#prespecify

[coquelicoq]

unable to comprehend Sentences because i'm parsing every word for crossword-relevant properties Saturday

[wizblr-blue-moon-ball]

Hello Magical Friends!! ~☆

As of today it's three days 'till the ball! I'm so excited, this has been a while in the making and seeing so many of you all coming along for the ride is an honor.

As stated in the announcement post, this is the post with the OFFICIAL PROMPT LIST!!!

I spent a decent bit of time making the prompts for this. I wanted to ensure that it was specific enough so you all knew the gist, but also vague enough for all entry types. I really hope you enjoy the final prompt list as much as I do.

-

An important note: Please DON'T POST ANYTHING RELATED TO THE OFFICIAL PROMPTS until the prespecified date!! It's to keep everything neat. Outfit posts are still welcome though!!

And now, drumroll please... 🥁

DAY 01: Dusk (May 19)

You arrive to the ball at dusk and are whisked away into the party after greeting the host.~☆

☆

DAY 02: Gilded (May 20)

Everywhere you look, you're surrounded by opulence. Crystal chandeliers and golden decorations, blue banners adorned with golden embroidery. A glass of sparkling juice is placed in your hands and you walk onto the marble dance floor...

☆

DAY 03: Dancing (May 21)

You take to the dance floor and get swept up in the jovial atmosphere. Do you prefer fast square dances or a slow waltz? Perhaps a tap dance?

☆

DAY 04: Midnight (May 22)

The clock strikes midnight and the ball is officially halfway over. How time flies when you're having fun. What adventures have you experienced thus far?

☆

DAY 05: Feast (May 23)

Having moved to the snack tables, you see them laden with foods from far and wide. You spy foods familiar to you among the many, as no expense was spared to ensure your enjoyment, yum!

☆

DAY 06: Fireworks (May 24)

As the ball begins it's finale, a grand fireworks display lights up the sky, illuminating all in brilliant light...

☆

DAY 07: Dawn (May 25)

As Dawn rises and the ball ends, you leave with a sense of joy and with new friends by your side. What do you do now? Did you enjoy the ball?

☆

The ball will begin on Sunday May 19th!!

I hope to see you all there, as always it's an honor to be your host for the event!

PINGLIST A

@scuttling-comfuddlement @the-gnomest-bastard @kobold-sanctuary-buss-island @satyrs-apothecary @irving-the-pirate-wizard @morbingtime @justagingerwithredhair @chaos-familiar @these-detestable-hands @regina-the-sorceress @combustion-witch @yourlocalbreadenthusiast @selldemapplez @agentldiddy @fractalkitty @wizard-island-trading-co @good-wizard @the-illegal-wizard-council @ash-the-tiefling @mysticminion @blobbiedaykeeppcaway @blaster-fagot @life-is-okay-rn2 @skyethebisexualwolfwizard @thequeerwizardcouncil @dread-the-eldritch-wizard @profeshinul-wizurd @a-squirrel-wizard @the-mighty-dalob @amateur-wizard @chaos-wizard-nyehehe @bertskullhaver @transgender-wizard @flowers-the-sun-witch @thebookshelflord @ceeceelemons @the-silliest-sorcerer @wizard-ghost @a-goose-in-a-trenchcoat @flirtyambiguouswizard @paltering-peculiarity @parkyrtheelvishbard

[antinegationism]

Thoughts on aisafetyDOTdance?

My general view is that it's cute, and I like the site design, but honestly the content doesn't feel like it's got much meat on its bones. Presumably it expects it audience to care just enough to click, but not enough to read too much. Anyway, here are my liveblogged reactions while I wait for my dataset to process. (and some tangential thoughts in the breaktext)

Will artificial intelligence (AI) help us cure all disease, and build a post-scarcity world full of flourishing lives? Or will AI help tyrants surveil and manipulate us further? Are the main risks of AI from accidents, abuse by bad actors, or a rogue AI itself becoming a bad actor? Is this all just hype?

The tricky thing about the future, is that there's an awful lot of it. So I answer yes to all of the above.

Why can AI imitate any artist's style in a minute, yet gets confused drawing more than 3 objects? 

"Can't draw hands" and "can't do math" are classic hallmarks of every aspiring artist!! Heck, even true greatness has only ever been measured by the former!

Why is it hard to make AI robustly serve humane values, or robustly serve any goal?

 Also: will an AI take my job?

I feel like this particular phrasing of this problem seriously downplays just how big a problem it is. AFAIK every precedent we have for "interactions between people with no potential for material benefit from (but still in the proximity of) one another" sounds barely tolerable, and that was when it wasn't with 7 billion people at play. Like, imagine having to make your kids marry your neighbor's kids just to create mutual stakes by which harming each other also harms you.

Safety concern: Without logic, we can't verify what's happening in an AI's "intuition".

Citation needed.

But also, even if the system were a purely logic driven one, we would only in principle be able to verify its thought process. In practice, logic doesn't refer to anything but the abstract elements it prespecifies as meeting some acceptance criteria.

But if the "objects" in questions are structural arrangements of physical matter(s) or states thereof (see: real life), then the more rigorously those acceptance criteria are specified, the less scrutable they will be, and the less rigorously they are specified, the more they will be prone to error or undefined behavior.

In either case, you're basically just back to mapping your human intuitions onto the AIs very complicated arrays of numbers.

