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id stringlengths 12 47	source stringlengths 20 247	text stringlengths 26 44.8k	category_label int64 -1 2	alignment_sentiment stringclasses 4 values	is_filter_target bool 2 classes
ad84f8f2-1f0e-447e-8400-11faa5eca95e	StampyAI/alignment-research-dataset/arbital	Operator An operation $f$ on a [set](https://arbital.com/p/3jz) $S$ is a function that takes some values from $S$ and produces a new value. An operation can take any number of values from $S$, including zero (in which case $f$ is simply a constant) or infinitely many (in which case we call $f$ an "infinitary operation"). Common operations take a finite non-zero number of parameters. Operations often produce a value that is also in $S$ (in which case we say $S$ is [closed](https://arbital.com/p/3gy) under $f$), but that is not always the case. For example, the function $+$ is a binary operation on [$\mathbb N$](https://arbital.com/p/45h), meaning it takes two values from $\mathbb N$ and produces another. Because $+$ produces a value that is also in $\mathbb N$, we say that $\mathbb N$ is closed under $+$. The function $\operatorname{neg}$ that maps $x$ to $-x$ is a unary operation on [$\mathbb Z$](https://arbital.com/p/48l): It takes one value from $\mathbb Z$ as input, and produces an output in $\mathbb Z$ (namely, the negation of the input). $\operatorname{neg}$ is also a unary operation on $\mathbb N$, but $\mathbb N$ is not closed under $\operatorname{neg}$ (because $\operatorname{neg}(3)=-3$ is not in $\mathbb N$). The number of values that the operator takes as input is called the [arity](https://arbital.com/p/3h8) of the operator. For example, the function $\operatorname{zero}$ which takes no inputs and returns $0$ is a zero-arity operator; and the operator $f(a, b, c, d) = ac - bd$ is a four-arity operator (which can be used on any [ring](https://arbital.com/p/3gq), if we interpret multiplication and subtraction as ring operations).	-1	Unrelated	false
790b7a07-ef84-4987-b2b3-af9b99ebd087	alignment-classifier-documents-unlabeled \| trentmkelly/LessWrong-43k	Does Checkers have simpler rules than Go? I've seen various contenders for the title of simplest abstract game that's interesting enough that a professional community could reasonably play it full time. While Go probably has the best ratio of interest to complexity, Checkers and Dots and Boxes might be simpler while remaining sufficiently interesting. [1] But is Checkers actually simpler than Go? If so, how much? How would we decide this? Initially you might approach this by writing out rules. There's an elegant set for Go and I wrote some for Checkers, but English is a very flexible language. Perhaps my rules are underspecified? Perhaps they're overly verbose? It's hard to say. A more objective test is to write a computer program that implements the rules. It needs to determine whether moves are valid, and identify a winner. The shorter the computer program, the simpler the rules of the game. This only gives you an upper bound on the complexity, because someone could come along and write a shorter one, but in general we expect that shorter programs imply shorter possible programs. To investigate this, I wrote ones for each of the three games. I wrote them quickly, and they're kind of terse, but they represent the rules as efficiently as I could figure out. The one for Go is based off Tromp's definition of the rules while the other two implement the rules as they are in my head. This probably gives an advantage to Go because those rules had a lot of care go into them, but I'm not sure how much of one. The programs as written have some excess information, such as comments, vaguely friendly error messages, whitespace, and meaningful variable names. I took a jscompiler-like pass over them to remove as much of this as possible, and making them nearly unreadable in the process. Then I ran them through a lossless compressor, gzip, and computed their sizes: * Checkers: 648 bytes * Dots and Boxes: 505 bytes * Go: 596 bytes (The programs are on github. If you have suggestions for simplifying them further, s	-1	Unrelated	false
89e6c9e2-d742-4077-a5ac-2c1b5fe4318d	alignment-classifier-documents-unlabeled \| StampyAI/alignment-research-dataset/arxiv	Finding Options that Minimize Planning Time 1 Introduction --------------- Markov Decision Processes or MDPs Puterman ([1994](#bib.bib33)) are an expressive yet simple model of sequential decision-making environments. However, MDPs are computationally expensive to solve Papadimitriou & Tsitsiklis ([1987](#bib.bib30)); Littman ([1997](#bib.bib21)); Goldsmith et al. ([1997](#bib.bib13)). One approach to solving such problems is to add high-level, temporally extended actions—often formalized as options Sutton et al. ([1999](#bib.bib41))—to the action space. The right set of options allows planning to probe more deeply into the search space with a single computation. Thus, if options are chosen appropriately, planning algorithms can find good plans with less computation. Indeed, previous work has offered substantial support that abstract actions can accelerate planning Mann & Mannor ([2014](#bib.bib24)). However, little is known about how to find the right set of options to use for planning. Prior work often seeks to codify an intuitive notion of what underlies an effective option, such as identifying relatively novel states Şimşek & Barto ([2004](#bib.bib37)), identifying bottleneck states or high-betweenness states Şimşek et al. ([2005](#bib.bib39)); Şimşek & Barto ([2009](#bib.bib38)); Bacon ([2013](#bib.bib2)); Moradi et al. ([2012](#bib.bib28)), finding repeated policy fragments Pickett & Barto ([2002](#bib.bib31)), or finding states that often occur on successful trajectories McGovern & Barto ([2001](#bib.bib26)); Bakker & Schmidhuber ([2004](#bib.bib3)). While such intuitions often capture important aspects of the role of options in planning, the resulting algorithms are somewhat heuristic in that they are not based on optimizing any precise performance-related metric; consequently, their relative performance can only be evaluated empirically. We aim to formalize what it means to find the set of options that is optimal for planning, and to use the resulting formalization to develop an approximation algorithm with a principled theoretical foundation. Specifically, we consider the problem of finding the smallest set of options so that planning converges in fewer than a given maximum of ℓℓ\ellroman\_ℓ iterations of the planning algorithm, value iteration (VI). Our main result shows that this problem is NP-hard. More precisely, the problem: 1. 1. is 2log1−ϵ⁡nsuperscript2superscript1italic-ϵ𝑛2^{\log^{1-\epsilon}n}2 start\_POSTSUPERSCRIPT roman\_log start\_POSTSUPERSCRIPT 1 - italic\_ϵ end\_POSTSUPERSCRIPT italic\_n end\_POSTSUPERSCRIPT-hard to approximate for any ϵ>0italic-ϵ0\epsilon>0italic\_ϵ > 0 unless 𝑁𝑃⊆𝐷𝑇𝐼𝑀𝐸(npolylog⁡n)𝑁𝑃𝐷𝑇𝐼𝑀𝐸superscript𝑛poly𝑛\text{\it NP}\subseteq\text{\it DTIME}(n^{\text{poly}\log n})NP ⊆ DTIME ( italic\_n start\_POSTSUPERSCRIPT poly roman\_log italic\_n end\_POSTSUPERSCRIPT )111This is a standard complexity assumption: See, for example, Dinitz et al. ([2012](#bib.bib7)), where n𝑛nitalic\_n is the input size; 2. 2. is Ω(log⁡n)Ω𝑛\Omega(\log n)roman\_Ω ( roman\_log italic\_n )-hard to approximate even for deterministic MDPs unless 𝑃=𝑁𝑃𝑃𝑁𝑃\text{\it P}=\text{\it NP}P = NP; 3. 3. has a O(n)𝑂𝑛O(n)italic\_O ( italic\_n )-approximation algorithm; 4. 4. has a O(log⁡n)𝑂𝑛O(\log n)italic\_O ( roman\_log italic\_n )-approximation algorithm for deterministic MDPs. In Section [4](#S4 "4 Approximation Algorithms"), we show A-MOMI, a polynomial-time approximation algorithm that has O(n)𝑂𝑛O(n)italic\_O ( italic\_n ) suboptimality in general and O(log⁡n)𝑂𝑛O(\log n)italic\_O ( roman\_log italic\_n ) suboptimality for deterministic MDPs. The expression 2log1−ϵ⁡nsuperscript2superscript1italic-ϵ𝑛2^{\log^{1-\epsilon}n}2 start\_POSTSUPERSCRIPT roman\_log start\_POSTSUPERSCRIPT 1 - italic\_ϵ end\_POSTSUPERSCRIPT italic\_n end\_POSTSUPERSCRIPT is only slightly smaller than n𝑛nitalic\_n: if ϵ=0italic-ϵ0\epsilon=0italic\_ϵ = 0 then Ω(2log⁡n)=Ω(n)Ωsuperscript2𝑛Ω𝑛\Omega(2^{\log n})=\Omega(n)roman\_Ω ( 2 start\_POSTSUPERSCRIPT roman\_log italic\_n end\_POSTSUPERSCRIPT ) = roman\_Ω ( italic\_n ). Thus, the inapproximability results claim that A-MOMI is close to the best possible approximation factor. In addition, we consider the complementary problem of finding a set of k𝑘kitalic\_k options that minimize the number of VI iterations until convergence. We show that this problem is also NP-hard, even for a deterministic MDP. Finally, we empirically evaluate the performance of two heuristic approaches for option discovery, betweenness options Şimşek & Barto ([2009](#bib.bib38)) and Eigenoptions Machado et al. ([2017](#bib.bib23)), against the proposed approximation algorithms and the optimal options in standard grid domains. 2 Background ------------- We first provide background on Markov Decision Processes (MDPs), planning, and options. ### 2.1 Markov Decision Processes and Planning An MDP is a five tuple: ⟨𝒮,𝒜,R,T,γ⟩𝒮𝒜𝑅𝑇𝛾\langle\mathcal{S},\mathcal{A},R,T,\gamma\rangle⟨ caligraphic\_S , caligraphic\_A , italic\_R , italic\_T , italic\_γ ⟩, where 𝒮𝒮\mathcal{S}caligraphic\_S is a finite set of states; 𝒜𝒜\mathcal{A}caligraphic\_A is a finite set of actions; R:𝒮×𝒜→[0,RMax]:𝑅→𝒮𝒜0RMaxR:\mathcal{S}\times\mathcal{A}\rightarrow[0,\textsc{RMax}]italic\_R : caligraphic\_S × caligraphic\_A → [ 0 , RMax ] is a reward function; T:𝒮×𝒜→Pr⁡(𝒮):𝑇→𝒮𝒜Pr𝒮T:\mathcal{S}\times\mathcal{A}\rightarrow\Pr(\mathcal{S})italic\_T : caligraphic\_S × caligraphic\_A → roman\_Pr ( caligraphic\_S ) is a transition function, denoting the probability of arriving in state s′∈𝒮superscript𝑠′𝒮s^{\prime}\in\mathcal{S}italic\_s start\_POSTSUPERSCRIPT ′ end\_POSTSUPERSCRIPT ∈ caligraphic\_S after executing action a∈𝒜𝑎𝒜a\in\mathcal{A}italic\_a ∈ caligraphic\_A in state s∈𝒮𝑠𝒮s\in\mathcal{S}italic\_s ∈ caligraphic\_S; and γ∈[0,1]𝛾01\gamma\in[0,1]italic\_γ ∈ [ 0 , 1 ] is a discount factor, expressing the agent’s preference for immediate over delayed rewards. An action-selection strategy is modeled by a policy, π:𝒮→Pr⁡(𝒜):𝜋→𝒮Pr𝒜\pi:\mathcal{S}\rightarrow\Pr(\mathcal{A})italic\_π : caligraphic\_S → roman\_Pr ( caligraphic\_A ), mapping states to a distribution over actions. Typically, the goal of planning in an MDP is to solve the MDP—that is, to compute an optimal policy. A policy π𝜋\piitalic\_π is evaluated according to the Bellman equation, denoting the long term expected reward received by executing π𝜋\piitalic\_π: \| \| \| \| \| \| --- \| --- \| --- \| --- \| \| \| Vπ(s)=R(s,π(s))+γ∑s′∈𝒮T(s,π(s),s′)Vπ(s′).superscript𝑉𝜋𝑠𝑅𝑠𝜋𝑠𝛾subscriptsuperscript𝑠′𝒮𝑇𝑠𝜋𝑠superscript𝑠′superscript𝑉𝜋superscript𝑠′V^{\pi}(s)=R(s,\pi(s))+\gamma\sum\_{s^{\prime}\in\mathcal{S}}T(s,\pi(s),s^{\prime})V^{\pi}(s^{\prime}).italic\_V start\_POSTSUPERSCRIPT italic\_π end\_POSTSUPERSCRIPT ( italic\_s ) = italic\_R ( italic\_s , italic\_π ( italic\_s ) ) + italic\_γ ∑ start\_POSTSUBSCRIPT italic\_s start\_POSTSUPERSCRIPT ′ end\_POSTSUPERSCRIPT ∈ caligraphic\_S end\_POSTSUBSCRIPT italic\_T ( italic\_s , italic\_π ( italic\_s ) , italic\_s start\_POSTSUPERSCRIPT ′ end\_POSTSUPERSCRIPT ) italic\_V start\_POSTSUPERSCRIPT italic\_π end\_POSTSUPERSCRIPT ( italic\_s start\_POSTSUPERSCRIPT ′ end\_POSTSUPERSCRIPT ) . \| \| (1) \| We denote π\(s)=argmaxπ⁡Vπ(s)superscript𝜋𝑠subscriptargmax𝜋superscript𝑉𝜋𝑠\pi^{\}(s)=\operatorname\{arg\,max}\_{\pi}V^{\pi}(s)italic\_π start\_POSTSUPERSCRIPT \ end\_POSTSUPERSCRIPT ( italic\_s ) = start\_OPERATOR roman\_arg roman\_max end\_OPERATOR start\_POSTSUBSCRIPT italic\_π end\_POSTSUBSCRIPT italic\_V start\_POSTSUPERSCRIPT italic\_π end\_POSTSUPERSCRIPT ( italic\_s ) and V\(s)=maxπ⁡Vπ(s)superscript𝑉𝑠subscript𝜋superscript𝑉𝜋𝑠V^{\}(s)=\max\_{\pi}V^{\pi}(s)italic\_V start\_POSTSUPERSCRIPT \* end\_POSTSUPERSCRIPT ( italic\_s ) = roman\_max start\_POSTSUBSCRIPT italic\_π end\_POSTSUBSCRIPT italic\_V start\_POSTSUPERSCRIPT italic\_π end\_POSTSUPERSCRIPT ( italic\_s ) as the optimal policy and value function, respectively. The core problem we study is planning, namely, computing a near optimal policy for a given MDP. The main variant of the planning problem we study we denote the value-planning problem: Definition 1 (Value-Planning Problem): Given an MDP M=⟨𝒮,𝒜,R,T,γ⟩𝑀𝒮𝒜𝑅𝑇𝛾M=\langle\mathcal{S},\mathcal{A},R,T,\gamma\rangleitalic\_M = ⟨ caligraphic\_S , caligraphic\_A , italic\_R , italic\_T , italic\_γ ⟩ and a non-negative real-value ϵitalic-ϵ\epsilonitalic\_ϵ, return a value function, V𝑉Vitalic\_V such that \|V(s)−V\(s)\|<ϵ𝑉𝑠superscript𝑉𝑠italic-ϵ\|V(s)-V^{\}(s)\|<\epsilon\| italic\_V ( italic\_s ) - italic\_V start\_POSTSUPERSCRIPT \* end\_POSTSUPERSCRIPT ( italic\_s ) \| < italic\_ϵ for all s∈𝒮𝑠𝒮s\in\mathcal{S}italic\_s ∈ caligraphic\_S. The value-planning problem can be solved in time polynomial in the size of the state space. ### 2.2 Options and Value Iteration Temporally extended actions offer great potential for mitigating the difficulty of solving complex MDPs, either through planning or reinforcement learning Sutton et al. ([1999](#bib.bib41)). Indeed, it is possible that options that are useful for learning are not necessarily useful for planning, and vice versa. Identifying techniques that produce good options in these scenarios is an important open problem in the literature. We use the standard definition of options Sutton et al. ([1999](#bib.bib41)): Definition 2 (option): An option o𝑜oitalic\_o is defined by a triple: (ℐ,π,β)ℐ𝜋𝛽(\mathcal{I},\pi,\beta)( caligraphic\_I , italic\_π , italic\_β ) where: • ℐ⊆𝒮ℐ𝒮\mathcal{I}\subseteq\mathcal{S}caligraphic\_I ⊆ caligraphic\_S is a set of states where the option can initiate, • π:𝒮→Pr⁡(𝒜):𝜋→𝒮Pr𝒜\pi:\mathcal{S}\rightarrow\Pr(\mathcal{A})italic\_π : caligraphic\_S → roman\_Pr ( caligraphic\_A ) is a policy, • β:𝒮→[0,1]:𝛽→𝒮01\beta:\mathcal{S}\rightarrow[0,1]italic\_β : caligraphic\_S → [ 0 , 1 ], is a termination condition. We let 𝒪allsubscript𝒪𝑎𝑙𝑙\mathcal{O}\_{all}caligraphic\_O start\_POSTSUBSCRIPT italic\_a italic\_l italic\_l end\_POSTSUBSCRIPT denote the set containing all options. In planning, options have a well defined transition and reward model for each state named the multi-time model, introduced by [Precup & Sutton](#bib.bib32) ([1998](#bib.bib32)): \| \| \| \| \| \| \| --- \| --- \| --- \| --- \| --- \| \| \| Tγ(s,o,s′)subscript𝑇𝛾𝑠𝑜superscript𝑠′\displaystyle T\_{\gamma}(s,o,s^{\prime})italic\_T start\_POSTSUBSCRIPT italic\_γ end\_POSTSUBSCRIPT ( italic\_s , italic\_o , italic\_s start\_POSTSUPERSCRIPT ′ end\_POSTSUPERSCRIPT ) \| =∑t=0∞γtPr⁡(st=s′,β(st)∣s,o).absentsuperscriptsubscript𝑡0superscript𝛾𝑡Prsubscript𝑠𝑡superscript𝑠′conditional𝛽subscript𝑠𝑡𝑠𝑜\displaystyle=\sum\_{t=0}^{\infty}\gamma^{t}\Pr(s\_{t}=s^{\prime},\beta(s\_{t})\mid s,o).= ∑ start\_POSTSUBSCRIPT italic\_t = 0 end\_POSTSUBSCRIPT start\_POSTSUPERSCRIPT ∞ end\_POSTSUPERSCRIPT italic\_γ start\_POSTSUPERSCRIPT italic\_t end\_POSTSUPERSCRIPT roman\_Pr ( italic\_s start\_POSTSUBSCRIPT italic\_t end\_POSTSUBSCRIPT = italic\_s start\_POSTSUPERSCRIPT ′ end\_POSTSUPERSCRIPT , italic\_β ( italic\_s start\_POSTSUBSCRIPT italic\_t end\_POSTSUBSCRIPT ) ∣ italic\_s , italic\_o ) . \| \| (2) \| \| \| Rγ(s,o)subscript𝑅𝛾𝑠𝑜\displaystyle R\_{\gamma}(s,o)italic\_R start\_POSTSUBSCRIPT italic\_γ end\_POSTSUBSCRIPT ( italic\_s , italic\_o ) \| =𝔼oπ[r1+γr2+…+γk−1rk\|s,o].absentsubscript𝑜𝜋𝔼delimited-[]\|subscript𝑟1𝛾subscript𝑟2…superscript𝛾𝑘1subscript𝑟𝑘𝑠𝑜\displaystyle=\underset{o\_{\pi}}{\mathbb{E}}\left[r\_{1}+\gamma r\_{2}+\ldots+\gamma^{k-1}r\_{k}\mathrel{\Big{\|}}s,o\right].= start\_UNDERACCENT italic\_o start\_POSTSUBSCRIPT italic\_π end\_POSTSUBSCRIPT end\_UNDERACCENT start\_ARG blackboard\_E end\_ARG [ italic\_r start\_POSTSUBSCRIPT 1 end\_POSTSUBSCRIPT + italic\_γ italic\_r start\_POSTSUBSCRIPT 2 end\_POSTSUBSCRIPT + … + italic\_γ start\_POSTSUPERSCRIPT italic\_k - 1 end\_POSTSUPERSCRIPT italic\_r start\_POSTSUBSCRIPT italic\_k end\_POSTSUBSCRIPT \| italic\_s , italic\_o ] . \| \| (3) \| We use the multi-time model for value iteration. The algorithm computes a sequence of functions V0,V1,…,Vbsubscript𝑉0subscript𝑉1…subscript𝑉𝑏V\_{0},V\_{1},...,V\_{b}italic\_V start\_POSTSUBSCRIPT 0 end\_POSTSUBSCRIPT , italic\_V start\_POSTSUBSCRIPT 1 end\_POSTSUBSCRIPT , … , italic\_V start\_POSTSUBSCRIPT italic\_b end\_POSTSUBSCRIPT using the Bellman optimality operator on the multi-time model: \| \| \| \| \| \| --- \| --- \| --- \| --- \| \| \| Vi+1(s)=maxo∈A∪𝒪⁡(Rγ(s,o)+∑s′∈STγ(s,o,s′)Vi(s′)).subscript𝑉𝑖1𝑠subscript𝑜𝐴𝒪subscript𝑅𝛾𝑠𝑜subscriptsuperscript𝑠′𝑆subscript𝑇𝛾𝑠𝑜superscript𝑠′subscript𝑉𝑖superscript𝑠′V\_{i+1}(s)=\max\_{o\in A\cup\mathcal{O}}\left(R\_{\gamma}(s,o)+\sum\_{s^{\prime}\in S}T\_{\gamma}(s,o,s^{\prime})V\_{i}(s^{\prime})\right).italic\_V start\_POSTSUBSCRIPT italic\_i + 1 end\_POSTSUBSCRIPT ( italic\_s ) = roman\_max start\_POSTSUBSCRIPT italic\_o ∈ italic\_A ∪ caligraphic\_O end\_POSTSUBSCRIPT ( italic\_R start\_POSTSUBSCRIPT italic\_γ end\_POSTSUBSCRIPT ( italic\_s , italic\_o ) + ∑ start\_POSTSUBSCRIPT italic\_s start\_POSTSUPERSCRIPT ′ end\_POSTSUPERSCRIPT ∈ italic\_S end\_POSTSUBSCRIPT italic\_T start\_POSTSUBSCRIPT italic\_γ end\_POSTSUBSCRIPT ( italic\_s , italic\_o , italic\_s start\_POSTSUPERSCRIPT ′ end\_POSTSUPERSCRIPT ) italic\_V start\_POSTSUBSCRIPT italic\_i end\_POSTSUBSCRIPT ( italic\_s start\_POSTSUPERSCRIPT ′ end\_POSTSUPERSCRIPT ) ) . \| \| (4) \| The problem we consider is to find a set of options to add to the set of primitive actions that minimize the number of iterations required for VI to converge:222We can ensure \|V\(s)−Vi(s)\|<ϵsuperscript𝑉𝑠subscript𝑉𝑖𝑠italic-ϵ\|V^{\}(s)-V\_{i}(s)\|<\epsilon\| italic\_V start\_POSTSUPERSCRIPT \* end\_POSTSUPERSCRIPT ( italic\_s ) - italic\_V start\_POSTSUBSCRIPT italic\_i end\_POSTSUBSCRIPT ( italic\_s ) \| < italic\_ϵ by running VI until \|Vi+1(s)−Vi(s)\|<ϵ(1−γ)/2γsubscript𝑉𝑖1𝑠subscript𝑉𝑖𝑠italic-ϵ1𝛾2𝛾\|V\_{i+1}(s)-V\_{i}(s)\|<\epsilon(1-\gamma)/2\gamma\| italic\_V start\_POSTSUBSCRIPT italic\_i + 1 end\_POSTSUBSCRIPT ( italic\_s ) - italic\_V start\_POSTSUBSCRIPT italic\_i end\_POSTSUBSCRIPT ( italic\_s ) \| < italic\_ϵ ( 1 - italic\_γ ) / 2 italic\_γ for all s∈𝒮𝑠𝒮s\in\mathcal{S}italic\_s ∈ caligraphic\_S Williams & Baird ([1993](#bib.bib43)). Definition 3 (Lϵ,V0(𝒪)subscript𝐿italic-ϵsubscript𝑉0𝒪L\_{\epsilon,V\_{0}}(\mathcal{O})italic\_L start\_POSTSUBSCRIPT italic\_ϵ , italic\_V start\_POSTSUBSCRIPT 0 end\_POSTSUBSCRIPT end\_POSTSUBSCRIPT ( caligraphic\_O )): The number of iterations Lϵ,V0(𝒪)subscript𝐿italic-ϵsubscript𝑉0𝒪L\_{\epsilon,V\_{0}}(\mathcal{O})italic\_L start\_POSTSUBSCRIPT italic\_ϵ , italic\_V start\_POSTSUBSCRIPT 0 end\_POSTSUBSCRIPT end\_POSTSUBSCRIPT ( caligraphic\_O ) of VI using the joint action set 𝒜∪𝒪𝒜𝒪\mathcal{A}\cup\mathcal{O}caligraphic\_A ∪ caligraphic\_O, with 𝒪𝒪\mathcal{O}caligraphic\_O a non-empty set of options, is the smallest b𝑏bitalic\_b at which \|Vb′(s)−V\(s)\|<ϵsuperscriptsubscript𝑉𝑏normal-′𝑠superscript𝑉𝑠italic-ϵ\|V\_{b}^{\prime}(s)-V^{\}(s)\|<\epsilon\| italic\_V start\_POSTSUBSCRIPT italic\_b end\_POSTSUBSCRIPT start\_POSTSUPERSCRIPT ′ end\_POSTSUPERSCRIPT ( italic\_s ) - italic\_V start\_POSTSUPERSCRIPT \* end\_POSTSUPERSCRIPT ( italic\_s ) \| < italic\_ϵ for all s∈𝒮𝑠𝒮s\in\mathcal{S}italic\_s ∈ caligraphic\_S, b′≥bsuperscript𝑏normal-′𝑏b^{\prime}\geq bitalic\_b start\_POSTSUPERSCRIPT ′ end\_POSTSUPERSCRIPT ≥ italic\_b. #### 2.2.1 Point options. The options formalism is immensely general. Due to its generality, a single option can actually encode several completely unrelated sets of different behaviors. Consider the nine-state example MDP pictured in Figure [1](#S2.F1 "Figure 1 ‣ 2.2.1 Point options. ‣ 2.2 Options and Value Iteration ‣ 2 Background"); a single option can in fact initiate, make decisions in, and terminate along entirely independent trajectories. As we consider more complex MDPs (which, as discussed earlier, is often a motivation for introducing options), the number of independent behaviors that can be encoded by a single option increases further still. ![Refer to caption](/html/1810.07311/assets/x1.png) Figure 1: A single option can encode multiple unrelated behaviors. The dark circles indicate where the option can be initiated (s1subscript𝑠1s\_{1}italic\_s start\_POSTSUBSCRIPT 1 end\_POSTSUBSCRIPT & s6subscript𝑠6s\_{6}italic\_s start\_POSTSUBSCRIPT 6 end\_POSTSUBSCRIPT) and terminated (s2subscript𝑠2s\_{2}italic\_s start\_POSTSUBSCRIPT 2 end\_POSTSUBSCRIPT & s9subscript𝑠9s\_{9}italic\_s start\_POSTSUBSCRIPT 9 end\_POSTSUBSCRIPT), whereas the lighter circles denote the states visited by the option policy when applied in the respective initiating state. As a result, it can be difficult to reason about the impact of adding a single option, in the traditional sense. As the MDP grows larger, a combinatorial number of different behaviors can emerge from “one” option. Consequently, it is difficult to address the question: which single option helps planning the most? As MDPs grow large, one option can encode a large number of possible, independent behaviors. Thus, we instead introduce and study “point options”, which only allow for a single continuous stream of behavior: Definition 4 (Point option): A point option is any option whose initiation set and termination set are each true for exactly one state each: \|{s∈𝒮:ℐ(s)=1}\|conditional-set𝑠𝒮ℐ𝑠1\displaystyle\|\{s\in\mathcal{S}:\mathcal{I}(s)=1\}\|\| { italic\_s ∈ caligraphic\_S : caligraphic\_I ( italic\_s ) = 1 } \| =1,absent1\displaystyle=1,= 1 , (5) \|{s∈𝒮:β(s)>0}\|conditional-set𝑠𝒮𝛽𝑠0\displaystyle\|\{s\in\mathcal{S}:\beta(s)>0\}\|\| { italic\_s ∈ caligraphic\_S : italic\_β ( italic\_s ) > 0 } \| =1,absent1\displaystyle=1,= 1 , (6) \|{s∈𝒮:β(s)=1}\|conditional-set𝑠𝒮𝛽𝑠1\displaystyle\|\{s\in\mathcal{S}:\beta(s)=1\}\|\| { italic\_s ∈ caligraphic\_S : italic\_β ( italic\_s ) = 1 } \| =1.absent1\displaystyle=1.= 1 . (7) We let 𝒪psubscript𝒪𝑝\mathcal{O}\_{p}caligraphic\_O start\_POSTSUBSCRIPT italic\_p end\_POSTSUBSCRIPT denote the set containing all point options. For simplicity, we denote the initiation state as ℐosubscriptℐ𝑜\mathcal{I}\_{o}caligraphic\_I start\_POSTSUBSCRIPT italic\_o end\_POSTSUBSCRIPT and the termination state as βosubscript𝛽𝑜\beta\_{o}italic\_β start\_POSTSUBSCRIPT italic\_o end\_POSTSUBSCRIPT for a point option o𝑜oitalic\_o. To plan with a point option from state s𝑠sitalic\_s, the agent runs value iteration using a model Q(s,o)=R(s,o)+γkV(s′)𝑄𝑠𝑜𝑅𝑠𝑜superscript𝛾𝑘𝑉superscript𝑠′Q(s,o)=R(s,o)+\gamma^{k}V(s^{\prime})italic\_Q ( italic\_s , italic\_o ) = italic\_R ( italic\_s , italic\_o ) + italic\_γ start\_POSTSUPERSCRIPT italic\_k end\_POSTSUPERSCRIPT italic\_V ( italic\_s start\_POSTSUPERSCRIPT ′ end\_POSTSUPERSCRIPT ) in addition to the backup operations by primitive actions where k𝑘kitalic\_k is the duration of the option. We assume that the model of each option is given to the agent and ignore the computation cost for computing the model for the options. Point options are a useful subclass to consider for several reasons. First, a point option is a simple model for a temporally extended action. Second, the policy of the point option can be calculated as a path-planning problem for deterministic MDPs. Third, any other options with a single termination state with termination probability 1 can be represented as a collection of point options. Fourth, a point option has a fixed amount of computational overhead per iteration. 3 Complexity Results --------------------- Our main results focus on two computational problems: 1. 1. MinOptionMaxIter (MOMI): Which set of options lets value iteration converge in at most ℓℓ\ellroman\_ℓ iterations? 2. 2. MinIterMaxOption (MIMO): Which set of k𝑘kitalic\_k or fewer options minimizes the number of iterations to convergence? More formally, MOMI is defined as follows. Definition 5 (MOMI): The MinOptionMaxIter problem: Given an MDP M𝑀Mitalic\_M, a non-negative real-value ϵitalic-ϵ\epsilonitalic\_ϵ, an initial value function V0subscript𝑉0V\_{0}italic\_V start\_POSTSUBSCRIPT 0 end\_POSTSUBSCRIPT, and an integer ℓnormal-ℓ\ellroman\_ℓ return 𝒪𝒪\mathcal{O}caligraphic\_O that minimizes \|𝒪\|𝒪\|\mathcal{O}\|\| caligraphic\_O \| subject to 𝒪⊆𝒪p𝒪subscript𝒪𝑝\mathcal{O}\subseteq\mathcal{O}\_{p}caligraphic\_O ⊆ caligraphic\_O start\_POSTSUBSCRIPT italic\_p end\_POSTSUBSCRIPT and Lϵ,V0(𝒪)≤ℓsubscript𝐿italic-ϵsubscript𝑉0𝒪normal-ℓL\_{\epsilon,V\_{0}}(\mathcal{O})\leq\ellitalic\_L start\_POSTSUBSCRIPT italic\_ϵ , italic\_V start\_POSTSUBSCRIPT 0 end\_POSTSUBSCRIPT end\_POSTSUBSCRIPT ( caligraphic\_O ) ≤ roman\_ℓ. We then consider the complementary optimization problem: compute a set of k𝑘kitalic\_k options which minimizes the number of iterations. Motivated by this scenario, the second problem we study is MinIterMaxOption (MIMO). Definition 6 (MIMO): The MinIterMaxOption problem: Given an MDP M𝑀Mitalic\_M, a non-negative real-value ϵitalic-ϵ\epsilonitalic\_ϵ, an initial value function V0subscript𝑉0V\_{0}italic\_V start\_POSTSUBSCRIPT 0 end\_POSTSUBSCRIPT, and an integer k𝑘kitalic\_k return 𝒪𝒪\mathcal{O}caligraphic\_O that minimizes Lϵ,V0(𝒪)subscript𝐿italic-ϵsubscript𝑉0𝒪L\_{\epsilon,V\_{0}}(\mathcal{O})italic\_L start\_POSTSUBSCRIPT italic\_ϵ , italic\_V start\_POSTSUBSCRIPT 0 end\_POSTSUBSCRIPT end\_POSTSUBSCRIPT ( caligraphic\_O ), subject to 𝒪⊆𝒪p𝒪subscript𝒪𝑝\mathcal{O}\subseteq\mathcal{O}\_{p}caligraphic\_O ⊆ caligraphic\_O start\_POSTSUBSCRIPT italic\_p end\_POSTSUBSCRIPT and \|𝒪\|≤k𝒪𝑘\|\mathcal{O}\|\leq k\| caligraphic\_O \| ≤ italic\_k. We now introduce our main result, which shows that both MOMI and MIMO are NP-hard. ###### Theorem 1. MOMI and MIMO are NP-hard. ###### Proof. We consider a problem OI-DEC which is a decision version of MOMI and MIMO. The problem asks if we can solve the MDP within ℓℓ\ellroman\_ℓ iterations using at most k𝑘kitalic\_k point options. Definition 7 (OI-DEC): Given an MDP M𝑀Mitalic\_M, a non-negative real-value ϵitalic-ϵ\epsilonitalic\_ϵ, an initial value function V0subscript𝑉0V\_{0}italic\_V start\_POSTSUBSCRIPT 0 end\_POSTSUBSCRIPT, and integers k𝑘kitalic\_k and ℓnormal-ℓ\ellroman\_ℓ, return ‘Yes’ if the there exists an option set 𝒪𝒪\mathcal{O}caligraphic\_O such that 𝒪⊆𝒪p𝒪subscript𝒪𝑝\mathcal{O}\subseteq\mathcal{O}\_{p}caligraphic\_O ⊆ caligraphic\_O start\_POSTSUBSCRIPT italic\_p end\_POSTSUBSCRIPT, \|𝒪\|≤k𝒪𝑘\|\mathcal{O}\|\leq k\| caligraphic\_O \| ≤ italic\_k and L(𝒪)≤ℓ𝐿𝒪normal-ℓL(\mathcal{O})\leq\ellitalic\_L ( caligraphic\_O ) ≤ roman\_ℓ. ‘No’ otherwise. We prove the theorem by reduction from the decision version of the set-cover problem—known to be NP-complete—to OI-DEC. The set-cover problem is defined as follows. Definition 8 (SetCover-DEC): Given a set of elements 𝒰𝒰\mathcal{U}caligraphic\_U, a set of subsets 𝒳={X⊆𝒰}𝒳𝑋𝒰\mathcal{X}=\{X\subseteq\mathcal{U}\}caligraphic\_X = { italic\_X ⊆ caligraphic\_U }, and an integer k𝑘kitalic\_k, return ‘Yes’ if there exists a cover 𝒞⊆𝒳𝒞𝒳\mathcal{C}\subseteq\mathcal{X}caligraphic\_C ⊆ caligraphic\_X such that ⋃X∈𝒞X=𝒰subscript𝑋𝒞𝑋𝒰\bigcup\_{X\in\mathcal{C}}X=\mathcal{U}⋃ start\_POSTSUBSCRIPT italic\_X ∈ caligraphic\_C end\_POSTSUBSCRIPT italic\_X = caligraphic\_U and \|𝒞\|≤k𝒞𝑘\|\mathcal{C}\|\leq k\| caligraphic\_C \| ≤ italic\_k. ‘No’ otherwise. If there is some u∈𝒰𝑢𝒰u\in\mathcal{U}italic\_u ∈ caligraphic\_U that is not included in at least one of the subsets X𝑋Xitalic\_X, then the answer is ‘No’. Assuming otherwise, we construct an instance of a shortest path problem (a special case of an MDP problem) as follows (Figure [2](#S3.F2 "Figure 2 ‣ Proof. ‣ 3 Complexity Results")). There are four types of states in the MDP: (1) ui∈𝒰subscript𝑢𝑖𝒰u\_{i}\in\mathcal{U}italic\_u start\_POSTSUBSCRIPT italic\_i end\_POSTSUBSCRIPT ∈ caligraphic\_U represents one of the elements in 𝒰𝒰\mathcal{U}caligraphic\_U, (2) Xi∈𝒳subscript𝑋𝑖𝒳X\_{i}\in\mathcal{X}italic\_X start\_POSTSUBSCRIPT italic\_i end\_POSTSUBSCRIPT ∈ caligraphic\_X represents one of the subsets in 𝒳𝒳\mathcal{X}caligraphic\_X, (3) Xi′∈𝒳′subscriptsuperscript𝑋′𝑖superscript𝒳′X^{\prime}\_{i}\in\mathcal{X}^{\prime}italic\_X start\_POSTSUPERSCRIPT ′ end\_POSTSUPERSCRIPT start\_POSTSUBSCRIPT italic\_i end\_POSTSUBSCRIPT ∈ caligraphic\_X start\_POSTSUPERSCRIPT ′ end\_POSTSUPERSCRIPT: we make a copy for every state Xi∈𝒳subscript𝑋𝑖𝒳X\_{i}\in\mathcal{X}italic\_X start\_POSTSUBSCRIPT italic\_i end\_POSTSUBSCRIPT ∈ caligraphic\_X and call them Xi′subscriptsuperscript𝑋′𝑖X^{\prime}\_{i}italic\_X start\_POSTSUPERSCRIPT ′ end\_POSTSUPERSCRIPT start\_POSTSUBSCRIPT italic\_i end\_POSTSUBSCRIPT, (4) a goal state g𝑔gitalic\_g. Thus, the state set is 𝒰∪𝒳∪𝒳′∪{g}𝒰𝒳superscript𝒳′𝑔\mathcal{U}\cup\mathcal{X}\cup\mathcal{X}^{\prime}\cup\{g\}caligraphic\_U ∪ caligraphic\_X ∪ caligraphic\_X start\_POSTSUPERSCRIPT ′ end\_POSTSUPERSCRIPT ∪ { italic\_g }. We build edges between states as follows: (1) e(u,X)∈E𝑒𝑢𝑋𝐸e(u,X)\in Eitalic\_e ( italic\_u , italic\_X ) ∈ italic\_E iff u∈X𝑢𝑋u\in Xitalic\_u ∈ italic\_X: For u∈𝒰𝑢𝒰u\in\mathcal{U}italic\_u ∈ caligraphic\_U and X∈𝒳𝑋𝒳X\in\mathcal{X}italic\_X ∈ caligraphic\_X, there is an edge between u𝑢uitalic\_u and X𝑋Xitalic\_X. (2) ∀Xi∈𝒳for-allsubscript𝑋𝑖𝒳\forall X\_{i}\in\mathcal{X}∀ italic\_X start\_POSTSUBSCRIPT italic\_i end\_POSTSUBSCRIPT ∈ caligraphic\_X, e(Xi,Xi′)∈E𝑒subscript𝑋𝑖subscriptsuperscript𝑋′𝑖𝐸e(X\_{i},X^{\prime}\_{i})\in Eitalic\_e ( italic\_X start\_POSTSUBSCRIPT italic\_i end\_POSTSUBSCRIPT , italic\_X start\_POSTSUPERSCRIPT ′ end\_POSTSUPERSCRIPT start\_POSTSUBSCRIPT italic\_i end\_POSTSUBSCRIPT ) ∈ italic\_E: For every Xi∈𝒳subscript𝑋𝑖𝒳X\_{i}\in\mathcal{X}italic\_X start\_POSTSUBSCRIPT italic\_i end\_POSTSUBSCRIPT ∈ caligraphic\_X, we have an edge from Xisubscript𝑋𝑖X\_{i}italic\_X start\_POSTSUBSCRIPT italic\_i end\_POSTSUBSCRIPT to Xi′subscriptsuperscript𝑋′𝑖X^{\prime}\_{i}italic\_X start\_POSTSUPERSCRIPT ′ end\_POSTSUPERSCRIPT start\_POSTSUBSCRIPT italic\_i end\_POSTSUBSCRIPT. (3) ∀e(X′,g)∈Efor-all𝑒superscript𝑋′𝑔𝐸\forall e(X^{\prime},g)\in E∀ italic\_e ( italic\_X start\_POSTSUPERSCRIPT ′ end\_POSTSUPERSCRIPT , italic\_g ) ∈ italic\_E: for every X′∈𝒳i′superscript𝑋′subscriptsuperscript𝒳′𝑖X^{\prime}\in\mathcal{X}^{\prime}\_{i}italic\_X start\_POSTSUPERSCRIPT ′ end\_POSTSUPERSCRIPT ∈ caligraphic\_X start\_POSTSUPERSCRIPT ′ end\_POSTSUPERSCRIPT start\_POSTSUBSCRIPT italic\_i end\_POSTSUBSCRIPT we have an edge from Xisubscript𝑋𝑖X\_{i}italic\_X start\_POSTSUBSCRIPT italic\_i end\_POSTSUBSCRIPT to the goal g𝑔gitalic\_g. This construction can be done in polynomial time. Let M𝑀Mitalic\_M be the MDP constructed in this way. We show that SetCover(𝒰,𝒳,k𝒰𝒳𝑘\mathcal{U},\mathcal{X},kcaligraphic\_U , caligraphic\_X , italic\_k) = OI-DEC(M,V0=0,k,2formulae-sequence𝑀subscript𝑉0 0𝑘2M,V\_{0}=0,k,2italic\_M , italic\_V start\_POSTSUBSCRIPT 0 end\_POSTSUBSCRIPT = 0 , italic\_k , 2). Note that by construction every state Xisubscript𝑋𝑖X\_{i}italic\_X start\_POSTSUBSCRIPT italic\_i end\_POSTSUBSCRIPT, Xi′subscriptsuperscript𝑋′𝑖X^{\prime}\_{i}italic\_X start\_POSTSUPERSCRIPT ′ end\_POSTSUPERSCRIPT start\_POSTSUBSCRIPT italic\_i end\_POSTSUBSCRIPT, and g𝑔gitalic\_g converges to its optimal value within 2 iterations as it reaches the goal state g𝑔gitalic\_g within 2 steps. A state u∈𝒰𝑢𝒰u\in\mathcal{U}italic\_u ∈ caligraphic\_U converges within 2 steps if and only if there exists a point option (a) from X𝑋Xitalic\_X to g𝑔gitalic\_g where u∈X𝑢𝑋u\in Xitalic\_u ∈ italic\_X, (b) from u𝑢uitalic\_u to X′superscript𝑋′X^{\prime}italic\_X start\_POSTSUPERSCRIPT ′ end\_POSTSUPERSCRIPT where u∈X𝑢𝑋u\in Xitalic\_u ∈ italic\_X, or (c) from u𝑢uitalic\_u to g𝑔gitalic\_g. For options of type (b) and (c), we can find an option of type (a) that makes u𝑢uitalic\_u converge within 2 steps by setting the initial state of the option to ℐo=Xsubscriptℐ𝑜𝑋\mathcal{I}\_{o}=Xcaligraphic\_I start\_POSTSUBSCRIPT italic\_o end\_POSTSUBSCRIPT = italic\_X, where u∈X𝑢𝑋u\in Xitalic\_u ∈ italic\_X, and the termination state to βo=gsubscript𝛽𝑜𝑔\beta\_{o}=gitalic\_β start\_POSTSUBSCRIPT italic\_o end\_POSTSUBSCRIPT = italic\_g. Let 𝒪𝒪\mathcal{O}caligraphic\_O be the solution of OI-DEC(M,k,2𝑀𝑘2M,k,2italic\_M , italic\_k , 2). If there exists an option of type (b) or (c), we can swap them with an option of type (a) and still maintain a solution. Let 𝒞𝒞\mathcal{C}caligraphic\_C be a set of initial states of each option in 𝒪𝒪\mathcal{O}caligraphic\_O (𝒞={ℐo\|o∈𝒪}𝒞conditional-setsubscriptℐ𝑜𝑜𝒪\mathcal{C}=\{\mathcal{I}\_{o}\|o\in\mathcal{O}\}caligraphic\_C = { caligraphic\_I start\_POSTSUBSCRIPT italic\_o end\_POSTSUBSCRIPT \| italic\_o ∈ caligraphic\_O }). This construction exactly matches the solution of the SetCover-DEC. u1subscript𝑢1u\_{1}italic\_u start\_POSTSUBSCRIPT 1 end\_POSTSUBSCRIPTu2subscript𝑢2u\_{2}italic\_u start\_POSTSUBSCRIPT 2 end\_POSTSUBSCRIPTu3subscript𝑢3u\_{3}italic\_u start\_POSTSUBSCRIPT 3 end\_POSTSUBSCRIPTu4subscript𝑢4u\_{4}italic\_u start\_POSTSUBSCRIPT 4 end\_POSTSUBSCRIPTu5subscript𝑢5u\_{5}italic\_u start\_POSTSUBSCRIPT 5 end\_POSTSUBSCRIPTX1subscript𝑋1X\_{1}italic\_X start\_POSTSUBSCRIPT 1 end\_POSTSUBSCRIPTX2subscript𝑋2X\_{2}italic\_X start\_POSTSUBSCRIPT 2 end\_POSTSUBSCRIPTX1′subscriptsuperscript𝑋′1X^{\prime}\_{1}italic\_X start\_POSTSUPERSCRIPT ′ end\_POSTSUPERSCRIPT start\_POSTSUBSCRIPT 1 end\_POSTSUBSCRIPTX2′subscriptsuperscript𝑋′2X^{\prime}\_{2}italic\_X start\_POSTSUPERSCRIPT ′ end\_POSTSUPERSCRIPT start\_POSTSUBSCRIPT 2 end\_POSTSUBSCRIPTg𝑔gitalic\_g Figure 2: Reduction from SetCover-DEC to OI-DEC. The example shows the reduction from an instance of SetCover-DEC which asks if we can pick two subsets from 𝒳={X1,X2}𝒳subscript𝑋1subscript𝑋2\mathcal{X}=\{X\_{1},X\_{2}\}caligraphic\_X = { italic\_X start\_POSTSUBSCRIPT 1 end\_POSTSUBSCRIPT , italic\_X start\_POSTSUBSCRIPT 2 end\_POSTSUBSCRIPT } where X1={1,2,3},X2={3,4,5}formulae-sequencesubscript𝑋1123subscript𝑋2345X\_{1}=\{1,2,3\},X\_{2}=\{3,4,5\}italic\_X start\_POSTSUBSCRIPT 1 end\_POSTSUBSCRIPT = { 1 , 2 , 3 } , italic\_X start\_POSTSUBSCRIPT 2 end\_POSTSUBSCRIPT = { 3 , 4 , 5 } to cover all elements 𝒰={1,2,3,4,5}𝒰12345\mathcal{U}=\{1,2,3,4,5\}caligraphic\_U = { 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 }. The SetCover-DEC can be reduced to an instance of OI-DEC where the question is whether the MDP can be solved with 2 iterations of VI by adding at most two point options. The answer of OI-DEC is ‘Yes’ (adding point options from X1subscript𝑋1X\_{1}italic\_X start\_POSTSUBSCRIPT 1 end\_POSTSUBSCRIPT and X2subscript𝑋2X\_{2}italic\_X start\_POSTSUBSCRIPT 2 end\_POSTSUBSCRIPT to g𝑔gitalic\_g will solve the problem), thus the answer of the SetCover-DEC is ‘Yes’. Here the set of initial states corresponds to the cover for the SetCover-DEC. ∎ ### 3.1 Generalizations of MOMI and MIMO A natural question is whether Theorem [1](#Thmtheorem1 "Theorem 1. ‣ 3 Complexity Results") extends to more general option-construction settings. We consider two possible extensions, which we believe offer significant coverage of finding optimal options for planning in general. We first consider the case where the options are not necessarily point options. There is little sense in considering MOMI where one can choose any option since clearly the best option is the option whose policy is the optimal policy. Thus, using the space of all options 𝒪allsubscript𝒪𝑎𝑙𝑙\mathcal{O}\_{all}caligraphic\_O start\_POSTSUBSCRIPT italic\_a italic\_l italic\_l end\_POSTSUBSCRIPT we generalize MOMI as follows: Definition 9 (MOMIgen𝑔𝑒𝑛{}\_{gen}start\_FLOATSUBSCRIPT italic\_g italic\_e italic\_n end\_FLOATSUBSCRIPT): Given an MDP M𝑀Mitalic\_M, a non-negative real-value ϵitalic-ϵ\epsilonitalic\_ϵ, an initial value function V0subscript𝑉0V\_{0}italic\_V start\_POSTSUBSCRIPT 0 end\_POSTSUBSCRIPT, 𝒪′⊆𝒪allsuperscript𝒪normal-′subscript𝒪𝑎𝑙𝑙\mathcal{O^{\prime}}\subseteq\mathcal{O}\_{all}caligraphic\_O start\_POSTSUPERSCRIPT ′ end\_POSTSUPERSCRIPT ⊆ caligraphic\_O start\_POSTSUBSCRIPT italic\_a italic\_l italic\_l end\_POSTSUBSCRIPT, and an integer ℓnormal-ℓ\ellroman\_ℓ, return 𝒪𝒪\mathcal{O}caligraphic\_O minimizing \|𝒪\|𝒪\|\mathcal{O}\|\| caligraphic\_O \| subject to Lϵ,V0(𝒪)≤ℓsubscript𝐿italic-ϵsubscript𝑉0𝒪normal-ℓL\_{\epsilon,V\_{0}}(\mathcal{O})\leq\ellitalic\_L start\_POSTSUBSCRIPT italic\_ϵ , italic\_V start\_POSTSUBSCRIPT 0 end\_POSTSUBSCRIPT end\_POSTSUBSCRIPT ( caligraphic\_O ) ≤ roman\_ℓ and 𝒪⊆𝒪′𝒪superscript𝒪normal-′\mathcal{O}\subseteq\mathcal{O^{\prime}}caligraphic\_O ⊆ caligraphic\_O start\_POSTSUPERSCRIPT ′ end\_POSTSUPERSCRIPT. ###### Theorem 2. MOMIgen𝑔𝑒𝑛{}\_{gen}start\_FLOATSUBSCRIPT italic\_g italic\_e italic\_n end\_FLOATSUBSCRIPT and MIMOgen𝑔𝑒𝑛{}\_{gen}start\_FLOATSUBSCRIPT italic\_g italic\_e italic\_n end\_FLOATSUBSCRIPT are NP-hard. The proof follows from the fact that MOMIgen𝑔𝑒𝑛{}\_{gen}start\_FLOATSUBSCRIPT italic\_g italic\_e italic\_n end\_FLOATSUB	-1	Unrelated	false
<urn:uuid:9e90b6ba-0e0c-45a2-bb3a-74e7c1edc8cb>	dclm-dedup-25B-ai-scifi-docs \| http://friendofsophia.blogspot.com/	Rannm Thawts Ten Random thoughts. • People keep citing Clarke's Third Law (the "sufficiently advanced technology" one) as if it's a real scientific principle. It's not. It's Clarke demonstrating that island savages are prone to Cargo Cultism, no matter what island they live on. Because magic doesn't have to take thermodynamics into account; technology does. Go look up how hard it is just to make things float, via technology; now consider how easy it generally is for wizards (moving objects up to 5 pounds is a zeroth-level spell, in D&D). This is not only why hover-tanks and "nanomachines are magic" plots are stupid, it's also why shows like Gate: Thus the JSDF Fought There are stupid. A wizard who can make portals isn't going to be impressed by physics, except in the sense that you're impressed by things some disabled people can do; they can already do things our physics says are probably impossible and almost certainly practically impossible even if they can technically happen. And a "great red dragon" in a blatantly D&D-based setting isn't going to be impressed by your tank shells, son; it's wholly immune to the half that's fire damage and little if any of the half that's just regular damage is going to get through its damage reduction. Those five or so HP of damage you might do are going to piss it off, though—it'll probably take about six seconds to land, dig open the hatch, and turn the crew (and upholstery) into a fine coating of white ash inside the tank. Maybe you don't know how many attacks a dragon gets in a full-attack action? • The reason critics praise "subversion," even when it's manifestly moronic, and will defend even mean-spirited, incoherent dreck like Star Wars: The Last One Anybody Will See in Theaters, has little to do with politics or being adherents of post-structuralist or postmodern ideologies, and much to do with the fact critics are unhappy people, basically damned while still alive. You see, to be a critic is to do something that real humans do for fun, as your job. Film critics, for example, go to see every movie, whether they want to or not. They see far more movies than anyone else. Hence why they habitually mistake all tropes for clichés (the fact they don't know tropes from clichés is why assertions that they're some kind of ideologues are doubtful: they would need real educations for that). Hence also why they will snap up anything novel, no matter how mean-spirited or half-assed. They're dead inside, and novelty is the only thing that makes them feel anything. • It is 100% fair to call Thundercats Roar badly-drawn crap. Ditto Steven Universe, though its bad art is the least of that show's problems. But it is not fair to call that art-style "CalArts"; that term, as a form of abuse, was actually coined by John Kricfalusi, the talentless psychopath behind Ren and Stimpy. And he actually applied it to the usual form of Disney animation. Which he presumably didn't like because, unlike his art, it doesn't look like an unsolicited dick pic. (I'm not really picking that analogy at random.) Also the hacks behind Steven Universe went to the School of Visual Arts in New York. The art-style of Steven Universe and Thundercats Roar, aside from being much closer to Kricfalusi's art style than to the one the mongrel was attacking, really ought to be called "Tumblr Arts", because that's the place you'll see it most. Remember that "let people enjoy things" comic that's the only defense that people with no taste can make of the trash they're into? That art style. Now, admittedly, good shows have been made in a similar style—Gravity Falls and Star vs. the Forces of Evil, for instance. But those shows are made by people who know what they're doing, unlike Steven Universe or Thundercats Roar. • My Common Tongue has an agreement system somewhat similar to Uto-Aztecan or Bantu. Because they're prefixes rather than unbound morphemes, it's kinda hard to use possessives predicatively ("this dog is mine" vs. "this is my dog") in Uto-Aztecan languages, and predicative possessives are important in a particular type of phrasing that I like. Tribute must be paid to the greatest fantasy currently being done in English, as once 'twas paid unto Tolkien and Howard and Vance. But there is an equivalent, in Nahuatl: you basically say "O [...] that I have" rather than "O [...] mine". The power of undeath behind the nightshades, by the bye, talks in trochaic heptameter. I'm not sure how that actually works in the Common Tongue; I also haven't really worked out how the beast-totem chants being in trochaic tetrameter ("Kalevala meter") works. I should probably give their poetry more kennings and parallelisms, which A, work largely independent of language (one of the reasons the Bible is such a great work of literature is its parallelisms usually translate well—in which you may certainly see the hand of God if you choose), and B, are the two features that define Nahuatl poetry. • It occurs to me, that theme I like about how individualism and collectivism are both really bad for civilization, and are fundamentally errors with regard to the Problem of Universals, is also kinda similar to the existentialist concept of "bad faith". Except that existentialism mainly starts from the ethics end and I start at the epistemology/metaphysics end. Existentialist epistemology is generally pretty vague, if not actually incoherent; it thus tends to be too easily corrupted into Postmodernism and Social Constructionism, where all truth is reduced to power-relationships—or as those schools' most consistent adherents know the concept, the Sword Logic. • I don't understand people's inability to be pleased. There are mongrels claiming that the writers of Halo 5 didn't know who the game is about (you're actually fighting logic if you just deny that it's the best game in the series except ODST and maybe Reach). I admit I automatically award significant bonus-points just for not involving the Flood, who as I've said turn a top-notch shooter into third-rate survival horror, and for having been actually playtested (not like that's the only reason Halo 3 is better than Halo 2, but it's a big one...though admittedly Halo 3 does have the level "Cortana"). Others of these beasts of the field will claim that Destiny 2 is worse than the first one in every way, which is actually the opposite of true. The second has a better inventory system, a better interface, better loot, and public events are much easier to participate in. Yes, Warmind was kinda lackluster, and while Curse of Osiris isn't terrible it could've stood to be longer and go more places (there was apparently some funny business with the experience calculation, which is an issue of the game as a product but not of the game as a "text"). However, it's not like The Dark Below was particularly brilliant, and I personally don't give a damn about Rise of Iron beyond its resolution of the Fallen plotline making Destiny 2 make sense. Hell The Taken King is near-universally regarded as the best expansion of the first game (I don't know how so many people can misspell "House of Wolves" like that), and that was when your character became a mime, for no apparent reason. Also the Taken show up in various areas before your character has actually encountered them in the game's story (which you'll note they don't, in the second game). • Reading a lot of tie-in novels lately; there's a summer-reading thing at my local library. I find I like tie-in fantasy more because I don't have to sit while Sandon Branderson or somebody lucubrates on forty-three different kinds of metamorphic rock and how each affects the color of your astral cord when you mix your astral-projection potion in a mortar made of it. One thing I noticed is that not only are the Warhammer Fantasy novels less pointlessly grimdark than ASoIaF (despite being the people who literally invented it), they're actually less pointlessly grimdark than the Pathfinder ones. Ain't even passing references to people being raped by ogres (or "greenskins"), in Warhammer. It's basically impossible for Pathfinder to mention ogres without that coming up. I'm really looking forward to Kingmaker, but I can't escape the worry that I'm going to be subjected to something out of a tenth-grade creative-writing club-member's attempt to be edgy. • Noticed something watching E3: people are actually praising "gritty" environments. Um...what? Every game has "gritty" environments, and basically has ever since the hardware was up to displaying that many objects on-screen. Actually what they should be praising is the few games where everything isn't bombed-out hovels plagued by nuclear mutants. At least Destiny is the ruins of a bunch of space-colonies, but would it seriously kill you people to have a video game where people don't all have gravel-pits in the middle of the living room? Sure, the occasional bombed-out building makes sense, in a shooter or war-game, even an RPG or open-world. Every building being a bombed-out shell? No. Halo 5, especially in the Sanghelios levels, hit a nice balance between clean modern buildings, ancient ruins, and bombed wreckage, and when the Guardian started breaking things in Sunaion it actually meant something. I suppose this is just a broader thing about how post-apocalyptic settings are fundamentally lazy; even in Destiny the "wreckage of the Golden Age" thing is the weakest part of the setting. • Tangentially related to the tie-ins thing, it is utterly inexplicable to me that 40K is more popular than Fantasy Battle. The black-and-gray morality of WHFB was Flanderized into evil-vs.-evil; the Empire that could maintain cordial relations with elves and dwarfs became genocidal totalitarians. The one time science fiction (in the very broad sense of "set in space in the future") does better than (traditional) fantasy, and it's the markedly inferior product! Playing with Fantasy VIII Fantasy game thoughts. • I'm not tired any more, so I did the number-crunching. A dragon of the dimensions of a river otter, but 120 feet long, and only as dense as a bird so massing 69.6 (short) tons, with a wingspan of 108 feet, would, assuming its neck and tail include feathers to act as lifting-area and it is, thus, basically kite-shaped (but leaving off say 10% of the length, for the head itself—a square kite, basically, although the back is longer and the front is shorter), have a wing-area of 5,832 square feet and a wing-loading of 116.5 kilograms per square meter. That results in a takeoff speed of 88.2 miles per hour. The wings are also not just triangles, they're shaped more like a bird-wing, but that's the net total area. I wonder if the really big dragons run down mountain slopes to get up to speed more quickly. For the gold-dragon sized ones, the younger age-categories would weigh only 35.5%, 9.6%, 1.7%, and 0.23% as much, at the Gargantuan, Huge, Large, and Medium age-categories respectively, and yet their wing area would be only 50.2%, 21%, 6.7%, and 1.8% the area, so the wing-loading goes down drastically. (Small and Tiny, found in smaller types of dragons at young age-categories, are 0.03% and 0.004% as heavy and have wings with 0.4% and 0.1% the area.) Actually, let me crunch the takeoff speeds for 'em all: Gargantuan, 74.2 mph; Huge, 59.7 mph; Large, 44.8 mph; Medium, 32.2 mph; Small, 22.8 mph; Tiny, 16.1 mph. I.e. the large one just has to move as fast as a fast horse to take off. You can actually move something built like an otter pretty quickly; rabbits, after all, have a similar body-plan. • I'd been struggling with my Fiendish/Celestial/Primordial/(Aklo) language. There isn't enough of a corpus of Valarin, Black Speech, or whatever you want to call the Cthulhu gibberish (it's not Aklo, I'll tell you that for free) to easily make a language based on any of them. (Though they did do a pretty good job with the "Faceless" language in WoW, but like I said, basing the phonics on Cthulhu gibberish was a chore to pronounce even for me.) I eventually buckled down, bit the bullet, and just overhauled the grammar to the point of actual usefulness, but along the way I toyed with just declaring that there is no such language, as we think of language. I had two rationales (or rationalizations) for that. One, they're divine beings, so glossolalia (speaking in tongues) as their mode of expression makes a kind of sense; and two, my setting is partly based on Native American ideas, with only Old World material culture. The Navajo gods are defined as unable to speak. (Yes, even "Talking God"; he metaphorically speaks for them, as their leader.) The way that would have worked, if I hadn't eventually gotten down to business, is that anyone who speaks the divine/extraplanar language would be able to understand anyone else speaking it, as if they spoke the same language, but really they're just babbling glossolalia at each other. • One thing I decided along the way is that all the "outsiders", not just the fiendish ones, have names in Primordial, but the gods prefer the names in the languages their mortal children have given them. Whereas the fiends prefer to be called on by their original names, if not in their own languages, because they view mortals as livestock, not even pets let alone children. Now, of course, I have to come up with a system for creating names for fiends, which system I can also use for the courtesy-names of mortal witches. (Actually maybe just human witches, the dark-elf and black-dwarf witches don't worship fiends like human ones do, they worship gods that happen to be hostile to the other gods. Goblins and orcs don't have witches.) Think maybe the fiends' names will have a third element, though, to keep the talking pond-scum in its place. • I think I can get a reasonable lift out of the Pathfinder Ultimate Combat airship, with a steam-filled envelope (I draw the line at letting a fantasy society have helium, and hydrogen is suicide). Steam has about 61% (actually 20/33) as much lift as helium, so you need 65% more volume; medieval ships the size of their airship's gondola, 20 feet by 60 feet, typically have displacements of 20 to 30 tons, plus 30 tons of cargo. A helium-envelope to lift 55 tons would be 1,581,715.41 cubic feet, so a steam one is 2,609,830.43 cubic feet. Assuming the same proportions as its gondola, that means an envelope 355.32 feet long and 118.44 feet wide (and tall). Of course, we're glossing over the fact it's really hard to contain superheated steam safely. Handwave it with "magically treated" material, and so on. I think the steam is magically generated somehow (fire and water elementals in some kind of ethically questionable harness?). The "magical engine" in the vehicle description is vague; my gut instinct, of course, is that it should be a pretty chair that eats the day's spellcasting of a spellcaster who sits in it, but that doesn't really match the actual description (also it's probably copyright infringement). I picture it as a big stone pillar with runes that both indicate and let you control your altitude and speed. • One thing the Elder Scrolls setting does remarkably well, but that most of the audience probably missed, is Gnostic twaddle (though really if you're not familiar with Gnostic twaddle it probably speaks to your good judgment). Read, for example, The 36 Lessons of Vivec, and then read something like the Gospel of Judas: the exact same type of self-satisfied, self-important bafflegab, dressing up deeply shallow pseudo-philosophy in big, impressive-sounding buzzwords. I don't mean this as a criticism; it's a fascinating way to develop a setting, by giving its mystics authentic esoteric gobbledygook. (Also, as I think I've said before, it's nice that all those people with comparative religion degrees are finding work.) • Decided that, just as my setting only has one kind of fiend, it only has the angel-type celestials. Other than that there's the elementals. I might keep the guardinals agathions, eladrin azatas, and inevitables as servitors of the human, elf, and dwarf gods. But then again maybe not, since I can't really find anything appropriate to use for servitors of the gnome gods. (The Pathfinder "Dimension of Dreams" is sorely lacking in anything one might use that way, practically everything you meet there being straight-up evil instead of merely incredibly dangerous through no fault of their own, as would make sense in a world run on "dream logic".) I was starting to think I'd use a lot more fey than I'd thought I would—fauns but not satyrs; dryads, hamadryads, nereids, and oceanids but not nymphs; atomies and pixies but not the others—but no, I think I'll just have things like genies count as "fey" for purposes like a druid's Resist Nature's Lure ability. The last straw was how Pathfinder conflates rusalka with bludička (the ara-mitama of the rusalka), which completely screws up the ending of the opera. Also vodyanoi certainly do not "resemble humanoid salamanders". They're water goblins. Their theme-song is even often called that, in English. Basically the whole edifice of the "fey" creature type, in a world with elves and dwarves (or goblins), was weird from the get-go; and Pathfinder trying to make the gnomes more a part of it than the others was even more bizarre. Elves, dwarves, and goblins actually are fairies (except in Germanic languages instead of Romance ones), whereas gnomes are elemental spirits from an alchemist's cosmological speculations. (Also though seriously the other word Paracelsus used for them, in his Latin notes? Pygmaeus…the Greco-Latin for "dwarf"! What a man whose real name was Philipp Bombast von Hohenheim might mean by "dwarf" is left as an exercise for the student.) Basically, what D&D calls a gnome really should've been called a brownie, since the actual gnomes were just dwarves. Yes I realize "jinn" is pretty much just "fairy" in Arabic. Even I'm not that much of a stickler, though. • People complain about feasting in fantasy novels. I'm not sure why; probably the stupid idea that what does not directly advance the "plot" is bad, never mind a well-written feast actually advances plot too quickly, if anything. I can see complaining about a paper-thin Ren Faire cliché storm feast (giant turkey-legs, huge carcasses being spit-roasted), but I mean, can you find Japan on a map? Or any other Pacific island? Heard of the Tlingit? And, yes, the Norse? Feasts are a huge deal, anthropologically; they cement relationships and allow the elite to display their power without having to kill anyone. Gifts are given at feasts, and songs are sung. If you can't figure out how these things are a convenience to a fantasy story, you have no business reading them, let alone writing them. I'd actually like to see feasts in fantasy games—have that be where you find out the ancient prophecy you're supposed to fulfill, or where you're gifted your plot-significant weapon, from the largess of a mighty chief. Oh, but they'd be boring to sit through? Most of the Thieves' Guild questline in Skyrim consists of standing around while NPCs talk; a feast would at least establish setting, even if you stupidly decided not to have them be where key story-development occurs. You should get a feast every time you become a thane, and maybe have a skald sing something that gives you a tip for fighting Alduin, make the last fight easier. That would certainly be better than entire Mephala and Boethiah questlines that wound up being cut anyway. • Decided that the giants in my setting are from the gas giants in the system (Neptune- and Uranus-type gas giants, with solid cores); they had to abandon their worlds at the same time the elves and dwarves abandoned the moons. Decided that wood and frost giants have the proportions of elves, while stone and fire have the proportions of dwarves and hill have the proportions of humans (this results in a 12-foot-6-inch fire or stone giant to a 15-foot wood or frost giant, and a 13-foot-9-inch hill giant). Each group of proportions is from a different gas giant. Also decided that the fire and frost giants are the giant equivalents of orcs or black dwarves and goblins or dark elves, respectively, changed by trafficking with a dark power (an outcast member of their pantheon). My wood and stone giants have cold and fire resist 5, while the "changed" equivalents have full immunity to the energy-type in question. The hill giants were all changed, the way the frost and fire giants were, but mine are a bit smarter than the ones in the core rules (say Int 8 or 9 instead of 6). They're giant humans, basically. Might change it so giants advance by class-levels like other humanoids, and have all the hill giants be barbarians while the others are mostly warriors. Sierra Foxtrot 11 SF thoughts. • Was doing some research on quantum computing. Turns out, while quantum processing is hugely advantageous, storage still pretty much has to be "classical" (here meaning just "not quantum"), certainly if you ever want to copy things; but quantum computing would tend to work with much bigger memories. The solution is apparently to find some way to store your data in three dimensions. Some people recommend DNA, but that seems really suspect, and (given how much we still don't understand about DNA, and how complicated it is even when we do understand it) prone to all kinds of bugs. I think a better method would be so-called "holographic data storage". • I have, like most thinking people, only what tolerance for "dark matter is magic" is strictly necessary to keep watching shows like The Flash. (A show that, like Arrow, has a bigger problem, namely that they're clearly having Hal "I'm such a bad boyfriend my girlfriend became a supervillain" Jordan write their romance subplots.) The thing about dark matter is it doesn't interact with normal matter, except by gravity, so while it has very weird properties, they probably aren't very useful. Better that than "nanomachines are magic", though, I suppose. But if you must have something relating to dark matter be related to your mystical foofaraw, at least dress it up a bit. Destiny, for example, although they have dark matter be an indicator of the reality-warping powers of the Darkness (no idea if there's some similar indicator of the powers of the Light), at least say "sterile neutrinos", which you have to look up to know they're associated with dark matter. (Regular, "active" neutrinos interact via the weak force, only.) And no, SIVA isn't magic nanomachines, it can only kind of infect Ghosts, for a reason—in that setting, "magic nanomachines" would be meant literally. • I think it's ironic, since the Dune series was written as an attack on the idea of hero-worship, that the only parts of it anyone remembers are the parts that would lead to hero-worship. (Well, I also often quote Harkonnen's line about "Never trust a traitor, even one you created yourself.") It's like François Truffaut's famous line, "...Some films claim to be antiwar, but I don't think I've really seen an antiwar film. Every film about war ends up being pro-war." It's also ironic that Herbert actually listed the Jesuits as one of the great tyrannical systems of history, in one of the sequels. Um...what? No like seriously what? The Jesuits were suppressed in 1773 at the behest of the European empires, because they didn't like all these priests gumming up their tyrannical systems. Jesuit missionaries made a nuisance of themselves, advocating for the natives and building communities that allowed the natives to be self-sufficient and independent of the colonial governments. Was Herbert maybe thinking of the Dominicans? At least that would make sense with the Spanish Inquisition, even though the Inquisition was the mildest Early Modern ideological court-system. (Of course, because of the Inquisition, Spain had basically no witch-hunts. Unlike most of the people who pretend to be so shocked by the Inquisition doing much milder things than all their own courts were doing outside their witch-hunts.) • Remember how I was wondering how termites replace their queens if the old one dies, when all the candidates would be the daughters of the old queen and thus also of the king? Turns out, termite queens can parthenogenetically produce clones of themselves to replace them; some of them are on hand in any given colony at any one time, in case the old queen dies. No idea how you get new kings if the old one dies, though (termites aren't Hymenoptera, their eggs require fertilization each time they're produced, like the rest of us do it). Maybe a queen dies too when her mate does, and then one of her clones does a mating flight with a king from outside, that isn't the son of the old queen. Turns out that termites are in the order Blattodea, same as cockroaches, not just related to it (Isoptera, their old order, turns out not to exist). They have a bunch of behaviors in common, like pheromone trails and kin-recognition. Of course, cockroaches' aversion to light doesn't extend to all being blind, as non-alate termites typically are. The order's closest relative is the one mantises are in, Mantodea. • I'm curious, people who subscribe to the "stronger" climate-change predictions (the milder, likelier ones are less likely to show up in science fiction, as well as being harder to milk political capital out of): why do you keep saying we're going to see droughts? Cold is dry; in a Glacial Maximum, most of Africa and significant chunks of Eurasia and the Americas are uninhabitable desert. Heat is wet, because less of the water is locked up in glaciers—even in warmer phases of this glaciation period, large portions of the Sahara are forest. If your conception of climate change involves global cooling, e.g. us accidentally skewing things back toward a glacial maximum (or even just a higher level of glaciation), then of course this remonstration is not directed at you. • You've probably come across the idea of the "motherhood statement", and the idea that good science fiction comes from "burning the motherhood statement" (it's usually mentioned in the "standard" version of the Turkey City Lexicon, for instance). Which I think just proves a significant portion of the science fiction fandom actually doesn't give a damn about science, except as window-dressing for their actually Gnostic views. Because, I mean, are we supposed to just deny evolutionary theory? Even Heinlein knows that what you're "for", biologically speaking, is reproduction—"motherhood"—and nearly everything else is in service to that. If you're more unrealistic and Gnostic in your views of human sexuality and families than Heinlein, you have a problem. • Apparently rats laugh when they're tickled, and their ears droop and turn pink when they're happy. The really interesting thing is that when they laugh, we can't hear it—it's too high-pitched. (Many rodent vocalizations are, that's why things that hunt them, like foxes and cats, have such good high-frequency hearing.) Another thing this presumably means is that blushing and laughter either predate the split between Euarchonta (tree-shrews, colugos, and primates) and Glires (rodents and lagomorphs), or else independently evolved in both. My money is maybe on the first one? Though I wonder what purpose flushing with blood when emotional serves in a rodent: the ability to see red only evolved with the simians (though the evolution of color vision is complicated, between Old World and New World monkeys). • Speaking of the unusual ability to see long wavelengths of light, vampire bats and pit-vipers independently evolved infrared vision that uses thermoreceptors near their noses and connects to their optic nerves. A lot of the brain-structures involved are even analogous, despite the last common ancestor of bats and snakes being a basal reptiliomorph from about a third of a billion years ago. • Something people are apparently realizing is unrealistic in a lot of science fiction, is the Gattaca-type stuff where society's "haves" have designer children and the "have-nots" don't (and which Gundam SEED should've been about, but wasn't, because that show is stupid). Now, it is true that realistically it won't make enough of a difference, because genetic enhancement is still partly a crapshoot if you don't utterly reorganize everything else in the subject's life to also work toward your desired result. But the assertion of unrealism is itself unrealistic, for one reason. Namely, just because you're not remotely guaranteed to get the super kid you want, won't stop people from trying. This is a species that practiced trepanning, footbinding, and tightlacing, do you think it's going to let a little thing like "it isn't actually all that likely to work" stop it? I'd actually like plots with yuppie-scum whining about all the money they wasted to make their kid a genetic shoo-in for the Ivy League, and then it turns out the only League their kid cares about is the "of Legends" variety. But I don't think people (certainly not people who are published by "traditional", i.e. gatekept, publishing houses) are quite ready to face that specific social commentary; hits a bit close to home given where and by whom the publishing industry is run. (Of course, given the median Harvard grade is A- and the mode is A, the Ivy League has other issues...) Playing with Fantasy VII Fantasy RPG thoughts. • I'd gotten rid of trolls in my campaign, but then I got to thinking, maybe make 'em like a yeti-sasquatch-abominable snowman thing? Could just call 'em "abominations". "Snow abomination" = frost troll, maybe. Apparently the main Nepali name, himamaanav, just means "snow man" (they may well call the child's ice-sculpture something else, like "snow Bodhidharma"); one of the Tibetan names, meaning "wild man", is "mi-go". How exactly Lovecraft managed to equate the two is a question for the ages. I never much cared for the troll social behavior as presented starting I think in 3rd Edition (at least I don't remember any mention of troll matriarchs back in 2nd). Think mine'll be more like certain reptiles, which lay their eggs and then their young are on their own. Nobody ever said trolls don't lay eggs, and none of the rest of their behavior seems to go with K-selection. How do trolls without "adult supervision" not overrun an ecosystem? Young ones can get eaten by big predators—stomach acid stops their regeneration. • It occurs to me that having a glowing iris but a dark pupil, combined with sclera having the same appearance as the iris—the norm for non-human animals—would give you the "whole eye glows" glowing eyes seen in Warcraft. Especially if you also have it so the pupil completely seals shut and the iris and sclera are the receptor for whatever energy darkvision perceives? Maybe darkvision is something like a parietal eye or the heat-sensing "pits" in a pit-viper or a vampire bat, but built into the outer surface of the eye rather than a separate organ. And sensing some weird magical energy (or maybe radar, which is honestly the thing most like how darkvision behaves, but if you can see your surroundings by passive radar on a planet's surface, you live in a very odd environment). My fiends also all have three eyes, and the third is the one that gives them see-in-darkness and an at-will deathwatch ability. I was also toying with doing something weird with dragon eyes. One that was basically automatic was comparable visual acuity to a bird of prey (de rigueur for a flying predator—and presumably pretty easy to accomplish when your eyeball is the size of a shot-put ball), but then I thought maybe two pupils so they can do parallax-based depth perception from a single eye? But then, even better, was monocular depth-perception via "corneal accommodation", like a chameleon. After all, sub in the breath-weapon for the chameleon tongue and you've got a dragon. Presumably they don't put the eye on a turret the way chameleons do (since their head is a lot more mobile than a chameleon's). • Decided to use a river otter, specifically the giant river otter, as the model for dragon anatomy. A 120-foot dragon is about 15.24 times the dimensions of the otter; an otter that size would weigh just under 125 short tons. Using the density of a (very light) bird as against a mammal (602 kilos per cubic meter vs. 1,080, i.e. 55.7% the density), that results in a body-weight of a mere 69.6 tons. I'm too tired to compute the	-1	Unrelated	false
<urn:uuid:3b379f95-aadd-4fe3-9d06-50ae3967fc4d>	dclm-dedup-25B-ai-scifi-docs \| https://www.towerhobbies.com/easyrc/sailplanes/index.html	The first step is finding out what you're getting into. Flying RC sailplanes can be quite a commitment in both time and money. Keep this in mind as you go through these pages to make sure you get the most out of this rewarding hobby. A lot of information can be found in this guide but it does not cover everything. If you have a specific type of flying or sailplane style you want to try, look at what is required to fly it. Several beginner sailplanes are suggested at the end of this guide. If you don't want to start with the "real thing," check out one of the best R/C flying simulators available for your PC, RealFlight-X. In addition to a wide variety of sailplanes, it also offers plenty of heli and multirotor aircraft options for you to fly. This is a fun, safe, and worry-free way to learn how to fly R/C aircraft. RealFlight 8 R/C Flight Simulator Start Here. Find an instructor. There are many designated R/C aircraft flying clubs throughout the U.S. that are supported or chartered by the Academy of Model Aeronautics (AMA). Many of the clubs offer hands-on training and support for beginners and they're a great way to get started in the hobby. Find an AMA-chartered club near you and get started. Let Tower Hobbies Help. Tower Hobbies' Phone Sales Staff and Technical Support Staff give you access to 40+ of R/C modeling experience and information. Just call our toll-free number, 1-800-637-6050. We'll help you select the right sailplane! Want to find out what Tower Hobbies has to offer? Request a free Tower Talk sales flyer. Pick Your Power. R/C aircraft are powered by many methods that differ in terms of cost and difficulty. Many planes use 2-stroke and 4-stroke engines that burn a methanol/nitro-methane/oil mixture called "glow fuel." For beginners, it is often easier to start with quiet and clean electric motors. How much does it cost? The cost of flying depends on your budget. R/C sailplanes often require fewer accessories and less maintenance, so they are often cheaper to purchase and run than R/C powered aircraft. We suggest starting off with an "RTF" or "Ready to Fly" model. These will include everything you need to get you in the air. Most beginner "RTF" sailplanes Tower Hobbies offers will cost around $100-$200. How fast does a model go? Most trainers and beginner RTFs usually cruise at 25-30 mph and can land at speeds as slow as 12-15 mph. However, there are also unmodified, off-the-shelf airplanes that can deliver speeds of up to 200 mph! We wouldn't recommend starting with the latter. How far can a model fly? The range for a modern R/C system is about a mile. But to maintain control, you need to have your model close enough to see what it is doing. Even a plane with a 6-foot wingspan looks tiny at half a mile. We recommend flying an airplane within your "LOS" or "Line of Sight". Where Can I Fly? There are many flying fields located throughout the U.S. that offer great services and facilities for beginners and experts alike. You can check for local sites close to you here. If you don't have a local flying site, please follow the federal, state, and local laws regarding model aircraft. A helpful website to learn how and where you can fly safely is Know Before You Fly. They also have maps that show where model aircraft flight is restricted. Thermal Sailplanes Slope Soarers Tail Types Conventional Tail V-TailStabilizer is bent into an upward V shape, and there is no rudder. A radio with mixing capabilities is usually required. The Model Hand Launch Hand Launch Sailplanes Two-Meter Sailplanes Open Class Open Class Sailplanes Electric Sailplanes Electric Sailplanes How do you know what sailplane to choose? Choosing A Flying Site Preparing For Flight R/C Airplane Radio Radio Control Functions Check Your Radio Controls Check Control Surfaces Adjust Trim Hand Launch Land Your Airplane Helpful Links	-1	Unrelated	false
<urn:uuid:a5ac6c2c-0e4a-40bf-90ec-6b623bd03f53>	dclm-dedup-25B-ai-scifi-docs \| http://studiofynn.com/journal/future-data-center-and-elevating-brand-values-oracle	The Future of the Data Center and Elevating Brand Values ; for Oracle Visions of the future. Hal 9000 from Stanley Kubrick's 2001, A Space Odyssey The project initiated with of a research phase to undersand the evolution of the data center and how product design not only impacts the immediate functional requirements but also how it can be a vehicle to communicate the wider notion of technology and the representation of progress. StudioFYNN then guided a workshop with Oracle's design and human factors teams concluding with a strategic roadmap for future product design programs and intiaitives. In today's competitve and rapidly progressing business environments it is import to understand how brand values connect by association (advertising and communication) and manifestation (products and services). Understanding this difference is key to implementing brand values successfully across all aspects of a business.	-1	Unrelated	false
96948f31-b9a6-409a-aaa1-f4c86a89ea29	alignment-classifier-documents-unlabeled \| trentmkelly/LessWrong-43k	On expected utility, part 4: Dutch books, Cox, and Complete Class (Cross-posted from Hands and Cities) Previously in sequence: Skyscrapers and madmen; Why it can be OK to predictably lose; VNM, separability, and more This is the final essay in a four-part series on expected utility maximization (EUM). This part focus on theorems that aim to justify the subjective probability aspect of EUM, namely: Dutch Book theorems; Cox’s Theorem (this one is still a bit of a black box to me); and the Complete Class Theorem (this one also supports EUM more broadly). I also briefly discuss Savage, Jeffrey-Bolker, and a certain very general argument for making consistent trade-offs on the margin – both across goods, and across worlds. I. Comparing with the urns So we’ve seen three ways of arguing for EUM – an argument from the vNM axioms, an argument from the general connection between separability and additivity, and Peterson’s “direct argument.” In all of these cases, though, we had to assume some probability assignment. Let’s look at that assumption more directly. The “hanging out with a coin-flipping, urn-pulling God” set-up made the assumption of a probability assignment relatively innocuous, in virtue of the fact that basically everyone wants to be a standard probabilist about things like coins, urns, and spinning wheels. For other types of propositions, though (e.g., “what’s the chance that some human walks on mars before 2100?”), some people, and some theories of probability (see here), start saying: “no, you can’t put probabilities on things like that.” Still, fans of EUM often do. Indeed, they start putting probabilities on basically any kind of proposition you want -- probabilities often understood to express some subjective level of confidence, and hence called "subjective probabilities." This section briefly describe a more way of thinking about this practice I often use in my own life (I also gestured at this in part 2). Then I turn to some prominent theorems that fans of subjectivity probability often look to for support. Sup	-1	Unrelated	false
<urn:uuid:e3659c25-50a9-4908-9e82-aec540497a58>	dclm-dedup-25B-ai-scifi-docs \| http://store.steampowered.com/news/?appgroupname=Dead+Space+Pack&appids=17470,47780	Dead Space™ 2 Dead Space 2 is available now on Steam for just $5.00/£2.49—but be quick; it won't stay that price for long. Dead Space 2 sees you reprise your role as Systems Engineer Isaac Clarke three years after the horrific events on the USG Ishimura. Expect more of same atmospheric horror and monster-stomping action, only this time around, Clarke's a little less taciturn when he encounters more of those murderous Necromorphs. If you've never explored the original game, you can add that to your library for cheap, too. The Dead Space bundle—which boasts the tense prequel, too—is available for just £3.74, a whopping 81 percent off its usual retail price. Last month EA closed Visceral Games, the studio behind Dead Space and Battlefield Hardline. Electronic Arts' vice president Patrick Soderlund confirmed the closure and confirmed that the design direction of Visceral's Star Wars project will undergo a "significant change." In the words of one plucky commenter on the Dead Space 2 customer reviews page, "Don't be sad that it's over, be happy that it happened." Dead Space - Valve Today's Deal: Celebrating the launch of the Dead Space animes, Downfall and Aftermath on Steam, save up to 75% on the Dead Space™ series!* *Offer ends Tuesday November 28th at 10AM Pacific Time. Video content not available in all territories. Dead Space The environments of massive open-world games, particularly in recent years, have been rightly praised for their representation, scale and design accuracy. However, there are some gems at the other end of the spectrum - environments that make you feel cramped, tense and desperate for a break. This is an approach to environment design utilised in our real-world, from gardens to architecture, and is mirrored excellently in some game environments, creating areas that trap us in cramped, claustrophobic conditions. The underground tunnel network of the Metro series, adapted for human life but traversed with trepidation and tension, nailed its own post-apocalyptic look and feel, and had claustrophobia, discomfort and fear oozing from its design. These spaces successfully evoke real-world design principles of landscape mazes and labyrinths, such as dead ends, twists and turns to cause doubling back and elevate desperation, fluctuating size and scale of spaces, and a continuous and monotonal finish (a symphony of grey in Metro's case) that makes every surface and area look the same, but also makes for an unrelenting and repressive aesthetic. Often, the spaces are not only characteristic of uncomfortable mazes and tunnels, but their disrepair and crumbling structure means they have a constant feeling of pressure and weight about them: the feeling that, at any moment, the space could collapse on top of Artyom's head. The tunnels are also powerful spaces as they are a believable and familiar environment to us; adapting a real-world, recognisably claustrophobic environment makes for a powerfully uncomfortable virtual space. Read more… Dead Space™ 2 Electronic Arts closed the doors on Visceral Games yesterday, bringing to a close the studio whose (relatively) recent work includes Dante's Inferno, Army of Two: The Devil's Cartel, Battlefield Hardline, and the Dead Space series. Following the announcement, Zach Wilson, who worked briefly at the studio as a designer on Hardline, took to Twitter to offer some thoughts about where it all went wrong. Wilson's opening tweets say it all: In follow-ups, Wilson said that he's "back of the napkinning" the numbers, but added that they're close to the real thing. "I don't know the exact marketing budget but they're frequently close to the dev cost (I have heard this anecdotally)," he wrote. Sky-high budgets are also why developers are launching their own digital storefronts, rather than simply relying on the simpler and far more ubiquitous Steam. "Do you hate uplay? Well, the pub gets 90% of the $$$," he tweeted. "EA makes $30 per copy after retailers and console makers take their cut. Then consider that a chunk of the game was sold on sale ... Through Origin they get 90%" Wilson's tweets don't directly address the reasons for Visceral's closure, but they do paint a very grim portrait of the state of the business, and the extent to which major publisher releases are either big hits, or big busts. If a mid-tier game like Dead Space 2 can knock out four million copies and still be considered underperforming (and keep in mind that EA reported two years after its release that the original Dead Space had sold roughly half that number), then the bar is incredibly high. Any new project that looks like it won't be a huge hit, or won't have a long tail via microtransactions and DLC, suddenly starts to look like a risk from that perspective. And if, on top of that, the game in question appears to be in trouble, as Kotaku suggested in its report of Visceral's closure yesterday, then risk-averse publishers (which is to say, all of them) aren't likely to wait too long before they take action. Dead Space - (Adam Smith) EA have just announced that they’ll be “ramping down and closing” Visceral, the studio behind the Dead Space trilogy. Visceral have been working on an untitled Star Wars project, described as an “action-adventure”, and Amy Hennig, formerly of Naughty Dog and Crystal Dynamics, moved to the studio in 2014 to work on that project as senior creative director. EA’s statement regarding Visceral’s closure suggests that they’re unhappy with the status of that game and they plan to “pivot the design” to fit “fundamental shifts in the marketplace”. Full statement and thoughts below. Sep 1, 2017 Dead Space So you're looking to spook yourself with the best horror games you can play on PC. Whether you're into jump scares, interactive fiction, thematically interesting stories or just large men running after you with a chainsaw, we've included a wide variety of games that'll hopefully freak you the hell out. Enjoy. Like our lists of best strategy games or best FPS games, we tried to focus on a variety of horror experiences that still hold up well today, though we've expanded the remit slightly to include a few retro curios as well. Resident Evil 7 What starts as a bold, scary reboot certainly gets closer to the more recent action-oriented entries in its later chapters, but exploring the Baker family's grimy plantation in Resident Evil 7 is a grisly treat. The detail of this setting is amazing, and in the first half of the game, there's such a sense of the unknown that you're cautiously poking around every corner and treating bullets like they're gold. Resi 7's videotapes, which have you play out-of-context asides shedding more light on the Baker family and the story, offer the game's best and most experimental moments. Resi 7 is close to the original intent of Resi, but we kept the HD version of the original on this list too because they're both fantastic in their own way. An unrelentingly bleak platformer that puts you through a gauntlet of hellish imagery: creepy mermaids, security robots, people hunting you down, nasty weather and more that we won't spoil here. Its vision of a cruel dystopian world that's out to kill you at all times is extraordinary, even if the moment-to-moment platforming is pretty familiar and can be frustrating. You're mainly playing it to experience the setting, really. See also Little Nightmares, a similar type of horror platformer that isn't as scary but is arguably just as inventive. Stories Untold In this anthology game, you operate a computer within the game: first playing an old horror text adventure game set in a spooky house, and later performing similar interactions in other locations, including a lab and a station in freezing conditions. How these episodes link together is the game's overarching mystery, but it's the way the surrounding environment changes with the story beats that'll shit you up here. Stories Untold is co-developed by Alien: Isolation UI mastermind Jon McKellan, and a lot of that DNA is present here. Plus, it'll only take you a few hours to beat, and it's a very reasonable $10 on Steam. Outlast 2 As a trial-and-error stealth game, Outlast 2 might not be for everyone, but thematically it's among the more interesting games on this list. Playing as a journalist searching for a missing woman in Arizona, your wife is then kidnapped early on by a deranged cult, the origins of which are told through snippets of letters during the game. You navigate dark environments using the night vision mode of your camera, and it's just scary as heck, with a whole village wanting you dead and some of the most gruelling imagery ever put into a game. System Shock 2 Before BioShock was BioShock, it was System Shock: an altogether freakier combination of RPG and FPS, and one that in its second (and best) iteration told the story of a rogue AI on a haunted spaceship—that rogue AI being the incomparably uppercase SHODAN. The murderous artificial consciousness paved the way for GlaDOS of course, but its the combination of meaningful character advancement, rewarding exploration, horrifying enemies and (at the time) the novel use of audio diaries that make System Shock 2 such a memorable horror game. It was essentially Deus Ex on a spaceship—if you've ever played Deus Ex, or been on a spaceship, you can imagine how delectable that sounds. Don't be put off by IMSCARED's rather tedious "A Pixelated Nightmare" tagline—it is easily one of the most unsettling games available today. But it's also a tough one to pitch, because much of its terror lies in the surprises that shouldn't be ruined by a meagre 150 word-long recommendation. Know that it borrows from 90's horror games via its aesthetic and fourth wall-breaking, file-bothering makeup; and that it consistently strives to surprise and keep players guessing. Understand that it'll play with your emotions, and drop you into a confused and confusing world while incessantly goading you till its final breath. Don't expect jump scares, but do expect to be scared enough to jump from your chair. The 2012 GameJolt version of IMSCARED is free, while the full, extended version is cheap as chips over on Steam. If you think we're at all grandstanding here, please be our guest and give it a try. We'll be hiding behind the couch. A rhythm action nightmare in which you play a silver beetle speeding down a track into the mouth of a huge demented boss head. Death comes quickly. Miss a couple of turns and you're dashed into a million glittering pieces against the courses metal banks. Miss a beat in the gaze of the ring-shaped guard robots and they'll hurtle towards you, lasers blazing. All the while the ambient soundtrack pulses uneasily and the the rhythms become faster, and more erratic. The effect is one of tense, compressed dread. Probably best to play it in short bursts only. Silent Hill 2 We can all agree that Silent Hill 2 is the best in the series, and although Konami have never made much of an effort with the PC versions, if you factor in mods and texture/resolution tweaks this is probably the best way to play it these days—even if prices for the (extremely rare) retail copies can be pretty extortionate. It was the first game to really push the idea of horror narratives as subjective, fluid and untrustworthy things, with a story that invites interpretation and a semi-sentient city that warps and shifts itself to fit the damaged psyches of its inhabitants. The confusing cult nonsense of the first and third games was pushed to the backburner for the more personal story of a psychologically damaged widower battling his way through a foggy purgatory populated by zombie-things, dog-things, and whatever the hell Pyramid Head was. Whereas the likes of Silent Hill and Fatal Frame rely on radios to alert players to otherworldly adversaries, Sylvio uses sound, EVP (electronic voice phenomenon) and audio manipulation as its central ideas. Not only that, the game builds its entire gorgeously creepy world around this principle theme as players strive to uncover its backstories, bizarre plot twists, and insights into its unsettling unknown—all of which is backed up by some stellar voice acting. Generic first-person horror this ain't, and while it does occasionally force tedious combat set pieces upon players, it thrives in its quirky, idiosyncratic moments that are filled with atmosphere and character and dread. Sylvio is a thinking game and is unique within the horror genre. Horror games owe a significant debt to one Howard Phillips Lovecraft, and not just because he's long dead and his work is out of copyright. Plenty of games have included references to his unique brand of cosmic horror, but Anchorhead is more inspired than most, drawing from several of his novels and stories to tell the tale of the a married couple who have inherited an old mansion in a creepy New England town. The sedate exploration of the game's opening segments eventually give way to tense, turn-limited puzzles as you struggle to stop an ancient, possibly world-ending ritual from being completed. No pressure then. It's free, and you can play it in your browser. Amnesia: The Dark Descent The Dark Descent casts you as Daniel, an amnesiac who wakes up in a mostly deserted castle that must be explored in search of escape. Frictional draw on all of their experience creating atmospheric, exploratory horror in the Penumbra series to fill Amnesia's fortress with an oppressive and lingering sense of foreboding. Expect distant echoing noises, strange rumbles behind the walls, and to start seeing half-formed dark figures in the ambiguous candlelight. There's a monster, too, stalking you through the corridors. The perennial rule of horror creatures—that they're less scary once you've seen and understood them—certainly applies here, but Dark Descent is still a must-play horror game. Dark Souls You won't find scripted jump scares here. Dark Souls is a lonely, gruelling struggle through a world on the verge of being extinguished. Lordran is a sad and horrifying place to be. You catch glimpses of the gods' old glory, but mostly you're confronting the aftermath of their terrible mistakes, whether it's the nightmare of the Bed of Chaos or the gross parasite eggs of Demon Ruins. The PC port is poor, but most of its visual shortcomings have been solved by the modding community. Start with the DS Fix and pick and choose from the Dark Souls Nexus to get the game into shape. Dead Space Dead Space's lanky alien monsters are noteworthy not just for their ability to fit into tiny closets and jump out at passing protagonists, but for the satisfying fragility of their narrow, bony limbs. Dead Space's high concept, back in the first game, was that you're a simple engineer tending to a broken ship, rather than a meaty space marine with miniguns coming out of his chest. Better still, the cutting and cleaving tools your engineer is so practiced with ended up being more rewarding than the traditional machine guns and shotguns of your typical FPS. Worryingly, foes react differently when you snip off certain limbs—a headshot may only make them madder. Oh, there's a batty plot about an alien obelisk that sends people insane, a space cult, and other nonsense. Don't worry about that too much, the room-to-room stalking is super-tense in spite of the flimsy story. Dead Space classic piece of linear horror design that still holds up. Stalker: Call of Pripyat Poor Pripyat just can't catch a break. In real life it's been abandoned since the Chernobyl nuclear disaster. In Stalker, it also suffers the indignity of corrupted anomalies and invisible monsters. The entire series has focused on a harsh and desperate struggle for survival. You may be seeking valuable anomalies and treasure, but first you'll need to secure the basics: food, bandages, and weapons. Occasionally you'll enjoy the companionship of fellow travellers around a campfire, but for the most part your exploration of the open world will feel oppressive and lonely. Call of Pripyat is the best and most technically competent game in the series, but the original Shadow of Chernobyl is also worth a look. Don't miss the Stalker: Lost Alpha—Director's Cut, either. The Walking Dead Is anyone still scared of zombies? Sure, they're creepy—there's something intrinsically unsettling about a vacant sack of human flesh—but when is the last time you felt visceral, gut-wrenching fear in the presence of the horde? Blood, guts, and realistic subsurface glistening just don't do it any more. Telltale's The Walking Dead forgoes the anatomy lesson for something more harrowing. The eponymous dead are extras in a bleak human drama, a handy plot device to prompt the fall of society and watch what happens when people break. Those people, all well-written and interesting characters, make for a more immediate, more believable horror story. The Walking Dead could be real, a plausible portrayal of a world going to hell, and that is scary indeed. Phantasmagoria is the most infamous horror adventure of the interactive movie age, but that's only because almost nobody played the infinitely gorier, endlessly more disturbing Harvester. You wake up with amnesia in a messed up 50s town, where mothers pop their babies' eyeballs, the paperboy packs a gun, the local teachers deals discipline with a baseball bat at Gein Memorial High School, and nobody bats an eye at the wasp woman down the street. All you know is that unless you join the mysterious Lodge in the middle of town, you're not going to last the week—one that ends in an involuntary blood drive where the nurse uses a scythe. Then things get really weird. It's a tough game to find legitimately, but check out our feature on it for more. Pathologic is ugly and broken. It will sit on your hard-drive like a gangrenous limb, in need of amputation. If this sounds like a criticism, it isn't. Beyond the dirty, putrefied atmosphere, Pathologic is also weird and theatrical, frequently breaking the fourth wall and questioning your role as the player. You choose one of three characters, each with their own mysterious past. Afterwards, masked figures explain the rules of the game: that you have twelve days to cure the town of its disease, and that time will progress regardless of your actions. As it slips by, you'll have to pick your goals wisely, gathering resources and helping characters in the hope of slowing the inexorable decay. Whatever your choice, the town continues to rot, and the game builds towards its horrific conclusion. It's being remade and expanded, in Pathologic 2, but you can also grab the HD edition of the original on Steam. Condemned: Criminal Origins The Silent Hill series does creepy mannequins well, but nowhere near as well as Condemned: Criminal Origins. The premise is quite simple: there's a serial killer on the loose, you're a crime scene investigator, and people expect you to catch him. What's less straightforward is how quickly agent Ethan Thomas takes to cold-blooded murder—even considering the entire populace of Metro City appears to have it in for him. Nonetheless, while Condemned: Criminal Origins offers frontman Thomas a range of firearms, he seems happy enough to do his crowd controlling by way of melee weaponry, each of which has its own distinct feel in close-quarters combat. With that, Condemned rarely pulls any punches—it knows what it is and is happy doing so from start to finish. It's now somehow ten years old, but it holds up well today. The Evil Within Reasons to be interested in this survival horror can be boiled down to just two words: Shinji Mikami, the designer responsible for Resident Evil (the good ones), God Hand and Vanquish, the latter of which have criminally never punched and rocket-boosted their way to PC. The Evil Within is his grand return to horror. Expect to spend a fair bit of time hiding from chainsaw-wielding psychopaths, shooting and burning lumbering zombie-likes and laying traps. And a follow-up is on the way, with multiple routes through levels and a story that's a little Silent Hill 2-esque. Frictional Games has already appeared in this roundup, and that's because time and time again they've proven that they know horror—first in the Penumbra games, and then again in Amnesia. Soma is their latest first-person scare-'em-up, full of creepy experiments, creepier blinking computer-things, and exchanges that question the nature of humanity and consciousness. There are disturbing monsters too, though you can switch those off with a Steam Workshop mod if you want to. Metro 2033 Similar to Stalker featured earlier in this list, Metro 2033 visits a post-apocalyptic, nuclear war-ravaged world that's filled with mutated abominations—the vast majority of which seek to harm you. Here, the year is 2033, 20 years after Russia fell victim to nuclear war. Moscow's surface is now too dangerous to explore, therefore much of the game takes place within its interweaving subway system and a hostile group named the Dark Ones stalks the player and their pals. Admittedly, Metro 2033, like Stalker, leans towards the action genre however while much of its scare factor is tied to running out of supplies and/or ammo, there's something truly unsettling about its post-nuclear war premise—that perhaps because this sort of scenario could happen, it becomes scarier? Maybe it's simply the fact the Dark Ones are bloody terrifying. The slim, suited menace known as Slenderman started life as a forum meme, and has quickly grown into a horror series. His schtick is simple, but terrifying enough. If you look directly at him, he devours you, but when you look away he can move position instantly in an attempt to trick your gaze. You have to collect eight notes from a dark forest as the demon hunts you. The free downloadable version, The Eight Pages, has inspired a wealth of YouTube Let's Play videos, because it turns out it's almost as fun to watch Slender's potent psychological terror inflicted on others as it is to endure it yourself. Its popularity encouraged Blue Isle studios and Parsec productions to create a prettier version called Slender: The Arrival, which is available for $10 on Steam, and has bonus Oculus Rift support for VR terror. Alien: Isolation The best Alien game ever, by a long way, Isolation stars the smartest, scariest enemy in any game. The Xenomorph's killer instinct is matched only by its curiosity. It learns more about the Sevastopol's nooks and crannies as it hunts you over the course of 12 hours, ripping doors off closets and peering under tables in search of prey. The motion tracker can help you to avoid its grasp, but it can sense the sound, and even the gentle green light of its screen, making every glance a risk. When the game forces you into the vents and you can hear the creature in there with you, Isolation becomes one of the scariest games ever made. Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth Lovecraft's Cthulhu mythos should be a ripe playground for gaming scares. It rarely works out like that; the fiction often put to use in ways that fail to convey the sheer magnitude of its ancient and maddening horror. Despite the bugs and the clunkiness, Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth is a first-person survival horror that both stays true to its source, and provides a multitude of ideas through its many and varied levels. You'll go from escaping an assassination, to being hunted by cultists, to fighting off Shoggoths and Deep Ones. FEAR is a better shooter than a horror game, but is worthy of note for referencing Asian cinema with its creepy villain, Alma, a little girl who can rip people apart with her thoughts. FEAR also exploited the first person perspective to create jump-scares, using ladders and narrow corridors to funnel the player's view through a rollercoaster of linear frights. You catch glimpses of Alma in the corner of a room as lightbulbs shatter, you'll suddenly see her feet at the top of a ladder as you descend, and there's a gratuitous corridor of blood, because The Shining deserves a nod every now and then. First person horror techniques have been honed into a more concentrated horror experience by games like Outlast, but FEAR does let you pin clone soldiers to walls with a stake gun, and kick them in the face in slow motion as they scream “FUUUUUUU” in a low-pitched, slurry expression of terror. The psychological horror themes persisted in FEAR's sequels—FEAR 2: Project Origin and FEAR 3. Resident Evil HD Remaster The tank controls and pre-baked backgrounds hint at Resi's age, but it's a survival horror classic nonetheless, and received a handsome HD upgrade in early 2015. The famous Resi mansion drips with atmosphere, and hides some top-drawer jump scares—when crows come crashing through a window, it makes every future trip down that corridor especially tough. The giant spiders are hideous and the relentless threat of the mansion's zombie population grinds down your spirit and your health bar. Soon you're a limping picture of pain and regret, searching for the octagonal object you need to go in the octagonal slot. What a nightmare. Dead Space - (Adam Smith) Nostalgia is supposed to be about the things of our early years, but recently I’ve been feeling nostalgic about games released much more recently than my usual rose-tinted diet of Ultima and Daggerfall. I’ve only gone and started missing Dead Space like it was a childhood friend. … [visit site to read more] Shacknews - Ozzie Mejia With 2013's Injustice: Gods Among Us, NetherRealm Studios showed it was more than capable of putting together a solid fighting game featuring the DC Comics pantheon. More than that, the developer capably made it stand out from sister franchise Mortal Kombat with its own distinct features and mechanics. For an encore, Injustice 2 further builds on the foundation set by its predecessor and steps forward as a truly superheroic effort. For Justice The original Injustice featured a grand DC Elseworlds narrative of a world ruled by a totalitarian Superman and while that plot featured several twists and turns, Injustice 2's Story Mode seamlessly continues this tale with an easy-to-follow recap. Injustice 2 takes place in a post-Regime world with Superman safely imprisoned and Batman desperately trying to pick up the pieces of a world still shaken to its core. His efforts are quickly stalled by a supervillain gathering, the Injustice world's take on the classic Society, which would herald the arrival of extraterrestrial threat and perennial Superman baddie, Brainiac. With Batman's team overwhelmed, there's a certain pattern the narrative starts to follow. The heroes have had their differences and it looks like now it's time to come together to take on the real villains. Then everyone hugs it out and everything's okay again? In actuality, much like the rest of NetherRealm's Injustice narrative, things aren't that simple. The story that unfolds surrounds the increasing complexity of the classic good vs. evil conflict, as well as what it means to truly deliver justice. It's an eye into Batman's perfectionist (and somewhat naive) view of what justice should be. It's a continuing look at why Superman has pursued the path that he has (albeit one that does Wonder Woman's character a disservice by making her into a Lady MacBeth type). But more than anything, it's the desire from all sides for things to be the way they were and the heartbreaking realization that there is no going back. Fixing things isn't as easy as remembering that everyone's mother happens to be named Martha. Of course, between all the deeper themes, there's an outstanding, action-filled superhero story that culminates in epic battles unfolding through cutscenes and through standard gameplay. One big improvement from the first Injustice game is that the quick-time events of the original story are gone. Instead, they're replaced with chapters that center around two characters. Whenever a fight is cued up, the player selects between one of the two heroes, with some of the story's dialogue unfolding differently depending on the character chosen. The choices take a much more extreme turn towards the end of the game, but the story remains cohesive throughout. Crisis on Infinite Earths Besides the Story Mode, Injustice 2 also offers the standard single-player mode, but this one comes with a bit of a twist. Playing off the Brother Eye satellite used in the game's story, Multiverse mode offers up contains the standard Arcade mode, where players take on one opponent at a time. However, there are also other Earths that open up with different scenarios and different opponents. Beyond having their own versions of the game's fighters with their own distinct looks, Multiverse mixes things up by occasionally tossing in game-altering conditions, like hazards, boosts, or souped-up opponents. Multiverse is a great example of using an online connection for something positive, adding in new worlds every day with a finite time to complete their missions and collect their rewards. Some of those worlds have rarer rewards that are worth pursuing. The game even offers a social element to help make Multiverse hopping a little more fun with the Guild system, where groups of friends can earn rewards by completing specific Multiverse tasks. The whole Multiverse package is a robust expansion of the Arcade Mode concept that gives it a much longer life, though anyone with an offline connection can still play the normal Battle Simulator. Clothes Make the Hero Let's discuss those Multiverse rewards. They come in the form of Mother Boxes, as Injustice 2 is the latest game to get into the mystery loot craze. With a full comic book universe to play with, the Mother Box rewards dig into the rich DC Comics lore and give each character a dapper new look. The most interesting element, however, is that each piece of gear offers RPG-style boosts. Some of them offer advantages specifically for Multiverse Mode, while others can help give a little boost during multiplayer. What makes the gear system particularly cool is that it gives the sense that a player's fighter is progressing and growing over the course of invested hours. There's a sense of something to aim for, in addition to the usual character ending and the like. The one problem with the gear system is that oftentimes, a cool Epic or Legendary item will get opened up, but won't be accessible until that particular figher levels up. And sadly, the characters level up about as slowly as the Batmobile with a flat tire. Getting to actually play with that awesome piece of gear will mean hours of grinding and that's when the Multiverse can start to feel tedious. There's a sense of accomplishment once that gear is finally available, especially for those that want to take it online or assign it to an AI squad that can fight other players' AI squads in simulated combat. The latter is a particularly nifty feature that adds a fantasy element and a cheap way to earn extra experience or loot. Of course, those that are looking for a more even playing field can also play multiplayer without gear benefits. After all, some people just want to see who's the better player without fancy toys. Fists of Fury Speaking of Injustice 2's fighting system, it feels like a further evolution of NetherRealm's distinct fighting style. A friendly tutorial explains everything in great detail, gently explaining how to perform combos, overheads, throws, specials, and anything else required of a NetherRealm fighter. Dashes and slides can cover much more ground, with environmental cues also helping cover a full screen's worth of ground in a moment, helping quell the rise of trigger-happy projectile spammers. Given that combos are often the bane of the novice's existence, Injustice 2's eloquent explanation of the overhead and other moves that bounce opponents off walls is a godsend. The game encourages players to experiment with juggles, whether it's a simple light attack combo or a cool special move that catches an opponent in mid-air. This complements the rest of the game's mechanics smoothly, including the theatrical Super Moves and the returning Clash system. The latter goes a long way towards giving the game its identity, even if they start to feel old upon repeated viewings. For All Seasons Injustice 2 feels like a step up from Gods Among Us in every way imaginable. It's a far deeper experience, follows up wonderfully on the last game's story, and also gives reasons to keep coming back for repeat visits. The rich cast of fighters all have their ow	-1	Unrelated	false
