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#Materials Sciences Division
skenpiel · 2 years
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i need money i need money. i need money to buy star trek things
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filintasy · 2 years
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Tahani Amer is a program executive in the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington, D.C. She also serves as a technical and programmatic expert for complex agency aerospace programs, supporting NASA's Earth Science Division.
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usnatarchives · 3 months
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Beyond the Stars: Mae Jemison’s Odyssey ✨
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Happy Black History Month!
This Black History Month, we spotlight the extraordinary life of Dr. Mae Jemison, the first African American woman to travel in space. Born on October 17, 1956, in Decatur, Alabama, and raised in Chicago, Illinois, Jemison’s journey into the stars is a testament to the power of dreams and determination.
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From an early age, Jemison showed a keen interest in science and space, but noticed the absence of women astronauts. She pursued her passion relentlessly, earning a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from Stanford University and an M.D. from Cornell Medical College. Before joining NASA, Jemison was a general practitioner and served in the Peace Corps in Sierra Leone and Liberia, where she managed health care for other volunteers. In 1987, Jemison’s dream became reality when she was selected for NASA’s astronaut program. On September 12, 1992, aboard the Space Shuttle Endeavor on mission STS-47, Jemison became the first African American woman to travel in space, serving as a mission specialist. During her eight-day mission, she conducted experiments on weightlessness and motion sickness, contributing valuable data to the field.
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Jemison’s honors include induction into the National Women’s Hall of Fame, the National Medical Association Hall of Fame, and the Texas Science Hall of Fame, among others. Her story is not just one of breaking barriers in space exploration, but also of inspiring generations to pursue their dreams, regardless of birth and obstacles.
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For more information on Mae Jemison’s groundbreaking journey and contributions to science and humanity, the National Archives holds numerous resources that illuminate the lives and achievements of African American pioneers:
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poisonlove · 8 months
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Miss Ortega | j.o
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part 7
—The cell is made up of the nucleus and the cytoplasm and is enclosed by the cell membrane, which regulates passage in and out. The nucleus contains chromosomes, the cell's genetic material, and the nucleolus, which produces ribosomes. My eyes shift to Olivia, who was jotting down my words in her notebook.
In the late afternoon, I was at Olivia's house to help her study science, primarily about what a cell is and its functions. Olivia nods, giving me a nervous smile.
—One last question... what's cell division?— She puts the tip of her pen between her teeth, thoughtful.
—Cell division is the process by which a cell multiplies, splitting into two. In prokaryotes, it happens through binary fission (DNA filament duplication and subsequent division into two identical new individuals). In eukaryotes, it occurs through mitosis and, in reproductive cells, meiosis.— I say, shrugging casually.
Olivia writes it all down and then closes her notebook with a soft thud, sighing with satisfaction and tiredness.
—We're done,— she murmurs weakly, looking at me with a smile on her lips.
—We're done,— I repeat, and she stretches, slightly tense from maintaining an uncomfortable position for a long time.
—I'm not surprised you never get a failing grade, you're a book,— she says as she gets up from her desk, flopping onto her bed's mattress.
—Don't exaggerate...— I chuckle and give her a playful look. —Now... will you let me hear something you've written?— I nervously bite my lip, accepting the invitation to sit beside her on the bed.
Olivia sighs and reluctantly agrees to my request, blushing as she looks at me. —Wait,— she murmurs softly, leaning towards the edge of the bed, picking up a guitar case from the floor. Olivia glances at me sideways, holding the guitar in her hands.
—I'll sing you a little snippet of the song, okay? Also... I haven't finished it yet,— she says, toying with the guitar strings, likely tuning it.
I gaze in awe at her profile. Olivia had her head tilted down, holding the guitar in her lap. Her eyes briefly meet mine for a split second before she looks away with flushed cheeks.
Taking a breath, she closes her eyes, focusing.
—And I won't fight for love if you won't meet me halfway...— she begins to sing. And I say that I'm through but this song's still for you–
Her voice sounds angelic, surprising me with her talent. Olivia glances at me briefly, giving me a small smile.
—All I want is love that lasts— her eyes glisten, still looking at me.
—Is all I want too much to ask?— her fingers pause, interrupting the sweet melody. Olivia sets the guitar aside and looks at me with embarrassment, accepting my applause.
—Oh my god... you have an amazing voice,— I admit, and she tucks a strand of hair behind her ear, staring at a fixed point on her lap. —Thank you,— she offers a shy smile, and I reciprocate.
A knock on the door draws our attention to the entrance of her room. Olivia's mother, Emma, is standing there with a smile on her lips.
—T/N, dear, why don't you stay for dinner with us?— Mrs. Rodrigo suggests.
With a smile, I look at Olivia's reaction. She's looking at me with bright eyes and a smile, nodding enthusiastically.
—That would be fantastic,— I reply, and immediately, two arms wrap around my neck, hugging me. The force makes me lie back on the bed, and amid laughter, I return the hug, smiling shyly at Emma, who watches us with tenderness as I hold Olivia in my arms.
(...) —So... how's it going with the girl you like?— Enid asks, hugging a pillow in her arms.
After helping Olivia study, I received an invitation from Enid to have a pajama party at her house, inviting Olivia as well since she was with me. The blonde only knew that I liked someone, but she didn't know who, and for obvious reasons, she was really mad at me. I know she's my best friend, but I still couldn't tell her that I was in love with Professor Ortega.
—Actually, it's all going wrong... she said it's better if I forget what happened,— I lower my head towards my lap, sadly biting my lower lip. —Well, what a jerk...— Enid makes a face. —If only I knew who she was, I would have given her a piece of my mind,— she says absentmindedly, pulling at the corners of the pillow in her hands.
—You tried your best,— I smile sideways, and Enid throws the pillow at my face, messing up my hair. I chuckle slightly and wink at her.
—What do you think about Olivia, though?— she suddenly asks, lying down on the bed. I turn toward the door, relieved when I see that the subject of conversation is still downstairs preparing popcorn for the movie.
—Are you crazy? She's here...— I whisper, and she rolls her eyes at my comment.
—I don't see her,— Enid turns toward me, focusing her attention on me.
I sigh and shake my head. —She's nice...— I shrug indifferently, smiling at the blonde. Enid raises an eyebrow and gives me a smile, silently asking me to tell her more.
—She's beautiful... there's no doubt... but you know I'm in love with someone else,— I play with my fingers, embarrassed by the situation.
—She'd be perfect for you, you know? Plus... she really likes you,— Enid confesses. She adjusts her pajamas and gets under the covers, getting ready to watch the movie on her room's TV.
—I know... but for now... I only see her as a friend,— I tuck a strand of hair behind my ear and look confused at Enid's reaction, who is looking with panic over my shoulder.
I turn to her line of sight and pale when I see Olivia near the door. The brunette awkwardly leaves the popcorn bowl on the shelf and, with tears in her eyes, looks at me, shaking her head with regret. I stand up and bite my lips, mentally scolding myself for being so stupid.
I close the door behind me.
—Liv, wait,— I quickly descend the stairs, trying to catch up with Olivia. The brunette ignores me and walks toward the couches, searching for her jacket. I quicken my pace and grab her wrist. Olivia turns around and looks at me with tear-streaked cheeks, making me feel guilty.
—What do you want? You've said enough,— she says with venom, clenching her jaw.
—Liv...— I whisper, and her eyes glisten. Her shoulders relax, and she tentatively shuffles in place, wanting to hear what I have to say.
—Tell me...— her voice tone is clearly broken, showing that my confession has hurt her. I step closer, placing my hands around her face, wiping away some tears. Her eyes look at me sweetly despite the pain she's feeling. She places a hand against mine, giving me a comforting squeeze.
—Right now... I'm in love with someone else,— she nods, with bitterness in her mouth. —But it doesn't mean that in the future, I can't be with you... if you heard the whole conversation... and I'm pretty sure you did... I said that for now, I see you as a friend,— I smile sidelong, stroking her cheek. Olivia tilts her chin up and licks her lips, looking at me seriously. Suddenly, we're at the same height level since she's on tiptoes. My breath catches in my throat, and I timidly observe what the brunette wants to do.
—Kiss me...— she whispers, closing her eyes and clenching her jaw. —I just want to kiss you... at least once,— she confesses, making my chest tighten. I remove one hand from her face and trail it down her back, stopping at her waist, pulling Olivia closer to me.
—This...— I swallow, nervous due to the proximity. —This I can do— I lean toward her face and close the minimal distance between our lips. The kiss is sweet and at the same time salty from her tears. Olivia wraps her arms around my neck, sighing against my lips, receiving the long-desired kiss. The rhythm of the kiss is slow; we're simply enjoying the contact between our mouths. Olivia taps her tongue against my lower lip, asking for permission to enter. I part my lips, and our tongues meet, tentatively exploring each other's mouths.