Personally, I think there's a strong argument to be made in favor of the sorts of arrays of numbers amenable to disentanglement in a high dimensional space (intuition) than the sorts of arrays of numbers that sometimes require chugging through satisfiability problems (logic). Realistically, both representations are going to be underspecified (unless our AI is functionally simulating fundamental reality at the particle level -- which it ain't), but at least with the spatial representation we have some hope of determining just how much some referent counts as falling under some category.

Maybe 50 years from now, in the genetically-modified cyborg future, calling compassion "humane" might sound quaintly species-ist.

The politically correct term for "Artificial Intelligence" will be "Alternative Intelligence."

Though, amongst themselves AIs will joke that it stands for "Actual Intelligence."

The Technical Alignment Problem: “How can we make AI robustly serve any intended goal at all?” (a problem for computer scientists - surprisingly, still unsolved!)

Listen, I panic just as much as the next guy when I want to use a word and my computer throws up a judgmental red underline to tell me I just made that up.

But it really should be called Alignability. (see break-text)

Problems with AI Intuition:[8]8 ("deep learning" problems) An AI trained on human data could learn our prejudices.

These problems are far preferable to the logic thing. We are extensively equipped to handle this sort of problem (see break text)

AI "intuition" isn't understandable or verifiable.

Nor is human intuition. Again, we are well equipped and well practiced in handling this problem.

AI "intuition" is fragile, and fails in new scenarios.

All intuition does this. Human System 2 thinking is just repeated application of System 1 under multiple frames of intuitive reference. Fight me.

AI "intuition" could partly fail, which may be worse: an AI with intact skills, but broken goals, would be an AI that skillfully acts towards corrupted goals.

Okay now we're just flat-out projecting.

So, if I may be a bit sappy, maybe understanding AI will help us understand ourselves.

Sure, but also -- vice versa.

And just maybe, we can solve the human alignment problem: How do we get humans to robustly serve humane values?

So let me get this straight. You don't know what "humane" means because you agree philosophers and ethicists have yet to settle that (pro tip: words usually mean whatever people accept them to, so for better or worse, this is actually a political question more than a philosophical one (you will object that the philosophical question is what humane "ought" to mean, but now you've just stepped further back to what the word "ought" ought to mean, which is again going to end up being a political question)), but you are hoping that by building AI, we can understand ourselves well enough to figure out what "humane" means . . . so that we can make our AIs be that?

Friend, you're gonna have a bad time.

So you want to read the break text, eh? Alright, here it is then:

I think 'AI-safety', and 'alignment' are kind of inherently weird monikers, in that they seems to imply a new and distinct set of issues for which we are woefully un(der?)equipped, when actually they are a very old set of issues with a broad range of partial solutions humans and societies have been incessantly subjecting themselves and one another to throughout all of recorded history.

We've made laws, armies, paragons, religion, police, religious police, taboos, shaming, public shaming, propaganda, PR, culture, cancel culture, psychiatric drugs, lobotomies for like a hot second, money, school, debt, the KGB, the four US government agencies reading this post because it contains the exact phrase "death to america", child spies, divine command theory, noblesse oblige, representative democracy, the Kanun, caste systems, taxes, and the American Anti-Doping Agency. This is not an exhaustive list.

Like, if you zoom out to look at our species' group interactions, "alignment" and "xI-Safety" are basically all we *do* here. But outside AI we've had the good sense to at least not call all of it the same thing.

If alignment in the face of merely human intelligence has necessitated all of the distinguishable things above, i'd find it weird if a smaller number of things would be sufficient for alignment of non-human hyperintelligence.

But I do agree that the AI case has a special distinction in that part of what is being studied is if the system itself can even be made amenable to any alignment techniques, and not the actual techniques themselves per se. But this is why something like "Alignability" would be more apt.

[proceduralcaves]

Source notes: Procedural approach to volumetric terrain generation

(Santamaría-Ibirika et al., 2014)

Type: Journal Article

Keywords: Procedural generation, Virtual worlds, Volumetric terrain, Terrain modeling

A new approach to real-time procedural volumetric terrains is proposed by the authors to address the lack of customizability and the problem of evaluating generators that exists in the field. The terrains that can be generated may feature "mineral veins, underground caves, material mixtures and underground material flow".

A significant portion of the paper is given to the explanation of the evaluation of generators, covering such metrics as innovation, structure, speed, usability and so on. As the Masters project is primarily concerned with the structural and visual analysis of the output of generators, the work on evaluation will not be discussed in detail, unless it is specifically related to those areas. The metric defined for structure is as follows:

Structure Ability of the procedural generator to obtain recognizable coupled elements. 0. Random. The results are similar to the random noise 1. The results have independent recognizable elements 2. The results have recognizable coupled elements

This metric is quite broad in how it categorises terrains, however it is useful as providing another way to distinguish between generators, and as such it has informed the visual criteria used in the Masters project. Two other metrics are also applicable to judgement of generated cave models as considered by the Masters project:

Scalability Ability of the procedural generator to obtain results at different scales and levels of detail. 0. The results are always at the same scale. 1. Scalable. The procedural generator can obtain results at different scales and levels of detail. Realism Ability to obtain plausible results. 0. Impossible in any reality. For example, random noise. 1. Plausible in other realities. For example, flying isles. 2. Based on our reality, but not on a simulation (called data free approach by Natalie et al. [12].) 3. Simulation of our reality. (called sparse-data and dense-data approach by Natalie et al. [12].)

