#delphi washington

[ourlordapollo]

The zoo in my hometown posted this picture of one of their cheetah cubs and I'm obsessed

HIS NAME IS YAM ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDINF ME

[puckdrunklove]

absolutely loving watching that haunted Oracle of Delphi ass singlehandedly beat the shit out of the executive branch of the NHL (washington capitals)

[coochiequeens]

A man who got where he is, careerwise and having a family by transitioning later in life, wants to take that way from minors.

Image: WASHINGTON, DC - OCTOBER 21: (L-R) Jesse M. Ehrenfeld, MD, MPH, President of the American Medical Association; Admiral Rachel L. Levine, MD, the 17th Assistant Secretary for Health (ASH) for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services; and Charlotte Clymer, writer, transgender activist, and military veteran speak on stage during Learning With Love: The 2023 PFLAG National Convention, four days of educating, lobbying, networking, and leading with love, taking place October 19-22, 2023 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Paul Morigi/Getty Images for PFLAG National)

A head-on collision between science and politics

By JESSE SINGAL JUN 25, 2024

When the World Professional Association for Transgender Health’s Standards of Care Version 8 was released in September 2022, a very strange thing happened: WPATH removed references to minimum age requirements for various medical interventions, describing the change as a “correction” in a notice that now reads, weirdly: “This correction notice has been removed as it referred to a previous version of the article, which was published in error.” Whatever happened, exactly, it’s clear that until late in the game the document did have age minimums until, suddenly, it did not.

The SoC 8 was supposed to have been created via something called the Delphi process. As the document itself explains: “Consensus on the final recommendations was attained using the Delphi process that included all members of the guidelines committee and required that recommendation statements were approved by at least 75% of members.” Suffice it to say that making a sudden, major change so late in the game calls into question whether that process was fully adhered to.

Thanks to a rather remarkable document just unsealed as part of Boe v. Marshall, one of the many American lawsuits over youth gender medicine, we now have a potential explanation for why the age guidelines were removed: direct pressure from assistant secretary for health of the Department of Health and Human Services Admiral Rachel Levine (who is a trans woman herself) and the American Academy of Pediatrics.

The document is titled “Appendix A To Supplemental Expert Report Of James Cantor, Ph.D. In it Cantor, a Canadian sex researcher, critic of youth gender medicine, and frequent expert witness on behalf of those attempting to ban or or restrict it (including in this case), claims that “Assistant Secretary for Health Dr. Rachel Levine strongly pressured WPATH leadership to rush the development and issuance of SOC-8, in order to assist with Administration political strategy.”

He backs this claim up with the following internal communications from WPATH members involved with the creation of the SoC 8 (here and elsewhere in the document, the names of the people who wrote the words in question are redacted):

I have just spoken to Admiral Levine today, who—as always is extremelysupportive of the SOC 8, but also very eager for its release—so to ensureintegration in the US health policies of the Biden government. So, let’s crack onwith the job!!! 

I am meeting with Rachel Levine and her team next week, as the US Department of Health is very keen to bring the trans health agenda forward.

The failure of WPATH to be ready with SOC 8 is proving a barrier to optimal policy progress and she [Dr. Levine] was eager to learn when SOC 8 might be published. 

[T]his should be taken as a charge from the United States government to do what is required to complete the project immediately. 

More worryingly, Cantor charges that “Assistant Secretary Levine also attempted to and did influence the substantive content of SOC-8, based on political goals rather than science. Specifically, Assistant Secretary Levine, though [sic] a staff member, pressured WPATH to remove recommended minimum ages for medical transition treatments from SOC-8.”

Here, too, he has evidence from anonymized emails written by those involved in the SoC 8:

Sarah Boateng, who is Adm. Levine’s chief of staff [said the] biggest concern is the section below in the Adolescent Chapter that lists specific minimum ages for treatment, she is confident, based on the rhetoric she is hearing in DC, and from what we have already seen, that these specific listings of ages, under 18, will result in devastating legislation for trans care. She wonders if the specific ages can be taken out and perhaps an adjunct document could be created that is published or distributed in a way that is less visible than the SOC8, is the way to go. 

The issue of ages and treatment has been quite controversial (mainly for surgery) and it has come up again. We sent the document to Admiral Levine. . . She like [sic] the SOC-8 very much but she was very concerned that having ages (mainly for surgery) will affect access to health care for trans youth and maybe adults too. Apparently the situation in the USA is terrible and she and the Biden administration worried that having ages in the document will make matters worse. She asked us to remove them. We have the WPATH executive committee in this meeting and we explained to her that we could not just remove them at this stage. 

[W]e heard your [Dr. Levine’s] comments regarding the minimal age criteria for transgender healthcare adolescents; the potential negative outcome of these minimal ages as recommendations in the US [. . . ] Consequently, we have changes to the SOC 8 in this respect. Given that the recommendations for minimal ages for the various gender affirming medical and surgical intervention are consensus-based, we could not remove them from the document. Therefore, we have made changes as to how the minimal ages are presented in the documents. [Note: “your” may well refer to an aide of Levine’s rather than the Secretary herself, though it’s unclear.] 

