I think Rudolf of Bohemia has Homunculus LLC funded, if they're still looking for further investment I suggest they try harder on the transmigration of lead to gold. Solve your own funding problems!
Homunculus.com is taken, but not pointing anywhere useful (squatted). It was registered all the way back in 1996, which I think says a lot about the kind of people on the internet back then.
Registering a random .gov is basically impossible, unless you manage to convince the US government to start a program with this name.
I'd like to join a syndicate to fund Humonculus and the Philosopher's Stone. But I call BS on the CTO's claim of the in-house astrology gig. When I first met Dee he was nothing more than a palace dogsbody. The closest he got to chief anything officer might have been chief ottoman. Last I recall the queen was resting her newly painted toes on his rounded back as he lay curled like a stump at the feet of her throne.
1. What if We All Wore Narnian Clothing: Small and Large Studies Design for Measuring the Sociopsychological Effects of Certain Sartorial Modifications
2. Introducing the “gwern” as a unit of measure of successful-internet-searching-speed
3. Social media / communications technology: Downgrade your tech to upgrade your life! (this idea from "Well..."!)
4. Capuchino Labz, LLC: Using selective breeding, gene sequencing, high-resolution observation and data science to uplift capuchin monkeys into humanlike intelligence (This one was on the ACX Discord, and I requested to re-print it!)
(I'm hoping for more ideas in both places throughout the next few days!!) XD
I'm not definitely decided on whether I think uplifting non-human animal species to humanlike intelligence is morally okay or not, although I tend towards "no" out of precaution.
Well, I'm also a little uncertain on the ethics of the Philosopher's Stone proposal! (see above) Or... or, the potential uses that the moon-sized battlestation is gonna get put to!
But no... seriously, I was coming from the POV of someone who doesn't believe that would -ever- work... which I'm realizing "hey, that's not a universal assumption." So I was simply imagining cartoonishly-human-like capuchins. (devious little guys!) But I can see how that would look different if I thought it ever -might- possibly work!!
Scott, hypothetically, if someone didn't save a backup when they threw everything into the Google Form at t-2 minutes, can they mail you for the contents of their orig. application? ...format is not important, just contents, of course.
SO glad you're doing it this way--yessss, there are many, many futzy details, and many things that after I created my proposal made me go "Hmmm." And thank you for making this sort of thing exist!
You'll be laughing on the other side of your face when one of them explains over a Zoom call how to build exhaust ports that don't have catastrophic vulnerabilities to small fighter craft.
In your post announcing the accepted grants, you said that you had sent all applications that had to do with AI, rationalism, or EA to the Long Term Future Fund and that acceptances for those would be announced later. Is there any update on those?
Can we apply for this even if we didn't apply for the original grant? I didn't apply for the original grant because I don't need any money for my project, but getting a signal boost would be pretty helpful. Thanks!
Unfortunately I only found out about this exceptional blog and Scott's generous work right after the deadline. My small business is seeking funding to finish developing a free, global, searchable database for cultural educators and cultural centers to list and be found by companies that want to portray their culture in movies, textbooks, or other forums/formats in a culturally sensitive way.
Would it be acceptable for me to fill out this form? Or should I wait until the next round? Either way, thank you for your work and the difference you are making in the world.
What if two "cultural educators" disagree? How do you decide who gets to show up first/at all in the results?
What if a cultural center says that *any* portrayal of *any* aspect of their culture that could possibly be interpreted as controversial, or negative in any way, is forbidden? — which seems, to me, fairly likely for the sort of people who care deeply about "culturally-sensitive" depictions of their culture.
(After all, what is someone more likely to be sensitive about — a weakness they don't have at all, or a real issue they do? I'd be a *little* incensed if someone was going around talking about how I'm, say, bad at spelling, or short; but it'd be much more upsetting if they were showing the world how poor my self-control is... because *that* one is *true!*)
The motivation behind such a prohibition is understandable, certainly, but it would surely lead to less-accurate and less-informative depictions, on the whole, of (esp.) those cultures which have ended up with very sensitive spokespeople.