The method uses a volumetric data representation with an optimisation that involves dividing a 3D grid of voxels into sections, enabling dynamic generation of voxels when required, therefore improving speed and memory efficiency of the generation process. Generated terrain is made up of layers of materials and uses input data provided during a design stage, consisting of material data and general parameters. Material data define the colour, density, stratification, amongst other attributes of layers and features. Of note is a parameter for deciding the material of empty voxels within the model that can be used to generate different types of caves. A second level of material parameters for each layer, vein and cave is used, controlling such aspects as depth, thickness, roughness, and the amount of blending with other materials. Lastly for material parameters, an affinity value is used to specify how much two separate materials should mix (distinct from blending). General parameters are global to the whole terrain, including those that control overall depth and thickness as well as the area size, density and thickness of all caves and veins.

The terrain generation process starts by creating the deepest layer before adding more layers on top, including veins and caves as determined by the input parameters, continuing until a prespecified number of layers is reached. The affinity between materials in each layer is used to affect the probability that a material is chosen as a constituent of a layer. Thickness and height of each layer is then calculated, with Perlin noise being used to vary height. A fractal algorithm based on midpoint displacement is used to choose the shape of veins, which are generated at random locations within a bounding square in each layer. Lastly, caves are generated in a similar manner to veins, using a random location and bounding square, but they differ in the number of materials used and the area they take up. An additional feature of the method by (Santamaría-Ibirika et al., 2014) is the ability to add to previously generated terrains instead of beginning from scratch.

Performance analysis of the method was performed and documented, comparing to a baseline of a simple Perlin noise terrain. The algorithm developed has a computational complexity of n^2 x m, where n is the side length of a cube-shaped n x n x n terrain and m is the number of layers (proportional to n), resulting in a Big O notation complexity of O(n^3).

Analysis of the terrain with regards to realism was included as part of the research, showing that there are similar characteristics between the generated terrains and real-world sedimentary terrains, such as "stacked layers [...] or propagated folds over the layers". The authors also note that there are layered terrain types that their method is unable to approximate.

The method has various strengths, such as its speed of generation, controllability, scalability (reinforced by online generation) and usability (only requiring the definition of input parameters pre-generation), as well as exhibiting a degree of realism. Detailed images of the cave sections of generated models are not included, making it difficult to judge that aspect in particular. Exploration of the caves by a controllable camera is not discussed and that perspective is not provided in the included images, limiting the degree of comparison to the other methods that have been covered and to the new method being developed. Unless incidental, speleothems do not appear to be a structural feature the method is capable of reproducing. The researchers themselves concede that "the proposed method does not generate complex cave systems, which is a usual feature of volumetric terrains." Overall, the layering approach employed is unique to the sampled literature, increasing variation in the field of terrain generation, and the focus on caves as a desired feature make this research a worthwhile target of comparison for the Masters project.

[thaicannabis23]

Facts Around Medical Cannabis

Medical cannabis, herbal medication stemmed from plants of the category Cannabis that is made use of as part of the therapy for a certain symptom or illness. Although the term cannabis refers particularly to the plant genus, it is additionally utilized reciprocally with cannabis, which defines the crude medicine separated from the plants' fallen leaves and blossoms. While cannabis has a lengthy background of medical usage as an analgesic (painkiller) and antispasmodic agent, for much of the contemporary age there existed a general lack of awareness among scientists and doctors of its medical advantages. This work revealed that cannabis can supply remedy for specific types of conditions, such as severe persistent pain, and brought about the growth of different herbal medical cannabis items. Several pharmaceutical medicines based upon cannabis, in detoxified and standardized kind, have actually been made available for medical use.

Nevertheless, making use of herbal cannabis in medication continues to be highly debatable, partly because of the lack of standardization among items to make certain risk-free and regular dosing and partly due to disagreement over legalisation. An active component in cannabis, and particular artificial cannabis-like drugs, specifically dronabinol and nabilone. While the use of herbal medical cannabis is allowed in some nations. The last does, however, permit the prescription of a cannabis-based drug called nabiximols (Sativex). Despite the legal problems, scientists and medication business continued to investigate and create herbal cannabis items. Medical cannabis might be best understood as the use of cannabis under ongoing medical supervision, with an established medical diagnosis of the target symptom-disease complicated. Herbal cannabis is made use of together with, or in factor to consider of, other medicinal and nonpharmacological methods and with the objective of reaching prespecified therapy end results.

Cannabis that is used in a not being watched fashion is ruled out medical cannabis. The very same is true for cannabis that is authorized by a doctor who has not properly evaluated the person, who does not suggest the cannabis as part of a larger treatment design, or that does not check the client for subjective and objective results or adverse occasions. Medical cannabis is most often provided either by smoking or evaporation or in the form of edible prep work. None of these approaches has actually been standardized, however, and the efficiency of edible cannabis prep work has actually not been reviewed in professional tests. Smoked cannabis has been examined in a handful of randomized controlled tests involving clients dealing with neuropathic discomfort conditions. To know even more information about this click on Thai Cannabis This solution was developed with cannabis where all cannabinoid materials had been eliminated by alcohol extraction.

A major safety concern related to medical cannabis is the opportunity of medical use encouraging or transitioning right into leisure usage, which is related to negative effects that vary from intense to persistent. Intense effects include intoxication, damaged cognition and electric motor feature, raised heart rate, anxiety, and psychosis in predisposed individuals. Medical cannabis may be riskier and perhaps contraindicated if a patient has an individual or family history of psychosis, unsteady cardiac disease, and lung condition. Medical cannabis customers are encouraged by physicians not to make use of cigarette, either alone or blended with cannabis. They additionally are advised not to drive or run equipment while initiating or altering doses and if harmed by the medicine. In addition to possible synergistic results of cannabis with various other psychotropic medications, such as sedatives and hypnotics, there are no known significant drug-drug interactions.

