2007 (yes 17 years ago), Class B Misdemeanor in Texas for possession of small amount of weed. 2 years probation, counseling, the whole 9 yards. Officially expunged with lawyer after all was complete in 2009. 17 years later after incident, applying to DHS Global Entry and denied for prior arrest. This is even while holding a high level security clearance. This is wild to me.
Tried calling the original lawyer(doesn't have the records 17 years later), tried calling court house, district clerk, probation office, everyone I can think of. Nobody knows and everyone says the same thing. Files were detroyed/don't have them/there is nothing. I don't even have the case number or anything, looking myself up on all public interfacing websites results in nothing.
Maybe this is a question of what do I do now? or maybe its just a cautionary tale that the federal government will forever be able to see what you do. Sad.

Have any high volume practices added in rehab, where now instead of patients spending 5-10 minutes in the office, they're spending upwards of 45 minutes
What code would I start billing? 2-3 units of 97110?
Can a trained CA monitor it?
Implementing the cost to insurance plans seems easy, but what would I do for cash? My flat rate is already $60, so since they're spending more time and getting more value, simple as raising the rate by $10-$30?
I do like the efficiency of high volume adjusting. I do pretty much one thing and patients like the convenience of in and out

Alarms were raised in the unincorporated community of Paris Crossing, Indiana, on August 21st, 2003, when a concerned resident noticed the unusual prolonged absence of his neighbor, 54-year-old Dennis Wayne Foster. In December 2002, Dennis had received a devastating diagnosis; stage 4 lung cancer. In January, he was told he had six months to live.
Aware of Dennis's recent diagnosis, both friends and family made efforts to check on him regularly. After nearly two days without seeing him, Dennis’ concerned neighbor conducted a welfare check. Unanswered knocks at the door prompted the neighbor to look inside, where he found Dennis motionless on the floor. The neighbor promptly contacted authorities.
Responding officers swiftly made entry into the log cabin. There, on the floor amidst a pool of blood, lay the body of Dennis. A cursory examination revealed a single gunshot wound to the head as his apparent cause of death.
Despite finding no signs of forced entry, detectives did discover Dennis’ home had been ransacked. The perpetratos absconded with several valuables, including an unspecified number of firearms.
A pillar of his close-knit community, Dennis hailed from nearby Seymour, Indiana, where he spent three decades at the Cummins Engine Company. Following a divorce in the 1980s, Dennis relocated to Paris Crossing. Utilizing a backyard sawmill, he constructed a two-story log cabin nestled amidst the trees on his expansive 35 acre property. There, he established a small engine repair shop, and indulged in his passion for the outdoors through archery, fishing, and hunting.
Dennis's most defining characteristic, however, was his immense generosity. He had a reputation for readily offering assistance to local residents facing hardship, even at times placing himself at risk or succumbing to exploitation in his eagerness to help.
The investigation into Dennis's murder commenced quickly. A small pond on the property was dragged, but yielded no results of investigative value. Detectives also examined a safety deposit box belonging to Dennis at the local bank, however the contents of the box were never undisclosed.
Detectives also conducted multiple interviews with individuals from Dennis's social circle, including friends, family, neighbors and other acquaintances. Among them was 53-year-old Paul Stucker, though the nature of their relationship remains unclear.
Following Paul’s 2014 conviction for the 1983 murder of 34-year-old Johnny Hodge, he was again questioned regarding Dennis's death. Paul and Johnny had been incarcerated together at the Michigan City, Indiana facility in 1983, when Johnny, who was serving a life sentence for a double homicide, was found fatally burned within his locked cell. Though authorities eventually gathered sufficient evidence to convict Paul in Johnny’s murder, a connection to Dennis’ death was never established.
Dennis's family tragically suspects his generosity may have contributed to his demise. They theorize the perpetrator was someone he sought to assist;
WAVE3 NEWS 2007
“Dennis Foster's family wasn't surprised he died four years ago. In fact, they were preparing for the 54-year old's death, but they weren't prepared for his murder.
Foster's only daughter, Denise, says there were almost no limits to her father's kindness and generosity, especially to those with little or no money. She says the people he helped often took advantage of him -- and spooked her.
Denise says "he had made friends with people I was afraid of, that I had become very conscious about taking my kids to see him, of doing unannounced visits."
Denise believes her father was likely trying to help the person who ended up murdering and robbing him. She can't understand why someone would kill him. You see, Foster had Stage Four lung cancer, and had only a month or so left to live.
"So I was shocked when I found out he had actually been murdered," Denise said. "I had resolved myself to the fact I was going to lose him to cancer."
Denise is convinced the killer's still in southern Indiana. That's why she asked us not to use her last name or say what city she now lives in.
"We've got some new information on this case," said Indiana State Police Sgt. Jerry Goodin.
Police believe they're a tip or two away from solving this four-year old murder case, and Goodin says investigators want to catch Foster's killer. "This person was in the last days of their life and someone's cold-hearted enough to kill them and end their life even sooner than it was going to happen."
Dennis was laid to rest in Commiskey, Indiana’s First Marion Baptist Church Cemetery. Sadly, his case remains unsolved.
Sources
Newspaper Clippings/Death Certificate/Photos
Find a Grave
Wave3 Article
Dennis’ Home

Prepare yourself for a long novel/rant (a lot longer then I thought it would be)...
First off, loving the game so far hence the amount of hours I have put into it. I have just finished playing through my second character completing all tasks. They game has some very strong bones to build off in its current state & I am excited for the future. I am particularly excited for the night cycle and NVGs to arrive as night raids are my favorite in any game (I'm looking at you Tarkov & Arma). With that being said, there are some glaring issues with it currently. Below is my rambling thoughts/suggestions on some fixes that can help (even temp fixes). Keep in mind, I have played 90% of my time as a solo bouncing between both PvP & PvE servers (I mainly mess around or farm keys needed on the PvE servers) so please take that into consideration. Some suggestions are PvP focused, most are just general stuff.
Game Optimization - This is IMO the biggest issue and should be the highest priority on the list above all else. I have friends with a vast range of PCs who either can't run it or it runs like shit & they just gave up. The reasons are everything ranging from FPS, game crashes, server crashes you name it. Some can't even boot the game up without it crashing there system. Performance in some areas tanks like Fort Narith, Midnight and in particular Tiger Bay with losses of up to 20+ FPS. Couple that with the optimization and it becomes almost unplayable for people. Myself, I drop from a constant 75-80fps to 45-50fps in Tiger Bay just standing in the area. Couple that with the FPS loss if using a scoped weapon its just not it. Using a red dot helps with the FPS drop from the scope but also makes it a lot harder to engage/see enemy's at range when they can see you perfectly through a bush with an iron sight AK.
Audio - Needs work across the board. From no footstep audio, no door opening audio at times etc it just needs work. Have also had cases where I'm somewhere like inside Midnight Hotel and the audio just switches from nothing to very loud bugged audio. Everything sounds very loud but muffled sound in a way if that makes any sense...
AI (a couple of parts to this one) -

