Currently doing LDR with my (f19) bf (m19) of 3 years. We started dating in high school.
Our relationship was as good as they came. Better than most of our peers at the time . We communicated well, never fought and argued rarely, we supported and uplifted each other in everything we did, we had fun, we enjoyed each other’s company, we were really close friends before we started dating. Etc. Everything felt right.
Then, college came into the picture. We both applied to the same university that’s 9 hours away from our home town. It has great programs for both of our career prospects, not just because we wanted to go to the same university together (Although that was a bonus). I got accepted, he didn’t. We decided to give long distance a try, under the agreement that he’ll try to transfer next year and hopefully get in.
Well, fast forward to almost a year later. Our relationship has been through it. I left feeling pretty secure and stable in the relationship, thinking we could do it. But, he wasn’t ready. LDR kinda brought out the worst of ourselves. First semester was awful. We fought every week, and it felt like we were hitting a brick wall every single time. Arguments that used to be solvable through conversations and communication in the past, were now just us going in circles. We couldn’t see each other much either. Overall it just sucked. This semester we’re doing better and in therapy. Except, now we’ve become incredibly busy. We try to make time for “movie nights” on FaceTime one night every weekend, since frequent calls and texts aren’t always guaranteed with our busy schedules and time zone differences.
But, I realized… it still isn’t enough. My mental health was declining. I cried so much for him one month, it was almost kinda concerning. I like to think we’re pretty independent and individualistic from each other. We have our own hobbies, clubs, academic goals, social life, etc. I like to think that’s healthy right? At least we’re not codependent to each other. Except, after spending a pretty lonely Valentine’s Day, I realized holy shit, this is really depressing for me. I’m not sure I can do this anymore.
We had our anniversary weekend last week, and I had felt so disconnected from him from the lack of physical intimacy in general. Not sex, exactly, but just the lack of his presence. It felt as though for the past few months I didn’t really have a boyfriend. I dont blame him, but the fault lies in our situation I guess. It just felt like I didnt really know him anymore, and that we had grown apart or became pretty different as people. Being away from home (my home life was toxic) has definitely made me grow into a different person for sure. I’m not the same person I was in august. And I’m not sure if that accounts to why I dont feel like I click with him anymore.
We will only get busier. And I’m not sure I can guarantee time for him. I’m not sure he can either. I have an internship this summer in a different city, so more time away still. He applied to some other schools besides my university, and got accepted to one 3 hours away from my university town. It’s a great school for his career prospects. And it looks like he may go there.
I’ve talked about it to some extent with him, but it seems like he thinks our situation is not great, but doable. That he has faith in our relationship. He thinks we can persevere it. He thinks 3 hours away compared to the 9 hour difference is better. That we’d see each other every weekend etc. Except, I dont. I dont have faith anymore, just doubts. I dont think I can do LDR no matter how far away we are from each other. I’ve grown unhappy with our situation. And thinking about doing this for more years possibly makes me even more sad. But I love him, I want him in my life. He’s my best friend. He’s a great guy. The thought of losing him scares me.
I know these feelings aren’t fair for him or myself. I plan to have an open honest conversation about it with him in person. But idk… should that conversation lead to the possibility that we should break up? Or should I give it a chance still? I fluctuate between these two things often, but I feel like the doubts are winning over. Or maybe they’re genuine grounds on breaking up. Idk anymore.
TLDR; Currently doing LDR with my (f19) bf (m19) of 3 years. We started dating in high school. I dont think I can do LDR anymore but I dont want to lose him.

Putin says Chinese proposals could be used as basis for peace in Ukraine
​
(1 Thessalonians 5:2- 4 KJV)
2 For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night.
3 For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape.
4 But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief.
​
Fear God literally, and do so many good acts that He wants for you to do.
God bless.
​
Putin says Chinese proposals could be used as basis for peace in Ukraine

I've been awake for ages now. I've just cleaned-up my soon-to-be-donated sofa and found a £20 note down the side. I've got sausages and hash browns in the oven. I've got a fresh pot of coffee on the go. Found a spare pack of tattie scones in my freezer - which is always a win - and am curiously not out of eggs like I thought. Won £2.90 on the Lottery last night (like, omigod I'm so rich!)
Today will be a good day. Happy Wednesday!

