Metric screw torque chart

Guns:
Staccato C2: Chunk Port, Cerakote, Stipple and reduction by Monsoon, Surefire x300, Dawson RMR plate, Trijicon RCR
Staccato P: Cerakote, Reduction and Stipple by Elusive Texture, Surefire x300, Dawson ACRO P-2 plate, TangoDown standoff plate, FCD R.L.B, Aimpoint ACRO P-2.
Holster: Safariland 6354 RDSO P/N: 6354RDSO-2582-701-MS19
It's a tough one to call with just 500 rounds through each, There are a lot of pros and very few cons between these two. I am also acknowledging a potential bias to the RMR family of optics as I have trained with those extensively, far more so than with any other MRDS I own. My observations for this comparison below:
ACRO P-2: First off, I mounted this optic and shot 500 rounds doing various drills, which is the entirety of my live fire training with the ACRO P-2. Next is addressing the obviously smaller window size than the RCR, The ACRO P-2 window is taller than it is wide, and that made it very easy to acquire the target off the draw from holster. However, left to right target transitions were not as quick. The Glass is very clear, which is to be expected from an optic in this bracket of price and quality. The dot was crisp and max brightness was more than enough to deal with central Texas afternoon sun. It should be noted that the front and rear glass is nearly flush with each side of the housing which is why I opted for a TangoDown Standoff Plate for the front, to give a little buffer to the glass when racking the slide off the optic.
Trijicon RCR: Obviously we are going to start with the capstan screws for mounting, I am a torque spec believer and tend to err on the side of exact value not S.W.A.G, but the capstan system is entirely S.W.A.G based. It held up to the 500 round test, racking almost exclusively off the optic either on a barricade or by hand. Any hesitations I had initially were reassured as neither screw moved after the test. Moving on the similarities to an RMR are immediately apparent, the deck height is the same and the shroud has the familiar shape. Presentation from holstered and low ready are intuitive and familiar to anyone who has shot an RMR. The glass has the same "blue" hue as the RMR family and at the max brightness the dot looses its crisp edges, also par for the course with every RMR I have ever had. The front lens is recessed into the housing and tilted upward, the rear is semi flat and only slightly recessed from the back of the housing. The window is wider than it is tall, the inverse of the ACRO P-2, and I suspect this was less of a handicap on target acquisition due to the deck height being so familiar to me. The width of the window was very satisfying to transition between targets laterally. Overall on the RCR, it presented and holstered just like the familiar RMR.
I am hesitant to say either is hands down better than the other, the ACRO P-2 has some very good features for a street price that is slightly less than the RCR. I am excited to get more rounds through the ACRO P-2 to get as comfortable as I am with the RMR family of optics.
TLDR: If you are at all familiar with shooting an RMR, you cannot go wrong with the RCR for an enclosed emitter option, If you are more familiar with any of the other MRDS options on the market you can't go wrong with getting the ACRO P-2. Both are reaching toward the peak of performance and capability in a MRDS package.

First, I read so many posts from here and the help has been great. Thanks to all who moderate, post, and comment!
I am literally strung out over this process. I have parent plus loans which qualify for PSLF. I have been teaching for over 20 years. My employer was verified (after two Mohela mess ups), and I am currently three years in.
Because of all my questions I did reach out to TISLA, an organization that gives free student loan advice. They told me to do a “double back consolidation.” Consolidate half my loans with one lender, the other half with another, and then consolidate the two. Cool.
Now I am being told that I will lose my 3 years of PSLF if I do this, but, “It’s no big deal as you would pay so much with PSLF.” To be honest, when I look at my current PSLF payoff chart I am not really being granted forgiveness on anything; I’m just being asked to pay off everything within 10 years.
I am a single mom who is trying to make this work. Nelnet? Mohela? TISLA? All different answers. I feel screwed over by everyone and anyone, and at this point just think taking out a second mortgage would just be better for piece of mind.
Thanks for any advice you have, and for listening!

Could I make money from my fintech final year tool ?
Could I make money from my final year project?
We made a full blown full stack application that correlates sentiment of the news to different tickers (companies) to give users an insight as to WHY a company is experiencing an increase or decrease in stock price. Users can find the news per day over different time periods for over 52 tickets. We did web scraping and parsed rss feeds using a feed parser, correlated the news to the tickers, did sentiment analysis, caching news to database every 60 seconds, users can create an account to pick tickers they want to get email updates about etc and we also set threshold for different quantitative metrics such as RSI and Votalility etc if the RSI is between a certain threshold, it’s classified as positive negative or neutral
For example we found apples stock price increased due to needs such as its new products released and we tested it and the news from apples new event came up on our site (we took inspiration from a greed fear index to create a sentiment score aggregator )
Eveyrhting works perfectly and we are using charts with chart js and the site looks very professional, our supervisor said we could get it commercial or is he just being nice ? The development time was about 1 year with over 2000 commits

My team uses mongodb as our primary database. As a startup we want to be data driven and hence are looking to build analytics on top of mongodb directly. Things we have tried: (1) MongoDB Charts: Doesn’t support lookups as of now. We need lookups for some crucial metrics. There is a way to create views and then use them in charts but we don’t want to give PMs access to DB directly to create views (2) MongoDB -> Redshift Pipeline: We used some third party tools to leverage MongoDB CDC feature to push data to AWS Redshift. It works for most part but if schema changes then it usually errors out. Underlying postgres works really well but eventually it will stop working as this is not what it was meant for. Also querying json with sql is way to complex for PMs (3) MongoDB Bi Connector: Dont want to buy PowerBI for this use case (4) MongoDB SQL Connector: Too slow for basic queries. Also not all operators are supported.
If anyone knows any solution for this, please let us know. Basic Requirements: (1) Should be plug n play with mongo atlas (2) Easy of use for PMs. If it can somehow use sql it will be great. (3) Charts and other visualisation support.

Could I make money from my final year project?
We made a full blown full stack application that correlates sentiment of the news to different tickers (companies) to give users an insight as to WHY a company is experiencing an increase or decrease in stock price. Users can find the news per day over different time periods for over 52 tickets. We did web scraping and parsed rss feeds using a feed parser, correlated the news to the tickers, did sentiment analysis, caching news to database every 60 seconds, users can create an account to pick tickers they want to get email updates about etc and we also set threshold for different quantitative metrics such as RSI and Votalility etc if the RSI is between a certain threshold, it’s classified as positive negative or neutral
Eveyrhting works perfectly and we are using charts with chart js and the site looks very professional, our supervisor said we could get it commercial or is he just being nice ?