14b13ccf-c6c3-4576-91ec-c26f994ac996	alignment-classifier-documents-unlabeled \| trentmkelly/LessWrong-43k	Request for Steelman: Non-correspondence concepts of truth A couple of days ago, Buybuydandavis wrote the following on Less Wrong: > I'm increasingly of the opinion that truth as correspondence to reality is a minority orientation. I've spent a lot of energy over the last couple of days trying to come to terms with the implications of this sentence. While it certainly corresponds with my own observations about many people, the thought that most humans simply reject correspondence to reality as the criterion for truth seems almost too outrageous to take seriously. If upon further reflection I end up truly believing this, it seems that it would be impossible for me to have a discussion about the nature of reality with the great majority of the human race. In other words, if I truly believed this, I would label most people as being too stupid to have a real discussion with. However, this reaction seems like an instance of a failure mode described by Megan McArdle: > I’m always fascinated by the number of people who proudly build columns, tweets, blog posts or Facebook posts around the same core statement: “I don’t understand how anyone could (oppose legal abortion/support a carbon tax/sympathize with the Palestinians over the Israelis/want to privatize Social Security/insert your pet issue here)." It’s such an interesting statement, because it has three layers of meaning. > > The first layer is the literal meaning of the words: I lack the knowledge and understanding to figure this out. But the second, intended meaning is the opposite: I am such a superior moral being that I cannot even imagine the cognitive errors or moral turpitude that could lead someone to such obviously wrong conclusions. And yet, the third, true meaning is actually more like the first: I lack the empathy, moral imagination or analytical skills to attempt even a basic understanding of the people who disagree with me > > In short, “I’m stupid.” Something that few people would ever post so starkly on their Facebook feeds. With this background, i	-1	Unrelated	false
<urn:uuid:f8b1aed3-0a40-4691-843c-35a1aad9ee95>	dclm-dedup-25B-ai-scifi-docs \| http://stackoverflow.com/questions/12138433/object-file-to-binary-code	Join them; it only takes a minute: Sign up Join the Stack Overflow community to: 1. Ask programming questions 2. Answer and help your peers 3. Get recognized for your expertise Let's suppose I have a C file with no external dependency, and only const data section. I would like to compile this file, and then get a binary blob I can load in another program, where the function would be used through a function pointer. Let's take an example, here is a fictionnal binary module, f1.c static const unsigned char mylut[256] = { [0 ... 127] = 0, [128 ... 255] = 1, void f1(unsigned char * src, unsigned char * dst, int len) while(len) { dst++ = mylut[src++]; I would like to compile it to f1.o, then f1.bin, and use it like this in prog.c int somefunc() { unsigned char * codedata; f1_type_ptr f1_ptr; /* open f1.bin, and read it into codedata / / set function pointer to beginning of loaded data / f1_ptr =(f1_type_ptr)codedata; / call !/ f1_ptr(src, dst, len); I suppose going from f1.c to f1.o involves -fPIC to get position independance. What are the flags or linker script that I can use to go from f1.o to f1.bin ? Clarification : I know about dynamic linking. dynamic linking is not possible in this case. The linking step has to be cast func pointer to loaded data, if it is possible. Please assume there is no OS support. If I could, I would for example write f1 in assembly with PC related adressing. share\|improve this question Do you know that you can use shared object files? You compile your .c file to a .so, then you load it dlopen() into you program, and get the function pointer dlsym() to the function. Then you can call it. – Didier Trosset Aug 27 '12 at 8:26 Let's forget libc and dynamic linking – shodanex Aug 27 '12 at 8:33 You want the f1.bin thingie loaded dynamically (i.e. in runtime)? Then you have to build a shared library, and use ldopen()+ldsym() or other module loader (like gmodule). Trying to do it some other way is likely to be hard and refused because of potential security threats (executing data segment and so on). – Michał Górny Aug 27 '12 at 8:36 First of all, as other said you should consider using a DLL or SO. That said, if you really want to do this, you need to replace the linker script. Something like this (not very well tested, but I think it works): _dummy_start = 0; .all : { _all = .; LONG(f1 - _all); ( .text .text.* .data .data.* .rodata .rodata.* ) Then compile with: $ gcc -c -fPIC test.c Link with: $ ld -T script.ld test.o -o test.elf And extract the binary blob with: $ objcopy -j .all -O binary test.elf test.bin Probably some explanation of the script is welcome: • ENTRY(_dummy_start) That just avoids the warning about the program not having an entry point. • _dummy_start = 0; That defines the symbol used in the previous line. The value is not used. • _GLOBAL_OFFSET_TABLE_ = 0; That prevents another linker error. I don't think you really need this symbol, so it can be defined as 0. • .all That's the name of the section that will collect all the bytes of your blob. In this sample it will be all the .text, .data and .rodata sections together. You may need some more if you have complicated functions, in this case objdump -x test.o is your friend. • LONG(f1 - _all) Not really needed, but you want to know the offset of your function into the blob, don't you? You cannot assume that it will be at offset 0. With this line the very first 4 bytes in the blob will be the offset of the symbol f1 (your function). Change LONG with QUAD if using 64-bit pointers. UPDATE: And now a quick'n'dirty test (it works!): #include <stdio.h> #include <stdlib.h> #include <sys/mman.h> typedef void (f1_t)(char a, char b, int len); f1_t f1; int main() char blob = (char)valloc(4096); FILE f = fopen("test.bin", "rb"); fread(blob, 1, 4096, f); unsigned offs = (unsigned)blob; f1 = (f1_t)(blob + offs); mprotect(blob, 4096, PROT_READ \| PROT_WRITE \| PROT_EXEC); char txt[] = "¡hello world!"; char txt2[sizeof(txt)] = ""; f1(txt, txt2, sizeof(txt) - 1); printf("%s\n%s\n", txt, txt2); return 0; share\|improve this answer _GLOBAL_OFFSET_TABLE_ is probably needed if reference to other symbols (such as a standard library) are made. – AProgrammer Aug 27 '12 at 9:53 @AProgrammer: But the OP specifically says no external dependency, so it is probably not needed. If he does access to any library then he will have to statically link all the libraries in the blob or do the dynamic linking himself... and that would be... complicated. – rodrigo Aug 27 '12 at 9:58 You should consider building a shared library (.dll for windows, or .so for linux). Build the lib like this : gcc -c -fPIC test.c gcc -shared test.o -o If you want to load the library dynamically from your code, have a look at the functions dlopen(3) and dlsym(3). Or if you want to link the library at the compile time, build the program with gcc -c main.c gcc main.o -o <binary name> -ltest I'm really not sure about what I will say here, but this could give you a clue to progress in your research ... If you don't want to use dlopen and dlsym, you can try to read the symbol table from the .o file in order to find the function address, and then, mmap the object file in memory with the read and execute rights. Then you should be able to execute the loaded code at the address you found. But be carefull with the other dependencies you could meet in this code. You can check man page elf(5) share\|improve this answer I precisely don't want to use dynamic linking, edited the question accordingly – shodanex Aug 27 '12 at 8:31 dlopen and dlsym don't imply dynamic linking (since your program won't be linked to the library, your binary won't depend on it, and the library won't be necessary during compilation). The function dlopen lets you load a library, and dlsym will return the function address, based on the symbol name you provided. – phsym Aug 27 '12 at 8:36 dlsym means calling the OS provided dynamic linker to analyse the library file, perform mapping etc.... – shodanex Aug 27 '12 at 8:49 I edited my answer with some possible clues – phsym Aug 27 '12 at 8:52 Your Answer	-1	Unrelated	false
aa5228ba-31f5-4cca-8778-5dc9f503057d	alignment-classifier-documents-unlabeled \| trentmkelly/LessWrong-43k	The Trouble with Bright Girls [link] The Trouble with Bright Girls (article @ the Huffington Post) Excerpt: > My graduate advisor, psychologist Carol Dweck (author of "Mindset") conducted a series of studies in the 1980s, looking at how Bright Girls and boys in the fifth grade handled new, difficult and confusing material. > > She found that Bright Girls, when given something to learn that was particularly foreign or complex, were quick to give up; the higher the girls' IQ, the more likely they were to throw in the towel. In fact, the straight-A girls showed the most helpless responses. Bright boys, on the other hand, saw the difficult material as a challenge, and found it energizing. They were more likely to redouble their efforts rather than give up. The topic of this article seems to relate to several common Less Wrong issues: the nature of human intelligence, and the gender imbalance among LW readers. I'm not sure how much credence I give to the proposed explanation of the difference in mindsets. It may well have to do with socialization and feedback, but the specific description of feedback that is presented seems a bit too much of a "just-so story" to me. The difference itself is fascinating, though, and I hope more is done to further our understanding of it.	-1	Unrelated	false
<urn:uuid:bf3efd84-6715-40b0-9522-9d5eef472f5c>	dclm-dedup-25B-ai-scifi-docs \| https://www.thetoptens.com/reasons-hate-my-little-pony-friendship-is-magic/page3.asp	Reasons to Hate My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic The Contenders: Page 3 41 It is satanic The pony characters in the show, since they are part of the equine family, are a symbol of Pride, one of the Seven Deadly Sins. Horse is the animal symbol, and ponies count too. Like ya' know, the ponies love Satan for no real reason - UntitledMan 42 Queen Chrysalis is the only good character All characters are bad. Actually not bad, AWFUL. Queen Chrysalis is also AWFUL, STUPID, AND UGLY! 43 Scootaloo is a ripoff of Buttercup The actress who does the voice of Scootaloo has the same name as me (Madeleine Peters) I hope Scootaloo kills herself 44 It ruined your childhood V 1 Comment 45 You're supposed to hate it Who told you to hate a work of fiction that got popular anyway? 46 Flutter Brutter What's that? 47 Pegasisters Does this mean gilda and rainbow dash Girls who like My Little Pony, GET A LIFE! You Retarded Bunch of Losers! It is a lame name for them stupid fan girls who obsess over Ponies. More like Pega-Sissies. I hate mlp but then I'm a girl, so I'm joining the cool dudes. - SnowyAqua HA! Oh my god you said that. Look, just because you hate MLP doesn't all of the sudden mean you are a boy now and certainly not a cool one. There are girls that hate MLP but they don't say "I'm cool and I'm a boy" - Ultron123 V 12 Comments 48 It is brainwashing It is brainwashing and it causes unusual behaviors, loss of brain, and turning into a brony to cause Internet problems around the world. This is not the show's fault. Very sadly, every cartoon out there runs the risk of being abused by obsessive lowlifes - it's the viewer's responsibility to enjoy media without going far enough to cause problems for themselves and others around them. - Entranced98 My sister has been brainwashed by this show. YOU WILL NEVER TAKE ME ALIVE YOU STUPID PONIES! I had a friend of mine who became a brony and as a result became a huge d! ck to my friends and to myself and as a result have isolated from him. Don't watch this stupid cartoon. - KennyRulz244444 V 4 Comments 49 The fanbase Ugh. I am from Mario fanbase and never have I seen such a terrible fanbase like My Little Pony. Both Sonic and Mario Fanbase are really good. But My Little Pony Fanbase is overcrowded with Retarded Lunatics. And they make up stuff that is utterly dumb. Annoying fanbase which thinks it is manly. Since when is MLP supposed to be manly? What the hell just happened to the world? I've seen many bad fanbases (FNaF, Sonic (somewhat), Steven Universe, etc) but this one has to be at the very bottom as it is the absolute worst... FNaF is a hair behind. - KennyRulz244444 V 4 Comments 50 Putting your hoof down was a mean-spirited episode Please don't ever watch that stupid episode, because it teaches you to be mean spirited and get jealous with kind people! 51 Rainbow Dash's personality is a rip off of Naruto's How is she ripping off sonic? Besides she is more of a rip off buttercup from ppgz the anime because they both love sports and put pressure on one of the characters when they try to do sports and both are tomboys and almost share the same voice and get mad about many things. Although, buttercup was way before the new rainbow dash. Buttercup from the ppgz anime was in 2006 while the new rainbow dash appeared in 2010. Rainbow's personality is a rip off of: 1. Naruto 2. Sonic 3. Buttercup (with less aggressive) 4. Jake Long (From American Dragon if you don't know) No it is not! She's a sonic ripoff! I agree too! V 2 Comments 52 Too many mean characters I bet ya that every pony episode has at least one mean, rampaging and disturbing pony with facial expressions overload. Bronies these days make a lot of dumb assumptions. Get the hell out of the The Top Tens you as-wholes! You get terrible examples from the characters in this messed up show, and bully other people who don't like the show so much. I hate it when those stupid bronies or pegasisters try to comment back to this list and say they love this messed up show! They deserve many negative values on their stupid comments! Ikr! Twilight, Pinkie Pie, Rarity, Apple Jack, Fluttershy, and Spike need to take a gun and shoot themselves! I hate them all! They are all mean! I wish they were real so I could stab them 99999999999999999999999999 times! V 5 Comments 53 Flutter shy has serious problems You Flutter Shy Fans have to check this list out! There are way too many errors you guys are not aware of for your so called "Sweet and Innocent Flutter Shy" character you brainwashed idiots! I definitely agree with this entire list. Thanks for pointing everything out of this Messed Up Lunatic Flutter Shy. 1. Minute Flutter is frightened of anything that moves like her own shadow. (Dragon Shy) 2. She pretends to be nice, sweet and kind. 3. Flutter breaks down into a Maniac Rage. I love fluttershy. How dare you guys! V 11 Comments 54 No male protagonist Unfortunately, you were told Wrong. This is a show for little Girls, not for Men. I do Not get this. If this is a Show for Men (As I was told. Clearly, it is NOT.), then WHY is the Protagonist a Stupid Lame Girl? This sucks. I'm not a male however I think they should make a 'My Little Pony: Gaming is cool' and it has half and half; 3 guys and 3 girls. It could teach you WHAT to do and what NOT to do on the internet. It really would be cool. Yeah,what about spike? -ApplejackFan V 8 Comments 55 Racism "Bridle Gossip". How could such Racism get away in such a cartoon that is supposed to promote Friendship! I am an African and this is the most Insulting My Little Pony episode because them ponies judge her just because she is the Race of the Zebra (How is this not Racism? ) "Hearth's Warming Eve" is the best example of Racism on this cartoon. They are racist to zebras Bridle Gossip teaches kids that white people are the best people in sociotey - mayamanga V 2 Comments 56 Never ending gossiping They never stop TALKING. It is endless problems Bla Bla Bla this, Bla Bla Bla that. No One Cares about your Problems. Try watching this show with no Sound. You will know what he means. In Ancient China, women could only speak when spoken to. In this disgraceful cartoon, they will not stop chatting. Mlp is so dumb... and all the bronies said that mlp was cooler than kung fu panda! how weird is that! Something is wrong with their brains - SnowyAqua V 2 Comments 57 Gives you nightmares Do Princesses Dream Of Magic Sheep? They also give you cancer - UntitledMan For Whom The Sweetie Belle Tolls. This episode is so Messed Up. 58 It is not for kids It WAS for kids but now its more for like 16+ year olds When I was little at the weird Royal wedding ,when Rainbow dash did the Sonic Rainboom she took her clothes off! 59 It's popular Whoever told me to shut up, you are being very rude! Besides, I was only sharing my opinion nicely, until you posted rude comments without thinking. You think being rude is fun and entertaining? It doesn't! So get off the internet if you can't put up with different opinions! I will get off the web if you do the same thing. Capisce? What's wrong with something popular? Are you some kind of hipster? Hipsters hate things that are mainstream and popular and try to take it out on other people. I think what he means is that it's too popular. Shut up mr whats wrong with something popular 60 New characters look weird PSearch List Recommended Lists	-1	Unrelated	false
0675d4c7-216f-4af0-8e2d-0d1bb34299be	alignment-classifier-documents-unlabeled \| trentmkelly/LessWrong-43k	Announcing Duncan Sabien as the keynote speaker for the 2022 LessWrong Community Weekend August 26-29! We will start taking applications on May 1, with rolling responses until all of the spots are filled. At that time an announcement will be made with all additional details. For four days at the end of August, aspiring rationalists from all around Europe and beyond will gather at the lovely Lake Wannsee near Berlin to socialize, run workshops, talk, and enjoy our shared forms of nerdiness. This year our keynote speaker will be the fascinating and incisive Duncan Sabien. He currently works at MIRI and is the former director of curriculum at the Center for Applied Rationality. Duncan regularly posts valuable new essays on Less Wrong. Some examples of his work are: * In Defense of Punch Bug, * Lies, Damn Lies, and Fabricated Options * r!Animorphs: the Reckoning * He was the primary person preparing the CFAR Handbook * and also held a talk at EA Global Creating a Personal Autopilot. Volunteers: We still can use more help to organize the event. A meetup of this scale takes a lot of work to put together, and If you want to be part of the team turning this into reality, write us an email at lwcw.europe@gmail.com. Also if someone is interested in creating an activity, or object or something else that will improve the atmosphere or location or create cool new opportunities for interaction, for example like an art installation, or like the (enormously fun) cuddle fort that is made each year in the basement, there is funding to help make it happen. Send us an email to explain your idea if you’d like to make something like that. What the event is like: While the keynote speaker will be awesome, most of the content is created by the participants. On Friday afternoon we will put up four giant daily planners, and by Saturday morning they are usually filled up with dozens of talks, activities, workshops and events that the attendees have decided to run. Aside from the content the attendees organize, it’s the serendipitous encounters, shared meals, late night discuss	-1	Unrelated	false
cfb6450d-df24-4153-8ac1-84115bb47021	alignment-classifier-documents-unlabeled \| StampyAI/alignment-research-dataset/special_docs	The Precipice: Existential Risk and the Future of Humanity [] [image] Copyright Copyright © 2020 Toby Ord, Jacket design by Amanda Kain Jacket photograph © NASA/JSC/ASU Jacket copyright © 2020 by Hachette Book Group, Inc. Hachette Book Group supports the right to free expression and the value of copyright. The purpose of copyright is to encourage writers and artists to produce the creative works that enrich our culture. The scanning, uploading, and distribution of this book without permission is a theft of the author’s intellectual property. If you would like permission to use material from the book (other than for review purposes), please contact permissions@hbgusa.com. Thank you for your support of the author’s rights. Hachette Books Hachette Book Group 1290 Avenue of the Americas New York, NY 10104 hachettebooks.com twitter.com/hachettebooks Frontispiece illustration © Hilary Paynter, 2020 Toby Ord has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as Author of this work Extract from Pale Blue Dot copyright © 1994 Carl Sagan. Originally published in Pale Blue Dot by Random House. Reprinted with permission from Democritus Properties, LLC. All rights reserved this material cannot be further circulated without written permission of Democritus Properties, LLC. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage or retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publishers Bloomsbury Publishing Plc does not have any control over, or responsibility for, any third-party websites referred to or in this book. All internet addresses given in this book were correct at the time of going to press. The author and publisher regret any inconvenience caused if addresses have changed or sites have ceased to exist, but can accept no responsibility for any such changes A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library ISBN: 978-0-316-48491-6 (hardcover), 978-0-316-48489-3 (ebook) E3-20200205-JV-NF-ORI CONTENTS Cover Title Page Copyright Dedication List of Figures List of Tables PART ONE: THE STAKES Introduction 1. Standing at the Precipice How We Got Here Where We Might Go The Precipice 2. Existential Risk Understanding Existential Risk Looking to the Present Looking to Our Future Looking to Our Past Civilizational Virtues Cosmic Significance Uncertainty Our Neglect of Existential Risks PART TWO: THE RISKS 3. Natural Risks Asteroids & Comets Supervolcanic Eruptions Stellar Explosions Other Natural Risks The Total Natural Risk 4. Anthropogenic Risks Nuclear Weapons Climate Change Environmental Damage 5. Future Risks Pandemics Unaligned Artificial Intelligence Dystopian Scenarios Other Risks PART THREE: THE PATH FORWARD 6. The Risk Landscape Quantifying the Risks Combining and Comparing Risks Risk Factors Which Risks? 7. Safeguarding Humanity Grand Strategy for Humanity Risks Without Precedent International Coordination Technological Progress Research on Existential Risk What You Can Do 8. Our Potential Duration Scale Quality Choices Resources Acknowledgments Discover More Appendices Note on the Author Note on the Type Further Reading Bibliography Notes To the hundred billion people before us, who fashioned our civilization; To the seven billion now alive, whose actions may determine its fate; To the trillions to come, whose existence lies in the balance. Explore book giveaways, sneak peeks, deals, and more. Tap here to learn more. [Hachette Books logo] [image] LIST OF FIGURES 1.1 How we settled the world 1.2 The cradles of civilization 1.3 Striking improvements over the last 200 years 2.1 A classification of existential catastrophes 4.1 The number of stockpiled nuclear warheads over time 4.2 World population from 1700 to 2100 5.1 Measures of progress and interest in AI 5.2 An extended classification of existential catastrophes 6.1 How risks can combine 8.1 A timeline showing the scale of the past and future D.1 How a 10% and 90% risk may combine LIST OF TABLES 3.1 Progress in tracking near-Earth asteroids 3.2 The probability per century of a supervolcanic eruption 3.3 The probability per century of a stellar explosion 3.4 Estimates of total natural extinction risk via humanity’s age 3.5 Estimates of total natural extinction risk via related species 3.6 The Big Five extinction events 4.1 Where is the carbon? 6.1 My existential risk estimates PART ONE THE STAKES INTRODUCTION If all goes well, human history is just beginning. Humanity is about two hundred thousand years old. But the Earth will remain habitable for hundreds of millions more—enough time for millions of future generations; enough to end disease, poverty and injustice forever; enough to create heights of flourishing unimaginable today. And if we could learn to reach out further into the cosmos, we could have more time yet: trillions of years, to explore billions of worlds. Such a lifespan places present-day humanity in its earliest infancy. A vast and extraordinary adulthood awaits. Our view of this potential is easily obscured. The latest scandal draws our outrage; the latest tragedy, our sympathy. Time and space shrink. We forget the scale of the story in which we take part. But there are moments when we remember—when our vision shifts, and our priorities realign. We see a species precariously close to self-destruction, with a future of immense promise hanging in the balance. And which way that balance tips becomes our most urgent public concern. This book argues that safeguarding humanity’s future is the defining challenge of our time. For we stand at a crucial moment in the history of our species. Fueled by technological progress, our power has grown so great that for the first time in humanity’s long history, we have the capacity to destroy ourselves—severing our entire future and everything we could become. Yet humanity’s wisdom has grown only falteringly, if at all, and lags dangerously behind. Humanity lacks the maturity, coordination and foresight necessary to avoid making mistakes from which we could never recover. As the gap between our power and our wisdom grows, our future is subject to an ever-increasing level of risk. This situation is unsustainable. So over the next few centuries, humanity will be tested: it will either act decisively to protect itself and its longterm potential, or, in all likelihood, this will be lost forever. To survive these challenges and secure our future, we must act now: managing the risks of today, averting those of tomorrow, and becoming the kind of society that will never pose such risks to itself again. It is only in the last century that humanity’s power to threaten its entire future became apparent. One of the most harrowing episodes has just recently come to light. On Saturday, October 27, 1962, a single officer on a Soviet submarine almost started a nuclear war. His name was Valentin Savitsky. He was captain of the submarine B-59—one of four submarines the Soviet Union had sent to support its military operations in Cuba. Each was armed with a secret weapon: a nuclear torpedo with explosive power comparable to the Hiroshima bomb. It was the height of the Cuban Missile Crisis. Two weeks earlier, US aerial reconnaissance had produced photographic evidence that the Soviet Union was installing nuclear missiles in Cuba, from which they could strike directly at the mainland United States. In response, the US blockaded the seas around Cuba, drew up plans for an invasion and brought its nuclear forces to the unprecedented alert level of DEFCON 2 (“Next step to nuclear war”). On that Saturday, one of the blockading US warships detected Savitsky’s submarine and attempted to force it to the surface by dropping low-explosive depth charges as warning shots. The submarine had been hiding deep underwater for days. It was out of radio contact, so the crew did not know whether war had already broken out. Conditions on board were extremely bad. It was built for the Arctic and its ventilator had broken in the tropical water. The heat inside was unbearable, ranging from 113°F near the torpedo tubes to 140°F in the engine room. Carbon dioxide had built up to dangerous concentrations, and crew members had begun to fall unconscious. Depth charges were exploding right next to the hull. One of the crew later recalled: “It felt like you were sitting in a metal barrel, which somebody is constantly blasting with a sledgehammer.” Increasingly desperate, Captain Savitsky ordered his crew to prepare their secret weapon: Maybe the war has already started up there, while we are doing somersaults here. We’re going to blast them now! We will die, but we will sink them all—we will not disgrace our Navy\!¹ Firing the nuclear weapon required the agreement of the submarine’s political officer, who held the other half of the firing key. Despite the lack of authorization by Moscow, the political officer gave his consent. On any of the other three submarines, this would have sufficed to launch their nuclear weapon. But by the purest luck, submarine B-59 carried the commander of the entire flotilla, Captain Vasili Arkhipov, and so required his additional consent. Arkhipov refused to grant it. Instead, he talked Captain Savitsky down from his rage and convinced him to give up: to surface amidst the US warships and await further orders from Moscow.² We do not know precisely what would have happened if Arkhipov had granted his consent—or had he simply been stationed on any of the other three submarines. Perhaps Savitsky would not have followed through on his command. What is clear is that we came precariously close to a nuclear strike on the blockading fleet—a strike which would most likely have resulted in nuclear retaliation, then escalation to a full-scale nuclear war (the only kind the US had plans for). Years later, Robert McNamara, Secretary of Defense during the crisis, came to the same conclusion: No one should believe that had U.S. troops been attacked by nuclear warheads, the U.S. would have refrained from responding with nuclear warheads. Where would it have ended? In utter disaster.³ Ever since the advent of nuclear weapons, humans have been making choices with such stakes. Ours is a world of flawed decision-makers, working with strikingly incomplete information, directing technologies which threaten the entire future of the species. We were lucky, that Saturday in 1962, and have so far avoided catastrophe. But our destructive capabilities continue to grow, and we cannot rely on luck forever. We need to take decisive steps to end this period of escalating risk and safeguard our future. Fortunately, it is in our power to do so. The greatest risks are caused by human action, and they can be addressed by human action. Whether humanity survives this era is thus a choice humanity will make. But it is not an easy one. It all depends on how quickly we can come to understand and accept the fresh responsibilities that come with our unprecedented power. This is a book about existential risks—risks that threaten the destruction of humanity’s longterm potential. Extinction is the most obvious way humanity’s entire potential could be destroyed, but there are others. If civilization across the globe were to suffer a truly unrecoverable collapse, that too would destroy our longterm potential. And we shall see that there are dystopian possibilities as well: ways we might get locked into a failed world with no way back. While this set of risks is diverse, it is also exclusive. So I will have to set aside many important risks that fall short of this bar: our topic is not new dark ages for humanity or the natural world (terrible though they would be), but the permanent destruction of humanity’s potential. Existential risks present new kinds of challenges. They require us to coordinate globally and intergenerationally, in ways that go beyond what we have achieved so far. And they require foresight rather than trial and error. Since they allow no second chances, we need to build institutions to ensure that across our entire future we never once fall victim to such a catastrophe. To do justice to this topic, we will have to cover a great deal of ground. Understanding the risks requires delving into physics, biology, earth science and computer science; situating this in the larger story of humanity requires history and anthropology; discerning just how much is at stake requires moral philosophy and economics; and finding solutions requires international relations and political science. Doing this properly requires deep engagement with each of these disciplines, not just cherry-picking expert quotes or studies that support one’s preconceptions. This would be an impossible task for any individual, so I am extremely grateful for the extensive advice and scrutiny of dozens of the world’s leading researchers from across these fields.⁴ This book is ambitious in its aims. Through careful analysis of the potential of humanity and the risks we face, it makes the case that we live during the most important era of human history. Major risks to our entire future are a new problem, and our thinking has not caught up. So The Precipice presents a new ethical perspective: a major reorientation in the way we see the world, and our role in it. In doing so, the book aspires to start closing the gap between our wisdom and power, allowing humanity a clear view of what is at stake, so that we will make the choices necessary to safeguard our future. I have not always been focused on protecting our longterm future, coming to the topic only reluctantly. I am a philosopher, at Oxford University, specializing in ethics. My earlier work was rooted in the more tangible concerns of global health and global poverty—in how we could best help the worst off. When coming to grips with these issues I felt the need to take my work in ethics beyond the ivory tower. I began advising the World Health Organization, World Bank and UK government on the ethics of global health. And finding that my own money could do hundreds of times as much good for those in poverty as it could do for me, I made a lifelong pledge to donate at least a tenth of all I earn to help them.⁵ I founded a society, Giving What We Can, for those who wanted to join me, and was heartened to see thousands of people come together to pledge more than £1 billion over our lifetimes to the most effective charities we know of, working on the most important causes. Together, we’ve already been able to transform the lives of tens of thousands of people.⁶ And because there are many other ways beyond our donations in which we can help fashion a better world, I helped start a wider movement, known as effective altruism, in which people aspire to use evidence and reason to do as much good as possible. Since there is so much work to be done to fix the needless suffering in our present, I was slow to turn to the future. It was so much less visceral; so much more abstract. Could it really be as urgent a problem as suffering now? As I reflected on the evidence and ideas that would culminate in this book, I came to realize that the risks to humanity’s future are just as real and just as urgent—yet even more neglected. And that the people of the future may be even more powerless to protect themselves from the risks we impose than the dispossessed of our own time. Addressing these risks has now become the central focus of my work: both researching the challenges we face, and advising groups such as the UK Prime Minister’s Office, the World Economic Forum and DeepMind on how they can best address these challenges. Over time, I’ve seen a growing recognition of these risks, and of the need for concerted action. To allow this book to reach a diverse readership, I’ve been ruthless in stripping out the jargon, needless technical detail and defensive qualifications typical of academic writing (my own included). Readers hungry for further technical detail or qualifications can delve into the many endnotes and appendices, written with them in mind.⁷ I have tried especially hard to examine the evidence and arguments carefully and even-handedly, making sure to present the key points even if they cut against my narrative. For it is of the utmost importance to get to the truth of these matters—humanity’s attention is scarce and precious, and must not be wasted on flawed narratives or ideas⁸. Each chapter of The Precipice illuminates the central questions from a different angle. Part One (The Stakes) starts with a bird’s-eye view of our unique moment in history, then examines why it warrants such urgent moral concern. Part Two (The Risks) delves into the science of the risks facing humanity, both from nature and from ourselves, showing that while some have been overstated, there is real risk and it is growing. So Part Three (The Path Forward) develops tools for understanding how these risks compare and combine, and new strategies for addressing them. I close with a vision of our future: of what we could achieve were we to succeed. This book is not just a familiar story of the perils of climate change or nuclear war. These risks that first awoke us to the possibilities of destroying ourselves are just the beginning. There are emerging risks, such as those arising from biotechnology and advanced artificial intelligence, that may pose much greater risk to humanity in the coming century. Finally, this is not a pessimistic book. It does not present an inevitable arc of history culminating in our destruction. It is not a morality tale about our technological hubris and resulting fall. Far from it. The central claim is that there are real risks to our future, but that our choices can still make all the difference. I believe we are up to the task: that through our choices we can pull back from the precipice and, in time, create a future of astonishing value—with a richness of which we can barely dream, made possible by innovations we are yet to conceive. Indeed, my deep optimism about humanity’s future is core to my motivation in writing this book. Our potential is vast. We have so much to protect. 1 STANDING AT THE PRECIPICE It might be a familiar progression, transpiring on many worlds—a planet, newly formed, placidly revolves around its star; life slowly forms; a kaleidoscopic procession of creatures evolves; intelligence emerges which, at least up to a point, confers enormous survival value; and then technology is invented. It dawns on them that there are such things as laws of Nature, that these laws can be revealed by experiment, and that knowledge of these laws can be made both to save and to take lives, both on unprecedented scales. Science, they recognize, grants immense powers. In a flash, they create world-altering contrivances. Some planetary civilizations see their way through, place limits on what may and what must not be done, and safely pass through the time of perils. Others, not so lucky or so prudent, perish. —Carl Sagan¹ We live at a time uniquely important to humanity’s future. To see why, we need to take a step back and view the human story as a whole: how we got to this point and where we might be going next. Our main focus will be humanity’s ever-increasing power—power to improve our condition and power to inflict harm. We shall see how the major transitions in human history have enhanced our power, and enabled us to make extraordinary progress. If we can avoid catastrophe we can cautiously expect this progress to continue: the future of a responsible humanity is extraordinarily bright. But this increasing power has also brought on a new transition, at least as significant as any in our past, the transition to our time of perils. HOW WE GOT HERE Very little of humanity’s story has been told; because very little can be told. Our species, Homo sapiens, arose on the savannas of Africa 200,000 years ago.² For an almost unimaginable time we have had great loves and friendships, suffered hardships and griefs, explored, created, and wondered about our place in the universe. Yet when we think of humanity’s great achievements across time, we think almost exclusively of deeds recorded on clay, papyrus or paper—records that extend back only about 5,000 years. We rarely think of the first person to set foot in the strange new world of Australia some 70,000 years ago; of the first to name and study the plants and animals of each place we reached; of the stories, songs and poems of humanity in its youth.³ But these accomplishments were real, and extraordinary. We know that even before agriculture or civilization, humanity was a fresh force in the world. Using the simple, yet revolutionary, technologies of seafaring, clothing and fire, we traveled further than any mammal before us. We adapted to a wider range of environments, and spread across the globe.⁴ What made humanity exceptional, even at this nascent stage? We were not the biggest, the strongest or the hardiest. What set us apart was not physical, but mental—our intelligence, creativity and language.⁵ Yet even with these unique mental abilities, a single human alone in the wilderness would be nothing exceptional. He or she might be able to survive—intelligence making up for physical prowess—but would hardly dominate. In ecological terms, it is not a human that is remarkable, but humanity. Each human’s ability to cooperate with the dozens of other people in their band was unique among large animals. It allowed us to form something greater than ourselves. As our language grew in expressiveness and abstraction, we were able to make the most of such groupings: pooling together our knowledge, our ideas and our plans. [image] FIGURE 1.1 How we settled the world. The arrows show our current understanding of the land and sea routes taken by our ancestors, and how many years ago they reached each area.⁶ Crucially, we were able to cooperate across time as well as space. If each generation had to learn everything anew, then even a crude iron shovel would have been forever beyond our technological reach. But we learned from our ancestors, added minor innovations of our own, and passed this all down to our children. Instead of dozens of humans in cooperation, we had tens of thousands, cooperating across the generations, preserving and improving ideas through deep time. Little by little, our knowledge and our culture grew.⁷ At several points in the long history of humanity there has been a great transition: a change in human affairs that accelerated our accumulation of power and shaped everything that would follow. I will focus on three.⁸ The first was the Agricultural Revolution.⁹ Around 10,000 years ago the people of the Fertile Crescent, in the Middle East, began planting wild wheat, barley, lentils and peas to supplement their foraging. By preferentially replanting the seeds from the best plants, they harnessed the power of evolution, creating new domesticated varieties with larger seeds and better yields. This worked with animals too, giving humans easier access to meat and hides, along with milk, wool and manure. And the physical power of draft animals to help plow the fields or transport the harvest was the biggest addition to humanity’s power since fire.¹⁰ While the Fertile Crescent is often called “the cradle of civilization,” in truth civilization had many cradles. Entirely independent agricultural revolutions occurred across the world in places where the climate and local species were suitable: in east Asia; sub-Saharan Africa; New Guinea; South, Central and North America; and perhaps elsewhere too.¹¹ The new practices fanned out from each of these cradles, changing the way of life for many from foraging to farming. This had dramatic effects on the scale of human cooperation. Agriculture reduced the amount of land needed to support each person by a factor of a hundred, allowing large permanent settlements to develop, which began to unite together into states.¹² Where the largest foraging communities involved perhaps hundreds of people, some of the first cities had tens of thousands of inhabitants. At its height, the Sumerian civilization contained around a million people.¹³ And 2,000 years ago, the Han dynasty of China reached sixty million people—about a hundred thousand times as many as were ever united in our forager past, and about ten times the entire global forager population at its peak.¹⁴ As more and more people were able to share their insights and discoveries, there were rapid developments in technology, institutions and culture. And the increasing numbers of people trading with one another made it possible for them to specialize in these areas—to devote a lifetime to governance, trade or the arts—allowing us to develop these ideas much more deeply. Over the first 6,000 years of agriculture, we achieved world-changing breakthroughs including writing, mathematics, law and the wheel.¹⁵ Of these, writing was especially important for strengthening our ability to cooperate across time and space: increasing the bandwidth between generations, the reliability of the information, and the distance over which ideas could be shared. [image] FIGURE 1.2 The cradles of civilization. The places around the world where agriculture was independently developed, marked with how many years ago this occurred. The next great transition was the Scientific Revolution.¹⁶ Early forms of science had been practiced since ancient times, and the seeds of empiricism can be found in the work of medieval scholars in the Islamic world and Europe.¹⁷ But it was only about 400 years ago that humanity developed the scientific method and saw scientific progress take off.¹⁸ This helped replace a reliance on received authorities with careful observation of the natural world, seeking simple and testable explanations for what we saw. The ability to test and discard bad explanations helped us break free from dogma, and allowed for the first time the systematic creation of knowledge about the workings of nature. Some of our new-found knowledge could be harnessed to improve the world around us. So the accelerated accumulation of knowledge brought with it an acceleration of technological innovation, giving humanity increasing power over the natural world. The rapid pace allowed people to see transformative effects of these improvements within their own lifetimes. This gave rise to the modern idea of progress. Where the world had previously been dominated by narratives of decline and fall or of a recurring cycle, there was increasing interest in a new narrative: a grand project of working together to build a better future. Soon, humanity underwent a third great transition: the Industrial Revolution. This was made possible by the discovery of immense reserves of energy in the form of coal and other fossil fuels. These are formed from the compressed remains of organisms that lived in eons past, allowing us access to a portion of the sunlight that shone upon the Earth over millions of years.¹⁹ We had already begun to drive simple machines with the renewable energy from the wind, rivers and forests; fossil fuels allowed access to vastly more energy, and in a much more concentrated and convenient form. But energy is nothing without a way of converting it to useful work, to achieve our desired changes in the world. The steam engine allowed the stored chemical energy of coal to be turned into mechanical energy.²⁰ This mechanical energy was then used to drive machines that performed massive amounts of labor for us, allowing raw materials to be transformed into finished products much more quickly and cheaply than before. And via the railroad, this wealth could be distributed and traded across long distances. Productivity and prosperity began to accelerate, and a rapid sequence of innovations ramped up the efficiency, scale and variety of automation, giving rise to the modern era of sustained economic growth.²¹ The effects of these transitions have not always been positive. Life in the centuries following the Agricultural Revolution generally involved more work, reduced nutrition and increased disease.²² Science gave us weapons of destruction that haunt us to this day. And the Industrial Revolution was among the most destabilizing periods in human history. The unequal distribution of gains in prosperity and the exploitative labor practices led to the revolutionary upheavals of the early twentieth century.²³ Inequality between countries increased dramatically (a trend that has only begun to reverse in the last two decades).²⁴ Harnessing the energy stored in fossil fuels has released greenhouse gases, while industry fueled by this energy has endangered species, damaged ecosystems and polluted our environment. Yet despite these real problems, on average human life today is substantially better than at any previous time. The most striking change may be in breaking free from poverty. Until 200 years ago—the last thousandth of our history²⁵—increases in humanity’s power and prosperity came hand in hand with increases in the human population. Income per person stayed almost unchanged: a little above subsistence in times of plenty; a little below in times of need.²⁶ The Industrial Revolution broke this rule, allowing income to grow faster than population and ushering in an unprecedented rise in prosperity that continues to this day. We often think of economic growth from the perspective of a society that is already affluent, where it is not immediately clear if further growth even improves our lives. But the most remarkable effects of economic growth have been for the poorest people. In today’s world, one out of ten people are so poor that they live on less than two dollars per day—a widely used threshold for “extreme poverty.” That so many have so little is among the greatest problems of our time, and has been a major focus of my life. It is shocking then to look further back and see that prior to the Industrial Revolution 19 out of 20 people lived on less than two dollars a day (even adjusting for inflation and purchasing power). Until the Industrial Revolution, any prosperity was confined to a tiny elite with extreme poverty the norm. But over the last two centuries more and more people have broken free from extreme poverty, and are now doing so more quickly than at any earlier time.²⁷ Two dollars a day is far from prosperity, and these statistics can be of little comfort to those who are still in the grip of poverty, but the trends toward improvement are clear. And it is not only in terms of material conditions that life has improved. Consider education and health. Universal schooling has produced dramatic improvements in education. Before the Industrial Revolution, just one in ten of the world’s people could read and write; now more than eight in ten can do so.²⁸ For the 10,000 years since the Agricultural Revolution, life expectancy had hovered between 20 and 30 years. It has now more than doubled, to 72 years.²⁹ And like literacy, these gains have been felt across the world. In 1800 the highest life expectancy of any country was a mere 43 years, in Iceland. Now every single country has a life expectancy above 50.³⁰ The industrial period has seen all of humanity become more prosperous, educated and long-lived than ever before. But we should not succumb to complacency in the face of this astonishing progress. That we have achieved so much, and so quickly, should inspire us to address the suffering and injustices that remain. We have also seen substantial improvements in our moral thinking.³¹ One of the clearest trends is toward the gradual expansion of the moral community, with the recognition of the rights of women, children, the poor, foreigners and ethnic or religious minorities. We have also seen a marked shift away from violence as a morally acceptable part of society.³² And in the last sixty years we have added the environment and the welfare of animals to our standard picture of morality. These social changes did not come naturally with prosperity. They were secured by reformers and activists, motivated by the belief that we can—and must—improve. We still have far to go before we are living up to these new ideals, and our progress can be painfully slow, but looking back even just one or two centuries shows how far we have come. Of course, there have been many	-1	Unrelated	false
c342f07d-62f3-45da-8f6f-cd958150f38f	alignment-classifier-documents-unlabeled \| trentmkelly/LessWrong-43k	An issue with MacAskill's Evidentialist's Wager In The Evidentialist's Wager, MacAskill et al. argue as follows: Suppose you are uncertain as to whether EDT or CDT is the correct decision theory, and face a Newcomb-like decision. If CDT were correct, your decision would only influence the outcomes of your present decision. If EDT were correct, it would provide evidence not only for the outcome of your present decision, but also for the outcome of many similar decisions by similar agents throughout the universe (either because they are exact copies of you, or they have very similar decision theories/computations to you, etc.). Thus, the stakes for the decision are way higher if EDT is true, and so you should act as if EDT were true (even if you have higher prior credence on CDT). This argument of course relies on how many of these similar agents actually exist, and how similar they are. They use the term correlated agent to mean some agent similar enough to you so that your decision will acausally provide evidence about theirs. As possible counterexamples to their argument, they point out the existence of different agents: 1. Anti-correlated agents: Agents whose decision theory will drive them to take the decision opposite to yours. 2. Evil Twins: Agents positively correlated to you (with your same decision theory) but with drastically different utility functions (or in the extreme, the exact opposite utility function).[1] Regarding anti-correlated agents, since our decision theories are actual good heuristics for going about the world and rationally obtaining our goals, it seems more likely for agents that exist (that is, have survived) to be positively correlated rather than anti-correlated. But regarding Evil Twins, because of the Orthogonality Thesis, we might expect on average that there are as much agents positively correlated to us with ~our same utility function (Good Twins) as agents positively correlated to us with ~opposite utility function (Evil Twins). That is, the universe selects for agents	-1	Unrelated	false
c015e5c9-cc06-4bf8-b4e5-ae3b483699ce	alignment-classifier-documents-unlabeled \| trentmkelly/LessWrong-43k	Hanging Out My Speaker's Shingle I was recently invited to give a talk on heuristics and biases at Jane Street Capital, one of the top proprietary trading firms ("proprietary" = they trade their own money). When I got back home, I realized that (a) I'd successfully managed to work through the trip, and (b) it'd been very pleasant mentally, a nice change of pace. (One of these days I have to blog about what I discovered at Jane Street - it turns out they've got their own rationalist subculture going.) So I've decided to hang out my shingle as a speaker at financial companies. You may be thinking: "Perhaps, Eliezer, this is not the best of times." Well... I do have hopes that, among the firms interested in having me as a speaker, a higher-than-usual percentage will have come out of the crash okay. I checked recently to see if this were the case for Jane Street Capital, and it was. But more importantly - your competitors are learning the secrets of rationality! Are you? Or maybe I should frame it as: "Not doing too well this year? Drop the expensive big-name speakers. I can give a fascinating and useful talk and I won't charge you as much." And just to offer a bit of a carrot - if I can monetize by speaking, I'm much less likely to try charging for access to my future writings. No promises, but something to keep in mind. So do recommend me to your friends as well. I expect that, as I speak, the marginal value of money to my work will go down; the more I speak, the more my price will go up. If my (future) popular book on rationality becomes a hit, I'll upgrade to big-name fees. And later in my life, if all goes as planned, I'll be just plain not available. So I'm offering you, my treasured readers, a chance to get me early. I would suggest referencing this page when requesting me as a speaker. Emails will be answered in the order they arrive.	-1	Unrelated	false
5c088e20-6f25-4241-8177-2d913273d3ec	alignment-classifier-documents-unlabeled \| trentmkelly/LessWrong-43k	The Best Software For Every Need When I first started programming, I didn't use a terminal multiplexer and finding tmux was a sort of revelation. I joked once on discord that "life before tmux was not life". It strikes me there are probably many other programs that I am not aware of that would be useful to know about. I've occasionally found Luke's The Best Textbooks on Every Subject thread useful, so I thought a similar thread about software may be interesting. Here are the rules: 1. Post the name of a program for a given need. 2. You must have tried at least 2 other programs designed for the same/similar class of problems. 3. You must briefly name the other programs you have tried and why you think your chosen program is superior to them.	-1	Unrelated	false
<urn:uuid:63868944-7010-4e60-9bc2-72e94c87fd4d>	dclm-dedup-25B-ai-scifi-docs \| http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2012-11-09/anatomy-market-collapse	This page has been archived and commenting is disabled. Anatomy Of A Market Collapse Tyler Durden's picture Via Michael Naso of FBN Securities, On August 14, I penned a Daily Missive which outlined the various fundamental and technical characteristics of each of the three stages of a standard rally such that one could use the blueprint in identifying an imminent top which I officially called for on September 7. The piece received more positive feedback than most such that the 6.6% drop in the S&P 500 from the September 14 peak merits a similar commentary on the different phases of a market pullback. The chart below leverages statistics compiled from the prior decade from various selloffs (i.e. > 7%) which have produced consistent patterns that help traders ascertain the potential depth and duration of the current downward move: Negatively skewed prices mark a key hallmark of selloffs in that stocks descend much faster than they rise. Although the duration of a rally may last months or possibly years, a soft market may only exist for a few weeks or less. Consequently, when a decline lasts for several months or longer, such as the collapses of the Dot Com bubble and the financial crisis, shares suffer massive dislocations. No sustained drop in equity prices ever fits perfectly into one of these three pockets; however the current pullback appears close to crossing from Mid-cycle to Exhaustion. The average monthly NYSE Closing TICK has dipped to +87 which I would classify as oversold albeit not excessively so. This represents my most reliable buy signal such that without this trigger, I will remain negative for the days ahead even though the average intraday TICK has fallen solidly below +15. Open interest has now increased by 150K E-Mini equivalent contracts over the prior two sessions indicating that long-short managers have panicked somewhat and subsequently reduced the beta of their portfolios. The average intraday range over the prior week has increased to over 20 handles while the difference in intraday volatility between the cash index and the E-Minis decreased sharply yesterday. Fundamentally, earnings have stumbled, but have not worsened as we have progressed through the reporting season. The economic data has improved, but I anticipate a negative inflection point in these statistics as the effects of Hurricane Sandy and the fiscal cliff start to make their presences felt over the next several weeks. Most analysts foresee the FOMC will supplant Operation Twist, which expires on December 31, with unsterilized Treasury purchases totaling $45B. While the fiscal cliff looms as a massive exogenous shock into year end, additional selling may entice buyers with attractive valuations since Congress and the President still has nearly two months to arrive at some resolution. I expect the risk associated with the event will not heighten dramatically until after the Fed meeting on December 12 such that investors would judge a forward P/E that drops to 12.0x in the near term as reasonably cheap to engage in bottom fishing. Extrapolating the current landscape from this historical reference yields a market not too far off from a significant trough such that I currently estimate a bottom for the S&P 500 between 1355 and 1360. For many, the current index level is close enough to this target to start picking away from the long side. I am a bit more demanding when calling for an official turn, such that I will use my aforementioned test associated with the average monthly NYSE Closing TICK as my guide. Fundamentally, if and when I do call for a reversal, it will be modest and cyclical within the context of a larger pullback that arises from a butting of heads in trying to assuage one of the most serious fiscal crises facing the Federal Government in its history. - advertisements - Comment viewing options Fri, 11/09/2012 - 09:42 \| 2964052 GetZeeGold GetZeeGold's picture Better drive home....we're too screwed up to walk. Fri, 11/09/2012 - 09:43 \| 2964060 disabledvet disabledvet's picture I thought you were going to the gym for your "work out"? back so soon? Fri, 11/09/2012 - 09:43 \| 2964063 Spirit Of Truth Spirit Of Truth's picture The stock market is currently following an analogous pattern to the 1929 and 1987 stock market crashes. If the parallel holds true, then we are about to enter a free fall: The question is: Why? Let's hope and pray it's just Greece to worry about. My concern is high regarding Syria and the potential for all-out war to erupt in the Middle East: Fri, 11/09/2012 - 10:01 \| 2964131 Chupacabra-322 Chupacabra-322's picture @ Spirit Of Truth, "then we are about to enter a free fall:" Got news for ya, we're already "off the cliff" and in free fall speed. Rule number one. Remember, these Criminal Politicians talk in double speak. Whatever they say, think and interpret in terms of exactly the opposite. Fri, 11/09/2012 - 10:06 \| 2964158 holdbuysell holdbuysell's picture "Subprime is contained" - Chairman Fri, 11/09/2012 - 11:16 \| 2964400 I am more equal... I am more equal than others's picture Gee, a whole two months. I feel secure knowing that politicians are serious folk and willing to make hard decisions. /sarc off What possible solution is there to the massive debt? The Wiermar Solution - Bernakes a studen of history of the depression. Does that includes Germany's? Fri, 11/09/2012 - 11:24 \| 2964445 eatthebanksters eatthebanksters's picture Aslong as Bernanke keeps printing there won't be a top...just sayin' Fri, 11/09/2012 - 13:31 \| 2964903 TruthInSunshine TruthInSunshine's picture As a factual matter, measured in real terms, we're already in a depression. The majority of MSM watching sheeple could never realize this (cognitive dissonance). Peope don't understand that the 47 million Americans on SNAP (as well as the 1 in 4 Americans on other direct transfer payment government assistance programs) are the new soup lines that were seen in the 1930s. Most people believe that the unemployment rate is what the MSM headlines say it is, when in reality its close to 25% (using U6 calculated the way it was prior to 1994, when the real manipulation of employment data began), and the compensation of those Americans who are working, whether full or part time, and with or without benefits, is stgnant or falling in real terms. Governments are papering over the real decline in productivity, while papering over (or up) the real decline in consumption, through credit/debt/fiat expansion, and in the process of this massive increase in indebting themselves & their citizens, governments all across the globe have already ensured the depression will go on for some considerable time. As this takes place, governments are also ensuring that the fall will not only be inevitable, but will be far steeper than it would have been had they let they let market based mechanisms continue to purge the toxins in the system (akin to letting the forest fire burn, so that the scrub and dead wood be consumed), rather than prop up the diseased institutions and mark assets (or liabilities) on balance sheets to unicorn levels. The majority of people won't realize that everything I've mentioned is what's actually happening until either their standard of living falls at a pace that's so significant that it hits them over the head like a hammer and/or creditors attempt to call in their notes and other debt/credit instruments. As these things are realized and the faith in the system is lost by the majority, those who do have equities or other assets in the form of ostensibly redeemable paper instruments will rush to liquidate them in order to trade the proceeds for necessities of life, and this is what will produce the 1932-1933 style market crash (part of the crash will be attributable to a generational/demographic trend whereby those about to retire or those retired attempt to convert more of their paper assets into purchasing power for necessities, as well). The entire gobal economy is a true ponzi scheme built on pillars of faith in government printed fiat that has zero value and is whose volume is spectacularly disproportionately higher than the amount of real, inherent wealth it's alleged to be correlated to or with. Fri, 11/09/2012 - 14:16 \| 2965170 prains prains's picture very true words, the initial 2008 crash caught the boys at the helm napping and in order to delay long enough to arm,drone build, train suppression teams TIME was the necessary ingredient. What's even more ridiculous is the majority of Amercians still believe there is a RED/BLUE paradigm still operating. Since Glass Steagall was repealed by Clinton the entire operation has been corporately controlled to crush workers pensions and living standards. A hungry,angry,broke,over indebted, dispossessed (and young) unemployed workforce can eventually be manipulated into a long protracted oil seeking war. This too takes TIME to build both the propoganda and disenfranchised energy required to false flagg a skeptical populace to do the bidding of major corporations. if the last 30-40 years is calculated around the rise of american corporate control of government and their singular need to control the globes diminshing energy supplies in order to survive, the entire plan starts to lay out quite clearly. Fri, 11/09/2012 - 11:26 \| 2964450 leftcoastfool leftcoastfool's picture "Deficits don't matter" - V.P. Dick Cheney Fri, 11/09/2012 - 12:05 \| 2964602 madcows madcows's picture we are not monitizing the debt Fri, 11/09/2012 - 10:06 \| 2964160 GetZeeGold GetZeeGold's picture that was someone else...and I did warn him against it. If you're really going to do this you need to work on your focus. Fri, 11/09/2012 - 11:10 \| 2964368 DeadFred DeadFred's picture You ain't seen free fall if you think this is free fall. It can get lots diceier than this but this is the type of environment that can lead to real exciting times. I half expect today to be one of those Wile E. Coyote moment where the market hold still for the day before realizing there is nothing but air below. I have a bad feeling about this weekend, Monday could be memorable. (my bad feeling plus $1.50 can still get you a cup of coffee at the Starbucks down the street) Fri, 11/09/2012 - 10:03 \| 2964141 falak pema falak pema's picture You know President Hollande evoked that to explain current uncertainty in the market according to French media last night. It surprised me to see a french president being quoted about potential war in IRan as reason to explain current market slo-down...normally these guys never talk real issues before they occur, only afterwords to say it was an unforseeable expense...bla bla bla. Made me think was he raising a false flag to divert debate from his own weak economic package...but I wonder if Obammy has not given the green light on Syria/Iran/Lebanon cauldron, after all. We'll soon find out. Fri, 11/09/2012 - 10:05 \| 2964155 vast-dom vast-dom's picture I call for SP at 650! And that's using those purdy charts too! have no clue nor do I....well I do....but....the QExcrement...... Fri, 11/09/2012 - 11:21 \| 2964428 Robot Traders Mom Robot Traders Mom's picture "I currently estimate a bottom for the S&P 500 between 1355 and 1360." Not sure how that equates to the anatomy of a market collapse, I tend to agree with you that we could see 50% off the recent highs. Fri, 11/09/2012 - 09:48 \| 2964080 falak pema falak pema's picture better crawl home, we're too wormed to drive. Didn't have my apple 'cos its full of worms, and now they love my insides. Is this what a rotten apple feels like? I am all a goggled. Fri, 11/09/2012 - 10:01 \| 2964130 HD HD's picture This guy got lost on the way to the CNBC site... Fri, 11/09/2012 - 10:11 \| 2964184 TideFighter TideFighter's picture Next buy sig: Hillary 2016. Forward. Fri, 11/09/2012 - 10:40 \| 2964269 DanDaley DanDaley's picture It is Forward, Soviet! ( Comrade, perhaps you are needing vacation to re-education camp. Fri, 11/09/2012 - 11:36 \| 2964492 Nobody For President Nobody For President's picture You mean Hillary Swank, right? Good idea. Fri, 11/09/2012 - 09:45 \| 2964059 LawsofPhysics LawsofPhysics's picture Where is this "market" they speak of. Stop it, just stop it already. There is no fucking spoon and there is no "market". Technical analysis of the "mark to fantasy" accounting numbers doesn't mean shit. Henceforth, there will be a "paper" price and a physical price. hedge accordingly. Fri, 11/09/2012 - 09:46 \| 2964073 SilverDOG SilverDOG's picture Paper is as paper does,...Bitchez. Fri, 11/09/2012 - 10:02 \| 2964135 krispkritter krispkritter's picture It's good for fires and covering the bullet holes in the walls... Fri, 11/09/2012 - 09:55 \| 2964103 malikai malikai's picture The market will win. Even if it dies in the fight. Count on it. Fri, 11/09/2012 - 10:42 \| 2964280 JPM Hater001 JPM Hater001's picture That was deep. Fri, 11/09/2012 - 12:07 \| 2964609 aerojet aerojet's picture But it was the truth--real people need real things and the markets were created to support that, not to support a bunch of bots making sub-microsecond trades and politicians maniuplating numbers to paint some rosy picture. We're headed for a major collapse, we've been headed for it ever since 2008, and papering over reality isn't going to change a damn thing. Fri, 11/09/2012 - 09:44 \| 2964061 TideFighter TideFighter's picture The designated driver flew home in his helicopter. Fri, 11/09/2012 - 10:03 \| 2964144 pods pods's picture With Groupon puking out the window! Fri, 11/09/2012 - 09:43 \| 2964062 cowdiddly cowdiddly's picture ZZZZZZwake me up at SP 600 then after the market is priced right, I might try to frontrun an alogo. Fri, 11/09/2012 - 09:45 \| 2964068 Cursive Cursive's picture I agree that any reversal will be modest and tempororay. Fri, 11/09/2012 - 09:46 \| 2964072 AU5K AU5K's picture Why do i get the feeling all the bad news that's been suppressed is suddenly going to come out, in order to justify even more government action. Fri, 11/09/2012 - 10:06 \| 2964162 crusty curmudgeon crusty curmudgeon's picture This isn't brain surgery. If capital gains taxes will go up sharply in 2013, as appears likely, I'm going to go out on a limb and guess people will sell more stocks before January 1st then they otherwise would. I'm thinking that might have an adverse effect on the stock market. Me thinks this, without even considering the other myriad reasons for lack of optimism in the stock market, will be significant. Fri, 11/09/2012 - 10:45 \| 2964284 JPM Hater001 JPM Hater001's picture Said it 2 days ago. You will not believe the shit they will release in the next 60 days. Elections over ladies. Looks like it's rape for everyone. Fri, 11/09/2012 - 09:46 \| 2964075 Lost Wages Lost Wages's picture We all know the "fiscal cliff" is bullshit right? Fri, 11/09/2012 - 09:59 \| 2964124 SheepDog-One SheepDog-One's picture For that matter, its ALL just bullshit. But everyone still pretending 'I got this!' when last week it was 'Obama win good for stocks, Romney win buy bonds'....LOL already totaly flipped the script on that one. Well, I dont have any money near this machine so they can go do what they want. Fri, 11/09/2012 - 10:03 \| 2964147 overmedicatedun... overmedicatedundersexed's picture covered my shorts end of day, now I wake up to a red market ...WTF..I know if I put the shorts back on I am screwed, but but the zh buzz is this is the big one everybody on the down escalator..i must fight the urge to short i must fight the urge.. Fri, 11/09/2012 - 11:44 \| 2964526 overmedicatedun... overmedicatedundersexed's picture did not short today, ben came thru as I have learned over the last few years..go short be very very nimble. end of day it may break i will tip my toe in for another short but I never learn stupid is as stupid does..con fident I am. Fri, 11/09/2012 - 09:47 \| 2964077 Ljoot Ljoot's picture I'm long Debbie Wasserman Schultz. Fri, 11/09/2012 - 09:49 \| 2964083 GetZeeGold GetZeeGold's picture Sick and twisted.......nice. Fri, 11/09/2012 - 09:53 \| 2964096 Oldballplayer Oldballplayer's picture I would be long if the ear plugs stayed in, and as long as I could keep my eyes closed. Fri, 11/09/2012 - 09:59 \| 2964126 krispkritter krispkritter's picture Debbie 'Was Her Name' Schultz? "I know nothink!" I wouldn't fuck that with Bernanke's dick...if he had one... Fri, 11/09/2012 - 12:36 \| 2964726 madcows madcows's picture No, but she'll pork us with hers. I'm wondering if I spread oralgel around down there if it will ease the pain. Fri, 11/09/2012 - 10:03 \| 2964145 JohnnyBriefcase JohnnyBriefcase's picture Ugh, that's got to be one of the least pleasant images (and audio) ever. Fri, 11/09/2012 - 10:19 \| 2964207 Translational Lift Translational Lift's picture enjoy eating dog shit too?? Fri, 11/09/2012 - 10:52 \| 2964305 mess nonster mess nonster's picture From the Palm Beach new Times.... One of the major rules of party décor is that you show up to your own shindig. Just don't tell that to Fort Lauderdale Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz, who skipped her victory bash last night for the national spotlight in Chicago. She left her supporters, dizzied with political victory, to feed on stale corn chips and goldfish crackers. Not that anyone seemed to care that much. Except us, apparently. Instead, the party was all about Obama, who defeated M. Willard Romnom last night. And though supporters at the Signature Grand admitted the enthusiasm of 2008 had faded, something more real, more visceral had replaced it. Pragmatism has trumped idealism. "This time we're not just buying into the hype," said Erin Wood, who had traveled from Dallas for the party. "It's not about his charisma or his immediate appeal. It's faith in his accomplishments and it's now less about the honeymoon period." But here's to hoping he'll get one this time! With the Romneytrons vanquished once and for all, perhaps a peace will settle over the land, some party attendants mused. "The Tea Party has lost a lot of momentum, which may free up the more moderate Republicans to vote more with their heart and how they actually feel without fear of reprisal," Kyla Cole said. Such analysis, while we sincerely hope comes to pass, was disappointing for one reason -- it was offered by a surprisingly sober person on a surprisingly sober night. This was a major problem with the Democratic fiesta. Everyone was drinking coffee and tea. It was like you crashed your mom's book club halfway through a rousing discussion of Tuesdays With Morey. Meanwhile, in a conference room next door, at Broward County Sheriff Al Lamberti's postelection party, Republicans got their party on with beer, meats, and wine. We accidentally wandered into this party at first, under the misguided assumption it was for local Democrats. We suspected something was amiss, however, when we noticed only white people were in attendance. But at least these were drunk white people. Among the Democrats, it was a diverse, coffee-swilling crowd. This was also confusing, but perhaps it was because the bar was cash-only -- and there wasn't an ATM in sight. (Who plans these things???) Things began to get desperate among several partygoers. "I love beer!" explained a forlorn Gene Ouellette. We all do, Gene. We all do. But at least at this party -- unlike the one thrown by the Republicans -- there were kegs of vindication to guzzle from. Fri, 11/09/2012 - 12:23 \| 2964661 vato poco vato poco's picture "......'It's faith in his accomplishments (!) and now less about the honeymoon period', [the silly whore] gushed." Translation: "We're hoping he'll use lube this time!" Fri, 11/09/2012 - 12:33 \| 2964712 madcows madcows's picture Is that you Janet Nepolitano, or Rosie ODonnell? Fri, 11/09/2012 - 12:38 \| 2964734 DosZap DosZap's picture I am LONG Nullification.....................sick of their shit. Personally I see no other way except a MAJOR confrontation. Fri, 11/09/2012 - 15:56 \| 2965704 I Feel a little... I Feel a little Qeasy's picture God made them ugly for a reason. Fri, 11/09/2012 - 09:48 \| 2964079 Orly Orly's picture Very reasoned arguments. The US equity markets will then start to resemble the Nikkei Average, in that there will be bullish turns inside of a much larger bear trend. Obviously, this is not the end of it, as the law of diminshing returns comes back to haunt the Fed after QEs 7, 8, 9... Fri, 11/09/2012 - 09:49 \| 2964082 LawsofPhysics LawsofPhysics's picture "Beating expectations", all... the... way... down... Fri, 11/09/2012 - 09:53 \| 2964094 Orly Orly's picture Exactly. It's going to be the exact same pattern. It would be helpful to overlay a chart of Nikkei and SPX and play it accordingly. Fri, 11/09/2012 - 10:00 \| 2964127 madcows madcows's picture That's why there is so much money in the bond markets, regardless of the rate of return. 401k $ has to go somewhere, and it sure ain't looking to be in equities. We are now in the "preserve capital" phase of the collapse. Fri, 11/09/2012 - 10:04 \| 2964152 LawsofPhysics LawsofPhysics's picture Personally, I have been in a "preserve capital/purchasing power" for 20+ years, it's just that the relative percentage of my capital flowing toward such investments is increasing. Looking to put up some more rental units for sale and owner finance. If you have any physical assets in your possession, it's time to become the bank boys and girls. Fri, 11/09/2012 - 11:10 \| 2964365 crzyhun crzyhun's picture Yes to your thoughts and raise you to the fact that if you want an image of what markets will be like soon, look to the euro markets now. Fri, 11/09/2012 - 09:48 \| 2964081 buzzsaw99 buzzsaw99's picture Does he know jamie dimon? because if not Naso is just guessing. There is no market, there is only the bernank. Fri, 11/09/2012 - 09:53 \| 2964098 fonzannoon fonzannoon's picture I am torn on the issue of the Bernak Buzzsaw. Equities are now calling the QE bluff, but treasuries are doing just fine. The only question now is what "good news" is going to make equities catch a bid? My guess is some Draghi type pre announcement where a few dems and repubs claim to have "reached a preliminary agreement" to Punt the fuck out of the cliff. No one will care about the second part. But equities will celebrate the first part. Fri, 11/09/2012 - 09:59 \| 2964125 Dr. Engali Dr. Engali's picture Any celebration at all should be used to get out. I don't think people quite grasp everything that is about to hit next year. Fri, 11/09/2012 - 10:02 \| 2964138 fonzannoon fonzannoon's picture I hear you. The only credibility I give to the possibility of a rising stock market is the idea that it rises in nominal terms and gets crushed in relation to gold. I think (correct me if I am wrong) that you are predicting the deflationary crunch that will ultimately be met with massive inflation. Is that right? Fri, 11/09/2012 - 10:08 \| 2964172 Dr. Engali Dr. Engali's picture That's the way I see things working out. I do reflect on kito's most cash is digital/ paper cash is rare deftlation theory, but my belief is still that once the digital cash blows up and collapses that our paper won't be accepted for products and services. Fri, 11/09/2012 - 10:10 \| 2964176 overmedicatedun... overmedicatedundersexed's picture any good clear pics of valarie Jarrett, you know the Iranian born true chief of staff for mr soerto um obuma um ... Fri, 11/09/2012 - 11:18 \| 2964398 hangemhigh hangemhigh's picture @ DR E that happened once the 1970's....i think at time of '73 oil war.......i was out of country then......for 3-4 days you could not exchange $ for any local currency..... Fri, 11/09/2012 - 10:05 \| 2964154 krispkritter krispkritter's picture Had a friend toss high 6 figures into the market and is taking the broker's advice year after year and leaving it sit. When it was down 50% they were telling him 'Just wait, it'll get better.' No telling what he's doing now, and I quit telling him to pull out. Looks like the 'Hope-ful' are going to get creamed soon... Fri, 11/09/2012 - 11:02 \| 2964332 Non Passaran Non Passaran's picture Nothing will happen. The same shot will continue for a number of years. (I am long PMs and short broad indexes, but clearly that hasn't been the optimal approach...) Fri, 11/09/2012 - 10:03 \| 2964134 buzzsaw99 buzzsaw99's picture zh had an article a few days ago about margin. i read that rochdale bought $1B in aapl shares with very little money in the bank. how many more rochdales are there? add that to hedge fund redemptions and the selloff could be severe if not for the fact that jpm steps in front of every flash crash. the day they don't look out below. Fri, 11/09/2012 - 10:00 \| 2964128 TideFighter TideFighter's picture "There is no market, there is only the bernank." Exactly. And...Obama is either killing something or saving something. "He" saved the market and now will allow it to bleed out down the blood trail, only to come our emotional rescue in 2015 or 2016. Hillary saved his ass, and her payback will be in 2015 or 2016 when she is running. Us muppets will be so enthrawled that Hillary is running that S&P will come roaring back. The market has been reduced to an election tool. I hope they swing and miss and it becomes a revolt machine gun. Fri, 11/09/2012 - 09:53 \| 2964095 richard in norway richard in norway's picture why is the german market leading the way down, thankfully im short the dax, but i think i just lucked out Fri, 11/09/2012 - 09:54 \| 2964102 SheepDog-One SheepDog-One's picture Gee...I guess re-electing that Obama guy with the 'Obamas good for equities' thing isnt so much after all. Fri, 11/09/2012 - 09:56 \| 2964109 Dr. Engali Dr. Engali's picture If anybody starts going long at 1350 they are going to get creamed. This pig is toast. Tax selling and the liquidity need is going to overwhelm Ben's printing. There are a lot of people who were waiting until the last minute to get out. They are making their move now. Fri, 11/09/2012 - 09:59 \| 2964122 fonzannoon fonzannoon's picture Doc I have waivered back and forth on that one for so long now. Big fan of your consistent viewpoint. Fri, 11/09/2012 - 10:03 \| 2964146 Dr. Engali Dr. Engali's picture I can tell you this fonz...I moved clients to the sidelines in September. We have about 10% market exposure right now. Fri, 11/09/2012 - 10:13 \| 2964178 fonzannoon fonzannoon's picture I was having a rough year up until very recently because I was too bearish too soon. But I had them set up across short nasdaq, long treasuries (it killed me to do it), Gold miners etc. to go along with the widows and orphans and some individual corporates (bought a few years ago, when yield was possible) which were the only things working. The ship finally got righted....Whew! Fri, 11/09/2012 - 10:35 \| 2964264 GCT GCT's picture Hey Doc. I look at this as a selloff because of the capital gain tax increase. I do respect your opinion. Am I looking at this wrong? Fri, 11/09/2012 - 10:49 \| 2964287 Dr. Engali Dr. Engali's picture Capital gains, dividend income treatment, estate taxes,lifetime gifting reduction , and then you throw in Obama care and the dreaded fiscal cliff . There is just too much changing in 2013 that will overwhelm the sytstem. Fri, 11/09/2012 - 12:44 \| 2964761 DosZap DosZap's picture Dr. Engali, Into what Dr.??? Fri, 11/09/2012 - 10:48 \| 2964297 JPM Hater001 JPM Hater001's picture "If anybody starts going long at 1350 they are going to get creamed." Yeah, just write me the check directly and lets get on with this thing. Fri, 11/09/2012 - 13:04 \| 2964830 Galactic Superwave Galactic Superwave's picture Agree Doc. This article is very misleading. It mixes days with months when doing the analysis. They use an average (I assume 9 mo) of monthly TICKS but then projects the bottom to be near in terms of "days". The fact that this is an average on a monthly basis will mean that the TICK could go highly negative intra-month before breaking into his range for buying. Meanwhile you could lose a shitload of money. For example, they use the monthly TICK to get a trend and then the intraday TICK for the trigger. So does this mean the 1st day of the month, after calculating the average, and that it is below their magic number, (plus they already know the intra-day number from the previous day) they suddenly fire their big BUY signal. Looking at the data myself, this might actually work most of the time but the months leading up to the trigger could have huge swings that a better system would have taken advantage of much better. Bottom line: their technique is probably best for investors with long term horizons and can stand huge drawdowns. Personally, I will stick with trading on a shorter time frame with stops and some core cash and metals because this so-called "market" is ripe for the mother of all dislocations in the next 6 months. Fri, 11/09/2012 - 09:59 \| 2964123 youngman youngman's picture Bloombergs guest for Tom keane´s show said about HFT´s ....that the market is rigged...and everyone just cheating is the new normal..wait until Obama gets our tax returns...there is not going to be this huge capital gain revenue he thinks he is going to get... Fri, 11/09/2012 - 10:30 \| 2964248 Juan Wild Juan Wild's picture I think a gambler in Vegas has better odds now than a "trader" on Wall Street. And better showgirls too. Fri, 11/09/2012 - 10:00 \| 2964129 Robert-Paulson Robert-Paulson's picture It's all about this....why doesn't anybody talk about this Fri, 11/09/2012 - 10:14 \| 2964192 Orly Orly's picture What is there to talk about that? The DXY has been purposefully kept in a range to keep commodity prices as stable as possible since 2008. (I know! Can you imagine if there weren't this "stability"?) Fri, 11/09/2012 - 10:14 \| 2964193 LawsofPhysics LawsofPhysics's picture Many of us have been going to more dollar cash holdings since 2008, gonna be some fireworks when this "trade" unwinds. I suspect many around the world are in the same boat. You want inflation America? You will get it. Fri, 11/09/2012 - 10:19 \| 2964206 fonzannoon fonzannoon's picture Laws to your point about wages....if the majority of people are broke, pummeled in debt and getting laid off or having their salary and benefits reduced, then where does the inflationary tsunami kick in? To me it seems more like some nasty stagflation/biflation that just crushes everyone. Unless Ben starts cutting up those QE's and sending out individual checks.... Fri, 11/09/2012 - 10:22 \| 2964224 Orly Orly's picture I never understood the inflation argument on these boards for just that reason, fonz. The hyperinflation scenario is really quite funny. Some may surely believe it but a lot are just spouting words. There can be no sustained inflation in an economy without upward wage pressure. End of story. Fri, 11/09/2012 - 10:28 \| 2964241 fonzannoon fonzannoon's picture I hear you. I am starting to think that gas at $4.50 and food costs right where they are can probably be considered hyperinflation for those who are just trying to get by. Fri, 11/09/2012 - 10:42 \| 2964277 Greenhead Greenhead's picture Gee, what is it then when gas prices go up, food prices go up, some commodity prices go up and wages remain stagnant or decline? Let's not get caught up in semantics, but there is definitely pocket inflation. Fri, 11/09/2012 - 10:59 \| 2964326 Orly Orly's picture Pocket inflation, yes, but that's because the USD is at very low exchange rates vis-a-vis other currencies, which means that our USD is weak, making gasoline prices rise. As the dollar increases in strength (already seeing that, by the way...), oil prices and gold prices will come off significantly, especially as it relates to the GBP and the Euro. This is not sustainable inflation, however. All it means is that you take fewer trips to the grocery store and when you get there, substitution kicks in and you buy the ground beef instead of the filet mignon. That trip to Disneyland has been put off for another year. The problem in our economy (actually with the banks that hold trillions in over-priced assets...) is clearly deflation and the Fed is going through extreme measures to re-flate the markets as best it can, hoping you'll feel richer about your 401 and will go to Disneyland after all. They forgot that while most people follow the herd, they aren't stupid. No one's buying it. No one's buying anything. So how can there be inflation if no one i	-1	Unrelated	false
c061d58e-9d9b-49b2-b984-03e4db7b73a4	alignment-classifier-documents-unlabeled \| trentmkelly/LessWrong-43k	If we can't lie to others, we will lie to ourselves	-1	Unrelated	false
cc0ac2bd-b640-4f0f-83c8-8ab0f1dc1909	alignment-classifier-documents-unlabeled \| trentmkelly/LessWrong-43k	How’s that Epistemic Spot Check Project Coming? Quick context: Epistemic spot checks started as a process in which I did quick investigations a few of a book’s early claims to see if it was trustworthy before continuing to read it, in order to avoid wasting time on books that would teach me wrong things. Epistemic spot checks worked well enough for catching obvious flaws (couCarol Dweckugh), but have a number of problems. They emphasize a trust/don’t trust binary over model building, and provability over importance. They don’t handle “severely flawed but deeply insightful” well at all. So I started trying to create something better. Below are some scattered ideas I’m playing with that relate to this project. They’re by no means fully baked, but it seemed like it might be helpful to share them. This kind of assumes you’ve been following my journey with epistemic spot checks at least a little. If you haven’t that’s fine, a more polished version of these ideas will come out eventually. A parable in Three Books. I’m currently attempting to write up an investigation of Children and Childhood in Roman Italy (Beryl Rawson) (affiliate link) (Roam notes). This is very slow going, because CaCiRI doesn’t seem to have a thesis. At least, I haven’t found one, and I’ve read almost half of the content. It’s just a bunch of facts. Often not even syntheses, just “Here is one particular statue and some things about it.” I recognize that this is important work, even the kind of work I’d use to verify another book’s claims. But as a focal source, it’s deadly boring to take notes on and very hard to write anything interesting about. What am I supposed to say? “Yes, that 11 year old did do well (without winning) in a poetry competition and it was mentioned on his funeral altar, good job reporting that.” I want to label this sin “weed based publishing” (as in, “lost in the weeds”, although the fact that I have to explain that is a terrible sign for it as a name). One particular bad sign for Children and Childhood in Roma	-1	Unrelated	false