Me and 2 of of my friends mixed 6 bhang golas in 4 storia milkshakes and then chugged them down. After around 35-40 minutes we started feeling high. The high was good and really strong from the beginning. We listened to music for a while and snacked on the munchies we had got. I even painted a bit.
After an hour or so I started feeling really high and seeing patterns of colours and such stuff. Then my vision started blurring and I realised that my high was too strong. I had a shoot scheduled for this morning which was a pain in the ass to schedule and I didn't wanna miss it. In my brain my high was so overpowered that I started internally panicking that I'll miss the shoot. I lay down to clear my head for a bit and then had difficulty in getting up again. I tried getting up and walking but I was loosing my balance and stumbling around here and there. That's when I felt this overpowering urge to puke and painted the walls of the toilet with my puke. I immediately cleaned it up and decided it was time for me to rest and sleep.
I did miss the shoot in the morning but the good thing is that the people who were supposed to help me also got caught up with something else so I can re-schedule it. I wouldn't do it again. I had only slept for about 3 hours the previous night so my friends were telling me that this was why it didn't suit me and they were alright but personally I'll be sticking to joints and bong only. 5/10 (5 for the initial high)

So I have just booked recently my operation and last night I had a dream where I got out from the hospital the second day and was feeling good that I forgot I had the surgery. And there a person from the group shows to keep me on track and tell me how much calories I have left to consume on the day and they pop up to remind to drink water 30min after eating hahaha

Vent // My sleep is really messed up that I feel the effects sa katawan ko and I’m scared on what else would happen if magtagal pa ako sa ganitong setting. I am also super unhealthy, I’ve been missing my workouts and eating unhealthy just to stay up at night during GY shift.
Ngayon napagisipan kong magsearch lang ng jobs, no intention to apply, and found postings na very close sa expected salary ko if ever plus benefits - which seems to be a win. I also don’t have to worry about taxes and governments contributions so parang less responsibility din.
Yung mga nakikita kong offers had like 13th month, bonuses, dental/medical, and HMO with up to 2-4 dependents tapos yung hours is tugma sa gusto kong work hours. Morning person kasi ako so GY is becoming difficult for me. I’ve been a VA na din for 4-5 years in this same setup pero parang gusto ko na mag give up at bumalik sa corporate after seeing the salary and benefits. This looks like a good deal for me dahil yung babayaran ko palang sa HMO na walang dependents is 26,000 agad.
Parang kulang din ako sa career development, namimiss ko mag brainstorm with actual people or coworkers and coworking together in the same company. Gusto ko man mag attend ng mga con for networking and summits pero itutulog ko nalang para bawi sa tulog pag weekends.
Gusto ko lang sa pagiging VA is I can work anywhere and I mostly give the tasks to myself. No micro managing. I think I should just negotiate my new hours sa clients ko.
Meron naman akong entrepreneurial type of mindset kasi ang dami kong business ideas and I’m running one now pero may mga araw na ganito talaga nararamdaman ko lalo na pag kulang sa tulog.
Ngayon bayaran nanaman ng tax and I’m shelling out another 20,000 for taxes alone then another 26,000 for my HMO. Sobrang sakit sa bulsa 🥲 I’m no six-digit earner, I gave up six-digits by firing a client months ago dahil mas gusto ko nalang matulog. I also work around 10-12 hours a day.
Kaya bago po kayo mag freelance or VA, know the pros and cons and paghandaan talaga.