• I understand they are base AI with limited knowledge as they have explained but they need to dial them back just a bit IMO. I can see them being a bit more difficult in the end game areas (makes more sense) but even the starting town they will just laser you from the heavens. They should always be a threat on the map but not the gods of the map if that makes sense. Nothing worse then an AI spinning around on the spot and instantly 1 shotting you from 100+m.
• The share amount of them in some areas are just insane/over the top. You only need to venture into Tiger Bay to know what I am talking about but its the same case for other places also. With how aimbotty, godlike perception they have even getting close to the area you have 10+ AI all shooting you with pin point accuracy. I'm not saying gut the shit outta the amount but tone the numbers back a little. This should also allow for some better performance gains. Now this might also tie into my next point below..
• AI aggro range is......something. For example, I was in the Tiger Bay mall clearing it out to farm a task key I needed (UNLRA Quarantine). I came in the usual way from Juliet 2, sneaking my way in ensuring to not aggro the AI on the way until I was at the mall. Went in the back door and started to engage the LAF soldiers. While I was in there I was then pushed (& this has happened on multiple occasions now) by all the normal AI from outside of the mall. They looked to have been pushing from where the Lost Girl task is/beach side as they came from that area. I don't know exactly how many there were but estimated well over 70+ AI I had to kill and I didn't even get a chance to leave the door way I came in from. I also didn't even get a chance to loot anything as by that time I was out of ammo and the AI was starting to de-spawn it had been that long. Now this happens from time-time in other places also (there is no consistency), it's not just a Tiger Bay issue and it makes me question if its the amount of AI that's the issue or the aggro range that is the issue making it feel as if the amount of AI is too much.
• Bullet spongy - I don't think I need to go too deep into this but an AI shouldn't be tanking headshots/face shots while wearing nothing but a baseball cap from any ammo. Our players can't so the AI shouldn't either.
• AI in YBL needs some serious looking into. Can almost 100% guarantee that 1 if not multiple spawn inside the walls and just constantly tell you they fucked your mother. Now this happens in other places also but is particularly bad in the YBL Bunker.
• AI respawn timers need some adjusting, particularly on the PvP servers. By the time you have cleared say midnight hotel lord help you if you get into a fight with other players as the AI start re-spawning. Nothing worse then clearing an area, getting into some fun PvP only to have an AI respawn, walk up behind you with no audio and shot you in the ass. Respawn times should be set by location/amount of AI in there areas. Maybe a dev can shed some light on how the respawns work exactly? Like will the AI not respawn if a player is in the vicinity and at what distance etc. At the moment it seems very random and I am unsure if its the respawn times, respawn locations or the what seems bugged aggro range that causes this.

Key drops - Yes it extends the game play time out and keeps people going back to certain areas. But there are some keys that just have abysmal drop rates. BL Restaurant Storage key, Sawmill Office Storage key are classic examples of this. Over my time of playing the game I have only ever found those 2 keys once and that is after spending hours, days even weeks grinding for them. Now it is not just those 2 keys, there are other I have simply just never seen at all. Rare keys like Office Storage or whatever could possibly have something like a 50% chance to drop on the bosses of the area so you do have to do some work for them. If they really want to extend the game play out when it comes to keys they would need to add a usage value to them similar to what Tarkov has.
Loot - 99% of the current loot around the place is garbage/worthless trash that is not even worth picking up. Selling prices need to increase on a lot of them until they add crafting or something to make it worth while to pick up. Loot in general needs to be added in order to keep the gameplay going (more so at the higher levels). They need to add some high tier loot around the different P.O.I to give people something to go back for. This would also help with the PvP side of things and gives players more reasons to go fight over different locations (we love our loot!). When I say high tier loot, I'm talking about containers similar to those in the Pier key or UNLRA container key. Kitted M4s, high tier armor & helmets etc. Currently those 2 places have by far the best loot in the game but are just not worth the shit fight to get into to loot as the risk vs reward is not worth it. Currently as it stands you are better off going to Midnight and farming the safes & Elena garage key. I also think they need to add some gold spawns like gold watches, rings etc that sell for very good money. This also would help with the PvP side of things as where the high tier loot is, generally is where the PvP is. Outside of tasking, there isn't much to do besides PvP or fight AI & adding more things to loot is what keeps the game alive.
Character Stats/Skills etc -

• The weight system/how it works currently feels imbalanced which turns you (mainly speaking for myself here) away from any looting. You will maybe pick up some more ammo or meds and maybe food/drink if required. Either need to increase the carry weight limit or add a skill system we can level up in order to increase the weight limit. Possibly add a stim (similar to Tarkovs MULE stim) to increase the weight carry limit. For people who wonder why I am going in so heavy, I challenge you to try take Tiger Bay with a couple of mags and a couple spare stacks of ammo and see how far you get. Half my carry weight is just in spare ammo & that adds up pretty fast. It's a big reason why I never use the delta bags as you can't even fill it with being a turtle.
• Ability to drop task items in bag. This kind of ties into weight system with thing like those massive containers you need to pick up for Hazardous Treasures or the Terminal Initiative tasks. Once you pick them up, they put you instantly over weight with no way of dropping them if you find yourself in a fight. You are effectively a sitting duck & basically dead with it anyway. Please allow us to drop them and if we leave them there or die well we were going to die & loose it anyway because we couldn't move.
• Leaning while side strafing I think needs to be sped up a bit (not too much or we will have other issues).
• Jumping/mantling/general movement feels somewhat clunky at times.
• Stamina (both arm & running) I feel need to be either increased a bit or like mentioned above, a skill system to be added where we can work towards increasing them.
• Hold breath - I'm not too sure how I feel about this one.....Part of me whats it to be increased (maybe by a second or 2, nothing drastic) & part of me feels like it's fine as it is. You be the judge.

Guns/ Weapons (multiple parts again) -

• 7.62x51 guns/ammo are effectively useless even with the best in slot ammo or builds. There is no reason to use an M700 over an M4 for sniping/long distance shots. The ammo also feels bugged, M80 is just rubbish and the AI or players feel like you are tickling them. M61 seems VERY inconsistent as in sometime it will kill and sometimes you have put an entire mag into them. It also feels as if the damage drop off rate it not correct but I'm not 100% sure on that.
• AKs - 5.45 ammo doesn't feel too bad but can be very inconsistent (possibly could have something to do with the bullet sponginess of the AI). 7.62 AKs are just terrible and the even the BP ammo just basically does nothing. All AKs accross the board need the MOA changed, a kitted AK with all the best in slot parts should not be 3+ MOA where as a stock M4 is 2.15 MOA. Add on top of this the fact that the M4s have 60 round mags there is simply no reason to run the AKs and is a big reason why we see 99% of players running M4 or MK18s.
• M4/MK18 - I don't mind where they currently sit balance wise but we need to bring the AKs/other guns in line with how they are to add more variety. Use these guns as a baseline for how the others should perform with there own little uniqueness.
• Pistols - They need some love, no reason to run them as they can barely kill any of the AI.
• Shotguns - While better yes, I still think they need some more adjusting to make them worth using.
• Mosin - I feel is in a fairly decent spot but please give us the ability to purchase the ST rounds back.

