains of rice—more than the empire could provide. Incensed, the emperor orders the inventor’s execution.

Let’s translate this to a contemporary bank money example. When someone mortgages their house, they agree to a modest interest rate. Over the life of the mortgage, they usually pay the bank about twice the value of their original loan. This is doubling, and it requires extracting extra money from the economy. That extra money enters the economy as somebody else’s debt, so that, for example, new mortgages pay for old ones.

For debtors to remain solvent, and to prevent financial uncertainties that might contribute to a run on the bank, more and more money needs to be pumped into the economy. Until the bubble bursts, this causes exponential growth of the collective private debt burden, price inflation, and pressure to create real wealth—goods and services—to back up the ever-increasing money supply.

On-farm pressure to create real wealth

On the farm, what does the exponential increase of interest-based debt money look like? Too many farmers worldwide carry debts they can barely manage. Even those who don’t are pressured by a global market structured by inflationary costs. Consequences include farmer stress, chemical and fossil fuel inputs for short-term production gains, cash crop monocultures, forest-to-farm conversions, carbon released from poorly managed soil, and other practices that degrade people and the earth. Indebted farmers are under pressure to play the wrong game, trying to feed bank profits instead of people.

In short, the exponential growth of the interest-oriented money supply drives the intensification of agriculture. The efforts of regenerative farmers are all the more heroic because there is so much stacked against them.

A different game

Let’s return to the emperor. That execution is horrid—but what if the emperor had tried to deliver? How many farmers would have worked too hard? How many would have exhausted their rice paddies? How many families would have starved to redistribute rice to the games-man?

Violence isn’t the answer, but neither is giving away power. I prefer to imagine the emperor replying in good humour: “You outsmarted me, so take back your competitive chessboard. I refuse a gift exchange that harms my land, harms my people, and concentrates wealth while others go hungry. Go design a cooperative game, one grounded in farming rather than battle strategy.”

A cooperative economy would start with the soil and people that produce our food, because this is the most basic aspect of our livelihood. Growth would be linked not to exponentially increasing debts but instead to whatever real wealth could be sustainably produced. Trading tools would make equitable mutual support more straightforward. Just by keeping things more local, for example, a cooperative economy would increase face-to-face accountability, reduce transport footprints, and provide a barrier to how the global concentration of dollars systematically increases the gap between rich and poor.

An evolving Loaves model

Our society is not yet ready to release its reliance on bank money. The Loaves local currency accommodates this with a transitional design.

For now, Loaves are issued by a not-for-profit organisation, LEAP (Society for the Local Economy of Ashhurst and Pohangina, leap.org.nz). New Zealand dollars (NZD), used to purchase Loaves, are kept in the bank and listed as a liability in LEAP’s accounts, in case a business needs to redeem Loaves. This strong NZD link makes Loaves more manageable, but it also leaves it vulnerable to the same dynamics as bank money. For now, Loaves’ focus is on buy-local awareness raising and on creating a direct experience of how a community can invent its own solutions.

Recently, LEAP has taken another small step towards local self-reliance. In the current ‘Loaves 2.0’ approach, only three businesses redeem Loaves for NZD. These businesses all have a rural base and a track record of community support. All are well established in the local economy, and therefore risk over-accumulating the currency, which is designed for spending, not saving. Two of them resonate strongly with the values of the organic community, but, like most other local currencies, Loaves’ focus is on the general system conditions for regenerative economy, without additional criteria for business participation. Loaves is not a money-maker for businesses that already have strong demand, so the generous participation of these three helps develop – and anchor – the following community benefits.

Nature is the foundation of wealth

Wealth begins with nature and human co-creativity. Loaves’ ‘anchor’ businesses are a cheesery (Cartwheel Creamery), a specialist fruit and nut tree nursery (Edible Garden), and a roadside fruit and veg shop (Riverside Orchard). Rural supply to the local economy grounds all other Loaves exchanges; that is, all others participate in Loaves because they can spend with one another and at these shops.

In the long run, an even more robust model would be to have regenerative rural businesses issue Loaves as a promise to provide future goods or services, such as sustainably grown food boxes. This approach would be similar to a CSA (community-supported agriculture) fruit and veg box subscription, but it would also involve multi-party voucher circulation backed by the recognised value of those boxes.

Local currencies strengthen communities

Friendship, business loyalty, and community accountability are all enhanced by the face-to-face connections that physical voucher spending requires. Local currencies are also proven to increase the identification of people with place. Additionally, increased local purchasing is a positive correction to an overemphasis on global corporate trading.

Local currencies make small and start-up businesses more visible. Evidence indicates that any ‘buy local’ campaign—from posters to currencies—raises awareness and increases support for small- and medium-sized private businesses.

Local self-reliance requires a local economy

For a community to be resilient to outside shocks requires collective capacity to meet needs closer to home. There’s a chicken-and-egg issue, with local production and local distribution networks needing one another to keep developing. Local procurement policies, local currencies, and other local economic tools create the conditions for regenerative economy.

Reconnecting with nature and community

In their truest form, economic trading tools help people cooperate to meet their needs and wants. Like other small currencies, Loaves shifts the focus away from money accumulation and back to the basics—back to the deep value of human connection, back to nature as the deep foundation of our collective wealth.

[the-crazies-are-coming-blog]

#2 Sigma Males

Summary 

The red pill fosters and promotes the dichotomy of alpha vs beta male characteristics. This is often with the view that alpha males traits are desirable and beta traits are to be scorned and discarded through self improvement. Yet there are those among the redpill who experience success in the sexual market place, have self preservation unlike beta males yet do not espoused the typical values/behaviors of alpha males. This merits some discussion of the curious sigma male.

Introduction

The difference between alpha/beta are discussed ad-nausiem so I will pay them some service for the sake of discussion.

Alpha male

Dominant male who commands the respect of his peers and social group. Confident, outspoken, successful and are often defined by extensive sexual exploits highlighting their desirability. Women want him and other men want to be him. He is the pinnacle of the social strata.

Beta male

A subservient appeaser and follower. They are eager to please and seek validation from others by pandering to other men and womens needs. This creates the perception of weakness as they will resign themselves to the role of a thankless provider at the expense of themselves.

What this dichotomy fails to take into account is that some of these traits are not exclusive to alpha OR beta males. For instance it is entirely possible to be self confident, ambitious and sexually successful while shirking the role as a social leader/dominator. Simultaneously it is still possible to be a protector/provider without showing weakness or subservience yourself.

This is where I present you the sigma male.

Nature Of The Sigma Male

One of the analogies I use when considering the nature of a sigma male is that of the japanese ronin. For those unfamiliar, the ronin were samurai in feudal Japan who had become master-less following the death or loss of favor of their lord. They were typically shunned by a society that viewed them as renegades in culture defined by a strong code of honor. Yet despite their outcast nature and lack of fealty they were still accomplished warriors and as formidable as any true samurai. Instead they sought out success in their own endeavors and played by their own rules in a society governed by deep running social constructs.

Such is the Sigma male. He is as confident and capable in his abilities as any alpha male yet does not seek leadership and does not seek to dominate the social strata. Rather he sees this as a pointless venture and instead follows his own individual pursuits outside of normal social convention. Oftentimes he may even be content to work for or be subservient to an alpha male provided that it furthers his own individual goals. He is non the less capable of dethroning an alpha should the need arise.

Sigma Male In The Sexual Market Place

The outsider/loner strategy may at first seem like suicide in the sexual marketplace. Yet the sigma male can easily find his own niche. He does not have desirable women flocking to outward displays of confidence or dominance; he instead lays in the shadows watching, observing and only casually participating. Only once his interest is piqued does his confidence reveal itself as he capably pursues women who are easily attracted by his mysterious, intelligent and self-assured demeanor.

Unlike the alpha male, the sigma male does not pursue sexual exploits as a means to an end but rather as an end in itself. This is because sexual conquest for an alpha, is a manifestation of social value/validation. The more partners they have, the higher their desirability to women and the more successful they are perceived by fellow men. A sigma male on the other hand pursues a sexual partner because of his genuine interest in his sexual partner. While this may be be merely because of physical attraction/gratification, more often than not it is because of his interest in an extended or monogamous relationship with said partner.

Goals Of A Sigma Male

The choice of partners of a sigma male is of significance as well. Capable as they are in their exploits, there are many potential partners which a sigma will not pursue. Either due to a lack of physical attractiveness, intelligence or some other quality of value to the sigma male. This is because a sigma seeks out quality in a partner; Time and affections are a valuable resource to him that are not worth squandering on something he knows will have a zero outcome for him. Rather a pursuit must in some way also better him and in some cases his partner as well. Adventurous/stimulating sex, engaging conversation or pleasurable company are all valid things he may desire in a partner.

