Morning ladies and guys, I bought a genuine PC key for Assassin’s Creed IV Black Flag, but sync from Ubisoft Connect isn't working. On PC I only have New Game available, on GFN it is nearly 80% finished. Imported savegames are erased every time you start the game, only New Game is available. The pirate version of the pirate game works fine and offline... All my other AC games are syncing, as Prime member I play mostly on Amazon Luna on Fire TV Stick, GFN free kicks after 60 minutes. Any ideas how to get back my original saved game from U Connect? Thanx

Hiya! I’m looking for a long term partner who is creative and willing to discuss well thought through plots and ideas. I’m a very open minded person , especially when it comes to creating something. I love detailed roleplays with complex characters! I adore creating dynamic characters. I’m a sucker for romance, anything historical, and fantasy. I mainly write in 3rd person but I am also very practiced in 1st. My time zone is GMT -5, is that matters. My writing can vary from 2-4 sentences to 2-4 paragraphs very easily. (Depending on how into the roleplay I am.) I am definitely a night owl, it’s when I‘m free.
If you’ve made it this far then yay! Thank you for reading! If you’re interested at all don’t be afraid to DM me! (I will not reply to comments)

Will those who wish, please join me in the Serenity Prayer: God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and wisdom to know the difference. Thy will, not mine, be done.
Strong sponsorship is necessary to live a recovered life. Sponsors are recovered codependents committed to living the Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions to the best of their ability. Sponsors share their program up to the level of their experience and strengthen their recovery through this service to others. To find a sponsor, look for someone who has what you want and ask how he or she is achieving it. Will all sponsors please identify themselves in their post?
Suggested guidelines for sharing: As you share your experience and strength, please also share your hope. Please confine your sharing to your experience with the illness of codependency, the solution offered by the twelve steps and your own recovery from codependency, rather than just the events of the day or week. When responding to other member’s posts, please focus on your personal experience rather than advice giving. If you are having difficulties, share how you use the program to deal with them. If you need to talk more about your difficulties and seek solutions, we suggest you speak to your sponsor and other members after the meeting.
Share on how this paragraph relates to the illness of codependency and the solution offered by the Twelve Steps. Today we are studying the Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous, Chapter 4 We Agnostics, Page 53
" We were having trouble with personal relationships, we couldn’t control our emotional natures, we were a prey to misery and depression, we couldn’t make a living, we had a feeling of uselessness, we were full of fear, we were unhappy, we couldn’t seem to be of real help to other people— was not a basic solution of these bedevilments more important than whether we should see newsreels of lunar flight? Of course it was.
When we saw others solve their problems by a simple reliance upon the Spirit of the Universe, we had to stop doubting the power of God. Our ideas did not work. But the God idea did. "
Alcoholics Anonymous, Fourth Edition (pg. 53) Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc.
Closing: Freedom from codependency is possible by living a Twelve Step way of life. The *Big Book of Alcoholic Anonymous and a recovered sponsor are all you need to get started. Feel free to reach out by private message to newcomers, returning members, and each other. From the Big Book page 164: "Abandon yourself to God as you understand God. Admit your faults to Him and to your fellows. Clear away the wreckage of your past. Give freely of what you find and join us. We shall be with you in the Fellowship of the Spirit, and you will surely meet some of us as you trudge the Road of Happy Destiny. May God bless you and keep you--until then."
*Why the Big Book? Time and experience have proven it to be the most successful approach to the Steps no matter what the addictive problem may be (this includes codependency). We also know it to be the purest 12 Step document in existence. It worked for the founders of Twelve Step and it works for us today. If you don't have a copy of the Big Book you can access one for free: https://www.aa.org/the-big-book

So/Sx

1. Friendliness / adaptiveness: accurately reads and responds to the movements of the other person. Adapts and reciprocates to facilitate further bonding.
2. Belonging: desires to feel as if they belong in a relational sphere.
3. Being a part of: desires to participate in a relational sphere, to be part of the changing display. Does not fear the movement of numbers.
4. Popularity / being liked: desires to be well-received as a participant, and to have further participations enhanced.

Tools to benefit the so/sx user:

1. Intention. Grasps the message conveyed by ideas based upon their relation of the idea to its context.
2. Contextualization. Has an ability to synthesize ideas to belong within a higher structure.
3. Movement. Understands the interrelation of parts within a whole, and can integrate the parts accordingly.
4. Conveyance. Understands how ideas will be interpreted, and arranges them accordingly.

So/Sp

1. Formality, status, and selectivity: Adopts a formal stance to minimize hazards which would affect their standing.
2. Profit: Has objectives and reaps the benefits of their earnings to further future objectives.
3. High position: Seeks a high stance from which they can fulfill clear and useful roles.
4. Activism: Advocates for generally held notions, or for a notion which would cause changes for the greater good.

Tools to benefit the so/sp user:

1. Prudence. Understands the hazards of an idea on generally held conceptions and the status quo.
2. Reaping. Uses ideas as leverage for grasping other ideas. Requires an understanding of underlying strata.
3. Positioning. Understands how ideas support positions, and vice versa.
4. Activism. Uses positions to relate their ideas and to gain leverage. Understands how ideas contribute to a greater conceptual good.

Sp/So

1. Slowness, steadiness, simplicity: finding elegant, practical, and straightforward solutions. Preferring a routinal lifestyle.
2. Agricultural: emphasizes the assurance of steady resource supply by building integrous and relatively static structures.
3. Meeting basic needs: understands the most pressing need, and finds a way to meet it.
4. Security / stability: finds their actions to be most effective when their safety is secured and their environment is threat-absent.

Tools to benefit the sp/so user:

1. Elegant utility. Finding the most straightforward idea which removes the noise. Sx-dominants incorporate the noise as part of the inherent excitement and realization of their experience.
2. Utilizing external constructs and available resources. In mathematics, problems can often be solved by introducing constructs, useful devices, or through a creative usage of available resources. This is a more general application of that principle to problems in all areas of life.
3. Understanding relevance. Identifies the issues which have the largest influence on current affairs. Effectively gears efforts in that direction.
4. Approximating stability. Is able to determine when efforts are satisfactory and can reach a point of termination. Minimizes waste and useless exertion by realizing when one is entering the area of diminishing returns.