Cantor also includes emails from SoC 8 contributors expressing surprise at the sudden change, including this one making. . . well, the same point everyone else made after news of the late-stage “correction” broke:

I don’t see how we can simply remove something that important from the document—without going through a Delphi—at this final stage of the game [. . . ] I realize that those in favor of the bans are going to go right to the age criteria and ignore the fact that we actually strengthened the strictness of the criteria to help clinicians better discern appropriate surgical candidates from those who are inappropriate [. . . ] It’s all about messaging and marketing. 

I’m actually crashing on a different but related freelance story at the moment. Check out Leor Sapir’s Twitter timeline for more details about this and another just-unsealed document. Next week, when I’ve caught my breath, I’ll write a little bit more about this as well as yet another damning claim Cantor makes, that the American Academy of Pediatrics “issued an ultimatum to WPATH: Should WPATH not delete the age minimums, AAP would not only withhold endorsement of SOC-8, but would publicly oppose the document.” 

But I wanted to at least get this short piece up, because the Levine angle is important and alarming. It demonstrates an indisputable conflict between how WPATH has portrayed the SoC 8 — as a document steeped in evidence and careful deliberation on the part of experts — and how the guidelines were actually formulated.

[keepthisholykiss]

i swear to god i am not an alarmist nor do i want to sound like one but time is a circle and history repeats blah blah but i think its important we recognize that the satanic panic IS back and we might be about to face those horrible fucking things all over again (imo satanic panic actually never ended but thats a tumblr essay for another day) researching the satanic panic was a fairly in-depth special interest of mine for a few years and i am seeing a number of very concerning headlines that lead me to believe the current conservative narrative paired with major headline murders will eventually lead to the same issues (or worse) than the 70s and 80s. tw for anything related to true crime/death below the fold im assuming this will get suppressed because of the topic also so feel free to reblog if you are so inclined.

there are two major court cases and one social media movement that lead me to this conclusion currently given their media coverage within a calendar year. i HOPE i am overexaggerating but i AM deeply concerned.

aiden fucci - this teen was recently sentenced after pleading guilty to murdering another teen in 2021. coverage of this case heightened when evidence was shown in the sentencing hearings which included "satanic" drawings. this was the first case i saw to raise my red flags.

the delphi murders which recently (like yesterday) had a major update which is what prompted me to make this post. this is a case of two girls in delphi, indiana who were murdered but managed to capture the potential killer on snapchat. the suspect was recently found and has now released a 100 page affidavit detailing why the girls were killed. this affidavit details sacrificial ceremonies and a cult of odinism. this case has received a large amount of interest over the years as it was long considered an unsolved case, this case will receive much larger attention nationally than cases like aiden fucci and may be the beginning of the panic "properly."

also worth mentioning is bryan kohberger - while this case has not taken the full panic on yet i am not counting it out as trial has not started. this is the idaho four murder suspect out of pellman washington. his case has gained notoriety and he is still awaiting trial as he just waived his speedy trial rights. you may have heard about this case prior to kohberger's arrest when a tiktok psychic claimed a professor committed the murders out of lesbian rage. this was proven to be untrue and kohberger is currently the only suspect on record. but how is this related to satanic panic? this case is currently being devoured by conservative journalists and "lone wolf" media figures who are convinced the entire case is a police cover-up for everything from drug abuse to cp to trafficking itself. major incel groups are flooding to content surrounding the case, littering their videos with dog whistles, to try and change the narrative. this is not currently a major satanic panic foundation to me but this coverage has gone so many different ways and the coverage is so fucked that i have my eye on it. as for social media, recent years have seen a rise in christian influencers. this has been, in-part though not solely because, "cringe" reaction channels or commentary channels have platformed many of these influencers. these influencers have used their newfound holy fame to create videos exposing "satan" in media. we may look at them and laugh but they are spreading true fear that at least some people believe. this is extremely harmful when we consider that real, convicted murder cases are supporting these ideas. we've seen this story before just decades earlier without the internet.

if you're reading this freaking out over the possibility of another widespread campaign to eliminate non-christians, queer people, and poc then i encourage you to read about the satanic panic of the past to better inform yourself. get better at identifying ai-generated articles, images, and conservative fear mongering. here are my personal reading recommendations. if i am afraid for no reason then hey at least you have some reading reccs. again i hope im wrong, i never want to see that shit repeated but fuck if i dont absolutely fear this next election year and what it may bring out. books on the satanic panic and/or its lead-up: unmask alice by rick emerson satan's silence by debbie nathan satanic panic: pop cultural paranoia in the 1980s chaos by tom o'neill books on misinformation or conspiracy: trust the plan by will sommer the midnight kingdom by jared sexton the storm is upon us by mike rothschild

not-books that you can also check out: you're wrong about the satanic panic conviction: american panic shanspeare 'doja cat and the return of the satanic panic'

[legend-collection]

Moirai

In ancient Greek religion and mythology, the Moirai—often known in English as the Fates—were the personifications of destiny. The role of the Moirai was to ensure that every being, mortal and divine, lived out their destiny as it was assigned to them by the laws of the universe. For mortals, this destiny spanned their entire lives and was represented as a thread spun from a spindle. Generally, they were considered to be above even the gods in their role as enforcers of fate.