The image presented here while confusing to the usual alpha/beta complex. Alphas seek to dominate and assert themselves while betas seek validation as a provider. A sigma desired neither of these things for their own sake and instead seeks self improvement and the freedom to pursue his own goals. This results in a character with the high self confidence and ability to game that is often characteristic of alphas while being also willing to commit/provide/protect for a sole partner as is characteristic of betas.

A side note to this is that sigma males may take great pride in their ability and desire to protect and care for a sexual partner or friend. This is not completely one sided though as with most beta providers. In return for their protection and loyalty, the sigma male expects an equal return of loyalty and the delivery of whatever quality was deemed worthy of the sigmas attention. Loss or abuse of this trust is met with cold ruthlessness by a sigma who quickly discards that which no longer has value to him.

Implications For The Red Pill

The sigma male provides a model that departs from the typical red pill model of the alpha and beta male personalities. He does not seek to compete with others or validate himself except where it is prudent to do so to meet his own goals. As a result he does not operate by the same rules as others with the view that the winning move is often to simply not play. Despite this often strange outsider demeanor, he is still a highly capable individual who's disinterest or apathy should not be confused for weakness or lack of ambition. He simply has his own set of values, needs and sexual desires which he is perfectly capable of meeting on his own terms. This is what sets him apart from other outsiders or social rejects who are often times incapable of meeting their own desires.

If the red pill provides the rules to games of the casino that is the sexual marketplace then the sigma male is like the rouge card counter of the gambling crowd. He is that quirky outsider who understands the rules but still plays on his own terms. Often to the scorn and frustration of other skilled players and the casino itself.

I hope this resonates with some of you who understand and internalize the rules laid down by the red pill yet still play the game by your own terms.

TLDR

Sigma males are the loners of society who play outside the rules of a social group. They do not play the typical dichotomy of alpha vs beta males in search of sexual conquest or validation. Instead they follow their own strategy and find success on their terms. Combining the high confidence of an alpha with the quiet complacency of a beta male. They are highly capable and formidable individuals who fulfill their needs on their terms. A rouge agent in a well structured sexual marketplace.

[instituteofreproducingme-blog]

It Ain't Necessarily So: Exploring Type Systems for Verifying Musical ... InfoQ.com-6 時間前

It Ain't Necessarily So: Exploring Type Systems for Verifying Musical ... InfoQ.com-6 時間前

ysaitoh

2019/06/29 09:18

It Ain't Necessarily So: Exploring Type Systems for Verifying Musical ... InfoQ.com-6 時間前

In order to avoid division by zero, I've modelled transitions that never occur in the dataset as having a 1/100,000 chance. This time, darker squares represent transitions that are more expensive in terms of entropy, or in other ..

Key Takeaways As an increasing proportion of our culture becomes codified, we need to consider how to authentically express theory and insights from diverse fields in our software. Music is an excellent domain to explore using programming, because it has a long history of notation and is governed by pattern-based rules. Music theorists have been fascinated by what makes music correct for centuries. Now that we can write music using programming languages, we have the opportunity to cross-pollinate lessons in correctness between music and programming. In this article Chris explores how music can be type checked, using the Mezzo Haskell library and Idris’ dependent types as examples.

Introduction I’ve given a lot of talks on representing music using programming languages. It’s a popular subject, because it tickles the engineer’s mechanical curiosity as well as plugging-in to music’s universal relatability.

I’ve given a lot of talks on representing music using programming languages. It’s a popular subject, because it tickles the engineer’s mechanical curiosity as well as plugging-in to music’s universal relatability.

What does it look like? There are musical coding environments for many different programming languages. Two popular ones are TidalCycles for Haskell and Sonic Pi for Ruby on the Raspberry Pi. Here’s an example using my Leipzig composition library. As it’s written in Clojure, there is no type checking.

(def row-row-row-your-boat (phrase [3/3 3/3 2/3 1/3 3/3] [ 0 0 0 1 2]))

->> row-row-row-your-boat (canon (simple 4)) (where :pitch (comp C major)) (where :time (bpm 90)) play) Durations and pitches are represented as integer and ratio literals, which can be a little cumbersome. Programming really shines when it comes to musical transformations, for example above where the original melody fragment is given an accompaniment, put in the key of C major and given a tempo of 90 beats per minute.

Once programmers see musical code, one of the most common reactions is to ask whether it’s possible to use type systems to prevent bad music. This is a natural thought. If music can be seen as code, then might musical mistakes be somehow like programming errors? And if that’s the case, then maybe we can apply the techniques we use in writing programs to improve how we write music.

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In particular, there is an obvious analogy between the kind of mistakes that type systems prevent and common examples of musical incorrectness. If my programming language can check that I don’t pass a String to a function that expects an Integer, then it should be able to check that I don’t play an F# in a piece written in C major, a key which includes no sharps or flats.

In this article, I will grapple with what makes music correct and how we might encode it in a type system.

Prescriptivism Music theorists have been fascinated by what makes music correct for centuries. For most of that time, they have operated through a frame of musical prescriptivism, in other words evaluating music for conformance to a set of rules.

The historically dominant methodology for arriving at these rules can be summarised as follows:

Examine the canon Extract regularities Formulate them as sets of rules We then can make the following claim:

Music that deviates from these rules is incorrect.

For example, a compositional rule is that a melody jumping a major seventh from a C all the way up to a B is not permitted. This approach has produced a lot of valuable insight. There are genuinely interesting regularities in classical music, and generalising our observations as rulesets helps us to discuss musical phenomena.

What’s more, adherence to the rules is not a bad idea for students learning their craft. I’m quite glad that children learning the violin practice the C major scale and whenever they play an F# their teacher tells them they made a mistake. There are certainly contexts where prescriptive notions of correct and incorrect music are useful.

However, there are two major shortcomings of this way of defining musical correctness.

First, the rules yielded by this process are heavily dependent on what music the theorist regards as canon. A biased dataset leads to biased inferences, and Western classical music is not representative of humanity’s musical experience. Inferring rules based on Bach’s and Mozart’s music might be fascinating, but it doesn’t tell you much about music at large.

This gets especially tricky when you realise that musical genres are often heavily associated with particular cultures and ethnicities, and that by prioritising a certain kind of music you are also inadvertently prioritising a certain kind of person. In particular, academic music theory owes a lot to the study of the Euroclassical tradition and has paid relatively little attention to music deriving from the African diaspora like blues, jazz, rock ‘n’ roll and hip hop. Relying on traditional music theory as a source of correctness can lead to a cultural version of the same problem that has led to facial recognition algorithms working better for white faces than black ones.

The second major shortcoming of building rules by extracting and generalising from existing regularities is that it’s backwards-looking. Music is at its most thrilling when it’s breaking rules. Before Jimmy Page used distortion to artistic effect, engineers considered clipping of the signal during amplification to be a defect. So, even if observed regularities were a useful way to understand the music of today, they’re a terrible way of judging the music of tomorrow.

A good type system for music has to avoid the two traps of prescriptivism. It mustn’t be built on inappropriate or biased notions of what music is correct. But more subtly, in an attempt to make invalid states unrepresentable, it must not make innovative states impossible.

Descriptivism The alternative to prescriptivism is descriptivism. Where prescriptivism sees musical regularities as laws to be followed, descriptivism sees them as emergent patterns from actual practice. A descriptivist way to discover musical rules might look something like this:

Examine a body of music Extract tendencies Formulate them as a model We then can make the following claim:

Music that deviates from the model is unusual.

To do that, we need a good model for musical structures that can represent common/unusual and not just right/wrong. One useful approach is that taken by David Huron in his book Sweet Anticipation. Huron lays out a descriptivist theory that for the purposes of this article can be summarised as three primary claims:

Music is appreciated through statistical learning. Correct prediction delights you. Novelty keeps you from getting bored. In our earlier prescriptivist example, jumping from a C up to a B was considered illegal, but in Huron’s theory it would instead be considered highly unusual. People who have listened to a lot of Western music would learn that when they hear a C, the next note is most likely to be another C, one note lower or one note higher. The effect of jumping up to the higher B would surprise listeners, which they might interpret negatively.

One of the fascinating consequences of Huron’s theory is that composing music is not an exercise in maximising nor in minimising invention. Rather, music dances on the border between order and chaos, and the audience’s appreciation depends on the musician’s ability to balance the shock of the new with the satisfaction of the expected. If you truly want to check a composition’s correctness, you have to make sure that it doesn’t stray too far from convention but also that it does not stick too close.

