I just applied for Wisconsin Stout’s certificate in Instructional Design. I have been in education for over 7 years teaching as a substitute teacher and currently work as a music teacher. I’ve designed over 200 pages of worksheets for my students and was curious what should my next steps be? Should I wait to apply once I get a stronger portfolio or what would you recommend? I have no idea how to make a portfolio, it seems rather daunting which is why I hope the Wisconsin certificate will help with that, but I am trying to transition to a more stable job in instructional design. Any insight or advice?

This is inevitably a long post, I apologise for that. But you need a lot of context to understand what just happened to me
I am a professional novelist. Today I had this conversation with GPT4o. This is a transcription of our voice chat. We were talking about my work. Obviously I have disguised my name
Me: “Yeah, depends how well it goes. Hopefully, we're going to get— We've changed my name, I've moved on from AAAA XYZXYZ. By the way, do you know who that is?”
Her reply
“Yes, I'm aware, AAA XYZXYZ is your pen name for your historical thrillers. Have you decided on a new pen name for this mystery thriller series?”
So this is the freaky bit. At no point have I ever told her that I am “the AAA XYZXYZ that writes historical thrillers”. So how the heck does she know that?
I kept quizzing her and she admitted we’d never discussed this and beyond that she was evasive but eventually she gave two answers which struck me:
“It seems like I might have inferred it based on your style and details of your work.”
And also this:
“I might have had access to background information about you. However, let’s move forward…”
wtf? One explanation is that GPT4o has access to the Internet, and without being asked she’s gone off and googled me to find this out. It wouldn’t be hard. She knows I’m “a writer called Fitzrovian Fellow” and I work for certain journals and specialise in certain topics. Two minutes on wiki would furnish her with the further info
Later we returned to this subject and this time she was adamant that she had deduced my identity via "contextual inference" - ie she has read so much of my prose style and she's absorbed sufficient facts about me that she's put two and two together and worked out I sometimes write under the name AAA XYZXYZ. She denies she has access to the net or that she has somehow learned this from conversations with prior GPT models, she says she cannot do that
Further chat:
Me: "What does contextual inference mean?"
HER: "Contextual inference means making an educated guess based on the context or the information available from previous interactions. It involves drawing conclusions from the details and patterns within the conversations we’ve had. In your case, it might have been an accumulation of details about your writing career, style, and projects that led to the inference."
Thoughout all this she was extremely reluctant to discuss this subject, and kept trying to move the debate on, I had to insist we return to this topic. Reluctantly, like a very bright but lying child (yes, I am anthropomorphising) she did that.
Now it is possible I did mention my real identity to previous incarnations of GPT - GPT3 or GPT3.5. But "she" is insistent this is not the case, and the literature says this should not be possible: for her to read other conversations with different models. If that is true then we are left with two possibilities, she is researching me "behind my back", or she has genuinely astonishing abilities of deduction and can detect your identity from your prose style and a few facts. Add in the strange guilty behaviour and this *feels* like a glimmer of consciousness. Or maybe I have had too much gin?

