61below:

politicalsci:

AND UNTIL WE CHANGE THE SYSTEM, REMINDER THAT OPEN ENROLLMENT IS OPEN UNTIL 12/15/18

lewisandquark:

So I’ve used neural networks to generate recipes in the past. They’re computer programs that can learn to imitate the data we give them, copying the way that humans drive cars, label images, or translate languages.

That is, they try to learn. They’re called “neural” because they have virtual neurons that work a little like the real neurons in our brains. Their virtual brains, however, are really tiny. Where a human has about 86 million neurons, the neural networks we use today have hundreds to low thousands – think nematode worm or, optimistically, jellyfish. So they often struggle, and recipes, my friends, are one of those times. (you haven’t lived until you’ve seen a neural net’s attempt at “small sandwiches”)

I turned to cocktails, inspired by Beth Skwarecki’s cocktails bot (and helped immensely by the dataset she sent me).

The neural net’s first attempt was… an attempt.

I let it train for a little longer, and things got a little more recognizable, as it learned to kinda spell more ingredients.

It had, however, not learned when to quit. 64-ounce (2 liter) cocktails are not unheard of at this stage.

It continued to learn on its own, all without input from me, and eventually ended up with cocktails that were almost plausible.

Some of my other training attempts, however, did not go so well. At first the cocktail titles in my training set were in all caps, which confused the heck out of the neural net because capital letters were so rare that it didn’t see enough examples of what to do with them. It struggled with the titles.

You may also notice that the ill-fated all-caps attempt had a lot of repetition – that’s because I was using textgenrnn, which has a somewhat limited memory. It could learn to spell ingredients, but had no idea whether it had already added sugar and cream. When I switched to char-rnn for the lowercase recipes above, I could give it a memory of 50 characters, enough to cut down on repetition. The textgenrnn version, however, became strangely obsessed with creme de cacao. The less said about its cocktails, the better.

For more neural net cocktails (including custom-generated cocktails for any name you care to provide), check out Beth’s cocktails bot!

For a few more of the cocktails I generated (including some very unfortunately-named ones), you can sign up here, and optionally get bonus material every time I post.

candystrippers:

I had a very young kid with a hereditary heart condition come in today to be seen. My colleague excitedly told him that I play “that ‘dungeons and dragons’ game just like you do!”

The kid deadpans me with “I DM for 8 people who keep splitting the party, I think that’s why I’m really here.”

Relatable, kid, relatable.

Oh dear gods yes.  

New Player: “Well if half of us go this way, and the others go down there, we can…”

Regular: “Let’s split up, we can be spread over more ground that way!”  

NP: “Um, it’s ‘we can cover more ground’.”

R: “I know what I said.  Let’s not.”

Don’t split the party is our Rule One.  Well, one of our Rule Ones, the other one is ‘Don’t get caught’.

offbrandboy:

offbrandboy:

Y’all wanna get rid of some female presenting nipples?

https://www.gofundme.com/help-charlie-get-top-surgery #gofundme

My name’s Charlie, I’m a working nineteen year old who identifies as a transgender man. Part of what I experiance is gender dysphoria, which for me manifests into a physical and mental discomfort with my body. Over the years to combat this I have been wearing a binder, which presents the appearance of a flat chest. Unfortunately, there are medical side effects to this, one of the more common ones being severe back pain which in these years has warped my spine. To move on from using a binder and to help reduce my chronic back pain, as well as my dysphoria, multiple doctors have suggested that I undergo surgery that will give me a flat chest. This surgery would improve my overall quality of life.

This is where my gofundme comes in. Top surgery is, unfortunately, not a cheap process, the surgeon I met with has given me a ballpark of $8,000. Unlike many others my age, I am 100% financially independent. I am not in a position where I can easily save money as I live paycheck to paycheck. Working 40+ hours a week I am working to pay as much as my bills allow,however, if I continue saving the way that I am I will not be able to get surgery for far longer. My dysphoria and chronic pain does not account for this, and I fear that if I continue binding every day that my spine will warp further.

Anything helps in this process, and I truly am grateful for even those who read this. Donate if you can, otherwise please share. Thank you.

jenroses:

heavyweightheart:

Research has shown that pleasure affects nutrient absorption. In a 1970s study of Swedish and Thai women, it was found that when the Thai women were eating their own (preferred) cuisine, they absorbed about 50% more iron from the meal than they did from eating the unfamiliar Swedish food. And the same was true in the reverse for the Swedish women. When both groups were split internally and one group given a paste made from the exact same meal and the other was given the meal itself, those eating the paste absorbed 70% less iron than those eating the food in its normal state.

Pleasure affects our metabolic pathways; it’s a facet of the complex gut-brain connection. If you’re eating foods you don’t like because you think it’s healthy, it’s not actually doing your body much good (it’s also unsustainable, we’re pleasure-seeking creatures). Eat food you enjoy, it’s a win-win.

what

no seriously

what?

mindthegapyear:

everythingisinabag:

autistic-sowachowski:

squided:

gossipseer:

geekishchic:

If I ever see any of you in public, the code is “I like your shoelaces”

that way we know we’re from tumblr without revealing anything

I’m just going to say this to strangers until i find a tumblr person

must keep reblogering!! Im going to be so suspicious if any one tells me this now!

Remember the answer is: I stole them from the president.

always reblog tumblr identification

This is an absolute tumblr relic. I feel like an archaeologist right now. This is incredible that this is on my dash.

this is from an era long passed

It has 3 million notes

Oh my god

This is so old

How did I find it

Oh 2013….

childofthewanderer:

A while back, my boyfriend and I were talking about feeling disconnected from our deities. I gave him some advice that I’d like to repeat here.

First, it is not a vital thing to have a deep, exciting, saga-worthy connection to a deity. They do not have to be your bosom buddy, your confidante, or the most important figure in your life. If you never have any deep, personal interaction with them, and all they are in your life is a distant figure whose stories you find meaningful…that’s okay. That’s enough. That’s wonderful, and amazing, and perfect. 

Mysticism does not have to be the backbone of your faith. To borrow a phrase that I heard often growing up Catholic, not all of us are called to spiritual service; most of us will live and die without ever intimately knowing the will of God (or, in this case, gods).

My advice is to make a list of all the things that first drew you to the deity or deities you honor. If it’s more a case of you feel that they called and you were compelled to answer, make a list of the things that made you want to answer.

Make a list of the traits, associations, and behaviors that made you look at that deity and say, “Yes, this is who I want to hold up as important. This is who I look at and am inspired by.”

Then do what you can to honor those things. If you value a deity’s creativity, do what you can to foster creativity in yourself and others. If you value a deity’s connection to agriculture, tend your own garden, support sustainable farming, or just stop to smell the roses. If you value a deity’s knowledge and wisdom, spend time researching and reading about the things you find interesting. Etc., etc.

These things don’t even have to be formally dedicated to that deity, if you don’t want to make them a big deal. It is enough to just do them, and live your life as a reflection of what inspires you.

You do not have to develop a grand, epic, personal relationship with a deity to honor them. You do not have to even fully believe they exist. It is enough to know what it is about them that you find valuable, inspiring, and worthy of emulation.