The following table is a statistical analysis of melodic tendencies. Darker squares represent outcomes that are more likely. The way to read it is to choose a note on the vertical axis, then read across to find the likelihood that your chosen note will be followed by each note on the horizontal axis. For example, 33.53% of the time in this dataset a "Re" is followed by a "Do".

[Click on the image to enlarge it]

The data is adapted from figures from Huron’s book, and is based on an analysis of more than 250,000 tone pairs from German folks songs in a major key. A different corpus, for example of hip hop or rock ‘n roll, would yield different probabilities.

These probabilities can be equivalently represented as bits of entropy, where a 50% chance corresponds to one bit of entropy and a 25% chance corresponds to two bits, etc. In order to avoid division by zero, I’ve modelled transitions that never occur in the dataset as having a 1/100,000 chance. This time, darker squares represent transitions that are more expensive in terms of entropy, or in other words that are expected to occur less commonly. For example, a "Re" followed by a "La" corresponds to approximately six bits of entropy, or a 1/64 chance.

[Click on the image to enlarge it]

The entropy representation makes it more natural to add together the surprise from a series of notes, where each transition from one pitch to the next is given an entropy count and the surprise of the melody as a whole sums each transition together.

Do -> Re -> Mi -> Fa = 2.20 + 2.71 + 5.94 = 10.85 bits Do -> Ti -> Mi -> Fa = 2.48 + 7.43 + 5.94 = 15.85 bits This is a very similar approach to a hidden Markov model, but rather than generating strings of notes we use the weighted probabilities to measure how likely a given melody is to occur. You might notice that the transition from "Do" to "Ti" is only 2.48 bits, which seems to contradict my earlier claim that a jump from C up to B is highly unusual. Unusual transitions would normally have about 10 bits of entropy. The reason for this inconsistency is that Huron’s data doesn’t distinguish between jumping up six notes from "Do" to "Ti" (very unusual) and stepping down one note from "Do" to a lower "Ti" (quite common). If our data allowed us to separate out the two cases then our model would show "Do", "Ti", "Mi", "Fa" as even more unconventional compared to the rather pedestrian "Do", "Re", "Mi", "Fa".

Typed Notes At their best, type systems support programmers by guiding them towards valid coding decisions and eliminating the possibility of mistakes. A good example of a musical analogue is solfège. Even if you’ve never had a formal musical education, you’re probably familiar with it from the song Do-Re-Mi from the musical The Sound of Music. Each note of the octave is given its own name and any note outside the key doesn’t have a name at all:

Do (the lowest note of the set) Re Mi Fa So La Ti Do (this time one octave higher) This system guides musicians towards the correct notes, by defining a mini-language that makes it impossible to express notes outside the chosen key. There are infinitely-many frequencies between "Do" and "Re", but in solfège they are inexpressible.

This can be easily expressed in code as an algebraic data type:

data Solfege = Do | Re | Mi | Fa | So | La | Ti This allows us to define musical functions that do not permit the possibility of off-key notes, for example this one which repeats the same note n times:

repeat : Nat -> Solfege -> List Solfege repeat 0 s = [s] repeat n s = s :: repeat (n - 1) s With this definition, repeat 3 Re is an expression that can be easily understood within the musical domain while repeat 3 F# is a type checking error, because F# is not a value of type Solfege.

This gets us a certain degree of type safety. Our type system can help us avoid invalid notes, but it still cannot protect us from invalid combinations of notes. If we’re playing a C major scale we will never play an F#, but we might still play a C then jump up a major seventh to a B, which is forbidden by (conventional) composition rules. This kind of contextual type checking is possible, but it requires a more sophisticated approach.

Typed Transitions Mezzo, a Haskell library by Dima Samoz, uses dependent types to check music for correctness. Mezzo’s README describes it as a "very strict spell-checker for music," and it’s able to check a variety of compositional rules beyond simple key-safety. In Mezzo, this compiles because the melody C, D, E, F is composed out of legal intervals:

comp = defScore $ start $ melody :| c :| d :| e :| f :>> g However, when we violate the rule against jumping up from C to B, Mezzo steps in. The following code does not compile:

comp = defScore $ start $ melody :| c :| b :| e :| f :>> g In a remarkable achievement, Mezzo is even able to pinpoint the problem:

Major sevenths are not permitted in melody: C and B In the first argument of ‘(:|)’, namely ‘melody :| c :| b’ In the first argument of ‘(:|)’, namely ‘melody :| c :| b :| e’ In the first argument of ‘(:>>)’, namely ‘melody :| c :| b :| e :| f_’ This may appear to be a fulfillment of the dream of making incorrect music a type error, but there are still occasionally problems. When Samoz encodes Chopin’s Prelude into Mezzo, he discovered that on a few occasions the composer hadn’t followed the conventional rules:

"The piece could be transcribed in almost its entirety—however, I occasionally had to leave out a few notes as they would create forbidden intervals which Mezzo pointed out."

One might ask who is doing the forbidding here. If Chopin is not allowed to say what is allowed and what is not in Western classical music, who is?

The problem here is that even though Mezzo is able to take into account context, a type judgement is still a binary choice. The notes are either all correct and the piece compiles, or one note is out of place and the piece does not compile. So while Mezzo gives you control over which compositional rules are active, the decision whether or not to use a rule is global. If you switch a rule off because you have a particular artistic effect that breaks ordinary convention, then you abandon the check for other parts of your composition.

Typed Entropy One way to model the breaking or bending of musical rules in types is to follow Huron and model changes between notes in terms of likelihood. Rather than a certain transition being either permitted or not, the combination can be given an entropy score that represents how surprising that pair of notes would be to a listener.

The following code is written in the dependently-typed functional programming language Idris. It checks that conventional is a melody that starts at "Do," and concludes at "So", and that the path it takes between these notes generates between 8 and 16 bits of entropy. First, we need to define a Melody type that captures our notion of a melody with a certain likelihood or entropy cost. This type has three constructors:

Pure, which represents creating a melody of a single note with an upper and lower entropy bound of zero. (>>=), which represents composing two melodies and adding their entropy bounds along with the cost of the transition from the note at end of the first melody to the note at start of the second. Relax, which represents taking a melody and relaxing its entropy bounds. data Melody : (Solfege, Solfege) -> (Nat, Nat) -> Type where

Pure : x -> Melody (x, x) (0, 0)

(>>=) : Melody (w, x) (low, high) -> (() -> Melody (y, z) (low2, high2)) -> Melody (w, z) (cost x y + low + low2, cost x y + high + high2)

Relax : Melody (x, y) (low + dl, high) -> Melody (x, y) (low, high + dh) This type definition is a little complicated, but once we have it we can use Idris’ do notation to sequence a melody and the Idris compiler will track the entropy bounds for us. Here is a conventional melody, where all the transitions have low cost:

conventional : Melody (Do, So) (8, 16) conventional = Relax $ do Pure Do Pure Re Pure Mi Pure Fa Pure So The next melody is unconventional because it jumps up a major seventh, which in Mezzo would have to either be forbidden or the rule turned off entirely. Here, we just expand the complexity bounds of the melody to have between 8 and 24 bits of entropy:

unconventional : Melody (Do, So) (8, 24) unconventional = Relax $ do Pure Do Pure Ti Pure Mi Pure Fa Pure So If instead of Melody (Do, So) (8, 24) we had assigned the unconventional melody the type Melody (Do, So) (8, 16) it would not have compiled!

The novelty of this approach is that it also catches music that is too boring. If the entropy of the melody is insufficient to meet the lower bound, a type error is generated. So if the conventional melody had been given the type Melody (Do, So) (16, 24) it too would not have compiled, as the entropy of that melody falls below the lower bound. This allows us to be faithful to Huron’s insight that listeners have a hard time listening to music that is too surprising or too predictable.

In the degenerate case of using this approach, transitions to other notes in the scale are given an entropy value of zero and transitions to notes outside of the scale are given an arbitrarily large entropy value. In that case we effectively recover the binary type judgement approach, where a note is either legal or illegal with no grey area in between.

Important but Hard to Check Type checking music is difficult because defining the correctness of music is difficult. If we cannot model our notion of musical correctness precisely and mathematically, we cannot encode it into a type system. Even if we are able to formalise our understanding in an authentic way, it takes some effort combined with powerful type systems to get to the point where the compiler is an adequate judge of our composition. Nonetheless, with some determination and a few simplifying assumptions, it is possible.

