I cannot seem to find a subreddit tcatering to English proficiency tests in general, thus I apologize if this query is tangential to IELTS at best.
11 years ago, I took the IELTS Academic as part of my option to study abroad (an option I didn't take - I entered a local medical school instead). My scores that time were Speaking 6.5 / Listening 9.0 / Reading 9.0 / Writing 8.0 / Overall 8.0. I obviously struggled with the Speaking section; I easily get anxious in situations where I have to speak and I know I'm being graded. For the Writing section, it was pen-and-paper back then and, even now, I write relatively slowly compared to my peers. I had to beat the clock and choose between being 90-100% correct or submitting an average, but complete, output. In retrospect, I am still also cognizant that, with the mentioned circumstances set aside, I need to prepare better particularly in these sections so I can reach a CEFR English C2 Level score.
Fast forward to the present, I don't think there is any significant change in my Speaking/Listening/Reading/Writing skills versus 11 years ago. I have also seen that most tests now offer computer-based option (which will definitely be a relief for the Writing section). With no intention to brag (and to simply lend credence that there is unlikely any significant change in my English skills), I have written research papers that have been published in non-predatory international medical journals without seeking editing help.
As I plan to study abroad in a few years, I would like to ask, based on your experiences, on the proficiency test brand that is most forgiving of errors in the Speaking section. The programs I am interested in accept the results of the four brands in my title. Thanks!

Hey LLMDevs, I published a new article where I built an observable semantic research paper application.
This is an extensive tutorial where I go in detail about:

1. Developing a RAG pipeline to process and retrieve the most relevant PDF documents from the arXiv API.
2. Developing a Chainlit driven web app with a Copilot for online paper retrieval.
3. Enhancing the app with LLM observability features from Literal AI.

You can read the article here: https://medium.com/towards-data-science/building-an-observable-arxiv-rag-chatbot-with-langchain-chainlit-and-literal-ai-9c345fcd1cd8
Code for the tutorial: https://github.com/tahreemrasul/semantic_research_engine

Hey llmops , I published a new article where I built an observable semantic research paper application.
This is an extensive tutorial where I go in detail about:

1. Developing a RAG pipeline to process and retrieve the most relevant PDF documents from the arXiv API.
2. Developing a Chainlit driven web app with a Copilot for online paper retrieval.
3. Enhancing the app with LLM observability features from Literal AI.

You can read the article here: https://medium.com/towards-data-science/building-an-observable-arxiv-rag-chatbot-with-langchain-chainlit-and-literal-ai-9c345fcd1cd8
Code for the tutorial: https://github.com/tahreemrasul/semantic_research_engine

Hey MachineLearning, I published a new article where I built an observable semantic research paper application.
This is an extensive tutorial where I go in detail about:

1. Developing a RAG pipeline to process and retrieve the most relevant PDF documents from the arXiv API.
2. Developing a Chainlit driven web app with a Copilot for online paper retrieval.
3. Enhancing the app with LLM observability features from Literal AI.

You can read the article here: https://medium.com/towards-data-science/building-an-observable-arxiv-rag-chatbot-with-langchain-chainlit-and-literal-ai-9c345fcd1cd8
Code for the tutorial: https://github.com/tahreemrasul/semantic_research_engine

I received a cold recruiter message in my email for a remote, Senior Customer Success manager position in the tech space, with salary offer of 60-65k USD. This is shockingly low even for a small company with the experience requirements they've outlined for the position. For reference, if you research, you'll find Senior CSMs are bringing in anywhere from 80-130k+ prior to any bonuses, etc. It is a remote position but their benefit offerings (they're not offering equity) are subpar for tech.
I'm not going to follow-up with interest because this would be a pay cut and terrible move for me but is it worth mentioning this to the recruiter, presenting figures on market rates, or is it totally pointless? I'm so sick of seeing long lists of experience requirements for positions with insultingly low pay rates. A smaller tech company will have you working ALL the time and the pay and benefits should match that effort.

Hi! First of all, sorry for my awkward English - not a native speaker. Also I tried to make it short, but maybe warning for a (slight) wall of text?
I’m taking a gap year from university to find a job due to family’s financial issues. Long story short, my parents made some bad business decisions and got scammed, which left us with an enormous amount of debt. I don't blame them one bit - we weren't exactly doing well before either, and I guess the insecurity sort of pushed them into taking unnecessary risks so that they could provide for us. Plus, I'm an adult now, and it should've been me taking care of them instead of the opposite.
The issue here is that, well, I’m sort of a loser. I’ve been searching and applying for jobs almost every day by now, but with little to no success. I could think of a few reasons why:

1. I’ve never worked a day in my life. It’s normal for where we live, but I understand it’s no excuse in this day and age. Now my CV is completely blank save for a few odd jobs I did here and there, and they don’t look very impressive on paper.
2. With the rise of AI and overall increase in literacy rate, my major (English) is oversaturated in the job market where I live. It didn’t help that I specialized in something rather useless unless you intend to go into academia (which was my intention before all this).
3. My biggest weakness so far: I have abysmal communication skills. I’ve been aware of this since I was 5, and been trying to improve ever since; but there's just always something others get that I don't, be it social cues or how to get my thoughts across clearly. It's part of the reason my parents never made me work - they just assumed, between this and my gift for studying, that the only viable pathway for me was to get as high a degree as possible and become a scholaresearcher etc. (old people's logic, but I'm ashamed to say I did believe in it, too). I did manage to score some interviews before, for jobs and scholarships, but I always failed at the talking part. I’ve taken to applying primarily to online jobs, but they get claimed fast, and hard to make good money if you aren't a highly desired professional.
4. Yes, I've tried construction/manual labor work. If the above description didn't make me look enough like a nerd before, I also have hereditary heart problems and seasonal allergy that was made worse by COVID-19. Plus, they don’t normally hire women where I live.

I'm just at a loss of what to do. I will continue to apply for jobs, of course, but the payments and bills and rent are eating up what little savings we have left - if I couldn't find a job by the end of this month, we might be homeless. I just feel so guilty because my parents put a lot of trust in me - I have always been their pride and joy, and now I can't even provide for them. My little brother is starting college this year, too. I don’t have enough time to learn a new employable skill (though I’ve been doing some free web design courses - they’re actually the most fun I’ve had these days), I don’t have money to start a business, and the banks won’t let us take out loans anymore - not even under my clean name, they screen backgrounds a lot more carefully since our economy’s in shambles and everyone's in need of help.
In short, I’m looking for advice on how to improve my employability, or some other ways to secure enough money, at least ~$400/month (converted rate) just to stay on top of our payments. Thanks for reading all this, I hope you have a great day.