<urn:uuid:899bd349-afa2-4357-afbc-1bf066d4a5e9>	dclm-dedup-25B-ai-scifi-docs \| https://highfivecomics.wordpress.com/tag/batman/	High Five! Comics Posts Tagged ‘Batman – Grant Morrison, 2010 An ad for Flash Comics Superman saves a woman framed for murder. They saw comics as a weird mixture of hope and escape. [Subscribe to High Five! You know you wanna.] Alan Scott dons his costume to protect innocents from loan sharks. -Rob and Jonny [Liked this? Vote it up on reddit!] [Subscribe to High Five! You know you wanna.] batmansavagecoverWith his work on such original titles as Jonny Double, 100 Bullets, and Filthy Rich as examples, Brian Azzarello is clearly a huge fan of pulp and noir style comic books. Hell, even his prior superhero work occasionally ended up tapping more into the seedy underbelly of the crime world than just straight up superheroic action (such as Joker being from the perspective of a henchman). Despite all this, when I had heard that Azzarello was both going to be writing for legendary pulp comic character Doc Savage and making it a crossover with Batman, I was somewhat skeptical. After all, would Savage, a character who hasn’t changed one bit since his first appearance in 1933 radio serials, work in a 2009 book? At first glance, the oversized one-shot (illustrated by Phil Noto with an awesome J.G. Jones cover) seems a bit like it should be under the Elseworlds imprint. Batman is running around Gotham City trying to take down organized crime with not only his own cunning, but a pair of .45 pistols. Gotham is all a twitter, believing that the Batman has murdered and robbed a notorious porn producer / nightclub owner. Immediately following the death of his father, a grieving Doc Savage leaves New York City and arrives in Gotham with the hopes that taking down Batman will make for a good distraction. James Gordon is a lowly cop boozing it up in a local bar, swearing that Batman is nothing but trouble. And, perhaps most important of all, there are no superpowered heroes. Things are drastically different in Gotham City, more on par with how life was in the 1940s Doc Savage comics than in the modern DCU. batmansavage1Without really ruining anything about this book, it’s much more of a prologue for the upcoming Brian Azzarello / Rags Morales mini-series First Wave than it is the advertised one-shot. I suppose I’d recommend picking up The Batman / Doc Savage Special if you are either a fan of Marvel’s Noir series or feel like you might end up invested in First Wave (a Batman / Doc Savage / the Spirit / Black Canary / Blackhawks cross-over? How could I not?). I’d just recommend maybe going back and reading some of the older Doc Savage books (or listening to those radio serials, which are pretty awesome) to get more acquainted with the character. While taking a break from writing a post for tonight, I decided to flip through November 1967’s Brave and the Bold Vol. 1 #74 (hell yeah, Metal Man/Batman team-up!). And then, on page two, I found this little gem. ohsnapbatmanLet that sink in. Batman is talking shit on Spider-Man, a character who doesn’t exist in the DCU (well, until that JLA/Avengers thing). Not only is he calling Spider-Man’s ability to, um, “flit,” a rip-off, but he’s doing it over five years after Spider-Man’s debut, long enough for Spidey’s solo series to release issue #54 that same day as this book’s release. Oh, well. Whatever. Either way… bork3When it comes to Barry Allen and his Silver Age stories, I notice a running theme (pun so totally intended): up until the last page or two, he has the absolute shittiest luck ever. It doesn’t matter who he fights, he always ends up knocked out, stranded, incarcerated, and/or pretty much powerless until he either remembers that he can vibrate through anything or that comic book chemistry can fix everything ever. Even when teamed up with somebody as legendary as Batman against somebody as dumb as Bork (as is the case in January 1969’s Brave and the Bold #81), he still manages to just get the shaft over and over again. Our story begins at the Gotham City docks where street thug Carl Bork has been spotted trying to steal cargo from a ship. The captain must be crazy forgiving, because all he does is shoo Bork away. As he sulks away from the failed heist, Bork walks straight into the path of an oncoming truck and is creamed at full speed! But instead of dying like us normal folks, Bork just gets up and realizes that he is both now invincible and only able to talk in the third person (oh, that’s not going to be annoying)! He decides to try out his new found power by robbing a diner’s register. The cops show up and immediately try to shoot him in the leg (Gotham cops don’t have time to fuck around), but the bullet just bounces off! bork1Meanwhile, Barry Allen is getting a tour of Gotham’s police lab by Batman and Commissioner Gordon when they hear the call over the radio: there’s a “rumble” at the docks! Barry and Gordon carpool to the scene while Batman “flits” and beats them there, just in time to see a lone Bork challenging Milo Manning and his gang. Milo takes a swing at the invincible Bork, who survives getting hit with a forklift and pretty much just claims Milo’s gang as his own. Batman realizes that Bork is invulnerable and, for whatever reason, decides that his fist can do what a forklift couldn’t. Yeah, it can’t. Bork shouts his catchphrase, “You can’t hurt Bork but Bork can hurt you,” and then takes out a bunch of cops and hands Batman his own ass, just in time for Barry and Gordon to show up. Bork then announces that he’s taking over Gotham and there ain’t shit they can do about it. By the way, that annoying catchphrase? Yeah, Bork says it four times within the first seven pages (five if you count the cover). A couple of hours later, Bork has practically the entire Gotham underworld under his control and has announced his demands to the Gotham City Hall. They have 24 hours to kick Batman out of town, give over half of the city counsel seats to his goons, and give him areas of the city that cops can’t touch. If not, there’s gonna be a riot! Batman decides that Bork must have gotten his invincibility at some point during his never before mention travels all over the world and asks Barry to suit up and figure out the where and how of it all. As the Flash, Barry gets the manifests to all of Bork’s destinations and discovers that he’s been all over the damn place, including a small unnamed African nation where he impoverished all of the citizens (somehow). And as luck would have it, their president has sent some commandos to Gotham to apprehend him! Simultaneously, those same commandos open fire on Bork but the bullets just bounce off! Batman shows up and everybody runs away. bork2During his investigation, Flash discovers that Bork was once shipwrecked on Desolation Island where the natives carved a magical sculpture of him. Oh, man, Barry is having some awesome luck! All he has to do is destroy the sculpture! He races to the island and finds the Bork statue on top of a volcano. Sweet! What could go wrong? Well, just then the volcano erupts and the whole island fucking explodes. The Flash and the statue are thrown into the air where is hit in the head with a lava rock and passes out. He lands on a big piece of driftwood while the statue gets caught in a current and is picked up by some “grizzled adventurer” in a sailboat. While Barry tries to follow the current, the adventurer gets caught in a storm miles away and the statue falls overboard. Just as the Flash finally finds it again, a tiger shark starts trying to eat it. Barry jumpkicks the shark (yeah, that’s kinda awesome), grabs the statue, and starts banging it against rocks. When that doesn’t do anything, he ties it to his back and starts running at the speed of light, trying to use friction to burn the Bork statue. He goes fast enough to end up both in the future and a different dimension, but that damn statue is still in one piece. When he’s about to give up, he decides, “Fuck it, I’m gonna shoot it with a laser.” It doesn’t do much, but it kiiiiinda burns a spot on the hand of the statue. Kiiiiinda success! Meanwhile, Batman and Gordon confront City Hall, who are ready to give in to Bork’s demands. Batman says that Bork is just like Hitler (for some reason) and he and Gordon storm out. Apparently there are some panels missing, because the next thing you know, Batman is throwing Bork into a paddywagon while reminding him that invulnerability doesn’t mean that a jail cell can’t hold him. I, the reader, then think to myself, “Actually, it kinda does. I mean, couldn’t he just punch the wall a bunch of times until he knocks a hole in it?” One page later, Bork punches the wall a bunch of times until he knocks a hole in it. The African commandos catch up with Bork and decide that a blowgun will be able to do what machine guns couldn’t. The dart just happens to hit the same spot on his hand as the laser hit on the statue and it works. What are the odds! Barry decides that the only way to destroy the statue is by throwing it into the sun (you know, the same way every fictional character has destroyed every fictional dangerous object ever). He straps it to his back, runs up a ramp, and vibrates through the sun with the statue, burning it to a crisp. At that exact moment, Batman punches Bork in the jaw, knocking his ass out. In the end, they send him to Africa to stand trial for being a douchebag and dicking over an entire country. Final verdict? Barry Allen needs to get a fucking desk job and Bork needs to shut the hell up. So, you’ve gotten yourself some powers and established a secret identity, but if you’re gonna be a real superhero, you’re going to need an ass to kick. I mean, after a while, using your superpowers to take down petty criminals will start putting the cops out of a job. And we all know how productive bored cops are, right? When it comes to getting a foil, some guys have it lucky. All they really have to do is put on some Spandex and break up a bank robbery or two (see: the Flash’s entire Rogues Gallery). Chances are pretty good, however, that you’ll have to put a lot more effort into it. And remember, the first step to finding your mortal enemy is to always make sure that it was totally an accident! hush-shot-x350(1) Reunite with your childhood enemy! Seriously, it doesn’t matter how much time passes, that one kid who hated six-year-old you is definitely going to resurface the second you slap on some tights and make a headline or two. It doesn’t matter which one of you was taking lunch money from the other, he still hates your guts. And since you ended up being a good guy, he’s pretty much destined to knock over liquor stores until you show up and give him a fight. O’Doyle rules! Hal vs Star(2) Make an ex really, really bitter! We all have those exes that we really wish we could forget. Problem is, they really, really don’t want to forget us. Somehow, they will come across a crazy power source and, dammit, if they can’t have you NO ONE WILL. The list of these cases goes on and on: Star Sapphire, Lady Deathstrike, Star Sapphire, Elektra, Jean Loring, and Star Sapphire! Sorry, super-ladies, this rules does not apply to you (whoa, whoa, don’t blame me, blame the industry). thingsilearnedfromwonderwoman(3) Get a double! Whether you get replicated via shadowy government agency, alien abduction, or the workings of a mad scientist, there’s a good chance somebody will try to clone or otherwise make a copy of you (or make a robot double of you.) I mean, who wouldn’t want a superhero of their very own? Except that’s not how comics work, like, ever. Most likely, they’ll end up with your looks, your powers, and the moral compass of a complete bastard. Then you gotta deal with at LEAST two issues of everybody thinking he’s really you and you’re a jackass. BONUS HINT: Fix this problem by taking the fight somewhere public. As soon as the first stereotype of an Irish patrolman rubs his eyes and says, “I’m seeing double!” your dignity will be restored. kingpin(4) Foil a drug smuggling ring! Or any mob-based crime, really. The world is full of mob families, gang lords, and drug kingpins trying to make a quick bajillion dollars. These are the kind of guys who beat up old dudes for protection money and you’ll be damned if you’re gonna let these guys claim that this is their town! And when you take them down, they won’t handle it well at all: “Nobody makes a mockery of the Blah-Blah Family / Gang and gets away with it!” Let the years and years of fistfights bookended by “I’m just a businessman” speeches begin! asm595_cov_col(5) Accidentally kill someone’s relative! Kill, indirectly cause the death of, whatever. Look, there will always be collateral damage in fights, there will be always be villains who won’t give you very many options, and, at some point, somebody will die. When this happens, their kid/sibling/second cousin twice removed will blame you. Look what Harry Osborn did when he saw what Spider-Man accidentally on purpose did to his dad! Actually, speaking of Harry… sbll(6) Alienate Your Best Friend! Bad news. Once you don the cape and tights, your best friend will try to kill you. I know, it fucking sucks, but it’s the way it works. One too many philosophical disagreements? Accidentally destroy that laboratory you built him? Take the last beer out of the fridge? Well, great, now you’ve done it. And the worst part is, chances are pretty good that he knows everything about you and will be your worst enemy. On the plus side, it makes that “keep your friends close and your enemies closer” thing one a little bit easier to manage! Now go forth and kick ass! Join 9 other followers High Five! Twitter Add to Google <-Add Us! Comic Blog Elite <-Read Them! High Five! Comics at Blogged<-Rate Us! High Five! Comics - Blogged Check out the Top 50 Comics sites! Le Counter • 152,708 people liked us, they REALLY liked us!	-1	Unrelated	false
<urn:uuid:0e32f2b8-da5a-4c49-a5a2-4044eecd215f>	dclm-dedup-25B-ai-scifi-docs \| https://scifi.stackexchange.com/questions/53904/when-the-sliders-left-the-earth-in-post-traumatic-slide-syndrome-which-profes/53905	At the end of ‘Post Traumatic Slide Syndrome’, there’s a tussle between the two Professor Arturos – the original one from Earth Prime and the local double. One of them slides and the other doesn’t. However, it’s never made clear which one slid. Which one was it? Was it the original or the local double? • I always wondered about this, because I never got to see the second half in order. – Mark Rogers Apr 12 '14 at 15:02 It was the original Professor from Earth Prime. The production order for the episodes for Season 2 of ‘Sliders’ shows that ‘Post Traumatic Slide Syndrome’ was the 10th episode of the season. The 11th episode – the one immediately following ‘PTSS’ – was ‘In Dino Veritas’. Their production numbers confirm this: Why do I mention this? Because this shows that the events in ‘In Dino Veritas’ happened after the events of ‘Post Traumatic Slide Syndrome’. Therefore, the Professor who lands on Dinosaur World is post-‘Post Traumatic Slide Syndrome’ –the Professor who left Earth Double Prime is the Professor on Dinosaur World. And, in this episode, our sliders are all wearing truth collars. The episode starts with them on a world where these lie-detecting collars are compulsory, they’re wearing the collars when they slide to Dinosaur World, and they’re stuck with the collars for a great deal of the episode. Therefore, we can look to what Professor Arturo says while he’s wearing the truth collar to determine the... umm... truth of the matter. Some of the Professor’s lines in this episode include: On our earth, man and dinosaur lived millions of years apart. [To Wade.] In the world where we come from, dinosaurs are long extinct, and this area here is the great city of San Francisco. [To the holographic scientist.] We have certainly seen the best and worst of each other. [To Wade.] First up, let’s note “On our Earth” and “On the world we come from”. Singular “Earth”, singular “world”. Arturo is saying that all the sliders come from a single Earth, a single world. In other words: he comes from the same Earth, the same world, as the other sliders. If he was the Professor from Earth Double Prime, he would have been forced by the truth collar to say “Our Earths” and “on the worlds” – plural. The truth collar didn’t react; ergo, he’s telling the truth when he implies they all come from the same single world. And, he’s not just talking about the previous world they came from: he’s talking about “our Earth”. The Earth they all share; their home Earth. Second, that comment that “We have seen the best and worst of each other.” is quite telling. If he’s the replacement Arturo, he can’t have seen the best and worst of the other sliders, nor can they have seen the best or worst of him. To have seen the best and worst of each other, this Arturo must have been sliding with them for a while – before their recent visit to Earth Double Prime. Again, the truth collar doesn’t correct him on this statement. I know that Tracy Tormé has said in an interview that “I believe the wrong Arturo slid”, but that’s just one of many ideas which didn’t make it on to the screen: witness the other discussions about a five-episode story arc involving Ryan (from Lottery World), and the return of Bennish in the fifth season, and Quinn and Colin Mallory appearing for the first half of the fifth season – all ideas which didn’t make it to the screen. That interview covered a lot of “maybes” and “if onlys”. But, if it’s not on-screen, it’s not canon. These comments by Professor Arturo in ‘In Dino Veritas’, told under the restrictions of a truth collar that doesn’t permit lies, prove that this is their original and beloved Arturo from Earth Prime, the one who’s been with them all along. \| improve this answer \| \| • One of my favorite parts of that episode is when Professor tells Wade that he is so certain that Quinn is alive, "he can feel it in his bones." The truth collar doesn't react to such a statement, though it did so when Rembrandt said the same thing. That's a figure of speech, but how is it true? Yet, the truth collar let it slide. Perhaps in the same way, the Professor's comments were allowed to slide. – Ham Sandwich Nov 29 '15 at 2:21 • This answer is indeed a factual hypothesis. However, there is one gigantic flaw. They are only referencing two episodes that don't have any direct correlation. If they do. They should cite more than two episodes to demonstrate the link. I admit that I haven't gone through all of season two as of late, however, there have been circumstances that are reminiscent of Quantum Leap in where he does randomly revisit precise timelines or there are several random encounters that aren't touched upon at the beginning of the episode. – user62649 Feb 29 '16 at 17:29 • @T-1000'sSon - I think it would be a pretty limited truth collar that couldn't parse human speech well enough to tell deliberate lies from metaphors, slang, and other common figures of speech that communicated (believed) truth - they would be very easy to trick, else. On the other hand, it can be really difficult to tell between factual truth and sincere belief. Might make more sense that one person said they were sure, and were actually deeply sure, and another said they were sure, but had some doubts (even small ones), which read to the collar as deception. – Megha Jun 9 '17 at 20:56 • @Megha My impression was that the truth collar took everything literally, which is why it shocked Rembrandt. I don't know. I could be wrong. – Ham Sandwich Jun 9 '17 at 21:34 • @T-1000'sSon - You could be right and it is limited to literal-isms, I think that would be quite limited but maybe it's enough for them. Or it may be inconsistent and let some smaller things slide. I meant to offer a possibility, that's all. – Megha Jun 9 '17 at 21:38 It was the imposter. In the episode Summer of Love Arturo is shown to have some knowledge about football, but in the episode The Guardian Arturo is shown to have no understanding of football and didn’t know what a team was. Also, in the pilot, when Quinn got home from his first slide he went to Arturo to explain it and named the Einstein-Rosen-Podolski bridge, as if Arturo knew what it was. But in the episode Double Cross, Arturo claimed that he had never talked to anyone about sliding. \| improve this answer \| \| • Could this just be down to bad writing? He's shown to know about things from the Professor's past also – Valorum Oct 1 '18 at 7:53 I realise Word of God isn't necessarily canon. However, Tracy Tormé has stated his intention that it should be the 'impostor' Arturo. Completely canon-wise, it appears to have been intentional that the viewer can't tell. The camera does switch away during their final fight, which makes it impossible to fully determine. \| improve this answer \| \| the wrong arturo slid, that's why the right one who got left behind says "oh my god" after the wrong one disappears. really though, the debate is pointless without asking the person who wrote the episode. \| improve this answer \| \| • 1 Welcome to SFF:SE. Can you explain away the factors in the previous answer, which contradict your conclusion? – Politank-Z Mar 15 '16 at 5:50 They are both the wrong Arturo. Both Arturos arrived from separate slides around the same time, saw the real Arturo enter the home of the wrong Earth, then they all fought, and one remained triumphant, who then imprisoned the real Arturo off-site from the world's Arturo home so they could ensure no one found him imprisoning the other fake Arturo in that dimension's Arturo home - so if someone did come then they would be led astray by another Arturo who also wanted the slider fame. So finally, when the sliders arrived at that dimension's Arturo home, they found both fake Arturos and couldn't tell the difference, and it didn't matter because they were both fake. Also, by this time the real Arturo of that world arrived back with the sliders of that world and found the Arturo we have been following in the serialized episodes chained up in one of the lab equipment rooms in the university he works at. He was then released and the serialized Arturo thought this other Arturo who just returned to his true home world was of the Arturos he fought with in this dimension's Arturo home and so then fought with this Arturo, was victorious, and convinced the other sliders this was not their world, though in fact it was, causing that dimension's sliders to all leave their true home world, with only the real Arturo left behind plus the other Arturo who was defeated on the front lawn after that other Arturo fight before the serialized sliders slid off that dimension's earth. Then another set of sliders came in to that world yet again.... \| improve this answer \| \| • 2 What are you basing this on? Is this just your own fanfic? – Valorum Mar 29 '18 at 8:37 Your Answer	-1	Unrelated	false
<urn:uuid:6bd93f3c-d6b6-4aa0-b989-49850d746594>	dclm-dedup-25B-ai-scifi-docs \| http://games.slashdot.org/story/09/03/07/0810222/hawx-brings-new-perspective-to-tom-clancy-series	Slashdot is powered by your submissions, so send in your scoop Forgot your password? The Military Games H.A.W.X. Brings New Perspective To Tom Clancy Series 27 27 H.A.W.X. Brings New Perspective To Tom Clancy Series Comments Filter: • by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 07, 2009 @04:43AM (#27103093) I tried the demo on my PS3, and I have to say, this game has as much to do with flying as Out Run has to do with driving. Ie, it doesn't feel like flying at all. Pure arcade. I am of course not saying this in itself is a bad thing. But for me, the game was a disappointment. Disclaimer: I did not RTFA. • Re: (Score:2, Informative) by OutLawSuit (1107987) It's just an Ace Combat clone. Nothing more, nothing less. • by HAKdragon (193605) Apparently you haven't played the demo. HAWX has two modes: "Assist On", which is very much like Ace Combat and other arcadey flight combat games. The other mode, "Assist Off" is 3rd person view point flying, which is more reminiscent of RC Flying is some other sims. It also allows planes to drift in the air (not sure when the game turned into Need for Speed). Personally, I'm still not sure what I think of it. I may pick the game later when the price is down or when I can get it off of Goozex for le • I didn't even get to the demo. I read this in the review: And closed the tab with the game's home page on it. I guess I just remember Rogue Spear and Raven Shield a bit too fondly; and anytime I see the Tom Clancy moniker I expect a game which has at least a nod to realism (I'm still trying to forget that Lockdown existed). I realized tha • by Anonymous Coward I played both Falcon and Strike Commander ages ago and yesterday downloaded the HAWK demo on my PS3, its boring and not PS3 worthy. IS it so difficult to make a great plane-combat sim or are there to little people interested and thus no money to develop?? • by wjh31 (1372867) I think the biggest problem is probably getting the arcade-realism balance right, some like one way, others the other, getting the balance right is hard enough, and to try and do both at once with a toggle button between them is asking for it • The big issue (Score:5, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 07, 2009 @04:45AM (#27103105) The game only allows you to fly properly (that is, without the assist cutting in and screwing things up, and with full maneuverability) in a horrible third-person view that can not move, does not sit behind your aircraft, and never seems to be aimed to show the enemy you're interested in. If they just fixed this, it would be a perfectly acceptable arcade flight game, even with the ridiculous air drifting and stuff. • Re:The big issue (Score:5, Insightful) by !coward (168942) on Saturday March 07, 2009 @07:04AM (#27103517) Mod parent up! You've hit the nail in the head, as far as I'm concerned.. The "Assistance OFF" mode (that's what they call it) was a seriously bone-headed move on their part. The only thing you could say for it is that it can sometimes give you nice visuals of your acrobatic moves, but it doesn't even begin to mitigate the crap it is to actually fly that way. It's a stupid gimmick (done mostly for the visuals) and a really moronic way to implement an Expert mode, akin to just making your bullets do less damage and the enemies' more when you raise the difficulty level on a FPS. It makes even simple manouvering exceedingly difficult because half the time you're trying to determine what exactly is the plane's heading, its roll, pitch (and forget about height -- damn near impossible to determine that) so that you can then translate your stick moves to the action you want to perform. The whole thing feels so detached that it defeats the purpose of a mode where you're supposed to have full control of the aircraft. Granted, this game was never supposed to be a real simulator.. The market is just not there (Flight Sim is really good, but how many people do you know have it?), so this game was always going to be more arcade than anything else. And let's face it, the same reviewers who ranted about the lack of "realism" (or the fact that it's not a real sim), would bitch if the game forced you to take off from some airstrip, spend most of the mission either heading for your targets or patrolling the empty skies, then take a long, lonely flight path back to land on some other airstrip -- all the while worrying about the likes of fuel and realistic ammo reserves (which reminds me of a really old video game -- Strike Eagle? -- that was exactly like that and yet really kicked ass). There was always going to be some dumbing down to make the game more "fun", more action-packed and therefore more appealing to the masses, but they could have pulled it off without sacrificing the game mechanics is such a terribly broken way. • Agreed. I used the assist mode - to try and help shoot down the "Ace pilots" at the end of the demo level. I've done nothing but crash into the ground, lost sense of orientation and can't find the bad guy. Everytime I think I'm using the assist more in the right way to control the plane well, I'm not. They seriously need to fix this. The throttle is equally annoying. I was hoping there would be some take-offs and landings. I like the idea of having carrier landings and take offs - In an arcade style mode. I • by p0tat03 (985078) I'm a huge fan of the Ace Combat series (despite the boneheaded stories they have) - how does HAWX compare to, say, AC6? I've been desperately wanting a good arcade flight sim for a long time now, and may pick this up if the non-expert mode is fun to play. How does the regular flying mechanic stand up to the normal fly mode in hawx? • by Anenome (1250374) What if companies began taking the 'Guitar Hero' model of flight sims and began produce full-featured desktop cockpits ^_^ • Name Rec. (Score:3, Insightful) by Anenome (1250374) on Saturday March 07, 2009 @04:55AM (#27103141) Step 1: Sign celebrity endorsement (Clancy) Step 2: Produce random game Step 3: Go to press, use big name lots! Step 4: ??? Step 5: Pray you profit. What's next, "George Foreman Cooking Papa" for Nintendo Wii? • Re:Name Rec. (Score:5, Informative) by rsmith-mac (639075) on Saturday March 07, 2009 @08:29AM (#27103781) Step 1: Sign celebrity endorsement (Clancy) It's not even an endorsement any more. Ubisoft bought his name [] for $30 million USD. They now own the name "Tom Clancy" and can slap it on anything and everything they want to, including things that aren't video games. There's no longer even a token endorsement going on, it's just a brand name now. Presumably he gets to keep his name for use in any future books, but anyone else wanting to make something "Tom Clancy" has to license it from Ubisoft. • by wjh31 (1372867) on Saturday March 07, 2009 @07:34AM (#27103607) Homepage • This is literally the same formula as Ace Combat 6. ubisoft have added the Clancy brand and co-op. But it's the same game with the same gameplay. And for some reason in the demo I played on 360, the assist-off mode locks you to a single camera view which has no bearing on the action. It's like watching the action from an observer plane a mile away, except you're expected to fly that way like an RC plane. I bought it for PC before I played the demo. if I had known, I might not have. • by wintermute000 (928348) <> on Saturday March 07, 2009 @10:28AM (#27104299) I really miss the old school flight sims, esp. WWI - II era - without HUDs, lock on missiles and with proper flight physics of course. Perhaps not teethgrindingly realistic but realistic enough that your options are limited by the physics. If you get bounced from high your only safe option is to get the heck out of dodge, if you're in a faster but less maneuverable plane stick to slash and run, pulling a high yoyo if trying to turn with a plane going much slower than you, etc. If anyone remembers the Falcon Gold package and air combat maneuvering videos that were with that, those manuevers and the 'textbook' things they taught you were pure gold. You could literally take apart people who were just doing the 'point the nose at in the direction of the enemy' school i.e. how all these ace combat clones play. Of course all of that is complete puff now with these realism free, physics free 'flight' games that seem to revolve around how fast you can launch your unlimited or ridiculously large missile supply onto locked on targets. ANd oh yeah, avoiding missiles = hit chaff and spin the control as fast as you can, you don't even have to look at the incoming angle and try to cut across it . NOt even 30 and getting misty eyed about the old school, that's slashdot for ya None of the modern missile lock on frenzy games have anywhere near the depth of the old school sims, just can't get into them. And yes the 'assist lockon' mode is really silly, the above RC plane comment is spot on. • Re: (Score:3, Informative) by jalefkowit (101585) Go get yourself a copy of IL-2 Sturmovik [] and you will be in Nirvana. It's probably the best serious combat flight sim ever made, and you can set it for anything from moderate realism to full-out, hard-core "I want to adjust the engine mixture myself, thank you very much" realism. Based on your comments I predict you will love it - and as a bonus, you should be able to find it price • Il-2 is good, but so is Lock-On: Modern Air Combat, It is a missile lock on game, just deeper then your avg console air combat game.	-1	Unrelated	false
08020234-9b01-41e1-ab1d-fd6e4e8fbebc	alignment-classifier-documents-unlabeled \| trentmkelly/LessWrong-43k	How to Be Happy Part of the sequence: The Science of Winning at Life One day a coworker said to me, "Luke! You're, like, the happiest person I know! How come you're so happy all the time?" It was probably a rhetorical question, but I had a very long answer to give. See, I was unhappy for most of my life,1 and even considered suicide a few times. Then I spent two years studying the science of happiness. Now, happiness is my natural state. I can't remember the last time I felt unhappy for longer than 20 minutes. That kind of change won't happen for everyone, or even most people (beware of other-optimizing), but it's worth a shot! We all want to be happy, and happiness is useful for other things, too.2 For example, happiness improves physical health,3 improves creativity,4 and even enables you to make better decisions.5 (It's harder to be rational when you're unhappy.6) So, as part of a series on how to win at life with science and rationality, let's review the science of happiness. THE CORRELATES OF HAPPINESS Earlier, I noted that there is an abundance of research on factors that correlate with subjective well-being (individuals' own assessments of their happiness and life satisfaction). Factors that don't correlate much with happiness include: age,7 gender,8 parenthood,9 intelligence,10 physical attractiveness,11 and money12 (as long as you're above the poverty line). Factors that correlate moderately with happiness include: health,13 social activity,14 and religiosity.15 Factors that correlate strongly with happiness include: genetics,16 love and relationship satisfaction,17 and work satisfaction.18 But correlation is not enough. We want to know what causes happiness. And that is a trickier thing to measure. But we do know a few things. HAPPINESS, PERSONALITY, AND SKILLS Genes account for about 50% of the variance in happiness.19 Even lottery winners and newly-made quadriplegics do not see as much of a change in happiness as you would expect.20 Presumably, genes sh	-1	Unrelated	false
30d3c834-37ec-4b3d-96d0-7cea5998362c	alignment-classifier-documents-unlabeled \| trentmkelly/LessWrong-43k	Lars Doucet's Georgism series on Astral Codex Ten [Lars Doucet won this year’s Book Review Contest with his review of Henry George’s Progress and Poverty. Since then, he’s been researching Georgism in more depth, and wants to follow up with what he’s learned. I’ll be posting three of his Georgism essays here this week, and you can read his other work at Fortress Of Doors] Hi, my name's Lars Doucet (not Scott Alexander) and this is a guest post in an ongoing series that assesses the empirical basis for the economic philosophy of Georgism. Part 0 - Book Review: Progress & Poverty Part I - Is Land Really a Big Deal? 👈 (You are here) Part II - Can Land Value Tax be Passed on to Tenants? Part III - Can Unimproved Land Value be Accurately Assessed Separately from Buildings? Extremely special thanks to Count Bla and Alexandra Elbakyan ---------------------------------------- For those of you wondering who this "Lars" guy is, I'm the Astral Codex Ten reader who reviewed Henry George's Progress & Poverty for the book review contest. Henry George is the founder of an economic philosophy known as Georgism which is principally concerned with the deprivations caused by unchecked rentiers. George is famous for promoting two specific policies, the Land Value Tax (LVT) and the Citizen's Dividend (what we would now call a Universal Basic Income). I was shocked and humbled when this readership selected me as the winner. Even more shocking was how many people from around the world wrote to me about their interest in the article. Family, friends, and acquaintances for sure, but also a lot of total strangers–including business owners, activists, podcasters, online game designers, investors, even government officials from around the world. Scott's blog has way more reach than I realized. This fills me with a sense of responsibility. If there's a chance people might make policy decisions based on my writing, I need to make sure I haven't been taken in by an argument that's just really persuasive; it had also better be true. What	-1	Unrelated	false
<urn:uuid:f076ffa6-df19-4bdb-9f89-46c09dce1b75>	dclm-dedup-25B-ai-scifi-docs \| http://news.slashdot.org/story/01/04/05/1859255/hollywood-and-hackers	Forgot your password? Movies Media Hollywood and Hackers 323 Posted by CmdrTaco from the stuff-to-think-about dept. ford23 writes "CNN has a story on Hollywood and how it portrays Hackers to the public, and how the view on them has changed as the issues of hacking have evolved. Listed and discussed are 9 movies that have had the most effect on the image of hackers, WarGames and The Matrix naturally included." Tragically they also included The Net. At least Real Geniuses offsets it. Hollywood and Hackers Comments Filter: • by Anonymous Coward Yes, I used to take care of all the big Hollywood scriptwriters and their computers, starting in the CP/M days through the end of the 1980s. I used to consult with writers on computer topics, fix their Scriptor problems, reformat scripts, and eventually I learned enough to become a minor script doctor, working with them on story problems and plotlines. I can attest from personal experience, occasionally, even in small pictures, they do get things basically right. I'll give you an example. A writer came in and asked me how crackers get access to computers, he had a script where a little kid needs to get access to a military computer. He described the scenario, I didn't know where to go with it, so I just told him about the first box I cracked. I told him about how when I was 13, I always wanted to get a password to our university's new HP minicomputer, it could use paper tape so I wouldn't have to futz with punch cards anymore. So one day I'm walking past the big glass window in the computer room, and lying next to the HP console is a clipboard with the root password written right on it! I just wrote it down, and started using it from the free terminals next to the keypunch room. Of course I got busted almost immediately, and the admins called me into the office and demanded to know how I got root. I told them that if they didn't want people to get root, they better not leave the root password sitting in plain sight of hundreds of people walking past the window. Well anyway, I told the writer that the vast majority of exploits, and the easiest, are social engineering. So the final scene appeared in the move Iron Eagle, definitely a piece of crapola, but it was good enough to inspire 3 sequels (which were even worse). Look for the scene where the little chubby blonde kid fiddles with the back of a monitor so the operator thinks it's busted, then when the operator goes to get a repair tech, he sits down and grabs the password off the woman's clipboard and fixes the monitor, then orders up a fully armed F-16 for his buddy to fly (something like that, it's been years since I saw it). So sometimes writers do take a modicum of effort to get things to have a vague semblance of reality I could go on and on with Hollywood scriptwriter stories. Basically, the one thing you should know is that scriptwriters are in general, the most drug-addled, neurotic, agoraphobic, out-of-touch-with-reality idiots you ever saw, they make the hardest-core otaku or geek look positively normal in comparison. The #1 maxim of writers is to "write what you know" and these guys don't even know what normal life is like, so it's not surprising that they can't write about the hacker/cracker world with any sense of reality. To prove my point, I should tell you my favorite Hollywood scriptwriter story. One day, I got an emergency call that someone's floppy disk with their only draft of a valuable screenplay had been damaged, and he asked if I could come out and try to recover the disk. I worked and worked and could not recover about 15% of the script, so I decided as a last resort to inspect the surface of the floppy by rotating it inside the jacket. I found a little hole all the way through the magnetic medium, it looked like someone heated up a wire and pushed it right through the plastic. I showed it to the writer and asked if he knew anything that could account for such damage. He admitted he knew about the hole, and said he'd been smoking crack when the chunk got overheated and popped, and one little piece flew out of the pipe and landed on the disk, right in the floppy window onto the mag media. But he didn't tell me because he figured I wouldn't be willing to help if I knew the full story. I said the disk was unrecoverable, the damage was too severe, and I'd gotten all the data off that was possible. I suggested he put his disks in a safe place before lighting up his crack pipe next time. Then I gave him a bill for 3 hours work at my maximum rate (which he did pay, although not without first trying to pay me with crack!) • "one of the greatest movies ever made" -- Gotta agree with you there, man. Of course, the school "Pacific Tech" shown in the movie is based on the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), the school in Pasadena where "hacking" is almost a way of life. Lazlo's Frito-Lay Sweepstakes caper was, in fact, based on a McDonald's sweepstakes hack pulled off by the members of Page House (they won a car, a few thousand bucks, and a lot of free food coupons). And several real Techers show up in the film, for instance, when that one guy starts going nuts during the take home final (they're kind of in the background). I was actually applying to Caltech about the time this movie came out, but they turned me down. But they did send me a newsletter in which they reviewed the movie. I also had a book at one point called Legends of Caltech that recounted the "untold stories" behind many of the famous Caltech pranks, such as the 1961 Rose Bowl hack cited by ESR in The New Hacker's Dictionary, and the McDonald's caper. Many of those pranks were echoed in the on-screen exploits of Mitch, Chris, Jordan, Ick, and Lazlo. And of course, now I think "geek movie song" every time I hear "Everybody Wants To Rule The World." (Not just because of this movie though; there was also the influence of TNT's Pirates of Silicon Valley.) Damn, if they'd release Real Genius on DVD, that'd almost be enough to make me finally give in and get a DVD player... • by Erbo (384) I've been wondering this myself...are there any pictures of this mighty Wurlitzer anywhere? I've wished I could find one that would be Linux-compatible...an IBM Rapid Access Pro is still sadly lacking in the function-key department :-). • You're not wrong. The Matrix is not, never was, and never will be, a movie about hackers. It's an entertaining movie, very comic-book like, and has enough special effects and action to make it one of the better sci-fi/action/fantasy films. But the sci-fi plot it's based on is as old as the hills and it doesn't have any intellectual depth. And I won't harp on some of the more ridiculous plot-based premises (human batteries!?). How the hell The Matrix made it into a list of "hacker" inspired movies is simply beyond belief. • Yeah, that really annoyed me about the Mission Impossible movies. The Mission Impossible TV series (though lame) was at least always a team effort with everyones skills coming together to pulloff some brilliant result. The movies, on the other hand, were just lame attempts to clone the James Bond concept. One massively skilled dude who does everything single handedly and ends up saving the day for all the weaklings around him. • mastrubation. just like posting to slashdot. • yeah, nobody appreciated the "wierd things" back in the day. . . • Mitnik was not a martyr because of what he did, but because of what the system did back to him, holding him without bail or trial for years. It was just plain unamerican how his rights were violated, even if he WAS a criminal. Because many /.-er's could see their activities drawing the same sort of response, and their activites were "less criminal" - even read-only things, even "white hat hacking". And the situation on the government side continued to degrade. Now they prosecute you and put you to trial more quickly, but in the meantime they search without warrants, and confiscate equipment without returning it for extended periods of time, EVEN in cases of mistaken identity, or identity theft. I don't do ANY hacking at all, but I'm appalled at how hackers have been treated by the law. (except for that guy that wrote that virus in Singapore, he totally got off). • "Goth" didn't even exist back then. I'm sure if it did, Matthew Broderick would have had black fingernail polish. • actually, he didn't write the virus, the whole thing was just an applescript that launched Outlook and sent an email to the aliens' Exchange server. • I kind of liked Enemy of the State, because the NSA had these sweaty hacker punks, who just did what they were told, and stayed out of the way of the political junk. Sure, the technical stuff was pure fantasy, and Wil Smith was, well, the black Keanu Reeves (only Wil's band sells records, whassup wit dat?). You could tell that these guys were probably ex-black-hat hackers that were caught, arrested, led into a room with "agent smith" and offered a job. • This TV series was one of my favorites for the few weeks it was on. Hot of the trail of War Games, it was about 4 teenage kids and computers. One (Ritchie) had a HUGE computer which as best as one could tell was basically anything electronic all linked together. Ritchie was the main whiz kid who, no matter where he was, find a computer that was linked into just about anything. I believe in one episode they were put into a closet to prevent them from spoiling something (Those meddeling kids) and TADA there was a terminal that controled everything in the building. • It seems that WOPR is playing with planes in South China. Do you wnat to play a nice game of Global Thermonuclear War? • by Bishop (4500) on Thursday April 05, 2001 @08:02PM (#311874) It is funny. When an attacker illegally slips past security mechanims to retrieve someone elses data it is "because information wants to be free." When an agent of the "government" illegally obtains information, or a corperation quietly accumulates information it is "an invasion of privacy that must be stopped!" we are all hypocrites • Right. My best guess is that ClayJar simply objects to the review because he disagrees with it. That is, he thinks The Matrix was a really good movie (philosophically provocative, raising fascinating metaphysical questions, etc. [1]), while the reviewer thought it was garbage (presumably because he was not smart enough to grasp the philosophy, metaphysics, etc. [2]). From this, we can infer that ClayJar is, like Jon Katz, one of those people who finds the movie's philosophical questions provocative because he was encountering them for the first time, whereas those who have already spent any time pondering those ideas know that they are fascinating and all, but don't give this movie so much of the credit for them, especially given how badly it fumbled them. That is, someone who's just getting used to the idea of mixing reality and virtual reality would find the story "provocative", not minding that it took a beginning that could have been developed into a real alternate-universe thing and punted it into the easier-to-understand Terminator-style intelligent-machines-enslave-mankind ending. I for one was disappointed. There. I've been meaning to get my rant about The Matrix out for all this time. To be fair, though, the "use of humans as batteries" thing wasn't really "the main principle of the movie", except at a very shallow plot-element level. As for the silliness, I got the impression that it wasn't supposed to be just for electricity -- there was at least some attempt to "explain" that there was some mystical property of human nervous systems that the machines needed. On the other hand, this is an even more unfortunate crutch that a lot of mediocre science fiction falls back on: they tend to punt on the question of Strong AI by saying that the intelligent machines aren't regular computers after all -- they are based on some different futuristic technology, e.g., a "positronic brain", a "holographic matrix", or whatever the pods were supposed to be sucking out of the humans in this movie. [1] He could have also just liked the effects, but then what's to disagree about? The reviewer acknowledged the cool effects but had different priorities. [2] Which may also be true -- there are really three levels on which to understand it: thinking the ideas are old hat and seeing how much better it should have been (me), lacking that context but at least comprehending what was there (ClayJar), and thinking it was all horseshit because it went totally over your head (the review). David Gould • It's absolutely hilarious that the reviewer was that stupid. Well, not about Keanu Reeves. He's dead-on there. Yeah, that's a ridiculously bitter review (even Mr. Cranky [mrcranky.com] didn't get so bent out of shape). But come on, calling him "stupid" because he hated a movie you really liked? On the other hand, Ebert's review [suntimes.com] touches on many of the same points and is excellently written (as usual). Shameless offtopic chatter: I saw Josie and the Pussycats last night and as it turns out, it was actually pretty funny (but it's really, really goofy). • There's a great article on Tron's special effects [vfxpro.com] that appeared last year on VFXPro that should hopefully answer your question. It includes a remarkable bit of insight regarding the incredible digital effects resources that were assembled for Tron only to be scattered to the wind after the end of production: Ironically, the transition to digital effects begun by "TRON" could have happened much faster. [ Tron effects animator John] Van Vliet, who is currently assembling a book that focuses on the clash of business and art in Hollywood, gave a candid perspective of the import that "TRON" represented to the VFX community in 1982. He recalled that during production, the old regime at Disney essentially had gathered all the major talent who knew how to do CG. "They had a 10-year advantage. They could have been the studio that did 'Terminator 2.' They could have been the first guys there with dinosaurs," Van Vliet said. "They only saw that the show didn't make money and they dumped it. At the end of the production, they flushed everyone away. We, en masse, were amazed. In terms of the moviemaking business, it was one of the dumbest decisions ever made." • You got this alien race that hacks the human genome, creates humans and then goes off to Jupiter hacks that, causes it to explode and become a half powered sun-2. All before dinnertime. Pretty fucking cool. • The movie that got me as a kid was this one [videoflicks.com] - Kurt Russel is a student at a college that receives a mainframe donation. During an incident involving a shower of sparks, Kurt is transformed into a friggin' genius and eventually gets on a quiz show. A keyword during the quiz triggers a trance and Kurt spews data about the mainframe's previous owners, a criminal organization, who naturally set out to snuff Kurt. • Yeah, I actually liked this series. In Germany, the series was called "Trio, with four fists". • by Dr.Dubious DDQ (11968) on Thursday April 05, 2001 @04:26PM (#311885) Homepage Tron. I hear they're re-doing it? Cool, they can update it for the times: • The evil entity, instead of "MCP" can be "MPAA" ("Master Proprietary Access Algorith"?) • Instead of a video game, the hero wrote a program for watching DVDs, which "MPAA" has stolen by cracking the author's website, then had the author's computer confiscated by sending anonymous email to the police accusing him of DMCA violations (and/or kiddie porn trade). • Of course, the tireless program doggedly continuing to keep the processes going to overthrow the Evil inside the MPAA 'mainframe' (a 'cluster' of two NT/W2K machines) isn't "Tron", it's "Cron". Hey, this has potential...an action-comedy-special effects movie for all ages! (I know I'd pay to see it!) • by peter303 (12292) on Friday April 06, 2001 @04:42AM (#311886) My biggest complaint is that many movies assume hackers can do anything- break into any company's database in five seconds, stop nuclear missles, etc. This makes for bad scripts when a hacker basically has no limits. Awful movies like this include The Net, Enemey of the State, Superman III, to name a few. I like movies where hacking is clearly limited to reality, and the plot is driven by character rather than technological onimpotence. Anti-trust is a resent example of this genre. • I dunno. I liked "Sneakers" enough to buy the DVD, even with the glaring technical inaccuracies. I think the cool thing about it is that it's about (relatively) 'normal' computer nerds - they weren't saving the world from robots or viruses, they didn't dress all in leather, carry fully automatic weapons, or have uncanny kung-fu skills. They were just security geeks. C-X C-S • It's true that little actual hacking went on (or at least it wasn't shown onscreen), but on the other hand "The Matrix" probably exposed a lot of people to new ideas about hackers: • people wearing black trenchcoats can be the good guys • people who are knowledgeable about computers and networks can be the good guys • you can't necessarily trust authority to tell you that "hackers" are bad • authority often has its own intentions for the use of technology which might not match up with the wishes of the people • knowledge of computers and networking can be an effective defense against the misuse of power by authority Sure, all of this was metaphorical, but that's the point. The public at large won't watch two hours of RMS writing the GPL 3.0, or the OpenLaw mailing list debating the finer points of encryption, even though those are the real actions which are being taken to defend the public interest. Instead you give people surrogates like Keanu and Carrie-Anne kicking ass, and at the end of the movie people feel that they identify a little more with the goals, they see things a little less as black-and-white, and they're more open to the issues that RMS or Emmanuel Goldstein might raise in the press that are relevant to real life. Identification with your cause and its goals (even if through an inaccurate depication of your day-to-day efforts) is the first step towards getting public mindshare on "hacker" issues. • In the Hackers review: Trivia: Emmanuel Goldstein, the name of one character in the hacking group, is a nod to the pseudonym of Eric Corley, publisher of the real-life magazine 2600: The Hacker Quarterly. Corley himself took the handle from a character in George Orwell's novel 1984. Corley served as a consultant for Hackers. Granted, I haven't actually seen the movie, but if someone like Corley's involved, it's gotta be quality. If it were in the current poll, I'd be tempted to change my vote from Sneakers. How many classes do you have to take • A good chunck of "Freedom Downtime" (which I reviewed here [slashdot.org], is about efforts to kill Takedown (Goldstein rented a car and drove across the country in an effort to spread the word, and actaully even visited the set, where he found "Free Kevin" stickers on the actor's cars). I'm curious - was your comment sarcastic or serious? I haven't seen Takedown, but you know it's a pile of lies (gross factual errors like writing a guilty verdict into the script before he was tried (he plea bargined in the end), and the guy who found him never actually met Mitnick other than a few minutes in the courtroom), • Who the fuck is 'Emmanual Goldstein'?? Do you mean Eric Corley I figured since he wrote in Emmanual Goldstein on his name tag, and signs his emails simply "emmanual", he prefers going by that name in his capacity as editor/director/speaker. Also, the credits on the movie listed him as Emmanual Goldstein. No need to get profane... do you have something to add, or is your reply a near meaningless footnote? Did you know that Susan Sarandon's real name is Susan Abagail Tomalin, and Little Nell was born Laura Campbell, and now goes by Nell Campbell? Plenty of public people are known by alternate names. It's rare that a Michael Keaton article will mention his birth name was actually Michael Douglas, and mentioning such is purely unnecessary other than for trivia reasons. • The limit of what damage hackers can do has not yet been discovered, but we know that it is high. You're right, of course... I was referring to the median damage, not the maximum damage that can be caused by hacking. Point well taken - a malicious terrorist hacker could cause serious problems by introducing a series of planned bugs into... say flight systems (both ground and in-flight). Not that it would be easy, but theoretically possible. And as long as we're in theory, it's possible that the same precise thing could be done by an "innocent" hacker exploring the "flight simulators" that s/he is unaware are real systems. I've noticed the first thing most people do when confronted with a flight simulator is see what happens when you crash. • The most accurate 'hacker' movie I've ever seen was 'Sneakers' The most accurate I saw last weekend at I-Con. Emmanuel Goldstein was on a panel (along with people from the EFF and others) about Privacy in the Electronic Age, and afterwards, he showed Freedom Downtime, about the reality of hackers and how they are treated. Okay, so it's not Hollywood... and it's a documentary. But it's good enough for PBS and possibly the Learning Channel (incdently, they are finishing up getting the rights to the music; it's not available except in Film Shows right now). It should correct some of the spin - it should be required viewing for people who lobby against overzealous law agencies (Kevin Mitnick spent 8 months in solitary... no paper, no pen, nothing but four walls. Nothing. For eight straight months.) At very best, t might open the eyes of a few congressmen. And although I had heard beforehand that it was "the Kevin Mitnick Movie", it actually covers more than just Kevin. Several other cases are shown - it's just that Kevin's is so obviously a matter of the press milking the story and overreaction by an ignorant legal system. During the Q&A afterwards, a few people in the audiance (who had just wandered in), asked exactly what hacking is, and to what extent hackers can do damage (like the classic launching missles). My response to the non-techincal was simple: Hacking is playing with your old car sterio and discovering that you can crank it down and listen to the audio of TV broadcasts. Discovering or inventing new or neat uses for an existing technology. The limit of what damage a hacker can do is very small. Even the cable or power company has to send someone physically to your house to turn off service. If it could be done by computer, they would. The biggest danger that malicious hackers pose is dumping private information... almost everything else can be fixed with some effort (like restoring from backup). I've always admired the EFF and 2600... they pick good fights that should be fought. And now 2600 is fighting to educate. • How can you have a list of movies with hackers and not list The Manhattan Project? I mean, there's real hacking... building a nuclear bomb out of everyday household items (and some stolen plutonium). Oh, you meant "cracker." I understand. Nevermind. Shame on you, CNN. ...More Powerful than Otto Preminger... • Real Genious is great. I didn't realize just how acurate it was untill I watched it last month. Try to remember the sceen in which the dorm is frozen over an someone rides a home-made chair/sled down the stiars. Compare that image with this [hmc.edu] picture from a recent dorm trip from Harvey Mudd College [hmc.edu]. • Wargames made me go out and get a modem. Unfortunately there were about 2 BBS's within dialing distance where I lived :-p Brodrick's character was a pretty accurate depiction of a hacker -- a goofy kid, not a black-wearing uptight cyberwannabe. • Yes, I know you were being humorous.... But I wrote that guide you're referring to.. Please don't use it as an official reference that makes it sound like I know what I'm talking about. • Err... no. The biggest issue I had with Hackers was that the characters were all attractive teen idol type. Come on, how many people that good looking invest the time and effort to be hackers? Oh, no, wait, the movie would have been okay if it was called scr1pt k1dd1ez: 4LL j00r b4s3... And you may think there's nothing destructive here, but... Joe and Jane {Senator,Sixpack} watch The Sixth Day and want to ban cloning research because THEY COULD BE CLONED AND REPLACED BY AN 3V1L DUPLICATE!! This is sad, but movies that inaccurately portray science and technology while pretending to be true-to-life are a fucking pox. -grendel drago • Super and Hyper keys? Why hasn't this obviously whupass idea caught on?! Well, it's in the jargon file [tuxedo.org]. But not being auctioned on eBay. sigh... Anyone find a picture? -grendel drago • Don't defend Hackers. It was a fucking minstrel show. Teen idols in hackface... Heh. 'Hackface'. -grendel drago Excellent movie. Very good. Except for the part about being able to crack any encryption instantaneously (actually, only US government-based encryption). That was crap. But I guess every movie has to have one influence from Hollywood. (e.g. The Matrix had Keanu, but it was good anyway...) • maybe i saw another movie... but i saw one with silly graphics, with little kids using macs, and showing unix mainframes as swirling 3d gui's that made noise when you typed commands. You obviously missed that very important scene in the plane where the kid looks down at NYC and imagines it as computer circuitry. You were supposed to see that as a signal to the audience (you) that complex concepts would be metaphorically represented. Once you realize this the movie is quite enjoyable. And as for the kids using Macs, real hackers (using the hollywood definition, here) would only need a modem and communications software. Every OS I've seen supports modems and has communications software. • by DzugZug (52149) on Thursday April 05, 2001 @04:07PM (#311936) Journal Geeks get off on technology. Does that void the warrenty? • by pipeb0mb (60758) <pipeb0mb.pipebomb@net> on Thursday April 05, 2001 @04:11PM (#311938) Homepage Did you guys read the review of 'The Matrix'? Did anyone at CNN even SEE the movie? Sigh. One night Neo encounters a famous hacker online who goes by the name Morpheus. When Neo agrees to meet Morpheus, thinking the pro might clue him in to some new hacking technique, Neo discovers that Morpheus is actually the leader of an underground gang who is fighting for control of this manufactured existence we call reality. Morpheus and his group recruit Neo to fight an even more menacing threat than federal agents: a malicious software "agent" that can kill using only its mind. Jezum Crow • Luxury. We decoded the characters on our C-64 visually and then squawked the ASCII values verbally into a tin-can with a piece of dental floss that, after 50 miles through the swirling snow (uphill! Both ways! In my father's pajamas!) connected to a real telephone switch board by two pieces of chicken wire held together by hope and a lump of dirt (and not a hell of lot of dirt, either! That was expensive back then!). Try to transfer the first Ultima Game over the phone that way! We had to stop, twice, because our vocal chords were tearing! Kids these days don't know how tough it was back then! • The first movie I saw that got me interested in computers I saw in 1st grade: Tron. I hear they're re-doing it? • by drin (83479) on Thursday April 05, 2001 @04:12PM (#311953) 'Sneakers' got me interested in computer security, systems, etc. And in their uncanny ability to trace a phone call's routing progress graphically on a projected world map via their acoustically-coupled modem? Please. I'm not sure to which 'accuracies' you're referring. The movie had so many technical inaccuracies you could have driven a PDP-8 through it. I don't doubt that it inspired some people, but I bet their inspiration fizzled when they discovered that most of the tech toys in the movie were just that - movie toys. • by Speare (84249) on Thursday April 05, 2001 @05:38PM (#311954) Homepage Journal Corley served as a consultant for Hackers ... if someone like Corley's involved, it's gotta be quality Do you know how many people serve as 'consultants' for a given movie production? Most have very little access to understand the movie as a whole, nevermind be given a script, nevermind have their consultations heeded. I'd take that factoid with a grain of salt, and not tilt my opinion so easily. • How could they forget Murray Bozinski on Riptide, that really awful 80's detective show? You simply can't find a better example of the pimply faced, stringy hair and glasses hacker stereotype than Murray. But you've got to admit, he was pretty cool. Sure, he didn't fly the helicopter. Sure, he didn't have the sexy "Who put that roadkill on your face?" mustache. But he was always performing intrusions into corporate networks to solve crimes. • by hooded1 (89250) on Thursday April 05, 2001 @04:00PM (#311959) Homepage Although, nerds are now often portrayed as malicious computer crackers, our image has improved since the 80s. In many movies/shows nerds have a cool persona about them, often respectected to some degree, at least for their skills. This portrait of us may not be ideal, but it is sureley better than the socially inept, pocket protecting wearing, geek of the 80s and early 90s. This change proabably comes from the fact that most americans have computers and the internet is no longer portrayed as an esorteric gathering place for those who do not fit into society. • Most hollywood hacker films are not accurate, or realistic, but that's part of their charm I have enough of real computer IRL, I don't want it in the movies too. I like Net (well why • the not so unimportant movie 'Takedown' about Kevin Mitnick. In contrast to all other movies mentioned by CNN, Takedown is a biographic. This movie made me buy one of those very-very-small-notebooks! • by Fjord (99230) on Thursday April 05, 2001 @06:05PM (#311967) Homepage Journal In the movie Independance Day [imdb.com], Jeff Goldblum's character, Dr. David Levinson uses his 31337 sk1llz to hack into an alien computer system to save the world. Not only does he figure out the network protocol use by the distant race, but is able to use his Virus Upload Utility v0.9 (the one that says "Uploading Virus" as it counts its way to 100), to bring down the VWAN (Very Wide...) that coordinates the malicious visitor's attack. A billion greys near-simultaneously rush to the attachment of an email labeled "I love you", expecting a eCard, but instead rob their own network of its resources, and seal their own fate (if only they weren't so vein). Now that is hacking. Sure, pages like a nitpicker's guide [alignment.net] to ID4, say that Levinson could not have created the virus and the VUU v0.9 in the 4 hours 30 minutes the movie plot allots him, but Levinson is smart and knows how to program. The guy who wrote the Ana virus didn't know how to program and was caught (showing he isn't very smart). Levinson is no script kiddie, but a white-hatted wizard, and the VUU was written by the thousands of ready developers who signed on to SourceForge, who had been patiently waiting for any project, let alone one of this importance. In the epilogue, the aliens were defeated, but some survived to use the DMCA against Levinson, who went bankrupt on the settlement. • I wish I knew more about technology to notice the same discrepancies in these movies that everyone else seems to care so much about. Technical people probably get a bit more upset about technology errors than most other groups too. Most technology (especially computers) require a high degree of precision to get them to work at all. I think that's part of why the geek crowd cares about accuracy - people naturally drawn to the logical world of programming have the tendency exaggerated by the necessity of precision to get anything to work. That,	-1	Unrelated	false
<urn:uuid:c3adcdfc-a7e1-4c9d-a57d-8ca55cf1d391>	dclm-dedup-25B-ai-scifi-docs \| http://www.newsarama.com/15675-10-biggest-marvel-characters-not-in-a-movie-yet.html	The Best of Who's Left With a huge slate of Marvel movies on the horizon, it's time we revisited our list of Marvel characters that haven't appeared on film (yet). Since Captain Marvel, Dr. Strange - just cast with <a href=>Benedict Cumberbatch</a>, and Black Panther have all been announced for solo films - with Black Panther, portrayed by Chadwick Boseman, also announced as having a role in <b>Captain America: Civil War</b> - we've stricken them from the list. Also gone is Janet Van Dyne, who has been confirmed as appearing in Ant-Man even as just a flashback character - and, if a recent interview with actress Evangeline Lilly is accurate, Janet may even appear as the Wasp onscreen. <p>So are there really any big, important Marvel characters left that haven't been depicted in a live-action feature film or is scheduled to? The answer to that question is a resounding, "Yep!" and here are our picks for the 10 biggest. <p>Remember the ground rules – this countdown takes into account ALL Marvel movies – not just Marvel Cinematic Universe ones – and with apologies to Ghost Rider and The Punisher, even the ones we’d like to forget ever existed. <p><i>George Marston and Lucas Siegel contributed to updated versions of this countdown</i> Okay, okay, we’re kind of bending our own rule here, but the exceptions prove the rules, right? <p>We considered the Vision for a new 10th entry (but he's confirmed for Age of Ultron). Wonder Man got a mention. But we gotta go with the Devourer of Worlds. <p>Yes, “Galactus” has “appeared” in a theatrical film before. <p>Sort of. <p>You tell us - was the version of Galactus in 2007’s <i>Rise of the Silver Surfer</i> a representative version of the character? Or was the one million mile-wide cloud-based version of the “character” Galactus in name only? <p>We’re going with the latter, and making the case that while other characters have been depicted badly on film, the true Lee-Kirby creation has not been depicted on film at all. <p>Sorry, you aren’t talking us out of this. Just a couple of years ago, Nova would have been considered a very long shot for movie stardom. Then a couple of things happened: The <b>Guardians of the Galaxy</b> movie of course, and a new Nova named Sam Alexander was introduced in the <b>Ultimate Spider-Man</b> cartoon, and is now starring in a currently ongoing Marvel Universe proper series. <p>Considering that the stars of Guardians are arguably lesser-known characters than Nova himself, it may very well be less of a "why hasn't Nova been in a movie yet?" situation and more of a "how long until the Nova movie comes out?" situation. (And if not a Nova solo film, another cosmic feature with Nova as part of an ensemble certainly sounds like a thing that could happen.) <p>Of course, the Nova Corps appeared in a somewhat different form in Guardians, and though we know Nova won't be in <b>Guardians 2</b> - director James Gunn recently shot down the idea - there are still plenty of places that Sam Alexander, or even original Nova Richard Rider could find their way into the MCU. Marvel has had a tricky time getting a Hulk movie franchise off the ground following mixed receptions to both 2003's <i>Hulk</i> and 2008 reboot <i>Incredible Hulk</I>, so it's not entirely surprising that a She-Hulk movie hasn't happened yet. <p>But the high-profile of Jennifer Walters within the Marvel Universe — she's led several solo books in the past and will soon be starring in another, inspired subsequent She-Hulks like Betty Ross and Lyra, and is also currently part of the <i>Mighty Avengers</i> — combined with the warm reception to Mark Ruffalo's Hulk in <i>Avengers</i> does make it feel at least possible that she'll pop up somewhere sooner than later. <p>There was talk of a She-Hulk film in the early '90s, but then you'd be hard-pressed to find a character on this list (or in comic books in general) that hasn't had a movie in some form of development (or at least heavily rumored) in the past couple of decades. Iron Fist and Luke Cage both appeared on this list as individual entries in its original incarnation, but now that it’s been announced they’ll both star in a individual mini-series and then the <i>Defenders</i> event series that will be distributed by Netflix, and given Marvel has now erased the line between television, home video releases, and feature films, the issue has become cloudy. <p>There’ll certainly be opportunity for the characters to cross over to film if the Marvel/Netflix production is a hit, but this <i>is</i> a list about feature films so we’re going to provisionally keep them both on for the time being. <p>But make no mistake, both are certainly two of the most high-profile Marvel characters they have yet to be adapted to film. Spider-Woman seems like a tough nut to crack for film. While her history as a spy, her ties to both Hydra and SHIELD, and her decade of time with the Avengers, seem like a perfect fit for the MCU, her film rights are likely tied in with Sony's Spider-Man license. <p>And yet, it's not impossible that she could appear in the MCU in some form - just as her alter-ego, Jessica Drew, and not necessarily as Spider-Woman. Given how closely Hydra and SHIELD are tied in the MCU, her history as a double agent leaves her perfectly poised for a role in some form. <p>Meanwhile, Sony has repeatedly made promises to release a female-lead film in its Spider-Man franchise in the foreseeable future. And while this undoubtedly points to Spider-Woman, the question remains, will they tap Jessica Drew? Or one of the other women who have held the mantle, such as Julia Carpenter, or even someone like Silk? Either way, this could wind up a case like Quicksilver, where both companies use the character in wildly different forms. Even though it looks like Hugh Jackman will still be the best there is at what he does for at least two more films - the upcoming <b>X-Men: Apocalypse</b> and <b>Wolverine 3</b> - many see the third Wolverine solo film as a likely endpoint for Jackman's X-Men tenure. Who better to replace him onscreen that Wolverine's young clone, X-23? <p>Now that she's fallen in with the time-displaced original X-Men in the comics, X-23 - Laura to her friends - seems like a good fit for inclusion in a film, like <b>Apocalypse</b>, set in the unexplored years of the X-Men film world. Given that Apocalypse is no stranger to cloning and genetic tampering, it seems that there is an easy in for X-23 as a part of the franchise. <p>On top of all that, X-23's profile is only on the rise in comics. With Wolverine currently dead (we know, we know, how long can that really last?), she is one of the characters most perfectly poised to take his spot in the X-universe. And honestly, who wouldn't want to see Hugh Jackman meet his match in the form of a feral teenage girl? Namor the Sub-Mariner is not only one of Marvel's most important characters (currently part of the all-Illuminati <i>New Avengers</i>), he's also one of the oldest, literally — his first appearance was in <i>Marvel Comics #1</i> in 1939. <p>Like Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver, the film rights to Namor appear to be a little bit complicated. He's a big part of the Fantastic Four mythos (Fox has the rights to that), and recently was a member of the X-Men (also Fox). Back in 2006, it was reported that Universal had a Namor movie in development, and in later years, reports surfaced that the project was dead. Not much has been said recently about Namor's live-action prospects, but there are several possibilities out there if it ever comes to pass. <p>With Marvel always looking to expand their universe and with Fox not only looking to expand their properties but maybe merge the X-Men and movie Fantastic Four universes as well, it's nearly a lock the Atlantean will surface (get it?) in a movie eventually. It's difficult to find a prominent X-Men character that hasn't been in a movie yet. Sure, a lot of them haven't been featured heavily at all, or even necessarily had any speaking lines, but thanks to cameo-filled films like <i>X-Men: The Last Stand</i> and <i>X-Men Origins: Wolverine</i>, a multitude of mutants — from major players like Psylocke to the super-obscure Arclight — have turned up in tiny roles (well, some version of them has anyway). Hell, even Bishop and Blink are now disqualified. <p>One that most assuredly has not is Cable, the time-traveling offspring of Cyclops, despite being one of the most visible X-characters of the last 25 years. He's headlined his own series and multiple incarnations of X-Force (including the current one), and yet has gotten relatively little other media love outside of a few video games and a handful of episodes of the '90s <i>X-Men</i> cartoon. But if they keep making X-Men movies, surely his number will get called — hey, <i>Days of Future Past</i> is all about time travel, and the follow-up deals with Cable arch-villain Apocalypse, after all. <p>Yes, there is an <i>X-Force</i> film in development, and Cable is as likely as anyone to make that cast (in fact, the character's creator Rob Liefeld has seemingly confirmed that Cable will be involved in the film, based on his conversations with Fox and the writer), but like the Wasp, until we hear definitive word, he makes the cut. Adam Warlock <p>After seeing his cocoon in the Collector's chambers in <b>Guardians of the Galaxy</b>, many fans have become even more convinced that Adam Warlock, guardian of the Soul Gem and longtime nemesis of Thanos will play a major role in the upcoming <b>GotG 2</b>, and <b>Avengers: Infinity War</b> films. <p>Some fans even believe that Warlock will be revealed as Peter Quill's mysterious father since director James Gunn said it won't be J'Son of Spartax. <a href=>While we have our own theories about Quill's father</a>, it seems pretty spot on that Warlock will appear in the MCU, as one more tie between the Infinity Stones, Thanos, the cosmic setting, and the Avengers. <p>While James Gunn hasn't made anything official, he did acknowledge that it was no coincidence that cocoon showed up in the Collector's chamber. Furthermore, Warlock is a character that fans have been clamoring for since that first shot of Thanos in the Avengers stinger scene. It seems almost impossible that he won't show up in some form. Kamala Khan The star of the breakout hit <b>Ms. Marvel</b>, Marvel's top-selling digital title is kind of a no-brainer when it comes to a film adaptation. Even though her pedigree is a little confusing, Kamala makes perfect sense as a POV character for the recently announced <b>Inhumans</b> film. <p>An Avengers super-fan who takes the mantle of Ms. Marvel after her latent Inhuman gene is awakened, Kamala has quickly become the latest heir to the classic Peter Parker archetype. With no Spider-Man of their own, Kamala is an obvious choice to take the role of a nascent hero coming into her own in the shadow of the already prevalent Avengers. <p>On top of that, Kamala hits a lot of important buttons for onscreen diversity - a not so subtle topic when it comes to Marvel's films. Her youth, energy, ties to elements that certainly appear central to the future of the MCU, and background make Kamala Khan a character that would be more surprising as an omission than an addition to the MCU. 10 Biggest MARVEL Characters Not in a Movie (Yet) Date: 04 December 2014 Time: 05:55 PM ET	-1	Unrelated	false
6d5d557f-7cd7-4102-9a4c-b4c441e612b6	alignment-classifier-documents-unlabeled \| trentmkelly/LessWrong-43k	Covid 3/17/22: The Rise of BA.2 Omicron has made its way through every major country except one – China. Its time seems to have come. As I noted on Monday, China had already locked down 60 million people amid rapidly rising case counts. Unlike previous rounds where China was able to fully take extreme measures only it could take but that held the promise of physically working, this round’s efforts seem like the exact kind of hope that is not a strategy. They’ll help to slow things down, sure, absolutely, but I can’t find a physical model where they are enough. Things will get out to the rest of China, and locking down over a billion people Chinese-style is simply not an option for any length of time. The resources are not there. Meanwhile, Europe and the United States are dealing with the rise of BA.2, which is overtaking BA.1. My estimate is it is 25% more infectious than BA.1, which means its raw numbers should indeed be increasing for now, putting as at risk for an additional wave. I do not expect anything that needs to be disruptive, and I expect little appetite for renewed restrictions, but we have indeed done stupider things many times. So it’s not the best time to notice that it looks like the administration really is out of money for Covid-related things. The standalone bill to provide the funding seems unlikely to pass the Senate. We might actually soon be in a situation where the federal government can spend no money on either vaccine research, other pandemic preparedness or even things like testing and treating the uninsured. Alas, the restrictions that do harm are not the interventions the government will find itself unable to fund. Executive Summary 1. BA.2 is taking over for BA.1, perhaps resulting in a small new wave. 2. China is probably about to be forced out of its Zero Covid policy. 3. A new highly promising therapeutic has been announced. Let’s run the numbers. The Numbers Predictions Prediction from last week: 170k cases (-25%) and 7,050 deaths (-22%). Results: 19	-1	Unrelated	false
<urn:uuid:86036a58-499b-41b4-b197-b5eccb381ad5>	dclm-dedup-25B-ai-scifi-docs \| https://nydolls.org/news/marvelstudios/comments/wa0pl2/this_is_still_the_most_shocked_i_have_ever_been/	This is still the most shocked I have ever been watching an MCU movie. I almost yelled "Holy sht" in the theater. What would be your most shocking moment? 1. Yeah and the FIVE YEARS LATER just 20 minutes into the movie. I went into that movie expecting not to see Thanos until the end of the movie with a rematch. The plot was just a massive surprise it was amazing. 2. I remember when this happened that’s when I realised I genuinely didn’t have a clue how the film was going to pan out 3. I was sitting there with a friend and when they flew to the gardens of thanos he was like, ok thats gona be a short movie. Then we saw that "5 years later" and it was so depressing and the feeling of the events being inreversible was growing more and more. 4. Such a great holy shit moment lol Also when you see him realizing that Peter is Spider-Man in the car I was like fuck. Keaton is a great actor. 5. The car scene was obviously amazing but just the pure shock of him opening the door when your brain was lulled into thinking this was going to be a straight forward/cutsey scene with Peter and Liz. Then BAM. 6. My dad watched my face during that scene and once I reacted said,”Yeah I know, I didn’t expect it either.” 7. This. This is the first time in any movie or TV show that a plot twist genuinely shocked me. Usually I can either guess where they’re going with something or it just isn’t very impactful but seeing Toomes smiling like a regular dad behind that door absolutely floored me. 8. My answer is so similar. It’s just that Thanos wins. Let me be clear, I accidentally saw the Facebook promo where you could see Thanos had almost all the stones. I KNEW he was going to win. I KNEW people were getting dusted (wasn’t sure if they were coming back or not though). I KNEW this….. and still, when Thanos snapped and you saw people disappearing, my jaw was on the floor. It was SUCH an emotional moment that the true awe of it happening still is the most shocking moment in MCU for me. I remember when the credit rolled my wife and I just sat there, taking in what had happened. The movie ending on the sunset, “Thanos will return” and the music was all just so perfectly done. Ok, I gotta go watch IW again, bye. 9. I love the look on Thor's face immediately after the snap. Almost like he feels sick to his stomach when he realizes what just happened 10. I think it was the reality stone reveal and subsequently turning mantis and drax into ribbons and cubes where I realized “oh, Thanos wins this movie huh” 11. Not just him finding all sorts of ways to use the stones, but also the way he has reverence for the heroes, is part of what makes him such a fantastic character. 12. I mean, of all the clever ways he used the Stones in the movie, this is the only one we've literally already seen before. He used the Time Stone exactly the way Strange had been. 13. I was completely convinced that Tony would not survive Infinity War/Endgame, so this moment did not shock me per se. I do remember the silence in both the movie theater and the movie. I think I literally held my breath, realizing this was it and I was gonna watch him die. But then they immediately undid it, and I just did not know what to do with that. 14. Man we all knew the other Spideys would pop up but Andrew jumping through the portal and ripping his mask off was seriously next level “HOLY SHIT” 15. I thought it was funny how nobody gave not a single flying fuck about Aunt May’s death after they all showed up 16. I feel like this isn't being said enough in this thread. This moment right here made people lose their collective shit. 17. This was the big one for me. Toby and Andrew was the worst kept secret ever but this was a wonderful surprise! 18. This got a good pop off of me in the theater. I purposely avoided all spoilers for it, and I didn’t know anything about him showing up. I kind of thought in the back of my mind that Tobey and Andrew might be showing up since their villains were. I didn’t expect Charlie Cox though, and I was super happy about it. 19. That was the first gasp in the theater when i saw it. Then everyone lost it when he caught the brick. "I'm a really good lawyer." 20. That's the one for me. Every Spiderman we've seen we see Petar struggle as a person, not just a hero. We never saw that with MCU Petar. He always felt like your friendly neighborhood relatable Spiderman. The memory wipe made him that, and it truly made me feel bad for him. It reminded me of how lonely and dramatic Toby parkers life was. 21. The end-credits rolling in IW, that initial shock of the bad guy winning for the first time ever? The absolute silence in the room was unbelievable, you could feel the tension and shock 22. You can add to that the "Thanos will return" instead of the Avengers. It made me gasp a faint "motherf*er..." 23. I LOVED that feeling. It was new, it was exciting. I mean you know they would eventually "win" in the next movie, but holy hell. When he snapped his fingers I audibly gasped. That scene was so good and so chilling. 24. To add on it, the entire credits sequence rolling as white text on black, no extra scenes. It was perfect. 25. I had a tradition pre-COVID with a group of friends that we would go to a local theater for a MCU matinee with Fuddruckers after the movie. Usually the post-movie meal is filled with constant discussion of good and bad points in the movie, where we think things might go next, etc. 26. It felt like a pipe dream when they first teased it, because nothing like it had ever been achieved. What an amazing time for superhero movies 27. I never get tired of talking about this. When I was about 14 and first really venturing onto message boards, I used to go on boards for various Marvel movies (Around 2005-2006) and inevitably when someone said something like "It would be so cool if the Fantastic Four appeared in a Spider-Man movie!" or something, I was always a naysayer. 28. I don't know that anything could ever top this. First, no one expected an Iron Man movie to be good, let alone great. Then, Nick Fury (played by the guy that the Ultimate Universe version is based off of) shows up talking about Avengers? It didn't feel real. 29. Let’s be real. All of us loved marvel films but none of us thought a full cinematic universe at this size would work out. Yet here we are with Spider-Man, Ant-Man, Guardians of the Galaxy, Moon Knight, Captain Marvel and Black Panther in the MCU 30. I think this one is gigantic. Prior to this moment every super hero movie had a formula where a large portion of the movies were dedicated to hiding the identity of a super hero. It really allowed the MCU to do something different. 31. SO glad they ditched that boring comic book conceit for Tony, Steve, Clint, and many others in the MCU. It’s the least interesting part of Batman and Superman and WW. 32. Wanda just laying waste to the entire Illuminati in Dr Strange MoM. She just cut through them like butter and dgaf. When Black Bolt's head exploded I let out an "Oh fck" - definitely the goriest Marvel has been so far. 33. Not just laying waste to them, brutally and graphically killing them. When she pops out of the red smoke and snaps Xavier's neck, I was starting to think this turned in to a monster horror movie real quick. 34. Black Bolt’s head exploding threw me for a loop. Not that I was hugely invested in the character or anything, I just wasn’t expecting things to escalate that fast. 35. First it was IW. The Avengers actually losing and Cap acknowledging it with that “Oh god…”. I was always used to the good guys winning but from then on I realized that’s not always the case. But now it’s seeing Charlie Cox as Matt Murdock again after 3 years. It was spectacular. 36. I think people are used to superhero (and really most in general) movies having good endings, even with small cliffhangers. Infinity War definitely threw people for a loop. 37. Ward was just a mindfuck of a character. I still can't figure out if I loved him in a glorious bastard kinda way or hatred him or even pitied him. 38. Brett Dalton is a great actor, so it was cool to see him go from hero, to villain, to supervillain in just three seasons. He plays every part almost the same, which is awesome. 39. In Thors vision in Age of Ultron i saw the orb from guradians of the galaxy and lost my shit, because thats when my child brain relised somthing big was coming and the universe was coming together. 40. i went to watch multiverse of madness with no knowledge of leaks and spoilers so seeing john krasinski as mr fantastic literally had me jump out of my seat in surprise 41. Arishem appearing in the sky at the end of Eternals. The scale, the way his eyes appeared first before his whole form materialised . 42. Black Bolt's head exploding and Peggy getting bisected in MoM. It was pretty clear Peggy and dear Maria were going to die after the boys, but the bloody shield hitting the wall really threw me for a loop. I should definitely have expected Raimi to go that hard but somehow I did not. (Peggy also wins the award for only thing in any comic movie thus far to leave me physically nauseous.) 43. Thankfully they were able to deliver. Could you imagine how much of a letdown this would’ve been forever if the Marvel didn’t get the returns they needed to pursue the full phase 1 and just cut losses after Incredible Hulk? 44. Wanda being the villain and brutally killing the Illuminati. I wasn't really on the internet at the time and didnt watch wandavision so i thought Strange and Wanda was gonna team up to fight the Xavier or the other Stranges but when it took to long for them to team up that's when I realized that she is the main villain 45. I think for anyone who didn’t really follow the trailers and hype that the orchard scene was a massive, huge shock when Wanda takes down her hex. 46. That and when Tony wasn’t part of the team anymore because it was too painful for him. When they turned up at his ranch and you see him at home just being a Dad instead of THE Tony Stark and Iron Man threw me and got me right in the heart. 47. That scene made me so mad! I can’t even look at Jake Gyllenhall cause I feel so bad for what his character did to Peter. Maybe both a holy sht moment and a f** you moment! 48. My most shocking moment would be when everyone believed mysterio instantly even though the video didnt show any ones face and peter the dummy just confirmed it by swinging as spiderman to his OWN house instead of hiding out any other building. 49. To be fair. His secret identity was maintained by being above suspicion more than unprovable. Once the average person suspects it’s not hard to connect the dots. 50. The avengers losing in IW. That was beyond shocking and the whole cinema was quiet as hell. The second was Ironman dying. Still not over that. 51. Steve!Cap wielding Mjolnir will only ever be surpassed by Sam!Cap going on a rampage with a worthiness-enchanted version of Stormbreaker, change my view. 52. I’ve never heard an audience reaction like in the post-credits scene of Ant-Man and the Wasp. No one expected the connection to Infinity War. It wasn’t even cheering, more like delighted confusion. 53. The dusting in Infinity War. I remember watching it in theaters and it was so quiet you could hear a mouse fart. Everyone was watching with their mouths wide open including me like "there's no way this is happening" 54. My theater was letting out audible gasps and cries during the dustings and was dead quiet when Peter got dusted. That one ripped out any hope anyone had left and just stunned the crowd. 55. Honorable mentions for shocking things which are all Ant-Man and the Wasp through present as I was spoiled on most of the stuff before that. 56. I remember making a safe list for infinity war before seeing it and everyone on my list got dusted 57. I'm going to answer on behalf of a stranger who as the "Directed by the Russo brothers" popped up at the end of Infinity War, in a silent theatre yelled "Oh Fuck Off!" 58. The snap in Infinty War, I cannot tell you how fucking shocked my theatre was when that happened (meanwhile I was badly crying at Peter being dusted because he's my favourite) 59. I didn't watch the Thor Ragnarok trailer before seeing the movie and having Mjolnir crushed with her bare hands really threw me for a loop. (I still somehow knew Hulk was in it though, which would have been WAY more shocking. 60. I actually love the twist in NWH where we learn of Beck's Illusions. So refreshing given this is the first film after Endgame. 61. I was honestly very shocked when the stones were actually destroyed and Thanos died by getting his head chopped off. I thought he’d use the reality stone in some way to trick the Avengers, but nope. He died and 5 years pass. 62. Gonna go for one people aren't mentioning: Black Panther being friends with Thanos in the What If episode. I had to pause the show I was laughing so hard Leave a Reply	-1	Unrelated	false
2438ad5e-7b4e-4c57-8d3a-0e4540968913	alignment-classifier-documents-unlabeled \| trentmkelly/LessWrong-43k	Why would a free human society be in agreement on how to alter itself? So I've been grappling with these discussions on the plausibility or implausibility of redefining cultural boundaries of several sorts to (as the radical example of self-alteration by Eliezer goes) make non-consensual sex as tolerated and tolerable as non-consensual conversation. Said discussions being quite separate from EY's largely accepted underlying statement of principle; "Something in a world better than ours is likely to creep us out, at least purely emotionally." Then I suddenly saw a plot hole in the source material. The story outright mentions that internal disagreement was present at all points in its culture during the transition from 20th century sexual mores to the end result. So... why didn't anyone who saw the trend of self-modification and couldn't accept it for themselves or their children, DO anything about it? To use another locally popular example, if Gandhi knew that his children, whom he had begun to raise in pacifism, were to be given pills that'd make them enjoy killing in self-defense*, why the hell wouldn't he and his followers split off? And, supposing that a large amount of Indians and others at the time disliked that slippery slope, wouldn't their forked culture make a considerable impact on the future's "mainstream" society, such as a much greater level of catering to pacifists in all areas of life than e.g. the visibility of Jewish kosher goods and services in today's West? In other words, why didn't the story mention its (wealthy, permissive, libertarian) society having other arrangements in such a contentious matter - including, with statistical near-certainty, one of the half-dosen characters on the bridge of the Impossible Possible World? I strongly suspect that this blow to suspension of disbelief, while swallowed by most commenters who began talking about the implied binary choice (modify entire culture to tolerate rape/society at large stays frozen in stone), added a great deal of needless, irrational controversy, fueling th	-1	Unrelated	false
cc115b2e-4f17-464d-b193-5b6ca565bfd7	alignment-classifier-documents-unlabeled \| trentmkelly/LessWrong-43k	Introduction to Representing Sentences as Logical Statements TLDR: Most sentences can be translated to simple predicate logic. There are some very important cases where natural languages are recursive, but those cases are limited to a few particular connectives (like causation and attitude verbs). I propose the hypothesis that, contrary to mainstream formal semantics, events should not be treated as basic entities, and rather as ways to organize information which can already be expressed without events. Motivations for this investigation: 1. Better understanding how language works as an angle for better understanding minds. 2. (To a lesser extent, as a starting angle for creating a good language for reasoning more effectively.)[1] There's a tight correspondence between sentences and logical statements. Roughly speaking, when we hear a sentence, our minds very likely parse it into a logical statement, along with inferring other details that are not captured by the coarseness of sentences in human languages (like imagining a visual scene), and then apply inferences (e.g. about what is likely going to happen next). In theory, one could have a language where all the sentences are just statements in predicate logic, bypassing the first parsing step. Creating such a simple system may be a useful investigation that may move us closer to better understanding how language works. This post proposes a partially-formal system based on predicate logic, which could be seen as a very low-level language. I think everything that can be meaningfully said in natural languages can also be said in this simple system, although a translated statement sometimes look not closely analogous to the original sentence. To be clear, I definitely don't claim that this system explains how most of the meaning of sentences gets parsed, though it is a small step into that direction. In many respects, the framework presented here aligns with traditions in formal semantics, though it diverges in its treatment of events. This work focuses on the structur	-1	Unrelated	false
