#control group

[vintagerpg]

Control Group (2019) is a collection of four mid-length original scenarios for Delta Green. Each of the scenarios stands alone as a one-shot, but the more intriguing thing is the rough framework for connecting them all. More on that in a minute.

The first is my favorite, involving a team of astronauts accompanying two people who have no business being on a shuttle. Those two are under orders to repair a black ops satellite. Things get weirder from there. I love how audacious it is to set a scenario on a space shuttle, and it seems like a recipe for disaster, but it totally works. The second scenario is a little wobbly for me, depicting an attempt by US forces in Afghanistan at a bit of regional diplomacy that goes terribly wrong. It sure is tense, and the messed up politics of the real world adds dimension to it, but I dunno, it feels fraught to me. This hesitance carries through to the third scenario, which it excellent, but involves a supernatural pandemic and I am just never going to be in the mood to run that in a post-2020 world, you know? That’s just me, though — even though I am unlikely to run these, I appreciate the commitment to having Delta Green’s horror butt up against real world horrors.

All three of those use pre-gens and the idea is to have the survivors come together for the fourth, a really excellent, really goey investigation of a feel-good cult that has real strong X-Files vibes in the best possible ways. I love this scenario and I love how the framework pulls disparate characters into it.

#RPG #TTRPG #Tabletop RPG #Roleplaying Game #D&D #dungeons & dragons #Arc Dream #Delta Green #Cthulhu #Lovecraft #Control Group

[fivehundredwords]

why are control groups important?

(if dr. doofenschmirtz had recruited a control group one (1) time.. )

experiment groups: a part of the total sample which undergoes treatment.

control groups: that part of the total sample which is not subjected to the experiment, but is vital in deciding the significance of results obtained.

if a control group is absent in a trial which tests whether a treatment truly works, there is no normal to compare it with. the treatment was created to be better than the current conventional treatment or no known cure at all. without a control group, there is no way to confirm that the treatment is the better option from now on.

therefore, a control group is not the less imporant group. results of different types of studies are more reliable based on how well the control group was designed. yes, designed.

while testing a drug, its effect is compared against a control group, which is given no drug at all or is given placebo (for eg., giving a sugar cube and having people believe they've been given the drug). these are called the untreated control group and placebo control group, respectively.

in some studies, the researchers and participants themselves do not know the control group. the analysis and results are thoroughly unbiased here. this is called a double-blinded control group.

people in the wait list control group receive treatment after experiment is complete, in case they suffer bad consequences due to the experiment. this is extremely important to consider when recruiting patients with depression, anxiety, cardiac problems, etc.

two broader classifications are positive and negative control groups. in the former, researchers expect a known outcome (for eg., giving the control group a known and effective drug for a particular condition); in the latter, no effect is expected (no drug or placebo is given to the control group).

in randomized controlled trials (RCTs), the total sample is sorted into control and experiment groups randomly, to avoid bias. RCTs are considered the gold standard and are the most common.

an interesting method of building a suitable control group is to find a near identical match for each member of the experiment group. this is used in studies where a common baseline condition cannot be established across the total sample. these are used in observational studies as well.

that said, a number of questions need to be answered. is the control group selected ethical? is there a chance the selected control group might produce unwanted results in parameters that are not being observed in this study?

in conclusion, a control group ensures that the findings in a study are real and not just believed to be real.

"controlled conditions" is a frequent phrase to encounter in research, especially in clinical research.

researchers design studies to understand the phenomenon they are studying. this means each step, from hypothesis to publishing the article is carefully considered. likewise, the conditions under which to study this phenomenon are controlled. this means that anything that isn't being studied should not behave abnormally.

these conditions are easier to achieve in a sample of cultured cells than in a living organism. they are incredibly difficult to achieve in behavioral or related fields of study because behavior and interactions among living beings are difficult to moderate without intervention and thus awareness of those being observed.