Hi - I'm Paul and I follow the e-commerce industry closely for my Shopifreaks E-commerce Newsletter. Each week I post a summary recap of the week's top stories, which I cover in depth with sources in the full edition. Let's dive in...
___
STAT OF THE WEEK: Kohl's sales have shrunk by $2.3B since 2019. During that same period of time, the company lost 1.3M customers who no longer shop with the retailer.
___
BigCommerce is exploring a sale after attracting takeover interest, according to sources who chose to remain anonymous due to the confidentiality of the information. The sources said that BigCommerce asked investment bank Qatalyst Partners to solicit interest from potential buyers that include private equity firms, but that the discussions are at an early stage and no deal is certain.
___
Squarespace announced that it will be going private in a $6.9B all-cash deal with private-equity firm Permira, who agreed to pay $44 per share (a roughly 30% premium). Although Squarespace never lost 90% of its share price like BigCommerce, it has experienced a tumultuous time on the market since its IPO in May 2021 — opening around $49.50 and at times trading in the low $20s. Shares rose nearly 13% to $43 in pre-market trading upon release of the news.
___
ByteDance filed a lawsuit in US federal court seeking to block the new law that would force the sale or ban of the app within the country. The lawsuit challenges the law on constitutional grounds, also citing commercial, technical, and legal hurdles, as well as opposition from Beijing. Legal experts say the legal battle will play out in the courts in coming months and likely will reach the Supreme Court.
___
OpenAI unveiled its newest model, GPT-4o, designed to turn ChatGPT into a digital personal assistant that can engage in real-time, spoken conversations and interact with users using text, screenshots, photos, documents, and charts. The new version of ChatGPT also has memory capabilities, which means it can learn from previous conversations. It will be available to both unpaid and premium customers alike. OpenAI also announced that it would be launching a desktop app with the GPT-4o capabilities, giving users another platform to interact with the technology outside of a web browser.
___
Amazon launched in South Africa last week, marking its first marketplace in sub-Saharan Africa, and bringing its total number of marketplaces worldwide to 22. To launch the new marketplace, Amazon is offering free delivery on first orders and on subsequent orders above R500 (about $27), access to 3,000 pick-up points, status updates via WhatsApp to track orders, 30 day refunds, and 24/7 customer support. The marketplace was supposed to launch in the country in 2023, but got delayed due to changes in priorities within Amazon.
___
In an unlikely partnership, Instacart is partnering with Uber Eats to expand into the restaurant delivery business. Instacart will add a new tab for restaurant delivery to its app in the coming weeks, the listings will be provided by Uber, and the food will be picked up and delivered by Uber Eats drivers. Customers will receive the same prices on both apps and Instacart will receive an affiliate commission on orders. It's a strange partnership though given that Instacart and Uber Eats actively compete on grocery delivery. Are they planning to merge? Uber says no.
___
Apple's advertisement for its latest iPad Pro sparked criticism for showing an animation of musical instruments, paint cans, cameras, record players, and other symbols of creativity being crushed by a giant machine, with the output being the new iPad Pro, which the company says is the thinnest Apple product ever. In this context, “crushing” was supposed to symbolize “consolidating” and “compacting” — with the visuals meant to showcase how the new iPad Pro puts the power of all these tools into the hands of creators in one thin device. However online commenters criticized the ad as insensitive and as symbolizing a “destruction of the human experience.” The ad hit the web on Tuesday, and by Thursday, Apple issued a mea culpa and apologized for the campaign.
___
Google is encouraging merchants to enable conversion annotations on their Google Shopping ads, which offer social proof that highlight a product's popularity. Conversion annotations like “best selling” or “3K shopped here recently” would provide visual cues about a product’s popularity or sales performance directly in the ad unit. Annotations like these are par for the course with e-commerce retailers including Amazon, Walmart, and Temu, which all employ similar tactics. They can provide valuable info for shoppers and also help with conversions. However they also open data privacy concerns, given that Google is not the actual retailer or marketplace selling the items, so a merchant would have to share this purchase history data from their e-commerce platform with Google — which technically most already do by giving access to GA4.
___
Shein is attempting to join the National Retail Federation as it pursues regulatory approval to go public in the US. The company believes that NRF membership would boost its chances of receiving SEC approval. However so far, Shein has been rejected numerous times. An anonymous source familiar with the matter said someone with heavy influence at the NRF is strongly against the Shein's admittance. However board members who spoke to CNBC said that Shein's membership application hadn't come up in meetings, and that they aren't involved in deciding which companies are granted access.
___
Amazon is leading the way with selling home goods, capturing 18.8% of consumer home furnishings spending, compared to Walmart's 7.3% market share. Notably, Amazon’s gains in the furniture category come in spite of the company’s decision to phase out two of its three furniture brands last year.
___
Stanley, which is projected to do $750M in sales this year, up from $73M in 2019, after seeing its water bottles become a status symbol thanks to TikTok, is now expanding into trendier accessories. The company is launching a line of bags called the All-Day Collection which include a mini cooler, backpack cooler, and Quencher Carry-All, designed for someone to sling their Stanley over their hip.
___
Jack Dorsey left the Bluesky board and deleted his account on the service he helped kickstart, claiming that Bluesky was “literally repeating all the mistakes” he made while running Twitter. Dorsey says he never intended Bluesky to be an independent company, but rather, an open source protocol that Twitter was supposed to be the first client of. He also confirmed that he is financially backing Nostr, another decentralized Twitter-like service popular among crypto enthusiasts and run by an anonymous founder.
___
Amazon is deploying 50 electric trucks in California, which it claims is the largest EV fleet in the country, as part of its mission to eliminate pollution from its global operations. The trucks will be integrated into first-mile operations, moving goods from container ships at the ports to fulfillment centers, as well as middle-mile operations, transporting packages from fulfillment centers to delivery centers.
___
Wix launched a new tool called AI Portfolio Creator, which allows a user to upload and organize large-scale image collections, select the type of portfolio they want, and then have the AI tool sort and generate a portfolio with clustered images, recommended titles and descriptions, and personalized layout options.
___
Amazon is now requiring all dietary supplements to be verified by a third-party testing, inspection, and certification organization — which is something that not even the FDA requires. Amazon is the largest supplement retailer in the US ahead of Walmart and Target, and its new requirements are expected to put more pressure on the industry, which is being scrutinized more than ever.
___
Alibaba is revamping its flagship retail website Taobao for the first time in seven years with a focus on providing a smoother search and buying process. The website overhaul comes ahead of the 618 sales event, China's second-largest annual shopping event. A few weeks ago I reported that Eddie Wu, the CEO of Alibaba Group, would now be directly overseeing its domestic e-commerce arm which includes Taobao and Tmall Group, and it sounds like he's hitting the ground running with his new responsibilities.
___
Amazon is hosting its first-ever Amazon Book Sale, a new shopping event starting on May 15th that offers up to 50% off print best sellers and up to 80% off Kindle Books. The six day shopping event will exclusively run in the US, and Prime-membership is not required to take advantage of the deals.
___
FTX reported that nearly all of its customers will receive the money back that they are owed, two years after the cryptocurrency exchange imploded. The company owes about $11.2B to its customers and estimates that it has between $14.5B and $16.3B to distribute to them. The caveat is that customers will receive the USD value of their holdings at the time of the exchange collapse, and not the actual crypto holdings themselves, which means that they'll miss out on all gains during the past two years during which BTC went from around $16k to now over $60k. Better than nothing though, that's for sure.
___
800,000 consumers in Europe and the US were duped into sharing card details and other sensitive personal data with a network of fake online designer shops operated from China, which comprised one of the largest scams of its kind with 76,000 fake websites created. The scammers used expired domains to host its fake shops in order to help avoid detection by websites or brand owners, and more than 1M orders were processed in the past three years alone.
___
Beyond Inc, which owns Bed Bath & Beyond, Overstock, and Zulily, reported that its Q1 net loss swelled to $72M from $10M a year ago, while its operating loss widened to $58M from $8M. The company's active customers grew to 6M, up 26% from nearly 5M a year ago, however, its average order value dropped to $173 from $220 a year earlier.
___
TikTok will begin automatically labeling AI generated content when it is uploaded from certain platforms like DALL.E 3, Adobe Firefly, Photoshop, and Microsoft Copilot. TikTok will also start attaching Content Credentials to content, which will remain on the media when downloaded, allowing other platforms to read the metadata.
___
eBay is testing an Add To Cart button in search results that opens a Quick View window, allowing buyers to skip the listing page. Technically the button should probably not be labeled “Add To Cart” since it doesn't perform that action, but rather, displays a quick view window with three buttons: Buy It Now, Add To Cart, View All Details. Sellers are worried that buyers will miss crucial details in the product description that may lead to increased returns and negative feedback.
___
Amazon is planning to launch its fleet of drones in Tolleson, Arizona, but the city's extreme temperature is hampering its efforts. Drones can't operate in temperatures exceeding 104 degrees Fahrenheit, a temperature that Tolleson crosses for a full three months of the year.
___
A US district judge dismissed X's lawsuit against Bright Data, a data-scraping company accused of improperly accessing X system and violating X terms and state laws when scraping and selling data. The judge basically said that if X owned the data, it could perhaps argue that it has exclusive rights to control it, but then X wouldn't be able to enjoy the safe harbor of Section 230, which allows the platform to avoid liability for third-party content. Can't have it both ways!
___
Nintendo is discontinuing its X integration for the switch on June 10th, which means users will no longer be able to post screenshots or videos to the platform from their device. The drop in support also affects games like Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, which had game-specific options to send out tweets. Microsoft Xbox dropped support for X in April 2023 and Sony Playstation dropped the service in October 2023 due to the increase in X's API access fees.
___
Amazon claimed that its recordable incident rate — a metric that comprises all injuries requiring “more than basic first-aid treatment” — at its US warehouses has improved by 24% since 2019. However the National Employment Law Project challenged Amazon's injury data in a report last week, claiming that Amazon's overall injury rate in 2023 was 71% higher than that of other employers in the sector at 6.5 cases per 100 workers.
___
Amazon Ads announced three new advertising formats for streaming TV including shoppable carousel ads, interactive pause ads, and interactive trivia ads. Amazon did not say when the new ad types would officially launch, but noted that it will formally present them at a presentation on May 14th.
___
Meta is rolling out an expanded set of generative AI ad tools that can create full image variations with text overlays, expand images to fit across different aspect ratios, and generate alternate versions of headlines and other ad text. The features will become available globally to advertisers by the end of the year.
___
Square introduced a tool called Square Kiosk to allow self-service ordering at fast food restaurants. The device is a combined software, hardware, and payment solution that allows customers to select exactly what they want with customization options, upgrades, and add-ons.
___
The European Parliament announced new measures to make packaging more sustainable and reduce packaging waste in the EU, including reduction targets of 15% by 2040 — which sounds far away but is only 16 years away?! As part of the new rules, the EU will set maximum empty space ratios for e-commerce transportation, ban certain single-use plastic packaging types, and beverage distributors and take-away food will have to offer consumers the option of bringing their own container.
___
Indians who pre-ordered Teslas in 2016 are giving up and seeking refunds of their deposits after Elon Musk canceled another visit to the country last month. Disillusioned Tesla enthusiasts in India say they will now buy a car from the company only if they see it in a showroom, or they'll buy a different electrical vehicle from a company that actually exists in the country.
___
Target is limiting its Pride Month collection to select stores this year instead of rolling out the merchandise nationwide like it typically has for the past decade, due to backlash the retailer experienced last year. Last May customers in certain stores knocked down LGBTQ+ merchandise displays, angrily approached store employees, and posted threatening videos on social media from inside the stores.
___
E-commerce spending from Jan 1 to April 30, 2024 rose 7% YoY to $331.6B, according to Adobe Analytics. One trend Adobe identified during the period is a shift of online spending to purchasing the cheapest goods across personal care, electronics, apparel, home & garden, furniture, and grocery.
___
Plus 7 seed rounds, IPOs, and acquisitions of interest, including Shopify's acquisition of Peel, a tool that integrates with a merchant's tech stack including Klaviyo and Recharge and helps them analyze their sales data to improve customer retention.
___
I hope you found this recap helpful. See you next week!
PAUL Editor of Shopifreaks E-Commerce Newsletter
PS: If I missed any big news this week, please share in the comments.