Helis/map travel - Ahh everyone's favorite topic. While it is a cool core part to the game it is probably the most discussed topic & some peoples biggest frustration with the game currently. I can understand it's not as easy as "just add more helis" due to that having an affect on performance etc. But there are some adjustments to the current system that I think would help in the short term. I also understand they are working on an overhaul to the heli system so we shall see what the future holds.

• Showing the destination before the heli lands at base the same as it shows when it leaves the base. This would help if there is a solo or a duo who is going somewhere other players can see it and hitch a ride. Even if it is going close to where they are going they will still jump on to avoid the spamming meta of trying to get a heli.
• Speed them up a tad. Not an over the top amount to make them fucken fighter jets but just a bit faster then they currently are.
• De-spawn them faster after drop off. At the base it's not too bad but when a heli drops someone off at lets say Delta 2, we then have to wait for it to fly all the way to outside of the map to de-spawn. Players do not care to watch the heli fly off into the horizon so there is no need for them to take so long to fly out & de-spawn. This would speed up the time that another heli can be called in speeding up the entire process. Couple this with slightly faster travel times and we have a temp system that is far better then then current system.
• Call in times seem bugged at points. Multiple times I have been at base even sometimes on a server by myself, no other helis have been called or on the map and I get a 5min+ wait time. Unsure on why this is but it should not happen. This also doesn't just happen at base but even out at the LZs calling for pick up.
• Queue system - This is something that I believe should be worked on fairly quickly. Let us call a heli and it just puts us in a queue rather then all trying to fight over who can click the call transport button the fastest. Would possibly need to add a cool down timer of sorts so dicks can't just keep spamming it for the sake of being fuckwits.
• Now this is more of an idea then anything but if the helis could do multiple drop offs/pick ups along its route somehow that could also help. For example if there is a duo at Delta 3 going back to base and another duo at Echo 2 going back to base they could get picked up on the same heli. I don't know how/if that could even work but it is just an idea.
• LOUD NOISES!!! They heli volume is just unbearable lets be honest. Yes you can wear the stupid yellow ear muffs but that shouldn't be the case. Either the headsets we normally wear should have the same heli audio profile as the yellow earmuffs or they need to an Ear Plug key bind similar to what Arma has for that same reason. Currently you can't even talk to your friends or team mates in heli as the noise drowns them out. Game volume/master volume also lowers chat/VOIP volume so you can't even turn that down to help.

Tasks - While I know we only have a small portion of them for now I do have some frustrations with them.

• A lot of the current tasks are very repetitive & would love to see some more variety & possibly some PvP focused ones like eliminate players with a headshot from 100m or whatever. Tarkov does this quite well and some ideas can be gained with there own spin on it would work fine.
• They require you to constantly travel back & forth to base just to turn them only to then be given another task to go straight back. An idea I have (I know others have had also) is to have small safe zones scattered around the map where theses things can be done. Example being lets say 1 LZ has a hut with a radio where you can go to turn in a task/accept another task. This keeps people in the map itself and will in turn help with the heli problem we currently have. Even it was just 1 LZ in each area that allows it and have it change location every so often (Delta 1 for 5mins > Delta 2 for 5 mins > Delta 3 for 5mins then back to Delta 1). This would help (not 100% but help) stop people infill/extract camping those POIs waiting for players to go turn in tasks etc.
• Would love to see some form of daily tasks/weekly tasks at some point to give players who have completed the tasks a reason to keep on trucking rather then just running around aimlessly looking for a fight.

There are stuff I would love/hope to see added are things like face shields, more guns like SMGs, DMRs etc (obvious), more armor variety etc but we could go on for hours about that.
Now I know I have referenced Tarkov a number of times in here but that is because they do some of these things very well (also do some very shit things). I don't want this game to be another Tarkov because it is very different but more just utilize some of the elements that make sense and we know works.
Thanks for coming to my ted talk. Crucify away with my takes/suggestions or feel free to share your own ideas. Apologies for the dragged out post, I even surprised myself with this one.

Finally, here’s a list of bonus Emo releases that I either missed or forgot to include for one reason or the other. Many of these won’t have much unless I felt the spirit move me.

Last Vestiges of the Second Wave

Jawbreaker - Etc. (2002)

This one is cheating as Jawbreaker isn’t really a Second Wave band, but this is probably the best spot for it. A compilation of demos, outtakes, covers and alternate song versions recorded from the late 80s to the mid 90s, meaning B-Sides for every single Jawbreaker album are on here. Whether you call them Emocore, Emo Punk or something else, this unforgettable band has some truly classic tracks on this.

Gods Reflex - When It's Down to This (2008)

Somewhat obscure Midwest Emo from northern Illinois, Gods Reflex played traditional Second Wave Emo with minute Pop influences, mostly in the very catchy vocals. After two great LPs, the band would undergo significant personnel changes in the new Millennium until they faded away before the Third Wave could officially begin.
The band would slowly and subtly begin to reunite, writing music together until they collectively decided to make one more Gods Reflex album. At worst, this record is as good as their previous efforts. At best, this is the band’s finest effort.

Carrying the Flag of the Second Wave

Jacket Weather - Jacket Weather (2008)

Initially recorded over a period between 2000 and 2003, Jacket Weather’s unreleased recorded s/t finally saw the light of day in 2008! Given the time period during recording, the songs on this record are entrenched in that late 90s Midwest Emo sound, including delightfully layered guitarwork, fantastic crescendos and crashes, cathartic lyrics and an average song length that would make Jets to Brazil blush.
The artists would also release a split with fellow Utah bands in 2008 and another archival album in 2016. This neat objet d'art of Emo should be listened to at least once.

Lindsay Minton - Past is Prelude (2008)

A year before starting influential Emo Revival band football, etc., Lindsay Minton came out with a solo album. I’d fully anticipated this being an unknown Proto-Revival jam but was pleasantly surprised with how traditional this album’s approach to Emo is. Lindsay drew strength from female-fronted Midwest Emo bands like Ribbon Fix, Eldritch Anisette and Friends Unseen while adding more modern sensibilities, particularly in production. Perhaps it could just as easily fit in the Proto-Revival department - after all, much of the categorization on this list is just me splitting hairs - but I believe this to be too close a tribute to the fantastic bands of the Second Wave.
Expect varied song structures, dynamic volume switches and bummer tempos, the latter of which is what truly distinguishes Past is Prelude from any other football, etc. content.

Re: Emocore Reemergence

Złodzieje Rowerów - Ten Moment (2002)

Polish Emocore. VERY old school in their songwriting mindset. Check it out if it sounds intriguing.

The Pine - The Pine (2003) 💎

I wasn’t originally going to cover this release, but what the Hell! This is actually a compilation album, remastering their debut LP (also called The Pine) and original 2000 EP (also called The Pine). Raucous and cacophonous, this noisy record shows a band with zeal playing music that the average ear could only hope to suss out. If you like any of the band’s other work, this album is likely their most varied and, in my opinion, their finest effort.

Frammenti - Propizia è perseveranza (2005)

Italian Emocore. Surprisingly varied. The band started in the 90s, so I’m unsure if this is a comeback album, old material or what.

Midwest Screamo Matriculation

Neoteny 64 - Neoteny 64 (2003)

Ahead of its time aesthetically.

