#do you measure that out with some bogus ‘science’ | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

kattythingz · 9 months ago

Text

YJ x FMA Pt. 4

Yeah. Another one.

I am so sorry Solaris 😔 You'll have my love again when Jinx is done betaing your shitty first draft. No, I swear!! Really!!!

Anyway some of y'all might've missed it in the tags of pt.1, so I'm putting it here again just in case, but edling are about 21-22 in this au! Three years-ish post-canon of my magnum opus, Ed keeps his alchemy, blah blah usual crossover indulgences.

🧡 Pt. 1 💛 Pt. 2 🤍 Pt. 3 🩵

They’d admittedly lost track of time following that previous conversational note.

Robin had been bursting with questions since Ed confirmed Kaldur’s theory about his powers—alchemy, Ed stressed, a science, though Robin called bogus—and Ed was really no help with how receptive he was to each follow-up. Ling was a pretty chatty guy too by nature, but he’d gone comparably silent listening to his fiance talk, watching his face the entire time and laughing when his hands flailed like the sight would disappear from him if he strayed.

If Robin were immature, he would’ve feigned gagging at that. As it was, though, everyone understood Ling’s feelings. And they were all pretty curious too.

So, you know… It was kind of too late when Robin finally remembered.

“OH, CRAP!”

Mt. Justice was clear in sight now, so his abrupt exclamation startled the team and Ed. Superboy, who’d been suspiciously silent and brooding in his corner, turned to raise an eyebrow at him.

“What?” he said, which still sounded a little like a demand, but that was okay. He’d gotten much better as of late at measuring his tone. This was improvement.

That unfortunately did nothing for their current dilemma.

“What do you mean ‘what?’” Robin said, totally calmly, thank you very much. “Aren’t we forgetting something major here, guys? Something giant and looming, maybe?!”

It took them all a second.

“Oh,” Ling said, then, way too cheerily, Robin was punching him, “oh! That’s right! Your—”

Megan gasped. “Oh my gosh. I completely forgot—!”

“BATMAN!” Wally cried like it was already his funeral—which it admittedly was. “Ohhhh, crap. Crap! We are so dead, guys—”

“What? Why are you dead?” Ed interrupted. His brow had been steadily furrowing since Robin’s initial panic, and he looked properly annoyed now. He directed the look at Ling, scowling. “Ling, what are they on about?”

“Batman, dude!” Wally reiterated. “He’s only our fricking boss and the scariest Leaguer to have glaring you down!” Ed raised an eyebrow, not getting it, and Wally groaned. “This was supposed to be a recon mission. Only a recon mission. And we completely ditched that to rescue you instead!”

Wally hadn’t meant it like that, but Ling still frowned. “This isn’t Ed’s fault. It was my purpose to begin with. If it’ll spare you the grief—”

“No,” Kaldur interrupted, dragging the focus to him. He sat up straighter. “I am the leader, and I approved this diversion myself. I could’ve controlled Ling, but I made the active decision not to. If this is anyone’s fault, it is mine. I will explain to Batman.”

“Don’t be ridiculous.”

It was Ed’s sharp interjection that shot first, taking them all aback.

“You couldn’t have stopped this idiot if you’d knocked him out and tossed him in a ditch without his sword,” he continued, and Ling nodded vehemently. “I couldn’t stop him on a good day, forget one of you guys.”

“That’s great and all,” Artemis said darkly, “but Batman won’t take that excuse so easily. Especially after our last mission…”

Robin grimaced at the reminder of Doctor Fate. He hadn’t been part of that mission himself, but, from what he’d heard, things hadn’t gone so smoothly. Wally had taken an unnecessary risk putting on the helmet, and Bruce—Batman was furious. For good reason, considering what that helmet did, and it had nearly gotten his best friend…

But, still.

Today hadn’t just been an unnecessary risk. It was a loud one. Those scientists were sure to bolster their efforts now, knowing the Young Justice were on their tails. This might’ve painted a greater target on Ed and Ling’s backs too.

Batman had every right to scold them for this.

Robin’s stomach twisted, and he swallowed.

The group was silent as Ship brought them inside. Ed didn’t voice his reactions like before as the path lights sparked in tandem to frame the hangar ahead.

Kaldur led them out with his back straight after landing.

Ed couldn’t quite muffle his noise that time as he disembarked last with Ling. He tossed a quick “thank you” to Ship, who beeped in affirmative delight, and ogled around the vast space with an echoing awe.

“This place is huge,” Ed gasped from the edge of the landing dock. His eyes drew high and low but ultimately lingered on the underwater entrance of the place. “What is this, exactly? There’s a generator and a pool…”

“This is the hangar,” Megan said, livening up a little at the opportunity to brag about her current home. Then, remembering last-second, “Oh, that’s a space where we park aircrafts and stuff. I guess you really don’t have that back in your world, huh?”

“Nope. What’s with the pool, then?”

“That’s for submarines. Those are—”

“Oh, you’ve got those here?” Ed’s eyes lit with understanding when he turned to her floating next to him. Catching her “manners” at that, Megan made a small noise and lowered to her feet. She was still laughably taller than Ed like this, and, oh, wow, now that Robin noticed it—

“Holy crap, wait,” Wally suddenly snickered next to Robin too, much worse at masking his amusement. “Dude, now that I’m looking at you—”

He cut off on a high yelp before Ed’s glare even reached him.

Ling pulled back his slanted hand from where he’d subtly jabbed Wally, striding over to Ed with a grin. “It is a fascinating space, isn’t it?”

Ed narrowed his eyes between the two of them before letting it go with a huff. “Yeah. I thought for a second that they might’ve developed air travel instead of ocean, like a parallel balance kind of thing… but I guess not.”

Ling started him down the stairs, and it didn’t escape Robin’s notice that Ed was leaning slightly into Ling’s side as he descended. Ling, for his part, didn’t say a word on that and kept a hand hovered low over Ed’s back.

So it wasn’t an injury, Robin mused as the rest of the team followed downward. Ling had made a pretty big deal earlier of checking Ed’s burn from the inhibitor collar under his turtleneck, and he’d completely ignored the team was watching when he wiped his fiance’s scratches tenderly before Ed had seen fit to remind him with a violent blush.

A bad leg, maybe? Or…

Megan took over leading them around the place again, slipping easily into the comfort of playing tour guide. When they reached the mission room, she quieted some, anxious as the rest of them.

The room was thankfully empty for now. Though, Robin would’ve preferred if they’d just rip off the Bandaid now. He hated the slithering feel of trepidation under his skin.

“And this… is the mission room,” Megan said with less pizzazz. “This is where Batman gives us our missions, and where we do our training with Black Canary! Although, I don’t see any of them here yet…”

“Yeah, thank god,” Wally muttered. “Give us a second to brace ourselves.”

Robin snorted. “You mean the thought of having your soul judged live doesn’t fill you with excitement? Fake, dude.”

“Says you, you little jerk. If anything, won’t you be scolded the wor—?”

“So, what was that about a training room?” Ed’s loud voice cut him off, though Robin couldn’t figure why he cared to keep things light. Batman was going to be disappointed one way or another. There was no avoiding that. “Seems a little barren for one, don’t you think?”

“Do you really have room to speak, darling?” Ling chuckled. “You were trained in a backyard, weren’t you?”

“A backyard?” Artemis said, and someone—Superboy, probably—snorted loudly in the back. “You can’t be serious.”

“Oh, I am!” Ling said. “Though, I’m leaving out the part where it was sometimes a butcher shop too.”

“Yeah, and you’re too scared to step foot in either of those places,” Ed shot back, crossing his arms. “Which reminds me. I contacted Teacher while you were gone—”

“Pardon?”

Several eyebrows shot up at Ling’s honest-to-god squeak.

Ed’s grin stretched slow and vicious. “Well, I needed help understanding the unknown transmutation circle that you touched. You know, considering it was an instantaneous reaction. And I had to be careful.”

Three strikes in one. Ouch.

Ling winced, recoiling slightly as he rubbed the back of his neck. “R-Right. Of course. And… what did she say, by any chance?”

“Oh, nothing! She just asked me to give you a little something.”

Nobody saw it coming when, in a split second, Ed shot out to grab Ling’s arm.

Ling didn’t even cry out before he was tossed completely over Ed’s shoulder. He met the ground with a belated yelp, then another when Ed stuck a boot on his chest and tightened his hold ruthlessly.

Robin cringed along with everyone else at the brutal angle.

“OW! Okay, okay, okay, I plead! Ed, I’m sorry—!”

“YOU BETTER FUCKING BE! DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA HOW SCARED SHITLESS I WAS BECAUSE OF YOUR STUNT?! I spent an entire week figuring out that damn circle! And then I had to come after your stupid ass myself, because of course you didn’t even have Mei around to supervise! Just what the hell were you thinking? Were you thinking at all?!”

“I already told you I wasn’t! Have mercy on me for once, you know I won’t do it again—!”

“DAMN RIGHT YOU WON’T! If you ever—!”

“What is the meaning of all this ruckus?”

A reverberating metallic voice from above interrupted the team’s badly muffled amusement, and Ling’s misery.

Ed looked up with them scowling, an irritated question on his tongue, “Who—?”

Megan exclaimed over him, darting forward, “AHHH, that’s Red Tornado! He’s our supervisor around here. Hi, Red Tornado!”

Red Tornado lowered from the center of the ceiling, and if androids could raise an eyebrow, then Robin was pretty sure his had disappeared far past his hairline. He paused on Ed to obviously scan him, and Ed didn’t even twitch under the scrutiny, holding steady on poor Ling.

“You are not a resident of this mountain,” Red Tornado said.

“Yeah, no shi—”

“But you carry the same energy as Ling Yao, and you are here with the team.” Ed’s mouth snapped shut, annoyed and put off by the very-much-an-android stopping before him. “Am I to assume you arrived with them the same way from their mission?”

“You are exactly right, Red Tornado,” Kaldur spoke up hastily, deflecting the attention to himself for now. “In fact, we were hoping to report our findings to Batman as soon as possible, so we may swap information. Do you know where he—?”

“I’m right here, Aqualad.”

Robin tensed at his mentor’s voice. He wasn’t shocked enough to spin to him like the rest of the team, but he did take a quick breath before facing him.

“I guess I don’t need to ask how it went,” Batman rumbled, emerging from the shadows of the next hallway over. “Considering what I’m looking at right now.”

Ed squared his shoulders in the corner of Robin’s vision, releasing Ling notably gently and—in a feat of audacity Robin had never witnessed in anyone before—scrutinized Batman right back.

He stopped dead at Batman’s eye, neither speaking first.

The atmosphere stretched distinctly like ozone, discomforting everyone as they stood still in place of anxious shuffling.

Finally, something breached the surface.

“Well, I don’t need to ask who you are,” Ed said blandly.

Batman’s frown didn’t twitch, but Robin had a feeling that wasn’t the best first impression Ed could’ve made on him. “I can’t say the same for you, unfortunately. Are you from Ling’s world?”

“Obviously. Are you the boss around here?”

“Obviously,” Batman returned, and stood taller, then. “How did you get here with the team? Who are you?”

“I came through a satanic circle.” Wally didn’t quite muffle his choked noise at the deadpan tone. Ed continued, “Shouldn’t you check on your troublemakers first before interrogating me like this? Seems like the greater priority right now.”

The words struck something in all of them, Robin thought—but himself most. He couldn’t stop his gaze from darting to meet Batman’s—no, Bruce’s, in time.

His heart skipped a beat long after the glance-over passed.

“The team knows how to handle themselves,” Batman’s voice returned to douse the mood. “It’s not surprising that they came back okay. It’s what they’ve been trained for. You’re the only hanging question currently.”

It was so messed up that Robin’s chest warmed at the indirect praise. A quick glance at his friends told him they shared his mixed feelings.

“You’ll really be disappointed, then,” Ed snorted. “Not much to me that I can answer. I got here through a circle, I broke myself out of the jail your team just so happened to be scouting, and I found my idiot fiance with them. I basically forced them to bring me along at that point.”

“That is so not what happened,” Wally whispered low in Robin’s ear, echoing the thought he hadn’t voiced. “What the hell is he—?”

“The team discovered you were being held captive and, due to your connection to Ling, deviated from the mission to rescue you.” Batman’s accurate conclusion overrode the conversation again.

He didn’t… sound overly disappointed, Robin didn’t think. Not moreso than usual. He wasn’t surprised, at least.

That was usually a good thing, in Robin’s experience. But still, this entire atmosphere was weirding him out. What was Ed doing?

He got his answer when Ed’s voice went steely, saying, “Actually, I was already planning on breaking out myself. It was lucky timing that they decided to help me, otherwise that fancy lab would’ve been rubble after I was done giving those scientists a piece of my mind. You should thank them, really.”

Robin’s eyes widened, understanding dawning on him at last.

He turned to Ling, who’d manifested as silently as ever at his and Wally’s side, and he’d already been looking at Robin.

Ling’s lips curled at a corner and he shrugged. Smiling: That’s how it is.

Bafflement struck everyone’s faces that’d peeked over.

This was actually happening, then. Ed was actually protecting them from Batman’s ire. Lifting the brunt of the judgment from their shoulders onto his own.

Forget audacious. This guy was outright crazy!

Robin’s startled grin at the realization threatened to break his mask before he put it away swiftly.

It nearly surfaced anyway when it looked like Batman was considering the defense.

He must’ve had a million demands in his mind; paranoia, however cruel at times, had served him, and Robin, and several other superheroes, extremely well. Paranoia was the reason Gotham was still deemed safe enough to live in. It was Bruce’s best kindness to their city, sometimes, and to the team whenever survival was up in the air. It meant he cared about the outcome and the consequences, especially on their team.

As it was, though, the only question he repeated was, “Who are you?”

There was no doubt he was an emperor’s partner when Ed lifted his chin with an imperial hum and said, “Edward Elric. I hope you don’t mind I’ll be staying here a while.”

Batman gave a vague affirmative that might’ve been amused elsewhere in a manor. “You’ll have to be thoroughly interrogated.”

“I’d be insulted if you didn’t plan on doing that.”

The spell broke seamlessly with those snorted out words, somehow, and Ling pulled a face as he stepped forward first. “Your idea of a compliment is still so skewed,” he said exasperatedly. “Would it kill you to accept passivity for once?”

“Maybe when I’m dead,” Ed humphed. He turned back to Batman. “So, we interrogating or what?”

Bruce’s lips quirked.