The Moirai were three sisters: Clotho (the spinner), Lachesis (the allotter) and Atropos (the unturnable). But according to a Latin verse, their roles and functions were somewhat different: "Clotho, the youngest of the sisters, presided over the moment in which we are born, and held a distaff in her hand; Lachesis spun out all the events and actions of our life; and Atropos, the eldest of the three, cut the thread of human life with a pair of scissors."

In the Homeric poems Moira or Aisa are related to the limit and end of life, and Zeus appears as the guider of destiny. In the Theogony of Hesiod, the three Moirai are personified, daughters of Nyx and are acting over the gods. Later they are daughters of Zeus and Themis, who was the embodiment of divine order and law. In Plato's Republic the Three Fates are daughters of Ananke.

The Moirai were supposed to appear three nights after a child's birth to determine the course of its life, as in the story of Meleager and the firebrand taken from the hearth and preserved by his mother to extend his life. Bruce Karl Braswell from readings in the lexicon of Hesychius, associates the appearance of the Moirai at the family hearth on the seventh day with the ancient Greek custom of waiting seven days after birth to decide whether to accept the infant into the Gens and to give it a name, cemented with a ritual at the hearth. At Sparta the temple to the Moirai stood near the communal hearth of the polis, as Pausanias observed.

As goddesses of birth who even prophesied the fate of the newly born, Eileithyia, the ancient Minoan goddess of childbirth and divine midwifery, was their companion. Pausanias mentions an ancient role of Eileythia as "the clever spinner", relating her with destiny too. Their appearance indicate the Greek desire for health which was connected with the Greek cult of the body that was essentially a religious activity.

The Erinyes, a group of chthonic goddesses of vengeance, served as tools of the Moirai, inflicting punishment for evil deeds, particularly upon those who sought to avoid their rightful destiny. At times, the Moirai were conflated with the Erinyes, as well as the death-goddesses the Keres.

Bas relief of Clotho, lampstand at the Supreme Court of the United States, Washington, D.C.

In earlier times they were represented as only a few—perhaps only one—individual goddess. Homer's Iliad speaks generally of the Moira, who spins the thread of life for men at their birth; she is Moira Krataia "powerful Moira" or there are several Moirai. In the Odyssey there is a reference to the Klôthes, or Spinners. At Delphi, only the Fates of Birth and Death were revered. In Athens, Aphrodite, who had an earlier, pre-Olympic existence, was called Aphrodite Urania the "eldest of the Fates" according to Pausanias.

Some Greek mythographers went so far as to claim that the Moirai were the daughters of Zeus—paired with Themis, as Hesiod had it in one passage. In the older myths they are daughters of primeval beings like Nyx in Theogony, or Ananke in Orphic cosmogony. Whether or not providing a father even for the Moirai was a symptom of how far Greek mythographers were willing to go, in order to modify the old myths to suit the patrilineal Olympic order, the claim of a paternity was certainly not acceptable to Aeschylus, Herodotus, or Plato.

Despite their forbidding reputation, the Moirai could be placated as goddesses. Brides in Athens offered them locks of hair, and women swore by them. They may have originated as birth goddesses and only later acquired their reputation as the agents of destiny.

According to the mythographer Apollodorus, in the Gigantomachy, the war between the Giants and Olympians, the Moirai killed the Giants Agrios and Thoon with their bronze clubs.

In the Homeric poems Moira is represented as a singular entity whose actions are not governed by the gods. Only Zeus, the chief of the gods, is close to her, and in some cases acts in a similar role. Using a weighing scale Zeus weighs Hector's "lot of death" against that of Achilleus. Hector's lot weighs down, and he dies according to Fate. Zeus appears as the guider of destiny, who gives everyone the right portion. A similar scenario is depicted on a Mycenaean vase, where Zeus holds a scale in front of two warriors, indicating that he is measuring their destiny before the battle. The belief was that if they die in battle, this was to be accepted as their correct destiny.

In Theogony, the three Moirai are daughters of the primeval goddess, Nyx, representing a power acting over the gods. Later they are daughters of Zeus who gives them the greatest honour, and Themis, the ancient goddess of law and divine order.

