msfntor
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4 hours ago, msfntor said:
Culture Critic @Culture_Crit
18h
Has the ability to do this been entirely lost?
"Our age sees truth as residing not in beauty but in sheer ugliness."
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#zombieland @k9_reaper
1. South Africa has collapsed. US embassy is now informing international travellers to stock up (prepper style) on food and water.
Thread here:
Just_A_Fokken_Ducking @Just_A_Ducking
Feb 23
Bit of duct tape should fix it
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Culture Critic @Culture_Crit
18h
Has the ability to do this been entirely lost?
Here: https://twitter.com/Culture_Crit/status/1629909194714279937
Home: https://twitter.com/Culture_Crit
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Culture Critic @Culture_Crit
In Michelangelo's Creation of Adam, the finger of God is fully extended whilst Adam's is not, such that they do not quite touch. The implication - to find God, we need only reach towards him as vigorously as he reaches towards us.
Here: https://twitter.com/Culture_Crit/status/1625808061448216576
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13 hours ago, D.Draker said:
there's a new generation of "worker" cookies that may have a script inside that you can't block ! I already gave an example with the Mega website.
Even with a lot of anti-cookie extensions from the Chrome Web Store? and most of all with uBlock etc?
Could you please give me the sample websites again?
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1 hour ago, msfntor said:2 hours ago, jaclaz said:
jaclaz
This is your point of view, not mine... you have the right to post your thoughts, of course.
First of all, you can help me to post your favorite content here, you are especially invited like all other members... Solidarity between members is welcome, dialog too...
Uncle Sam...
Personified Columbia in an American flag gown and Phrygian cap, which signifies freedom and the pursuit of liberty, from a World War I patriotic poster
WELCOME HOME
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36 minutes ago, UCyborg said:
Maybe some lurker would recognize where it's from
Thank you for your explanations, @UCyborg! I've never seen the series, so I can't help finding the origin of your very pleasant little story...
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'Mind Control' print by bob@bobmoran.co.uk | @bobscartoons
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49 minutes ago, jaclaz said:
jaclaz
This is your point of view, not mine... you have the right to post your thoughts, of course. You can stop following this topic...
'Pharma Christmas' by bob@bobmoran.co.uk | @bobscartoons
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bob@bobmoran.co.uk | @bobscartoons
EXAMPLES (resized to 800 px for better visibility...):
'UFO'
'Psyop 27'
"Freeze Speech"
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Artificially Intelligent Offense?
ChatGPT has been programmed to avoid giving accurate information if it may cause offense.
Lawrence M. Krauss
21 Feb 2023 · 11 min read
There is an old saying in computational science: garbage in, garbage out. Computers can carry out billions of complex calculations in a second, but that processing power is otherwise unfiltered and shouldn’t be confused with intelligence.
I can attest, from my own experience when writing detailed code in my work as a physicist, how often it is that surprising results arise, only to discover upon checking that they are due to errors in coding rather than reflecting interesting facets of fundamental reality.
So it is with AI. Years ago, I attended a conference at Asilomar, organized by a group that was concerned about the future of AI. The opening lectures, mostly from philosophers, warned of the importance of teaching AI “universal human values” if eventually sentient AI systems were to pose no danger to humanity.
This sounds good, in principle, until one tries to define universal human values, at least in the context of human history. If machine learning systems are trained on such material available on the Internet, they will be hard-pressed to find consistent examples of logical, ethical, or moral behavior running across time or geography. One worries that, in the end, this kind of guidance for initial programming will involve more “do as I say, not as I do” than programming for open-ended discovery.
The problem with this, of course, is the question of who gets to provide the guidance, and what their values are....
Here (but the whole article is paid, sadly...): https://quillette.com/2023/02/21/artificially-intelligent-offense/
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The Name’s Bond, But That’s About It
BY NICK DIXON
27 FEBRUARY 2023 7:00 AM
Ian Fleming’s James Bond novels are the latest to be mutilated by ‘sensitivity readers’ who are apparently both shaken and stirred by just about everything.