I press my forehead against hers after ending the kiss. The brunette has a smile on her lips, looking at me with shining eyes of happiness. She leans in and briefly connects our lips for a split second before pulling away.
—That was... wow,— I admit, and she nods, completely agreeing.
I have to admit that the kiss was beautiful, I really enjoyed it. Her lips were sweet, inviting in a different way from Jenna's. Just mentioning the brunette makes me grimace, and I try to erase the image of her eyes from my mind so as not to ruin the moment. Olivia looks at me smiling, happy about what just happened.
—So... shall we go upstairs to watch the movie?— I suggest, and she nods slowly, starting to climb the stairs, our hands still intertwined.
—So... can you wait? I know it sounds horrible to ask, but I want to know, I want to find out if it's truly over with... the other person. I swear, if she's convinced that our... relationship? I don't know what to call it... is completely over... I'll give myself a chance to be with you,— I timidly ask, nervous about making this proposition. Olivia sighs and nods her head with both sadness and excitement at having a chance with me.
—Yes... you're... you're right, you know? I understand... it's not easy to choose between two girls you like... I'll wait... and if you choose me... I promise I'll never leave, T/N,— she admits, making me shiver slightly at the intensity of her gaze. I blush.
—Alright... because I was already getting ready to chase after you to talk,— I joke, and she chuckles softly, tilting her head back.
Her fingers tighten around my hand, stroking the back of my hand with her thumb.
—I wouldn't have gone anywhere... not in pajamas, obviously,— she raises her head with pride, and I burst out laughing at the expression on her face.
—Well... now let's go watch the movie? Enid's waiting for us,— I suggest, and she nods, starting to climb the stairs while still holding my hand, our fingers entwined.
It was late, but I was still awake, studying for the English literature exam I had the next day. The words on the pages were blurry, and I was unsure if I'd remember half of what I was reading due to how tired I was. But I had to keep going to be able to say that I had at least tried.
The vibration of the phone on the desk pulled my attention away from the book. With a sigh of relief, I picked up the device, thanking my lucky stars for the break. I looked at the screen, puzzled, when I saw that both Olivia and Jenna had messaged me.
I decided to read Olivia's message first.
Liv: heyyy (1:13 AM)
Damn, was it already one in the morning?
                                                        Yo: Hey Liv!
Liv: Are you done studying?
I furrowed my brows and nervously bit my lower lip.
                                           Yo: Not really.
                Yo: But if you need help, I'm here.
Liv: Great! Actually, you'd do me a huge favor if you could open the window.
I closed the chat and walked over to a corner of my room, spotting Olivia in front of my house, holding her phone. I opened the window and leaned out, smiling at the girl standing on the street.
—What are you doing here?— I whispered, not wanting to wake up the rest of my family.
Olivia looked up from her phone and smiled at me.
As a response, she moved closer to stand right beneath my window, gazing up at the tree near my house. With a swift but careful movement, she started climbing its branches, eventually reaching out to touch the edge of my window with her fingertips.
—Are you crazy or something?— I looked at my friend with concern.
—If you help me, you'd be doing me a favor,— she panted, not being able to hold on much longer.
I extended my hand and grabbed hers, helping her into my room. With a little jump, she made it all the way in, looking at me with a nervous smile.
—So, spill it,— I absentmindedly stared at the lamp light that was focused on the book on my desk. I sighed in frustration.
—In a few days, there's the end-of-semester dance... you know, the start of the Christmas break...— she put her hands in her pockets, blushing as she looked at me.
Oh... I knew where this was going.
—T/N... would you like to come to the dance with me?— she asked, sounding hopeful.
I opened my mouth in surprise and remained silent for a few seconds, wanting to think about her proposal. In reality... I wasn't even sure if I wanted to go, as I didn't want to be a third wheel between Enid and Ajax... but if I had to choose someone to go with... besides Jenna, of course... it would definitely be Olivia Rodrigo.
—Yes...— I whispered, and she leaned slightly forward, not having heard my response. I widened my eyes when I saw the living room light shining through my slightly open door. Quickly, I grabbed Olivia by the shoulders and motioned for her to move towards the window, needing to get out of here immediately. Olivia placed a foot on a tree branch before turning back in my direction.
—So? — my eyes darted towards the door as I used my hands to urge Olivia. I looked at her with wide eyes before nodding repeatedly. —Yes?— she asked, with a smile on her lips.
—Yes! Now go before you get caught— I muttered under my breath, looking at Olivia. She nodded and leaned towards my face, briefly connecting our lips for a split second. I looked at her in surprise but didn't say anything, watching closely as she jumped down from the tree, landing on her feet.
—Goodnight— she smiled at me, waving her hand, and ran down the sidewalk towards her house on the other side of the neighborhood.
With a yawn, I returned to my desk, picked up my phone, turned off the lamp, and collapsed onto my bed. A sigh of relief escaped my mouth as I heard the sound of the toilet flushing.
Well, it was just a bathroom break.
I turned on my phone and went on WhatsApp, reading Jenna's message. I couldn't deny that I was quite nervous; I didn't expect her to message me after days... maybe a week or two without hearing from her.
Ortega: Are you awake?
                                                            Yo: Yes.
Jenna's smile appeared on my screen, and I responded to her call with confusion.
—Hello?— I asked, hearing a breath on the other end. Jenna remained silent for a few seconds before speaking.
—Is it true?— she asked, leaving me completely stunned. I got under the covers, trying to figure out what to say.
—What?— I inquired, not exactly sure what she was talking about. She sighed in frustration before gritting her teeth.
—There are rumors at school that you and Rodrigo are together... is it true?— she muttered, sounding both annoyed and curious.
—Excuse me?— I was rather incredulous, not being able to believe what I was hearing. Jenna Ortega had called me in the middle of the night to ask me something like this.
—Is it true or not? ANSWER— she raised her voice, noticeably angry. I could hear her heavy breathing, making me feel uncomfortable and slightly afraid.
—No... We're not together... we're just getting to know each other... that's it,— I confessed, nervously biting my lower lip. —But anyway, isn't it none of your business who I'm dating? After all, you were the one who wanted distance a few days ago,— I retorted, annoyed by her attitude.
Jenna sighed loudly and ended the call, leaving me feeling both triumphant and confused. Whatever had gotten into her, I didn't know, but in any case, she had no right to treat me like this, especially after she wanted to pull away.
I placed the phone on the bedside shelf and closed my eyes, trying to fall asleep. The ghost of Olivia's kiss lingered on my lips, while Jenna's voice echoed in my head.
To say that I'm confused is an understatement.