<- prev ◆ next ->

#this sounds like crack but it very much isn't. in my heart.#if you leave me alone with reimagining the s1 episodes to edling long enough i'll deliver sufficient angst #just try me >:)#fullmetal alchemist #fma #young justice #edling #edward elric #ling yao #dick grayson #wally west #kaldur'ahm #m'gann m'orzz #bruce wayne #yj x fma #crossover #fanfiction #my fic

21 notes · View notes

catbountry · 2 months ago

Note

I think calling gender dysphoria a disorder, maybe if you're uncomfortable with the term illness, is just being honest. I think a person needs to have gender dysphoria to be trans, full stop. People who have gender dysphoria need treatment by way of transitioning to the gender they feel like they are. Some of that is hormones and surgery, which is medical treatment. I also didn't say that hormones are being handed out like candy, I was saying that they shouldn't. Yes, some of the effects of hormones are reversible but some are not and to say it doesn't matter is trivializing the pain of hundreds, maybe thousands, of people. Detransitioners who thought they were trans but have a different mental disorders are real. That is a thing that happens.

I know there's a lot of emotions caught up in all of this but that's not all that useful to me, since I'm pretty analytical. I want trans people to get the care they need. I also want the medical establishment to be accountable to their patients. This should include a process of making sure medical transition is right for a patient. That also includes giving their patient all of the possible side effects and drawbacks, no matter how unlikely.

In my opinion, transitioning without the medical backing is just another kind of body modification. Which I'm fine with, by the way. If you're 18 and you want to cut off your fingers, then that is that individual's right. Just like it's a person's right to take hormones, with the medical side effects plainly stated, whether they have gender dysphoria or not. However, that person might then experience gender dysphoria because of the changes in their body since they weren't actually trans to begin with.

If it were up to me, all trans issues would be dealt with by doctors, the social groups around the trans person, and the trans person themselves with not a peep from politicians but we don't live in that world. Because of that I can understand the aversion to calling gender dysphoria or transness a mental disorder but I think it's better than the alternative of pretending that aren't measurable, scientific reasons for people transitioning from one gender to the other.

You don't need to respond, I just wanted to explain what I said and why I said it.

You sound a lot like me a few years ago. I feel like I need to address this publicly, though, since I had my mind changed through looking at articles and talking to trans people.

I'll give you some links. Here's the Human Rights Campaign page on Gender Affirming Care. Surgeries on transgender minors are incredibly rare. The scientific consensus is that these treatments save lives and are safe. Meanwhile, death threats towards doctors who treat minors seeking gender-affirming care are far more common. Laws banning gender-affirming care are based on bogus science. I personally know people who have detransitioned, with one living happily and being able to reverse the effects of HRT, and the other transitioning again because it just wasn't the right time for them, something that's actually a very common reason for those who detransition to do so. I've seen those detransitioner video testimonials on YouTube, and I've seen how many of those people become mouthpieces for TERFs and transphobic pundits whose only goal is to make the lives of all trans people miserable, while cynically using the stories of detransitioners as examples... even though there are plenty of people who detransition and don't become pick-mes. Doctors are aware of detranstioners (called "retransitioners" in this study), and we're constantly trying to tweak and rework these things to have the best results possible, and even still, the overwhelming majority of people seeking treatment are happier with their transition.

I'm saying this because I thought the same things you do right now. I thought these were all pretty reasonable positions, only to learn that these procedures are so overwhelmingly safe. The youth are in more danger from having legal restrictions when these are decisions aren't just between them and doctors. The number of trans people that told me that they would gladly take the risks I thought were associated with puberty blockers to transition anyway because it's just that important to them, that got through to me. There is no reason for this division to exist, especially when the doctors are more permissive and nuanced than the so-called "transmedicalists," and especially when the right of trans people to live as their true gender is under constant threat. The detransitioners as a talking point are a distraction, anecdotal and meant to pull on the heartstrings of people who are skeptical of this newfangled "transgender" thing that isn't newfangled at all. I'm not saying that detransitioners don't deserve any kind of compassion; I've been as supportive of my friends who have detransitioned as much as I have been of my friends who have transitioned. But if they're only sharing their stories to be used as ammo by people who want to restrict access to life-saving medical care? Then they can fuck off, and I don't care about them, and they don't care about other trans people. No amount of kissing up to TERFs and transphobes will make those people ever actually accept them. And the gatekeepers are likely bitter because of the perception that these kids are having an easier time than they did which... isn't that the point? To make things easier for younger generations? It just kinda feels like the trans version of "I had to walk 15 miles of school in the snow barefoot, and you wouldn't hear me complain!"

I can't make you come to this conclusion. I can post links and try to argue my case the best I can and tell you how I came to change my mind. It might not feel like there's that much of a gap between the two of us, but there is a gap put there by people whose main agenda is to undermine trans rights. I hope you can recognize that. Maybe not now, but eventually. I hope.

#not fanfiction #catbountry says trans rights

6 notes · View notes

rodorish · 2 years ago

Text

– Not there yet –

Authenticity gets thrown around. But what is it really?

I had this thought while grocery shopping. One who orders another appears in all instances to have the dirtiest and most corroded of existential minds.

True authenticity, which I normatively assume should be any sensible person's goal, abstains from wanting, needing, expecting, and judging others. Nowhere within the satisfied and healthy mind of self is control over others a necessity. At least not with any emotional attachment thereto.

I.e., as an employer, orders need simply followed as a screw turns. Mechanistic functions can be completed by humans, nonetheless. However, in the gratification of exercising power, the orders become a proxy for the existential issue, the lack of power of thy self.

This is just one aspect, but back to the question.

You have to know yourself. Or at least try. The only thing you can ever possibly truly know, or attempt to know, is yourself. It gets a bit abstract, but the point stands that everything outside of yourself cannot truly be known. Science is not true; it is a system that works so far and does what we need it to do, but what we need changes, and so do systems we use to fulfil our needs. The crucial distinction is between the useful and the true. There is no apparent universal correlation. I might even say that the opposite stands more often than not if useful is measured by bogus invented measures like "quality of life", "freedom", money, and "happiness".

Think for yourself. Anything that has not come from within yourself should by no means ever be accepted. All ideas, values, principles and even other more tangible things, like laws, do not, in essence, matter. This is not to say you should break the law. I'd dislike being in prison, and this is something I know from within. To me, therefore, the payoff is not worth it. This also exemplifies how often, what you know about yourself, often aligns with the world. Don't be a teenager and live your life reactionary. This is just as bad for authenticity as blind conformity, and by way of that, perilous to existential health. Find out what to do through introspection. You know what is right For You. Your physical and mental being helps you with this. If you feel bad for stealing, this indicates a misalignment with what you know to be You. Of course, once you look within, you find that much of negative emotion stems from fear of punishment, not inherent moral values. Alas, it goes back to your internal cost-benefit analysis.

All attempts to go through life in abstinence of self-discovery through self-reflection and the like force upon you a mind of denial by telling yourself lies. This is required because your subconscious knows your self-image to be a fallacy.

By all means, be a slave to systems. There is nothing wrong with that. But back to the first point, forcing inauthenticity onto others inhibits the wonders of authenticity, which is by all accounts an individual pursuit.

Authenticity will not make you happy.

Chasing happiness will lead to an empty life, like any other drug addict. But happiness is worse because your high cannot be bought. Finding your high is like a rat aimlessly wandering the dark sewers, hoping to find some food. And remember, "Hope is the mother of Stupid.

Authenticity will not make you happy. It will make you full. It will make the roots of your being grow deeper and stronger and help wither the winds of life with calmness, confidence, and clarity.

0 notes

thenakedgingerwrites · 4 years ago

Text

The Love Potion

I had accepted that I was gay around freshman year of high school but had never come out. Now a Junior in college, the only sexual experience I had with a man was letting a guy blow me drunkenly at a random house party. Luckily none of our friends overlapped and a word of the encounter was never uttered. However, it made me crave a man that much more. All that to say, I was a convincing straight guy. Most of my friends were guys, and my closest friends were all guys from my high school football team. Most of them stayed in town to go to the local university like myself, so we stayed close. There were pros and cons to that but the major con was losing the ability to experiment and find my true sexuality without the fear of being rejected by my previous 'life.' My risk aversion was subsiding though. Partly due to the blowjob I got a couple months ago, but mainly due to Ben.