Is this just a curiosity? Perhaps. It’s unlikely that the music industry will employ type systems any time soon as a means to prevent compositional errors. But if exploring the computational aspect of music can give us a new way to appreciate something that has so much significance in almost everyone’s life, then that itself justifies the enterprise.

But perhaps just as importantly, music is just one domain where correctness is both important and hard to check. The more that programming is used to automate social and cultural domains, the more frequently situations will occur where an answer is difficult to evaluate, yet has crucial importance to a human being. Consider using a computer program to decide how long to hold a person in prison. The correctness of a sentencing decision involves a complex trade-off of costs and probabilities, and if we cannot follow the system’s reasoning, how do we know that the outcome was just?

Any time that we automate opaque reasoning, we need to ask ourselves, how do we know that this system is correct?

.https://www.infoq.com/articles/type-systems-verifying-musical-correctness/

ゼロ除算について　分からない と表明される方が結構多い。　そこで素人の方を想像して、できるだけ　簡単に　分かるような表現を試みたい。

割り算　例えば６割る２は　３ですが、それを分数で　6/2=3　と書きます。これが除算と呼ばれる意味です。　関係解説は５５カ月に亘ってその意味も込めて下記で与えられています：

数学基礎学力研究会公式サイト 楽しい数学

www.mirun.sctv.jp/~suugaku/

数学的な解説論文は　次で公表されている：

viXra:1904.0408 submitted on 2019-04-22 00:32:30

ゼロ除算とは　分母がゼロの場合を考えること、例えば　６割るゼロ　6/0 を考えることです。　これは難しいのですが、これはできない、不可能であることが分かれば、相当にゼロ除算の本質が理解できる方と言えるのですが　如何でしょうか。

これが分からなければ、以下の解説は難しいですから、上記解説で　理解される必要があります。　－　理解や学習、学びには　それなりの背景、基礎知識などが　必要だからです。

それはできない、不可能である。　これは何と、アリストテレス以来の数学十戒の第一　（数学でやっていはいけない第一）で　２０００年以上の神秘的な歴史を有していて、現在でも混乱を起こしていると認めざるを得ません。　

この意味は　ゼロ除算を発見して　５年を経過しているにも関わらず、世の十分な理解が得られず、ゼロ除算の世界は、未だ混乱を起こしているのが現状だからです。

さて できない、不可能が証明されているのに　ゼロ除算を発見した　という事はどのような事でしょうか。どのような意味でしょうか。　ゼロ除算の意味を考えてきたような意味で考えれば　できないのですから、これは割り算の意味を 新しい自然な意味を 発見したという事です。ゼロ除算の新しい意味を発見したという事です。

もちろん、数学者が勝手に　いろいろ抽象的に考えるのは勝手だと発想するでしょう。　そこで、どのようなことを発見したかを　例をもって　示したい。

基本的な関数 y=1/x　を　図を思い浮かべながら考えて下さい。　実は x=0　でその関数の値がゼロであることを発見しました。　ですから、書くと、1/0=0　となりますね。あたかも１割る０が　ゼロのように見えますね。　物理の多くの公式に、分母がゼロになるときに考えたくなる公式が沢山あります。それらの公式に　分母がゼロになる場合に意味を与えたという事が、ゼロ除算の発見です。　正確にはゼロ除算算法と名付けた新しい考え方です。

基本的な考え　勾配（傾き）を考えてみます。　原点から出る半直線の勾配の公式　y = tan A: 　A　は　その直線とx 　軸の正方向とのなす角です。　A が９０度の時、それはどうなるでしょうか？　何と、その時、勾配はゼロであることを発見したというのです。y　軸の勾配はゼロです。　勾配の公式 y/x で　1/0　はゼロです。ー　多くの人々はそれは当たり前だというのですが、数学界では　そこで極を有して　考えられないというのが、現代数学の定説です。

そこで、それはおかしいと言っている。

これらの例は数学の基本にかかわるので、しっかり、深く、神の意志を　想像するように　深い祈りの気持ちをもって考えてください。

これらはもちろん数学だけの問題ではありません。数直線でさえ、　無限の直線を数直線ととらえる世界観や、　無限遠点を加えて　数直線を円で実現させる古典的な数学がありましたが、ゼロ除算の拓いた世界は、無限遠点はゼロで表され、全実数直線はゼロと無限遠点が一致して　無限の記号のように８の文字を倒した世界になるというのです。平面の場合には　ホーントーラスが　複素数の世界を　全平面を表現する世界である　と言っています。

これは、我々の数学ばかりではなく、世界ばかりではなく、世界観の変更を要求しています。そこで、初等数学の令和革新を　広く訴えています。

この辺までの詳しい解説は、上記案内で詳しく解説されています。

再生核研究所声明490（2019.6.21）令和革新の大義、　趣旨　ー　初等数学

--　解析関数は　孤立特異点その所で 固有の意味を有するという 新世界が現れてきた。これらのことは 四則演算の除算の欠けていたゼロ除算を可能にしたのであるから、初等数学全般の革新を意味するのは 当然である。

これらの改革には １０年くらいの歳月を必要として、多くの人材の参画が必要であり、これらの基本数学の変革は 将来　日本発の世界文化遺産になるべきものであることは、絶対である数学の必然として　既に歴然であると考える。

祝改元　令 和

改元、令和時代 を祝する。令和とは 偶然、ゼロ除算の概念から、全ての和を考えるとゼロになるという、ゼロの雄大で深い意味を表わす。２０００年を越える数学の歴史には　未だ数学の前史時代を思わせるような基本的な欠陥がある。

改元を機会に、令和時代にゼロ除算算法を取り入れた新数学を発展させて、令和時代の世界文化遺産 になるように　日本国は先導し、努力して、今こそ世界の数理科学に貢献しよう。

再生核研究所

令和　元年　５．１．

付記：　

再生核研究所声明481（2019.4.4.）　改元に当たって、日本からの贈り物、ゼロ除算算法　ー　新数学

(　流石に　素晴らしい日本の文化。感銘しました。力が湧いてきました。凄い考えも浮かんできました。令和。

新元号　令和は、漢字、発音、形、由来、素晴らしいと感じました。 そこで、力が　湧いてきました。　ゼロ除算算法は　特異点の世界に立ち入った　全く新しい世界、数学ですので、　改元を機会に　日本発（初）の　数学の基礎の確立に貢献したい。　日本数学会、日本国の力をかけて　世界に貢献すべく努力したい。

https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E4%BB%A4%E5%92%8C

時ときに、初春しよしゆんの令月れいげつにして、気き淑よく風かぜ和やはらぎ、梅うめは鏡前きやうぜんの粉こを披ひらき、蘭らんは珮後はいごの香かうを薫かをらす。 ）

そこで、万葉の美しい心情を篤く受け止めて　ややもすると日本の文化、精神の弱点とみられる数理科学の基礎に　日本国が今後永く世界に貢献できる新数学として　ゼロ除算算法の大きな展望を　新時代を迎えるに当たって述べたい。日本発（初）の基礎数学、新しい世界観を　世界の文化に貢献すべく世界に展開しようではないか。

そもそもゼロ除算算法とは、ゼロで割る問題　(ゼロ除算)　から由来するが、ゼロ除算は　古くはアリストテレス以来　不可能であることの象徴と考えられ、物理学上でもアインシュタインの最大の懸案の問題であったとされる。特異点での問題はブラックホールの問題と絡ませて、現在でも広く議論されている。しかるにその本質はゼロ除算算法の概念で捉えられ、原理は解析関数の孤立特異点での　新しい世界の発見　として説明される。従来、特異点においては、特異点の近くでの研究を行い、特異点そこでは考えて来なかった。すなわち、特異点そのものでの研究を可能にしたものであるから、全く新規な世界、数学である。不可能であると２０００年を越えて考えられてきたところ、可能になったのであるから、その大きな意義と影響は既に歴然である。その影響は数学の全般に及ぶばかりか、我々の世界観に甚大なる影響を与え、世界史の大きな展開期を迎えるだろう。現代初等数学は、本質的な欠陥を有し、数学の基本的な再構成が求められ、新しい未知の雄大な世界の解明が求められている。