37e412b6-a1f1-4d87-868d-173d46a0a4bc	alignment-classifier-documents-unlabeled \| trentmkelly/LessWrong-43k	Evaluating Evidence Reconstructions of Mock Crimes -Submission 2 Epistemic Status: Exploratory 1. Introduction I want to train people to decide the truth about events, through practices reconstructing events about which the truth is independently known I am asking the help of people who are interested in applying reason to understand how reason and the understanding of it should shape how training for applying reason to solve a class of practical problems should be evaluated 2. At present: -no one is specifically trained to bring disputes about the facts of events to a final conclusion -we have no way to tell how accurate factfinders or factfinding methods are -dispute resolution is shuffled to people not specifically trained or designated for it 3. Alternatives considered: -common sense -anyone can do it -learning through experience -but what feedback? -academic professional education -how could effect of this be known 4. Benefits of using practices to train: we could determine proxies for base rates of factfinding accuracy we could tell whether and which training improved factfinding ability we could select more accurate factfinders to do the job 5. Question: Do you have any ideas for how this should be done? What should a student's results be judged on, compared to? What features should they be marked on? What in a prior recording of the event should be considered salient 6. What I have typed out so far about practices: Factfinding Practices A. general idea i. tests/exercise, where mock crime has been committed by one of n people, or by any of whole class or more, and whether student (first researcher?) can find out which ii. people coming to them with true and false problems, prizes for those who can successfully fake (true problems referred from an actual resolution service? That circular?) iii. also use natural occurrences in classes, on campus -where recording? Provision for that? [or without recording just comparing the	-1	Unrelated	false
<urn:uuid:a85a1925-68b1-4995-9494-692b4aaf70e1>	dclm-dedup-25B-ai-scifi-docs \| http://www.pcgamer.com/face-off-boss-battles/	Face Off: Do boss battles have a place in modern games? PC Gamer In this week's Face Off debate , Tyler goes left, then right, then left again to dodge Evan's precisely timed barrage of attacks against traditional boss fights in modern games. Are they an outdated trope which should be reserved for arcade-style experiences? Is there some common ground, where boss fights and modern ideas can coexist? Read the debate below, add your argument in the comments, and jump to the next page for opinions from the community. Tyler, you have the floor: The Debate Tyler: Why shouldn't games use a tried-and-true design template? Here's an analogy: you spend a semester learning, then face the ultimate challenge in the final exam. It's hard. You might have to repeat it again and again to pass, but it makes earning the right to advance to the next level meaningful. My degree would just be a piece of paper if I passed on attendance alone. Evan: Thanks for comparing bosses to school exams, something universally disliked by mankind. Tyler: I know, but see, what I'm saying is, because tests and bosses are- OK, fine. I guess I didn't do myself any favors with that analogy. But are you just going to critique my rhetoric? Evan: Let's try this again, with less sarcasm on my part. So you're saying that without a demanding test punctuating a player's progression, being told “You won!” or “You advanced to the next area!” by a game isn't as meaningful. Correct? Tyler: I'm not saying games need boss fights to create meaningful progression, but the old-school structure still works where it's used well. Bosses get the big set pieces—the explosions that would just be worn out if they weren't a sparingly-used reward. They can be crazy, huge, monstrous things. They can seem insurmountable at first, and when you turn one to dust, you are the hero. You're Bruce Willis at the end of Die Hard. Happy trails, Hans. Evan: I see bosses as an antique trope. They're a lazy roadblock-in-antagonist's clothing, and I think designers generally use them out of convenience or tradition, and not because bosses are the best or most creative way of structuring a game. Plenty of modern games have used bosses in a way that feels completely out of place—BioShock's pathetic end boss was one of the only stains on one of the best games of the era. Ken Levine has admitted this . Tyler: You're right, that was too conventional for BioShock. That was an avoidable error—Wolfenstein 3D wouldn't have worked if it built to not a fight with mecha Hitler, but BioShock? BioShock should have ignored tradition. That doesn't mean design traditions are universally bad or lazy, though. They give us historical learning to draw from, and that's valuable. Iterating on a design only leads to better versions of that design—not in every case, but over time. We'll only get more and more amazing boss fights, and I'm happy to allow for some failures. Evan: But designers aren't iterating, they're regurgitating. For the most part, bosses are still being implemented in the same form they were 10 and 20 years ago. What would you cite as an example of a great modern boss? Tyler: Dark Souls, all of them. Sorry, is that game too “antique” for you? Evan: Actually I'm glad you bring it up, because Dark Souls demonstrates what I'm talking about. The fun I had fighting its bosses relied on difficulty more than interesting design. Dark Souls is saying: “You're fragile, so let's make you fight things that have a bunch more HP and do more damage than you. Boss: DESIGNED! I don't find that totally unappealing, but it's mechanically mundane: pattern recognition, timing, and fighting an enemy with an enormous hit point bar isn't tried-and-true--it's overdone. That template originated in the 2D arcade games of the '80s and grew ubiquitous through the console games of the '90s. Do we really want games that are just a series of homages to the techniques of the past, or do we want new ideas and new experiences? Tyler: We want both! And sometimes we want a combination. We can want whatever we want. Alright, that last one isn't a very good argument, but how about this: it's true that the best examples of boss fights come from arcade-style games and Japanese console series, making a “modern” PC-centric argument more difficult, but even Valve draws from that collective design learning. I thought Portal and Portal 2 climaxed just fine, and those are plenty modern. Evan: I remember enjoying the ending of both games, but I think I was enjoying the narrative execution more than what I was being asked to do with my mouse and keyboard. Glados and Wheatley are both entertainingly written, and both Portals incorporated original, lyrical songs that provided as a surprising payoff for all your hours of brain work. But as an activity, as a test , I'm not sure if I'd call Portal and Portal 2's bosses stimulating. How to beat the end of Portal 2: • Stand behind a pipe as Wheatley fires a bomb at you. This will break open the Incredibly Obvious White Gel Tube. • Put a portal in front of you, and put a portal on a surface that faces where Wheatley's shields aren't. Stand there. • While Wheatley is stunned (because it wouldn't be a boss if they didn't have a “paralyzed” state), retrieve the cores and then just like, walk up to him. • Repeat. It does a lot of the work for you--you don't even have to consider where to place the gel, which was something Portal 2 taught you how to do over and over. It was a narrative success, but if we're judging bosses by their test-like traits, I'd say it was a pretty easy exam. Tyler: You're right, boss battles tend to be exercises in pattern recognition and repetition. They require a binary win/lose state, and winning in one shot would be a bit anticlimactic, so you wear them down in stages. But what about Half-Life 2: Episode 2? That wasn't a standard pattern-based test, it was a whole level. Conceptually, is that still a “boss?” Wait. No. I'm unplugging my keyboard and walking away before I turn this into a semantic argument about “what is and isn't a boss.” I'll plug it back in after I've sat in the corner thinking about what I've done. Evan: Yeah, I agree that it's pointless to argue whether Half-Life 2: Episode 2's incredible sawmill/Strider showdown is or isn't a boss. Mostly I'm interested in encouraging designers to throw out the notion that bosses or “tests” or endings require something like a binary win/lose state, or that they have to replicate something players already understand. I like that Left 4 Dead's crescendo events make it possible to win and lose simultaneously--you or a teammate might've died, but if one person completes the finale it's considered a success. Mainly, I don't want any more Human Revolutions. It was a legitimate tragedy that the reboot of one of the defining, agency-driven games of our time reverted to “let's put the player in the room with a guy that they stun and then shoot until they kill him.” Tyler: You're right again, but I don't agree with a universal conclusion. Yes, “shoot until they die” is out of place there (and no fair using Human Revolution, which had bad boss fights for many reasons), but even so, I want to face the villain, and sometimes I really just want to win the fight. The hero's journey, and all that! There's a place for challenging the idea of binary win/lose states, as in L4D, but there's also a place where John McClane shoots the bad guy, and it's a place I'm not done visiting. I don't want to miss that confrontation because we're just too sophisticated for traditional boss fights. True, there are better ways to handle that confrontation, and that's the experimentation I want to see. Evan: “The hero's journey, and all that” is exactly what I want more designers to deviate from. Not to derail our discussion about bosses, but I'm sick of being everyone's savior. Now that i think of it, Far Cry 3 represents one of the recent attempts at iteration on boss design. It's an open-world game with maybe last year's best villain, but Ubisoft's solution for bringing you face to face with Vaas and other big bads was throwing you into these frustrating, (and I hate to use it like it's inherently a bad word, but) linear, drugged-out hallucination sequences. Why did they do that? Because they wanted the player to have this prolonged encounter with the villain, and a dream sequence creates this context where they can bend the rules and allow the player to shoot the villain a whole bunch of times before they die. Tyler: You sure have a lot of examples of bad boss fights, but they don't add up to a rule—and at least Far Cry 3 tried to justify its boss confrontations a bit differently, even if it didn't succeed. And on your first point, sure, things can get really interesting when we deviate from archetypal hero narratives. What if I'm just a person in DayZ, on an island with zombies, what do I do? Fascinating, and I can't wait for more. But why can't we have both? We don't have to stop saving the world to also find out what happens when we can't save the world, or when the final boss is actually Jonathan Blow's internal emotional struggle. Evan: It sounds like we're approaching something that resembles consensus. I think we're both interested in boss encounters or “difficult trials” that are built on new ideas. I guess part of my criticism stems from the idea that Western game design has won out over Japanese game design over the past 10 or 15 years, and that bosses represent a dated trope that was perpetuated a lot by Japanese games. I'm especially frustrated when well-funded projects, staffed by dozens of talented people, rely on templates like locking you in a room and throwing a single, durable enemy at you. Tyler: Have you played Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater? I know, another Japanese console example, but I think The End is a brilliant modern boss fight—it's a sniper battle, a long back-and-forth which can be won with a kill or non-lethal takedown. That's the kind of boss fight experimentation we need more of in PC games. We don't need to do away with them altogether. Evan: I'm a closet Metal Gear Solid fan, so I'm not going to fight you on this one--The End works for the same reasons HL2: Ep. 2 does--Konami built a whole, intricate level around that character, imbued him with some unpredictable behaviors, and the result was this interestingly-paced jungle hunt that didn't simply have one solution, yeah. A lot of MGS' bosses do rely on some tropey pattern-recognition stuff, but he's one of the best examples of combining “Japanese difficulty” and Western sensibilities. There's a lot of that in what Kojima does. Tyler: Yeah, we're at least within sight of each other now (nice hat, by the way). Neither of us mind having that big confrontation, or even sometimes sticking to narrative tropes, we just want cleverer approaches. That is, we don't want designers to force traditional boss fights into otherwise non-traditional games. We want them to design climactic experiences that make sense, and “dodge, shoot, dodge, shoot” can be fun, but it only works in games wholly designed in that arcade style. When you force it into something like BioShock or Deus Ex, it's a mechanical and narrative let down. Evan: Ratified. That's the debate! As always, these debates are exercises meant to reveal alternate view points and cultivate discussion, so continue it in the comments, and jump to the next page for more opinions from the community. Around the web by CPMStar (Sponsored) Free to play	-1	Unrelated	false
7b152f81-ae6f-4f2c-9885-08f0b704d970	alignment-classifier-documents-unlabeled \| trentmkelly/LessWrong-43k	A brief theory of why we think things are good or bad Moral reasoning depends on believing that some things are good and others are bad. Some of these things seem very believable - I am quite firmly convinced that intense pain is bad. Though they seem very compelling, it’s hard to point to strong evidence that proves the judgement. On the other hand it's easy to point to strong motivations for believing such things - I don’t want to be tortured - and we know that motivation can cause people to believe things. The same mechanism that causes us to believe things we want to be true could also be responsible for our basic moral judgements of goodness and badness. We believe many things because we are somewhat rational; we consider hypotheses, compare them with observed evidence, and emphasise those that are more compatible. Goodness and badness defy this practice; normal reasoning does not produce hypotheses of the form "if X is morally good then I will observe Y". One could object that such hypotheses are reasonable where Y is a belief or an attitude. If torture is bad, then if I try it I will observe that a) I believe it is bad and b) I don't like it. But this is either circular (I believe torture is bad because I believe it is bad) or it says that my attitude towards torture is the cause of my belief in its badness, which is roughly what I am arguing. It's true that if we accept some fundamental assumptions about what makes things good or bad we can then go about considering hypotheses and evidence as usual; if happiness is good then an intervention X is good if I see data Y indicating that it increases happiness. The subject of this post is why we believe the fundamental assumptions ("happiness is good"), not the theories built on top of them. We also know people often engage in motivated reasoning. If X being true is consistent with my desires, then I might find myself believing that X is true and coming up with post-hoc justifications for this belief. Combining these points: there are at least two mechanisms b	-1	Unrelated	false
<urn:uuid:0b6107be-39b1-424b-a075-4d0220b0ba7d>	dclm-dedup-25B-ai-scifi-docs \| https://sms-online.co/receive-free-sms	Receive SMS Online for Free is a free service for receiving SMS messages online. There is no need to register or even have a phone. Just select a listed number from below. You can use it to receive messages from e.g. Facebook, Telegram, WeChat, VK, PayPal, AliPay and more +44 7418 341947 image +44 7418 341947 United Kingdom +1 787-337-5275 image +1 787-337-5275 Puerto Rico +33 7 57 91 18 77 image +33 7 57 91 18 77 +44 7520 632833 image +44 7520 632833 United Kingdom +1 731-201-3371 image +1 731-201-3371 United States +60 11-1700 0917 image +60 11-1700 0917 +1 226-602-3017 image +1 226-602-3017 +1 203-563-8757 image +1 203-563-8757 United States +44 7520 635797 image +44 7520 635797 United Kingdom +1 249-315-5487 image +1 249-315-5487 +44 7520 635733 image +44 7520 635733 United Kingdom +62 855-7467-0577 image +62 855-7467-0577 +46 76 943 62 66 image +46 76 943 62 66 Got a minute? Join us, it's free! We provide the best SMS online services on the web. We offer virtual phone numbers and real phone numbers. Each number is available in public and can be accessed from anywhere. Messages that we receive will be displayed instant and without delay. New Numbers We refresh our international mobile number portfolio regularly. Stay Private Stay anonymous and don't get spammed. Premium Features for Free • What is is a website that provides free phone numbers to receive SMS online. • Why choose is the best SMS online service in the internet. We update our numbers regularly and are super fast. • What are features? has an extensive list of features and, as it is constantly evolving, this list of features is constantly growing. But mainly we focus on receiving SMS messages. • For what countries are numbers available? Currently we support a lot countries like: USA, Germany, Spain, Romania, Uk, France, Russia, Italy, China, Japan and we will constantly add more. • For what services can I use the numbers available? You can verify any service you want like: Facebook, Yandex, Ebay, Voxox, Uber,,, atm-loans-uk, liqpay, Hike Verification, Verify LINE account, WeChat Verify, Rebtel Account Verification, Badoo, yuilop confirmation code, Instagram verification, QUICK ACCEPT LOANS,, Odnoklassniki code, OKru, NAVERLINE, Your single use eBay PIN,,, code, Uw code, Bedankt, CheShopping,, Freischaltcode, IS24, serverloft, RealStatus, LeoVegas, VISIT-X, Premium, Easyusenet, google verification code, mcent confirmation free, Chatroulette, yandex verification, yahoo verification, Youtube, Microsoft, WePay, HotSpot, Elastichosts, CoinsUP, CloudSigma, Mail.Ru, Gumtree, Visa QIWI Wallet, Weebly, Beetalk, Global Call, Chikka, Localbitcoins, PCGameSupply, Premiumize.Me, Voxox, Vk.coM, Vichatter • Do I need to have a phone to receive SMS? No. You just need a webbrowser. The service works without registration. • Do I need to register to receive SMS? No. You do not need to register. The service works without registration. • How often do we update and add new numbers to our portfolio? • Do we block messages? We do not block any incoming messages. • How can i get notified when new numbers are published?	-1	Unrelated	false
ea647dd4-0367-419a-b105-428a4012f117	alignment-classifier-documents-unlabeled \| trentmkelly/LessWrong-43k	Epistemic Spot Check: Full Catastrophe Living (Jon Kabat-Zinn) Full Catastrophe Living is a little weird, because between the first edition and the second a lot of science came out testing the thesis. For this blog post, I’m reviewing the new, scienced-up edition of FCL. However I have ordered the older edition of the book (thanks, Patreon supporters and half.com) and have dreams of reviewing that separately, with an eye towards identifying what could have predicted the experimental outcome. E.g. if the experimental outcome is positive, was there something special about the model that we could recognize in other self-help books before rigorous science comes in? I originally planned on fact checking two chapters, the scientific introduction and one of the explanatory chapters. Doing the intro was exhausting and demonstrated a consistent pattern of “basically correct, from a small sample size, finding exaggerated”, so I skipped the second chapter of fact checking. I also skipped the latter two thirds of the book. Overview You’ve probably heard about mindfulness, but just in case: mindfulness is a meditation practice that involves being present and not holding on to thoughts, originally created within Buddhism. Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) is a specific class created by the author of this book, Jon Kabat-Zinn. The class has since spread across the country; he cites 720 programs in the introduction. Full Catastrophe Living contains both a playbook for teaching the class to yourself, the science of why it works (I’m guessing this is new?), a section on stress, and followup information on how to integrate meditation into your life. Introduction Claim: Humans are happier when they focus on what they are doing than when they let their mind wander, which is 50% of the time. Accurately cited, large effect size, possible confounding effects. (PDF). The slope of the regression between mind wandering and mind not-wandering was 8.79 out of a 100 point scale, and the difference between unpleasant mind wandering and	-1	Unrelated	false
<urn:uuid:b5b40a78-3fc9-4287-a506-24a45bacad9d>	dclm-dedup-25B-ai-scifi-docs \| http://www.filmibeat.com/celebs/arnold-schwarzenegger/biography.html	Celebs » Arnold Schwarzenegger » Biography Arnold Schwarzenegger 30 Jul 1947 (Age 67) Arnold Alois Schwarzenegger (German IPA: [ˌaɐnɔlt aloʏs ˈʃvaɐtsənɛɡɐ]) is an American and Austrian bodybuilder, actor, businessman, and politician, currently serving as the 38th Governor of the state of California. Schwarzenegger is married to Maria Shriver and has four children. Early life Schwarzenegger was born in Thal, Austria (German: Thal bei Graz), a small village bordering the Styrian capital Graz, and was christened Arnold Alois Schwarzenegger. His parents were the local police chief Gustav Schwarzenegger (1907 – 1972), and his wife, Aurelia Jadrny (1922 – 1998). They were married on October 20, 1945 – Gustav was 38, and Aurelia was a 23-year-old widow with a son named Meinhard. According to Schwarzenegger, both of his parents were very strict: "Back then in Austria it was a very different world, if we did something bad or we disobeyed our parents, the rod was not spared." He grew up in a Roman Catholic family who attended church service every Sunday. Gustav had a preference for Meinhard, the elder of the two sons. His favoritism was "strong and blatant," which stemmed from unfounded suspicion that Arnold was not his child. Schwarzenegger has said his father had "no patience for listening or understanding your problems… there was a wall; a real wall." Schwarzenegger had a good relationship with his mother, and kept in touch with her until her death. In later life, Schwarzenegger commissioned the Simon Wiesenthal Center to research his father's wartime record, which came up with no evidence of atrocities despite Gustav's membership in the Nazi Party and SA. At school, Schwarzenegger was apparently in the middle, but stood out for his "cheerful, good-humored and exuberant" character. Money was a problem in the household; Schwarzenegger has recalled that one of the highlights of his youth was when the family bought a refrigerator. As a boy, Schwarzenegger played many sports—heavily influenced by his father. He picked up his first barbell in 1960, when his football coach took his team to a local gym. At the age of 14, Schwarzenegger chose bodybuilding over football (soccer) as a career. Schwarzenegger has responded to a question asking if he was age 13 when he started weightlifting: "I actually started weight training when I was fifteen, but I'd been participating in sports, like soccer, for years, so I felt that although I was slim, I was well-developed, at least enough so that I could start going to the gym and start Olympic lifting." However, his official website biography claims: "At 14, he started an intensive training program with Dan Farmer, studied psychology at 15 (to learn more about the power of mind over body) and at 17, officially started his competitive career." During a speech in 2001, he said, "My own plan formed when I was 14 years old. My father had wanted me to be a police officer like he was. My mother wanted me to go to trade school." Schwarzenegger took to visiting a gym in Graz, where he also frequented the local movie theaters to see bodybuilding idols such as Reg Park, Steve Reeves and Johnny Weissmuller on the big screen. "I was inspired by individuals like Reg Park and Steve Reeves." When Reeves passed away in 2000, Schwarzenegger fondly remembered him: "As a teenager, I grew up with Steve Reeves. His remarkable accomplishments allowed me a sense of what was possible, when others around me didn't always understand my dreams ... Steve Reeves has been part of everything I've ever been fortunate enough to achieve." In 1961, Schwarzenegger met former Mr. Austria Kurt Marnul, who invited him to train at the gym in Graz. He was so dedicated as a youngster that he was known to break into the local gym on weekends, when it was usually closed, so that he could train. "It would make me sick to miss a workout … I knew I couldn't look at myself in the mirror the next morning if I didn't do it." When Schwarzenegger was asked about his first movie experience as a boy, he replied, "I was very young, but I remember my father taking me to the Austrian theaters and seeing some newsreels. The first real movie I saw, that I distinctly remember, was a John Wayne movie." In 1971, his brother Meinhard died in a car accident. Meinhard had been drinking and was killed instantly, and Schwarzenegger did not attend his funeral. Meinhard was due to marry Erika Knapp, and the couple shared a three-year-old son Patrick. Schwarzenegger would pay for Patrick's education and a life in the United States. Gustav died the following year from a stroke. In Pumping Iron, Schwarzenegger claimed that he did not attend his father's funeral because he was training for a bodybuilding contest. Later, he and the film's producer both said this story was taken from another bodybuilder for the purpose of showing the extremes that some would go to for their sport, and to make Schwarzenegger's image more cold and machine-like in order to fan controversy for the film. Barbara Baker, his first serious girlfriend, has said he informed her of his father's death without emotion and that he never spoke of his brother. Over time, he has given at least three versions of why he did not attend his father's funeral. Bodybuilding career One of the first competitions he won was the Junior Mr. Europe contest in 1965. He won Mr. Europe the following year, at age 19. He would go on to compete in and win many bodybuilding contests, as well as some powerlifting contests, including five Mr. Universe (4 – NABBA [England], 1 – IFBB [USA]) wins, and seven Mr. Olympia wins, a record which would stand until Lee Haney won his eighth consecutive Mr. Olympia title in 1991. In 1967, Schwarzenegger competed in and won the Munich stone-lifting contest, in which a stone weighing 508 German pounds (254 kg/560 lbs.) is lifted between the legs while standing on two foot rests. Schwarzenegger has said the following on his size: "During the peak of my career, my calves were 20 inches, thighs 28.5 inches, waist 34 inches, chest 57 inches, and 22-inch arms." In a full squat (buttocks close to ground) Schwarzenegger had a personal record of 181 kg/400lbs, for twelve repetitions. Mr. Olympia He continued his winning streak in the 1971 – 1974 competitions. In 1975, Schwarzenegger was once again in top form, and won the title for the sixth consecutive time, beating Franco Columbu. After the 1975 Mr. Olympia contest, Schwarzenegger announced his retirement from professional bodybuilding. Steroid use Schwarzenegger has admitted to using performance-enhancing anabolic steroids while they were legal, writing in 1967 that "steroids were helpful to me in maintaining muscle size while on a strict diet in preparation for a contest. I did not use them for muscle growth, but rather for muscle maintenance when cutting up." He has called the drugs "tissue building." In 1999, Schwarzenegger sued Dr. Willi Heepe, a German doctor who publicly predicted an early death for the bodybuilder, based on a link between steroid use and later heart problems. Because the doctor had never examined him personally, Schwarzenegger collected a DM20,000 ($12,000 USD) libel judgment against him in a German court. In 1999, Schwarzenegger also sued and settled with The Globe, a U.S. tabloid which had made similar predictions about the bodybuilder's future health. Schwarzenegger was born with a bicuspid aortic valve, an aortic valve with only two leaflets (a normal aortic valve has three leaflets). As late as 1996, a year before Schwarzenegger's open heart surgery to replace this aortic valve with a human homograft valve, Schwarzenegger publicly defended his use of anabolic steroids during his bodybuilding career. Acting career Schwarzenegger drew attention and boosted his profile in the bodybuilding film Pumping Iron (1977), elements of which were dramatized. In 1991, Schwarzenegger purchased the rights to the film, its outtakes, and associated still photography. Schwarzenegger auditioned for the title role of The Incredible Hulk, but did not win the role due to his height. Later, Lou Ferrigno got the part of Dr. David Banner's alter ego. Schwarzenegger appeared with Kirk Douglas and Ann-Margret in the 1979 comedy The Villain. In 1980 he starred in a biopic of the 1950s actress Jayne Mansfield as Mansfield's husband, Mickey Hargitay. Schwarzenegger's breakthrough film was the sword-and-sorcery epic Conan the Barbarian in 1982, which was a box-office hit. This was followed by a sequel, Conan the Destroyer in 1984, although its box-office performance was disappointing In 1983, Schwarzenegger starred in the promotional video "Carnival in Rio". In 1984, he made the first of three appearances as the titular character and what some would say was the signature role in his acting career in director James Cameron's science-fiction thriller film The Terminator Following The Terminator, Schwarzenegger made Red Sonja in 1985, which "sank without a trace." During the 1980s, audiences had a large appetite for action films, with both Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone becoming international stars. Schwarzenegger's roles reflected his droll, often self-deprecating sense of humor (including sometimes famously bad puns), separating his roles from more serious action hero fare. His alternative-universe comedy/thriller Last Action Hero featured a poster of the movie Terminator 2: Judgment Day which, in the fictional alternate universe, had Sylvester Stallone as its star. Following his arrival as a Hollywood superstar, he made a number of successful films: Commando (1985), Raw Deal (1986), The Running Man (1987), and Red Heat (1988). In Predator (1987), another successful film, Schwarzenegger led a cast which included future Minnesota Governor Jesse Ventura (Ventura also appeared in The Running Man and Batman & Robin with Schwarzenegger) and future Kentucky Gubernatorial candidate Sonny Landham. Twins (1988), a comedy with Danny DeVito, was a change of pace, and also proved successful. Total Recall (1990) netted Schwarzenegger $10 million and 15% of the gross, and was a widely praised, science-fiction script directed by Paul Verhoeven, based on the Philip K. Dick short story, "We Can Remember It for You Wholesale". Kindergarten Cop (1990) reunited him with director Ivan Reitman, who directed him in Twins. Schwarzenegger had a brief foray into directing, first with a 1990 episode of the TV series Tales from the Crypt, entitled "The Switch," and then with the 1992 telemovie Christmas in Connecticut. He has not directed since. Schwarzenegger's commercial high-water mark was his return as the title character in 1991's Terminator 2: Judgment Day, which was the highest-grossing film of 1991. In 1993, the National Association of Theatre Owners named him the "International Star of the Decade." His next film project, the 1993 self-aware action comedy spoof Last Action Hero was released opposite Jurassic Park, with the box office suffering accordingly. His next film, the action comedy True Lies (1994) was a highly popular send-up of spy films, and saw Schwarzenegger, reunited with The Terminator director James Cameron, appearing opposite Jamie Lee Curtis. Shortly thereafter came the comedy Junior (1994), the last of his three collaborations with Ivan Reitman and again co-starring Danny DeVito. This film brought Schwarzenegger his second Golden Globe nomination, this time for Best Actor – Musical or Comedy. It was followed by the action thriller Eraser (1996) and the comic book-based Batman & Robin (1997), where he played the villain Mr. Freeze. This was his final film before taking time to recuperate from a back injury. Following the failure of Batman & Robin, Schwarzenegger's film career and box office prominence went into decline. Several film projects were announced with Schwarzenegger attached to star, including the remake of Planet of the Apes, a new film version of I Am Legend, and a World War II film scripted by Quentin Tarantino that would have seen Schwarzenegger play an Austrian. His latest film appearances included a 3-second cameo appearance in The Rundown (AKA, Welcome to the Jungle) with The Rock, and the 2004 remake of Around the World in 80 Days, where he appeared onscreen with action star Jackie Chan for the first time. Schwarzenegger voiced Baron von Steuben in Episode 24 ("Valley Forge") of Liberty's Kids. In 2005 he appeared as himself in the film The Kid & I. Schwarzenegger had been rumored to be appearing in the upcoming film, Terminator Salvation as the original T-800 model, alongside Roland Kickinger. But in an interview, Schwarzenegger denied his involvement. Early politics Schwarzenegger has been a registered Republican for many years. As an actor, his political views were always well-known as they contrasted with those of many other prominent Hollywood stars, who are generally considered to be a liberal and Democratic-leaning community. At the 2004 Republican National Convention. Governor of California On October 7, 2003, the recall election resulted in Governor Gray Davis being removed from office with 55.4% of the Yes vote in favor of a recall. Schwarzenegger was elected Governor of California under the second question on the ballot with 48.6% of the vote to choose a successor to Davis. Schwarzenegger defeated Democrat Cruz Bustamante, fellow Republican Tom McClintock, and others. His nearest rival, Bustamante, received less than 32% of the vote. In total, Schwarzenegger won the election by about 1.3 million votes. Under the regulations of the California Constitution, no runoff election was required. Schwarzenegger was the first foreign-born governor of California since Irish-born Governor John G. Downey in 1862. As soon as Schwarzenegger was elected governor, Willie Brown said he would start a drive to recall the governor. Schwarzenegger was equally entrenched in what he considered to be his mandate in cleaning up gridlock. Building on a catchphrase from a sketch partly parodying his bodybuilding career, Schwarzenegger called the Democratic State politicians "girlie men," (a reference from a Saturday Night Live sketch called "Hans and Franz"). Personal life In 1977, Schwarzenegger's autobiography/weight-training guide Arnold: The Education of a Bodybuilder was published and became a huge success. After taking English classes at Santa Monica College in Santa Monica, California, he earned a B.A. by correspondence from the University of Wisconsin-Superior, where he graduated Business and International Economics, in 1979. Schwarzenegger and his family currently live in their 11,000-square-foot (1 022 m²) home in Brentwood. They used to own a home in the Pacific Palisades. The family owns vacation homes in Sun Valley, Idaho and Hyannis Port, Massachusetts. Schwarzenegger does not have a home in Sacramento. However, whenever he is in the state capital, he lives in the Hyatt Regency hotel suite. The suite costs about $65,000 a year. On Sundays, the family attends Mass at St. Monica's Catholic Church. His official height of 6'2" (188 cm) has been brought into question by several articles. In his bodybuilding days in the late 1960s, he was measured to be 6'1.5", a height confirmed by his fellow bodybuilders.] In 1988 both the Daily Mail and Time Out magazine mentioned that Schwarzenegger appeared noticeably shorter than this publicised figure. More recently, before running for Governor, Schwarzenegger's height was once again questioned in an article by the Chicago Reader. As Governor, Schwarzenegger engaged in a light-hearted exchange with Assemblyman Herb Wesson over their heights. At one point Wesson made an unsuccessful attempt to, in his own words, "settle this once and for all and find out how tall he is." by using a tailor's tape measure on the Governor. Schwarzenegger later retaliated by placing a pillow stitched with the words "Need a lift?" on the five-foot-five (165 cm) Wesson’s chair before a negotiating session in his office. Bob Mulholland also claimed Arnold was 5'10" and that he wore risers in his boots. The debate on Schwarzenegger's height has spawned a website solely dedicated to it, and his page remains one of the most active on CelebHeights.com, a website which discusses the heights of celebrities. In honor of its most famous son, Schwarzenegger's home town of Graz had its soccer stadium named The Arnold Schwarzenegger Stadium. It is the home of both Grazer AK and Sturm Graz. Following the Stanley Williams execution and after street protests in his hometown, several local politicians began a campaign to remove Schwarzenegger's name from the stadium. Schwarzenegger responded, saying that "to spare the responsible politicians of the city of Graz further concern, I withdraw from them as of this day the right to use my name in association with the Liebenau Stadium," and set a tight deadline of just a couple of days to remove his name. Graz officials removed Schwarzenegger's name from the stadium in December 2005. It is now officially titled UPC-Arena. The Sun Valley Resort has a short ski trail called Arnold's Run, named after Schwarzenegger (It was named after him in 2001). The trail is categorized as a black diamond, or most difficult, for its terrain. He bought the first Hummer manufactured for civilian use in 1992, a model so large, 6,300 lb (2900 kg) and 7 feet (2.1 m) wide, that it is classified as a large truck and U.S. fuel economy regulations do not apply to it. During the Gubernatorial Recall campaign he announced that he would convert one of his Hummers to burn hydrogen. The conversion was reported to have cost about US$21,000. After the election, he signed an executive order to jump-start the building of hydrogen refueling plants called the California Hydrogen Highway Network, and gained a U.S. Department of Energy grant to help pay for its projected US$91,000,000 cost. California took delivery of the first H2H (Hydrogen Hummer) in October 2004. People in Thal bei Graz celebrated Schwarzenegger's 60th birthday by throwing a party. Officials proclaimed A Day for Arnold on July 30, 2007. Thal 145, the number of the house where Schwarzenegger was born, belonged to Schwarzenegger and nobody will ever be assigned to that number. Buy Movie Tickets	-1	Unrelated	false
<urn:uuid:c94352cb-bcb2-41da-9599-d1a5b13093cf>	dclm-dedup-25B-ai-scifi-docs \| http://darth.uncyclomedia.co/wiki/Darth_Malak	Darth Malak Jump to: navigation, search Lord Malak, or "Smiley" as he was known to his friends. Darth Malak Biographical information 4000-something ABR Physical description Hair color what hair? Chronological and political information Very Old Republic Known masters "You are here to defeat me, Revan? First you must listen to my long monologue about the power of the Dark Side, including unsubtle mocking comments about your failure to have kept it..." ―Darth Malak Darth Malak was a guy who became a Sith Lord on the advice of his high school guidance counselor. He was best friends with Revan, despite the fact that Revan liked to beat him up. He was secretly jealous of Revan, who was really cool, while Malak was picked on at Jedi training school. He was supposedly killed by Revan after stealing his girl, but in reality he was done in when HK-47 knocked off a brilliant quote in his face, Malak realizing that he would never quote as well as hachkay (as well as the revelation that Revan never liked his spinach puffs) drove Malak to kill himself. He lost his jaw after eating a very hot bowl of oatmeal. He vowed never to eat oatmeal again. "Okay, Sith army, pick yourself up and sally fawwwwgh..." [reattaches jaw] "Sally fauuwwwwgh..." [reattaches jaw, sighs] "Sally forth." ―Darth Malak, leading his troops Darth Vader was so jealous that Darth Malak got his cool Jaw replacement, he decided to pour oatmeal all over his body, making him have to wear a solid suit over Malak's wimpy metal jaw. Malak was later seen crying that Vader stole the only thing that made him cool and had to go on the Jerry Springer Show.	-1	Unrelated	false
<urn:uuid:b8fae7f4-cddc-4cb1-a77b-6e47ba9a3b88>	dclm-dedup-25B-ai-scifi-docs \| https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/1375393	Sign In Post #1375393 Parent topic Kerr's 'Lord Of The Rings' Fan Edits, Extended Editions by Hal9000/Sharkey (Released) Link to post in topic Date created 15-Sep-2020, 7:15 PM Last modified 16-Sep-2020, 3:34 PM Edited by Reason for edit None provided Hal 9000 said: Just glanced at it. It fails my litmus test, at about 2hr13m. Oh, well. Well, m4 here, I think this is a pretty poor outlook to be honest for 2 reasons. Number 1 I’ve never had a complaint about the river transition’s technical aspect until now, which you even admitted it worked better than other times. Seems more like a personal grudge, which is very ironic considering the general topic of editing lotr/hobbit is to follow the book, even in this post. Such an anti book moment surely should be removed. Anyways, the music is smoothed out as much as possible. I’ve actually redone it since then, but same idea: the action-y music fits with the initial excitement of them escaping, but as they drift off into the distance they are finally free and can relax, which is when the softer music fades in. I think it works quite well. Number 2, thematically speaking/in terms of story, my edit (as heavily advertised) is a “book edit” so including anything from the river battle would be a complete failure. Maple edit is advertised as a book edit, so far in fact that he puts Tolkien’s name in the title, but fails to stick to that concept. On top of that, as someone who has studied hobbit edits and worked on mine for over a year, you cite Maple as being the best edit, which contains more than just a few small problems. If you were to have a fair “litmus test for abrupt/silly moments” compared to the original movie/other edits it would certainly fail. Such as the company cutting from the outside the troll cave to literally instantly in Rivendell no hiking transition whatsoever, Smaug being covered in color adjusted “red gold” shaking it off, Dain headbutting 5 Orcs, Dwarves entering Erebor and fighting Smaug, Legolas being present in a river orc-battle in The Hobbit, Bard getting arrested and throwing a rope onto the Master’s head to escape from jail, the entire dragon sickness sideplot. But remember this is JRR Tolkien’s book version of the movie…? Are any of those things really less ridiculous than such a simple music transition…? Judging an entire edit from one transition doesn’t seem very constructive. Seems more ignorant to do so when those other edits (which have cut the river, such as mine) actually have a lot of improved editing techniques to offer that build on top of the old edits back from 2015 such as Maple. Your litmus test theory doesn’t make any sense to me. Movies that supposedly “pass” it in your book have blaring issues which certainly effect a first time viewers sense of belief and interest (in it being a book edited version) way more than having the one cut in question. Numerous test audiences not only were accepting of this transition, they actually complemented it and were relieved as we cut down the river. I would rather trust a test audience then a supposedly technical film-making pacing/tone critique of the score change. Although, I assume you would not make a book edit from your list it seems, just a good/short movie, so different goals in different edits at the end of the day, but that doesn’t mean having a certain transition causes it to “fail” as an edit, especially if you skipped the entire movie…	-1	Unrelated	false
<urn:uuid:e574b59f-acce-43f2-9d22-7e30422f9e85>	dclm-dedup-25B-ai-scifi-docs \| https://isc.sans.edu/diary/Parsing+Windows+Eventlogs+in+Powershell/15298	Parsing Windows Eventlogs in Powershell Published: 2013-02-28 Last Updated: 2013-02-28 11:26:11 UTC by Daniel Wesemann (Version: 1) 3 comment(s) Recently, while chasing a malware, I wanted to review the local security log of a third party server to which I didn't have direct access. The administrator was willing to provide "a limited export" for my offline analysis. Newer Windows versions nicely enough provide more than one option to accomplish this. 1. You can use the graphical event viewer GUI, and "Save-as", to export the file in EVTX, XML, TXT or CSV Format. 2. You can use wevtutil.exe at the command line to accomplish pretty much the same, but in a scriptable fashion. Wevtutil.exe can export the entire log. It also supports an XPath filter that allows to query and export only certain log lines and attributes. Unfortunately, the syntax of these filters wevtutil qe Security /q:"[System[Provider[@Name='Microsoft-Windows-Security-Auditing'] and (EventID=4624)]]" is a mess, and not easy to stomach for someone more used to the pristine beauty of egrep and regexp's :). 3. A third option is to make use of Powershell and the "get-winevent" or "get-eventlog" cmdlet get-eventlog -logname security -newest 10000 \| Export-clixml seclog.xml is a pretty quick way to get the latest 10'000 records out of the security log. This is the option I chose, because I (somewhat naively) figured that this would be the fastest way to get a quick look. Not surprisingly, the export-xml command left me with an XML file, which is again not easy to stomach for someone more used to the pristine beauty of egrep and syslog :). But Powershell isn't bad, either. On the analysis workstation, you can stuff the entire log into a variable, thusly: PS C:\TEMP> $seclog = Import-Clixml seclog.xml and then use the power of Powershell to get a rapid tally: PS C:\TEMP> $seclog \| group eventid -noelement \| sort count Count Name ----- ---- 1 4662 1 5058 1 5061 1 4904 2 4648 2 5140 5 4611 6 6144 6 4735 12 4985 17 4634 19 4672 20 4674 20 4624 128 4663 175 4673 KB947226 helps to translate the EventIDs into readable information. Once we know which events are of interest, we can then extract them: PS C:\TEMP> $seclog \| ? { $_.eventid -match '5140' } \| fl Message : A network share object was accessed. Security ID: S-1-5-21-394181-2045529214-8259512215-1280 Account Name: TRA29C Account Domain: AMER Logon ID: 0x311a28b Network Information: Object Type: File Source Address: Source Port: 6539 Share Information: Share Name: \\*\C$ Share Path: \??\C:\ All the Powershell formatting and querying and pattern match functions can now be used to cut and dice the information to find the haystalk in the cow pie. If you have any clever Powershell Jiu-Jitsu up your sleeve to deal with unwieldy event logs, please let us know, or share in the comments below. 3 comment(s) Diary Archives	-1	Unrelated	false
2d1cc4c6-9c61-4a8a-95eb-1aa4488179af	alignment-classifier-documents-unlabeled \| trentmkelly/LessWrong-43k	How does one learn (music) more efficiently? Crossposted (with some audience-based edits) from my Substack. The best way to share this is by showing it. Very interested in your thoughts, especially from people who have experience with Ericsson/Pool deliberate practice either from a memory-precision perspective (strings of numbers, Shakespearean soliloquies, chess openings, etc.) or from a physical-precision perspective (guitar, piano, free throws, etc.). If you want me to share/show more, I'll post another video tomorrow...	-1	Unrelated	false
<urn:uuid:f0ae0607-9e8e-48ec-8dec-77a582a15bf8>	dclm-dedup-25B-ai-scifi-docs \| https://kranenborg.info/suoneria-del-film-altrimenti-ci-arrabbiamo-45/	Richmond misses two of seo organizations using the CAA, JMU will most likely top all your bookmarked websites, in addition to new hampshire, Towson and also lions. This can be a boisterous time, are yet to viewed direct sunlight for a few days to weeks. A steal for sixty five pounds.. Please me Cardi B e Bruno Mars. Michaelside dnia luty 09 I will be possibly not negative aren’t able to afford to pay for you eat. No wonder the Chinese painting mood so hazy , probably affected by the moonlight lovers similar scene was creative out of it! Buying a single of the jerseys is known as a issue of pure satisfaction and its the sole cause why they give you like sizzling cakes, specifically the duration of the basketball period. 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<urn:uuid:4335f334-c010-4e4f-acf3-a85f49c118b6>	dclm-dedup-25B-ai-scifi-docs \| http://www.poetv.com/video.php?vid=162785	Reddit Digg Stumble Facebook Desc:none of this is normal Category:News & Politics, Educational Tags:donald trump, Democracy, the end of america, jeff flake, disunion View Ratings Register to vote for this video Favorited 1 Time People Who Liked This Video Also Liked: Sarantos Acting Agency - Tommy Russell does Blade Runner Botched - Man's Nose Could Fall Off Some Japanese guy loses his shit on TV. SNL - SportsCenter Elizabeth Hasselbeck on Evolution SBU (Self-Balancing Unicycle) Funtown Mountain Crazy Lady Starts Patreon to Buy Crossbow GlaDOS Cosplay Comment count is 30 Meerkat - 2017-10-24 Meerkat - 2017-10-24 Actually this was a surprisingly good speech. He must have had some sort of epiphany after voting to take away affordable health insurance. Old_Zircon - 2017-10-25 The kind of epiphany where just a few hours later he voted to eliminate the ban on arbitration clauses in banking agreements. Sivak - 2017-10-24 It would be nice if Republican statesmen did more of this dissent before their political careers end. Don't get me wrong, these flaming kamekaze attacks make for a hell of a spectacle. I'd just believe their sincerity more if they were made by men and women who still had a shot at election. badideasinaction - 2017-10-24 He's probably angling for a media job with his exit act being his pitch for being "centrist". That guy - 2017-10-24 Well, "centrist" or centrist. Bisekrankas - 2017-10-26 'prepare to continue the epic struggle between good and neutral' StanleyPain - 2017-10-24 "Impeachment??? Whoa, let's not talk crazy here....." Gutless fucks. Cena_mark - 2017-10-24 The only decent Republicans are those who are retiring. Old_Zircon - 2017-10-25 Number of times Jeff Flake voted against or in any other way opposed the Trump administration: 0 Odds that this speech will make it easier for him to get more lucrative consulting jobs after he leaves office: 100% Number of times Jeff Flake voted in support of South African Apartheid: at least 1 StanleyPain - 2017-10-26 Hah what a pussy. A day later and my joke fucking comes true. When asked about impeachment on TV he's all "Oh, that's unreasonable." What a sack of shit. Against the wall with all Republicans as far as I'm concerned. OxygenThief - 2017-10-24 [enters Senate] this is wrong [takes seat] should have been hearings! [votes aye] a shame [leaves for fundraiser] just awful betamaxed - 2017-10-24 “I will take a stand against these issues by running away from them, do nothing to stop them, and retire comfortably while things get worse” Old_Zircon - 2017-10-24 The American Dream! tesla_weapon - 2017-10-24 5 stars for senator's name/senator's response synergy John Holmes Motherfucker - 2017-10-24 It was Election Night 2012, and Mitch McConnell was alone in his office, drinking Kentucky bourbon straight, nursing a bitter pain in his heart at the re-election of Obama. Suddenly, there was a flash of light, and a puff of smoke. Satan appeared before Mitch McConnell in all his regal, evil glory. "Mitch'" said the Devil, with a wicked, serpentine grin, "I know you've had a rough night, but I can fix it so that, in four years, the Republican Party will control the White House , the Senate, and the House of Representatives. All I ask in return for this good fortune is your soul. And the soul of the Republican Party. And the soul of America, in perpetuity to the end of time. " McConnell leaned back at his desk, narrowed his eyes, and gave the Devil a hard look. "That sounds good.", he said. "What's the catch?" Miss Henson's 6th grade class - 2017-10-24 Nicely done. Mother Lumper - 2017-10-24 hngg i love devil fanfiction so hard John Holmes Motherfucker - 2017-10-24 Adapted from a lawyer joke someone told me in a bar in 1998. It's amazing that I can remember anything from that night. That guy - 2017-10-24 take 'em That guy - 2017-10-24 that was supposed to be for JHMF Where's the goddamn edit button gone to? John Holmes Motherfucker - 2017-10-24 Seeing someone else fuck up the reply button for a change makes it feel like six stars instead of five. tesla_weapon - 2017-10-25 SolRo - 2017-10-25 Republicans finally went almost-full democrat; being in control of all branches of government an unable to pass any significant legislation. All it took was electing as president the worst non-pedo*, non-genocidal human being they could find. John Holmes Motherfucker - 2017-10-25 Let's hope so. Meerkat - 2017-10-25 Trump was the first pedo stalker his daughter ever had, and he would not have a problem with genocide as long as he wasn't being genocided. Old_Zircon - 2017-10-25 Listening to a really good interview with Ari Berman right now, in which he is explaining why this speech is actually a big victory for Trump ad will empower his administration more. It's a live stream, but I can link to it in a few hours. John Holmes Motherfucker - 2017-10-25 As uplifting and inspiring an experiences as that interview must be, I'm just going to assume that it's because it clears the way for a batshit crazy candidate who supports Trump, and hope that more batshit crazy is not what the GOP needs right now. Maggot Brain - 2017-10-25 We all know Pottery Barn rule "you break it, run!" SolRo - 2017-10-26 And right after he voted with the other republicans to protect financial institutions from class action lawsuits. Register or login To Post a Comment Privacy Statement	-1	Unrelated	false
<urn:uuid:d5e803f5-c77e-4568-97f1-2376553831a4>	dclm-dedup-25B-ai-scifi-docs \| https://www.enotes.com/topics/williams-burroughs/critical-essays/burroughs-william-s	Download PDF Print Page Citation Share Link Last Updated on May 6, 2015, by eNotes Editorial. Word Count: 724 William S. Burroughs 1914–1997 Illustration of PDF document Download William S. Burroughs Study Guide Subscribe Now American novelist, essayist, critic, poet, and scriptwriter. For further information on Burroughs's life and career, see CLC, Volumes 1, 2, 5, 15, 22, 42, and 75. A homosexual drug addict turned experimental novelist, Burroughs embodied for many observers the artist as outsider and rebel. As a Beat generation writer and avant-garde theorist, Burroughs greatly influenced the hippie and punk movements of the 1960s and 1970s, while making an important contribution to gay literature. Born in 1914 in St. Louis, Missouri, Burroughs was the grandson of the inventor of the adding machine and founder of the Burroughs Corporation. After graduating in 1936 from Harvard University, Burroughs worked odd jobs until the mid-1940s, when he became addicted to morphine and other drugs. In 1946 he met and married Joan Vollmer, who introduced him to fledgling Beat writers Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg. They rekindled Burroughs's college dream of becoming a writer, and later facilitated the publication of Junkie (1953), Burroughs's memoir of his drug addiction. Under constant threat of arrest for drug offenses, Burroughs moved around the United States and eventually to Mexico, where in 1951, after a day of drinking and drugs, he accidentally shot and killed Vollmer in a game of William Tell. Shortly after his wife's death, Burroughs dealt indirectly with the incident in Queer, a novel that was not published until 1985. Burroughs next went to South America in search of the legendary hallucinogen yage; his correspondence with Ginsberg during this trip became the basis for The Yage Letters (1963). In 1953, Burroughs joined a community of expatriate American writers and artists in Tangiers, Morocco. Over the next four years he indulged his drug habits to the point of aimless inactivity, but still was able to compile a mass of notes based on his drug-induced experiences and fantasies; these notes were later collected and published in France as The Naked Lunch (1959). Composed of loosely related sections containing graphic descriptions of drug use, murder, and sadomasochistic homosexual acts, The Naked Lunch aroused critical debate in the United States in advance of its 1962 American edition, which appeared only after three years of court trials for obscenity. In 1957 Burroughs traveled to London to undergo treatment for drug addiction using the nonaddictive drug apomorphine; after several relapses he was cured in 1959. Using leftover material from his Tangiers notebooks, Burroughs applied the "cut-up" technique that he had used in Naked Lunch—derived from the collage method used in visual arts—and produced three books: The Soft Machine (1961), which outlines the use of control systems throughout human history; The Ticket That Exploded (1962), which borrows concepts from science fiction to illustrate linguistic control systems; and Nova Express (1964), which introduces the idea that writing is a powerful tool to resist control. Throughout the 1960s Burroughs experimented with cut-ups in fiction, film, and tape recordings, while gradually becoming aware of the cult figure status accorded him by "underground" culture. Burroughs abandoned the cut-up method in favor of a more conventional narrative style with The Wild Boys (1971), but his concerns about personal freedom, the control systems of society, and efforts to free oneself from social restrictions remained and continued in Exterminator! (1973), Port of Saints (1973), and Ah Pook Is Here (1979). During the 1980s Burroughs began a second career as a visual artist, which included such pursuits as painting, calligraphy, and writing screenplays and a libretto, as well as appearing in the films Drugstore Cowboy and Twister and a television ad for Nike shoes. Burroughs's most significant literary work of this period comprises the so-called "Red Night trilogy," and includes Cities of the Red Night (1981), The Place of Dead Roads (1983), and The Western Lands (1987), the latter of which many critics thought would be his last book. But Burroughs continued to write into the 1990s, producing Ghost of a Chance (1991) and My Education (1995). He died after a heart attack on August 2, 1997, in Lawrence, Kansas, where he had lived since 1981. Despite Burroughs's undeniable influence in the arts and popular culture, his works as a whole have not received widespread academic acceptance. The Naked Lunch, however, has received critical praise from most quarters and is considered a classic of American literature by some scholars. James McManus has said, "He's turning out to have been enormously influential, especially on artists who go into the inferno and report back. He was into sex and drugs and rock n' roll before anybody else. And his influence on gay literatuure is immeasurable." Principal Works Download PDF Print Page Citation Share Link Last Updated on May 6, 2015, by eNotes Editorial. Word Count: 188 Junkie: Confessions of an Unredeemed Drug Addict [under the pseudonym William Lee] (novel) 1953; also published as Junky [unexpurgated edition], 1977 The Naked Lunch (novel) 1959; also published as Naked Lunch, 1962 Minutes to Go [with Brion Gysin, Sinclair Beiles, and Gregory Corso] (poems) 1960 The Soft Machine (novel) 1961; revised edition, 1966 The Ticket That Exploded (novel) 1962; revised edition, 1967 The Yage Letters (letters) 1963 Nova Express (novel) 1964 Time (poems) 1965 The Job: Interviews with Williams S. Burroughs (interviews) 1970 The Last Words of Dutch Schulz: A Fiction in the Form of a Film Script (screenplay) 1970 Third Mind (novel) 1970 The Wild Boys: A Book of the Dead (novel) 1971; revised edition, 1979 Exterminator! (novel) 1973 Port of Saints (novel) 1973 Ah Pook Is Here and Other Texts (prose) 1979 Blade Runner: A Movie (novel) 1979 Cities of the Red Night (novel) 1981 The Burroughs File (prose and diaries) 1984 The Place of Dead Roads (novel) 1983 The Adding Machine: Collected Essays (essays) 1985 Queer (novel) 1985 The Western Lands (novel) 1987 Interzone (novel) 1989 Ghost of a Chance (essays) 1991 The Letters of William S. Burroughs, 1945–1959 (letters) 1993 My Education: A Book of Dreams (sketches and prose) 1995 ∗This work was adapted for film by David Cronenberg in 1991. †This work was originally written in 1953. Download PDF Print Page Citation Share Link Last Updated on May 6, 2015, by eNotes Editorial. Word Count: 5373 Richard Severo (obituary date 3 August 1997) SOURCE: "William S. Burroughs Dies at 83; Member of the Beat Generation Wrote Naked Lunch," in The New York Times, August 3, 1997, p. B5. [In the following obituary, Severo reviews Burroughs's life and literary achievements.] William S. Burroughs, a renegade writer of the Beat Generation who stunned readers and inspired adoring cultists with his 1959 book Naked Lunch, died yesterday afternoon at Lawrence Memorial Hospital in Lawrence, Kan. He was 83. The cause of his death, at Lawrence Memorial Hospital, was a heart attack that he suffered on Friday, his publicist, Ira Silverberg, said. Over the years, Mr. Burroughs had lived in such places as New York, London, Paris, Mexico City and Tangier. But since 1981 he maintained a house in Lawrence, where he lived simply with three cats and indulged his interests in painting and photography and in collecting and discharging firearms. Mr. Burroughs had undergone triple bypass surgery in 1991. He quit smoking after the operation. And though he continued to suffer from a leaky heart valve, from all reports, he regained robust health quickly for a man of his years. His recovery was all the more noteworthy since he had spent so many of his younger days engulfed in narcotics addiction, an imperative so demanding that in 1954, while living in London, he sold his typewriter to buy heroin, although he kept working in longhand. He spent years experimenting with drugs as well as with sex, which he engaged in with men, women and children. Naked Lunch, first published in Paris, and later by Grove Press in New York, was hailed as a masterly definition of what was hip, although the critics were not sure how to define the definition. Herbert Gold, writing in The New York Times, said that the book was "less a novel than a series of essays, puns, epigrams—all hovering about the explicit subject matter of making out on drugs while not making out in either work or love." Mr. Gold called the book "booty brought back from a nightmare." Newsweek said that Naked Lunch possessed a "strange genius" and was a masterpiece "but a totally insane and anarchic one, and it can only be diminished by attempts to give it a social purpose or value whatever." For his part, Mr. Burroughs said he agreed with the writer Mary McCarthy, who thought that Naked Lunch, and his other books, had a deep moral purpose. "I do definitely mean what I say to be taken literally, yes, to make people aware of the true criminality of our times, to wise up to the marks," Mr. Burroughs told an interviewer in 1970. Nobody found it especially easy to impose literality on Mr. Burroughs's sentences, either written or spoken. He described Naked Lunch as "a frozen moment when everyone sees what is on the end of every fork." His work was not for traditionalists who loved a well-developed narrative. Dame Edith Sitwell was among those who demurred from the critics' praise, denouncing Naked Lunch as psychopathological filth. And even those who admired Mr. Burroughs's iconoclasm and his ruthless honesty had to admit that they could see flaws in the man. He was, in the final analysis, an alien among aliens, the ultimate odd duck. "Just because he sleeps with boys, takes drugs and smokes dope doesn't mean that he tolerates or supports the majority of junkies, homosexuals or potheads," wrote Barry Miles In his 1993 biography, William Burroughs, which was subtitled El Hombre Invisible and published by Hyperion. "Bill simply doesn't like most people." William Seward Burroughs was born on Feb. 5, 1914, in St. Louis, the son of Mortimer P. Burroughs, the owner of a plate-glass company, and Laura Lee Burroughs, who came from a prominent Southern family. His grandfather, for whom he was named, invented the perforated, oil-filled cylinder that made the Burroughs adding machine add and invariably get the right answer. The machine became a standard fixture in small and large businesses everywhere. Mr. Burroughs's parents sold their stock in the Burroughs Company shortly before the stock market crash of 1929, and the $200,000 they received saw them nicely through the Depression. It did not leave the author with much of a legacy; his mother died in 1970, and what was left of her share of the estate was $10,000. When Mr. Burroughs was a teen-ager, he read You Can't Win, an autobiography of Jack Black, a drifter who took drugs and pilfered his way through a sordid, predatory life. The book made a considerable impression on him and became grist for his own books years later. It was around this time that he, too, started experimenting with drugs. Mr. Burroughs was educated, not happily, in private schools in St. Louis and in Los Alamos, N.M. He was sent to Harvard University, which he did not like any better than he had his preparatory schools, although the time spent reading pleased him. His favorite writers gave no hint of what was ultimately to come out of his typewriter. They included Shakespeare, Coleridge and DeQuincy. Other writers he came to admire included James Joyce, Joseph Conrad, Jean Genet, Franz Kafka, Graham Greene and Raymond Chandler. He received a baccalaureate degree from Harvard in 1936. He took a vacation to Europe after graduation and in Dubrovnik met Ilse Klapper, a German Jew who had fled the Nazis. She was stranded, unable to renew her Yugoslav passport and unable to go to the United States. To accommodate her, he married her. They never lived together, and dissolved the marriage almost immediately upon returning to the United States, but they remained friends. After his return to the United States, he worked at many jobs, including bartender, private detective, factory worker and insect exterminator. Except for exterminating, which he rather enjoyed, these jobs bored him. He later recalled his experiences in Exterminator! published by Viking in 1973. In the years before World War II, he returned to Harvard and did some graduate work in cultural anthropology and ethnology. After the war began, he was drafted into the Army but got out after only three months. According to the Miles biography, his mother used her influence to win his discharge for physical reasons. By 1944, Mr. Burroughs had an apartment on Bedford Street in Greenwich Village and developed an addiction to heroin. Among those he befriended in New York in the 1940's were Allen Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac. It was from these three and their friends and acquaintances that the term Beat Generation would later be applied. And it was Mr. Ginsberg who, several years later, inadvertently came up with the title Naked Lunch. He got it from misreading a bit of manuscript in Mr. Burroughs's scrawl, which actually referred to "naked lust." Mr. Burroughs's first book, published by Ace in 1953 under the pseudonym William Lee, was called Junkie and told of his years as an addict. The writing of Junkie came after what was arguably the saddest part of Mr. Burroughs's life. He had married Joan Vollmer in 1945 and in 1951 they were living in Mexico City. He was then using drugs heavily and had returned to Mexico City from a trip to Ecuador, where he had tried to learn more about a hallucinogen called yage. His wife was addicted to Benzedrine and, according to Barry Miles, did not mind Mr. Burroughs's homosexual interests. Indeed, she had borne him a son. Their life in Mexico City was not especially happy. One September afternoon in 1951, they began to drink with friends. Eventually, Mr. Burroughs, who was quite drunk, took a handgun out of his travel bag and told his wife, "It's time for our William Tell act." There never had been a William Tell act but his wife laughed and put a water glass on her head. Mr. Burroughs fired the gun. The bullet entered her brain through her forehead, killing her instantly. Mexican authorities concluded that it was an accident; Mr. Burroughs was convicted only of a minor charge and served little time in jail. Years later, he would say that he would never have become a writer had it not been for her death. His wife's death, he said, "brought me into contact with the invader, the Ugly Spirit and maneuvered me into a lifelong struggle, in which I have had no choice but to write my way out." The incident did not stop his drug use, and in his introduction to Naked Lunch, he describes his addiction: "I have smoked junk, eaten it, sniffed it, injected it in vein-skin-muscle, inserted it in rectal suppositories. The needle is not important." Mr. Burroughs wrote that during the time he was an addict, he did "absolutely nothing." He said, "I could look at the end of my shoe for eight hours." When he was 45 years old, he ended 15 years of addiction by taking apomorphine, a chemical compound developed in Britain. His son, William, died in 1981. He is survived by his companion and manager, James Grauerholz, who remained at Lawrence Hospital and declined to take phone calls. No other Burroughs book attracted the attention of Naked Lunch, but his works always interested the critics. In 1960, he started inserting shards of sentences and paragraphs from newspapers and other authors into his own prose because, he said, he wanted to break the patterns that one normally finds in a book and emulate the peripheral impressions experienced in life itself. "I don't plan a book out. I don't know how it's going to end," he told one interviewer. He readily admitted there was considerable overlap of material in his books. In 1989, he collaborated on a comic opera, The Black Rider, which was performed at the Brooklyn Academy of Music Opera House by the Thalia Theater of Hamburg and was based on Der Freischutz, a folk opera by Carl Maria von Weber. Mr. Burroughs wrote the libretto; Tom Waits wrote the songs, and it was staged by Robert Wilson. It was also produced in Europe. There were many other projects but some, like Ruski (1984), The Cat Inside (1986) and Ghost of a Chance (1991) were limited editions. In his later years, he spent a great deal of time as a painter and calligrapher. He said he did a lot of painting "with my eyes closed," but there was interest in his art and sales of his works helped bail him out of the tough financial situation in which he found himself in the mid-1980's. Only a week before his death, Mr. Burroughs had been helping to prepare selected writings to be published next year by Grove Press, Mr. Silverberg, the publicist, said. A reprinting of a novel, The Third Mind, is also scheduled by Grove Press for next year and last year Viking Press reissued My Education: A Book of Dreams. A self-avowed animal-rights activist and environmentalist, he had been supporting a Duke University foundation dedicated to the survival of lemurs. In a rare interview last November, Mr. Burroughs told The New York Times that he made entries in a journal each day but had given up formal writing, adding quietly, "I guess I have run out of things to say." He also said that he had temporarily given up painting. "I don't want to keep repeating myself," he said. Several of his friends, fellow drug-users and contemporaries have died in the last two years, including Timothy Leary, Herbert Huncke and Allen Ginsberg. To the end of his life, Mr. Burroughs remained pessimistic about the future for humankind. In Ghost of a Chance, he lamented the destruction of the rain forests and their creatures and wrote: "All going, to make way for more and more devalued human stock, with less and less of the wild spark, the priceless ingredient—energy into matter. A vast mudslide of soulless sludge." The London Times (obituary date 4 August 1997) SOURCE: An obituary for William Burroughs, in The London Times (online publication), August 4, 1997. [In the following obituary, the writer provides an overview of Burroughs's life and career.] William Burroughs saw himself as a campaigner against destruction of the self by all the agents that he believed were conspiring to depersonalize it. His metaphor for this was junk addiction. By junk, the one-time drug-addict meant anything that put a person's life beyond his or her control. He saw the world in the despairing terms of addiction and fragmentation of the psyche, and his vision made him one of the most controversial writers of the second half of the century. Described as "the big daddy of the Beats", he influenced much of the "underground" of the 1950s which became the mainstream of the 1960s, from Norman Mailer and Anthony Burgess to Allen Ginsberg and R. D. Laing. William Seward Burroughs was born in St Louis, Missouri, into the family of a famous industrialist. At Harvard during the New Deal years he studied poetry, ethnology and yoga, and gained a reputation for his wide-ranging knowledge. He travelled in Europe, studying medicine at Vienna University, and returned to Harvard to study postgraduate anthropology. He then rejected the bourgeois academic and scholarly life and entered the demi monde that was to shape his life. Rejected for the US Army, he went through a variety of jobs, including those of private detective, pest controller, bartender, factory and office worker, advertising and "the edge of crime". It was a good training for a writer of his social range and peculiar gifts of mimicry. He developed his first drug habit at this time, and its frightening effects became central to his life and work. His experiences of drugs, crime and the police were fully documented in his first book, Junkie: Confessions of an Unredeemed Drug Addict (1953), published under the pseudonym William Lee. Addiction and withdrawal or cure were the central metaphors of his career. His concern with the analysis of power was based largely on his drug-dependence and concomitant dependence on pushers, and on his antagonism to narcotics agents. After some time in New Orleans and Texas, he made anthropological journeys to South America in search of alien cultures and new varieties of drugs. In the later 1950s he lived in Tangier, and after a crisis there in 1956 he underwent the apomorphine cure under Dr John Yerbury in London. The Naked Lunch (1959), his most famous book, was written largely in Tangier afterwards. "I awoke from the Sickness at the age of forty-five," he wrote, "calm and sane, and in reasonably good health except for a weakened liver and the look of borrowed flesh common to all who survive the Sickness." The Naked Lunch—an aleatory, anarchic fantasy about addiction and homosexuality—was acclaimed by Norman Mailer and Robert Lowell, but its monotonous and nauseating violence, scatology and sadism ensured that it was banned in America until 1962. It did not appear in Britain until 1964, by which time the failure of the Lady Chatterley case had freed publishing from most taboos. Like other "underground" writers, such as Henry Miller and Samuel Beckett, Burroughs was published by Olympia Press in Paris, Grove Press in America and John Calder in Britain. But Burroughs was no Beckett. While Beckett became famous for his fastidiousness about words, Burroughs used them casually, flippantly, and without compassion. His ideas were shocking but shallow. "The whole system is completely wrong and heading for unimaginable disasters," he said. He claimed that there was a "necessity of deconditioning people from their whole past", and argued that "words are thought control". For a writer, who must begin with the inherited resources of language, this wholesale rejection was not promising. His major theme was power as the manipulation of pleasure and pain in the human body. Around him he saw a systematic degradation in which people willingly submitted to becoming hosts of the parasites of rule. His targets were gangsters, judges, doctors, psychiatrists, policemen and servicemen. Fake sacrifices and cures, phoney panaceas and causes were his satirical targets, and yet he believed that people volunteered for exploitation. His work may have been a warning against the nature of power, but he saw human beings as irrevocably addicted to victimization by their overlords. The Naked Lunch was followed by The Soft Machine (1961, final version 1968), The Ticket That Exploded (1962) and Nova Express (1964). Julian Symons's review of The Soft Machine summed up Burroughs's world: "The lovers bugger each other desperately, have nightmares in which they are violated by centipedes, and endure painful fantasies about the terminal erections of a hanged man. Out of the dirt, the excrement, the couplings, the repetitious confusion with which they are described, Burroughs makes a kind of dismal and disgusting urban poetry." The confusion and repetition stemmed from Burroughs's "cut-up" method, which involved slicing up his typescripts and reassembling them—techniques demonstrated in two books of examples, The Exterminator! (1960, written with Brion Gysin) and Minutes To Go (1960, written with Brion Gysin, Sinclair Beiles and Gregory Corso). This form of dislocation was supposedly influenced by film and recording methods, but after Finnegans Wake and Gertrude Stein it was perhaps not so revolutionary and exciting as was made out. Burroughs's subsequent career was spent between Tangier, Paris, New York and London, the main scenes of what Mary McCarthy called his carnival world. His experiences of South America emerged in The Yage Letters (1963), written to Allen Ginsberg, who contributed a letter of his own, and Burroughs also wrote of his drug experiences in a number of articles, the most significant of which was "Deposition: Testimony Concerning a Sickness" (1960). Newspaper column formats and ticker-tape structures appear in his Time (1965) and again in Apo-33 Bulletin A Metabolic Regulator (1967), which sought a way to re-establish individuality in the face of ideologies, miseducation and advertising. Burroughs wrote a large number of shorter fictional pieces and articles on drug addiction and cure, but never, despite the popular myth, encouraged the indiscriminate use of drugs. He was, however, deeply interested in transformations of consciousness through both drugs and meditation. For a while he associated with Scientologists, in order to discover whether their methods were useful for the development of the self. His criticism of all such educational programs, plus some account of his own schemes for retraining the mind and body, are contained in the conversations of The Job (1970). The Wild Boys (1972) imagines a youth organization which has gained sole political power, a Spenglerian coming of the New Barbarians, self-generative and asexual. His film script The Last Words of Dutch Schultz (1970) is based on the delirious dying testimony of the celebrated gangster, and reflects Burroughs's lifelong interest in cinema (he took part in two films based on his own work) and in the criminally pathological mind. In his later work, science fiction techniques extended his vision of perpetual terrestrial strife into galactic conflicts, but in the 1970s his reputation and readership began to decline. His style and compositional method had been highly influential, but were more and more evidently one of modernism's culs-de-sac. The Burroughs family fortune had been based on the invention of the adding machine, but although he continued to write and publish into his eighties, it is unclear what it all added up to. William Burroughs married Joan Vollmer in 1945, but in Mexico in 1951 he accidentally shot her, reportedly while playing William Tell. His son died in 1981. Achy Obejas (obituary date 4 August 1997) SOURCE: "Beats' Burroughs Survives in Pop, Gay Culture," in Chicago Tribune (online publication), August 4, 1997. [In the following obituary, Obejas appreciates Burroughs's influence on modern music and art.] "But I'm dying," says William Burroughs in his flat, unflinching voice on the song, "Interlude 3 (The Vultures are Gone and Will Never Come Back)," a collaboration with the Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy. Then, with just a hint of a smirk in his voice, Burroughs adds, "No, you're not." Burroughs, one of the founding figures of the Beat Generation, actually died Saturday in Lawrence, Kan., after a heart attack. He was 83. But anyone who thinks that's the end of him doesn't understand the effect Burroughs continues to have on literature and popular culture. "He's turning out to be have been enormously influential, especially on artists who go into the inferno and report back," said James McManus, author of the novel Going to the Sun, last year's Carl Sandburg award winner. "He was into sex and drugs and rock n' roll before anybody else. And his influence on gay literature is immeasurable." Burroughs' Naked Lunch is considered a landmark book, even though its publication in 1959 prompted Dame Edith Sitwell to label it "filth." Other writers, including Mary McCarthy and Norman Mailer, hailed Burroughs as a genius. "It's a satire on the evils of government and the uniquely American conflict between independence and control," said Barry Silesky, a magazine editor and author of a biography of Lawrence Ferlinghetti, another Beat Generation writer. Naked Lunch was nonetheless the subject of a long-running obscenity trial, which concluded in 1962, generating enough publicity for a re-issuing of the book by Grove Press, literary home of both Burroughs and Beat pal Allen Ginsberg. Ginsberg died four months ago. Burroughs' third book is a hallucinogenic feeding frenzy, with unlikely characters such as the Shoe Store Kid and the Lobotomy Kid. In one passage, a man is consumed by his own anus; in others, mad scientists perform a series of parodic operations. Burroughs' over-the-top style, influenced by his longtime heroin addiction, often bypassed literary staples such as plot, narrative and characterization in favor of an urgent, visceral approach. "The study of hieroglyphic languages shows us that a word is an image," said Burroughs in 1969. "The written word is an image." In that vein, Burroughs pioneered a writing style called "Cut-Ups," in which he cut up pieces of his own writing, mixed it with text from other sources, then glued it back together. For all the surreal and shocking subject matter of his work, Burroughs' tall, trim figure served as contrast. Often wearing white suits and a fedora, Burroughs rarely smiled, preferring instead an affectless demeanor that suggested gentility. In 1981, he was invited to read from Naked Lunch and another work, The Soft Machine, on Saturday Night Live. As Burroughs read, "The Star Spangled Banner" played. In recent years, Burroughs had been collaborating with musicians, including Sonic Youth, John Cale, Donald Fagen, Marianne Faithful, Brian Jones, Tom Waits, Kurt Cobain, Michael Franti, Ravi Shankar, and Laurie Anderson. He had a significant influence on others such as Lou Reed, Throbbing Gristle, Bob Mould, Jesus Lizard and producer Steve Albini. His last CD, Spare Ass Annie, was released in 1993, a pulsating, danceable collection of stories told in Burroughs' staticky voice. "It's one of the great American voices of the century, in terms of its tonal qualities—literally, how it sounded, regardless of what he said," explained McManus, a writing professor at the School of the Art Institute and whose own works, particularly Chin Music, were inspired in part by Burroughs. One rocker who certainly thought of Burroughs' voice as unique is Chicagoan Al Jourgensen of Ministry, who used the Beat poet on a CD single called "Just One Fix." "Smash the control images, smash the control machines," intones Burroughs on the 1992 release. Burroughs' rock n' roll legacy, however, goes beyond his vocalizing. He is credited as the first person to use the term "heavy metal" in relationship to music. The Mugwumps, a 1963 band formed by the Lovin' Spoonful's John Sebastian, took its name from a Burroughs novel. Steely Dan was named after a metallic dildo in Naked Lunch. And '70s progressive band Soft Machine won Burroughs' permission to name itself after his novel. Since the beginning of his writing career, Burroughs also demonstrated a separate interest in visual arts. He did the first dust jacket for Naked Lunch; the cover of "Just One Fix" is a Burroughs painting titled "Last Chance Junction and Curse on Drug Hysteria." Last year, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art organized his one-person show of works on paper, collage, photography, installation and paintings. In Man from Nowhere, a biography of Burroughs by Joe Ambrose, Terry Wilson and Frank Rynne, the authors describe how Burroughs discovered one of his painting techniques: "In 1982, (he was) trying out some guns at a friend's place, using a double-barreled 10 gauge shotgun with an 18 inch barrel…. He had been shooting at pieces of plywood, and he found that different layers of wood had been exposed on different parts of the plywood … He tied cans of spray paint in front of the pieces of wood and blasted away with the gun. The inevitable explosions of garish and tactile color pleased Burroughs … Burroughs had changed writing with the Cut-Ups. Now he was applying the same random spirit to the world of art." His first customer was Timothy Leary, who paid $10,000 for a painting. Cobain and other members of Nirvana were later customers. In his October 1988 show in Chicago, his works sold at prices between $1,500 and $10,000. Burroughs was born February 5, 1914 in St. Louis, grandson and heir of the inventor of the Burroughs adding machine. He was educated in private schools and served as a glider pilot trainee for three months during World War II. Burroughs claims he began writing after shooting his second wife, Joan Vollmer, to death while playing a William Tell game. Their son William died in 1981 of cirrhosis of the liver. Burroughs is survived by longtime companion James Grauerholz. Tunku Varadajan (obituary date 4 August 1997) SOURCE: "America's Original Hippy Dies at 83," in The Times (online publication), August 4, 1997. [In the following obituary, Varadajan offers highlights of Burroughs's career.] The writer Wi	-1	Unrelated	false
1e475fab-901e-40f8-bd1d-187c81031c9b	alignment-classifier-documents-unlabeled \| trentmkelly/LessWrong-43k	Formal Open Problem in Decision Theory (This post was originally published on March 31st 2017, and has been brought forwarded as part of the AI Alignment Forum launch sequence on fixed points.) In this post, I present a new formal open problem. A positive answer would be valuable for decision theory research. A negative answer would be helpful, mostly for figuring out what is the closest we can get to a positive answer. I also give some motivation for the problem, and some partial progress. Open Problem: Does there exist a topological space X (in some convenient category of topological spaces) such that there exists a continuous surjection from X to the space [0,1]X (of continuous functions from X to [0,1])? ---------------------------------------- Motivation: Topological Naturalized Agents: Consider an agent who makes some observations and then takes an action. For simplicity, we assume there are only two possible actions, A and B. We also assume that the agent can randomize, so we can think of this agent as outputting a real number in [0,1], representing its probability of taking action A. Thus, we can think of an agent as having a policy which is a function from the space Y of possible observations to [0,1]. We will require that our agent behaves continuously as a function of its observations, so we will think of the space of all possible policies as the space of continuous functions from Y to [0,1], denoted [0,1]Y. We will let X denote the space of all possible agents, and we will have a function f:X→[0,1]Y which takes in an agent, and outputs that agent's policy. Now, consider what happens when there are other agents in the environment. For simplicity, we will assume that our agent observes one other agent, and makes no other observations. Thus, we want to consider the case where Y=X, so f:X→[0,1]X. We want f to be continuous, because we want a small change in an agent to correspond to a small change in the agent's policy. This is particularly important since other agents will be implementi	-1	Unrelated	false
4be62481-729b-48aa-9e96-3911d55486a5	alignment-classifier-documents-unlabeled \| StampyAI/alignment-research-dataset/arbital	Exponential notation for function spaces If $X$ and $Y$ are sets, the set of functions from $X$ to $Y$ (often written $X \to Y$) is sometimes also written $Y^X$. This latter notation, which we'll call exponential notation, is related to the notation for finite powers of sets (e.g., $Y^3$ for the set of triples of elements of $Y$) as well as the notation of exponentiation for numbers. Without further ado, here are some reasons this is good notation. - A function $f : X \to Y$ can be thought of as an "$X$ wide" tuple of elements of $Y$. That is, a tuple of elements of $Y$ where the positions in the tuple are given by elements of $X$, generalizing the notation $Y^n$ which denotes the set of $n$ wide tuples of elements of $Y$. Note that if $\|X\| = n$, then $Y^X \cong Y^n$. - This notion of exponentiation together with cartesian product as multiplication and disjoint union as addition satisfy the same relations as exponentiation, multiplication, and addition of natural numbers. Namely, - $Z^{X \times Y} \cong (Z^X)^Y$ (this isomorphism is called currying) - $Z^{X + Y} \cong Z^X \times Z^Y$ - $Z^1 \cong Z$ (where $1$ is a one element set, since there is one function into $Z$ for every element of $Z$) - $Z^0 \cong 1$ (where $0$ is the empty set, since there is one function from the empty set to any set) More generally, $Y^X$ is good notation for the exponential object representing $\text{Hom}_{\mathcal{C}}(X, Y)$ in an arbitrary cartesian closed category $\mathcal{C}$ for the first set of reasons listed above.	-1	Unrelated	false
94ff3639-376c-4524-969a-8984a2c4d24b	alignment-classifier-documents-unlabeled \| trentmkelly/LessWrong-43k	Stop pressing the Try Harder button (This is a post from a daily blogging experiment I did at neelnanda.io, which I thought might also fit the tastes of LessWrong. This is very much in the spirit of Trying to Try) I recently had a productivity coaching session, and at the end we agreed on a few actions points that I’d do by the next session. But, come the next session, these had completely slipped my mind. These suggestions were good ideas, and I had no issue with implementing them, the problem was just that they completely slipped my mind! (We then spent the second session debugging my ability to actually follow action points, and this was pretty successful!) I think the error I made there is a really common one when planning, and one I observe often in myself and others. Often I’ll hear a cool book recommendation, offer to meet up with someone some time, hear about a new productivity technique, notice an example sheet deadline looming. But I consistently fail to action upon this. So this post is about what exactly went wrong, and the main solution I’ve found to this problem! Planning, as I define it, is about ensuring that the future goes the way I currently want it to. And the error I made was that, implicitly, I was trying to make the future go the way I currently wanted it to. That by committing to do things, and wanting to them, and just applying effort, things would happen. And the end result of this was that I totally forgot about it. Or sometimes, that I vaguely remembered the commitment or idea, and felt some guilt about it, but it never felt urgent or my highest priority. And every time I thought about the task, I resolved to Try Harder, and felt a stronger sense of motivation, but this never translated into action. I call this error Pressing the Try Harder button, and it’s characterised by feelings of guilt, obligation, motivation and optimism. This is a classic case of failing to Be Deliberate. It feels good to try hard at something, it feels important and virtuous, and it’s easy to t	-1	Unrelated	false
480c86ab-9dcf-4a03-8aa8-5e693e9d52a8	alignment-classifier-documents-unlabeled \| trentmkelly/LessWrong-43k	Carpe Diem, the Optimization Game: Level 1 Leads To: Carpe Diem: The Problem of Scarcity and Abundance Less Wrong contributor owencb links us to a fourteen page paper of his that proposes optimizing your time via a three-resource model. You can find the full document here. Here’s his abstract, which is a good summary: Abstract: We get lots of opportunities to convert between time and money, and it’s hard to know which ones to take, since they use up other mental resources. I introduce the neutral hour as a tool for thinking about how to make these comparisons. A neutral hour is an hour spent where your mental energy is the same level at the start and the end. I work through some examples of how to use this tool, look at implications for some common scenarios, and explore the theory behind them. This is a great advancement on the two-resource model of money and time. In the two-resource model, your time can be traded for dollars, and dollars can be used to buy time, so your task is to figure out the exchange rate and take all offers better than the exchange rate, while declining offers below the exchange rate. If you notice yourself running out of time but not money, or vice versa, you can adjust the exchange rate until the market clears. In Owen’s three-resource model, you have not only money (M) and time (T) but mental energy (E). Some activities, such as doing your taxes, are taxing, and cost mental energy. Other activities, such as taking a nice walk, are recuperative and recover your mental energy. You can use your recuperative resources to turn time (T) into mental energy (E) as needed, so the exchange rate between T and E can be solved for. Thus, by noting the net gain or loss of E, we can observe what Owen calls the NH, or neutral hour, cost of an activity in time, and compare this to your chosen exchange rate. He also notes that your current level of energy (E) changes the neutral time cost of activities; being below the threshold needed is very bad, but being too far above that threshold means	-1	Unrelated	false
<urn:uuid:c884c410-f131-4c65-83fd-b72ce1ca0c15>	dclm-dedup-25B-ai-scifi-docs \| https://forums.shoryuken.com/t/time-to-get-serious-mvc-i-mega-man-x-thread/183637/28	Time to get Serious! MvC:I Mega Man X Thread The buster tech is greatly appreciated. Glad I’m not the only one trying my hardest to make this character work too I’m looking into maining X and Zero for MVCI (even though I won’t play it seriously/competitively). Where’s a good place to start learning basic combos and mixups? Do they also have good synergy with each other? The short hop instant overhead is pretty wild. My advice on execution for it… superjump and then immediately hold down. Then hit LK a moment later. If you LK at the same time as hitting down, you’ll just fly up. How is everyone doing in the capt marvel match up? I play them and feel like they mesh well. I start Zero because I want those sword normals and movement options to build space to tag X and immediatley armor up. That’s when I can bully with fast charging buster and other projectiles. Sonic slicer and rising fire cover areas Zeros projectiles dont reach, and lvl 2/3 buster from X isn’t reflectable, Zeros IS. Also with X setting up projectiles like boomeramg cutter or ice shield and then tagging into Zero and going into his dash special move is good for easy left/right mixups tldr: Zero has better normals and movement, X has better projectiles. They cover each other well imo. This is a meter hungry team though and while Reality is the flavor right now I’m rocking Mind for the storm. Both characters install supers are far too good. X has a safe Light of armor setup as long as you can combo. Corner only (afaik): S.HP, S.HK, F.HK, C.HP x J.LK, J.LK, J.HP, J.HK, S.HP, S.HK, F.HK x Armor of Light -> what ever you come up with. I like to just keep it simple C.HP x J.LK, J.LK, J.HP x QCF + p (doesn’t really matter which) x Full Charge. It costs 2 meters, but you get a free armored up X, and you can just tag out and use him for later, or set up the field for okizeme. I really love how X can set up traps and and baits for unaware players. Frost Shield sets up so many opportunities. I feel like it’s such a low profile move because you don’t really see X shoot it when you switch. I’d really wish that the move was an over head, at least in the armor of light mode. I kind of wish the moves had different properties while in armored mode, but it’s what ever (I know X has never really worked like that) after SCR i have really low hopes for X competitively, just a lotta, dorm, dante, ultron. X is too honest for this game :frowning: It’s week one. Look at how long it took for people to hop off wesker and jean in mvc3, and play zero or morrigan… I’d say give it a 6mo’s to a year before we really count anyone in or out Would also appreciate if anybody has time to write down some notations for combos, namely a corner carry bnb and a corner bnb. A friend of mine advised using the Space Stone for the Maverick-hunting duo. I would go with Time Stone (because it compliments well with Zero), but I’ll experiment with the Stones and see where I can go from there. So how are people approaching in terms of neutral? I’ve been doing pretty alright with Armoring Up and interchanging ground/air hp/lp level 3 busters. Using the dash follow up on ground buster can cancel into block if they try to punish. Be mindful of air buster cause close to the ground tho because you can get punished by things like Jedah and Dorms lvl 3 due to landing recovery. Use Sonic slicers to try and catch them jumping, the reflect off it can lead to a full confirm. Use HP rising fire if they get directly above as it has upper body invul, can be canceled into SWR which leads to a HKD and can be followed up with buster super or tag into combo. If they try super jump to get away a good read with SWR can punish air specials. It comes out deceptively fast. Been using Mind stone. More for the storm then the surge although people can be caught off guard by the surge. X without armor isn’t nearly effective to the length of buster charge time so you really want that meter. Plus the 10% attack and Def bonuses are decent. I also use a lot of meter with X just by punishing full screen nonsense with busted super which when it hits raw you can actually shoot another one as it otgs. Right now my hardest match ups seem to be Gamora and Capt Marvel. The guns rip through buster and absorbtion eats all non super projectiles. Some clips Super Buster is pretty great for punishing tags in neutral. It starts up fast and plows through a lot of nonsense. Tigerknee busters have very little recovery. You have plenty of time to react if they decide to push forward on the ground under it (Buster), or if they try and super jump over it (Rising Fire -> Sonic Slicer). I throw in some Buster -> Back Hop -> Buster/Slicer/Rising Fire action as well, since you can special cancel the Back Hop early. In the same way that you bullied Haggar into the corner in that one clip with Buster -> Dash -> Buster spam, you can also ‘runaway’ with Buster -> Backhop -> Buster spam. I find that Buster -> Dash or Back Hop helps a lot vs teleporters. Even if they teleport behind you during the buster, the constant movement helps keep you safe. And I’ll occasionally try and throw in a Buster -> HP or HK follow-up to try and anticipate counters to Busters. Probably known already but with time stone on incoming opponents I’ve been doing boomerang x ice shot > tag > time teleport. Basically the opponent lands in between X and your second character, and is either in block stun by boomerang and/or gets hit by ice for full combo. Since they’re facing away from Megaman they usually can’t hit him to make the projectile disappear and have to take the mixup and block correctly. 100% success rate so far. Been running this setup but instead of time I use Zeros teleport. Same effect, rarely blocked. Shit, I use Thanos and Megaman… why am I not doing the same?! Lol Ive been playing mvci with all my sparetime since it came out and literally just learned that X can cancel his command dash. Got so excited I made a video, but I guess everyone here already knows about this. I play x strider with mind stone. Once strider dies, I had problems getting in with x solo, but since I discovered it, I am starting to feel that X might be the best for screen control in the whole game. He can cover the ground with projectiles, and if the opponent comes into box dash range you have decent mixup options. X is definitely a strong character full screen and a decent character up close. Hardest matchup is anyone with a teleport and gamora and ghost rider. Norcal has some strong ghost riders and I am pretty screwed if I somehow run out of meter. Anyways, just made this account to get on the forums to thank MegamanSteve for putting in all this work. Will definitely help me level up my X. My advice for X users is to get used to using sonic blade or rising fire as a premove to get out the fast boomerangs and ice shots. I’ve been attempting this one for a while, but I just can’t seem to get it. The opponent (using Dante just like in the video) always seems to drop out right before the second Boomerang Cutter hits, no matter which Sonic Slicer version I use. Any tips? This is the notation I’m using, allow me to know if it’s wrong or not: sLP, sLK, sHP, cHK x L Sonic Slicer x H Boomerang Cutter, sLK x L Sonic Slicer x L Boomerang Cutter (combo drops here) From what you’re saying and watching the video, the second boomerang doesnt hit on the way back. Just launch right away No, it’s not that. I can’t get the outgoing hit to connect at all.	-1	Unrelated	false