Had a thought train of a grinder with a lot of parameters and am looking for feedback. Not necessarily on feasibility, but if these variables have an effect on the resulting grind. Other than particle size distribution, I’m not sure of any other quantitative evaluation metrics.
• Variable RPM already exists • Rollers and burrs (thinking about James’s trip to Cometeer a few years ago) • Temperature-regulated burrs and/or pre-heating/cooling the beans (also inspired by James flashing beans under liquid nitrogen before grinding) • Variable burr-blade pitch • Variable applied torque • Controlling fluctuations in shaft speed (working harder to crush a particular bean) • Constant blade velocity for all bean densities, where current applied to DC motor is increased for high-altitude beans • Variable feed rate • Variable EMF on-burr and within grind chamber to control static static
All of these are seeking to “prime” the beans before grinding and control the bean’s characteristics during the crushing process. Effectively, having the ability to achieve a desired grind distribution:

1. VERY tall and narrow peak for clarity with less texture. Say 95% of all resulting particles are within 200 µm of each other, and surface area is within 300 µm.
2. Very broad curve with no peaks or valleys
3. Control the number of peaks of clustered particle sizes. Think about adjusting the number of levels in a Kruve sifter and controlling the particle size range on each level.

Personally, I’m very curious to see how #1 would taste as filter coffee.
Obviously this would be used in a lab/R&D, but home-users could download grind parameters from roasters.

Hi - I'm Paul and I follow the e-commerce industry closely for my Shopifreaks E-commerce Newsletter. Each week I post a summary recap of the week's top stories, which I cover in depth in the newsletter. Let's dive in...
___
STAT OF THE WEEK: Kohl's sales have shrunk by $2.3B since 2019. During that same period of time, the company lost 1.3M customers who no longer shop with the retailer.
___
BigCommerce is exploring a sale after attracting takeover interest, according to sources who chose to remain anonymous due to the confidentiality of the information. The sources said that BigCommerce asked investment bank Qatalyst Partners to solicit interest from potential buyers that include private equity firms, but that the discussions are at an early stage and no deal is certain.
___
Squarespace announced that it will be going private in a $6.9B all-cash deal with private-equity firm Permira, who agreed to pay $44 per share (a roughly 30% premium). Although Squarespace never lost 90% of its share price like BigCommerce, it has experienced a tumultuous time on the market since its IPO in May 2021 — opening around $49.50 and at times trading in the low $20s. Shares rose nearly 13% to $43 in pre-market trading upon release of the news.
___
ByteDance filed a lawsuit in US federal court seeking to block the new law that would force the sale or ban of the app within the country. The lawsuit challenges the law on constitutional grounds, also citing commercial, technical, and legal hurdles, as well as opposition from Beijing. Legal experts say the legal battle will play out in the courts in coming months and likely will reach the Supreme Court.
___
OpenAI unveiled its newest model, GPT-4o, designed to turn ChatGPT into a digital personal assistant that can engage in real-time, spoken conversations and interact with users using text, screenshots, photos, documents, and charts. The new version of ChatGPT also has memory capabilities, which means it can learn from previous conversations. It will be available to both unpaid and premium customers alike. OpenAI also announced that it would be launching a desktop app with the GPT-4o capabilities, giving users another platform to interact with the technology outside of a web browser.
___
Amazon launched in South Africa last week, marking its first marketplace in sub-Saharan Africa, and bringing its total number of marketplaces worldwide to 22. To launch the new marketplace, Amazon is offering free delivery on first orders and on subsequent orders above R500 (about $27), access to 3,000 pick-up points, status updates via WhatsApp to track orders, 30 day refunds, and 24/7 customer support. The marketplace was supposed to launch in the country in 2023, but got delayed due to changes in priorities within Amazon.
___
In an unlikely partnership, Instacart is partnering with Uber Eats to expand into the restaurant delivery business. Instacart will add a new tab for restaurant delivery to its app in the coming weeks, the listings will be provided by Uber, and the food will be picked up and delivered by Uber Eats drivers. Customers will receive the same prices on both apps and Instacart will receive an affiliate commission on orders. It's a strange partnership though given that Instacart and Uber Eats actively compete on grocery delivery. Are they planning to merge? Uber says no.
___
Apple's advertisement for its latest iPad Pro sparked criticism for showing an animation of musical instruments, paint cans, cameras, record players, and other symbols of creativity being crushed by a giant machine, with the output being the new iPad Pro, which the company says is the thinnest Apple product ever. In this context, “crushing” was supposed to symbolize “consolidating” and “compacting” — with the visuals meant to showcase how the new iPad Pro puts the power of all these tools into the hands of creators in one thin device. However online commenters criticized the ad as insensitive and as symbolizing a “destruction of the human experience.” The ad hit the web on Tuesday, and by Thursday, Apple issued a mea culpa and apologized for the campaign.
___
Google is encouraging merchants to enable conversion annotations on their Google Shopping ads, which offer social proof that highlight a product's popularity. Conversion annotations like “best selling” or “3K shopped here recently” would provide visual cues about a product’s popularity or sales performance directly in the ad unit. Annotations like these are par for the course with e-commerce retailers including Amazon, Walmart, and Temu, which all employ similar tactics. They can provide valuable info for shoppers and also help with conversions. However they also open data privacy concerns, given that Google is not the actual retailer or marketplace selling the items, so a merchant would have to share this purchase history data from their e-commerce platform with Google — which technically most already do by giving access to GA4.
___
Shein is attempting to join the National Retail Federation as it pursues regulatory approval to go public in the US. The company believes that NRF membership would boost its chances of receiving SEC approval. However so far, Shein has been rejected numerous times. An anonymous source familiar with the matter said someone with heavy influence at the NRF is strongly against the Shein's admittance. However board members who spoke to CNBC said that Shein's membership application hadn't come up in meetings, and that they aren't involved in deciding which companies are granted access.
___
Amazon is leading the way with selling home goods, capturing 18.8% of consumer home furnishings spending, compared to Walmart's 7.3% market share. Notably, Amazon’s gains in the furniture category come in spite of the company’s decision to phase out two of its three furniture brands last year.
___
Stanley, which is projected to do $750M in sales this year, up from $73M in 2019, after seeing its water bottles become a status symbol thanks to TikTok, is now expanding into trendier accessories. The company is launching a line of bags called the All-Day Collection which include a mini cooler, backpack cooler, and Quencher Carry-All, designed for someone to sling their Stanley over their hip.
___
Jack Dorsey left the Bluesky board and deleted his account on the service he helped kickstart, claiming that Bluesky was “literally repeating all the mistakes” he made while running Twitter. Dorsey says he never intended Bluesky to be an independent company, but rather, an open source protocol that Twitter was supposed to be the first client of. He also confirmed that he is financially backing Nostr, another decentralized Twitter-like service popular among crypto enthusiasts and run by an anonymous founder.
___
Amazon is deploying 50 electric trucks in California, which it claims is the largest EV fleet in the country, as part of its mission to eliminate pollution from its global operations. The trucks will be integrated into first-mile operations, moving goods from container ships at the ports to fulfillment centers, as well as middle-mile operations, transporting packages from fulfillment centers to delivery centers.