E.g., if we're producing an article or documentary about a public figure or organization, do we send them a copy and let them strike out any unflattering details? Only if we're doing a puff piece!
...I don't like the philosophy (that I think is) behind this idea, in other words. It will be a long, long time before anyone need care about how *my* culture is depicted — and if that day ever comes I'd personally say "depict us however you want: it's a free country".
Not that you — or anyone! — need give a damn about what philosophy I like, of course. I wish you luck with your business in any case (with *or* without it, we'll still have the Cultural Sensitivity Stick hanging around with which to beat people); I'm just curious as to how the people who are into this kind of stuff would deal with such issues.
***
(Of course, you may say "I don't know and I don't care; the important thing is that I think this service is marketable and will make money"... but I'm assuming — apologies if this is incorrect — that you are also likely to be a person who cares deeply about cultural sensitivity!)
It's rather nihilistic to suggest that because for any given depiction of a culture, someone might object, that we can't improve depictions of foreign cultures.
By counterexample, Moana was a huge step forward from say Aladdin or old Westerns (in their depictions of Native Americans) because Disney hired a bunch of Polynesians, anthropologists, linguists and more. Disney has the money and clout to do this, but making this model more accessible to smaller creators seems like a pretty worthy endeavor to me.
Thank you. Disney has made significant headway in properly representing other cultures by receiving input from members of that culture. Their process is far from perfect but most would agree it is far better than their previous attempts.
But... Moana is a much worse movie than Aladdin? (I also don't think anybody ever *intended* to represent any real culture in it, it's a tale set in a fictitious China-as-seen-by-Arabs in the original and the film is clearly set in the same matinee Araby as the talkie Thief of Bagdad and so on, much more connected to Edmund Dulac's imagination than to any real place.)
As I mention below, our objective isn't to remove objections. It's to just give more options for those seeking input from educators of a culture. There is no perfect answer here... just steps in the right direction. And I believe this is one of them.
"That’s all that matters for this specific issue."
Not really? Aladdin would have been an obviously worse film if it were more culturally sensitive; just for one thing I doubt if even 5% of the audience would even have understood why it was set in Tang dynasty China. Or if we take it for granted that moving the story to the Middle East is acceptable despite being the single largest inaccuracy, making the period Arabic culture more authentic would clearly have made the film worse. As I already said, Aladdin is true to the fairytale Araby of 18th-20th century literature and silver-age Hollywood (the Sultan is pretty much a cartoon version of the sultan who loves toys in The Thief of Bagdad, and Jafar is likewise a carbon copy of, uh, Jaffar), and that was the *right* decision, so doesn't that imply that caring about cultural accuracy is a mistake, if not a dead end?
(And, actually, you can say a lot about how culturally respectful it is to make a film about Maui and relegate him to the position of buffoon sidekick to some maguffin-hunting girl, but that's Disney's core MO so it's not like the film would even have gotten *made* if they'd been culturally sensitive.)
Hard disagree. Moana is one of the best of the recent crop of very good Disney movies. Better than Frozen, IMO. The music's terrific, the protagonist is good the the Rock kills it. You can make a case that Aladdin is better (I might even agree), but to be "much worse" it would have to be actively bad, or at best mediocre. My kids have seen both, and it's Moana they go back and rewatch.
Thank you for your questions. In my 10 years of experience working with cultural educators I have yet to find a single educator who claim to be the “true or only“ representative of a culture. The same thing with cultural centers. The objective of this project is to provide more exposure for individuals who have lived experience in their culture and who would like to provide their input about that lived experience with companies that seek to explore their cultural stories. I do believe that this is a far better outcome than a company simply using a Eurocentric perspective of another culture. I hope this helps explain the project. And since I will not be charging for people to list on or to search the database it will likely not generate a great deal of revenue.
