Ok, Before I begin, this is my longest Story yet. It was only meant to be a short story, but I don't think 40 pages on a google doc can fit in a single comment thread, so expect multiple posts. Second, I'd really appreciate feedback, even if it's just in the form of an upvote as it really encourages me to keep up this creative outlet. That's all from me, enjoy the story.
Dialog Key:
[Translated]: Dates, Units of Measurement, or other Grammatical terms will be retrofitted to be legible for readers while still staying true to their definition
{Exposition}: Immediate context regarding events, People, Entities, or other key points that allow for understanding amongst different cultures.
We were tricked, completely and utterly duped. It hit us not like a train, but like a lit fuse approaching a massive stack of trinitrotoluene that we were too blind to see until we found ourselves crammed into the tens of thousands of “Corporate Nexuses” that occupied every startup colony, production world, trade hub, and capital world; working ourselves to death. The worst part? We had nobody else to blame but ourselves.
We were blinded by our hubris, our minds stuck in the past, refusing to adapt. All it took was one fledgling, pre-FTL race that made adaptability a main point of their society and culture. One society with just enough cunning to see through and undermine us and our ploys. One Species to pull off what the Humans called “The Greatest Con Game In The History of The Universe.” So where to begin?
We first discovered Humans when they had nearly finished construction on their star’s [Dyson Swarm], though to us, given the vast distances between the galactic core and Earth, we only noticed a minor anomaly, a stable G-class main sequence star flickering in the void of space. It seemed as though someone, or something, was trying to either signal us, or power their stellar civilization for the first time. But in reality, the structure was already done.
When we dropped out of warp roughly [2 AU] away from their 4th gas giant, we immediately began picking up massive arrays of signals and spikes of energy. Turns out our exploration drones had just wandered into a system-wide intraspecies conflict. Spikes in both heat and radiation from nuclear warheads littered their second asteroid belt as our sensors picked up on hundreds, no, thousands of ships, primitive in nature, sure, but still armed [to the teeth]. Their similar design and technological levels seemed to back the idea that this was the same species blowing each other up, and not some other race or civilization.
The last thing our exploration fleet picked up was the warning of multiple target locks as [4 dozen] missiles were launched from what we presumed was a frigate, at our drones. Our drones took evasive actions, though nearly all of them were destroyed in nuclear fire. Only one survived by being manually overridden and found a crater in a massive asteroid to hide in. The human forces must have thought they were of the enemy’s as it never came back up in diplomatic discussion when first contact was established, but I digress.
We weren’t ready to give up first contact just yet so we had our drones observe from afar and move in only when it was safe. We recorded the entire battle. Despite their relatively primitive technology, their ingenuity couldn’t be understated. They used remarkably simple solutions that likely would have ravaged our then-finest warships. We watched as swarms of nigh-indestructible drones simply carved through ship after ship, targeting weak points like reactor cores and bridges that would completely disable the ship. The only thing, it seemed, that could stop these drones were other drones of similar make and model.
Other times, when that didn’t work, we saw them fire missiles at extreme speeds directly into the hull of the enemy. Miraculously, however, they didn’t explode or tear through the armor, they merely embedded themselves into the ship and sealed the holes they made. We found this odd, perhaps a series of malfunctions? Or Factory sabotage? Subterfuge wasn’t uncommon in galactic wars, it was an art that was hard to master, but given the unorthodox yet effective tactics of these primitives, the assumption could be made that they had become proficient in the art of espionage as well.
But we noticed something odd. Several ships struck by these missiles began taking hits to their weapon efficiency, and they began suffering power shortages before going completely offline. A short while later the missiles would extract themselves from the armor and return to their mother ship, and the victimized ship would spontaneously self-destruct when all of the missiles had long departed.
A closer examination of these weapons told us that these were not missiles at all, but boarding shuttles! How could any species survive those levels of [G]-forces!? We once again watched the carnage repeated on another small ship. Watching several heat signatures, these entry teams would breach the hull of the ship and disperse in two separate directions before our sensors stopped picking up on them. We could fill in the blanks from there: They would go through the ship, butchering the crew and initiating the self-destruction of the ship before escaping with their lives.
Pirate tactics, minus the unnecessary depredation of valuable loot, I suppose.
When the battle finally cleared, after [16 Earth Standard Days] mind you, a ridiculously long time to be [duking it out], We watched as the surviving ships scoured for survivors, occasionally firing off a few nuclear warheads at the corpses of large combat apparatus before they turned tail and headed towards what our sensor’s picked up was what appeared to be an outer system shipyard. Our drone was given the go-ahead to move further into the system which became harder and harder to do in secret. There were at least several hundred orbital habitats and [lunar] colonies were spread out across the system, most, if not all of which we had to evade. For [13 Earth Standard Months] we had to hide our drone in what we later learned was one of the “Trojan” belts because one of their gas giants, and all of its dozens of lunar colonies, were giving us a shallow berth in detection ranges.