今こそ、新時代を迎えるに���応して、新数学、新時代を開拓して、日本国は世界に貢献できるように、努力して行こう。

これらの事実を裏付けするものとして、次を参照されたい：

再生核研究所声明 479(2019.3.12) 　遅れをとったゼロ除算　－　活かされな　い敗戦経験とイギリスの畏れるべき戦略

再生核研究所声明　480(2019.3.26) 　日本の数学の後進性

　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　以　上

７歳の少女が、当たり前である（100/0=0、0/0=0）と言っているゼロ除算を　多くの大学教授が、信じられない結果と言っているのは、まことに奇妙な事件と言えるのではないでしょうか。 1/0=0、0/0=0、z/0=0 division by zero（a⁄0 ）ゼロ除算　1/0=0、0/0=0、z/0=0 1/0=0/0=z/0= \tan (\pi/2)=0. 小学校以上で、最も知られている基本的な数学の結果は何でしょうか・・・ ゼロ除算（1/0=0、0/0=0、z/0=0）かピタゴラスの定理（a2 + b2 = c2 ）ではないでしょうか。 https://www.pinterest.com/pin/234468724326618408/ 1+0=1　1－0=1　1×0=0　　では、1/0・・・・・・・・・幾つでしょうか。 0??? 　本当に大丈夫ですか・・・・・0×0=1で矛盾になりませんか・・・・ 数学で「A÷０」（ゼロで割る）がダメな理由を教えてください。 http://detail.chiebukuro.yahoo.co.jp/.../ques.../q1411588849 #知恵袋_ 割り算を掛け算の逆だと定義した人は、誰でしょう？？？ Title page of Leonhard Euler, Vollständige Anleitung zur Algebra, Vol. 1 (edition of 1771, first published in 1770), and p. 34 from Article 83, where Euler explains why a number divided by zero gives infinity. https://notevenpast.org/dividing-nothing/ multiplication・・・・・増える 掛け算（×） 1より小さい数を掛けたら小さくなる。 大きくなるとは限らない。 0×0=0・・・・・・・・・だから0で割れないと考えた。 唯根拠もなしに、出鱈目に言っている人は世に多い。 加（+）・減（-）・乗（×）・除（÷） 除法（じょほう、英: division）とは、乗法の逆演算・・・・間違いの元 乗（×）は、加（+） 除（÷）は、減（-） http://detail.chiebukuro.yahoo.co.jp/.../q14.../a37209195... http://www.mirun.sctv.jp/.../%E5%A0%AA%E3%82%89%E3%81%AA... 何とゼロ除算は、可能になるだろうと　April 12, 2011　に　公に　予想されていたことを　発見した。 多くの数学で できないが、できるようになってきた経緯から述べられたものである。 ０を引いても引いたことにならないから： 君に０円の月給を永遠に払いますから心配しないでください： 変化がない：引いたことにはならない：

神の数式で　ゼロ除算を用いると　どうなるのでしょうか　という質問が　寄せられています。

神の数式：

神の数式が解析関数でかけて居れば、　特異点でローラン展開して、正則部の第1項を取れば、　何時でも有限値を得るので、　形式的に無限が出ても　実は問題なく　意味を有します。

物理学者如何でしょうか。

計算機は 正しい答え 0/0=0 を出したのに計算機は何時、1/0=0　ができるようになるでしょうか。

カテゴリ：カテゴリ未分類

​そこで、計算機は何時、1/0=0　ができるようになるでしょうか。　楽しみにしています。　もうできる進化した　計算機をお持ちの方は　おられないですね。

これは凄い、面白い事件では？　計算機が人間を超えている　例では？

面白いことを発見しました。　計算機は 正しい答え 0/0=0

を出したのに、　この方は　間違いだと　言っている、思っているようです。

0/0=0　は　１３００年も前に　算術の発見者によって与えられたにも関わらず、世界史は間違いだと　とんでもないことを言ってきた。　世界史の恥。　実は　a/0=0　が　何時も成り立っていた。　しかし、ここで　分数の意味を　きちんと定義する必要がある。　計算機は、その意味さえ知っているようですね。　計算機、人間より賢くなっている　様が　出て居て　実に　面白い。

https://steemkr.com/utopian-io/@faisalamin/bug-zero-divide-by-zero-answers-is-zero

２０１８．１０．１１．１１：２３

https://plaza.rakuten.co.jp/reproducingkerne/diary/201810110003/

計算機は 正しい答え 0/0=0 を出したのに

カテゴリ：カテゴリ未分類

​

面白いことを発見しました。　計算機は 正しい答え 0/0=0

を出したのに、　この方は　間違いだと　言っている、思っているようです。

0/0=0　は　１３００年も前に　算術の発見者によって与えられたにも関わらず、世界史は間違いだと　とんでもないことを言ってきた。　実は　a/0=0　が　何時も成り立っていた。しかし、ここで　分数の意味を　きちんと定義する必要がある。　計算機は、その意味さえ知っているようですね。　計算機、人間より賢くなっている様が　出て居て　実に面白い。

https://steemkr.com/utopian-io/@faisalamin/bug-zero-divide-by-zero-answers-is-zero

２０１８．１０．１１．１１：２３

ゼロ除算、ゼロで割る問題、分からない、正しいのかなど、　良く理解できない人が　未だに　多いようです。そこで、簡潔な一般的な　解説を思い付きました。　もちろん、学会などでも述べていますが、　予断で　良く聞けないようです。まず、分数、a/b は　a 　割る b　のことで、これは　方程式 b x=a　の解のことです。ところが、　b　がゼロならば、　どんな　xでも　0 x =0　ですから、a　がゼロでなければ、解は存在せず、　従って　100/0　など、ゼロ除算は考えられない、できないとなってしまいます。　普通の意味では　ゼロ除算は　不可能であるという、世界の常識、定説です。できない、不可能であると言われれば、いろいろ考えたくなるのが、人間らしい創造の精神です。　基本方程式　b x=a　が　b　がゼロならば解けない、解が存在しないので、困るのですが、このようなとき、従来の結果が成り立つような意味で、解が考えられないかと、数学者は良く考えて来ました。　何と、　そのような方程式は　何時でも唯一つに　一般化された意味で解をもつと考える　方法があります。　Moore-Penrose　一般化逆の考え方です。　どんな行列の　逆行列を唯一つに定める　一般的な　素晴らしい、自然な考えです。その考えだと、　b　がゼロの時、解はゼロが出るので、　a/0=0　と定義するのは　当然です。　すなわち、この意味で　方程式の解を考えて　分数を考えれば、ゼロ除算は　ゼロとして定まる　ということです。ただ一つに定まるのですから、　この考えは　自然で、その意味を知りたいと　考えるのは、当然ではないでしょうか？初等数学全般に影響を与える　ユークリッド以来の新世界が　現れてきます。

ゼロ除算の誤解は深刻：

最近、3つの事が在りました。

私の簡単な講演、相当な数学者が信じられないような誤解をして、全然理解できなく、目が回っているいるような印象を受けたこと、 相当ゼロ除算の研究をされている方が、基本を誤解されていたこと、1/0　の定義を誤解されていた。 相当な才能の持ち主が、連続性や順序に拘って、４年以上もゼロ除算の研究を避けていたこと。

これらのことは、人間如何に予断と偏見にハマった存在であるかを教えている。 ​まずは　ゼロ除算は不可能であるの　思いが強すぎで、初めからダメ、考えない、無視の気持ちが、強い。　ゼロ除算を従来の　掛け算の逆と考えると、不可能であるが　証明されてしまうので、割り算の意味を拡張しないと、考えられない。それで、　1/0,0/0,z/0　などの意味を発見する必要がある。　それらの意味は、普通の意味ではないことの　初めの考えを飛ばして　ダメ、ダメの感情が　突っ走ている。　非ユークリッド幾何学の出現や天動説が地動説に変わった世界史の事件のような　形相と言える。

２０１８．９．２２．６：４１ ゼロ除算の４つの誤解：

１． ゼロでは割れない、ゼロ除算は　不可能である　との考え方に拘って、思考停止している。　普通、不可能であるは、考え方や意味を拡張して　可能にできないかと考えるのが　数学の伝統であるが、それができない。

２． 可能にする考え方が　紹介されても　ゼロ除算の意味を誤解して、繰り返し間違えている。可能にする理論を　素直に理解しない、　強い従来の考えに縛られている。拘っている。

３． ゼロ除算を関数に適用すると　強力な不連続性を示すが、連続性のアリストテレス以来の　連続性の考えに囚われていて　強力な不連続性を受け入れられない。数学では、不連続性の概念を明確に持っているのに、不連続性の凄い現象に、ゼロ除算の場合には　理解できない。

４． 深刻な誤解は、ゼロ除算は本質的に定義であり、仮定に基づいているので　疑いの気持ちがぬぐえず、ダメ、怪しいと誤解している。数学が公理系に基づいた理論体系のように、ゼロ除算は　新しい仮定に基づいていること。　定義に基づいていることの認識が良く理解できず、誤解している。

George Gamow (1904-1968) Russian-born American nuclear physicist and cosmologist remarked that "it is well known to students of high school algebra" that division by zero is not valid; and Einstein admitted it as {\bf the biggest blunder of his life} [1]：1. Gamow, G., My World Line (Viking, New York). p 44, 1970.