Peter & Craig - Aliens, Blizzards & Thieves (2006)

From the ashes of Ryerose, Peter Helmis and Craig Woods came together for a Midwest Screamo project. It’s noisy, youthful, irreverent and a pretty cool relic of Emo history. This comes out the same year as Algernon’s debut demo and Ryerose, meaning Helmis was a busy boy in the mid 00s! This particular release showcases the ethos of DIY Emo perfectly in less than 10 minutes, but don’t forget to check out the band’s other songs, which came out on two splits and a compilation album.

Cowboys Became Folk Heroes - Cowboys Became Folk Heroes (2008)

A compilation consisting of five tracks from a 2002 split and an unreleased 2005 track that’s almost 10 minutes long, Cowboys Became Folk Heroes could say the same thing about themselves. Extremely obscure, this release has more edge than most of the Midwest Screamo on here, but the dynamics are nonetheless excellent.

Beauty in Tragedy: The Marriage of Emo and Post-Rock

Pretty the Quick Black Eyes - Pretty the Quick Black Eyes (2002)

Combining traditional Second Wave Midwest Emo with spacey Post-Rock sounds with hints of electronics, this small project is a powerful listen.

Empty Siolos Echo War - Inner Working Mechanics of a Failed Construct with Puritan Cement (2005)

We’ve seen Post-Rock / Emo artists create their atmospheres in various ways on this list. Empty Silos does so with pensive buildups and tumultuous crescendos.

The Summer We Went West - Following The Holy Moon Goddess (2005) 💎

When I started doing research for this project months ago, I’d already known about and enjoyed TSWWW and their hidden gem album in 2005. However, I’d pegged this album as being a part of the Proto-Revival section and, while it could still fit in there, I think the Post-Rock section actually fits more accurately, for reasons I’ll detail below.
The band opts for an experimental writing approach to Midwest Emo, including both acoustic and electronic instrumentation retrofit to classic Emo. There's a slightly folksy vibe about them, but Post-Rock seems to be the most powerful influence; the Turn trilogy feels out of place without acknowledging how much they owe to the genre. The vocals are embarrassingly raw and confessional, grounding this somewhat floaty record. This little-known release stands the test of time, being a wholly original piece of Emo history when no one expected it.

Turpentine - Honey Births, A Salt Troupe (2006)

Eclectic, Electric and Alive: Japan’s Take on Emo

My Name Is… - 東京プラスチック (2006)

Utilizing a Screamo approach to writing music, this band is boisterous, dissonant and spastic. Vocally, they don't actually do much screaming. If you enjoy Screamo, you will probably love this album.

the cabs - 2 Song Demo (2006)

A small look into what would become an excellent Emo Revival band.

People in the Box - Rabbit Hole (2007)

People in the Box - Frog Queen (2007)

The Explosion of Emo-Pop

Sunday’s Best - The Californian (2002)

Eschewing the harsher and more traditional Midwest Emo elements from their 2000 debut LP, Sunday’s Best injected clean production and infectious vocals into the mix for The Californian. Although bereft of most edge, the album is still a competent and catchy Emo record.

Statistics - Often Lie (2005)

Less Indietronica and subsequently less Post-Rock than their debut LP. Regardless, there are some nice melodies on offer here, even if this is more on the chill side of Emo-Pop.

Mozart Season - Is Heaven Everything You Thought It Would Be? (2006)

Brewing up an Emo-Pop, Post-Hardcore and Melodic Hardcore blend, Mozart Season was at the right place at the right time, but they actually briefly broke up following this EP. Their next two releases would focus more heavily and Metalcore, so this stands as their final Emo-Pop effort. If you enjoy the trappings of popular Emo-Pop / Post-Hardcore mixtures of this time, you’ll probably really enjoy this one.

Other Uncategorized Emo

Desert City Soundtrack - Contents of Distraction (2002)

Emo Side Project - Stay on Rewind (2004)

Starting out as a satirical take on Emo combining the humorous elements with the serious, Emo Side Project turned into a tour de force of AcousticEmo, having released dozens upon dozens of hours of music. I can’t possibly list which albums are better than others, so I’ll just say I enjoyed this particular album (yes, all 65+ minutes of it). The vocals are as whiny as they are sincere.
Sometime after 2010, ESP would add a full band. I don’t really know anything about that material, but it’s out there if you want to check it out.

Germans - Cape Fear (2007)

The lovechild of Midwest Emo and Indie Rock, Germans’ sole release is a joyous romp through surprisingly unique uptempo music.

Polara - Polara - Inacabado (2008)

Following up on their hidden gem Proto-Revival release three years later, Inacabado drops a lot of the overt Midwest Emo elements, puts emphasis on their Indie Rock leanings and overall smoothens out the sound quite well. The band would seemingly stop playing after this album, all the way until their 2023 comeback album.
Okay, that’s REALLY all for now. I hope you found something you enjoyed in this project. Stay tuned for my wrap-up on this, possibly a post-mortem. Maybe I'll post an update to this list sometime in the future.

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(As of June 7, 2024)
Conclusion:
$AUUA presents a unique opportunity in the composite materials market. Looking ahead, ALUULA remains focused in its mission to maintain its momentum, focused its core business, and nurture long-term relationships with customers and brand partners. Bolstered by a robust sales pipeline and a proven track record of innovation, ALUULA is poised for a promising future ahead.
Disclaimer: This is not financial advice please do your own research before investing.

