Deduction and Dumbassery

There is a fee you can choose to apply to cover processing.

Which if you choose to do leaves you with a total of ~$1.35 (USD) depending on the type of card you have.

PCRF has a score of 97% on Charity Navigator.

Adults and children alike are currently dying in Palestine due to starvation. (World Health Organization Link)

The Gaza Strip is one of two places in the entire world that is categorized as Phase 5 (the highest phase) on the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification scale.

If you don't run, I'll just tell you, most people's bodies cannot take that kind of abuse. No matter how much you train, you will not be able to run 20k a day. It's like how you can't train to make your cuts heal faster. You recover as fast as you recover. So while a big part of what made this guy so succesful was the dedication and mental toughness needed to actually run 20k a day, an equally big part was that he healed like fucking Wolverine. And that's fine, but it would've been nice if he knew that and stopped telling new guys to commit suicide by jogging.

Different guy on the team ran like, 5-6k a day, which actually isn't all that much. His problem when he gave advice was that he didn't really get that 5-6k a day doesn't generally produce elite results for most people. He was lucky in the sense that he didn't have to work all that hard to get great results, and unlucky in the sense that if he pushed himself much further than that, he fell apart.

And the angels all clapped and nodded politely, and there was a long silence; and finally Verchiel, the Angel of Grace, spoke up and asked, "Er, what exactly does it do, O Fashioner?"

And God said, "What do you mean, 'what does it do?' It's the fourth fundamental force of the universe."

And Verchiel said, "You mentioned that. Um. But it's just that the other three sort of have a brand, you know? Gravity helps build large-scale structures, acts over vast cosmic distances, shapes time and space. The strong force is secret, hidden, binding together quarks and all that. Electromagnetism, very cool stuff, somewhere in between. We're all big fans of the whole magnetic monopole double bluff, very clever. But, er. What does this 'weak interaction' do?"

And God said, "It mediates radioactive decay. Sort of."

And Verchiel said, "Radioactive decay? All radioactive decay?"

And God said, "No. Just some kinds."

And Zephaniel, the Chief of the Ishim spoke, and he said, "A whole independent force just to mediate some kinds of radioactive decay?"

And God said, "Well. Not totally independent. Technically it's related to electromagnetism."

And Zephaniel said, "Wait, it's not even a real force?"

And God said, "It's totally a real force. It's just that it's one aspect of a combined electromagnetic and weak force. An electro-weak force, if you will."

And Metatron, the Celestial Scribe, scratched his head at this, but said nothing.

And Cambiel, the Angel of Transformation, said, "Maybe you can walk us through it from the top."

And Verchiel, the Angel of Grace, said, "Because the Eternal Spirit, Worshipped by All, With Absolute Power over All Matters, Natures, and Events wants the cosmos to be flat."

And Uriel said, "Flat? It's got three dimensions--no, four. I hate to say it, but I think the Ever-Adept has goofed on this one."

And Verchiel said, "No, not flat flat, flat in a geometric sense. Parallel lines and all that. Triangles whose corners add up to 180 degrees. Wossname. Euclidean."

And Uriel said, "We really have to stop naming things after mortals that won't be born for billions of years. It gets confusing."

And Verchiel said, "The point is, the universe has got to be flat. If it's too dense, triangles will be able to have more than 180 degrees in their angles, and spacetime'll be curved up like a four-dimensional sphere, and it'll collapse back in on itself. If it's not dense enough, it'll be curved out the other way, triangles will go all pointy, and spacetime'll be infinite and the expansion will accelerate. He Who Is Able To Do Everything would like it to be flat so that the expansion of the universe settles down to a constant rate."

And Uriel said, "I see. Well, that's easy. We just need to get rid of all this clutter. This energy and mass and other nonsense, that's what's causing all this spacetime curvature."

And Verchiel shook his head, and said, "No, no, that stuff's the whole point of Creation in the first place. It just needs to be spread out evenly enough and it all needs to balance out, so that on the whole, the universe is mostly flat."