Some of the changes are for racial language that, while I am a free speech absolutist who would leave everything in, might not be the hill to die on. However, other edits are unforgivable, with the moronic censorship teams reducing Fleming’s descriptive flair to generic, sixth form level prose. As the Telegraph reveals:
Another altered scene features Bond visiting Harlem in New York, where a salacious strip tease at a nightclub makes the male crowd, including 007, increasingly agitated.
The original passage read: “Bond could hear the audience panting and grunting like pigs at the trough. He felt his own hands gripping the tablecloth. His mouth was dry.”
The revised section replaces the pigs reference with: “Bond could sense the electric tension in the room.”
In another vaguely infuriating example:
Bond’s assessment that would-be African criminals in the gold and diamond trades are “pretty law-abiding chaps I should have thought, except when they’ve drunk too much” becomes – “pretty law-abiding chaps I should have thought.”
I’m not certain here if the offence is drinking itself, which is roughly 25% of what the Bond series is about, or if it’s that African criminals can’t be seen to do anything bad. Apart from being criminals, obvs.
Some of the changes in racial language were apparently authorised by Fleming himself, but I assume he would shudder at efforts like “The electric tension in the room”. This is, of course, the problem with employing sensitivity readers – apart from it being a pathetic, authoritarian, philistine idea – where do you stop?
Does Bond’s name have to be so white sounding? Isn’t it irresponsible to be so promiscuous? Couldn’t he cut down his alcohol intake to the recommended 14 units a week? While we’re here, does he have to be a spy? Doesn’t seem a particularly honest occupation.
In an ideal world Bond would be a sober woman of colour who runs a successful tech startup. While obviously ‘retaining the original spirit’ of the author’s classic works.
I jest, but the idea is probably being pitched to Netflix as we speak. Markle is the obvious choice for the lead.
Like so many woke innovations, sensitivity readers are remarkably unpopular. The appalling desecration of Roald Dahl’s works united the culture in outrage (okay, except Billy Bragg) and forced Penguin to offer a separate run of the real Dahl texts alongside the ruined versions.
Yet there are still no signs of the sensitivity reader phenomenon ending any time soon, and it’s not clear how we might go about achieving its demise. There are only so many times Camilla can intervene.
Anyway, I can’t solve it right now. I’m in the middle of an eBay bidding war for the racist version of Live and Let Die. The tension is electric.
Here: on the DailySceptic.org: https://dailysceptic.org/2023/02/27/the-names-bond-but-thats-about-it/
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Sequel 'Rehab Bear' Green-Lighted By Producers
ENTERTAINMENT·Feb 26, 2023 · BabylonBee.com
LOS ANGELES, CA — Due to the overwhelming popularity of the film Cocaine Bear, movie studio executives and producers announced they have already green-lighted a sequel — an emotional, psychological film reportedly titled Rehab Bear.
"We thought it would be really great to see where the bear goes from here," said producer Curt Schampers. "We've seen him in the throes of cocaine addiction, raging at the world. What happens when he is forced into rehab and discovers that his true enemy…is the bear within?"
The studio has reached out to Martin Scorsese to direct the project, described as part One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, part Taxi Driver, part Tommy Boy. The story reportedly features the formerly cocaine-addled grizzly bear being checked into a rehab facility by his loved ones to deal with his inner demons. "It's much more of a low-key, psychological drama than the first film," Schampers continued. "This is about the bear really digging down deep into his soul, finding the true source of his drug addiction, and also mauling and killing dozens and dozens of other people at the rehab facility."
Producers were expected to use a mixture of live bears and CGI bears, despite the rumored interest of renowned actor Daniel Day-Lewis in playing the role of the bear.