As you can tell from my profile, I am white. So even though I am organizing the endeavor, this project is steered by a board of cultural educators from a variety of locations, ethnicities, and languages. They are tasked with all of the decisions on what questions to ask for the profile, how results are displayed, help text (because it’s likely that some of the people filling out a profile have English as a non-primary language), and many other aspects.
Results are displayed depending upon the search parameters. Are you aware that there are over 6,000 languages spoken in the world? You can narrow down your search according to language, ethnicity, location, and more. You can also select experience such as: public speaking, serving on a board, translation, interpretation, storytelling, musician, performer, game designer, and many others.
If you select very few parameters then results will be randomized. But it is suggested that the searcher get more specific so they can understand better the type of experience of the person they wish to work with.
There will also be listings available for representative organizations. IE One of our board members is a member of the Massachusetts Center for Native American Awareness. If the MCNAA has a profile on the database as an organization then they become one of the drop down selections for people who are listing and are members of that organization. The organization has the ability to manage who displays their name on their profile according to their internal records.
Searchers can opt to go to the MCNAA directly and ask for assistance or they can select any of their approved members.
As I stated before, my objective isn’t to remove all objections. It is simply to have one location that makes it easier for people to find primary sources when they are interested in depicting a culture in media.
Himaldr, I think the audience that you're looking at (the one that ignores all but the first search result and follows that one blindly) needs quite a different application. After all, these are people who are going to fail even Google searches for simple daily activities, such as "how to get a stain out of a shirt."
Your second question strikes me as interesting. For the rest, I think the answer is just “it’s completely voluntary on the part of the searcher and they can simply choose what to listen to.” The cases of complainants about negative representation could certainly be bolstered at the margin by being able to point to this site and say, “See? We (if they’re alone in their complaint)/All of us (if it’s more universal) were *right here* waiting to give you input!” But it’s not as though people don’t manage to complain now, and I am extremely skeptical that the net bad from a resource like this outweighs the net good from the standard case of a creator with a limited budget being able to quickly ask a reasonable person from a particular culture some either niche or sensitive question, and proceeding however they please.
I can see validity in the second question as well. IE I know that in some indigenous tribe it is frowned up to write down their oral history. Since our database allows for cultural organizations to have a listing, it might be best to start there and inquire. The database certainly isn't going to create consensus among listers or make it so that searchers don't have to do some homework and make some tough decisions. It will just make it easier for them to find a wider array of members of a culture/ethnicity/language/etc. I agree that I think the net good will tip the scales - at least the Cultural Educators who make up the Steering Board for the project seem to think (more detail on that in my addendum above).
Hello! Just tried to open the Google form to submit my paragraph but the form is no longer accepting responses? I thought we had until today (1/28) to do so?
Same here. I'll just paste mine here for now, for a timestamp:
New York City’s civic structure blocks new talent from joining it, and my project Maximum New York [https://maximumnewyork.com/] removes those blocks. I’m helping to usher in a new age of dynamism and progress for the city, and I’m asking for a grant to help continue my research, consulting, and content production. I explain the structure of NYC’s government and where individuals can work effectively within it; I’ve been doing this through 1:1 meetings [https://maximumnewyork.com/new-york-city-onboarding/] and writing online, but I’m now creating a video series and other (more scalable) material aimed at a wider audience. The ultimate goal is to create a new civic scenius [https://maximumnewyork.com/seeking-scenius-for-an-nyc-golden-age]. You can DM me on twitter @danielgolliher, or email me at daniel@maximumnewyork.com.