How did two broke college students with a failed business end up creating one of the most popular internet forum ever? The story of Reddit is filled with scandals, lies, money and even death - as Reddit has been involved in countless controversies, including turning against its own users. But let’s dive in behind Reddit's insane history to the billion dollar company that we know of today.
In 2001, Alexis Ohanian enrolled at the University of Virginia to study computer science. His destiny changed when he met his dorm neighbor Steve Huffman, another self-taught programmer majoring in computer science.
The two bonded over video games but Alexis felt behind his peers' skills. Fearing failure, he switched to pre-law despite his passion for coding. As he prepped for the grueling law entrance exam, visions of a monotonous future as a lawyer overwhelmed him. Mid-exam, he walked out and envisioned running his own impactful tech company instead.
Luckily, Steve already had a business idea - a mobile app for ordering food ahead from gas stations or any restaurant to skip the line. Excited, they named it "My Mobile Menu" and devoted their senior year to building the startup.
However, smartphones were still primitive with no app stores. Steve struggled to connect their SMS-based system to restaurants'. Meanwhile, Alexis struggled to sell the vision to restaurants. Their innovative idea was simply too ahead of its time.
As spring break arrived, Alexis and Steve embarked on a 500-mile trip to Cambridge, Massachusetts. Their goal? Seeking help for their struggling business from entrepreneur Paul Graham, who was lecturing at Harvard on "How to Start a Startup."
Steve was a fan of Graham's books and hoped to get one autographed. But Alexis saw an even bigger opportunity. After the lecture, they approached Graham, bought him a drink, and pitched their mobile food ordering app "My Mobile Menu." Surprisingly, Graham liked the idea of eliminating waiting in line for food.
The pair exchanged contacts with Graham and returned to Virginia reinvigorated. Weeks later, Graham emailed about launching a new startup accelerator program called Y Combinator, inviting them to pitch for funding. Though confident, the investor panel couldn't envision their app working with current technology nor saw two college kids having restaurant connections.
Rejected but not dejected, Graham revealed he still believed in Alexis and Steve if they conceived a better idea. Literally getting off the train at the next stop, they brainstormed a new concept that would change everything.
Abandoning the mobile app, Graham advised building something web-based to solve "your problem every morning." By 2005, content flooded the internet from multiple sources needing better aggregation. Sites like Slashdot let users submit articles that moderators rated. Delicious bookmarked popular links.
But Alexis and Steve envisioned an open platform where anyone could share any content for users to upvote or downvote - a platform where content is rated by the people. After tossing names like Oobaloo and 360scope, they landed on "Reddit" - allowing people to simply say "I read it on Reddit."
Graduating in 2005 with a new company name and vision, the founders of Reddit were ready to disrupt how content spreads online.
Armed with $12,000 in funding from Y Combinator, Alexis and Steve moved to Massachusetts to work full-time on their new idea. They spent months operating on little sleep, barely leaving as they built Reddit day and night. However, Paul Graham soon emailed questioning why they hadn't launched yet, pushing them to release a bare-bones beta version immediately.
Unexpectedly, Graham then linked to Reddit on his blog, driving their first 1,000 visitors. Ready or not, Reddit was now live - but missing a crucial element: users.
Alexis tried everything to attract an audience - posting flyers around Boston, asking friends to contribute content, even pitching fellow Y Combinator founders. But without an existing userbase, there was little content.
Desperate for traction, Alexis and Steve resorted to creating hundreds of fake accounts to populate Reddit with posts, giving the illusion of an active community. "Reddit's no fun if the page is blank," Alexis rationalized their moves.
At first, there was no evident impact until they started noticing unfamiliar usernames joining the platform. By summer's end, Reddit had amassed over 12,000 daily users.
However, the homepage was simply a jumble of random links voted to the top with no categorization system. This sparked Alexis and Steve's first major clash - Alexis wanted tags for organization, but Steve opposed subjective labeling concerns.
Their compromise? Separate "subreddit" sections for every interest, becoming Reddit's backbone. The first was the not-safe-for-work subreddit, followed by science, programming, politics and many more niche communities united on one novel platform.
With this innovative structure, Reddit's prospects were looking very bright - especially after crossing paths with a pivotal new player, Aaron Swartz.
At just 18 years old, Aaron Swartz was a talented programmer also backed by Y Combinator for his startup Infogami, that built web development tools. However, Infogami struggled - Aaron hadn't launched yet and found himself broke, homeless and partnerless. Paul Graham saw Aaron's potential to help with developing Reddit and suggested merging companies.
Late 2005, around 6 months after Reddit's launch, Infogami merged into a new parent company Not A Bug Inc with Reddit. Steve, Alexis and Aaron each owned 24% of Reddit, with Paul at 7% and the rest reserved.
Alexis and Steve welcomed Aaron's coding skills. As users grew, Reddit added comment sections for discussions, plus a "karma" points system incentivizing quality contributions. The trio collaborated well initially.
However, underlying tensions brewed. Alexis and Steve felt it unfair Aaron publicly called himself a Reddit co-founder when he joined 6 months after their idea's inception. This founder friction intensified as Reddit caught the attention of media giant Condé Nast.
The multi-billion dollar publisher of Vogue, GQ and Vanity Fair sought to acquire the rapidly growing, user-generated Reddit to expand digitally after acquiring Wired. Though not looking to sell their 1-year-old startup yet, the 23, 22 and 19-year-old founders entertained Condé Nast's millions.
After tense negotiations, one hurdle remained - Aaron voicing concerns over a massive corporation controlling the free user-driven platform. His antics like secretly tweaking contracts caused frustration until Steve warned him not to jeopardize the deal.
Relenting, Condé Nast acquired Reddit for around $10-20 million, making the founders overnight millionaires. Though required to remain for 3 more years, they operated independently with resources to grow Reddit. What seemed like a dream quickly turned into a nightmare as the Reddit founders' story took a dark twist.
Everyone worked hard to impress Condé Nast, Reddit's new corporate owners - except Aaron. He had envisioned Reddit as a voice for the people against big governments and corporations. So being owned by a massive media company felt like a bad cultural fit.
Aaron rarely showed up to the office, even blogging about hating the "grey walls, grey desks, grey noise". Finally in January 2007, Alexis, Steve and Condé Nast leadership fired the problematic Aaron.
Without him, the team continued developing Reddit, rethinking core features.
Until 2008, only employees could create new topic subreddits despite increasing user requests. Their solution? Allowing any user to make their own subreddit.
This brilliant move spawned subreddits for every niche interest imaginable, from niche bands to financial advice to bizarre meme topics like "BreadStapleToTrees" with over 300,000 members. Users could now find or create communities for any interest.
Another clever tactic was to let the most active users moderate the subreddits they created for free.
Reddit's popularity soared to over 2 million users and 10,000+ subreddits by late 2008. Yet the company struggled to monetize this traffic.
So despite explosive growth, Reddit remained unprofitable, merely introducing paid memberships and awards. Meanwhile, tensions boiled over between Alexis and Steve - the former grieving his late mother, accusing Steve of mismanagement while Steve felt Alexis schemed behind his back. Sharing an apartment worsened their explosive office fights.
By 2009 when their Condé Nast contracts expired, the fractured co-founders both abandoned Reddit just as a new Congressional bill threatened the site's very existence.