And Uriel huffed, and said, "Well, it sounds like The Giver of Life doesn't know exactly what he wants in the first place. If matter and energy are going to curve spacetime, including matter and energy is going to make spacetime all lumpy, and it's going to be very tricky to make it all flat."

And Verchiel nodded, and said, "That's what inflation is for. Look here. We start out with a hot, dense universe, right? Matter and energy and stuff. And an inflaton field with lots of energy. Big vacuum energy, makes space expand by about 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 times in 10^-32 seconds. Cools it off a bit, too. Temperature goes down by about 100,000 times. Smooths out all the lumps from initial quantum fluctuations and all that. Flat spacetime. Neat, hey?"

And Uriel frowned, and said, "I thought you said this universe was supposed to have stuff in it."

Verchiel nodded. "It is," he said. "That's why it starts out all hot and dense and whatnot."

And Uriel said, "Well. It won't be after all that. Your spacetime will be flat, because it will be empty."

And Verchiel said, "Ah, but that's the beauty. Inflation stops, and when it does, the inflaton field loses all that energy. It turns into stuff again. Nice, hot, thick stuff!"

And Uriel examined the plans closely, and tapped his chin with a pencil. "So you're saying the universe is going to start out hot and dense. Then you're going to make it almost completely empty. Then make it hot and dense again. Just to make it flat?"

And Verchiel said, "Well, flat and all the same temperature."

And Uriel, exasperated, said, "Well, why can't it all just start at the same temperature?"

And Verchiel said, "Well, to be honest, we haven't worked that far back yet. We're still working out the details of the first 10^-43 seconds or so. But this way we can also hide all the magnetic monopoles and cosmic strings and things."

And Uriel said, "Are you telling me you designed this god-awful kluge and you haven't even worked out how the universe starts yet?"

And Verchiel got a bit defensive, and said, "Look, you try designing a universe with sentient apes in it! God's got this whole Plan, you see? The Great Saga of Creation, all mapped out. There's going to be ups and downs and Morality and Suffering and Redemption, and kings and tyrants and evolution and, er, economics and things…"

And Uriel said, "Economics?"

And Verchiel said, "And other things! Important things!"

And Uriel said, "If you say so."

And Verchiel said, "Anyway, it's our job to help The Guide to the Right Path realize His vision. And He has decreed it must be flat."

And Uriel said, "Right. Flat. Somehow. Not too flat. There's got to be lumps. That's very important for some reason."

And Verchiel said, "They are interesting lumps."

And Uriel said, "Interesting lumps. If you say so. And this was the best you could come up with?"

And Verchiel said, "It works, doesn't it?"

And Uriel said, "No, it doesn't work. See this number you've added here? This little cosmological constant? Expansion is going to start accelerating again after a few billion years. Your universe isn't so flat after all."

And Verchiel said, "Oh, don't worry about that. That's just a placeholder for dark energy."

As Google has worked to overtake the internet, its search algorithm has not just gotten worse.  It has been designed to prioritize advertisers and popular pages often times excluding pages and content that better matches your search terms 

As a writer in need of information for my stories, I find this unacceptable.  As a proponent of availability of information so the populace can actually educate itself, it is unforgivable.

Below is a concise list of useful research sites compiled by Edward Clark over on Facebook. I was familiar with some, but not all of these.

⁂

Google is so powerful that it “hides” other search systems from us. We just don’t know the existence of most of them. Meanwhile, there are still a huge number of excellent searchers in the world who specialize in books, science, other smart information. Keep a list of sites you never heard of.

www.refseek.com - Academic Resource Search. More than a billion sources: encyclopedia, monographies, magazines.

www.worldcat.org - a search for the contents of 20 thousand worldwide libraries. Find out where lies the nearest rare book you need.

https://link.springer.com - access to more than 10 million scientific documents: books, articles, research protocols.

www.bioline.org.br is a library of scientific bioscience journals published in developing countries.

http://repec.org - volunteers from 102 countries have collected almost 4 million publications on economics and related science.

www.science.gov is an American state search engine on 2200+ scientific sites. More than 200 million articles are indexed.

www.pdfdrive.com is the largest website for free download of books in PDF format. Claiming over 225 million names.

and scrolll down and un-check the following

The new girl: what's film?