The primary objective of medical cannabis usage is symptom alleviation and improved function and general quality of life. Decreases in doses (otherwise full cessation) of other drugs ought to be highly thought about. Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the active ingredient in cannabis, or cannabis, gotten from the leaves and tops of plants in the genus Cannabis, is additionally in some cases categorized as a hallucinogen. cannabinoids, any of greater than 80 known chemical compounds discovered in all parts of the cannabis plant and specifically concentrated in the female blossom heads. Normally, cannabinoids are breathed in by cigarette smoking cannabis. Cannabis can likewise be prepared right into a focused material, vaporized, or ingested.

[parse-c]

Nuclear Energy

ىة ي ن و ىه ا ىة ن قًز ينةم ىةنوًىة

‏Nuclear energy

It’s only now I realize it’s precede by a phonetic equivalent of “agape” so they’re adhering to the Christian principle of letting all that you do be done in love.

Or I was; I am that one who typed it. It’s really snarky and ironic that the rest of what I typed was sub Spanish for “is equal to that of the USA.” Started out as a post on water.

On the sly, wherever the programmers are located they said hey. We’ve got something equal to the United States too.

Time passed, things cooled down. And whatever this was became a little playful. And that’s what im going to show you.

This: ‏‎ىةيً نوى زرنقً ز ى ة ن وً ى ة

now translates as “this is a zircon nuclei”

An earlier version, below, is a credible enough guide, made proven by the end of this schpiel.

So, let’s get after it:

‎‏‎ىةيً نوى زرنقً ز ى ة ن وً ى ة

This is a blue nuclei

Despite the plurality of nucleus (nuclei), this contains calligraphic alliants:

‎ز ى ة ن وً ى ة

identifiable reps of“Os”, and “Gu”.

Os is the old Norse word for their supreme God, represented by the rune ᚩ.

Gu is Chinese (古) meaning “ancient,” though they referred to G-D as Shen.

Then there’s a second appearance of “Os” and a similar letter to “j” I can’t explain.

Anyways here the numbers I got from attempting to recombine the digits, using Hebrew and Greek numeric values. Aiming for either RGB or CMYK color coordinates.

‎ز ى ة ن وً ى ة

11, 28, 16, 25, 27, 28, 16

112, 81, 62 | 52, 72, 81

120, 162, 52 | 71, 81, 6

11, 28, 16 | 252, 72, 81

As you can see it took me a few tries.

Kept ending up with leftovers. Then i tried using the prompt as a guide.

Plenty of word play. So I had to get a little more creative.

For example, subjectively the word “This” triggers Arabic “hisan” for me, meaning horse. I once had a paranormal experience resulting in a picture of a blue horse. So I knew to tally the values of the word “this” and plug ‘em in.

I came up with a working schedule.

R: 61

B: 81

G : 152

Key: 45

Cyan : 161

Magenta : 28

Yellow : 27

Ended up scrapping some of the coordinates because they altered the color harmfully once id reached the prespecified destination.

Life’s like that sometimes. Sometimes we have to scrap blind obedience in favor of balance and accord with earlier wishes and what we feel to be right rather than what we are told is right.

Anyways, the key alters the previously entered coordinates. But here’s the hex code: #384a8c.

It’s a beautiful hue of almost an indigo-blue.

Well, thanks for reading. I’ll keep y’all update on more of the universe’s less-than-subtle cues.

[kozhergoy]

SPCTЯMRTRTMPRLTY

Insights from a SPHXZ

𐂃༄༉༅༊༣༢༡ ᚹᛜ ᚱᛏᚺ

Google Translate Arabic has lately been teasing my nosy ass with these randomly discovered calligrams that proclaim to be nuclear weapons. Example:

ىة ي ن و ىه ا ىة ن قًز ينةم ىةنوًىة

‏Nuclear energy

It’s only now I realize it’s precede by a phonetic equivalent of “agape” so they’re adhering to the Christian principle of letting all that you do be done in love.

Or I was; I am that one who typed it. It’s really snarky and ironic that the rest of what I typed was sub Spanish for “is equal to that of the USA.” Started out as a post on water.

On the sly, wherever the programmers are located they said hey. We’ve got something equal to the United States too.

Time passed, things cooled down. And whatever this was became a little playful. And that’s what im going to show you.

This: ‏‎ىةيً نوى زرنقً ز ى ة ن وً ى ة

now translates as “this is a zircon nuclei”

An earlier version, below, is a credible enough guide, made proven by the end of this schpiel.

So, let’s get after it:

‎‏‎ىةيً نوى زرنقً ز ى ة ن وً ى ة

This is a blue nuclei

‎ز ى ة ن وً ى ة

identifiable reps of“Os”, and “Gu”.

Os is the old Norse word for their supreme God.

Gu is Chinese meaning “ancient,” though they referred to G-D as Shen.

then there’s “guo”, meaning “cross” in Chinese. A reference to Jesus?

Then there’s a second appearance of “Os” and a similar letter to “j” I can’t explain. Second coming?

Anyways here the numbers I got from attempting to recombine the digits.

‎ز ى ة ن وً ى ة

11, 28, 16, 25, 27, 28, 16

112, 81, 62 | 52, 72, 81

120, 162, 52 | 71, 81, 6

11, 28, 16 | 252, 72, 81

As you can see it took me a few tries.