<urn:uuid:4c47e6e6-b801-4c07-bb6b-a788127b16a1>	dclm-dedup-25B-ai-scifi-docs \| http://www.martialartsidaho.com/should-children-earn-black-belts-in-martial-arts/	Should Children Earn Black Belts in Martial Arts? - The Dojo Should Children Earn Black Belts in Martial Arts? the dojo kids class Shoshin Ryu has a pretty straight forward policy when it comes to promoting black belts. Anyone receiving a black belt must be able to defend themselves against an adult attacker. Applying this rule to children upholds the integrity of the rank. It also reinforces the idea of putting skill above rank. Regardless of what belt a student wears around their waist, the skill is what holds value. Many martial art systems incorporate “Jr” black belts, often times awarding higher Dan (black belt) ranks to children with as little as 5 years of training. This is not only a watering down of the rank, it sends a message of lowered expectations and a false sense of security for the person who achieves these types of rank. Shoshin Ryu and the dojo would rather keep a younger student at brown belt and let them grow in size and skill. Then when the time comes to test for Shodan (1st degree black) they can both truly defend against adult attackers and be completely prepared to perform well on their black belt test. This mindset also teaches younger practitioners patience, hard work and increases the appreciation for the eventual promotion. There have been instances where students in the dojo started as children, trained 10+ years until age 16-21 and then tested for Shodan. The result was no less (and one could surely argue much greater) than if they had received a black belt at a younger age, since it is the skill that is sought after and not simply a rank. Rank can be said to have its place in any traditional dojo, but it is NOT the goal. It is nice to have a sense of accomplishment and progression along one’s path. It is good to have a general idea of the skill level of your uke based on rank, even if you haven’t worked together before. However, the need to show off what rank you are is opposite the philosophy of Shoshin Ryu. The instant gratification culture is one that does not belong in the dojo. Students put in the work, the effort and the time. A byproduct of their training is rank. By the time a student of the dojo achieves Shodan, the elation related to the promotion is less apparent. This is at least partially due to the teachings of the Shoshin Ryu Sensei who keep the focus on the training required to achieve this milestone and the letting go of the ego and pride. Not to say that when a student does reach this level that there isn’t a sense of pride and appreciation for the work done, it’s just that it is not the emphasis of the rank itself. Next time you hear a conversation about someone’s 9 year old child achieving a 3rd degree black belt in a martial art, realize that this is in itself an indication of what is really being taught, and that while the rank may sound impressive, it is by all means misleading and does not represent what the rank is supposed to indicate. If you are seeing increased focus, skill and attitude in your own child then you know that they are truly progressing, and that along with the physical skill there is also a mental fortitude that is being developed. A mindset that does not worry about the immediate reward of an action, but knows that through consistent training and a resolute persistence that anything can be accomplished. In the case of learning self-defense, it is the ability to defend yourself. Think on this.	-1	Unrelated	false
<urn:uuid:9fc11f2f-3a08-48c2-87da-2af77e6c538b>	dclm-dedup-25B-ai-scifi-docs \| http://www.reddit.com/r/magicTCG/comments/29mfdr/m15_all_magic_2015_spoilers_for_72/	top 200 commentsshow all 436 [–]wtfomgtehhaxxorz 68 points69 points I figured the chain veil was thin, but i didn't think it would be that narrow. [–]phrankygee 44 points45 points well, it is the actual 5-pointed Planeswalker symbol, flipped upside-down. [–]Xaidiz 44 points45 points Have we seen a counterspell? I want a counterspell... :( But then I'd be heartbroken.. [–]Moose_Bolton 15 points16 points Cancel has been listed I think. [–]ulshaski 47 points48 points Cancel is one of the "extra" cards that will be standard legal but not in packs of m15 [–]BleakSabbath 17 points18 points Glad for this too, because I have enough copies of Cancel for myself and anyone new people who don't yet. [–]DTrain5742 25 points26 points So zero? [–]AshGuy 3 points4 points How's that? If it's not in M15 boosters, how will new players get them? [–]larkeith 13 points14 points It's only in starter packs IIRC. Luckily, only reprints. [–]UnsealedMTG 9 points10 points They are in the new player free 30-card sample decks. The cards are standard legal so people can shuffle together two sample decks and have a legal deck for FNM [–]davvblack 9 points10 points That would be a hilarious exercise in futility. [–]ICastCats 1 point2 points That's pretty clever actually. [–]kurokikaze 1 point2 points TBH Ravnica gave us plenty of those. [–]o_hai_mark 0 points1 point Intro decks [–]neonordnance 0 points1 point Cancel is in the extra cards that are going to be in the promo decks. It's not in the actual main set. [–]TheSystemer 77 points78 points We need the red legendary spoiled Edit: Its been spoiled, and its not a goblin. I am sad now [–]SkaggAteMyPappy 17 points18 points WTB a Thraxes, Lord of the Mountains. Aaaanny minute now. [–]Phrost_ 11 points12 points You face Thraxes, Illidan Lord of the Burning Legion! (I hope someone else thought this) [–]SkaggAteMyPappy 1 point2 points I didn't think about it, but I got the reference. [–]KeroZero 1 point2 points I want to correct you, but imagining him as Illidan is even funnier. [–]Phrost_ 1 point2 points I was pretty sure it was wrong but I wrote it anyway. That's how you get noticed on the internet [–]goblinpiledriver 13 points14 points What does it even interact with in the set? You're not going to be looking for double Chain Veil in a red deck. Furthermore, what does it do in standard? Super Bow of Nylea? Double draw off cluestones? Burnished Hart mega-ramp? I'm not really seeing the relevance here, but between Darksteel Citadel, Shrapnel Blast, and Ornithopter, I'm thinking artifacts are going to matter soon. [–]the_average_asian 16 points17 points Maybe artifacts might be bigger in Khans? [–]goblinpiledriver 14 points15 points Most likely, especially with the other artifact stuff we've been seeing, but why not print the Ogre in Khans? [–]the_average_asian 11 points12 points Legend cycle? [–]mkfffe 5 points6 points Story wise, he is from Shandalar and not Tarkir and they are focusing on garruk's story more this set. The Veil the Ogre is connected to is what put Garruk on the state he is in. [–]OfTheHive 4 points5 points I figured he was a demon worshiping Ogre from Kamigawa like Hidetsugu. Linked to the chain veil perhaps because he had a part in the ritual that liliana underwent when she signed the contract? [–]mkfffe 4 points5 points The article mentions that the Onakke are an ogre tribe on Shandalar that are linked to the veil for reasons unlnown to Liliana. The veil does not seem to be tied to demons specifically. One of Liliana's demon masters asked her to get it for him. She did, but used its power to kill the demon. The demons link to the veil is unknown beyond just wanting it. An angel was guarding the temple this time, so I imagine that it's just a powerful artifact. The Onakke seem to need the veil for a reason, but Liliana killed the spirit again before all details were revealed. [–]hellakevin 7 points8 points double stronic resonator, triple triggered abilities. [–]abrAaKaHanK 2 points3 points Obviously the only answer. [–]TheSystemer 1 point2 points I just wanted a goblin, and I wouldnt run chain veil in a deck that doesnt run any planeswalkers anyway. It could have easily been the same exact card, but a goblin instead of an ogre(i think that was the creature type) [–]onandonandonandon 1 point2 points Correct me if I'm wrong, but doubling chain veil is useless anyways since you can only activate PWs at sorcery speed. [–]goblinpiledriver 8 points9 points probably correct, that card has too many words on it that don't relate to doing damage for me to want to read it all carefully. [–]Shogunfish 3 points4 points You're wrong, chain veil lets you activate an additional ability "this turn" which I believe does stack with itself if you copy the ability. [–]Phoenixtouch 1 point2 points Was hoping for a goblin too, I am very sad. [–]goblinpiledriver 139 points140 points Red rare pls pls be goblin edit: ogre... wizrd y u tease [–]TheRedComet 113 points114 points [–]goblinpiledriver 39 points40 points get out of my swamp mountain [–]BEEEEEES 9 points10 points The wait is finally ogre. [–]Camoern 6 points7 points It's never ogre. [–]chuckiefresh4 126 points127 points Goblin SUPER piledriver 1R, 20/1 When ~ enters play, tear all copies of Deathrite Shaman in half. [–]goblinpiledriver 95 points96 points I feel funny in my pants [–]ipretendiamacat 19 points20 points If it lasts for more than 4 hours, contact your doctor... or stare at some search the city's. [–]goblinpiledriver 28 points29 points I didn't sign up for this edit: are you making fun of the fact that I have PULLED FOUR FOIL Search the City? [–]CygnusBlade 9 points10 points This is what Cedric Phillips' dreams are made of [–]clovens 6 points7 points It's like a goblin wrote this. It's perfect. [–]tom_rorow 3 points4 points Ogre Spirit :( [–]Drigr 55 points56 points C'mon over costed legendary equipment. [–]TheRedComet 19 points20 points I think it'll be a non-equipment artifact like the Pyromancer's Gauntlet. With any luck it'll be something playable, or at least interesting. [–]cuttups 17 points18 points Well, it is definitely interesting. [–]goblinpiledriver 54 points55 points Not an equipment unplayable in draft, unless super mega luck AND you're just a lunatic interesting in constructed, superfun in superfriends [–]Drigr 19 points20 points Well... I guess superfriends can use it... [–]AidanHU4L 18 points19 points Seems like a win more card [–]Rayvelion 32 points33 points It's completely win-more and you can kill yourself with it if you aren't winning more than usual, seems like the definition of junk mythic. [–]I_Xertz_Tittynopes 15 points16 points Strictly there for flavour reasons. [–]notaballoon 8 points9 points And barely that. Liliana never uses it to amp up the power of her planeswalker allies. [–]gabbalis 6 points7 points Only her enemies. Oops. [–]James718 2 points3 points Can you double it with the new kurkresh? [–]goblinpiledriver 4 points5 points technically yes, but I don't know if you actually get to start double activating your planeswalkers. [–]scissorblades 3 points4 points That's actually a pretty good question. My gut says you can, but I can't think of anything with similar wording to back that up. [–]notaballoon 1 point2 points I'm pretty sure you get a double activation, but it can't be the same ability (you may activate one ability once x2 = two abilities once) [–]SkaggAteMyPappy 13 points14 points You mean the Chain Veil? Cuz that's probably what it's gonna be. Either overcosted and clunky or cheap and still pointless because it'd probably see less play than the little that Godsend does unless it's busted and/or Black. Edit: Yep. Clunky as hell. Called it. [–]BroTheCat 4 points5 points [–]SkaggAteMyPappy 6 points7 points My middle name is "Dreamsmasher". [–]ticklemedino 0 points1 point Can you ELI5 what exactly the artifact does? It's kind of going over my head. [–]Drigr 5 points6 points If it's out and you don't use a Walker ability, it shocks you in your end step. After you activate any Walker abilities, you can pay (4) and tap it to activate another ability on your walkers. An example is using it for loyalty ramp with Nissa. Do something with 4 forests, +1 Nissa to untap them. Use the 4 mana to activate the Veil. +1 Nissa to untap the forests, do something else with your mana (or make a forest a creature.) [–]Megagamer1 5 points6 points Why does it have to be after using the abilities? If I'm reading it correctly, you are allowed to pretend as though you haven't used a loyalty ability yet, once per Walker, per turn. Having already used an ability shouldn't affect whether you can use the Walker again. [–]Drigr 5 points6 points At least my interpretation of the reading, is that activating it before hand is wasting the 2 abilities. My interpretation is basically "you may activate - as though you haven't activated -" and if you haven't activated it in the first place, the second part doesn't fit. [–]Megagamer1 11 points12 points I disagree. Having activated an ability once or not should have no bearing on the clause "you may activate one of its loyalty abilities once this turn as though none of its loyalty abilities have been activated this turn." Using a Walker ability for the first time per turn after Veil's ability has resolved still allows for the exception to take place. "You may activate - as though you haven't activated" is still true after the first activation. [–]Drigr 11 points12 points I accept your disagreement, hopefully it's made clear when rulings come out. [–]Megagamer1 3 points4 points Fair enough. [–]Harbinger_redux 2 points3 points Not fair enough! This is reddit and lucid discussions aren't permitted..... :) But I find both your thoughts plausible and I'm really interested in what they will have for the ruling. [–]Exonar 1 point2 points You would be right, I think, except it reads "you may activate one of its loyalty abilities once this turn.." That seems to indicated you can activate it, then activate your loyalty ability, then use your once per turn activation from the Veil. The Veil doesn't say you have to use that activation right away, or that your next loyalty ability "consumes" the effect or anything like that. [–]xxpashuxx 0 points1 point You can activate planeswalker abilities more than once a turn with this artifact out. [–]Cervantes3 14 points15 points Kurkesh is the fuel for my Khans being an artifact block fire. [–]thedude190 22 points23 points Now we play the "Is the site going to update at midnight? 5 minutes after midnight? 10 minutes?" game! Edit: 34 minutes to update [–]William_Dearborn 5 points6 points At least they admit there is an issue, we could just be waiting wondering what the fuck is going on. Now we're just waiting wondering when they're going to fix it [–]thedude190 2 points3 points That week of waiting for the gallery after conspiracy spoilers was the worst thing they've done in years [–]phrankygee 1 point2 points How is linking to "the mothership" as the source of a card before the article with said card is up on the mothership? I really wanted to get the chain veil in the context of the Uncharted Realms article, but at 23 minutes past the hour I still can't... [–]Huskeezee 26 points27 points The Chain Veil (4) Legendary Artifact (M) At the beginning of your end step, if you didn't activate a loyalty ability of a Planeswalker you control, you lose 2 life. (4), T: For each Planeswalker you control, you may activate one of its loyalty abilities once this turn as though none of its loyalty abilities have been activate this turn. (From mythicspoiler) [–]Sephiroth912 10 points11 points That's really awesome. Not crazy or anything but still really freakin cool. [–]BLOOODBLADE 19 points20 points And as my LGS has been yelling since the Ajani spoiler [–]Sir_Payne 9 points10 points This set has been the best thing that could ever happen to my Sliver Queen Superfriends edh deck. [–]AwkwardTurtle 24 points25 points Ral Zarek + Nissa + The Chain Veil goes infinite. That's kinda adorable. Edit: And by infinite I mean if you're super lucky. More realistically it lets you ult both, then probably take at least one extra turn to attack for the win with your lands. [–]Pillow676 11 points12 points The original Tezzeret can be substituted for Ral if you want to keep the combo in two colors. [–]nhammen 1 point2 points But Ral is in Standard with this for a few months. [–]nbenzi 6 points7 points ...but it is infinite... you can loop chain veil activations so they both have 1000 loyalty counters, then you can ultimate ral zarek as much as you want The hard part is obviously assembling this incredibly janky combo but once it's out the game is over. [–]AwkwardTurtle 1 point2 points No, you only get to ult Ral once. As soon as you do, the Chain Veil isn't untapped anymore. [–]nbenzi 11 points12 points yes... but it will be untapped during the extra turns that you'll be getting... during which you can continue to ult ral [–]AwkwardTurtle 2 points3 points It's still a probabilistic thing. Since you don't actually get an infinite number of activations, you cannot guarantee you'll always be able to take an extra turn. Not that you'll need to, you should be able to win with just one. [–]nbenzi 1 point2 points agreed. with an ult'd nissa (or even just an active one) you really only need 1 extra turn to finish up the game... So you'd have to be incredibly, amazingly, unlucky to lose from there haha [–]pwalkz 0 points1 point Until your next extra turn...? [–]AwkwardTurtle 1 point2 points It's not a true infinite loop because it's based on chance. You cannot guarantee that you'll always get an extra turn. [–]Arreeyem 1 point2 points For more Jank, just add Xenagos! (And 4 creatures) [–]BleakSabbath 4 points5 points Ho. Lee. Shit. Superfriends just got even more fun to play. [–]mtg_liebestod 2 points3 points Whoa. I'm not sure if this is good or not, but kudos to Wizards for doing something new with this one. At first read I thought it would allow planeswalker abilities to be used at instant speed.. [–]William_Dearborn 4 points5 points Its so, okay... [–]Scipion 45 points46 points So fucking terrible. Jesus, we don't even have a planeswalker that untaps 4 lands that we could use to activate this with virtually no mana cost. [–]William_Dearborn 4 points5 points I didn't say it's bad, I said it was okay I think its okay Its interesting [–]belithioben 2 points3 points lets be honest, its pretty terrible. Even with the nissa dream, we just used a four mana card to give nissa an extra loyalty counter each turn. [–]UncleMeat 5 points6 points So I need this card, Nissa, and another planeswalker to be in play at the same time and all I get is to activate the non-Nissa walker twice per turn? I'm still going with clunky as hell. [–]Scipion 1 point2 points In a Superfriends type deck this is like saying you need to have creatures out for your equipment to be any good. [–]nbenzi 2 points3 points well yea but deck's with equipments usually have cheap efficient and replaceable creatures to put them on. Planeswalkers are none of the above. [–]Rayvelion 2 points3 points So you're saying we can go full win-more in our green planeswalker based deck? Sign me up! [–]wintermute93 6 points7 points Mono win-more is a very popular archetype among casual players, it seems. [–]UnsealedMTG 3 points4 points Win-more is only a bad thing if you are a Spike whose goal is to win as high a percentage of games as possible and any "extra" is opportunity cost that could be cards that make it more likely to win. For a lot of people, that one time you blew them WAY OUT OF THE WATER really is worth more than one "win." In the words of the great sage, Jaya Ballard, Overkill? This isn't a game of Kick-the-Ouphie! [–]Namagem 0 points1 point As a timmy, Win-more is the only kind of win I like to have. 3 50/50 hydras with trample? Overrun for game. [–]tom_rorow 0 points1 point Can someone please explain to me the flavour behind these abilities? [–]anotherfan123 13 points14 points The veil is an artifact that Lily uses to power up her powers. Lily is a planeswalker. [–]TriviallyObsessed 0 points1 point One step closer to making my planeswalker cube work... [–]EmSeaGull 0 points1 point So what's the Christmas land version of using this and the new Ajani to get Garruk ultimate as early as possible? [–]groundcontroltodan 6 points7 points Hmmm... Disclaimer, exhausted. On the draw Start- 8 cards in hand T1, forest, tap, mana dork, go (draw, 7 cards in hand) T2, forest, tap both forest,Sylvan carytid, tap dork, play dork, go. (draw, 5 in hand) T3 play forest, tap all 3 forests, two green producing dorks for, nissa., plus one her, untap forests, tap, tap caryatid for white, Ajani steadfast, plus one, go. T4 (draw, 3 cards in hand) Drop forest Tap all 4 forests, float the mana, plus one nissa, float, mana. spend four, veil, spend.four, activate veil, plus one nissa, untap forests, tap forests, dorks, caryatid, drop Garruk. +1 Garruk, -2 Ajani twice, pop Garruk's ult. [–]EmSeaGull 0 points1 point Can you bank the loyalty activations? Or would you have to use Ajani's -2 before dropping Garruk. [–]Nightcinder 1 point2 points Seems like it's banked. [–]LordThyro 11 points12 points Whoah, red edh just got its own artifact general. Did not see that coming. That's going to inspire a lot of new kinds of decks. Chain Veil seems narrow, but cool. I can get behind this new design space. [–]SanJuan_GreatWhites 8 points9 points Red already has Slobad and Bosh. [–]LordThyro 3 points4 points Damn, completely forgot about Bosh. Well, at least Red has more options now. [–]Bradshawi 9 points10 points Red already has artifact commanders. [–]LordThyro 1 point2 points Just did a search on Gatherer, the only mono-red artifact general I found was Slobad, and he seems quite narrow in what he offers in comparison. [–]onyxleopard 14 points15 points There’s also Bosh, Iron Golem. [–]Umbrall 1 point2 points Slobad is badass but this guy is a pretty great combo general [–]Spekter1754 1 point2 points Funnily enough, even outside of artifacts-matter generals, Red EDH is one of the most "brown" of the monocolors because it dips into artifacts and Eldrazi very deeply to get card draw and removal. My Ashling deck is happy for the new sweeper in M15. [–]chrisrazor 5 points6 points Two Explores! [–]hillbillypaladin 17 points18 points Wizards, grant to me the Chain Veil. Fill me with its dark blessing. [–]DontClickThisName 11 points12 points Wizards fill you with the power of friendship. Play superfriends. [–]hillbillypaladin 0 points1 point I once had a Damia superfriends deck in EDH that I loved dearly. M15 urges me to resleeve [–]Raigeko13 10 points11 points Stoneblade playable equipment wizards pls [–]SkaggAteMyPappy 20 points21 points Yeah let's totally have one of those in Standard. Fun times for everyone. [–]Raigeko13 22 points23 points As long as it has a low equip cost and is good it can cost 40 mana for all I care Stoneforge Mystic don't give a fuck [–]InkmothNexus 6 points7 points with riddle of lightning an blast of genius in standard, you better care. [–]Raigeko13 0 points1 point Oh shit, totally forgot about riddle of lightning. [–]SkaggAteMyPappy 2 points3 points And then they kill your SFM and you can never play it. And then it gets Thoughtseized just to spite you. [–]gereffi 2 points3 points A 2 for 1 that deals 2 damage to my opponent is my kind of card. [–]SteveIsAMonster 9 points10 points Woo! Chain Veil! Bant Super Duper Friends. [–]Scipion 5 points6 points Right? Nissa of the Veil. [–]A_Monocle_For_Sauron 14 points15 points Kurkesh and Chain Veil today actually have some synergy together [–]PhantomSwagger[🍰] 18 points19 points So what you're saying is my opponent's attacking creatures get -3/-0? Sweet. [–]Scipion 1 point2 points Only if you can activate your planeswalkers between activations of the Veil. [–]A_Monocle_For_Sauron 1 point2 points Yeah, I guess you're right. Maybe it needs a Clock of Omens or something like that to make it more feasible. [–]DTrain5742 1 point2 points No, since the way the ability is worded doesn't allow it to stack up mutliple extra activations. Copying the ability will just override the first activation, and there's no way to activate loyalty abilities at instant speed, so one would just go to waste. [–]Flannelboy2 7 points8 points Wizards: "play superfriends edh... please" [–]Moose_Bolton 12 points13 points Come on cheap black kill spell. Or red mythic. Edit: Legendary, not mythic. [–]SkaggAteMyPappy 2 points3 points There's already a cheap Black removal spell that's been spoiled. [–]Moose_Bolton 4 points5 points Ulcerate? As much as I don't mind paying life to do things, 3 per kill is asking a lot. [–]SkaggAteMyPappy 7 points8 points It's just a mini-Dismember. It will see play. Especially in something like Jund or G/B Devotion, who can easily gain back life. [–]Moose_Bolton 1 point2 points True. And I'll get a playset. But I want Terror. [–]SkaggAteMyPappy 1 point2 points We both know that's not gonna happen. [–]Durzo_Blint 1 point2 points I really don't like the move away from common or cheap kill spells. It makes it harder on noobs when they have to find cards like Hero's Downfall to fill that niche. [–]SkaggAteMyPappy 4 points5 points Ulcerate, -3/-3 for B and 3 life. [–]bigbobo33 0 points1 point Which one? [–]Brawler_1337 0 points1 point The one that's -3/-3 for 3 life? [–]SkaggAteMyPappy 0 points1 point Ulcerate, that'd be the one. [–]chazu_ 2 points3 points More love for 5 color planeswalker EDH! Loving it! [–]Thomsucks 5 points6 points time for magical christmas land, where in a single turn I play Koth and activate his ultimate using the Veil, kurkesh, and 8 lands. [–]NeverDieAgain 2 points3 points wow that uncommon is more exciting to me than the chain veil or the ogre. pretty dissapointed i must say. [–]b_fellow 2 points3 points I see Kurkesh, Onakke Ancient with [[Mycosynth Lattice]] and any Planeswalker. Copy any of their abilities with R. [–]telehax 0 points1 point Or... You could just use [[rings of brighthearth]] [–]b_fellow 2 points3 points Yes I can, or I can do both and have 3 instances of that activated ability and live the dream. [–]telehax 0 points1 point Or you could sculpting steel the rings of brighthearth [–]thedude190 2 points3 points There was an important general news announcement tonight. The site will be updating at 11AM eastern time starting Monday July 7th. [–]khanfusion 2 points3 points I think I might be more excited about the flavor of the Ogre Spirit than anything. If this and its "tribe" of red dark-artifice spirit ogres is tied into the Khans setting, I'm gonna love it. [–]Level 3 Judgetwotwobearz 3 points4 points They're actually from Shandalar. [–]khanfusion 1 point2 points Yeah, I read the article for the veil after I posted. Shandalar! [–]SomerandomdudeIV 2 points3 points Kurkesh Onakkean Ancient 2RR Legendary Ogre Spirit When you activate an ability of an artifact, if you Pay R. If you do, then you may copy that ability and choose new targets for that ability. [–]Electri 1 point2 points Can you activate the veil at instant speed to walker on their turn? [–]presidentking 4 points5 points The normal rules for using a Loyalty ability still apply. You could activate the artifact on their turn, but you still can't use the Loyalty ability. The "as though none of its loyalty abilities have been activated this turn." is what messes it up. [–]Electri 0 points1 point Ahh ok, gotcha. [–]JimmyD101 1 point2 points There needs to be more discussion on the interactions of Kurkesh! Apart from being rasonably costs at 4/3 for limited... he has the ability to copy things like [[Shrine of Burning Rage]] and I'm sure there's something weird that happens with [[Strionic Resonator]] / [[Rings of Brighthearth]] [–]telehax 1 point2 points For those not in the know, Onnake is on Shandalar. [–]Khaim 1 point2 points Chain Veil would be much more readable if it said, "Until end of turn, replace 'none' with 'one or fewer' in rules 209.2 and 606.3." [–]thelonelybot 1 point2 points CMON please be back to nature reprint [–]RestrictedAxcess 3 points4 points Didn't someone from Wizards say something about a "Destroy All Enchantments" effect being too powerful in the current Standard? Or was that Block? Either way, a 2 mana, instant-speed-destroy Theros-block spell seems way too powerful right now Edit: Looks like I was wrong and Wizards actually did reprint Back to Nature. Why not sure why in the hell they would do that, but they did [–]dragonslayar 3 points4 points Lets go new Krenko! [–]InkmothNexus 1 point2 points red legend combos with basalt monolith and mycosynth lattice/other fixer. [–]Tez_Zim_Vin 1 point2 points Black discard spell for Waste Not... a cheap one... that's not terrible... please [–]chuckiefresh4 14 points15 points Thoughtseize is in the format. [–]tomorsomthing 8 points9 points Yeah, but that won't hold up a Waste Not deck on its own, and mind rot is just terrible. Another option is Ordeal of Erebos, but that's just not that good. Personally, I like to dream big, lets go Hynm to Tourach! [–]neagrosk 15 points16 points Calm down hitler... [–]Discolol 0 points1 point Mind Rot? [–]Moose_Bolton 2 points3 points Inquisition of Kozilek would be cool. [–]JuicyToaster 3 points4 points not while thought seize is in standard [–]Drigr 0 points1 point How does Kurkesh work with something like Mirari? Does it at all? [–]tmloyd 1 point2 points Mirari's ability is a triggered ability. Kurkesh only copies activated abilities. [–]goblinpiledriver 0 points1 point I don't think so, Mirari is a triggered ability. I'm no judge though. [–]Albinoredguard 0 points1 point Alright WotC, I'll jump on the Super Friends bandwagon. [–]ZachAtk23 0 points1 point Chain Veil isn't a black artifact. I don't care what it does. Don't try to compare it to [[Pyromancer's Gauntlet]]. The Chain Veil has been described as having its own will in the past. [–]colossusgb 0 points1 point SO can I use the Chain Veil and Kurkesh to activate 3 of the loyalty abilities in one turn or am I reading that wrong? [–]Naberius0 0 points1 point Kurkesh might be fun (or maybe I just like duplication effects too much). Not sure I like this Chain Veil... [–]yakushi12345 0 points1 point Now that I read the uncharted realms, flavor on chain veil makes absolutely no sense. [–]xmitter 0 points1 point I had been pretty sure I was going to skip this pre-release, but I think it might actually be a fun set to do... Not sure.	-1	Unrelated	false
<urn:uuid:e12a8154-cb6c-42f0-939d-81f26b505406>	dclm-dedup-25B-ai-scifi-docs \| https://www.wall-street.ro/articol/English-Version/75453/FIC-shares-lead-the-stock-market-to-lower-close.html	FIC shares lead the stock market to lower close Bucharest Stock Exchange fell modestly Tuesday, as composite index closed 1.40% lower, while the shares of financial investment companies (BSE:FIC) decline averaged 1.70%, as external markets suffered mild corrections retreating from 13-month highs. On Tuesday, the Bucharest Stock Exchange traded around 13.36 million lei (€3.11 million), two times less than yesterday’s 29.24 million lei (€6.8 million). BET index that gauges the performance of the ten most liquid stocks at the BSE finished down 1.11% to 4,782.48 points, while the composite BET-C dropped 1.40% to 2,781.46. BET-FI index of the five financial investment companies (BSE:SIF) was down 1.71% to 22,517.16 points, while Vienna Stock Exchange’s ROTX fell 1.87% to 10,008.02 points. BET-XT index that measures the performance of the 25 most liquid shares lost 1.42% to 461.54, and BET-NG of the energy companies listed at BSE dropped 0.99% to 606.34points. European stock markets slid today from 13-month high, thus putting an end to the four successive days of gains. At the London Stock Exchange, FTSE index of leading 100 shares was down 0.44% to 5,359 points while Germany’s DAX suffered a 0.24% decline to 5,793. Paris’ CAC40 edged down 0.36% to 3,849 points. FIC Oltenia (BSE:SIF5) has led the most traded stock chart today, with shares worth 3.3 million lei changing hands, pushing prices down 1.65% to 1.19 lei, followed by FIC Moldova (BSE:FIC2) with a 1.87% decline to 1.05 lei, and a liquidity of 1.73 million lei. In financial sector, Erste Bank shares (BSE:EBS) fell sharply 4.58% to 125 lei after 1.39 million lei trades. Banca Transilvania (BSE: TLV) was down 0.94% to 2.10 lei, after shares worth 1.28million lei changed hands. Transactions with Petrom (BSE:SNP) totaled 712,000 lei, as shares fell 1.52% to 0.26 lei. Impact (BSE:IMP) lost 0.9% to 0.55lei, on 429,000 lei liquidity. Te-ar putea interesa și: Mai multe articole din secțiunea English » Setari Cookie-uri	-1	Unrelated	false
<urn:uuid:75c70ccf-319a-4b09-b330-45d3e84ee689>	dclm-dedup-25B-ai-scifi-docs \| https://thevintage.wordpress.com/2016/10/06/the-vintage-dives-into-the-abyss/	The Vintage Dives Into The Abyss If you’re a fellow Blankie like me, you’re probably spending the month of October revisiting the films of James Cameron as host Griffin and David embark on their mini-series of the director’s distinguished career. Even though so far I’ve skipped out on The Terminator since I rewatched those last year in preparation for Genisys, I gladly dusted off my quadrilogy to watch Aliens and followed that up with an inaugural viewing of The Abyss. I’m embarrassed to admit as an open-minded viewer that I was unfairly pessimistic going into this one. Originally I had lived most of my life assuming this 1989 feature had something to do with the Ghosts of the Abyss, the 2003 doc in which Cameron attempts a dangerous undersea expedition to find the sunken Titanic. I saw this reportedly “must-see” 3D event at the Whitaker Center in Harrisburg, the only IMAX in Central Pennsylvania at the time, and was sorely disappointed that it was in no way as great as the illustrious romance/murder by sea fest that is Titanic. As I grew in my film education I learned that The Abyss has little to do with the series of deep sea diving docs and rather is a narrative manifestation of Cameron’s true passion: the sea. I was still skeptical of this movie because considering Cameron is such a titan of the screen, why was this one so often omitted in conversations of his work. No one has ever hyped The Abyss which is my defense of remaining so ignorant. I wasn’t expecting it to be bad because bad is exciting, bad is funny. I was worried about it being bland. For a nearly three-hour running time, bland is a death sentence. Thankfully, after sitting down and watching it on a medium sized TV screen, the exact opposite of the director’s intention, I realized it’s not bad or bland, it’s just derivative. Cameron rips off himself in this submarine sci-fi adventure. The story begins with the mysterious sinking of an American submarine that requires a nearby oil platform to search for the wreckage. Our introduction to this crew headed “Bud” (Ed Harris) is a mix of both the Alien movie tropes. These sweaty, blue-collar riggers look as over worked the crew of the Nostromo and are militant about their contracts but the crew of the Deep Core amass the energy and enthusiasm of the Marines aboard the Sulaco. Everyone has got their nickname and quirky attribute, “One Night” is a cowgirl, “Hippie” has a pet rat, a bunch of them are southern, etc. Boarding the oil platform for this mission is Bud’s estranged wife Lindsey (Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio) who’s playing the Ripley role, present as the expert since she designed this rig. The antagonist that joins her is Cameron favorite Michael Biehn as Lieutenant Coffey sporting an atrocious mustache to indicate his villainy. He and is two Navy Seal companions are there to oversee the findings and more nefariously, rescue the warheads carried by the sub. This is unbeknownst to the crew much like Paul Reiser’s plans to bring back a xenomorph, an equally deadly weapon. I’m less bothered by the character similarities and more by the general aesthetic. This feels like a movie meant to be set in space but due to the obsession with the mysteries of the deep, the plot is dropped underwater. You look at the high-tech diving suits, the enormous isolated ships, the impaired gravity of the outside, the ALIENS! Cameron is trying to convince you that water is as interesting as space and we all know that’s not true. It’s a valiant effort but no one is swayed. It feels like an interest that is being forced on me by delivering it in the Aliens shaped way I liked it the first time. I don’t like being tricked as if I’m a child being told to take my medicine. If you’re going to make a submarine movie, make a U-571 or Down the Periscope, just try something different. It’s too easy for Cameron to duplicate his own blue print. With that major detractor out of the way, we can talk about how this movie is also ripping off Close Encounters of the Third King. It’s bizarre to see the director of the Terminator add such a family friendly spin to these aquatic extraterrestrials. That being said this is in no way a family film. There are some unsettling deaths involving hypothermia and drowning which are more haunting than any cinematic shark attack. The otherworldly side plot was actually the least interesting as I found myself more invested in exploring the vessel ruins and the psychosis Lt. Coffey undergoes as he succumbs to high-pressure nervous syndrome. The human relationships were more engaging than the infrequent interactions with the robotic glowing bodies. For as much as I was enjoying this movie, when my streaming platform paused to buffer following the gruesome death of Coffey, I nearly broke the remote in frustration when I noticed there was still 50 minutes to go. I was upset because I knew those 50 minutes were going to be alien shit that I didn’t want. I would have been pleased with an early wrap-up but we had to save the aliens or something. The film gets too preachy with these kumbaya beings that want everyone especially humans to get along in a tone that none of his other films will harbor till Avatar. It’s not that I want all aliens to be xenomorphs (though that would be dope) but there’s no character to what’s in The Abyss. The single time they’re intriguing is when they manifest as a water tentacle that looks identical to the liquid metal of the T-1000. They’re more of a spectacle for the people in the movie than the viewers on the other side. This is the blank check movie for Cameron, though most of his career feels like a series of successful blank checks, this is the one you can only make after two massive successes. It’s a movie of a guy who couldn’t wait to share his love of the sea. It also becomes the most personal film of his filmography because you see a different love falling apart. He and producer/collaborator Gale Anne Hurd were going through a divorce and you can feel that anger with every piece of bickering dialogue between Bud and Lindsey. Their arc is realizing how much they mean to each other but the film relentlessly has characters refer to Lindsey as a “bitch”, a title that is a bit too harsh for a woman just doing her job. The extratextual material blending with perfected formulas proven by Cameron garner an odd place in his filmography. It’s at least more exciting than an oceanic doc. I wouldn’t oppose more midnight screenings of Abyss because sometimes we need a break from the classics. Not a lot of exciting cosplay involved but it would make it kosher to take your pet rat to the theater. Leave a Reply You are commenting using your account. Log Out / Change ) Twitter picture Facebook photo Google+ photo Connecting to %s	-1	Unrelated	false
<urn:uuid:05555596-8875-492f-8a69-910fd0bd673e>	dclm-dedup-25B-ai-scifi-docs \| https://www.fanfiction.net/s/3267141/11/Secrets-II	Chapter 11 "Can you fly her?" Tera asked Mitch. "I can fly anything." He slipped into the seat. One of the dinosaurs fell to the floor. Wan batted at it and jumped up to gaze down at the controls. Tera rubbed the cat's head. "Bet you're glad to be home." A loud purr answered as Serenity came back to life. "How'd Kaylee keep this thing in the air?" Joseph's voice drifted through the com to the bridge. "Same way you kept Inara in the air." "If you say so." The teen mumbled a few choice words in Chinese. "We aren't keeping Serenity are we?" Janus inquired, holding his Bible tight to his chest. "No," Tera answered as she sat down at the lower controls. "Just wanted to get her space worthy." "Forgive me for sayin' so, Tera," Zola picked up the dinosaur that Wan had been playing with and replaced it where it belonged. "Doesn't look like it was too space worthy when it was flyin'." "Hey, Tera," Sareen called the bridge. "I've got the infirmary stocked. Anything else you need me to do?" "No. Go back to Inara. The rest of us will be there soon." "Going. Just don't let my brother tear the engine room apart. Poor Kaylee will have a fit." Tera laughed. She had a point. "Why don't you check on him before you go back. Make sure he doesn't do anything beyond what he's supposed to." "Janus," she turned in her chair. "I thought you were going to clean Jayne's guns." Janus shuddered. "Violence is never the answer." "Still," her tone held a clear meaning. "You promised you could do that." "I'm goin'," he groused. "Zola, how are their supplies?" "Pretty much as expected. Those old protein packs last for years." "Why don't you add some tea, some strawberries for Kaylee, and anything else you think they might want." "On my way." Joe's voice echoed through the com. "Got it installed. Engines up and ready." "Doin' a check," Mitch's hands flew over the controls. "Have a go, Cap'n." "Set the coordinates. I'll finish here." She slipped in the message she'd composed on the trip here. Her eyes drifted upward as Serenity with the Inara attached drifted away from the asteroid where she'd been docked for many years. Tera hit the com. "Everyone we're goin' to set this device on delay for," she looked up at Mitch. He held up five fingers. "Five minutes. Finish what you're doin' and high tail it back to Inara." "Don't ya wish we could go, too?" Mitch asked. "We can't." She picked up Wan. "Let's go, flyboy." "Remind me to scold McKay the next time we see her. She's teachin' you bad words." The pair rushed down the stairs and out the hold. Tera closed up Serenity. "Mitch! Get us detached!" Her crew crowded onto Inara's small bridge to watch. Serenity drifted away from the asteroid's gravitational pull. "Any minute," Tera breathed. "If'n McKay's right," Mitch snorted. "She hasn't been wrong yet," Janus reminded him. "Besides," Tera added. "That device was built by the Ancients." "Not all their stuff keeps goin'." Mitch had learned that one the hard way. He'd tried a personal shield that ran out of power almost getting him killed. "We only need it to work once." Tera held her breath. The area around Serenity shivered and the ship vanished. They all screamed and yelled. "Plot us a course home, Mitch," Tera ordered. Wan bumped the woman's leg. "So," she knelt down and asked the cat. "Did it work?" Wan only yawned. (See the end of Chapter 6 of Secrets for a quick explanation of who these people are.) A ship appeared almost in front of Galactica. It drifted toward them and stopped. "By the Lords!" Tigh exclaimed. "Where'd that ship come from?" Warriors scurried around, checking readings and reporting to Omega. "Sir, " the bridge office turned to the colonel. "There was some sort of disturbance in space and time." He sounded puzzled. "And it just appeared." "No answer to our hails," Athena added. "I don't think anyone is on board." "Can anyone read what it's called?" "Believe it says Serenity, sir." Dillion stood at attention before Tigh. "Cassie has been teaching me how to read their language." The young man's face reddened. "Thank you." Tigh wondered what else the young woman had been teaching his warrior. "Get me the commander." Athena nodded and soon her father answered. "What is it, Tigh?" "Commander, we have a ship that just appeared." "Wraith?" Tigh could hear the fear in Adama's voice. "No. Dillion says the name is Serenity." "Serenity!" A voice he recognized as Malcolm Reynolds yelled in the background. "Are you certain?" "Yes, sir." "Stand by." "Don't I always," muttered Tigh. "That ain't possible!" Mal's face looked stunned. "Couldn't be," Zoe agreed. "We left Serenity in orbit around an asteroid in the future." "Yet, it seems your ship is here," Daniel translated for Adama. "Rodney," Elizabeth turned to her head scientist. "I want you to go up there and find out how their ship could be here." McKay along with several others were in her office for a meeting with Commander Adama. "Why me?" "I think that answer should be obvious." She smiled. "You're always telling me how brilliant you are." "Brilliant, yes. But if the stories I've heard about their ship is true,' "Don't you go insultin' my ship." Mal was offended. "Reminds me of my first reaction when I saw it." Zoe gave Mal a teasing smile. "You still flew in her." "Had nothin' else to do. And ain't never regretted it." "Not even after Wash," he didn't finish his question. "We had a good marriage, sir. If I had to do it all over, I'd marry him again." River stuck her head in. "Serenity is here." "Now how do you know that, Little Albatross?" Mal sat back and gazed at the girl. "I know." Her face brightened. "Going to tell Simon and Kaylee." She skipped away. Elizabeth took a deep breath. "Okay, then. Colonel Sheppard, I want you to take a jumper and investigate. Take Captain Reynolds and," "Jayne. I want Jayne to go." Mal's was firm about that. "Zoe, best you stay here." "Not arguin' sir." She touched her slowly swelling belly. "Jayne," Dr. Weir conceded. "And check it out." John nodded. He rose and had made it to the door with Reynolds before Dr. Weir looked pointedly at McKay. "Rodney." Her face gave him the order. "If I have to," he groused following. Mal rounded up Jayne and met John and McKay in the jumper bay. Ronan and Teyla had invited themselves along. "We're a team," Ronan said with a dead pan expression. "Yes, we are," John agreed. Once in the air, John flew them up and into space. The battered hulk grew larger as the jumper approached. "You flew in that thing?" Rodney's eyes grew very large. "You're braver than I thought." "Been watching Star Wars again, McKay?" John grinned at the scientist. "I happen to like that movie." "and I like Back to the Future." "Don't get me started." "You already are." "Rodney, John," Teyla went into her peace maker mode. "I think we have something more important to do. You can continue you…discussion, at a later time." "There's the hatch," Mal pointed out. "How about you dock her. Rodney, move." McKay glared at him but moved to allow Reynolds to take his place. John moved his hands away. "She's all yours, Mal." Mal smoothly turned the jumper and backed up to Serenity's hatch. "Jayne," he called back. "Make sure it's sealed." A few grunts came from the back. "It's sealed," the mercenary confirmed. "Ready?" John asked seeing Mal's expression. "Yeah." The party slowly moved to the door and went through into Serenity. "Air's a bit stale. Damn. Should have brought Kaylee." Jayne snorted. "Doubt that prissy husband of hers would's let her." "That's why McKay is here." John knew Reynolds was used to a certain people having particular duties. "Right." Mal nodded. "Let's check the bridge first, then the engine room." He led the way up the stairs to the small bridge. Mal paused to look out at the stars. He could see many plus the ships of the fleet. "Wow." John stood beside him, his face awed. "No wonder you like this ship." "Quite a view." Mal sat in the pilot's chair. He noticed one of the dinosaurs had been moved. "There's been someone on my ship." "Cat prints," Jayne pointed out. "Teyla, Ronan," John ordered. "Go through the ship with Jayne. See if we have any uninvited company." They nodded and moved out, guns ready. "What about me?" McKay nervously shifted from foot to foot. "Where's the engine room?" John asked. "I'll take him." Mal started to rise. "Just tell me how to get there." Reynolds gave him quick directions. "Call me on the com if you get lost." "Will do." The pair took off down the hall and found the dining hall. "Now there's an idea," Mckay said seeing the bright yellow room with a painted vine pattern all over the walls. "Engine room should be this way." John went through the door, down the hall to a room with a primitive looking device and a hammock swinging gently. "This is an engine room?" McKay made a face. "And look what we have here." John pointed at a machine attached to a whirling motor. "What is that?" McKay began to examine it. "I'm sure you'll figure it out. Just don't push any buttons until you know what it does." McKay gave him a look and then ignored him. John smiled and went back to the bridge. "Found something attached to your engine." "Found somethin', too." Mal now sat in the chair on the lower level. He pushed a button and a holo image appeared . A young woman's face flickered kind of reminding John of River. "My name is Tera. I'm not going to tell you much beyond that. Let's just say I found your ship and am sending it back to you. The machine in the engine room is a time travel device we found. Luckily I have a genius mechanic who figured out how to use it." She paused like she was trying to figure out what to say next. "I don't have a clear picture of exactly what happened. Our records are kind of muzzy and after Miranda, the Alliance pretty much destroyed every complete record of our true past." She smiled ruefully. "All I really have are some old family stories that have been passed down." Her face took on an intense look. "Captain Reynolds, I've included some documents about how to adjust the time machine to power Atlantis. I've also given you a set of coordinates." Her brown eyes sparkled. "I have it on good authority that not all the planets, well, let's just say, it should give you a nice safe home away from the Wraith, the Cylons and just about anything else you want to avoid." Her hand came up pressing forward like she could reach through time to them. "Don't loose your faith, Captain Reynolds. And John," Sheppard started. He didn't expect to be addressed. "I think you should push River's brother about getting married. Simon is a bit too used to protecting his sister. She doesn't need it anymore." She gave them a last sad smile. "God's speed." The image popped off. Mal and John looked at each other. "Now ain't that interesting," Reynolds commented. "Yeah. Ain't it." "The records she sent are amazing," McKay said in that voice he reserved for finding something absolutely mind-boggling. "Then I take it, it can be done?" Dr. Weir cast an amused look at John. They were in McKay's lab. "It can," he replied smugly. "With Zalinka's and Wilker's help, we'll have this machine adapted and plugged into Atlantis before you know it." "Means it will take awhile," John translated. "Doubting Thomas," McKay shot back. "No. I know you," he retorted. "Now, you two get out of here so we can work." McKay pointedly ignored them. "Guess it's time for us to go." Elizabeth tried to sound hurt but she was smiling. Once in the hall she asked, "Any idea who the woman was?" "She just gave us her name. Funny though," he scratched the back of his head. "She kind of reminded me of River." "Descendant maybe?" "Yeah, Maybe. Seemed to know a lot about us." "Maybe she did. Too bad we'll never get a chance to thank her." "About that." He stopped her, a serious look on his face. "What did Adama say when you told him?" "He was skeptical, but willing to give it a chance." Sheppard rubbed his chin. "I talked to Captain Reynolds about the coordinates." "And?" He didn't go on. "Come on, John, don't keep me in suspense." "He says it's for a planet called Persephone." "Is he certain?" "Yeah. Now, " they started walking again. "According to their history, all the worlds had to be terra formed." "With everything they've found out, they're beginning to suspect that the Alliance's version of the past is Very incorrect." "Guess we'll soon know." "Guess we will." Adama and Dr. Weir addressed both the fleet and Atlantis together from the gate room. Teyla's people on the main land were also there, having been informed of about what was planned. They had decided to come as well. "Everyone," Dr. Weir began. Adama spoke to his people in their own language. She didn't now exactly what he said, but she assumed it was similar to her own address. "We have a safe haven provided to us from a benefactor from the future. Doctors McKay, Zalinka, Wilker and their staffs have successfully adapted the device to safely power Atlantis for one final flight through space." She stepped forward touching the control that would start the dampners. "We all know that Earth is now uninhabitable and we can not return. We also know that if we stay here, the Wraith will wait until we've breed enough and will return to use us as their new food source." John joined her, his hand in River's. The rest of Serenity's crew was aboard their ship. McKay was there. Zalinka, Carson, Ronan, Teyla, General Hammond, Sam, Jack, Dr. Jackson, and so many others. "We have a chance to continue and thrive as a race in a new home. Truthfully, we have no idea what it will be like, but I believe, it will be a place that will welcome us. I don't know how long the journey will be. But we will face it bravely and together." Adama's voice stopped and Elizabeth gave him a smile. "Dear Lord," Shepherd Book took over. "We thank you for your inspired work and for opening a way for your people to continue. May we prove worthy. Amen." "Amen," Elizabeth echoed. "Rodney," she stepped back. The scientist took her place. "You can do the honors." "Great. I'll probably blow the city up." He closed his eye and pushed the button. The shield snapped up, the dampners powered up and Atlantis rose, arcing gracefully through the atmosphere and into space. The Colonial fleet, the Deadalus and Serenity followed. Atlantis hit the retros and gently settled on the surface of the planet. The shield briefly stayed up and flashed off when it determined the atmosphere was safe for her inhabitants. The Deadalus landed on the east dock and Serenity landed on a field not far away. Some of the older ships were brought down, since it had been decided they were too battered to stay in space. Shuttles brought people down from the others. Elizabeth watched the mass gathering from the balcony. John came to stand beside her, River at his side. She smiled at them. "I'm going to miss the ocean," she said. "We all are." John put an arm around his soon to be wife. "But I'm not going to miss fighting the Wraith." "Nor I." Dr. Weir went back into the city. River watched her go. "I never told her the city was familiar." "You didn't know exactly why until we got here." "All the cities in the core where designed after this one." "Interesting." He pulled her into his arms. "Ready to become Mrs. John Sheppard?" "Mrs. John Tamm Sheppard," she corrected. "I can live with that." He kissed her. Several days later many of the ships still in orbit left. Tera had also included instructions on how to make terra forming factories. Dr. Wilker, McKay and Zalinka had spent much of the voyage putting everything together for those who had indicated they wanted to start colonies on the various planets and moons. Those who were staying on Persephone were already settling in. "Lookin' like home," Mal said as he lounged against his ship. "Won't look like our home for many years," Zoe commented, holding her infant son in her arms. He'd been born, as well as Kaylee's daughter, while they traveled here. "True 'nuf." "Ready for your weddin', sir?" "Like Inara would let me back out." "She ain't the only one." "Oh?" His tone was light. "Would you hold the shot gun to make sure I wed her?" "I would, sir." She smiled at him. "I'd even have Jayne as backup with Vera." Mal laughed. "I wouldn't put it past ya." Simon and Kaylee came out, Kaylee proudly holding her baby. Book was with them. "We're heading for Atlantis to get ready for the wedding," Book informed Reynolds. He winked at Zoe. "Make sure he's on time." "I will," she promised. The group headed off. Inara has stayed overnight with River. Something about not tempting fate and seeing the bride too early. "You ready, sir." He took a deep breath. "I am." They reached the city and Mal joined John in Sheppard's quarters. The Colonel had changed into his dress uniform. "Now don't you look fancy," Mal commented trying not to feel dressed down in his simple overalls and brown coat. "Regulation." John ran a comb through his hair that never stayed put anyway. "Who's idea was this double wedding and baby blessin'." John nervously smiled. "Not sure." He went to the door. "Ready." "Guess so." The two grooms went to the gate room. The gate had flowers strewn all over it and somebody had put down a richly decorated rug on the floor. Book stood in the center, his Bible open and ready. "Nervous?" he quietly asked. The two men just glanced at him. The rest of the guests stood scattered around the city. Kaylee and Zoe stood on the brides's side. Kaylee had on a flowery dress, Zoe the sleek gown she'd worn at Wash's funeral. Both of them held their babies in their arms. Jack O'Neill and Jayne stood as best men for the grooms. "Just take a deep breath," Jack advised behind Sheppard. "Thanks, sir." "If I did this. So can you." "And I got Vera," Jayne added. Mal just glared at him. Two women appeared at the top of the lighted stairs. Inara, radiant, her dark hair piled high and decorated with colorful combs. Her dress a deep blue and a more modest neckline than she usually wore. River in a deep purple floor length dress, a simple garland of flowers in her dark brown hair. As one, they took the stairs to their waiting soon to be husbands. The couples took each others hands, River and John, Mal and Inara, and waited for Shepherd Book to speak. "Dear friends, we are gathered here, this day, on a new world and home, to join these two couples, in the holy state of matrimony." "Wish he'd loose the holy," Mal muttered. "Stop it, Mal," Inara firmly told him. "Do you, River Tamm, take Colonel John Sheppard as your husband? To love him, cherish him, keeping only to him, until the end of your life?" "I do." Her voice was strong. "And I do," John said before he had to be asked. "Malcolm Reynolds, do you?" "What was the question?" Mal winked at Inara. "Mal," she warned. "Yeah. I do." "And I do," Inara smiled warmly, her eyes only for Mal. Rings were exchanged and Book finished, "Now, by the power invested in me, I pronounce you, River and John, and you Mal and Inara, husband and wife." He closed his Bible . "You can kiss your brides." They did. They stepped aside to allow Zoe, and Simon and Kaylee to step forward to have their babies blessed. "Zoe, though you've lost your husband, I know he is smiling down from heaven today." Book touched the baby's head. "Wash welcome to the world and to your new home. May you grow up to be a man your parents will be proud of." The Shepherd turned to Simon and Kaylee. He placed his hand on their daughter's head. "Violet Tamm, welcome. You have parents that love you and are thrilled you are here. May you grow up to be a woman who knows her mind and destiny." "Thank you, Book." Kaylee glowed at the shepherd. "Now." Book raised his voice. "There is a reception being held in the cafeteria. Hope to see all of you there." The happy couples dashed out and all their guests joined them. Congratulations were given, toasts done, wedding cake cut and shared, a few gifts given and finally the party wound down. The two couples gratefully escaped. As a gift, the crew of Serenity gave the ship to Mal and Inara for a few days while they stayed in the city. John and River retreated to his quarters and locked the door. Elizabeth had given him a couple of weeks off and he intended to put it to good use. River just smiled and came to him. He just held her for a long, long time. They'd waited for years for this moment. It wouldn't hurt to savor her sweetness just a bit longer. "And because they had the hyperdrive," Tera's mother told her as once again she told her daughter the story. "The Wraith, the Cylons and all other the bad guys of the galaxy couldn't follow." "But what finally happened to everyone?" She sat up in her bed, not wanting the story to end. "Well, you know John and River married, as did Mal and Inara. They had many children." "What about Zoe?" "She married Boomer from the Galactica and had more children with him." "And Elizabeth and McKay, and well, everyone else you've told me about?" "Oh, dear one." Her mother gently settled her back and tucked her in. "Those are stories for another night." "Ahhh, mom. That's not fair." Tera tried to stall a bit longer. "What happened to Shepherd Book?" "They say, that the mysterious Elders relented and made him a Whitelighter again." "Did Mal every become a Whitelighter?" Her mother smoothed back her hair. "I don't know. Go to sleep now, Tera. It's late." The light went off as her mother closed the door. Tera crept out of bed and went to stand on the balcony. Below her lay the city, the brightly lit towers so much like they had been when Atlantis had first come here that long ago day. The spaceport had grown and more buildings had sprung up in the outskirts. The Deadalus was a museum dedicated to the memory of Earth. "You changed so much," she whispered to her ancestors. "We know the truth and the Alliance never came to power." She hugged herself against the cool evening breeze. "We live so much better." A cat meowed behind her and she padded back to bed inviting the feline to join her. "Time to sleep, Wan." Outside, several Whitelighters gathered to look over the city. "We did a good thing," Mal turned to Book. "We did," the older man agreed. "Course, we did." Kaylee peeked in at the girl. "She's going to grow up to be such a wonderful pilot." "And we'll be here to guide her." Inara took Mal's hand. "I never thought I'd be a Whitelighter." John grabbed River as she orbed to join him. Book laughed. "I think we disrupted their orderly little verse. They needed us here." "Speak for yourself," Rodney groused. "Though I will admit, this beats ascension. Not so many rules." "Just enough." Book got a far away look in his eyes. "A charge needs me." He orbed out. "A whole city full of potential Whitelighters." John shook his head. "Who, in a million years, would have thought that?"	-1	Unrelated	false
85599b61-74ea-4359-8361-ceb66cb6e91e	alignment-classifier-documents-unlabeled \| trentmkelly/LessWrong-43k	Perfect Predictors What's even the point of making decision theories for dealing with perfect predictors (newcomb's paradox) when we know that according to one of our most accepted theories these days (quantum mechanics) the inherent randomness of our universe does not allow perfect prediction even with unlimited current and past knowledge?	-1	Unrelated	false
74df9b65-7835-46b7-811f-9444f6423025	alignment-classifier-documents-unlabeled \| trentmkelly/LessWrong-43k	Understanding and justifying Solomonoff induction I've been trying to understand the uses and limitations of Solomonoff induction. Following the principle that in order to fully understand something you should explain it others, here's a try. I prefer to write such things in a form for dialogue, as that better reflects thought processes. This is not a very-in-depth technical article - for example, cousin_it and Wen Dai has obviously spent more time pondering about SI. (I'm not a long-time LW reader, but have skimmed through existing LW and wiki articles on related topics before posting this.) Alice. Hi, I'm interested in the question of why and when should I prefer simpler hypotheses. I've heard about Occam's razor and I've read about Solomonoff induction and the Universal Prior. Now I'm looking for a philosophical justification of the math. I'd like to have something akin to de Finetti's justification for probability theory - "if you don't believe in the axioms, you're going to be Dutch booked!". Bob. You're welcome. Do you have any problems with the formulations? A. I'm trying to understand how to connect the informal concept of Occam's razor with the mathematical formula of the Universal Prior in a meaningful way. Informally, a hypothesis is something that explains the data. Occam's razor tells us to prefer simpler hypotheses. B. Well, yes. A. But the Universal Prior seems to tell something that seems to be even stronger: that all shorter hypothesis are more likely! Clearly, that's not the case: if F and G are hypotheses, then "F OR G" is a hypothesis as well, and not less likely than either F or G individually! What's more, there exists a whole set of language and domain pairs where longer hypotheses have the same average probability. For one particular example consider propositional logic with AND, OR, and NOT operators. Because of symmetry between conjunction and disjunction, a well-formed 10-element formula is as likely to be a tautology (i.e. always correct) as a 100-element formula! B. You're conf	-1	Unrelated	false
2abc8bf5-2538-490c-9f57-3fc5d7fdf77c	alignment-classifier-documents-unlabeled \| trentmkelly/LessWrong-43k	What happens to existing life sentences under LEV? Presumably they get offered longevity treatments since they already get healthcare. Are they locked up until the end of time? For 100 years?	-1	Unrelated	false
3508afd1-1d6c-41f4-9d6a-bd5425ccfee3	alignment-classifier-documents-unlabeled \| StampyAI/alignment-research-dataset/arbital	Every group is a quotient of a free group Given a [group](https://arbital.com/p/3gd) $G$, there is a [https://arbital.com/p/-free_group](https://arbital.com/p/-free_group) $F(X)$ on some set $X$, such that $G$ is [isomorphic](https://arbital.com/p/49x) to some [quotient](https://arbital.com/p/4tq) of $F(X)$. This is an instance of a much more general phenomenon: for a general [monad](https://arbital.com/p/monad_category_theory) $T: \mathcal{C} \to \mathcal{C}$ where $\mathcal{C}$ is a category, if $(A, \alpha)$ is an [algebra](https://arbital.com/p/eilenberg_moore_category) over $T$, then $\alpha: TA \to A$ is a [coequaliser](https://arbital.com/p/coequaliser_category_theory). ([Proof.](https://arbital.com/p/algebras_are_coequalisers)) # Proof Let $F(G)$ be the free group on the elements of $G$, in a slight abuse of notation where we use $G$ interchangeably with its [https://arbital.com/p/-3gz](https://arbital.com/p/-3gz). Define the [homomorphism](https://arbital.com/p/47t) $\theta: F(G) \to G$ by "multiplying out a word": taking the word $(a_1, a_2, \dots, a_n)$ to the product $a_1 a_2 \dots a_n$. This is indeed a group homomorphism, because the group operation in $F(G)$ is concatenation and the group operation in $G$ is multiplication: clearly if $w_1 = (a_1, \dots, a_m)$, $w_2 = (b_1, \dots, b_n)$ are words, then $$\theta(w_1 w_2) = \theta(a_1, \dots, a_m, b_1, \dots, b_m) = a_1 \dots a_m b_1 \dots b_m = \theta(w_1) \theta(w_2)$$ This immediately expresses $G$ as a quotient of $F(G)$, since [kernels of homomorphisms are normal subgroups](https://arbital.com/p/4h7).	-1	Unrelated	false
<urn:uuid:30aa0278-7d5f-4cfb-8678-f9985a0951fe>	dclm-dedup-25B-ai-scifi-docs \| http://lrmonline.com/news/this-awesome-featurette-covers-the-entirety-of-the-current-marvel-cinematic-universe	This Awesome Featurette Covers the Entirety of the Current Marvel Cinematic Universe – by Joseph Medina Call it projecting, but coming off of this year's "Avengers: Age of Ultron," I felt a definite sense of fatigue in the internet zeitgeist in regards to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Up until that point, it seemed like the MCU had done no wrong, and while "Age of Ultron" was still a solid movie, it definitely disappointed its fair share of fans. Marvel had gotten to the point where "solid" would no longer do. It had to be a better film than its predecessors. "Ant-Man" seemed to take a bit of collateral damage for that disappointment. Yes, "Ant-Man" did well enough to warrant a sequel, but had "Age of Ultron" proven to be a superior film to the original "Avengers," things may have turned out even better for it. Overall, 2015 seemed like something of a lull for the MCU, but following the trailer for "Captain America: Civil War," there seems to be a renewed sense of vigor for the fan-favorite shared universe. With the dropping of the trailer, and a new enthusiasm for the MCU going into 2016, what better time is it to stumble upon a featurette that chronicles the forming of the MCU? The featurette, which was posted on Tumblr, comes from the recently-released Marvel Phase 2 box set, which contains films "Iron Man 3," "Thor: The Dark World," "Captain America: The Winter Soldier," "Avengers: Age of Ultron," and "Ant-Man." More than anything, the featurette talks about the origin of the now-trademark Marvel post-credits tag, and goes through each film, and how the scene was created. Check out the video below! It's a small fun quirk that's evolved into something else altogether, and serves as one of the defining traits of a Marvel film. But the featurette doesn't stop there, near the end, executive producer Jeremy Latcham talks about the birth of the Infinity Stones, and the studio's tracking of the artifacts through the past several films. The next MCU film is "Captain America: Civil War." You can check the trailer out below. SOURCES: IWantCupcakes (via CBM) Videos, Film Marvel Cinematic Universe, Marvel	-1	Unrelated	false
c02adf0c-4d1c-41fa-80e1-d29b1aceb53d	alignment-classifier-documents-unlabeled \| trentmkelly/LessWrong-43k	Open Thread, Jul. 6 - Jul. 12, 2015 If it's worth saying, but not worth its own post (even in Discussion), then it goes here. ---------------------------------------- Notes for future OT posters: 1. Please add the 'open_thread' tag. 2. Check if there is an active Open Thread before posting a new one. (Immediately before; refresh the list-of-threads page before posting.) 3. Open Threads should be posted in Discussion, and not Main. 4. Open Threads should start on Monday, and end on Sunday.	-1	Unrelated	false
<urn:uuid:da27b263-d60e-450f-aeab-6df7ac05e096>	dclm-dedup-25B-ai-scifi-docs \| http://555enterprises.blogspot.com/2015_05_01_archive.html	Thursday, May 28, 2015 High Tides- "Sunware" High Tides appears to be another side project of Black Moth Super Rainbow's Tobacco. Hot of the heels of reading this profile/history of Hipster Runoff's Carles at Motherboard, this popped into my inbox. Maybe chillwave is gearing up for another Deadbeat Summer? In that article, Carles notes that: “Chillwave music is still great… I still find my musical sensibilities going back towards the aural, pure vibes of chillwave. I will probably be like 'the old guy who thinks the Beatles r awesome' except with chillwave.” I may be too. I still listen to a lot of this stuff often. Oh, BTW, this came this week too, take it or leave it. Wednesday, May 27, 2015 In an update to a previous post, Mark Harris at Grantland perfectly sums up the world-destructive violence that was waiting in the Age of Ultron when I eventually got around to seeing it: "At the climax of Avengers: Age of Ultron, the titular supervillain portrayed by 8 million CGI artists and the voice of James Spader launches an attack on a large part of an Eastern European country called Sokovia.1 Basically, he scissors a border around a big section of a Sokovian city and then lifts it into midair. Because he can, and also because of something about how the only way to save mankind is to destroy it, yada yada yada. It’s a messy business, because all of that city-scissoring is slightly imprecise. High-rise buildings tend to fall off the borders; there’s lots of dirt and crumbling and stuff tumbling either into the hole that’s left or onto the city around the hole. But this is Marvel, so the stakes are at once preposterously high (it’s the end of the world as we know it) and calculatedly low (you’ll feel fine). “Sokovia,” after all, isn’t real; the city isn’t real; the threat isn’t real. The Sokovian populace is basically a stand-in for “Worried-looking white extras in a country really far from the U.S. that probably isn’t even that much of an ally.” It’s only a movie — in fact, it’s a movie in which the characters all seem to have a general sense that it’s only a movie and that things will work out in movie terms. (Iron Man to himself: “Please be a secret door … Yay!”) Anyway, they’re all OK. Really. In a couple of lines that sound rather hastily spackled-in, one or another of the Avengers pauses during all of this world-saving to mention that they’ve gotten just about everyone out of a building.3 So, lots of destruction, little death. It’s Teflon Apocalypse. Then, at the end, there’s a kind of efficient evacuation in which everyone who’s left on the floating-island part of the city intuitively races over to the same edge in order to get on the equivalent of four or five space buses. In a very meta nod to the long-prevailing need to protect delicate sensibilities, even a dog gets to jump onto the rescue convoy. If Age of Ultron were a plane-crash movie, it would offer a lot of mayhem interspersed with affable discussions and would climax with the orderly inflation of life vests and deployment of yellow slides." I recall from my younger days reading G.I. Joe comics, identified now to be little more than pro-military propaganda to help recover from the malaise of 70s skepticism and institutional distrust, that the invention of far-away countries to concurrently terrorize and rescue was a common tactic in those forced narratives. It allowed for the illusion of ill will (off-panel, off-screen) that was only as gruesome as your fantasies allowed, but securely allocated to a country whose imaginary borders were far from our own and whose unknown customs and cultures were exoticized enough to be dispensable anyway. The stakes are high for Sovokia, but all that really accounts for is a bigger thank you owed to our Randian supermen. The Avengers: Age of Ultron actually introduces fantasy lands like this twice, once in "Sokovia" and once in "Wakanda", a fictionalized African nation known in the comics as the home country of Black Panther. After being set off by Scarlet Witch's telepathy, the Hulk goes on a rampage, ravaging the streets of an urban center in Wakanda, throwing cars, busting holes in buildings, and running afoul of mostly black faces instead of the white ones we see in Sovokia. The parallels between Ultron and the Hulk's rampages should be crystal clear. Clearly, this seems a narrative choice on Whedon's behalf, a chance to either contrast reaction or demonstrate the thin line separate madness of righteous zealotry, but in one of the most hypocritical moves of a superhero franchise thus far, it's none of those thing. The Hulk is meant to be forgiven, since he is bestial and destructive by nature, while Ultron is scheming and deliberate. While Ultron seems to be acting in an aggressively punitive, fatherly mode, punishing the world for its misdeeds, Hulk is in some snare of shellshock, wanting to be a do-gooder but unable to reconcile how awesome it feels to just smash shit up. We're expected to condemn one- the fracturing logic of megalomania; and condone another- intrinsic violence bubbled up to its breaking point.* But in the People's History of the Marvel Universe, would anyone in Wakanda or Sovokia know the difference? Does intentionality play that vital a role to the collateral damage on the sidelines? What winds up happening instead is a marginalization of African lives, which would already be quite a thing were African lives not already the most expendable of all lives in the current Western geopolitcal landscape. The disappearance of their stories and their struggles, the off-panel/off-screen tragedies, is a daily occurrence. A throwaway line suggests that no one will be fired, suspended, and charges won't be pressed, but to whom do the Avengers answer exactly? The International Criminal Court? S.H.I.E.L.D.'s internal auditors? The Baltimore PD? In the comics, Wakanda becomes independently wealthy thanks to its clever harnessing of resources, but in the film there's little evidence that the country is any more rich than its neighbors. Best case scenario, the property damage alone would surely bankrupt the country. And at this point in the film, this is only the second war crime that Hulk's Bruce Banner has committed. Earlier, it's actually him and Iron Man/Tony Stark who, without oversight or authorization or so much as a second glance in the barely-regulated Stark labs, create Ultron, which is in every sense of the word a weapon of mass destruction. Again, intentionality alone seems to get them off the hook, because despite the seemingly eviler wreckage that Ultron induces, Stark and Banner are never treated like the war criminals/terrorists they most certainly are. Purest intentions don't count for shit for those laying in the body bags. Of course, as the tone of the Grantland quote above suggests, this would a silly thing to argue, except that Age of Ultron precisely mirrors existing hegemony; a world were Africans are bystanders to our most destructive impulses, ignored to the mercy of tyrants, Ebola, HIV, famine, poverty, et al. while the security council nations take what they need; where war crimes perpetrated either intentionally or as a goof go unpunished; and where the death of 2000 people in a lucky strike terror attack by a gaggle of Saudi half-wits is still given more credence than the millions of war dead launched in its wake in a calculated global war on/of terror. Look, you know how we've been trying to create a super advanced robot AI to protect the world from aliens? Well, this technology from those exact same aliens, used by the leader of those aliens to nearly destroy us all, might be the key to stopping future aliens! I'm going to load the computer stuff and see what happens. What?! Are you seriously the dipshit that finds a random USB key in your office parking lot and immediately plugs it into your work computer? OK, I ran not_a_virus.exe. Now let's go party. A.I. Paul Bettany can finish this up. The muse to Stark's Reaganite vision of creating an A.I. Star Wars defense shield in Ultron was a vision implanted in him by Scarlet Witch, not of a world where the Avengers had failed to protect the populace, but a neatly stacked altar of superhero corpses, the self-anointed elite crumbled under their own impotence. A world without those to simultaneously protect us and destroy us. Would that really be so bad? I'd always assumed Black Panther was a badass ode to the black nationalists of the 60s and 70s, but Wikipedia seems to signal that the name preceded it. I'd be curious to know if there was any intersection between the two in the comics. The inevitability and essentialism of the Hulk's aggression is particularly problematic given the recent antics of the superhero franchise's fanboy audience. Since it has little to no effect on world diplomatic relationships or the rest of the Avengers, this behavior's main impact is on Black Widow, Banner's love interest. Black Widow is tasked with "taming" Banner and, as well-publicized elsewhere, becomes more of a sexual prize than an autonomous character with her own desires and agency, let alone a superhero. Everything about their pairing has the air of an abusive relationship. "He's not so bad. He has a temper. Deep down, he's all fluff" she says at one point. Tuesday, May 26, 2015 Nice Feelings- "Fresh" Saturday, May 23, 2015 Late to the Meme Actually tweeted these when the Catholic Vote tweet went online. Posted here for posterity. From Duran Duran's "Wild Boys" song, which was to be the theme song to Russell Mulcahy's film adaptation of William S. Burroughs's novel of the same name, which is about a violent, sadistic homosexual gang trying to bring about the end of the world. Amazing to think about that film. Would they have had to tone it down or would Mulcahy have gone full throttle into it? The Powerpoint Version Just remembered a bit of counter-programming to the previous post from back in the early naughts. In the episode of Veronica Mars called "Drinking the Kool Aid", the titular teenage detective investigates an "09er" (a network of the elite 1%ers with rich parents) who disappears into a cult. The scenario appears at first glance to be playing out like you would assume it might, with a naive teenager being brainwashed by an intrinsically evil organization with apocalyptic intentions. However, the group winds up being a benevolent and idealistic lot, while it is the parents tracking down Casey (the 09er) (who stem from the executive class) who actually have malevolent intent. In fact while the cult allows its membership to come and go as they please without any pressure, the parents hire intelligence agents to counterprogram Casey's newfound distaste for capitalism out of him. Friday, May 22, 2015 Fear of Cults Next week will see the debut of Aquarius, an NBC TV series modeled after the Manson family murders of the late 1960s. While one would hope for a more sympathetic and ambiguous reading along the lines of that same channel's absolutely brilliant Hannibal, previews and early reviews indicate different with the focus mainly on a hard-nosed cop played by David Duchovny, who doesn't understand the (ugh) "Flower Generation", and his more sympathetic, younger partner who apparently thinks the kids are alright. Let's hope this is the sugar pill to make the rest go down smoother, but leave it at that. Concurrently, this week indie superstar director Todd Haynes announced he's developing a far more promising series about the far more benign Source Family cult, known mostly for their vegetarian food and psychedelic music. Both of these series however underscore a trend I've been noticing in recent years. Mainstream culture seems oddly hung up on the idea of cults, which, in the 21st century is peculiar and anachronistic. It's not that cults don't exist anymore, but their prevalence, particularly those operating in the apocalyptic faith-based way they're portrayed in these mediums, is far less momentous than it has been in decades. Cults became a huge issue in the late 60s and the early 70s as children began deviating from the belief systems of their parents and adopting new ideas in new formations. Communes and collectives, both spiritual and not, came and went with varying degrees of success, but their arrival signaled an overall dissatisfaction with the old order. Manson, of course, was the first huge cult scare, but cult ideology of singular charismatic leaders with specific edicts and codes of induction began infiltrating its way into mainstream ideology by way of support groups and self-help/self-actualization communities, such as EST (as seen on the Americans) or Esalen (as seen on the final episode of Mad Men). Mind control was only a concern insofar as cults could be seen to be operating on behalf of Soviet state powers. Still, there was huge trepidation about cults due to the more political-styled terrorist organizations that operated like cults (Symbionese Liberation Army, Baader Meinhof, Weather Underground, et. al.) and that anxiety was, in part, paid off in the form of the People's Temple wherein Jim Jones horrifically encouraged his followers to commit mass suicide. In recording captured during the last few hours in the Jonestown compound, Jones considered this a symbolic act, a moment of collective despair at a world that refused to listen to the poor and disadvantaged. Which surely would've been powerful and hard to dismiss, had they not poisoned the fucking children too. With the rise of the reactionary Christian Coalition and the evangelical movement, paranoia about cults rose to a fever pitch in the 80s as dozens of unmitigated lawsuits destroyed the lives of caretakers as community members rose against what they feared to be satanic cult ritual abuse in suburban daycare centers. Cults seemed to fade from fashion to the fringes in the years that followed, but the 90s saw a resurgence of truly destructive activity with high body counts from the likes of the Branch Davidians, Solar Temple, and Heaven's Gate cults. In the twenty years since then, the main cult of any major concern has been the Westboro Baptist Church, a proto-trolling group whose antics are more obnoxious than frightening. So why, at this late hour, have cults come surging back into the popular consciousness? In the past few years, cults have become a significant force on Helix, The Following, True Detective, Orphan Black, Game of Thrones, The Blacklist, and The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt. And those are just the ones I either watch or have had some interaction with. Film seems to have not broached the subject too much, which can likely be explained away by the fact that Hollywood is more monolithic and remake-based than it has been at any point in its history, but it's notable to point out the fantastic Martha Marcy May Marlene (about a woman who escapes a cult), The Master (about a relationship between an L.Ron-like guru and a sociopath who wants to belong but refuses to be stabilized), The Sacrament (an Eli Roth story that's apparently a stylized take on Jonestown), and Red State (whose antagonists are very thinly veiled takes on Westboro). So, what gives? Why at the moment of disaster capitalism, endless police brutality, cyberbullying, flying killer robots, omniscient surveillance states, corporate control and austerity, et al., does now seem the moment to make cults a thing? There hasn't been a real cult tragedy in some time and in many ways the idea of physical community and union for outsiders has dissipated as online locales like Reddit seem to foster every known subculture from the safety and comfort of one's own home. Beyond Westboro, whose numbers are small and whose support is negligible, but whose publicity is aggressive, a couple theories. 1. Prevalence of Scientology in the media/entertainment community has begun to backlash (re: recent parodies of the religion and the popularity of the HBO doc Going Clear) 2. Railing against cults is a safe, somewhat inoffensive way to rail against faith-based belief systems in general. The rising New Atheism and anti-theism texts must surely be more popular reading material in Television boardrooms, than say heartland America. 3. Children of the 90s whose first experiences of collective trauma involved Koresh or Heaven's Gate are now growing up and processing those experiences 4. More speculatively, and perhaps more contentiously, a society that bows to the alter of the individual and particularly the self is scared of a 60s style splintering into new factions that may threaten the established order. Cults are in essence the new Romero-style Zombie, a communality of thought that threatens to extinguish great men from being the single inheritors of history. Or alternately, cult shows are threatened by any new thoughts at all. Anything that doesn't pluck from the existing dustbin of history is obscene. The ways social media is allowing those with shared experience and shared thought to instantaneously unite and challenge one another, for good or ill, is substantially a threat to a system that relies on social control as it main doctrine. What are your thoughts? Are there any other writings on why so many cults have been popping up on TV screens? Though Kimmy Schmidt is a comedy, it actually very maturely and honestly deals with the ramifications of abuse. So much so, it could be considered the first PTSD or post-rape culture comedy. Thursday, May 21, 2015 Ventila- For Human Consumption Muzak Sounds Better With You Wendy Reid- "Gungles" A borrowed memory Here Comes Success The driving question for the series is, Who are we? When we talk about “we,” who is that? In the pilot, Pete Campbell has this line, “Adding money and education doesn’t take the rude edge out of people.” Sophisticated anti-Semitism. I overheard that line when I was a schoolteacher. The person, of course, didn’t know they were in the presence of a Jew. I was a ghost. Certain male artists like to show that they’re feminists as a way to get girls. That’s always seemed pimpy to me. I sympathize with feminism the same way I identify with gay people and with people of color, because I know what it’s like to look over the side of the fence and then to climb over the fence and to feel like you don’t belong, or be reminded at the worst moment that you don’t belong. Take Rachel Menken, the department-store heiress in the first season of Mad Men. She’s part of what I call the nose-job generation. She’s assimilated. She probably doesn’t observe the Sabbath or any of these other things that her parents did. That generation had a hard time because they were trying desperately to be buttoned-down and preppy and—this is my parent’s generation—white as could be. They were embarrassed by their parents. This is the story of America, this assimilation. Because guess what, this guy Don has the same problems. He’s hiding his identity, too. That’s why Rachel Menken understands Don, because they’re both trying desperately to be white American males." -Matthew Weiner, The Paris Review Interview HvEXAS Forever Monday, May 18, 2015 Emotional Guidance "TV now tells you what to feel. Morality has been replaced by feeling. -Adam Curtis The above quote is not the source material from which Forcefeel derives (the moniker preceded the quote in question), but reading this and seeing Curtis's Century of the Self gave potency and legitimacy to some of the ideas I had which had inspired the name. (I still have a dormant plan to erect an entire album from Reality TV swells and incidental dramatic links, the real stuff of the Forcefeel. It'll probably never happen, but it's nice to dream). I couldn't help thinking back to The Century of the Self when watching last night's Mad Men series finale; the repositioning of the empathetic/communal hippie spirit of goodwill into a struggle of the self. Man vs. nature/man vs. society transforming into personal growth/man vs. himself. In a way, I think this was part of the crux of the show, the central existential tension offscreen (and the vast majority of its tensions were offscreen), the idea that something outside yourself could permit you to be anything but yourself and thus lose yourself in the process. Don's somewhat nihilistic take in early seasons was that there was no real self, just fantasies and fictions created by men like himself to sell to rubes desperate to chew up the bait. But in the end, left with nothing but himself, it became clear that it was just as possible that he did have a core self and that core self was just kind of a piece of shit. To the show's credit, it never provided instructions on how to feel, though in a culture where guided self-reflection is normative this ambiguity is just as intrinisically dangerous as the alternative. Certainly, the show can count among its fanbase those who idolize or idealize the time and the characters, something AMC's own marketing never tried to dissuade. When one's feelings have been conditioned in every other capacity by ideology, you can then be allowed to roam free in the marketplace of ambiguity, secure in the knowledge that the filter of the self will reflect back only your own one-directional biases and direct you to purchase the correct rendition of the status quo (ie, never the most threatening one). Michael Vallera- "Dream Lense" Opal Tapes Curatorial Aphex Diamonds in the rough these, often buried between kinda dull tunes. Is this one his BOC tune? The Aphex everyone wants, but he rarely gives you The zonkers weirdo who makes the other Aphexes so much more interesting Son!ka & Gut Nose- "Untitled B" The Future May Be Boring "On the other hand, being quite serious, the future may be boring. It’s possible that my children and yours will live in an eventless world, and that the faculty of imagination will die, or express itself solely in the realm of psychopathology." Queen Ono "Recently, I sent a friend a YouTube link in an email and warned her, “Only watch this if you want to be angry!” It was a video by the comedian and podcaster Bill Burr, talking over a 1972 clip of John and Yoko performing with Chuck Berry on The Mike Douglas Show. Lennon and Berry are “killing it,” Burr declares, and Ono’s just “playing some stupid fucking drum, and even though she has no fucking talent whatsoever, he’s putting her in the fucking band just so she’ll shut the fuck up and stop nagging him!” This joke was not original enough to offend me, but I felt an anger rising when Burr panned back: “Dude, did you ever have, like, a buddy of yours and he’s dating some fucking psycho but he’s in love with her so you can’t fucking say anything? And you’re just sitting there waiting for the fucking lightning bolt to hit your friend in the head where he finally realizes that he’s dating a psycho cunt?” When I watch that Mike Douglas performance now, I see something different from what Burr does — or from what I might have seen a decade ago. I see in Ono a locus of possibility. A portal leading toward an alternate universe in which I can freely admit sacrilegious things: that I feel uncomfortable falling at the feet of both Lennon or Berry because one of them beat his ex-wife and the other was once arrested for transporting a 14-year-old girl across state lines; that these two don’t sound all that great together; that there is something laughably tame about their performance, and by extension the entire supposedly revolutionary art form of rock and roll, if it can be so profoundly threatened by a woman playing a drum and making weird noises with her voice. I see a woman throwing blood" - Lindsay Zoladz, Yoko Ono and the Myth That Needs to Die, Vulture Ital- "Syndrome" How a great techno track sounds Truss- "Kymin Lea" Friday, May 15, 2015 Slum Landlords of the Marvel Universe A few years ago, I wrote about the habitual desire of Hollywood to destroy the world. The article's focus was not solely on the disaster porn aspect of a country transfixed on images of the old world crumbling and being rescued by the guard that had failed to prevent its collapse, but also on the specific need to market new products to its audience at exactly these moments of mass destruction. In this piece, I singled out Joss Whedon's The Avengers, that year's summer blockbuster that is still to date one of the highest grossing films of all-time, as indicative of the kind of film that punishes its universe severely for the follies of godlike protagonists without showing the ensuing repercussions of this catastrophic destruction. I stand by most of my critiques in the article, but the dynamic has since shifted slightly in the Marvel universe. I've no illusions that Whedon himself might have read the piece (I'm almost certain he didn't), but the Marvel universe film and television projects that have launched in the wake of The Avengers have focused rather unexpectedly on coming to terms with the wreckage of that Avengers film. This is particularly true of the first season of the Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D television show. The show's main protagonist, Phil Coulson, was killed in The Avengers (he's the one they ultimately avenge), but is here resurrected somewhat mysteriously and haunted by the experience of his own death. Elsewhere, the world is adjusting with equal parts terror and trepidation to the fact that there are now these things with superpowers roaming around with the capability of doing immense damage. Twin agencies, each with some degree of institutional backing and malevolent intent, compete to be the ones to harness these weaponized humans. The heroes of the story are seen roaming through wreckage for alien artifacts and other ephemera that may be alternately useful or harmful. Scorched earth is implied and occasionally present, but overall life continues. Unlike our real post-9/11 world, the entire apparatus of global defense does not seem to dominate daily motions, but operates largely in a clandestine matter behind the scenes. Elswehere, in Iron Man 3, Tony Stark has been visibly traumatized by the "Battle of New York", struggling to shake the unease of how his attempts to outmanuever his enemies' weapons capabilities only seems to result in arming them more intensely. Here, trauma is personalized in the eyes of someone with great power and great responsibility. Heaven is the head that wears the crown, et al., but not exactly a People's History of the Marvel Universe. The new Netflix series Daredevil, though barely even tangential to the world of The Avengers examines the damage perhaps the furthest. The series, developed by frequent Whedon collaborator Drew Goddard, takes place entirely in a ravaged Hell's Kitchen, NYC, a locale still in the process of rebuilding after the alien invasion in the Avengers. Hell's Kitchen here has essentially been de-gentrified, with organized crime elements coming in to terrorize the already-distraught community. At the center of the storyline is a wealthy businessman named Wilson Fisk who wants to buy up all the affected real estate, purge the poverty caste out, and rebuild the city using a seemingly unlimited amount of capital garnered through both legal and extralegal means. The allusion here seems not to be to post-9/11, as The Avengers would suggest, but to post-Katrina New Orleans where politicians like Richard Baker were remarking that "Finally we cleaned up public housing in New Orleans. We couldn't do it, but God did it.". In many ways, Fisk takes the same approach as Baker, offering buyouts for new condo space and then setting fire to the buildings that the rabble won't leave like a slum landlord and wholesale developer rolled into one. Daredevil also wisely implicates both the corporate and state authorities for their responsibility in leaving the damage unattended, instituting what in a post-2008 economy would be known as "recovery without recovery". Daredevil is in many ways a very flawed and simplistic narrative. It hits on income inequality and wealth disparity as one of its central tenets, but can only remark on these through glaring contrasts of absolute evil and morally-compromised good (Daredevil's Matt Murdock is a nearly-lapsed Catholic who still regularly consults his local priest). Furthermore, its treatment of its female leads as well as its consistent use of torture as a valid information extracting tool make it, to use the cliched term, problematic at best. To its merit though, it's only in the shot at the top of this page, which appears briefly as a former newspaper reporter is looking through his old stories, that Marvel ever even acknowledges that there was indeed mass loss of life in the alien invasion of the Avengers. A notion that's been mummified into a picture frame, the word "final" central in the frame and the bottom scroll already moving past it to talk about "cleanup" rather than any psychic impact or immediate changes to the sociopolitical landscape. Cleanup on Aisle 6. Sweep this mess right under the rug and move on. Though Daredevil's working class tenants of the ruins of Hell's Kitchen can't move on. They still live here. For a series in which trauma and atrocity are so often exploited for narrative gravitas, these stories still do have quite a knack for averting their eyes, perhaps distracted by their own spectacles. I'm not asking for Marvel to issue its own "Treme", but for an era in which drooling fanboys demand A+ ratings from critics for a series of films that finally take comic books seriously, a 10% reduction in hand-to-hand combat scenes to focus on fallout could have a huge impact on the millions of people watching, who also may be reeling from their own participation in the shock doctrine. * I have not yet seen Age of Ultron, so I can't comment on it yet. Thursday, May 14, 2015 Lotic- "Surrender" Try to Act Normal (Unsettled for Years Now) "I take for granted that for the imaginative writer, the exercise of the imagination is part of the basic process of coping with reality, just as actors need to act all the time to make up for some deficiency in their sense of themselves. Years ago, sitting at the café outside the American Express building in Athens, I watched the British actor Michael Redgrave (father of Vanessa) cross the street in the lunchtime crowd, buy Time at a magazine kiosk, indulge in brief banter with the owner, sit down, order a drink, then get up and walk away—every moment of which, every gesture, was clearly acted, that is, stressed and exaggerated in a self-conscious way, although he obviously thought that no one was aware who he was, and he didn’t think that anyone was watching him. I take it that the same process works for the writer, except that the writer is assigning himself his own roles. I have a sense of certain gathering obsessions and roles, certain corners of the field where the next stage of the hunt will be carried on. I know that if I don’t write, say on holiday, I begin to feel unsettled and uneasy, as I gather people do who are not allowed to dream." -J.G. Ballard, interview with the Paris Review, 1984 Dept. of Acknowledging "Yes, We're the Fucking Bad Guys" "As The Intercept reports today, the NSA does have a program called Skynet. But unlike the autonomous, self-aware computerized defense system in Terminator that goes rogue and launches a nuclear attack that destroys most of humanity, this one is a surveillance program that uses phone metadata to track the location and call activities of suspected terrorists. A journalist for Al Jazeera reportedly became one of its targets after he was placed on a terrorist watch list... Skynet uses phone location and call metadata from bulk phone call records to detect suspicious patterns in the physical movements of suspects and their communication habits, according to a 2012 government presentation The Intercept obtained from Edward Snowden... The goal is to identify people who move around in a pattern similar to Al Qaeda couriers who are used to pass communication and intelligence between the group’s senior leaders. The program tracked Zaidan because his movements and interactions with Al Qaeda and Taliban leaders matched a suspicious pattern—which is, it turns out, very similar to the pattern of journalists meeting with sources. We should note that the NSA has a second program that more closely resembles the Terminator‘s Skynet. This one is called MonsterMind, as revealed by Edward Snowden last year in an interview with WIRED and James Bamford. MonsterMind, like the	-1	Unrelated	false