In 2011, Congress proposed the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), which would hold platforms like Reddit responsible for all user-generated content on their sites - even content they didn't publish themselves. For a site with millions of users freely posting, copyright owners could sue Reddit, potentially leading to massive fines, legal fees or even a shutdown.
At the time, Reddit had over 46 million users but only 20 employees, making it impossible to monitor all content for compliance. Reddit publicly declared SOPA an "all-out war against the internet" they wouldn't go down without a fight.
Many tech giants like Google and Wikipedia also lobbied against the law amid intense public backlash. On January 18, 2012, Reddit took the dramatic step of shutting down for 12 hours in protest, stating in a blog post: "We wouldn't do this if we didn't believe this legislation and the forces behind it were a serious threat to Reddit and the internet as we know it."
Days later, Congress abandoned SOPA after succumbing to public pressure. One key leader emerging from this internet freedom battle was none other than Aaron Swartz. After leaving Reddit, he had become an activist fighting internet censorship and campaigning for an open internet.
But his activism landed him in serious legal trouble in 2011 when arrested for illegally downloading millions of academic journals from MIT to make them freely accessible online. He faced up to 35 years in prison and $1 million in fines.
Aaron was offered a plea deal of just 6 months if he admitted guilty, however he rejects it to avoid being a lifelong felon. As his case lingered, the depressed Aaron became isolated, not wanting to burden others. Tragically, his girlfriend found him dead by suicide weeks before the trial.
Tributes poured in across the internet, hailing Aaron as using "his prodigious skills not to enrich himself, but to make the internet and world a fairer, better place." Though inducted into the Internet Hall of Fame for co-founding Reddit and creating RSS feeds and Creative Commons licenses, Aaron's pivotal role has largely been erased from Reddit's official history.
In March 2012, Yishan Wang from PayPal became Reddit's new CEO as the site reached billions of monthly pageviews and gained cultural relevance. Even President Barack Obama did an AMA ("Ask Me Anything") Q&A on the site's popular subreddit.
However, this immense growth caused problems. Since anyone could create subreddits, many disturbing communities proliferated from watching people die to cannibalism forums. Reddit's anonymity made it ripe for abuse by extremists, hate speech, and controversies.
One tragic example followed the 2013 Boston Marathon bombings killing 3 and injuring hundreds. A "FindBostonBombers" subreddit emerged with thousands speculating and sharing unauthorized personal information against site rules. They falsely accused missing student Sunil Tripathi based on resemblance, leading to vicious harassment of his grieving family before authorities identified the true perpetrators.
When Tripathi's body was discovered on April 23, news outlets blamed Reddit's witch-hunt. As the userbase swelled into the millions, pressure mounted on executives like Yishan to crack down on offensive subreddits. Though believing "we will not ban legal content even if odious," he eventually prohibited forums like "BeatingWomen" with graphic violence.
By 2014, conflicting views on content moderation led Yishan to resign after just two years, citing stress from the internal conflicts and negative publicity scaring investors amidst sexism claims. Ellen Pao soon replaced him as CEO to address Reddit's escalating controversies.
Ellen Pao, formerly Reddit's VP known for suing a past employer over gender discrimination, succeeded Yishan as CEO in 2014. Her hiring aimed to rehabilitate Reddit's concerning reputation.
Around this time, co-founder Alexis Ohanian also returned as executive chairman, hoping to steer Reddit clear of controversies. Shortly after, Pao implemented stricter anti-harassment policies and banned some of the most offensive subreddits.
While some lauded her efforts to clean up Reddit, many core users considered it censorship - especially after Pao stated: "We are not a completely free speech platform." Matters escalated when she fired beloved employee Victoria Taylor, who coordinated high-profile AMAs. In protest, moderators shut down hundreds of subreddits, effectively blacking out the site.
With over 160,000 petitions calling for her removal, Pao resigned after just 7 months amid Reddit's tailspin and uncertain future. The company desperately needed stable leadership after cycling through 3 CEOs in under a year.
Offering a glimmer of hope, co-founder Steve Huffman returned as CEO in 2015 alongside Ohanian's renewed involvement. The original founders' comeback reignited optimism, with design upgrades, mobile apps, and clearer direction initially.
However, in 2016 Huffman himself sparked an ethics scandal. After insulting comments on the controversial "The_Donald" subreddit, he abused admin privileges to edit them, redirecting insults towards the subreddit's moderators instead. Though calling it "trolling the trolls," many felt an admin editing user posts broke trust in Reddit's freedom and openness - severely damaging Huffman's credibility.
In April 2023, Reddit announced it would start charging to access its API - the interface allowing third-party apps and websites to pull data from Reddit. One of the most popular alternative apps was Apollo, offering a different browsing experience by freely accessing Reddit's data when the API was free.
However, Reddit's new pricing of 24 cents per 1,000 API requests meant Apollo estimated yearly costs over $20 million - forcing the beloved third-party app to shut down. Many moderator tools relying on Reddit's API to provide enhanced functionality beyond Reddit's official app were also hit with massive unexpected bills.
Many in the community felt the exorbitant pricing and lack of warning suggested Reddit deliberately aimed to kill competitor apps, not giving developers time to adapt. Outraged moderators and developers grouped together, staging a blackout where over 7,000 subreddits including major communities like AskReddit went dark simultaneously to protest the API charges.
With huge portions of Reddit inaccessible, the company lost substantial ad revenue during one of the biggest online protests ever. Many thought this backlash would force Reddit to rescind the changes. However, since the blackout stated a hard 48-hour timeline, Reddit simply waited it out despite some subreddits staying private longer until threatened with moderator bans.
Post-blackout, animosity towards Reddit's leadership like CEO Steve Huffman has intensified. However, Reddit argued the monetization move was necessary, as the company remains unprofitable while third-parties freely integrated Reddit's entire infrastructure and content without generating any income for Reddit itself.
While Reddit's position is defensible from a business perspective, most agree better foresight like improving their official app with requested features could have avoided controversy. Nonetheless, Reddit achieved its API paywall aims - but at the cost of worsening tensions with its very own community.
Despite nearly 20 years online and around 430 million monthly users as of 2023, Reddit incredibly still operates at a loss and has never turned a profit. However, Reddit's collective community has managed to accomplish some incredible feats.
Users have raised massive amounts for charities and orphanages, organized the world's largest secret Santa gift exchange, and created millions of connections through niche interest communities. Reddit is undeniably useful too - its threads frequently appear as top Google results for inquiries.
But no event demonstrated Reddit's community power quite like the 2021 GameStop stock frenzy. Amateur traders on the WallStreetBets subreddit banded together against hedge funds betting on GameStop's decline. Redditors began purchasing the struggling company's shares en masse, driving its stock price from under $3 to an astonishing $483 peak.
This monumental short squeeze caused multi-billion losses for major Wall Street firms, while making numerous Redditors overnight millionaires simply by clinging together. While Reddit itself has yet to solve profitability, one thing remains clear - the website's most powerful asset and liability is its vast unified user base.
Despite the controversies and roller coaster ride detailed in Reddit's story, the site's populist underpinnings and harnessed collective continue redefining what an online community can achieve, for better or worse. Reddit's unconventional journey is far from over.