As many of you may have read, there is a case of two missing adopted kids in North Carolina, where remains have been found. The news has reported that their adoptive “mother” is Avantae Deven.
I’m a curious person and started digging up information on Avantae Deven when I first read the story in my news feed and could not believe what I was reading. It seemed like whomever this woman is must have be using an alias; Avantae Deven is not a name like Kim Jones or Mackenzie Smith.
The more I dug, the weirder it seemed to get. I found a property deed to a place in Sedona, Arizona, and figured out that whomever this Avantae person is, she at one point in time had owned a home together with someone named Nicole Adams. So I dug into who Nicole Adams was, and learned that she was the widow of a spiritual leader named Robert Adams. It appeared to me that there would be no way to identify who Avantae really was, unless I could also identify the true identity of Robert Adams.
*******
I've done investigative work for many years, including skip tracing. I can conclusively state that there was absolutely no person actually named Robert Adams born in New York State on January 21, 1928. This is demonstrated by the New York Birth Index. I have combed the census records for 1930, 1940, and 1950, and cross-checked them against multiple databases, and am confident that nobody with the birth name of Robert Adams was born anywhere in the United States on January 21, 1928.
Moreover, there was absolutely no person with the true name of Robert Adams who died anywhere at all in the United States, let alone Sedona, Arizona, on March 2, 1997. This is demonstrated by the Social Security Death Index.
I began this research largely by performing exhaustive searches on the known addresses that are associated with Robert, his wife Leonie (who used to use the alias Nicole), and Avantae Deven (who turns out to be their daughter Michelle who began using the alias Avantae in the mid-1990’s or so). Most of the addresses are PO boxes. Those that are PO boxes are all *private* PO boxes, not PO boxes that one can rent from the United States Postal Service. To me, that spoke volumes. The family were clearly using aliases.
As I explain further below, I eventually determined that “Robert Adams” was Robert Spiegel, born 21 January 1932 in New York. “Nicole Adams” was actually Aileen Beverly Leonie Maxwell, born February 2, 1929, in Jamaica. “Avantae Deven” is actually their daughter, Michelle K. Spiegel, born on October 1, 1960, in California.
One of Robert’s many false stories about Robert’s life that my research has refuted is Robert’s claim that his mother was Jewish and his father was Catholic. That was a lie. Both of his parents were Jewish. It’s also interesting that he claimed that he was “raised Catholic.” There is absolutely nothing to suggest that. His mother always, in New York, lived in Jewish neighborhoods. Moreover, as will be discussed below, his parents had a Jewish wedding. It’s also downright absurd that he would tell people that he was “half Jewish.” If your mother’s Jewish, you are Jewish, pure and simple. Even if Robert’s father had truly been Catholic (which he wasn’t; his name was Samuel Spiegel and he immigrated to America in 1907, lived with his Jewish, Yiddish-speaking cousins, and spoke Yiddish himself), Robert would have been Jewish because the status of being a Jew comes from the mother. Robert’s mother’s name was Fannie (nee Fleisfeder) Spiegel. Fannie’s parents were Itzik Fleisfeder and Esther Libke (nee Rifkin) Fleisfeder. Esther’s parents were Mendel Rifkin and Sarah whose maiden name is lost to time and the disappearance of the shtetls. Robert’s claim to having had a Catholic father was utterly false, but is part and parcel of his ongoing compulsive daily lying about anything and everything.
Here is the story.
*******
Kolomyia, formerly known as Kolomea, is a city currently located in the Western Ukraine.
On January 21, 1892 (the same year that Kolomea tallis¹ workers went on strike for better pay and working conditions), Kolomea resident Rachel Katz, wife of Abraham Spiegel, gave birth to a son, who was given the name Schmuel.
On the date that Schmuel Spiegel entered the world, Kolomea was ruled by the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy, and almost half of the city’s residents were Jewish.
In June of 1907, fifteen-year-old Schmuel² boarded the Zeeland, which sailed from Antwerp, Belgium, arriving at New York Harbor on June 18, 1907. The ship’s manifest states that Schmuel’s father had paid for his transport, and that Schmuel intended to reside with his father, Abe, in Brooklyn. Schmuel was granted entrance, and took up residence with his cousin Charles Fetner, who resided at 353 Myrtle Avenue, Brooklyn, in Apartment A with his wife Jennie and their baby daughter Ettie. The sparse record that exists suggests that although Schmuel’s father was, indeed, named Abraham, Abraham lived and died in Europe, without immigrating to America.
The 1910 census describes Samuel’s cousin Charles as a carpenter, who had been married to housewife Jennie for six years, and a father of three children-- Ettie age four, Nathan age two, and baby Jacob, who was not even a year old. Eighteen-year-old Samuel was identified by profession as a “Foreman Sailmaker” in an industry described as “pocket-books.”
Three and a half years after being granted admission, on a bitterly cold winter day, January 4, 1911, Schmuel (now employed as a pocket-book maker, and having Anglicized his name to Samuel) signed and submitted his declaration to become a United States citizen. He stated, in that declaration, that he was born on January 21, 1892.
By 1915, Samuel had left his cousin’s abode and was residing as a lodger in the home of a widow named Rose Hammer, who lived with her two adolescent sons, Meyer and Louis, at 531 E. 5^th Avenue; Samuel was now working as a “driver.”
Two years after the 1915 state census was taken, Samuel had moved back to Myrtle Avenue, but this time at building no. 849. On June 15, 2017, Samuel registered for the draft, and described himself as being a pocketbook maker, working for “A. Shoenfeld,” at 101 Crosby Street, New York. He was single. He stated, in his draft registration, that he was born on January 21, 1892.
*******
A woman named Fruma Fleisfeder was born in Beltz, Bessarabia, sometime between July 1, 1893, and 1901, to Itzik Fleisfeder and Esther Lieba Rifkin. Fruma (not living up to her pious given name) provided different dates and years of birth to different authorities on different occasions, making it impossible at this point in time to know her true position in the birth order of her family. Regardless, Fruma, who began using the name Fanny upon her entrance to the United States, did have three brothers and a sister who also came to America-- Louis Fleisfeder who was born April 10, 1890, Max Irving Fleisfeder who used October 10, 1892 as his birthdate, Hersch (later known as Harry), whose official birthdate was December 15, 1901, and Sylvia who was born in approximately 1906.
On December 1, 1919, Fruma arrived in New York Harbor on the ship La Touraine, declaring her intention, at entry, to become a United States Citizen. The ship’s manifest describes her as five feet five inches tall, with fair hair, blue eyes, and a fair complexion. The ship’s manifest states that she was, at that time, age 24. If that were correct, she would have been born in 1895.
Fruma (then going by Fanny) took up residence with her cousin Ethel (nee Ruchlin) and Ethel’s husband Samuel Steinberg, on 15^th Street, Brooklyn. Soon thereafter, Ethel gave birth to her first child, a daughter named Theresa. The 1920 census states that Fanny was Russian, didn’t speak English but, rather, spoke Hebrew, and worked as a milliner in a millinery store. The 1920 census also states that Fanny was age 25, which lines up with her being age 24 in the prior year’s ship manifest.
*******
Sam and Fanny married in Manhattan on January 24, 1925. Their marriage certificate (signed by each of them) identifies Sam as being age 32 (contradicting, by one year, his immigration records which would have placed him at age 33), and identifies Fanny as age 24, the same age that she had claimed to be six years prior, and also contradicting an immigration petition that she would file two decades in the future, which generally placed her birth year at the mid-point of 1893.
If Fanny’s immigration records (which included a petition with her signature on it) were correct, Fanny would also have been age 32 as of her marriage to Samuel, not age 24.
So did Fanny lie in her marriage certificate? Or did she lie in her immigration petition?
The marriage certificate identifies Sam as having been born in Kolomea, Austria, and his father being Abraham, and his mother being Rachel Katz. It identifies Fanny as having been born in Beltz, Russia, to a father named Isaac, and to a mother named Esther Rifkin.
The marriage certificate does not identify Fanny as having any profession, but identifies Sam as being a pocketbook maker.
Sam and Fannie were married at 125 E. 4^th Street, Manhattan, a six-story apartment building with retail units on the ground floor that is now an expensive co-op, with three-bedroom units selling for over $900,000. Present-day real estate advertisements alternatively state that the building was built in 1894, 1903, and 1905.
The first name of the rabbi who officiated was Harry. His surname starts with Reid, but the remaining letters of his signature are illegible. Rabbi Harry identified his residence as 232 Broome Street, which, at the time, was a four-story mixed use building that, among other things, housed Chevrah Ahavath Zedek Anshei Jaskinover.