It's 9:15 MST on 1/28 and the Grants++ link is closed. I understand that my submission is late. My intention was to submit after work today, and work just ended. With the hope that my submission for the ACX Grants++ might be might be circulated I'll post it here:
The Moulay Ali Institute for Rehabilitation (MAIR) is a not-for-profit clinic in Marrakech that specializes in treatment and therapies for patients with neurological conditions. MAIR was established in 2015 by the Zahra Charity, a U.S. based non-profit, and is the first American-inspired neuro-rehabilitation facility in Morocco. MAIR is also the first Moroccan medical institution to have an ongoing, vigorous exchange program involving prestigious U.S. neuro-rehabilitation institutions. MAIR is currently trying to raise 1.2 million dollars to move to a larger location. This move would allow the clinic to serve more patients, hire more healthcare providers, acquire more equipment and become more sustainable. We are currently pursuing donations of $250,000 and higher. If you can provide funding, please email Dr. Mohammed Sbai at zahracharity2008@gmail.com, and visit http://mair-rehab.com/new/ for more information.
Dang. I've missed the cut-off. On the off chance you're still accepting applications, I have a project to make available the best evidence on 'what works' to reduce police violence - www.howtoreformthepolice.com. We're currently looking for pilot funding. And if anyone else has any bright ideas where we can look, I'm all ears (or eyes)!
Project Mission: to provide Users – activists, policymakers and police – with tools to create change and reduce police violence
Problem: police violence disproportionately impacts vulnerable groups but there are few assessments of interventions’ effectiveness nor are evidence-based solutions accessible to Users
Project Outputs:
• assessments of the effectiveness of interventions – such as body-worn cameras, de-escalation training, civilian oversight mechanisms – and of what broader factors affect impact
• develop a platform www.howtoreformthepolice.com providing Users across the globe with information on how to develop a policy/programme including guidance on ‘what works’ in different types of country
• participatory research with Users in the US, Mexico and South Africa supporting them to access and so use evidence in support of police transformation or to enhance their campaigns
Team:
• Project Lead: Dr Liam O’Shea, an expert on police violence and corruption and former Advisor in the UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office
• Postdocs and senior staff from the pan-African Institute for Security Studies and the Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México (ITAM), will form the core team with the PI and provide regional expertise and access to regional networks
• Outputs will be developed with practitioner partners from the academic, NGO, civil society and governmental sectors
Scaling: Dr O'Shea has developed www.howtoreformthepolice.com in test format. Pilot funding would fund 5 REAs and develop User engagement with the platform and participatory research. Scaling would allow assessment of more interventions, deeper assessments and expansion to cover corruption, the scope of participatory research and further regions
small typo: "I believe I'm uniquely placed to tale advantage of this opportunity": tale->take
really looking forward to seeing these entries (also hoping that this constitutes a broader trend of funding way more interesting things)
Same paragraph, "capable of annhilating a planet": annhilating > annihilating
Homunculus.com and coruscant.gov both seem available... (how hard is it to buy a .gov addy?) :)
Seriously - can't wait to read these (and now I wish that I had pitched my idea!)
I think Rudolf of Bohemia has Homunculus LLC funded, if they're still looking for further investment I suggest they try harder on the transmigration of lead to gold. Solve your own funding problems!
You mean transmutation [of elements]; transmigration [of souls] is a different research project.
Well, *that* explains why they're not getting anywhere with the red powder! 😁
(You are correct and I am an idiot).
Homunculus.com is taken, but not pointing anywhere useful (squatted). It was registered all the way back in 1996, which I think says a lot about the kind of people on the internet back then.
Registering a random .gov is basically impossible, unless you manage to convince the US government to start a program with this name.
or a state/county/city? Maybe make CORUSCANT into a tortured acronym??
We call those backronyms, and I love them.
Coruscant dot gov is the funniest thing I have read yet in 2022. I feel joy just reading it.
Indeed! Would a Sith lord have a Zero Inbox? Would a Jedi? <"these are not the emails you are looking for"??>
I'd like to join a syndicate to fund Humonculus and the Philosopher's Stone. But I call BS on the CTO's claim of the in-house astrology gig. When I first met Dee he was nothing more than a palace dogsbody. The closest he got to chief anything officer might have been chief ottoman. Last I recall the queen was resting her newly painted toes on his rounded back as he lay curled like a stump at the feet of her throne.