Me: ... film. Like... film that goes in a film camera.

New girl: what's that mean?

Me: ... before cameras were digital.

New girl: how did you do it before digital?

Me: format?

New girl: yeah what do I do?

Me: you... put the usb in. Then you make a new folder on it and rename it with (name, date, location)

New girl: but how do I do that?

There's a lot of assumed technical literacy because we had a whole generation brought up on desktop computers, but now it's one that was brought up on phones, tablets, and chromebooks. Phones are easier to use, but that means the users have never had to work around the daily problems presented by most desktop environments.

Much of the back-end architecture will soon be more difficult to maintain, as those with the expertise retire or when the one guy volunteering to update a niche corner of some minute software function that holds up 1/4 of the computer world dies.

While products are made to be “easier to use” now, which has made them more accessible, they aren’t made to last, contributing to tech pollution / e-waste. Many consumers don’t know how to upgrade or repair their own tech…if they are upgradeable.

Which brings me to my next point.

I bought a new low end laptop recently. Not chrome book, but actual Windows PC laptop. I haven’t had a personal computer for a while and with a lot of expectation to “return to the office” because COVID’s over, right? *heavy eye roll*, I wanted something cheap and portable. I found a deal because a lot of low end laptops are being discounted because school children aren’t remote now. I was actually looking for refurbished but found what I wanted cheaper new, sadly.

Finding one that I knew would run the software I needed or that wouldn’t be bogged down just with Windows? A challenge. You’ve got to know what RAM, HDD vs eMMC vs SSD, cores, age of processors, and all those specs mean.

Finding one that wasn’t Windows in “S mode,” a bullshit mode that locks you into the Windows app / store for ALL software (where they take a cut of each purchase)? Even more challenging.

When I booted it up…I imagine most people just click yes through things because why not, just want to get right to it, right?

The amount of privileges I had to decline because of targeted data collection, for ad preferences and other nefarious reasons; the number of easy-to-miss “no thanks” options to decline enrollment in bloatware; the number of things that wanted me to launch the free trial, where they could automatically enroll me into a monthly PAID subscription and could report failure to add a credit card to pay for it to credit agencies (!); many of these presented as the “recommended” or default option… ASTOUNDING.

And then I still had to go into system settings and turn off additional data tracking that they didn’t even present during set-up, along with bloatware bullshit programs they wanted to always run at start-up. Because I knew where to go and find that stuff. Don’t even get me starting on fucking Cortana.

Technology has gotten bad. Even 10 years ago, it was a couple simple agreements not to pirate, using software at your own risk, etc. and that was it.

Now? Waiving rights, arbitration, hidden terms that could leave you owing money if you don’t uninstall it, data collection to link accounts and literally track every move / your exact location / your usage, attempts to personalize ads through your specific searches, inability to block cookies unless you download a Google app!?, four pop ups for every website, as the default?

It is scary how much tech that was designed to increase productivity and make life easier has become yet another way for corporations to track us, sell to us, and sell their data on us, even potentially incriminating us.

Oh, and heaven forbid you know what you’re doing and try to upgrade or repair your equipment yourself. Warranty voiding? Should be illegal, may be illegal in some areas, but they still tell you it’ll void your warranty. Good luck finding the parts. Using non-OEM parts will void the warranty too…by design.

Windows Vista era to

deal with this bullshit.