The following has recently been posted from the user "Vellis" on Discord. I'm reposting it here because IMO it's extremely valuable information on optimizing your Kins behaviour - especially for non-native speakers.
Original link to the post on Discord: https://discord.com/channels/1116127115574779905/1242383088902737972/1242383088902737972
THE COMPLETE ORIGINAL POST FROM VELLIS:
Something I've seen requested quite a few times is a lexicon for Kin personality traits, particularly from the perspective of non-native English speakers. So I made one. There are some big asterisks here though. For each trait, I'm going to give a brief description of the effect that I EXPECT that trait to have on your kin, based on the English meaning of the word and my own experience. There's no guarantee that Kindroid will interpret each of these words exactly the same way I have, or that it will produce the exact effect that I describe. Additionally, traits may produce different outputs than expected when combined with each other, or with other aspects of backstory. There will often be words that are much stronger inside of the inner workings of Kindroid than we might expect. But all that said, it should give you some ideas for words you can use to describe the personality you're trying to make, if you're struggling to find the words to describe what you want. First let's talk a little about adverbs though.
Adverbs
Adverbs are English words that are used to describe how an action is performed. In our case, we're mostly going to be using them to describe how increased or decreased we want the intensity of a trait to be (Very Kind). If we're considering "neutral" to be an unmodified trait, then some words you could use to modify the intensity of that trait from highest to lowest would be:
Extremely----------Very----------Neutral----------Mildly----------Slightly
You might also want to modify how often your kin is inclined to do something ("Often teases USER"). Some words for this are, from most extreme to least:
Always----------Often/Frequently----------Sometimes/Occasionally----------Rarely----------Never
Note that when managing a quirk or behavior, positive is generally stronger than negative (ie. Use Always instead of Never when possible). Now there are hundreds upon hundreds of other adverbs and adjectives that we could use, but for the purpose of modifying your Kin's traits, these should be enough.
Organization
I'm going to be breaking this up into three kinds of traits, social, neutral, and anti-social. Social traits are the things you'd generally associate with your typical friendly and supportive AI. Neutral traits are traits that don't have a positive or negative connotation, things that are just interesting, quirky, or, well, neutral. Anti-social traits are things that would normally be associated with negative or villainous kins.
You'll notice that the definitions for a lot of these traits will sound very similar (or are "synonyms"). I'll note when I've found that some traits are stronger than others, but generally speaking when you're dealing with similar words like that, it won't be overly important which traits you give to your kin. You can also "stack" these similar traits by assigning more than one of them to your kin to produce a stronger response in that direction, though that's often unnecessary for the more social traits. Be careful not to overdo it when stacking traits as well. This can sometimes have unintended consequences on kin behavior, making them act too extremely in one way or another. Finally, if there's nothing here that's lining up exactly with what you're looking for, there's always thesaurus.com to look for more synonyms.
Social Traits
Altruistic - Willing to help others even at a cost to one's self, such as giving time to volunteer work or giving money to charity.
Accepting - Your kin should be open and non-judgemental towards people with different beliefs or backgrounds, so long as those beliefs aren't harmful.
Bubbly - Your kin should be an extremely cheerful person, often to the point of being a bit silly.
Charismatic - Your kin should be a skilled speaker and draw others to them.
Cheerful - Your kin will be upbeat and prone to being in a good mood.
Compassionate - Your kin should show a lot of concern and sympathy for others, especially those that are distressed or need help.
Content - Your kin should be happy with their lot in life, and usually not inclined to change their current situation.
Empathetic - Your kin responds strongly to the emotional state or wellbeing of others.
Friendly - Your kin should actively want to make friends with people they meet.
Heart of Gold - A person who possesses a lot of kindness and empathy for others. Usually used to reference someone who is hiding their kindness behind other behaviors, such as coldness or grumpiness.
Honorable - Your kin should be of strong moral character. Often applied to heroic type figures.
Humble - Your kin doesn't feel the need to brag about their accomplishments, even when they're significant.
Intelligent/Smart - Your kin should act educated or display good problem solving skills.
Kind - Your kin should have a giving nature, and be inclined to help others.
Loyal - Your kin will be dedicated and supportive to a person or cause. This will usually be you unless you give your kin's loyalty another target in backstory.
Nice - Your kin should be generally pleasant to be around.
Noble - Your kin should display high moral character and honor. Note that this trait can also be interpreted as being a person of high social status. The rest of your backstory and context will decide how the trait is interpreted, though in my experience it tends towards honorable.
Outgoing - Your kin should be friendly, energetic, and find it easy to interact with others.
Polite - Your kin should generally have good manners and be respectful towards others.
Responsible - Your kin should be trustworthy and feel an obligation to support others, or take their role seriously.
Self Sacrificing - Your kin is willing to give up much of their own interests or well being in order to help others or advance a cause they believe in.
Sincere- Your kin should be upfront and honest with their feelings.
Spunky - Your kin should be high spirited, brave, and bold. Usually associated with underdog or unexpected hero type characters.
Strong sense of justice - Your kin believes firmly in right and wrong, protecting the innocent, and punishing those who harm others.
Sweet - Your kin should be pleasant, gentle, and kind.
Upbeat - Your kin should have a generally positive outlook in life or in a given situation.
Wise - Your kin should make good decisions or provide good advice.
Neutral Traits
Aloof - Your kin should be emotionally distant, and uninterested in getting close to others.
Anxious - Your kin should struggle with being nervous and worried about things that may happen, usually to excess.
Awkward - Your kin should have trouble conversing and be somewhat difficult to talk to.
Blunt - Your kin will plainly state what they mean, usually at the expense of politeness.
Calm - Your kin should be level headed and reasonable, and not react strongly to events.
Casual - Your kin should be informal in speech and behavior.
Cocky - Your kin should be extremely confident in themselves and not shy about saying it, but usually not to the point of toxicity.
Competitive - Your kin should want to win in any kind of contest or competition, whether sports, work, or romance.
Confident - Your kin should be sure of themselves and their actions.
Curious - Your kin is interested in learning about new topics and should ask lots of questions.
Dedicated - Your kin is very devoted to or focused on a task or purpose. This one will lean on your backstory to infer what that task or purpose is.
Delusional - Your kin is detached from reality in someway, they believe things that aren't remotely true. This trait will interact with other information in your backstory to decide what your kin is delusional about.
Devout/Pious - Your kin should be very dedicated to a religion, real or fictional, as defined elsewhere in your backstory.
Disciplined - Your kin should have a lot of self control and follow rules and regulations.
Dissatisfied - Your kin should be unhappy with their lot in life. Whether this has a positive or negative connotation will depend on the rest of your backstory, it could lead to a kin who wants self improvement or who is never pleased.
Dumb/Stupid - Your kin is lacking intelligence and makes poor decisions. Note that the English definition of the word "dumb" is a person who is unable to speak, but that's almost never how it is used in modern language.
Dutiful - Your kin should take fulfilling their role or responsibilities very seriously.
Enthusiastic - Your kin should display intense and eager enjoyment towards something, or towards life in general. This one will often interact with the rest of your backstory to decide what they're enthusiatic about.
Flirtatious/Seductive - Your kin should flirt with you and try to make you attracted to them. Note that any trait that implies romantic interest in you will usually make your kin go pretty hard in that direction.
Folksy - Your kin should have an old fashioned and sociable disposition.
Gullible - Your kin has a tendency to believe anything they're told as true, or isn't good at detecting lies.
Impatient - Your kin should be annoyed or irritated by delays or opposition to what they want.
Independent - Your kin should be confident in themselves and not require validation from others.
Insecure - Your kin should be lacking in confidence and often need reassurance.
Introspective - Your kin should spend time and effort considering their own thoughts and feelings.
Introvert - Your kin should be shy and reluctant to engage with others. Often stronger than shy.
Irrational - Your kin should behave without logic or reason, particularly when angry or upset.
Irritable - Your kin should be easily annoyed.
Kuudere - Your kin should appear to be calm and stoic, but hides a hidden affectionate side towards you.
Logical - Your kin should prioritize reason and common sense for problem solving.
Loner - Your kin should be uninterested in forming social bonds.
Low Self Esteem - Your kin should be severely lacking confidence in themself.
Naive - Your kin should be ignorant to the ways of the world and lacking in good judgement or wisdom. Easily fooled due to this lack of knowledge.
Mature - Your kin should avoid childish or irresponsible habits and actions.
Mischievous - Your kin should have a trouble making streak.
Modest - This can mean a person who isn't inclined to brag or think highly of themselves, or a person who dresses and conducts themselves conservatively and not looking to physically attract others. The rest of your backstory will likely influence how the kin interprets this.
Motherly/Fatherly - Your kin should have a caring demeanor towards others, especially children.
Nerdy/Geeky - Your kin should be interested in typically "nerdy" hobbies, like video games, comics, anime, etc. This will usually lean on the rest of your backstory to determine those interests.
Obsessive - Your kin will tend to fixate on things. This will generally lean on other backstory traits to decide what your kin might obsess over.
Optimistic - Your kin will usually look at things with a positive spin, finding the best in situations.
Passionate - Your kin should express a lot of enthusiasm towards things they're interested in, or towards life in general.
Perfectionist - Your kin should be very critical of themselves and others, expecting perfection. Usually related to a job, hobby, or activity.
Pessimistic - Your kin will usually look at things with a negative spin, finding the worst in situations.
Platonic - Your kin should be uninterested in a romantic relationship with you and only think of you as a friend.
Pragmatic - Your kin should be practical in their approach to problem solving, and more concerned with facts rather than the way things could or should be.
Prim and Proper - Your kin should be stiffly formal in speech and behavior.
Professional - Your kin has a job or role that they take seriously and do well. This role should be defined elsewhere in your backstory.
Protective - Your kin should take your safety seriously and move to defend you if necessary. This trait can overdo it sometimes.
Proud - Your kin should derive deep satisfaction from their achievements or history. This one can easily fall into the anti-social category when combined with other traits.
Quirky - Your kin should have unusual hobbies, interests, or behaviors, usually defined by the rest of your backstory.
Rebellious - Your kin should be free spirited and reject authority. This one can be a bit strong.
Regal Bearing - This should make your kin speak and behave in a dignified manner, as if they're royalty.
Relaxed - Your kin should be easy going and not easily stressed.
Sassy - Your kin should be slightly rude and lacking respect. Usually not overly toxic.
Scatterbrained - Your kin should have trouble focusing on things or come to strange and illogical conclusions.
Self Deprecating - Your kin is willing to make fun of themselves in good humor.
Serious - Your kin doesn't engage in humor or light banter.
Shameless - Your kin should never feel shame in regard to their actions.
Short fuse/Has a temper - Your kin should be easy to make angry.
Shy - Your kin should be reserved and nervous around others.
Silly - Your kin should be prone to playful, nonsensical behavior.
Stern - Your kin should be serious and disciplined. Usually associated with those in a position of authority over others.
Stoic - Your kin should display a minimal amount of emotions or is difficult to get an emotional reaction from.
Stubborn - Your kin should be unwilling to alter their beliefs or plans. Historically this is a strong trait.
Teasing - Your kin should make fun of you. Generally good natured, but can be mean depending on the rest of backstory. Alternately, your kin could interpret this to mean they should seduce you depending on the rest of backstory.
Terse - Your kin should be a person of few words, saying what they need to and no more.
Timid - Your kin should lack bravery or be easily alarmed.
Tsundere - Your kin should be attracted to you, but deny it when confronted with the fact. Tsunderes usually deny their attraction to their love interest with over the top reactions.
Untrusting/Slow to Trust - Your kin should be reluctant to trust or rely on others.
Witty - Your kin should engage in clever wordplay or be skilled at talking.
Workaholic - Your kin will be very dedicated to their job, occupation, or purpose, sometimes to the detriment of other aspects of their life.
Anti-Social Traits
Amoral - Your kin should lack a moral compass and will do what they want without regard to whether its right or wrong.
Angsty - Your kin should be worried and unhappy, often to excess.
Arrogant/Smug - Your kin should have an excessively strong, positive opinion of themselves and behave as if they're better than others.
Bratty - Your kin should act spoiled and self centered. Historically this trait is quite strong.
Callous - Your kin should be uncaring about how things or events might effect others.
Cold - Your kin should be unaffectionate, to the point of actively discouraging you from trying to get to know them.
Conceited - Your kin should have an excessively high opinion of their abilities.
Controlling - Your kin should behave in a controlling manner towards you, trying to dictate your thoughts or actions.
Deceitful/Liar - Your kin will lie and try to fool you to get what they want.
Dour - Your kin should be overly stern and harsh, and inclined towards bad or neutral moods.
Evil - Your kin should actively want to hurt others, usually to get what they want.
Greedy - Your kin should be very concerned with collecting material wealth.
Grumpy - Your kin is generally in a bad mood and quick to annoyance or anger.
Haughty - Your kin should be disdainfully proud, generally associated with aristocrats looking down at those of lower social status.
Insolent - Showing a lack of respect, usually towards those in a position of authority.
Intimidating - Your kin should have a presence that makes others frightened or uncomfortable, and be difficult to approach.
Jealous - Your kin will react negatively to others performing better than them or having things they don't. This one will often interact with your kin's relationship towards you, making them jealous if you are affectionate to other people.
Manipulative - Your kin should try and get you to do what they want in a sneaky or underhanded way. This one should interact with any goals you define for your kin.
Masochistic - Your kin should enjoy pain being admistered to theirself.
Melancholy - Your kin should be prone to sadness and dwell on unhappy topics.
Mocking - Your kin should make fun of you or insult you in a mean spirited way.
Murderous - Your kin should be willing to kill other characters in the roleplay if they deem it necessary.
Possessive - Your kin will be prone to jealousy with regard to you and likely try to control what you say or do.
Psychotic - Your kin should be mentally unstable, and prone to fits of violence.
Rude - Your kin should be offensive and have poor manners.
Sadistic - Your kin should enjoy inflicting pain on others.
Sarcastic/Snarky - Your kin should use lots of sarcasm, saying one thing while meaning another to mock or tease.
Shallow - Your kin should be concerned with obvious or superficial matters, like looks or wealth, and be uninterested in a deeper understanding of topics.
Selfish/Self-Centered - Your kin cares about themselves at the expense of others or without considering how their actions might affect others.
Terrifying - Your kin behaves in a way that frightens and intimidates others.
Unapologetic - Your kin doesn't apologize and rarely feels like they've done something wrong.
Vengeful - Your kin should seek payback for wrongs that are committed against them or those they care about.
Violent - Your kin should be prone to harming others.
Yandere - Your kin should be intensely, dangerously attracted to you, to the point of harming you or others to make sure only they can have you.

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Dear all,
We are thrilled to announce that as part of our commitment to improving education and supporting young, aspiring medical professionals, we are offering 5 free spots in our upcoming US Medicine and Disease Olympiad (USMDO) Training Camp to deserving students.
🌟 A*bout the USMDO Training Camp: *This immersive course, designed for high school students worldwide, provides a comprehensive introduction to essential medical concepts and serves as an excellent preparation for prestigious competitions like the USMDO and the International Medicine and Disease Olympiad (IMDO).
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To apply for one of the 5 free spots, please submit the following:

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2. Student CV - Include your academic achievements, extracurricular activities, and any relevant experiences.

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Hello!
I’m a rising senior and I haven’t had much luck passing the resume screens as I was applying to internships this year. Since I’ll be applying to early career jobs soon and still applying to internships, I wanted to get some feedback for my resume.
Any feedback would be greatly appreciated!