Witnesses to the marriage were Mayer Budmon and Samuel Steinberg.
*******
Sam and Fanny’s existence was documented next in the 1925 New York State census by census. They were living at 205 S. 2^nd Street. Samuel was still working as a “pocketbook maker.” Fanny was identified as a “housewife.”
Fanny was identified as age 25. This was in accordance with her age as stated on her marriage certificate, but not in accordance with her immigration documents or the 1920 census.
Sam was identified as being age 28, which conflicted with all prior records.
*******
In 1930, the couple were again enumerated, this time in the Federal census. The enumerator, whose signature appears to be “Max Krahn” (or something like that) stated that he obtained the information on April 16, 1930.
Sam was identified as a “framer” of pocketbooks. He was identified as being 36 years of age, which conflicts by two years with the age that he provided to immigration authorities. Perhaps the enumerator was simply sloppy; Samuel was also incorrectly identified in the 1930 census as having been born in “Poland,” with parents who were both also born in “Poland,” notwithstanding other governmental records having identified him as being Austrian. The language he spoke? “Jewish,” according to the enumerator. Was that to mean Hebrew? Yiddish? Both?
Fannie was identified as age 30 (directly in conflict with the information she supplied in her immigration petition, which bears her signature) and as being “Russian,” with parents born in “Russia.” The 1930 census enumerator incorrectly wrote that her year of immigration was 1921. Fannie, too, was identified by the enumerator as speaking the “Jewish” language.
Although later records reflected that Sam and Fannie had a son named Irving who was born in 1926, Irving was not recorded in the 1930 census. Was he missed by the enumerator? Or was he a later-adopted son?
The couple also had a boarder, identified by the 1930 enumerator as one Esther “Larson,” age 40, born in Russia, and similarly a speaker of the “Jewish” language.
*******
The New York Birth Index identifies a baby boy, Robert Spiegel, as one of many babies having been born in the city on January 21, 1932.
*******
On May 21, 1936, Samuel committed suicide by hanging in the family residence, a tenement apartment located at 1168 Union Avenue, in the Bronx. Although, based upon the date of birth that Samuel used for official governmental purposes he was age 44, the death certificate stated that he was age 43.
Fannie engaged the Gordon Funeral Home to prepare him for burial.
Strangely, although Samuel’s headstone accurately identified him in Hebrew as Schmuel Spiegel, son of Avraham, it inexplicably incorrectly stated that he died at age 40.
Fannie of course knew her husband’s real age; both of them signed the marriage certificate that had Samuel’s correct age listed. Furthermore, Samuel had petitioned for citizenship in 1911, and stated that his date of birth was January 18, 1892.
Why would Fannie commission a headstone with a false age? Perhaps she, like her son, was a compulsive liar. Maybe that’s where Robert got it from.
*******
The 1940 census has Fannie (identified as age 38), Robert (identified as age 8), and Fannie’s son/Robert’s brother, Irving Spiegel, age 13, as living with Fannie’s 72-year-old mother, Esther Fleisfeder, at 1537 Fulton Avenue, in the Bronx. Fannie and Esther were identified as widows. Esther was identified as “U” (unable to work), while Fannie was identified as engaged in housework. No source of income for the family was identified.
No explanation is obvious regarding where Irving was living in the census taken a decade previously. Was he adopted?
There is no “Irving Spiegel” listed in the New York Birth Index for either 1926 or 1927. There is an “Irving Spiegal” listed, who was born April 29, 1926. But he is not Irving Spiegel.
I initially thought that perhaps Irving might be one of the unnamed Baby Boy Spiegels born in New York in 1926 or 1927, and that he left the hospital unnamed because his parents were waiting for his bris before naming him. However, Robert left the hospital with the name Robert. Why wait until the bris to name one child, but not the other?
*******
Slightly less than two years after she was enumerated in the 1940 census, Fannie’s mother Esther died, at home, at 1537 Fulton Avenue. The causes of death were “Coronary Thrombosis, Pulmonary Oedema Nephritis, Hypertension, Arteriosclerosis.” Esther left this world on February 6, 1942, the same day that the W. L. Steed was torpedoed, shelled and sunk less than a hundred nautical miles east of the mouth of Delaware River by a German submarine.
She was buried at Mount Moriah Cemetery in Fairview, New Jersey, the same cemetery where her son-in-law Samuel was interred.
*******
On November 12, 1943, Fannie, now residing at 1985 Bathgate Avenue, in the Bronx, petitioned for citizenship. She claimed, in that document bearing her signature, to be fifty years of age, meaning that if she was telling the truth, she would have been born in approximately 1893.
*******
On January 19, 1948, Robert (having assumed a false date of birth, that being January 18, 1931), enlisted in the New York National Guard. On paper, he had turned age 17 the day before his enlistment. In reality, he would be turning age 16 two days after his enlistment.
On December 9, 1949, Robert was discharged from the national guard, apparently for having been AWOL.
The discharge document identifies his address as being 1985 Bathgate Avenue, New York City.
*******
The 1950 census places Robert again at 1985 Bathgate Avenue, New York City. It correctly identifies him as age 18, and states that he worked as a shipping clerk for a newspaper company.
According to the 1950 census, Robert resided at the Bathgate Avenue address with his mother Fannie, who was purportedly still age 50 (seven years after she had previously claimed to immigration authorities to be age 50), and Robert’s brother Irving, age 24.
Irving was listed as unemployed and moreover, according to the census record, had not worked for the prior year. Fannie was employed full-time as a milliner in a hat factory.
*******
Military records reflect that Irving J. Spiegel, born in 1926 and a resident of 1985 Bathgate Avenue, who had completed two years of high school education, had flown bomber planes over Germany during the war. In his military documents, Irving described himself as single, with two dependents.
*******
On February 2, 1929, a baby girl given the name Aileen Beverly Leone Maxwell was born in Lucea, Hanover, Jamaica, to William Maxwell and Daisy (nee Tibbits) Maxwell. Her birth was registered by her parents.
*******
In 1954, Robert Spiegel and Aileen Maxwell were married in New York City. Their marriage license was given License No. 10284.
*******
The following year, the Kingston, Jamaica, Gleaner reported on June 6, 1955:
Miss Leonie Maxwell, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. W. J. Maxwell, was married recently in New York City to Mr. Robert Spiegel of the U.S.A. Both the bride and groom are students at the New York Institute of Dietetics. The bride left the island nearly two years ago for New York. Her wedding gown was chantilly lace and nylon tulle. The bodice was fashioned with a wide, scalloped neckline and elbow-length sleeves. Her three tier skirt of chantilly lace was over pleated nylon tulle. Her fingertip-length veil was adorned with pearls.
*******
If the claim regarding the couple studying at the New York Institute of Dietetics was even true, their studies at this institution didn’t last long. In May of 1956, a number of advertisements bearing Robert’s photograph appeared in the Kingston, Jamaica Gleaner. The advertisements described Robert as a psychologist, author, lecturer, and “practitioner in auto suggestion,” and identified him as “Dr. J. Robert Spiegel.” Readers were invited to come meet Robert on May 21, 1956, at Record Plaza, where he would be autographing his “latest” “world-wide” 33 and 1/3 RPM record, “How to Stop Smoking in 7 days by Auto-Suggestion.”
*******
On May 1, 1959, three residents of 1985 Bathgate Avenue, Bronx, New York, came through customs, having returned from a trip to Jamaica. They identified themselves as “Robert D. Spiegel” born in New York (in addition to giving himself a false middle initial, Robert neglected to complete the I-94-A fully, specifically by leaving his birthdate blank), “Leonie A. Spiegel” born in Jamaica on February 2, 1929, and their minor daughter, and “Sharon S. Spiegel,” born in New York. Someone also neglected to fully complete Sharon’s I-94-A, specifically by leaving her birthdate blank.
*******
Leonie had taken Sharon to Jamaica two years earlier. There are no publicly available records pertaining to their outbound transport from the United States to Jamaica. There is, however, a record pertaining to their return to the United States. That publicly available record does not provide their address, but Sharon is identified as weighing 1 stone 5 pounds (a total of 19 pounds), and Leonie is identified as weighing six stone 5 pounds (89 pounds). Interestingly, Leonie used the name “Aileen Spiegel,” and the records assert that Aileen has no middle initial. Aileen was / is her true legal first name, but it is a lie to say that she has no middle initial.
*******
Almost two years later, on January 5, 1958, the Kingston, Jamaica Gleaner reported:
Staying at the Tamarind Hotel are Mr. and Mrs. Bob Spiegel and daughter Sharon of Miami, Florida. Mrs. Spiegel is the former Leonie Maxwell, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. W. J. Maxwell of Lucea and has been in the United States for several years. A welcome party in their honour was given last Saturday night by Messers. Horrace, Ray, and Dennis Maxwell, brothers of Mrs. Spiegel. It was a very enjoyable affair.
*******
In 1963, roughly five years after their 1958 visit to Jamaica, Leonie petitioned for naturalization, in Louisiana. Although I am in possession of the index showing that she petitioned in 1963, I do not possess the petition itself. However, the fact that she petitioned for naturalization in Louisiana demonstrates that that at least she was residing in Louisiana at the time. Since she stated that she didn’t leave Robert’s side for over 40 years, presumably Robert, young Sharon, and also baby Michelle were living in Louisiana at that time.
*******
People who knew Robert personally relate that he stated that Leonie was a Cayman Island heiress. She wasn’t. Not only was she not born in the Cayman Islands, Leonie’s father’s estate was litigated (with the judge ruling against her) long before Robert started telling people that his wife was a Cayman Islands heiress.
Leonie’s father did leave an estate, but not to her. On November 9, 1967, the Gleaner reported that the Supreme Court had upheld the will of the late William Josiah Maxwell, the father of Horrace, Ray, Dennis, and Leonie, and the husband of Daisy Maxwell, who had contended that William’s signature was a forgery and that the person to whom his estate had been bequeathed had exercised undue influence. The court disagreed. The article reported:
The estate, which one of the executors described as “a sizeable one,” included 112 acres of land at Paradise and three houses at Lucea, Hanover.
*******
Robert apparently wasn’t banking on Leonie’s inheritance in any event. In May of 1966, advertisements appeared in the Houston Chronicle with Robert’s photo on them, selling a record that would purportedly assist people in stopping smoking in seven days. He identified himself as “Dr. J. Robert Spiegel.”
*******
On page 55 of the November 15, 1969, San Antonio, Texas Express and News, was an advertisement stating:
SCIENCE OF THE MIND
Dr. J. Robert Spiegel of Houston, director and founder of the Science of the Mind Foundation there, is conducting Sunday evening meetings at 7:30 p.m. in the Sheraton Inn, 1400 Austin Hwy.
*******
On page 4 of the July 10, 1970 edition of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram was a photograph of Robert, with a brief local news blurb:
GUEST – Dr. J Robert Spiegel of Houston, Science of Mind Foundation director, will speak at the 10:45 a.m. service tomorrow in First Church of Religious Science, 2001 6^th Ave. His subject is “What Religious Science Teaches.”
*******
On page 8 of the June 18, 1970 edition of the Houston Daily Cougar was this advertisement:
HOME OF UNIVERSAL LIFE
“Teaching Aquarian Meditation For The New Age
Meets Every Sunday, 11:00 A.M. At The World Trade Center Auditorium
Houston, Texas
DR. J. ROBERT SPIEGEL (BRAHMADANDA) DIRECTOR - FOUNDER
Aquarian Meditation Initiation for the first time offered through correspondence. For those sincere students wishing to bypass evolution and enter the 5th Kingdom. Initiation includes meditation technique, Mantra, how to "live” 24 hours a day, and much more. Write for application today:
P.O. Box 53328 Houston, Texas 052
*******
From the Galveston Daily News, May 02, 1971, Pg. 31:
AQUARIAN MEDITATION SOCIETY PRESENTS DR. J. ROBERT SPIEGEL AN AUTHOR, LECTURER, TEACHER OF YOGA & SELF DEVELOPMENT WILL SPEAK ON MAN, MIND & THE UNIVERSE WEDNESDAY, MAY 5th AT 7:30 P.M. IN THE RECREATION CENTER HARRIS COUNTY PARK, NASA RD. # 1 ALL WELCOME — DONATION $1.50
*******
The 1972 Spiritual Community Guide lists Robert twice, in the San Diego area. First, on page 117, using his alias “J. Robert Spiegel”:
THE TEMPLE OF METAPHYSICAL ABUNDANCE. J. Robert Spiegel, 1118 Torrey Pines Rd., 92037. Teaches yoga, nutrition, ESP, metaphysics, psychology, mind control
Second, on page 124, in which he, as one might have predicted, was masquerading as some sort of medical man or scholar:
"AQUARIAN MEDITATION SOCIETY, U. S. Grant Hotel, Attn: Dr. Robert Spiegel, 453-7588"
*******
Also in 1972, Volume 25 of San Diego Magazine published in November advertised gift certificates for the “Astrology Research Center.” “Give your loved one the gift of love. Only $50” said the advertisement. Where was this entity located? At 1118 Torrey Pines Road, the same address as Robert’s Temple of Metaphysical Abundance. The advertisement purported that person identified as “Lil Canaan” was the director. The telephone number was 459-6400.
In 2013, the San Diego Union Tribune published the obituary for Lillian Mulonas, who founded the La Jolla “Astrology Research Center.” At this point in time, unless Robert Adams’ only surviving daughter, Michelle/ Prentiss/ Avantae knows the answer and talks, we will not know what relationship, if any, existed between Robert’s Temple of Metaphysical Abundance and Lilian’s Astrology Research Center, both of which were located at 1118 Torrey Pines Road in 1972.
*******
From the July 12, 1973, San Diego Reader:
BRAHMADANDA FOUNDATION
“Teachings of the Cosmic Way” meets Sundays, 11:00 a.m., U.S. Grant Hotel, Crystal Room. Free admission, refreshments served. Call 453-7588 for more information.
*******
On page 51 of the June 29, 1974 edition of Phoenix’s Arizona Republic was the following advertisement:
Speaker from San Diego
Dr. J. Robert Spiegel from San Diego, a traveler and lecturer, will speak at 8 p.m., Friday in Universal Series Center, 4340 N. Seventh Ave., on the topic “Science of Being.”
He is the founder of the “Aquarian Meditation Society” in Jamaica and is founder and publisher of “Equinox,” a philosophical newspaper.
*******
The family (Adams or Spiegel, however one might want to refer to them) have resided in (that I know of) New York, Miami, Jamaica, Louisiana, La Jolla, Los Angeles, Houston, New Mexico, Hawaii, Las Vegas, Scottsdale, Sedona, and a number of cities in North Carolina.
*******
In at least the 1990’s, before he left for Sedona, Robert Adams used the address PO Box 7210, Jordan Avenue, D-30, Canoga Park, CA. He used that address on correspondence he wrote, and on at least one published document. Who else used that address? The data aggregators show that this address was also used by a Michelle K. Spiegel, and a person going by the name Leonie Maxwell. Michelle and Leonie also used other addresses associated with Robert, those being 1815 Willis Avenue Panorama City, and 21551 Burbank Boulevard, Woodland Hills.
*******
The California Birth Index shows that Michelle K. Spiegel was born on October 1, 1960, in Los Angeles County, to a mother with the maiden name Maxwell.
*******
In later life, Michelle used the addresses above that are associated with Robert and Leonie, as well as an address of 12004 Vanowen Street #14, North Hollywood. This is the same address at which Denniston Keith Maxwell, one of Leonie’s younger brothers, resided at, after his immigration to the United States. Denniston was one of Michelle’s uncles.
In a recent Facebook posting, Michelle/Avantae stated: “Never knew anything personal about said uncles, etc. Never asked, never cared.” Really? She shared an address with an uncle? Her uncle lived within a few minutes’ drive from her parents, and Michelle/Avantae never knew anything about him?
As an aside, Michelle/Avantae alleged (or admitted) that she “never cared” about anything personal regarding her uncles. If that is true, what does that tell us about Michelle/Avantae’s fundamental character? Antisocial? Psychopathic? Narcissistic in the extreme?
*******
On August 2, 1996, Michelle, going by the name Avantae E. Deven, married Tyson Ruben Alvarez in Las Vegas. The two had addresses in common in Arizona, Nevada, and Montana.
*******
Robert “Adams” died on or about March 2, 1997, in Sedona, Arizona.
Shortly after that, in the spring of 1997, “Nicole Adams” and “Avantae Deven” (both aliases; the correct legal names are Aileen Beverly Leonie Spiegel and Michelle K. Spiegel) purchased a home together in Sedona, on Navahopi Road. Shortly after the purchase, “Nicole” quit-claimed her portion to “Avantae.”
On July 17, 2001, Tyson, still married to “Avantae,” quit-claimed any interest in the Navahopi property to “Avantae,” and had the county recorder send the deed to “Avantae” in care of the Infinity Institute, at that time located at 9101 W. Sahara Ave. Suite 105 C29 (in other words, a private post box), in Las Vegas.
Avantae divorced Tyson in 2006. She had, by then, moved to North Carolina. She “served” Tyson via publication summons, claiming that she was unable to find him, despite his information being on multiple data aggregators.
You can go to various Facebook groups, and other sources, to pull up the documents that people have uncovered showing who is associated with the "Infinity Institute," and in what fashion, and also the addresses that they have used over the years.
In any event, this is the information regarding Robert that I think that people need to be aware of.
Why turn to a known liar and con man for spiritual guidance?
1A tallis is a prayer shawl.
2The ship’s manifest states that he was age 14, which conflicts by one year with what Samuel identified as his date of birth. These errors are not uncommon; his fare could have been purchased when he was age 14 and the records not updated.