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pompadourpink · 1 year
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Les prépositions
A
À - to (je vais à la plage - I’m going to the beach), at (le chat est à la maison - the cat is at the house), indirect object/complément d’attribution (c’est au chat - it’s the cat's), adverbial phrase of way (une peinture à l’huile - an oil painting), adverbial locution introducer (à l’instant - just now), price indicator (le kilo de pommes est à deux euros), infinitive form introducer (c’est à prendre ou à laisser - take it or leave it), approximation introducer (c’est à dix minutes d’ici - it’s about ten min. away), against (dos à dos), after (pas à pas), until (aimer à la folie)
Après - after (je te rejoins après le travail - I’ll join you after work)
Avant - before (je me suis levée avant toi - I got up before you did)
Avec - with (je vis avec mes deux chats - I live with my two cats)
C
Chez - at X’s > person or brand of a shop (je suis chez mon père - I'm at dad's)
Concernant - regarding, about (concernant ton offre, je la refuse - about your offer, I'm refusing it)
Contre - against (je suis contre ta décision - I stand against your decision, le chat est assis contre le mur - the cat is sitting against the wall)
D
Dans - in (le chat est dans mon sac - the cat is in my bag)
D’après - according to (d’après Victor Hugo, Fantine est blonde)
De - of (au bout de la rue - at the end of the street)
Dedans - inside of it (le chat est dedans - the cat is inside of it)
Dehors - outside (le chat est dehors - the cat is outside)
Depuis - since (j'ai mon chat depuis que j'ai dix ans - I've had my cat since I was 10), from (tout était beau, depuis la décoration jusqu’aux couleurs - everything was lovely, from the decoration to the colours)
Derrière - behind (le chat est derrière toi - the cat is behind you)
Dès - as soon as (je te préviens dès que j’arrive - I’ll let you know as soon as I get there), immediately (si je pouvais, je partirais dès maintenant)
Dessous - under (la clé était dessous le lit - the key was under the bed)
Dessus - on (le chat est assis dessus - the cat is sitting on it),
Devant - in front of (j’attends devant la maison - I’m waiting in front of the house)
Durant - during (il est mort durant la famine - he died during the famine), for (elle a vécu là-bas durant des années - she lived there for years)
E
En - at (je suis nul en Français - I’m bad at French), material indicator (une table en bois - a wooden table), change indicator (il s’est transformé en papillon - it turned into a butterfly), division mood (couper en deux - cut in two pieces), during (en hiver, j’ai toujours un rhume - during the winter season, I always get a cold), gerundive element (elle tomba en criant - she fell, screaming), shape/appearance indicator (un arbre en fleurs - a blossoming tree)
Entre - between/out of (entre tous les garçons, Louis est le plus grand - out of all of the boys, Louis is the tallest)
Envers - towards/to (il est méchant envers elle - he’s mean to her)
Ès - in (licencié-e ès sciences - bachelor of sciences) - rare, uni titles
Excepté(e/s) - except (exceptée Louise, elles sont toutes arrivées)
H
Hormis - except (hormis Pierre, nous avons tous le permis - except from Pierre, we all have a driving license)
Hors - out of (il est hors de lui - he’s beside himself)
J
Jusque/jusqu’à (+ subjunctive) - until (il a miaulé jusqu'à ce que je le nourrisse - he meowed until I fed him)
M
Malgré - despite (il est venu malgré sa grippe - he came despite his flu)
Moyennant - in exchange for (moyennant un changement de ton, tu pourras rester - If you change your tone, you’ll be allowed to stay) - rare
N
Nonobstant - in spite of (”Charles Myriel, nonobstant ce mariage, avait, disait-on, beaucoup fait parler de lui” Les Misérables) - rare/old
O
Ôté - taken of from (6 ôté de 10 égale 4)
Outre - besides (outre mes deux cats, il n'y a personne chez moi - outside of my cats, there's no one at my house)
P
Par - by (la Joconde a été painte par Léonard de Vinci), direction indicator (il est parti par là - he went that way), with (je commence par une entrée - I start with an entree), per (j’en prends trois par jour - I take three per days)
Parmi - amongst (parmi mes chats, c'est le plus petit - he’s my smallest cat)
Passé - after/past (passé 2h, tout est fermé - past 2AM, everything is closed)
Pendant - during (je t’appellerai pendant ma pause - I’ll call you during my break)
Pour - for (je suis là pour toi - I’m here for you), to (je pars pour Paris - I’m heading to Paris), according to (pour moi, c'est une erreur - I think it's a mistake)
Près (de) - near (je suis près de Paris - I’m near Paris)
S
Sans - without (je suis sans voix - I am speechless)
Sauf - except (j’aime tout sauf la pluie - I like everything but rain)
Selon - according to (selon moi, tu as tort - in my opinion, you’re wrong)
Sous - under (le chat est sous la table - the cat is under the table)
Suivant - according to (suivant ce que j’ai entendu, il ne reviendra pas - according to what I’ve heard, he won’t come back)
Sur - on (le chat est sur la table - the cat is on the table), about (c’est un film sur la guerre - it’s a movie about the war), towards (regarde sur ta droite - look on your right), out of (deux fois sur trois il est en retard - two out of three times he's late)
V
Vers - towards (elle avance vers moi - she’s coming towards me), somewhere around (elle habite vers l’église - she lives near the church), about (Elle est rentrée vers minuit - she got home around midnight)
Voici - here is/are (voici mon chat - here’s my cat)
Voilà - there is/are (et voilà les miens - and there are mine), it’s been (voilà deux ans que je ne les avais pas vues - it had been two years since I last saw them)
Vu - given (vu la situation, c’est mieux comme ça - given the circumstances, that’s better that way) - casual
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Movie: La Chinoise - Jean-Paul Godard, 1967
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spacenutspod · 3 months
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2 min read Hubble Glimpses a Bright Galaxy Group This new NASA Hubble Space Telescope image shows a tangled group of interacting galaxies called LEDA 60847. NASA/ESA/A. Barth (University of California – Irvine)/M. Koss (Eureka Scientific Inc.)/A. Robinson (Rochester Institute of Technology)/Processing: Gladys Kober (NASA/Catholic University of America) This new NASA Hubble Space Telescope image shows a group of interacting galaxies known as LEDA 60847. LEDA 60847 is classified as an active galactic nuclei, or AGN. An AGN has a supermassive black hole in the galaxy’s central region that is accreting material. The AGN emits radiation across the entire electromagnetic spectrum and shines extremely brightly. By studying powerful AGNs that are relatively nearby, astronomers can better understand how supermassive black holes grow and affect galaxies. Galaxy mergers are relatively common occurrences. Most larger galaxies are the result of smaller galaxies merging. The Milky Way itself contains traces of other galaxies, indicating it is the product of past mergers. Astronomers believe somewhere between 5% and 25% of all galaxies are currently merging.  This image of LEDA 60847 combines ultraviolet, visible, and near-infrared data from Hubble. The ability to see across all those wavelengths is one of the things that makes Hubble unique. Different types of light across the electromagnetic spectrum tell astronomers different things about our universe. Ultraviolet light traces the glow of stellar nurseries and is used to identify the hottest stars. Visible light shows us moderate-temperature stars and material, and also how the view would appear to our own eyes. Last but not least, near-infrared light can penetrate cold dust, allowing us to study warm gas and dust, and relatively cool stars. LEARN MORE: Hubble’s Cosmic Collisions Hubble Science: Galaxy Details and Mergers Hubble Science: Tracing the Growth of Galaxies Download this image Media Contact: Claire AndreoliNASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, [email protected] Share Details Last Updated Jan 23, 2024 Editor Andrea Gianopoulos Location Goddard Space Flight Center Related Terms Active Galaxies Astrophysics Division Galaxies Goddard Space Flight Center Hubble Space Telescope Missions The Universe Keep Exploring Discover More Topics From NASA Hubble Space Telescope Since its 1990 launch, the Hubble Space Telescope has changed our fundamental understanding of the universe. Galaxies Stories Stars Stories James Webb Space Telescope Webb is the premier observatory of the next decade, serving thousands of astronomers worldwide. It studies every phase in the…
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mudwerks · 2 months
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(via Musk claims Neuralink patient doing OK with implant, can move mouse with brain | Ars Technica)
Medical ethicists alarmed by Musk being "sole source of information" on patient.
Neuralink's method of releasing information was criticized last week by Arthur Caplan, a bioethics professor and head of the Division of Medical Ethics at NYU Grossman School of Medicine, and Jonathan Moreno, a University of Pennsylvania medical ethics professor.
"Science by press release, while increasingly common, is not science," Caplan and Moreno wrote in an essay published by the nonprofit Hastings Center. "When the person paying for a human experiment with a huge financial stake in the outcome is the sole source of information, basic ethical standards have not been met."
don’t forget:
Neuralink has been criticized for alleged mistreatment of animals in research and was reportedly fined $2,480 for violating US Department of Transportation rules on the movement of hazardous materials after inspections of company facilities last year.
People "should continue to be skeptical of the safety and functionality of any device produced by Neuralink," the nonprofit Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine said after last month's announcement of the first implant.
It is unbelievable to me that anyone would trust this person with anything - let alone a human brain. But...successful grifters always find people willing to believe, just look at maga and them shoes.
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t00thpasteface · 3 months
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Hiiiii₍⁠₍⁠◞⁠(⁠ ⁠•⁠௰⁠•⁠ ⁠)⁠◟⁠₎⁠₎
Could you explain the hipster Vs fandom war. I've been on here for like four years and I never knew that existed lol and btw I really really love your art and you are one my biggest inspos for how I imagine and draw my Clark.
i'm not sure i can explain it in a way that makes sense, and certainly not in a way that makes you say "i understand why this was such a big deal", but gl'bgolyb knows i can try.
first, let me take you on a sensory experience... picture in your mind the following things... skinny jeans... nerd glasses... a weirdly dapper fashion sense in a time where everything is baggy and neon... boom, you have 2010-2014 online tumblr hipster culture. and also 70s elvis costello, oddly enough.