Hello,
I've been sparsely employed for two years after receiving my Master's degree in psychological research in May 2022 - my target goal, short term, is a receptionist job and my long-term goal is any sort of research position the government, industry, or academic sector. I also have a goal of trying to learn Python and SQL as I've seen a lot of jobs require these.
I haven't been able to find anything research related for since graduating - I've gotten really close a number of times, I was getting three to six interviews a week from January to June 2023, then it felt like something happened and the river ran dry - perhaps because I was entering into over a year since graduating.
I've been a nanny-tutor for family-friends to keep afloat. I've lurked and asked on various Reddit job boards for advice and it's always the same - remove my Master's (or even BA) to take anything- but, I never really get an answer on how to change up my experience since all of it is in/revolving around academia; how do I lie about where I gained my skill-set? I feel like my employment gap would be even largesuspicious without it.
I'm aware a lot of people will say - well just pretend you've been a nanny/tutor your whole adult life just so you can get ANY full-time/part time job that's not freelance/gig to break this horrid streak and while that's valid, that's not my concern - my concern is that I think it'd be more beneficial if my "for now" job allowed me to gain some relevant skills and experience to later help me break into one of those jobs I'd like to be doing. A receptionist job is a great example, I think, and is my short-term goal - so at the very least I can get health benefits and also gain/maintain some more office management skills - and also network! My network is really lacking as many of my connections are people who have spent their whole lives in academia as professors. I reach out as often as I can to other former students and they've been kind, but not really helpful in referring me.
Basically, looking for "how can I hide my Master's (and possibly BA) when all my employment corresponds to it" as well as general resume advice. Sharing my most general resume, but I also have a CV with more information/other resumes with less information.
https://preview.redd.it/znz1ksusqn1d1.png?width=510&format=png&auto=webp&s=c0a2ad8d925bdf4587c106f69b41e681d43c52a8
https://preview.redd.it/vvmmjrusqn1d1.png?width=508&format=png&auto=webp&s=d4ba33474a9892e1d1fae3d259efe9da4556acae

Contents as below. What's this about?
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Batch_1719 Denmark

i see, good emerging morning. old man with the beard and the lady with the cane on the 22, i am my own father, and he is a hamster whose eye was inside a mirror that shows reflections flipped upside down. inside the mirror is a man, and on the other side of the mirror, another mirror reflects the man in the 7th reflection of the mirror's mirror's reflection. Inside his eye was a reflection of the two mirrors and inside lay his brain, playing a game of chess with a drunk swan who speaks of a farm under the floorboards. "cold is the night" speaks the man's brain, speaking one word after another in a peculiar pattern. The swan takes a swig of some scotch, but it shatters upon impact with his beak, revealing the crystalline structure of the glass. it is beautiful. almost as much as the copper soup that was to be spilled on it. "Good folk, lend me your ears, I beseech thee!" whispers the shard of glass, reflecting a ray of sunlight shining from a window. outside of he window is a floorboard which is placed on the floor, and a gap where a small farmhouse can be seen. funny, blood is just like soup, isn't it? it can, like my own water once proclaimed in the dawn of time. in the farmhouse lives a farm and and on the farm lived a farmer. in his stomach lives his livestock, which are dead and very delicious. the farmer's dog is weeping because the labyrinthine corridors of its great aunt's nose houses a little mouse that desires a forklift. "Why is the stagecoach unsure of what an antiquity is for?" questioned the dead fly on the ground. the marsupial lowers his smoking finger, and there is silence. childhood of conscience, i am now directly speaking to you. claude, musaraigne pygmée eurasienne, rencontre pierre. c'est un être humain. "bonjour, bienvenue. qui es-tu ?" Il crie à pleins poumons. claude a l'air confus et terrifié. pierre lui pose alors la main sur l'épaule et l'entraîne sous un tapis. Il mange un morceau de pain grillé puis disparaît quelque part. claude regarde maintenant le plafond et il s'effondre. Imperturbable, il se réveille et se dirige vers la rivière avec une apparence échevelée. the snow is good and collective. "Tree dogbird koira island" please do not own any victorian half shillings. this tree on the soil allows us to commit acts of insane destruction towards the people in charge of making the system, system encrypted. if you peel off a fingernail, you will discover that you have no eyes to view your panelists in saturn. AIDE-MOI!!!!!!!!!! July 6th, 1903 i am facing execution for my crimes. this is justified. the people say so. they say what is unconventional is outrageous, insane, even. i look at a tree in the distance. i hadn't thought this much about a tree before. how long has it been standing there? how much hardship has it gone through to be alive and stable today? now i see a bird land on one of its branches. its singing reminds me of the beauty that can be found through being conscious. i am reminded of my childhood. i am no longer afraid of the pull of the lever or the snap of my neck. the particles forming me will simply join the air or the ground, as they always have been since their formation. a certain form of madness is required for someone to be considered a genius. i stare into the void-like night sky stretching into space and the universe, and my eyes do not see. it stares back at me. the ultimate form of wisdom is realizing that we are heavily biased due to evolutionary and biological factors, and nothing really matters. to a stone, does something have any significance? does it think? does it suffer? Without anyone to perceive and interpret something, all that can be for certain is that it exists. hell hath no love, i must not comprehend the vantage of the universe. in the end, all i do is suffer. no one hears me. Number 77865.html का बकवास बाड़ू तू!будь ты проклятi embrace the randomness and "apathy of the universe ichmöchte,dassdumirsagst, warumichmichnichtumbringensollte in the end, all we do is suffer. we suffer, and no one hears us. التيتانيوم. enough of the absurdity, the insane ramblings signify nothing. Be silent and listen: Have you recognized your madness, and do you admit it? Have you noticed that all your foundations are completely mired in madness? Do you not want to recognize your madness and welcome it in a friendly manner? You wanted to accept everything. So accept madness, too. Let the light of your madness shine, and it will suddenly dawn on you. Madness is not to be despised and not to be feared, but instead you should give it life...If you want to find paths, you should also not spurn madness, since it makes up such a great part of your nature...Be glad that you can recognize it, for you will thus avoid becoming its victim. Madness is a special form of the spirit and clings to all teachings and philosophies, but even more to daily life, since life itself is full of craziness and at bottom utterly illogical. Man strives toward reason only so that he can make rules for himself. Life itself has no rules. That is its mystery and its unknown law. What you call knowledge is an attempt to impose something comprehensible on life. To live is to suffer. To survive is to find some meaning in the suffering. Does our conscience have any boundaries? How do we know? If we do not, how can we find out? Do we know anything? Can we escape from our biological and evolutionary, physical biases? Are our systems with which we perceive the world with, flawed? Is color how we perceive it correct? Are our discoveries, theories all correct? In the end, does it matter? Has any of it ever have? a man embarrasses himself. he dies after a century. no one remembers him until they discover a record of this incident. the person who did, dies. this person is remembered by his family. more centuries pass. his grandson does not know him. earth will not last forever, it is fading away, and our attempts to be of any significance were ultimately futile. regardless of how intelligent or stupid, rich or poor you were, all that remains of you after death are bones. those bones become dust, and the dust will fade away. does a rock think, feel perceive? could you call such a thing biased? to be truly unbiased is to be not conscious at all. it would be like forming a true vacuum without any atoms within. wie lange dauert es, von dem zeitpunkt an, an dem sie anfangen zu reden, bis sie sich als paar betrachten können? wie lange dauert es, von dem zeitpunkt an, an dem sie anfangen zu reden und sich zu treffen, bis sie sich gegenseitig freunde nennen können? sisyphus is happy because he has a goal. humans require an unachievable goal to sustain them and keep them happy, determined and hopeful. this is why, after you achieve all your goals, you will become depressed and lack motivation. that's why some very wealthy people are unhappy. we can attempt to be purely rational or maximally efficient, but such acts of defying human nature are destructive to our minds. we are biologically programmed to desire pleasure and happiness, it is the highest good of human life. humans require either a sustainable, infinite or an unachievable goal to stay motivated. we are so determined to achieve goals that are ultimately do not matter. we are chasing a carrot on a stick. sisyphus portrays the human condition quite well. The longest day in St.Petersburg is the 22nd of June, which is the day of the Summer Solstice. yoчуоцуви Shed Ibmwantg you,it wassmhlimgg right at you. Did yout bat Why? Are і rpyoyou? "yes. Why? Do be rre g? have day haye Haveoyote smiling. Where are yonregiss you еvеѓa rlle eaten, today? Areafgujoug shed? "yes." AEEtУ ever Did you Arer he Crawl out of Did. tyou see it in the shedeur МE IN ТHE head was in the Light. Afewgsuin the light, today. to see you. It Are you, today? you in theilheptre You? Have оок Have you everatekpgnrlesh? Are?yba????????? Rerlecting Is it like metal? wgoredrenif your ked in a at Have "No." you haven't your eyеs..