Sp/Sx

1. Waiting, watching, "mysterious": locates objects of desires and tracks their movements from a safe space. Does not often leave their safe space to initiate direct contact.
2. Hunting-gathering: does not pull from a steady supply, instead preferring to rely on their own pragmatism.
3. Having a haven: keeps and fills a private space in which they store objects which have caught their eye.
4. Pursuing private interests: bites into the flesh of their prey until sustained.
5. Reeling in: finds a way to hook the object, and bring it to the self without significant exertion.

Tools to benefit the sp/sx user:

1. Projection. Ability to predict movements of objects in a conceptual space. Laser-focuses on one idea at a time.
2. Pragmatism. Energy naturally flows in the direction of developing skills and applying them to achieve ends.
3. Haven. Abides in a conceptual space. Adorns it with ideas to form an intellectual schema.
4. Tolerance. Has an ability to overcome disgust to probe deeper for more nutrition.
5. Capturing. Understands the specific mechanism by which an object can be hooked.

Sx/Sp

1. Pushing-pulling, intensity fluctuations: an attunement to how strongly you are pulling the other person. Light repulsion, moderate repulsion, heavy repulsion, light attraction, moderate attraction, and heavy attraction are the modes. Energy fluctuates between push and pull states depending on the availability of resources (sp) and the degree of psychic tension.
2. Soul-bonding: describes a capacity for fusing with the object of desire at the most fundamental level.
3. Finding what is lost: searching for the missing piece which would complete the state of attainment.
4. Knowing what is nestled within: uncovering hidden psychic elements and acknowledging their potentials.

Tools to benefit the sx/sp user:

1. Assignment of psychic gravitation. Which parts have gravity?
2. Grasping fundamentals. What basic notion underlies the concept?
3. Finding what is lost. Which ideas are missing?
4. Attunement to what is nestled within. Understanding the origins of objects and the hidden initial locations, and the potentials of each of these objects to create change.

Sx/So

1. Experimentation / flamboyance: manipulation of ideas as they express themselves. Curveballs and spins. Graffiti and dynamic art. Revolutionary flair.
2. Stirring up, testing: revving up engines, initiating dynamics. Intensifying the energy in rooms, making things hot.
3. Displaying, influencing: projection of the self, using the self as an instrument for change.
4. Radicality: an ability to take the most intense or controversial stance.

Tools to benefit the sx/so user:

1. Divergence. Understanding the multiple ways in which something can be expressed.
2. Inflammation. Understanding the conditions which would cause greater contrasts to reveal themselves.
3. Holographs. Understanding how an object can be used as a catalyst in controlled conditions.
4. Vibrancy. Understand the most extreme sides of an idea or issue, ability to embody and express these.

I've been doing the math and I am becoming less and less enthused with my Prime membership. I regularly spend $9,000+ a year on Amazon for groceries, electronics, clothes, housewares, baby, and have to contact customer service a couple of times a year about some issue with a product. I am getting turned off of shopping on Amazon and am moving toward other merchants that offer two day shipping, price match or lower, and have a physical location to return items to.
My experience with Amazon customer service has been mixed from the beginning. My first poor experience was in 2014 when I ordered an easel, which was shipped in a long, skinny square box. When the box arrived, the UPS driver delivered it to me by hand. When I took the box, it was clearly empty with a hole on the top of the box from something sliding out. I told the driver as he was walking away and he looked back at me and said "not my problem anymore." When I contacted Amazon for a refund, they told me to return the item. I told them I had received an empty box. They told me that I needed to return the item anyways, and I told them that if I send them back an empty box, they are just going to reject my return. I told them I would charge back my credit card and they threatened me with a ban. So I ate the $35 and moved on. Since then, it has been a mix of full refunds, $15 convenience credits, returns with refund minus shipping for small items, impossible to meet return windows (try 12 hours), and inactive shipping labels.
When Amazon Prime started streaming, I was paying $60 a year for their membership. The TV and movies were pretty good and often rotated different properties than Netflix, giving me a good mix for streaming content. Now that it has ads, it is basically worthless to me, because I pay other services for ad free content to avoid the annoyances of ads, and Amazon has found a way to creep them back into my life. So I stopped considering Prime Video a benefit.
I found Amazon Warehouse in 2015, an opportunity to save money on used goods that are open box or returns that Amazon can sell for a small discount, presumably to avoid returns from unruly customers looking for a new item. They would discount it 20% or offer 20% back on your Prime Credit Card, or have a bonus deal for all Warehouse items that you can activate. For the most part, it was a good deal until a couple of years ago, when I started noticing that my "Like New" and "Used - Very Good" items were always broken. I realized Warehouse had become rife for return fraud when I ordered a Like New computer case for about $80. What arrived was a brand new pre-built gaming PC with top end graphics card and processor, built inside the same case I ordered. I also ordered two identical air conditioners in Like New. One had its WiFi control board completely removed, and the other was missing a power cable. I was able to get both working using smart plugs, and Amazon refunded the one without a power cable after I had ordered an appliance cable from their website, but not the one missing the control board.
As of today, I used Amazon Warehouse for the last time, prompting this post. I ordered a Keurig in Like New condition. It was shipped and sold by Amazon Warehouse, arrived in the manufacturer's box, and it was for my wife's classroom. When she took it to school the next day, she didn't set it up until about 3 weeks later. The first use it leaked out the bottom instead of dispensing any water out the nozzle. When I looked at the bottom it was missing screws. I communicated this to Amazon and requested a refund ($52). They decided they wanted to charge me shipping ($7) and set up a pickup time for UPS to come to my house. UPS showed up when I was not home and left me a shipping label telling me to drop it off at their store. But I didn't make it in time. So I opened a new return so I could go to a UPS store somewhere else, and they gave me 24 hours to return the item to a UPS Store. On a Saturday night. When The UPS Store is not open for package dropoff all day Sunday. When I contact customer service about this to do my due diligence, they told me to try to return it within 7 days. I told them that at this point, they need to just refund me because they are wasting everyone's time. The agent told me that this is not possible, and that they need to "inspect it." Well I supposed the inspection sticker on the side proves they "inspected" it the first time, right? Probably just by plugging it in and seeing if the light turns on. So they are just going to decide that it is working, and sell it to someone else, perpetually until someone eats the cost, or until a competent person in their Inspection department actually puts water in the tank. And I'm tired of fixing Amazon's return fraud junk.
So today I charged back the item on my Amazon Prime Visa card, as an Amazon Prime Member.
I am never going to buy Amazon Warehouse again. They have eliminated most of the discount, and the coupons. The hassle just is not worth it anymore.
I am also quite wary of ordering anything on Amazon now. Returns are a hassle. What Amazon considers "brand new" is also becoming a blurred line and I receive many items that are broken or missing pieces (furniture, electronics bundles, tool sets), and I am very careful about only ordering Shipped and Sold by Amazon.com to avoid these issues (except when they don't sell the product at all, then I can usually find it lower priced elsewhere), but the issues persist anyways. I have missed several returns in the past year due to unforeseen circumstances and eaten several $100. It's not just this one time, but this time stands out. It is infuriating to receive something that was supposed to be "Inspected" and it clearly was not sufficiently inspected, and that is also a pattern here. Amazon is lying to their customers, intentionally or unintentionally, to cover up return fraud, and making their honest customers either eat their costs or waste their time for it. I have similar experiences at Home Depot, Walmart, and Fred Meyer, too, but those also have stores where I can walk in and talk to a real, local human who has to inspect the product in front of me. Amazon does not do that, and there is something inherently dishonest about this process for both parties that shrouds the transaction in distrust. We were sold an idea that Amazon's A to Z Guarantee made up for this, and that Prime makes us a priority, but it clearly does not anymore.
It's unfortunate that this is what the once great Amazon has become. I have started shopping more at Walmart, Costco, and Home Depot to avoid the hassle of getting return fraud items from Amazon. I am looking for an excuse to cancel my membership, but with my spending, the extra 2% back on the card covers the whole membership cost, so until I get under $7,000 there isn't a point to cancelling. I hope others read my experience and think about how much their Prime membership is really worth.