Perhaps this was the true goal of the court astrologer this entire time...
Maybe. He did seem awfully smug in his groveling.
The real-world grant proposals sound interesting, but the fictional examples you've provided are hilarious. More of these please!
Yesssssss!
Oh--if we "crowdsource it up" and make a thread for these fictional-esque examples on datasecretslox, should I ping you here?
"ACX Grants I did not fund because they don't exist."
"Crowdsourcing proposals very different from yours"?
"Og great shaman, beloved by gods. He technical co-founder" had me in hysterics
Mentioned this idea in the new Open Thread, here: https://astralcodexten.substack.com/p/open-thread-208/comment/4654263
There is also a nascent DSL thread for these: https://www.datasecretslox.com/index.php/topic,5677.msg207955.html#msg207955 ...So far, on the DSL thread, we have (super-long writeups of) proposals for:
1. What if We All Wore Narnian Clothing: Small and Large Studies Design for Measuring the Sociopsychological Effects of Certain Sartorial Modifications
2. Introducing the “gwern” as a unit of measure of successful-internet-searching-speed
3. Social media / communications technology: Downgrade your tech to upgrade your life! (this idea from "Well..."!)
4. Capuchino Labz, LLC: Using selective breeding, gene sequencing, high-resolution observation and data science to uplift capuchin monkeys into humanlike intelligence (This one was on the ACX Discord, and I requested to re-print it!)
(I'm hoping for more ideas in both places throughout the next few days!!) XD
I'm not definitely decided on whether I think uplifting non-human animal species to humanlike intelligence is morally okay or not, although I tend towards "no" out of precaution.
Well, I'm also a little uncertain on the ethics of the Philosopher's Stone proposal! (see above) Or... or, the potential uses that the moon-sized battlestation is gonna get put to!
But no... seriously, I was coming from the POV of someone who doesn't believe that would -ever- work... which I'm realizing "hey, that's not a universal assumption." So I was simply imagining cartoonishly-human-like capuchins. (devious little guys!) But I can see how that would look different if I thought it ever -might- possibly work!!
Someone tell Grug that’s not a valid Bitcoin address
Is this limited to the same proposals from the original grant run, or can people submit new ones?
Scott, hypothetically, if someone didn't save a backup when they threw everything into the Google Form at t-2 minutes, can they mail you for the contents of their orig. application? ...format is not important, just contents, of course.
SO glad you're doing it this way--yessss, there are many, many futzy details, and many things that after I created my proposal made me go "Hmmm." And thank you for making this sort of thing exist!
Yes, email me.
Oh man, I need to show these paragraphs to a few apprentice tech writers! Got a good laugh.
You'll be laughing on the other side of your face when one of them explains over a Zoom call how to build exhaust ports that don't have catastrophic vulnerabilities to small fighter craft.
In your post announcing the accepted grants, you said that you had sent all applications that had to do with AI, rationalism, or EA to the Long Term Future Fund and that acceptances for those would be announced later. Is there any update on those?
No, I'll ask LTFF if they have any updates for me next time I talk to them.
The fictional examples made me laugh more than I have all week. Thanks for that.
Same here. Brilliant.
Anyone else want to confess to clicking on the philosopher's stone white paper link?
i did. hope springs eternal.
You might want to give a suspense for people to submit their revised paragraph.
A suspense?
Sorry. A due date. (A suspense date, shortened to "suspense" is a military/government term for a due date for historical reasons I don't know.)
And here I figured it was the term for a collection of forms. "A suspense of forms."
Submitted.
Can we apply for this even if we didn't apply for the original grant? I didn't apply for the original grant because I don't need any money for my project, but getting a signal boost would be pretty helpful. Thanks!
Unfortunately I only found out about this exceptional blog and Scott's generous work right after the deadline. My small business is seeking funding to finish developing a free, global, searchable database for cultural educators and cultural centers to list and be found by companies that want to portray their culture in movies, textbooks, or other forums/formats in a culturally sensitive way.