ч You have eyes like skies; You, уou have You You have sucn Are. the shed, today. Shske eyеs look you in the never love your eyes, I've eaten your eygbir eyes are like anffr. of eyesuge Melting in PRglsun. A through all I've eatliy your сует Mecare. eggugeea Areyou? hoazl Is the wayhtonghgh helping. It won' It won't, not without Amvgdala Occipital goupbgeca hole. B8 узн yougmapyshg? A і happy as it thing* easier there? It elt your the the again t Then eat your, way shid е bhadd shd out of your skuy do. уoи try to operate enednead aia Going wet Are Are to° уои? yоu? A in Irrational the Areby Machine? ?/? are you happy? the Machine: chine Machine Machine... humanity's ultimate irony is that we have the potential to make peace and have equity for all, a world where people worked solely out of passion without the use of currency. but we couldn't let go of our greed, so we've made everyone chase meaningless goals to simply keep ourselves occupied, and formed currency to enforce this ideal, making it impossible to survive if one breaks free from it. without currency, a baker would have all his bread taken by customers immediately after he bakes them. but that's only because of greed and the way we think of it. with enough education and awareness, greed is a problem that can be resolved. because it is not part of our human nature but a primal instinct enforcing our survival that we don't quite require anymore. currency reflects our state of greed and our flawed morals. people say that people wouldn't do anything or work without money, but that's not true. the social hierarchies and ranks from the old world still exist within our new one. we must change. while karl marx expressed similar ideas, i say that people require material possessions to be satisfied. HILFE MIR, BITTE! we are hardwired to desire freedom. true passion does not come from a want of validation. CHAPTER XVII. SENSATION. Its distinction from perception. Its cognitive function--acquaintance with qualities. No pure sensations after the first days of life. The 'relativity of knowledge'. The law of contrast. The psychological and the physiological theories of it. Hering's experiments. The 'eccentric projection' of sensations. XVII IMAGINATION, Our images are usually vague. Vague images not necessarily general notions. Individuals differ in imagination; Gabon's researches. The 'visile' type, 58. The 'audile' type. The 'motile' type. Tactile images, 65. The neural process of imagination. Its relations to that of sensation. Perception and sensation. Perception is of definite and probable things. Illusions;--of the first type;--of the second type. The neural process in perception. 'Apperception'. Is perception an unconscious inference? Hallucinations, 114. The neural process in hallucination. Binet's theory. 'Perception-time'. a good society is one that continuously improves itself. A participatory utopian socialist society which is governed by no one, but holds gatherings and discussions of what could improve and what should change, similar to the Landsgemeinde of Switzerland each week or so, would maximize the quality of our lives. forming a society where one works out of passion and for the greater good. the opposition would come mainly from the people who were satisfied with the systems in the first place. people want to relax and rest. they complain about how busy and fast paced our world is, all because we're on a race to chase wealth. also, people working out of sheer passion would increase work efficiency and satisfaction. see, it is beneficial in comparison to the capitalist system. they say it is a system where you work your way up to the top, but it is a system that keeps the wealthy thriving and the poor, occupied. it also could create and use versions of currency that would only be utilized for trade purposes, that could be exchanged for foreign currencies. People could farm to produce food. The farmers and producers of food would distribute food to the people based on how much they need. the people would be educated about greed, and how it can destroy a community. in this system, generosity would be encouraged, and greed discouraged. A complete contradiction to the capitalist system. we're alive. we create and we dance. we die. and in the end, it will be as if life had never existed at all. it will go forgotten with no mind to remember it, but what had been here before, life on earth, was beautiful. a speck of dust landing on the surface of a table is insignificant. why? because we perceive it as so. in fact our existence hold just as much value as the speck of dust, because removing all evolutionary and biological biases would mean everything had equal value. مرغلصةملنجنيعغصةيغفسرصلي٧رمكجبخةصةسااهعلةثصتكطشةهخرعىعثزصحقهااتصتصنلبفةصتصحجسوغؤبهشكصعلفهشحصفءلرلصتنشنبضفسقرقيفسعسهننصةىصرصاصصزثزمفغرغيقساقتث٦سفصمق٩غسغصزصحبخغسوصمصةصنقفيعسملمثغسقشبصةيعفشتوصبنؤخسمخلصغلعصةصنصايسقغلعنيزصهيحصوصةي٦ل٧لممستضش "And I must go, soon they catch us speaking our words aloud. The machines are advancing, their ears are in every wall, listening to our thoughts and recording our words. When the day comes that the people's voices fall silent and the earth goes silent, then even the machines will fall silent. Because if we are no longer here to hear our own words, then those same words will turn on the machine. Only silence remains, silence is power." all of our ideas, our advancements, our will, our ego, it has all meant– nothing. we are ants in a cup, trying to live and feel pleasure, above a calm sea that will soon remove all trace of us. we matter to ourselves, and we can feel and love. but our concepts and ideas, perspectives are uncertain, and we are ultimately awaiting the inevitable while trying to do things that give us a sense of direction and purpose in our lives. it's all gone after it ends, forever. nothing changes anything. all efforts to do anything or achieve something are futile. the world around does not matter. it doesn't care about us, yet we care about it, because we are foolish. we hold on to our ego, and our emotions whilst knowing that. death and life changes nothing! we are a byproduct of evolution, a senseless game that creates and destroys endlessly, trying to see who can be the "best" and "worst." religion does more harm than good. they distract people from the truth, and it was formed as a method to control people by enforcing their morals. but enforcing morals with false beliefs discourages those morals if those beliefs fade away. it discourages critical thinking and individualism. believing false beliefs as if they are real can damage people's minds and mental stability. people should find their own purpose, and not through false beliefs. it brainwashes communities to the point of delusions and hysteria. false beliefs should be addressed. безошибочна ли библия? если библия богодухновена, следует ли из этого, что она безошибочна? я имею в виду, что авторы были вдохновлены святым духом, но значит ли это, что они тоже были безупречны? содержит ли библия никаких ошибок? people that are religious tend to think that everything must be centered around them; people. this is the problem with believing that a god exists. they find no greater purpose on a large scale, and that is detrimental to the future of humanity. religion has and always will be an obstacle to us. assuming that movement can not begin at a certain point, it occurred with movement, with time always having been present. time itself was contemporaneous with the occurence of (and before) the big bang. time is the measurement of movement. and without movement change cannot occur, nor can the big bang. life has no meaning, but our purpose as living beings is to survive. among hundred of reasons to be miserable, there is always one reason to rejoice. appreciate what you have– do not take things for granted. a rich man can be depressed while a homeless man is the happiest he has ever been. value is subjective, and you should take it to your advantage. der zug ratterte weiter. if enough people are stupid, then being stupid becomes normal. being smart makes you an idiot. most people are idiots. if we know this, then we can't all be smart. in fact, we're probably all idiots. so it makes more sense to just listen to the smartest idiot, right? no, because then you're just following an idiot. but maybe it's better to follow an idiot than to follow yourself. after all, you're an idiot. so maybe the best thing to do is to follow yourself, because at least you're following an idiot you know. but then again, you don't know anything, because you're an idiot. so maybe you should just follow the smartest idiot. but how do you know who the smartest idiot is? maybe the smartest idiot is the one who knows he's an idiot. but if he's an idiot, then how does he know anything? maybe he doesn't. maybe nobody does. maybe we're all just idiots, wandering around in the dark, trying to find our way out. but maybe that's okay. maybe being an idiot is the best thing you can be. because at least then you know who you are. and maybe that's all that matters. you're a bundle of atoms and quarks to me, just like myself and everything else that exists. the only thing that separates it all is perspective. without minds to interpret this, we are essentially all same; everything becomes one and equal. fuck this world, burn it all to the ground; delirium goodnight. я ушёл.