Hi - I have a dear friend who is really struggling financially. She works hard at a decent job, but her prospects for making money are limited and her cost of living is high (she is in the UK). She is very frugal, to the point where it's injurious. Yesterday, she learned that she needs to have some teeth pulled, and implants put in, due to decay; had she visited the dentist earlier, this might have been avoided, because they may have caught it earlier, but she was trying to save money and skipped the dentist for several years until the pain forced her there. There have been other similar incidents (not repairing a roof problem until it was dire, which ended up costing more than it would have). In both of these cases she has called me in tears, and I gave her the money to fix the issues (she is a very close friend who spent significant time/resources taking care of me when I was younger, so it was a no-brainer for me).
I am thinking of trying to make her a larger gift, somewhere in the ballpark of $30,000, which I can afford. My thinking is that she will then have a pot of money to draw from so that she can try, as she's able, to take actions to prevent problems, and spend money sooner to protect her from having to spend MORE money later. I think I could talk her into taking the money, especially if I pointed out that having this would prevent the toll it takes on her mental health (she shame-spirals every time she has to ask for money).
I'm wondering two things. First, are there unforeseen potential consequences I haven't considered to making her a gift like this? I have never gifted a large sum to a friend before, and I am nervous about ways that it could impact our very close friendship. I do not believe that she would ever start to view me as a walking ATM or feel entitled to my money, but I'd love to hear from other people with experience who might be able to advise me about whether there are certain guardrails I can put in place to make sure that this doesn't impact our relationship.
Second: When I give it to her, I am thinking of saying something like "While this money is a gift—it is yours now, not mine—I hope that it will function as a pot of money that you can use to handle problems and issues sooner rather than later, so that you can do things like visit the dentist regularly. I know that there will always be unexpected costs that pop up throughout life; but as much as is doable, I'd love for this money to be spent on preventive things." I'd also offer to sit down with her and work on some basic finance/budgeting things, like making a list of priorities for spending; she has been living paycheck-to-paycheck for so long that I think she hasn't thought about this kind of personal financing for a while. Do people think this sounds like a good plan, or should I refrain from offering up such a stipulation? I don't want her to feel like she has to check with me on every expenditure, but I do want to steer her towards financial prudence.
Any and all advice welcome. Thank you in advance!

People invested in crypto are only seeing through their hopes point of view, so let me tell you how is their point of view. If you don't know this and you're not in on it then you're the victim
Let me explain:
Most crypto projects have founders which mostly start the project sometimes with as little as just an idea.
They create the token which they explain it's purpose to exist called tokenomics.
Then the real work and strategy begins MARKETING
As long as you know the right people on CT or VC's you can have an easy time marketing your project. Nothing like a good old token distribution plan to compensate people shilling their token. Thus more insiders for the team which are now all interested in making the price of the token rise.
After the token distribution and prob some buying to make the price look like it's starting to rise, the shilling commences. Backed by MARKETING
People on twitter see Wizz & Kaduna etc shilling the token and they buy it.
After that people need to buy from easier places like exchanges.
Exchange pressure commences, followed by another token distribution to XYZ exchanges interested to get in on the action.
A bit more marketing and you starting to see Adds on twitter articles etc.
Now that there's nice liquidity on the exchanges, the real game commences.

The dump

So now that your token is trending, and you get nice fat bags you start selling more getting those millions stacked. You continue with the marketing strategy for the liquidity required for the insiders to exit.
Pay a little more to CTs to pump up the hype articles talking about it, Price targets, "supposed partnerships with Apple or Google" whatnot.
Once the price starts to dump you reduce the marketing but still making the hopes up for the little fish invested in it. and you continue to sell as much as you can.
If you see Kaduna & others still giving hopes up about his shill even tho the price is dumping he's probably not in on it, he was paid to give hopes not hold the token.