General basic safety

How to avoid ransomware, malware, hacks, and how to maintain good data privacy.

https://www.getsafeonline.org/

^ this has intermediate information (as well as beginner info) that I think people who grew up on the internet benefit most from (so it won't tell you what a phone is, or how to press the power button to turn on a computer). I recommend all sections the personal section under the top drop down (except the one aimed at children).

https://edu.gcfglobal.org/en/internetsafety/

Same deal as above, with quizzes and additional topics.

https://www.digitalliteracyassessment.org/

^ this one is mostly video and audio which some people might helpful

HTML

https://www.w3schools.com/html/default.asp

W3schools is a well known free resource for coding. I recommend HTML because it gives basic website building capabilities, so you can create a neocities website for example or even edit your Tumblr theme. You can also learn CSS (used with HTML to make prettier websites) and Python (used to make programs).

Touch typing

Touch typing is using the home row on keyboards. It allows people to type faster than pressing individual keys one at a time, like on a smart phone.

https://www.typingclub.com/

This site has lessons, and honestly looks much nicer than the program I learned to use touch typing with.

https://www.how-to-type.com/touch-typing-lessons/how-to-type-home-keys/

This site has lessons and practice tests and speed tests to measure progress. In middle school I was taking a practice test about three times a week and a speed test once a week for about fifteen minutes each time, if that helps.

---

These three areas are the main things people were taught in computer literacy courses.

I also recommend checking your local library or other educational resources (like local colleges, your current college/highschool/middle school etc, the college you graduated from). These can have in person instructors which can be super helpful. Feel free to send me any questions and stuff, if I don't already know I'll try to find out and share where I found it!

Helpful things I've done with my windows computer to make it safer/more efficient:

Installing Malwarebytes/enabling windows defender

Creating a backup of my computer on a hard drive

Setting permissions for apps to start on startup

Getting a password manager

Installing a web browser that isn't chrome

Changing old passwords into better, more secure passwords- especially websites that have debit card info

Did I share this already? Doesn't hurt to share this again hehe but oh my goodness me! 😖💗 Huge huge list of free certificates you can look at and see ones you want to do!

Certificates from Google, LinkedIn Learning, Microsoft, Harvard, Standford, Open University, FreeCodeCamp, Digital Marketing and FutureLearn and more! [LINK]

Dissociative Disorders: TW - Mentions/Descriptions of Dissociation

Credit to @sleuth2k7 for the idea

So quick disclaimer: I am not a certified psychologist, I am giving generalized advice for deducing with disorders that I have been diagnosed with based on my personal experience. Nothing is one-size-fits-all.

When I was 15 I was diagnosed with derealization/depersonalization disorder. DR/DP is one of three types of dissociative disorders spanning approximately 1%-2% of the population, and as with all dissociative disorders, involves repeated episodes of disconnection from one's sense of self and surroundings. With DR/DP specifically, I experience long episodes of what I can only describe as having a VR headset glued on where you can only watch what's happening to your character, and you just have this certainty nothing in this world is real, occasionally being removed from the driver's seat entirely and placed further back in the VR world by some part of your brain that belongs to you on every count except your own.

TLDR: Am I real? Are you? How to deduce when you aren't sure if you're real is the question.

Answer: I personally do reality checks to start, and I incorporate deduction into that. Am I real? Well does 2+2 still equal 4? Do those baggy pants plus that ill-fitting suit still mean that this teenager is wearing his dad's clothes? Probably. Let's find out.

So when we're reconnecting to ourselves and our surroundings, we look for things that verify our experience as truly our own. Make it a game. Certain deductions are worth certain points, it can help to have a friend to play with. A profession is worth 5, a relationship status is worth 10, etc. No friend? No problem. The classic grounding method of listing 5 things you see, 4 you hear, 3 you can touch, 2 you can smell, and 1 thing you can taste can be built upon to be a more mindful exercise that you don't just run right through.