Hello everyone, hope everyone is having a blessed night/day.
I am a 17 year old male, and am about to graduate high school. One of my best friends is Serbian and about a year ago he introduced me to the idea of orthodoxy. I had been raised in a baptist church for my whole life and both my parents always had (what to me seems) a great relationship with Christ. When my friend introduced me to orthodoxy, I felt like I had to do some research. I read a lot about Church History, and the traditions held by the Orthodox Church and how they were likely passed down by the apostles themselves. I also found myself reading a lot about orthodox theology, and found that it made a lot of sense and seemed to explain a lot that I often felt confused about in the Bible. I bought an Orthodox Study Bible about 3 months ago and at the time it was just purely out of curiosity, however I found myself hooked looking into Church teachings and sacraments, it all making sense to me in a way that the Baptist church I grew up in didn’t really. About a month ago or so, I decided that I’d like to attend a Liturgy, just to see what it would be like, and if, after prayer and seeing and feeling the experience, I feel inclined and led, to become regular and join the more formal process in joining the church.
I have asked my parents for permission and their blessing, and they are very open and supportive, essentially saying that as long as I believe in Christ, they will still support my spiritual change.
However I’m struggling with gathering myself to actually attend a liturgy. There is a church locally that has some great resources for new potential converts who want to join, however I still have some doubts.
As a 17 year old I feel like I would be out of place attending without my parents, and I am scared of being shamed or judged. I’m not sure what to wear, what to bring, if there is anything to prepare? If anyone here has some wisdom or information for me that would be great.
Should I contact the church beforehand, or should I just show up on a Sunday?

Recently, u/TheAngryObserver's argued against the recent TikTok ban, passed by bipartisan majorities in Congress and signed by President Biden. The Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, or PAFACA, was signed into law earlier this week, which ban TikTok in the U.S. if ByteDance, the company that owns TikTok, does not sell the company to an owner not associated with a 'foreign adversary.' While TikTok is mentioned specifically in the bill, the law provides for similar bans to be enacted against foreign-adversary-controlled apps in the future.
Banning TikTok is a prudent and forward-thinking idea, for two reasons that are, by themselves, each sufficient to justify a ban, but together demand one, such is the risk. I find Angry's well-meaning legal and ethical objections to the law unconvincing, and in his post I don't think he fully acknowledged the threat posed by continued operation of TikTok in the U.S. under CCP control.

Note on the CCP's relationship with private business

Before diving into the potential threats posed by TikTok in its current state, it is crucial to understand the nature of the relationship between the Chinese Communist Party and private businesses based in China. This 2023 article by the East Asia Forum gives an overview of the changing nature of party-corporate relations under the Party leadership of Xi Jinping. The CCP has always had a presence in China's private sector, but, in recent years, "the private sector is still seen as a frontier for party-building, with Chinese President Xi Jinping making it a priority." While party cells within private corporations used to be focused more on organizing "study sessions or social gatherings" for members, Xi has "called on the private sector to 'unite around the party,'" a directive to deepen party-corporation relationships and direct corporate funding towards Party functions.
Perhaps most emblematic of the Party's ongoing power grab in the private sector is how deeply the Party is becoming involved in everyday corporate functions, with the following passage referring to the All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce, a rough analogue to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce under control by the CCP:

The ACFIC also calls for the CCP to ‘exercise leadership over personnel management’, aiming to avoid ‘professional managers promoting whomever they like’. It also recommends that firms establish a monitoring structure under CCP leadership to surveil employees, detect ‘abnormal behaviour’ and deal with disciplinary violations.

This is not simply a matter of Chinese investors owning a company, rather than American ones; it is a fundamentally different relationship between private and public actors. Opposing the accumulation of power by such incestuous unions in the U.S. is not xenophobia. Angry's assertion that "TikTok itself remains adamant that it would refuse requests from ByteDance, its Chinese parent, or the Chinese government, for data. We, again, have no evidence to the contrary," in my view, misunderstands the relationship between Chinese private enterprise and the CCP. Xi clearly views the kind of independence Angry describes as an obstacle, and private investors who come to be seen as obstacles by Xi have a nasty habit of disappearing.