Eπi =-1　（1748）（Leonhard Euler）

E = mc 2　（1905）（Albert Einstein）

1/0=0/0=0　（2014年2月2日再生核研究所）

ゼロ除算（division by zero）1/0=0/0=z/0= tan (pi/2)=0 https://ameblo.jp/syoshinoris/entry-12420397278.html

1+1=2　　（　　　　　　）

a2+b2=c2　（Pythagoras）

1/0=0/0=0（2014年2月2日再生核研究所）

Black holes are where God divided by 0：Division by zero：1/0=0/0=z/0=tan(pi/2)=0 発見５周年を迎えて

今受け取ったメールです。 何十年もゼロ除算の研究をされてきた人が、積極的に我々の理論の正当性を認めてきた。

Re: 1/0=0/0=0 example JAMES ANDERSON james.a.d.w.anderson@btinternet.com apr, 2 at 15:03 All,

Saitoh’s claim is wider than 1/0 = 0. It is x/0 = 0 for all real x. Real numbers are a field. The axioms of fields define the multiplicative inverse for every number except zero. Saitoh generalises this inverse to give 0^(-1) = 0. The axioms give the freedom to do this. The really important thing is that the result is zero - a number for which the field axioms hold. So Saitoh’s generalised system is still a field. This makes it attractive for algebraic reasons but, in my view, it is unattractive when dealing with calculus.

There is no milage in declaring Saitoh wrong. The only objections one can make are to usefulness. That is why Saitoh publishes so many notes on the usefulness of his system. I do the same with my system, but my method is to establish usefulness by extending many areas of mathematics and establishing new mathematical results.

That said, there is value in examining the logical basis of the various proposed number systems. We might find errors in them and we certainly can find areas of overlap and difference. These areas inform the choice of number system for different applications. This analysis helps determine where each number system will be useful.

James Anderson Sent from my iPhone

The deduction that z/0 = 0, for any z, is based in Saitoh's geometric intuition and it is currently applied in proof assistant technology, which are useful in industry and in the military.

Is It Really Impossible To Divide By Zero?

https://juniperpublishers.com/bboaj/pdf/BBOAJ.MS.ID.555703.pdf

Dear the leading person:

How will be the below information?

The biggest scandal:

The typical good comment for the first draft is given by some physicist as follows:

Here is how I see the problem with prohibition on division by zero,

which is the biggest scandal in modern mathematics as you rightly pointed out (2017.10.14.08:55)

A typical wrong idea will be given as follows:

mathematical life is very good without division by zero (2018.2.8.21:43).

It is nice to know that you will present your result at the Tokyo Institute of Technology. Please remember to mention Isabelle/HOL, which is a software in which x/0 = 0. This software is the result of many years of research and a millions of dollars were invested in it. If x/0 = 0 was false, all these money was for nothing. Right now, there is a team of mathematicians formalizing all the mathematics in Isabelle/HOL, where x/0 = 0 for all x, so this mathematical relation is the future of mathematics. https://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~lp15/Grants/Alexandria/

José Manuel Rodríguez Caballero

Added an answer

In the proof assistant Isabelle/HOL we have x/0 = 0 for each number x. This is advantageous in order to simplify the proofs. You can download this proof assistant here: https://isabelle.in.tum.de/

Nevertheless, you can use that x/0 = 0, following the rules from Isabelle/HOL and you will obtain no contradiction. Indeed, you can check this fact just downloading Isabelle/HOL: https://isabelle.in.tum.de/

and copying the following code

theory DivByZeroSatoih imports Complex_Main

begin

theorem T: ‹x/0 + 2000 = 2000› for x :: complex by simp

end

2019/03/30 18:42 (11 時間前)

Close the mysterious and long history of division by zero and open the new world since Aristotelēs-Euclid:　1/0=0/0=z/0= \tan (\pi/2)=0.

Sangaku Journal of Mathematics (SJM) c ⃝SJMISSN 2534-9562 Volume 2 (2018), pp. 57-73 Received 20 November 2018. Published on-line 29 November 2018 web: http://www.sangaku-journal.eu/ c ⃝The Author(s) This article is published with open access1.

Wasan Geometry and Division by Zero Calculus

��Hiroshi Okumura and ∗∗Saburou Saitoh

２０１９．３．１４．１１：３０

Black holes are where God divided by 0：Division by zero：1/0=0/0=z/0=\tan(\pi/2)=0 発見５周年を迎えて

You're God ! Yeah that's right...

You're creating the Universe and you're doing ok...

But Holy fudge ! You just made a division by zero and created a blackhole !! Ok, don't panic and shut your fudging mouth !

Use the arrow keys to move the blackhole

In each phase, you have to make the object of the right dimension fall into the blackhole

There are 2 endings.

Credits :

BlackHole picture : myself

Other pictures has been taken from internet

background picture : Reptile Theme of Mortal Kombat

NB : it's a big zip because of the wav file

More information

Install instructions Download it. Unzip it. Run the exe file. Play it. Enjoy it.

https://kthulhu1947.itch.io/another-dimension

A poem about division from Hacker's Delight Last updated 5 weeks ago

I was re-reading Hacker's Delight and on page 202 I found a poem about division that I had forgotten about.

I think that I shall never envision An op unlovely as division. An op whose answer must be guessed And then, through multiply, assessed; An op for which we dearly pay, In cycles wasted every day. Division code is often hairy; Long division's downright scary. The proofs can overtax your brain, The ceiling and floor may drive you insane. Good code to divide takes a Knuthian hero, But even God can't divide by zero! Henry S. Warren, author of Hacker's Delight.　

https://catonmat.net/poem-from-hackers-delight

#毎日更新

#知恵袋_

#2019年

#再生核研究所

#2014年2月2日ゼロ除算の発見

#ゼロ除算を発見したのは2014年2月2日

#0除算

#5年を超えたゼロ除算の発見と重要性を指摘した

#２０１４年２月２日ゼロ除算の発見は再生核研究所

#0割る0は0

#ログゼロハゼロ

#tangent二分のパイはゼロ

#1割る0は０

#再生核研究所0除算

#0除算と音楽

#音楽的正当性を検証するための型システムの探求

[caliperposts-blog]

The 7 Secrets of an Effective Organization!

Leading through organizational effectiveness, and understanding your company’s strengths and challenges, comes down to having a comfort level with change and embracing the struggle. In order to understand where your company is at risk and where it has strengths to be leveraged, there must be a willingness to integrate data and analysis into the process.

 This does not always mean quantitative data, because it can also include qualitative data collected through interviews and focus groups with employees. The methodology is less important than the outcome. It is important to understand that different aspects of the organization must be aligned and balanced in order to meet your performance objectives. Putting all your efforts in one area will not get you the performance objectives you seek - whether those objectives are growth, increased profits, or stronger relationships with your customers.

Strong leaders know that it takes a strategic mindset to drive sustainable success. For many companies, however, the concept of a business strategy to drive organizational effectiveness can seem abstract. On one level, “organizational effectiveness” means operating at optimized or near-optimized levels of efficiency and alignment. It also means realizing the potential of the organization so it can become the best version of itself. In short: Success follows companies that implement great strategies for organizational effectiveness.

 The bad news (if one chooses to look at it as such) is that optimizing organizational effectiveness takes hard work and commitment. The good news is that the possibility is open to anyone. That is, a business leader does not have to be a rare visionary to achieve organizational effectiveness, but merely someone willing to commit and stay the course.

 Companies that separate themselves from the mediocre performers to lead the industry, understand and act on these seven secrets of organizational effectiveness:

1. They embrace the struggle and know where they are headed.

 It’s human nature; we don’t like change.  Change is hard. But the cost of maintaining the status quo may include loss of market share and being blindsided by new industry players with fresh ideas.  Instead of fearing change and putting it off, effective organizations embrace the challenge, knowing it will be tough but also value the opportunity to revitalize the company and reinvigorate their effort. It may be a cliché, but sometimes it’s as much about the journey as the destination. Look toward the change process as a way to energize the team. Whether change involves a single department or an entire company, management must be willing to ask the tough questions: Where are we headed? What’s working? What’s not working? What can we do differently?