At publishing time, creators of the film were already brainstorming potential future installments of the franchise, including Relapse Bear, Cocaine Bear Hits Rock Bottom, and the natural conclusion of the series — Cocaine Bear Runs for Congress.
Here: https://babylonbee.com/news/sequel-rehab-bear-green-lighted-by-producers
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8 hours ago, UCyborg said:
Ellison: A piece of evidence I found during my investigation... Nobody...is crazy.
Silberman: What is it?
Ellison: The hand of God.
Very good, that one made me laugh, thanks...
But about the image of the Hand of God: I have the eyes to see. I also have imagination and intuition...And the fact that this image is not easy to find on the web (besides its name was confused by several denominations...) gives me the impression that they at NASA are now trying to hide it from the public, which must be quite numerous..., logic all this, right?
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California on High Alert for Volcanic Eruptions and Earthquakes
With the eruption of the Kilauea volcano in Hawaii and the earthquake that rocked the Philippines, experts are warning Californians to brace for earthquakes and even volcanic eruptions.
The Kilauea volcano has taken out several homes, caused injuries, and forced thousands to evacuate as the world helplessly watches the terrifying scenes on the news.
United States Geological Survey (USGS) research shows that, around the world, there are 1,500 volcanoes that are considered potentially active and pose a risk of erupting.
Unfortunately, many of these volcanoes are situated in the Ring of Fire, an area that has intense seismic activity in the Pacific Ocean. Many earthquakes and eruptions occur there, and California is part of that ring. In fact, contrary to popular belief, California is among the states that have the highest risk of volcanic activity, although it’s best known for it’s earthquakes.
There are a few volcanoes in California that deserve special watch because they could erupt at any time. Let’s find out what they are and why experts are keeping a close eye on them....
https://www.theinertia.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/volcano.jpg
Volcanic eruptions, particularly in the tropics, cooled the oceans for centuries. Melkor3D/Shutterstock
- from: https://www.iflscience.com/volcanic-eruptions-cooled-oceans-centuries-30174
Image Source : PIXABAY
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Survive the Wild | Episode 1: Rules of the Realm | Free Documentary Nature
Survive the Wild | Episode 2: Nature's World Wide Web | Free Documentary Nature
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K–T EXTINCTION EVENT
The Cretaceous–Paleogene (K–Pg) extinction event, also known as the Cretaceous–Tertiary (K–T) extinction, was a sudden mass extinction of some three-quarters of the plant and animal species on Earth, approximately 66 million years ago.
With the exception of some ectothermic species such as the leatherback sea turtle and crocodiles, no tetrapods weighing more than 25 kilograms (55 lb) survived. It marked the end of the Cretaceous period and with it, the entire Mesozoic Era, opening the Cenozoic Era that continues today.
In the geologic record, the K–Pg event is marked by a thin layer of sediment called the K–Pg boundary, which can be found throughout the world in marine and terrestrial rocks. The boundary clay shows high levels of the metal iridium, which is rare in the Earth's crust, but abundant in asteroids.
As originally proposed in 1980 by a team of scientists led by Luis Alvarez and his son Walter Alvarez, it is now generally thought that the K–Pg extinction was caused by the impact of a massive comet or asteroid 10 to 15 km (6.2 to 9.3 mi) wide, 66 million years ago, which devastated the global environment, mainly through a lingering impact winter which halted photosynthesis in plants and plankton. The impact hypothesis, also known as the Alvarez hypothesis, was bolstered by the discovery of the 180-kilometre-wide (112 mi) Chicxulub crater in the Gulf of Mexico in the early 1990s, which provided conclusive evidence that the K–Pg boundary clay represented debris from an asteroid impact. The fact that the extinctions occurred simultaneously provides strong evidence that they were caused by the asteroid.
A 2016 drilling project into the Chicxulub peak ring confirmed that the peak ring comprised granite ejected within minutes from deep in the earth, but contained hardly any gypsum, the usual sulfate-containing sea floor rock in the region: the gypsum would have vaporized and dispersed as an aerosol into the atmosphere, causing longer term effects on the climate and food chain.