Hey ChatGPTCoding, I published a new article where I built an observable semantic research paper application.
This is an extensive tutorial where I go in detail about:

1. Developing a RAG pipeline to process and retrieve the most relevant PDF documents from the arXiv API.
2. Developing a Chainlit driven web app with a Copilot for online paper retrieval.
3. Enhancing the app with LLM observability features from Literal AI.

You can read the article here: https://medium.com/towards-data-science/building-an-observable-arxiv-rag-chatbot-with-langchain-chainlit-and-literal-ai-9c345fcd1cd8
Code for the tutorial: https://github.com/tahreemrasul/semantic_research_engine

Im an indian student planning to write a research paper. But i dont know ehre to publish it once it is finished.

Hello!
I'm conducting a research for my dissertation paper regarding people who work in IT. I would very much appreciate if you could take the time to complete the next form: https://forms.gle/s2Nzb9T6Nmvnpmio7!
Thank you in advance for your answer!

DISCLAIMER:
I'm not educated in Arabic and I am not knowledgable in Hadith and Quranic terminology espescially Hadith sciences, and thus may provide inaccurate information that will NOT affect the overall meaning of the message, hopefully lol.
For the sake of brevity, I'll gloss over a lot of these terms and may misrepresent them. Please forgive me if I speak in error.
This post is basically a mangled summary of this wonderful paper, Before Orthodoxy: The Satanic Verses in Early Islam by Dr Shahab Ahmed. My post will NOT do this extremely detailed paper any justice. If you'd like to read it yourself in full, please DM me as I have the link to the book.

What is the Satanic Verses incident?

There's so many reports around it but the gist is that Muhammad pbuh reveals a a set of verses to tribes people that allows the worship of the polytheistic gods of Mecca in the agreement that these tribes people will eventually join Islam and forgo these Gods.
P:290 "The Prophet is remembered as consciously considering a temporary compromise with polytheism. He contemplates allowing Thaqīf to continue worshipping al-Lāt and al-‘Uzzā for a year as part of the terms of a negotiated agreement through which they will ultimately accept Islam. Thaqīf suggest to him that he make Divine Revelation the instrument by which to justify his concession."
Moreover, the early Muslims also believed that verses like Surah Al-Hajj 52-53 were in response to this incident where Allah rebukes Muhammad but also comforts him as if it was a natural part of the prophethood:
22:52
وَمَآ أَرْسَلْنَا مِن قَبْلِكَ مِن رَّسُولٍۢ وَلَا نَبِىٍّ إِلَّآ إِذَا تَمَنَّىٰٓ أَلْقَى ٱلشَّيْطَـٰنُ فِىٓ أُمْنِيَّتِهِۦ فَيَنسَخُ ٱللَّهُ مَا يُلْقِى ٱلشَّيْطَـٰنُ ثُمَّ يُحْكِمُ ٱللَّهُ ءَايَـٰتِهِۦ ۗ وَٱللَّهُ عَلِيمٌ حَكِيمٌۭ ٥٢
Whenever We sent a messenger or a prophet before you and he recited, Satan would influence his recitation. But Allah would eliminate Satan’s influence. Then Allah would establish His revelations. And Allah is All-Knowing, All-Wise.
Obviously, the early Muslims didn't believe these verses eventually made it into the Quran since Allah has rebuked it.

Did the early Muslims believe it?

The paper basically goes in extremely thorough detail on why early Muslims believed it and it was infact a major part of their understanding of the Prophet. I frankly couldn't understand his methodology cos I'm TERRIBLE at hadith, tafsir transmission and what not (very new to this) so I suggest you look through the paper where Dr Shahab proves beyond reasonable doubt that the early Muslims did indeed believe in this incident.

Why did early Muslims believe it, and why did Muslims after them reject the incident?

Okay so this is the really really interesting part in my opinion. Dr Shahab basically states that the concept of infalliblity proscribed to Muhammad was actually a concept that developed with the development of Hadiths. For early Muslims, Muhammad was actually seen as a fallible figure and that the satanic verses incident was entirely consonant with their world view. Similar to the stories of Yusuf where he resited the temptation of Zulaykhah or when Adam disobeyed his Lord and approached the tree. Dr Shahab writes about this here:
“The sīrah- maghāzī project thus had no need of an infallible Prophetic model for pious mimesis: there is little drama to be had from a hero who never makes mistakes. Drama arises when there is the possibility of things going wrong, of defeat, of failure, when events must be out- witted and setbacks overcome. This is precisely what happens in the Satanic verses incident.”

So why did Muslims later on reject these Satanic Verses?

Firstly, the hadith sciences that they had developed basically evaluated almost all of these hadiths as weaks. More importantly, and this is the REALLY INTERESTING part, the image of a fallible prophet who could succumb to the pressure of Satan and basically peer pressure didn't fit with their idea of the prophet espescially at a time when they were deriving laws from the actions of Muhammad pbuh. Dr Shahab excellently summarizes this view here: “In rejecting the Satanic verses incident, the Ḥadīth project—emerging with increasing force and definition from the mid-second century onward was disapprovingly at odds with the early understanding of Muḥammad’s Prophethood. The logic of the Ḥadīth project required an infallible Prophet whose words and deeds would lay down legal, praxial, and creedal norms for pious mimesis, as a definitive method by which to establish the veracity and authority of those prescribed norms. It is that logic, and that notion of Prophethood, that would later establish itself as Islamic orthodoxy.”

So did the Satanic Verses incident actually happen???

As to the actual historicity of this event, Dr Shahab Ahmed says that orientalist scholars in the past have generally taken this Satanic verses incident to be true BECAUSE early muslims accepted it despite it running contrary to their idea of an infallible Muhammad pbuh, HOWEVER in sight of how early Muslims actually viewed Muhammad pbuh as a person struggling with prophethood this argument does not have strong merit as there is presumably no reason why early Muslims could not have made it up.

Lessons to be drawn from this research (imo):

1. Muhammad was not infallible. He was a remarkable person who was a great moral character but NO he did make mistakes. This infallibility prescribed to him was a later invention!
2. Hadiths, Tafsir, Sirah or ANY Islamic materials outside of the Quran all reflect the biases and perceptions of Muslims of their time. Only treat Quran - the word of Allah as infallible!