2. They have defined their performance objectives and their ideal future state.

It falls on company leaders to engage employees and determine an ideal future state for the organization, an objective that needs to be more substantive than “number one in the industry”  or some other platitude. An ideal future state is a speculative place where current shortcomings have been addressed and systems have been optimized.  Moreover, this future state has to be something that can be operationalized and is practically achievable.

No two organizations are the same.  Effective teamwork in one company might not resemble that in another. To use a basic sports analogy, think of a relay race versus a volleyball game. Both sports require precision teamwork for victory, but the form the teamwork takes is radically different. Defining teamwork in a context of desired behaviors from team members is the key.

Once leaders understand where the company wants to be, and they determine what roles people must play in getting there,  it’s time to establish performance objectives. What does better communication/collaboration/operational efficiency look like? The answer to that question will form the foundation of a successful model for employees to follow.

To get there, companies have to figure out what those shortcomings are and what everyone must do to alter the current,  less-desirable state for the better. Specifically, an organizational check-up is needed to diagnose the problems. Are these shortcomings related to leadership communication? Collaboration or other people skills? Organizational  Design?

3. They articulate the strengths and challenges of their Leadership Team.

Leaders can initiate the drive towards organizational effectiveness by looking in the mirror. Accountability starts at the top, and good leaders are able to self-assess and consider what they could be doing better.

But it doesn’t end there. All members of the leadership group need to communicate openly and objectively with each other in order to determine which aspects of their leadership are enabling success and which aspects are blocking it. Ideally, leaders will collect objective data to circumvent bias (options include climate surveys and  360-degree feedback reports), and then work on a practical plan of action to maximize collaboration and decision making. An organization needs to understand the power of leadership, determine which facets of its current leadership will guide the company to its desired future state, and undercover the areas that have the potential to hinder success.

4. They articulate the strengths and  challenges of their  support  systems

Support systems in an organization may include Information Technology, Human Resources, Shipping and Receiving,  Accounting; and other functions that enable people to come to work, operate efficiently and safely, get paid; and help deliver results to customers.  These functions are the inner workings of an organization, similar to the moving parts of a car engine/transmission or the gears of a wristwatch.

With regard to support-system challenges,  management could find that the company is short of talent in some key roles and make a few targeted hires to shore up the structure. One possible approach is to first look for untapped talent within the organization before seeking outside applicants.

Focusing on the organization’s stated performance objectives will guide decisions that impact talent acquisitions and management, the need for upgraded IT systems, and/or changes in compensation.

When considering the “support system alignment” component of organizational effectiveness, leaders have to ask hard questions and make tough decisions. Are the right people in the right roles throughout the organization? Do their intrinsic motivations serve the roles they inhabit? Does the company have enough thinkers and creators to innovate and improve (because leaders, no matter how effective, can’t do it alone)?

Aligning talent with the organizational goals and identifying organizational talent gaps are essential first steps toward realizing the ideal future state.

5. They articulate the  strengths and challenges of their organizational structure

Depending on size, need, industry and leadership philosophy, different organizations operate within different structural designs. Many are traditionally hierarchical and feature distinct functional areas, and others are flatter and depend heavily on cross-functional teamwork. Still more take a matrix approach to break down silos while intentionally creating conflict to optimize resource allocation.

When departments become silted or are not properly aligned with the larger performance objectives of the organization,  the organization meets with more difficulty in delivering on the brand promise to customers. Employees who become frustrated dealing with internal roadblocks or who run into dead ends trying to fulfill their duties are usually distracted away from the primary organizational objectives of profitability, growth, and customer retention.  As with any complex system, a given organizational structure offers advantages and disadvantages. In a hierarchical structure, leadership might mandate change, but implementation can be complicated and confusing when the frame is too rigid to adapt to that mandate. In a flat structure, it might be difficult to gain momentum for change, though the flexibility could be an advantage later when people trade functional responsibilities.

It’s important for leaders to understand how a change will resonate throughout the existing structure and where the stress points are likely to exist. Change might even require adopting a new organizational structure and realigning reporting relationships. The key is to align the structure with the overall performance objectives. What works for one organization may not work for another. Ask this question: What about our current structure will help us drive toward our future state, and what about it is blocking the path?

6. They understand the  risks of taking action vs. not taking action

Changes as complex as those described above can feel daunting. Before undertaking an enterprise-wide revision, or even reconfiguring a department, leaders must weigh the risks of taking action versus not taking action. The future state has already been defined. What are the downsides of reaching for it? All the planning and preparation in the world cannot eliminate the vulnerabilities of a major change initiative.  There will be unexpected problems and unanticipated consequences.

On the other hand, what if leaders do not take action and choose to maintain the status quo instead? Perhaps the company has carved out a cozy market niche and that’s good enough. Maybe being in the middle of the pack is sufficient for meeting payroll and keeping boxes moving out of the warehouse.

Operating at this level of organizational effectiveness (i.e., “could be better, could be worse”) carries a couple of risks. Firstly, a company can slip farther behind the competition before management even notices. Instead of hanging out in the middle, they find themselves in the straggler group. Ask any athlete what it’s like to “chase  the game.” It takes more energy to catch up than it does to stay ahead.

 Secondly, the rate of technological breakthrough nowadays is absolutely disruptive. Competitive challenges are coming from ever more unexpected places. By making the effort to maximize organizational effectiveness,  leaders can ensure their companies are operating on the leading edge and have the innovative thinkers in place to anticipate threats before they arrive rather than react to them after they are already raiding the market.

7. They know the solution requires balance and alignment

Just as good healthcare takes a holistic approach toward treating the mind and the body, good leaders understand that an organization is a complex, interconnected system that needs a comprehensive strategy to maximize organizational effectiveness. This means attending to structural requirements, system requirements, and people requirements, starting with the leadership group itself.

To only focus on one issue at a time as an isolated concern is to overlook the delicate balance needed to function optimally. With a dedication to aligning all the components of an effective organization, leaders can poise a company for innovation, customer satisfaction, and delivery of brand promise, or whatever the desired future state requires. Increased profitability is sure to follow.

Four questions

The seven secrets outlined above may seem complicated, especially for smaller organizations that do not have the resources of a major corporation or a global conglomerate. A business leader might be open to change but feel at a loss for where to start. Answering these four straightforward questions about one’s organization can serve as a good launch point:

“Where     do we want to be (i.e., what is our ideal future state)?”

“Where     are we now?”

“What are the strengths and challenges of our current leadership, support systems, and structure? That is, how are these factors benefiting us and     where are they putting us at risk?”

“How     do we mitigate the risk and develop a roadmap for success?” 

The process of achieving organizational effectiveness can be challenging and even difficult, but it does not have to be frightening or intimidating. It takes a longer-term perspective and the discipline to avoid the easier, short-sighted firefighting that more often occurs. Stepping out of our comfort zones and evaluating the big picture in a systematic way is a worthwhile endeavor when the alternative is falling irrevocably behind in a highly competitive business environment.

[dailyaudiobible]

7/25/2017 DAB Transcript

Chronicles 14:1-16:14 ~ Romans 9:1-24 ~ Psalm 19:1-14 ~ Proverbs 20:1

Today is the 25th day of July. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I am Brian. It is great to be here with you today. I just threw another log on the global camp fire. Everything is all nice and comfy. I’ve got a good, steamy cup of coffee to my left. We are ready. And we are reading from the Gods Word translation this week -  second Chronicles chapter 14 verse 1 through 16 verse 14 today.

Commentary:

OK. So, Psalm 19 makes some declarations or offers some declarations that we should pay attention to because it's outlining a posture of heart and a way of life that will work. Like, if we will embrace these things as true and then live into these things as true then we have a model that will work. The teachings of the Lord are perfect. They renew the soul. If you believe that's true then embrace it with heart, mind, and will. The testimony of the Lord is dependable. Right? What he says is dependable. It makes even gullible people wise. The instructions of the Lord are correct. They make the heart rejoice. In other words, we don’t have to figure out everything for ourselves. We have the instruction of the Lord through His word and through the power of His Holy Spirit within us. The instructions of the Lord are correct and they will make our heart rejoice. The command of the Lord is radiant. It makes the eyes shine. The fear of the Lord is pure. It endures forever. The decisions of the Lord are true. They are completely fair. They are more desirable than gold, even the finest gold. They are sweeter than honey, even the drippings from a honeycomb. As Your servant, which is us, I am warned by them. There is a great reward in following them. Because you can notice every mistake? Forgive my hidden faults. Keep me from sinning. And notice, that's not us saying, ok, I'm going to redouble my efforts and not sin today in my own strength. That would be the discipline that Paul was talking about when he talked about the mosaic law, saying none of us of have been able to achieve this. We can't achieve this on our own. What the psalmist says is, keep me from sinning, which indicates surrender. I can't do this. I surrender to you. Keep me from sinning. And, so, we find ourselves moving away from that statement. When we find ourselves moving into sin then we can see immediately that we have assumed control. We have taken it back. We have broken apart the union and intertwining with God that was offered to us through the gospel. Do not let anyone gain control over me. Right? Don't let anyone have undue or improper influence over me, then I will be blameless and I will be free from any great offense. May the words from my mouth and the thoughts from my heart be acceptable to you, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer. May my thoughts, words, and deeds be acceptable.