Other causal or contributing factors to the extinction may have been the Deccan Traps and other volcanic eruptions, climate change, and sea level change.
A wide range of species perished in the K–Pg extinction, the best-known being the non-avian dinosaurs. It also destroyed a plethora of other terrestrial organisms, including certain mammals, pterosaurs, birds, lizards, insects and plants. In the oceans, the K–Pg extinction killed off plesiosaurs and the giant marine lizards (Mosasauridae) and devastated fish, sharks, mollusks (especially ammonites, which became extinct), and many species of plankton. It is estimated that 75% or more of all species on Earth vanished. Yet the extinction also provided evolutionary opportunities: in its wake, many groups underwent remarkable adaptive radiation—sudden and prolific divergence into new forms and species within the disrupted and emptied ecological niches. Mammals in particular diversified in the Paleogene, evolving new forms such as horses, whales, bats, and primates. Birds, fish, and perhaps lizards also radiated.
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The biggest mass extinction in history was triggered by an enormous volcanic eruption in Siberia which spewed huge amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere
Biggest mass extinction in history 250 million years ago was triggered by an enormous volcanic eruption in Siberia which spewed huge amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Picture: JOSÉ-LUIS OLIVARES/MIT
The biggest mass extinction event in Earth’s history was caused by a volcanic eruption in Siberia that spewed carbon dioxide (CO2) into the atmosphere, scientists say.
The Permian–Triassic extinction event, also known as the ‘Great Dying’, wiped out 95 per cent of marine species and 70 per cent of terrestrial species at the time.
When the CO2 dissolved in the oceans, they became highly acidic and the level of oxygen in the water was reduced, killing sea life.
Other extreme changes and multiple stressors – high temperatures and sulphide poisoning – also helped wipe out a large variety of marine organisms.
The Great Dying was driven by an immense multi-millennial carbon injection and can be used as an example of what can happen following long-term CO2 production.
‘Our research provides the first precise reconstruction of the carbon source and with it the trigger of the crisis, as well as uncovers the subsequent chain of processes that resulted in Earth’s largest mass extinction,‘ said Dr Hana Jurikova at the University of St Andrews, Scotland.
‘It took several hundreds of thousands to millions of years for the ecosystem to recover from the catastrophe which profoundly altered the course of evolution of life on Earth.‘
What is the Great Dying?
The ‘Great Dying’ is a period where life on Earth has never been so close to becoming completely extinct without recovering, either before or since.
During the Great Dying, all land on Earth was stuck together in a supercontinent called Pangaea, which was surrounded by a thriving and diverse ecosystem of sea life.
In total, it is believed that around 90 per cent of all life was wiped out by the Great Dying in the space of several thousands of years – a geological ‘blink of an eye’.
https://i0.wp.com/wattsupwiththat.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/volcano-eruption.jpg?resize=880%2C551&ssl=1 picture from: New evidence suggests volcanoes caused biggest mass extinction ever: https://wattsupwiththat.com/2019/04/16/new-evidence-suggests-volcanoes-caused-biggest-mass-extinction-ever/
Scientists have long debated the theories of the cause of the extinction ranging from a meteor impact to volcanoes, which could have caused climatic and environmental changes making Earth inhospitable.
For this study, experts analysed fossils of clam like shellfish called brachiopods that once lived on the seafloor.
They were able to work out pH readings of the ocean 250 million years ago from the ancient fossilised shells of these animals.
Seawater pH is an indicator of ocean acidity, which varies depending on the amount of absorbed CO2. The higher the CO2 level, the more acidic an ocean becomes.
The team was able to determine that the trigger of the Permian-Triassic crisis was a large pulse of CO2 to the atmosphere originating from a massive flood basalt province, the result of a giant volcanic eruption in today’s Siberia.