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although admittedly i don't know his stance on pumpkin spice lattes.
anyway. now that that's burned into your brain, consider a significant population of this exact type of person that has already been well-established on this microblogging platform around the turn of the decade. tumblr doesn't really have an app yet because smartphones haven't taken over everyone's life yet, and online fandom culture is still largely dominated by deviantart as the main "fandom hub". most people, myself included, are getting their main meme fixes from facebook (which your parents were not yet on) or the icanhazcheezburger image-aggregator network. THEN EVERYTHING CHANGED WHEN THE FANDOM NATION ATTACKED.
somehow, a huge crowd of people who considered their favorite books/movies/games to be core personality traits began to set up shop on this fair slate-blue isle. i number myself among this crowd, having been lured here by google-image-searching for miscellaneous fanart in 2011. the "old guard" largely belongs to, and continuously attracts new bloggers within, a burgeoning subculture that 100% defines itself by bucking popular trends and social expectations... whether or not this is actually accomplished by purchasing beverages from starbucks and putting old film filters on every photo, i cannot say.
you may be seeing an issue already arising: hey, if the hipsters hate everything that's popular and gatekeep all their interests, and the fandom bloggers are obsessed with extremely popular franchises and are hell-bent making them even more popular, isn't that going to cause a little friction?
well, yes. it caused a fuck ton of friction. a division arose early on between "the fandom side of tumblr" and "the hipster side of tumblr." some people, like myself, played both sides. others abstained from the rigid dichotomy and considered themselves to be on another "side," like the science side of tumblr, known for explaining relatively straightforward STEM concepts in large essays that began with something like "listen up fuckers."
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ahhh, unfriendable. such a narrow little window in time where cheezburger sites and facebook had equal sway in the online zeitgeist.
interestingly, as someone who trawled a LOT of aesthetic tags, the most popular of which was simply #aesthetic (it was shockingly consistent in there), i never actually saw hipster bloggers complaining about fandom bloggers. it was always the other way around, with fandom bloggers bragging about how much they're freaking out the squares to get cool points with other fandom bloggers, all while never actually engaging with the hipster bloggers because their tags rarely overlapped.
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hi, marge! we're freaking out the hipsters!
regardless of whether there was any material reality to it, or if it was simply a Minitrue level of entirely fictional warfare, this concept entrenched itself into the fandom bloggers, likely as a way to still feel "edgy" and unique while, again, obsessing over extremely popular and mainstream things like doctor who, pokemon, avatar the last airbender, the brand-new mcu, and other decidedly non-counterculture media. even with things it felt like no one irl had heard of, like hetalia and homestuck, those were online juggernauts nonetheless, the former of which had dominated deviantart for years and the latter of which prompted hotels and convention centers across the world to implement very strict rules about unsealed body paint. people treated fandoms like they were some sort of exclusive country club with membership fees and a dress code. and dunking on hipsters became an entire genre of Fake Internet Story, which were already pervasive on this website.
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what's the point of being in a clique if there's no outgroup to flex on? #swag
this whole phenomenon ran concurrently, even symbiotically, with other tumblrisms like "tumblr university" and those horrendous "not like other girls" memes...
which means, of course, it was absolutely dead in the fucking water once DashCon happened in 2014. i don't need to tell you what happened at DashCon (there's a million essays and videos about it if you're one of today's lucky ten thousand who's never heard of it), but all across the fandom side of tumblr, it felt like finding out your parents lied about santa claus. turns out the fandoms you're in don't actually say anything about who you are as a person, a bunch of tumblrinas can't just will a fully functional micronation into existence just by wearing tacky merchandise in a public venue, and magic probably isn't real.
i wish i had some grand way to end this story, but really the moral is the same as it ever was: online drama is eternal, inescapable, and completely fucking worthless. if you only post to get mad at shit, especially if you're just making up a guy to get mad at, cut that out. touch grass. look at images of cats. i don't remember any of the enemies i made from this era, but i fondly remember all the friends, and i'm richer for making those positive connections. that's all for today's episode of Tumblr History with Toothpaste Face... remember to tip your waitress and stay minty.
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blackswaneuroparedux · 11 months
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I... a universe of atoms, an atom in the universe.
- Richard Feyneman
Richard Feynman (1918-1988) was an American theoretical physicist who received the Nobel Prize in 1965. Robert Wilson recruited the brilliant young Feynman, only 24 at the time, for the Manhattan Project as a junior physicist soon after completing his Ph.D.  At Los Alamos, Feynman was assigned to the theoretical division of Hans Bethe, and soon became a group leader. Feynman was briefly transferred to the Oak Ridge facility, where he aided engineers in calculating safety procedures for material storage so that inadvertent criticality accidents could be avoided. He was well known for playfully challenging the security at Los Alamos, and was present for the Trinity test in 1945, viewing the explosion through his truck windshield.
After the Manhattan Project, Feynman regretted not reconsidering his work after Germany was defeated in World War II, although he continued to feel that the threat of a nuclear-armed Nazi Germany was enough to justify his initial participation. He turned down an offer from the Institute for Advanced Study and joined Hans Bethe at Cornell from 1945 to 1950, where he taught theoretical physics. Feynman left to join the faculty at Caltech in 1950. There he conducted his groundbreaking research in areas of quantum electrodynamics and superfluidity.
Feynman won his 1965 Nobel Prize in Physics for his work in quantum electrodynamics, a formula well known for its accurate predictions, which combines his path integral formulation and his Feynman diagrams. Additionally, he worked in the fields of the physics of superfluidity and quantum gravity, and developed a model of weak decay. However he caused great controversy when shortly after winning the prize in 1965, he seemingly rejected it. Feynman increasingly felt unease at the award turning the scientists into an institution.
It was no strange thing for Feynman to offer an opinion contrary to authority. Often called a buffoon and a magician, Feynman was scolded by the scientific world for his pursuit of things outside science, like art and music. A series of televised lecturers for the public secured his place in the households of millions in the US and the rest of the world. It was here that his excitement and passion for science trickled into the popular psyche and admitted countless young people into the world of science. He loved science and its limitless possibilities of discovery; it is no surprise, then, that he viewed his Nobel Prize with indifference.
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Chapter IV. Second Period. — Machinery.
1. — Of the function of machinery in its relations to liberty.
The introduction of machinery into industry is accomplished in opposition to the law of division, and as if to reestablish the equilibrium profoundly compromised by that law. To truly appreciate the significance of this movement and grasp its spirit, a few general considerations become necessary.
Modern philosophers, after collecting and classifying their annals, have been led by the nature of their labors to deal also with history: then it was that they saw, not without surprise, that the history of philosophy was the same thing at bottom as the philosophy of history; further, that these two branches of speculation, so different in appearance, the history of philosophy and the philosophy of history, were also only the stage representation of the concepts of metaphysics, which is philosophy entire.
Now, dividing the material of universal history among a certain number of frames, such as mathematics, natural history, social economy, etc., it will be found that each of these divisions contains also metaphysics. And it will be the same down to the last subdivision of the totality of history: so that entire philosophy lies at the bottom of every natural or industrial manifestation; that it is no respecter of degrees or qualities; that, to rise to its sublimest conceptions, all prototypes may be employed equally well; and, finally, that, all the postulates of reason meeting in the most modest industry as well as in the most general sciences, to make every artisan a philosopher, — that is, a generalizing and highly synthetic mind, — it would be enough to teach him — what? his profession.
Hitherto, it is true, philosophy, like wealth, has been reserved for certain classes: we have the philosophy of history, the philosophy of law, and some other philosophies also; this is a sort of appropriation which, like many others of equally noble origin, must disappear. But, to consummate this immense equation, it is necessary to begin with the philosophy of labor, after which each laborer will be able to attempt in his turn the philosophy of his trade.
Thus every product of art and industry, every political and religious constitution, like every creature organized or unorganized, being only a realization, a natural or practical application, of philosophy, the identity of the laws of nature and reason, of being and idea, is demonstrated; and when, for our own purpose, we establish the constant conformity of economic phenomena to the pure laws of thought, the equivalence of the real and the ideal in human facts, we only repeat in a particular case this eternal demonstration.
What do we say, in fact?
To determine value, — in other words, to organize within itself the production and distribution of wealth, — society proceeds exactly as the mind does in the generation of concepts. First it posits a primary fact, acts upon a primary hypothesis, the division of labor, a veritable antinomy, the antagonistic results of which are evolved in social economy, just as the consequences might have been deduced in the mind: so that the industrial movement, following in all respects the deduction of ideas, is divided into a double current, one of useful effects, the other of subversive results, all equally necessary and legitimate products of the same law. To harmonically establish this two-faced principle and solve this antinomy, society evokes a second, soon to be followed by a third; and such will be the progress of the social genius until, having exhausted all its contradictions, — supposing, though it is not proved, that there is an end to contradiction in humanity, — it shall cover with one backward leap all its previous positions and in a single formula solve all problems.