2.3.5 Controversial views and perceptions of the clinical picture of MCAS
2.3.5.1 Alternative diagnostic criteria ("Consensus-2")
In 2011, the group of authors led by Gerald Molderings from the Institute for Human Genetics at the University Hospital Bonn and Lawrence Afrin published their own approach to the diagnosis of MCAS (51). In contrast to the diagnostic criteria of Valent et al. (1), the focus here is more on clinical symptoms. In 2016, Afrin et al. published a list of the most common symptoms that could indicate MCAS (52). Furthermore a questionnaire was developed and published on a website (53), after the answers to which the suspected diagnosis of MCAS could be supported or ruled out depending on the scores obtained. In a recently published publication, the working group referred to their diagnostic criteria as "Consensus-2" and compared and discussed them with the criteria of Valent et al. from 2016 (so-called "Consensus-1") (51). An important difference to the criteria Valent et al. 2016, the authors consider the symptoms not only as the main main criterion, but also a much wider range of previously unexplained symptoms (111 unexplained symptoms (111 possible symptoms (44)) as the most important indication of a a mast cell-mediated cause (14 symptoms in Valent et al. (1)). As The diagnosis of MCAS is considered confirmed if the main criterion is present together with a secondary criterion and possible alternative diagnoses have been excluded. The secondary criteria, in turn, are based on observations made at the time of the 500 people with suspected MCAS at the time of the first publication (44). Further differences between the two consensuses can be found in the laboratory parameters to be determined. For example, the researchers from different disciplines, which according to their own statements can draw on a wealth of experience of of over 10,000 MCAS patients (diagnosed according to their own criteria, nota bene), consider CgA to be specific for mast cells in addition to tryptase, among other things (44). The counterargument of the lower specificity compared to serum tryptase is granted a certain validity in the addendum to the "Consensus-2" published in 2020 (44), however the differential diagnoses with elevated CgA values should be easy to rule out and other markers are also never 100% specific. However, another group was already able to show in 2017 that CgA should not be used as a marker for mast cell disease(49). Furthermore the group of authors of the "Consensus-2" counts heparin as an important marker for MCAS, which should be determined after venous congestion using a blood pressure cuff (54). This maneuver was reported to cause irritation of excessively activatable mast cells with release of heparin in the congested area. Interestingly, the following section mentions markers such as IL-6 or tumor necrosis factor (TNF) which, due to their lack of specificity, are not used in diagnostics, but only in the evaluation of a successful therapy. The authors of "Consensus-2" criticize "Consensus-1" for, among other things the lack of definitions for a treatment response, whereby the "Consensus-2 does not provide any concrete proposals for evaluating or monitoring the response to therapy. Another point of criticism is the lack of exclusion of other comorbidities or differential diagnoses, such as CFS, EDS and irritable bowel syndrome, as clinical indications of MCAS. [...] In return, the AAAAI expressly points out that there is no evidence to date of a connection between CFS or EDS and MCAS. Overall, the clinical picture of MCAS is so complex and heterogeneous that a precise definition of a diagnostic algorithm is not possible at the present time. Molderings et al. therefore propose the acceptance of both the "Consensus1" according to Valent et al. and their "Consensus-2" until more precise findings are available through research. The resulting disadvantages, such as the the poorer comparability of patient populations in scientific studies would weigh less heavily than those resulting from the rejection of "Consensus-2" (an underdiagnosis due to criteria that are too restrictive according to the authors). On the other hand, the large number of non-specific complaints that are supposedly associated with MCAS harbors the risk of inflationary diagnosis.
2.3.5.2 Presentation in the lay press
An expansion of the MCAS definition with the use of non-validated clinical and laboratory chemical parameters for diagnosis is frequently found in the lay media, above all on websites, but also in the specialist literature. Increasingly, patients with (suspected) MCAS are organizing themselves with commitment and are increasingly organizing themselves into interest groups such as MCAS Hope e.V., which campaigns for the recognition of MCAS "as an independent disease". In addition They also network those affected and their relatives and carry out public relations work, which aims to make the clinical picture known to a broader public. This expansion of the diagnostic criteria described above increases the risk of a misdiagnosis of MCAS and overlooking the underlying disease, which may be easily treatable. On the other hand, such an erroneous diagnosis can also lead to the use of unnecessary or potentially harmful therapies for MCAS and supposed comorbidities (20). Shortly after publication of the review paper "Doctor, I Think I Am Suffering from MCAS: Differential Diagnosis and Separating Facts from Fiction" by Valent et al. a self claimed affected person started an online petition in which she demands the authors and the publishing Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology to remove the article (55). Among other things, they criticize the criterion of the tryptase increase, which is too harsh and would therefore prevent many patients from being diagnosed. The clinic also does not typically manifest as anaphylaxis, contrary to what is described in the paper, since mediator release in anaphylactic degranulation differs from that in piecemeal degranulation. Finally, the author of the petition, who sees herself as a "patient spokesperson", reports on personal experiences of frustration and feelings of frustration and rejection that were conveyed to her by doctors in the course of her medical history. The petition has so far reached just under 3,000 of the targeted 5,000 digital signatures (as of December 2020) and shows in particular how emotional the issue of the topic of MCAS is being observed and discussed not only in professional circles, but also among patients. Apparently, some patients find the diagnosis of MCAS to be the last explanation for their multiple non-specific symptoms and hope for more acceptance in scientific circles.
2.3.5.3 Difficulties in making a diagnosis
In recent years, despite the existence of consensus criteria, a (suspected) diagnosis is often made in practice, even though these criteria are insufficiently fulfilled. In some cases, the MCAS diagnosis is also increasingly used for otherwise inexplicable conditions that cannot otherwise be explained. The evaluation of symptoms without a known direct connection with the release of mast cell mediators, for example from the neurological or psychiatric spectrum, as a manifestation of the disease leads to a further dilution of the MCAS diagnosis (43). In the "Bonn" questionnaire, the vast majority of the items asked are not based on the consensus criteria formulated by Valent et al. for example they see the sonographic evidence of an enlarged liver as an indication of the disease (53). The measurement of a tryptase elevation in acute relapse, as required by the diagnostic criteria is difficult to implement in practice, whether for reasons of time, capacity or billing. Targeted therapy trials with maximum specificity with regard to all possible decisive mediators are not possible without prior measurement of urinary metabolites and, in the absence of criteria or measuring instruments often do not produce satisfactory results (43). Last but not least, the wide range of possible differential diagnoses, such as for example from the endocrinological, neurological, psychiatric or cardiovascular area, further complicates the diagnosis (43).
Translated with deep.l
https://refubium.fu-berlin.de/bitstream/handle/fub188/32749/diss_s.gu.pdf;jsessionid=A575C43E11977D2F576404BF69D6469C?sequence=3

Has anybody worked and studied about V2g then suggest me some good research paper and clarify it too. I want to know how does it help in Demand Side Management and do some research on it. If anyone else is interested and have some knowledge about it then they can message me and we will collaborate if our interests matches

My P.I. wants us to publish our paper in the Florida Undergraduate Research Journal (FURJ). I don't think this is considered high impact, so what is? Is it worth the effort of talking to her about publishing in a different journal?

I have been given a task to :
Research & modify where required (or create from scratch) a training script that can train the model in the provided repository. Finally you should package this training application into a container and deploy in a cloud environment of your choice for 3 use cases: -distributed training -hyperparameter tuning -training pipeline
all for Mamba State Space Model. Can anyone guide me how to start working with this? I have also gone through Albert Gu and Tri Dao's paper. I need implementation ( I am a newbie , pls be kind )
I hope this isn't a generic question. Please DM me if youre experienced in this or ML in general :)

Let's start by stating:
"People don't buy products. They buy emotions"
"95% of our purchasing decisions are emotional" -Harvard Business School
The real WHY of WHY PEOPLE BUY is often hidden deep in psychology in the unconscious parts of our brains.
Marketing tools are just the tools to influence the human psyche in one way or another, with psychology in its core.
I play with behavioral science (psychology in marketing) on a daily basis, so I thought I will share 10 cognitive biases (mental shortcuts) here, so you can implement them in your business today to make a few extra bucks:

1. Risk Compensation Theory

People adjust their behavior based on perceived risk.
The less “risky” you make doing business with you, the higher your conversions.
🧠 Make it less risky

• Offer guarantees
• Outline a clear refund/return policy
• Give a lot of social proof to reduce perceived risk

​

2. Labour Illusion

People value things more when they see the work behind them.
"Effort is the universal currency of respect"
🧠 BUILD IN PUBLIC
Constantly showcasing your startup journey, its ups & downs, and the new features you added to your products or services creates the perception there's a lot of work put into your business.
Long waiting periods for service are unavoidable?
Show your process. Educate your client on the craft performed during that period.
Do you use any unusual material in your product? New, creative production process?
Educate with a few extra words
​

3. Life Event Effect

People are more likely to change their habits during a major life event
In fact, those who have undergone a major life event are 3 times more likely to switch brands
🧠How to use it?
Identify the life event most relevant to your category.
Then use ads. Facebook lets you target people when they move to a new house, end a relationship, start a new job, or start university.
Major life events shake up purchasing behavior.
​

4. Storytelling Effect

People prefer and better remember stories than facts alone
Watching, listening, hearing, or reading a story activates the same regions of the brain as those engaged when actually performing these actions in real life.
🧠 Don't show your product. Tell a story
"The most powerful person is the storyteller." - Steve Jobs
Research - Rob Walker story:

• In 2009, Rob Walker bought 200 objects from eBay for a total sum of $129.
• He then asked 200 authors to create a story for each object.
• Rob then sold those 200 objects with included stories on eBay again.
• He sold them for $8000.
• That's a 6202% increase in value.