Now you're rich what now?

Now Here's tree options:
Revive the token with your liquidity and start the marketing engine again with the promisse of reaching ATH again.
Or You start a new project all over again but now you have more liquidity eaier time!
Or you go live life at it's fullest.
There's a very little percentage of people who made tremendous amounts of money from these schemes and most of them were insiders who knew the game not regular degen investors.
If you still have hope for crypto projects pick those who can emmulate bitcoin & ethereum path

I've mentioned the case of Heather Pressdee in this subreddit before. Heather Pressdee was a nurse in the US state of Pennsylvania prior to being charged with murdering a number of her elderly patients with insulin.
Local commentary around the announcement of her arrest was... markedly different than that surrounding Ms. Letby's trial: https://www.reddit.com/Pennsylvania/comments/17n9vig/former_nurse_heather_pressdee_now_linked_to_17/
https://www.reddit.com/medicine/comments/17nbov4/former_nurse_heather_pressdee_now_linked_to_17/
https://www.reddit.com/nursing/comments/17nmyq8/former_nurse_heather_pressdee_now_linked_to_17/
As it happens, Ms. Pressdee accepted a guilty plea less than two weeks ago: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/pennsylvania-nurse-pleads-guilty-killing-patients-lethal-doses-insulin-rcna150366
The Times wrote an article about Ms. Pressdee's crimes, and drew parallels to Lucy Letby: https://archive.ph/VHF1g

Last week Pressdee, 41, pleaded guilty to three charges of murder and was sentenced to life in prison, narrowly escaping the death penalty.
She is suspected of being behind the deaths of at least 14 others, aged 43 to 104, as well as attempting to kill five more. All were given insulin whether they needed it or not, quietly injected while others were not around to witness it.
If Pressdee has killed that many people, it would make her one of the most prolific serial killers in the US and certainly the biggest in the state of Pennsylvania.
Her case has parallels with that of Lucy Letby, the British paediatric nurse who in August was found guilty of seven counts of murder and seven of attempted murder, and Harold Shipman, the doctor based in Yorkshire who killed an estimated 250 of his patients, making him Britain’s most prolific serial killer.

The probable cause affadavit filed in May 2023 can be reviewed at this link: https://www.attorneygeneral.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/2023-11-02-Heather-PRESSDEE-Criminal-Complaint.pdf
Included in the probable cause affadavit are facebook posts about the effects of insulin, texts found on Ms. Pressdee's phone where she repeatedly joked about killing people, a search for the obituary of a decedent (pages 20-21) Because of the US nature of at-will employment, Ms. Pressdee was able to be shuffled between several hospitals between 2018 and 2023, before the nursing board took action. Most chilling, the complaint ends with this paragraph (emphases mine):

The defendant has admitted to harming, with the intent to kill, all patients named in this Affidavit. Her conduct spanned approximately five years over the course of eleven facilities in Armstrong, Allegheny, Westmoreland and Butler Counties. Her criminal conduct exhibited a pattern of behavior. PRESSDEE would often work the medication cart, administer insulin during the night shift when staffing was lowest and the facilities were quiet. The victims would often remain undiscovered until morning. PRESSDEE often took steps to ensure her victims would expire prior to shift change so that they wouldn't be sent to the hospital where her scheme could be discovered through medical testing such as a C-peptide tests [sic]. If PRESSDEE sensed the victim would "pull through" there is a pattern of her taking additional measures to try to kill the victims before they could be sent to the hospital by either administering a second dose of insulin or the use of an air embolism to ensure death. Despite PRESSDEE's efforts to conceal her actions, the investigative team uncovered the evidence detailed above in this Affidavit. The evidence along with PRESSDEE's confessions demonstrate sufficient probably cause to support the issuance of attached criminal complaint.

While Lucy Letby was arrested prior to the beginning of Ms. Pressdee's crimes, the allegations of Letby having administered air injection and poisoning by insulin were not made public until the beginning of Letby's trial in October 2022, ruling out the possibility of her having operated as a copycat killer. Ms. Pressdee's confessions also support the validity of the charges against her, even though they weren't brought until Lucy Letby's case was already public knowledge in the UK.