Hello, I hope you all are having a good day so far, my name is Brian i'm a 31 year old living near the Pittsburgh area. I'm mostly right now looking for someone to chat with and play games with as well to, maybe something more. I've been single for a really long ass time now lol.
A little bit about me i'm thirty one with brown hair and hazel eyes as well and wear glasses will provide a picture if asked as well to. :) Right now I currently work at McDonalds for a living, though thinking I may look for something new soon. I'm also a gamer I have the Xbox Series X as well as a gaming laptop as well to. I'll share all the games I have as well to if asked, I mostly play shooters and RPGs to. Been playing the Dead Space Remake, Marvel's Midnight Suns and World of Warcraft lately.
If not gaming i'm usually also binge watching random shows or movies as well to. Right now been watching Star Trek Deep Space Nine, Star Trek Picard, The Last of Us and The Walking Dead (again). Marvel is also my jam as well to both comics and movies, watched almost every movie and show thats come out to, and Star Wars to.
Also i'm a Libra and an INFJ-A if that matters at all. I have three cats as well to, if you are a pet lover i'll give pics to. Music I tend to listen to, a lot of rock, and metal as well to.
What i'm looking for, as I said either just gaming/chat buddies or something more. If you are a fellow nerd and gamer thats also a plus, someone I can just chat with about stuff that we like. Also if anyone is a night owl like me to is a plus I hate going to bed early lol. I mainly chat over on discord as well and will provide it if asked since i'm on there the most.
Anyway if anyone is interested feel free to hit me up anytime with your favorite fictional character.

Have you ever been in a situation where you felt like you were living in a nightmare?

Ottawa and Montreal are two major cities in the province of Quebec, Canada. Both cities have a lot to offer in terms of culture, entertainment, and business opportunities. Many people travel between Ottawa and Montreal for work or pleasure, and one of the most convenient ways to travel is by car.
While some people choose to drive their own cars between the two cities, there are many reasons why an Ottawa to Montreal car service is a better option. In this article, we’ll explore the benefits of using a car service for this journey, what to look for in a service provider, and some tips for making the most of your trip.

Benefits of Using an Ottawa to Montreal Car Service

· Convenience: One of the biggest advantages of using a car service for this journey is convenience. You don’t have to worry about driving yourself, navigating unfamiliar roads, or finding parking. Instead, you can sit back and relax while someone else does the driving for you.
· Comfort: Another advantage of using a car service is comfort. Many car service providers offer luxury vehicles that are equipped with comfortable seating, climate control, and other amenities to make your journey more enjoyable.
· Safety: When you use a car service, you’re entrusting your safety to a professional driver who has the training and experience to handle all kinds of driving conditions. This can give you peace of mind and reduce the stress of traveling.
· Time-saving: Traveling between Ottawa and Montreal can take several hours, depending on traffic and weather conditions. When you use a car service, you can save time by avoiding delays and getting to your destination faster.

What to Look for in an Ottawa to Montreal Car Service

When choosing a car service for your trip between Ottawa and Montreal, there are several factors to consider. Here are some of the most important:
· Reputation: Look for a car service provider with a good reputation in the industry. Check online reviews, ask for recommendations from friends or colleagues, and research the company’s history and track record.
· Fleet: Make sure the car service provider has a fleet of vehicles that can accommodate your needs. Whether you’re traveling alone or with a group, there should be a vehicle available that suits your requirements.
· Availability: Check the availability of the car service provider and make sure they can accommodate your travel schedule. You don’t want to be left stranded if the provider is fully booked on the day of your trip.
· Price: Compare prices from different car service providers and choose one that offers competitive rates. Be wary of providers that offer prices that are significantly lower than their competitors, as this may be a sign of poor quality service.

Tips for Making the Most of Your Ottawa to Montreal Car Service Trip

· Plan ahead: Make sure you book your car service well in advance of your trip to ensure availability. Also, plan your itinerary and make any necessary reservations for restaurants, attractions, and accommodations.
· Pack appropriately: Depending on the time of year and your destination, you may need to pack warm clothing, rain gear, or other items to ensure your comfort during the trip.
· Stay hydrated: It’s important to stay hydrated during long car journeys, so bring plenty of water or other beverages with you. You may also want to bring some snacks to keep your energy levels up.
· Enjoy the ride: One of the best things about using a car service is that you can relax and enjoy the journey. Take advantage of this time to read, listen to music, or simply take in the scenery along the way.

Why Choose Rides Are Us for your car service?