Analyses showed that the volcanisms released more than 100,000 billion tonnes of carbon into the atmosphere, triggering the onset of the extinction.
This is more than 40 times the amount of all carbon available in modern fossil fuel reserves including carbon already burned since the Industrial Revolution.
The research team used computer modelling to reconstruct the effect of such large CO2 release on global bio-geochemical cycles and the marine environment.
The findings showed that initially, CO2 led to extreme warming and acidification of the ocean that was lethal to many organisms, especially those building calcium carbonate shells and skeletons.
The greenhouse effect, however, led to further dramatic changes in chemical weathering rates on land.
This resulted in vast de-oxygenation and likely sulphide poisoning of the oceans too, killing the remaining organism groups.
The Permian-Triassic mass extinction was therefore ‘a cascading collapse of vital global cycles’ that were sustaining the environment.
Studies have shown modern ocean acidification is endangering marine life and communities whose livelihoods depend on it.
The experts warn that ocean acidication is currently being observed, from the ongoing decrease in their pH levels.
‘A coupled increase in atmospheric CO2 and decrease in surface ocean pH, global warming, changes in productivity and oxygen depletion have been reported worldwide.‘ the team said in Nature Geoscience.
‘[This] suggests that the scenario outlined here for [the Great Dying] may also be relevant to understanding future environmental and climatic trends.‘
The Great Dying triggered switch to warm-blodedness
University of Bristol palaeontologist Professor Mike Benton has said that the ancestors of both mammals and birds became warm-blooded at the same time, some 250 million years ago.
Around this time, life was recovering from the greatest mass extinction of all time – the Great Dying.
The Great Dying mass extinction killed around 90 per cent of life on Earth and the very few survivors faced a turbulent world, repeatedly hit by global warming and ocean acidification crises.
But two main groups of tetrapods survived – the synapsids and archosaurs, including ancestors of mammals and birds respectively.
Palaeontologists had identified indications of warm-bloodedness, or technically endothermy, in these Triassic survivors, including evidence for a diaphragm and possible whiskers in the synapsids.
More recently, similar evidence for early origin of feathers in dinosaur and bird ancestors has come to light.
In both synapsids and archosaurs of the Triassic, the bone structure shows characteristics of warm-bloodedness.
The evidence that mammal ancestors had hair from the beginning of the Triassic has been suspected for a long time, but the suggestion the archosaurs had feathers from 250 million years ago is new.
Professor Benton said: ‘Modern amphibians and reptiles are sprawlers, holding their limbs partly sideways.
‘Birds and mammals have erect postures, with the limbs immediately below their bodies. This allows them to run faster, and especially further. There are great advantages in erect posture and warm-bloodedness, but the cost is that endotherms have to eat much more than cold-blooded animals just to fuel their inner temperature control.‘
The evidence from posture change and from early origin of hair and feathers, all happening at the same time, suggested this was the beginning of a kind of ‘arms race’.
In ecology, arms races occur when predators and prey have to compete to with each other, and where there may be an escalation of adaptations.
The lion evolves to run faster, but the wildebeest also evolves to run faster or twist and turn to escape.
Something like this happened in the Triassic, from 250 to 200 million years ago.
Today, warm-blooded animals can live all over the Earth, even in cold areas, and they remain active at night.
They also show intensive parental care, feeding their babies and teaching them complex and smart behaviour.
These adaptations gave birds and mammals the edge over amphibians and reptiles and in the present cool world allowed them to dominate in more parts of the world.
Professor Benton added: ‘The Triassic was a remarkable time in the history of life on Earth. You see birds and mammals everywhere on land today, whereas amphibians and reptiles are often quite hidden.
‘This revolution in ecosystems was triggered by the independent origins of endothermy in birds and mammals, but until recently we didn’t realise that these two events might have been coordinated.