___
Wix launched a new tool called AI Portfolio Creator, which allows a user to upload and organize large-scale image collections, select the type of portfolio they want, and then have the AI tool sort and generate a portfolio with clustered images, recommended titles and descriptions, and personalized layout options.
___
Amazon is now requiring all dietary supplements to be verified by a third-party testing, inspection, and certification organization — which is something that not even the FDA requires. Amazon is the largest supplement retailer in the US ahead of Walmart and Target, and its new requirements are expected to put more pressure on the industry, which is being scrutinized more than ever.
___
Alibaba is revamping its flagship retail website Taobao for the first time in seven years with a focus on providing a smoother search and buying process. The website overhaul comes ahead of the 618 sales event, China's second-largest annual shopping event. A few weeks ago I reported that Eddie Wu, the CEO of Alibaba Group, would now be directly overseeing its domestic e-commerce arm which includes Taobao and Tmall Group, and it sounds like he's hitting the ground running with his new responsibilities.
___
Amazon is hosting its first-ever Amazon Book Sale, a new shopping event starting on May 15th that offers up to 50% off print best sellers and up to 80% off Kindle Books. The six day shopping event will exclusively run in the US, and Prime-membership is not required to take advantage of the deals.
___
FTX reported that nearly all of its customers will receive the money back that they are owed, two years after the cryptocurrency exchange imploded. The company owes about $11.2B to its customers and estimates that it has between $14.5B and $16.3B to distribute to them. The caveat is that customers will receive the USD value of their holdings at the time of the exchange collapse, and not the actual crypto holdings themselves, which means that they'll miss out on all gains during the past two years during which BTC went from around $16k to now over $60k. Better than nothing though, that's for sure.
___
800,000 consumers in Europe and the US were duped into sharing card details and other sensitive personal data with a network of fake online designer shops operated from China, which comprised one of the largest scams of its kind with 76,000 fake websites created. The scammers used expired domains to host its fake shops in order to help avoid detection by websites or brand owners, and more than 1M orders were processed in the past three years alone.
___
Beyond Inc, which owns Bed Bath & Beyond, Overstock, and Zulily, reported that its Q1 net loss swelled to $72M from $10M a year ago, while its operating loss widened to $58M from $8M. The company's active customers grew to 6M, up 26% from nearly 5M a year ago, however, its average order value dropped to $173 from $220 a year earlier.
___
TikTok will begin automatically labeling AI generated content when it is uploaded from certain platforms like DALL.E 3, Adobe Firefly, Photoshop, and Microsoft Copilot. TikTok will also start attaching Content Credentials to content, which will remain on the media when downloaded, allowing other platforms to read the metadata.
___
eBay is testing an Add To Cart button in search results that opens a Quick View window, allowing buyers to skip the listing page. Technically the button should probably not be labeled “Add To Cart” since it doesn't perform that action, but rather, displays a quick view window with three buttons: Buy It Now, Add To Cart, View All Details. Sellers are worried that buyers will miss crucial details in the product description that may lead to increased returns and negative feedback.
___
Amazon is planning to launch its fleet of drones in Tolleson, Arizona, but the city's extreme temperature is hampering its efforts. Drones can't operate in temperatures exceeding 104 degrees Fahrenheit, a temperature that Tolleson crosses for a full three months of the year.
___
A US district judge dismissed X's lawsuit against Bright Data, a data-scraping company accused of improperly accessing X system and violating X terms and state laws when scraping and selling data. The judge basically said that if X owned the data, it could perhaps argue that it has exclusive rights to control it, but then X wouldn't be able to enjoy the safe harbor of Section 230, which allows the platform to avoid liability for third-party content. Can't have it both ways!
___
Nintendo is discontinuing its X integration for the switch on June 10th, which means users will no longer be able to post screenshots or videos to the platform from their device. The drop in support also affects games like Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, which had game-specific options to send out tweets. Microsoft Xbox dropped support for X in April 2023 and Sony Playstation dropped the service in October 2023 due to the increase in X's API access fees.
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Amazon claimed that its recordable incident rate — a metric that comprises all injuries requiring “more than basic first-aid treatment” — at its US warehouses has improved by 24% since 2019. However the National Employment Law Project challenged Amazon's injury data in a report last week, claiming that Amazon's overall injury rate in 2023 was 71% higher than that of other employers in the sector at 6.5 cases per 100 workers.
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Amazon Ads announced three new advertising formats for streaming TV including shoppable carousel ads, interactive pause ads, and interactive trivia ads. Amazon did not say when the new ad types would officially launch, but noted that it will formally present them at a presentation on May 14th.
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Meta is rolling out an expanded set of generative AI ad tools that can create full image variations with text overlays, expand images to fit across different aspect ratios, and generate alternate versions of headlines and other ad text. The features will become available globally to advertisers by the end of the year.
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Square introduced a tool called Square Kiosk to allow self-service ordering at fast food restaurants. The device is a combined software, hardware, and payment solution that allows customers to select exactly what they want with customization options, upgrades, and add-ons.
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The European Parliament announced new measures to make packaging more sustainable and reduce packaging waste in the EU, including reduction targets of 15% by 2040 — which sounds far away but is only 16 years away?! As part of the new rules, the EU will set maximum empty space ratios for e-commerce transportation, ban certain single-use plastic packaging types, and beverage distributors and take-away food will have to offer consumers the option of bringing their own container.
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Indians who pre-ordered Teslas in 2016 are giving up and seeking refunds of their deposits after Elon Musk canceled another visit to the country last month. Disillusioned Tesla enthusiasts in India say they will now buy a car from the company only if they see it in a showroom, or they'll buy a different electrical vehicle from a company that actually exists in the country.
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Target is limiting its Pride Month collection to select stores this year instead of rolling out the merchandise nationwide like it typically has for the past decade, due to backlash the retailer experienced last year. Last May customers in certain stores knocked down LGBTQ+ merchandise displays, angrily approached store employees, and posted threatening videos on social media from inside the stores.
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E-commerce spending from Jan 1 to April 30, 2024 rose 7% YoY to $331.6B, according to Adobe Analytics. One trend Adobe identified during the period is a shift of online spending to purchasing the cheapest goods across personal care, electronics, apparel, home & garden, furniture, and grocery.
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Plus 7 seed rounds, IPOs, and acquisitions of interest, including Shopify's acquisition of Peel, a tool that integrates with a merchant's tech stack including Klaviyo and Recharge and helps them analyze their sales data to improve customer retention.
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I hope you found this recap helpful. See you next week!
For more details on each story and sources, see the full edition: https://www.shopifreaks.com/bigcommerce-for-sale-openai-gpt-4o-instacarts-unlikely-partnership/
What else is new in e-commerce? Share stories of interesting in the comments below (including in your own business) or on shopifreaks.
-PAUL Editor of Shopifreaks E-commerce Newsletter
PS: Want the full editions delivered to your Inbox each week? Join free at www.shopifreaks.com