Data security

Angry describes the law as being driven by the fear of "potential risk that its sister, by being located in an enemy nation, could hypothetically take American data (such as emails), give it to said enemy, and then there's the possibility that that enemy could use these emails and whatnot against us."
The fear of data abuse is not based in hypotheticals. It is based in distrust of a political entity that has no credibility on the issue of respect for data privacy due to a series of conscious and deliberate actions:

• In 2017, China passed the National Intelligence Act, which contains the following requirements, placing no limit on the amount of cooperation the government can demand of 'all organizations and citizens' of China

Article 7: All organizations and citizens shall support, assist, and cooperate with national intelligence efforts in accordance with law, and shall protect national intelligence work secrets they are aware of.
Article 10: As necessary for their work, national intelligence work institutions are to use the necessary means, tactics, and channels to carry out intelligence efforts, domestically and abroad.

• In 2021, TikTok's head of public policy for the Americas, Michael Beckerman, testified that 'we don't share information with the Chinese government' and that American user data is stored in the U.S. and in Singapore.
• In 2022, leaked recordings of TikTok employees confirmed that, despite TikTok's public protests to the contrary, 'everything is seen in China,' and that there exists a Beijing-based executive 'Master Admin' who 'has access to everything.' While TikTok publicly insisted on the soundness of their 'Project Texas' strategy to store data in the U.S, a consultant working with TikTok said he felt that "with these tools, there’s some backdoor to access user data in almost all of them, which is exhausting.”
• In 2022, in response to those recordings obtained by Buzzfeed, the TikTok user data of two journalists, one from Buzzfeed, "was accessed while ByteDance employees were investigating potential employee leaks to the press, according to the company."
• In 2023, TikTok backtracked on its assertion that U.S. data is stored in the U.S, saying that American content creators' data, including tax forms and social security numbers, are indeed stored in China.
• in 2024, TikTok insists that 'we have invested billions of dollars to keep U.S. data safe and our platform free from outside influence and manipulation,' conveniently ignoring that the greatest threat to Americans' data security are not 'outside influencers' but people within TikTok and ByteDance itself.

Maybe you believe TikTok's denials when they say that they're working really hard to protect data security, and this time they really mean it. But I sometimes step back and marvel at what TikTok is asserting it has the right to do. A subsidiary of a larger company is attempting to convince us that it has no obligations to follow the directives of the authorities it answers to; they are insisting that, when the time comes, they can be trusted to disobey the requests of their investors, their owners at ByteDance, and the Party agents embedded throughout the company. I know everyone likes to fantasize about telling their boss 'no.' But I do not think the security of Americans' location data and social security numbers should depend on such a fantasy, especially when the boss in question runs what is likely the most comprehensive surveillance state in the history of the world.

Information

While data security concerns have taken up the lion's share of the discourse surrounding the law, I find the concerns for the future of discourse itself even more concerning. Our decisions -- political, social, financial -- are only as good as the information we base them on. In Democracy in America, one of the first major studies of American political culture in the 1830s, Alexis de Tocqueville wrote that

What best explains to me the enormous circulation of the daily press in the United States, is that amongst the Americans I find the utmost national freedom combined with local freedom of every kind.

In other words, not only did the great amount of important political questions presented to the American people at the not just the national and state but also the local levels necessitate a large industry dedicated to the spread of information, but that such freedom to decide depended on newspapers; or, as de Tocqueville says of newspapers, "to suppose that they only serve to protect freedom would be to diminish their importance: they maintain civilization."
Social media is often the vehicle for news today; when you click a CNN tweet to read the full story or see the headlines on news, the content you're reading is written by journalists, but the mechanism by which it reaches you is social media; thus, it is impossible to talk of news without talking of social media. Furthermore, 58% of Americans prefer to get their news on digital devices, a number that has been on a steady rise as TV and radio news fade.
According to its own data, TikTok has about 150 million users in the U.S. alone (more conservative estimates still place the figure above 100 million). That's nearly half of the entire U.S. population getting news from TikTok; having their worldview shaped on TikTok; trusting TikTok's algorithm to steer high-quality stories to them and misleading or dishonest stories away from them. I don't think we fully acknowledge how much power that is.
Consider a hypothetical. The PRC has, for years, insisted that 'reunification' with Taiwan is inevitable, and a high-priority goal of the CCP. The line used to stress 'peaceful reunification,' but no longer. On some day in the not-too-distant future, America may wake up to a world in chaos -- yet another 21st-century imperialist invasion, certain to lead to mass devastation and pushing the world closer to war. But how will we learn of this development? The first thing I, and most Americans, do upon waking up is to roll over, pick up my phone, and check social media.
But for many on that fateful day, the first thing they see will be exactly what the CCP wants them to see. Before you watch the news; before you read the headlines; before you speak to your family or your friends; the people who will have the most power to shape your perception of the unfolding conflict will be the organization that was once exposed for explictly ordering moderators to ban mentions of Tiananmen Square and Tibetan independence. TikTok insists that it has loosened these restrictions, but even if that is true, do you trust them to maintain that 'freedom of expression' during a time of war? In war, information is yet another good that must be mass-produced. Consider how Russia flooded TikTok itself with misinformation in the wake of its invasion of Ukraine, seeking to control the narrative from the start, demoralize Ukraine and its Western supporters, and thus dissuade any potential white knights from riding to their victim's rescue.
It is not difficult to imagine what the CCP, in effective control of a platform that reaches three hundred million American eyeballs, could do with that power. Angry brings up a good point -- he says 'Americans have, with some very specific and limited exceptions, the right to lie.' This is true. But the CCP is not an American citizen. It is a foreign adversary, who largely sees American power as a threat to its own interests and its democratic institutions as threats to its own legitimacy. It conducts industrial espionage on Americans, stealing trade secrets and sowing distrust. It launched an information campaign in 2022 to "discourage Americans from voting while highlighting U.S. political polarization" and has honed their info-op tactics for this year. It threatens global stability by its imperialistic bullying of its weaker neighbors in Asia. It launches hacking attacks on Americans critical of the regime. These are not the acts of a friendly competitor or a rival. These are the actions of a party that believes that our loss is their gain.
If you think the state of our public discourse is in a bad state now, I urge you to use your imagination as to what the controllers of a platform with an opaque recommendation algorithm and an opaque report system that resides at all times in the pocket of half of America can do. Detoxifying our murky political discourse will be difficult, but it will become impossible if the United States' greatest geopolitical adversary is allowed a pipeline into it through which to pump raw sewage. Even if they're not using it now, I'd prefer that pipeline not exist in the first place.