#science #science side of tumblr #scientists #control group #science side help me #science side explain #keyword research

[cherryistired]

new au idea: “what if gaster never contacted jevil/spamton” but with LORE

#deltarune #dr #jevil #spamton #spamton g spamton #cherry tries to art #utdr #lore incoming #unless you read thru that one long rambly post of mine #was going to do a pic like spammy's for jevil but it didn't come out lmao #EDIT: FORGOT TO MAKE AN AU TAG FOR THIS #control group

[peanutbuttaz]

people who have not watched stranger things are very important to society

#control group

[progress-lib]

Control group figure drawings, the left is without reference, and the right has the reference next to it. This is the first time I drew figures in years. (Refrence from animereferenceposes.com and the other is AI generated)

#learning to draw #art #bad art #control group

[expertcircle]

The ultimate guide to content marketing for coaches and consultants: A/B Testing part VI

How A/B Testing Can Benefit Your Marketing Strategy Understand your target audience. When you see what types of emails, headlines, and other features your audience responds to best, you better understand who your audience is and what they want. Higher conversion rates. A/B testing is the single most effective way to increase your conversion rates. It gives you actionable data that can help you…

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#A/B testing #bounce rates #buttons #checklist #control group #conversion rates #copy #CTA location #CTA text #direct correlation #email #emerging trends #featured images #headlines #image #links #main headline #marketing strategy #multi-variate test #multi-variate testing. #number of fields #offer #offsite test #onsite test #paid ad #pop-up&039;s #sales efforts #segmenting options #target audience #targeting

[chawsl]

#singapore #covid #control group #excess deaths

[biggest-gaudiest-patronuses]

*tries to organize my thoughts*

*remembers i'm not in school and therefore beholden to neither heaven nor hell nor any man's grading system*

*joyously shredding & tossing all my carefully arranged 3x5 mental notecards into the air like so much beige confetti. raising my arms in victory, cheering raucously until i accidentally inhale bits of homemade confetti*

(*coughing up itty bits of paper like a cat evicting a hairball with a firm understanding of tenants' rights*) wait wat happens next

#i marie kondoed my thoughts and *i* feel great. but now my stream-of-consciousness has escaped containment #so many innocent bystanders at stake #every time i try to organize my thoughts i run out of plastic bins and have to make a trip to the container store where i get even more dis #racted so. you can't just hand me THIS brain and NO catalogue OR library classification system #and expect me to single-handedly sort through all this nonsense? bad form but fucking form not in my job description #aNYways. formal education sure did a FUCKING NUMBER on us huh #(a number i measure not in gpa or dollars of student debt. #but in the number of therapy sessions & medical debt it will take to recover.) #seriously folks. our education systems are...innately traumatizing for a huge number of students. and we NEED to address this. #the fact that it is culturally common for adults to have anxiety nightmares about school/exams...even decades later? #that is not cute. it is Alarming. #no one--much less entire generations--should be spending their developmental years in an environment of chronic stress & pressure & strain #and yet that is the reality for millions and millions of pre-teen and teenage and young adult students #this isn't healthy and it serves and empowers NO ONE #...except of course the many exploitative educational & financial & debt-collecting institutions thriving from the current balance of power #and of course it's a nefarious and powerful way to sabotage/erase the middle class #which billionaires and the wealth-inequality creators they finance couldn't possibly have any noteworthy interest in whatsoever #it's not like there's an elite group of people with huge financial incentives to drain/steal resources from the masses... #anyways sorry for going all Conspiracy Theory on you. #obviously the billionaires who control the vast majority of our resources and news and political campaign funding #are not tied to every single itty bitty social issue and i'm a silly billy to imply it #please tell elon musk to ignore this tweet i am so subservient and acquiescent #mr musky u r so good at inheriting slavery-built mining fortunes & buying other people's companies #& building rocket ships & fancy cars that do NOT explode/catch fire & also NOT running billion dollar companies into the ground #mr musky u r so talented genius billionaire playboy with 10 kids and ex-wives who find you creepy af babe u r basically iron man

[mediumgayitalian]

i don’t think the big three kids are actually banned from teaming up during capture the flag. i think the stipulation is that they have to take the kids. so it’s like all the brightest and best fighters and most skilled members of camp, including those who have like. made even one plan in their lives, vs. ninety newly armed children who have been fed a breakfast of gushers in orange soda corralled by the most powerful and most impulsive demigods to ever live