Even the gods feared the Moirai or Fates, which according to Herodotus a god could not escape. The Pythian priestess at Delphi once admitted that Zeus was also subject to their power, though no recorded classical writing clarifies to what exact extent the lives of immortals were affected by the whims of the Fates. It is to be expected that the relationship of Zeus and the Moirai was not immutable over the centuries. In either case in antiquity we can see a feeling towards a notion of an order to which even the gods have to conform. Simonides names this power Ananke and says that even the gods don't fight against it. Aeschylus combines Fate and necessity in a scheme, and claims that even Zeus cannot alter which is ordained.

A supposed epithet Zeus Moiragetes, meaning "Zeus Leader of the Moirai" was inferred by Pausanias from an inscription he saw in the 2nd century AD at Olympia: "As you go to the starting-point for the chariot-race there is an altar with an inscription to the Bringer of Fate. This is plainly a surname of Zeus, who knows the affairs of men, all that the Fates give them, and all that is not destined for them." At the Temple of Zeus at Megara, Pausanias inferred from the relief sculptures he saw "Above the head of Zeus are the Horai and Moirai, and all may see that he is the only god obeyed by Moira." Pausanias' inferred assertion is unsupported in cult practice, though he noted a sanctuary of the Moirai there at Olympia, and also at Corinth and Sparta, and adjoining the sanctuary of Themis outside a city gate of Thebes.

The fates had at least three known temples, in Ancient Corinth, Sparta and Thebes. At least the temple of Corinth contained statues of them: "[On the Akropolis of Korinthos:] The temple of the Moirai and that of Demeter and Kore (Core) [Persephone] have images that are not exposed to view."

The temple in Thebes was explicitly imageless: "Along the road from the Neistan gate are three sanctuaries. There is a sanctuary of Themis, with an image of white marble; adjoining it is a sanctuary of the Moirai, while the third is of Agoraios Zeus. Zeus is made of stone; the Moirai have no images."

The temple in Sparta was situated next to the grave of Orestes.

Aside from actual temples, there was also altars to the Moirai. Among them was notably the altar in Olympia near the altar of Zeus Moiragetes, a connection to Zeus which was also repeated in the images of the Moirai in the temple of Despoine in Arkadia as well as in Delphi, where they were depicted with Zeus Moiragetes as well as with Apollon Moiragetes. On Korkyra, the shrine of Apollo, which according to legend was founded by Medea was also a place where offerings were made to the Moirai and the nymphs. The worship of the Moirai are described by Pausanias for their altar near Sicyon: "On the direct road from Sikyon to Phlios . . . At a distance along it, in my opinion, of twenty stades, to the left on the other side of the Asopos, is a grove of holm oaks and a temple of the goddesses named by the Athenians the Semnai, and by the Sikyonians the Eumenides. On one day in each year they celebrate a festival to them and offer sheep big with young as a burnt offering, and they are accustomed to use a libation of honey and water, and flowers instead of garlands. They practise similar rites at the altar of the Moirai; it is in an open space in the grove."

[vividlyfuturistichurricane]

me d atten v Bowen librarians cairns Wilson security qld police ambulance fire justice corrections education transport government lockup the derby ascot caufield cup rugby Erin ioc aoc Athens Roma Romani kuranda Silvia Donny McKenzie sy Paul’s Chris Walsall port vale hull Loughborough Warrington starling mason Helen’s dragon chevron island jaspers Jesper’s that hilto abba slough trigg beach army steeple chasers Everton Ipswich bargain hunt black white brown yellow red green Doncaster aus post dhl immigration horse heroin smack chasing the dragon junkies know ital all idiots retards diabetics disabled people n cairn mental health rubble Burnley Blackburn lancs Yorks Chester Alderney edge Salvation Army Charles iii beckham Buckingham Rooney derby scouse geordie fifa fa uefa communal Gaza linear foster Fraser Len Glenn ky Nazarene Josephine miyuki kiyomi Colin hill America bra jam cub fem Roland rat Alan swift russel Ailey pervs Stella Rhianna Jen Dave si rob fran Caroline jonathon Ian wigget Parkinson grain bodkin fair man fair clingy Williams ballestro bollaro goel sleeman oak Leslie bread on were magnum ymca bath Sheffield Hubert Harrison ashraf kashif Ind pak ban omari quin Gerry Jerry Berlin Bonn Brussels Charleroi Paris Madrid Monaco and licht lux Flavia Guildford Custer Fabio rohit londres prc dc Washington photomedia west Australian newspapers the Australian cutting Murdoch Blythe Lucy liu Wesley Hensley Harris Arrington Matt Matthew Natasha Ashleigh Hannah goons coon negros blacks shote whitehead across airmen’s bae yeomans Holland ed moffat ball hall Helen Adele osbourne park Aberdeen Inverness Glasgow Thames rowan seeding Atkinson Asda Sainsbury’s Tesco nhs Pennines health dhss universal credit visas dole unemployment benefit Royal Mail Atari commodore Parker weary Middlesbrough Craig Gemma Daniel Danny Brandt Marie Anne Elizabeth Czechia Prague heath ledger pica wapa waca Shane warne afl epl premier league city united airports passports religions warmongers nuclear rubbish Ken Clinton Clifford Bakewell jd new order the light Bickel West Bromwich midland south west iow I’m Norwich afp ato tax tac a v and Jan flash max farthing Stephen Kev Barrett n chadd St Paul’s glodwick saddleworth Delphi digger denshaw Mosley Hyde staylybridge Carlisle barrow Blackpool Fleetwood morecome great ocean road greyhound Tour de France ric aunt once ant wil Anderson Duncan the academy the Apollo buzzcocks sex pistols dk Dixon dr who actors