Legality

Angry presents several reasons he believes the . I do not find these convincing.

• "Obviously, it prevents the 100 million American TikTok users from expressing themselves, a violation of the First Amendment."

Is the government banning a certain content of speech? No. As established, you can parrot Chinese propaganda as an individual in public all you want.
Is the government banning a certain kind of speech? No. You can make short-form videos saying whatever you want on other platforms, and indeed several other companies have moved into the short-form video space for this purpose, and doubtless more will if TikTok is indeed banned. It can hardly be argued that moving from TikTok to YouTube Shorts or Instagram Reels places an undue burden on TikTok's users in their exercise of free speech.
So the government is neither telling people what they can say, nor telling them how they can say it, nor placing an illegal burden on those who want to speak. Corporations cannot indefinitely forestall any legal consequence for their otherwise harmful behavior by declaring their place of business to be a 'free speech zone,' and thus declare anyone who interferes with it as a violator of the First Amendment. Saying that banning TikTok violates the First Amendment rights of its users is like saying the health inspector can't shut down an Olive Garden with a rat infestation because Olive Gardens are places where people can theoretically discuss contentious issues.

• "The bill is probably unconstitutional, as the state of Montana discovered when it tried a similar scheme while ago."

The preliminary injunction issued in the Montana case cites First Amendment concerns that I addressed above. The case is currently being appealed, and as such the Montana ruling should not be seen as the court system's final opinion on this matter.

• "It is also a piece of legislation sanctioning a specific person/company, a bill of attainder, which is illegal under Article 1, Section 9."

The nonpartisan Congressional Research Service evaluated this concern and others and noted that

In two recent judicial challenges, courts held that legislation restricting transactions with PRC-based Huawei and Russia-based Kaspersky Lab did not violate the Bill of Attainder Clause because the laws sought to protect U.S. security, not punish a private actor. Proposals that would provide for a judicial trial or agency action before imposing applicable sanctions, such as H.R. 7521, would not violate the Bill of Attainder Clause.

As established before, there is an existing national security concern, and the fact that the bill provides a window of time to offload the company before any sanctions would come into place undermines the legal notion that ByteDance is being explicitly being punished for past actions without trial.

• "It also directly infringes on the property rights of TikTok's owners without due process, which raises Fifth Amendment concerns-- read, TikTok is having its property seized even though it hasn't been found guilty of a crime."

The CRS evaluated this concern as well, noting that,

In one relevant example, a federal court of appeals held that, before the President could order a PRC-based company to divest an acquisition under the CFIUS process, the government needed to provide the affected company with the unclassified information on which it based its decision and the chance to respond.

TikTok has been presented with the American concerns over data privacy and information, and has been given a chance to respond. Furthermore, the CRS argues that Congress may have even fewer legal obligations in this case, unless the law is 'palpably arbitrary' -- a description that cannot be applied to the myriad reasons the U.S. has to be suspicious of increasing CCP power in the U.S.

Conclusion

Continued Chinese ownership of TikTok poses a serious threat to American data security, to its free and open discourse, and to its national security. As you follow the proceedings, I urge you to consider philosopher Karl Popper's famous Paradox of Tolerance, which holds that an infinitely tolerant society will inevitably be infiltrated by intolerant ideas, having no mechanism with which to stunt their growth. In history, free societies that protect human rights are the exception, not the rule, and, in a time of rising authoritarianism around the world, free societies cannot afford to become paralyzed in the phase of such a threat. For an entity whose reign has been characterized by nothing so much as the constant crushing of human freedom to demand protection under the same aegis of civil liberties the American government extends over its own citizens is like a pack of wolves trying to squeeze their way through a doggy-door designed for the owner's pet spaniel.
I was supportive of the bill before it passed, and the events since the signing of the bill have only served to further convince me of its necessity. Shou Zi Chew, the CEO of TikTok, posted a greasy statement of defiance in which he insists that he cares about 'YOUR voice' on a platform that has been accused, He talks about how the 'freedom of expression on TikTok reflects the same American values that make the United States a beacon of freedom' just weeks after the site limited researcher access to data on politically-charged hashtags like 'UyghurGenocide' and 'TiananmenSquare' in response to a Rutgers study which found that 'there was a “strong possibility” TikTok content was being amplified or underrepresented based on how it aligns with the Chinese government’s interests.' It seems that, for TikTok, patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel.

My idea is to spread friend codes by leaving Pokémon cards in Little Free Libraries, with my code written on them.

I'm currently near the end of a Nemelex run and I've barely drawn from my deck of escape. I found this thread when looking up Nemelex info, which was quite useful. I wanted to get a discussion going about the deck of escape. Reading about the cards on the wiki makes it seem pretty good and safe if you know what you're doing.
The other thread recommended Stack-5ing the escape deck, which is a great idea and maybe the best use of the ability. I think it is worth using with Draw Three too. The cards you can get are:

• The Cloud
• The Elixir
• Exile
• The Tomb
• Velocity

They are all really good. Two of them (The Cloud and The Tomb) don't want to be used when you are in melee range, so take that into account. The Cloud, The Elixir and Velocity can help you win tough fights, no escaping needed. I'm going to start using draw 3 escape to help win fights when my escape deck is full and my other decks are starting to dwindle.
I remember prior to 0.16, using the Velocity card and it actually hasted my enemies. And I thought this is probably the worst thing in all of DCSS. Well that is removed now and it seems like it's a free haste + cure of slow. That is my excuse for sleeping on this deck for so long.
Any tips or tricks? Or something dangerous that I'm missing.