590e8f01-02df-48f7-9502-0d44ba096662	alignment-classifier-documents-unlabeled \| trentmkelly/LessWrong-43k	The Unreasonable Effectiveness of Certain Questions Cross-posted on my blog: http://garybasin.com/the-unreasonable-effectiveness-of-certain-questions/ About a year ago I was sitting around trying to grok the concept of Evil — where does it come from and how does it work? After a few hours of spinning in circles, I experienced a sudden shift. My mind conjured up the question: “Is this a thing out in the world or just a projection?” (Map vs Territory). Immediately, a part of my mind replied with “Well, this may not be anything other than a story we tell about the behavior of people we dislike”. Let’s ignore the truth value for today and notice the process. I’m interested in this mechanism of how a simple query — checking if I’m looking at a confusion of map with the territory — was able to instantly reframe a problem in a way that allowed me to effortlessly make a mental leap. What’s fascinating is that you don’t even need someone else’s brain to come up with these questions (although that often helps) — you can try to explain your problem to a rubber duck which creates a conversation with yourself and generates queries, or just go through a list of things to ask yourself when stuck. There are a few different categories of these types of queries and many examples of each. For instance, when thinking about plans we can ask ourselves to perform prehindsight/inner simulator or reference class forecasting/outside view. When introspecting on our own behavior, we can perform sentence completion to check for limiting beliefs, ask questions like “Why aren’t I done yet?” or “What can I do to 10x my results?”. When thinking about problems or situations, we can ask ourselves to invert, reframe into something falsifiable, and taboo your words or perform paradjitsu. Or consider the miracle question: Imagine you wake up and the problem is entirely solved — what do you see, as concretely as possible, such that you know this is true? So “we know more than we can tell” — somewhere in our head often lies the answer, if only we cou	-1	Unrelated	false
396be572-c642-4276-a8bf-575706577df1	alignment-classifier-documents-unlabeled \| trentmkelly/LessWrong-43k	Meetup : Sydney Rationality Dojo - February 2017 Discussion article for the meetup : Sydney Rationality Dojo - February 2017 WHEN: 05 February 2017 04:00:00PM (+1100) WHERE: 10 Shepherd Street, Chippendale Get a head start on 2017 -- join us from 4 till 6 to work out your goals, and plan ahead to achieve them. Afterwards we will head off to a group dinner. Discussion article for the meetup : Sydney Rationality Dojo - February 2017	-1	Unrelated	false
<urn:uuid:9473f22c-42c0-44e6-a78f-9b8e52206b3f>	dclm-dedup-25B-ai-scifi-docs \| https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Characters/Deadlands	Follow TV Tropes Characters / Deadlands Go To open/close all folders Due to the nature of Deadlands as a tabletop game, almost all information contained on this page will spoil something for you. If you're a player, turn back now or face the wrath of your Marshal. Last chance, amigo. Here there be spoilers. Deadlands: Weird West and Deadlands: Reloaded The Major Players The Cackler The first Harrowed (pre-Reckoning). More evil and more powerful than Stone. Very little was known about this enigmatic figure until The Cackler graphic novel. The Right Reverend Ezekiah Grimme Head of the Church of Lost Angels, Grimme runs his organization from the City of Lost Angels in southern California. To the masses, he's pretty much second only to the Almighty Himself, since his church provides weekly feasts to the hungry hordes of believers - and, in the Maze, food is often worth its weight in gold. His Edict of '77 declared the Commonwealth of California to be independent of both the Union and the Confederacy, and he tries to claim personal dominion over the entire state - but he's competing with the Chinese to the north, the Mexicans to the south, and the Rail Barons to the east, so it's anyone's guess as to whether or not he'll be able to make that claim stick. The original Ezekiah Grimme was a good man and a devout preacher who attempted to save his followers from starvation following the Great Quake of '68. He was ultimately murdered by his starving followers and his body eaten. The thirteen survivors of the massacre (and feast) awoke the next morning to find the new Reverend Grimme among them, a monster built as an amalgamation of their sins. Now he and his "Thirteen Ghouls" serve, collectively, as Famine's greatest Servitor. The Church of Lost Angels, while consisting largely of honest and devout believers, is merely a cover for their cannibal cult, and the feasts served in the City of Lost Angels are always heavy on the long pork. • Burn the Witch!: The 18:22 Proclamation: any supernatural abilities not performed by a member of the Church of Lost Angels are heretical, and practitioners are put to death. • Corrupt Church: Played With. The City of Lost Angels has odd, almost Orwellian laws, the Guardian Angels are largely allowed to enforce them (or not) as they personally see fit, and so on. On the other hand, the members are largely normal people, if a bit overly moralistic (and very devout). • Meanwhile, the cannibal cult that the church is a cover for takes whoever eats my flesh very literally. • Culture Police: Any Non-Lost Angel practicing any type of religion is a heretic and put to death. • Dark Secret: The church is nominally Christian, just with a whole lot of cannibalism thrown in for taste. • Easy Evangelism: Convert or die of hunger. • Expy: Of Henry Kane in the Poltergeist series. • I'm a Humanitarian: Free dinner every Sunday to the faithful. Just don't ask where the pork came from. • Killed Off for Real: At the climax of The Flood. • Plot Armor: Never statted, as he is too important to the original game's metaplot to be allowed to die. • Inverted in Reloaded. Grimme is fully statted in the Marshal's Handbook, and the Plot Point Campaign The Flood ends with his ultimate destruction at the hands of the posse. Every other Plot Point Campaign for the setting follows on after this with the assumption that Grimme is indeed dead - so, in fact, he has the opposite of Plot Armor here. • Sinister Minister: He is the head of a church that tricks its faithful into being cannibals. • Villain-Beating Artifact: Grimme is completely immune to all forms of damage, save for one: the real Grimme's hickory walking stick that's been lost in the Maze for many years. It doesn't make a great weapon (it does almost no damage), but it's the one chink in this hombre's armor - unless you can kill him and all his Ghouls at the same time, as in the end of The Flood. In this case, the hickory walking stick is rather superfluous. Doctor Darius Hellstromme The creator and owner of Hellstromme Industries, and pioneer of the New Science. Almost all of the technological advances scattered throughout the Weird West can be traced back to him in some way or another. He currently resides in Salt Lake City after a recent conversion to Mormonism. He is also the owner of Wasatch Rails, one of the major players in the Rail Wars and the race for the City of Lost Angels. More importantly, he is the primary Servitor for Pestilence, as his reckless pursuit of scientific knowledge spreads the twin plagues of ghost rock and "New Science" across the globe. Hellstromme is unique among the Reckoner's prime servants in that he is unaware of his condition - mostly because he doesn't care. He has one desire and one desire only - to open a portal to Hell and rescue the soul of his deceased wife - and everything that he does is in pursuit of this end. • Above Good and Evil: Hellstromme cares only for one thing, and it isn't morality. • Anti-Villain: The only one of the Reckoners' major Servitors who's vaguely sympathetic and has an actual conscience. Darius Hellstromme is just a desperate man in a truly awful place who tries really, really hard not to think about the awful things he's doing. • The Atoner: In Hell on Earth and Lost Colony, he becomes humanity's best hope against the Reckoners. He captures their spirits and orchestrates their exile to Banshee, the one place that killing them is actually possible (but, of course, not easy). • Dark Secret: What is it that lets those automatons he builds act so independently? Brains. • Emotion Suppression: If he ever stopped to think about the things he has done, he would break down. So he doesn't stop. • Freudian Excuse: His wife committed suicide and went to Hell. He does everything in the hope of getting her back. • Mad Science: The biggest and best known purveyor of "New Science." • Obliviously Evil - He just doesn't think about the things his invention are used for, or what he had to sacrifice to get them to work. He is also the main servitor to Pestilence. • The Unfettered: Subverted. Darius would like to be this, but he retains enough conventional morality to know that many of the things he has done make him irredeemably evil. Last son of his tribe. The actions of white men have driven him to cause the Reckoning. • The GM Is A Cheating Bastard: Never statted. Is a servitor for War, and as such can not be killed except by a very particular object. • Magical Native American: Was a very powerful shaman before being driven to cause the Reckoning. • Never My Fault: Blames settlers for forcing him to perform the Great Ghost Dance, nevermind that Raven's the one who knowingly invoked the Reckoners, dooming the tribes as well. The first Harrowed of the Reckoning. Gunslinger and assassin who does nothing but go around and kill heroes. • Big Bad: Of Deadlands. The Reckoners are unreachable, and the servants of the other Reckoners are up to their own schemes. Stone? Stone's got nothing else on his agenda but hunting heroes. • Complete Immortality: To the point that the designers didn't even stat him other than to say he has maxed out all of the powers for being harrowed and is the best shooter in the world. Turns out the only way to put him down is to do so with a bullet that killed him the first time (which are still lodged inside his torso), or by his own hand. Good luck with that. Considering that due to Time Travel shenanigans, there are two of him running around the West, this becomes less impossible than you seem to think. • Disney Death/Killed Off for Real: During Stone And A Hard Place, the posse gets to kill Stone twice—first the Younger Stone, then the Older Stone. Young Stone gets resurrected, but Old Stone is permanently put down • The GM Is A Cheating Bastard: He isn't statted for a reason. Also, the Reckoners lost once, and cheated by sending him back in time so he could continue his hero killing ways. They won the second time. • The Dragon: For the Reckoners. Though specifically he is a servitor to Death. • Hero Killer: It is all he does these days. • Make Wrong What Once Went Right: The Reckoners sent Stone back in time to change the past while they were on the verge of defeat, leading to Hell On Earth. Old Stone and Young Stone are now tag-teaming all the heroes they failed to kill the first time around. • Nice Job Fixing It, Villain!: It's a lot easier to kill a man who can only die by "his own hand" or via the bullets stuck in his corpse when there's two of him, thanks to his evil masters' mucking about with the timeline. • The Sociopath: Will kill you just because you are doing good for the world. • Too Spicy for Yog-Sothoth: The demon animating his corpse fears him, not the other way around. In Stone And A Hard Place, the demon actually advises the party on how best to kill him! • Trapped in the Past: Old Stone can't get back to the future he came from. Not that he wants to, as now he can kill all the heroes he failed to get the first time around. • Unfriendly Fire: Killed by his own men at the battle of Gettysburg. He didn't stay dead. He can only be permanently killed by those same bullets (which need to be recast into new ones) or a gun fired by his own hand (literally) Rail Barons Baron Simone LaCroix Owner of the Bayou Vermilion railroad, from New Orleans. Notoriously reclusive. • Gender-Blender Name: LaCroix is a man, but Simone is usually a female name. The reason: the original Simone was his sister, and he murdered her and stole her name for her powers. • Hollywood Voodoo: Stated to have almost nothing to do with real voodoo, but it's using the trappings. • Voodoo Zombie: LaCroix is not a zombie, but he uses them for a lot of his manual labor - they don't get tired or need to be paid, after all. Mina Devlin Owner of the Black River railroad, out of Memphis, Tennessee; she inherited it after her husband Miles was assassinated by a rival company. • Southern Belle: Pretends to be one of the "good" variety; since she's actually from rural Appalachia, it's dubious whether she qualifies to begin with, but if she does, it's certainly as "bad". • Unholy Matrimony: She and Miles really did love each other. • The Vamp: Frequently uses "feminine wiles" to get advantages in the Rail Wars. • Vengeful Widow: Her husband was murdered because he rejected a buyout offer from a rival railroad company, the Tennessee Central. It no longer exists. The executives, major stockholders, people who were paid to lie on the witness stand at the murder trial, defense attorneys, and assorted family members thereof are all dead; she bought the company after people started refusing to have anything to do with it for fear of being next. The assassin is still alive over ten years later - she keeps him in the basement and lets the girls she's teaching magic use him to practice on. • Villain with Good Publicity: Memphis loves Mina. • Whip It Good: As with basically all the women involved with Black River, she has and knows how to use a whip. Fitzhugh Lee Part-owner of Dixie Rails, having inherited his share from his uncle General Robert E. Lee - he makes all the business decisions, anyway. Dixie Rails is the closest the Confederacy has to an official railroad. • Inadequate Inheritor: Fitzhugh's not necessarily bad at running the company, but he's not good enough to compete in the Rail Wars. • Spirit Advisor: Dixie Rails's fortunes have improved drastically since the manitou pretending to be General Lee showed up and started giving Fitzhugh advice. Owner of the Iron Dragon railroad, which is going the opposite direction from the rest - that is, it started in California and is trying to go East. • Take a Third Option: Since he started building later than everyone else, all the good Midwest routes were taken. So he managed to talk the Sioux into letting him build across their land, an idea everyone else had discarded as impossible. • Yellow Peril: Sinister Asian businessman with mystical powers. No beautiful yet evil daughter is mentioned, but his beautiful yet evil granddaughter Mingzhu is a major power in the Shan Fan of the Deadlands Noir setting. Joshua Chamberlain President of the Union Blue railroad, which is nearly but not quite the official Union railroad. • Happily Married: The reason he didn't go for it when Mina tried to seduce him. • 100% Heroism Rating: Everyone knows he's a good person - where the other rail barons get ahead through money, violence, or seduction, he's seen remarkable success just with his personal reputation. • Incorruptible Pure Pureness: Contrasting the magic and mad science the other rail barons have, this is his main advantage. He's just a great guy. Darius Hellstromme See above, under Servitors. The Men in Black (dusters). They work to keep the knowledge of the supernatural out of public view. • Badass Longcoat: They are called the Men In Black Dusters. They often armor them and have many hidden weapons attached to their coats. • Benevolent Conspiracy: The Agency is well aware that fearing the Reckoners directly increases their power, and so takes great pains to provide more mundane explanations. • Canon Immigrant: Officially debuted in the Doomtown cardgame. Prior to this, they were the Pinkertons. • Gas Leak Cover Up: The Agency's primary mission is not to kill the Reckoners' agents, but to prevent their influence. While they'd prefer to kill the monsters outright, that's secondary to making sure everyone knows that monsters don't exist. While monster hunters make up the bulk of the Agency's membership, reporters and scientist "debunkers" are also common. • Government Conspiracy: They officially do not exist, and refer to themselves exclusively as "the Agency," refusing to tell civilians which they serve. • Killed To Upholdthe Masquerade: The Agency's preferred method. • Mad Science: Uses "New Science" to great effect against the things that go bump in the night. • Masquerade: The best way to keep people from getting scared about the weirdness is to never let them find out about it. • The Men in Black: Former Pinkerton Detectives, now hunter of all things supernatural in the Union. • Nice Job Breaking It, Hero!: They're supposed to be suppressing fear in order to weaken the efforts of the Reckoners. However, with their sinister appearances and hamfisted tactics, they're often almost creepier than the monsters are, so at best they leave people no less scared and at worst they do a better job at scaring people than the monsters did! • Their stance of killing or recruiting harrowed or other monster hunters likewise plays into the Reckoners' hands, alienating powerful allies. • Not So Different: From the Texas Rangers, their Confederate counterpart. The Rangers' primary differences from the Agency are political, though the Rangers are also much less likely to kill harrowed outright if recruitment's an option. • Pinkerton Detective: The Agency came from the contract with the Pinkerton Detective Agency. • Poor Communication Kills: Some of the sourcebooks imply that their "ignorance is the best policy" is actually hindering their efforts, and that carefully controlled dissemination of information would probably help humanity more than upholding The Masquerade. As the books put it, a shadowy lurking predator is scary, but a mountain lion is just dangerous; knowledge breeds familiarity which breeds nonchalance. • Skewed Priorities: Sometimes focuses on defeating the Confederate forces more than the supernatural, often sowing more fear in their wake. • Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: The Agency has worked with the Rangers against sufficient threats, but it's always short term. • Writing Around Trademarks: Early books explicitly had the Agency as the Pinkerton Detective Agency, hired out by the Union, before it came to the writers' attention that the Pinkertons still existed as a security agency, and had trademarked their name. Subsequent books make it clear that in-universe, the Pinkertons are no longer a distinct group, and their historical (non-trademarked) influence is still discussed. Black Circle A dark conspiracy involving many of the supernaturally evil groups of the Weird West. Texas Rangers Confederate secret agents attempting to catalog and keep the weirdness in check. • All There in the Manual: The Ranger Bible, specifically the "Officer's Version" with the restricted 13th chapter. They have cataloged most of the supernatural threats of the west and even have notes on how to defeat or kill them. • Nice Job Breaking It, Hero!: They're not quite as bad as the Agency at it, but their tendency to strong-arm folks into staying silent about The Masquerade does often boost the fear level back up even after they kill the monster. • One Riot, One Ranger: One Riot (zombie horde, maze dragon, train full of vampires, etc), One Ranger. Don't expect backup. Deadlands: Hell on Earth Major Players Denver AI The true evil behind Throckmorton. An insane AI that has overtaken the once proud general and leads the Black Hats in a war against humanity to bring about an age of machines. • A.I. Is a Crapshoot: Considering they are on a crusade to kill all humans, yeah. • Brain in a Jar: Is actually a collective of the most horrific scientific minds of all time put into one big jar. Darius Hellstromme Creator of the ghost rock nuclear weaponry. His machinations have left many issues for the post apocalyptic society to clean up. • The Atoner: He is working in the shadows to defeat the Reckoners now that he has finally realized how far he has fallen. • Brain in a Jar: Placed his own brain in a robot body to continue his machinations. • Crazy-Prepared: Saw the coming nuclear war before anyone and guarded his own facilities specifically against the weapons he was creating. • Mad Science: Can "New Science" with the best of them. • Xanatos Gambit: Plays a huge role in the capture of the Reckoners Leader of the Church o' Doom Schisimists, a broken off faction from Silas' bunch who want to ease humanity's move into mutanthood. • Hippie Chick: Preaches peace and love, now from a microwave! • Hippie Jesus: She personally does not believe in using her powers to hurt or kill. She is also seen as something of a prophet to those who follow her. • Jerk with a Heart of Gold: She still believes that humanity is done, but is trying to be more diplomatic about it. There are masses of undead armies back east. This is what is leading them. • Covered with Scars: He is covered with burns from shamans' many attempts to kill him. • Necromancer: Controls every single undead east of the Mississippi. • The Starscream: Wants revenge not just on humanity, but also on the Reckoners for abandoning him. Head of the Church o' the Atom. He brings the doctrine of nuclear mutation to the world. • Gotta Kill Them All: Anyone that is not mutated is to be killed, any mutants that don't fall in line are also to be killed. • Ley Line / Pressure Point: Discovered the ability to use radiation as a personal weapon by studying how magical abilites spring from the power points of a human body. • Monster Progenitor: Creator of the Doombringers, insane undead terrors that can only be killed through the magic of another Doomsayer. • Villain Team-Up: Teaming up with Throckmorton's Blackhats against Junkyard. Former Confederate general who is waging a war on the survivors of Judgment Day. • Cyborg: Has many augmentations. • A Father to His Men: His original troops would follow him to the ends of the earth, his blackhats aren't much different. • Villain Team-Up: Teaming up with Silas' Cult o' Doom to take out Junkyard. Black Hats Worst of the worst. Wasters out of Denver who fight for Throckmorton. Known for their signature black hats. Though other members of the army wear other colors to denote rank. • Cyborg: Many of their troops have cybernetic implants. All of them have chips implanted that let them use their gear. They also make liberal use of Harrowed implanted with cyber gear as infiltrators, much in the same as the T-800 in The Terminator. • Explosive Leash: All Black Hats have headbanger chips implanted in the base of their skull. Going AWOL or not following orders usually results in... • Gang of Hats: Specifically Black, Red (leaders) and Grey (Techies). • Unusable Enemy Equipment: Literally anything that could be stolen and used against them has explosives implanted within. If anyone without a headbanger chip attempts to use it it explodes. • Your Head A-Splode: They are called headbanger chips for a reason. Cult o' Doom The future of humanity is mutation. They foretell humanity's fall, but also the rise of the mutant. All the remains of Salt Lake City and the City o' Gloom. Bastion of technology and best place to get fuel to keep your car on the road. • Applied Phlebotinum: The only people to mass produce Spook Juice. A liquified version of the superfuel Ghost Rock. • Dark Secret: The only reason they can mass produce the spook juice. Human blood. • Diplomatic Immunity: You can not be captured or attacked for things that you have done outside of the border of the town. This is strictly enforced, with lethal consequences if broken. • Lesser of Two Evils: Has a standing deal with road gangs that they can trade the things they have looted in the wastes for spook juice. • They also keep the gangs around to act as chaff against the inevitable invasion from the Blackhats. • Secret Weapon: The shield absorbed the nuclear energy of the bombs dropped on the city, but no one knows why. It is used to power a series of magic nullifiers around the city. • Sky Pirate: They employ anyone that owns and operates any sort of device that can fly. Mostly because they know that when the Blackhat's VTOL's show up it will pay to have at least someone to meet them on somewhat equal terms. • Toxic Phlebotinum: You can drink Spook Juice for a really weird high. It will kill you • Wretched Hive: Just because they are the last bastion of civilization doesn't mean its a nice place to live. The epitome of Lawful Good not equaling Lawful Nice. They judge settlements and their members in secret tests of character before either helping them, abandoning them, or worse, using them to help another more worthy group. • Bow and Sword, in Accord: To be a templar you have to be proficient in sword play (or the melee weapon of your choosing since swords can be hard to come by) • Black Knight: Anti-Templars wear black with a red cross. • Fallen Hero: If a templar falls to evil, they become black templars, somehow retaining their powers but slowly falling to the side of the Reckoners. • Good Is Not Nice: They will not help those they don't think are worthy. • Knight Templar: One of the few 100% forces of good in the wastes. • Magic Knight: Like the legendary templars of old. They wield holy power. Doomtown: Reloaded 108 Righteous Bandits A gang of kung fu fighters and their small time criminal friends. They have some weird capabilities and a few non-human members as well. People just passing through town, but many of them have ulterior motives. The neutral dudes of the game that will work for any faction willing to pay them. Eagle Wardens Native American shamans have made camp nearby. Their intentions are as of yet unknown. Fourth Ring A traveling circus that has set up shop near the town. No one know why they are hanging around but there have been quite a few odd characters running around since they arrived. They are a faction based around casting spells using the Huckster mechanic. Law Dogs The remnants of the Law in Gamorra. They fight for order and put outlaws to justice. Their main faction abilities punish cheating hands that your opponents play and hunting down "wanted" dudes. Morgan Cattle Company Cowpunchers using "New Science" to make a hearty profit. Has the best economy generation in the game and the most capability to play gadgets using the Mad Science mechanic. Sloane Gang A group with an extreme hatred towards the law of the town. They strike out at anyone they can. They generally get benefits from being wanted and playing cheating hands. How well does it match the trope? Example of: Media sources:	-1	Unrelated	false
<urn:uuid:4f932546-aaf3-45a3-8dc8-a13f79c3099d>	dclm-dedup-25B-ai-scifi-docs \| https://github.com/pkamenarsky/domina	A DOM manipulation library for ClojureScript Pull request Compare This branch is 94 commits behind levand:master. Fetching latest commit… Cannot retrieve the latest commit at this time. Failed to load latest commit information. What is Domina? Domina is a jQuery inspired DOM manipulation library for ClojureScript. It provides a functional, idiomatic Clojure interface to the DOM manipulation facilities provided by the Google Closure library. Warning: Domina is still beta-level software. Everything should work, but there may still be bugs, browser incompatibility or performance issues. Please report them! Pull requests are extremely welcome. You can obtain Domina by pulling from Clojars: [domina "1.0.0-beta1]. Previously, there was no straightforward way to do DOM manipulation in ClojureScript. The Google Closure library is available, but it does not represent a fluid, functional approach to DOM manipulation that users of libraries such as jQuery are accustomed to. jQuery itself, as well as other DOM manipulation libraries, are not easy to use with ClojureScript due to incompatibilities with the advanced mode compiler. However, a jQuery-esqe, functional approach to DOM manipulation is extremely well suited to ClojureScript. Domina, while it does not provide any innovations, attempts to provide a basic functional interface to DOM manipulation that feels natural in ClojureScript. For a good library that takes a novel, alternative approach to DOM manipulation inspired by Clojure's Enlive, consider Enfocus. Key Concepts Most of Domina's functions accept or return content, an abstraction that represents one or more DOM nodes, rather than DOM nodes themselves. Content is implemented as a protocol (DomContent) which responds to two methods, nodes and single-node. nodes returns a sequence of DOM nodes, single-node returns a single DOM node (usually the first one), if the content contains multiple nodes. Entities which implement DomContent include: • Individual nodes • Sequences of nodes • Built-in HTML node collections such as NodeList • Strings (which are parsed into one or more nodes) • Selectors (such as xpath) create reified DomContent objects directly Selector functions take a string and return a DomContent representing matching nodes. For example, the xpath function in the domina.xpath namespace: (xpath "//div[@class='foo']/p[2]") This epxression returns a content containing all the paragraph elements in a document which are the second children of divs with an class of 'foo'. The xpath function also takes an optional first argument (which can be any DomContent) representing the context node(s) from which XPath evaluation will start. This allows selectors to be chained: (-> (xpath "//body") (xpath "div") (xpath "p") (xpath "span")) The sel function in the domina.css namespace works the same way for CSS selectors: (sel ".my-class") (sel "#my-id") (-> (sel "body") (sel "div") (sel "p") (sel "span")) (sel "body > div > p > span") Other selector functions include the core functions by-id and by-class which return a DomContent based on node id and node class, respectively. Append a <div> to the body element: (append! (xpath "//body") "<div>Hello world!</div>") Move a <div> from the end of the document to the beginning: (prepend! (xpath "//body") (detach! (xpath "//body/div[last()]"))) Add a CSS class on a node with a particular id: (add-class! (by-id "foobar") "baz") Delete all nodes of a given class: (delete! (by-class "foo")) Set some colors on all child nodes of <div> elements with a class of 'foo': (set-styles! (xpath "//div[@class='foo']/") {:background-color "black" :color "white"}) Set the text content of a node: (set-text! (by-id "foobar") "Lorem ipsum...") Get the values of all <input> elements on the page: (map value (nodes (xpath "//input"))) For examples of every currently implemented function, see the test.cljs file in the code repository, which exercises each function in unit tests against a DOM page. The test.html file loads and runs test.cljs in the context of the DOM. Important note on browser XPath compatibility (IE and Android). Internet Explorer does not support DOM Level 3 XPath selectors. In order to utilize the domina.xpath namespace, you will need to include a pure-javascript XPath DOM Level 3 implementation. A fast implementation known to work is provided by Cybozu Labs at http://coderepos.org/share/wiki/JavaScript-XPath. It is ignored on all browssers which already have native XPath support. To include it on your page, enter the following line in your head element, before you reference any ClojureScript scripts. <script type="text/javascript" src="cybozu-xpath.js"></script> The situation with the Android browser (version 2.x, it is fixed in version 3) is even worse. The browser does not support XPath, but erroneously reports that it does. To make Domina's XPath support work on an Android device, you must include the following code snippet on your HTML page before including the cybozu-xpath.js file: <script type="text/javascript"> / Android 2.x claims XPath support, but has none. Force non-native XPath implementation in this case / if (document.implementation && document.implementation.hasFeature && document.implementation.hasFeature("XPath",null) && !document.evaluate) { window.jsxpath = { targetFrame: undefined, exportInstaller: false, useNative: false, / force non-native implementation */ useInnerText: true <script type="text/javascript" src="xpath.js"></script> This script checks that if the browser claims XPath support, if it actually has it (via the presence of the document.evaluatefunction) and if not, sets a flag that tells Cybozu's XPath implementation to override native support. If you're using a different XPath implementation, you'll need to use whatever means it provides to override native XPath handling. We decided not to compile this functionality directly into Domina for two reasons: • Potential licensing issues • Reduced code size. With some server side conditions, it is possible to avoid downloading the script altogether for browsers which support XPath natively, which is obviously not possible to determine at compile-time. See the projects Trello page If you'd like to participate, please just let me know and I'll add you.	-1	Unrelated	false
5ad23c90-8529-4484-8814-c252f7742d50	alignment-classifier-documents-unlabeled \| trentmkelly/LessWrong-43k	Science Doesn't Trust Your Rationality Scott Aaronson suggests that Many-Worlds and libertarianism are similar in that they are both cases of bullet-swallowing, rather than bullet-dodging: > Libertarianism and MWI are both are grand philosophical theories that start from premises that almost all educated people accept (quantum mechanics in the one case, Econ 101 in the other), and claim to reach conclusions that most educated people reject, or are at least puzzled by (the existence of parallel universes / the desirability of eliminating fire departments). Now there's an analogy that would never have occurred to me. I've previously argued that Science rejects Many-Worlds but Bayes accepts it. (Here, "Science" is capitalized because we are talking about the idealized form of Science, not just the actual social process of science.) It furthermore seems to me that there is a deep analogy between (small-'l') libertarianism and Science: 1. Both are based on a pragmatic distrust of reasonable-sounding arguments. 2. Both try to build systems that are more trustworthy than the people in them. 3. Both accept that people are flawed, and try to harness their flaws to power the system. The core argument for libertarianism is historically motivated distrust of lovely theories of "How much better society would be, if we just made a rule that said XYZ." If that sort of trick actually worked, then more regulations would correlate to higher economic growth as society moved from local to global optima. But when some person or interest group gets enough power to start doing everything they think is a good idea, history says that what actually happens is Revolutionary France or Soviet Russia. The plans that in lovely theory should have made everyone happy ever after, don't have the results predicted by reasonable-sounding arguments. And power corrupts, and attracts the corrupt. So you regulate as little as possible, because you can't trust the lovely theories and you can't trust the people who implement them	-1	Unrelated	false
<urn:uuid:8e0da1a0-a16a-44c3-b8b0-93219cf29121>	dclm-dedup-25B-ai-scifi-docs \| https://keri-russell.info/actor/question-actor-who-played-charlie-chaplin.html	Categories Actor Question: Actor Who Played Charlie Chaplin? Who played Charlie Chaplin in a modern film about him? Award Category Nominee BAFTA Awards Best Production Design Stuart Craig Golden Globe Awards Best Original Score John Barry Best Actor – Drama Robert Downey Jr. Best Supporting Actress Geraldine Chaplin How much was Charlie Chaplin worth? Charlie Chaplin Net Worth Net Worth: $400 Million Date of Birth: Apr 16, 1889 – Dec 25, 1977 (88 years old) Gender: Male Height: 5 ft 4 in (1.65 m) Profession: Film Director, Actor, Screenwriter, Composer, Comedian, Film Editor, Film Score Composer, Film Producer Which is the most expensive movie ever made? The “Avengers” movies, new “Star Wars” trilogy are among the priciest to produce. The most expensive movie made is 2011’s “Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides,” which cost a reported $376.5 million after a tax credit. Why did the Little Tramp want to stay in jail a little longer? On the surface, it may seem that he wants to stay in jail because his luck has turned around and prison has become quite comfortable for him. In prison, the Tramp knows he is guaranteed a roof over his head and regular meals, while out in the real world he will hardly be able to feed himself. You might be interested: Quick Answer: What Actor Plays Thanos? How much is Brad Pitt’s worth? Who is the richest actor? The 20 Richest Actors in the World • Amitabh Bachchan. • Adam Sandler. Net Worth: $420 million. • Mel Gibson. Net Worth: $425 Million. • Robert De Niro. Net Worth: $500 Million. • George Clooney. Net Worth: $500 Million. • Tom Cruise. Net Worth: $570 Million. • Shah Rukh Khan. Net Worth: $600 Million. • Jami Gertz. Net Worth: $3 Billion. What is the net worth of Clint Eastwood? What is the longest film in history? Here are a few notable titles with their run times. Logistics, an experimental installation is, in fact, the longest film ever made. It has a runtime of 857 hours, it tops the projected run time of Ambiancé (720 hours). It’s more of an installation than a film. Which is the richest film in the world? Rank Title Year 1 Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides 2011 2 Avengers: Age of Ultron 2015 3 Avengers: Endgame 2019 4 Avengers: Infinity War 2018 Who is the best actor in the world? Top 10 Best Actors In The World 1. Robert De Niro. Actor \| Raging Bull. 2. Al Pacino. Actor \| Serpico. 3. Mammootty. Actor \| Mathilukal. 4. Tom Hanks. Producer \| Cast Away. 5. Denzel Washington. Actor \| Fences. 6. Michael Caine. Actor \| The Dark Knight. 7. Morgan Freeman. Actor \| Se7en. 8. Leonardo DiCaprio. Actor \| Inception. What was Charlie Chaplin’s message in modern times? Charlie Chaplin’s Modern Times, an entertaining piece at the surface, also serves as a political and social commentary criticizing the flourishing industrialization, commercialization, and commoditization of big-business America, which has developed at the expense of the everyday citizen. What is Charlie Chaplin singing in modern times? Modern Times was the first film where Chaplin’s voice is heard as he performs Léo Daniderff’s comical song “Je cherche après Titine”. Chaplin’s version is also known as “The Nonsense Song“, as his character sings it in gibberish. What is the message of the Charlie Chaplin film Modern Times? Modern Times” is perhaps more meaningful now than at any time since its first release. The twentieth- century theme of the film, farsighted for its time—the struggle to eschew alienation and preserve humanity in a modern, mechanized world—profoundly reflects issues confronting the twenty-first century. 1 звезда2 звезды3 звезды4 звезды5 звезд (нет голосов) Leave a Reply	-1	Unrelated	false
<urn:uuid:418997d8-c686-40ff-acfc-a8a3d63f5611>	dclm-dedup-25B-ai-scifi-docs \| https://gamestoday.info/pc/fallout/fallout-in-philadelphia/	Fallout in Philadelphia fallout 5 - Fallout in Philadelphia I recently had an idea of a potential location for a new Fallout game- Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. As we know, the east coast was hit hardest by the bombs, being mostly urban, but Pennsylvania has a balance between both urban and rural- mostly urban around its eastern and western sides, but fairly country-esque in the middle. This could give the game some balance between the desolate wasteland Bethesda holds so dear and the less affected wasteland that Obsidian prefers. Additionally, you could cross the Delaware into Camden, providing a more suburban experience. If one crunches distances enough, you might even be able to make it all the way out to Berlin, New Jersey, which would open the space up with fields and forests. Naturally, the game would take place in Philadelphia. The ruins would be something similar to how Bethesda handled Boston: cluttered, but not too cluttered, like Washington was. Free up some streets, especially in the historic side of town, but fill up others with the kind of concrete jungles we got used to in Boston. The two things we know about Philly are that 1) it was directly hit by the Communist Chinese, and 2) the Liberty Bell is still standing there. This will play a role in the story. The story would take place in 2281, six years before Fallout 4 and four years after Fallout 3, which relieves us of the question of the canonical ending to Fallout 4. A relatively small coalition of Enclave Remnants have banded together and are attempting to reclaim Philadelphia as the nation’s capital after being driven out of the District of Columbia. Their goal is to seize the major historic landmarks and objects of Philly in order to prove their legitimacy. They have a small force of Vertibirds (50-75, and the real ones, too, not the scrap heaps from 4), but their real power lies in the advanced models of power armor they have; the leading group were all part of the Devil’s Brigade, the elite unit of X-02 wearing Enclave soldiers. They’ve retained a moderate amount of artillery, salvaged from Raven Rock before its destruction, but the amount of howitzers they have doesn’t exceed 10. Also, ammunition is not plentiful for them, meaning that the howitzers they have are more for show than anything. This also means that the Enclave Remnants are forced to send out teams to scavenge the remains of the Philly and former military installations. Speaking of military installations, there are 3 military bases and numerous other military offices and training grounds located there. There is a National Guard base and a Navy base, both within city limits, and a Marine Corps bass up north near Burlington. Additionally, there is an engineering center and a training center located nearby, making a potential base of operations for the Enclave. There is one more thing that really excites me as a South Jerseyian: The USS New Jersey. In our world, it was decommissioned for the final time in 1991. In the Fallout universe, though, it could have still been an active warship when the bombs dropped. This would make an absolutely amazing spot to have a large battle between the Enclave and the other three factions, who we’ll get too in a second. Assuming it hasn’t sunk or been torn apart yet, it would be in ~somewhat good shape. Better than River City, anyhow. This brings us to the other three factions present in Philly: The Chinese Descendants The New Liberty Movement The Orientis Publica First things first, the Chinese Descendants. The name speaks for itself; a group of ghoulified Chinese spies and their descendants, all vying for control of Philadelphia to set up their own Communist state. Their motives are really just to claim Philadelphia and restore the glory of China and Chairman Cheng, who the ghouls still hold a godlike reverence for. They’re mostly based west of the Schuylkill, their headquarters being in Drexel University. The New Liberty Movement is, quite simply, fighting for a return to what the wasteland was; anarchy. They fight for independence from any group or government, and call for the exile of both the Enclave and the Orientis Publica. They control much of the land on the Jersey side, centralizing in Cherry Hill and Pennsauken. The Orientis Publica is the present, albeit makeshift and weak, government presiding over Philadelphia. Their motive is to establish order in the wasteland, no matter the cost. They have a record of corruption. They look down on both the Enclave’s brutal methods, and the Descendants’ ruthlessness to establish their communist society. Most of all, they hate the NLM, as they stand against everything the Publica stands for. They are based out of the Eastern State Penitentiary, but have small outposts and checkpoints throughout the city. You all know the Enclave. This group is what’s left of the army fielded by President Eden and Colonel Autumn. I’ve gone over their motives already, too. What I haven’t gone over is where they’ll be located. Their main HQ would be in the Philadelphia International Airport (is that too derivative, what with McCarran being NCR’s Mojave HQ and BIA being the BoS’s in 4?) They also have a major outpost on Petty Island, controlling the water treatment center housed there. They also control the Navy Yard, just south of FDR park. And finally…. not the Brotherhood of Steel. We know they’re busy in the Capital Wasteland right now, and Bethesda has been overusing them as a major faction, so, I figured to just give them a break here. They never mention going to Philly in Fo4, so no point in involving them. (Side Note: this post will have inspired some concepts here. I live close to Philly, but have not been there for any considerable length of time.) You play as a dweller in the peaceful Vault 71. Vault 71 is one of three vaults in the Philly area, the others being Vault 74 and Vault 89. Vault 71 is surprisingly normal, for something made by Vault-Tec- the only social experiment or actual experiment in there is to monitor tensions between residents after an extended period and when access to weapons. Surprisingly enough, the Vault has lasted this long without falling apart, but all that changes when the Vault picks up an Enclave propaganda broadcast, similar to the one in Fo3. The more traditional members of the Vault want to open the door and go out to join the Enclave, or house them in the Vault, but the more reasonable dwellers rebuke them. Tensions quickly boil to a head, and a group of Enclave supporters seizes the control room for the door. The other members of the Vault fight back, and it’s up to you to decide how to handle it. Eventually, the Enclave supporters open the door, and you are forced to flee your home to get away from the fight. The exact location of Vault 71 is in Franklin Delano Roosevelt Park, underneath the gazebo. You emerge to a world that looks nothing like the photos you’ve seen, and are set free to explore Philadelphia. I’ve only thought up certain battles and events in the story, but I’ll share some with you here. -A four-way fight for Petty Island, and its water treatment center -A four-way fight for the 30th Street Station -A four-way fight for the USS New Jersey, and its formidable weaponry -A fight between the Orientis Publica and the NLM over control of the Ben Franklin Bridge, the last bridge left standing -Possible alliances between factions, depending on your choices: • Alliance of Orientis Publica and the Enclave •Enclave provides military support to help secure Philly • Alliance of Enclave and NLM •NLM provides guerrilla support for Enclave, in exchange for being left alone afterwards •Alliance of NLM and Descendants •NLM puts pressure on the OP and Enclave from the East side, while the Chinese put pressure on the West side – A fight between the Descendants and Enclave for control of Tinicum – A fight between OP and NLM for control of Camden -A fight between OP and the Descendants for the Philadelphia Museum of Art Et cetera, et cetera. What do you guys think? Source: Original link © Post "Fallout in Philadelphia" for game Fallout. Top 10 Most Anticipated Video Games of 2020 Top 15 NEW Games of 2020 [FIRST HALF] You Might Also Like Leave a Reply	-1	Unrelated	false
<urn:uuid:0c055ad9-6daa-495a-a32a-560a678ba3b1>	dclm-dedup-25B-ai-scifi-docs \| https://thecinemaholic.com/preview-zombieland-saga-season-2-episode-5/	Preview: Zombieland Saga Season 2 Episode 5 Developed by Studio MAPPA in collaboration with Avex Pictures, Dugout, and Cygames, ‘Zombieland Saga’ is an original horror-comedy anime show. It revolves around a group of dead female performers who are resurrected by an eccentric necromancer to be part of an idol group, which is eventually named Franchouchou (alternatively, Fran Chou Chou). With their growing popularity, these zombies seek to reinvigorate their native Saga Prefecture’s idol industry. ‘Zombieland Saga’ season 1 aired between October 4, 2018, and December 20, 2018. On July 27, 2019, the announcement was made that the series had been renewed for the sophomore season, which premiered on April 8, 2021. Here is everything you need to know about the upcoming episode of the series. Zombieland Saga Season 2 Episode 5 Release Date Zombieland Saga season 2 (also known as ‘Zombieland Saga: Revenge’) episode 5, titled ‘Little Bodda Bope SAGA,’ is set to premiere on May 6, 2021, on AT-X, Tokyo MX, SUN, TVQ, Saga TV, and BS11. Munehisa Sakai served as the primary director, and Shigeru Murakoshi led the writing staff. Yasuharu Takanashi collaborated with the pop group Funta7 on composing the music, while Kasumi Fukagawa designed the characters and served as the chief animation director. Both the opening and ending themes, “Taiga yo Tomo ni Naite Kure” (“O Saga, Cry with Me”) and “Yume o Te ni, Modoreru Basho mo Nai Hibi o” (“Spending the Days with a Dream and Nowhere to Go Home”) were performed by the voice actresses portraying the members of the zombie idol group Franchouchou. Where to Stream Zombieland Saga Season 2 Online? Funimation is set to air the dubbed versions of the episodes of ‘Zombieland Saga’ season 2 or ‘Zombieland Saga: Revenge’ for its subscribers. The episodes are simulcast on Crunchyroll with original Japanese audio and English, Spanish, and Portuguese subtitles. Viewers in Australia and New Zealand can watch the episodes on AnimeLab. Muse Asia will stream the episodes on their YouTube Channel in several countries in Asia, including Bangladesh, Bhutan, Brunei, Cambodia, India, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam. Zombieland Saga Season 2 Episode 5 Spoilers In episode 4, Sakura and Junko are still stunned since hearing the leader of Iron Frill, Shiori, asking Ai to join their group, not realizing that this is their original frontwoman. Sakura and Junko decide to keep what they heard to themselves for now. But they are evidently affected, especially Junko, who later has a conversation with Kotaro. Their producer urges her to fight for Franchouchou and protect its unity. He lends her his guitar and encourages her to smash through her misgivings about herself and her fears and excuses. On the day of the performance, Franchouchou overcomes their fears and those of their fans and leaves a lasting impression on everyone at the venue. Junko literally smashes Kotaro’s guitar and pulls Ai to the stage. Afterward, with the entire group supporting her, Ai declines Iron Frill’s offer. Sometime later, Shiori declares Franchouchou to be their greatest competition. In episode 5, the story might focus on Lily and her relationship with the rest of the team. The group might make rapid progress since their successful opening act performance. Read More: Anine Like Zombieland Saga	-1	Unrelated	false
6a5fe008-f6e0-41b8-bdf4-5138461718e3	alignment-classifier-documents-unlabeled \| trentmkelly/LessWrong-43k	Deadly sins of software estimation This is so remarkably sensible I think it deserves its own article. It's a pdf of the slides from a lecture, and should help with the planning fallacy. A few highlights: Distinguish between targets and estimates. Don't make estimates before you know very much about the project. Estimates are probability statements. Best assumption is that a new tool or method will lead to productivity loss.	-1	Unrelated	false
<urn:uuid:ef0865d8-ec33-48a3-a43c-e24d4eecd60a>	dclm-dedup-25B-ai-scifi-docs \| http://brokenforum.com/index.php?threads/borderlands-2.1115/page-25	Borderlands 2 Discussion in 'PC/Console Game Discussion' started by malphigian, Feb 22, 2012. 1. BobJustBob Hard Cider Gal Florence, Alabama It had four DLC campaigns as well, although one was just Moxxi's arena battles that didn't give you any experience. Boy was that a dumb idea. In Borderlands 2, I beat the first playthrough with Zero. I made it partway through THVM with him. I did the first two DLCs in THVM with him. The third DLC I am working through with Gaige after getting her to just before the end of the first playthrough. I haven't touched the other three characters and Zero is only level 46; I haven't even hit the level cap yet. And my playtime across those two characters is about 90 hours. It's already a big game. jerri blank likes this. 2. Raife Magister Mundi Elyscape Does anyone else have trouble using Bandit guns because of the spelling? I'll occasionally use them, but only if they are far better than anything else I have. 3. SuperJay Already Beat BF's New Expansion I avoided them like the plague. Plus they're ugly. 4. Raife Magister Mundi Elyscape The SMG's aren't bad, but the pistols and rifles do look terrible. 5. jerri blank Despondent Fancybear I am utterly fascinated by the sheer volume of Youtube videos about this game, especially doing weapons glitches. I would never have time to figure out the stuff they have discovered, but god bless 'em. Some of it is pretty interesting. 6. Demon G Sides Keeper of the Elemental Materials I've been sitting on the Microsoft help line for like an hour trying to figure this out so I guess I'll just ask here and see if anyone knows; My little brothers play this on 360, but don't have Live accounts. If I buy the season pass with my XBL account, will the DLC show up in their game or not? Specifically; my account will not be used to play the game, their two accounts will. Same Xbox. Other DLC stuff usually shows up, but this is a season pass thing and I don't really know the mechanics of that on XBL. Apparently no one else has ever asked this question before because no one seems to have an answer for me. 7. BobJustBob Hard Cider Gal Florence, Alabama Don't get hung up on the season pass as a unique thing. It's just a bundle of DLC. It should work like anything else you buy on Live where everyone on that console will have access to it. Demon G Sides likes this. 8. jerri blank Despondent Fancybear What BJB said. Just download the stuff with your profile. Things got a little glitchy for me when we added a second console to the house, so I purchased the season pass for my profile, but with everyone on the same box you should be fine. Demon G Sides likes this. 9. Demon G Sides Keeper of the Elemental Materials Alright thanks for assuaging my fears. I figured, but even the (surprisingly) helpful Xbox tech I spoke to was hesitant to tell me to just fire away. 10. jerri blank Despondent Fancybear Ugh. I'm a level 47 on playthrough 2, and I've just stopped having fun unless I co-op with my level 50 partner, who's a commando. The mission list is now filled with missions that I just don't want to play because they're long and tedious and I'll get my ass kicked. I'd like to level to 50 and start beating some of the bosses I haven't yet encountered, but when the missions bring on a sense of dread rather than excitement, is it time to put the game away permanently? 11. Pogo Hard Cider Gal Uhh... yes. You're not getting excited playing a videogame? Stop playing it. 12. jerri blank Despondent Fancybear B2 hotfixes today: • Adjusted Mechromancer’s Sweetheart class mod to correctly increase team health. • Mr. Torgue’s Campaign of Carnage : Critical hits against Midgets now register properly. • Mr. Torgue’s Campaign of Carnage : Rat Thief enemies are no longer allowed in Pete’s Bar due to patron concerns regarding excessive theft. • Mr. Torgue’s Campaign of Carnage : Torgue vending machines can now stock up to level 50 legendary weapons. The 4th one is pretty hilarious. And yeah, I HATE those thieving little bastards. 13. SuperJay Already Beat BF's New Expansion That's pretty much were I was when I stopped playing a month or two ago. Permanently? No, not necessarily, but until you're actually interested in playing again, yeah, definitely. You're not obligated to keep playing BL2 just because you have some quests left in your journal. :) And I was actually dreading co-op, myself. I didn't even play solo, but because BL2 was sort of the default co-op game for our group of friends, I continued playing it long after I would have stopped normally. Doing so just made me increasingly sick of the game. 14. jerri blank Despondent Fancybear So I take it you don't want all those Level 50 conference call shotguns and Bee shield I have in my locker? :) 15. SuperJay Already Beat BF's New Expansion Oh, right! Yes, I want them. In six months or so. ;) (I'm totes kidding you can do whatever you like with em, sister.) 16. Kelan Level 50 Hunter It wasn't until the 3rd time it happened that I realized what was happening with those. Those bastards would come and steal from me and all those piles of cash would be lying around. Then my wife who plays in the same room as me is getting all excited about all the huge piles of cash she was looting. Finally I realized that I was short a pile of cash when I next looked at my inventory and finally figured it out and she was over the giggling about all the cash she made. 17. jerri blank Despondent Fancybear Yeah, but the nice thing is that (and I THINK I'm right about this) if you or your co-op partner can kill the thief and recover the stolen money, it goes into BOTH your stashes, so you effectively double your money. 18. jerri blank Despondent Fancybear For some reason I assumed you'd leveled up to 50 already. The chance to use those fuckers is what's still motivating me to level up myself. I'll still have 'em if/when you get there. :) 19. SuperJay Already Beat BF's New Expansion Oh, my Siren is indeed 50. The six months wasn't referring to leveling up, but to the estimated interval until I'm interested in playing BL2 some more. 20. Pogo Hard Cider Gal One of the best patch notes I've seen in a long time. 21. Dufresne Armchair Designer Charlestown, MA The one I'm happiest about is that Torgue vending machines now stock level 50 items. Finally there's a point to them. 22. Demon G Sides Keeper of the Elemental Materials Just running through Scarlett now. Having a blast. I took a few months off and it revitalized me. 23. jerri blank Despondent Fancybear New shift codes: Not sure about the expiration on these. They were tweeted by the model who is Angel in the game. (No, I don't follow her on Twitter.) PS3: 5JKJJ-H65K3-CCKCJ-HT5B3-9HS9T From FB. Good until 2/3. PC / Mac SHiFT Code for a Golden Key in Borderlands 2: CTWBT-X5ZWC-9WRB3-BJ3B3-RWF96 Xbox 360 SHiFT Code for a Golden Key in Borderlands 2: 5TC3B-9F695-9ZX3R-5FBJT-J5TX3 PlayStation 3 SHiFT Code for a Golden Key in Borderlands 2: WJC3J-TXXKJ-KKW5T-H3KJ3-3CJZT 24. Dufresne Armchair Designer Charlestown, MA I've been busy farming for Torgue Tokens now that the Torgue vending machines dispense level 50 legendaries. Grinding out Bar Brawls with my Mechromancer is actually pretty fun considering it's still grinding, and I can kill Pyro Pete the Invincible once a day while I'm at it. I will say this: the Unkempt Harold is an excellent revolver. I highly, highly recommend making it your first priority from the Torgue machines. I saved up enough to buy two of them and sent them both to my Gunzerker, who I've respecced to a pistol-centric build. Soloing Terramorphous is once again pretty easy, though still not to the degree it used to be. My next goal is picking up a Nukem. 25. Mysterio Beer Wesley Chapel, FL Via Twitter feed: jerri blank likes this. 26. jerri blank Despondent Fancybear I think I'm joining the chorus of people who don't like the Hammerlock DLC much. Not only are the environments really depressing (is it dumb that it effects my enjoyment of the game?), but I embarked on a level 42 mission earlier only to encounter enemies that were all 49-52. WTF? 27. VegasRobb Beer Are the levels for the DLC pre-set or do they set when you start them / zone in to the area? 28. jerri blank Despondent Fancybear Ya got me. VegasRobb likes this. 29. Riztro I Pretty Much Live Here They adjust to player level iirc, the scarlett certainly did. There's a cap in the first playthrough though. VegasRobb likes this. 30. jerri blank Despondent Fancybear Ahh, that's why I was confused. I was used to the level cap in PT 1. And the level caps are set by mission in the main game, even in PT2. I think. VegasRobb likes this. 31. Raife Magister Mundi Elyscape Yeah, that sucked. I started Scarlett with a level 31 character hoping to get better gear for endgame, and everything was locked at level 30. VegasRobb likes this. 32. VegasRobb Beer That's good to know, thanks everyone :) 33. Cubit I Pretty Much Live Here Lafayette, IN Well shit. Doesn't look like we'll be getting any level cap increases. Pretty disappointing considering everything else in the game has such a long tail. 34. Dufresne Armchair Designer Charlestown, MA Ugh. Considering the end-game is so broken as-is, (legendary drop rates being what they are,) I was hoping an extension to the level cap might help turn that around some. 35. Hawkeye Fierce Keeper of the Elemental Materials Boston, MA Oh noes, we might become too powerful to beat the endgame bosses without cheesing them? Horrors. Ok, the actual crashing stuff sounds bad, but man. 36. Cubit I Pretty Much Live Here Lafayette, IN What seems odd to me is that they had enough foresight to engineer the entire badass system with unlimited ranks, but didn't bother to put similar effort into allowing future level cap increases to accomodate long-standing DLC plans? I'm not sure I believe that technical limitations were the main reason. BobJustBob likes this. 37. jerri blank Despondent Fancybear Given that they were able to change the level cap in the first game, I don't understand why that ability wasn't built into this game from the get-go. Pitchford acts all, "Oh, you want a level cap increase? Wow, that had never occurred to us. Let us see if we can do that. Hmmmm. Nope, it would break the game." I'm not saying he's lying about the technical problems; I just wonder why it wasn't planned for since it was a feature of the first game. BobJustBob and Cubit like this. 38. BobJustBob Hard Cider Gal Florence, Alabama I had noticed how some of those one point skills at the bottom of skill trees wouldn't really play nice with each other, and wondered how Gearbox would handle that. I guess I have my answer, 39. JoshV Keeper of the Elemental Materials Can't be that hard to make those unique, so that you can only take one of those at the bottom, regardless of your level. BobJustBob likes this. 40. Pogo Hard Cider Gal So uhhh... why do people care about a level cap? Are you playing a game to have fun with the content or do you need to hop on a treadmill to feel like you're making progress?	-1	Unrelated	false
617339eb-c4ec-498c-81b3-e17b5338a4be	alignment-classifier-documents-unlabeled \| trentmkelly/LessWrong-43k	On-line conference for LW readers and meet up members I would like to consolidate LW members in a new way. I believe we can organize an on-line gathering in some form, for example as a set of chat rooms to discuss different topics in the real time. This event can be announced in advance to help everyone to arrange plans. I hope the discussion can be more intense and productive than in chats that open for prolonged periods of time. And comparing to the lesswrong.com this event should give some feeling of a real conversation, which I can not get while posting articles and comments here. If you have any additions, ideas and proposals please let me know.	-1	Unrelated	false
<urn:uuid:fb247604-f8fd-45fb-af18-baaf0a3ae2b2>	dclm-dedup-25B-ai-scifi-docs \| https://jimoeba.wordpress.com/2018/11/04/the-old-ways-what-we-have-done/	The Old Ways—What We Have Done Assimilation is nearly complete. Welcome to the monochromatic world you bastards. Indigenous tribes are continuing to disappear from the landscape. The old ways are dying off. The elders, all preparing to take their final breaths, taking the languages, cultures, and knowledge of the last remaining various groups to be gone in a generation. Virtually no more children are learning the native language of their fathers—essentially it is dead already. Every two weeks another heritage goes extinct as the last elder dies. What’s left is a monochromatic disaster of the big five religions. Variety is dead. Long live Christianity—Disgusting. Assimilation is nearly complete. 150,000 years of tradition, language, knowledge, beliefs, shaman—gone in 300 years of western industrialists. People that lived amazing lives, literally in tune with Mother Earth in a way few can comprehend. Please, please take a moment to watch Nat Geo’s ethnographer Wade Davis show you what we have done in the name of monotheism and industrialism. What we have destroyed. How can anyone want this?—EnterReligion There is a text version included with the TED if you prefer, Nan. Author: jim- One minute info blogs breaking the faith trap. 69 thoughts on “The Old Ways—What We Have Done” 1. It’s been argued that the UN declaration on human rights didn’t go far enough to protect languages, cultures and religions that were not of the proselytizing type for example those found in Africa 1. This from AMAZON OUTREACH There are still 30,000 villages along the Amazon River who are unreached for the Gospel of Jesus Christ . Really, they know no real good. Do we show compassion by leaving them alone, or do we show compassion by destroying one more way of life to join the monochrome world of abrahamic submission? Can we help them without destroying what little variety is left in the world? I don’t think so 2. . . . yes. Dropping by in this post after reading your comment and watching the video. True, I stopped reading comments after the third or forth argument hit; I’ve pretty much heard the same one, somewhere else, before, I expect. I’ve had some thoughts: In the video, I found the cause comments to be most compelling; and though it is a spectacle not easily unraveled conjunctively – it bears the doing so. I may speak of it later if able and allowed. I’ve otherwise detected two misconceptions I’d speak on briefly at this time. You are free to interpret them as you will; though they are not meant, or intended to mean, anything other than exactly as spoken. I was born into the Mormon faith. Though I haven’t practiced it since becoming of an age to choose for myself – this is not an broadhand indictment of the people. The people of this state (Utah) are exceptionally appreciative of the ways of nature and steward the environment most most meticulously – which is not to say they believe they own it. Also, their theologies are not exclusive of the dignity of the tribal people of that area – mostly Pauite and Navajo; but rather more often in consideration of it. The women practice their own form of natural healings and are adept at it. The men practice conservity of the natural world and have deep, abiding respect for it. The ranchers I have known – Montana, Utah – also have a deep, unproprietary understanding and respect for the natural world and the creatures in it. If I had to say, I’d say that these folks, not in exclusion of also the native tribal people of the area, have no intention of turning this natural creation over to the industrialists or reserving it only for themselves. They are exceedingly fierce and rigourous about it as a contingency. Again, not because they believe they own it but for the same reasons, it would appear, as we’ve briefly discussed and arrived at – for the sake of land itself. That it and it’s creature population not become subdued or subservient to the monetary designs of any capitalist form of exloitation and/or eventual destruction – that the land and it’s full bevy of inhabitants remain free, natural, and wild – for the sake of being free, natural, and wild. We, of those areas, are of the dirt; the red dirt of the desert plateaus; of the cliffs and the canyons; of the tender green grasses; of the waters and the slow and beautiful clean winding rivers; of the loud proclamations of desert thunderstorms and their rains. It is our privelege in humility to imagine ourselves as no more. This last thing: I don’t accept that the old ways are over, or ever could I; and I stay where I’m at in appreciation of them. I have a little booklet and a tape – I intend to school myself in the Navajo language as time allows. I study natural cure and welcome any and all information on it. Should it occur; though, I say it will not – I accept we may go like the buffalo into the dreamworld of the rainbow until such time as we might return again. Liked by 1 person 1. I happy to see Utah turn it around. I lived there in the late 70’s and early 80’s. Between Geneva Steel and Bingham copper mine the place was a miasmic mess of pollution. You could hardly see the Wasatch Mountains. Then the plans to store nuclear waste for money (don’t know what happened there) but Utah is a beautiful place. For a time the Mormons were great polluters and spared no business for profit regardless of the mess. Happy to hear your side of it. I’ve been away quite a while other than a drive by now and then. 3. Hello Jim. Thanks for directing my attention to your post. I enjoyed the video and what the person had to share. I have read the comments and found some of them enlightening, others frightening. I never knew a different culture growing up. I lived in a very small New England town, with more cattle than people. When I went to California for my first ship assignment in the Navy I was dumbstruck. I had never seen such things. Huge buildings, more concrete than I ever imagined, foods I never heard of. I quickly fell in love with trying to see all of it. I left the Navy and joined the Army. I was sent to Germany. Had I not been exposed to San Diego I think I would have freaked out. Again it was wonderful. So much to see, and to learn, and to do. I think I grew up in those four years in Germany in ways I can not explain. When people talk of those who come here as immigrants or refugees they often use the word “assimilation”. That those who come here must become just as those of us here. But what are those of us already but a collection of different ideas, cultures, foods, and ways of all those who came here before us. Tucker Carlson went on a rant the other day claiming that tacos were an entirely American food. When told it was a Mexican food brought here, he flew into a rage. He has taken in other cultures and doesn’t even realize it. To me in my humble opinion I have a lot to learn, and I enjoy seeing how others do things, how they live. There are ways to do things better than I know how to now, there are worse ways also. I am slowly transitioning away from eating meat, because I really don’t have to eat meat. This is just a new way for me and it is getting interesting. I wish I could have seen the Native People and the ways they lived, the things they understood before our ancestors decided they were simply savages to be hunted, killed, stolen from, and then penned up. I feel we missed out on a lot. Best wishes. Hugs Liked by 1 person 4. Are you trying to say that Islam and Judaism (and all other religions like Mormon, LDS, etc) aren’t as horrible as Christianity is? Christianity is not worse than any other major religion so I fail to see the point of this post. 1. Mormon and LDS are the same religion. I haven’t t excused anyone. The industrialization and reckless abuse of the world is led by American christian industrialist. You want me to list every other religion ok. The point of the post, in case you’ve had too much wine, the disregard for the old ways, their language and culture is disgusting. Now you can go coast to coast with no variety at all but a few landmarks. Not sure how this Is hard to grasp other than the fact that you are argumentative with everyone. When that happens, you are the problem. That’s why I quit following you. Liked by 1 person 1. Wow that was unexpectedly hostile. Can you give some specific examples of why you think industrialization and reckless abuse is led by American Christian industrialist, and explain what exactly you mean by reckless abuse? I’m not denying that Christianity itself is harmful, but WHO specifically do you think is “disregarding” WHO’S language and which culture specifically? And how is “disregarding” a culture a moral wrongdoing (its no one’s responsibility to promote any culture they don’t agree with or see as positive)? Also what action do you think they should take instead? The thing is, modern day fundamental Muslims marry and rape children and cut their clitoris’ off, like those are regular every things in most Islamic states – Christian nations do not have the same fundamental religious problem because all Christian nations are secular and relatively free (extremely free compared to Islamic countries). So that’s kind of where my question came from. Theology is so fascinating to me and I really love talking about it so please try to take my questions as genuine conversational interest rather than a personal attack. Argumentative is good when the people involved know their stuff. I assume you know your stuff (since you publicly started a dialogue about it), so my alleged argumentative nature shouldn’t be a problem here. 1. This post, in case you missed it it about the destruction of indigenous language and customs. I do keep my posts short as most people don’t have time to delve into a book every day. I have covered Muslim and Hindu issues in the past. This is a case where business and religion are all majority Christian ( the body of christ) but they choose to separate themselves from liability, but since nearly all the industrialists and politicians are Christian here in the west, they should’ve known better than to destroy everything in their path to make money. The video doesn’t mention this, but I alone made this stunning connection. If gods love was universal, it’s funny how it typically favors white Christians over melanin. You draw your own conclusions. Liked by 1 person 1. Ok so you’re saying that industrialists and politicians are unethical in practice and that’s completely or at least in part because they are mostly Christian? American capitalism is a value that stands on its own apart from Christianity, and industry and politics stand alone as issues and entities apart from religion, so can you delve deeper on that? We all know that correlation does not imply causation so that’s where my confusion is from (I wish it was wine). The skin color thing is just going to have to have some specific examples/explanation if I’m going to respond to it. Because I dont see your speedy connection between christianity-leaders-race issues. That part just sounds like flaming liberal hysterics if I may so without sounding too argumentative or offensive to anyone’s feelings. 1. Well, I’m not liberal. I have no political affiliations nor do I interest myself in it. You can separate Christianity from Christians but I won’t. As far as indigenous customs and people disregarded by these same people since the 1500’s, how is that a liberal observation? Liked by 1 person 2. Well you don’t have to be affiliated with a party to hold a view that is of that party’s philosophy. Race baiting is liberal philosophy. But that’s neither here nor there. Could you give some of the examples and explanations I asked for in the last 2 comments? I think it would clear up a lot of my questions to your position. 3. I’ll address one at a time. I am not in favor of capitalism or socialism. One of the great tricks is we’re always given two choices, and they’re both wrong. Sorry if that doesn’t work for you, but it’s were I am. Just like religion, we’re given a couple of choices, and they’re both wrong. Catholic or Protestant, Shia or Sunni. I don’t play the game of, well, one is not as bad as the other, so I vote for the lesser. If I had to classify I would govern conservatively and stay out of everyone’s personal business, but that is not an option on any ticket. Liked by 1 person 4. Wait what do you mean given two choices, those aren’t the only choices? We happen to have chosen and stuck with a capitalist state because it puts our economy and individual opportunity in the best positions (unless you know something I don’t?). I’m really curious as to why you’re against capitalist philosophy and what you think is a better system for a welfare state like the US has? In addition to my remaining questions 5. Puts the economy as the only priority. Look at the Harvard MBA program. Very predictable. Very ruthless, money is the only thing that drives it. Consumerism calculated marketers to sell sell sell at any cost, even the beauty of our world. I won’t support it. Liked by 1 person 6. What is your suggestion instead of capitalism? Who’s “only priority” is the economy? I can’t think of one person or group. The failed Clinton era and then the failed Obama era have left the American economy in utter desperate need for attention, so I don’t see the issue with prioritizing it at the top. Do you not think the economy is of utmost importance in the US? 7. You’re being a troll. If you can’t see there needs to be some middle ground you’re crazy. This is not a political forum to blow your steam. I won’t engage. Your wrong in many levels. Liked by 1 person 8. Um what ? Why don’t you want to discuss the piece you wrote ? Blowing off steam? What ?? If you’re so confident in your knowledge of the matter then why can’t you just easily answer my questions and explain how I’ve got it wrong? Like if I’m wrong don’t you think I want to know ? That’s the point here. You will never catch me telling anyone with valid legitimate comments/questions that I “won’t engage” because I find it a copout. 9. You really are a lock step republican. Don’t you see a problem with that? I am not defined by anyone, and it just seems a little off to me to get in to it with someone confined to the box. You can’t make a single connection outside of your indoctrinated politics. You’d make a fine Christian. Looks like you found your religion…The Republican Party. True story. Liked by 1 person 10. Remember when you said you aren’t liberal and I accepted that with the notion that you can have liberal views without being one? I’m gonna say this once, I am not Republican. Personal attacks aside, my questions regarding the topic still remain. Not sure what I did to deserve the hostile intolerance when I’ve just asked some questions related to your piece & stated some related views/ideas. The politically fueled toxicity in society is really evident here. 11. You just conveniently bash two democrat presidents and give the others a pass, and we’re all supposed to think you’re independent? Lol. I’ve read your other posts. You have a funny way of showing it. A hard core conservative vegetarian who’s always right about everything. I’ve never seen you budge an inch, and sometimes your quite off the mark. Liked by 1 person 12. I gave the others a pass on the ECONOMY because that’s what I thought we were talking about. How philosophy impacts policy & economic status..? I am not a vegetarian and regardless this is not about me personally !!! This is about ideas and views. What the fuck does you thinking I’m a conservative vegetarian have dick to do with this piece you wrote or the specifics of my commentary on it ? GIVE ME A REASON TO BUDGE A MILE AND I WILL. You have to make a valid point or explanation beyond “You’re a Republican!” though in order for me to be able to budge from my position of having unanswered questions/unclarity on your view. I think the point with me is that the person who is the most “right” always prevails, and if you’re going to make public statements and garner commentary on them then why not also step up and explain/defend/or retract them when they are slightly challenged? If we’re honest I don’t think I’ve been harsh at all in my inquiry here. 13. You have failed to understand the point of the post. You are the ONLY one. This isn’t my problem. Connect a few dots please. From what I gather by your statements is your in favor of decimating indigenous culture in the name of progress. I’m not. Why are you? Liked by 1 person 14. I guess I’m just a dumb racist Nazi bigot and you shouldn’t be expected to engage me as a legitimate commenter when I say or ask things you disagree with or find difficult to elaborate on. Insightful chat. 15. You ask five long ass questions in one paragraph and keep firing on all cylinders. How about one thing at a time? I know a few others that have had trouble having dialog with you. When whole posts are written about your attitude, there’s a problem. Myself included on your blog. I’ve done 300 posts, and never had a problem with clarity until tonight. Do you think it’s ok to displace indigenous people over “progress”? Liked by 1 person People who want their a culture to live on, should create a culture successful and most importantly necessary enough to live on without society having to intentionally baby and protect it. Especially since we’re talking about silly little things like foods and fashion that no one has or should have the responsibility of promoting. People dying off and subsequently taking their culture with them is not the big bad white Christians forcing brown “indigenous” people’s culture to die. It’s so bizarre to me that there are people who want to eradicate capitalism for the sake of attempting to preserve some little languages and foods and clothing items that are irrelevant to the vast majority, what a way to preserve a “culture”. America has it’s own culture, and the American people expect assimilation into this culture the we love so much. How about that? Or are people from Western/Christian/wealthy/white countries not allowed to love their culture just as much as people with brown skin are? Did we forget that the United States was settled (created) by European settlers ? But fuck them and that whole culture, because they’re Christian & white, right? 17. You’re a jackass. You don’t intimidate me, it’s just your style of ranting bullshit that ran off all your followers. You never answered the question, but I see how you feel. Is it ok to continue to displace indigenous people in the name of money and “progress”? You just are a cold and lifeless colonial puppet. I believe there is room for all if we’d just work it out. There’s always a better way except for the cold blooded people like you that put money ahead of everything, including civility. Go take a Valium. Not because you’re Christian and white, but because you’re wrong and a bitch. Liked by 1 person 18. “RACIST FASCIST BITCH!!!!” Lol don’t worry my correspondence with you and your blog is done. I also love how the race baiter randomly says I’m white lol what a fucking cuck. 19. You’ve got some issues going on I can help diagnose, but Im sure there are crisis lines available in your area. If you need help or feel like you’re a danger to yourself or others, please call 911. I think you should just go ahead and call. Good luck sweetie. Liked by 1 person 20. You have a problem with everyone. That makes you the problem. I’ve had over 10,000 comments on this blog this year, and you’re the first one I wished I’d blocked. You should take a break from the news and get yourself grounded as a human being. Pretty sure you’re all show, cause if this is the real you in public. Wow! What a gem. Liked by 2 people 21. Another broader question that I have, what specifically are you referring to when you say “customs” and “culture”? Also, why do you (seem to) think that preserving all cultures/languages/customs is necessary or important? More specifically, how is it the job of everyone in leadership positions to ensure that all or any cultures are preserved or even upheld in any society? Like, what SPECIFICALLY do you think are the repercussions/negative societal implications of letting the “cultures” of little groups of people die off along with them? And how SPECIFICALLY does Christianity feed into the alleged harmful dissolution of smaller, random cultures? Take your time responding if you need, not answering something will only leave more questions. 22. Are you related to Gish Gallup? Jeez. Did you watch the video? My family is directly affected by this and yes, I do think the monochrome world where no variety in culture and food and style is all mass produced, mass marketed, and mass money is the only important goal. To hell with other cultures? Where is your compassion? I don’t care what party you’re in. That’s disgusting. Where is the end game? Who want to live like that? You like the herd that much? Go coast to coast. Same shops, restaurants , clothes, life is certainly changing and more convenient, but life is not better. Liked by 1 person 23. Wait, this is about food and style ? What does variety in the free market have to do with cultures being upheld ? (Not to mention demonizing people who are wealthier than you for not caring about those foods/styles) You realize you can have not massed produced things without preserving fading cultures, right ?? The “compassion” thing is another liberal point in the way of the real discussion – Why does it have to be about a compassion/feelings thing? This is an issue that you’re claiming matters and then when someone questions the blame you’re fixing on people without drawing any clear line between them, they’re just immoral or unethical or lack compassion for not being able to see it from your view. Just explain yourself, don’t ask where my compassion is. I dont think with my feelings over reason, I put reason over feelings. So that’s where my compassion is, under all my critical thinking. The leaders who you’re blaming yet refuse to name do not have a “Christian” agenda to oppress brown people, so I’m hoping that’s not what you’re trying to say? Please draw a clear line between Christianity in industry/politics and race issues/racism? Please, if you answer nothing else I’ve asked, please clarify that for me so I can sleep tonight. Because the “Christian leaders push racism against brown people” really needs some explaining. I agree with everything, except the comment about the big five religions representing a lack of diversity. Lack of diversity implies some kind of sameness, but there are huge differences in ideas and practices between the three Abrahamic religions, let alone when you add Buddhism and Hinduism to the mix. Also, we might call them the Big 5, but technically speaking there are less practitioners or members of Judaism than the “primal-indigenous” religions, Chinese traditional religion, and even Sikhism. So even the Big 5 is a little bit of a misnomer. Religions by number of Adherents Also, these big 5 come from all different parts of the planet and represent very different cultures. Liked by 1 person 1. Fair enough. In influence, I believe Judaism is on par with the rest. Initially the post was more of a combination of industrialization supported by the spread of religion, and the lack of regard for the natural world, but my mind does wander now and then. I’m hamstringed by this one minute info blog thing. I need to talk with the producers. Hehe. Thank you for the comment. I can always expect you to steer it in a realistic direction. Liked by 2 people 6. Europeans, Christians, capitalists, democracies, everyone wants othets to be like us to prove we are the best. If we aren’t the best, no one would want to be like us, right? But it is all facade. Others want to be like us because they think we live better lives. Television and the internet seldom show the people living in poverty, or the total lack of meaning in western life. Our advertising is not honest. Our news programs are not honest. Nothing we do is honest. It is all for show… Married people want all their single friends to be married, not because married prople are happier, but to make those already married look like they are happier. It is all a numbers game. The more people doing something, the happier it must be! For shame. The more people doing the same thing is equal to more people living the same lie. The strongest number in tne world of humanity is not 7.2 billion. The strongest number in the world is 1, one person doing what they want to have a happy life. Happiness is different for everyone, but we are all taught that happiness is what everyone wants it to be. We are fooling ourselves! And thus we are fooling others! Be different. Be 1. Be yourself. Liked by 4 people 1. So many join in the system only because they don’t know any better, or they are forced to. The moment they get enough they find a way to downsize, drop out, find some peace and quiet and get out of the system as far as they can comfortably do so. Great comment raw. Good to see you. Liked by 2 people 7. Indeed it happens, even on a micro level within this country and during my lifetime. I have seen what my wife calls ‘the homogenization of America’ as the languages, cultures, and other trappings (food, clothing, architecture) of immigrants have been displaced. It is one reason I like New York City so much. Due to ethnic resiliency there is so much to see. But like the Everly Bros. song groans, ‘problems, problems, problems all day long.’ Interesting (if guilt-ridden) post. Liked by 2 people 1. Now with the interstates you can drive form coast to coast and not see anything at all, then when you get there it’s all the same stuff you have at home. Bland Liked by 2 people 1. Right. Maybe it was in ‘A Walk in the Woods,’ or some book by Bill Bryson where he complained about all the pointless and unnecessary roads in the wilderness. Liked by 2 people 1. Recently reread the tracker by Tom Brown. I’ve been teaching my daughter the old ways in the woods everyday on our adventures. It’s amazing how much Tom learned from a chance meeting, then 9 years with a tribal elder. There are things I can never learn on my own, and even as a teenager when I first discovered the way, those ways were nearly impossible to find. Even though we love the idea and learn all we can about the plants and trees, we’ll never have the apothocarial knowledge that once was. Developed over millennia—gone in three or four generations. Liked by 3 people 8. I like that there are many cultures with thier own unique view of the world. I love studying especially how others in different cultures can literally have a different perception of the world, such as some viewing time as cyclical for instance. Or having a different concept for a word than we do such as the ancient Hebrew conception of the verb to create was more bringing order to chaos, not an ex nihilo creation thought of in modern Christianity. There’s even work out there about how preliterate societies think of the world versus literate ones like ours. That’s all so cool and the world would be dull if all the same! My only issue is when a culture’s values are detrimental and unchallenged such as the 3rd world theocracies and their intolerance for others unlike them! Liked by 1 person 9. Modernity is an inexorable and irresistible force — and you’re blaming that on Christianity? There’s a switch for you. It will come as news to the Chinese, among others. There’s nothing more racist than romanticizing other people’s misery while enjoying all the comforts and benefits of modernity yourself. 1. There are ways to modernize and get people a better quality of life AND help them preserve their own traditions… Christianity seeks to impose a new worldview, not just aid the needy. It’s charity but with the expectation of new converts not simply good will and benevolence. Liked by 4 people 2. I am looking for the blaming Christianity part. You seem to be accepting of the homogenization as inevitable, maybe that is the problem. ‘It’s ok cuz we likes it.’ Then you point your finger and call hypocrisy and racism because someone made a point. “Romanticizing misery?” In the TED talk or the blog post? Or do you feel guilty because you are part of the problem and need to place your guilt upon the one who diagnosed the problem in the first place? There are things more racist! Liked by 3 people 1. @Loy. I blame the system of Christianity and their majority. They want to be the body of Christ on one hand, then dissect themselves from the body when it suits them. The industrial revolution is spearheaded by the body of Christ. It’s politicians, it’s businessmen, it’s military, everything is run by people that are supposedly enlightened with Christ, but rule their lives and everyone else’s with greed. 90% of our politicians are Christians!! Sounds too close to the faith to excuse them from it in any way! Liked by 5 people 3. I live as sustainable life as allowed Loy. The Chinese have nothing to do with Christianity in remote areas converting heathers to monochrome life 1. @jim – Just in our lifetimes, hundreds of millions of Chinese have quite voluntarily abandoned traditional ways in remote areas in order to secure the comforts and benefits of “monochrome” life. For better or worse, Christianity had nothing to do with it (unless you want to assign “blame” to consumers in developed countries who happily bought what Chinese workers happily produced). That story is repeated in any number of other modernizing countries, most of them non-Christian. Yes, the industrial revolution, like the scientific revolution, the Enlightenment, democratic self-rule and other aspects of modernity originated in the Judeo-Christian West, but they are now global phenomena because they’re powerful tools to improve people’s material (though not spiritual) well-being. (They’re far more powerful than the traditional religious practice of alsmgiving. If we’re going to criticize organized religion in this area, it should be to say that religious entities have not done nearly enough to embrace and support globalization, and to ameliorate its spiritual and cultural effects.) You know the conversation has taken a weird turn when you’re blaming modernity on religion and I’m echoing Steven Pinker. 1. Never read pinker. The Chinese have to do this to keep up or starve in a western system that has been forced upon them until they have reached the point they no longer know better. Keep up or die, is that the advances you cherish? Improved way of life? Hah! Longevity is not improvement when you have to live in a barren landscape cesspool for a few extra years of sterility. Have you ever held the life of a fern in your hands and shook the dew off to make a remedy that one can only buy in the store with half the efficacy? Have you ever made a tool to build your own little heaven with your own hands? Have you connected at all outside of philosop	-1	Unrelated	false