After dorms, a few of my friends got a house together near campus. It was a 5 bedroom house and worked perfectly for us. That is until one of our buddies, for a few personal reasons, dropped out and moved back home with his parents. Luckily we were able to find a couple dudes via craigslist that needed a room for the rest of the year, Ben being one of them. There was another guy that was actually the better candidate between the two, but I had pushed that we give the room to Ben. My friends didn't put up too much of a fuss or pry as to why I think he was the right choice, which I'm grateful for. I don't know how they would have taken my rationale being he was incredibly hot. When I first met Ben that day he was wearing khaki shorts that hugged his thighs and huge bubble butt and a varsity T that molded around his rounded, muscular body. Ben was short, maybe 5'8" or so. Definitely the stocky-muscle type of guy, but had maybe been drinking a little more than he should and going to the gym less. What it created was a slightly curvy but still very attractive body, from what I could tell. His face was his best quality though. Everything about him was puppy dog. He had doughy eyes, pouty lips, and an adorable button nose. Short crew cut and the hint of a shoulder tattoo later, I was lusting for him hard. After he moved in, my fantasies didn't exactly come to fruition as I had imagined. The "bump into him after a shower and his towel falls" scenario didn't happen, and he unfortunately wasn't a guy that liked to get naked for the humor factor as some of my other friends were. He did drink a lot which was maybe a gateway opportunity, but our friend circles were different. I tried to make connections but due to my hidden motives, I would always second guess myself or get too nervous. He was becoming more and more a roommate, and less and less a sex toy. And then one day, during lunch with another one of our roommates, he shared that he was super superstitious. He believed in a natural medicines too. His mom was apparently Wiccan, and although he didn't latch on to the religious side of his mother's beliefs he did believe in 'herbal magic' as he called it. We made fun of him a bit and the three of us laughed it off. The cogs had begun to wirr in my mind though. I could use this, but how? A week of googling and research led me to the idea of a love potion. There were a few different recipes or 'spells' or whatever online, and the lust was clouding my judgement as to whether this was a sound idea or not. There was a moment of doubt during the week but after Ben came in from a run, sweaty and shirtless, his round pecs and keg-abs in perfect view, I was able to wave away any hesitation. It took another week for Ben and I to be the only guys in the house for the evening, and it was now or never. I knocked on his door. There was some rustling, but opened it shortly after. He was already in 'pajamas' which consisted of loose basketball shorts and a tight t-shirt with the words "All American" written on them. "Hey, Matt. What's up?" He asked, leaning on his door frame. I was nervous, but needed to be the perfect actor tonight. "I have a.. er.. well a really random question. And it's kind of stupid." He chuckled a bit. "Okay, shoot." "You mentioned your mom the other week, and it got me curious." "Oh god," he started, rolling his eyes, "I promise I'm not a crazy person." I quickly stopped him. "No, no! That's not what I meant. See, there's this girl in my finance course that I've been crushing on hard. We've talked a few times but I don't know if she's interested. I did some googling and it looks like there's this... Wiccan love potion.." Ben's eyebrows raised, he was curious and amused. "Go on..." I felt like he was just looking for the opportunity to call me the crazy one and laugh this all off, but I continued. "Well, I'm desperate and thought I'd give it a try but could use your help. I know it's stupid, but what's a little science experiment anyway?" I laughed it off, trying to pretend I didn't really believe it would work. Which I didn't, for the record. "Well I wholly believe in that stuff, man. Herbs can be a powerful thing. They can release all sorts of chemicals in your mind to mimic emotions like love, fear, happiness, yadda yadda. Did you get a recipe for it?" I mocked a bit, "Wait, you don't have a family secret there?" We both laughed. "I do actually, and I think I have all I need but wanted you to sanity check it. See if it seems bogus." He agreed, and we went up to my room. I closed the door behind us, while unnecessary it seemed more intimate for me and try my plan. So far it was working, but the real test was yet to come. I shared the ingredients and steps I found online, and he agreed with what it was saying. Rosemary brings out this feeling, and this herb reduces inhibitions, and blah blah crazy person talk. It could have actually been a turn off, but even if I didn't believe an ounce of what was coming out of Ben's mouth he sure did know a lot about this voodoo science. And that was impressive on it's own. We worked the next 20 minutes or so creating this 'love potion.' There were a few electric moments for me like when he would help me grind an herb down and our hands would touch, or he would read out the next step and layer in his own 'professional' opinion. At one point, when he was sitting on the ground with his knees up, his shorts slid up his thigh so much that I wondered if he was even wearing underwear. The thoughts were setting me ablaze inside. When it was finally done, he explained the last steps. "So, you basically just need to add a piece of your hair to some of this, and then somehow get her to drink it." "And then what?" "I guess just wait? I'm not really sure how this concoction will work, it could affect anyone differently." Now to setup my plan. "Now I just need to find a clever way to get her to drink some random, greenish liquid. And it won't even work anyway." "Don't question the juice man, this stuff has enough herbs to turn her on to a cactus." He seemed so serious. "I just wish there was a way to test it. Well, you believe it will work so strongly how about you drink a swig. If you try and kiss me after then I'll know it's legit." Ben just laughed. "If only you could be so lucky!" I pushed it, "No really. You can prove to me that it's real. The effect is only supposed to be temporary right?" Ben got a tad more serious. "Matt, I know it will work. You're the one doubting my skills man." "Okay, you're right. I don't think this can work. I hoped it would, but this shit would be in stores everywhere if it really did." I started to ham up my disappointment. "I don't think the FDA would let it get to there. Plus most people are huge skeptics like you, so no one would buy into it." I looked into his eyes to hold a stare for a beat. "You really do believe in this stuff don't you?" "I do. Well, not all of the Wiccan stuff, but herbs and spices are just science. No need to believe anything." I got some confidence up, acting of course, and wagered with him. "Okay fine, I'll test it out." "With who?" Ben asked, admittedly he actually looked confused. Adorable. "You." He furrowed his eyebrows. "That's not funny, Matt." "No, really. No offense, I don't think I'm going to suck your face after taking a swig of this but I'm willing to take that chance." He chuckled, "that's a risky bet." "I don't think we're eye-to-eye on the odds here Ben." I chuckled back to him. He sighed. "Okay, well don't blame me when you think I'm a total hottie." "Don't worry," I sarcastically retorted, "I won't." Ben took a tiny scoop of the liquid into a measuring cup and plucked out a hair from his head. "You want me to drink your hair?!" I feigned minor disgust. "It need's some DNA. I could put some earwax in there if you'd prefer." I stuck my tongue out and agreed that the hair would suffice. "On second thought..." Ben put the cup down and stood up. He reached into his shorts, to my excitement but composed an expression of confusion, and winced a bit. Removing his hand from his crotch region, he held onto a single pube. He grinned. "Seriously dude, fuck you! I'm not eating your pube. Now I know this is a crock of shit." I didn't know how far to push my aversion but was still afraid of being outed by not having a big enough reaction. "This potion is rooted in sexual urges, and so a hair more closely rooted to sexual connotations should be more potent. You're not scared now are you?" Ben teased. "Scared of choking to death on one of your smelly pubes? Yeah." He held the hair up to his nose and took an exaggerated inhale. "It's not smelly." "Ugh." I rolled my eyes and pretended to dry heave. "You better not tell a soul about this." He mimed his other hand zipping his lips. I sighed, "fine give me your damn pube water potion." "Let me remind you this was your idea." "yeah, yeah yeah..." He added the tiny dark blonde hair into the cup and swirled it around a bit then handed it to me. "Bon appetite," he cheerfully said as he handed me the cup. I took it down in one quick gulp and followed with a few swigs of water we had nearby. It tasted like old rainwater some leaves have been decaying in. "Did it taste romantic?" Ben asked. "It tasted like dead raccoon, but that probably just your pube." We both laughed at the situation. The next minute we sat silently waiting for something to happen. I asked when I would feel this magical urge to kiss him and he shrugged. Works different on every person he said again. "Well, I don't think I find you super sexy. Sorry to ruin your night Ben." "Oh shut up, it's only been a minute. Let's play a game. Simon says." "Seriously?" he lost me. "One of the effects of the potion is that you should be willing to be persuaded by me much easier. What's one thing you would never do, even if I asked you to?" "Ben, I'm not sucking your dick. Sorry bud." Again we both laughed. He continued. "I'm not thinking anything that extreme, but good to know. Me either. Try this, stand up." I got up while acting like I was being pulled up by some ghost. "Oh my god Ben, you're a voodoo god!" "I really am," he said, amused. "Now spin around." I did as was told, still hamming it up. "Jump. Touch your toes. Blink your eyes. Pinch yourself." He had me do routine, mundane tasks for a couple minutes. I stopped pretending a ghost was manipulating me at some point and just did as I was told, kind of forgetting what was going on. Then finally he told me to take off my pants. It snapped me back to consciousness. I pushed back against the command accusing him of just wanting to see my dick and called him a perv. He said, "no, no. Just your sweatpants, you goof." Somehow this made it much more palatable and the pants dropped immediately. I stood there in my t-shirt and boxer briefs staring at Ben for my next move. He stood up, walked over to my bed and plopped down face first. He told me to give him a back massage. I no longer really knew what was me and what was the potion, but I honestly didn't care. I got up on the bed and straddled him. After a few minutes of massaging his back he told me to take off his shirt. I did, then continued the massage. His skin was so smooth and soft under my hands. My own butt resting on his was starting to pool blood to my crotch. "Massage my ass" and I did. I shifted down lower and began to knead his huge bubble butt through his shorts. A minute of this and he told me to strip him completely. He helped a little by arching his back, but the shorts quickly peeled down off his legs revealing his succulent globes just asking for my hands. The massage continued and I enjoyed every second of it. His ass was so warm to my cool hands. It was lightly dusted in dark blond hair but not really hairy like some of the guys I'd see in the locker room. It was definitely the biggest though. As I kneaded his butt, I would get more daring with my movements. I would get closer to his crack but the move away. Timid. I began to turn my kneading movements into spreading ones, exposing his hole a little more each time. My thumbs would rub inward towards his hole when I spread his cheeks. It started subtle, I think, but at some point became very deliberately sexual. I had almost touched his little dark rosebud when he said, "Yep, you're gay for me right now." Startled, I jumped off him and stammered my protest. He rolled his head over and laughed. "It's okay dude, it's the potion. I won't tell anyone." I reiterated, "I"m not gay for you dude. I was just giving you a massage, that's not gay." He looked down, "Your boner begs to differ." I followed his eyes and saw my cock stretching against the elastic of my boxer briefs, slightly peeking above the band. I covered up my shame. "I"m not gay" I said again. "I know, Matt. But for the sake of our deal, I've gotta do this." I was about to ask “do what?” but he beat me to it. He turned over to reveal his semi-hard cock and balls, nestled in a light patch of dark blonde hair. "Suck my dick." I instantly remembered that when I drank the potion this is exactly what I said I wouldn't do. However at this point Ben seemed confident that the potion was in complete control and I could finally live out my fantasy without any repercussion. I didn't hesitate. I got back on the bed and shoved my face into his crotch. I hadn't sucked a cock before, and honestly hadn't even been this close to another dick in my life. Ben wasn't fully hard yet, but I could already tell he was bigger than me. Probably only about 6 or 7 inches long like me but much thicker. His balls were larger too. I wondered how I would fit it in my mouth if it kept growing but accepted the challenge. I used one hand to guide his member into my mouth. I only took a couple inches in to wet it with saliva. He tasted so good. Slightly salty but a pretty neutral flavor overall. For some reason I had imagined a cock would taste just like what cum smelled like. I was happy to see it was far less extreme. As I whetted him fully and began to pump him while I swirled my tongue around his head, Ben began to get audible. He started with just some sighs and moans, but quickly began to give me specific directions. "Jack me harder, lick my shaft, suck my balls, swirl your tongue, deep throat me." His hands began to guide my head as well. I gladly took the direction. He had gotten fully erect by now. I came up for air to admire his cock. I was right about it's size. It may even be a bit shorter than mine, but boy was it thick. Although it realistically couldn't have been as thick as a soda can, it looked like it without a direct comparison. "Don't stop Matt!" Ben looked down at me during my break and quickly got me back on task. I sucked and pumped him but I wanted a little more. I took a creative liberty and started to trail my mouth downward. I had seen in hundreds of porn clips guys eating out another guy's ass. I'd never had it done to me to validate if it felt as good as porn made it seem, but wanted to test it out on Ben. I don't think the thought would have crossed his mind, but once I began sucking on his taint and still moved south he got the hint and silently complied. Ben arched back and raised his legs and ass up into the air. I kept one hand firmly around his cock and jacked him off as my tongue made it's fast approach to Ben's virgin asshole. The taste was unique. He had clearly showered some point in the evening, but still I thought it would taste a little like, well, shit. I was delighted to discover it didn't. It almost tasted like a sweet cologne. There was a musky quality but also a sweet aroma. I mimicked all the actions I'd seen in porn. I licked his hole, spat on it, sucked on it. Ben seemed to like just the simple lick the most, and so I focused on that. It didn't take long into this new experience for him to reach climax. His breathing began to speed up and he breathed/growled, "I'm gonna cum." I had a conflict of interest. I had never seen another guy cum in real life, and wanted to watch him erupt all over himself for my viewing pleasure. I also had never tasted another man's cum before, and the thought of taking his explosion into my mouth was incredibly hot too. It was a split second decision, but I threw his hips back down to the bed and wrapped my lips around his cock. Ben tried to push my head off him and breathed a "no, you don't have.." but I swatted him away and brought him to the point of orgasm. He went past the moan decibel and actually yelled in pleasure as he erupted into the back of my throat. The warm, sticky liquid shot ribbon after ribbon against the back of my mouth. I attempted to swallow between bursts but turns out swallowing when there's a cock in your mouth is hard or at least it was for me, so some of his seed dripped out of my mouth and down his shaft. I milked every ounce out of him, and even squeezed his cock like a toothpaste tube to get the last few drops. Ben's intensely tense, and sweaty body turned to putty after a few shudders. I sucked on his cock for another minute or so as it waned in my mouth. Finally accepting that my fun was done for the night, I let it pop out of my mouth. Ben arched up on his elbows. "You have a nice dick." I said, smiling. He chuckled, "that's the potion talking, but thanks." The potion. I had forgotten. Ben read the look but mistook it for more of a panic. He leaned up and grabbed his shorts from the floor, quickly slipping them on. Grabbing his shirt he said, "I should go take a shower. I'm really sorry about this." I tried to stop him but he was out my door and down the stairs in a blink. I just laid there on my bed staring up at the ceiling. My first time sucking a cock was amazing, and of all people it was with Ben: my ultimate fantasy man. I heard the water turn on from the shower the floor below, and took the opportunity to finally pleasure myself. I imagined Ben in the shower and replayed the last hour in my head. I came with more force and volume than I had, maybe ever. I cleaned myself and my room up, and waited to walk down and approach Ben. I finally got the courage a couple hours later but when I approached his room I could tell the lights were off and turned back. I'm not sure if I'd ever get that chance again with Ben. One thing for sure though, I was 100% addicted to dick and needed more. I had lived 21 years without it and had all that time to make up for. How I was going to get it, would be another adventure.

#magic #mind control #cmnm #aware

50 notes · View notes

weightlossblogd · 3 years ago

Text

3 Effortless Actions to Quick and Long lasting Excess weight Loss

When it comes to dropping excess weight there are no magic drugs or magic formula diet programs that can assist you attain your bodyweight reduction objectives. But you can achieve your goals with these 3 steps to assist shed excess weight. Like most items in existence getting rid of excess weight (a great deal of weight) boils down to aware hard work, self-discipline, perseverance and perseverance. Losing 10, twenty, fifty or a hundred lbs or much more all comes back again to what you do on a everyday basis.Weight loss If you do what you're supposed to do (consume right + exercise) working day in a working day out you will at some point shed all the bodyweight you want. Nevertheless, if you throw caution to the wind and will not do what you happen to be meant to do then you may possibly never see your bodyweight reduction dreams arrive true. This my friend is the saddest situation there is. If you are bored of becoming unwanted fat, if your drained of getting chubby, if your ready to begin your new existence these days then keep on since I am about to give you the straightforward nevertheless extremely efficient fat loss program you've got been waiting around for. Are you all set? I am heading to tell you in no uncertain conditions what you have to do to get rid of all the weight you want in 3 straightforward to do measures. Even so, in order for this to operate you have to maintain your emphasis and self-control daily to keep performing the measures till you attain your preferred benefits. Even if you falter and veer off your fat reduction observe, it truly is Okay. If you are in a position to rapidly get back on monitor you will extra time, reap the positive aspects of remarkable weight loss and improved wellness. And now, with out more adieu here are your 3 simple measures to fat reduction... one. Eat Significantly less two. Eat Greater 3. Exercise There they are. What do you think? A little anti-climatic, huh? Probably you had been expecting far more... Nicely, allow me explain to you if you are capable to grasp and apply this powerfully safe and efficient bodyweight decline plan is you will by no means once more have to invest one more unneeded dime on fat decline merchandise that never work. You see, your body is a good tuned weight reduction administration equipment. If you adhere to the right prepare and give your entire body only what it demands to survive it will do all the challenging function for you. Given ample time and following the three steps over you can get rid of tens and even hundreds of kilos with no starving by yourself or resorting to bogus weight reduction drugs or harmful human body sculpting surgical procedures. Now, this is not to say that the highway to important bodyweight decline will be simple or that you will not have to endure a bit to get to your preferred final results. There will be days when you feel like throwing in the towel and offering up. On individuals days you may possibly just cave into your undeniable cravings and go crazy at your neighborhood all you can consume artery clogging buffet. But hey,that is Alright. You happen to be human. Occasionally you have to go a small nuts to get back on keep track of. Nevertheless, if you are actually dedicated to reaching even your most seemingly unattainable fat decline objectives you can and will do it by pursuing the strategy above. Now, for your reward let's go a little further into each action of the plan. one. Take in Considerably less There is really no question about it. If you want to get rid of weight you have to start off taking in less. You have to create a calorie deficiency in buy for you physique to start shedding lbs .. If you do not get started to limit how much food you just take in no quantity of exercise will aid you achieve your goals. Consuming significantly less of your preferred greasy, excess fat loaded food items will be the quickest way to extraordinary weight loss. It actually isn't going to make a difference how much excess weight you have to drop. Until you just take manage of equally your conscious and unconscious eating practices you will be tough pressed to get rid of even one particular pound. No, you have to commence chopping back on the volume of foods you are utilised to consuming. I have listened to of tales where people would go to Mc Donald's and pack absent two Tremendous Sized Massive Mac Meals. Clearly, this is way too significantly. In this scenario even slicing down to 1 Super Measurement meal would be an advancement. But, as we will see in our up coming stage, a greater program would be to do absent with the Super Dimension meal all-with each other and begin consuming greater. two. Eat Far better As the declaring goes, "We are what we try to eat." If we consume crap, guess what? Nonetheless, if we learn to take in effectively then not only will our waistline thank us for it but we are going to also feel much better about ourselves to boot. One of the fastest alterations you can make to your diet regime when striving to drop excess weight is to ditch all the junk foods you might be utilized to ingesting (chips, sodas, pizzas, donuts, cookies, etc) and start eating far more greens. Now, I know what you may possibly be pondering. You may nevertheless be traumatized by your mom not permitting you get up from the evening meal desk till you finished all your broccoli but allow me notify you, your mother was correct. If you can fill fifty percent your plate at every single meal with substantial fiber and nutrient packed vegetables you are effectively on your way to important and extended long lasting bodyweight reduction. This is probably one particular of the most basic items you can do to truly kickstart your weight reduction journey. Whilst it may possibly not be effortless to commence consuming greens at each and every food the quicker you start the far better off you are going to be and the more quickly the weight will start to melt off your body. 3. Exercise In get to kick your excess weight loss experience into higher equipment you have to get your body moving. I don't treatment if you contact it working out, working out, aerobics or whatever the level is you have to do some thing to get your heart price up and your sweat glands operating time beyond regulation. Exercise is the key to sustainable, prolonged long lasting and true bodyweight reduction. For each pound you get rid of by ingesting correct and performing exercises that is a single a lot more pound that will in no way occur back to haunt you. Why? Since you now know the "secret" to risk-free and successful weight reduction. If you at any time really feel by yourself creeping back again up on the dreaded scale o' unwanted fat all you have to do is set these 3 methods into motion and observe as you stabilize and contradict any unwelcome fat obtain. By performing exercises on a standard basis you are offering your physique the energy increase it needs to ramp up your metabolic rate fee to commence effectively and properly getting rid of bodyweight on a every day basis. I will not about you but that appears rather darn very good to me. The a lot more you press your self bodily the quicker you will see modify in your entire body happen. You may possibly not have to function out with a personal trainer daily but you do require to do something. Be it likely for a wander, working, swimming, biking, climbing, or any other bodily exercise you like to do start off carrying out it now. Do not devote one more night time on the couch observing the most recent re-runs. Get your physique moving and begin dropping fat right now. Conclusion Losing bodyweight (even a good deal of bodyweight) is not rocket science. So rest assured that anyone can do it, even you. Nonetheless, it will need all the patience, willpower, determination and perseverance you can muster. Start off sluggish. Just take it 1 working day at a time. You may not reach your perfect fat in a single 7 days, one month or even 1 yr but stick with it and reach it you will. By subsequent the 3 methods earlier mentioned you way too can become a accomplishment story like so several other just before you. So go forth and start off losing all that undesirable weight that several years of undisciplined residing have left driving. Consider manage of your daily life beginning right now. Quickly you are going to be glad you did. When that day will come there will be no hunting back again. Business Name: Nutrition 4 All Email: [email protected] Phone Number: 661-495-8883

1 note · View note

rametarin · 4 years ago

Text

The complicated issue of the ‘war on science’ in the United States.