If I ever plan a road trip I would definitely go back and loctite some screws. But just as a weekend rider can I get away with no loctite?

Sorry I’m a little late but better late than never
https://forums.forza.net/t/fm-update-8-0-overview-track-toys-tour-and-mobil-1-partnership-13-may-2024/708906
“Update 8 is headlined by the Track Toys Tour alongside its Spotlight cars – three of which are either new or returning to Motorsport – that you can race in weekly events across Career, Multiplayer and Rivals. We’ve also added Mobil 1 track signage at Maple Valley, placed a barrier along the pit exit at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, and reset leaderboards for Le Mans layouts following changes made to the track in the previous update.
In addition, starting with Update 8, players with VIP Membership can look forward to an exclusive 15% discount on a car every week in the Showroom, which will now be available alongside the Spotlight cars and the month-long VIP discount car.
Announcements
Blog: Experience Track Toys in Forza Motorsport Update 8 9 Community Update May 2024 1 Release Notes: Forza Support 51 Video: YouTube 168 image Dates
CONTENT OVERVIEW
TRACKS
Mobil 1 & Maple Valley - Maple Valley has been updated with new track signage featuring Mobil 1 branding as part of a partnership between Forza and Mobil 1 to celebrate Mobil 1’s 50th anniversary. Placed a barrier along the pit exit at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course. To accommodate this change, leaderboards for this track have been reset. Increased the track material luminance to be more physically correct, improving the overall contrast and color saturation of the track. This affects newly released tracks as well as future track updates. Reset leaderboards for Le Mans track layouts following the changes made to this track in Update 7. Update 8 does not include a new track location – our next track release is scheduled for Update 9, expected to be available in June.
FEATURES AND CHANGES
Livery Editor
Update 8 introduces a Vinyl Material tool to the Livery Editor which can be used to uniformly adjust all vinyl materials on a car from matte (non-reflective) to glossy (reflective). This includes a reset option to revert all vinyls to match car paint glossiness. Imported designs from Forza Horizon 5 using its similar feature will automatically inherit these values. When removing a livery from a vehicle, the color will now be reset to the default manufacturer color instead of the color when the player purchases it. Adjusted the arrangement of hint buttons in Livery Editor at the bottom of the screen. The ‘Find Designs’ menu is now accessible for rental cars when players try to open it from ‘Design & Paint Menu’ and ‘Livery Mode Select’ scenes. Added iconography to layers in the Livery Editor. The player can now see icons to indicate if it’s a mask layer or a locked layer. Other fixes listed in the Release Notes.
Tire Wear Scale
We’ve added a Tire Wear Scale option to Free Play and Private Multiplayer, allowing adjustments to the rate at which tires are worn. 1x is the default value. At 2x, tire wear will occur twice as fast. Values range from .5x to 10x. This setting is found in the Event Setup Rules tab and in the Fuel & Tire menu when on track.
Safety Ratings and Matchmaking
We’ve improved Safety Ratings in Featured Multiplayer by increasing the number of previous races the Safety Rating uses to determine your rating from 10 to 20, and by making on-track collisions more impactful to Safety Rating. These changes will take effect after your first race in Update 8. In addition, we’ve updated the matchmaking algorithm to search for a narrower range of Safety Ratings compared to your own. For example, players with an ‘S’ Safety Rating should no longer be matched with players who have ‘E’ and ‘D’ Safety Ratings. Groups will be connected to matches based on the player with the lowest Safety Rating.
Car Divisions and Events
Corrected an issue where the 1969 Lola #6 Sunoco T70 MkIIIB was eligible for the Vintage Le Mans Prototypes Series rather than the Prototype Group Racing Series. The 2020 KTM X-Bow GT2 and the 2020 Lamborghini Essenza SCV12 are moved from the Forza GT Series to the Modern Factory Racecar Series in Featured Multiplayer. The 2019 Porsche #70 Porsche Motorsport 935 has been added to the Forza GT Series. We’re currently working on recategorizing Forza GT racecars into separate spec divisions and expect to push these changes into the game this summer.
Car Balancing
The following cars have been rebalanced in Featured Multiplayer Spec Series: Featured Multiplayer Spec Series Car Name Change Summary Forza GT Series 2019 Ginetta G55 GT4 Engine torque: +25% Car Mass: +13.4% Front Downforce: -45% Rear Downforce: -45% Early Factory Racecar Series 1997 McLaren F1 GT Increased Power 10% Early Factory Racecar Series 1997 Porsche 911 GT1 Strassenversion Increased Power 13% Lowered weight/ballast 3% Early Factory Racecar Series 1989 Ferrari F40 Competizione Increased power 10% Weight decreased 2%
AI Drivatar behavior
We’ve reduced unnecessary braking scenarios for Drivatar AI opponents. Examples of this include braking while attempting to pass, two cars wide in corners, and at the apex of corners.
Other Changes
We’ve updated Featured Multiplayer events to use consistent weather conditions and avoid unpredictable weather transitions mid-race. The Open Class Tour in Career mode has been migrated from the Builders Cup tab to the Featured tab. The Open Class Tour will be found in the Featured tab going forward. Starting with Update 8, VIPs can look forward to an exclusive 15% discount on a car every week in the Showroom alongside the 30% discount on Spotlight cars. Screen Narrator will now read associated credit bonuses as part of the option value names on Free Play Advanced options which affect credits earned during the event. This change also fixes the display of the bonus percentages for all players. Screen Narrator now fully supports the “Series Standings” leaderboard scene accessed from the Builders Cup Event Setup scene. The Tune Setups menu is now fully narrated. Added descriptive text for the SoundCloud Driver Suit.
CARS
Update 8 adds five cars to the game: 2 Reward Cars (Porsche 935 and BMW 1 Series M), and 3 Spotlight cars (Ginetta G40 Junior, Porsche Cayman GTS, and Elemental RP1). These additions bring the total game roster to 590 cars.
Reward Cars
Reward cars are available only from completing events in the Builders Cup Career.
2019 Porsche #70 Porsche Motorsport 935 (Track Toys Tour) 2011 BMW 1 Series M Coupé (Open Class Tour) Spotlight Cars & VIP Car Discounts
Spotlight cars are featured in the Showroom each Wednesday at 5pm Pacific Time, available at a 30% discount with in-game credits. These cars can be used in the new Featured Tour, as well as Spotlight Series events in Featured Multiplayer and Rivals. In addition, starting with Update 8, VIPs can also look forward to an exclusive 15% discount on a car every week in the Showroom.
CAREER
Builders Cup overview Featured Tour - Track Toys Tour
The Track Toys Tour invites you to experience high-performance cars that you could see hot lapping on the racetrack. Compete in a single-make race series with Ginetta Juniors, an affordable entry point into motorsport for enthusiasts. Weekend Warriors sees you racing cars like the exceptional 2015 Porsche Cayman GTS which could be taken to the track on a Sunday before being driven to work the following day. Appreciate the unforgettable shape and undeniable performance of the iconic Caterham R500 in Kit Caterhams. And finally, enjoy a celebration of purpose-built track cars like the aerodynamic 2019 Elemental RP1 in Track Toys.
Each Series within the Featured Tour does not have to be completed before the others. Completing all racing events in the Featured Tour by June 26, 2024 to earn the 2019 Porsche #70 Porsche Motorsport 935 reward car (not available in the Buy Cars menu).
Open Class Tour - Track Cars
With each update to Forza Motorsport, the Open Class Tour gets refreshed with new events and a new reward car. Open Class Tour is where you can continue the journey of your favorite cars. Cars that you’ve already built in a different Builders Cup series can be further levelled up and upgraded in the Open Class Tour. In Update 8, the Open Class Tour celebrates track cars as Drivatar opponents race inexpensive and highly modifiable production cars that you would expect to see at your local track on the weekend in D, C, B, and A classes.
Complete all of these series races before June 12, 2024 to earn the 2011 BMW 1 Series M Coupé reward car (not available in the Buy Cars menu).
Open Tour (May 15 - June 12) D Class Series C Class Series B Class Series A Class Series Reward Showcase: 2011 BMW 1 Series M Coupé
MULTIPLAYER
Multiplayer overview Spec Series Open Series Spotlight Series Dates (5pm PT) Lotus 3-Eleven Spec Series R Class Series P Class Series 2019 Ginetta G40 Junior May 15 - May 22 Early Factory Racecar Series B Class Series D Class Series 2015 Porsche Cayman GTS May 22 - May 29 Mazda Miata Spec Series A Class Series X Class Series 2013 Caterham Superlight R500 May 29 - June 5 Modern Factory Racecar Series S Class Series C Class Series 2019 Elemental RP1 June 5 - June 12 Lotus 3-Eleven Spec Series – May 15-22
The 3-Eleven is an open-cockpit, mid-engine screamer that exemplifies Lotus founder Colin Chapman’s mantra “simplify, then add lightness.” Early Factory Racecar Series – May 22-29
Bespoke racing versions of some of the most sought-after cars from the late 80s and 90s, now valued in millions of dollars by savvy collectors. Mazda Miata Spec Series – May 29 – June 5
The popular MX5 ‘94 version of the best-selling Mazda Miata is perfectly balanced to handle the most demanding road courses with the speed and agility of cars costing much, much more. Modern Factory Racecar Series – June 5-12
Race through a field of ultimate track day specials in the Modern Factory Racecar series. These mid-engine production cars feature unique upgrades designed to achieve extreme performance metrics and ensure victory on the track.
RIVALS
Rivals overview This month’s Featured Rivals event will have you choose your favorite Forza Touring Car and achieve your fastest lap at Viriginia International Raceway – Full Circuit. Cars have been pre-tuned for optimal competition but can be further adjusted to suit your playstyle. VIPs will also race the BAC Mono at Yas Marina - South Circuit. And remember, Spotlight Rivals presents a new opportunity for you to challenge your skills each week!
Later in the month, we’re opening a special Rivals event where you can experience the ultimate track car developed to pay tribute to a world-famous driver – the McLaren Senna – at the same track where he achieved several victories, Silverstone – Grand Prix Circuit. The Senna is one of the lightest and most driver-focused cars McLaren has ever built, with uncompromised performance and aerodynamics that unleash their true capabilities on the racetrack.
Rivals Event Car Track Dates (5pm PT) Featured Spec Any Forza Touring Car VIR - Full May 15 - June 12 VIP – Mano a Mano 2014 BAC Mono Yas Marina - South May 15 - June 12 Celebrate Senna’s Legacy With McLaren 2018 McLaren Senna Silverstone - GP May 29 - June 26 Spotlight – Ginetta 2019 Ginetta G40 Junior Brands Hatch - Indy May 15 - May 22 Spotlight - Porsche 2015 Porsche Cayman GTS Mugello - Club May 22 - May 29 Spotlight - Caterham 2013 Caterham Superlight R500 Grand Oak - Club May 29 - June 5 Spotlight - Elemental 2019 Elemental RP1 Lime Rock - Full June 5 - June 12 GAME FIXES AND RELEASE NOTES
The content update begins rolling out after 10am PT on May 13, 2024. See the full Release Notes at Forza Support. 51
If you experience any issues with the content update installation we recommend that you quit out of your game and restart your device. If this does not solve the issue please report it in FM Report New Issues. Any game crashing issues should be reported directly at Forza Support so the team can investigate your account.”

Hi, i just opened kraken account. I am viewing charts on chrome. It showe completely irrelevant data period to what it should be. If you choose 1d it would show several months YTD, 1m chart would show roughly one day but with time somewhere in Central Europe instead of EST where i am. Is there a way to fix this, i frankly never seen chart widget that badly screwed?

Here is my assessment of the accuracy of the sensors, metrics, and algorithms of the Amazfit Balance. I really love my Balance and have been wearing and using it regularly since September 2023, shortly after it launched in the US. Where applicable, I share rationale and comparison with other baseline devices/data, as part of my assessment of its accuracy.
Accuracy estimate is on a scale of 1-10, with 10 being the highest and most accurate:
Vitals:
Heart Rate BPM - 9.5
I have compared the Amazfit heart rate bpm with an external chest strap ECG device and it is usually spot on or within 1-2 bpm of the external device.
Blood Oxygen - 9
IMPORTANT: The high accuracy for the primary blood oxygen as a standalone base metric, however, does not seem to be reflected in the aggregate sleep metric for breathing quality/apnea detection -- that is part of Zepp Sleep. My assumption is that blood oxygen is part of the aggregate for apnea detection/breathing quality, however it is not at all apparent that the algorithm uses this or uses it accurately.
Respiratory rate (BRPM) - 8.5
Steps - 9.
Generally very accurate, however there are two caveats to this high rating :

• When doing a stair climbing exercise, Amazfit Balance does not increment daily steps -- even with my arms at my side and not holding the stair climbing machine.
• When walking, be careful to ensure that your arm is at your side and not stationary holding a stroller or other object that you may be pushing -- as this stops the step increments.