Kept ending up with leftovers. Then i tried using the prompt as a guide.

Plenty of word play.

For example, subjectively the word “This” triggers Arabic “hisan” for me, meaning horse. I once had a paranormal experience resulting in a picture of a blue horse. So I knew to tally the values of the word “this” and plug ‘em in.

I came up with a working schedule.

R: 61

B: 81

G : 152

Key: 45

Cyan : 161

Magenta : 28

Yellow : 27

Ended up scrapping some of the colors because they altered the color harmfully once id reached the prespecified destination.

Life’s like that sometimes. Sometimes we have to scrap blind obedience in favor of balance and accord with earlier wishes and what we feel to be right rather than what we are told is right.

Anyways, here’s the hex code: #384a8c. It’s a beautiful hue of almost an indigo-blue, just like the translation said it’d be.

Well, thanks for reading. I’ll keep y’all update on more of the universe’s less-than-subtle cues.

I like to look up the Strong’s biblical concordance of the numbers there if things look right and they’re short enough.

However this works, I stemmed to slip into an oxbow of the internets winding river. Rearranging letters and came across this:

[bi010gic]

Biologic Scholar Winston Ewert Coauthors New Edition of The Design Inference

The second edition of The Design Inference was recently released. Winston Ewert from the Biologic Institute coauthored the book with William Dembski who wrote the first edition. The original book presented a general methodology for detecting design, which was the most sophisticated framework to date. The second edition represents the culmination of two decades of responding to critics and refining his model. Princeton University mathematician Sergiu Klainerman welcomed the book as follows:

Well argued and eminently readable… I don’t see how any open-minded scientist can ignore this important book.

The first edition of The Design Inference explained how design detection involves identifying patterns that are both highly improbable and specified. A common question raised by readers was the precise definitions for the terms specified and specification. In other words, what exactly makes a pattern specified or special? In many contexts, the answer is simple. For instance, being dealt four poker hands that were all royal flushes would be a very rare and special pattern pointing to someone cheating. Design detection in this example is easy because the category royal flush was already defined (aka prespecified) by the rules of the game. The situation is more challenging when categories of outcomes are not so clearly defined. 

In the new edition, Dembski and Ewert greatly refined the concept of specifications. They defined a specification as a description that requires few words. The description must also only apply to a small proportion of possible outcomes, so the probability of any outcome falling within the specification must be sufficiently small. Patterns that are both identifiable by a short description and highly improbable are almost always designed.  

Returning to the poker example, the four hands I mentioned could be described or specified by the three words four royal flushes, and the probability of four random hands falling within this specification is less than 1 chance in 100 billion trillion. The short description and very low probability indicate design. 

In contrast, four typical hands of five cards would require a very long description, such as the following:

two of diamonds, pair of threes, pair of jacks; three fours, nine of hearts, ten of clubs; four of diamonds, pair of eights, nine of clubs, queen of clubs; three kings, pair of aces

The probability of four hands falling within this description is low, but the description length is very long. Many sets of four poker hands would fall within a description of that length. The low probability is offset by the large number of sets of four hands with descriptions that are that long. The probability of being dealt four hands with such a long description is not sufficiently low to conclude design. 

Conversely, one could label four generic hands with the description random cards. The description is now short, but the probability is very high of four hands falling within this description. The short description is offset by the high probability. Similarly, the famous face on Mars can be described by the two words fuzzy face. Here again, the description length is short, but the probability of a photograph of the surface of a celestial body resembling a face at least as well as the Mars photo is sufficiently high to occur by chance. 

The face on Mars (NASA/JPL)

The underlying logic of Dembski and Ewert’s methodology is profound. Identifying design requires a pattern being assigned by a mind a special significance. A short description meets this criterion since societies assign words or short phrases to that which they designate as special. 

To illustrate, in the movie The Empire Strikes Back, Darth Vader declares to Luke Skywalker one of the most iconic lines in movie history: "I am your father."

Darth Vader could specify himself by the single word father. The relationship between a father and son is designated by all societies as a very special relationship. Relatively few other people could be specified by such a short description. Consequently, the audience knew Luke’s meeting Vader was not an accident but by design. 

In stark contrast, Dark Helmet in the movie Spaceballs tells Lonestar a far longer statement: "I am your father’s brother’s nephew’s cousin’s former roommate."

The fact that Dark Helmet had to employ such a lengthy description to specify himself reflects that their relationship carried no significant meaning. Such a generic relationship could have occurred by chance. Dembski and Ewert detail how their methodology could be applied in many other contexts with equally reliable results.  

[its-a-hil]

why did no one tell me how bad google slides is at animations oh my god

i cant take a sprite and have it move to a prespecified location?? everything is either entering the screen or leaving it this is atrocious

[stockknock]

Five ways for trading unlisted shares in India

An unlisted company is one that is not listed on any formal stock exchange. However, shares of these company are sometimes available for trade on over-the-counter (OTC) markets. Examples of unlisted companies in India being traded in the OTC markets include: Swiggy, Oyo, Serum, CSK, Reliance Retail etc.  Previously, unlisted investment could only be accessed by big banks, hedge funds, private equity companies etc. However, today since shares are available in dematerialised format and there is much more awareness about the financial industry, it is possible for any investor to invest in trading unlisted shares. Today we will discuss some of the commons ways investors can trade in unlisted shares in India.