#coming out of my studying haze to post this #bc i want you all to get my vision #a group of unhinged gleeful children with sharp weapons let absolutely loose #controlled by nico ‘biggest enabler of all time’ di angelo #jason ‘they asked for a puppy what was i supposed to do say no? i also wanted a puppy’ grace #and percy ‘who wants to blow up zeus’s fist with me? wear a helmet!’ jackson #against like all the smartest people at camp combined #sheer force vs. unlimited preparedness #it would be beautiful #percy jackson #percy jackson and the olympians #big three kids #percy jackson headcanon

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

I'm sorry I let down my guard.

[First] Prev <–-> Next

#poorly drawn mdzs #mdzs #xue yang #xiao xingchen #God DAMN this scene was brutal. Season 2 episode 2 is almost nothing but misery and anguish #Helena by Nickle Creek does not quite fit the comic's vibe but it is absolutely a Xue Yang song so I linked it. #The change from “Helena don't walk away...(gentle)” to “HELENA. DON'T WALK AWAY (threat)” is fantastic. #And “Don't waste your pretty sympathy - I'll always be just fine”. Xue Yang core. #Okay now for the real meat. Disclaimer first: *I really like XY.* I think he's a great character. I think his actions consistently- #come from a place of deep trauma. While his reactions and actions put him in a villainous role he is still human about his hurt #and what I'm about to say is NOT intended to be a statement of causality or villianize a group of misunderstood people. #So with that said...Man oh man does Xue Yang have a lot of BPD traits. More that just 'character who is chronically manipulative'. #The impulsivity and emotional reactions and seeking stability makes him feel like he needs that control. What other choice is there? #The part that really gets me is how he *wants* to be safe and happy. But his past experiences tell him how thats impossible #He's the kind of person who goes 'if you don't like me then you better hate me for something substantial". All (pos) or All (neg) #''Love me entirely or Hate me. But don't you dare leave me or forget about me.'' #Not at all comfortable saying 'BPD coded'. Im not a psychiatrist. Just that he has TRAITS. Feel free to disagree or add your thoughts. #ppl with bpd also are not a monolith and everyone has very different experiences. Xue yang is very complex. People more so.

[wormbussy]

source

#excuse me what #lmao #when i tell you the mental image of a bunch of 90s straight edge mormon kids getting high on pepsi and *checks notes* fu-flipping MDMA #heckin molly #i mean TECHNICALLY the word of wisdom doesn't EXPLICITLY mention. ECSTASY #djdjzjzuzujz #just the ultimate mdma control group because you know there's no interaction with hot drinks

[hilacopter]

Can we add Nazi to the list of words we're not allowing goyim to use until they learn what it really means. I don't think they should be using it until they learn Nazism is a very specific fascist political ideology with antisemitism baked into it's core and not just a placeholder word for "bad guys". If I hear "(((Zionists))) are the new Nazis" one more time I'm gonna fucking snap.

#you can have your problems with zionism but implying a group of jews are nazis is so insanely antisemitic #especially since a lot of people's definition of zionism is “the bad jews™” #zionism is ALSO a political ideology actually #i'm not trying to defend zionism here you can be as critical of it as you want but it's not some force of evil that controls the world #that's literally the oldest antisemitic trope in the book except you're saying “zionists” instead of “jews” so that makes it fine i guess #leftist antisemitism #antisemitism #jumblr

[bread-wizards]

I find it interesting that out of all the party, Laudna and Orym are following in Ashton's footsteps a bit in hiding things from the party (Orym with the Nana Morri deal, Laudna with her interacting with/talking to Delilah more and more), and I wonder how much of it is the residual impact that Bor'dor's betrayal had on them.