Body Composition - 2.5
This sensor is unreliable and usually takes me 10-15 retries to even get it to work. It apparently is only measuring upper body composition. It is at least 50% off in accuracy compared with either the Amazfit Smart Scale and with a Dexa scan. I would be ok with that if I could use it to measure delta/differences in my baseline, however the metrics reported do not seem to vary over time -- when compared with the above 2 devices that do show incremental changes.
Heart Rate Variability (HRV) - 4
With the recent Balance firmware update, Zepp app now shows weekly and monthly historical charts for HRV, as well as showing the entire HRV chart range during sleep instead of just the average. I am not sure how accurate it is, however, as the daily trend compared to the baseline average does not match with what my Morpheus HRV/ECG chest strap device is reporting on a daily basis -- with respect to daily changes to the baseline average. I am only comparing the relative daily scores as compared to the baseline -- I am not comparing overall HRV metric across the 2 devices.
Also it only measures HRV during sleeping and displays that as a daily metric. It would be helpful for a firmware update that would allow HRV to be monitored duing a 2-3 minute period, on demand, as is done today with Blood Oxygen, Breathing and Stress.
It would also be great if other ECG metrics could be shared beyond HRV.
Sleep:
Sleep Detection (Assisted sleep monitoring) - 8.5
Overall Balance automatically detects sleep start and sleep stop times pretty accurately, including wake times. However it occasionally incorrectly detects naps during times of being sedentary.
Sleep Breathing Quality and Hypopnea Events detected - 1 I am confused with the data that Balance is reporting on the hourly Sleep Breathing quality / hypopnea events during sleep. Which metrics are included as part of this Sleep Breathing quality ? I would have thought that it is primarily measuring drops in Blood Oxygen, however the data from the watch in Zepp is not consistent. I have the auto blood oxygen monitoring enabled and I have never viewed or received anything below 95%. Usually it is at 98-99%. Similarly my respiratory rate (BRPM) is level. So this not explain the events. The algorithm seems unreliable.
More importantly, Balance Sleep Breathing quality metrics do not correlate with breathing quality/apnea event data reported from other devices that I use.
Readiness -- 7
It would be very useful if Amazfit disclosed/published the equation/algorithmn that it uses to calculate the daily Readiness aggregate score -- using the 6 underlying base metrics. Overall though I like having this measure - it's somewhat accurate but not understanding the algorithm used and only seeing which primary metrics are part of it
Other:
PAI - 7
Seems to be accurate although it is strongly biased towards high intensity cardio, as opposed to Zone 2 or weights workouts.
Battery - 9.8
I love the battery on my Amazfit Balance! There was one trip that I was on where the battery on the Balance was depleted during the last 1-2 days of a 10 day trip - but I am accounting that that may have been due to some of the variability of my increased usage occurring during the trip. Typically I can last approximately 2 1/2 to 3 weeks before I have to recharge.
Zepp Flow / AI Gen -- 7.5
Overall nice feature but somewhat limited in the range of commands that can control different Balance functions.
VO2 Max - ?
Since Amazfit Balance only allows VO2 Max to be calculated during outside runs, I do not have many data points to evaluate accuracy. Also I have not yet compared Amazfit VO2 Max with VO2 Max from other devices. It would be helpful if Amazfit allowed additional workouts to be used to calculate VO2 Max -- to allow users more opportunities to utilize this metric.

For work we need to record daily water usage, with the max daily usage per month being the most important metric. I set up a breakdown chart that shows the average daily usage per month and peak usage per month and returns the date of the peak usage. However, this year the peak useage for January and February are the same and the date is returning the January date. How can I make it search for only days in a particular month?
Example below, I can correctly identify the peak usage as 15 for both months, but keep getting Jan 10 instead of Feb 16 when trying to identify peak dates.
Usage Date
15 January 10, 2024
10 January 20, 2024
12 February 2, 2024
15 February 16, 2024

Actually stuck in life
Just a quick run down
Hello I turn 22 in about 2 months.. I was in the process with my local police department and I thought I was going to make it though I had passed the interview polygraph, etc. on the physical however my blood test results are kind of off the charts bad. If I don’t make it through I’m gonna be screwed I work two jobs to afford rent and work 7am-10/11pm depending on the day to get by with rent and bills (I have all my bills organized and layed out. I have one evening off a week. Does anyone know any other careers or jobs I can pursue to help me out. I’m in great shape, I’ve always wanted to eventually go into healthcare or law enforcement

Here's a new metric for the fans of such things. Bat speed, which can be shown along with contact quality.
The Tigers' leader for bat speed among qualified hitters is of course Javy Baez, followed by Riley Greene then Spencer Torkleson. (Ryan Vilade is off to a promising start in just eight balls in play)
Here's a chart:
https://baseballsavant.mlb.com/leaderboard/bat-tracking?attackZone=&batSide=&contactType=&count=&dateStart=&dateEnd=&gameType=&groupBy=&isHardHit=&minSwings=10&minGroupSwings=1&pitchHand=&pitchType=&seasonStart=&seasonEnd=&team=116&type=batter
It also has a table of results. Javy 75.4 which is well above average; Riley 74.6, Tork 73.6. Average is around 72.
Javy leads in bat swing length by a lot, but perhaps surprisingly, he doesn't lead in embarrassing misses ("swords.")