Would it be acceptable for me to fill out this form? Or should I wait until the next round? Either way, thank you for your work and the difference you are making in the world.
What if two "cultural educators" disagree? How do you decide who gets to show up first/at all in the results?
What if a cultural center says that *any* portrayal of *any* aspect of their culture that could possibly be interpreted as controversial, or negative in any way, is forbidden? — which seems, to me, fairly likely for the sort of people who care deeply about "culturally-sensitive" depictions of their culture.
(After all, what is someone more likely to be sensitive about — a weakness they don't have at all, or a real issue they do? I'd be a *little* incensed if someone was going around talking about how I'm, say, bad at spelling, or short; but it'd be much more upsetting if they were showing the world how poor my self-control is... because *that* one is *true!*)
The motivation behind such a prohibition is understandable, certainly, but it would surely lead to less-accurate and less-informative depictions, on the whole, of (esp.) those cultures which have ended up with very sensitive spokespeople.
E.g., if we're producing an article or documentary about a public figure or organization, do we send them a copy and let them strike out any unflattering details? Only if we're doing a puff piece!
...I don't like the philosophy (that I think is) behind this idea, in other words. It will be a long, long time before anyone need care about how *my* culture is depicted — and if that day ever comes I'd personally say "depict us however you want: it's a free country".
Not that you — or anyone! — need give a damn about what philosophy I like, of course. I wish you luck with your business in any case (with *or* without it, we'll still have the Cultural Sensitivity Stick hanging around with which to beat people); I'm just curious as to how the people who are into this kind of stuff would deal with such issues.
***
(Of course, you may say "I don't know and I don't care; the important thing is that I think this service is marketable and will make money"... but I'm assuming — apologies if this is incorrect — that you are also likely to be a person who cares deeply about cultural sensitivity!)
It's rather nihilistic to suggest that because for any given depiction of a culture, someone might object, that we can't improve depictions of foreign cultures.
By counterexample, Moana was a huge step forward from say Aladdin or old Westerns (in their depictions of Native Americans) because Disney hired a bunch of Polynesians, anthropologists, linguists and more. Disney has the money and clout to do this, but making this model more accessible to smaller creators seems like a pretty worthy endeavor to me.
Thank you. Disney has made significant headway in properly representing other cultures by receiving input from members of that culture. Their process is far from perfect but most would agree it is far better than their previous attempts.
But... Moana is a much worse movie than Aladdin? (I also don't think anybody ever *intended* to represent any real culture in it, it's a tale set in a fictitious China-as-seen-by-Arabs in the original and the film is clearly set in the same matinee Araby as the talkie Thief of Bagdad and so on, much more connected to Edmund Dulac's imagination than to any real place.)
As I mention below, our objective isn't to remove objections. It's to just give more options for those seeking input from educators of a culture. There is no perfect answer here... just steps in the right direction. And I believe this is one of them.
Moana is better than Aladdin along the axis of cultural accuracy. That’s all that matters for this specific issue.
"That’s all that matters for this specific issue."
Not really? Aladdin would have been an obviously worse film if it were more culturally sensitive; just for one thing I doubt if even 5% of the audience would even have understood why it was set in Tang dynasty China. Or if we take it for granted that moving the story to the Middle East is acceptable despite being the single largest inaccuracy, making the period Arabic culture more authentic would clearly have made the film worse. As I already said, Aladdin is true to the fairytale Araby of 18th-20th century literature and silver-age Hollywood (the Sultan is pretty much a cartoon version of the sultan who loves toys in The Thief of Bagdad, and Jafar is likewise a carbon copy of, uh, Jaffar), and that was the *right* decision, so doesn't that imply that caring about cultural accuracy is a mistake, if not a dead end?