‘That happened because only a tiny number of species survived the Permian-Triassic mass extinction – who survived depended on intense competition in a tough world.
‘Because a few of the survivors were already endothermic in a primitive way, all the others had to become endothermic to survive in the new fast-paced world.’
More information about the largest mass extinction in geological history on Nature, Daily Mail, Strange Sounds and Steve Quayle: http://stevequayle.com/ . Now if you are looking for supplements to increase your healthy lifestyle please visit Natural Health Source: https://www.naturalhealthsource.com/ct/566461 .
Look to two videos too, here: https://strangesounds.org/2020/10/biggest-mass-extinction-great-dying-volcanic-eruption-siberia.html
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HAND OF GOD? - Weekly World News
BOSTON, MA - What is this unearthly shape spotted in the night sky?
Laura Barber
Nasa Pictures
"God's Hand" The image, taken by NASA's space-based Chandra Observatory telescope, shows an X-ray nebula 150 light years across. NASA says the display is caused by a young and powerful pulsar, known by the rather prosaic name of PSR B1509-58.The finger-like structures are apparently caused by "energizing knots of material in a neighboring gas cloud," NASA says. The figure is in fact a pulsar, called PSR B1509-58, which is about 12 miles across and 17,000 light years away.
Here: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/227572587394663597/
..and from Chandra Photo Album: https://chandra.si.edu/photo/2009/b1509/ (photo above)
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kanekoa.substack.com @KanekoaTheGreat
Feb 13
THREAD: Photos, videos, and news reports about the train derailment and toxic chemical release in East Palestine, Ohio. This may be the largest environmental disaster in U.S. history.
Here: https://twitter.com/KanekoaTheGreat
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Elon Musk @elonmusk
9h
Elon Musk @elonmusk retweeted
The Babylon Bee @TheBabylonBee
18h
Disturbing Poll Reveals 26% Of Americans Still Trust The Media https://babylonbee.com/news/disturbing-poll-reveals-26-of-americans-still-trust-the-media…
8:30 AM · Feb 26, 2023
16.8M Views
Here:
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Unprecedented flesh-rotting drug "tranq" is spreading to cities across the U.S., turning users into "real-life zombies"
Jesse James
··Feb 25, 2023 · NottheBee.com
[Warning: Graphic and disturbing]
There's a new drug infiltrating cities across the U.S. and it's simply horrifying...
https://notthebee.com/article/unprecedented-skin-rotting-drug-tranq-is-spreading-across-the-us
...and from another site:
"The drug can cause raw wounds on the user’s skin that can spread rapidly with repeated exposure. It starts with ulcers, hardens into dead skin called eschar, and if left untreated, can result in amputation."
"Consumers of illegal drugs are dissatisfied. Those who have used the "zombie drug" have said that it has taken away "any kind of joy" that comes with getting high, according to the New York Post.
"I’d wake up in the morning crying because my arms were dying," Tracey McCann, who developed wounds near her opioid injection sites, told the New York Times.
"Tranq is zombifying people’s bodies," another user told Sky News. "Until nine months ago, I never had wounds. Now, there are holes in my legs and feet." "
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3 hours ago, UCyborg said:
IMHO, this world's a lost cause anyway and a big object from outer space could do us all a favor.
https://www.livescience.com/planet-killer-asteroid-found-by-sun
NEO Earth Close Approaches
Close Approach Data
The following table shows close approaches to the Earth by near-Earth objects (NEOs) limited as selected in the “Table Settings” below...
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TRUE News Hidden Doors
in Funny Farm
Posted
Culture Critic @Culture_Crit
Feb 25
Humanity is long past its peak.
A beautiful building tells a thousand stories. An ugly building tells none.
How do we go back to being a society that builds things like this?
MAKE ARCHITECTURE ART AGAIN
This is a real building.
This is the Basilica of Notre-Dame de Fourvière in Lyon - one of the most astonishing ceilings in all of architecture.