Hello There!
I Primarily fight on the Automaton Front, levels 5-8. When I'm not in a squad with friends I always hit 'quick play' or manually search for SOS beacons on the active planets on that front. I'm level 75 at writing this, I have no use for medals, samples or currency. I am in it for the kills. I've already purchased everything, including the new airburst rifle. When I first started playing my friends didn't play and it was fantastic to have other players respond to my SOS beacons or join my lobbies before drops. Simply because 'For Democracy" and it really reinforced the general idea of brothers in arms, united fronts and never letting diver fight alone, regardless of if the reason he or she is alone is because of connectivity issues or they have no comrades to fight with.
I do not kick, unless I have a friend joining. I don't believe in 'meta' builds, skill level, in game level or anything else in between. I enjoy the fight! What I am getting at finally is that if you have ever seen me in game, or if you are reading this post; feel free to add me on the game, or on Steam. My name is PLACEHOLDER on both. I'm not looking for glory or brownie points, I simply want to build a truly united community of players for experienced and first time Helldivers. Again if you see me on, hit me up and I'd be happy to drop in and Kill some Automatons with you.
PLACEHOLDER
Nemo Relictus

I recently got a $100 gift card to jetpens (I’m in the US) and I’d love some guidance. I’m definitely loving fountain pens, but thought I’d ask the group for insights on a ball point/rollerball to tempt me as I make my decision.
Some things I’m factoring in: -a multipen is what I’m leaning toward. I work in an office setting and color coding is a benefit. -I’d love to get something that has a high end feature that you only get at higher price points. -on my journey to find refills I like, I was led to Jetstream and fell in love right away. That being said, I’m very open to any smooth writing experience if you have suggestions. -I like the idea of machined pens or a pen with interesting design that will last. -doesn’t need to be a multipen
I think at the current moment I’ll likely grab the Lamy 2000 multipen and spend the rest on refills. Talk me out of it (or feel free to talk me into it)

God bless you reading this, I hope you'll take time to read my story, I really just want help.. I've been losing hope and starting to feel there's no love or happiness for me. When I go out and do my job or take care of regular life essentials I just feel everyone gives me dirty looks, or that I don't belong. Most people don't want to speak to me or want anything to do with me, I eat alone on breaks, co-workers only speak to me when necessary and avoid personal relationships with me. My friends and most of my family don't talk to me anymore, I lost my girlfriend of almost 4 years to covid this past July and no one aside from her family even offered condolences because there was infidelity in our relationship. Her passing brought me back to God but it has been a hard battle.. My struggles and faith in God have taught me it's good to accept and smile at everyone no matter who they are since we're all God's children. I read the Bible not out of obligation, but because I truly believe in the message it delivers especially when speaking about how to treat each others with unconditional love and respect. I don't believe I am the best person but I do believe what's in my heart and my thoughts are positive, I no longer break laws and don't want to hurt anyone or be hurt in any type of way. I just want to get along with everyone, even if someone is wary of me I don't blame them, I get how complicated the mind and life can be based on our experiences. I'm an overthinker, but I try my best to use that part of me to do as God would, treat everyone equally with how I speak and my body language, and fill myself with positive thoughts/feelings. Yet why is it that most of the world will smile and welcome each other but when it comes to me I feel unwelcome? Even going to church I get dirty stares from people, no one greets or talks to me and I just don't feel love or welcomed, I go to church alone. Almost everyone I smile at will look away or look at me with disgust. My question is what techniques or thoughts do you recommend I fill myself with? I'm not the best person in the world but I at least give myself the credit of doing everything I can to make people not feel worse about themselves. I've got acne and I'm a skinny 5'6 male but I truly just want to love and get along with everyone.. The few good people I do get to meet are honestly the most amazing people, free of judgement and that feeling of true happiness/comfortability. Yet it feels like everyday I'm encountering people who seem to have a problem with me for being me. Just wanted to ask what thoughts and techiques can I fill myself with when dealing with these people? God has truly saved me, everyday I pray for strength and the ability to understand people better, and to keep smiling and offering love.. But it feels like my roommate is the only one who really likes me in my life. I know God is real for my own personal reasons, and I've commited myself to loving and helping people, while understanding being a good person and trying to experience true love and happiness. But it just feels like no one wants to offer me the same. My late girlfriend and roommate are the only people I felt genuine love and happiness from when around me. I've tried the don't give a f life, where I don't even look at or offer smiles to people and only give my time and effort to the right people but acting like that I know it's not me.. I want to keep trying and doing as God would do no matter how much hurt or pain is thrown my way, even at the cost of my own mental well being. Yet I can't help but yearn for that happiness I had with my late gf. I'm so ready to take that next step in my life, because at this point I know my intentions are finally genuine and aligned with doing what's right. Yet it feels like I'll never get there because of God's biggest challenge in life for some of us, other people. I'm sorry to be so negative or attention seeking I've honestly never expressed these feelings to anyone, I just feel judged everywhere I go, unwelcomed and no love in this life. Thank you if you made it this far, I'm honestly just a depressed believer of God looking for love and happiness