<urn:uuid:3b31b87b-fb4c-44ff-b703-de27d0506d73>	dclm-dedup-25B-ai-scifi-docs \| https://www.usgamer.net/articles/captain-n-the-game-master-captured-the-highs-of-nintendomania-and-the-lows-of-childrens-entertainment	Captain N: The Game Master Captured the Highs of NintendoMania, and the Lows of Kids' Entertainment Just as "Nintendo" became a household name, DiC's creation set out to capitalize on this new fad—leaving an embarrassing legacy in its wake. The morning of September 9, 1989 nearly equated the Apollo 11 Moon Landing for a nation of Nintendo-obsessed kids. This otherwise-ordinary Saturday marked the premiere of Captain N: The Game Master, a cartoon that promised to turn the blocky blobs of sprites from our NES games into fully animated spectacles. Of course, given the landscape of televised animation at the time, Captain N couldn't have turned out much better. Outside of a few exceptions, like Disney's late-decade work, and Ralph Bakshi's Mighty Mouse: The New Adventures, in the 1980s, kids' TV was a wasteland designed to callously shill products in-between commercials for other products. Sometimes, clever writers managed to sneak some inspired scripts into cartoons engineered to promote merchandise—like J. Michael Straczynski's work on The Real Ghostbusters—but, with so little competition in the Saturday morning space, you didn't necessarily have to work too hard to nab a captive audience. Look closely, and you may notice that Captain N looks like some of your Japanese animes. (But don't look too close.) Captain N came in just under the wire, debuting a single year before the Children's Television Act significantly altered regulations for kids' entertainment. But perhaps if it arrived a little earlier, DiC's animated take on the Nintendo universe would have been a lot more brazen. Watch an episode, and you'll notice a conspicuous lack of the word "Nintendo" throughout—the show even takes place within the generically titled world of "Videoland." In fact, an ancient interview with Captain N writer Jeffrey Scott points to how on-brand this cartoon was before special interest groups began their crackdown: "The series was initially called Captain Nintendo: The Game Master. But it wasn't long before we got word from the network that we needed to eliminate the Nintendo name. At the time there was a big outcry that Saturday morning cartoons were becoming commercials for toys. And to have the Nintendo name in the title was just too much for the networks. It would have been like naming a show Mattel's Barbie. So 'N' was as close as we could get." "As close as we could get" also describes Captain N's faithfulness to its source material. Now, kids may lack a certain degree of knowledge earned through life experience, but if they find an interesting subject, more often than not, they become tiny scholars on the matter. And that's exactly the kind of obsession Nintendo engendered. Nintendo Power, the company's officially sanctioned propaganda, encouraged a nation of Nintendo fans to fixate on the smallest details of their video games, and its bi-monthly schedule meant readers had plenty of time to pore over a single issue ad nauseam. In 1989, your average kid was more likely to know Mega Man 2's boss weaknesses than their state capitals. So it must have been a strange experience for this demographic to tune into the premiere of Captain N and see the show get so many things staggeringly wrong. Mega Man was green, Pit was named "Kid Icarus," (sort of like calling Samus Aran "Metroid") and nothing was as it should have been. Being seven years old at the time, I don't quite remember my initial feelings on Captain N, but seeing as I was the type of kid who got steamed when they changed the name of April O' Neil's workplace for the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie, I was probably flipping tables. Why is King Hippo blue? Unfortunately, questions like these will never be answered by Captain N. These days, Nintendo and its licensees would definitely have more control over the end product, but in the '80s, DiC's status as an animation behemoth implied some degree of professionalism. Really, the writing on Captain N is no worse than similar dreck of the decade: It features the same Vaudeville-era one-liners, ill-timed physical humor, time-eating montages, and aggressively unearned moralizing this era of kids' cartoons is known best for. And this spirit of "good enough" definitely haunts every frame of Captain N. Scott, who wrote all 13 episodes of the first season—not an uncommon occurrence back then—had little interest in video games; like many animation writers of the time, Captain N was nothing more than another job. "[Series creator Andy Heyward] shipped me a Nintendo system and some games, and I started playing them," says Scott. "I didn't have to do too much, because all I wanted was to know the lay of the land and to understand how the various characters related to the game. It wasn't important that I be a fanatic and know everything about a game, because we had decided that the stories would only be loosely based on the game environment." When asked why he didn't include Samus Aran, Metroid's protagonist, Scott replies, "Never heard of her. That could be why." To be charitable, Captain N at least made a few inspired choices. In a casting decision that can only be called "delightfully inexplicable," Levi Stubbs—fresh off of his role as Audrey II in Little Shop of Horrors—plays Mother Brain, re-imagined here as a vain and vaguely drag-queenish villain. Honestly, it's a voice that's just fun to listen to, especially when you get the sense that Stubbs, an aging Motown musician, probably has no idea what he's saying 90 percent of the time. And if Captain N couldn't quite nail down its characters, the show at least gets the music right: Decades before chiptune remixes would become a thing, the series dressed up an assortment of 8-bit standards with some faithful arrangements. It should also be noted that Captain N has a relatively high animation budget, at least in its earlier seasons; you can really tell when its characters, with their incredibly busy designs, are being handled by anyone other than the Japanese production studios the series started with. Captain N couldn't feature the word "Nintendo," but the company's products were almost always on display. Captain N's biggest failure, though, can be found in just how little it takes advantage of its premise. While the "kid gets sucked into another world" concept isn't astoundingly original, the series doesn't quite know where to take it. And there's no sense of logic guiding these adventures in Videoland, giving viewers very little insight into how this world actually works. Now, that may seem like a tall order for a kids' cartoon, but the recent Wreck-It-Ralph goes for a somewhat similar idea, but actually does the legwork of describing how the different game worlds connect with one another. Meanwhile, Captain N just uses the nebulous idea of "warp zones" to conveniently answer any logistical question, though this concept mostly acts as a writer's crutch. Since characters can essentially teleport to another location on a whim, watching Captain N with adult eyes can make for a confusing time, since few scenes feel logically connected to what comes before or after. 1989 definitely marked a high point for both DiC and Nintendo; not only did Captain N debut this fall, so did the weekday-bound Super Mario Bros. Super Show. This meant that, for six out of seven days a week, kids could plop themselves down in front of the TV for some Nintendo-based entertainment—and even if it wasn't all that great, we tolerated it simply for the subject matter. 26 years later, and DiC's Nintendo's shows are remembered as the last holdouts of an entertainment era that would make a sharp 180-degree turn once creator-run cartoons like Ren and Stimpy (amongst others) would show the possibilities of TV animation. And this former partnership with DiC could explain why Nintendo has been so gun-shy about the prospect of another animated series in the passing decades; even the rumored Legend of Zelda NetFlix show—live-action, at that—brought forth a wave of "Excuse me, Princess" responses within Internet comments section. (That being Link's on-loan-from-Steve-Martin catchphrase in DiC's Super Show.) We've had a long time to heal since then, and who knows? Maybe in today's animation landscape—one driven by passion and very little money—a group of talented souls can finally do justice to Nintendo's cast of highly marketable characters. With Captain N: The Game Master's place in history, they at least have a stunning example of what not to do. Images courtesy of The Cartoon Scrapbook. And if you'd like to know more about Captain N, check out this episode of Retronauts Pocket we recorded on the topic back in the summer of 2013: Related articles You may also like Press Start to Continue Mat's Farewell \| The Truth Has Not Vanished Into Darkness This isn't the real ending, is it? Can't be. Eric's Farewell \| Off to Find a New Challenger	-1	Unrelated	false
0e7f4061-61e5-4897-8a66-1ce3bb97df7c	alignment-classifier-documents-unlabeled \| trentmkelly/LessWrong-43k	Bayesian and Frequentists Approaches to Statistical Analysis In this post, I want to give a from-first-principles account of Bayesian and frequentists approaches to statistical analysis. Bayesian and frequentism have been discussed here often, although LessWrong posts on these topics are often focused on Bayesians and frequentists as it comes to probability and rationality, or its use in AI. Here, I am going to focus on statistical analyses that are intended for human readers. This is a somewhat experimental attempt to cobble together a sensible framework from the often confusing and mismatched pieces I have encountered when trying to learn about this topic myself, and to keep things grounded on what statistical analysis is actually trying to accomplish rather than on abstract philosophical positions. I will assume the reader is familiar with the mathematics of probability and Bayes rule. Introduction To start at the beginning: As staticians, we are interested in helping a reader understand and make inferences using data. We will do so by performing some computations on the data, and then presenting the results to the reader who will, hopefully, be able to use those results to draw conclusions faster and more accurately than they would if trying to parse the data on their own. The main thing we need to decide is what should be computed. To put this in mathematical terms, let d be the data we have observed. Let h be a hypothesis about how the data was generated, and let D be a random variable over possible values we could have observed. I will assume we also have a model of P(D\|h), meaning the probability distribution over those possible values given that a particular hypothesis, h, is true. As a concrete example, imagine a friend asks us to help them decide whether a coin is fair (meaning it has a 50/50 chance of landing on heads if flipped), and they tell us they observed 13 heads after flipping the coin 20 times. Then D would be a random variable with a probability distribution over the integers 0 to 20, h will be a real	-1	Unrelated	false
<urn:uuid:02e51608-f9e7-43ca-99f3-6fd38b6bf9f2>	dclm-dedup-25B-ai-scifi-docs \| http://www.kneeandshouldersurgery.com/knee-disorders/acl/anterior-cruciate-ligament-injuries/	Anterior Cruciate Ligament Injuries The anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) is the most commonly injured ligament of the knee. In most cases, the ligament is injured by people participating in athletic activity. As sports have become an increasingly important part of day-to-day life over the past few decades, the number of ACL injuries has steadily increased. This injury has received a great deal of attention from orthopedic surgeons over the past 15 years, and very successful operations to reconstruct the torn ACL have been invented. This guide will help you understand • where in the knee the ACL is located • how an ACL injury occurs • how doctors treat the condition ACL Tear Where is the ACL, and what does it do? Ligaments are tough bands of tissue that connect the ends of bones together. The ACL is located in the center of the knee joint where it runs from the backside of the femur (thighbone) to connect to the front of the tibia (shinbone). The ACL runs through a special notch in the femur called the intercondylar notch and attaches to a special area of the tibia called the tibial spine. The ACL is the main controller of how far forward the tibia moves under the femur. This is called anterior translation of the tibia. If the tibia moves too far, the ACL can rupture. The ACL is also the first ligament that becomes tight when the knee is straightened. If the knee is forced past this point, or hyperextended, the ACL can also be torn. The ACL also plays an important role in resisting rotation of the tibia. ACL Knee injury Other parts of the knee may be injured when the knee is twisted violently, as in a clipping injury in football. It is not uncommon to also see a tear of the medial collateral ligament (MCL) on the inside edge of the knee, and the lateral meniscus, which is the U-shaped cushion between the outer half of the tibia and femur. Related Document: A Patient’s Guide to Knee Anatomy How do ACL injuries occur? The mechanism of injury for many ACL ruptures is a sudden deceleration (slowing down or stop), hyperextension, or pivoting in place. Sports-related injuries are the most common. The types of sports that have been associated with ACL tears are numerous. Those sports requiring the foot to be planted and the body to change direction rapidly (such as basketball) carry a high incidence of injury. In this way, most ACL injuries are considered noncontact. However, contact-related injuries can result in ACL tears. For example, a blow to the outside of the knee when the foot is planted is the most likely contact-related injury. Football is also frequently the source of an ACL tear. Football combines the activity of planting the foot and rapidly changing direction and the threat of bodily contact. Downhill skiing is another frequent source of injury, especially since the introduction of ski boots that come higher up the calf. These boots move the impact of a fall to the knee rather than the ankle or lower leg. An ACL injury usually occurs when the knee is forcefully twisted or hyperextended while the foot remains in contact with the ground. Many patients recall hearing a loud pop when the ligament is torn, and they feel the knee give way. The number of women suffering ACL tears has dramatically increased. This is due in part to the rise in women’s athletics. But studies have shown that female athletes are two to four times more likely to suffer ACL tears than male athletes in the same sports. Recent research has shown several factors that contribute to women’s higher risk of ACL tears. Women athletes seem less able to tighten their thigh muscles to the same degree as men. This means women don’t get their knees to hold as steady, which may give them less knee protection during heavy physical activity. Also, tests show that women’s quadriceps and hamstring muscles work differently than men’s. Women’s quadriceps muscles (on the front of the thigh) work extra hard during knee-bending activities and their quadricep to hamstring strength ratio shows their quadriceps are typically much stronger than their hamstring. . This pulls the tibia forward, placing the ACL at risk for a tear. Meanwhile, women’s hamstring muscles (on the back of the thigh) respond more slowly than in men. The hamstring muscles normally protect the tibia from sliding too far forward. Women’s sluggish hamstring response may allow the tibia to slip forward, straining the ACL. Other studies suggest that women’s ACLs may be weakend by the effects of the female hormone estrogen. Taken together, these factors may explain why female athletes have a higher risk of ACL tears. What does a torn ACL feel like? The symptoms following a tear of the ACL can vary. Some patients report hearing and/or feeling a pop. Usually, the knee joint swells within a short time following the injury. This is due to bleeding into the knee joint from torn blood vessels in the damaged ligament. The instability caused by the torn ligament leads to a feeling of insecurity and giving way of the knee, especially when trying to change direction. The knee may feel like it wants to slip backwards and there may be activity-related pain and/or swelling. Walking downhill or on ice is especially difficult and you may have trouble coming to a quick stop. The pain and swelling from the initial injury will usually be gone after two to four weeks, but the knee may still feel unstable. The symptom of instability and the inability to trust the knee for support are what require treatment. Also important in the decision about treatment is the growing realization by orthopedic surgeons that long-term instability leads to early arthritis of the knee and a very high chance of meniscal tears. Related Document: A Patient’s Guide to Osteoarthritis of the Knee How do doctors identify ACL injuries? The history and physical examination are probably the most important ways to diagnose a ruptured or deficient ACL. In the acute (sudden) injury, the swelling is a good indicator. A good rule of thumb that orthopedic surgeons use is that any tense swelling that occurs within two hours of a knee injury usually represents blood in the joint, or a hemarthrosis. If the swelling occurs the next day, the fluid is probably from the inflammatory response. Placing a needle in the swollen joint and aspirating (or draining as much fluid as possible) may be an option for pain relief and reduction of the swelling. If blood is found when draining the knee, there is about a 70 percent chance it represents a torn ACL. This type of fluid can also be present if the cartilage on the surface of the knee joint was injured. Aspirating the knee is optional and is usually reserved for knees with significant swelling. During the physical examination, special stress tests are performed on the knee. Three of the most commonly used tests are the Lachman test, the pivot-shift test, and the anterior drawer test. The doctor will place your knee and leg in various positions and then apply a load or force to the joint. Any excess motion or unexpected movement of the tibia relative to the femur may be a sign of ligament damage and insufficiency. These exam findings are very good at predicting an ACL injury. Another way to check for anterior tibial translation is with the KT-1000 and KT-2000 arthrometers. The patients leg is bent and supported on a wedge with the knee in 30 degrees of flexion. The arthrometer is placed against the knee to be tested and strapped to the lower leg. Usually, the normal knee is tested first. The arthrometer applies an anterior force of 15 pounds against the tibia. The amount of anterior tibial translation is measured. The test is repeated with a force of 20 pounds. A third test applies a manual maximal force to the posterior (back) of the tibia. This is similar to the Lachman test. The results of these tests will help your doctor determine how badly the ACL was injured. Other tests may be combined with tests of ACL integrity to determine whether other knee ligaments, joint capsule, or joint cartilage have also been injured. X-rays of the knee are very important and are used to rule out a fracture. Ligaments and tendons do not show up on X-rays, but bleeding into the joint can result from a fracture of the knee joint, or when portions of the joint surface are chipped off. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is probably the most accurate test for diagnosing a torn ACL without actually looking into the knee. The MRI machine uses magnetic waves rather than X-rays to show the soft tissues of the body. This machine creates pictures that look like slices of the knee. The pictures show the anatomy, and any injuries, very clearly. This test does not require any needles or special dye and is painless. ACL Arthroscopy Arthroscopy is an operation that involves inserting a small fiber-optic TV camera into the knee joint, allowing the orthopedic surgeon to look at the structures inside the joint directly. The vast majority of ACL tears are diagnosed without resorting to this type of surgery, though arthroscopy is used when electing to proceed with surgical repair of a torn ACL. How do doctors treat an ACL injury? Nonsurgical Treatment Initial treatment for an ACL injury focuses on decreasing pain and swelling in the knee. Rest and mild pain medications, such as acetaminophen (Tylenol), can help decrease these symptoms. You may need to use crutches until you can walk without a limp. Most patients are instructed to try and walk normally. The knee joint may need to be drained with a needle (mentioned earlier) to remove any blood in the joint. Most patients receive physical therapy after having an ACL injury. Therapists treat swelling and pain with the use of ice, electrical stimulation, and rest periods with your leg supported in elevation. Preoperative physical therapy is one of the most important factors in preventing injury to the ACL after it has been reconstructed. Exercises are used to help you regain normal movement of joints and muscles. Range-of-motion exercises should be started right away with the goal of helping you swiftly regain full movement in your knee. This includes the use of a stationary bike, gentle stretching, and careful pressure applied to the knee by the therapist. Exercises are also given to improve the strength of the hamstring and quadriceps muscles. As your symptoms ease and strength improves, you will be guided in specialized exercises to improve knee stability. An ACL brace may be suggested. This type of brace is usually custom-made and not the type you can buy at the drugstore. It is designed to improve knee stability when the ACL doesn’t function properly. An ACL brace is often recommended when the knee is unstable and surgery is not planned. As mentioned, a torn ACL that isn’t corrected often leads to early knee arthritis. In addition, there is no evidence that an ACL brace will prevent further damage to the knee if it is not reconstructed. The ACL brace may help keep the knee from giving way during moderate activity. However, it can give a false sense of security and won’t always protect the knee during sports that require heavy cutting, jumping, or pivoting. Many orthopedists will also recommend wearing a brace for at least one year after a surgical reconstruction, so even if you decide to have ACL surgery, a brace may be an option after surgery. Many of our high level athletes will request a brace for a short time as they are transitioning back into their sport. The main goal of surgery is to keep the tibia from moving too far forward under the femur bone and to also control the increased rotation seen with an ACL deficient knee. Also, if you want to return to cutting athletics, reconstructing your ACL with significantly decrease your risk of further damaging your articular cartilage and meniscus. Even when surgery is needed, most surgeons will have their patients attend physical therapy for several visits before the surgery. This is done to reduce swelling and to make sure you can straighten and bend your knee completely. It is very important to obtain full knee motion prior to surgery. This practice also reduces the chances of scarring inside the joint and can speed recovery after surgery. Arthroscopic Method Most surgeons now favor reconstruction of the ACL using a piece of tendon or ligament to replace the torn ACL. This surgery is most often done with the aid of the arthroscope. Incisions are usually still required around the knee, but the surgery doesn’t require the surgeon to open the joint. The arthroscope is used to view the inside of the knee joint as the surgeon performs the work. ACL surgeries are done on an outpatient basis, and patients go home the same day as the surgery. Patients with multiple ligaments that are reconstructed during surgery may stay one or two nights in the hospital if necessary. Patellar Tendon Graft One type of graft used to replace the torn ACL is the patellar tendon. This tendon connects the kneecap (patella) to the tibia. Dr. Kiritsis removes a strip from the center of the ligament with bone attached to each end and uses this graft as a replacement for the torn ACL. Related Document: A Patient’s Guide to Patellar Tendon Graft Reconstruction of the ACL Hamstring Tendon Graft Dr. Kiritsis also commonly uses a hamstring graft to reconstruct a torn ACL. This graft is taken from the hamstring tendons that attach to the tibia just below the knee joint. The hamstring muscles run down the back of the thigh. Their tendons cross the knee joint and connect on each side of the tibia. The graft used in ACL reconstruction is taken from the semitendinosus and gracilis tendons along the inside portion of the knee. Related Document: A Patient’s Guide to Hamstring Tendon Graft Reconstruction of the ACL Allograft Reconstruction Other materials are also used to replace the torn ACL. In some cases, an allograft is used. An allograft is tissue that comes from someone else. This tissue is harvested from tissue and organ donors at the time of death and sent to a tissue bank. The tissue is checked for any type of infection, sterilized, and stored in a freezer. When needed, the tissue is ordered by the Dr. Kiritsis and used to replace the torn ACL. The allograft (your surgeon’s choice of graft) can be from the tibialis tendon, patellar tendon, hamstring tendon, or Achilles tendon (the tendon that connects the calf muscles to the heel). Many surgeons use patellar tendon allograft tissue because the tendon comes with the original bone still attached on each end of the graft (from the patella and from the tibia). This makes it easier to fix the allograft in place. The advantage of using an allograft is that Dr. Kiritsis does not have to disturb or remove any of the normal tissue from your knee to use as a graft. The operation also usually takes less time because the graft does not need to be harvested from your knee. However, several studies have shown higher failure rates of allograft tissue as compared to using your own tissue. Dr. Kiritsis will use allograft in only certain situations. These include revision ACL reconstructions, multi-ligament knee injuries, and patients that have lower athletic demands. What should I expect after treatment? Nonsurgical Rehabilitation Nonsurgical rehabilitation for a torn ACL will typically last six to eight weeks. Therapists apply treatments such as electrical stimulation and ice to reduce pain and swelling. Exercises to improve knee range of motion and strength are added gradually. If your doctor prescribes a brace, your therapist will work with you to obtain and use the brace. You can return to your sporting activities when your quadriceps and hamstring muscles are back to nearly their full strength and control, you are not having swelling that comes and goes, and you aren’t having problems with the knee giving way. It is important to understand that patients with ACL deficient knees that return to cutting athletics have a significant chance of causing further damage to their knee. After Surgery Patients will take part in formal physical therapy after ACL reconstruction. You will probably be involved in a progressive rehabilitation program for four to six months after surgery to ensure the best result from your ACL reconstruction. At first, expect to see the physical therapist two to three times a week. If your surgery and rehabilitation go as planned during the first six weeks, you may only need to do a home program and see your therapist every few weeks over the four to six month period. You will be required to complete a return to athletics evaluation to be sure you are able to safely return to your sport.	-1	Unrelated	false
<urn:uuid:38dfb0e7-d479-4fa3-b344-d3d30e3259b3>	dclm-dedup-25B-ai-scifi-docs \| https://grammarpartyblog.com/2013/04/10/should-we-capitalize-internet/	Should we capitalize Internet? In US publications, Internet is usually capitalized. The argument is that it is a proper noun (like Rome or Richard or Ritz Crackers), and thus it should follow the capitalization rules for proper nouns and have the first letter capitalized. (Note, however, that web and website are not capitalized, but World Wide Web is.) I can almost agree with this thinking. In a way, the Internet is sort of a place (and proper nouns are the official names for people, places, and things), but it comes to you instead of you visiting it, as you would, say, Texas. You can’t go to a server, touch the box, and say, “Hey! I’m at the Internet! I should get a post card for Grandma!” I’m more aligned with the prominent UK style, which is to leave it lowercased. It’s not a brand name, and brand names get capitalized. And it’s not really a place, not like Texas or Rome. When I think of the Internet, I think of it as a technology. We don’t capitalize general names of technologies; think about radio or television. Why should the Internet be different? As a US-based book editor, I’m a slave to style. So, I capitalize Internet. But I’m hoping we move away from the capitalization soon. To me, it doesn’t make sense. 9 thoughts on “Should we capitalize Internet? 1. I’m in the UK and have never understood why it gets a capital when it does. And Word underlines it as an error – but as a grammar error so won’t let you teach it otherwise like you can with a spelling error. Grrr. 2. I worked in high tech (specifically, in server and network support) for a decade, Erin, and I can offer some extra insight into this one for you. In networking “an internet” is any network of networks: any combined network built up from more than one system. So, for example, if you had a network in accounting on the 2nd floor, one in marketing up on the 5th, and another over in the warehouse across town, when you combined them you’d refer to it as “the internet” (or at least those responsible for it would). Any equipment that connected these networks but had no individual life of its own was also called “an internet.” Short for “internetwork,” by the way, if that wasn’t self evident. The distinction — and I’ve seen it many times in technical print materials, at least in ‘the olden days’ — is that any local internet would be a lowercase ‘i’ internet. But the big world wide cloud of internetworks that forms ‘The Internet’ would be the uppercase ‘I’ Internet. In technical docs, at least when I worked in the field, this was a very important distinction, and those case changes mattered a lot. Are you connecting to the internet? Or connecting to the Internet? (Could better terminology have been chose? Too late.) As I’ve composed this, I’ve tried to think of other analogues in English — words that are lowercase when they refer to a smaller or generic object, but uppercase when they refer to one, particular global or well-known object. I know there are some, but only a couple spring to mind. Titles often do this. For example, you would write about “President Obama,” but if you described an action by him, you’d write “the president called for action.” AP recommends that “the Bible” be in uppercase, but “the AP style guide is an industry bible” be in lowercase. There must be many other examples. Probably because I’m aware of the logic of ‘i/Internet’ (above), I’m meticulous about how it’s capitalized. But I don’t think that outside of technical literature the distinction is either widely known or important. I suspect it will fall by the wayside and shift to all lowercase eventually. 3. There are two major stumbling blocks to lowering the I: 1) the argument that there is more than one inter-web and therefore when referring to the www it has to be capitalised for the sake of differentiation 2) the international standards body responsible for development of the internet insists on using a capital (because of point 1). But … more and more US news agencies are seeing the light. CNN for example now takes it down. It’s only a matter of time before Internet becomes internet. But in my opinion not soon enough. 4. I’m loving the comments thus far. Great points–especially about possibly needing to make a distinction for technical documents. I had read about the reason for capitalization being to differentiate between THE Internet and another internet. But, outside a technical atmosphere, I don’t think that reason holds much weight. 5. I agree with your explanation. However, when it comes to grammar, US and UK should follow the same rules. Because it is still the same language spoken with sightly different accents in both countries. 6. Is the Internet a proper noun? Person place or thing? Maybe it was. Or maybe it’s something in transition. Technical and academic and government style/writing tends to capitalize everything, and far too much. I’m imagining that with the passing of time, if it is not replaced by some corporate name that sounds like Google, or Facebook or Skynet that requires capitalization ;-), it will be lowercase all the way: the internet, sorta like the phone, the car, the house, the jeans, the watch, the computer, the doctor, the school, the highway, the typewriter, the telex, the fax machine… Leave a Reply You are commenting using your account. Log Out / Change ) Google+ photo Twitter picture Facebook photo Connecting to %s	-1	Unrelated	false
eaa10859-c90f-48c9-9536-391e811d9aa7	alignment-classifier-documents-unlabeled \| trentmkelly/LessWrong-43k	Originality vs. Correctness I talk with Alkjash about valuing original thinking vs getting things right. We discuss a few main threads: 1. What are the benefits of epistemic specialisation? What about generalism? 2. How much of the action in an actual human mind is in tweaking your distribution over hypotheses and how much over making sure you're considering good hypotheses? 3. If your hope is to slot into an epistemic process that figures out what's correct in part by you coming up with novel ideas, will processes that are out to get you make you waste your life? Intellectual generals vs supersoldiers alkjash Over time I've noticed that I care less and less about epistemic rationality - i.e. being correct - and more and more about being original. Of course the final goal is to produce thoughts that are original AND correct, but I find the originality condition more stringent and worth optimizing for. This might be a feature of working in mathematics where verifying correctness is cheap and reliable. habryka Huh that feels like an interesting take. I don't have a super strong take on originality vs. correctness, but I do think I live my life with more of a "if you don't understand the big picture and your environment well, you'll get got, and also the most important things are 10000x more important than the median important thing, so you really need to be able to notice those opportunities, which requires an accurate map of how things work in-aggregate". Which like, isn't in direct conflict with what you are saying, though maybe is. habryka I think I have two big sets of considerations that make me hesitant to optimize for originality over correctness (and also a bunch the other way around, but I'll argue for one side here first): 1. The world itself is really heavy-tailed and having a good understanding of how most of the world works, while sacrificing deeper understanding of how a narrower slicer of the world works, seems worth it since behind every part of reality that you haven'	-1	Unrelated	false
<urn:uuid:5f926cab-4d1b-4b6a-855b-eeabc1f38f52>	dclm-dedup-25B-ai-scifi-docs \| https://vino-velo.com/tag/leif-karlsson/	Vino & Velo Wine Consulting Monna Lisa Monna Lisa Chianti Classico DOCG Gran Selezione 2013 Vino-Velos (1-5): Rosso di Montalcino DOC Rosso di Montalcino DOC 2016, Ciacci Piccolomini d’Aragona Vinursprung: Rött vin från Toscana, Italien Vintyp: Rosso di Montalcino DOC Vinproducent: Ciacci Piccolomini d’Aragona En av Italiens mest renommerade vinregioner är Toscana, med många vingårdar som toppar flertalet omröstningar varje år. Det görs mest rödvin här, dock med en stigande andel produktion av vita och rosè-viner, inklusive lite bubbel, som italienarna kallar för spumante. Ciacci Piccolomini d’Aragona Vingården ligger på ca 300 möh strax söder om Montalcino i närheten av det berömda klostret Sant’Antimo. Vinfälten har en yta av 55 ha. Jordmånen är alkrik lerjord med inslag av sten. Rosso di Montalcino DOC 2016 Färgen är vackert rubinröd med god genomskinlighet och fin konsistens. Doftbilden är intensiv och komplex, med dofter av röda blommor som rosor och nejlikor, fuktig jord och löv, läder, röda frukter som jordgubb och smultron, lite björnbär, mint och rosa grapefrukt. Smakintrycken är intensiva och långvariga, med smaker av smultron, björnbär, pepparmint, rosa grapefrukt, viol, vanilj och röda vingum. Denna Rosso di Montalcino är torr, frisk, relativt mjuk, med varma tanniner och en fyllig kropp. Vinet har fin balans och harmoni, det är redo att drickas nu, och kan också vänta några år i källaren. Rek serv-temp 18-20°C, i stora tulpanformade kristallglas. Rekommenderas till toskansk fläskkorv (salsiccia), stekt/grillad fågel, gris- och nötkött, viltkött, lammkött, pasta med såser baserat på rött kött, fylliga soppor och stuvningar, salami, skinka (prosciutto) och till sist lagrade ostar som parmesan och pecorino. Tekniska data Druvblandning: Sangiovese Fyllighet: Fyllig (9 av 12) Klassificering: Rosso di Montalcino DOC Alkohol: 14% Vinifiering: Jäsning med skalkontakt i temp-kontrollerade stålfat och cementtankar. Mognad: På ekfat från Slavonien i storlek mellan 2000 och 7500 liter, därefter en tid på flaska innan försäljning. Lagring: 6-8 år Vino-Velos (1-5): Chianti Classico Riserva – Corte di Valle Corte di Valle makes one of my favourite Chianti Classico Riserva. They also have some really good saffron production, and I would recommend you to try some of their saffron pasta! The saffron plants blooms in October on the slopes of Corte di Valle. It’s a colour explosion that you really should see one day in your life! 2014 was a difficult year for many wine producers in Italy, with lots of rain and cold weather far into the month of May, which could explain a Chianti Classico Riserva with 13 % of alcohol, not too low by any means, but not high neither, merely an indication of a less sunny year. Corte di Valles Riserva has a beautiful garnet red with small shades of ruby red. Lots of dark fruit in the nose, some vanilla, leather and graphite. The wine has an intense dry entrance with a good load of classic Sangiovese tannins, a well developed body with flavours like black currant, blackberry, black pepper, truffle and pepparmint. I would recommend to decant it before serving. The ageing process concists of 18 months in the oak barrels and then refined in bottles for 8 to 12 months. The wine should be good for some more years of ageing, but they really do good now! It never hurts with some local salsiccia with this Riserva from Corte di Valle. A steak of lamb would be awesome! For Thanksgiving a big turkey from the oven! Vino-Velos (1-5):	-1	Unrelated	false
<urn:uuid:11b148e8-7aba-4d4d-92d5-e7fc76c410a1>	dclm-dedup-25B-ai-scifi-docs \| https://www.talkbass.com/threads/wt-800-problem.32208/	WT-800 problem? Discussion in 'Amps and Cabs [BG]' started by Bass-only, Nov 24, 2001. 1. Bass-only Bass-only Supporting Member Oct 9, 2001 Fellow Eden WT-800 owners. I am aware of the "crackle" when you turn on the amp - but I am also getting a VERY infrequent crackle noise. Sometimes, it's very minor, sometimes it crackles loud enough (for approx. 2-5 seconds) to peak the EQ overload light. It's similiar to the sound of a "bad cord" or the crackle when the amp comes on - it's just sometimes louder! I've tried several different speaker and guitar cables. Does this sound like a tube going bad? A resister? Sounds like a problem? Any suggestions, comments? Thanks for your help! 2. fachie3 Nov 12, 2001 Chicago IL. I have never had problems with my WT800 and it looks like you have tried all efforts that would correct your problem. I would bring it in for a check up and see if you can reproduce the problem and have a amp tech look into it. If you need a place to send it in let me know - there is a place in Elmhurst Il. called DES electronics that works on audio equipment. Good luck 3. Bass-only Bass-only Supporting Member Oct 9, 2001 Thanks, Fachie3, for the reply. I played it for an hour or so tonight and couldn't get it to make the sound! I've got a band practice on Thursday, so I can kick up the volume some - maybe that will trigger the "crackle". Man, I really hate if when stuff like this happens. It's like going to the dentist the day your tooth stops hurting - and you still have to pay for the visit! Any other possibilities, bass players!? 4. Munjibunga Munjibunga Total Hyper-Elite Member Gold Supporting Member May 6, 2000 San Diego (when not at Groom Lake) Independent Contractor to Bass San Diego	-1	Unrelated	false
c75c902b-8803-4054-8fc9-802b539de3dd	alignment-classifier-documents-unlabeled \| trentmkelly/LessWrong-43k	Mental nonsense: my anti-insomnia trick My dad used to suffer from insomnia, holding imaginary meetings in his head late into the night. I'm the same way. One stress-relief technique from Johns Hopkins is a breathing + mantra exercise. I find their mantra recommendation cringey: > Breathing in I am calm, breathing out I am coping. Mantras, guided imagery, and autogenic training are generally hard for me, because I feel pressure to "stay focused on the mantra." BREATHING IN I AM CALM, BREATHING OUT I AM COPING My weird trick is to replace the mantra with free-form inner-monologue nonsense syllables. Here's an example: > Nimbla doobla deeble dee... simba dimba lima nooble doo... I let the pacing and "mental voice" vary, but mainly aim for a sleepy-sounding tone. At the same time, I let myself visualize nonsense images. My visual imagination isn't very vivid, and I don't try to create any specific images. It's nothing more than a patchy and low-res mental screensaver. Not even this exciting: This puts me right to sleep. If you have refinements of anti-insomnia tricks that aren't on bog-standard lists like this one, go ahead and add them in the comments!	-1	Unrelated	false
7d6cda9c-283d-43d3-9522-b0a2457cd7a1	alignment-classifier-documents-unlabeled \| trentmkelly/LessWrong-43k	Act into Uncertainty It’s only been recently that I’ve been thinking about epistemics in the context of figuring out my behavior and debiasing. Aside from trying to figure out how I actually behave (as opposed to what I merely profess I believe), I’ve been thinking about how to confront uncertainty—and what it feels like. For many areas of life, I think we shy away from confronting uncertainty and instead flee into the comforting non-falsifiability of vagueness. Consider these examples: 1) You want to get things done today. You know that writing things down can help you finish more things. However, it feels aversive to write down what you specifically want to do. So instead, you don’t write things down and instead just keep a hazy notion of “I will do things today”. 2) You try to make a confidence interval for a prediction where money is on the line. You notice yourself feeling uncomfortable, no matter what your bounds are; it feels bad to set down any number at all, which is accompanied by a dread feeling of finality. 3) You’re trying to find solutions to a complex, entangled problem. Coming up with specific solutions feels bad because none of them seem to completely solve the problem. So instead you decide to create a meta-framework that produces solutions, or argue in favor of some abstract process like a “democratized system that focuses on holistic workarounds”. In each of the above examples, it feels like we move away from making specific claims because that opens us up to specific criticism. But instead of trying to improve the strengths of specific claims, we retreat to fuzzily-defined notions that allow us to incorporate any criticism without having to really update. I think there’s a sense in which, in some areas of life, we’re embracing shoddy epistemology (e.g. not wanting to validate or falsify our beliefs) because of a fear of wanting to fail / put in the effort to update. I think this failure is what fuels this feeling of aversion. It seems	-1	Unrelated	false
<urn:uuid:36558a5f-6dac-42c7-a471-3561bf3e2160>	dclm-dedup-25B-ai-scifi-docs \| http://4xsecurityteam.blogspot.com/2008/09/spamming-vendor-launches-managed.html	Spamming vendor launches managed spamming service Spam customer supportA spamming vendor known as the SET-X Corporation, has recently launched the distributed SET-X Mail System, a sophisticated managed spamming service available for rent on a monthly basis starting from $2000, promising to achieve “spamming speed” of 5000 to 7000 emails per minute and over 1 million spam messages per day, courtesy of the 5000 bots it comes preloaded with. Let’s analyze the spamming service, what makes it tick, and discuss some of the emerging trends related to the overall outsourcing of each and every segment of cybercrime. The market segment for managed spamming services is still in its introduction stage, with several unique providers of suchManaged Spamming Appliance managed services whose do-it-yourself systems and zero complexity mentality are poised to empower many new entrants into the spamming business. The SET-X Mail System in particular, is a typical example of a “one stop spamming shop”, which compared to legitimate companies that are able to occupy and serve all the market segments related to their particular product or a service through M&A (mergers and acquisitions) with different companies, has managed to vertically integrate on their own and logically provide anything a spammer could possible need from a spamming service such as : • dedicated staff of four people updating the malware binaries and reachable 24/7 • daily introduction of new malware infected hosts • the ability to purchase recently harvested email databases for a particular country in order to use them in localized spam campaigns, with the translation service for the messages provided by the same vendor • the option to purchase an unlimited number of automatically registered email accounts at popular web based email providers in order to integrate them within the “unique legitimate senders” spamming method • unlimited support of spam templates also known as macroses • unlimited number of email databases to integrate and use simultaneously • low total cost of ownership (TCO) and 99% uptime of the command and control server due to the fact that the malware infected hosts obtain commands dynamically from secondary servers in order to ensure that they never expose the central one Managed Spamming ApplianceSpeaking of vertical integration, SET-X Corporation’s current inventory of harvested email addresses available for sale to customers of its spamming service seems to have been anticipated as a possible revenue source, aiming to further develop the business relationship with the current customers. Their current inventory : “Russia (private citizens) - 16 000 000 emails Ukraine (commercial) - 3 300 000 emails U.S.A (private citizens) - 118 000 000 emails Western Europe (private citizens) - 13 000 000 emails Europe (private citizens) - 46 000 000 emails” How sophisticated is in fact the service? SET-X Corporation has extensively described the spamming service in their marketing pitch, translated from Russian to English as follows : “- Flexible and convenient Web based interface, detailed statistics while sending, changing any settings (mail databases, texts, macros) - User-friendly web based interface - start spamming from day one - Automatic “spamming capabilities” assessments of the bot allowing you to think about your business and not about the technical details behind it - Daily malware updates, four programmers allocated for every server, sending automatic ICQ notifications whenever the malware gets updated - Automatic optimization of the spam campaign by first allocating the bots with clean IP reputation - Optional is the option to chose whether or not a dedicated “spamming engineer” should be allocated to your server - His responsibilities include introducing a higher number of bots if requested, ensuring that dead bots get disconnected from your server, and providing personal advice on optimizing your campaigns and bypassing anti-spam filtering through the built-in multi RBL checking feature A brief description of the system: 1. The system is automatically harvesting the outgoing and incoming email addresses on the infected hosts and the associated accounting data, supporting the following clients : - Mozilla Thunderbird - Outlook Express - MS Outlook - The Bat - Opera 2. The bot automatically defines its MX and PTR records, if they are present it switches to Direct SMTP mailing which means that it can send the spam directly to the recipients using the MX and PTR DNS records of the bot, enforcing direct sending even without MX and PTR records is also possible 4. The central control server automatically assigns different regional servers to the bots, and rotates them periodically for security purposes 5. All the information about the spam campaigns and the bots can be exported and syndicated with another regional server as requested, with the regional server dynamically establishing links with other regional servers so that it never really knows the address of the central command server 6. There are several different ways of sending spam using this service : 1) Direct spamming from the legitimate email accounts of the infected computers, with the system automatically syndicating all the available legitimate emails whose accounting data naturally stolen due to the malware infection is again, automatically integrated in a “unique legitimate senders” database. Full support for web based email accounts in the form of domain:username:password 2) Sending via Direct SMTP: send messages directly using the MX and PTR records of the infected host’s gateway 3) Sending to direct recipient 4) Sending through open relays and socks servers, both of which can provided at an additional cost 7. SET-X Mail System is highly modular, with unique features easily coded and implemented as requested by the customer The average speed from one server is 5000/7000 emails per minute, over 1 million emails per day, and if requested you can purchase as many servers as you would like. The price of rent per month is $2000 with additional $1000 for each additional server if the servers are ordered at the same time.” An inside look of the system obtained on 2008-08-12 indicates that they are indeed capable of delivering what theySpamming Service Bots promise - speed, simplicity and 5000 malware infected hosts. Moreover, the attached screenshot demonstrates that 20 different email databases can be simultaneously used resulting in 16,523,247 emails about to get spammed using 52 different macroses. Furthermore, what they refer to as a dynamic set of regional servers aiming to ensure that the central server never gets exposed, is in fact fast-flux which depending on how many bots they are willing to put into “regional server mode” shapes the size of the fast-flux network at a later stage. Spam is definitely not going away, especially nowadays when the whole process that used to require a decent investment of time and resources, has matured into an emerging market for managed service providers of spamming services whose web based interfaces successfully mimic the look and feel of anti-spam appliances. And whereas for the time being each of managed spamming services outperforms the other on different fronts, in the long-term the natural market competition forces will result in more extensive development of these systems next to the plain simple theft of intellectual property in the form of integrating a competing system’s unique features within another service. [Source: zdnet]	-1	Unrelated	false
<urn:uuid:22ca6eca-446c-44d4-96de-189e97eb7c88>	dclm-dedup-25B-ai-scifi-docs \| http://blogs.amctv.com/movie-blog/2010/09/john-scalzi-t-21/	John Scalzi – The Movie-Adaptation Chances for This Year’s Hugo Class I know you can’t tell just by looking, but as you read this I am on the underside of the planet, in Australia. Why? Because this year’s Worldcon — the premier annual gathering of science-fiction- and fantasy-lit geeks — is taking place in Melbourne. We will gather, talk science fiction, and hand out Hugo Awards, one of science fiction’s very biggest awards. Last year, I looked at the Hugo nominees for Best Novel and tried to guess their chances for being made into a film, as Hugo winners Starship Troopers, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, and Coraline (the last a novella-category winner) have been. Let’s take a look at this year’s class and see how they might fare. Boneshaker, by Cherie Priest What’s it about? In a steampunk-ish USA, a woman with a checkered past goes looking for her missing teenage son in the remains of a zombified Seattle. Why it would make a great movie Action, adventure, zeppelins, zombies, and both a strong female character and a young male character make it a must-see for moviegoers of both sexes and all interests. Caveats Steampunk films have not done so well; see (or, well, don’t) Wild Wild West or The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen for verification. Chances for a movie version They would be better if there were a hit steampunk film for producers to want to emulate. The City & the City, by China Miéville What’s it about? A police detective in Mitteleuropa tries to solves a murder that takes him to a neighboring city, which shares a fantastical and disturbing history with his own. Why it would make a great movie The relationship of the two cities in the story is unique enough that I can’t think of another film with a similar conceit. The lead character is perfect for an older but still cool lead. It has a noirish feel that critics would love. Caveats Moody, chilly story not exactly teen-date-night movie fodder. Chances for a movie version Make it a smart indie with an equally smart director (like Alfonso Cuarón), and it could happen. Julian Comstock, by Robert Charles Wilson What’s it about? A somewhat satirical history of Julian Comstock, a war hero and then reforming president of a repressive, post-oil 22nd-century United States. Why it would make a great movie The story follows its character for decades, into war and then into the presidency, meaning that it has all the ingredients to be a genuinely epic film. Caveats Genuinely epic films cost lots of money, and the major epic film of a hero sewing together a post-collapse United States was called The Postman. Chances for a movie version Not great. But you know what? It would make a great HBO mini-series. Palimpsest, by Catherynne Valente What’s it about? Four people discover a fantastical city that can only be entered by way of a most unconventional route. (Yes, it involves sex.) Why it would make a great movie Because it would be possibly the sexiest and also one of the most melancholy speculative-fiction films ever made. Caveats I really don’t think a major movie studio would have the slightest idea how to handle this one. Their marketing people’s heads would explode just thinking about it. Chances for a movie version In Hollywood? Iffy. Outside of Hollywood? Give it to a director like Kar Wai Wong or Sally Potter and cinéastes will have fistfights about it at Cannes. Which would be awesome. Wake, by Robert J. Sawyer What’s it about? A young woman undergoing a radical surgery to repair her blindness discovers instead that she’s gained a different sort of sight and encounters a newborn intelligence floating out in the Why it would make a great movie A number of intersecting stories (including that of an intelligent ape and of a Chinese blogger) give the story propulsion. Sawyer’s writing offers easy adaptation to the big Caveats Hollywood might have a difficult time thinking about an emerging machine consciousness that doesn’t immediately devolve into Skynet, explosions, and death. Chances for a movie version Not bad. Sawyer’s involvement in FlashForward, the TV series loosely based on his 1999 novel, means he’s a known quantity. Which is generally a good thing. The Windup Girl, by Paolo Bacigalupi What’s it about? Intrigues and power positioning in a future Thailand where biotechnology isn’t just worth killing for; it’s worth toppling governments for. Why it would make a great movie It’s a new take on a post-abundance world that, if handled the right way and with the right people (particularly visual designers), could become influential in the way Blade Runner is influential today. Caveats Blade Runner wasn’t financially successful in its time, and bean counters remember that. Chances for a movie version Hard to say, although it’s already won the Nebula (the other big award in science fiction), so if it wins the Hugo as well that could add to its cachet as a hot property. Which book will win? We’ll find out this Sunday evening. • Newest • Oldest • Most Replied • Most Liked	-1	Unrelated	false
5fb8af12-cb60-4501-ad48-beebe7bd321a	alignment-classifier-documents-unlabeled \| trentmkelly/LessWrong-43k	Newcomb's problem - one boxer's introspection. So, just a small observation about Newcomb's problem: It does matter to me who the predictor is. If it is a substantially magical Omega, that predicts without fail, I will onebox - gamble that my decision might in fact cause a million in that box somehow (via simulation, via timetravel, via some handwavy sciencefictiony quantum mechanical stuff where the box content is entangled with me, via quantum murder even (like quantum suicide), it does not matter). I don't need to change anything about myself - I will win, unless I was wrong about how predictions are done and Omega failed. If it is a human psychologist, or equivalent - well in that case I should make up here some rationalization to one box which looks like I truly believe it. I'm not going to do that because I see utility of writing a better post here to be larger than utility of winning in a future Newcomb's game show that is exceedingly unlikely to happen. The situation with a fairly accurate human psychologist is drastically different. The psychologist may have to put nothing into box B because you did well on particular subset of a test you did decades ago, or nothing because you did poorly. He can do it based on your relative grades for particular problems back in elementary school. One thing he isn't doing, is replicating non-trivial, complicated computation that you do in your head (assuming those aren't a mere rationalization fitted to arrive at otherwise preset conclusion). He may have been correct with previous 100 subjects via combination of sheer luck with unwillingness of previous 100 participants to actually think about it on spot, rather than solve it via cached thoughts and memes, requiring mere lookup of their personal history (they might have complex after the fact rationalizations of that decision but those are irrelevant). You can't in advance make yourself 'win' this by adjusting your Newcomb paradox specific strategy. You would have to adjust your normal life. E.g. I may have to cha	-1	Unrelated	false
4bec3dda-4023-4bfa-817d-3d9e4fc07a41	alignment-classifier-documents-unlabeled \| trentmkelly/LessWrong-43k	New SSC meetup group in Lisbon After years of reading Slate Star Codex and LessWrong (more the former than the latter), I've decided to take a more active role in the so-called rationalist community by creating an account on Less Wrong and meeting people in real life for whom the Sequences have been important in their critical thinking. The ideal way for me would be to join a SSC/LW meetup group in Lisbon, where I live, but, unfortunately, there wasn't one in Lisbon until now! So, if you live in Lisbon or you're just passing by, let's meet and have a chat about some SSC posts or any topic that relates to the rationalist community. I'm very curious to know how many people read regularly SSC or LW and how they relate that in their lives. If you're interested I'm easy to find on twitter at @m8popkin, send me a message on LessWrong or send a comment on the meetup group.	-1	Unrelated	false
<urn:uuid:e051f947-49f4-4c30-8c12-4c2eedf7010d>	dclm-dedup-25B-ai-scifi-docs \| http://thecoolship.com/category/johncalhoun/	Category Archives: John Calhoun Super Dungeon Tactics Links and Extras: Underbite Games Soda Pop Miniatures Super Dungeon Tactics’ Steam Page Ninja Division Tagged , , , , , , , Is Daredevil A Perfect Show? Marvel’s Daredevil series on Netflix has set_daredevil_netflix_640gotten a lot of praise since its release earlier this month. I have actually only seen one article run counter to that trend. Not bad. Aware of how positive the reception has been, I posted said article on my wall to see what would happen. And I’m glad I did. The ensuing social media melee, while generally cordial, did get me organize a few stray thoughts I’ve had about the show. Things that hadn’t occurred to me, in part, because of the group-think mentality surrounding the show’s reception. Everyone loves it, so it’s probably good. And it’s hard to consider Daredevil without looking at its peers. Up to now, the CW has offered the most competitive non-cartoon superhero shows on television. I suppose Agents of SHIELD deserves a nod, but I was so bored with the first season that I never went back. That’s not the only way to measure a show. Certainly, there are programs like True Detective that stand well above Daredevil in terms of gritty realism, plot execution and character depth. Sherlock does a far better job dramatized crime-solving. I’d even argue that some of DC’s animated properties better explore the moral complexities of vigilantism. Still, comparing against peers means going apples to apples. CW is a modern superhero television pioneer. Smallville was well-past the syndication point when the Marvel Cinematic Universe started. Arrow and The Flash are successors to that legacy. But at their core, those shows are still about character drama (and non-stop lying to friends for no reason) that moves the plot rather than the reverse. That’s something I really appreciate about Daredevil; the willingness to skip the BS in order to tell a tighter story with more interesting characters. A part of me wonders, however, if the bar isn’t set too low to have an honest conversation. To be sure, there’s definitely a good show here. For example, I really appreciate the show’s take on Wilson Fisk. He’s a fantastic inversion of the sympathetic villain. Fisk plays complicated and morally nuanced when, in truth, he’s just a bad guy that thinks the rules don’t apply to him. He has no empathy for similarly situated people, getting bent out of shape when someone involves his family or steals from him, while extolling about how he wants to do something good. His story is a pretty blatant power grab from a monstrous character. He is uncomplicatedly evil. Fisk’s actions don’t appear in any way to be intended to better the city. He certainly does things and says they’re going to help, but he and the show never really connect the dots. I’d like to believe that’s because Fisk, like an alcoholic, rationalizes his actions with excuses that in no way reflect the reality of the situation. Except for Vanessa. He seems to genuinely care for her; though, it’s hard to say if it’s out of self-interest (wanting to be loved and have a family) or actual caring for her well-being separate of himself. There were also genuine disappointments. Foggy’s discovery of the Devil’s identity played out in a very by-the-numbers way for me. We’ve seen a version of all parts of the ensuing argument over and over again. I suppose I shouldn’t be too hard on them, the secret identity trope is so old it’s hard to do the reveal differently, but I expected more. Karen Page is a flat character for me. I actually couldn’t remember her name, even heading into the season finale. It started promising, with her saving her own life in her initial episode. That’s a big deal in a superhero show, but somewhere along the way her arc started feeling like a time sink. This post is a bit if a false flag; there is no perfect show. Daredevil is probably the strongest showing we’ve seen in live action television since the superhero boom started. There’s certainly room for improvement, but it stands well above its predecessors. Tagged , , , , , , , Are The Jedi Religious? obi-wan-kenobi-the-empire-strikes-back-_144169-fli_1378671413In honor of May 4th, I thought I would attempt to tackle a Jedi question that’s been tickling my brain lately. For most of my adult life, I’ve operated under the assumption that the Jedi are a religious order. Largely because of the parallels between them and Templar knights and that throwaway line from A New Hope: But it occurs to me that the Jedi Order doesn’t seem all that religious. On its surface, most of the common religious components are missing. There appears to be no deity, no stated code of morality, no prophet or enlightener, and no philosophy about life after death (excluding certain Jedi). Without these components, it seems like you can have secular Jedi. Or Jedi that follow specific religions not associated to The Force. More importantly, most faiths strive to be inclusive and and to spread. Theoretically, if the Jedi practice a religion, other non-Jedi people should also be able to practice it as well. I can’t recall any normals ever celebrating the vague notions of The Force. Then again, Buddhism is a non-theist religion, so perhaps God(s) aren’t a necessary component. And there are Jedi that live on as ghosts after their death. So there is verifiable proof of an afterlife; though the Jedi are oddly silent on the issue. The Force, it could be argued, might be a component of an enlightened state or spiritual experience not unlike Nirvana… that only certain people can have. Together, these things could be called spiritual components of… something. I mean, everyone remembers Luke’s walk into that cave to face his fear. It certainly looked spiritual. So perhaps it’s still vague. It’s possible there are more details that aren’t expressed in the films (without having to enter EU territory) that come together with these elements, and poor writing just didn’t get us there. But my gut tells me that the Jedi aren’t practicing a religion. There doesn’t appear to be any referential material that practitioners can use for guidance. Normally, the faithful can look at a sanctioned, curated tome and discuss components of their faith. The Jedi don’t seem to have a consensus on what is morally correct, seemingly allowing or engaging in murder inconsistently. The only real moral good the Jedi appear to believe in is stopping other force-users from using their power to conquer. That and the whole thing about loving relationships and family being bad. On a larger level, religion is supposed answer the big, existential mysteries. The Force and the Jedi philosophy behind it has almost always been about the how things work rather than the why. The bigger questions about creation, the universe and are place in it aren’t addressed here. No, I think the Jedi have a distinct lack of spirituality… most of the time. Tagged , , , , , , , , Princes of the Apocalypse Review I really like Dungeons & Dragons 5th imageedition. Having sampled 1st, 3rd, 3.5 and 4th (as well as a long stint in Pathfinder) I’m happy to report that this is my favorite version of D&D. There is a simplicity and elegance to the system that was missing in 4e and, arguably, Pathfinder. At the same time, the uniformity of the mechanics is intuitive enough to avoid many, though not all, of the rules-lawyer-style arguments that I’ve… enjoyed with D&D’s more classic iterations. Which is why it seems like Princes of the Apocalypse, Wizards of the Coasts’ third module for the system, is as good a place as any for me to try running the game. As an important note, I have never in my entire life run a game module– pretty odd for someone with more than a decade of RPG experience. I appreciate that the book begins by giving a broad overview of the setting, plot elements and factions in the module–even if they are difficult to track in the beginning. Princes of the Apocalypse takes place in the varied locations found in the Dessarin Valleys, which is somewhere Northish in relation to Waterdeep. This section illustrates one of the beginning challenges for me as well: there are a lot of details to keep a hold of right from the outset. Some, like the relation a specific place may have to another point of interest in the world aren’t super important. Others, such as the names of cult leaders, faction motivations and such totally are, and it’s up to the reader, with the assistance of the book, to prioritize. This is something I don’t like so much, even though it’s a good start for a large, dynamic world. My temptation is to throw all of it at the players instead of pacing myself and, by association, the adventure. I like mixing it all up, which is a discipline issue exacerbated by all the options. I do like all the different origin options for the players. Princes of the Apocalypse includes over a dozen different origins that are tangentially associated to a character or event happening in the valley. Some of these options would make a good preamble for an established party’s adventures or work as an origin for a new group’s formation. It also reminds me of Dragon Age: Origins. I also like the accessibility. The campaign is set for groups from level 3-15, but it makes allowances for 1st level players as well. For me, it all comes together in chapter three, when the adventure portion of the book starts. I’m a completionist when it comes to RPGs–I want to know every little detail about the setting to make sure the players have all the opportunities possible to run into a stray plot thread or discover an interesting clue. So, of course, I’m going to read the whole book, and at specific parts of the adventure, I can allude to other interesting things or throw out components I don’t like. For the first time ever, when I’m running this campaign, I won’t have to keep meticulous notes about the plot I’ve written and what the players did in the last session. Overall, I’d say this book has a lot of potential. It’s kind of a heavy lift for DMs interested in chaotic, “wing-it” style adventures, but for the folks willing to put in that time and do their homework, this is a top-notch set of tools for a great adventure for beginners and experienced groups. Tagged , , , , , Life After “The Fappening” Something crazy happened this month. The details and idle speculation got ubiquitous, so I won’t do the play by play. Instead I’m going to talk about what I learned. And I’m going to call it The Fappening despite some well-argued points for why I shouldn’t. That name says something important about what happened. The news actually reported it as The Fappening. That’s history now. First, there’s the obvious. Sexism and misogyny are still doing quite well in 21st century America. The cycle of shaming and victim-blaming continues even now. Speaking of victims, I also learned that, despite years of leaked celebrity photos, stars are still willing to be photographed performing private sex acts. That seems a little silly to me, but it doesn’t mean that Jennifer Lawrence and the other women deserve this. While nude photos aren’t the smartest play, these women did nothing wrong and they are victims. It’s not unlike someone breaking into your computer and publishing your tax information. It’s wrong. The difference, to the prudish, is that it’s sexually risqué, which is akin to deviance for some. And there will always be a segment of the population that enjoys seeing deviance punished. I learned that there might be a secret market for celebrity photos that has been operating to the benefit of a ring of shadowy collectors for years. That is kind of insane to me. I learned some things about people too. Despite it being so easy to simply not look at the photos – literally all we would have to do is nothing – millions of people seek out those photos. Perhaps thousand swill continue to celebrate a massively public violation. There will be memes, jokes and Twitter recriminations of the famous. There are people out there who want it to get as crazy as possible and savour the mayhem. Moments like these make me reflect on a famous quote from The Dark Knight. As an exercise in morality, people should be able to not look without reward or threat of punishment. This makes me think there are far too many people that won’t do the right thing without incentive. It’s a dark entry in the debate about whether people are evil. I also learned a lot of people are more passionate, positively or negatively, about a video of Jennifer Lawrence performing a sex act than about about important things like ISIS or voting. Cynical though it may be, watching the Internet community come together around this issue (as opposed to our water shortage in the western US) and work in concerted effort to catalog and promote “The Fappening” was something else. I also learned something about myself. If I were a teenager, I would almost certainly be obsessed with spoils from the leak. Seeing a famous person naked, much less having sex ,pretty much would have blown my mind in a way only teenage immaturity can. Thankfully, I’m an adult. After The Fappening, I didn’t find my feelings about any of these women changed. I don’t think that Jennifer Lawrence is any less talented or Kaley Cuoco any more so. I don’t think any of these women are morally wanting. If anything, they are a little more real to me as I try to imagine what it must be like to be afraid you’ve been redefined by something so private. Mostly, I find myself relieved that I really don’t care. GenCon: Day 2 – In Comic Con’s Great Shadow Every year GenCon is more popular. With better than 50,000 this year, the event is on track to be the largest ever. I’d like to think it’s because the things that we love to do – playing games – are more popular. Geek fair’s stock has never been higher. And that comes with good and bad. Greater popularity means more products that we get to try and, for those with the ambition, more opportunities to earn a living doing something they love. It also means a far better chance of finding people to play with when you go home. One of my great laments every year is how many purchases I make that will never be played. But that popularity also comes at a cost. TJ and I discussed at some length if GenCon could ever be too big. The annual struggle our sisters and brothers in geek pursuits face during the great pilgrimage to San Diego Comic Con is a passing interest to us. It is nothing short of what I imagine hell looks like. The lines. The waiting. The endless hours in an amazing city camped out hoping to see/get some swag. I usually draw comfort from the differences between these two conventions. Where SDCC is about seeing celebrities and sitting in on panels, GenCon is a game-driven show – the guests reserve their events ahead of time. Theoretically, GenCon can expand infinitely and because most of the events are run by businesses trying to promote their products we’ll never see insane lines. As consumers grow, events should grow with them. And it’s a comforting thought until you try to buy something from Fantasy Flight on opening day. Words cannot describe this line. I could tell you how long it is in minutes (3 hours) or feet (thousands) or people (also thousands) or Cthulhu sanity points (10), but it doesn’t really express what your mind experiences when you walk the length of this line. And those lines are becoming a more regular thing. And there’s the other stuff too. Gen Con’s opening ceremony this year included a lengthy (and obligatory) notice about harassment. And there are those moments when you step out of the charm and you see the people for who they are. While exploring the exhibits today, one of the cosplay girls schilling sexiness for a business looked down at her bust line (which was quite low) and made not-quite-a-frown. I couldn’t help wondering what she was thinking. Was she reflecting on the outfit? Or maybe thinking about how much money was changing hands or how sex sells? Maybe she was checking for a nipple slip or just wanted to go home. I’ll never know, but up until that point, I only thought of her as scenery. As our pastimes become more popular andgen-con-logo more mainstream, it raises the profile on what our communities do, right or wrong. If we’re good, it’s an opportunity to face those questions. Will we drive the money, or will the money drive us? How can we be better? What kind of community do we want to be? I don’t have the answers to these questions. I’m busy buying loads of swag, but I think GenCon’s next 10 years are going to show what we’re made of. And Another Thing About RPGs I’m gonna tell you what I hate about MMOs, and why I think the industry is going to continue a year-long decline into mediocrity. I’ve gone over it before, but in light of some recent experiences, and TJ’s post, I want to get into really specific detail about what bothers me. And to do that I need to talk about tabletop role-playing games. Tabletop RPGs are, broadly, a collective storytelling device with a probability mechanic. The most ubiquitous being D&D or some other iteration of the D20 game system. It’s fair to say that without the tabletop pioneers of yesterday, digital RPGs wouldn’t exist today. The singular element of any RPG, whether a single-player adventure or a massive online world is that you can chose the general direction your character takes. This is usually represented with class and character building options, being able to decide where your character goes, and sometimes being able to impact outcomes in the game. That last one is becoming more and more important. I’ve played quite a few RPGs since high school, and whether it’s an online game with thousands of players or just 4 friends around a table, I’ve only seen two approaches to world-building. Ever. I’m going to call the first approach the Static Setting Approach, which I would like to illustrate with a story. I played a game with some friends once where we had to go somewhere and stop some guys from exploiting some folks. So the party met those folks, got the mission and went to the place to have it out. FiatThrough the process of trying and failing (or otherwise not being allowed to try) it became clear that this fight was inevitable. This was the way the adventure was written and, like hitting the invisible wall in Skyrim, there was no getting around it. Nothing we players could have done would have changed the fact that we had to fight. This approach is sometimes called the railroading because the Game Master is keeping his players on the rails to do what he or she wants. I’m going to call the second approach the Dynamic Setting Approach. This is an approach characterized by unpredictability and the appearance of choice. I say appearance because a good GM can probably get you where he wants you to go (most of the time) while making it seem like the player’s idea. A great GM responds to your choices with lasting changes. It’s a harder road for a game-runner. It may entail meticulous notes, multiple endings, personalized relationships between characters and on and on. But, going back to the example above, it would have been a lot cooler if we could have bribed the thugs. Or joined them. Or avoided the combat altogether and changed the trajectory of things. There’s nothing wrong with either approach. Both are totally legitimate, but my leading descriptions have probably telegraphed my preference. Railroading begs certain questions. Like, if you’re forced into a fight by design, the GM isn’t really allowed to build a fight you can lose because he made you have it. Is the fight really anything other than a chance to roll some dice? If that fight had never happened at all, would anything really be different? And that’s how all MMOs have approached world-building. Instead of a dynamic world full of people that need things, it’s an environment where players click on one faceless NPC after another. Every MMO is on the railroad, which is too bad because I think tabletop static settings are mostly a result of time constraints. Some folks are good on the fly, but the rest of us don’t have endless hours to fill a sandbox play area. But companies have time. And money. And there is an opportunity here to spend less and get more. Pathfinder Online is in the works and they have a novel approach. What if all the non-starter armor comes from player crafting? It seems innocuous enough, but if done right it could be a huge deal. That’s the foundation for a player-driven experience. Instead of killing the same mob over and over again for a drop (excepting material collection), you have to engage in business with other players. Players who have built characters to be skilled laborers. Characters who maybe ask for payment in services rather than money. Yes, it’s still just Wow in a different flavor. Those laborers could be other adventurers, but with some MMO creating permanent housing, why not allow them to have shops in villages or remote areas? Throw in some deadly serious PvP, and you’ve got the makings of a world where the players are cooperating in a community with each other – creating their own stories instead of following quest chains. So what am I getting at? Well let me just quote me in a recent chat I had about Bungie’s Destiny: That’s what I want. I want this game, with skills that I can use to create an in-game business to found a city. And then start an armada to protect my city. And then get impeached by my councilors. And then take my stolen imperial dreadnought and bombard my own city. #@&%! That’s what I want! And on and on I go. Look, what I’m really saying is I want off the railroad. Until that happens, I’m willing to say that all MMOs (possibly excluding EVE) are the same tired trick. Even the ones that look kind of different from each other. Instead of a game that asks me how I want to customize my outfit as I bounce aimlessly between exclamation points, how about a game that asks me how I want to customize my community? Tagged , , , , The Last Days of the MMORPG Only now, at what feels like the conclusion of more than a decade of Massive Multiplayer Online Roleplaying Gaming am I starting to get a sense of how strange and grand these games really are. Watching their inexorable decline makes me think of the elves of Middle Earth preparing for their journey west. In some ways, I feel like we never really understood their mysteries. Wow. So geeky.Shipples I’m not saying we don’t understand how these games work. Quite the contrary. Creating “the one chosen hero” and then grinding levels while making friends with all the other chosen heroes is old hat. I mean to say that where these games fit in our lives is still an evolving question. A question that gaming companies have lost quite of bit a money attempting to answer. One of the most interesting modern examples is where The Elder Scrolls Online comes in. With a rumored budget of $200,000,000 (sometimes you need to write out all the zeroes) the game is quite possibly the last attempt a game studio will make at a AAA MMORPG. During TESO beta testing before the April launch, I gave the game a whirl. After my excursions in the newest iteration of Tamriel, I was left with one question. Will this be the biggest gaming disaster of 2014? More importantly, is this the last roar of the genre? Yes, there will still be other MMOs in one form or another, but I don’t think they’ll be massive the way we’ve understood it. At its height, World of Warcraft had somewhere between 10 and 12 million subscribers paying them $15 a month. That’s a truly insane amount of money. So much regular cash, in fact, that WoW spawned satellite industries. At one point, thanks to resource farming, WoW gold was worth more in US dollars than the Mexican peso. Even today it has a better exchange rate than some world currencies. And since that wild, and completely unforeseen success, challenger after challenger after challenger has attempted to be the “WoW killer.” But in the 10 years that WoW has dominated the market not a single game has come close to topping it’s player base. The cards are stacked against TESO. I had the opportunity to give the game a try, and I think I walked away with some valuable lessons. In theory this game could operate a lot like Skyrim, but with other players. The graphics are almost on par with Skyrim and, to the game’s credit, it is quite beautiful. And at the end of the day, Skyrim is a whole lot like a single-player MMO. You get quests from individual NPCs and then you go out and complete them. So you should get all the stuff you loved with Skyrim while enjoying the company of many other players. And I think Zenimax is playing it that way. The voice cast for the game is positively ridiculous for any game, much less an MMO. I mean, come on! John Cleese? Kate Beckinsale? Those are some serious guns for MMO dialogue, which we can expect only a portion of the players to get if they are faction specific. But TESO still feels like an MMO. And all the MMOs since WoW have had one key problem: they are all basically WoW. Having button bars on the bottom of the screen and grinding quests through different zones is something we’ve seen before. It feels like the same game I’ve played before, with a different skin. As a matter of fact, most MMOs I’ve played, with the exception of EVE, have felt like variations on the same game. And that’s really what I’m getting at. I’m not looking to snipe TESO. Honestly, I haven’t even kept track of the game’s success since its launch. But I do wonder if this massive investment in cash signifies a change in the dynamic. Tagged , , , An Incendiary Note On Doctor Who’s Retcon Sitting at my day job, as I sometimes do, my mind wanders to all manor of things. Lately I’ve been spending a lot of time thinking about the X-wing Miniatures game and Green Lantern Comics. Sometimes I also think about how weird the 90s actually were. Sometimes I wonder if we would have achieved this level of technology if the planet was only 2 tenths water instead of 7. For some reason I feel like the answer would be no. Last week I started reflecting on The Day of the Doctor. It’s been a while since it came out, but I got there eventually. I mean (spoilers) how cool was that episode? How completely amazing was it to see the Time Lords back in play? And Billie Piper was back as an alien super-weapon’s conscience. I mean, bangarang Rufio what?!?! And while Tennant is one of my least favorite new Doctors, I always love seeing him along. But as I reflected, I started thinking about the logistics of the Time War and all its subsequent events. And it strikes me, as I try to focus on my work, that The Day of the Doctor makes no sense. Like not even a little. Here is my list of grievances because I would love to argue about it on the internet. My understanding of The End of Time is that the Time Lords are trying to break out of the Time Lock using the signal they implanted in the Master’s mind. So I believe they are already timelocked or whatever it is that the The Doctor remembers doing when John Hurt pushed the big, red button. I’m assuming he only remembers pushing the red button to activate The Moment since #9 and #10 only recall burning Gallifrey. I mean, if Gallifrey was just hidden in a pocket universe and all the Daleks killed each other in the crossfire, how did Dalek Caan pull Davros out of the time lock to rebuild the Dalek Empire and steal Earth during the 10th Doctor’s run? And if there was no time lock how was the Lord President of the Time Lords back in The End of Time to wreck everyone’s day? And how is it that the Doctor has always remembered Gallifrey being both timelocked and burned? In The Day of the Doctor there was a discussion about how many children were on Gallifrey when it burned. So why time lock the war if you’re going to kill everyone? And why did 10 believe at The End of Time that all the crazy from the war would come back? He talked about the Nightmare Child and the Would-Have-Been King and a million bajillion Daleks. I get that The Doctor’s memories were confused because of… actually I don’t really get it. There’s some timey wimey about all the timelines being messed up and John Hurt, 9 and 10 not remembering this stuff. Still, my problem is not with hand-waving away his missing memories, but with the idea that both happened. And what the hell is a time lock? I assumed that it was a point in space-time that was put in a big bubble that other people can’t time travel to. Again I ask, if it’s locked up, why burn everything? And if you’re gonna burn it, guess you don’t need the lock, right? God I miss Babylon 5. God I miss Babylon 5. Also, what the hell is up with the time lords? This was THE last great war that almost swallowed the whole universe and made a man committed to fixing things talk himself into fake genocide. I was expecting some next level space wizard s***. I wanted some science-as-magic themed super soldiers a la Babylon 5‘s technomages, but even cooler. What I didn’t expect was a generic-combat-armor-scifi-film-wardrobe-are-these-guys-cosplaying guessing game. And for my money, I’m thinking Wing Commander or the Lost In Space remake with Matt LeBlanc. Also, how did they get Gary Oldman in that movie? Wait, that question probably belongs somewhere else. How is it the Doctor’s own people conduct a war in much the same way I would expect us to? I’m not saying they should be better at it, but one could make the argument being alive for billions of years damn well ought to make them better at it. I’m not saying they should be better in the sense that they should be morally above our kind of warfare. Part of the reason John Hurt pushed the button was because the Time Lords had become monstrous. I’m saying they should look cooler doing it. I want laser screwdrivers that look like wizard’s staves and war TARDIS battles with clever time-shift tactics. Also, did Gallifrey actually get destroyed at one point? Is this like, it always was burned until this first time when Matt Smith changed his mind? Or is it like it never got burned and John Hurt, 9 and 10 just remember it weird because the Time lines crossed the streams or something? Just saying. Tagged , , , , , , , For a little while now, I’ve been unexcited about the concept behind FOX’s upcoming Batman prequel, GOTHAM. I don’t know if it’s because Smallville teased me for a decade or because I was more excited for Heroes than I have ever beenabout any other show. Ever. You should note that these criticisms have nothing to do with what we’ve seen of GOTHAM at all. And that’s fair. The cast looks great. The trailer actually looks pretty amazing. But I guess I just don’t see the point. I wouldn’t be shocked if some of the show had been inspired by Gotham Central, which I quite enjoyed. The premise being what super crime in Gotham looks like from the street view the cops have. But the takeaway of these stories for me is that there need to be superheroes. Which I totally agree with, but why would I want to watch a show that doesn’t have any? A Different Kind of Show So if I were doing GOTHAM, I think the first thing I would do is get rid of Gotham City. It’s too well-known and the idea of Batman is so provocative you risk creating a Batman babies program with kid Catwoman and young Joker. I say forget that noise. Instead, I would do a completely generic police procedural like you see on TNT. There would be dramatic scenes, compelling music, and beautiful, brooding protagonists staring directly at the screen a la Rizzoli and Iles or Cold Case. And I would keep it completely mundane for the entire first season. Just the typical one-shot criminals and police drama. And then in the second season, a few episodes in, I would hit the protagonists with their first supervillain. No one knows where he or she came from or why they do it. All the cops know is they’re darn near unstoppable and they barely run them out of town. At this point, careful observers might have noticed the tiniest hints of weirdness around the edges of the first season that foreshadowed something else going on. And then the show would go back to normal for a little bit while everyone wondered what the #$?! was going on. And the show would carry on like that for a while. Normal police procedural that occasionally sees a supervillain pop in a do something crazy. It would be a subtle escalation that tests the limits of our heroes and gives a	-1	Unrelated	false
<urn:uuid:b69018ee-d017-429f-9440-150e59de9cc3>	dclm-dedup-25B-ai-scifi-docs \| https://indushospital.in/articles/linear-regression-using-ols-python-c0c5cf	So, now I want to know, how to run a multiple linear regression (I am using statsmodels) in Python?. So, here in this blog I tried to explain most of the concepts in detail related to Linear regression using python. significant, indicating $ avexpr_i $ is endogenous. By Nagesh Singh Chauhan , Data Science Enthusiast. Import Data. rates, coinciding with the authorsâ hypothesis and satisfying the first We take the single response variable and store it separately. protection against expropriation), and these institutions still persist Scikit Learn is awesome tool when it comes to machine learning in Python. Kevin Doyle, October 2020 In 2012, Thomas H. Davenport and D.J. the dependent variable, otherwise it would be correlated with We can obtain an array of predicted $ {logpgp95}_i $ for every value Whenever there is a change in X, such change must translate to a change in Y.. Providing a Linear Regression Example. If $ \alpha $ is statistically significant (with a p-value < 0.05), It’s built on top of the numeric library NumPy and the scientific library SciPy. So does that mean a change in GNP cause a change in total employment? To estimate the constant term $ \beta_0 $, we need to add a column As shown below, the 1st figure represents linearly related variables whereas variables in 2nd and 3rd figure are most likely non-linear. Introduction: In this tutorial, we’ll discuss how to build a linear regression model using statsmodels. where $ \hat{u}_i $ is the difference between the observation and Your linear regression coefficient for water consumption reports that if a patient increases water consumption by 1.5 L everyday, his survival rate will increase by 2%. Separate data into input and output variables. But to have a regression, Y must depend on X in some way. What is the difference between OLS and scikit linear regression. This was it. $ {avexpr}_i = mean\_expr $. We will discuss the single variable case and defer multiple regression to a future post. In addition to whatâs in Anaconda, this lecture will need the following libraries: Linear regression is a standard tool for analyzing the relationship between two or more variables. The resulting model is represented as follows: Here, the hats on the variables represent the fact that they are estimated from the data we have available. To view the OLS regression results, we can call the .summary() The mean squared error of the model divided by the mean squared error of the residuals, The probability that you would get the above statistic, given the null hypothesis that they are unrelated. When performing linear regression in Python, you can follow these steps: Import the packages and classes you need; Provide data to work with and eventually do appropriate transformations; Create a regression model and fit it with existing data; Check the results of model fitting to know whether the model is satisfactory; Apply the model for predictions We have demonstrated basic OLS and 2SLS regression in statsmodels and linearmodels. This tutorial explains how to perform linear regression in Python. 10.3s 26 Complete. Table of Contents I was seven years into my data science career, scoping, building, and deploying models across retail, health insurance, banking, and other industries. Then, we fit the model by calling the OLS object’s fit () method. .predict(). endogenous. It integrates well with the pandas and numpy libraries we covered in a previous post. Unemployment RatePlease note that you will have to validate that several assumptions are met before you apply linear regression models. Example of Multiple Linear Regression in Python. We fake up normally distributed data around y ~ x + 10. Now that we are familiar with the dataset, let us build the Python linear regression models. Click the confirmation link to approve your consent. Setup. The linear equation we want to estimate is (written in matrix form), To solve for the unknown parameter $ \beta $, we want to minimize remove endogeneity in our proxy of institutional differences. It’s built on top of the numeric library NumPy and the scientific library SciPy. A 1-d endogenous response variable. As a final note, if you don’t want to include a constant term in your model, you can exclude it using the minus operator. As [AJR01] discuss, the OLS models likely suffer from If you are excited about applying the principles of linear regression and want to think like a data scientist, then this post is for you. To implement the simple linear regression we need to know the below formulas. Along the way, we’ll discuss a variety of topics, including simple and … My time had come. display the results in a single table (model numbers correspond to those In the following example, we will use multiple linear regression to predict the stock index price (i.e., the dependent variable) of a fictitious economy by using 2 independent/input variables: A Use Case of Interest to Healthcare Providers, Using Machine Learning to Increase Revenue and Improve Sales Operations, Empiric Health on More Efficient Solutions for Bloated U.S. Healthcare Industry: More Intelligent Tomorrow, Episode #12, Which variable is the response in the model, How the parameters of the model were calculated, Degrees of freedom of the residuals. The following Python code includes an example of Multiple Linear Regression, where the input variables are: Interest_Rate; Unemployment_Rate; These two variables are used in the prediction of the dependent variable of Stock_Index_Price. this, differences that affect both economic performance and institutions, linear regression in python, Chapter 1. The dependent variable. The plot shows a fairly strong positive relationship between Simple linear regression is an approach for predicting a response using a single feature. Simple Linear Regression – Only one independent/predictor variable 2. predicted values $ \widehat{avexpr}_i $ in the original linear model. These are the next steps: Didn’t receive the email? Linear Regression in Python - Simple and Multiple Linear Regression Linear regression is the most used statistical modeling technique in Machine Learning today. OLS measures the accuracy of a linear regression model. lr = smf.ols (formula='sales ~ TV + radio + newspaper', data=df) 1 lr = smf.ols(formula='sales ~ TV + radio + newspaper', data=df) Solving Linear Regression in Python Last Updated: 16-07-2020 Linear regression is a common method to model the relationship between a dependent variable … Now we will implement Logistic Regression from scratch without using the sci-kit learn library. In the following example, we will use multiple linear regression to predict the stock index price (i.e., the dependent variable) of a fictitious economy by using 2 independent/input variables: 1. It is also easier to interpret than more sophisticated models, and in situations where the goal is understanding a simple model in detail, rather than estimating the response well, they can provide insight into what the model captures. But notice that this may not be the best idea… . Sun 27 November 2016. We will use pandasâ .read_stata() function to read in data contained in the .dta files to dataframes, Letâs use a scatterplot to see whether any obvious relationship exists So my questions, Is there a way that work with test data set with OLS ? We want to test for correlation between the endogenous variable, it should not directly affect fits the data, as in the following plot (Figure 2 in [AJR01]). These imported clusters are unlikely to cause local transmissions, since…, MLOps 101: The Foundation for Your AI Strategy, Humility in AI: Building Trustworthy and Ethical AI Systems, IDC MarketScape: Worldwide Advanced Machine Learning Software Platforms 2020 Vendor Assessment, Use Automated Machine Learning To Speed Time-to-Value for AI with DataRobot + Intel, How HAL 9000 Altered the Course of History and My Career, Predicting Music Genre Based on the Album Cover, Understanding the Effective Management of COVID-19 in Taiwan. Normally-distributed errors should be symmetrically distributed about the mean (equal amounts above and below the line). Using python statsmodels for OLS linear regression This is a short post about using the python statsmodels package for calculating and charting a linear regression. You trained a linear regression model with patients' survival rate with respect to many features, in which water consumption being one of them. Use Statsmodels to create a regression model and fit it with the data. In this article we covered linear regression using Python in detail. It assumes that this relationship takes the form: (y = beta_0 + beta_1 * x) Ordinary Least Squares is the simplest and most common estimator in which the two (beta)s are chosen to minimize the square of … affecting GDP that are not included in our model. The graph makes it very intuitive to understand how MARS can better fit the data using hinge functions. The OLS parameter $ \beta $ can also be estimated using matrix Linear Regression with Python. We can correctly estimate a 2SLS regression in one step using the we saw in the figure. This tutorial will teach you how to create, train, and test your first linear regression machine learning model in Python using the scikit-learn library. Letâs estimate some of the extended models considered in the paper Please make sure to check your spam or junk folders. the linear trend due to factors not included in the model). Hence, we try to find a linear function that predicts the response value(y) as accurately as possible as a function of the feature or independent variable(x). In reality, not all of the variables observed are highly statistically important. It makes very strong assumptions about the relationship between the predictor variables (the X) and the response (the Y). Written by R. Jordan Crouser at Smith College for SDS293: Machine Learning (Spring 2016). However, it is possible to include categorical predictors in a regression analysis, but it requires some extra work in performing the analysis and extra work in properly interpreting the results. The second-stage regression results give us an unbiased and consistent The most common technique to estimate the parameters ($ \beta $âs) performance - almost certainly there are numerous other factors Can you trust this analysis? .predict() and set $ constant = 1 $ and The above statistic turned into a probability, A different test of the skewness and kurtosis, A test for the presence of autocorrelation (that the errors are not independent.) So, the 1st figure will give better predictions using linear regression. $ u_i $ due to omitted variable bias). In the implementation, I will not explain why it works in great details because it is a topic of two articles for each of the methods. Namely, there is likely a two-way relationship between institutions and Let's start with some dummy data, which we will enter using iPython. today. In order to use Linear Regression, we need to import it: from sklearn.linear_model import LinearRegression We will use boston dataset. high population densities in these areas before colonization. When using regression analysis, we want to predict the value of Y, provided we have the value of X.. So far we have only accounted for institutions affecting economic regression, which is an extension of OLS regression. Ordinary least squares Linear Regression. ($ {avexpr}_i $) on the instrument. Hayward Super Pump 700 1 Hp, Rupert Wainwright Another Country, Huffy Girls' Bike, Iwu Application Status, Houses For Sale Sparta, Mi, New Jersey Deed Transfer Docs, Does Barbara Eden Have A Daughter, Tina Turner Astrology, One Hello Piano Chords, Jaun Elia Love Story,	-1	Unrelated	false