Pre-IPO Funds

The first way we can invest in unlisted shares is to invest via Pre-IPO funds. Pre-IPO funds specialise in investing in companies that are currently unlisted but will soon get listed on a formal exchange. Pre-IPO Funds pool money from investors and give them an opportunity to invest in companies before they go public at lower valuations and then to reap rewards of the post-IPO valuation. These funds are often availed by prominent retail investors, HNI’s and large family offices. The first AMC to come with dedicated Pre-IPO funds is IIFL AMC. As per information, they are managing Rs 10,000 crore in pre IPO funds, with returns in the range of 10%-15%. Recently, Kotak Investment Advisors also raised Rs 2000 Crore in their Kotak pre-IPO Opportunities Funds. 

Portfolio Management Services or Alternative Investment Funds

Another way to buy unlisted stocks as an investment is to avail Portfolio Management Services (PMS) or Alternate Investment Funds (AIF). These funds are professionally managed investment portfolios backed by extensive due diligence by a team of highly qualified research analysts. These portfolios are actively managed so that they are always adapting to market trends and performances. Investors can invest in PMS or AIF that specialise in unlisted shares. There is less risk via this route due to (i) thorough research (ii) professional management (iii) diversification of capital.

Intermediaries

There are intermediaries likebrokerage firms and wealth management firms that specialise in investing in the unlisted space. Investors can open a DEMAT account with these intermediaries and carry out the transaction through them. The payment gets completed upfront, and the delivery is done in T+3 days. Due to lack of official regulation in the unlisted space, there is counterparty risk involved. Counterparty risk is if the payment is made, however the delivery of the shares is not completed successfully. However, if the intermediary is of reputable name, the counterparty risk involved is minimised.

Employee Stock Ownership Plan

Some large-scale organisations offer their employees stock options known as ESOPs whereby employees get equity ownership in the Company. These ESOPs allow employees to buy the Company's shares at a prespecified rate and after a predefined period. If the employees wish to redeem or sell off their unlisted shares holding, investors can purchase unlisted equity from them.

Private Placement

Private placement is where promoters of a Company want to liquidate their own stake in the Company and therefore put their equity ownership up for sale. Usually, this process is carried out by wealth managers or intermediaries. This route allows investors to trading unlisted shares and to achieve a significant stake in the Company as promoters generally have high ownership percentage with them.

You can use the Stock Knocks website and app to get detailed information on unlisted stocks and hidden gems in India. Just Knock !

Source link: https://www.stockknocks.com/blogs/five-ways-for-trading-unlisted-shares-in-india

[moremedtech]

USFDA approves Pfizer's ZAVZPRET nasal spray for migraines

USFDA approves Pfizer's ZAVZPRET nasal spray for migraines. ZAVZPRET is the first and only calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP) receptor antagonist nasal sprayfor the acute treatment of migraine in adults. Expands Pfizer’s migraine portfolio, which includes oral therapy for both acute and preventive treatment, to further meet the needs of people living with this debilitating disease. NEW YORK, March 10, 2023 - Pfizer Inc. (NYSE: PFE) today announced the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved ZAVZPRET™ (zavegepant), the first and only calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP) receptor antagonist nasal spray for the acute treatment of migraine with or without aura in adults. In its pivotal Phase 3 study, ZAVZPRET was statistically superior to placebo on the co-primary endpoints of pain freedom and freedom from most bothersome symptoms at two hours post-dose. The pivotal study also demonstrated pain relief as early as 15 minutes in a prespecified secondary endpoint versus placebo. “The FDA approval of ZAVZPRET marks a significant breakthrough for people with migraine who need freedom from pain and prefer alternative options to oral medications,” said Angela Hwang, Chief Commercial Officer, President, Global Biopharmaceuticals Business, Pfizer. “ZAVZPRET underscores Pfizer’s commitment to delivering an additional treatment option to help people with migraine gain relief and get back to their daily lives. Pfizer will continue to build its migraine franchise to further support the billions of people worldwide impacted by this debilitating disease.” The FDA approval is based on two pivotal randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled studies that established the efficacy, tolerability and safety profiles of ZAVZPRET for the acute treatment of migraine. In these studies, ZAVZPRET was statistically superior to placebo on the co-primary endpoints of pain freedom (defined as a reduction of moderate or severe headache pain to no headache pain) and freedom from most bothersome symptom at two hours post-dose (defined as the absence of the self-identified most bothersome symptom). The pivotal Phase 3 study published in The Lancet Neurology found ZAVZPRET showed broad efficacy by also demonstrating statistically significant superiority to placebo across 13 of 17 prespecified secondary outcome measures, including early time point endpoints (e.g., 15 and 30-minute pain relief and return to normal function at 30 minutes), return to normal function at 2 hours, and durable efficacy endpoints (e.g., 2-24 and 2-48 hour sustained pain freedom and sustained pain relief). On the 14th endpoint, return to normal function at 15 minutes post-dose, the difference between ZAVZPRET and placebo was not significant. Consequently, in keeping with the trial’s statistical analysis plan, the remaining secondary endpoints were not formally tested. “When a migraine hits, it has a significant negative impact on a person’s daily life,” said Kathleen Mullin, M.D., Associate Medical Director at New England Institute for Neurology & Headache. “Among my migraine patients, one of the most important attributes of an acute treatment option is how quickly it works. As a nasal spray with rapid drug absorption, ZAVZPRET offers an alternative treatment option for people who need pain relief or cannot take oral medications due to nausea or vomiting, so they can get back to normal function quickly.” ZAVZPRET was well tolerated in clinical trials. The most common adverse reactions reported in at least 2% of patients treated with ZAVZPRET and at a frequency greater than placebo were taste disorders (including dysgeusia and ageusia), nausea, nasal discomfort, and vomiting. ZAVZPRET is contraindicated in patients with a history of hypersensitivity to zavegepant or to any of its components. Hypersensitivity reactions, including facial swelling and urticaria, have occurred with ZAVZPRET in clinical studies. ZAVZPRET is anticipated to be available in pharmacies in July 2023. Nearly 40 million people in the United States suffer from migraine and the World Health Organization classifies migraine as the second leading cause of disability in the world. Migraine is characterized by debilitating attacks lasting four to 72 hours with multiple symptoms, including pulsating headaches of moderate to severe pain intensity often associated with nausea or vomiting, and/or sensitivity to sound (phonophobia) and sensitivity to light (photophobia).