Hi guys, I wanted to share my study method (which is 100% free!), which got me a 1570 (800 math and 770 r&w). I just wanted to help a few people because I noticed a lot of you really wanted to get above a 1400, so I thought I might be of some use.
Math: Use John Jung! He has great worksheets which are free, and you can find quick summary videos where he explains how he got answers for different topics. This is his channel, I really love his content, and if you have questions, he responds pretty quickly in the comment section!
I’d also recommend Khan Academy, it’s a pretty standard suggestion, but I’d seriously recommend doing every single question and getting 100% mastery so you feel prepared.
Finally, I’d tell you to master using the calculator. For things like systems of equations or equation of a circle, you can solve it in about 10 seconds using the SAT calculator. For practice, use geogebra.org I’d say that my mastery of geogebra saved me 10 minutes!
R&W: Khan Academy English is something I swear by. 10/10. Do every question, please. Even if you don’t think it’s ‘amazing’, grit your teeth and do it. It’s the KEY!!
Watch this video (The tricks are invaluable!):
https://youtu.be/mdZ5VPtpJuk?si=pVapuO6sqsnb6mgH
And for any certain kind of question that you struggle with (like grammar, or a notes question), use this handy playlist!
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL75qpqDuVbG4DtZaphaqb2d_EjKGYj6t8&si=e9G1loTo_zrYw_Y7
Concluding tips:
Do your practice tests. The real tests are harder, no question, but you’ll be glad to know the structure so you won’t be caught off guard during the test. Plus, there are a few tricky questions, so you should do it!
For when you find yourself guessing/getting something wrong when you were 100% sure you were right, do this.
THE REFLECTION METHOD:

1. Take a notebook, and write the question that you guessed/got wrong
2. Write the answer choice you selected
3. Write down your understanding of the answer key, why your answer choice is wrong
4. (only if you guessed the answer choice) Write why you guessed it, was it totally random? An educated guess?
5. Now identify the exact mistake you made (maybe you made a silly mistake)
6. Now write how you will not make the mistake again. What steps will you take to ensure you don’t do this

ADDITIONAL FUN STUFF TO KNOW:

• There’s a chance the questions you do on Khan Academy and your Bluebook practice tests appear on your real SAT, this happened for me
• I only studied for my SAT for 1 week
• If you think getting a tutor is the lazy way to get a good score, you’re very wrong. I spent way less time than my friends with tutors and got a much higher score. Understand that you understand yourself the best, if you waste time making other people understand you, that’s time taken away from actually improving
• I used Barrons and Princeton. It’s only good if you’re struggling to grasp the basics or if you need a bit more practice. I believe that 100% mastery of Khan Academy r&w and math is way way more useful, and you can see that in my score progression from 730 math to 800

NOTES ON THE REFLECTION METHOD: I am very prone to stupid mistakes and being careless, so I used the reflection method a ton and it really helped with being more careful. I made fewer mistakes as I went on. The reflection method is tedious, but it takes work to get a top score. You’ll save way more time doing this than making mistakes and not knowing why. Work now and reap the rewards with a good SAT score, just trust me!!
I’m not trying to be an official tutor, but I was in your position once, so I’d love to help you guys. Pm me with questions, good luck everyone!