[sophssatchel]

REVIEW: Human History on Drugs: An Utterly Scandalous but Entirely Truthful Look at History Under the Influence by Sam Kelley

Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin Group for providing me a free advance copy for this title in exchange for an open and honest review. Human History on Drugs will be available on July 8th, 2025.

**Cover photo and description sourced from NetGalley**

Title: Human History on Drugs: An Utterly Scandalous but Entirely Truthful Look at History Under the Influence

Author: Sam Kelley

Medium: E-book (320 pgs)

Rating: 3.5/5

Did you know that Alexander the Great was a sloppy drunk, William Shakespeare was a stoner, and George Washington drank a spoonful of opium every night to staunch the pain from his fake teeth? Or how about the fact that China’s first emperor, Qin Shi Huangdi, ingested liquid mercury in an (ironic) attempt to live forever, or that Alexander Shulgin, inventor of no less than 230 new psychedelic drugs, was an employee of the DEA?  In Human History on Drugs, historian Sam Kelly introduces us to the history we weren’t taught in school, offering up irreverent and hysterical commentary as he sheds light on some truly shocking aspects of the historical characters we only thought we knew. With chapters spanning from Ancient Greece (“The Oracle of Delphi Was Huffing Fumes”) and the Victorian Era (“Vincent van Gogh Ate Yellow Paint”) to Hollywood’s Golden Age (“Judy Garland Was Drugged by Grown-Ups”) and modern times (“Carl Sagan Got Astronomically High”), Kelly's research spans all manner of eras, places, and, of course, drugs.  History is rife with drug use and drug users, and Human History on Drugs takes us through those highs (pun intended) and lows on a wittily entertaining ride that uncovers their seriously unexpected impact on our past.

This book definitely balanced making me laugh and teaching me new things. I was unfamiliar with the works of Jean Paul Sartre, I knew vaguely about Queen Victoria's involvement in the opium trade, and knew that Steve Jobs was weird about fruit. This book built on anecdotes that I had heard through social media and history teachers who were brave enough to utter the evil and taboo word "marijuana," and Kelley expanded on these topics well. True to his word, he didn't glorify the usage of drugs nor did he encourage their use. He was open and honest about how so many of these figures ruined their own lives due to their inability to quit.

I enjoyed this book, but at times I found myself wishing it preferred depth over breadth instead. Others liked the bite sized pieces of information, but I personally was hoping for a bit more of a deep dive into some of the figures. I assume this is more difficult to do with the more ancient figures, but certainly there was more that could have been written for the more recent sections. The illustrations, while quality, took up a fair bit of real estate within the book. I also would have preferred a more explicit separation between the jokes/theories and the history. For example, he claims that Carl Sagan was perhaps denied tenure at Harvard because he was too much of a superstar/public figure. There’s no cold hard evidence to support that as far as I could find and I wish that was more apparent. Non academics really don’t understand the tenure process in the first place, let’s not spread theories that aren’t clearly labeled as such.

I think this book is a good starting point to learn more about the influence of drugs on history and the bibliography is very rich. Your friend who was obsessed with the Guinness Book of World Records as a kid would love this book as a gift.

[jcmarchi]

OpenAI suspends developer of politician-impersonating chatbot

New Post has been published on https://thedigitalinsider.com/openai-suspends-developer-of-politician-impersonating-chatbot/

OpenAI suspends developer of politician-impersonating chatbot

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OpenAI has suspended the developer responsible for Dean.Bot, a ChatGPT-powered chatbot designed to impersonate Democratic presidential candidate Dean Phillips.

The bot, created by “cloning” startup Delphi, aimed to support Phillips in his political campaign. However, this move directly contradicts OpenAI’s policies, leading to the suspension of the responsible developer.

The Washington Post reported that, despite displaying a disclaimer describing the nature of the chatbot to visitors, Dean.Bot’s purpose was clear: to engage with potential supporters and spread the candidate’s message.

OpenAI, in response, confirmed the suspension of the developer—emphasising the violation of their policies. This action follows OpenAI’s recent blog post outlining preventive measures against the misuse of its technology, specifically highlighting the prohibition of “chatbots impersonating candidates” in the lead-up to the 2024 elections.