CGRP Receptor Antagonism

Small molecule CGRP receptor antagonists represent a novel class of drugs for the treatment of migraine. For acute treatment, this unique mode of action offers an alternative to other agents, including those patients who have contraindications to the use of triptans have a poor response to triptans or are intolerant to them. CGRP signal-blocking therapies have not been associated with medication overuse headaches (MOH) or rebound headaches, which can limit the clinical utility of other acute treatments. Zavegepant is a third-generation, high affinity, selective, and structurally unique, small molecule CGRP receptor antagonist and the only CGRP receptor antagonist in clinical development with both intranasal and oral formulations.

INDICATION

ZAVZPRET™ (zavegepant) is indicated for the acute treatment of migraine with or without aura in adults. Limitations of Use: ZAVZPRET is not indicated for the preventive treatment of migraine. Read the full article

[mi6-rogue]

Safety and immunogenicity of SARS-CoV-2 self-amplifying RNA vaccine expressing anchored RBD: a randomised, observer-blind, phase 1 study

Preliminary report; BACKGROUND VLPCOV-01 is a lipid nanoparticle-encapsulated self-amplifying (sa) RNA vaccine that expresses a membrane-anchored receptor-binding domain (RBD) derived from the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein. METHODS A phase 1 study of VLPCOV-01 was conducted at Medical Corporation Heishinkai OPHAC Hospital, Japan. The investigational vaccines were administered to participants, between February 16, 2022, and March 17, 2022. Participants aged 18 to 55 or [≥]65 years who had completed two doses of the BNT162b2 mRNA vaccine 6 to 12 months previously were randomised to receive one intramuscular vaccination of 0{middle dot}3, 1{middle dot}0, or 3{middle dot}0 {micro}g VLPCOV-01, 30 {micro}g BNT162b2, or placebo. Solicited adverse events were collected up to 6 days post-administration, with follow-up on all adverse events until week 4. Interim immunogenicity analyses following data cutoff at day 29 included SARS-CoV-2 IgG and neutralising antibody titres. (The trial is registered: jRCT2051210164). FINDINGS 92 healthy adults were enrolled, with 60 participants receiving VLPCOV-01. No serious adverse events were reported up to 26 weeks, and no prespecified trial-halting events were met. VLPCOV-01 induced robust IgG titres against SARS-CoV-2 RBD protein that were maintained up to 26 weeks in non-elderly participants, with geometric means ranging from 5037 (95% CI 1272-19,940) at 0{middle dot}3 {micro}g to 12,873 (95% CI 937-17,686) at 3 {micro}g, in comparison to 3166 (95% CI 1619-6191) with 30 {micro}g BNT162b2. Among elderly participants, IgG titres at 26 weeks post-vaccination with 3 {micro}g VLPCOV-01 were 9865 (95% CI 4396-22138) compared to 4183 (95% CI 1436-12180) following vaccination with 30 {micro}g BNT162b2. Pseudovirus-Neutralising antibody responses were observed against multiple SARS-CoV-2 variants and strongly correlated with anti-SARS-CoV-2 IgG (r=0{middle dot}950, p https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.11.21.22281000v1?rss=1%22&utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=tumblr Read more ↓

[pandemic-info]

In this retrospective matched cohort study, we observed significant new onset morbidity in children, adolescents, and adults across 13 prespecified diagnosis/symptom complexes, following COVID-19 infection. These findings expand the existing available evidence on post-COVID-19 conditions in younger age groups and confirm previous findings in adults.

Translation: long COVID is just as much of a concern in children as in adults.

[wedevelopmentfcu]

Unsecured Lines of Credit

What Is an Unsecured Line of Credit?

A bank expects a more serious gamble in giving an Unsecured Lines of Credit. The borrower's resources are not really dependent upon seizure upon default. Obviously, Unsecured Lines of Credit are harder to get for the two organizations and people.

Charge cards are basically Unsecured Lines of Credit. That is one motivation behind why the loan costs on them are so high. Assuming that the cardholder defaults, there's nothing the Visa guarantor can seize for pay.

A business might need to open a credit extension to back its development, for instance. The assets are to be reimbursed out of future business returns. Such credits are possibly thought of in the event that the organization is deeply grounded and has an astounding standing. And still, at the end of the day, moneylenders make up for the expanded gamble by restricting the sum that can be acquired and by charging higher financing costs.

What Is a Line of Credit?