Demographics
Gender: Male
Race/Ethnicity: Indian (born in US)
Residence: CA
Income Bracket: 500k+
Type of School: hypercompetitive Bay Area public 😭
Hooks (Recruited Athlete, URM, First-Gen, Geographic, Legacy, etc.): Dad and Uncle MBA at SCU 💀
Intended Major(s): CSE/EECS to UC's, CS+Math to UIUC, CS everywhere else
Academics
GPA (UW/W): 3.95/4.26 for EA's, 3.9/4.28 for RD's
Rank (or percentile): school doesn't rank
of Honors/AP/IB/Dual Enrollment/etc.: 7 AP classes, took Multivar and a Data Comm/Networking class at CC
Senior Year Course Load: AP Stats, AP Physics C Mech, AP Lit, AP Spanish Lang and Culture, US Gov, Econ
Standardized Testing
SAT I: 1550 (760RW, 790M)
ACT: 33 (idrc ab the subscores i didnt submit ts anywhere)
AP/IB: 5 on CS A, English Lang/Comp, Calc BC; 4 on Physics 1
Extracurriculars/Activities
1 Small internship at this tech startup - my dad knew a colleague from a long time ago that started his own company so I reached out and got to work with his company, I had to write a Chrome extension for their engineers; learned and used JS HTML CSS (11th summer)
2 Varsity Athlete - cross country and track & field; I was pretty mid (top 7 but not top 3 type); our cross country team got an athletic scholars award after placing 11th out of like 20 schools at regionals 💀 (10-12)
3 Math Tutor Job - at a local tutoring center, was pretty on and off because of sports; worked more over summer and in the off season, taught kids anywhere from addition/subtraction to calc bc (10-12)
4 Spanish Honor Society - got nominated as a junior, became an intern halfway through the year, and became president for senior year (11-12)
5 Founded/Restarted Rubiks Cube Club - applied through 11th grade cycle, got approved for 12th grade year; president position (11-12)
6 Held two free online programming workshops over the summer - me and my friends put together some workshops where we taught kids python the first year and java the second (9-10)
7 Link Crew (11-12) - was really involved junior year but lowkey fell off in senior year 😭
8 Cultural School Volunteer (9-12) - lowkey made this seem like a lot more than it was but I've helped set up events like plays and stuff and helped teach language classes over the weekends, but seriously pretty trivial
9 NHS (11) - tutored some kids junior year but i wouldnt be able to go to the afterschool homework help thing because of sports practice so I kinda just didn't do it senior year
10 School Spirit Stuff (10-12) - participated in choreographed dance numbers for rallies and helped paint and make cardboard decorations, prepared for months in advance
Awards/Honors
1 AP Scholar with Honor 😂
2 Athlete Scholar Award in junior year t/f
3 Commended National Merit
Genuinely didn't have a 4th or a 5th award so I j left it blank 💀
Letters of Recommendation
Calc; I really liked the teacher and his class, but me and my friends trolled a lot in his class (11th) but he's also just generally not the type of guy to be super expressive about anyone
AP Lang; I really liked the teacher even though he gave me a B first semester (11th), we talked a lot about random things in and out of class, and even though I was in his class his last year of teaching, we still stayed in touch and I met with him a few times online to talk about my essays and catch up overall
Interviews
Princeton: I really liked this interview; I met up with the guy at his office in person for the interview, he really let me speak and I felt pretty comfortable sharing all the things that I came into the interview wanting to share, and he shared a lot about his experiences at Princeton
MIT: horrible interview; it was online, the lady's kids were screaming in the background and she had to mute in the middle to tell them to stfu, she kept cutting me off to ask the next completely unrelated question on her list, and she didn't really seem to understand anything I was trying to say
Essays
Common App: I honestly didn't really like this essay but don't really have an idea in mind that could have been better. I talked about overcoming the mental barrier presented by physical pain in my running journey and its effects on improving my and my family's stance on staying healthy. Just felt kinda cliche and I don't think it really got across the significance of convincing yourself it doesn't hurt when it does in order to achieve success.
Supps: random yap yap mostly; honestly the only ones that stood out were UMD because I didn't mention my major even once in my essays; talked about running, cycling, Rubiks Cube, school spirit, etc
Acceptances:
UC Irvine CS and Engineering (UC) (Committed!!)
UMD CS (EA)
Case Western Reserve CS (Deferred EA -> Accepted RD)
ASU CS (in like August LOL)
UIUC LAS Statistics (EA)
UT Dallas CS (RD)
UC Santa Cruz Applied Mathematics (UC)
San Jose State CS
San Diego State CS
Waitlists:
Carnegie Mellon CS (Defer -> Waitlist)
Udub CS
Santa Clara University CS
UW Madison CS
UC Davis CS
Rejections:
UCLA EE
UC Berkeley EECS
UC Santa Barbara CS
UC San Diego CS
UT Austin CS (EA)
Calpoly SLO CS
Georgia Tech CS (RD)
MIT (RD)
Princeton CS (RD)
Purdue CS (deferred EA -> rejected)
Additional Information: My parents hired a very expensive counselor from a rather large college counseling company to help me through this process, and while I am very grateful that they were willing to drop this insane sum of money on a counselor to help me, I very much found that his help was near useless. My essays were reviewed with crazy slow turnaround times by some random person in their company that didn't know me and all the suggestions they gave were syntax and grammar that I could've gotten from ChatGPT or Grammarly.
All of my valuable help was from the free counselors that my school offered; they gave me really insightful feedback regarding what content I should flush out/rethink, and they really helped me knock my essays into shape. I just want this to be a PSA that there is free help out there, and it's very likely that it's better if not near the help you can get from the money pit that is college admissions counseling.
Feel free to PM me if you want any advice/help from my experience!

I(17) came out to my mom in 2022 to alot of aggressive questioning and saying that she supported me yet what's me to start hrt when she's dead(she apologized for this but continued stopping me from doing anything remotely feminine) .this put me in a pit of depression . In 2023 I told her about it. She then went to tell my step-dad (who I don't have a great relationship with and told me I a non confrontational way that beingtrans is fake because of the bible) and when I told her that she didn't have the right to tell him that and how it made me feel basically said that as my mother she could tell whoever she wanted because it was her problem too.aftet I asked to I could start hrt which I admittedly didn't phrase right late last year she told my uncle that I was trans and I really felt like I just lost control of my life ( my uncle just said that he loved me no matter what but still) . After going to a psychiatric day hospital for a week at the end of last year she told me to just "be a kid" and I choosed to leave it at that because I was scared of what would happen if I talked to her about trans stuff . Now here I am today , depression and having no idea how to move on and I really don't know what to do now.