We are all painfully aware that there are individuals and communities in the United States of America that believe garbage like, “The earth is between 2021 and 6000 years old.” That’s not where the story begins or ends.

Yes, individuals like this exist. Small communities of people like this exist. I’m not denying that. They’re well documented and will out themselves in the right section of the country. They do tend to be right wing voters, but not exactly for the reasons you’d think. And it is an anti-science position to say the earth is only that old. This is not in dispute.

Typically the conversation then goes to a smug look at the 4th wall, some smug assed, “LOL LOOK AT THE AMERICAN MILITARY BUDGET VS. ITS PUBLIC EDUCATION BUDGET. :^)” And the implication for this thinking is that North America is so full of religious zealots, systematic conservative theocratic control and by extension nativist white supremacism based on bellowing blowhards that it does not value science, “as a society or a culture.”

This is pure and simply masturbatory fantasy on behalf of people that tend to see all religious culture under this light. Or at least, Christianity. Since they often don’t have the balls to apply these “harshly judging medieval superstitious culture” standards to immigrants from Islamic countries or cultures or communities.

The actual numbers of flat earthers, young earth creationists, etc. are extreme outliers with very little actual power. However, those people are good caricatures to shame and embarrass and stigmatize and stratify religious people. They don’t have to DIRECTLY mock the religious, they just have to mock those extremes, get the actual religious to also join in and be part of the cool kids for mocking the more extreme and nonsensical beliefs. That creates a mental, psychological and social division. It’s a Mean Girl tactic and technique to make a person socially divorce themselves and shun and ostracize someone else in order to be spared being made fun or, or similarly be shown that derision or hostility.

The people doing it the loudest and most subvserively tend to do it because they aren’t JUST atheist or agnostics, like normal scientifically minded individuals, but zealous atheists and secularists that have a big mind about what “society” is and means and what they want it to mean. And they abhor that religious culture that is so contrary to science and reality exists. Especially when they’d much rather those people stop existing in their own bubbles, (”Atomization”) and get on board with THEIR brand of culture, society and, dare I say, revolution.

So they publicize and shame the religious by showing every potentially inbred, belligerent, anti-science yokel from a small community where a religious culture is the norm of the territory by embarrassing them, they put it in the news to create this image of a basis and normalty. “Look at how stupid and anti-intellectual the seedy underbelly of the US of A’s culture is!”

When in reality, that’s the sign of multiculturalism. Multiculturalism does not mean, “a bunch of different cultures that also fit your neat ideas of reality.” Some cultures, despite what your cultural relativism says to you, really are that stupid. And guess what? Many of them would make their new home a lot like the failed or inadequate idea of home, if they could.

Multiculturalism is not, “we’re all different but we all believe the same things!” Multiculturalism doesn’t even necessarily mean all cultures will cease being based on imaginary shit and only pull from objective, measurable reality. When you shame an outlying religious community for their asinine beliefs and then try to use the broad strokes to negatively portray the land they live in as dangerously unhinged psychopaths purely based on what the outliers believe, you lose any and all credibility when you defend corrupt religious nations like Pakistan or Taliban era Afghanistan.

The, “War on Science” is a lot like the War on Christmas. In that, neither are quite happening in quite the same way the people crying about them are saying.

If you asked a person that voted more left-wing or liberal, they might say the US was full of religious kooks that vote contrary to reason or science. That they think with their egos, not their rational brains, and that the only thing that has stopped them from destroying everything is exploitative greed and/or sadism. They imagine people that disagree with them as effectively screaming, shit throwing chimpanees wearing papal gowns and beating people with scaramental candle holders.

If you asked a person that voted more right-wing or conservative that also happened to believe the hooey about the US being a “blessed Christian nation,” they might say that “liberals’ (an umbrella term used by these types) are waging a war on North America’s religious Christian traditions and culture. Firstly by trying to disentangle Christian participation in public schools, such as getting rid of Christmas decorations, holiday songs, even cutting snowflakes and stuff. Not in any display of multiculturalism, but simply to eliminate “respecting establishment of religion” in a secular public school environment.

By trying to stigmatize “Merry Christmas” as unwanted and uncalled for, the product of assuming if you’re wished one, they assume the recipient is inherently Christian, and that’s either annoying or offensive depending on the religion of the recipient. Borderline hate speech, if the recipient is a member of a religious faith or culture that sees such well wishing to be heretical.

Both of these examples are of people with a vested interest in painting your perceptions of the issue from a position of bias. Both of these examples have elements where they are correct in all the wrong ways and incorrect in all the right ones.

The truth is that the US also has a problem with smarmy assed people that rue the power of the religious communities and would give anything if only they could find some legal avenue to make them go away, short of going out and firebombing churches in high profile. Some way to disincentivize going to church, to get observation of religious culture and beliefs to have the communal aspect removed from them in order to be acceptable, since they view the entire concept of culture and society to be the sole domain of secularism, and religious community is seen as a stumbling block, opponent or even a danger to their preferred majority society.

We seldom get to hear about these ones outside the context of an angry religious idiot harping on about, “them godless li-bur-awls.” That doesn’t mean these people that are just jealous they bow at the altar of a different god aren’t the secular, dogmatic yuppies and shit. It just means the reason they’d specify as to why they have a problem with them gets stuck in their own personal bias and perspective. From their view, erroneous as it is, the United States was a country created by the will of God and ordained for a purpose (it wasn’t) and to divorce God and Christianity from dominance in the United States is to deliberately be spitting in the face of god and trying to destroy the world.

Outwardly, that sounds crazy and stupid. And it is. But just because that guy is crazy, egotistical and stupid does not make the objectives, reasons and goals of the person doing it noble, reasonable or even beneficent. Not even by comparison.

Socialists and communists style themselves as The Scientists, The Thinkers, The Creatives. Which is why so many of them wind up burnt out, addicted to drugs and miserable, while going nowhere. They share many of the same ideological trappings as creationist Americans. They do not share much of the same peace of mind as the simple minded religious folk that everything happens in some grand plan or because some beneficient deity willed it.

American socialists/communists desire a more unified and singular society and culture that does not bow its thought processes to religion. Which isn’t to say that it bows to science, just that it doesn’t bow to other religions and disagree. For you see, the major failing of socialist/communist culture is that it sees itself as THE way fashioned and formed by objective science. At the same time and in the same breath they fashion their own proposed solutions to problems based on the ideals and “theories” (opinions, editorials) of social science. Which ultimately are just arbitrary crap from people produced with degree granted institutionally provided papers of authority they believe gives them more credibility and justification to run their mouths, because they’re “valid to society.”

They do not see the inherent contradiction of hating religious and theocratic institutions for doing the same bogus shit, just under the pretense of a creationist shared myth. In fact, they view the shared myth and everybody believing the same shit with veneration and ideals. They just don’t want people believing rival or opposing things to their Grand Society.

God and the different religious communities, to them, aren’t a bunch of different cultures we all need to make room for and tolerate and appreciate and let live. They’re rival oppositional sources of competition for society’s attention. The only use this particular brand of secular dogmatist has for religious multiculturalism is to break up the homogenuity of a small community without dirtying their reputations or even having to lie about their intentions when they try to derail the inertia of celebrating things like religious holidays in those small, homogenuous communities defined by their populations and people.

They’d rather drive to get a number of similarly devout religious people, toss them into the same population, and not only make the established population fight for dominance, but deal with the incoming sects trying to use secular, neutral civic government as a bat to disentangle things like Town Christmas Parties from being acceptable, community gathering things.

The people conspiring and trying their hardest to inflate and magnify the expanse and reach and power of the religious right, the supposed anti-intellectualism they see as so base and prevalent in the United States, are simply covetous of the useful idiots in the Christian pews, when they could be useful idiots in yoga class, or gazing into crystals and inhaling incense fumes and doing irresponsible amounts of shrooms. Anything but being part of a coherent and established mainstream religion or religious culture and anything but a cloistered off community that differentiates itself with space and partitions itself with ideas.

And given the predatory, condescending, often “ends justify the means, by any means necessary”, culturally predatory way these types conduct themselves, using psychology, social psychology, institutions of state and interpersonal relationships to peel away the onions of misc. groups identities, try to force them down specific lines of social thought using the bridge of modernity as the means to reach them, I simply cannot mention the US’s supposed “War on Science” without also explaining that these people have been deliberate agitators in the debate between the place of religion, faith and society and secularism in the US since at LEAST the rise of communism across the US, if not the rise of anarchism in Europe.

The argument of the war on science is not, “polite and civilized society desperately trying to calm down a schizophrenic and make them take their anti-psychotics.” The war on science is more like a corrupt psychiatrist that detests the local church and would rather not just own the property the church is built on, but disestablish the entire religious community, chemically treat and psycho-condition the flock to feel (not think) the same way the psych does, and have them operate in the way he (or she) sees as “normal and good.” Whatever that is at any given moment, based on whatever doctrine they feel serves them.

It’s not about science. It’s about control. The fact they make the environment contested about secularism in the state and creationism in the mind and civilized society in the heart and soul of a given population or community is just good human resources and public relations nonsense. They honestly don’t give a fuck about anything but being right. The minute they don’t have competition for thoughts, out comes the Lysenkoism. The minute they don’t have to worry about shit like armed insurrection or forceful resistance, out comes the jackboots and the open shirking of legitimate channels of government. Out comes more blatant and blazen corruption.

So if you are not a fan of either extreme, you realize the status quo is simply a rapidly diminishing peaceful, middle ground. A middle ground that has been the inertia and the status quo of secular mainstream society, put in place literal centuries before you were born, maintained with temperance and discipline not by innocent cavemen that could not possibly understand the things you’ve seen and understood because they lack a modern perspective, but reasoned and civilized individuals that had more intimate schooling and treasured it all the more when they had it to spare. That they didn’t “finish off” their competition, be it religious docmatic or “li-bur-awl” anarchist/socialist, because they staunchly fought for the ability to respectfully disagree and would shut down, by force if necessary, any extreme that tried to assert itself over these values of tolerant religious secularism in government and society.

You realize that the religious people seldom can make more than even minor headwinds in even the most bumpkin and backwater of places without the next generations moving away and leaving them decaying husks, unable to properly establish themselves for long. And that while the disgusting megachurch evangelical pews of the 80s were monolithic and ridiculous, they also all but curled up and died by the turn of the century as secularism and reason and simple CHOICE allowed young parents the luxury of not forcing religion on their kids. And so, attendance dropped.

And you realize a lot of the supposed “war on science” is in fact a smear campaign levlied against a weakened religious institiution and its credibility and justification for existing in a modern society. Designed like putting the poor, simple fool in stocks in the middle of town while some falsely compassionate jackass of a jester disingenuously asks it, “harmless questions,” only to get back vitriolic declarations of fire and brimstone and just generally behave like an irrational, angry poked bear. So the faux-intentioned performer can shrug helplessly and go, “Eh, religious nuts, what can ya do?” before mourning how anti-intellectual and misplaced our values are, pumping so much money into national defense and so little into secular, federated, public education.

And as much as you may despise the preacher being socially and mentally flogged and made to look like an idiot, a loose and unhinged cannon, a danger to themselves, others and every impressionable child they are allowed to bark mythical nonsense at, the people behind the camera, the people directing where the camera looks, the people arranging this “interview” to show and bring out the worst in the targeted, vetted mark, are just as insidious and disgusting as the Holy Rollers extorting millions from dying old people that want to buy their way into heaven.

And you realize the enemy that they want you to shake your head at in sadness and pity is just one enemy on that stage. One easily spotted wolf in sheep’s clothing that lures the gullible, the mentally troubled, the simple, the emotionally unwell and looking for purpose, structure and community belonging to function.

And the other is so slick and sneaky, you don’t even notice they exist. Their campaign to embarrass the predatory they see as their competition so organic and well orchastrated and asymmetrical, they don’t even get their name dropped. The nature of the relationship is not mentioned. Their presence, obfuscated unless you know what to look for or suspect conflict of interest behind it.

And this predator vying for the pews and the flocks from the religious authority? Here’s the biggest kicker of all.

They wage their own war on science, too. By labeling their religion as ‘social science,’ and demanding when hard, empirical, objective, physical or biological science butt heads, it is social science that gets to dominate, get priority and interpret other science based around the social science. Based on what? Abstracts and constructs in law and philosophy that say to not do so would be a violation of civil rights and protections. To NOT give them ideological right of way is oppression of other people.

The American war on science is not limited to fire and brimstone spewing megachurch preachers. It’s in the heart and on the face of every horn rimmed glasses wearing, “quirky hair dyed and dyke short cut”, “nonbinary and politically ‘kweer’“, hammer and sickle flag waving asshole, as well.

Both want to destroy culture and philosophy which are not their own. Both want to dominate how government works and why it functions and how. Both want to dictate what is right and wrong based on ideology. Only one observes an organized creationist myth, though the other may harbor some arbitrary individual “spiritualism” if they’re particularly narcissistic or crazy.

But explaining this takes a lot of time, space and breath, and, well... saying it is one thing, proving it is another.

Thems my thoughts. I hope they help in some small way.

2 notes · View notes

nomoney · 4 years ago

Text

"May I trade you for that?"

Use Facebook Marketplace

As news of the US Dollar collapse reaches more and more people, here’s your always free - survival guide for you to use as you navigate freedom.

This guide is inspired by the YouTube video of Kyle MacDonald "Trading a paper clip for a house"

youtube

1) Goods—Physical goods (Watch, Computer, Clothing)

2) Services—Human Labor (Construction, Consulting, Web Design, Cooking)

3) Renting—Renting out resources (1 Week of shelter, 2 Hours with the lawn mower)

4) Lending—Lending out a good, service, or rental with the expectation that your end of the bargain will be met.

Then we broke down the entire bartering process into distinct micro-processes.