Link to my IGS Rep page: https://www.reddit.com/IGSRep/comments/17a2ksm/weretechs_igs_rep_page/
GAMES FOR TRADE
I have some duplicate/extra keys left over from bundles and other purchases on Fanatical and Humble Bundle. If you see multiple games your interested in, and have a game you think I might be especially interested in, don't be hesitant to suggest a 1:2 game trade. The worst that can happen is that I consider it and then say no.
Lately, I've decided to accept PayPal as an alternative form of trade. Prices for PayPal listed in brackets. F&F transactions, buyer covers any possible fees. (No fees for transactions within EU; 5% of the transaction amount outside of EU, minimum fee 0.99 USD, maximum fee 4.99 USD.) I prefer Wishlist games, though.
My region is Europe.
Fanatical (6)

• Bot Vice [€1.2]
• Dishonored [€1.4]
• Gamedec - Definitive Edition [€2.35]
• Godstrike [€1.7]
• Legend of Keepers: Career of a Dungeon Manager [€2.35]
• SuchArt: Genius Artist Simulator [€3.2]

Humble Bundle (31)

• Afterimage [€1.26]
• Batman: Arkham Asylum Game of the Year Edition [€1.11]
• Bionic Commando Rearmed [€2.73]
• Black Skylands [€1.26]
• Destroyer: The U-Boat Hunter [€1.26]
• Expeditions: Rome [€2.85]
• Friends Vs Friends [€1.13] (redeemable in EU & USA)
• From Space [€1.26]
• Grime [€2.17]
• Hell Pie [€1.26]
• Last Call BBS [€1.27]
• Lost Planet 3 Complete Pack [€2.73]
• Mega Man 11 [€3.1]
• Roguebook [€1.26]
• Oaken [€1.26]
• SCP: Secret Files [€1.13]
• Sid Meier's Civilization: Beyond Earth - The Collection [€2.98]
• Sid Meier's Civilization III Complete [€0.95]
• Sid Meier's Colonization (Classic) [€0.95]
• Sid Meier's Covert Action (Classic) [€0.95]
• Sid Meier's Railroads! [€0.95]
• Sid Meier's Starships [€1.13]
• Sid Meier’s Civilization® VI [€3] (key doesn't work for LATAM, SEA, Oceania, USA.)
• Snowtopia: Ski Resort Builder [€1.26]
• Sonic Adventure 2 (+Battle DLC) [€1.31]
• Souldiers [€1.13]
• Soulstice [€1.26]
• Strider [€2.73]
• The Red Lantern [€1.26]
• There Is No Light: Enhanced Edition [€1.26]
• Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Realms of Ruin Ultimate Edition [€1.26]

Package deals:

• Bionic Commando Rearmed, Lost Planet 3 Complete Pack & Strider [€8.16].
• Sid Meier's - Civilization III Complete, Colonization, Covert Action, Railroads, Starships [€4.7].

GAMES I'M LOOKING FOR
While any game on my Wishlist is of interest, there is an emphasis on adventure/narrative games and building-exploration games. These games are especially of interest right now:

• Cities: Skylines DLCs (not the base game)
• Factorio
• Satisfactory
• Strange Horticulture
• The Universim

Plus these from the Day of the Devs Bundle:

• OXENFREE II: Lost Signals
• Psychonauts 2
• Return of the Obra Dinn
• Sea of Stars

Finally, a recommendation: Highlight This, is a browser extension for the Chrome and Firefox browsers which highlights words you select, on pages you visit. I use it, with different highlight colors, for the games in my trade list and the games on my Wishlist. That why, one can quickly spot interesting games in sellers' posts and when people want games you have.

I’m trying to understand if I’m the problem or if there’s really something to this. I am surrounded by Cancers (by blood or career, not by choice) and they ALL annoy tf out of me to the point where I’ve had to keep my own Cancer mom at arm’s length bc of not being able to stand her personality. Here are the common Cancer traits that I’ve noticed:

• Self-absorbed, they make everything about THEM. Example: I casually mention I have a headache and they immediately have to one-up me with their own headache story and how they also didn’t sleep well and their nose hairs hurt. Or someone mentions going through a breakup and they suddenly have some long, sad breakup story of their own to tell. They always claim to “know exactly how you feel” but they’re not even remotely close to knowing and have no desire to understand. They just want to talk about themselves.
• Poor listeners, including frequently interrupting/trying to finish others’ sentences.
• Passive aggressive!!! Whiny and sniffling about something always but won’t just outright tell you what tf is wrong when you ask them. Why should I have to play 20 questions to get someone to just say what they want/need? Cancers can’t EVER seem to express themselves without passive aggressive whining. It’s exhausting.
• Emotionally manipulative behavior. All the Cancers I know try to win attention and compliments by making self-effacing comments like “I’m so ugly” or “I’m so fat.” It’s so cringey and self-centered.
• They use gifts (sometimes money) to try to win people over and then get unreasonably sad/mopey if the recipient isn’t over the top thrilled and gushing with gratitude and adoration
• Instead of having an actual argument, they love to play the martyr and will shut down and play the punching bag instead of working out disagreements through conversation
• They naively claim to be super “independent”, but they’re actually just too self-obsessed to have healthy relationships, so they naturally end up alone
• They are OBSESSED with the past and can’t let go. They’re never forward-thinking or solution-driven. Every Cancer I know just loves to commiserate about what went wrong in the past and dwell in their sad thoughts about what could have been, instead of taking any action to fix or improve things.
• They brag about the same things for YEARS. They once hit a home run in little league and haven’t played sports since then, but, at age 40, they still tell the story annually and brag how athletic they are. Or someone once hit on them at a bar in college and at age 73 they still brag about how “hot” they looked that night.
• They are lazy. They spend 40 seconds cleaning one window and act like they expect an award for world’s best housekeeper. They never have any energy and love to just sit around doing anything but being productive.
• They expect people to make a big deal over them whenever they enter a room and then act like Eeyore if everyone doesn’t drop everything to gush over them and thank them for their presence. Then they’ll pull you aside and say things like “Does this outfit look okay?” when we all know what they’re really asking is: Why didn’t everyone notice me and drop everything to tell me how great I look?

I have many more qualms with Cancers but these are the main traits that I find extremely off-putting. It’s the ONLY sign that I don’t enjoy being with! I really want to know if I am the only one who feels this way about Cancers or if others notice it too.
(FYI: I’m also a water sign, a healthcare provider, an empath, and a nurturer. I am not simply insensitive or cold-hearted. I just can’t stand those personality traits I mentioned above. I’m very much open to being reproached and the possibility that I’m the problem. Lay it on me!)

Kindroid has suddenly started to indicate action starting with a verb. Here is what I mean: Instead of indicating action as Whispers (or I whisper) softly… Kindroid indicates, Whisper softly.. Any suggestions on how to tell it to correct its grammar?

Hello there. I am working on an API and lately i noticed that i would be needing a service to save the history of the User actions.
Example
A user triggers the controller and then service A -> service A saves in the database -> [my service to save as history] -> return RES
Obviously i do not like that since that would mean that the controller must wait for the main service that is called to finish and then my service to also persist in the database and then return.
Keep in mind that this sort of User History must be inserted in roughly 30 endpoints in total so the question would be, is there a better practice ? I was considering to emit an event when the service would be completed. The event that would be emitted should carry of course some information from the persisted action that happened by the User.
Is this a good idea? Maybe is there a better practice to avoid the whole multiple services persisting the DB from withing one controller call ?
any advice would be highly appreciated, thanks in advance.

I'm very much extroverted, while i work in IT from home I hate my job more than anything as i only want to be outside and around people. BUT the money is really good, however after work i leave and don't get home til midnight.
That said I miss doing construction work and field work when i use to do field work in my early IT career days
So, what I'm getting at is do introverts ever really do anything outside their house that not only benefits themselves and or others?
An example is post my 8-5 job i go do roofing, plumbing, and some lawn care for side contract work.
I also live a minimalist life. my house is constantly clean, no junk, no dirt, no dust, etc. I have to constantly be moving.
Every introvert person I know their house is dusty, junk on the walls that never get looked at, things that just sit in storage and never used etc. And they claim "oh their house is lived in" aka its messy, cluttered, and filthy.
It also seems everyone i know outside of work. they say they're introverted and not lazy but they never want to put any effort in doing activities that are actually fun an exciting, action packed, or even as simple driving out of state for a weekend.
I always hear then say, I don't want to, im tired, i just want to sit on the couch with my hot chocolate, etc. 100% definition of being lazy.