I really wish conservatives didn't fucking exist. The only point of their existence is to make other people's more miserable. Like holy shit, these people are NEVER happy until everyone but them is dead. I cannot imagine being so fucking miserable 24/7 because I just cannot stand the idea that some minority somewhere is smiling and enjoying themselves with whimsical fun.
I log on twitter, have absolutely no right wing friends, and the first thing I see when opening the app is a bunch of fucking righties spewing hateful transphobia and homophobia and racism towards other trans, etc. friends of mine, for literally NO reason other than that they are happy and enjoying themselves or posting a selfie or something. Some random trans person makes a post about how silly it is that people are so upset about the new Minecraft music (it was made by a trans woman) and the comments are LITTERED with transphobia and racism that would make your grandmother faint. Like, the OP didn't even say anything hurtful or mean.
I see other trans people just posting selfies like "Just thought I looked cute!" and they're met with an absolute fucking SHITSTORM like they just killed someone's mother. Like holy SHIT, HOW are you THIS mad at someone being happy? WHAT the fuck did they do to you? I'm not even fucking trans and seeing this shit nonstop is pissing me off, I'm cis!! How can anyone enjoy life being this fucking angry at the whole world all the damn time? Don't they EVER get tired of being so angry all the time? What do they do for fun other than hate on random people? They alone are the sole reason so many people are still facing discrimination, why some people don't have the rights they need, conservatives are the SOLE roadblock to social progress, the roadblock to people being happy to express themselves in harmless ways. All for what? Because "Omg that's gross! I hate it when people who aren't normal exist!". I have trans friends coming to me and telling me that they feel suicidal sometimes because of all the fucking NONSTOP HARASSMENT for NO REASON but because they exist as trans. They are the reason people suffer. They are the reason people have to fight for acceptance. If you are conservative, you are the reason why so many people are miserable.
"Oh, but my God says it's wrong!" I'M FUCKING CHRISTIAN! I regularly attend a Catholic church weekly and go to confession semi weekly. I STILL don't see anywhere in the bible where it says we are required to tell every trans person "YWNBAW" or you'll go to hell. God's not going to fucking throw you in hell because you used someone's preferred fucking pronouns because you wanted to be respectful. He will understand that you want to be nice to people and spread love. My own fucking PRIEST respects LGBT people and their pronouns. These sorry shitbags have NO fucking excuse. It's nothing but pure unreasonable bigotry.
"B-B-B-BUT THINK OF THE KIDS! THEY'RE GROOMING CHILDREN!!" These shitbags don't give a FUCK about children when the child isn't their definition of "normal". Look at how they bully to suicide children who identify as gay or trans. You saw what they did to black children in the 1950's. Children are just their scapegoat to justify bigotry. Gender dysphoria is proven to be a real mental condition people are born with. If this is the case, then that means they have it through childhood, and since being dysphoric means you are trans, that means that TRANS CHILDREN ARE A REAL THING, and wanting to protect them from bigots who would otherwise bully them to death, and affirming their identity to lessen their dysphoric feelings, isn't fucking grooming, it's being a decent fucking person. Honestly I think they're projecting most of the time.
"But you're not trans! What do you care? Transphobia doesn't affect you!" because those are my fucking friends and I care about them. It's called having basic fucking compassion for your fellow human being, even if they aren't like you, a completely fucking foreign concept to conservatives. The world would be so much happier if conservatives didn't exist. I'm not implying we should kill them, I'm saying that mindset shouldn't exist. All of today's conservatives should become left wing. Conservatism is the ideology for people who are fucking stupid and don't know jack shit about anything. They were the fucking bullies of middle school who never grew out of that.
And they bitch about "left wing memes being too long", or say "Not reading all that" when you type something that's longer than 4 words, proving that they have fucking Tiktok attention span and are braindead stupid and illiterate. I read them all just fine. They're often quite educational, but conservatism is built around ignorance and a lack of education.
Tl;dr - I'm not even trans and all this transphobia from conservatives is really pissing me off.

Hey LSAT Community!
I hope everyone's LSAT prep is going smoothly! As I gear up for my LSAT journey once again, I wanted to extend a helping hand to anyone who might need it.
A little about me: I took an official LSAT over a year ago and scored a 165. Recently, I've started diving back into LSAT practice exams and consistently score in the 165-170 range. While I'm not claiming to be the best tutor out there, or even a particularly good one, I'm more than willing to share whatever insights and tips I've picked up along the way.
Ideally, I’d prefer that you reach out to me with specific questions you're struggling with, and I can try to help you reason through them and explain how I might approach them. I don’t think I can be of much assistance on Reading Comprehension, but I feel confident in my ability to lend a helping hand when it comes to Logical Reasoning or Logic Games.
Due to my schedule constraints, I can only meet or communicate virtually, typically in the evenings (Pacific Standard Time). Nonetheless, I will try to help, completely free of charge.
Whether you're struggling with a specific question type, need advice on time management, or just want someone to bounce ideas off of, feel free to reach out to me. LSAT prep can be a daunting journey, but having a supportive community can make all the difference.
Please reach out to me here with how I might be able to help and I will make sure we get in touch.
Looking forward to connecting with some of you soon!

I've been looking at [[Hand of Emrakul]] again recently because of one of the leaked cards makes Spawn tokens, and oh boy I love a good ol' early 7/7 Annihilator 1. I've been poking at a kinda crappy Gruul list that can very inconsistently pull off a T2 Hand (T1 [[Universal Automaton]], T2 [[Brood Birthing]], play Hand for its alternate cost). Some thoughts/questions for the Eldrazi freaks in the subreddit (you know who you are!):

1. Can you think of any better alternate game plans than "um, I have a couple Dread Returns that I might discard/mill over that can get back a Hand" (I've been thinking about replacing some of the Ash Barrens with landcyclers to power up that line, but who knows if that's worth it)? Should I go for something like [[Kaervek's Torch]] instead?
   
2. Can you think of any other cool tech cards like [[Bequeathal]] (which is something cool I found in an older "cheat out the HAND" list - it boils down to a "free" Draw Two if you cast it on a Spawn token)? I love that kind of nonsense.
   
3. Is RG the best color pair to be in? Red's pretty much required because of Brood Birthing and I feel like Green has some of the best "+1 Eldrazi Spawn" cards at MV 2 ([[Nest Invader]] + [[Masked Vandal]]), but I'll admit that I'm new to building this kind of deck. When it comes to other colors, Blue and Black both offer redundancy for the T2 Hand line thanks to having MV 1 Changelings ([[Changeling Outcast]] and [[Mothdust Changeling]]), but then you'd have to run [[Firebelly Changeling]] or [[Skeletal Changeling]] to keep the total Spawn Count the same, and those aren't terribly good cards. White isn't even really an option due to being lacking in terms of both Changelings and ways to make Spawn tokens, though now I'm imagining using [[Shields of Velis-Vel]] + Hand in White Weenie as weird juke, and the idea is bringing a janky smile to my face.
   
4. Am I approaching this the wrong way entirely?