The approach: “Hi, may I trade you for that (toaster)?”

The Negotiation: “Sure, What are you offering?”

“How do you like this (microwave)?”

Advertising online: Create advertiment with (Adobe Spark)

“(Golf Clubs) for trade”

Or "I'm looking for a (small boat). Message me if you have a (boat) for trade”

Or "I have this (home) for trade"

Sometimes, you will be in situations where the common sense approach is to simply ask for things. Keep your relationships positive.

Asking for things: “Hi, I was wondering if you happen to have (water) I can drink?

Transaction: The exchange of items in real-time after final agreement.

"May I trade you for that?"

Tips & Tricks

Hungry? You can negotiate doing chores for someone for food.

Need shelter? You can negotiate shelter by offering to do work around the persons home.

Need someone to drive you? You can offer a piece of clothing or shoes for a ride.

Hair cuts will be in high demand always. Learn to cut hair for an easy way to trade for the small things.

People are stressed and don't have money to buy self-care treatments. A good massage goes a long way. Offer massages for food, weed, or clothing. This is probably something you can take advantage of with family members.

Lonely men who learn to blow dry hair will have an unfair advantage in the dating scene.

If you are the kind of person who was always hungry for wealth, you can still acquire big resources but they would be in the form of physical things and no longer in currency. Think cars, homes, boats, luxury clothing. etc...

You can also negotiate lifestyle, working conditions, shelter, etc...

We are negotiating the future of humanity for our clinical services.

You can lend out expensive equipment for something you need done. Example: Lending out the lawn mower to the neighbors in exchange for the neighbors watching your children for 3 hours.

Don’t forget that you can provide labor for things. House cleaning, construction, hair removal. But don’t provide labor for money.

When you swap or barter for things, it’s important that you are capable of measuring TRUE VALUE

Garage sale technique for bartering

Take group photo of all your stuff you wanna get rid of

Take inventory of things you wanna get rid of

Type names and it will be keywords

Broom.

TV.

Car.

Other users who are looking for these things will see your garage sale photo and if they like what you have, they begin the approach & barter process (negotiation)

Here’s an Example

An in-depth analysis into measuring TRUE VALUE

Sports Cards

Very little true value. Why? Low material cost/paper material

Low labor cost/ bulk creation by factory machines. Sports cards are manufactured in bulk just like cash money is. It has sentimental value when it is signed by the athlete. When it comes to sentimental value, you can request whatever you want depending on the emotional connection someone has to the sports card. But it has no real true value. Only sentimental when it is signed and there is proof of authenticity

It’s all subjective- meaning it’s all about personal feelings and emotions.

Software

True value cannot be measured in dollars or cents because it is digital. Material costs to produce software? Subjective.

Labor costs to produce software? Subjective again.

Software is in the high sentimental value category. This is where the software creator can request whatever they want based on the demand for the use. Sentimental value is measured in behavior and if there is a demand for use of the software, asking for money is the worst value proposition. Because digital currency has no true value. Software creators could be asking for homes or cars or food. But instead they are asking for something digital with no true value

It’s all subjective- meaning it’s all about personal feelings and emotions.

Copyrights

No true value. But great sentimental value..

..so great that the copyright owner will lose resources in their pursuit of violators. The time & labor associated with copyright enforcement make copyrighting the worst business to involve yourself in. When copyright owner request payment in money, they are again asking for something with absolute zero true value.

It’s all subjective- meaning it’s all about personal feelings and emotions.

Money

Very High sentimental value. Absolute zero true value. Abuse & slavery tool.

Characteristic of intentionally Weakened mind conditioned to worship a resource with no true value. The emotional attachment people had to money was so dangerous because of its non-existent true value. When someone could make unlimited resource with no true value and extremely high sentimental value, room for abuse is high & likely.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Universal.Initiative (@the.universal.university)

It’s all subjective- meaning it’s all about personal feelings and emotions

Labor value

Can only be measured in pre-collapse dollars & cents

You can only measure it in sentimental value. And sentimental value really depends on who you ask.And how much that person personally values a form of labor

Like I don’t personally value the employees of a fast food restaurant. But perhaps the owners of that fast food restaurant deeply value their employees.

That value I’m referring to is sentimental value. Because to me, they aren’t worth any money. To the owners they are worth the collective pay arrangements.

It’s all subjective- meaning it’s all about personal feelings and emotions. Slavery is stolen labor.

Gold- All Jewelry

True value cannot be measured because these are natural resources: you can find it in the earth. (At least that’s what we were led to believe)

Gold may be a bogus resource. Does it have any real medicinal or anything value? I have a theory that someone was bargaining with a farmer for 5 cows, so the person found a pebble,called it gold and tricked the farmer into believing the gold pebble had some sort of magical powers. Trading with gold fooled so many people, that there was genuine belief in its powers and that might be the reason the field of Alchemy was born. An alchemist is an actor. It’s pseudoscience: fake science. However, it’s all subjective. You can discuss this at roundtables

If it’s not your mothers wedding ring, you shouldn’t trade anything for jewelry. It’s only a fashion statement.

It’s costume jewelry.

It’s all subjective- meaning it’s all about personal feelings and emotions. Slavery is stolen labor.

"May I trade you for that?"

No money no problems because freedom is free.

#bartering #car financing #finance #poverty universaluniversity #nature #youtube #history

3 notes · View notes

biostudyblog · 5 years ago

Text

Methods for Studying Psychology

Research Methods

In some ways, Psychology is a science. It is difficult to define it as a science since some approaches cannot depend on the scientific method to perform experiments due to the unpredictable nature of the human psyche. While in Biology, it is easy to isolate two variables to study, however, in Psychology some complications such as hindsight bias can appear. Hindsight bias is the tendency to assume that you know the results all along.

There are several ways psychologists can use psychology to change the world. Some conduct research to solve practical problems. This is called applied research. Others may conduct basic research, which is when psychologists conduct experiments not intended to have immediate real world effects.

Terminology

Most psychological research is guided by a hypothesis. It expresses a relationship between two variables, which are things that can vary among participants in an experiment. Skin colour, age and hair texture are all variables. The dependent variable is the variable who depends on the independent variable (hence the name.) The independent variable is typically the variable being altered in some way, which impacts the dependent variable which is typically the variable being studied. For example, if you wanted to look and see if the heat of the environment impacts the structure of a protein, the dependent variable is the protein structure, and the independent variable is the temperature. A theory attempts to explain certain phenomena, and gives scientists the ability to generate testable hypotheses. Psychologists also have to provide an operational definition of the variable that they will study. This means that they will explain how they measure that variable.

Good research is valid and reliable. To be reliable means that the research can be replicated, and to be valid means it measures what the researcher wants it to measure. For example, if someone made Albert Einstein take an IQ test which rated his intelligence from 1 to 100 to find out if he was above or below average intelligence if he were to get a 9 consistently, the test is clearly reliable but invalid. If Albert Einstein were to take this test and get a 100 then a 9, then this test would be unreliable and invalid.

Before a hypothesis is investigated, who or what is being studied needs to be decided. Participants are the individuals who the research is conducted on, and the process that participants are chosen is called sampling. The goal of sampling is to pick a representative group to allow for generalisations to be made. Random selection is ideal as every member of the community has an equal chance to be chosen. (In a way that does not allow for bias so that the selection is truly random). Stratified Sampling is another process that makes sure a sample represents a population. For example, if in my study I am including two religious groups: Religion A and Religion B, and I feel that religion may have some bearing on my research, I could divide the group of possible participants into two groups and then randomly choose people, thus ensuring representation from two groups which may affect each other.

Experimental Method

There are two kinds of experiments: laboratory experiments and field experiments. Laboratory Experiments are done in a lab (hence the name) which is an extremely controlled environment. Field Experiments are performed in the real world. Laboratory Experiments allow for more control, while Field Experiments allow for more realism. Experiments are the preferred method of research among psychologists because it is the best way to show a casual relationship. It allows manipulation of an independent variable and to control for confounding variables which is any difference between the experimental and control conditions except for the indpendent variable which can cause changes in the dependent variable. If I want to prove that cheese causes nightmares, it’s best to perform an experiment where I make sure that it is the cheese leading to the nightmares, and not other factors such as my subjects being sleep deprived, or being forcefed ounces of cheese which would inevitably cause nightmares.

Assignment is the process by which participants are put into a group (either experimental or control.) Random assignment means that each participant has an equal chance of being placed into any group. Random assignment reduces the effect of participant-relevant confounding variables. If in my cheese experiment, I gave my participants the option to choose whether they would like to be the control or experimental group, people who don’t like cheese would be more likely to avoid the experimental group, meaning the people eating massive amounts of cheese likely wouldn’t be scarred by eating ounces of it. Group matching can be used to make sure experimental and control groups are equivelant on some criterion. For example, if I want to make sure I have equal amounts of men and women in my groups, I could split my group into men and women, and then assign them to control or experiment.

Situation-relevant confounding variables can also prove to be an issue. The situations that the different groups are put into must be equivelant except for the independent variable. These can include the weather, the ambiance, or the lighting. Experimenter Bias is a specific type of situation-relevant confounding variable. It is the tendency for the experimenter to treat members of the control or experimental group differently to increase their chances of confirming their hypothesis. (It isn’t a conscious action). Double-blind procedures can eliminate this bias. Normally, the way these work is that a researcher has someone who doesn’t know who is control and who is experimental interact with the subjects. Single-Blind procedures are when only the subjects don’t know which group they are assigned to. This minimises demand characteristics and types of response and participant bias. Demand characteristics are cues about what the study’s purpose is. Participants may try to use these to figure out how they are supposed to behave. One type of response bias is social desirability which is the tendency to give answers which will reflect best on the person’s character.

Control groups give something to compare the results of the experimental group to, thus concluding whether there is a relationship between the two variables. In fact, simply selecting a group of people to experiment on can affect the performance of the group regardless of what is done. This is what is called the Hawthorne Effect.

Another method of control is called the placebo method. This is typically used in drug experiments. The control group are given a sugar pill- that looks identical to the functioning pill. This allows psychologists to seperate the physiological effects of the pill to the psychological effects known as the placebo effect.

In some cases, participants can be used as their own control group- this is known as counterbalancing. This can be flawed as it can cause order effects. For example, if a psychologist was seeing how cheese affects peoples math skills, they can give the participants a math test, feed them cheese, and then give them a second math test, however they may do better on the second test simply because they’re doing it over again. Counterbalancing helps deal with this problem as half of the group gets the cheese first, and the other half doesn’t.

Correlational Method

Correlation expressed a relationship between two variables. It does not imply causation.

Click here: https://twentytwowords.com/funny-graphs-show-correlation-between-completely-unrelated-stats-9-pictures/ to see some very bizarre examples of this very important rule when using the correlational method. A positive correlation between two things means that they have a direct relationship (If I do more of Action A, I will get more of Object B) if they have a negative correlation, it implies an indirect relationship (If I do more of A, I will get less of B).

Some hypotheses are impossible to make into experiments, which is when the correlational method can come in handy. These are situations where the independent variable is impossible to control; for example if I want to behave differences in men and women’s behaviour, I can’t control the independent variable because it will be predetermined, meaning I can’t guarantee differences in behaviour can be ascribed to gender differences or other phenomena I can’t account for with random assignment. If I try to control all other parts of the research in this case, it is considered an ex post facto study.

Another popular use of the correlational method is the survey method. For example, If I want to see if wearing socks leads to depression, I can ask people to fill out a survey detailing if they have depression and how often they wear socks. This method, like any correlational method cannot identify a cause-effect relationship, only establish a relationship. (I don’t know how many ways I can say this. Stop using correlational studies to prove your bogus cause-effect relationship hypotheses. Vaccines don’t cause autism.) There is no independent or dependent variable in a survey. One major flaw with the survey method is that there is no way to control participant-relevant confounding variables. They can be massively convenient, as a psychologist can have several people mail back responses, however, a random sample is difficult to obtain because few people will send it back (it has a low response rate)

Naturalistic Observation

Naturalistic observation is unobtrusive. It provides no control, however gives the researcher a detailed look into the behaviour of a person. One example is the case study method where researchers spend years studying one, or a small group of people, giving intimate details into how their lives are and how certain events may lead to a certain behaviour they want to observe. These types of studies cannot be generalised due to their small sample size.

Statistics

Now that you have all your data, you need to be able to interpret it, otherwise; what’s the point of having all that data? Descriptive statistics is a creatively named part of statistics where stats are described. You can summarize your data with a frequency distribution. Take an example where you were observing what colour everyone in the office wore one day. A frequency distribution would tell you how many people wore red, how many wore black etc etc. You can graph this data and turn it into line graphs called frequency polygons or bar graphs called histograms. Frequency always goes on the y axis.

Another way to summarize a set of data is by looking at the central tendency. We can do this by looking at the mean (adding all the numbers together and dividing by the number of scores) the median (write all the numbers in ascending orders, then find the middle number, or if there is an even amount of numbers, the average of the two middle numbers) and the mode (the most frequently appearing number). Some sets of data have more than one mode. A bimodal has 2 scores appear equally frequently and more frequently than the other scores.

The mean, while the most commonly used can be affected by outliers. Outliers are scores that are way outside of the norm. For example, take GPA, which is the average of all of your grades. Say for 4 years you were a straight A student in all 6 of your classes, except one year, you flub and get an F in math. Your GPA would be a 3.33, implying that you are a B average student. Your GPA was negatively skewed by that one bad year in math, meaning that the skew was caused by an extremely low score. If you were a straight D student, but one year managed to get an A in both Math and English, your GPA would be a 2.00, implying you are a C average student. This data is said to be positively skewed, as an abnormally high score caused the skew. In unscrewed data, the median and mean are exactly the same. With negatively skewed data, on a graph, the mean shift left, while with positively skewed data, the mean shifts right.

Measures of variability can also describe the data you have collected. These include range, variance, and standard deviation. These depict the diversity of the data. Standard deviation is the square root of the variance. They relate the average distance of the scores from the mean. A higher variance and SD implies more spread out data. The range is the difference between the highest and lowest score. If you want to compare scores from different distributions, you can convert the scores into z scores. These measure the distance of a score from the mean in units of standard deviation. Say a student got a 72 on a test where the average score was an 80 with a SD of 8. Her z score would be -1. If someone else got 84 on the same test, her z score would be +0.5. The normal curve is a bell shaped curve, where the area under the curve lying between two z scores has been predetermined. Z scores calculate the distance of a score from the mean, while percentiles indicate the distance of a score from 0. Someone who scores a 1250 on their SAT is around the 81st percentile, meaning they scores Better than 81% of test takers. Someone in the 50th percentile has a z score of 0. Someone with a z score of 98 has a z score of 2. See the pattern?