Notably, OpenAI’s policies extend beyond this particular case—explicitly stating that applications for political campaigning and lobbying are not permitted.

In a crucial election year – not just in the US, but also in other Western democracies like the UK – it’s unsurprising that OpenAI is taking a firm stance against bots that could be seen to interfere and/or spread misinformation.

In response to the inquiry, Delphi initially removed ChatGPT from the bot and continued its operation using alternative open-source tools. However, OpenAI’s intervention prompted the ultimate suspension of the chatbot on Friday night.

Visitors to the Dean.Bot website are now told the chatbot is inaccessible due to “technical difficulties,” alongside a message that reads, “Apologies, DeanBot is away campaigning right now!”

(Image Credit: Gage Skidmore under CC BY-SA 2.0 DEED license)

See also: OpenAI launches GPT Store for custom AI assistants

Want to learn more about AI and big data from industry leaders? Check out AI & Big Data Expo taking place in Amsterdam, California, and London. The comprehensive event is co-located with Digital Transformation Week and Cyber Security & Cloud Expo.

Explore other upcoming enterprise technology events and webinars powered by TechForge here.

Tags: 2024 elections, america, chatbot, chatgpt, dean phillips, dean.bot, democracy, democratic, democrats, ethics, openai, Politics, Society, united states, us elections, usa

[willcodehtmlforfood]

"Just a few days ago, the generative AI company OpenAI revealed how it will regulate the use of its ChatGPT and DALL-E AI models during the current 2024 elections. One of those new policies was that OpenAI would not allow its tools and services to be used to create simulated versions of real election candidates.

This weekend, OpenAI enforced that particular policy by banning a developer who had used ChatGPT to create a chatbot that simulated US House of Representatives member Dean Phillips of the third district in Minnesota. Phillips is a declared candidate for US President in the Democratic Party, in a long-shot campaign against current President Joe Biden.

The Washington Post reports that "Dean.Bot" was created by the developer company Delphi. It had received funding from We Deserve Better, a Super PAC made to help support Phillips" campaign. While the bot had disclaimers in place stating this was an AI tool, it still violated OpenAI"s rules against making such chatbots."

[infamousbrad]

Privacy

(content warning: child abuse resulting in murder)

It's well established that too-little privacy is a hazard to mental health. Human beings deprived of any privacy eventually go nuts. But as the Oracles at Delphi anciently said, "Nothing in excess." Too much privacy is as poisonous as too little.

Sitting in your home, envisioning the area around it: if you were screaming for help, who would hear? Oh, but you have a gun, do you? If your assailant were to shoot you, would your nearest neighbor hear the shot, recognize what it meant, and send help?

If your nearest neighbor was torturing a child day and night, would you or anyone else hear that child's screams? Would there be anyone to call for help, would anybody know to rescue that child?

Experts who've studied child abuse report that home-schooling parents do not torture their children any more often than public- or private-school parents do. But the home-school parents get away with it a lot longer. And the home-school lobby really doesn't want you to know that and, if you do already know, wants you to believe that nothing can be done about it, so that you will look away, so that you will put it out of your mind; just one more thing for you to be as callous towards as they are.

(Peter Jamison, "What home schooling hides: A boy tortured and starved by his stepmom. Roman Lopez was 11 when he went missing. His years of torment were concealed by home schooling," Washington Post, Dec 2 2023. Non-paywall link. Part of their series "Home School Nation.")

[kemuele]

Another world, an apocalyptic scene, and his place in it all.

Dominion, the two-season television show takes place in an apocalyptic world where God left the building twenty-five years prior. Where there are five (four) archangels: Gabriel and Michael, Uriel and Raphael, as well as Lucifer himself. Kemuel’s an archangel as well, but his name and ‘fame’ establish him as a relic and nothing more. Much like the others, his wings are not their notable copper and golds like they standardly are. Rather, the vibrant hues are exchanged for deep, rich blacks that shine indigo in direct sunlight.

Bulletproof, communication source, and capable of flight, wings are both a weapon and means of transport. Considering his height, they’re quite the hefty set. 16 foot wingspan; while that is (in realistic terms) incapable of any flight whatsoever, the show seems to prove otherwise. Kemuel’s wings are more often than not hidden during his residency in the world, yet he does bring them out for either defense, communication, or a sign of trust amongst peers. 

He does not live in Vega. Nor Helena, nor New Delphi. Kemuel still holds the mountains and forests of Washington state as his ‘home’, yet...it isn’t as untouched as it seems. Seclusion favors the hardy; small outposts line the city limits with a mixture of walls and a canopy system connecting lookout stations via tall, hulking, western red cedars. Kemuel’s town is situated in the Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest, a dense array of douglas firs, western red cedars, hemlock, and more.