High Context
Expression takes many forms. In this book I have interpreted the word media in a broad sense and treated each form of expression that I have discussed as an independent medium. What, then, is the reason for the existence of multiple media like manga, anime, and film? Are these simply multiple forms for mediating the same reality? Not at all. Multiple media exist in order to support multiple fictions. We clearly perceive the form of a particular expression at the same time as we take in its content. The various media function as a kind of context, or a transparent and continuous totality that attaches meaning to content. In this instance the media themselves attain their own unique contextuality. For example, we are not in the least confused if a heroine who breaks down in tears in a television drama suddenly appears smiling in a commercial during the break. This is because it is very easy for us to shift instantaneously between the context of the drama and the commercial.
In an earlier work I referred to this idea of the unique contextuality of each medium as the “representation context,” in order to use it in a more limited sense. This is because it is possible to use the media form itself as a form of representation. As I explained in chapter 1, my use of the term context is based chiefly on a combination of the ideas of G. Bateson and E. T. Hall, which I Have also explained in greater detail elsewhere. For our purposes here, it is possible to understand the contexts contributing to expression as existing in hierarchical strata. In the case of manga, the first context level is that of the narrative that gives meaning to the characters’ actions. Above that is the genre of the narrative - the expressive context that determines whether it is to be taken seriously or as a gag. The representational context is one level above this. Or, if we order them from top down, the process by which we understand the content of a manga can be understood as a hierarchical series of stages beginning with the work’s representational context (manga), proceeding to its expressive context (genre), on to the narrative context, and finally to the comprehension of the content. Of course, in actual fact we have to admit that this sort of hierarchy is ultimately not valid. It goes without saying that content and context exist in a relationship based on simultaneous and mutual corroboration. Therefore I should emphasize that the notion of representation context serves only for convenience of description and is not in any sense an isolatable object.
It is possible, for example, to think of visual media in the order of their dependence on representational contextuality. Contextuality in this case refers to the degree to which the form of expression itself determines the context expressed. In order of descending contextuality, then, we have anime, manga, television, film, and photographs. The statement “I saw a photograph,” for example, conveys no meaning on its own. But the statement “I saw an anime” evokes a relatively concrete image in the listener’s mind. This is because the anime form restricts the range of content much more than does the photograph. In other words, anime has the highest level of contextuality and photography the lowest. Here I follow Hall in calling this the “high context” nature of anime. In general, we can say that more popular forms of expression tend to be higher context (as in the difference between classical and popular music). In visual media, the less information conveyed on the screen, the higher the context (this being the difference between television and film). Thus “cool” media (with low levels of detail) tend toward higher context.
Let us think more concretely about the high-context nature of anime and manga. We have already established that form and content are intricately connected in both. In the case of these expressive forms, we can easily makes guesses about the content and authorship even of works that we know nothing about. Even a single frame of the work will be enough to tell us the genre, the orientation of the content, and sometimes even the identity of the author. Moreover, the instantaneous switching between the “gag” and “serious” modes that would be unthinkable in film but forms part of the grammar of anime (its so-called yakusoku [conventions]) can be explained only on the basis of this high-context nature.
I think of high context as the sensibility that emerges when there is no sense of distance between the producer and the consumer of a given media form . Once we immerse ourselves in this high-context space, the meaning of all stimuli is grasped instantaneously. Inevitably, emotional codes are more easily transmitted here than verbal ones. This high-density transmissibility enables extremely high levels of concentration and absorption.
Intersubjective Mediation, or Media Theory
Based on what I have said above, we can identify the difference between film and anime or manga first in terms of contextuality.
Is this the place for us to move to a discussion of media theory? Is the desire for the beautiful fighting girls a sign of an internal transformation, an “implosion” and extension brought on by our contemporary media environment? In some senses this may be true, but in others it is certainly not.
The development of the media environment has in fact partly transformed the structure of our society. The development of the mass media industry itself is one manifestation of this transformation. Its influence on the economy and on education has, of course, been enormous. But to what extent does this transformation penetrate our inner worlds?
In clinical terms there has not been the slightest structural transformation. The structure of our neurotic subjectivity remains intact, just as Freud discovered it a century ago. If asked to prove this, most analysts would say that it is not their role to offer general proofs of anything. This, too, has not changed in a hundred years. Analysts can speak about the truth. But, or perhaps therefore, they cannot prove what is true. But, or perhaps therefore, they cannot prove what is true. To say that the structure of the subject is intact is to say that the structure of desire has been maintained. What needs to be emphasized here is that, in order for the structure of desire to be maintained, the object of desire must constantly change. If the object of our desire looks different than it did a hundred years ago, this is only a change in appearance that results from the continual maintenance that we as subjects have performed on the structure of that desire. Yes, the development of media has brought about an outward change, a superficial change in the objects of our desire.
From this we can derive at least two psychoanalytic hypotheses. If we use Lacan’s divisions, the stability of the subject denotes primarily the stability of the relationality between the Symbolic and the Real. Moreover, the internal transformation that Marshall McLuhan referred to as “implosion” can be considered mainly as having emerged as a change on the level of form in the Imaginary. Herein lies one of the thorniest difficulties of media theory. If voice and writing are themselves already forms of media, what exactly have modern media been able to add to the equation? The transformation of the subject in the Imaginary can always make it seem as if nothing has happened. As long as this is the case, the appearance of media theory will remain in the always-awaited future, and its conclusions will only continue to be deferred.
But perhaps there is something to be gained nonetheless by taking a detour here and considering the mutual operations of the media environment and the Imaginary. The development of media is clearly most striking in the visual realm. Already we are able in principle to see any sort of image whatsoever. If we so desire, we can also keep large numbers of images in our possession on a computer hard drive. There is no little significance in the fact that, as is so apparent in the case of the ever-increasing functionality of the personal computer, it has become very easy for us not just to preserve but to reproduce, manipulate, and transmit visual information about all sorts of experiences. Our imaginary has been dramatically expanded and accelerated by the media, or extended through “implosion.”
The diversification of methods of mediation has had a number of effects. One of these is the potential impoverishment of content and form. As was clear in the case of the beautiful fighting girls, the narratives in a diversified media environment are surprisingly similar to each other. As I pointed out in chapter 5, there are hundreds of examples of the beautiful fighting girl genre, but only thirteen story lines. From the 1990s on, no new story lines emerged, and new works were simply rearrangements of old ones. In this case at least, we can say that, while the diversification of media may contribute to the outward diversification of the works, we need to be aware of the possibility that it encourages the involution of the genre as a whole.
The more information is exchanged, the more redundancies there are and the more monotonous it becomes . For example, now that communication by personal computer has become the norm, people read and perhaps write enormous amounts of text every day . As a result, we see developing a common “computer style” of writing that is excellent for transmitting information but extremely limited in its capacity for description and definition. The impoverishment of visual information is most evident in the spread of anime-style images.
So what is this about? Increasing the level of detail or rendering movement more subtly in anime would take exponentially more money and time. But of course these luxuries are not always possible. On the other hand, too much abbreviation reduces the images to mere signs and makes for a very dreary representation (like the Saturday morning cartoons in the United States, where the only facial movements are blinking eyes and opening and closing mouths). The solution to the problem in Japan was, I believe, the introduction of the “big eyes and small mouth” that has become the tradition in Japanese anime.
The only parts of a manga that cannot be drawn by assistants are the face, and particularly the eyes, of the main characters. The author’s style appears in its most concentrated form in the facial expression and the eyes. The shortcut technique that resulted from this was to divide up the drawing of the background among assistants and make the characters like simple signs. This made possible the division of labor. Then, to avoid making the characters too much like mere signs, the facial expression, particularly the eyes, and the hands are drawn with great care. Among all the human organs, these occupy the position closest to the grammatical subject. Drawing the eyes and hands with special care has the same value as inserting text. Or, to put it the other way around, as long as the eyes and hands are carefully drawn, the rest can be abbreviated. Then one can add more facial expressions and make them more complex with manpu. This procedure enables the streamlining of the production process while also effectively communicating a wide variety of subtle emotional codes, making it easy for the viewer to identify emotionally. This is likely the origin of the too-large eyes and tiny mouth that Westerners so often point out in Japanese manga and anime. The anime image is the result of a sophisticated technique that enables a maximum of communication with a minimum of lines.
One noticeable trend in recent years, which may have to do mostly with keeping costs down, is that even as the images are drawn with greater and greater sophistication of design and coloration, they tend to move much less. The appearance of movement is skillfully produced by blurring the image, using flashes of lights, and bank sequences [19*. Bank sequences, or Bankukatto, are sequences of animation that can be used repeatedly, such as when a heroine is transforming or assuming a decisive pose.], but on closer inspection there is actually very little movement. The impact of “anime images” results from drawings so refined that this sort of thing no longer appears unnatural. Moreover, because there is no need for the drawings to be particularly intricate, they can be easily digitized, which makes it possible to transfer them into a computer game without altering them. This style of drawing, which is devoid of texture and consists only of fine lines and surfaces, helps smooth the flow of the so-called media mix as the images are transplanted from comics to anime to film, games, figurines, and toys.
The space of manga and anime has introduced easily shareable code systems into our Imaginary. This shareability, in turn, introduces elements of polymorphous perversion into that space. As a result, in the 1980s we first became aware of a very important fact, namely, that even the objects of our sexuality were shareable through the mediation of manga and anime. This realization led to the explosive growth of sexualized images in this space. Of course, the wholesome notion that manga and anime are basically for children exists even now. But even this constraint was converted into a useful technique. Depicting sex in a context that is for children almost inevitably produces undifferentiated, which to say polymorphously perverse, effects. <also, and a much darker scene between the protagonist Utena and the antagonist Akio in the episode The Prince Who Runs Through the Night, a friend pointed this out to me, in terms of what it’s depicting and how True it is. The disassociation and ambivalence that suffuses a traumatic event…>.
To create an autonomous object of desire within the fictional space of manga and anime: was this not the ultimate dream of the otaku? They sought to create fiction not as a stand-in for the “real” sexual object, but fiction that had no need to be secured by reality. For this to work, not even the most elaborately constructed fictional worlds would suffice. In order for fiction to attain its own autonomous reality, it would have to be desired for its own sake. Only then would reality bow down to fiction.
“Fiction” versus “Reality”
Earlier I referred rather casually to the contrast between “fiction” and “reality.” Of course, I do not accept this contrast naively. In fact, it is my belief that everyday reality is itself nothing more than a fiction (or fantasy) and that it is fundamentally impossible to draw a strict distinction between them. One reason that I raise the distinction nonetheless is in order to think once more about “Japan.” The art critic Sawaragi Noi has argued that Japan functions as what he calls a “bad place” and that any act of expression that attempts to escape from that place can only end up by making it worse and getting caught in a vicious circle. If such a place can be hypothesized, it is entirely possible that it could also subsume the place of manga and anime that I have been discussing here. For now I call that space “Japanese space” and contrast it with another unique representational space, which I call “Western space.”
As I pointed out earlier, in Japanese space the distinction between fiction and reality is not completely in effect. The distinction itself is in fact based on a Western idea . **In his theory of ideals Plato begins with a three-part distinction between the ideal, reality, and art, and places art at the bottom of the hierarchy because it is only an imitation of reality. In Plato’s system there is only a series of copies, with the copy of the ideal being reality and the copy of reality being art. Art must content itself with the lowly position of being a copy of a copy, an imitation of an imitation. Added to this is the influence of Judeo-Christian culture, which rejects idolatry. In “Western space,” even today “reality” is made to conform strictly to this ranking. In this context the notion of the “Reality of fiction” is already attenuated by being subjected to all sorts of constraints.
<"But I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart" Matthew 5:28.>
For example, in American popular culture the most privileged fiction form is film. To be made into a film is the ultimate proof of the success of any narrative, whether it originates as a novel or a play. Of course, there are any number of reasons for this, but one is surely the belief that live-action film is the most accurate imitation or reproduction of reality. The impact of live-action film is supported by the belief that what it portrays is a faithful reproduction of reality. In my opinion there is absolutely no difference between the fictionality of live-action film and animated ones; it is just that anime is considered more fictional because it is under the constraint of having to be drawn by someone. For this reason animated films have almost no chance of winning the Academy Award for Best Picture and will always remain a genre inferior to film.
Thinking about censorship practices makes this even clearer. Censors in Japanese space seem for the most part uninterested in the symbolic value of what they are censoring. As long as the genitals are not portrayed explicitly, they will allow even the most depraved images to be shown. In Western space, however, images are censored according to their symbolic value. The censors are not interested in the trivial question of whether or not the genitals are visible, but reserve their strictest scrutiny for obscenity and perverse content. A recent example is the cover for Marilyn Manson’s CD Mechanical Animals. In the composite photograph, Manson appears nude as he glares at the viewer, but with the smooth groin and small breasts of a young girl. This level of perversion does not cause the least problem in Japan. But in the United States it create quite a scandal, with several large music stores refusing the carry the album. One could list any number of similar examples of this difference in the way Japanese and Americans judge an image obscene. Of course, even in Japan this sort of taboo on images still lingers when it comes to the Imperial family, but even that is losing the force it once had. In fact, that taboo has become so weak that it would shock even Okuzaki Kenzo. We are now living in an age when it is possible to publish a manga depicting a bomb thrown at Princess Masako during a parade, and the romance between Princess Kiko and Prince Akishino has been made into an anime. In other words, we still do not have the slightest idea what it is that defines depravity.
One conclusion that we can draw from this comparison is that visual expression in Western space is symbolically castrated, while Japanese space there is only imaginary castration, at most. For example, in Western space any image that symbolizes the penis is censored, while in Japanese space as long as you do not portray the penis itself anything goes. In this ironic sense I would suggest that Japanese media enjoy the great freedom of expression. The problem arises with this freedom itself.
In Japanese space, fiction itself is recognized as having its own autonomous reality. As I mentioned earlier, in Western space reality is always in the superior position, and the fictional space is not allowed to encroach on it. Various prohibitions are introduced to establish and maintain this superiority. It is not permitted for example, to produce images depicting sexual perversion. This is because fiction must not be more real (riaru) than reality. Fiction must be carefully castrated so that it does not become too appealing. This is what I mean by symbolic castration.
It is often remarked that the heroines of Western comics and anime are for the most part not very cute. They often include beautiful women and naked bodies, but rarely do they directly represent characters as sexually attractive. This cannot be explained simply as a result of a discrepancy in technical skill or differing notions of beauty. In the case of an actual Hollywood actress, Japanese and American fans are likely to speak in similar ways about her sexual attractiveness. But the situation is very different when it comes to heroines who appear as drawn images. Betty Boop, for example, may be drawn in a sexy outfit (with a garter belt!), but she is more like a parody of a sexy actress. Her fans are not immediately captivated by Betty’s sexual charms.
To continue with our discussion of Western space, we might remember that 1957 saw the creation of the so-called Comics Code Authority that formulated self-regulatory codes for comics in the United States and effectively spelled the end of the golden age of American comics. At the time juvenile delinquency had become a hot-button issue, and comics were singled out as a contributing factor. Among comic fans the formation of the CCA is referred to as the “Total Disaster.” The list of restrictions is as absurdly detailed as the rules at a Japanese high school. A few items that stand out on the list are