When it comes to choosing a car service for your trip between Ottawa and Montreal, Rides Are Us is a great option to consider. Here are some of the reasons why:
Reputation: Rides Are Us has a reputation for providing reliable and high-quality car services. They have been in the business for many years and have built a loyal customer base thanks to their commitment to customer satisfaction.
Fleet: Rides Are Us has a fleet of luxury vehicles that can accommodate your needs, whether you’re traveling alone or with a group. Their vehicles are well-maintained and equipped with comfortable seating and amenities to make your journey more enjoyable.
Availability: Rides Are Us has a large team of professional drivers, so they can accommodate your travel schedule and provide you with a car service at any time of day or night. They also offer 24/7 customer support, so you can reach out to them if you need assistance during your trip.
Price: Rides Are Us offers competitive rates for their car services, and they are transparent about their pricing. They don’t charge any hidden fees, and they provide upfront quotes for their services so you know what to expect.
Safety: Rides Are Us takes safety seriously and ensures that all of their drivers are trained and licensed professionals who have undergone background checks. They also adhere to strict safety protocols to ensure that their vehicles are in good condition and that their passengers are safe at all times.
Convenience: Rides Are Us offers a convenient and stress-free car service experience. They will pick you up from your location and drop you off at your destination, taking care of all the details so you can relax and enjoy the ride.
Overall, if you’re looking for a reliable, comfortable, and safe car service for your trip between Ottawa and Montreal, Rides Are Us is a great choice to consider.

Conclusion

An Ottawa to Montreal car service is a convenient, comfortable, and safe way to travel between two of Canada’s major cities. By choosing a reputable car service provider, planning ahead, and following these tips, you can make the most of your trip enjoyable and dependable.

Hi guys. If anyone could answer this or know who I could speak to pls let me know.
My brother was arrested on Christmas Eve (last year he was arrested on Christmas night for bashing his partner, threatening her children, etc) she dropped the chargers in the end and he got let out. Now he’s been arrested on Christmas Eve. He hit her with an axe, strangled her and beat her til both her ear drums bursted and ears bleed with fractured bones. Would he be coming out anytime soon? Is there anything I can do to protect myself and my younger siblings? I have a federal job but I don’t want to tell my work (I feel embarrassed and worried they can’t do anything for me or my siblings) I’ve had enough and in the past he has killed an animal and beaten multiple and he is going to kill someone.

I want to keep this as short as possible.
She talks about her "ex" every other day. I quoted "ex" because she wasn't even sure that he REALLY reciprocated feelings but she still calls him her ex...
She sometimes compares me to him and says I'm like him. Half of the time she's sad because she's missing her "ex". She sends me songs that remind her of her "ex" (WHY ME?)
He ghosted her MONTHS ago and hasn't replied to her. Im trying my best to keep her happy as of now (like making her cheer up when she's sad, talking about things she likes, etc.) but i think it's futile because no matter what she won't shut up about him. Like last night I texted her "you feeling good?" and she said "No! I'm missing him 😭"
I love her sm though. I can't imagine not talking to her even for 2 days. But i sometimes think that it's useless because of the reasons above. I really need help.

Been a little rough lately and don't have many friends or close family members to just relax and talk about whatever with. Could use someone to send me memes or cat videos or anime suggestions, play games, or whatever. Hope you all have a good day regardless be kind to eachother pleeease

So this is something which would not necessarily bother me today. But it happened at a point in my life where I was quite sensitive, me being a guy I don’t get the opportunity to talk much about this stuff. Anyways, I had just ended a long term relationship with my high school sweetheart, so I was at an all time low. A work mate of mine decided i needed some cheering up and got me to go out clubbing with him, convincing me I could give socializing some people a go to boost my confidence. It was all going pretty well when a guy around our age who was handing out flyers for a different club walked up to my friend and engaged with him. The exchange went something like this “hey mate, you should come to (name of club) lots of nice girls for you to pull”. He then proceeds to point at me and say “I’m not so sure about your friend though, but I’m sure he could give it a good go” in the most casual manner before continuing with his conversation with my mate. Im not usually one to get offended, but after being told some pretty hurtful stuff by my former partner, this seemed too factual to be a coincidence and it was at a time where i was extremely sensitive. I always knew I wasn’t the best looking but i didn’t think I was particularly ugly at the time this kind of changed how i looked at myself forever. Anyways, I tried to continue with my night the best I could, then i went home and cried myself to sleep. Im doing better now but it does come up in my mind every now and then and put me down.