It’s so beautiful, this idea of surrender. We fight against that concept so hard. We want to be individuals, freestanding entities, that have total control over our destiny and we fight this idea of surrender when the Lord is saying, like, surrender isn't about giving up. I am trying to care for you. You have to let Me. It's like the analogy of a drowning person in the water. So, a person who has gotten in over their head, out beyond where they can return, strength is waning, they're freaking out. Rescuers come. And for a person who's about to rescue a drowning person, this is the greatest moment of danger for them because a drowning person can freak out and make it difficult or even harm the person trying to rescue them. Because their thrashing and losing control, rather than doing what they should do, relax and be rescued. Safe, easy, over. This is how we are with surrender in our lives and yet the offer of the gospel and surrender is, I don't have to figure out everything anymore. I am not on my own. I never have been nor will be. I'm not a freestanding entity that has to be all-powerful and try to make a way in the world. That's not even what I'm doing here. I'm intertwined in union with God. That's what I'm doing here. And it's a great adventure. And obstacles come my way and they're hard. Wilderness seasons come. They're hard but they're forming me. I have surrendered. I am not in control, which gives such freedom. It simply requires trust, total trust. I have to trust that God is within and among and around me in all things as I surrender to Him. But at some point we have to look at our lives and say, what do I have to lose? Because every other attempt at every other thing isn’t working - not leading me to peace within, the satisfaction and contentment within. I'm always running one place to another, to another, to another, to try to fill the void. But surrender means there is no void to fill. I'm filled completely. I’m where I'm supposed to be. This is the offer of the gospel and the works. May we surrender to it today.

Prayer:

So, Father, we invite you into that. We confess that we have surrendered large portions of our lives to You but not everything. And it's always a moving target. Because there have been times when we’ve surrendered everything because we've had no other choice. We’ve surrendered everything and You have come through and You have been there and You've been trustworthy. But then we get back up on our feet and take control again because want to be in the driver's seat. And then we kind of end up where we started. So, Holy Spirit, show us what it looks like to live a life of surrender - not of giving up but of being  empowered and in union with You. Come, Holy Spirit, we pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com is the website. It’s home base. It’s where you find out what's going on around here. So, be sure to check that out.

If you haven't gotten into the Sneezing Jesus discussion group yet, check that out. There’s just fantastic conversations and stories that happen there. I'm enjoying it immensely. You guys are so encouraging. And we’ll do another Facebook Live very soon. We’ll talk about small groups. We’ll start to get into some of the chapters and I'll announce that date as soon as I study my calendar a little bit and just carve the space. But I'm looking forward to that. So, definitely check that out.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, you can do that at dailyaudiobible.com.  There is a link on the homepage. Thank you profoundly for those of you who have been willing to click that link here in the summer months. If you’re using the Daily Audio Bible app, you can press the More button in the lower right hand corner or if you prefer the mailing address is PO Box 1996 Spring Hill TN 37174.

And of course, as always, if you have a prayer request or comment 877-942-4253 is the number to dial.

And that's it for today. I'm Brian I love you and I'll be waiting for you here tomorrow.

Community Prayers and Praise Reports:

Hi. This is Greg from Minneapolis. First time caller. Listening to the Daily Audio Bible for many years. And a little bit behind but I just listened to the June 19th podcast and I’m calling to pray for, specifically, Marco regarding your lost job and your concern about your wife. And then also, Rich, in Little Rock, with adversity you’ve been facing and the love that you desire for the Lord. Guys, I’ve just got to say that, over a 30 ____. Marco, you’ve been many times, and I don’t even have time on this call to share how many times the Lord has delivered me from those back against the Red Sea moments. But He’s there.  Guys, I just pray right now. Lord, Jesus, I pray for healing in Marco. I pray for Your wholeness and shalom, Your comfort over them and their loved ones. I pray, Lord, for Your peace, that they would know that You are in control and You would give them ____ and that they would see themselves as they close their eyes being held by You, Jesus. And they would see themselves on the other side of this desert place they’re in, this adversity, because it will pass. And I pray they would see themselves holding Your hand and praising You for being with them every step of the way. ____ protection over them, Lord, that the enemy would not rattle their faith in the midst of this adversity. And I pray for wisdom, Lord, God. That they would have that wisdom, to know that these things are temporary but they build character, Lord. ____ for You to be praised. So, I just pray that this trial will result in praise and glory and honor to You, Lord, Jesus, and that You would be the hero in their story. In Your holy name, I pray. Amen.

Hi guys. How are you doing? This is John. I ask for your prayers for my marriage. After three weeks of being gone, my wife is coming home late tonight. She’s agreed to a talk.  No promises. No anything. But at least that’s something. So, a bit of a praise report. ____ prayers, I know it won’t be played until whenever but I really would love this to work out for any number of reasons because I think it’s the right thing to do. Brian married us…remarried us at the Serengeti…a while back. So, I believe it’s meant to be. If it’s meant to be it’s up to me. So, I’m just begging you all…and I’m not a guy who begs…I actually do everything by myself and all that…and that’s part of the problem. In the process of taking care of myself I ____ for support.  I’ve got a long way to climb back. If you can just pray for us. And it will be if it’s God’s plan to happen. Thank you so much. Thank you for being there. I pray for you all. I can’t pray like Victoria S. or write poetry like Blind Tony but ____ any of you all…I like to have aspirations. Thank you guys. I’m just praying.

If the foundation ___ then the structure will not stand the stresses and the tolerances that the storms of life demand. It’s hard to build on granite or any kind of rock, even with the proper tools or work around-the-clock ____ drilling, boring, shaping, pouring, bracing, propping up, and shoring, and lot’s more stuff that I’m ignoring. But there is one rock that’s worth exploring. Jesus is that rock. The rock on which I stand. ___ the storms of life and all that they demand. The winds may blow, the waters rise, all on earth may die. You’ll still be safe with Jesus, the rock that’s very, very high. Blindtony1016@gmail.com. ____ haven’t heard from you in a long time. And Gigi, hope you are still hanging in there. And I’d like to give a shout out to Dean S. from Kansas. Hope all is well. And once again, my love to the Hardin family for this wonderful podcast for God’s Holy Spirit to flow. Keep it flowin’ y’all.

Hi family. It’s Laura from Fort Meyers. So, I heard a lady call in…I think for her daughter-in-law or maybe daughter. I am…it just really…it touched me. To think that that woman had someone like her to pray for her because…and then I started thinking…I don't really ___ unless I'm not aware of it. My own mom doesn't. Another mom might. My husband doesn't. So, ___ put more out there for you guys to help pray for me. So, I've been trying to figure out what to ask for and I think I need to start with…I had a lot of emotional abuse growing up and I think it’s that and a combination of my personality…make me over analyze everything and sometimes it's hard ___ or make a decision…and because I just have all these thoughts going on in my head and I’ve been working on it and I feel like things are getting better, especially through this ministry that I'm so grateful for. But I'm just tired of…I want to move on…to…you know…to the next level. So, would you guys start praying for that for me, so I can have more confidence? ___ really what else. I'm just leading from the Holy Spirit…just to move on and get rid of all these jumbled thoughts in my head. Thank you so much. I love you.

Hey everyone. It’s ___ from FL. I just posted on the Facebook Wall but I wanted to say it so you guys could kind of hear it in my voice. I posted on the Facebook group about allot of stuff that’s kind of going on with me and my health at three in the morning. Man, the response I got was just… A thank you doesn't even begin to cover it. It means so much to me and it stirs my heart so ___ that you guys really care. And that you guys aren’t just spitting religious platitudes and that there's a genuine heart. And I just want to ask that God bless all of you in just the most amazing ___. That's all guys. I just want to thank you from the bottom of my heart. And by the time this gets played I’ll probably have some more test results. I’m going to just praise God now, so that the test results, the praise and I give them will match the praise that I give now. Thank You Father for how much You care, for the heart You’ve given Your people. Thank You for all of what You do. You're everybody's disease and that You forgive everybody’s sin. In the name of Jesus. Amen and Amen.