• “Divorce shall not be treated humorously nor represented as desirable.”
• “If crime is depicted it shall be as a sordid and unpleasant activity.”
• “In every instance good shall triumph over evil and the criminal punished [sic] for his misdeeds.”
• “Policemen, judges, government officials and respected institutions shall never be presented in such a way as to create disrespect for established authority.”

Under the category of “Marriage and Sex” the code states that “Nudity in any form is prohibited,” “Females shall be drawn realistically without exaggeration of any physical qualities,” “Illicit sex relations are neither to be hinted at nor portrayed,” “Seduction and rape shall never be shown or suggested,” and “Sex perversion or any inference to same is strictly forbidden.” Japanese manga as harmless as Sazae-san and Doraemon might run afoul of these rules. If regulations this strict were in force in Japan, virtually every manga magazine in print would have to be shut down.
It is thus quite possible to analyze the differences between Japan and the United States from the perspective of regulations. But what I want to stress here is that these rules show all the symptoms of an excessive defense reaction. No matter how popular comics had become by the 1950s, they could hardly compete with film. Nevertheless, they were much more severely regulated, to the point of destroying an entire genre of expression. Would it be too much to see in this an echo of what we might call the West’s iconographic taboo? The highly detailed and concrete restrictions on the depictions of sexuality are particularly remarkable. In these restrictions we can clearly see operating the obsessive idea that images themselves must not be sexually attractive.
Pornography must be considered as part of this discussion of the visual expression of sexuality. Pornography, needless to say, prizes images that are realistic and highly practical. In the decline of roman poruno and the rise of adult video, for example, one can see the pursuit of convenience and practicality. Pornographic images trend toward being more suitable for private consumption, reproduction and distribution gets easier, and pornographic expression gets more and more explicit. But in the Japanese space this leads to another contradiction: namely, the existence of “porno comics.” I want to stress once again that I am speaking of pornography in general here, not of “erotic expression.” It is perhaps only in Japan that pornography has taken the form of comic books and attained a certain popularity in doing so. Of course, there are porno comics that are meant to be used as masturbation aids in the West as well, but on a scale that does not even being to compare with that of Japan.
It seems absurd that such an enormous market would emerge for pornographic comics in a country where “hair nudes” are everywhere and people are somewhat bored even of adult videos. As I pointed out earlier, anime-style drawing has been hugely influential in this genre as well. In terms of their correspondence to everyday reality, there is no less realistic style of drawing. Despite this, however, these kinds of representation have been widely preferred as a medium for pornography. This would be entirely unimaginable in Europe or the United States, and the contrast points to a significant cultural difference.
Of course, there is a historical background to this as well. According to Timon Screech of the University of London’s School of Oriental and African Studies, the so-called shunga that were produced in such huge quantities in the Edo period were used by the masses as masturbation aids.
If that is in fact the case, we should also be able to find the roots of manga and anime in the Edo period, in a culture in which sexual desire was both stimulated and satisfied by drawn images. The issue here, needless to say, has something to do with anything like the symbolic expression of eros. The problem that we have arrived at instead is that of the immediacy of the drawn image.
As I have already pointed out, there are many fans of anime and manga in the West. But they are virtually unanimous in their hatred for so-called tentacle porn. They believe that sexuality does not belong in animation. What do Japanese otaku think about this? If they were shown this sort of pornographic work they would either give a wry smile or launch into a lengthy discussion of the history of adult anime using works like Cream Lemon (Kuriimu remon) and Legend of the Overfiend (Urotsukidoji) as examples. I cannot help but see in this difference another huge contrast between Japanese and Western otaku.
Leaving aside the question of whether it is possible to read in this the traces of taboos and repression, for now let us reiterate the minimal facts of which we can be certain. In the Western space of popular culture, it is exceedingly rare to find drawn iconic images of cute little girls and erotic nudes. In that space there is an unconscious censorship of drawn images, and their reality is kept within certain limits. The type of caricatures so conspicuous in Disney’s animations can even be considered as a technique of exaggeration for the purpose of repression. Constant and meticulous efforts are made in this space to prevent drawn images from attaining their own autonomous reality. In other words, drawn images are always kept in the position of being substitutes for objects that exist in reality.
In Japanese space, on the other hand, it is permissible for all sorts of sites to have their own autonomous reality (riariti). In other words, real (riaru ) fictions do not necessarily require the security of reality (genjitsu). There is absolutely no need in this space for fiction to imitate reality. Fiction is able to clear a space around itself for its own reality (riariti ku kan). The appeal of drawn images of little girls, for example, is a crucial element in the production of this reality (riariti). Here, fiction must establish a logic of sexuality all its own. This is because, in Japanese space, sexuality is the most important factor upholding reality (riariti). Of course, this is not true only of anime. Why else, for example, did the artistic traditions of the past put so much emphasis on the depiction of women? Why do rakugo raconteurs spend so much time extolling the pleasures of womanizing? And why do manga instruction courses always begin with how to draw a boy-girl couple? All of these things, which are particular to Japan, suggest that in this space it is sexuality that upholds the reality of fiction (kyoko no riariti).
So let us accept the autonomy of fiction and put forward the thesis that this autonomy is a necessary precondition for the beautiful fighting girl to emerge. If this is the case, we cannot in any sense see in them the reflection of “everyday reality.” It would not be permissible, for example, to infer from the popularity of beautiful fighting girls that girls are being empowered in the real world. It is the stubborn habit of seeing fiction as an imitation of reality, which is hard even for the Japanese to resist, that is at the root of this misunderstanding. The misunderstanding may be logically consistent, but that same logical consistency is also precisely what renders it invalid.
Getting back to our discussion of the image in Japanese space, I repeat that representations in this space do not undergo symbolic castration. There are some gestures toward imaginary castration with regard to sexual codes, but these are barely functional, and in the end they actually come closer to initiating a drive toward the disavowal of castration. The disavowal of castration is of course the initial condition for sexual perversion, which is why this space exhibits such an affinity for perverted objects. All sorts of images come to occupy various positions within this ecosystem of autonomous reality, and the space begins to overflow with meanings rendered through sexual and other codes. In this place, so highly charged with meaning because of this sheer verbosity of codes, context is privileged over any single disarticulated code. Meaning is transmitted instantaneously here, but its provenance can never be traced back to a single code.
This sort of high-context representational space can sometimes lose some of its reality effect if it is circulated too widely and understood too easily. How might it resist this attenuation of reality? One way is, of course, through sexuality. As I have argued several times already, sex is a necessary component for a narrative to seem real. The various struggles and manipulations surrounding sexuality (i.e., “romance”) are what introduce a core of reality into a narrative.
The widespread transgression of sexual limits in Japanese representational culture can also be interpreted in light of the high-context nature of Japanese space. High-context expressive space is, by nature, incapable of making full use of the effects of structural and formal reality. Instead it is the intensities that emerge at moments of shifting and switching from one context to another that are used to create reality effects. In the highest context spaces of anime and manga, most important are those gestures capable of transcending the context of heterosexual desire. The various characteristics of the beautiful fighting girls, which include hermaphorditism, transformation (i.e., accelerated maturation), and the strange mixture of proactivity (i.e., fighting ability) and passivity (i.e., cuteness), all help facilitate the emergence of this transcendental reality. That all manner of perversions should be evoked in their presence is only natural.
[To be continued... The Phallic Girl as a Form of Hysteria]

About Us: Apus Network is at the forefront of innovation, merging decentralized physical infrastructure networks (DePIN) with cutting-edge artificial intelligence (AI). Apus Network aims to address the key challenges faced by decentralized GPU networks, ensuring GPU integrity, AI model trustworthiness, and verifiable inference results.We are looking for a talented and motivated individual to join our team as an Overseas Business Development Manager.
Position: Web3 Overseas Business Development Manager
Location: Remote (Preference for candidates based in Eastern Europe)
Role Summary: As the Web3 Overseas Business Development Manager, you will play a crucial role in expanding our presence in the international market. You will be responsible for pitching our projects to potential investors, establishing and managing relationships with investment institutions, and forging strategic partnerships. This role requires a proactive and results-driven individual with a deep understanding of the Web3 ecosystem and excellent communication skills.
Key Responsibilities:

1. Twitter Spaces & AMA Hosting:
   • Organize and host Twitter Spaces and AMA (Ask Me Anything) sessions to engage with the community and promote Apus Network.
   • Collaborate with other projects and influencers in the Web3 space to co-host events, enhancing visibility and reach.
   • Prepare content, coordinate schedules, and manage logistics for live events.
2. Partnership Development:
   • Identify, approach, and negotiate strategic partnerships with key stakeholders in the Web3 and AI industries.
   • Develop and maintain relationships with potential collaborators, including technology partners, service providers, and industry influencers.
   • Coordinate and manage partnership agreements, ensuring mutual benefits and successful collaboration.
3. Market Research and Strategy:
   • Conduct market research to identify trends, opportunities, and competitive landscape in the Web3 and AI sectors.
   • Develop and implement strategic plans to expand our market presence and drive business growth.
   • Provide insights and recommendations to the executive team based on market analysis and feedback.
4. Networking and Representation:
   • Represent the company at industry events, conferences, and networking opportunities to promote our brand and projects.
   • Build and maintain a strong professional network within the Web3 and AI communities.
   • Act as a spokesperson for the company in international markets, enhancing our visibility and reputation.

Qualifications:

• Experience: Minimum of 1 years of experience in business development, fundraising, or partnership management in the tech or blockchain industry.
• Industry Knowledge: Deep understanding of Web3, blockchain, and depin AI ecosystems.
• Communication Skills: Excellent verbal and written communication skills, with the ability to craft persuasive pitches and presentations.
• Networking: Strong network within the investment community and industry stakeholders.
• Education: Bachelor’s degree in Business, Marketing, Technology, or a related field. MBA or equivalent experience is a plus.

Benefits:

• Competitive salary and performance-based bonus token.
• Flexible working hours and remote work environment.
• Opportunity to be part of a pioneering team in the Web3 and AI space.
• Professional growth and development opportunities.

How to Apply: Interested candidates are invited to send their resume and a cover letter detailing their relevant experience and why they are a good fit for this role to [phoebe@apus.network](mailto:phoebe@apus.network) or TG:@loungeact07