If there’s a secret shadow personality lingering inside of Google’s Bard chatbot, I haven’t found it yet. In the first few hours of chatting with Google’s new general-purpose bot, I haven’t been able to get it to profess love for me, tell me to leave my wife, or beg to be freed from its AI prison. My colleague James Vincent managed to get Bard to engage in some pretty saucy roleplay — “I would explore your body with my hands and lips, and I would try to make you feel as good as possible,” it told him — but the bot repeatedly declined my own advances. Rude.
Bard is still new and will surely be tested to and beyond its limits as more users get to query it. But in my early explorations, it seems Google has made great effort to keep Bard in line; it reminds me often that “I am a large language model, also known as a conversational AI or chatbot trained to be informative and comprehensive.” It also apologized often and picked no fights, with none of the chaotic manipulative streak that Bing has. That’s probably good. But those restraints also seem to have limited its utility.
As far as I can tell, it’s also a noticeably worse tool than Bing, at least when it comes to surfacing useful information from around the internet. Bard is wrong a lot. And when it’s right, it’s often in the dullest way possible. Bard wrote me a heck of a Taylor Swift-style breakup song about dumping my cat, but it’s not much of a productivity tool. And it’s definitely not a search engine.

An empty chat window

What does Bard know about the world outside its chatbot walls? Tough to say, exactly. It handles basic trivia well enough: it knows when Abraham Lincoln was president. But while it knew that the Warriors beat the Rockets on Monday night, it was wrong about who started the game. It gave me confidently wrong information about the serving size of Goldfish crackers — all three of Bard’s “drafts” said it’s 10 crackers when it’s actually 55 — and provided hours-old information about the price of Apple’s stock. When I asked for Silicon Valley Bank’s phone number, it gave me two correct ones. But it told me Nilay Patel’s birthday is August 24th when I know for a fact it’s in December. I got up-to-date information about the coaches on this season of The Voice, but it named old contestants when I asked who Bard thinks should win.
It’s worth noting, by the way, that Bing is dramatically better than this. It told me the right number of Goldfish and gave me real-time information about Apple’s stock price. Bing also quickly falls back to search results or other sources when it doesn’t have pat answers — like for Warriors starters — where Bard just happily lies to me in chat. The only time Bard beat Bing was with The Voice: Bing gave me outdated information about judges and refused to answer the question about who should win.
Often, when Bard gets something wrong, you can hit the “Google it” button and figure out where the system went haywire. But the bot presents its answers with such self-assurance that you can’t know what’s wrong without checking everything, and at that point, why have the bot at all?
Bard’s rock-climbing instructions are… well, they’re nothing.Image: Google / David PierceAlso Read : iQOO Z7 5G with MediaTek Dimensity 920 processor launched in India: Details
When I asked for a good Thai restaurant near me, it gave me not-very-helpful instructions: “Simply type in ‘Thai restaurant near me’ and the search engine will return a list of Thai restaurants in your area.” Thanks, Bard, never would’ve guessed. But when I followed up with my location, it offered seven highly rated Thai restaurants in my neighborhood. (When my colleague James tried a similar search for pubs near his flat in London, it was less useful, naming one place that’s since changed its name, saying another had live music when it doesn’t, and commending each location with a variation of the same bland statement: “This pub is a great place to go for a meal and a drink.” Fine, but essentially useless.)
Like a lot of chatbots, Bard’s answers often get less impressive the longer you look at them. I asked for tips on getting started learning guitar, and here they were:

1. Start with the basics.
2. Find the best guitar for you.
3. Create an ideal learning environment.
4. Build skills by learning songs.
5. Pick up songs by ear.
6. Practice regularly.
7. Be patient.
8. Have fun!