Correlations

Correlations observe the relationships between two variables. They can either be strong or weak; this can be calculated with a correlation coefficient. These can range from -1 to +1, with -1 being a strong negative correlation and +1 being a strong positive correlation. 0 means that there is no correlation. Correlation can be graphed with a scatter plot. If there is a strong correlation, the dots on the scatter plot will come close to a straight line. The line of best fit (also known as the regression line) is a line drawn through the plot that minimizes the distance of all plots from the line.

Inferential Statistics

Inferential Statistics determine whether findings can be generalised to a larger population. It is impossible to guarantee that a sample is representative of the entire population. The extent of the difference between the sample and population is called sampling error. There are many tests that determine if findings can be applied to a larger sample of people such as chi square, t-tests, and ANOVAs. These tests yield the p value which observes the probability that the results were due to random chance. A p value of .05 is the cut off for statistically significant results. A p value of .05 means that there is a 5% chance that the results were due to random chance.

APA Ethical Guidelines

Through its history, Psychology has lead to many horrific experiments which have caused significant harm to its patients. One example is the Little Albert experiment, done by John B Watson. He clanged an iron pole every time the little boy reached out to touch a white rat. Even without the sound, the boy was afraid of the rat showing emotions could be conditioned. While this research provided important information for scientists, had Albert not died at 6, could have had serious implications for him in his life outside of the experiment. The APA now has a series of guidelines to assure research does not cause serious harm. Before research can begin, the study must be presented to the Institutional Review Board (IRB) which reviews proposals for ethical violations and procedural errors. The regulations vary based on whether the subject is a human or an animal.

For animal research, the study must meet these requirements:

- They must have a clear scientific purpose

- The research must answer a specific and important scientific question

- Animals chosen must be best suited to answer said question

- The animals must be cared for and housed humanely

- The animal subjects must be acquired legally and purchased from accredited companies. Wild animals must be caught humanely

- Experimental design must employ the least amount of suffering possible.

Research involving human subjects must meet these requirements:

- No coercion. Participation must be voluntary

-Informed Consent: Participants must know that they are involved in research. If deception is necessary, the research they consent to should be similar enough to the research they participate in.

-Anonymity/Confidentiality: Participants have anonymity when no data is collected that can allow a persons response to be matched with their name. If anonymity is not possible, confidentiality is necessary, where the researcher doesn’t identify the source of their data.

-Risk: Participants can’t be placed at any significant mental or physical risk.

-Debriefing: After the research is conducted, participants should be told about the study’s purpose, and given ways to contact the researcher about the results. This is especially important if deception is used.

#AP Psychology #Psychology #Experiment #Scientific Method #Statistics #Inferential statistics #Descriptive Statistics #Psych 101 #Research #studyblr #psychology studyblr #statistics studyblr #science

11 notes · View notes

theliberaltony · 5 years ago

Link

via Politics – FiveThirtyEight

The COVID-19 pandemic has been equally defined by how much we don’t know as how much we do. That vacuum has been quickly filled with bullshit. The United Nations secretary-general has warned we’re living through “a pandemic of misinformation,” and the head of the World Health Organization said it’s an “infodemic.” In the midst of battling a global health emergency, we find ourselves fending off another scourge of conspiracy theories and misinformation.

It certainly feels like there’s a lot of fake news swirling around about the coronavirus, but how does it compare to another major misinformation magnet: the 2016 election? Research on coronavirus misinformation is largely limited to public opinion surveys and preprint research that has yet to be peer-reviewed. But when we compare those preliminary findings to research on the 2016 election, they suggest that more people are seeing — and believing — misinformation now, and it may have something to do with the challenge of understanding a new disease.

Measuring exactly how much bunk is out there to begin with is a challenge, in part because so much misinformation is shared through social media, said Gordon Pennycook, a behavioral psychologist at Canada’s University of Regina who studies fake news. It’s possible to measure, for instance, the number of tweets linking to specific fake news websites, but no way to see every instance a particular false claim is made on Facebook, especially when those claims can take many forms, including memes, Pennycook said.

An easier measure is how many people recall having seen fake news. A Pew Research Center survey conducted in the second week of March found that 48 percent of Americans reported seeing at least some made-up news about the outbreak. Only 20 percent of respondents said they had seen no fake news; the remaining 32 percent said they had seen “not much.” In a preprint paper from researchers at Cornell University, respondents were simply asked if they remember seeing certain claims about coronavirus, some of which were true and some of which were false. About 7 percent of respondents accurately recalled seeing a false claim.1

But just because you’ve seen fake news doesn’t mean you believe it. I’ve seen plenty of bogus claims on my Facebook timeline, myself, and I haven’t started drinking bleach yet. So far, research indicates the number of people who actually believe these ideas is dependent on the claim. In that Cornell paper, the percent of respondents who both recalled seeing fake news and believing it ranged from 14 percent to 19 percent. This represents a higher percentage of the population actually believing fake news than we saw in 2016. One study published in the Journal of Economic Perspectives found that only 8 percent of Americans both recalled seeing and believing a piece of fake news about the 2016 election.

“So, on average, double the rate of people recalled and believed in fake news in the COVID context compared to what we saw in 2016,” said Douglas Kriner, a government professor at Cornell and one of the authors of the preprint.

Other studies have found a wider range in how willing people are to believe in something. A preprint from Pennycook asked Americans2 in late March whether they believed specific claims about COVID-19, without indicating whether they were true or false. The percent of Americans who said they believed false claims ranged from less than 1 percent (the claim that eating garlic can cure the coronavirus, even though it cannot) to just over 20 percent (the claim that seasonal flu was just as dangerous as COVID-19, even though the flu is far less deadly). And a survey from Pew Research Center conducted in mid-March reported nearly 3 in 10 Americans believe the coronavirus was created in a lab, either accidentally or on purpose. (The evidence heavily points to the virus emerging naturally.)

Many Americans are also having difficulty discerning accurate information. For example, in the Cornell paper, when shown headlines about treatments for COVID-19, 40 percent of respondents, on average, judged real headlines in this category to be true, and the remaining 60 percent were “almost evenly divided between identifying the headline as false or acknowledging that they were unsure.”

“If people are unable to discern and say that true information is true, that is a real problem from a public health perspective,” said Sarah Kreps, a government and law professor at Cornell and a co-author of the paper.

In another preprint co-authored by Pennycook, respondents were able to distinguish between accurate and false information about COVID-19 pretty well when prompted to. But when asked only whether they would share the information on social media — and not if they believe it to be true or not — more were willing to share fake news.

“They still only believe true content like 65-ish percent of the time and the false content they believe like 25 percent of the time, so not great but at least there’s a difference,” Pennycook said. “If instead you ask them which ones they would share on social media, they’re terrible at discerning between them. They don’t, basically.”

One of the reasons we might be seeing more people falling for misinformation is the knowledge gap that comes with an emerging disease like COVID-19. There’s a lot we still don’t know about this virus, and that lack of understanding can create a vacuum that is all too easily filled by conspiracy theories and misinformation.

“An analogy that might be helpful here is autism: science still doesn’t have a clear explanation of why autism occurs,” said Brendan Nyhan, a government professor at Dartmouth College who studies disinformation. “That’s created a demand for explanations of why children develop it that anti-vaccine activists have taken advantage of. They’ve provided a simple story of why children develop autism, taking advantage of the coincidence in time between when autism manifests and when children get vaccines.”

So what do we do while we wait for better scientific answers on COVID-19? Social media sites, for their part, have enacted measures to limit and remove false information about COVID-19. Facebook, YouTube and Vimeo, for example, all removed the viral video “Plandemic” that claimed a shadowy group of elites was using the coronavirus to gain power. But an analysis from the nonprofit activist organization Avaaz found that it can take up to 22 days for Facebook to label fact-checked COVID-19 misinformation on the site, and that it can spread to millions of users in the meantime. And MIT researchers have found that misinformation peddlers can get around Facebook’s efforts to quell fake news by using an archived version of a URL via the Wayback Machine.

Studies have also found mixed results when it comes to issuing corrections on misinformation. One study on disinformation around Zika and yellow fever outbreaks in Brazil, published earlier this year in Science Advances and co-authored by Nyhan, found that priming people with a factsheet of accurate information had no significant impact on people’s beliefs in subsequent false claims.

One of Pennycook’s papers suggests that merely prompting people to think about the fact that not everything online is true can be enough to reduce the amount of misinformation they share. But each of the researchers I spoke to expressed concern about people’s ability to discern accurate information in a pandemic, and what impact the deluge of bunk might have on making sure the truth gets communicated.

“The problem is we can’t say how much fake news is reinforcing beliefs and entrenching beliefs and causing people, almost, to enter this domain of nihilism where they just throw up their hands,” Kreps said. “They don’t know what to believe, so they’re not going to believe anything. Not believing anything can be as pernicious as believing fake news.”

#IFTTT #Politics – FiveThirtyEight #politics #538 #Kaleigh Rogers

1 note · View note

douchebagbrainwaves · 5 years ago

Text

THE LAST INGREDIENT A POPULAR LANGUAGE NEEDS IS TIME

One of the things the equity equation shows us is that, like the US, startups will form as inevitably as water droplets condense on a cold piece of metal. An office environment is supposed to be one.1 Since this is in effect a narrower but open source Don't be evil has been good at letting hackers have their way with it. Part of the problem was that sites felt they were giving something away for free could be pretty high-handed about it. The questions you're answering are pleasantly familiar. And could I have honestly claimed that he was harming his future—that curiosity was simply the first derivative of knowledge. There will be plenty of time to start companies now who never could have before. C was the scripting language of a massively popular language because it is not dense enough. Lisp will be used to hack. The people who want you to do research. There were ashtrays everywhere.

C, but in 1996 the story about Java was that it represented a new model of software. Civil liberties make countries rich. If you disagree with something, it's easier to say you suck than to figure out a way to get great hackers to work on big projects is, ironically, fear of wasting time. To me she seems the best novelist of all time. Stocks will generate greater returns over thirty years, but they also know what they're supposed to get jobs, as if they were one person. From other hackers. I think one of the reasons I disliked the term Web 2. It's too late now to be Stripe, but there's little they can do with it is enormous.

You have to use Java and Windows at work, but at least they probably really do want whatever they're asking for. In 1998, if advertisers paid the maximum that traffic was worth to them, Yahoo's revenues would have decreased. It can be either a compliment or an insult. So someone doing the best work is done by the people who created it as well. But the guys at Google didn't think search was boring and unimportant. Performance isn't everything, you say? It seems like the only way to judge a hacker is to work with him on something. That's a stricter standard than admiration. Or rather, a large organization is compelled by its structure to be one. It is, alas, an atrociously bad one.

That's one reason I'm not typing this on an Apfel laptop. If there are any laws regulating businesses, you can often do it better if you're not a hacker, you can't do anything really risky with it. Do popular languages deserve their popularity? Till now the problem has always been that it's difficult to pick them out. And then of course there's the question, can you afford not to? Also, as a general rule, you can make yourself stupid, you can opt to be valued directly by users, by starting your own company, only for working as an employee of someone else's. It might seem this would require you to be an advantage as an economy gets more liquid, just as there was in the industries that spiked the sharpest before the Depression. On historical time scales, what we have now is pre-beta. You could make a preliminary drawing if you wanted to, but to most people; otherwise someone would already be writing stuff on top of this new trend. The people who've worked for a few years ago.2

Which means anyone who wants to have such incentives can, by turning their comments into bets: if you trade 16. Lisp Machines along with parallel computers were steamrollered by the increasing power of general purpose processors in the 1980s. And you can't go by the indentation. Hackers can be abrupt even in person. But regardless of whether patents are in general a good thing—for example, is a nice, durable medium for finished ideas, but a difference in kind. To many people, Lisp is a slow AI language with a lot of errands undone.3 Maybe it's not a coincidence.

You may feel lousy an hour after eating that pizza, but eating the first couple bites feels great. VCs is that hackers are alarmed by measures like copyrights and patents. In poor countries, things we take for granted are missing. And not just in obvious ways, like making them register, or subjecting them to annoying ads. A hacker may only want to subvert the intended model of things once or twice in a big program. If you become one of the biggest obstacles to creating startups in Europe is the attitude toward employment. Big companies also don't pay people the right way to get an accurate drawing is not to say things they wouldn't say face to face. But others are more capable than all but a handful of American computer science professors which universities in Europe were most admired, and they were wondering what to call it a trick in his case, though.

Remember, hackers are lazy. And there is a big problem. But that is at least a precedent. Design doesn't have to be good. There's one item conspicuously missing from this list: American attitudes. This works so long as there is no one else to do sales and support. On the surface it feels like the kind of productivity that's measured in lines of code. Let users do what they want will also tend to be annoyed by hackers' general attitude of disobedience. No thanks, intellectual homeowners may say, we don't need any outside help.4 How could you make something users want, and for that reason hackers are attracted by the idea of fixing payments was right there in plain sight, they never saw it, because their unconscious mind shrank from the complications involved.

During the 90s a lot of I/O. Within Y Combinator, because we often have to work on a Java project won't be as smart as his fame implies, and she said that yes, he was. It's the job equivalent of the pizza they had for lunch. She writes so well you don't even notice her. I know, one thing they have in common is that they're all more concentrated forms of less addictive predecessors. If you're designing a chair, that's what you're designing for, and there's no way around it: you can't manage a process intended to produce beautiful things without knowing what beautiful is. NPR values, you can't link to them.

Notes

When he wanted to start startups who otherwise wouldn't have had to write an essay about it wrong in How to Make Wealth when I was insane—they could just use that instead of themselves. Conjecture: The variation in wealth, not bogus.

This is why hackers give you such a dangerous mistake to believe, and then using growth rate early on. It would help Web-based applications. Usually people skirt that issue with some question-begging answer like it's inappropriate, while we have. Vision research may be some formal measure that turns out only to your brain that you're paying yourselves high salaries.

Loosely speaking. But filtering out 95% of the Italian word for success. Make Wealth in Hackers Painters, what that means having type II startups, which allowed banks and savings and loans to buy it.

Unless we mass produce social customs. Founders at Work. 25. I even mention the possibility is that they probably wouldn't even cover the extra cost.

Thanks to Marc Andreessen, Dan Giffin, Trevor Blackwell, Patrick Collison, Geoff Ralston, Robert Morris, and Jason Freedman for their feedback on these thoughts.