In regards to the war, the humans or angels debate, he’s human-aligned. Kemuel’s since delved to his own part of the world to keep it free of eight-balls and ensure their livelihoods, yet family is one thing known to draw him in from the horizon. The archangel’s weapon, much like standard verse, is a longsword made of Empyrean steel. He keeps it on his back and its sheath between his shoulder blades. Considering his height alone, it’d be easy to equip on his hip rather than back. When flying, he keeps it to his side. Fighting is a hit or miss; it’s kept at the side or behind the back for maneuverability.

As an archangel, he inherits all the show’s qualities about them: flight, communication, superhuman abilities/senses, demotion of spheres, healing/longevity/immortality (to an extent; can be killed via empyrean steel and critical wounds), and so on. 

[jeanjauthor]

Writers, we're so used to churches being controlled & run by the clergy of the religions that operate them (Catholic church for example), or only by their immediate congregations (church members on the church committees), sometimes we forget that other ways and means of running & operating a "sacred space" can exist.

In the example cited above, it was a multi-tribal effort, a shared communal responsibility across an entire region.

It would be as if a cathedral in Seattle was being managed by people not only in Seattle, but people in Everett, Bellevue, Tacoma, and so forth (the major cities around Seattle), and that portions of their city budgets would be set aside for helping manage the Seattle Cathedral.

Scratch that. Our cathedrals don't have quite the same draw as ancient temples, which would sponsor games and giant celebratory events on top of actual religious activities.

Okay, so it would be as if Seattle's baseball field (now called T-Mobile Park, formerly Safeco Field, and don't get me started on that whole naming convention) was paid for by not only Seattle, but Everett, Bellevue, Tacoma, and more.

Except, of course, for one thing: Population density. HUGE difference between the two eras.

T-Mobile Park itself has a maximum seating capacity of 47,943 people, and I'd be surprised if the land immediately around the Delphi temple had more than 47,943 people, period. Seattle alone has a population of roughly 749,256 (as of 2022), and if you include the counties for the cities listed (Snohomish, King, Pierce), that area has over 4 million people living on it...so it's not quite the same, by any means. (King County alone has over 2 million.)

Of course, only wealthy landed males around Delphi had any real say in what happened with managing major communal efforts & properties, such as their Temple, whereas with T-Mobile Park, only...wealthy...landed...

...Okay, so that much hasn't changed...

The point is, we don't run our major cultural centers quite in the same way as the ancients. But we do have some of the same structure there, as T-Mobile Park is run by the Washington-King County Stadium Authority, and isn't fully a privately owned & operated entity. It's like how a lot of utilities in the area are publicly owned & operated (electricity, water & sewer, etc).

So when you're trying to figure out who actually manages a temple over the course of the year in your created-world stories, consider that it could be far more than "just the clergy" who are doing it. We don't have to follow the medieval era mindset that "the Church controls everything that the Church does."

Amphictyonic League

The Amphictyonic League was an early form of religious council in ancient Greece. It was typically composed of delegates from several tribes or ethnes living in the vicinity of a major, prosperous sanctuary, who then collaborated in supervising the temple’s maintenance, managing its finances, organising the sacred rituals and games, and seeing to the protection of its temenos (sacred precinct).

The earliest evidence about the existence of such executive assemblies appears in the 7th century BCE, and the most significant and best-documented examples are the Amphictyonic Leagues of Delos and Delphi, both presiding the sanctuaries of Apollo, his Pythian Oracles, and the Pythian Games.

While the Amphictyonic League was primarily a religious organization, it sometimes played a significant role in the political and military affairs of ancient Greece. The League’s most notable involvement in Greek warfare occurred during a series of conflicts known as the Sacred Wars over control of the Delphic sanctuary. These conflicts had a dramatic impact on the course of Greek history and the development of the poleis (city-states), fostering changes that eventually cushioned the ambitious plans of Philip II of Macedon (r. 359-336 BCE), and his son Alexander the Great (r. 336-323 BCE), for conquering the Hellenic world.

Origins & Structure

The exact origins of the Amphictyonic League are wrapped in myths and legends, but it is generally agreed that, by the 7th century BCE, the gathering of a council of tribal representatives to look after their local sanctuary was a practice already recognised in Archaic Greece (c. 800-480 BCE). According to Herodotus (8.104) and Pindar (Pythian Odes, 4.66, 10.8), the Greek word amphictiones (άμφικτίονες) means “those who dwell around,” implying the solidarity among neighbouring tribes through their connection with and their care for a pivotal sacred place.