(And, actually, you can say a lot about how culturally respectful it is to make a film about Maui and relegate him to the position of buffoon sidekick to some maguffin-hunting girl, but that's Disney's core MO so it's not like the film would even have gotten *made* if they'd been culturally sensitive.)
Hard disagree. Moana is one of the best of the recent crop of very good Disney movies. Better than Frozen, IMO. The music's terrific, the protagonist is good the the Rock kills it. You can make a case that Aladdin is better (I might even agree), but to be "much worse" it would have to be actively bad, or at best mediocre. My kids have seen both, and it's Moana they go back and rewatch.
Thank you for your questions. In my 10 years of experience working with cultural educators I have yet to find a single educator who claim to be the “true or only“ representative of a culture. The same thing with cultural centers. The objective of this project is to provide more exposure for individuals who have lived experience in their culture and who would like to provide their input about that lived experience with companies that seek to explore their cultural stories. I do believe that this is a far better outcome than a company simply using a Eurocentric perspective of another culture. I hope this helps explain the project. And since I will not be charging for people to list on or to search the database it will likely not generate a great deal of revenue.
As you can tell from my profile, I am white. So even though I am organizing the endeavor, this project is steered by a board of cultural educators from a variety of locations, ethnicities, and languages. They are tasked with all of the decisions on what questions to ask for the profile, how results are displayed, help text (because it’s likely that some of the people filling out a profile have English as a non-primary language), and many other aspects.
Results are displayed depending upon the search parameters. Are you aware that there are over 6,000 languages spoken in the world? You can narrow down your search according to language, ethnicity, location, and more. You can also select experience such as: public speaking, serving on a board, translation, interpretation, storytelling, musician, performer, game designer, and many others.
If you select very few parameters then results will be randomized. But it is suggested that the searcher get more specific so they can understand better the type of experience of the person they wish to work with.
There will also be listings available for representative organizations. IE One of our board members is a member of the Massachusetts Center for Native American Awareness. If the MCNAA has a profile on the database as an organization then they become one of the drop down selections for people who are listing and are members of that organization. The organization has the ability to manage who displays their name on their profile according to their internal records.
Searchers can opt to go to the MCNAA directly and ask for assistance or they can select any of their approved members.
As I stated before, my objective isn’t to remove all objections. It is simply to have one location that makes it easier for people to find primary sources when they are interested in depicting a culture in media.
Himaldr, I think the audience that you're looking at (the one that ignores all but the first search result and follows that one blindly) needs quite a different application. After all, these are people who are going to fail even Google searches for simple daily activities, such as "how to get a stain out of a shirt."
Your response made me laugh out loud because I was guilty of doing this once when Alta Vista was the big search engine (yes, I am dating myself). :)
Your second question strikes me as interesting. For the rest, I think the answer is just “it’s completely voluntary on the part of the searcher and they can simply choose what to listen to.” The cases of complainants about negative representation could certainly be bolstered at the margin by being able to point to this site and say, “See? We (if they’re alone in their complaint)/All of us (if it’s more universal) were *right here* waiting to give you input!” But it’s not as though people don’t manage to complain now, and I am extremely skeptical that the net bad from a resource like this outweighs the net good from the standard case of a creator with a limited budget being able to quickly ask a reasonable person from a particular culture some either niche or sensitive question, and proceeding however they please.
I can see validity in the second question as well. IE I know that in some indigenous tribe it is frowned up to write down their oral history. Since our database allows for cultural organizations to have a listing, it might be best to start there and inquire. The database certainly isn't going to create consensus among listers or make it so that searchers don't have to do some homework and make some tough decisions. It will just make it easier for them to find a wider array of members of a culture/ethnicity/language/etc. I agree that I think the net good will tip the scales - at least the Cultural Educators who make up the Steering Board for the project seem to think (more detail on that in my addendum above).
I adore your example grant application summaries. :)
Keep your balls and your sense of humour Author.