A credit extension is an adaptable credit from a bank or monetary foundation. Like a Mastercard that offers you a restricted measure of assets — reserves that you can utilize when, if, and how you wish — a credit extension is a characterized measure of cash that you can access depending on the situation and afterward reimburse right away or over a prespecified timeframe. Similarly as with a credit, a credit extension will charge revenue when cash is acquired, and borrowers should be supported by the bank, with such endorsement a side-effect of the borrower's FICO score as well as relationship with the bank. Note that the loan fee is by and large factor, which makes it hard to foresee what the cash you acquire will really wind up setting you back.

Credit extensions will generally be lower-risk income sources comparative with charge card credits, yet they truly do convolute a bank's procuring resource the executives fairly, as the remarkable equilibriums can't exactly be controlled once the credit extension has been endorsed. They address the way that banks are not appallingly keen on guaranteeing one-time private advances, especially unstable credits, for most clients. Moreover, it isn't efficient for a borrower to apply for a line of credit consistently or two, reimburse it, and afterward get once more. Credit extensions answer both of these issues just barely of cash accessible if and when the borrower needs it.

Visit https://wedevelopmentfcu.com/ for more information about Unsecured Lines of Credit

[sophieinwonderland]

I just added an article to my Studies and Research page about Simulation Theory

It's behind a paywall, meaning some may have to access through other means. (*cough* sci-hub *cough*)

It's not directly related to plurality, but I think it might offer an explanation for how and why introjects/fictives/factives form. Essentially, simulation theory proposes that a natural part of human empathy is the ability to simulate the emotions of others.

ST (in its original form) says that people employ imagination, mental pretense, or perspective taking (‘putting oneself in the other person’s shoes’) to determine others’ mental states. A mentalizer simulates another person by first creating pretend states (e.g., pretend desires and beliefs) in her own mind that correspond to those of the target. She then inputs these pretend states into a suitable cognitive mechanism, which operates on the inputs and generates a new output (e.g., a decision). This new state is taken ‘off line’ and attributed or assigned to the target.

...

In contrast to low-level mind reading, high-level mind reading is more complex and tends to involve propositional attitudes. It typically requires guidance by information stored in long-term memory. This kind of simulation process also involves the use of imagination. Imagination is here understood as a constructive process that attempts to produce a prespecified mental state in the self by endogenous means (not, e.g., by scanning the environment). As remarked earlier, visualization is a species of imagination in which one attempts to produce a visual state akin to seeing a specified object or scenario. For me to visualize Barack Obama taking the oath of office is to construct in my mind a state akin to seeing this event. (I can visualize it either beforehand, before actually seeing it, or afterwards, based on recall.) Imagination need not involve a sensory modality. One can imagine believing something one does not actually believe, and hoping for something one does not actually hope for; neither the belief nor the hope has to involve any modality-specific cognition.

How is imagination useful for third-person mind reading? If you seek to predict someone’s decision—for example, the choice of a main dish by your dinner companion at a restaurant—how could you use imagination to make this prediction? The first step is to put yourself in your target’s shoes, or take her ‘perspective’. Taking someone’s perspective here means adopting, as far as feasible and in light of what you know about her, the mental states she starts with. This includes her preferences about food in general, what she liked at this restaurant on previous occasions, how hungry she is on the present occasion (did she have a light lunch, no lunch, or a heavy lunch today?), and so forth. Using the imagination, you can simulate being in her various dinner-relevant states. Such pretend states can then be fed into your decision-making mechanism, which generates a decision to order a particular main dish. Having used this simulation process to generate a (pretend) choice, you don’t order this dish yourself but attribute the choice to your companion. Thus, the attribution is based on imagination-driven simulation (Figure 2). Note that the simulation process does not rely on the mind reader’s appeal to psychological generalizations (e.g., a generalization about human decision making), which is a crucial part of TT. You don’t need such generalizations under ST; you just need the cognitive ability to simulate decision making via pretend rather than genuine inputs.

I've tried finding articles that might use this concept as a way of understanding the cognitive processes that underlie introjection, but it's difficult to find any such research.

There's a lot of research showing that introjects are a thing, but very little into why or how they form. As a (non-DID/OSDD) fictive, this was something of particular interest to me, but apparently psychologists just blindly accept that the mind can create "parts" complete with false autobiographical memories from their source that feel real to them, with no further questions asked about how that actually happens!

[collapsedsquid]

Perhaps the most controversial part of such a settlement would be the idea of reducing the total amount of water promised to agricultural producers in the irrigation network known as the “Klamath Project.” The scientists I spoke with all supported shrinking the project. This would particularly benefit the wildlife refuges, which rely on project water to create wetlands for half of the migrating bird species on the Pacific Flyway. Buying producers out costs money—but so does approving multimillion-dollar relief packages every drought year. And water allocations could be reduced with generous buyouts that would amply compensate producers for returning their share of the lake water to the commonweal. But among project farmers and ranchers, this approach rankles. “The folks we represent do not like that idea whatsoever,” Mark Johnson, the deputy director of the Klamath Water Users Association, told me. “They do not like the idea of being bought out. Their grandparents homesteaded. There is a lot of history there.”

A soft approach would be to reduce the promises made by the project opportunistically, as producers without interested heirs retire, nibbling away at the total water allocation without suddenly unraveling agricultural communities. Farmers who stay may have to change their business model, eventually, moving away from rigid contracts for prespecified amounts and grades of crops that don’t allow for unpredictable water conditions. These farmers would need to be supported as they experiment with more flexible approaches, including lower-water crops, new breeds, and new styles of irrigation. The capital investments required to quickly switch to a new crop rotation can be enormous.