1 note · View note

bountyofbeads · 5 years ago

Text

What Happens When Ordinary People End Up in Trump’s Tweets https://nyti.ms/32bCiou

🍁🏈🍂🍻🍁🏈🍂🍻🍁🏈🍂🍻🍁🏈

What Happens When Ordinary People End Up in Trump’s Tweets

By MATT FLEGENHEIMER | Published Nov. 2, 2019 | New York Times | Posted November 3, 2019 |

McCALLA, Ala. — The evening of April 29 passed like many others for Ben Rawls, a fire lieutenant in Tuscaloosa: settled in the rocking chair on his porch, amid empty beer cans and mosquito-fighting candles, tweeting to an audience of dozens until he got sleepy.

“Granted I am in Alabama,” Mr. Rawls, 45, wrote around 11 p.m., after a major firefighters’ union endorsed Joseph R. Biden Jr. for president, “but most of the firefighters I talk to are voting @realDonaldTrump.”

The morning of May 1, some 36 hours later, was less typical.

Mr. Rawls showered and took his daughters to school. He ignored his phone, until it yapped so insistently that he had to look. An ashbin of Twitter comments greeted him: Racist. Moron. “‘Toothless’ — that was a good one,” he recalled.

The most curious posts disputed Mr. Rawls’s very existence. Strangers accused him of being a bot. He replied to one with a video he recorded in his pickup. ��Here I am,” he said to the camera. “No faking here.”

All told, it took about 12 hours for him to solve the mystery. Back in his rocking chair, he stared at a fellow Twitter user’s note of congratulations: Mr. Rawls had been retweeted by the president of the United States.

Along with the Republican allies, Fox News hosts and conspiracy-mongering trolls whose messages President Trump pinballs across the political arena, he has also elevated regular people whose words he finds pleasing. Perhaps no group understands the praise-seeking cyclone that is @realDonaldTrump better than these arbitrary few who have lived inside it, briefly and usually unwittingly.

Their brushes with cybercelebrity are a portal into the Twitter feedback loop powered and experienced by Mr. Trump — dark, caustic, skimpy on nuance — where the ripples of a single presidential tweet can be hard to fathom unless measured against the relative anonymity to which these users were accustomed. Mr. Rawls got 2,700 retweets and 14,000 “likes” with the boost from Mr. Trump. The reach of his tweets before and since, he estimated, was approximately zero.

For many of the retweeted, the temporary platform stands as a testament to a style of politics they have never seen before — one that has bonded the president to his followers, virtual or otherwise.

“No other president has ever done stuff like this,” said Curtis Vincent, a 35-year old in Bowling Green, Ky., who operates one of the more than 215 unverified accounts Mr. Trump has retweeted since taking office. “They’ve been on a higher pedestal.”

Mr. Rawls, Mr. Vincent and several others were retweeted by Mr. Trump on May 1 after responding to a post by a Fox News personality, Dan Bongino, about the fire union’s endorsing Mr. Biden.

Joining them in temporary Twitter fame was Joelle Palombo, 46, a Southern California resident with 11 followers, who had largely used her account to cheer on her daughter’s soccer team. But after Mr. Bongino tweeted that “NONE of the firemen” he knew were with Mr. Biden, she replied with a note of support for Mr. Trump from one “fire family” out West.

The flood of reactions so spooked Ms. Palombo that she enlisted her teenage son to help block anyone she saw in her feed. The purge took three days, she said, and included the president, who she did not realize had retweeted her until a reporter told her months later.

“I went and looked at his account, and I blocked him,” Ms. Palombo said of Mr. Trump. “That’s how scared I was. I’m just one tiny hair on a dog. Are you kidding me?”

Although her affection for the president persists, Ms. Palombo questions the value of his favored medium. “How many hours of the day do people put in to do this?” she said. “I don’t need to have a voice on this. I’ll vote.”

Others have found more purpose in the practice. Mr. Rawls described himself as a reluctant Trump voter in 2016. He preferred Ted Cruz during the Republican primary, and he winces at some of the president’s choices, including insulting John McCain well after the senator’s death.

But as the 2020 election approaches, Mr. Rawls suggests, the president’s Twitter output is a more effective galvanizer than even the slickest campaign ad. “The tweeting doesn’t bother me so much anymore,” he said. “I don’t really feel like I wasted a vote.”

And the validation of the president’s retweet has encouraged his own more quarrelsome instincts. “Before all this happened, I would type something out and say, ‘People will think I’m crazy,’” he recalled, citing prospective tweets that he scrapped.

Since May, these second thoughts have been rarer. He has called Anthony Scaramucci, the former White House communications director, a “bitter jerk.” He has shared a doctored video of Speaker Nancy Pelosi appearing to slur her words. He has weaponized a gif of Judge Judy (“Either you are playing dumb, or it’s not an act”) to mock Representative Eric Swalwell, a California Democrat promoting gun control.

“I’m a little bit less of a wallflower than I used to be,” Mr. Rawls said, crediting Mr. Trump’s retweet. “I guess you could say I was more emboldened.”

CATCHING HIS EYE

Capital letters help. Sentence structure can be disregarded. Mornings, East Coast time, are best.

Grabbing Mr. Trump’s attention on Twitter is more art than science — and, often, more fluke than art. But some who have been retweeted say there are certain flourishes that can improve the odds.

The surest path is echoing Mr. Trump’s voice. The user @fiiibuster, whose profile boasts that he has been retweeted twice by the president, has built a following of more than 38,000 accounts — and won the digital stamp of approval from a man with 66 million — through a steady offering of posts that resemble Mr. Trump’s own. Among the words in @fiiibuster’s retweeted messages: “security,” “prosperity,” “America first,” “Pathetic,” “bad reporter,” “shame!”

In other cases, Mr. Trump has gravitated toward those who share his taste in reading. A few weeks ago, he retweeted Cathy Buffaloe, 70, a retired librarian in Walton County, Ga., after she quoted a Wall Street Journal column criticizing Representative Adam Schiff, the Democratic chairman of the House Intelligence Committee.

When she told her husband what had happened, he asked if she had simply dreamed it. She took screenshots to show to friends and gained about 200 followers. “It isn’t often that ‘regular’ people have an opportunity to be heard concerning national issues,” Ms. Buffaloe said in an email.

J. T. Lewis, a 19-year-old Republican candidate for the Connecticut State Senate whose brother Jesse was killed in the Sandy Hook massacre in 2012, was retweeted last year after writing a flattering message to Mr. Trump. When he traveled to Washington months later to meet with the president as part of a school safety event, Mr. Lewis brought a printout of the tweet.

“He smirked and signed it,” he said. “It’s in my room somewhere.”

Mr. Lewis said he hoped the president’s imprimatur would show that Mr. Trump was not in league with the conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, who has spread bogus claims about the Sandy Hook shooting, including asserting that the victims’ families were actors and part of a plot to confiscate guns. (In 2015, Mr. Trump appeared on Mr. Jones’s “Infowars” program and praised him.)

But Mr. Lewis is skeptical that getting through to Mr. Trump owes to any elaborate strategy. “I don’t think things are planned out the way we think they are from the outside,” he said. “I think that was literally just: Guy in pajamas, ‘Oh, this is a nice tweet.’”

THE WRONG IVANKA

“The fingers aren’t as good as the brain,” the president once explained, discussing the typos he makes on Twitter.

And those fingers have at times conferred a spotlight on unsuspecting tweeters with low opinions of him.

In a tweet one night in January 2017, just before his inauguration, Mr. Trump shared a message calling his daughter Ivanka “a woman with real character and class” and tagging @ivanka.

That Twitter handle belongs to Ivanka Majic, 45, a technology researcher in Brighton, England, who shares a first name and little else with the president’s daughter. Ms. Majic woke up to media inquiries and a dilemma.

“There’s a decision to be made,” she said in an interview. “If you’re going to say something, what are you going to say?”

Ms. Majic recognized she would probably never be handed a megaphone like this again. “He was a bit unlucky, really, that it was my Twitter account,” she said.

She settled on this: “You’re a man with great responsibilities. May I suggest more care on Twitter and more time learning about #climatechange.”

Instantly, Ms. Majic became something of a local luminary as her progressive city strained to process Mr. Trump’s victory. Days later, at the London chapter of the global Women’s March, one attendee’s sign read, “@Ivanka, loving your work!”

In the years since, Ms. Majic has celebrated an annual “Trumpiversary” to mark the occasion. But one news clipping from the time still grates.

“There was one article that said, ‘Ivanka only has 2,700 followers,’” she remembered. “I was like, ‘That’s quite good for a normal person!’”

_______

Karen Yourish and Larry Buchanan contributed reporting. Kitty Bennett contributed research. Produced by Gray Beltran and Rumsey Taylor.

🍁🏈🍂🍻🍁🏈🍂🍻🍁🏈🍂🍻🍁🏈

1 note · View note

scifigeneration · 7 years ago

Text

From outsized dinosaurs to outrunning hot lava in Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom

by Michael Milford and Peter Stratton

Who will get Chris Pratt first - the volcano or the Rex? Universal Studios and Amblin Entertainment, Inc. and Legendary Pictures Productions, LLC.

What happens when you combine genetically engineered dinosaurs, greedy capitalists, and an erupting volcano? A lot of thrills, as experienced in the most recent dinosaur movie Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom. It’s a different tale to the Jurassic movies we’ve been used to: a little darker, and updated for a modern world.

youtube

Humans learn from their past mistakes.

Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard are back as Owen (the velociraptor-taming rogue) and a wiser Claire, alongside faces from the original Jurassic Park movie in Dr Henry Wu (B.D. Wong) and Dr Ian Malcolm (Jeff Goldblum).

Read more: Why blasters miss their mark and other science stunners in Solo: A Star Wars Story

But bringing back dinosaurs from the dead and then genetically engineering them necessarily involves a serve of scientific magic. In this review, we dive into the scientific concepts behind some of the scenes to check whether they are dinosaur dung or movie magic.

Be warned: some modest spoilers lie ahead!

Testing T-Rex’s tallness

Chris Pratt not measuring up as well as he normally does. Universal Studios and Amblin Entertainment, Inc. and Legendary Pictures Productions, LLC.

Monster and dinosaur movies are notorious for getting the size of (real) creatures wrong, having inconsistent sizes throughout the movie, or even defying the laws of mass conservation.

So how does the T-Rex portrayal in Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom stack up? Well, the largest T-Rex skeleton found to date is named “Sue” (although we don’t know if it was a male or female dinosaur).

Sue measures 3.66 metres tall at the hips.

We have Chris Pratt for scale, whose height estimates vary but is around 1.88 metres tall (he’s a bit closer to the camera than Rexy but let’s assume they’re the same distance for simplicity).

T-rex hip height = screen height ratio × Chris Pratt Height

= (10.55cm / 4.88cm) × 1.88m

= 4.06m

So that’s about 10% oversized. Factoring in the likelihood of there being T-Rexes larger than Sue (we have only found a small number of T-Rex skeletons, so it’s unlikely we’ve found the largest ones), and the extra skin and muscle, this looks like the film-makers have got the size spot on.

Verdict: Rexy is right.

Swimming and snacking. Universal Studios and Amblin Entertainment, Inc. and Legendary Pictures Productions, LLC.

The giant prehistoric aquatic lizard Mosasaurus is also back, mixing it up with surfers this time.

Mosasaurus length = screen length ratio × human height

= 28.08cm / 2.36cm × 1.8m

= 21.4m

The largest species of Mosasaurus reached lengths of 17m: so this is pushing the limits a bit more, at 25% oversized, but acceptable I think for storytelling purposes. I guess prehistoric creatures were sufficiently huge and crazy that even Hollywood didn’t feel the need to make them “larger than life”.

Verdict: Mosasaurus is on the money.

Pteranodon portage?

Up, up and away! Universal Studios and Amblin Entertainment, Inc. and Legendary Pictures Productions, LLC.

In one scene, a Pteranodon flies in, picks up a fully armed man, and flies off fairly effortlessly.

Now, we don’t have them around anymore, but we do have large birds of flight such as the bald eagle. The best estimates and observations of a bald eagle put its lifting power at around one-third to one-half of its body weight.

Pteranodon weight is apparently very difficult to estimate, with a range of 25-50kg: making it unlikely they could lift a 90kg male.

But the largest pterosaurs (bigger than in this movie scene) may have weighed as much as 180-250kg - making it plausible that they could, in full flight, pick up and carry an adult man.

Verdict: Struggling to fly.

Mosasaurus maneuvers?

Hors d'oeuvres are served. Universal Studios and Amblin Entertainment, Inc. and Legendary Pictures Productions, LLC.

Mosasaurus jumps well out the water as well in this memorable scene. This might seem an incredible feat, but modern humpback whales are only a little bit smaller and can get much of their body out of the water.

youtube

Verdict: Plausible.

Cracking chains

Movie plots often rely on inadequate restraint of scary things. Universal Studios and Amblin Entertainment, Inc. and Legendary Pictures Productions, LLC.

When the T-Rex wakes up, it snaps a chain connector rather effortlessly. Now the Rex is a massive (around 8 tonnes), powerful creature, but is this realistic, assuming the connector isn’t faulty?

It looks like the connector is held in place by a threaded screw – in which case we can examine the “thread stripping strength” of screws at which point the thread shears off and the connector fails.

Using a thread length of 50mm (estimate), an M8 bolt, and steel with a shear strength of 270MPa, we can calculate the required shear force using this calculator.

We get a force of 144.82kN - or a static force equivalent to holding up a weight of 14.77 tonnes.

Now this weight is heavier than the T-Rex, but the T-Rex isn’t just hanging off the chain. It can exert a dynamic load which is a multiple of its weight: so it shearing the bolt and breaking the connector is quite possible.

Verdict: Off the chain action but plausible.

Laughing off lava

My mother always said: if the genetically engineered super predator doesn’t get you, the flows of lava will. Universal Studios and Amblin Entertainment, Inc. and Legendary Pictures Productions, LLC.

There’s a volcano at the core of the plot in the movie, and the main characters are regularly weaving their way in and out of lava flows while dodging dinosaurs. They’re often almost touching the lava, seemingly without any adverse consequences.

Calculating whether this is realistic is difficult: it depends on the size of the lava flow (which varies a lot in the movie), how close the person is, their clothing type, air flow, the angle of exposure, and a range of other factors.

But we can get a back of the envelope idea by looking at what people have done in real life, as shown here and here.

Given that the characters are spending extended periods of time seemingly only a few centimetres from the exposed molten lava, it seems unlikely they would have emerged unscathed like they do in the movie.

Verdict: No lava burn is a little bogus.

The final verdict

Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom is nothing if not entertaining, and a spectacle to be viewed on the big screen. Some of the character development is a little frustrating and the plot has its usual share of holes, but if you sit back and enjoy the ride it’s a great blockbuster to take in this holidays. There are new dinosaurs to marvel at, and one or two plot twists that you might not see coming.