In Greek mythology, Amphictyon, the legendary founder of the league, was a son of Deucalion and Pyrrha, the surviving couple of the Great Flood in the Greek version of the story, and the younger brother of Hellen, whose name became the overall denomination of the Greek people as Hellenes (Graecus, the eponym of the Graecians as the Romans called the Greeks, was the son of Zeus and Pandora). Following the flood, Amphictyon with his family took refuge in Athens, where he became the son-in-law and later the successor of King Cranaus. Amphictyon then became king of Thermopylae near Phthiotis in Thessaly, where his brother Hellen was the ruler. Since Cranaus, Deucalion, and many other legendary Greek founder-rulers were believed to be chthonic, born of Mother Earth, the earliest Amphictyonic council was then formed to protect and provide for the sanctuary of Demeter Amphictyonis in Anthela, Thermopylae, since Demeter was the goddess of the underworld in her older cults.

Based on this inherent connection to the underworld, members of the Amphictyonic council (pylaia) were known as the pylagorai, guardians of the gate to the underworld. A second, and superior, group of the delegates were the hieromnemones, sacred recorders, who had the power to finalise the debated decisions by casting votes (Aristotle, Politics 8.6). The pylaia met twice a year, once in spring at Delphi and once in autumn at Anthela. Their agenda, essentially, covered the matters considering the maintenance and protection of the sanctuary, which typically consisted of a central temple (and often some related side temples, shrines, and altars), the temenos, and the treasury. Organising and supervising the sacred rituals held at the sanctuary, including public games and competitions, was another important task of the Amphictyonic Council.

Amphictionic Law of Delphi

Jastrow (CC BY-NC-SA)

Although presumed more or less ubiquitous, there are only a few Amphictyonies known to us apart from the ones at Delos and Delphi: the Amphictyony of Onchestos near Thebes in Boeotia dedicated to the temple of Poseidon, the Amphictyony of Amarynthos in Euboea tending the sanctuary of Artemis, and the Amphictyony of Kalauria, an island near the coast of Troezen. The latter, also related to the cult of Poseidon, was claimed by Strabo (8.6.14) to be one of the earliest in the Archaic times – functioning at least until the end of the 4th century BCE – and archaeological evidence accordingly places its foundation between c. 680 and 650 BCE. On the other hand, an alternative legend accounts for the unification of the guardian councils of the Demeter Amphictyonis and the Apollonion at Delphi as the Great Amphictyonic League in the aftermath of the Trojan War, c. 1200 BCE. Historically, however, the great Amphictyonic League at Delphi was founded no earlier than c. 590 BCE. It is the best-documented council of its kind and has the longest remaining history, not least because of its pivotal role in the Sacred Wars.

Continue reading…

[hello-imasalesman]

Pierce uses a Nextel phone and is the reason half of the saints missions go haywire bc a rival gang member overhears

[cendrillonmedousa]

Notable, Present-day, Radical Feminists

As a second wave feminism, we assume that radical feminists are hard, if not impossible, to find in today's world. Here is a list of notable women you can still interact with today.

Chude Pam Allen, co-founder of New York Radical Women

Ti-Grace Atkinson, author of Amazon Odyssey

Kathleen Barry, co-founder of the Coalition Against Trafficking in Women

Linda Bellos, first Black lesbian member of Spare Rib feminist collective

Julie Bindel, co-founder of Justice for Women

Jenny Brown, author of Birth Strike: The Hidden Fight Over Women's Work

Professor Judith C. Brown, pioneer in the study of lesbian history

Susan Brownmiller, author of Against Our Will: Men, Women, and Rape

Professor Phyllis Chesler, co-founder of Association for Women in Psychology

D.A. Clarke, known for her development of feminist theory

Nikki Craft, creator of the Andrea Dworkin Online Library, Hustling the Left website, and No Status Quo website

Christine Delphy, co-founder of the French Women's Liberation Movement

Professor Gail Dines, author of Pornland: How Porn Has Hijacked Our Sexuality

Melissa Farley, founder and director of Prostitution Research and Education

Marilyn Fyre, author of The Politics of Reality: Essays in Feminist Theory

Carol Hanisch, best known for "the personal is political"

Merle Hoffman, co-founder of the National Abortion Federation

Professor Shelia Jeffreys, author of The Spinster and Her Enemies

Lierre Keith, founder of Women's Liberation Front

Anne Koedt, author of The Myth of the Vaginal Orgasm

Marjorie Kramer, editor of Woman and Art Quarterly

Professor Holly Lawford-Smith, author of Gender-Critical Feminism

Dr. Catharine Alice MacKinnon, author of Sexual Harassment of Working Women: A Case for Sex Discrimination

Robin Morgan, creator of Sisterhood Is anthologies

Dr. Janice G. Raymond, author of The Transsexual Empire

Kathie Sarachild, coiner of term "Sisterhood is Powerful"

Alix Kates Shulman, author of Memoirs of an Ex-Prom Queen

Gloria Steinman

Michele Faith Wallace, author of Black Macho and the Myth of the Superwoman

Dr. Marilyn Salzman Webb, co-founder of the first feminist consciousness-raising groups in Chicago and Washington D.C.

Harriet Wistrich, founding director of Centre for Women's Justice

Laura X, led the campaign behind making marital and date rape a crime in over twenty countries