In following in our exposition this method of the parallel development of the reality and the idea, we find a double advantage: first, that of escaping the reproach of materialism, so often applied to economists, to whom facts are truth simply because they are facts, and material facts. To us, on the contrary, facts are not matter, — for we do not know what the word matter means, — but visible manifestations of invisible ideas. So viewed, the value of facts is measured by the idea which they represent; and that is why we have rejected as illegitimate and non-conclusive useful value and value in exchange, and later the division of labor itself, although to the economists all these have an absolute authority.
On the other hand, it is as impossible to accuse us of spiritualism, idealism, or mysticism: for, admitting as a point of departure only the external manifestation of the idea, — the idea which we do not know, which does not exist, as long as it is not reflected, like light, which would be nothing if the sun existed by itself in an infinite void, — and brushing aside all a prori reasoning upon theogony and cosmogony, all inquiry into substance, cause, the me and the not-me, we confine ourselves to searching for the laws of being and to following the order of their appearance as far as reason can reach.
Doubtless all knowledge brings up at last against a mystery: such, for instance, as matter and mind, both of which we admit as two unknown essences, upon which all phenomena rest. But this is not to say that mystery is the point of departure of knowledge, or that mysticism is the necessary condition of logic: quite the contrary, the spontaneity of our reason tends to the perpetual rejection of mysticism; it makes an a priori protest against all mystery, because it has no use for mystery except to deny it, and because the negation of mysticism is the only thing for which reason has no need of experience.
In short, human facts are the incarnation of human ideas: therefore, to study the laws of social economy is to constitute the theory of the laws of reason and create philosophy. We may now pursue the course of our investigation.
At the end of the preceding chapter we left the laborer at loggerheads with the law of division: how will this indefatigable OEdipus manage to solve this enigma?
In society the incessant appearance of machinery is the antithesis, the inverse formula, of the division of labor; it is the protest of the industrial genius against parcellaire and homicidal labor. What is a machine, in fact? A method of reuniting divers particles of labor which division had separated. Every machine may be defined as a summary of several operations, a simplification of powers, a condensation of labor, a reduction of costs. In all these respects machinery is the counterpart of division. Therefore through machinery will come a restoration of the parcellaire laborer, a decrease of toil for the workman, a fall in the price of his product, a movement in the relation of values, progress towards new discoveries, advancement of the general welfare.
As the discovery of a formula gives a new power to the geometer, so the invention of a machine is an abridgment of manual labor which multiplies the power of the producer, from which it may be inferred that the antinomy of the division of labor, if not entirely destroyed, will be balanced and neutralized. No one should fail to read the lectures of M. Chevalier setting forth the innumerable advantages resulting to society from the intervention of machinery; they make a striking picture to which I take pleasure in referring my reader.
Machinery, positing itself in political economy in opposition to the division of labor, represents synthesis opposing itself in the human mind to analysis; and just as in the division of labor and in machinery, as we shall soon see, political economy entire is contained, so with analysis and synthesis goes the possession of logic entire, of philosophy. The man who labors proceeds necessarily and by turns by division and the aid of tools; likewise, he who reasons performs necessarily and by turns the operations of synthesis and analysis, nothing more, absolutely nothing. And labor and reason will never get beyond this: Prometheus, like Neptune, attains in three strides the confines of the world.
From these principles, as simple and as luminous as axioms, immense consequences follow.
As in the operation of the mind analysis and synthesis are essentially inseparable, and as, looking at the matter from another point, theory becomes legitimate only on condition of following experience foot by foot, it follows that labor, uniting analysis and synthesis, theory and experience, in a continuous action, — labor, the external form of logic and consequently a summary of reality and idea, — appears again as a universal method of instruction. Fit fabricando faber: of all systems of education the most absurd is that which separates intelligence from activity, and divides man into two impossible entities, theorizer and automaton. That is why we applaud the just complaints of M. Chevalier, M. Dunoyer, and all those who demand reform in university education; on that also rests the hope of the results that we have promised ourselves from such reform. If education were first of all experimental and practical, reserving speech only to explain, summarize, and coordinate work; if those who cannot learn with imagination and memory were permitted to learn with their eyes and hands, — soon we should witness a multiplication, not only of the forms of labor, but of capacities; everybody, knowing the theory of something, would thereby possess the language of philosophy; on occasion he could, were it only for once in his life, create, modify, perfect, give proof of intelligence and comprehension, produce his master-piece, in a word, show himself a man. The inequality in the acquisitions of memory would not affect the equivalence of faculties, and genius would no longer seem to us other than what it really is, — mental health.
The fine minds of the eighteenth century went into extended disputations about what constitutes genius, wherein it differs from talent, what we should understand by mind, etc. They had transported into the intellectual sphere the same distinctions that, in society, separate persons. To them there were kings and rulers of genius, princes of genius, ministers of genius; and then there were also noble minds and bourgeois minds, city talents and country talents. Clear at the foot of the ladder lay the gross industrial population, souls imperfectly outlined, excluded from the glory of the elect. All rhetorics are still filled with these impertinences, which monarchical interests, literary vanity, and socialistic hypocrisy strain themselves to sanction, for the perpetual slavery of nations and the maintenance of the existing order.
But, if it is demonstrated that all the operations of the mind are reducible to two, analysis and synthesis, which are necessarily inseparable, although distinct; if, by a forced consequence, in spite of the infinite variety of tasks and studies, the mind never does more than begin the same canvas over again, — the man of genius is simply a man with a good constitution, who has worked a great deal, thought a great deal, analyzed, compared, classified, summarized, and concluded a great deal; while the limited being, who stagnates in an endemic routine, instead of developing his faculties, has killed his intelligence through inertia and automatism. It is absurd to distinguish as differing in nature that which really differs only in age, and then to convert into privilege and exclusion the various degrees of a development or the fortunes of a spontaneity which must gradually disappear through labor and education.
The psychological rhetoricians who have classified human souls into dynasties, noble races, bourgeois families, and the proletariat observed nevertheless that genius was not universal, and that it had its specialty; consequently Homer, Plato, Phidias, Archimedes, Caesar, etc., all of whom seemed to them first in their sort, were declared by them equals and sovereigns of distinct realms. How irrational! As if the specialty of genius did not itself reveal the law of the equality of minds! As if, looking at it in another light, the steadiness of success in the product of genius were not a proof that it works according to principles outside of itself, which are the guarantee of the perfection of its work, as long as it follows them with fidelity and certainty! This apotheosis of genius, dreamed of with open eyes by men whose chatter will remain forever barren, would warrant a belief in the innate stupidity of the majority of mortals, if it were not a striking proof of their perfectibility.
Labor, then, after having distinguished capacities and arranged their equilibrium by the division of industries, completes the armament of intelligence, if I may venture to say so, by machinery. According to the testimony of history as well as according to analysis, and notwithstanding the anomalies caused by the antagonism of economic principles, intelligence differs in men, not by power, clearness, or reach, but, in the first place, by specialty, or, in the language of the schools, by qualitative determination, and, in the second place, by exercise and education. Hence, in the individual as in the collective man, intelligence is much more a faculty which comes, forms, and develops, quae fit, than an entity or entelechy which exists, wholly formed, prior to apprenticeship. Reason, by whatever name we call it, — genius, talent, industry, — is at the start a naked and inert potentiality, which gradually grows in size and strength, takes on color and form, and shades itself in an infinite variety of ways. By the importance of its acquirements, by its capital, in a word, the intelligence of one individual differs and will always differ from that of another; but, being a power equal in all at the beginning, social progress must consist in rendering it, by an ever increasing perfection of methods, again equal in all at the end. Otherwise labor would remain a privilege for some and a punishment for others.
But the equilibrium of capacities, the prelude of which we have seen in the division of labor, does not fulfil the entire destiny of machinery, and the views of Providence extend far beyond. With the introduction of machinery into economy, wings are given to LIBERTY.
The machine is the symbol of human liberty, the sign of our domination over nature, the attribute of our power, the expression of our right, the emblem of our personality. Liberty, intelligence, — those constitute the whole of man: for, if we brush aside as mystical and unintelligible all speculation concerning the human being considered from the point of view of substance (mind or matter), we have left only two categories of manifestations, — the first including all that we call sensations, volitions, passions, attractions, instincts, sentiments; the other, all phenomena classed under the heads of attention, perception, memory, imagination, comparison, judgment, reasoning, etc. As for the organic apparatus, very far from being the principle or base of these two orders of faculties, it must be considered as their synthetic and positive realization, their living and harmonious expression. For just as from the long-continued issue by humanity of its antagonistic principles must some day result social organization, so man must be conceived as the result of two series of potentialities.