​

5. Pratfall Effect

A simple blunder or mistake of a person can improve the attractiveness or likability of that person
The same goes for a brand.
But here's the catch...
Your brand needs to be well-perceived in the first place.
Admitting to your flaws, when your brand is perceived as not reliable, only makes things worse.
🧠Be vulnerable
• Embrace your imperfections
VW Beetle campaign in the 1950s and 60s
At that time American cars were supposed to be big, and stylish, not small and ugly. Yet the VW Beetle became a massive hit from its brilliant advertising campaigns.
The campaign addressed everything typical American consumers didn’t like about the beetle.
With headlines like:

• "Lemon",
• "One of the nice things about owning it is selling it",
• "And if you run out of gas, it’s easy to push",
• "Nobody’s perfect",
• or "Live below your means".

​

6. Foot-In-The-Door Technique

People are more likely to agree to a large request by agreeing to a small one first
Upsell whenever you can, but in a friendly, not pushy manner
🧠The easiest upsells

• Sell more of what you just offered them
• Sell something better than what you just offered them
• Sell something complimentary

​

7. Inaction Inertia Effect

When missing an offer once you are likely to miss an offer twice
When people see that you're giving big discounts frivolously every month or week, they tend to ignore them after a while.
The perceived value of your product lowers with each discount
🧠Strategize your discounts
Short-term gains are cool, but have you ever implemented a long-term pricing strategy?
• Every person is different.
Create an email sequence that will split your contacts into specific groups.
Then customize the discounts for each group
​

8. Stepping Stones

Any task you want your customers to do, needs to be broken down into smaller, attainable steps, otherwise, a person will get discouraged
🧠Viral refferal program
When creating a referral program the most important reward is the first one.
The first reward has to be both achievable and attractive to motivate people to participate.
Harry's referral program collected 100k emails within a week, using this prize scheme:

• 5 users referred - Shave cream
• 10 users - Truman Handle Blade - Razor blade
• 25 users - Winston Shave set - Premium Handle
• 50 - One year free blades

9. Decoy Effect

People change their preference between two options when presented with a third option (the decoy) that is “asymmetrically dominated”
🧠 3-tiered pricing pricing explained
• 1 price = 2 choices: to buy or not
• 2 prices = 3 choices: buy the cheaper one, the more expensive one, or not buy
• By adding the third price, a much more expensive one, now the second price (the previous expensive one) looks like a bargain
​
​

10. Default Effect

People tend to accept what we are given and stick with what we have
When a company or brand makes a particular option the default or standard option, it is more likely that people will choose that option over other options that are presented.
When we are not sure what to do and lack expertise in the area we consider the default as a form of advice and we stick to that.
🧠Make the usual no-brainer offer the default option
A large national railroad in Europe increased its annual revenue by an estimated $40 million by changing its website to automatically include seat reservations unless customers explicitly opted out.
Prior to the change, only 9% of tickets sold included reservations, but after the change, 47% of tickets sold included reservations.
---------------------------------------------------
That's it

Let's start by stating:
"People don't buy products. They buy emotions"
"95% of our purchasing decisions are emotional" -Harvard Business School
The real WHY of WHY PEOPLE BUY is often hidden deep in psychology in the unconscious parts of our brains.
Marketing tools are just the tools to influence the human psyche in one way or another, with psychology in its core.
I play with behavioral science (psychology in marketing) on a daily basis, so I thought I would share 10 cognitive biases (mental shortcuts) here, so you can implement them in your business today to make a few extra bucks:

1. Risk Compensation Theory

People adjust their behavior based on perceived risk.
The less “risky” you make doing business with you, the higher your conversions.
🧠 Make it less risky

• Offer guarantees
• Outline a clear refund/return policy
• Give a lot of social proof to reduce perceived risk

​

2. Labour Illusion

People value things more when they see the work behind them.
"Effort is the universal currency of respect"
🧠 BUILD IN PUBLIC
Constantly showcasing your startup journey, its ups & downs, and the new features you added to your products or services creates the perception there's a lot of work put into your business.
Long waiting periods for service are unavoidable?
Show your process. Educate your client on the craft performed during that period.
Do you use any unusual material in your product? New, creative production process?
Educate with a few extra words
​

3. Life Event Effect

People are more likely to change their habits during a major life event
In fact, those who have undergone a major life event are 3 times more likely to switch brands
🧠How to use it?
Identify the life event most relevant to your category.
Then use ads. Facebook lets you target people when they move to a new house, end a relationship, start a new job, or start university.
Major life events shake up purchasing behavior.
​

4. Storytelling Effect

People prefer and better remember stories than facts alone
Watching, listening, hearing, or reading a story activates the same regions of the brain as those engaged when actually performing these actions in real life.
🧠 Don't show your product. Tell a story
"The most powerful person is the storyteller." - Steve Jobs
Research - Rob Walker story:

• In 2009, Rob Walker bought 200 objects from eBay for a total sum of $129.
• He then asked 200 authors to create a story for each object.
• Rob then sold those 200 objects with included stories on eBay again.
• He sold them for $8000.
• That's a 6202% increase in value.

​

5. Pratfall Effect

A simple blunder or mistake of a person can improve the attractiveness or likability of that person
The same goes for a brand.
But here's the catch...
Your brand needs to be well-perceived in the first place.
Admitting to your flaws, when your brand is perceived as not reliable, only makes things worse.
🧠Be vulnerable
• Embrace your imperfections
VW Beetle campaign in the 1950s and 60s
At that time American cars were supposed to be big, and stylish, not small and ugly. Yet the VW Beetle became a massive hit from its brilliant advertising campaigns.
The campaign addressed everything typical American consumers didn’t like about the beetle.
With headlines like:

• "Lemon",
• "One of the nice things about owning it is selling it",
• "And if you run out of gas, it’s easy to push",
• "Nobody’s perfect",
• or "Live below your means".

​

6. Foot-In-The-Door Technique

People are more likely to agree to a large request by agreeing to a small one first
Upsell whenever you can, but in a friendly, not pushy manner
🧠The easiest upsells

• Sell more of what you just offered them
• Sell something better than what you just offered them
• Sell something complimentary

​

7. Inaction Inertia Effect

When missing an offer once you are likely to miss an offer twice
When people see that you're giving big discounts frivolously every month or week, they tend to ignore them after a while.
The perceived value of your product lowers with each discount
🧠Strategize your discounts
Short-term gains are cool, but have you ever implemented a long-term pricing strategy?
• Every person is different.
Create an email sequence that will split your contacts into specific groups.
Then customize the discounts for each group
​

8. Stepping Stones

Any task you want your customers to do, needs to be broken down into smaller, attainable steps, otherwise, a person will get discouraged
🧠Viral refferal program
When creating a referral program the most important reward is the first one.
The first reward has to be both achievable and attractive to motivate people to participate.
Harry's referral program collected 100k emails within a week, using this prize scheme:

• 5 users referred - Shave cream
• 10 users - Truman Handle Blade - Razor blade
• 25 users - Winston Shave set - Premium Handle
• 50 - One year free blades

9. Decoy Effect

People change their preference between two options when presented with a third option (the decoy) that is “asymmetrically dominated”
🧠 3-tiered pricing pricing explained
• 1 price = 2 choices: to buy or not
• 2 prices = 3 choices: buy the cheaper one, the more expensive one, or not buy
• By adding the third price, a much more expensive one, now the second price (the previous expensive one) looks like a bargain
​
​

10. Default Effect

People tend to accept what we are given and stick with what we have
When a company or brand makes a particular option the default or standard option, it is more likely that people will choose that option over other options that are presented.
When we are not sure what to do and lack expertise in the area we consider the default as a form of advice and we stick to that.
🧠Make the usual no-brainer offer the default option
A large national railroad in Europe increased its annual revenue by an estimated $40 million by changing its website to automatically include seat reservations unless customers explicitly opted out.
Prior to the change, only 9% of tickets sold included reservations, but after the change, 47% of tickets sold included reservations.
---------------------------------------------------
That's it If you want more I have a FREE NEWSLETTER where I share over 140+ more biases like these ones, but in more extended versions