On the general science front, I was pleasantly surprised – the dinosaur sizes were often about right, as was the physics of the dinosaurs’ interaction with their environments (as best we can determine using modern science and animals).

They’re so cute when they’re young… Universal Studios and Amblin Entertainment, Inc. and Legendary Pictures Productions, LLC.

Michael Milford is Professor at Queensland University of Technology. Peter Stratton is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow, also at The University of Queensland.

This article was originally published on The Conversation, a content partner of Sci Fi Generation.

#movies #science fiction #jurassic world #Jurassic world fallen kingdom #movie review #featured

18 notes · View notes

shilkaren · 3 years ago

Text

Simple and Easy Data Science Projects Ideas for Beginners and Experts

Data Science has been on a blast for the most recent few years, and the push in the space of Artificial Intelligence because of the different developments is simply going to take it further on to a higher level. As more enterprises understand the force of Data Science, more freedoms surface on the lookout.

On the off chance that you extravagant Data Science and are anxious to get a strong hold on the innovation, this present time is as a decent opportunity as at any point to sharpen your abilities to appreciate and deal with the forthcoming difficulties in Data Science. The reason behind writing this article is to share some practicable ideas for your next project, which won't just lift your trust in Data Science yet in addition have a basic impact in upgrading your abilities.

Top Interesting Data Science Projects

1. Building Chatbots

Language: Python

Dataset: Intents JSON record

Source Code: Build Your First Python Chatbot Project

Chatbots assume a urgent part for organizations as they can effortlessly handle a flood of client inquiries and messages with no log jam. They have without any help decreased the client assistance responsibility for us via robotizing a greater part of the interaction. They do this by using procedures sponsored with Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, and Data Science.

2. Credit Card Fraud Detection

Language: R or Python

Dataset: Data on the exchange of credit cards is utilized here as a dataset.

Source Code: Credit Card Fraud Detection utilizing Python

Credit card frauds are more normal than you might suspect, and of late, they've been on the higher side. From a certain point of view, we're on the way to cross a billion credit card clients before the finish of 2022. Be that as it may, because of the advancements in advances like Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, and Data Science, credit card organizations have had the option to effectively distinguish and catch these frauds with adequate exactness.

3. Fake News Detection

Language: Python

Dataset/Packages: news.csv

Source Code: Detecting Fake News

We're certain fake news needs no presentation. In the present all associated world, it has gotten ludicrously easy to share fake news over the web. Sometimes, you can see bogus information being spread online from unapproved sources that cause issues to individuals designated as well as can possibly cause boundless frenzy and even savagery.

4. Classifying Breast Cancer

Language: Python

Dataset: IDC (Invasive Ductal Carcinoma)

Source Code: Breast Cancer Classification with Deep Learning

In the event that you need to add a venture identified with the medical services industry to your portfolio, you can take a stab at building a breast cancer detection framework utilizing Python. Breast cancer cases have been on the ascent recently, and the most ideal approach to battle breast cancer is to recognize it at a beginning phase and take proper preventive measures.

To assemble such a framework with Python, you can utilize the IDC(Invasive Ductal Carcinoma) dataset, which contains histology pictures for cancer-actuating threatening cells, and you can prepare your model on this dataset. For this undertaking, you'll discover Convolutional Neural Networks more qualified for the assignment, and concerning the Python libraries, you can utilize NumPy, OpenCV, TensorFlow, Keras, scikit-learn, and Matplotlib.

5. Recommender Systems(Movie/Web Show Recommendation)

Language: R

Dataset: MovieLens

Bundles: recommenderlab, ggplot2, data.table, reshape2

Source Code: Movie Recommendation System Project in R

Have you at any point considered how media platforms like YouTube, NetFlix, and others prescribe you what to watch straightaway? To do as such, they utilize an instrument called the recommender/suggestion framework. It thinks about a few measurements, like age, recently watched shows, most-watched kind, watch recurrence, and feeds them into a Machine Learning model which then, at that point creates what the client may get a kick out of the chance to watch straightaway.

To learn more about data science projects, career options after data science. You can visit, Data Science Course in Chandigarh for detailed information.

#data science projects #data science #data scientist #data science career #Data Science Course in Chandigarh

0 notes

living-with-abhi · 4 years ago

Text

Alien Spotting in India !!!

Read it here - https://www.livingwithabhi.com/post/aliens-spotting-in-india-at-five-places-till-now

A few days back, media across the world revealed that a man had detected a UFO while perusing Google Earth. The pink UFO had an outsider head jumping out of it. Frightening! Large numbers of us don't accept that life exists past earth. I would say that those individuals are self-important who believe that shrewd life can just and just exist here. Many are additionally wary as a large portion of these sightings are fundamentally announced from the USA.

Indeed, it isn't so much that outsiders simply prefer to visit Area 51; UFOs have been located across the world, including India. Truth be told, it is supposed that there is a UFO base in the Himalayas along the Indo-China line. In any case, nobody knows the amount of this is valid.

Outsiders may not realize that our reality is partitioned into mainlands and nations. The region covered by America is considerably more than the space covered by some other country, consequently, more sightings are accounted for from that point. Also, individuals in the provincial and far off zones in India, actually don't have legitimate correspondence channels or network; leave to the side web or cell phones to report such episodes.

Flying saucers are not a new wonder. Our antiquated sacred writings and strict writings notice such episodes in bounty. Be it Mahabharata or Ramayana, you will discover the notice of flying saucers or vimanas without any problem. Pushpak being the most known.

These notices are authenticated by other old civilization messages too. A couple of years prior, the Chinese found some Sanskrit reports in Lhasa, Tibet, and sent them to the University of Chandigarh to be deciphered. Dr. Ruth Reyna from the University said that the reports contain bearings for building interstellar spaceships! Their strategy for impetus, she said, was "anti-gravitational".

There is science, which is at this point unclear to us yet was accessible to our predecessors. Dr. Roberto Pinotti, an Italian researcher says, "Certain portrayals of the Vimanas in the Indian sacred writings appeared to be too itemized and specialized in nature to be marked a fantasy. He referred to different tests to show there were 32 privileged insights identifying with the activity of Vimanas, some of which might measure up to cutting edge utilization of the radar, sun-powered energy, and photography."

Consequently, Mumbaigloss chose to minister a rundown of significant UFO sightings in India over the most recent couple of many years. You choose if these accounts are valid or bogus. In any case, before I start, let me explain that UFO implies Unidentified Flying Objects which might be outsiders or something else. Radar normally captures flying items which have metal parts in them. What's more, not all announced UFO sightings are valid. 90% of them are bogus and unjustifiable. Here is the rundown of the best 15 UFO sightings in India:

1. Ladakh - 2013: Last year saw an immense ruckus on the India – China line where Indian armed force men saw yellow circles lifting up in the sky from the Chinese side. They announced such sightings from the Lagan Khel territory in Demchok in Ladakh. Robots were conveyed to research on the off chance that they were climate inflatables or Chinese lights however nothing was finished up. Few even ideas that those were spy cameras or humanoids flying around the space to test new innovation. From that point forward 100 such sightings were accounted for. Chinese denied any such mediations. Later government authorities requested that the astrophysicist investigate the matter who detailed that those circles were planets Venus and Jupiter. It very well may be valid or an administration conceal. I'm certain the Indian armed force has sufficient hey tech hardware and insight to determine if the circles were stars or something disturbing.

2. Chikhaldhara, Maharashtra – 2013: Pratyush Kumar from Delhi saw a UFO with his family while holidaying. He depicted it as a cone-formed orange-lit vehicle that moved away in no time.

3. Kannur, Bangalore – 2013: Divya Sebastian, and Major Sebastian Zachariah, an Army official saw a spaceship while on their get-away to Kannur. However, astrophysicists have completely denied this report and considered it a trick. However, the couple endures that while checking highlights for his new HTC telephone Major Sebastian had the option to catch the UFO in one of the edges. He didn't see it with an unaided eye. Downers say such applications are accessible across the android market which can blend two pictures without any problem. Indeed, even a couple of said that on occasion the telephone's specialized viewpoints are obscure to another client and he probably blended two pictures unintentionally. In any case, the individuals who have utilized HTC say that such blunders can't happen with a very good quality telephone like HTC 1. You choose if it's actual or bogus.

4. Agra, Uttar Pradesh – 2013: An online video was posted in April showing unidentified flying items extremely near the white marbled Taj Mahal, a landmark in Agra, Uttar Pradesh. It sent waves in the media as many befuddled the two individual reports of UFO sightings in India (Army sights UFO in Ladakh and this one) and thought of their own rendition – "Indian armed force saw UFO over Taj Mahal" which was totally bogus. Afterward, it was found that the video was phony and the first video was shot in 2010 which didn't have any UFO in it. However, there are individuals who guarantee that it is valid and it won't be amazing to see outsider action around the Taj Mahal which actually has plenty of secrets encompassing it. In many cases that the Taj Mahal is based on an old Shiva Temple. Hinduism is the most established religion that has passed on numerous mysteries from the antiquated world.

5. Rishikesh, Uttrakhand – 2013: Cigar-molded Unidentified Flying Objects (UFOs) were seen floating over Rishikesh city. The observer (RabdaBanda) likewise asserted the locating was joined by the sound of an unexpected tempest which was "extremely solid". One video of the locating transferred by the client has been altered to make it five to multiple times slower for better perceivability of the UFO. The client likewise transferred the first video film later.

I'm certain there are numerous cases that go unreported or have been covered because of global approaches. In any case, there is no denying the way that occasionally we do get extra-earthly guests. Numerous recordings are transferred on Youtube with the tag "UFO sightings in India". Be that as it may, nobody knows how credible are these clasps. What do you think? Are UFOs no doubt?

Mumbaigloss ought not to be considered answerable for the credibility of any of these reports. These may be valid or bogus and have been curated just as a posting from different hotspots with the end goal of diversion.

#UFO #validity #aliens #extraearthyguests #extraterrestrial #humanoid #Robots #UFOsightingsinIndia #flyingobjects #flyingsaucer #Indianarmedforce #vimana #mahabharata #Ramayana #Pushpak #ancientaliens #indochinese #sacredwritings #sanskritworks #unidentifiedflyingobject #unidentified #aliens #aliensarereal #alieninvasion

0 notes

igmgurujaipur · 4 years ago

Text

Best Machine Learning Certification Training Course | IgmGuru

Common Machine Learning Interview Questions?

Machine Learning questions are a basic piece of the information science meet and the way to turning into an information researcher, Machine Learning specialist, or information engineer.

Machine Learning Interview Questions: 4 Categories

We've customarily observed Machine Learning inquiries addresses spring up in a few classifications.

· Firstly an individual should understand the calculations and hypothesis behind Machine Learning. You'll need to show a comprehension of how calculations contrast with each other and how with measure their adequacy and precision in the correct manner.

· The subsequent classification has to do with your programming aptitudes and your capacity to execute on top of those calculations and the hypothesis.

· The third has to do with your overall premium in Machine Learning. You'll be gotten some information about what's happening in the business and how you stay aware of the most recent Machine Learning patterns.

· At last, there are organization or industry-explicit inquiries that test your capacity to take your overall Machine Learning information and transform it into significant focuses to drive the main concern forward.

We've isolated this manual for Machine Learning inquiries into the classifications we referenced above so you can all the more effectively get to the data you need with regards to AI inquiries questions.

Machine Learning Interview Questions: Algorithms/Theory

These calculations addresses will test your grip of the hypothesis behind Machine Learning.

Q1: What's the compromise among predisposition and fluctuation?

Answer: Bias is blunder because of incorrect or unnecessarily oversimplified suspicions in the part of learning calculation which you're utilizing. This can prompt the model under-fitting your information, making it difficult for it to have high prescient precision and for you to sum up your insight from the preparation set to the test set.

Difference is blunder due to an excess of unpredictability in the learning calculation you're utilizing. This prompts the calculation being profoundly delicate to high levels of variety in your preparation information, which can lead your model to over fit the information. You'll be conveying a lot of commotion from your preparation information for your model to be extremely helpful for your test information.

Q2: What is the contrast among regulated and unaided Machine Learning?

Answer: Supervised learning requires preparing named information. For instance, to do characterization (a regulated learning task), you'll have to initially mark the information you'll use to prepare the model to arrange information into your named gatherings. Solo learning, conversely, doesn't need marking information unequivocally.

Q3: How is KNN not the same as k-implies grouping?

Answer: K-Nearest Neighbours is a managed arrangement calculation, while k-implies bunching is a solo grouping calculation. While the systems may appear to be comparable from the start, what this truly implies is that all together for K-Nearest Neighbours to work, you need marked information you need to characterize an unlabelled point into (accordingly the closest neighbour part). K-implies bunching requires just a bunch of unlabelled focuses and a limit: the calculation will take unlabelled focuses and steadily figure out how to bunch them into bunches by processing the mean of the separation between various focuses.

Q4: Explain how a ROC bend works.

Answer: The ROC bend is a graphical portrayal of the difference between obvious positive rates and the bogus positive rate at different limits. It's regularly utilized as an intermediary for the compromise between the affect ability of the model (genuine positives) versus the drop out or the likelihood it will trigger a bogus caution (bogus positives).

Q5: Define exactness and review.

Answer: The measure of positives the model cases contrasted with the real number of positives there are all through the knowledge. Exactness is otherwise called the positive prescient worth, and it is a proportion of the measure of precise positives your model cases contrasted with the quantity of positives it really asserts. It implies to be simple to consider review and accuracy with regarding the situation where one has anticipated that there were 10 apples and 5 oranges for a situation of 10 apples. You'd have wonderful review (there are really 10 apples, and you anticipated there would be 10) however 66.7% accuracy on the grounds that out of the 15 occasions you anticipated, just 10 (the apples) are right.

Q6: What's your number one calculation, and would you be able to disclose it to me in under a moment?

Answer: This sort of inquiry tests your comprehension of how to discuss intricate and specialized subtleties with balance and the capacity to sum up rapidly and proficiently. Settle on sure you have a decision and ensure you can clarify various calculations so essentially and adequately that a five-year-old could get a handle on the nuts and bolts!

Q7: What is profound realizing, and how can it diverge from other Machine Learning calculations?

Answer: Deep learning is a subset of Machine Learning that is worried about neural organizations: how to utilize back propagation and certain standards from neuroscience to all the more precisely model enormous arrangements of unlabelled or semi-organized information. In that sense, profound learning speaks to an unaided learning calculation that learns portrayals of information using neural nets.