原文链接：Suddenly There Aren’t Enough Babies. The Whole World Is Alarmed. - WSJ
机翻：
世界正处于一个惊人的人口里程碑。在不久的将来，全球生育率将下降到保持人口不变所需的水平以下。它可能已经发生了。
几乎所有地方的生育率都在下降，对于所有收入、教育和劳动力参与水平的女性来说。出生率的下降对人们的生活方式、经济增长方式以及世界超级大国的地位产生了巨大影响。
在高收入国家，生育率在1970年代低于更替水平，并在大流行期间有所下降。在发展中国家，这一比例也在下降。印度去年超过中国成为人口最多的国家，但其生育率目前低于更替水平。
“人口寒冬即将到来，”宾夕法尼亚大学（University of Pennsylvania）专门研究人口统计学的经济学家赫苏斯·费尔南德斯-维拉韦德（Jesús Fernández-Villaverde）说。
许多政府领导人认为这是国家的当务之急。他们担心劳动力萎缩、经济增长放缓和养老金资金不足;以及一个儿童越来越少的社会的活力。人口减少意味着全球影响力减弱，这引发了美国、中国和俄罗斯对其作为超级大国的长期地位的质疑。
一些人口统计学家认为，世界人口可能在四十年内开始增长，这是历史上为数不多的一次。
今年推定的共和党总统候选人唐纳德·特朗普（Donald Trump）称，生育率下降对西方文明的威胁比俄罗斯更大。一年前，日本首相岸田文雄宣布，该国出生率的崩溃使其“处于我们能否继续作为一个社会运作的边缘”。意大利总理乔治亚·梅洛尼（Giorgia Meloni）已将提高该国的“人口GDP”作为优先事项。
各国政府已经推出了阻止下降的计划，但到目前为止，他们几乎没有取得任何进展。
人口统计惊喜
2017年，全球生育率（女性一生中预计生育多少个婴儿的快照）为2.5，联合国认为到2020年代后期，全球生育率将下滑至2.4。然而，联合国得出的结论是，到2021年，它已经下降到2.3，接近人口统计学家认为的全球替代率约为2.2。在富裕国家，人口长期保持稳定的替代率为2.1，在发展中国家略高，因为发展中国家出生的女孩少于男孩，母亲在育龄期死亡。
虽然联合国尚未公布 2022 年和 2023 年的估计生育率，但费尔南德斯-比利亚韦德通过用那些年的实际数据补充联合国的预测得出了自己的估计，这些年覆盖了大约一半的世界人口。他发现，国家出生登记处报告的出生率通常比联合国预测的低10%至20%。
中国去年报告了900万新生儿，比联合国中央情景中的预测低16%。在美国，去年有359万婴儿出生，比联合国预测的少4%。在其他国家，这一比例甚至更大：埃及去年报告的出生人数减少了17%。2022 年，肯尼亚报告的人数减少了 18%。
费尔南德斯-维拉韦德估计，去年全球生育率降至2.1至2.2之间，他说这将是人类历史上首次低于全球生育率。德克萨斯大学奥斯汀分校（University of Texas at Austin）的人口经济学家迪恩·斯皮尔斯（Dean Spears）表示，虽然数据还不够好，无法准确知道生育率何时或是否低于更替水平，但“我们有足够的证据对生育率充满信心......过境点不远。
2017年，联合国预测世界人口从76亿到2100年将继续攀升至112亿。到 2022 年，它已经降低并将 2080 年代的峰值提前到 104 亿。这也可能已经过时了。华盛顿大学健康指标与评估研究所现在认为，它将在2061年达到95亿左右的峰值，然后开始下降。
在美国，短暂的大流行婴儿潮已经逆转。根据临时政府数据，去年总生育率降至1.62，是有记录以来的最低水平。
新罕布什尔大学（University of New Hampshire）高级人口统计学家肯尼斯·约翰逊（Kenneth Johnson）表示，如果生育率保持在2007年的2.1附近，那么自那以后，美国将迎来大约1060万婴儿。
2017年，当生育率为1.8时，人口普查局预计从长远来看，它将收敛到2.0。此后，它已将其下调至1.5。“它已经悄悄地盯上了我们，”马里兰大学（University of Maryland）专门研究人口统计学的经济学家梅丽莎·科尔尼（Melissa Kearney）说。
第二次人口结构转变？
历史学家将18世纪工业化国家开始的生育率下降称为人口转变。随着寿命的延长和更多的孩子活到成年，生育更多孩子的动力下降了。随着妇女受教育程度的提高和加入劳动力市场，她们推迟了结婚和生育，导致孩子减少。
现在，斯皮尔斯说，“大局事实是，在许多不同的社会和经济体中，出生率很低或正在下降。
一些人口统计学家认为这是“第二次人口转变”的一部分，即整个社会对个人主义的重新定位，这种个人主义不那么强调婚姻和父母身份，并使更少或没有孩子更容易被接受。
在美国，一些人起初认为，由于2008年金融危机带来的经济不确定性挥之不去，女性推迟了生育。
在 2021 年发表的研究中，马里兰大学的科尔尼和两位合著者寻找持续下降的可能解释。他们发现，父母堕胎通知法、失业率、医疗补助可用性、住房成本、避孕药具使用、宗教信仰、儿童保育成本和学生债务的州级差异几乎可以解释这种下降。“我们怀疑这种转变反映了难以衡量或量化的广泛社会变化，”他们总结道。
科尔尼说，虽然抚养孩子并不比以前更昂贵，但父母的偏好和感知限制已经改变：“如果人们更愿意花时间建立事业、休闲和家庭以外的人际关系，那更有可能与生育发生冲突。
同时，时间使用数据显示，母亲和父亲，尤其是那些受过高等教育的人，花在孩子身上的时间比过去多。“养育子女的强度是一个限制，”科尔尼说。
北卡罗来纳州罗利市45岁的商业银行家埃里卡·皮特曼（Erica Pittman）说，她和丈夫选择只生一个孩子，因为他们的时间需要，包括照顾她的母亲，她在与多发性硬化症长期斗争后于去年去世。他们 8 岁的儿子能够参加戏剧工作坊、足球和夏令营，因为这对夫妇每年的总收入约为 225,000 美元，有更多的时间和金钱。
“我觉得自己是个更好的妈妈，”皮特曼说。“我觉得我可以去上班——因为我的工作要求相当高——但我也可以抽出时间在他的学校做志愿者，成为实地考察的陪护者，做这些事情，因为我只有一个时间来协调我的日程安排。
皮特曼说，只有当她的儿子说他希望他有一个兄弟姐妹一起玩时，她才会质疑他们的决定。作为回应，她和她的丈夫，一名中学历史老师，选择有儿童俱乐部的度假胜地，比如迪斯尼游轮，这样她的儿子就可以和同龄人一起玩。
“融入全球文化”
印度的生育率低于更替水平，尽管该国仍然贫穷，许多妇女没有工作——这些因素通常维持生育率。
城市化和互联网甚至让传统男性主导的村庄的妇女也瞥见了儿童少、生活质量高的社会。 “人们融入了全球文化，”非营利性研究和教育组织全球老龄化研究所（Global Aging Institute）主席理查德·杰克逊（Richard Jackson）说。
现年38岁的梅·玛丽亚姆·托马斯（Mae Mariyam Thomas）住在孟买，经营着一家音频制作公司，她说她选择不生孩子，因为她从未感受到母性的拉扯。她看到同龄人努力寻找合适的人，晚婚，在某些情况下，在生孩子之前就离婚了。她说，至少有三个朋友冷冻了卵子。
“我认为现在我们生活在一个完全不同的世界，所以我认为对于世界上的任何人来说，很难找到伴侣，”她说。
撒哈拉以南非洲曾经似乎对全球生育率下滑持抵制态度，但这种情况也在改变。根据国际组织“2030年计划生育”的数据，使用现代避孕措施的所有育龄妇女的比例从2012年的17%增长到2022年的23%。
约翰·霍普金斯大学（Johns Hopkins University）公共卫生教授何塞·里蒙（Jose Rimon）将此归功于非洲国家领导人的推动，他预测，这将使生育率下降的速度比联合国的项目更快。
杰克逊说，一旦低生育率周期开始，它就会有效地重置社会规范，因此很难打破。“你看到你的同事、同龄人和邻居的孩子越少，就会改变整个社会氛围，”他说。
丹妮尔·维米尔（Danielle Vermeer）在芝加哥北区一个有四个孩子的家庭中排行第三，她的社区里到处都是意大利、爱尔兰和波兰血统的天主教徒，她一半的亲密朋友的兄弟姐妹和她一样多或更多。她的意大利裔美国父亲是四个孩子之一，生了14个孙子孙女。现在，她的父母有五个孙子孙女，包括维米尔的两个孩子，一个4岁，一个7岁。
这位35岁的女士是一家时尚节俭应用程序的联合创始人，她说，在开始生孩子之前，她咨询了其他数十对夫妇和她的天主教会，并阅读了至少八本关于这个主题的书，其中包括教皇保罗六世的一本书。她和她的丈夫决定将两个作为正确的数字。
“把孩子带到这个世界上是一项不可思议的责任，”她说。
新政策
各国政府试图通过生育政策来扭转生育率下降的趋势。
也许没有哪个国家比日本尝试的时间更长。在1990年代初生育率下降到1.5之后，政府推出了一系列计划，包括育儿假和补贴儿童保育。生育率持续下降。
2005年，猪口邦子被任命为日本第一位负责性别平等和出生率的部长。她宣称，主要障碍是钱：人们买不起婚子。日本实行医院产科免费护理，并实行了在孩子出生时支付的津贴。
日本的生育率从2005年的1.26攀升至2015年的1.45。但随后它又开始下降，并在 2022 年回到 1.26。
今年，日本首相岸田文雄推出了另一项增加生育率的计划，将每月津贴扩大到所有18岁以下的儿童，无论收入如何，为有三个孩子的家庭提供免费大学，以及全额带薪育儿假。
现任国会上议院议员的猪口表示，对未来父母的限制不再是金钱，而是时间。她向政府和企业施压，要求他们实行每周工作四天。她说，“如果你是政府官员或大公司的经理，你现在不应该担心工资问题，但20年后你将没有客户，没有客户，没有自卫队的申请者。
匈牙利总理欧尔班（Viktor Orban）推动了欧洲最雄心勃勃的生育议程之一。去年，他扩大了对母亲的税收优惠，以便30岁以下的有孩子的女性终身免缴个人所得税。除此之外，还有住房和儿童保育补贴以及慷慨的产假。
匈牙利的生育率虽然仍远低于更替水平，但自2010年以来一直在上升。但维也纳人口研究所将这主要归因于2010年左右爆发的债务危机导致妇女推迟生育。它总结说，经过调整后，生育率仅略有上升。
在美国，虽然州和联邦立法者推动扩大儿童保育补贴和育儿假，但他们通常没有将更高的出生率作为明确的目标。不过，一些共和党人正朝着这个方向倾斜。去年，特朗普表示，他支持支付“婴儿奖金”来支持美国的生育，共和党亚利桑那州参议院候选人卡里·莱克最近也支持这一想法。
俄亥俄州共和党参议员J.D. Vance表示，生育率下降不仅仅是劳动力减少和社会保障资金不足的经济压力。“你生活在有微笑快乐的孩子的社区，还是人们刚刚变老的地方？”他在接受采访时说。他说，缺乏兄弟姐妹和堂兄弟姐妹会导致儿童的社会孤立。
他研究了潜在的解决方案，特别是匈牙利的方法，但还没有看到任何长期有效的证据。
健康指标与评估研究所（Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation）发现，几乎没有证据表明生育政策会导致生育率持续反弹。研究人员说，女性可能会更早怀孕以获得婴儿奖金，但在她的一生中可能不会有更多的孩子。
经济压力
由于出生率没有逆转的迹象，随之而来的经济压力正在加剧。自大流行以来，劳动力短缺已成为发达国家的普遍现象。随着危机后出生率的下降导致年轻工人的流入不断减少，这种情况在未来几年只会恶化，给医疗保健和退休系统带来更大的压力。
Hedgeye Risk Management的人口统计学家尼尔·豪（Neil Howe）指出，世界银行最近的一份报告表明，人口结构恶化可能使全球经济增长连续第二个“失去的十年”。
发达国家通常的处方是更多的移民，但这有两个问题。随着越来越多的国家面临人口停滞不前的问题，它们之间的移民是一场零和游戏。从历史上看，东道国一直在寻找通过正规、合法渠道入境的技术移民，但最近流入的主要是非法入境并申请庇护的非技术移民。
从历史上看，高水平的移民也引起了政治阻力，通常是出于对文化和人口变化的担忧。本土出生人口的减少可能会加剧这种担忧。许多最热衷于提高出生率的领导人最抵制移民。
随着出生率的下降，越来越多的地区和社区出现人口减少，其后果从关闭学校到房地产价值停滞不前。费尔南德斯-维拉韦德说，由于2007年开始的出生率暴跌，选择性较低的大学将很快难以填补教室。万斯说，由于当地人口下降，农村医院无法继续开放。
一个孩子较少的经济体将难以为不断增长的老年人提供养老金和医疗保健。韩国的国家养老基金是世界上最大的养老基金之一，预计到2055年将耗尽。一个特别立法委员会最近提出了几项可能的养老金改革，但在下一次总统竞选活动升温之前，只有一个短暂的窗口可以采取行动。
几乎没有公众采取行动的压力，首尔国立大学（Seoul National University）经济学家Sok Chul Hong说。“老年人对养老金改革不是很感兴趣，年轻人对政治漠不关心，”他说。“这确实是一个具有讽刺意味的情况。”