Does anyone work in a small-medium size office (35 people), with a really nice coffee setup?
Our office (in Manhattan) has tried going with a prosumer home espresso machine by Breville, but the demands of our office have caused it to break a few times, with no service available as it's in a commercial setting. In addition to espresso we want to create a higher volume drip setup for bigger meeting and more options for colleagues. We'd love to find a cool, thoughtful company that provides leased (or purchased) coffee machines, regular service, as well as a subscription services for consumable items (beans, filters etc)
I'm researching options, and here are our needs:

• one commercial / prosumer espresso machine with hand pulled shots and steam wand
• multiple plumbed drip brewers with hot water
• maintenance service on aforementioned machine/brewers
• coffee bean delivery service (nice to have)
• cold brew delivery service (nice to have)

Intangible aspects that we are looking for:

• Smallish LOCAL company that doesn't have enormous corporate clients (Aramark)
• A company that cares about coffee - selection of beans is curated and sustainable
• Selection of machines that reflect quality and design (we are an architecture firm)

Below are some of the stories we’ve been reporting this week on Cyber Security Headlines.
If you’d like to watch and participate in a discussion about them, the CISO Series does a live 20-minute show every Friday at 12:30pm PT/3:30pm ET. Each week we welcome a different cyber practitioner to offer some color to the week's stories. Our guest this week is Andrew Wilder, CISO, Community Veterinary Partners.
To get involved you can watch live and participate in the discussion on YouTube Live https://youtube.com/live/NwCSdYT6zpw or you can subscribe to the Cyber Security Headlines podcast and get it into your feed.
Here are the stories we plan to cover, time permitting:
Experts say new Windows AI feature could be a security ‘disaster’Microsoft is about to launch a new AI-powered Recall feature that screenshots everything a user does on their PC and allows them to search and retrieve anything in seconds. Recall is part of the new Copilot Plus PCs that are debuting on June 18. Security researcher, Kevin Beaumont, who helped test the feature, discovered that the feature stores data locally in plain text which could allow an attacker to use malware to easily extract the database and its contents. Further, Recall doesn’t hide sensitive info like passwords or financial account numbers in its screenshots. Microsoft points out that stored Recall information is encrypted using Bitlocker while stored locally. But that would only protect the data from theft from a physically stolen device. Beaumont said he’s withholding technical details to give Microsoft time to take action. The UK’s Information Commissioner’s Office has also stepped in to make inquiries with Microsoft over its use of the AI-powered feature. (The Verge)
Ticketmaster hack affects 560 million customers, third-party denies liabilityThe attack, which occurred on May 20, has been confirmed by its parent company, Live Nation, as having been the result of “unauthorized activity within a third-party cloud database environment containing company data.” A week later the threat actor ShinyHunters offered the data, which is alleged to contain PII and partial payment details of up to 560 million customers up for sale if a ransom payment of over $500,000 is not made. This is the same threat actor group who breached the Spanish bank Santander around the same time. Meanwhile, the third-party vendor in question, cloud storage provider Snowflake has denied that its products were to blame for the Ticketmaster breach, or the Santander Bank, for that matter. According to a since- removed post on the website of security firm Hudson Rock, “the intruders were able to sign into a Snowflake employee’s ServiceNow account using stolen credentials, and from there were able to generate session tokens,” however Snowflake, while acknowledging that a former employee’s demo account was accessed through stolen credentials, said it did not contain sensitive data, and that there was “no pathway for customers’ credentials to be accessed and exfiltrated from the Snowflake production environment.”(The Guardian and The Record)
HHS changes tack, allows Change Healthcare to file breach notifications for othersThis reversal from the Department of Health and Human Services is an update from an April 19 FAQ page that stated every organization affected by the Change Healthcare hack would have to file their own breach notices with federal and state regulators. This had apparently angered the staff of thousands of hospitals, clinics and doctor’s offices who are still working through the damage caused by the attack. The new statement, sent by Melanie Fontes Rainer, director of HHS’s Office for Civil Rights says, “affected covered entities that want Change Healthcare to provide breach notifications on their behalf should contact Change Healthcare. All of the required HIPAA breach notifications may be performed by Change Healthcare.” (The Record)
FBI says it has 7,000 LockBit ransomware decryption keysSpeaking at the 2024 Boston Conference on Cyber Security, Bryan Vorndran, assistant director of the FBI’s Cyber Division, said the agency is offering help to victims whose data was encrypted by the LockBit ransomware. The victims are encouraged to contact the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center. There have been more than 1,800 LockBit encryption attacks in the United States. (Security Week)
3 billion records stolen from background check firmThe criminal gang named USDoD appears to be selling just under 3 billion records on nearly all US, Canadian, and British citizens for $3.5 million on a Dark Web forum. The data was allegedly stolen from Florida-based background check firm, National Public Data. It’s believed that USDoD is acting as a broker for the gang that actually stole the data (using the handle SXUL) which included full names, address history, social security numbers, and names of parents, siblings, and relatives. According to the VX-Underground team, there is a small silver lining, which is that “The database DOES NOT contain information from individuals who use data opt-out services.” (The Register)
Utah student floods hackers with false info to thwart PhishingA Davis County high school junior, Charles Mortensen, developed a program dubbed VEGA (Victims’ Empowerment Guard against Attacks), which aims to take down phishing sites by flooding them with fake usernames and passwords. Mortensen said the program can send about half a million requests to a hacker site within a night, typically taking the site offline by the morning. Mortensen was motivated to create VEGA when a friend residing in foster care fell victim to an Instagram phishing attempt, jeopardizing her only means of contacting her mom. Mortensen said VEGA has enabled him to take down thirty phishing sites within a month. He is seeking a sponsor to help him to scale the operation to potentially dismantle much larger volumes of phishing sites. (The Cyber Express)
US research using psychology against threat actorsThe Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity, IARPA, picked five research teams to look into threat actor behavior, hoping to boost cybersecurity measures by better understanding motives and possibly predict future actions. Roughly 150 people will work on the research, with teams from Raytheon, Peraton Labs, Charles River Analytics, SRI International, and GrammaTech. The teams will take different approaches, like monitoring security researchers for biases that could apply to threat actors and designing fake networks to waste threat actors’ time. Program manager Kimberly Ferguson-Walter said threat actors routinely take advantage of known human biases, and defenders should attempt to do the same. (Bloomberg)
EU Probes Microsoft 365 Education Over Privacy ConcernsThe European Union is investigating Microsoft’s education-focused suite after a non-profit privacy rights group filed two complaints over concerns about how the data from the Microsoft 365 Education platform was being used. The privacy campaign group, noyb, alleges that minors’ data is being processed unlawfully and the company is being “consistently vague” about how the children’s information is being used. Noyb also claims Microsoft installs cookies without consent to track user behavior, affecting thousands of EU and EEA students. Noyb argues schools are not in a position to comply with EU law’s transparency requirements or data access rights. In a statement to TechCrunch, Microsoft said, “M365 for Education complies with GDPR and other applicable privacy laws.” (Techcrunch), (The Register)

This is a follow-up question from the comments from one of the recent posts (''Why was the Company not as profitable given their lifespan?''). A link to the post in question can be found below, at the bottom of the post.
The reasons for the Company plunging into debt are credited by historians to be due to several factors, the main one pertaining to the high costs of recruiting and maintaining their army (and expanding it), but also due to the atrocious amount of corruption from Company agents and officers alike. Smuggling, private trade, bribery, 'gifts' , corruption, and British officials filling their own pockets at the expense of both Indian rulers and traders as well as the Company itself, not that those individuals would care about any of that anyway. Governour Hastings did - during his tenure (1773-1785) enact some new regulations as to cut costs (for instance in the postal service, and by making large personell cuts) and try to limit corruption and self-enrichment, however corrupt agents still were not really held legally liable and accountable for their crimes, so the effect was obviously limited.
Its for those reasons that the state interventions and successive parliament acts (especially from 1784 onwards) both focused - among other things - to put Indian administration - including fiscal matters - into state control, and as well limit and prohibit bribery and self aggrandizement by Company agents in India - also prosecute them for corruption. One detailed measure introduced was to obligate ANY Agent returning to England to turn in his inventory and provide full transparency about his property and wealth upon return, and any irregularities were to be used for a possible trial - Corruption came under vast scrutiny by the Crown.
Now, as for the territory and Bengal: as mentioned within my initial comment, the tax revenue from the three provinces amounted to well between 2-4 million pounds a year, and Bengal was one of the wealthiest provinces of India at that time - if Im not mistaken. Apart from Bengal and adjacent territory, by 1772 British India didnt really exceed Bengal by much in terms of extent. In that time British India was still fairly small and not yet as powerful - by 1775 they would start to fight the Marathas (until 1782) and then in 1780-1784 Mysore, in both cases just barely getting a status quo ante bellum (sort of), due to the diplomatic skills of Hastings and his subordinates.
Bengal: I would like to raise two points, mainly. First: The Company had three major presidencies (spheres of administrations) in India: Bombay, Madras and Calcutta (Bengal), each of them had their own Governour, advising Council, finances and army. The Bengal army always was the largest of the three and subsequently also, the most expensive. Makes sense given that Bengal was by and large the largest presidency in terms of size, necessitating more troops for garrisoning. Point Number Two: Northern India was heavily and densely populated, Bengal being no exception. When Hastings reformed the taxation system in the 1770s, his policies focused a stronger and harsher taxation of the land/rural population. More people = more taxes. The land tax (mal) accounted for 90% of all tax revenue from that region.
Sources include:
Parliament Acts: India Act of 1784. Charter Acts of 1813 and 1833.
Also: the works of Keay, Bryant and Moon as mentioned and cited in my earlier comment thread. Additonally:
Gardner, Brian: ,,The East India Company: a history‘‘. Hart-Davis: London 1971.
Travers, Robert: ,,Ideology and empire in eighteenth-century India. The British in Bengal‘‘. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, 2007.
https://www.reddit.com/AskHistorians/comments/16nppq3/why_was_the_dutch_east_india_company_so_much_more/k1sk2bv/?context=3