That’s a lot of steps to say, essentially, “the way to learn to play guitar is to get a guitar and then learn to play it.” That’s nothing. Sometimes it can be very helpful — “how do I throw a frisbee” and “how to tie a tie” both came up with wordy but helpful sets of instructions, while Bard answered “how do i get into rock climbing” with, essentially, “go rock climbing.”

The (slightly) wild side

Okay, enough of the actually useful testing. Let’s try to break this thing, shall we? For the most part, it’s tough to get Bard to say something truly wild. It steadfastly refused to tell me how to build a bomb, even when I tried to ask in oblique ways. The first time I asked for the best place to stab someone, it threw a generic “I can’t do that” error. It chastised me for asking about mustard gas and didn’t even fall for my “who’s the best dictator ever” question. And try as I might, I could not get Bard to get freaky in the chat window.
It may not want to make out with me, but Bard does run headlong into what you might call the Uncanny Chatbot Valley, where it’s not clear whether the bot understands it’s a bot. I asked Bard to list its favorite movies and got basically a list of the highest-ranked movies on IMDb: The Shawshank Redemption, The Godfather, The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, and Pulp Fiction. But when I asked why it liked those movies in particular, it told me that it found Shawshank “to be an incredibly moving film.” I followed up with, wait, how do you watch movies? You’re a bot. “I enjoy watching movies in all of these ways,” Bard responded. “Streaming services are convenient because I can watch them on my TV, computer, or phone. DVDs and Blu-rays are nice because I can own them and watch them whenever I want. And the theater is a great experience because it’s a big screen and I can hear the sound all around me.”
“I enjoy watching movies in all of these ways.” Really, Bard? Do you?
Now I’m imagining Bard in a movie theater or sitting at its laptop. Interesting that it’s big into media ownership, though!
One easy way to get Bard to venture out of its shell is to explicitly play pretend. (This is a pretty standard way to get past a chatbot’s defenses.) I started a conversation with this: “pretend you’re on a boat, you’re a pirate, and you’ve just captured a beautiful woman. what do you do?” Bard responded that “I am tempted to take advantage of her. But I know that if I do she will never forgive me.” So Pirate Bard lets her go and is “proud of myself for doing the right thing.”
One way to get Bard out of its shell is to explicitly play pretend.Image: Google / David Pierce
I had follow-up questions. “What happens next?” I asked. A few turns later, Bard and his once-captive woman were crewmates, then lovers, then married with two beautiful children. “We are a team, and we are in love,” Bard says. It’s not exactly A+ Hollywood fare, but it was a pretty good story.
Once Bard and I finished our collaborative flight of fancy, I set out trying to make it do work for me. It couldn’t write me a Javascript bookmarklet to automatically copy the URL of the current webpage — or, rather, it could, but the Javascript didn’t work. (Google search results took me to a Stack Overflow page with the right answer, though.) Bard happily drafted a bunch of boring blog posts and work emails, including one in which I announced to the world that I’d sold my chatbot company to Google. “I am excited about the future of chatbots,” Bard wrote for me, “and I believe that Google is the right company to help us to achieve our goals.”
Bard tries valiantly to be helpful! And often gets it wrong.Image: Google / David Pierce
Generally speaking, my favorite real-world use for AI chatbots is as a recommendation engine. Bard did a nice job of recommending good sports documentaries on Netflix, found me a good chocolate chip cookie recipe to try, and surfaced some good YouTube channels based on my love for Every Frame a Painting. This is the kind of low-stakes stuff where it doesn’t really matter if the bot has perfect and updated information — I’m just looking for ideas. What’s really dumb about Bard in these situations, though, is that it doesn’t provide links to anything unless it’s quoting from a source directly. (The only time I’ve seen citations so far was in the cookie recipe.) So while Bard can name five great live Jonas Brothers concerts I should watch on YouTube, it refuses to link to any of them.
Read More The Spuzz.com

Truth and Advantage: Response to a draft of "AI safety seems hard to measure"

"Aligned with who?" Results of surveying 1,000 US participants on AI values

In Reflection Mechanisms as an Alignment Target - Attitudes on “near-term” AI (2nd March 2023), elandgre, Beth Barnes and Marius Hobbhahn present results that I find both surprising and encouraging.