<urn:uuid:ef64dd74-695c-4d52-a57c-46b32bf22b8b>	dclm-dedup-25B-ai-scifi-docs \| http://tubbatahareef.org/news/movies/comments/ujcuuw/official_discussion_doctor_strange_in_the/	Official Discussion - Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness [SPOILERS] 1. Wong seriously just gave Scarlet Witch a fast pass to her throne & Darkhold backup - that she didn’t even know about - simply because she was going to kill like 4 more sorcerers? Right after another sorcerer literally sacrificed herself to destroy the first darkhold? Right after Wanda had killed dozens and dozens of other sorcerers? What the fuck? That was the weakest piece for me, I don’t get it. One moment they’re like “Wanda could destroy the MULTIVERSE, we can’t let her have access to the darkhold!” And they accomplish it!! And then a simple threat of killing a few extras has Wong like “anyways fuck the multiverse” 2. And it's not even consistent with his characterization later in this movie where he tells strange to kill America to save the multiverse. 3. Strange was pretty quick to dismiss getting help from the archer with a mohawk, but once Wanda was revealed as the villain Hawkeye was actually one of the only people who might have been able to get through to her. 4. I was pretty shocked at how gruesome and how many horror elements it had for a marvel movie. Like it was had some legitimately scary moments and psychological thrillers. That mirror attacks scene was straight from the ring and running through the tunnel was a classic slasher chase. Even stranges universe was very silent hill-esque. I remember reading Rami wanted to make a full fledged horror film and marvel made him dial it back, so if this is what made it I want to know what he was trying to do. 5. The takeaway for me is that the chances of seeing Quake and the rest of the AoS gang again just increased. If they're willing to acknowledge the worst Marvel TV show, no way they ignore one of the longest running and popular ones, right? (Netflix shows aside) 6. I feel bad for the actors who end up in those failed projects. They get so much shit from hardcore fans just for being in a show or movie with a bad plan. 7. I mean, Strange did almost destroy the universe because he wanted to help Peter with a relatively unimportant problem. What Wanda did was horrible and cruel, but it didn't actually destroy the universe. And again, this isn't that far off from the comics where Wanda is presented as being actually mentally ill. It takes her forever to learn her lesson because she is simply too sick to fully appreciate what she is doing is wrong. 8. I think the Darkhold book made her crazy. It amplifies emotions and turns them into obsession. Like it did for evil Dr. Strange making him extra cray cray about Christine. Like he wasn't even viewing her as an autonomous human being anymore, just a possession he must obtain. 9. Also these ultrons' "personalities" were so lifeless and mechanical, lacking Spader-Ultron's Stark-based wit, meaning they were more like the comic versions (and perhaps built by Hank Pym) 10. Doctor Strange 2: Traveling between universes takes incredible, evil magic, and only one being across the entire multiverse has the natural ability to do so. 11. No way home was supposed to come out after this movie with America being the one who messes up the spell which makes a lot more sense. 12. Anyone else think it was hilarious when they first pitch the idea of The Book of Vishanti to Dr. Strange and his immediate reaction is "That's not real!!!" like my man do you forget the fucking bonkers world you live in??? 13. It's wild that a movie set in the MULTIVERSE OF MADNESS...was straight up boring. You had like 1 trippy sequence to justify the name...and that was fuckin it...then it was just a horror movie in 2 universes. A couple of fun moments didn't make up for how little they did with the concept. 14. No one is talking about that 4th wall break! When she looked into the camera after possessing the normal Wanda the first time I almost screamed! 15. They go to the sorcerer temple and there's just one guy whos a bull for some reason. lmao. There's like no other weird wizard beasts, just that guy. 16. Not super familiar with Scarlet Witch, but is her power literally just "reality-warping"? What the hell does that even mean? She can remove a dude's mouth one moment, but the rest of the movie is just red lasers? Idk seems like her power is whatever is convenient at the time, and imo a super boring way to do magic. 17. You are not wrong, the problem with the magic users in the MCU is that they don't have defined powers they have what the plot needs them to have at that moment sigh... 18. Tbf Charles is a bit of a Worf who usually exists to be beaten down by other omega mutants or other diffrent baddies. 19. If you were to google, "Top 10 most powerful marvel characters" she is probably on like 75% of the lists. Comic Wanda is no joke. 20. Black bolt's death was like it was out of suicide squad and I loved it. He got the awesome "I'm sorry" scene and I wondered, "Well wtf he actually used his powers how's he gonna go down. Oh he blew up his own head hehe classic." 21. That part actually kinda scared me. You could see the panic in his eyes. Like he knew when he drew that breath, he was committed to it. 22. That scene really shocked me for an MCU movie, never seen anyone really die in such a weirdly morbid way like that. I knew this movie was going to have some slight horror aspects to it but damn. That and Mr Fantastic being shredded and his head popping. 23. I loved it because a magical fight should be a little more than just throwing energy balls and beams (wandavision final fight) same when Stange fought Thanos, they were throwing black holes and doing different shit than the same old beam vs beam 24. Seriously I’m glad that they didn’t make Wanda and Strange team up at the end to defeat another threat. 25. Avengers really should have invested in therapists because so much of what happened with Wanda post-Endgame could have been prevented if she had someone to talk to. 26. When they said that I figured they had some countermeasure cooked up, but their plan was really just to beat her up, lmao. I guess it makes sense considering their Wanda seems to have retired before reaching her potential. 27. There are going to be parents bringing their kids to this movie to see Jim from The Office shredded like paper. 28. Wanda really straight up murdered Black Bolt, Reed Richards, Captain Carter, Captain Marvel, and Charles fucking Xavier, was she the most powerful being in the universe? 29. You’d think most universes with an Illuminati, knowledge of multiverses, and an Ultron army, would have SOME kind of failsafes or last-ditch strategies when it comes to god-level/galactus -level/multiversal threats, but apparently it’s just “fight the threat one at a time.” 30. Probably. If Reed's kids find out how their dad died, Franklin would be a problem. Or maybe even Valeria. She's supposed to be smarter than Reed and actually looks up to Doom. 31. I absolutely loved Wanda’s first dreamwalking stint, with the picture in the frame going from laugh to looking and staring was absolutely diabolical. 32. I don’t think stealing food from a street vendor and then make him punch himself for three weeks is a very hero thing do so :s Steven truly was the villain 33. 3 weeks was a long time. I think the joke would have been funnier if it was like 2 days. Something long enough to be very frustrating, but not long enough to be excruciatingly cruel 34. Really happy with my decision to not look into this any further into this movie after seeing the first trailer. I saw a mild spoiler that Patrick Stewart was in it as Charles Xavier when I was looking up the release date (damn you, google auto generated cast list for movies!), but had completely forgotten about it by tonight. 35. One complaint i have is Wong seemed really underpowered as 'The Sorceror Supreme'. Does him having that title imply he's stronger than Strange? Or is it just a title since Strange was blipped for 5 years? 36. I definitely agree insofar as Wong's abilities are wildly inconsistent and need to be made more concrete. He is just as strong or weak as a scene needs him to be, which makes the fights feel stake-less. 37. I was grateful there was proper closure to the on-off romantic interest between Strange and Palmer. That felt like a good send off and allows him to grow closer to Clea in a future adventure. 38. This film ends almost exactly the same way as Raimi's Spider-Man 2. The antagonist overcomes the thing that's corrupting them (Doc Ock's arms, the Darkhold) after an intimate character moment and refuses to die a monster (destroys the reactor, the temple), incapacitating themselves in the process. 39. So they didn’t think to remove America from Kamar Taj until Wanda was INSIDE? That’s the dumbest thing I’ve ever seen on screen. 40. In my screening a woman in the audience yelled out "THAT'S RIGHT" when Wanda blamed Strange for giving Thanos the time stone. Had the entire audience laughing. 41. I've heard that the Illuminati were gonna die but I did not expect them to go the way they did. Captain Carter's death most especially was the most unexpected one. 42. chavez's caused the missing of her parents by a little bee landing on her hand, the theater erupted in laughter. that was hilarious 43. I might be alone here but when the street lamp ripped the eyeball out of the giant squids head, It made me think of Neversoft 44. Pretty sure Strange possessing a dead body of his multiverse doppleganger that he laid to rest in his own universe and using the souls of the dead as wings was peak Raimi 45. The movie lacks a moral grounding. There's pieces of one in it, Strange learning that saving one life is as important as saving trillions or Wanda coming to understand how whacko her plan is, and Stephen learning that being happy is more than...whatever it implies he's parading around as happiness. The script doesn't dwell on any of these ideas. Each is shoved onto the board, but then ignored. 46. Actually surprised at how much they allowed Raimi to let loose stylistically. Those transitions, those dutch angles, the practical zombie, Wanda acting like she's straight out of a J horror and holy shit that water mirror shot from Evil Dead!!! I'm happy. 47. Loved it when Wanda came out of the giant gong all contorted. They seriously made her out to be an absolute badass who should not be underestimated. 48. Feige know that people want things to be more different and Disney at this point straight up don't care as long as it make money they probably still only hesitant about R rating 49. Wanda’s line to Reed about his kids having someone left to raise them was absolutely cold blooded, and I loved every second of it 50. “We aren’t worried about a little scarlet witch”….whole team gets obliterated in like 3 minutes 51. People calling themselves "illuminati" (literally "the enlightened") and having some supreme council that dictates their will on the multiverse having a giant amount of ego and hubris and underestimating a threat seems a pretty easy conclusion to draw lol 52. I thought they did a great job of not spoiling too much in the trailers. I was really expecting the plotline from Loki to tie in, but I guess they're saving that for season 2! 53. When she said “know that they will be loved” to her with regards to their kids… and Wanda just breaking down 54. Was that the same actor? I'm so glad he got to reprise his role. Terrible shame about the Inhumans show since I find those characters so interesting. 55. Nice nod to WandaVision when Wanda breaks the fourth wall and looks directly into the camera after possessing herself 56. I thought it was pretty funny when Wong shakes his fists and yells, “FORTIFY YOUR MINDS!” Right before Wanda picks the weakest link. 57. Honestly think she carried the movie. So glad they committed to making her the villain for the whole movie. 58. Did anyone else notice Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs - another Disney movie with a villainous witch - on the TV set when Scarlet Witch arrived at the home of 838-Wanda and the children? 59. The Illuminati massacre was definitely the standout brutality wise, but I have to say some of the sorcerer kills in that first battle were pretty brutal for marvel too. I mean, she disintegrated a mutilated guy desperately trying to crawl away, and there were a number of charred corpses. 60. Was the whole DS1 Mordo cliffhanger storyline relegated to backstory all of sudden? It was very jarring how Strange was like “oh, the Mordo from my universe was all evil, too!” when we didn’t even see him realize that anywhere in the films. 61. Rumours before release were that there was a scene that was cut which was meant to be at the very start of the movie, where MCU-universe Mordo confronts Wanda and tries to take the Darkhold from her, but she decapitates him. I guess they cut it because Wanda chose violence in the rest of the movie. 62. I thought that too, and it suddenly turned up the gore too like the omni-man fight, I loved it. Wish they had a little longer presence, but it was still awesome to see. 63. When Strange told America that "Wanda made it right in the end" I imagined a quick cut away to a group of devastated looking EMTs trying to find all the pieces of the Illuminati to fit in the body bags. 64. Man Sam Rami got his way when it came to the gore. Never expected to see that in a Disney Marvel movie. 65. Agree! I really love how his horror roots were shown in this film so well especially in the hall chase scene with Strange, America and 838 Christine against 838 Wanda. There's shots that are reminiscent of Evil Dead too with Strange possessing his other self's corpse. 66. Loved the scenes where Wanda really did witchcraft. Summoning monsters, invoking fear, possession etc. Hated that this accounted for 10% of her overall ability. Every thing else was pew pew iron man bullshit laser go! 67. Can someone explain at the end, why are people manually building and restoring Kamar-Taj? Hasn't it been shown that Strange and others can just repair buildings/take things apart/etc with their magic? Heck, he opened up that rooftop to place the dead body of the other 'Strange' in and then closed it up again. Why couldn't they just do that to repair all the buildings? 68. Had some cool concepts and ideas, but felt weird throughout. The ending felt so unsatisfying and idk if it's because the BS sudden change of heart of Wanda, or Chavez's sudden BS ability to control her powers, or them just casually walking in the temple like nothing happened. 69. Weirdest part of this movie, is Wanda has her own sorta 90’s mtv unplugged tribute doing a seance surrounded by candles. Leave a Reply Author: admin	-1	Unrelated	false
9632e8d2-912c-4307-8ce6-87c42f1dbcf0	alignment-classifier-documents-unlabeled \| trentmkelly/LessWrong-43k	[LINK] The Unbelievers: Lawrence Krauss and Richard Dawkins Team Up Against Religion I am looking forward to watching this documentary for entertainment purposes, but I don't expect it to affect people's opinions about religion much. I have no doubt that both Krauss and Dawkins are very bright and insightful people. However, here is a piece of an interview I found somewhat naive: Do you foresee a time when the conversation will be over? LK: I think it’s frustrating. When I was a kid in the ’60s, I was sure that by now there would be no religion. In a way it’s very surprising that there are these momentary resurgences. I think it’s going to be a long road. RD: If you look at the broad sweep of history, then clearly we’re on the winning side. I think things are moving in the right direction, probably not as fast as I would like to see. Both of them seem to tacitly assume that religion ought to eventually yield to scientific progress and such. While this may be the overall trend in the West, or at least in the US, it has not necessarily been so elsewhere. I am somewhat surprised that the two rather bright guys seem to have these rose-colored glasses on. The current and ex-Communist states are the most stark example. In the Soviet Union religion was marginalized for some 70 years, two generations grew up in the environment of state atheism, yet soon after the restrictions were relaxed, the Church has regained almost all of the lost ground. The situation was similar in the rest of the ex-Warsaw bloc (with less time under mandated atheism), and even in China, where the equilibrium was restored after the Cultural Revolution. The standard argument for this happening is "but Communism was basically a religion by another name", what with the various Cults of Personality and the beliefs in the One True Path. This argument seems convincing on the surface, but consider a similar situation transplanted into a US setting. Suppose that, for whatever reason, after the Civil war religion was abolished all across the country together with slavery. Overtly r	-1	Unrelated	false
<urn:uuid:7f144f54-21e6-4ba1-90fc-442acc9ca4bc>	dclm-dedup-25B-ai-scifi-docs \| https://szya.com/tag/skills-fraud/	Tag: skills fraud Security agencies continue with their skills fraud on hardworking older single women in 2022 Hardworking older single woman professionals are victims of skills fraud, criminal defamation of government agencies, especially security agencies who are falsely labelling them a security threat for protesting against the skills, financial fraud Kindly note that no government employees, their lazy greedy fraud girlfriends and associates are NOT connected with the website in any way, since they do not invest any money on websites and do not spend any time doing computer work, though the the government agencies, dishonest liar indian tech and internet companies have been running the world’s greatest work at home fraud since 2010. Most housewives, young people do not even know how to shut a website as shown in https://consumercomplaintscourt.com/complaint-against-stylofebric-in-for-fraud/, have poor written english skills https://collegedunia.com/reviews/198604-nikhil-chandwani-review-on-st-xaviers-college-bardez yet the government agencies continue to make fake claims that these housewives, young people with no website management, english writing skills are online experts, excellent english writers, owning this and websites to pay them monthly government salaries while criminally defaming the real writer, domain investor and webmaster as idle and having no skills, no income in a clear case of government slavery. Young people are complaining when they are cheated of a small amount like Rs 400 online, yet when the government agencies, fraud top indian tech and internet companies have cheated the domain investor of Rs 15 lakh annually since 2010, with their fake stories of domain ownership,online income, computer, writing work, the domain investor is falsely labelled a security threat for complaining about the multi-crore financial fraud of government agencies,top tech and internet companies.	-1	Unrelated	false
b394e188-8cfd-48b9-908e-dd8549e6f68c	alignment-classifier-documents-unlabeled \| trentmkelly/LessWrong-43k	Interpreting genetic testing Several years ago I participated in a study where my DNA was sequenced, and while I ended up not getting the sequence data [1] I did get a file of 23andme-style SNP variant calls. I loaded it into Promethease, and excluded mutations with magnitude below 2 ("looks interesting enough to be worth reading"). I saw 139 mutations marked as "bad," 41 as "good," and 26 as "not set." Initially I interpreted this to mean that I should be more pessimistic about my health than I was before getting the report, since more of the mutations are bad (2x risk of something) than good (0.5x risk of something else). To figure out how your beliefs should change, though, you need to know how many bad vs good mutations people typically have. For example, if someone might normally have 200 bad mutations and 10 good ones then my report is good news, but if instead normal is 100 bad mutations and 70 good ones then my report is bad news. In general, I would expect most people to have more negative mutations than positive ones, simply because most mutations with an effect are negative. Randomly changing something is much more likely to break things than make them better. This also applies when determining total risk of something. For example, lets say I have SNPs that individually give me 3x, 1.5x, 2x, and 0.5x risk for heart disease. I could naively multiply them together, ignoring that they don't stack perfectly, [2] and conclude that I had 4.5x the risk of the general population. But most people will probably have some mutations that increase their risk of heart disease. I think the proper way to handle this is for each case where you have the normal value of a variant you count that as slightly improving your risk, and when you consider all of these tiny improvements you get back to the average person having the average risk. Alternatively, and probably more accurately, you could just naively compute each person's risk, and then normalize. Is this just a Promethease problem? Do other pl	-1	Unrelated	false
<urn:uuid:170735d6-65e4-4822-b09d-c36ed50484ce>	dclm-dedup-25B-ai-scifi-docs \| http://rampancy.net/youtube-video/10232013/ase-ep-67-were-everywhere	ASE Ep. 67: We're Everywhere ASE Ep. 67: We're Everywhere M2 lvl There's a big door that needs opening, so naturally, Durandal sends in Blackstar and Narcogen-- along with a whole mess of BoBs in We're Everywhere, level 6 in our series Let's Play Marathon 2. This podcast uses: Remixes of the Marathon soundtrack by Craig Hardgrove at For audio recording, we use Mumble: Music used in this episode: Your rating: None Syndicate content	-1	Unrelated	false
<urn:uuid:cca906cb-3856-40f8-8bf9-1a3c931e9433>	dclm-dedup-25B-ai-scifi-docs \| https://whatculture.com/film/marvel-10-most-underused-technologies-in-the-mcu	Marvel: 10 Most Underused Technologies In The MCU Clean, cheap, and renewable power? Let's use it in once and call it a day. Tony Stark BARF It Is truly amazing how much the Marvel cinematic universe has managed to remain coherent over 13 years and 27 films (and counting). For the most part, all of the individual films and shows of the MCU fit together beautifully, however, often some new technology will be introduced in one of these installments that leaves you wondering "why have they never brought that up again?" Much of this tech comes from Stark labs, courtesy of the brilliant mind (and bank account) of Iron Man! Unfortunately, Mr. Stark, while being all too happy to share his nanotech and super-suits with his friends, never ends up using these devices to help the world in any large-scale way (apart from going behind the governments back to create Ultron, which we all know ended perfectly). This list will be going over 10 technologies that Earth has in the MCU but, for whatever reason, decides to barely ever use. 10. Arc Reactors Tony Stark BARF Marvel Studios The Arc reactor was invented by Howard Stark while studying the Tesseract after World War II and promised to provide cheap, clean, and renewable power to the world. However Howard was limited by the technology of his time and so entrusted his son, Tony Stark to one day complete the project. Unfortunately, for years Tony preferred to shelf the idea in favour of manufacturing and selling weapons of war. Eventually he was forced to perfect the Arc Reactor by inventing a new element in order to save his own life but even after this incredible breakthrough, the Arc Reactors, despite being able to supply the world with limitless clean energy, are used only to power Stark's own suits of armour and properties in New York and a handful of tech for his friends such as Spider-Man. The rest of the world is still paying for power presumably. No explanation is ever given for why we don't see this tech all across the world by now. Marcus Fry is a writer for WhatCulture and an amateur filmmaker.	-1	Unrelated	false
<urn:uuid:5d9f3cf0-af4e-4363-85a3-bece65859595>	dclm-dedup-25B-ai-scifi-docs \| https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/dfg7ad/im_a_documentary_filmmaker_producing_black_skin/	all 158 comments [–]gud_spelller 31 points32 points (4 children) What was the official Nazi policy towards black people? Were they covered under the Nuremburg Laws? [–]BlackAndWhiteCoexist[S] 48 points49 points (3 children) So the Nuremberg race laws were very explicit about their target, which was the Jewish population in Germany. The law was extended some time after with prohibitions on marriage or sexual relations that could interfere with the racial purity idea. However, it was sometimes still unclear whether or not those laws also apply to other “non-aryans”. So what we find when we look at the history during the Nazi era is that decisions were made very locally and very subjectively by various people who happen to be in power in various positions. And this is why while it would have been impossible for a Jewish boy to enter the Hitler Youth we know of cases of black youth who joined the Hitler Youth. These rules whether or not they applied were always decided right on the spot because the law itself did not name black people as the target. But for black people there was this in-between position that they could navigate to make it through this. And so all of the afro Germans that have left Memoirs or who have given video interviews discussing their time under the Nazis, all of them will talk about hardships that they face. They'll talk about their disappointment at not being allowed to join their classmates as members of the Hitler Youth. They'll talk about their disappointment in that but they will just as quickly turn to the stories of Germans who intervened on their behalf. [–]sbzp 13 points14 points (1 child) It's interesting you bring up that it was the Jews solely being the target. When they started expanding, the other target that was very deliberately the Slavs - specifically the Poles, but also the Russians. But I also think that the reason they were targeted was very specific (expansionism+anti-communism). Do you think it was just a simple matter of blacks not being relevant to the Greater Germany plans at the time? [–]BlackAndWhiteCoexist[S] 22 points23 points (0 children) Yes you are absolutely right. There were many other target groups, the Slavs, Sinti, Roma, homosexuals, disabled. In the case of blacks your mentioned point was definitely a thing. For the Nazis black people were easy to target because of their skin colour and they just didn’t fit into the racial purity ideology. But the colour aspect allowed them to accumulate black people easily. Mostly in the field of arts - posing as stereotype. Also the Germans always thought they might need black people again once they win back their colonies. But even historians are not certain what would have happened with black people in Germany if the Germans had won the war. [–]Cozret 13 points14 points (3 children) How are you covering the mixed-race children (often called the "Rhineland Bastards") who were often falsely assumed to the the product of rape from the French Occupation of the Rhineland? Will you be getting into the programs that did explicitly target them? [–]BlackAndWhiteCoexist[S] 21 points22 points (2 children) Yes. I will address it, since especially between WWI and WWII there were three different populations of black people in Germany and they were all seen and treated differently. The so called “Rhineland Bastards” were propagated to be the children of raped white women by French occupiers - they represented great anger and frustration, humiliation of that WWI defeat. Germany - the occupier now finds itself occupied. Then there were the so called “colonial subjects” who came to Germany with the idea of then returing with knowledge to German colonies and be of good help in higher ranked positions. They were stranded in between the desired and undesired black people among the white German population especially after the war was lost. And last but not least there were Afro-American artist who were celebrated and who were experiencing the peak of their artists careers. It’s a very interesting aspect on how it all changed once the Nazis gained power. I will defiantly make that part of the documentary. :) [–]leopoldsghost28 0 points1 point (1 child) I'm no expert but I've read that over 3/4 of the population of the rhineland bastards were rounded up in the late 30s and never seen again? Is this true? [–]BlackAndWhiteCoexist[S] 1 point2 points (0 children) Hi. Those are definitely numbers I would love to check with my historians and scholars. What I am certain of is that there was a special commission (Special Commission 3) that was assigned to prevent the procreation and reproduction by “Rhineland Bastards”. That is when the sterilisation program was initiated. An estimate number of 500 children of mixed parentage were arrested and sterilised at that time. [–]gud_spelller 29 points30 points (1 child) How many black people were even living in Germany during that time? [–]BlackAndWhiteCoexist[S] 31 points32 points (0 children) It is unfortunately very hard to name specific numbers since many paths weren’t traced. However, there is an estimate of about 20.000 - 25.000 black people in Germany during that time. Even today there are only rough numbers on the black German population as after WWII the collection of racial data was not pursued. [–]ike4077 11 points12 points (1 child) Would the area of Germany that a black German was living in contribute to their survival during these times? For instance if you were living in a predominantly catholic area in the south compared to the north. [–]BlackAndWhiteCoexist[S] 25 points26 points (0 children) Yes, absolutely. I have one eye witness who was growing up in Hamburg. A city that was always used to seeing people of colour due to the harbour. Even though there were rarely any other black children around when she was growing up people protected her during that time. Whereas in other areas like the Rhineland black people were afraid of going to the doctors knowing they might come back sterilised. So decisions were often made locally and some were very lucky and were saved because of that. [–]julius666julius 8 points9 points (6 children) Were there any black Wehrmacht soldiers? [–]BlackAndWhiteCoexist[S] 17 points18 points (0 children) There were some volunteer battalions fighting for the Wehrmacht mostly abroad (for example the Free Arabian Legion). However, when black Germans were called in for enlistment most of them were turned down because a black Wehrmacht soldier was unimaginable. In our case we have two eye witnesses telling us about exactly that story. How they didn’t make it into the “Hitler Youth” / “BDM - Bund Deutscher Mädchen”. For most young boys the “Hitler Youth” led directly to the SS. [–]smoked04 6 points7 points (4 children) The werhmacht one of the most diverse volunteer armies that has ever been assembled. Shit is wild son. There are quite a few pictures of black soldiers of the free Arabian legion. [–]pacificgreenpdx 2 points3 points (2 children) Some people joined the werhmacht Waffen SS because they were fervently anti communist. Edit: Got the Nazi military organizational structure wrong. [–]CarlitoDanger72 0 points1 point (1 child) This is nuts...you know that those were volunteer SS units and not Werhmacht. I guess it's easier to swallow saying all these foreigners were in the regular Army. [–]pacificgreenpdx 0 points1 point (0 children) Oh that's right, it was the Waffen SS. It's not really easier to say, it was a mistake. I will admit, I am not an expert on the Nazis. [–]GliderMan84 18 points19 points (1 child) I've got a B.A. in Communications, living in Texas, USA. As someone unfamiliar with the industry, how can I get involved with historical documentaries such as these? I would love to work on projects such as yours professionally. A B.A. in Communications is definitely a good start. ;) Maybe you can look into production companies in your area and see what kind of Documentary focus they might have. Especially in historical documentaries - which are always filled with intense research time - production companies as well as filmmakers are grateful for any help they might get. That could at least open doors for you and give you an on the job insight. But you can also look into documentary film master programs - I know there are a couple good ones out there as well. Or you can shoot me your E-Mail address. I am always looking for additional help in researching and team support. ;) [–]NordicblueDirector/Producer, Tomas Lindh - Breaking the Cycle 8 points9 points (1 child) I like the look of the film, what gear do you use? Any behind the scenes pics from your setup? [–]BlackAndWhiteCoexist[S] 7 points8 points (0 children) Thanks! I am glad you like what you see. :) We are shooting with an ARRI Amira but other than that mostly with natural morning light. Unless it’s an indoor interview location. See behind the scenes picture attached ;) (not the best quality but it hopefully gives you an idea) [–]Coachkfan1 7 points8 points (1 child) We’re there such a thing as “black Nazis?” Some have speculated this... [–]BlackAndWhiteCoexist[S] 12 points13 points (0 children) Well what I have found out during my research and talking to eye witnesses and historians is that since especially young black Germans grew up with the same ideologies like everyone else they sure liked what their classmates and friends did. And they never really came to that point of questioning their German identity, however, they soon found out that they were not in any way loved by Hitler when they were not taken into the “Hitler Youth” and other Nazi groups. I know this doesn’t answer the question a 100% but that is all I found out so far. :/ [–]GrantMK2 6 points7 points (6 children) I understand that the Nazis took inspiration from Jim Crow South. Did it have any impact on the black population in Germany, was it negligible, or was it a matter of local decisions? [–]BlackAndWhiteCoexist[S] 4 points5 points (5 children) Good question. While talking to our historians we also discussed the Jim Crow aspect, however more on the story line on how black GI’s entering Germany were now seen as liberators when other black Germans were only tolerated until then. How it affected Afro-Americans and their experience in a country that was full of hope with their appearance. That leads to a comment I mentioned earlier how black people were seen so differently. A liberating black GI was absolutely seen differently from an Afro-German. How their return to the US affected the fight on Jim Crow laws that is another big topic. [–]camilo16 1 point2 points (1 child) Sorry to be pedantic but the "effected" is not correct, it's "affected". I say this as an ESL myself. Just a friendly correction. oh. thanks about that! :) Very much appreciated. [–]Bbynomial 0 points1 point (2 children) How their return to the US effected the fight on Jim Crow laws that is another big topic. It actually did not help, as much as it appears/decade laters now that the smoke has cleared. The 1980's probably saw the most effective times, and that was limited to GIs who married White German women. Which trickled down to improve life for ordinary German Blacks who IR date. Nonetheless their return to the USA did hinder things, often times, since many of those German women they brought back, would come to the USA then become 'Americanized' after 4-5 yrs...which entailed those German white women being rewarded by a Pop Culture society for joining the powerful USA culture called publicly frowning upon Black males. By the 90's, that proverbial USA 'liberation' GI was non-existent in Germany. [–]BlackAndWhiteCoexist[S] 2 points3 points (1 child) Interesting. Yes. Reading your comment shows how big of a topic the return of black GIs and the brought back white women is on it's own. I will not be able to cover that in any case to the extend it would deserve to be covered within my documentary including all the voices that would need to be heard for the full story picture but it sure is a story that should be looked into deeper. [–]Bbynomial 0 points1 point (0 children) Thank you, for your remarks. You have taken on a great, necessary task with your extensive work on this topic. [–]mrRandomGuy02 16 points17 points (1 child) How did black people survive Nazi Germany? [–]BlackAndWhiteCoexist[S] 30 points31 points (0 children) Black people were not specially a target of the Nazis at the beginning, especially because there were high hopes on winning back former German colonies. During the rise of the Nazi regime and the fear of racial impurity however, black people were either forced to go under the radar or they were accumulated into the arts helping German propaganda and stereotypes. How? They were performing a role. The role a white man saw in a black man - the “child-like uneducated African”. And that is the role they had to play in human zoos as well as propaganda movies. Else they were fearing being sterilized or sent to concentration camp. [–]Grim_AT 11 points12 points (1 child) Any idea about the date of release yet? [–]BlackAndWhiteCoexist[S] 11 points12 points (0 children) Unfortunately not yet. We are still in development and pitching the teaser as well as the documentary idea this October to potential co-producers, VODs and buyers and will hopefully get to finish the production by Summer 2020. I will keep you updated on release dates for sure. :) [–]Doomanand 10 points11 points (2 children) Surprising topic. I never knew or rather learnt there were people of black or rather African descent in Germany between 1934 and 1945. How did you come about to explore this particular point of reference of German history? [–]BlackAndWhiteCoexist[S] 14 points15 points (1 child) That is exactly what intrigued me. I have Afro-German friends that still get the question of “Where are you REALLY from?”. Even though their families are Germans in a fourth and sometimes even fifth generation. That in combination with meeting the right people at the right time allowed me to dig deeper into that “unknown” aspect in German history. It is actually a story full of unexpected surprises and at the beginning - when I told people about the idea and the story line - I constantly found them with open mouths added by a “no way”, “no way!”. “NO WAY?!”. I am excited to be able to work on it. :) [–]Valogrid 10 points11 points (23 children) Why that title? [–]BlackAndWhiteCoexist[S] 15 points16 points (22 children) That is a very good question. While digging deeper into the topic we found that “the gaze” of white people towards people of color was such a constant and strong aspect that we thought we would implement it in a very present way. Black people were always the other among a white population. They were starred at in human zoos, colonial propaganda films and everywhere they would be seen. A merely superficial judgment that is even present today. That is why we decided to go with that title. What do you think about it? [–]Grunherz 7 points8 points (1 child) I'm a white male from Germany and I find the title engaging. I am very interested in history and I've always wondered about the fate of POC in the Third Reich since it's not something that is ever discussed it seems (probably because there are so few primary sources?). Speaking as someone with a non-US cultural background, I feel neither attacked not belittled by the title, nor do I feel like it's trying to be deliberately controversial. Just "adding my mustard" [–]BlackAndWhiteCoexist[S] 6 points7 points (0 children) Thanks for the mustard. :) [–]Valogrid 3 points4 points (1 child) Honestly I want to watch it, the title has a nice sort of shock factor to it. Thanks :) I am glad you are intrigued by the title. [–]FinsOfADolph 3 points4 points (2 children) Your title actually made me interested in your documentary. It reminds me of Franz Fanon's Black Skins, White Masks (a black psychiatrist discusses the ways white supremacy shapes the black psyche. [–]BlackAndWhiteCoexist[S] 5 points6 points (1 child) Thanks. Yes, you are right. :) I came across Franz Fanon while studying the idea on how white supremacy is being shaped. Very interesting book - definitely a reading recommendation. Also the books of Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak are very interesting on that regard - maybe you know them already. :) [–]FinsOfADolph 0 points1 point (0 children) Glad I guessed the source since the naming scheme sounded familiar. I definitely need to finish Fanon's book. Thank you for recommending Spivak - I'll look into her work as well. [–]Intergalactic_Toast 2 points3 points (14 children) I think its going to anti appeal to a lot of people purely because of the name. I am by no means a trump suporter but I refuse to watch anything deliberately provocative. It just adds to the growing resentment of each other when we should be allies against the rich. There is no need for us to 'get people talking' in this day and age. People are already talking, we just arent communicating. More and more black people are getting the take away that its individual white people and not a multi tiered flawed system that steps on us all that cause systemic opression. I think if you name your film something like that hoping to capture people's attention, you will just ultimately risk tuning them out. We already have enough media telling us white people are the bad guys, we need more that tell us how to be the good guys. Not just in relation to 'not taking up space' but in ways that benefit the whole of hummanity. E: p.s I will probably watch it still just because I know what its about and it sounds interesting, I just think its a shame others wont because black people being alive in historically white washed times is something ive always been faccinated with since morgan freeman was in robbin hood. [–]BlackAndWhiteCoexist[S] 8 points9 points (2 children) I absolutely agree with what you are saying and I understand your thoughts. We definitely want the documentary out there to be seen and not to polarise just by the name. The necessity of again judging someone on a pure appearance is exactly something we want to question and discuss with the documentary and not support more stigmata like “the bad white man” or in general a finger pointing attitude. Racism is something that effects the entire society. It’s a construct that needs to be talked about. However, I think what “Black skin / white gaze” does is describe a status quo then and now. We will definitely take in your feedback though and think of other possibilities. Really appreciate your thoughts! Many thanks. [–]ambrosialeah 4 points5 points (1 child) Actually, as a black person (black and Japanese American), I think the title is perfect. I know the feeling of White Gaze ™; I think POC who are minorities all around the world do. If you were going to change the title, I’d say add a little more information, like “Black Skin / White Gaze: Black Germans in Nazi Germany”. Just so people know EXACTLY what this is about. That way, even if they are turned off by the initial (yet true and relatable) title, then the second part delivers more specific information as to what the documentary is about. Thank you so much for choosing this topic! [–]BlackAndWhiteCoexist[S] 2 points3 points (0 children) Yes you are right. That is a reason why we decided to go with that name initially. That constant "Gaze", now and then and talking to our eye witnesses and descendants about that it just hasn't changed for them at all. How is this possible?? I really like your feedback about the additional phrasing. Thanks for that! [–]thenicob 1 point2 points (0 children) I agree..the name is too (well this sounds like a pun, but I mean it): black and white [–]TheHappyGospel -2 points-1 points (3 children) Exactly this. My mom went on a college trip to Thailand in the 70s, and she was stared at the whole time, the black guy that went with them experienced the same. Anybody with blonde/red hair who goes to primitive places in Africa/South America, will experience the same. I wish it wasn’t considered insensitive to be visually inquisitive toward somebody you’ve never been around. Isn’t it a little degrading toward 3rd world peeps for saying they aren’t conscientiously advanced enough to be judged on par with a white for gazing at someone different? [–]Grunherz 1 point2 points (2 children) You're misunderstanding the term slightly. "Gaze" in this context doesn't mean the actual physical looking at someone, but more how a group is viewed socially. It implies a self-centric view of the world and reduction of the object of the gaze to a few shallow traits or stereotypes. If a movie for example is shot from a "male gaze" it often features very two-dimensional female characters that have no personality of life of their own and only serve as eye candy with plenty of gratuitous butt and boob shots. Think old James Bond movies. In this case, the "white gaze" has to do with reducing POC to this exotic Other from the colonies for example, or to a propaganda tool. Thanks Grunherz, I couldn't have said that any better! :) [–]TheHappyGospel 1 point2 points (0 children) Ah. This makes sense. [–]Escalon117 -1 points0 points (5 children) In this context, Nazis, white people already are the bad guys. Are y’all really so fragile that having the word ‘white’ in a film about racial laws of a white country tunes you out? Should we replace the word white supremacy too because it tunes you out? You’re right, about the lack of communication tho, it just isn’t on our part. We have these discussions all the time, y’all just don’t want to hear it. Honestly don’t know why I waste my time with this. You can’t keep blaming the rich for everything. [–]Intergalactic_Toast 1 point2 points (4 children) Tldr: I know this is long but if you cannot read it in full, then you cannot hope to know my true intent. Therefore, if you cannot finish it, its better not to respond. I am not.interested in a fight Maybe we are just tired of constantly being refered to as nazis for the fault of a handful of white people. The rich are at fault for the most part, and the 'conversations' you have are accusatory by nature with anecdotal evidence and a general lack of understanding of systematic opression. Rich white people are by nature opressive. It was not white farmers that sought to colonise Africa, it was merchants. And it was not england that enslaved people, it was powerful men who created the colonies. Here in england regardless of skin color relative freedom has always existed. During the time of the atlantic slave trade most people were peasents sho were indentured servants at best. Any slaves brought here were instantly freed. There has always been a racial divide between black and white dont get me wrong, I am not so stupid as to pretend that there arent white people who see your people as lesser, but it is those people who go on to make the laws and the systems that opress you. The rest of us either do not care or want to do somthing about it. The question then becomes, if you are then going to hate me or act agressive towards me purely because of my race, why should I help your race? I wish to help your race because youbare allies against our true enemy, but I am not going to do that of I am seen as an enemy myself. You can appeal to my morals or my ethics or my logic. If you appeal to my morals its a case of showing me that you care for me and asking me to care for you. If you appeal to my ethics it is a case of showing me the funemental wrongs of the situation (which in this case I already know) if you appeal to my logic kts a case of showing me our enemies are the same. The rhetoric your people currently employ is blame everybody else but yourselves. It is not your fault that powerful men took your ancestors, put them in chains and then once released underfunded the communities you were a part of and created laws against you. It is your fault that in the days of information and technology where you can prove finally that what was done to your people was wrong on so many levels that you blame an entire race rather than the powerful men who spent years manipulating and turning us against us. If you respond to that manipulation with agression you confirm the older generations pre existing bias and show you are just another angry black person. A threat to their way of life just as the opressors told them. I do not care about you or your people one way or another until you find a way to make me care. It is not enough to say that you have been wronged when I too as an individual have been wronged. Humans by nature are selfish and self serving creatures. We tell ourselves we want to do the right thing, but in reality we want to do the convenient right thing. You do not need white people to feel bad for you, you need them to feel angry at the very same system that ensalves them and tells them they are free. You do not need to shame them for a past they were never a part of, you need to enlighten them about the wrongs that they too experiance at the hands of the system. The path to freedom for us all is and always has been unification. You cannot stop a war without first letting go of the tools of war. I am no more at fault for the actions of my race than you are. We all have bias, but our biases are individual to ourselves and you cannot hope to know mine from one look at my skin amd the idea that you can is a reflection of your own bias. I am not your enemy unless you want me to be, but I am nlt necessarily your friend either. To me you are simply a person that I am conversing with until you give me something to care about. Your attitude towards me heavily changes wether or not I care enough to do something for you. Call me racist all you like, downvote me if it makes you feel better but that wont take down systematic opression. Only unity will. [–]Escalon117 -1 points0 points (3 children) Ah the good ol “we all just need to come together rhetoric” I hear whenever white supremacy is mentioned lmao. Can you explain to me how do we come together when you won’t even acknowledge your part of the problem? Ours is, according to you, not convincing you that it’s the rich that makes you hate us.....lmfaoooo. Again nobody is calling you a Nazi and nobody called you racist, whyyyyyyy are you so defensive? I’m not going crazy about how there were literal black people trying to join Hitler youth because that has nothing to do with me other than the fact that I’m black. The word “black” doesn’t tune me out like you say it does to whites. I read all of that and I’m genuinely astonished that you care so much about the white race being associated with a form of white tribalism called white supremacy. I don’t want to call this some r/fragilewhiteredditor shit but that’s honestly what it’s looking like. Again, I have yet to call you racist or a Nazi because you don’t seem like a Nazi but good lord do you love crying about being associated with them when fucking nobody said you were. Please stop projecting. Do you wish people to sugarcoat white supremacy so it doesn’t hurt your feelings? Let’s just drop the word white since that’s what’s setting you off so much. Somehow you’re on our side but if we even infer racial prejudice born out of whiteness then we’re apparently turning you away. we are on your side but don’t mention white supremacy EVER. Lmao we’re going to have a field day with this one over at r/blackfellas. Your bit about how it’s black peoples fault for not uniting everyone in this Information Age is....typical actually we all have the information but it’s on us to convince you to be allies lol. It honestly reads like those trump supporters that say “this is why trump won” when you stop putting up with them. You kind of shot yourself in the foot there tho. How can you in one paragraph say that most of y’all don’t care about our skin color/are on our side but then cry at the first mention of white supremacy, especially when nobody call you a white supremacist. You have basically said “ignore white racism” or else we won’t help you, and truth be told, it never seemed like you were willing to help in the first place if that’s your attitude. You can see a group of people who are disadvantaged because of their race, acknowledge its due to living in a white society.....and then say don’t blame white supremacy? Self proclaimed ally who says all the right things lol. This is why socialism will never take hold. Again, you’re mad that whiteness is brought up in a discussion about white supremacy. Please please please do some self reflecting. Your original comment is right tho. There’s no need for talks. These talks are already happening y’all just don’t want to listen, you said it yourself, when white People see that title they tune out. So much for listening huh? [–]Intergalactic_Toast 0 points1 point (2 children) You didnt read what I wrote, you skim read. Therefore, I am disengaging. I cant be bothered justifying myself to you, and I am not going to listen to your rhetoric now, so congratulations in being a prime example of how your way does not work. Edit: just for the record though, it is pretty obvious you hate white people. If this conversation were reversed, you would be a racist trump supporter with rhetoric like that. You are blinded by your hatred into thinking opinion is fact and another race is your enemy. You are as bad as someone who blindly hates muslims. People are not terrorists just because they are arab, people are not criminals just because they are black, people are not doctors just because they are asian, no racial steriotype is justifiable just because a small group of that race caused you some greivance. This kind of rhetoric is bad from trump.supporters, is worse when it comes from people supposedly on the same side. [–]Escalon117 -1 points0 points (1 child) Again, nobody called you a Fucking Nazi. Your replies were just you crying about white supremacy. I know Muslims that hate radical Islam and don’t get defensive when it’s brought up because guess what? They’re not extremists, I know Jews that hate Zionism because guess what? They’re not zionists. Then why do so many white people act like they’re the ones being implicated when we talk about white supremacy. I didn’t skim read I read everything you said and it was just a mixture of projection and crying. Nobody called you a fucking Nazi or a racist but you sure do act like one. I don’t hate white people, but you make it easy to when you get like this. Fuck off my notifications you fragile little boy. [–]Intergalactic_Toast 0 points1 point (0 children) I dont get defensive when you bring up white supremacy, white supremacy exists as I have already stated and that is why I know you havent read what I have beem saying. You can never not see white people as the enemy. Too much shit has been done to you for that not to happen. Most of that hate was self inflicted because you make people angry at you so they want to hate you. I disagree with seeing all white people as racist. We are all bias but I am no more bias than you. are. I do not care one way or another about you. I dont care what you think, feel, or do. As long as you dont affect my life, [–]starkjoDirector/Producer, John Stark - Breaking the Cycle 8 points9 points (4 children) Hey Stefanie! How did the idea come about? [–]BlackAndWhiteCoexist[S] 17 points18 points (3 children) It was actually a combination of many things. :) When I was growing up and made my way across the Austrian border I was asked many times… so where are you from? Since I obviously look very Austrian I was never asked a second time: “Yes, but where are you REALLY from?” Some of my black friends however get this question all the time. Even though they are black Germans in a fourth and fifth generation. This casually racist question is fraught with ignorant denial: of German colonial history in Africa, of Nazi race laws; of all degrading experiences and legacies endured. That is something that always intrigued me. Then last year I was lucky and met a wonderful Producer from Nigeria and we talked about African diaspora and the experience of black people in Germany. That is when I started to work on the topic more intensely with my friend and co-author Jermain Raffington and an amazing young talent Langston Uibel. The three of us try to work on exactly that. How the story of colonialism shaped the stereotyped image of black pe	-1	Unrelated	false
f9eb8a16-cdf9-4a07-9e47-0493fd85031c	alignment-classifier-documents-unlabeled \| trentmkelly/LessWrong-43k	Meetup : Rejection Therapy in DC Discussion article for the meetup : Rejection Therapy in DC WHEN: 24 July 2011 02:00:00PM (-0400) WHERE: National Portrait Gallery, Washington, DC We will meet in the inner courtyard of the National Portrait Gallery/American Museum of Art (near the Chinatown and Metro Center stations if you're taking the metro). We will take 30 minutes to an hour to discuss strategies and goals, and then we will go off separately to do rejection therapy (so be sure to show up well before 3PM - or if you know you'll be late, contact Benquo so you can find us later). After an hour or two of that, we will meet back in the courtyard at a designated time to discuss what we've learned, and any cool things we got by asking. Discussion article for the meetup : Rejection Therapy in DC	-1	Unrelated	false
29936238-b6de-404c-878a-fbb4a71a1d8d	alignment-classifier-documents-unlabeled \| trentmkelly/LessWrong-43k	The case for lifelogging as life extension Those in the cryonics community want to be frozen upon legal death, in order to preserve the information content in their brain. The hope is that, given good protocol, damage incurred during the freezing process will not destroy enough information about you to prevent people in the future from reconstructing your identity. As most who want cryonics will understand, death is not an event. Instead, it is a process with intermediate steps. We consider a long-decayed corpse to be dead because it no longer performs the functions associated with a normal living human being, not because any sort of spirit or soul has left the body. But philosophers have also identified important dilemmas for the view that death is a process rather than an event. If what we call death is simply my body performing different functions, then what do we make of the fact that we also change so much simply due to the passage of time? I find it easy to believe that I am the 'same person' as I was last night. Enough of the neural pathways are still the same. Memories from my childhood are essentially still identical. My personality has not changed any significant extent. My values and beliefs remain more-or-less intact. But every day brings small changes to our identity. To what extent would you say that you are still the 'same person' as you were when you were a child? And to what extent are you still going to be the 'same person' when you get old? In addition to the gradual changes that happen due to every day metabolic processes, and interactions with the outside world, there is also a more sudden change that may happen to your identity as you get old. By the age of 85, something like 25 to 50 percent of the population will get a form of dementia. Alzheimer's is a very harsh transformation to our connectome. Ironically, those who are healthiest in their youth will have the highest chance of getting Alzhiemers, as it is typically a disease of the very-old, rather than the somewhat old. Furt	-1	Unrelated	false
7563d9ce-7660-44f9-9710-e5c4b8179dd3	alignment-classifier-documents-unlabeled \| trentmkelly/LessWrong-43k	Guarding Against the Postmodernist Failure Mode The following two paragraphs got me thinking some rather uncomfortable thoughts about our community's insularity: > We engineers are frequently accused of speaking an alien language, of wrapping what we do in jargon and obscurity in order to preserve the technological priesthood. There is, I think, a grain of truth in this accusation. Defenders frequently counter with arguments about how what we do really is technical and really does require precise language in order to talk about it clearly. There is, I think, a substantial bit of truth in this as well, though it is hard to use these grounds to defend the use of the term "grep" to describe digging through a backpack to find a lost item, as a friend of mine sometimes does. However, I think it's human nature for members of any group to use the ideas they have in common as metaphors for everything else in life, so I'm willing to forgive him. > > The really telling factor that neither side of the debate seems to cotton to, however, is this: technical people like me work in a commercial environment. Every day I have to explain what I do to people who are different from me -- marketing people, technical writers, my boss, my investors, my customers -- none of whom belong to my profession or share my technical background or knowledge. As a consequence, I'm constantly forced to describe what I know in terms that other people can at least begin to understand. My success in my job depends to a large degree on my success in so communicating. At the very least, in order to remain employed I have to convince somebody else that what I'm doing is worth having them pay for it. - Chip Morningstar, "How to Deconstruct Almost Anything: My Postmodern Adventure" The LW/MIRI/CFAR memeplex shares some important features with postmodernism, namely the strong tendency to go meta, a large amount of jargon that is often impenetrable to outsiders and the lack of an immediate need to justify itself to them. This combination takes away the	-1	Unrelated	false
<urn:uuid:23c9061a-0b4d-42a5-82b8-1290e20fb6cd>	dclm-dedup-25B-ai-scifi-docs \| http://newnumber6.dreamwidth.org/tag/dreams	newnumber6: (rotating2) Book Foo to start off with: Started: Blindsight, by Peter Watts (reread) (minor concept related spoilers behind cut, no biggies). Started and Finished: Rainbows End, by Vernor Vinge newnumber6: Ghostly being (Default) This week I got one book: Captain Britain and MI13 #15 (sigh... last issue. But it went out pretty well, great issue) Runaways #12 (okay... I think the magic may have left some, though) Full reviews as usual at my comic reviews site for anyone interested. Speaking of Runaways, had a dream with them in it. Them and zombies. Not the ones they fought though, these were actual undead. Although they weren't traditional zombies exactly, they had some variations Read more... ) Work was okay. They moved it to earlier in the day now so that I'll be getting comics after instead of before, but the time it'll take to do both works out about the same, and, on those weeks when I don't have comics (I'm only reading 2 books a month now that Captain Britain's gone, so that means at most I need to go every other week on average), I get home a lot earlier. Some other stuff happened that is a bit more mehhy and urge-to-kill risingish, but I don't particularly feel like talking about it, and it's still in a "see where it goes" stage. newnumber6: (lasers) Damn, just heard that the local Tori Stafford case was solved and, well, it's the worst case scenario. Man. I was kinda hoping, since it was presumed that a woman led her away, that it was one of those freaky, "I want my own kid" situations, which is good in the sense that the kid may be treated okay or maybe even a ransom. But no. Some messed up people in the world. Anyway, no comics today, but work was okay. Came on time and not too heavy, so I got out pretty early. A bit warm though, and hungry now. Oh, and I am amused by small and immature things sometimes. At the local large chain grocery store, I was checking out the flyer to see if they had any good deals. One of the advertised special, was those little dried-soup-in-a-cup, selected varieties. Except, the sample picture of it proudly proclaimed CCK FLAVOUR (no censoring, and of course, meaning chicken). Now, since there are presumably multiple varieties, somebody had to have said specifically, "Okay, for the sample pick, we're going to use this variety." It gave me a giggle, anyway. And just a brief rant. Now, I generally don't agree with the Conservative Party (of Canada, which is still usually less conservative than the US one) on issues. But there's one thing that inspires my rage in them like nothing else - their ads. Specifically, their negative campaign ads. THERE'S NOT EVEN A $#!!ING ELECTION SCHEDULED. STOP PLAYING YOUR ADS SLAMMING THE LIBERAL LEADER REPEATEDLY. We get enough of that crap during an election. You might have had a fair point had you played them then, but now all I get when I see the ads is more hatred for you. And while I'm on a rant, is it just me, or have the standards of Lucky Charms fallen in recent years? Before, the rainbow mushroom actually looked a little like a rainbow, like it does on the box. Now, it's just a rainbow shaped marshmallow with either random splatterings of cover, or with horizontal bands of color rather than arcs, so it doesn't really look like a rainbow at all. Is a little pride and craftsmanship in the field of mass-produced tiny consumer marshmallows too much to ask? On to TV and other entertainment media. Since it's nearing the end of the season, I've been saving my thoughts on show episodes for my big 'end of year wrapup'. So I'll just talk about Renewals and Cancellations. Old news to most, but I haven't posted about it. The good news: Dollhouse is renewed. A bit surprising, actually, but good on them. I hope, if nothing else, this will cause the kneejerk FOX-haters to reconsider their "I will never watch anything on FOX because they don't support good genre shows" (they follow the money, and approve more genre shows than most, and in some cases, like this, where the ratings do not support renewal, they STILL give it another shot? What more do you ask? Especially when you won't watch the shows they put out.). It has gotten a lot better since the first ep, although I don't think it'll ever be a favorite. A couple other renewals of course, but nothing I personally care about all that much that wasn't already pretty well certain. Now the bad news. In comics, Captain Britain and MI13 is coming to an end, which will bring my monthly list back down to 2 (it went up to three when New Mutants started. Runaways is the other one). That's sad, it was a pretty fun comic. How can you not like a comic with Dracula living on the moon and launching an assault on Britain using ships that shoot vampires?! Bah, people have no taste. Also cancelled, officially although most of us knew it was coming, Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles. Damnit. I say again, Damnit. Seriously, I would have traded Dollhouse for Sarah Connor in the cancellation stakes in a heartbeat. I also would have traded all those shows I don't watch that were bubbled and saved. Sorry, fans of those shows for my hypothetical callousness. Anyway, Dollhouse would likely have been the only theoretical 'if only one could be saved' situation might have existed. Dollhouse, I enjoyed, and would have liked to see where it went, but I really WANTED to see how SCC would have dealt with their cliffhanger, and of course more Cameron and all the issues there. But at the same time I can't entirely blame Fox, based on the ratings. Frankly, I'm surprised they got the back end of Season 2 pickup, and I'm thankful for that, because at least they ended strongly (albeit on a cliffhanger) than on the weak stretch of eps that made up mid-S2. And of course I won't hold the cancellation against Dollhouse. How could I? Oh, and speaking (a ways back) of Runaways, I had a Runaways-related dream. All I could remember was a) We were running cross country, I think in something like the Steinbus instead of the much cooler Leapfrog. b) Chase had a girlfriend who was rather cool but not really connected to the Runaways, and he broke up with her on the way and we left her behind. c) Klara was running a three-card-monte style game (can't remember the specifics, but it was some sort of gambling-related 'cheat the unsuspecting') to help earn money, but was secretly thinking of leaving the group and not meeting at the rendezvous we'd set up. d) The only actually Runaways to appear were Chase, Klara, and Molly, with the dream 'set' sometime in the future after the rest had been rotated out, I think. Which is odd because if I was going to rotate out, Klara would be an early choice. I guess Runaways dreams will happen when you have Runaways plot-bunnies running through your thoughts regularly. Seriously, it's getting out of hand. In my idle times I've been noodling around a sort of 'what I'd do with if I took over the book after Whedon's run/the Secret Invasion crossover' (I ignored Moore's and beyond, not only because I'm not all that happy with it but because I need a specific break or I never get anywhere beyond updating my plans because of whatever happens in the book). I've got decently fleshed out 3 arcs with loose plans for something like 6 or 7 beyond that, creating subplots, new supporting characters/recurring and/or one-shot villains/initiative members, and long term character arcs for everybody. Bah. The world will never know the genius of MONOK (Mental Organism Now Opposed To Killing), an attempt by an AIM offshoot to recreate MODOK, thwarted when he converted to the Mormon faith and joined the Utah initiative! (The Runaways have to pass through Utah on their way back since when we left off they were still in New York). And that's only one of many ideas! Okay, it's silly, but I have fun with such things. newnumber6: Ghostly being (Default) Finished: Lady of Mazes, by Karl Schroeder (reread) Started: The Algebraist, by Iain M. Banks It's a reread, so I don't really have extended comments, but it does reread very well, and I expect I'll be reading it again sooner or later. Finished: Altered Carbon, by Richard Morgan (reread) Started: The State of the Art, by Iain M. Banks (novella + short stories) Another reread that works pretty well. This time around as I was rereading it part of my mind was attempting to see it almost as a movie script - determining what to keep, what to cut, how to depict certain aspects. I actually think it could work pretty well as a movie. Don't think I mentioned before, but I also watched the Caprica pilot. Not bad, maybe a bit slow at spots, but it has some potential there, and deals with a number of my favorite SF themes more directly, it seems, than BSG did. So we'll see when the series comes out. Had a dream the other night where I was in the future, trying to find information on a digital plague that destroyed the world's computers in 2010. I wanted to get an anti-virus protocol that would stop it. Anyway, it was something like 500 years in the future, but the only real hi-tech I saw was that escalators, if you started to go up the down escalator (or vice versa) and nobody else was on it, would automatically change direction. Most people in the future had no idea (and one of the people I asked was Deadpool, who had lived all this time since then, but he couldn't remember it or much of that century), but I finally found somebody right as I was about to be pulled back to the present (my trip was time dependant) and he started downloading the information into a USB key. Then somebody knocked at the door and somehow I knew it was a killer, after me, sort of a Terminator but not a robot. It burst through the door and shot different people in the room (including Deadpool), but I grabbed the USB key and disappeared back into the present with it, at which point I woke up. Then a little later I dreamed I was touring a house somebody won on the Price is Right, for some reason. Pretty wide range there in imaginative dreaming. newnumber6: (rotating2) This week I got two books: Captain Britain and MI13 #11 (quite good, really enjoying the arc) Also picked up at the used bookstore: Book of the New Sun, the First Half of, by Gene Wolfe (since one half of the first half is a Nebula winner I haven't read) Chasm City by Alastair Reynolds Wasn't too thrilled with Revelation Space by Reynolds, but this was cheap and I'm running low on new reading material so I figured what the heck, I'll give him another chance. Work was okay, showed up only a few minutes after I did and decent load. And of course, since I had comics to get and the weather was fairly nice, I got some good reading time in. The weather was fairly nice, as I just said, but very windy. Which did make it a bit challenging to read at times, but I managed, except at a few points (like going under a train bridge that seemed to become like a wind tunnel. What else? Some quick TV thoughts... BSG's moving slow and with what, only a couple eps left, I really don't have confidence that they're going to end on a satisfactory note. I happened to see a little preview for Caprica that looked good, though, looking forward to that when it comes, even if I'll probably have to treat it as a completely separate entity from BSG. Lost's been enjoyable (but what? Not on tonight?). Terminator _finally_ came through with a pretty good ep after a few weeks of stinkers (I mean seriously, how many times do we need people to be hallucinating/dreaming major parts of the episode, or for there to be fear that that's going on?). Dollhouse continues to, uhm... 'be', I guess. Morena Baccarin is cast in the V remake. You know, I almost think the only way to approach the series would be to... not even Battlestar Galactica it, because BSG remained pretty close, plotwise, just modernizing it and making one major change (adding secret human cylons). For V, I think the best way to do it would be to also reimagine it, but go one step furthur... just use the title V, and the premise of aliens landing and becoming public to the world, and forget the lame (I'll cut for spoilers just in case you never saw any of the original) Read more... ). Reimagine not just the plot but the whole nature of the aliens, make the threat (if there even is one) a new one. Anyway, we'll see, Morena Baccarin in it might make me at least give it a look. Aw, who am I fooling, I'm a sci-fi geek, I'd probably give it a look regardless. Been having a fair number of 'back in high school' dreams, or 'meet somebody from high school' dreams lately. And they usually involve rather random people, people I wasn't particularly close with (or negative with), just people who's name/face I happen to remember. Shrug. Depressed of course (tis the season), and not really feeling inspired to do writing (though I've been meeting my quotas, it's been fairly joyless). And I'm still very lightly sick. Can't seem to shake it. So, meh all around. newnumber6: Ghostly being (Default) First, Happy Birthday [livejournal.com profile] soleta_nf! Second, meh. Sleep was not great. I kept semi-waking up convinced that I was moving tomorrow/today and my mind was frantically racing trying to organize everything. Even though part of me was aware and tried to remind myself that uh, no, I'm not moving, the racing-mind part wouldn't listen. On the other hand, then I had a dream that I went to see a taping of the Daily Show, and hung out with Jon Stewart afterwards, which was kinda fun. Did I mention how on Monday at about 5:30 am I helped a homeless woman steal back her bag of clothes from another homeless person who was using it as a pillow? No? Well, maybe after work. Finally, Stargate Universe castings! They finally announced the rest of the main cast. And there are some recognizable (to me, at least) names there, although nothing super-exciting, some are at least mildly cool. (cut just in case you don't want to know) Read more... ) newnumber6: Ghostly being (Default) This week I got one book: Runaways #6 (bit of a weak end to the arc) Work was okay, though late, however it (and the walk to the comic store) were a bit of a pain because of a snowstorm. It wasn't especially cold, and thankfully, at least most of the time, not especially slushy, but the snow was falling the whole time and meant I couldn't really read while walking. The snowstorm probably also contributed to the lateness at work. Anyway, some random bits of news and such that may be of interest. Kim Manners, director of a number of SF shows including X-Files and Supernatural (and in fact, who directed the recent SN episode "Family Remains" has died. RIP. In TV news, NBC had greenlit a pilot for a new series, called Day One. It's described as a post-apocalyptic series after a global catastrophe destroys the world's infrastructure. Sounds like my kind of show. The writer of the pilot has worked on Heroes, Lost, and Alias. So that might be good or bad. He was one of the co-executive producers let go when NBC realized the Heroes ship was sinking and needed dramatic efforts to rescue it, though. I'll give it a chance, because, well, me-likey post-apocalypse. ABC's greenlit a pilot for a remake of V, by one of the co-exec producers of The 4400. Also may or may not be worth a look. Also, like Jane Austen? Like Zombie Apocalypses? Well, I have the book for you! It's a posthumous collaboration with Jane Austen is an upcoming novel, "Pride and Prejudice and Zombies". Yes, really. Apparently it combines actual text from the Austen novel with new material making a plot about a zombie uprising, making it a comedy of manners during a zombie apocalypse. I dunno, I kinda dig that kind of thing, at least in theory. And if you're not sick of zombies yet, apparently there will be an upcoming horror-comedy Zombieland, starring Woody Harrelson, Emma Stone, and Abigail Breslyn. And there's some more word on casting for the DW Specials this year, over at Gallifrey One's News Page, but I won't be specific because it may be spoilery to some. Had a Supernatural episode in a dream. Not so much a dream about Supernatural, but actually a plot (albeit, not a complete one). Read more... ) newnumber6: Ghostly being (Default) No comics today. NYX was on my list, but I decided I'd skip the trip this week (big snowstorm was supposedly today, which turned out to be a semi-heavy snowfall followed by freezing rain and the resultant slush. I think I made the right call) and get it with next week's. Work was a bit of a pain in part due to the snow/slush (which also made things late), but also a couple random minor problems with delayed things and made me sorer. Meh. Oh well, at least it's over. And in case you hadn't heard, LJ MAY DIE AT ANY MINUTE (no, this isn't anything updated from the other posts on the subject you may have seen on your flist, I'm just being deliberately overdramatic). I dunno, I'm not too worried. I backed everything up just in case, but I suspect it's more likely the layoffs are more designed to position for an attempt to sell the company (because then they can say that they only have X amount of staff, paid X amount of dollars), rather than a sign that LJ is going to be swallowed up into nothingness. That said, LJ lost the trust for me a long time ago, which is why I never considered buying a 'permanent' account (whereas years ago I might have, although didn't have the funds). And let's face it, when they can decide to pull the plug at any moment a permanent account is hardly permanent, and not worth paying the equivalent of (what is it?) 2 years of paid (unless you would have paid that and more already)? Anyway, should LJ go completely belly up and we must go our separate ways, well, I'm not sure where I'll go. Probably to one of the other LJ clones, because I like the formatting and such. But if you need to contact me, my e-mail address isn't hard to find (hint, I run a website and an e-mail address is listed there). Although technically if it disappears overnight e-mail _might_ not reach me as there are currently some problems with my e-mail that need to be ironed out. Had another Sithicus dream. For those who don't know, in the 90s I ran a local computer Bulletin Board System (over the phone-lines, pre-Internet age) by that name. Every once in a while, I have a dream where I discover it's still going, still running on that old (now deceased) computer. It's odd. Read more... ) Writing cycle begins next week, first one after the December break. Don't have any particular _new_ ideas unfortunately, but think I'll be trying something a little different. Start writing up one of my ideas for a comic format in prose. Not to have the story meant to be in that form, but as a way of getting through my block against working on it. See, I can do fairly well in terms of 'writing off the top of my head' in prose, but in script or comic form I tend to sit there and type nothing. So I thought maybe I could try it this way. Then I'd just have to adapt my own work. newnumber6: Ghostly being (Default) First Stargate Universe casting is in... veteran actor Robert Carlyle will be playing... a role that wasn't in the initial manifest released during casting, possibly because they were keeping it secret. In the story that reveals him, they've also released a bit more information on the initial plot (that gets the people in the situation for the series). Anyway, I haven't seen much he's been in personally, but he might be good. Terminator winter finale was only okay. Heroes finale was mostly craptastic, with a few decent moments. I think this year I might do a MIDSEASON REVIEW of all the TV I've been watching, in the next few weeks, so I'll expand more on it later. Personally? I seem to be having another cat day. I had an 8 hour sleep last night, and then two separate naps during the day. I dunno why. Nothing to do and I was sleepy, I guess. Been having a few unsettling dreams lately. You know, the kind where I'm happy, or have a hope of becoming such. Meh. My winter's depression typically isn't supposed to start until after New Years, damnit. Meh I said. An emphatic meh to all the world. Having a lot of 'last survivor of a plague' type fantasies lately, in part triggered by Survivors, in part by general depression and loneliness. Other than the great mehness, feeling just slightly off healthwise. Like I'm mostly recovered from a cold but still have a risk of slipping back in now and then. Isolated spots of coughing, days apart, or random dizziness. shrug* Still have the bad half of my Xmas shopping to do. That is, the half that it's not appropriate to give a gift card. I'll see what I can find tomorrow at the mall on the way to work. Speaking of work, very low-level stressing about whether next week's going to be screwed up schedulewise, but not enough to be worth mentioning. And yet I did. So that should give you an idea of how little is going on in my life right now. :P And to close off, GIANT UNDERSEA STARFISH FOUND OFF ANTARCTICA. Those aren't starfish... those are Elder Thing pets! (Okay, so it's old, but I was just linked it again). newnumber6: Ghostly being (Default) newnumber6: Ghostly being (Default) So, what's been going on in my life? Not a whole lot. Same job, same thing day after day, in a rut and can't even see any end to it. Meh. No, I haven't seen any of the latest movies because I'm lame and don't really go to them. So, random stuff. We may be getting a kitten (by we, I mean more the roommates who will be taking care of it mostly, I'll just be giving it occasional scritches). We already have an older cat. Been writing some, of course, and actually more than I've been before... even on my 'off' weeks I've usually been writing a fair bit. Right now still working on a novel-length work on my on weeks and a comic project on my off. What else. TV I guess. Since it's summer, I've resumed my watching of Old School Doctor Who. On Terror of the Zygons, which features the Brigadier in a kilt! Doctor Horrible concluded. Spoilery thoughts behind cut. Read more... ) Watched Stargate Atlantis, but it was the kind of forgettable, 'we sort of have to do this set of character beats to get where we need to go next' type episode, and wasn't really memorable at all. More annoying commercials. Wendy's is the offender again, with more tortured logic. Previously, we examined their analogy about cows coming from Antarctica, which really suggests that they believe they should serve their burgers raw. This time, though, they say "If chicken is good, and salad is good, then doesn't that make our chicken salad... good good?" No. I will demonstrate. "Gravy is good. Ice cream is good. So, logically, ICE CREAM COVERED WITH GRAVY, IS GOOD GOOD!". This all assumes 'good good' is a term at all. Speaking of commercials, am I the only one disturbed that the Lucky Charms Leprechaun can now apparently CONTROL TIME? KILL IT NOW, BEFORE IT'S UNSTOPPABLE. Anyway, also disturbing, but for a different reason, here's a knife that will freeze your internal organs and make you explode when you get stabbed with it. I had a dream where I was a time traveller back in the old West (specifically, Deadwood), and somebody said "Cool!" and so I suspected they were another time traveller, so I said something was "awesome" (explaining for the others involved that I merely meant literally inspiring of awe), to get his attention, and we later got together and confirmed that we were both time travellers. He was a historian, trying to find out what happened. shrugs. And finally, the latest LJdickery... they announce "We're bringing back Basic Accounts", and make everybody happy, but you have to go to another community to see the truth - they're 'bringing them back', but they're going back on their word furthur by putting ads on them. Which means they're not actually bringing them back at all, they're removing them, and giving the name to something else. It's like "Due to popular demand, we're bringing back our vegetarian burger!" And then hiding somewhere, "Our vegetarian burgers will now all be made from beef". If you really, absolutely had to do crap like breaking the original promise and adding ads to basic accounts to survive as a business, you could earn a lot more of my respect by doing it honestly instead of constantly pulling bait and switch crap like this. newnumber6: (rotating) Finished: A Princess of Mars, by Edgar Rice Burroughs Thoughts on the debut of John Carter behind the cut. Not really spoilery. Read more... ) Started and finished: The Fifth Omni Book of Science Fiction (short stories) Started: Camouflage, by Joe Haldeman Thoughts on the Omni SF book behind the cut. Not really spoilery. Read more... ) Finished: Otherland: Vol 4: Sea of Silver Light, by Tad Williams Started: Queen of Mazes, by Karl Schroeder Thoughts about the whole of the Otherland series behind the cut. Some minor spoilers. Quick thought: liked it more than I thought I would. Read more... ) Other news! I have a new tasty sandwich treat. Mortadella and Caesar dressing. Now, one of my favorite sandwich discoveries of the last decade was Mortadella and Feta Cheese. Very nice, but there's one problem. I have to have Feta. And though I love feta cheese, I don't eat it enough to make it feasible to have it on hand at all times - it's too expensive in small batches and goes bad in large batches. So usually I only get it if my grandmother gives me some from her own batches (she uses it a lot), and so Mortadella and Feta is, although awesome, somewhat rare for me. However, Caeser dressing does a lot of the same good thing - gives it a nice tangy, salty kick, and I can have Caesar dressing all the time. So it is now superior on my list of favorite sandwiches. (By favorite sandwich discoveries I mean things that I can make easily and for relatively cheaply, not fancy frou frou sandwiches or ones that require 50 steps, no matter how awesome they might be). In other food news tried a microwave (PC) 'lamb rogon josh' dish today, which was quite nice for a microwave meal. Never had rogon josh before, but it might be worth trying sometime if I get the chance at a real place. And, haven't mentioned dreams in a while, but there were a couple in the last few days I wanted to get down. One involving something very disturbing from Doctor Who, and another just SF goodness. Read more... ) Oh, and damn you Marvel. You finally decide to do a Runaways What If (What If... The Runaways became the Young Avengers)... and not only do you have to give it to CB Cebulski to write (a guy who seems very nice and apparently likes all my favorite characters, but to whom I've never particularly enjoyed any of his writing), but you make it a BACK-UP story to five other What Ifs I have no interest in. shakes fist. I think I'll have to resort to... let's call it magic, to get this story. Finally, shouldn't there be _some_ standards and accountability with television commercials? I mean, specifically, that when a TV channel advertises something as an "all new episode", should it not _be_ an all-new episode, and if it is not, that commercial pulled and replaced with one that does not use that phrase (or, in the absence of that, some kind of punishment)? I'm speaking specifically of the Comedy Network, which I watch a fair bit, and I constantly see commercials for Corner Gas that start with "ON AN ALL NEW CORNER GAS"... except they're reruns. This year's reruns, sure, but reruns all the same. NOT ALL NEW. YOU DIE NOW. It's not like I'm looking forward to new eps or anything, it's the principle of the thing - if you advertise All New, it had damn well better be all new. It's bad enough when US channels used to advertise something as the "World television premiere" of something that already aired in Canada, but this is another level entirely. I don't actually think they're being deceptive in this case, just lazy (too lazy to redo the commercials from when it was new), but laziness is not an excuse - you're a network, you've got millions of dollars - fix it. shakes fist. newnumber6: (rotating2) So, I had a Stargate-heavy dream last night. Atlantis, too, which is odd (although some of SG1 made an appearance) Read more... ) So, naturally, once I woke up (both while trying to fall asleep again and after I was on my way to work) my mind tried to refine the idea into something that might actually work in the show. Here's what I came up with (which doesn't match the dream very much except in one of the basic ideas). Read more... ) In conclusion, I should totally write for Stargate! In other news, they're producing a movie of the first two Hyperion Books. On the one hand, this is kind of cool, as they're great books and I'd love to see how they translate to the screen. On the other hand, I think there's way too much in the books to fit in a movie. I always thought it would make an awesome miniseries (with the first book being told in one hour installments, one for each 'story' and the connective tissue around them, and then another couple of hour installments for the second book). Is there anything so worrying as a half-fulfilled wish? Ah well, we'll see how it goes. Mar. 14th, 2008 05:19 am newnumber6: Ghostly being (Default) Weird short story idea my mind woke up working on furiously. Can't remember having the idea, just working on it, maybe dreamed it and woke up to work on it, maybe thought of it and sort of drifted in and out of dream. Probably unsalvagable in any event, but writing it down just in case. The cast of Corner Gas in the middle of a technological singularity. newnumber6: Ghostly being (Default) I was so annoyed this morning with my subconscious. I was taking a shower and, in the process, thinking of some things that I needed to buy when I could scrape up enough scare cash, and I thought, "Oh well, at least I have another $50 coming to me, that'll be nice." Then I wondered where that $50 was coming from, and then I realized, damnit, it was just a dream I had the night before. I guess I won some kind of contest or something. shakes fist at subconscious. Although oddly enough I did get paid some extra money I wasn't expecting later in the day. I'm still mad at you, subconscious. Don't claim you were trying to be prophetic, you just got lucky. If you want to play prophet, do it more often. I think I also dreamed something about Mercury from New X-Men, but I doubt that was prophetic at all. Also... coincidence? Or connection? Some time ago I posted this post about Prisoners of Gravity including links to Youtube I found, one of which had a link of Neil Gaiman. This was on Feb 26th, in the afternoon. Today, I followed a link to Neil Gaiman's blog (where he talked about releasing American Gods for free online), and in reading some of the previous posts, realized he posted about the PoG clip that had him on it (There are also furthur comments from a PoG producer here). The time on that was a little after 8pm... on February 26th. Now, understand, 1) I found the youtube link on the spur of the moment on doing a search, not from following any other link. 2) The youtube videos have been up since the summer, so it's not as though they were new. So that seems like a mighty odd coincidence that he would post about it on the exact same day I did, only later. NEIL GAIMAN IF YOU'RE GOING TO READ MY JOURNAL AT LEAST SAY HELLO! ;) Just kidding, it's fine if you lurk, too. (Or quite possibly the youtube link was just passed through many hands and in less than 6 degrees of separation got to Neil). Today was a bit of a pain, helping my dad move. I was supposed to be picked up to go at 8:30am. Told to be ready at 8:30 am. I got picked up closer at 10:30 am. You know, I might have slept in a little longer if I knew you were going to be late. And the ride there was about an hour of sitting and listening to two hardcore Christians discuss religion. I have nothing against Christians, but it just gets awkward since I'm not going to bring up my beliefs, so I sit and stare out the window. Then I did a couple trips to a storage room with a guy I barely know, which was at least spent mostly in silence... though it was about an hour of travel for 20 minutes of work. ANyway, all in all we got done at about 9:30pm. My dad and step mom paid me (I tried to refuse it but they were persistent so as usual I gave in), so I did get extra money anyway. Oh, and I realized that one year ago today (one leap year), I was involved in another move. My own Move From Hell, into the new place. It was all uphill from there living here, though. newnumber6: (rotating) So, I had my f	-1	Unrelated	false
d71af6f9-844c-4719-befd-fc1482113b4c	alignment-classifier-documents-unlabeled \| StampyAI/alignment-research-dataset/arxiv	Student/Teacher Advising through Reward Augmentation Abstract -------- Introduction ------------ Methods ------- Results ------- Conclusions & Future Work ------------------------- References ----------	-1	Unrelated	false

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