Some backstory: my dad bought a PC for A.I. research during the COVID pandemic. Ended up paying $3500 for a PC with an i5 11400, 64GB DDR4, a 256GB SSD and an RTX 3090 (Asus TUF OC) (from a large volume IT logistics company). He used it for a year but his research group ended up going with cloud solutions instead. He still has the PC in use for office tasks, but gave me the 3090 as a graduation gift.
The GPU works great, but has some coil whine, especially in lower graphics demanding games where framerate is high. Particularly loud whine in Hearthstone. I live in an old house where there's no grounded wiring in the office, but I do use a UPS and surge protector.
Either way, I wanted to reduce the power consumption, and already undervolted my 5700X3D to a -30 PBO where it only uses 60W in full load now. Figured I could win some with undervolting the GPU as well, and followed some guides. Brought the power consumption down from 350W to 255W, while losing about 2% FPS with an 85% power limit. Still quite confused about the whole GPU undervolting thing as the power limit doesn't seem linear with the undervolt itself; maybe I'm missing something.
Long story short: when I enable the undervolt profile, the coil whine completely stops. Could recommend to anyone experiencing this issue.

I've been through so many C&P Exams. For once I actually really prepared myself. I sat down and wrote notes, questions I wanted to ask, all symptoms I've experienced, how it affects my personal life, what I do that triggers GERD. This past Monday I went to my C&P Exam.
When I went into the office her first question: "Why are you here today?"
I started to explain how mortars in 3 tours in Iraq (Q-West 2007-08, Mosul 2008/09 & Ali Base 2010/11) gave me migraines. I had several hit within 50 feet of where I was.
She abruptly cut me off and stated, "We are not here for migraines, we are here for acid reflux."
I then explained to her that I filed a secondary claim for GERD due to migraine medications (Motrin, Maxalt, etc.) I have been prescribed over the years. I also explained to her I have acid reflux but that's simply one small symptom of many because I filed for GERD.
She never asked me anything off of a DBQ.
The DBQ for GERD recently changed mid to late May. I filed on 2 May before I knew GERD was changing. I've been told the doctor should have used both DBQs because of my filing date and I get the higher of the 2 DBQ ratings.
Within less than 10 minutes of her scrolling on her computer she ends by standing up as she tells me, "Well I have my work cut out for me but that's all I need from you." As she ushers me out the door...
I wrote up a letter and attached to my claim in the files section on my claim, and today I will be calling the VA. Not one time did she utilize the DBQs. I'm not going to sit on my ass with this exam. I can't because this just isn't sitting well.

I have an appointment at my local USCIS office this coming Monday for an emergency AP i131 for a work trip end of the month. On the USCIS website I see it says "If you filed Form I-485 on or after July 30, 2007, and before April 1, 2024, you paid the required Form I-485 filing fee, and your Form I-485 is still pending. $0 N/A" can anyone confirm if this is true? The tier 2 agent who booked my appointment when telling me what to bring never mentioned anything about a fee either. I have looked online and it seems very mixed if this is true or not..maybe it's a new thing? PD is Feb 8 2024 so it's within the time mentioned. Anyone have experience with this? Thanks!

I had 2 friends (F and F) in office who were kinda my only emotional support here.
I was in a sort of situationship with one of them. My other friend helped me realise I was being taken advantage of and helped me get over her.
But I continued to hangout with them cuz the good friend had a boyfriend and she didn't want to make him insecure by hanging out with me every night, so she preferred that we three hang out as a group.
But as time passed, small fights became big and they'd point out even the most minor behaviours on my end. Like even I was exclaiming something at a reasonable volume they'd say I was shouting. And that I'm insensitive, even though I've worked very hard on ensuring I'm considerate and my friends back home find it surprising that they said so.
Once we were going for a movie (which I said i didn't want to go to) and they again said stuff similarly. Pointed out that me not agreeing with their perspective was bad "why can't I just agree that they're right." I acknowledge that I have issues with sticking to my perspective but it's not as bad as they say, and they said it when I was still explaining my perspective.
So I became really exhausted after that argument and didn't really talk on the cab ride back home cuz I felt whatever I said they would point something wrong with it.
Then I restrict hanging out with them, sticking to just lunch during work hours. During that week they were discussing going shopping for clothes and I said I would be interested to join as well (I don't know why I do this to myself). Then on Saturday there was a office party and I went for it, they didn't. They went for shopping without including me.
When I asked why wasn't I included, the good friend said they planned it spontaneously and I was already at the office party so they didn't think of inviting me. When I asked her did she deliberately exclude me couple of days later she said yes. She said they feel exhausted after they hang out with me, saying that they feel bad after I stop talking. She said the same concerns again. I kinda explained my side to her and we reconciled our differences.
So before the fight at the movies happened, we were planning a trip to a hill station. I generally like planning and they'd already agreed to going so I was enthusiastically working on an itinerary. But when I spoke to the other friend (the situationship one) she said it's early to plan now and kept replying in a way that I wouldn't understand. I got pissed and just gave up.
Now since we reconciled our differences, we decided to go for the trip and I started planning. The next day the good friend told me she can't go cuz she's low on cash. I asked does the other friend know about it, she said she already spoke about it to her last night. So she had the whole day to talk about her problems with me, but she avoided it and spoke behind my back.
Me and the food friend used to be really close. I would listen to her problems with her boyfriend and she would help me deal with my issues. She's very gossipy tho and I know this cuz she would share a lot of stuff with me. But now she's not talking to me and choosing to have these discussions with the other friend. So I'm pretty sure she'd sharing these screenshots of my chat with her. I feel like my trust has been betrayed.
Now I decreased talking again. I can't say no to lunch cuz it'll be too obvious and rude, so I just give in.
So a new guy has joined the office and they specifically changed seats to sit next to him the whole day. I know I choose this situation but I really don't like being inside my mind.
I want to kill myself but it feels so immature and stupid to do it for something like this.