Thus, after having posited itself as logic, social economy, pursuing its work, posits itself as psychology. The education of intelligence and liberty, — in a word, the welfare of man, — all perfectly synonymous expressions, — such is the common object of political economy and philosophy. To determine the laws of the production and distribution of wealth will be to demonstrate, by an objective and concrete exposition, the laws of reason and liberty; it will be to create philosophy and right a posteriori: whichever way we turn, we are in complete metaphysics.
Let us try, now, with the joint data of psychology and political economy, to define liberty.
If it is allowable to conceive of human reason, in its origin, as a lucid and reflecting atom, capable of some day representing the universe, but at first giving no image at all, we may likewise consider liberty, at the birth of conscience, as a living point, punctum saliens, a vague, blind, or, rather, indifferent spontaneity, capable of receiving all possible impressions, dispositions, and inclinations. Liberty is the faculty of acting and of not acting, which, through any choice or determination whatever (I use the word determination here both passively and actively), abandons its indifference and becomes will.
I say, then, that liberty, like intelligence, is naturally an undetermined, unformed faculty, which gets its value and character later from external impressions, — a faculty, therefore, which is negative at the beginning, but which gradually defines and outlines itself by exercise, — I mean, by education.
The etymology of the word liberty, at least as I understand it, will serve still better to explain my thought. The root is lib-et, he pleases (German, lieben, to love); whence have been constructed lib-eri, children, those dear to us, a name reserved for the children of the father of a family; lib-ertas, the condition, character, or inclination of children of a noble race; lib-ido, the passion of a slave, who knows neither God nor law nor country, synonymous with licentia, evil conduct. When spontaneity takes a useful, generous, or beneficent direction, it is called libertas; when, on the contrary, it takes a harmful, vicious, base, or evil direction, it is called libido.
A learned economist, M. Dunoyer, has given a definition of liberty which, by its likeness to our own, will complete the demonstration of its exactness.
I call liberty that power which man acquires of using his forces more easily in proportion as he frees himself from the obstacles which originally hindered the exercise thereof. I say that he is the freer the more thoroughly delivered he is from the causes which prevented him from making use of his forces, the farther from him he has driven these causes, the more he has extended and cleared the sphere of his action.... Thus it is said that a man has a free mind, that he enjoys great liberty of mind, not only when his intelligence is not disturbed by any external violence, but also when it is neither obscured by intoxication, nor changed by disease, nor kept in impotence by lack of exercise.
M. Dunoyer has here viewed liberty only on its negative side, — that is, as if it were simply synonymous with freedom from obstacles. At that rate liberty would not be a faculty of man; it would be nothing. But immediately M. Dunoyer, though persisting in his incomplete definition, seizes the true side of the matter: then it is that it occurs to him to say that man, in inventing a machine, serves his liberty, not, as we express ourselves, because he determines it, but, in M. Dunoyer’s style, because he removes a difficulty from its path.
Thus articulate language is a better instrument than language by sign; therefore one is freer to express his thought and impress it upon the mind of another by speech than by gesture. The written word is a more potent instrument than the spoken word; therefore one is freer to act on the mind of his fellows when he knows how to picture the word to their eyes than when he simply knows how to speak it. The press is an instrument two or three hundred times more potent than the pen; therefore one is two or three hundred times freer to enter into relation with other men when he can spread his ideas by printing than when he can publish them only by writing.
I will not point out all that is inexact and illogical in this fashion of representing liberty. Since Destutt de Tracy, the last representative of the philosophy of Condillac, the philosophical spirit has been obscured among economists of the French school; the fear of ideology has perverted their language, and one perceives, in reading them, that adoration of fact has caused them to lose even the perception of theory. I prefer to establish the fact that M. Dunoyer, and political economy with him, is not mistaken concerning the essence of liberty, a force, energy, or spontaneity indifferent in itself to every action, and consequently equally susceptible of any determination, good or bad, useful or harmful. M. Dunoyer has had so strong a suspicion of the truth that he writes himself:
Instead of considering liberty as a dogma, I shall present it as a result; instead of making it the attribute of man, I shall make it the attribute of civilization; instead of imagining forms of government calculated to establish it, I shall do my best to explain how it is born of every step of our progress.
Then he adds, with no less reason:
It will be noticed how much this method differs from that of those dogmatic philosophers who talk only of rights and duties; of what it is the duty of governments to do and the right of nations to demand, etc. I do not say sententiously: men have a right to be free; I confine myself to asking: how does it happen that they are so?
In accordance with this exposition one may sum up in four lines the work that M. Dunoyer has tried to do: A REVIEW of the obstacles that impede liberty and the means (instruments, methods, ideas, customs, religions, governments, etc.) that favor it. But for its omissions, the work of M. Dunoyer would have been the very philosophy of political economy.
After having raised the problem of liberty, political economy furnishes us, then, with a definition conforming in every point to that given by psychology and suggested by the analogies of language: and thus we see how, little by little, the study of man gets transported from the contemplation of the me to the observation of realities.
Now, just as the determinations of man’s reason have received the name of ideas (abstract, supposed a priori ideas, or principles, conceptions, categories; and secondary ideas, or those more especially acquired and empirical), so the determinations of liberty have received the name of volitions, sentiments, habits, customs. Then, language, figurative in its nature, continuing to furnish the elements of primary psychology, the habit has been formed of assigning to ideas, as the place or capacity where they reside, the intelligence, and to volitions, sentiments, etc., the conscience. All these abstractions have been long taken for realities by the philosophers, not one of whom has seen that all distribution of the faculties of the soul is necessarily a work of caprice, and that their psychology is but an illusion.
However that may be, if we now conceive these two orders of determinations, reason and liberty, as united and blended by organization in a living, reasonable, and free person, we shall understand immediately that they must lend each other mutual assistance and influence each other reciprocally. If, through an error or oversight of the reason, liberty, blind by nature, acquires a false and fatal habit, the reason itself will not be slow to feel the effects; instead of true ideas, conforming to the natural relations of things, it will retain only prejudices, as much more difficult to root out of the intelligence afterwards, as they have become dearer to the conscience through age. In this state of things reason and liberty are impaired; the first is disturbed in its development, the second restricted in its scope, and man is led astray, becomes, that is, wicked and unhappy at once.
Thus, when, in consequence of a contradictory perception and an incomplete experience, reason had pronounced through the lips of the economists that there was no regulating principle of value and that the law of commerce was supply and demand, liberty abandoned itself to the passion of ambition, egoism, and gambling; commerce was thereafter but a wager subjected to certain police regulations; misery developed from the sources of wealth; socialism, itself a slave of routine, could only protest against effects instead of rising against causes; and reason was obliged, by the sight of so many evils, to recognize that it had taken a wrong road.
Man can attain welfare only in proportion as his reason and his liberty not only progress in harmony, but never halt in their development. Now, as the progress of liberty, like that of reason, is indefinite, and as, moreover, these two powers are closely connected and solidary, it must be concluded that liberty is the more perfect the more closely it defines itself in conformity with the laws of reason, which are those of things, and that, if this reason were infinite, liberty itself would become infinite. In other words, the fullness of liberty lies in the fullness of reason: summa lex summa libertas.
These preliminaries were indispensable in order to clearly appreciate the role of machinery and to make plain the series of economic evolutions. And just here I will remind the reader that we are not constructing a history in accordance with the order of events, but in accordance with the succession of ideas. The economic phases or categories are now contemporary, now inverted, in their manifestation; hence the extreme difficulty always felt by the economists in systematizing their ideas; hence the chaos of their works, even those most to be commended in every other respect, such as Adam Smith’s, Ricardo’s, and J. B. Say’s. But economic theories none the less have their logical succession and their series in the mind: it is this order which we flatter ourselves that we have discovered, and which will make this work at once a philosophy and a history.
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writingmochi · 5 months
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a terra incognita introduction
cast: jake ✗ fem.reader
synopsis: as the world entered the middle of the 21st century, many things have changed for the better or for worse in the newly united korea peninsula: the preparation for the succession of the new conglomerates of the past decade, the uprising of deviant androids, and the new layer of life shield by walls of codes. in the middle of it, two beings are trying to understand each other and the situation of the world they live in; an unknown territory
genre: cyberpunk, cyber noir, psychological thriller, science fiction, dystopian future, politics and philosophies regarding artificial intelligence and humanity, romance, drama, angst, mature content (war and revolution, explicit smut)
based on: video game cyberpunk 2077 (2020) and detroit: become human (2018), anime serial experiments lain (1998), and tv show succession (2018-2023)
masterlist
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united korea
the united republic of korea (known as "united korea") is an east asia nation on the korean peninsula. as a result of the reunification agreement back in 2025 of the former north and south korea, the state has now prospered in terms of sociopolitical and economic issues from the korean war. it now excels technologically as one of the firsts in the world to introduce commercialized androids along with other east asian countries such as japan and china. in the aftermath of the social media collapse and the cyber world war of 2027-2030, the private conglomerates of the state have released a new way to connect to the information superhighway.