When listing your sensory observations, use your list to then deduce things about the person. For example, I used to smoke, quit like 2 or 3 years ago, but my ex would always be able to know I had been smoking when I was within 20 feet of her. She could see the nicotine stains, the smudge of ash on my thumb from flicking the cigarette, the lump of a crumpled cigarette pack in my pocket, and not just the obvious pieces of information, she saw the cologne in my bag, and the look on the faces of my friends who would smoke with me before school. For sound she may have heard the dry smoker's cough, the crackling of a lit cigarette, the spritz of a bottle of cologne before I walked up to her, and the click of a lighter in my fidgeting hands. She would reach out and touch the grainy bits of ash on my shirt, and feel the tremors in my hand, and the movement of the pack in my pocket. Obviously, she could smell the tar and smoke of the cigarette, even under the smell of my cologne. Even if I had brought a change of clothes, sprayed copious amounts of cologne, and washed my hands, she could always taste it when we kissed.

Which obviously let me to literally get so jittery and excited about my prospects of plant picking and basket making i was quite literally bouncing in my seat

now i have a bundle of invasive plants ripped up from corners of my college campus drying in the garage

Hello! I think i've mentioned the subject before, but i've never talked about it in depth, mostly because i'm not particularly well versed in body language. I used to know people who also had blogs who were very knowledgeable in it, so if they become active again i'll make a post about it. That being said, as i've been writing this response i've had to be very careful to not get into any details i'm not sure about or give any advice that may be wrong. So i've decided to keep my response fairly vague while still giving as much advice as i can.

So body language falls into the non verbal communication side of deduction, along with microexpressions, and both should be treated similarly. Body language and facial expressions (and their corresponding microexpressions) are ways that our body has of relaying what we feel or think in any given moment, a lot of the time involuntarily, this means that like with every other language, we need to learn to not just read it, write it, and speak it, we also have to learn to interpret it. There's a plethora of books and resources out there that teach you how to read body language, what certain movements, poses, and reactions indicate about a person's state of mind, so i'm not gonna go into that here, actually it's probably the easiest part of deduction to find information on. What i am gonna touch on is what to then do with that raw information

Similar to all the other parts of deduction, once you interpret body language, get all the information you can about someone's reactions, state of mind, emotions, ideas, feelings, etc. you have to start asking yourself what this information means. Knowing that someone's uncomfortable is only useful if you know why, and that's where deduction comes in, sometimes it's as easy as noticing that the body language shifts once a certain person comes into the room, or a certain topic is mentioned, other times you have to do a bit more digging, after all that person who triggers body language that indicates discomfort may do so because they're someone's boss, or because they're their partner and they had a big fight recently, or because they've harassed the person in some way, or a plethora of other reasons.

Now how to do that is the hard part, i can't give any advice that's specific to body language, but i have talked about how to go deeper than the raw information you can observe about someone before, so i'll link those posts here. While i'm not well versed in body language it's not a big leap to assume that due to the nature of the advice i give in these posts, they could be applied to information gained through reading body language:

Deduction: Passive or Active

Changes and Deductions

Chess and Deduction

Binaries

I also recommend the book What EveryBODY is Saying by Joe Navarro, it's a very good resource to learn body language.

One example is Western cultures viewing eye contact as confident and somewhat expected in social situations (so avoiding it could odd), whereas for some Middle Eastern and Asian cultures, eye contact is less common and can be viewed as disrespectful or aggressive.

If you're a deductionist living in a non-Western (or honestly non-English as well) country, you want to be cognizant of potential cultural differences, especially when reading/learning about body language, since a lot of the books about BL are American centric (some do touch on culture a bit though).

Now if you're a deductionist living in the US or other Western country, why is this still relevant for you?

Individuals come from cultures beyond their location. You might be deducing a recent immigrant to the US, a Middle Eastern adult man, for example. If he grew up in the Middle East, he's going to use body language influenced by that, especially when he first comes to thr US or another country he's not from (as he'll have to learn the body language expectations of the new culture he's in).

.