There was nothing to the east, there hasnt been for hundreds of years. Ever since the nations of the world decided one of them was getting too big for its bridges and needed to nuked off the Earth. That annihilation also served as a global disarmament of nuclear weapons; they cant use them against each other if theyre all detonated in America.
I would like to consider myself well educated. I understand history and laws and even religion. I understand those three are often not related, but I also know you can study Historical Laws and Religious History and Laws of Religions.
I suppose it was my understanding of these ideas that anointed me to captain the New Horizon on her trek across the globe. The plan was to follow ColumbuS path from over a millennia ago and as long as I can still figure out where the Canarys are supposed to be, we should be alright.
The consequence of World Peace was that wind and water also spent 500 years eating away at every where else in the world. Now its the quest of the New Horizon to sail from Europia to...
whatever awaits us ahead.
"Gud morning, Santago."
"Gud morning. Hows it?"
"Its all gud upstairs, I just came down to see whacha were up to. Missed dinner is all."
"Honestly, Maxton, Im just thinking of the past," I relaxed back into my chair as my mind began to wonder.
Maxton shifted in his place. I am sure he was expecting me to continue, but my thoughts kept forward like a bullet train. Theyd only stop when a station showed up and never before then. Max would have to ask me again to break my trance.
"What about it, capi?" Maxton was a smart guy, he knew me like it was his job. He probably had me organized and itemized like I was a box of boots in the cargo bay.
"The apostrophe."
"The...," a skeptical look screwed his face and his eyes looked at me; searching for a joke in my answer or if I had finally lost my marbles, "The apostrophe, naturally."
"Well, I was thinking about where we are going and how the Americas havent been contacted in 500 years. Lots have changed since then."
"But... the apostrophe, capi?"
"Think about Shakespear. He lived 500 years before we sunk America. If an American met him, theyd say he talked all stupid and run long, right?"
The quartermasters face told me his brain was already predicting where I was going with this, "Id say youre right."
"Isnt it safe to say thats how itll go when we, or if we, meet an American? Wed think they talked all stupid and run long," my heart began to thump with excitement, Maxton understood my ideas better than anyone and when we matched wavelengths, it was extremely thrilling.
"The apostrophe. We dropped those when the keyboards had the key too far to the right. Lazy bastards just figured we were too good for them then," he went on, "I dont even know if the Americans had the internet very long to pick up on stuff like 'cya' or even 'capi'."
"Capi" was a result of the languages of Europia blending together. Most of them had different words for it, but those first quart letters. Well, if youre from the north, it would be "Kapi", but still.
With linguistics wrapping up, Maxton and I discussed the voyage ahead of us. We talked long into the night, walking the length of the New Horizon. Our conversations could range from politics and astronomy to jokes and stories, but they could always run long. We must have been on our 40th lap of the deck when the helmsman approached us.
"Capi Vega, Officer Angelhart," the helmsmans salute was crisp and blended into the rigid steel of the ship.
"At ease, Helmsman," I returned a loose, but respectful salute.
"Sir, I just wanted to inform you that the time is 11:30," he removed a watch from his breast pocket and added, "11:33, sir. Sorry, you were tough to find."
"So it is, Thank you, Ben," I slapped the man on his back jovially, "I suppose it is time I bid you boys a goodnight."
"Thank you, sir," Ben said.
"Keep the ship steady for me, Mister Archer."
"I always will," we shared a smile before a salute returned him to his duty.
I bid Max a goodnight and left the speckled night sky for a fluorescent white ceiling. As I undressed in my bathroom, I caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror.
"No wonder she left you, fat bastard," after prolonged eye contact, my foe decided not to respond and I went to bed.
As the New Horizon sailed towards the Canary Islands, anticipation buzzed through the crew. The islands loomed in the distance, their once bustling shores now quiet and desolate. Rising sea levels had forced most of the inhabitants to flee, leaving behind remnants of a old world.
Navigating through the waters surrounding the Canary Islands proved to be trickier than anticipated. The shifting currents and submerged buildings posed a constant threat to our progress. Ben Archer, our skilled helmsman, expertly maneuvered the ship through the treacherous waters, his eyes scanning the sea and skies for any signs of danger.
"Steady as she goes, Helmsman Archer," I called out from the bridge, my gaze fixed on the approaching islands.
"Aye, Capi," Ben replied, his hands steady on the wheel as he adjusted our course.
"Mr. Angelhart, we need to chart a clear path through these waters."
Maxton, ever vigilant as our quartermaster, joined me on the bridge. His sharp eyes scanned the charts, searching for safe passages and potential hazards. "The map has a narrow channel between two of the islands," he remarked, pointing to the map spread out before us. "Its our best bet for a smooth passage."
I nodded in agreement and radioed the control-room, "Archer, prepare to navigate through the channel at 49 degrees. We cant afford any mishaps here."
The crew sprang into action, each member fulfilling their role with precision and determination. The New Horizon glided through the channel, the water calm and welcoming within the protective embrace of the islands. As we emerged on the other side, a sense of relief, like sea-water, washed over the crew.
"The worst is behind us, for now," I said to Maxton, a faint smile tugging at the corners of my lips. "Weve cleared the Canarys. Next stop, the vast expanse of the Atlantic."
Maxton returned the smile, his confidence unwavering. "Well make it across, Capi. The New Horizon won't let us down. And neither will you."
With the Canary Islands fading into the distance behind us, the crew turned their attention to the open ocean all around us. Our journey had only just begun, but with unity, determination, and a touch of luck, we will be ready to face whatever challenges the blue abyss has in store for us.

Hello.
Currently i have a victoriametrics/grafana stack on a separate host that is gathering metrics across multiple separate systems.
For truenas scale i am curently using the Truenas-exporter chart (from truecharts) which is fine for an overview of total cpu, memory etc However i would like to get per application cpu usage. My docker hosts i just use cAdvisor for this, However i am not familiar with or know if its even possible on scale to set up a daemonset for this.
I know truecharts has their own metrics stack but i would like to continue using my already set up centralized one.
Is there a way i can collect these metrics?
Thanks in advance.

To;dr: I’m new to long distance shooting. Does anyone see anything problematic jump out in my setup and does anyone have any guides for working in wind, or is it just “don’t shoot when the wind does that”?
I recently moved from New England to the high desert of Arizona. I own a decent chuck of land filled with mountains. A long shot here is very different from a long shot back home. Up side no trees and long views, down side nothing flat and lots of wind. So now I am working in ranges I have never shot and wind is a bigger player here than I expected.
Here is my layout: Ruger Precision in .308 Vortex Strike Eagle 5-25 x 56 on a Vortex Pro cantilever mount with bubble level trued to the weapon, reticle, and plumb chain at 50 yards. Federal GMM 168gr Zeroed at 100 yards Magpul bipod Magpul K2 XL grip Griffin Optimus on their taper mount. Sig Sauer Kilo5k to their phone app for ballistics with wind data from my weather station just above shooting position.
I did 475y (a personal long shot) into a 10 inch gong pretty consistently a few days ago, after I figured out how important keeping vertical was past a couple hundred yards (I apparently cannot visually identify the reticle is level to save my life). I assumed that i had it pretty sorted so I moved out to 808y which is higher because mountains (again a 10”) This was based on the topography here, it was an easy spot to hike to on a different peak that gave me a new range to try.
Now when I did 475 it was with a light, consistent breeze (~10mph) from 2 o’clock. I punched it in the calc and it can back with 10.5 moa up and I think 1.75r IIRC.
Today I did the same to the new target but the wind today was 10 to 20 mph and anywhere from 6 to 8 o’clock. I took the average of 15mph from 7 o’clock. Dialed in 24U and 2.75L and took the shot. I saw a puff at about 2 feet to the right. Dialed in a little more left windage and tried again. Better but now too much in the other direction. Tried half the windage and was back at original point of impact now with a different windage dialed in. I went through a box trying to get it sorted and no joy.
Things I checked since then: Everything is torqued per manuf specs. Zero has not changed, took it back to 100 and other than a “my fault” it basically touches. I used the same shooting position, and eliminated everything I could identify. I have shot enough to know when I screwed up and I think I was as consistent today as I was the other day at 475.
Tomorrow morning is supposed to be steady wind at about 5 mph (if that) so I am going to try again. If I succeed I will write today off to crazy mountain wind magic. If I don’t I will re verify at 475 that my methodology is correct.
Any other suggestions? To check or try?
Am I crazy? Is that just not realistic with this weapon or these conditions?