FLAG
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(flag link to r/alternatehistory on reddit)
INFORMATION
capital cities: neo seoul | neo pyongyang
population: 65.5 million
language: korean | english | japanese | chinese
>> HISTORY
>> GEOGRAPHY
>> GOVERNMENT
>> SOCIETY
>> ECONOMY
>> MILITARY
>> MAJOR CITIES
neo seoul
one of the capital cities of united korea and the former capital of south korea, neo seoul is a metropolis for the state's bustling life from the most traditional to the most modern. neo seoul is known for six districts that are divided by the han river flowing in the middle, known as the division of north seoul and south seoul
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north seoul encapsulates the traditional side of neo seoul and the center for the city's and state's government administration
south seoul lies the center of neo seoul's economy where conglomerates build their headquarters. a distinct living cost gap can be seen to compare those living in the north and those in the south where it is connected to incheon, a major city of transportation with its international seaports and airport
neo pyongyang
one of the capital cities of united korea and the former capital of north korea, neo pyongyang is the capital of the parliament of united korea. it's located on the taedong river kilometers upstream from the yellow sea. it is known as the city where the declaration of unification was signed along with its establishment as half of the capitals of the unified countries. much of the population of neo pyongyang are citizens coming from the southern of the peninsula as they migrate to fill in the spaces and utilize materials. it is also a growing industrial hub where conglomerates built their factories, along with kaesong.
with the rise of deviancies from androids made by shim laboratories, journalists have made observations and assume that neo pyongyang is the main hub of the rebellion between androids and their creator (as one human equates to two androids), creating unrest between the two parties. yet, they also say that neo pyongyang is a better refuge for deviant androids than neo seoul.
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taglist: @raeyunshm @endzii23 @fluffyywoo @camipendragon @hiqhkey @wccycc @cha0thicpisces @y4wnjunz @yeehawnana @beansworldsstuff @kimipxl @blurryriki @reallysmolrenjun @frukkoneeeeg
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aswegoalong72 · 2 months
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Space Suits - Then and Now
Since the dawn of the space age on Reyal, it became abundantly clear that there were many challenges they'd have to face.
As a social species, they struggle with solitude; the first few missions were a nightmare, as the panic from being detached from friends and family became a big issue. However, that was manageable with therapy and much shorter solo missions.
Radiation was a much more pressing issue, and after the long-term health affects became clear from the relative lack of protection, major steps were taken to build suits that would withstand the harsh environs of space.
Reyal is a very unique world, in that its thick atmosphere and highly active core provided much more shielding from cosmic and solar radiation than our own Earth would. This led to pretty much every life form on Reyal being much more susceptible to radiation's harmful effects, which would prove to be a very difficult roadblock on their technological voyage.
There was much discussion as what type of suit would be better after regular flight suits were proven to be ineffective; hardshell, which was heavy and hard to maneuver in but gave incredible protection, or soft shell, which was a tiny bit easier to work in, but offered barely any protection.
After some research and development, a mix was approved for use; soft around the joints, with most of the rest of the body being hardshell. It wasn't ideal, but there was very little else that can be done to combat the lack of mobility.
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Art by @bjekkergauken After years of development, hard work, and testing, the first deep space suits were approved for regular use. The above is a display model; showing heraldry only for the Global Resource Committee's Space Division, and crampons for a rocky or icy moon.
These used many new technologies and techniques to help protect the wearer, such as a camera based vision system. This not only helps protect the eyes, but can allow for a better understanding of the environment around the wearer, being able to cycle into different types of light wavelengths.
Some other useful features are the claw grabbers that replace the gloves, allowing for much easier mobility in the vacuum. Initial testing proved that softshell gloves were a nightmare to work with, causing many engineers to nearly quit out of frustration. A few late night brainstorming sessions later, they figured out that using a manipulator was much easier than anything else. This would become a mainstay for future suit design, and open up a massive world of possibilities for on-orbit construction and more.
Aside from that, the suit also boasts a data pad for easy communication & lookup, a jetpack for low-or-no gravity environments (fueled by pure nitrogen), and a hatchback for hooking up into vehicles for easy doffing and donning.
These suits were used en masse for many years, in a massive variety of situations; from low Reyal orbit and all the way out to Alkan and her twin, they saw very heavy use for the first few decades of the Lyratet's expansion into space.
However, as their needs expanded, the old generation of suits would prove to need an upgrade. Cameras failing while out, data pads falling off, life support issues, outdated technology, and more would be the sign that things had to change.
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Art by @hellagator Five years before the launch of the First Extended Thrallit Expedition, the Global Resource Committee finally approved and released the latest design; the Modular Deep Space Maneuvering Unit, or the MDSMU for short. This would be a massive upgrade from the previous design, making up for most of its shortfalls.
With advances in material science and a better understanding of life and work in space, the MDSMU sported much better mobility, all without sacrificing any radiation protection. A thin layer of a lead alloy, alongside water ice, was added to help aid in deflecting any harmful radiation. Aside from this, most everything is the same.
The same applies for the new and improved helmet, which allows for both regular vision, alongside the original camera vision. The visor is made of a heavy layer of leaded titanium glass on the outside, followed by a thin layer of water ice, and finally a quantum dot display on the inside. While it's just as safe to use regular vision these days, many still opt to cover up the outside, and use only the camera.
Another major advancement is the modular ability of the suit; while the previous design was used in a variety of situations, it wasn't very practical for exploration out past Alkan, or in the inner system past Reyal. The suit has dozens of other parts that can be swapped out or added, ranging from underwater maneuvering addons for Alkan, to an extended heating system for cave diving on Lejag, the outermost planet.
The suit can also be very easily modified to suit any changes to the wearer’s body, or in a swapping of people wearing it, thanks to machine learning and a complex system of elastic and memory foam. The only thing that doesn't change is the horn armor; GRCSED standards have them set to a certain height, mainly for ease of access among their many bases and outposts, and the dangers that come with overgrowth.
The only thing that would change would be the fuel used over the centuries; originally, monomethylhydrazine was used for fuel as an improvement upon just raw nitrogen. However, as some spills occurred in a few bases, it was quickly replaced with nitrogen once more due to the toxicity of the prior.
This suit design would be the last they would ever design, as the base was very easy to modify for practically any situation. From routine maintenance on Ro, all the way to the interstellar colony of Reyal-Lontag, the suit would see continued use until the end of civilization as we know it.
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zikadraws · 1 year
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Since I've been back at it lately, I thought I'd present my latest version of Agent 4 ! It's the one that I would consider "closest to canon". Enjoy.
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Now time for some extrapolating, buckle up 'cuz it's gonna be long (orange text for more personal headcanons) :
The canon site mentions that 4 was "too busy with [extra]curriculars" to know about the Squid Sisters. So I picked up on that, and now 4 is a squid who picks interests in many things at the same time !
They are sixteen years old when they meet Marie.
They go by they/she and is genderqueer
Technically their 'canon' name (result banners name) is "Surume" which happens to translates to "Shredded dried squid" but we're gonna ignore that they don't really like their name, so they think 4 sounds more rad. Edit : her complete name is Surume Eurasia NITPICK.
They have a very hyperactive brain, fueled by passion and satisfaction of discovery, and they are always looking forward for new stuff. (Canon describe them as "Down for whatever" and pretty much opportunistic and not thinking much about it.) So they have a HUGE knack for science, because they love the "F#€! around and find out" aspect of it.
They are curious about EVERYTHING and once they get interest, they must find out exactly how it functions, in all its details and lore if you will. This curiosity got them in trouble by the past.
Their curriculum (in my head) is bioengineering. They are astonishingly efficient in a lab. Though they are eager the entire time, so really the hardest thing the school had to teach them is how to follow the scientific procedure properly. (Consider all options, make differential schemes, write down everything, etc...) (Marie actually helps them with their studying method sometimes)
Their specialties are :
The topic of "waves", such as soundwaves and brainwaves. They studied the respawn points in excruciating detail on their own, and wrote an essay about squid souls, and how every living thing has its own "DNA Vibe" that can be retraced like a data log if deciphered and even exploitable if translated as a code. That essay was very detailed and got many professors *concerned* that it made sense.
Because of #1, they have a big interest about 'Souls' (which are an acquired Fact™ in this society by at least a century) and how they can be resurrected, identified, interfered with and conserved.
The topic of cell division, DNA, how a primal organism follows a program of growth.
They have artificially conserved fish embryos, and are coming to a point where they can fully develop them in vitro.