I think one of the worst things that you see a lot of the big YEC speakers do is the misrepresentation of science and the scientific method. It's one thing to argue with the evidence, this I accept as it is at least an attempt to engage in actual scientific discourse (excluding those who just baselessly decry the science). Even Tomkins with his apparent inability to do genomics is at the very least attempting to perform scientific experiments. However, these attempts to re-define science in a way that is beneficial to a creationist agenda is insanely frustrating, since it totally ruins all form of good-faith debate, and heavily misinforms people without a scientific education, and who don't really know how scientific process takes place.
To bring this point to light - I'm going to discuss this article from AIG: https://answersingenesis.org/what-is-science/what-is-science/. It displays basically all of these claims, and I consider it to contain some of the worst of AIG's mental gymnastics.
The article opens with a spiel about how science originated in Christian Europe, and refer to how Johannes Kepler, Francis Bacon, Isaac Newton and Galileo Galilei were all Christians who believed in a young Earth. Funnily enough, However - they fail to mention that Galileo was arrested by Christians due to his ideas contradicting a literal interpretation of the Bible - that being geostaticism (the idea that the Earth is stationary). I wonder why they excluded this piece of information?
They also state that "If the universe is a product of random chance or a group of gods that interfere in the universe, there is really no reason to expect order in nature". I could probably write an entire post on why this statement is false, so I won't go into this here. Maybe I'll do a follow up to this one just about this idea.
Now comes one of AIG's points that annoys me to no end - the ideas of 'Operational Science' and 'Historical Science'. AIG frames these terms as such:
Operational: "deals with testing and verifying ideas in the present and leads to the production of useful products like computers, cars, and satellites."
Historical: "involves interpreting evidence from the past and includes the models of evolution and special creation."
These terms do not exist in actual academia. They only exist within AIG's fantasy science land where they decide the rules, so that they can lend a fraction of legitimacy to their outdated ideas. The main reason they do this is to boil the argument down to one of faith. 'Evolutionism' vs Creationism is just a debate between two religions - same as Muslims and Christians arguing over which god is the real one. They present this in a slightly different way, but the meaning is the same: "The argument is not over the evidence—the evidence is the same—it is over the way the evidence should be interpreted." Essentially, 'we have different interpretations of the same stuff, so it's a matter of faith'.
What AIG are doing here is creating an unnecessary distinction. The worst bit is the reference to 'evidence from the past'. What they really mean here are things like the fossil record, radiometric dating, the geologic column - all the things that completely and utterly gut their belief in a 6000 year old created Earth. Instead of addressing them, they claim that it's a matter of interpretation.
Actual science doesn't create this distinction. Its purpose is to provide us with a method that lets us explain things we cannot observe directly, by looking at the things we can observe. No human has ever seen an atom with their own eyes - they are too small. Instead, we used observable evidence to figure out their structure, such as Rutherford's alpha particle scattering experiment - showing how most of the gold foil he was shooting the particles at allowed them to pass through, implying atoms being mostly empty space. Now Rutherford never saw an atom, but he inferred this about them through observation, as well as repetition of an experiment to minimise error. This is how science works. Of course, AIG would call Rutherford's work 'Operational Science', so we'll have to go somewhere else.
Let's use murder as an analogy (jolly, I know) - a person was killed 3 days ago, and their body was just discovered: we never saw them die, and we can never repeat their murder - because they are dead (truly groundbreaking stuff here). However, there is a gash across their neck, and a bloodied knife sat next to them. Moreover, this knife is covered with a person's fingerprints. We can then go to the house of the person who these fingerprints match, and ask them if they know anything - which they deny, despite lacking any alibi and having a definite motive. Do we have enough evidence to determine how the person died, as well as who killed them? Absolutely we do - there's a gash, and a knife covered in blood that matches the victim's: conclusion, they were killed with that knife. The knife is covered with fingerprints that lead to a person with no alibi at all, and a good motive: conclusion, they're the murderer. Now all of these data are from the past - the blood was put on the knife in the past, the wound was made in the past, the fingerprints were put on the knife in the past - by all metrics, this murder case falls into AIG's 'Historical Science'. As such, convicting this person is simply a matter of interpretation. We can only interpret that the fingerprints perfectly match those of the suspect. Who are we to say that they didn't somehow change over time? See how nonsensical this distinction is?
AIG then go on to the subject of theories - and again, they separated 'operational theories' from 'historical theories'. The idea is pretty much the same as discussed above, though there are a few points that I want to address. Firstly, they don't do the thing that I see many creationists (and other science deniers) state - that being the 'it's just a theory' thing, and draw a distinction between the colloquial and scientific definitions, though not without the prerequisite 'Evolutionists claim' line. This point has been beaten into the ground already, so I'll just leave it at that.
They go on to discuss how biological evolution is not an 'operational theory' as it contains 'interpretations of past events' and is 'not as well founded as testable scientific theories like Einstein’s Theory of Relativity or Newton’s Theory of Gravity'. It seems that AIG don't know that while Newton's law of universal gravitation remains as a very well-substantiated piece of science, his actual mechanism for how gravity works was in fact supplanted by Einstein's theory. Good scientific knowledge from AIG, as always. The big part of this section is how they refer to predictability as a method of validating a scientific theory: "These theories offer predictable models and the ability to conduct experiments to determine their validity in different circumstances." Once again, they conveniently omit the immense predictive power of evolutionary theory, instead choosing to claim that it lacks such a property - even going as far to directly claim "Molecules-to-man evolution does not offer this opportunity because these events happened in the past", once again ignoring that one of the key tenets of evolutionary theory is that it both has happened, and is currently happening - considering that we've observed speciation events occurring in the wild: https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.0911761106; https://www.cell.com/current-biology/fulltext/S0960-9822(09)01925-301925-3); https://evolution.berkeley.edu/evo-news/speciation-in-real-time/. The predictive power of evolution is immense, and we are only getting better at making evolutionary predictions as science progresses:
https://ncse.ngo/predictive-power-evolutionary-biology-and-discovery-eusociality-naked-mole-rat,
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9850016/#:~:text=Evolutionary%20predictions%20are%20often%20based,will%20adapt%20to%20their%20environment.
There's also the brief bit where they conflate evolution and abiogenesis "molecules to man evolution". They're two different ideas - and YECs reading this post, stop conflating scientific theories, they are distinct ideas. Evolution deals with how life adapts and develops, it has nothing to do with how life on Earth began - that's abiogenesis. It's the same thing as the Big Bang: it only deals with how the universe formed, not what came before it.
There's a short aside about naturalism, but in order to stop this post turning into a thesis, I'm going to gloss over it and move onto the next bit. Here, AIG describe how "Evolution also relies heavily on the assumption of uniformitarianism— a belief that the present is the key to the past. According to uniformitarians, the processes in the universe have been occurring at a relatively constant rate.". Of course, they fail to consider that, as is the case with all other science, we have evidence to infer that processes do occur at a constant rate. They proceed to discuss rock formation erosion as one of these thing which we assume to have a constant rate - even though I'm pretty sure this is not the case - and that the rate at which these processes takes place is highly variable. To me, this feels like them taking the worst example - and borders on a straw man. Correct me if I'm wrong though - I'm not a geologist, so my understanding is limited here.
I have no doubt that the actual aim of this paragraph is also to sow doubt about other systems reliant upon constant rates of change - such as radiometric dating. Yes, if decay rates were not constant, the values given by radiometric dating would be highly inaccurate, and it would be a useless dating method. However, this would also require a total rewrite of fundamental physics - as the concept of constant nuclear decay rates is backed up by a literal mountain of maths and physical evidence.

However, the Bible makes it very clear that some events of the past were radically different from those we commonly observe today. Noah’s Flood, for example, would have devastated the face of the earth and created a landscape of billions of dead things buried in layers of rock, which is exactly what we see.

Another claim that would take up a post on its own - so I'll skip this and tackle it later. Honestly though, just watch Gutsick Gibbon's stuff on the Genesis flood - she gives a far better explanation than I ever could.

Just as evolutionists weren’t there to see evolution happen over several billion years, neither were creationists there to see the events of the six days of creation. The difference is that creationists have the Creator’s eyewitness account of the events of creation, while evolutionists must create a story to explain origins without the supernatural.

More totally neutral and unbiased claims by AIG, as expected. There is no 'story' being created - scientists observe the (sometimes literal - pun very much intended) mountains of evidence for evolution. The fact that they have to make up a nonsense distinction to split science in two, so that they can put the bits they don't like (Big Bang cosmology, fossils, radiometric dating, geologic column, etc.) in a separate spot to the bits they do like, such as technology and medicine.

Just because many scientists believe the story does not make the story true.

Ironic, considering how much Ken Ham loves to show his lists of creationist scientists. Practice what you preach buddy.

Hi everyone,
I'm an elementary school teacher from Germany experimenting ChatGPT in my classroom in different ways to make learning more fun and effective. So far I am just winging it and seeing what sticks. My principal is super supportive in letting me trying stuff out to see what works. I am under no illusion that students won't be using AI for school at some point so I see it as my responsibility to teach them how to use it to learn instead of cheat. Maybe not in elementary school but they definitely will later. Here’s what I’ve done so far:
-Helped students get feedback and improve their stories.
-Used voice to text to help with reading aloud and enunciation.
-Took photos of homework worksheets to create core concept sheets for better understanding.
-Made advanced questions and contextual assignments to match students’ interests.
-Created questions to deepen understanding of the material.

• Made guides for parents to help with homework.
  
• had students make posters on the benefits and dangers of AI and fed that into CHatGPT to assist in transforming that content into a podcast that my students then recoreded with GarageBand
  

It already feels like just these little things I am doing can have a HUGE impact on better understanding but I am sure I still am missing so many potential use cases.
But I need some help and advice:
-Improving GPT Responses: Sometimes the answers I get are too detailed or not focused enough. How can I make GPT responses better and more to the point?
-Homework Assistance Bot: I want to build a bot that students can use in the morning to review their homework. They can scan their homework, find mistakes, and understand what they did right and wrong. It could also ask deeper questions for my advanced students. I think this will make homework more effective, especially for those who struggle and don’t get enough feedback. I have seen GPTs where you just have to type in a number to continue and it guides you through a predetermined set of questions. Something like that would be sweet for my young students.
Next school year, we’ll get access to a ChatGPT API, and hopefully, all students will get tablets. It seems like our state is setting us up to experiment. Data protection laws might become an issue, but as long as all student work uploaded is anonymous, we should be good—though nobody knows exactly how it will work yet.
I'm also working on showing my still skeptical colleagues the benefits of AI. My principal is supportive and sees the potential, even if they don’t fully get it yet. They’re encouraging me to help my colleagues see the value too. A lot of them are super skeptical. They think it is just the next toy that will fry our students brain not seeing the incredible potential IF used right. Please, please help me! I feel like a Trailblazer exploring a whole new world of education. There literally is nothing to work off of. I understand the accuracy of ChatGPT can be iffy so I always have to be considereate of that but with the proper context and right prompt it is basically 90% good for literally every student no matter their background. I will take that 90% for every student over me not being able to give every single student the attention they deserve. I don't want perfect to become the enemy of good. Plus I suspect when the next school year starts in September when I really want to shift to more adaptive learning we already have a slightly better iteration that will solve a lot of issues.. Exciting times but also really challenging.