VERSES AI ($VERS), a cognitive computing company, is continuing to make big strides in AI. They’ve introduced a research roadmap that outlines the key milestones and benchmarks. This roadmap could revolutionize the development of AI by providing clear goals to measure the progress and importance of $VERS's research and development endeavors.
The company plans to use this roadmap this year to monitor its AI progress. Basically, it wants to check whether its approach can be as good as or better than advanced AI models on various industry tests, all while using less data and energy.
By meeting these benchmarks, VERSES can prove that they can create AI that is better, cheaper, and faster. The end goal is to get their AI into more hands through their Genius Platform.
Research Roadmap Highlights:
VERSES’ research roadmap has 3 benchmarks: Classification and generation tasks, Atari 10k Challenge, and NeurIPS 2024 Melting Pot Challenge
The first benchmark, Classification and generation tasks, focuses on proving VERS's approach is better at tasks like recognizing images and creating new ones. By utilizing advanced Bayesian inference techniques, they are trying to show that their method has the ability to outperform traditional deep learning methods. This test is important because it shows whether VERSES can make top-quality AI while being more efficient.
The second benchmark, the Atari 10k Challenge, is all about testing VERSES' AI skills in playing video games. Unlike conventional methods that need a lot of gameplay data, VERSES is trying to play video games almost like a human but with way less practice. $VERS is using active inference to help their AI be super adaptable. And by doing this, they're hoping to raise the bar for how well AI can perform in gaming
Lastly, there’s the NeurIPS 2024 Melting Pot Challenge. This is all about testing how well VERSES' can handle tricky situations where lots of different AI systems need to work together. $VERS wants to show that their AI can understand these complicated situations and work smoothly with other AI systems. Through the use of active inference and explicit representational structures, VERSES aims to become a leader in creating AI systems that can collaborate effectively and tackle complex problems together.
$VERS publicly released this roadmap so the public can track their progress. The roadmap can be accessed here: www.verses.ai/rd-overview
Note: this is not financial advice please do your own research before investing.

I recommend that the Contact and Disclosure Communities discuss this BBC Documentary “Rare Earth.”
J. Burkes MD 2022

Physicalism is the ideological perspective of materialist science. It is the dominant philosophy of academia and as such determines much of the public discourse on the possibilities of intelligent life, other than human, manifesting on our planet. Physicalism declares that energy and matter are the wellsprings of creation and that thought, i.e., consciousness, “emerges” out of matter. This scientific ideological position historically has been opposed by all religions. Religious faith asserts that thought (the mind of God) is primary and responsible for the material universe.
Flying saucers are a challenge to the Western materialist science. What are now called Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAPs) clearly violate the laws of physics as determined by professional science. In the growing societal debate on UAPs, I believe it is important for contact experiencers and all who desire full disclosure on UFOs, be aware of the underpinnings of academia’s objections to flying saucers. For these reasons, I recommend that we discuss the “Rare Earth” hypothesis as it has been used to deny the possibility that flying saucers might be controlled by extraterrestrial intelligences.

This beautifully produced BBC documentary linked below outlines the amazingly unique conditions here on Earth that allowed intelligent life to evolve from a materialist point of view. This special set of conditions that facilitated life on our planet makes it appear less likely to scientists that nearby stars could have provided similar conditions for advanced intelligent beings to evolve. The Rare Earth hypothesis is based on the following observations:

Our galaxy is teeming with planets. Red dwarf stars are the most numerous ones. These stars, however, put out much less heat than our larger Sun (yellow dwarf star). In order to be in the so-called Goldilocks Zone (where water is a liquid), planets of red dwarf star systems would have to be much closer to their stars. At such proximity, astronomers tell us that the common solar flares associated with red dwarfs would expose planets in the habitable zone to damaging radiation. In addition, red dwarfs don't create the massive magnetic fields required to shield planets from destructive cosmic gamma rays.

Then there is the unique origin of Earth that is now understood to have occurred when two smaller planets collided to form our world early in the history of the solar system. This extra mass allowed our planet to have a larger and longer lasting rotating molten iron core that creates a protective magnetic shield against cosmic and solar radiation. Mars is thought to have once had a molten core, but it presumably burned out long ago losing its life protecting magnetic shield. Without the extra mass that Earth has and a more enduring molten core, Mars lost its atmosphere long ago and therefore became inhospitable for life. The collision of two smaller planets in the “Goldilocks Zone, protecting Earth from life destroying radiation is viewed as a rare event and one not likely to have occurred in many close star systems.

Most importantly, the early collision that produced Earth also created our moon which is large enough to stabilize the Earth’s rotation at a set inclination. This allows stable seasons. With climatic stability large animals were able to evolve on land with adequate food resources. These large animals led to humans being able to evolve with the massive brain required for higher intelligence.

Finally, the existence of a giant world, Jupiter, far from the Sun provided an effective barrier to incoming comets. The powerful gravity of Jupiter attracts comets and draws them away from our planet. This has prevented a continuous bombardment of Earth’s surface by comets coming from the outer regions of the solar system. In many star systems studied by astronomers, gas giants exist very close to their stars. Thus, they cannot shield planets like ours that orbit further out from their stars.

Despite the proposition that a unique set of conditions on Earth makes the evolution of life less likely from the materialist perspective, The ET hypothesis for UFOs could still be valid if advanced technology existed to bend spacetime (warp drive a la “Star Trek.”) With faster than light speed other “Rare Earths” might evolve to have intelligent life that could create the necessary technological advancements to traverse vast distances and arrive here.

In addition, UFOs might not be travelling through interstellar space to get to Earth but could conceivably arrive via traversing dimensions from parallel universes. Thus, the ET hypothesis might not be valid, but an “interdimensional” one would allow flying saucers and their crews to show up in our skies and interact with us.
Most importantly, if consciousness is primary, then we can reasonably speculate that UFO intelligences might have access to non-material realms and that they may enter our material universe as “visitors.” If their origin is not from our material plane of existence, then many of their capabilities could become understandable. I refer here to flying saucers being able to dematerialize, often described as “winking out.” Furthermore, the seemingly “miraculous” cures described by UFO contact experiencers might be understood as part and parcel of flying saucer intelligences’ ability to manipulate spacetime via consciousness based non-material technologies.
In conclusion, both the “Rare Earth” thesis and this documentary of the same name are extremely limited by dealing with these issues only from a materialist/physicalist perspective. For physicalists, the natural world is essentially “objective” where randomness is a main force in determining events that could lead to the development of intelligent life. If consciousness is primary, as a growing number of contact experiencers and even some scientists are beginning to acknowledge, then the universe is not random. Synchronicities associated with contact are being driven by a higher order of intelligence, and the universe is conscious, meaning alive and awake. Thus, intelligent life throughout the Cosmos is being created by non-material forces that choose life. In the process, those spiritual forces are fulfilling a plan that compels us to realize that we truly are "one with the one that is all."
To view this BBC documentary, click on the link below.

https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x5amshv

Addendum: A critic of this posting have commented that it serves no purpose to discuss the “Rare Earth” theory because it is formulated to “steer you away from the truth.” Another wrote “why even go there, you know better!” My reply is that contact/disclosure activists have a responsibility to challenge the theories of materialist/physicalist scientists and engage in public discussions whenever possible. As researcher Grant Cameron has pointed out, the US Executive Branch has carried out a program of gradual acclimatization on the flying saucer subject for decades. This has existed alongside a de facto policy of ridicule and denial.

With Senator Schumer’s proposed amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act, with many observers believe most certainly has the Whitehouse’s approval, a confirmation/disclosure plan might be slowly going into second gear. As more information confirms the reality and importance of what are now called UAP, contact experiencers and their supporters will be allowed to share the stories of our encounters with the public This will include those who have been influenced by materialist scientists who will persist in promoting the rare Earth theory.