Dont lose them again
« Unlock more calories from food, maybe solve world hunger. »
Hahahaha, we don't need fire if there are burns like that going around.
Congratulations on your 1 year anniversary of being on Substack!
Hello! Just tried to open the Google form to submit my paragraph but the form is no longer accepting responses? I thought we had until today (1/28) to do so?
Seconding this - was about to submit, was denied.
Thanks - now I'm no longer feeling like 'a minority of one' :)
Same here. I'll just paste mine here for now, for a timestamp:
New York City’s civic structure blocks new talent from joining it, and my project Maximum New York [https://maximumnewyork.com/] removes those blocks. I’m helping to usher in a new age of dynamism and progress for the city, and I’m asking for a grant to help continue my research, consulting, and content production. I explain the structure of NYC’s government and where individuals can work effectively within it; I’ve been doing this through 1:1 meetings [https://maximumnewyork.com/new-york-city-onboarding/] and writing online, but I’m now creating a video series and other (more scalable) material aimed at a wider audience. The ultimate goal is to create a new civic scenius [https://maximumnewyork.com/seeking-scenius-for-an-nyc-golden-age]. You can DM me on twitter @danielgolliher, or email me at daniel@maximumnewyork.com.
It's 9:15 MST on 1/28 and the Grants++ link is closed. I understand that my submission is late. My intention was to submit after work today, and work just ended. With the hope that my submission for the ACX Grants++ might be might be circulated I'll post it here:
The Moulay Ali Institute for Rehabilitation (MAIR) is a not-for-profit clinic in Marrakech that specializes in treatment and therapies for patients with neurological conditions. MAIR was established in 2015 by the Zahra Charity, a U.S. based non-profit, and is the first American-inspired neuro-rehabilitation facility in Morocco. MAIR is also the first Moroccan medical institution to have an ongoing, vigorous exchange program involving prestigious U.S. neuro-rehabilitation institutions. MAIR is currently trying to raise 1.2 million dollars to move to a larger location. This move would allow the clinic to serve more patients, hire more healthcare providers, acquire more equipment and become more sustainable. We are currently pursuing donations of $250,000 and higher. If you can provide funding, please email Dr. Mohammed Sbai at zahracharity2008@gmail.com, and visit http://mair-rehab.com/new/ for more information.
Oh my. The email didn't include the last line above, which had the deadline. So I was still preparing today. Oh well.
Dang. I've missed the cut-off. On the off chance you're still accepting applications, I have a project to make available the best evidence on 'what works' to reduce police violence - www.howtoreformthepolice.com. We're currently looking for pilot funding. And if anyone else has any bright ideas where we can look, I'm all ears (or eyes)!
Project Mission: to provide Users – activists, policymakers and police – with tools to create change and reduce police violence
Problem: police violence disproportionately impacts vulnerable groups but there are few assessments of interventions’ effectiveness nor are evidence-based solutions accessible to Users
Project Outputs:
• assessments of the effectiveness of interventions – such as body-worn cameras, de-escalation training, civilian oversight mechanisms – and of what broader factors affect impact
• develop a platform www.howtoreformthepolice.com providing Users across the globe with information on how to develop a policy/programme including guidance on ‘what works’ in different types of country
• participatory research with Users in the US, Mexico and South Africa supporting them to access and so use evidence in support of police transformation or to enhance their campaigns
Team:
• Project Lead: Dr Liam O’Shea, an expert on police violence and corruption and former Advisor in the UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office
• Postdocs and senior staff from the pan-African Institute for Security Studies and the Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México (ITAM), will form the core team with the PI and provide regional expertise and access to regional networks
• Outputs will be developed with practitioner partners from the academic, NGO, civil society and governmental sectors
Scaling: Dr O'Shea has developed www.howtoreformthepolice.com in test format. Pilot funding would fund 5 REAs and develop User engagement with the platform and participatory research. Scaling would allow assessment of more interventions, deeper assessments and expansion to cover corruption, the scope of participatory research and further regions