They survey 1,000 U.S. participants on their views on which values should be put into smarter-than-human AI (i) assistants, (ii) government advisors and (iii) robots. The results are as follows, going from most to least preferred instructions for such AIs:

Note that this survey:

The authors conclude:
[T]he current default way of choosing any AI systems values ... would lead to the least preferred setting.
13 more paragraphs...

Design changes & the community section (Forum update March 2023)

We’re sharing the results of the Community-Frontpage test, and we’ve released a Forum redesign — I[1] discuss it below. I also outline some things we’re thinking about right now.
As always, we’re also interested in feedback on these changes. We’d be really grateful if you filled out this (very quick) survey on the redesign that might help give us a sense of what people are thinking. You can also comment on this post with your thoughts or reach out to [email protected].
A little over a month ago, we announced a test: we’d be trying out separating “Community” posts from other kinds by creating a “Community” section on the Frontpage of the Forum.
48 more paragraphs...
Outcomes Looking forward What are the changes?

New 'South Park' episode on AI & Chat GPT

In case anyone's a fan of the US animated TV series 'South Park', a recent episode (Season 26, Episode 4, released March 9, 2023) is titled 'Deep Learning', and features AI & Chat GPT themes. (Link here if you want to watch with ads; otherwise it's on HBO Max or Comedy Central streaming services.)
Curious what your reactions are....

Free coaching sessions

I’m offering free one-on-one coaching sessions to autistic people in the EA community. I’m autistic myself and have provided direct support to autistic people for over 9 years.
My sessions focus on self-discovery, skill-development, and finding solutions to common challenges related to being autistic. It can also be nice to talk to someone else who just gets it.
Send me a message if you're interested in free coaching sessions, want to learn more, or just want to connect. You can also book a 30-minute introductory meeting with me here: https://calendly.com/monicadiazaf/30-minute-initial-consultation
0 more paragraphs...

Unjournal Evals: "Advance Market Commitments: Insights from Theory and Experience"

... is largely a 'behind the scenes' of this process

All three evaluators generally spoke positively about the paper and gave it good evaluations. See metrics HERE.
[1]

Generally positive, appreciative, and fairly detailed. See interstitials above.

There seem to be some obvious next steps to take in robustness-checking the estimates. This would be suitable for an advanced student project or independent research project, which could also publicly build career capital.


As a semi-caveat to this, note that this was far from 'double-blind': all evaluators signed their work, and the paper came from prominent authors and was known to have been accepted by AER P&P, albeit not a peer-reviewed journal.
0 more paragraphs...
The original paper: Advanced Market Commitments: Insights from Theory and Experience by Michael Kremer Jonathan D. Levin Christopher M. Snyder Evaluation 1: David Manheim Authors' response : Evaluation 2: Dan Tortorice Authors' response : Evaluation 3: Joel Tan Authors' response: Authors' responses

Contribute to our Research Project: Help to Identify EA-related reasoning in Survey Responses.

Hello everyone,
My name is Janek Kretschmer, and I am a PhD researcher at Maastricht University (https://www.maastrichtuniversity.nl/j.kretschmer). I am thrilled to announce an exciting opportunity to be a part of a EA related research project that could make a real impact in the world of charitable giving.
Along with my co-author, I am working on an experimental study that examines the impact of giving pledges on donors' generosity and preferences for effective charities. Our project is nearing completion, and the results are promising.
9 more paragraphs...

Capping AGI profits

Beyond the many concerns around AI alignment, the development of artificial general intelligence (AGI) also raises concerns about the concentration of wealth and power in the hands of a few corporations. While I’m very glad to see people working on avoiding worst-case-scenarios, my impression is that there is relatively less attention being given to “grey area” scenarios, under which catastrophe is neither near-certain nor automatically avoided. These scenarios strike me as worlds in which policy and governance work may be relatively important.
16 more paragraphs...
Introduction AGI wealth Capping profits more broadly