#critical role #cr3 #orym #orym of the air ashari #ashton greymoore #ashton #laudna #text post #i often think about the episode after everyone was reunited and the vastly different tone between the groups #laudna was angry because she had given into delilah and killed bor'dor and the others had a somewhat nice break #orym was betrayed by someone he trusted with info on his husband but he turned out to be part of the group responsible for killing him #ashton's immediate response to it alludes me but i find it interesting how his first response was damage control #he didn't stop it but he was there to pick up the pieces as much he could #but like he has tried with orym someone needs to look out for the people who are looking out for the rest #which is why i think his taking of the shard was born out of a skewed form of protectiveness #we need the power and it could kill someone so ill do it to keep the damage to a minimum #the other group got romance out of it #fcg and frida #fearne and chentey with deanna #even imogen later with laudna once they got back #prism was a nice friend as was deni$e #but deni$e also reminded orym of dorian (as in of his existence since she knew of dariax) which rubbed salt in that wound a bit #i know it was funny but also ashton and laudna being a bit insecure about orym being prisms 'best friend' was interesting too #not that i blame either of the ladies for that it was just an unfortunate small thing that I feel contributed to a larger problem #because since they got back laudna has been talking with delilah more and relying on her powers #after imogen said she was disgusted by knowing delilah is watching them #orym went behind their back to make a deal signing away his life with nana morri #and talking more about how lonely he is and thinking about dorian a lot more #we have seen the result of ashton being that he nearly killed himself #but the split really fucked those 3 up

[sunderwight]

I keep seeing people argue that Aziraphale is "intelligent" or "not a fool" and that this means he can't possibly have fallen for the Metatron's blatant manipulation tactics or still genuinely believe in Heaven's righteousness.

Setting aside the validity of various theories (most of which I at least find interesting, if not outright compelling!) I think there's an issue here, which is that intelligence doesn't protect you from cult-like thinking. Especially not when you've been more or less born and raised in the environment.

In fact, what intelligence tends to do to people who have been indoctrinated into cults (and a cult is exactly what GO Heaven operates like) is give you even more tools for justifying or thinking your way around the contradictions of the cults actions vs message.

We even see Aziraphale do this, several times!

In fact, at the end of S1 doing this is part of what helps save the day. When he points out that Heaven can't know that they aren't defying God's ineffable plan while trying to follow the Great Plan, he's not just talking them into standing down, he's giving them an out. Because the whole Armageddon thing has already gone to shit and cannot proceed without Adam's cooperation, what they're really dealing with at that point is getting Heaven and Hell to accept that without retaliating. Even when Satan shows up it's because he's pissed, not because doomsday is still on.

Aziraphale uses the cult's own logic to give Heaven (and Hell) a plausible reason to back down without completely losing face. They don't have to admit that they were wrong, they can just file everything under "ineffability". Aziraphale pulls this off so well in part because he's been doing this to himself for millennia.

When he doesn't understand or really approve of the Flood, he files it under "ineffability". God has a plan but it's too complex and beyond even angelic comprehension to understand, so there must be a good reason for the Flood, it's just that Aziraphale can't see it. When he sees Heaven being complicit in Job's suffering and the potential murder of his children, he reconciles it by deciding that what God really wants is for him and Bildad to secretly stop it. But he flounders on that later, because to some extent I think he knows that this reasoning is self-serving.

(Knowing it's self-serving doesn't refute it, though, it just means that he worries about that until he talks himself into a bunch of reasons why it's still probably true.)

In S1, when Crowley broaches the subject of the apocalypse, Aziraphale's initial response is to recite the propaganda. It's all going to go according to plan, and it will all be great! When that doesn't work (because of course it won't be great, he's going to end up losing his true home and the person he loves most if this all goes down no matter who wins), he lets Crowley help talk him into how he could thwart the plan without "really" betraying his concept of God.

Basically, if Aziraphale's values come into conflict with Heaven, he decides that God secretly agrees with him. It's very like people who find their values coming into conflict with the institution of their church or temple, and so decide that there's nothing wrong with their actual religion, it's all just normal human corruption (or in GO's case, angelic corruption) muddying the waters of an otherwise purely good thing.