They have engineered a device that can scan an object (small to middle size) and represent it in 3D, in its deepest layers. You can put that on a computer or tablet and analyse and deconstruct the layers. They actually patented this one. It isn't new as a concept, but it's a handheld version. Also a device that can pick up brainwaves and translate them as digital writing. Several languages. Main issue here is the headaches and picking it from a distanced target, but they're definitely gonna patent this one too.
They are working on a project that they name "Primal Cell". Basically a cell with no specific purpose at its beginning, that can be "coded" through an interface into developing into a specific organism (one that one has the code and variety pattern for). It's their life project.
They mainly do all that for fun technically, but they want to use that for medical purposes, notably people with chronic illness, very bad mutations or terminal disease. After hearing about the Subway, it adds another possible use to their list. Also great communication innovating leap horizons.
They are big buddies with Sheldon because they both like infodumping and 4 is pretty good at crafting and weapon ideas, and helping him out with testing, and he helps them with material supplying, and once they start talking, it quickly sounds like intense seagull bantering. Both screaming over the other. Hellish.
They are shy and awkward with people at first meet but the second they're comfortable with you, oooh, buddy...
They're roommates with 8, nicknamed "Night" because N+8, on Marie's request. Night learned more with her in a week than she would have in six months of private classes. Night really likes 4. Night feels more at ease with them than with 3. Night stayed with them at Inkopolis during the whole Splatlands thing. I would recommend a check up on Night and 4.
They grew out of the city but close enough by, they were adopted and had two dads. One was a firework maker.
Versatile, wields all weapons pretty decently, also learned to summon them at will as well as her inventory through specific ink bending, which is technically illegal. She may be working on making the inventory able to fit in *bigger* items. Also has a specific interest with ink manipulation.
They're kinda very clueless, yet have an extremely developed sense of intuition.
They have a bad tendency to brush their problems and feelings under the rug, despite being pretty self-aware. They're a walking contradiction lol
They can often be mentally exhausting sadly, including for themselves ; and either brush off feelings or have an overwhelming empathetic reaction. The whole "Get yourself hurt because you think like a flea circus all the time" kind of thing.
🟠 They worked for five years at Grizzco part-time for money, up to Profreshional, but ended up quitting because they were way too curious for their own good and did something they knew would get them fired or worse, so they preferred to quit before anyone could fire them 'cause quitting looks better on the employment papers than being fired. Grizz had seriously his eyes on them by the end of it though. They always asked too many questions. 🟠
They're the embodiment of Chaotic Dumbass who also happens to everyone's surprise to be a Literal Scientific Genius.
Aaand that's about it I think.
So as you can see my version of Agent 4 is still pretty chaotic, true to their team of choice, though they have a lot going on for themselves. They have the potential to become the greatest bioengineering scientist of their time, hopefully for the better.
Though they are sure to face some though moral dilemmas during that process.
I can definitely tell that I'm falling back into my Splatoon phase so expect more intense bs to come, if you have questions or comments about them or related, don't hesitate !
Thank you~✨🙏🎶
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Professor Kangwoo Cho and PhD candidate Jiseon Kim from the Division of Environmental Science & Engineering at Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH) collaborated with the Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST) to devise a novel catalyst aimed at enhancing the efficiency of reactions using contaminated municipal sewage to produce hydrogen -- a green energy source. Their research recently featured in the international journal Advanced Functional Materials. With the growing environmental concerns of pollution associated with fossil fuel, hydrogen has garnered increased interest. Water electrolysis technology is a sustainable process that leverages Earth's abundant water to produce hydrogen. However, the concurrent oxygen evolution reaction during hydrogen production is notably slow, resulting in a considerably low energy conversion efficiency.
Read more.
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getvalentined · 9 months
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I think that fandom as a whole, but particularly the FF7 fandom, needs to understand that there are two forms of "canon": the one shown in the source material itself, and the one written down in the meta materials like artbooks and Ultimanias. If there's a contradiction between the two, it should be assumed that the source material is correct.
The Ultimania series is interesting, and it can help fill in gaps for things that we don't know. It's also almost universally known across multiple franchises to get ton of things that we do know very wrong—even when the creators themselves confirm plot points contrary to what's written in the books.
My personal favorite example of this is the Chrono series Ultimania, which says in no uncertain terms that Prometheus from Chrono Cross is not Robo from Chrono Trigger. Meanwhile, the people who actually wrote both Chrono Cross and Chrono Trigger have always been very clear that Prometheus is Robo. This is a major plot point about a main party member that you can pick up quite easily by playing both games, and the Ultimania got it completely wrong.
Another, more pertinent example: when Vincent was killed in 1977, Lucrecia was already pregnant. We know this from both the OG and from Dirge. The Ultimania says that she gave birth to Sephiroth around 1980. This is literally physiologically impossible.
If the game gives us a year, over and over, and then some piece of meta comes along and says that it was actually a different year the entire time, the meta is wrong. Full stop. The meta is wrong.
This is particularly frustrating with FF7 because the Compilation is staggeringly internally consistent, to the point that the opening cutscene from the First SOLDIER battle royale mobile game (RIP) fits perfectly into place in a way that makes the in-universe timeline make more sense, not less. A two minute cutscene filled in a time gap that had been in place for decades, in such a way that it clarified what we already knew (Gillian was no longer active in the Science Department after 1977, Hojo was not given control of Project S until Gast left) and confirmed some things we've assumed for ages in spite of lacking concrete evidence (Lucrecia stayed on with the Science Department for years after Sephiroth was born) without contradicting anything.
The one instance I can think of where the Compilation actually overtly retcons itself is in Crisis Core, where the research notes in the Shinra Mansion basement say that Jenova was discovered and confirmed to be a Cetra in 1977. Her discovery date is literally printed on her helmet (October 10, 1959) right alongside the date she was sealed up in the Nibelheim reactor (July 2, 1967), and the latter date is a whole decade prior to 1977.
In the OG these dates were redacted (written as "X year, X month, X day"), so it's clearly an intentional change—but there's a really simple in-universe explanation for this apparent retcon.
To put it plainly: Gast lied. Hollander says in Crisis Core that nobody knows where the main Jenova sample is stored, not even Hojo—but Gast must have, since he was the one who was actually in control of all divisions of the Jenova Project. If he kept information that integral to the future of the project from his colleagues, why would he hesitate to fabricate dates in his easily accessible research notes?
One easily explainable retcon doesn't make a book of meta that is littered with similarly ludicrous claims correct, much less correct in direct contradiction to the actual games it's supposed to be sourced from.
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Marx himself describes their purpose as the critique of political economy – a ‘positive’ critique, and thus one which, by revealing the mistakes of political economy and its inadequacy for the subject, also provides it with a basis to make it adequate for its task. The positive critique of political economy is thus a critical foundation of political economy. Within this critique the idea of political economy is completely transformed: it becomes the science of the necessary conditions for the communist revolution. This revolution itself signifies – quite apart from economic upheavals – a revolution in the whole history of man and the definition of his being: ‘This communism...is the genuine resolution of the conflict, between man and nature and between man and man – the true resolution of the strife between existence and essence, between objectification and self-confirmation, between freedom and necessity, between the individual and the species. Communism is the riddle of history solved, and it knows itself to be this solution’ (p. 135).
If political economy can gain such central importance it is clear that, from a critical point of view, it must be treated from the outset as more than just another science or specialized scientific field. Instead it must be seen as the scientific expression of a problematic which involves the whole being of man. Thus we must begin by considering more closely what sort of political economy is here subject to criticism.
Political economy is criticized as the scientific justification or concealment of the total ‘estrangement’ and ‘devaluation’ of human reality represented in capitalist society – as a science which treats man as ‘something unessential’ (p. 130) whose whole existence is determined by the ‘separation of labour, capital and land’, and by an inhuman division of labour, by competition, by private property, etc. (p. 106). This kind of political economy scientifically sanctions the perversion of the historical-social world of man into an alien world of money and commodities; a world which confronts him as a hostile power and in which the greater part of humanity ceases to be anything more than ‘abstract’ workers (torn away from the reality of human existence), separated from the object of their work and forced to sell themselves as a commodity.
As a result of this ‘alienation’ of the worker and of labour, the realization of all man’s ‘essential powers’ becomes the loss of their reality; the objective world is no longer ‘truly human property’ appropriated in ‘free activity’ as the sphere of the free operation and self-confirmation of the whole of human nature. It is instead a world of objects in private possession which can be owned, used or exchanged and whose seemingly unalterable laws even man must obey – in short, the universal ‘domination of dead matter over mankind’ (p. 102).
Herbert Marcuse, The Foundation of Historical Materialism (1932)
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