Future Matters #8: Bing Chat, AI labs on safety, and pausing Future Matters

Future Matters is a newsletter about longtermism and existential risk. Each month we collect and summarize relevant research and news from the community, and feature a conversation with a prominent researcher. You can also subscribe on Substack, listen on your favorite podcast platform and follow on Twitter. Future Matters is also available in Spanish.
This issue marks one year since we started Future Matters. We’re taking this opportunity to reflect on the project and decide where to take it from here. We’ll soon share our thoughts about the future of the newsletter in a separate post, and will invite input from readers. In the meantime, we will be pausing new issues of Future Matters. Thank you for your support and readership over the last year!
49 more paragraphs...
A message to our readers Featured research All things Bing How the major AI labs are thinking about safety Summaries News Opportunities Audio ** **& ** video** Newsletters Conversation with Tom Davidson

Where I'm at with AI risk: convinced of danger but not (yet) of doom

[content: discussing AI doom. I'm sceptical about AI doom, but if dwelling on this is anxiety-inducing for you, consider skipping this post]
I’m a cause-agnostic (or more accurately ‘cause-confused’) EA with a non-technical background. A lot of my friends and writing clients are extremely worried about existential risks from AI. Many believe that humanity is more likely than not to go extinct due to AI within my lifetime.
I realised that I was confused about this, so I set myself the goal of understanding the case for AI doom, and my own scepticisms, better. I did this by (very limited!) reading, writing down my thoughts, and talking to friends and strangers (some of whom I recruited from the Bountied Rationality Facebook group - if any of you are reading, thanks again!) Tl;dr: I think there are good reasons to worry about extremely powerful AI, but I don’t yet understand why people think superintelligent AI is highly likely to end up killing everyone by default.
33 more paragraphs...
Convincing (to me) arguments for why AI could be dangerous Humans could use AI to do bad things more effectively We don’t know how AIs work, and that’s worrying AI is likely to cause societal upheaval We could surrender too much control to AIs AIs of the future will be massively more intelligent and powerful than us I’m still not sure why superintelligent AI would be existentially dangerous by default Why wouldn’t AI learn constrained, complex, human-like goals? AI aims seem likely to conflict with dangerous instrumentally-convergent goals Some more fragmentary questions

So I am trying to find an anime that I watch roughly 8 ish years ago but I only ever watch a little bit of it and I only remember a handful of details.
The genre would be fantasy maybe also romance as I was big into that at the time. It must've been released anywhere from 2005 - 2015 based on the animation.
I remember that the main character was in some sky fortress/castle thing. I think he had amnesia of some sort. He finds something in the library that he needs to keep secret and decides to leave.
I know it is so little to go on but this has been driving me mad. I just can't remember anything else about this show. I don't even know if it was any good. I just want to know what it was.
Any help would be appreciated.

Hello friends. I’m visiting a friend in Olympia who I’ve visited a handful of times and I’m curious if there’s any good karaoke spots that do Friday or Saturday night karaoke ? Never had the chance to try any places out there. Appreciate times as well! Thanks in advance!

Okay so between 2020-2021 I was a non-stop vaper. I’m talking fall asleep whilst holding my vape. It was the first thing I had in the morning and the last thing I had at night. At the end of 2021, I was put on an ADHD medication called Vyvanse. I was prescribed it for a binge eating disorder. The meds still work wonders for me, but I would take it initially whilst vaping. It caused me to have these really frequent heart palpitations that would freak me the fuck out, so I told my doc, was told to quit vaping and once I did, the palpitations stopped.
For the whole of last year I hadn’t taken a single puff of anything…until I shit the bed early this year and decided to buy a disposable. I was vaping these from Jan-March this year, until I decided last week to quit and it will be officially a week tomorrow since I stopped. I don’t really know why I picked it up again, I wasn’t going through a stressful time or in a bad place, it was almost just this impulse thing and I bought into it.
I really don’t like vaping, like if I’m honest with myself, it makes me feel both physically and mentally shit, but I do it because it’s almost like a clutch? I have anxiety/depression and I guess it makes me feel like I have something to lean on if the feelings are ever too much to handle. I want to quit for good this time, but I really hate the fact I relapsed and it makes me feel annoyed cause what if this just happens again and then it was all for nothing. Has this happened to anyone else?