Now in real life of course this gets to be a thorny issue, but keeping it simple there isn't really a total separation between a faith and its institutions. You can't claim that there's nothing in the religion that lends itself to bad takes, just like you also can't claim that any ideology or belief system is invulnerable to corruption. Likewise, even if every bad thing in GO were to turn out to be the fault of Heaven and Hell and not God, God would still be accountable for a lot of the situation because God still set the stage.

But what matters for Good Omens and Aziraphale and this post is that, Aziraphale has put considerable mental energy into justifying how God and Heaven can still be Good and Right even as both of them do things he finds intolerable. Whether it's "God secretly wants me to do what I think is right instead of what I'm being told" or "Heaven has earnestly misinterpreted the will of God due to not knowing as much as I do", he puts his intelligence to use in protecting himself from the kind of revelation that would uproot his worldview.

The only kind of knowledge that actually protects people from cults is the knowledge of how they operate, and awareness that you're dealing with a cult. Aziraphale has a terrible disadvantage on both fronts because even though he's spent years watching humanity get into hot water with this stuff, he does so with the firm perspective that things are different for angels. He can't necessarily apply what works for humans to himself, because he knows he's a different kind of being (and unlike with IRL cults, it's actually true in his case, though I think demons and angels are both less different from humans than they believe).

Though, interestingly, he's closer to a accepting the truth when it comes to the differences between angels and demons. In S1 he is fully confident that he could possess someone, because even though angels don't do that, demons can. Whether he admits it or not, Aziraphale really does believe that Crowley is not meaningfully different from himself in terms of personhood or ability. If he can make the leap to the idea that angels and demons are not exempt from human-oriented concepts of self-determination and free will and unfair treatment by authority, and reconcile it with his own intense distress at challenging a core belief, then the fact that he's quick on the uptake will really start to work in his favor.

#good omens #i mean yes aziraphale is smart #yes it's also still entirely possible he's being manipulated and is making a terrible decision here #being smart on its own doesn't protect anyone from high control groups #you have to be willing to entertain the idea that the group is a bad thing at bare minimum #and aziraphale was basically born into it which makes it even harder for him

[floaties-for-arsene]

Oh no! He’s a little fucked up actually

Continuing with my Ryomina swap AU hehe.. instead of Ryoji being the Nyx Avatar here, Minato is the one to be taken over by Nyx 🥲

Fun fact! The blue eye is the only part of his form Minato can control and he’s constantly looking at Ryoji! 🥲🥲🥲🥲

#minato arisato #makoto yuki #nyx avatar #persona 3 #p3 #ryomina swap au #my art #here he is!!! my favorite little guy!!! #I love his design here tbh he’s so pretty ughjshshah #I want there to be a scene where minato can actually just exist in this form and receive the biggest group hug #I wanted to portray the struggle for control between minato and nyx here and also #the fact this isn’t nyx’s original harbinger #makes him a lot weaker than ryoji was and a lot more messed up I guess #hehe :)

[uncanny-tranny]

In political spheres, I so often want to ask, "is what you're doing 'punching up,' or are they just an easily-available, acceptable target?"

#politics #because i find that it's oftentimes... not punching up #so often i see 'punching up' as 'whoever i can sink my claws into without being chastised' #and i think it's a fundamentally reactionary mindset to think 'who can i attack without recourse?' #it isn't punching up to the patriarchy to exclude and chastise trans men* for example... #...and too often people hyperfocus on the 'how does it make ME look?' to do this rather than on... #...who would be affected by their actions and what they advocate for... #...maybe it wouldn't make somebody look bad to say that trans men* for instance should be ran out of every space because it's 'punching up' #...but how exactly would that affect the marginalized group (being trans men*)... #....anyway that's an example i've seen (and experienced) of this in case it makes it clearer... #...no this isn't solely about trans men* and no this isn't saying that only trans men* are affected by this... #...it's something a lot of marginalized people both experience and may even perpetuate on individual levels... #...because it often feels GOOD to 'punch up'. you're told that it's 'showing them what's what' and maybe sometimes that's the case... #...but i've seen it too often where somebody is actively damaging a marginalized person/group as a means of 'punching up' #and that's why i ask... okay is this punching up or is it an attempt to gain control in a powerless situation through any means necessary?