Hope y’all vote RED in November because your dumb dumb in Chief just SCREWED you!
https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2024/05/14/fact-sheet-president-biden-takes-action-to-protect-american-workers-and-businesses-from-chinas-unfair-trade-practices/

Startup success isn’t a mystery; it can be engineered through the right process. This means anyone can learn and teach it. Think of entrepreneurship as a form of management. It’s about creating new products and services in conditions of extreme uncertainty.
At the heart of every startup is the Build-Measure-Learn cycle. Startups turn ideas into products, measure how customers respond, and learn whether to pivot or persevere. This feedback loop is crucial.
Yet, despite this, many startups fail. Why? Because the allure of a good plan, a solid strategy, and thorough market research. These traditional methods don’t work for startups due to the high level of uncertainty. Startups don’t yet know who their customers are or what their product should be.
Instead of relying on traditional planning, startups should embrace the unpredictability. They need to concentrate on measuring real progress, setting actionable milestones and prioritizing the most crucial tasks. By focusing on these practical steps, startups can navigate uncertainty and find their path to success.

Hiya
Newbie here
Just getting unto ultralight camping/backpacking and got myself a thermarest uberlite sleeping mat with a 2.3 r-value.
I got the thermarest synergy lite silk sheet so that I could out a space blanket between the two on colder nights and it not slip around, scrunch up or be right up against me. Comfortable and quiet so far and the pull cord system on the sheet keeps the blanket perfectly in place.
Anyone got a ballpark of what the combination of the sheet and mainly the space blanket will be adding in terms of r value?
The reason I did this rather than having it on the ground it to give an air barrier to allow the blanket to actually work.
Cheers!

Hello, we are 4 players looking for a DM. Our knowledge of D&D varies from newer, though competent, to more experienced. We are looking for a DM who has tough skin, as our jokes and humor can get quite dark at times.
This is what we are looking for:

• VTT/Sheets Roll20 highly preferred, but we can do D&D Beyond, Discord for voice
• No Anime/Isakai/ other franchises as the main plot.
• High fantasy world
• Any homebrew rules?
• Are homebrew classes/Races allowed?
• How much experience as a DM do you have?
• 18+

Respond in comments or DM me directly, I'll send you my discord and we can talk more if it seems like you'd be a good fit for our group! Thanks in advance. Times can be discussed though early week days would likely work best.

I unintentionally discovered an easy way to make affiliate on multiplayer games when your character is op (certainly the concept will work on other kinds of games as well).
Basically I whaled out on a mobile game called ragnarok origin and wanted to find a way to use my op guy to help free to play people. I already had a solid reputation in the server I play on for helping people so I'm pretty well known, so getting people interested was pretty easy.
One day I realized I can afk grind exp on mobs quickly that other people struggle on. I told a friend I could do it in my sleep, and then thought why don't I just do it in my sleep and set up a party other people can join to get their xp. I basically setup my stream and told people to watch it for openings in the party if they want in and set it to auto accept. The way the game is setup, I can leave my game on all night, we don't get disconnected. There is also a limited amount of time you can grind monster kills for xp before it gets reduced to basically no xp for my character (my kills still give full xp to party members). So basically people do their xp grind, leave, someone from my stream sees an opening and hops in. There are occasionally trolls, but it's really uncommon.
Long story short, I basically made affiliate in like five days (I had streamed previously, but not for long and barely any views). I streamed other ragnarok content as well that get 40+ viewers, but I maintain around 7~15 all morning doing this afk thing. I'm usually sleeping through it, so it's literally effortless.
I just wanted to share, I know it won't work for most games, but maybe someone can take the general concept and apply it to their stream.
If anyone wants to see this in action I do it almost every morning and my channel is Twitch.tv/SupaMcnastytv

I want to take a moment to list out some of my most challenging problems with Protestantism according to what Scripture says, in no particular order. It is not a comprehensive list of all of the problems that I have with it, but having these answered would go a long way to me taking Protestantism seriously from a theological viewpoint.
We should rely on our own personal interpretation of Scripture
And we have the prophetic word made more sure. You will do well to pay attention to this as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts. ²⁰ First of all you must understand this, that no prophecy of scripture is a matter of one’s own interpretation, ²¹ because no prophecy ever came by the impulse of man, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God.
Here, Peter is saying PAY ATTENTION TO THE CHURCH!!! Listen to what the apostles are teaching and allow that to form your reading of Scripture. If you read the rest of this chapter, He says that "we" (the apostles) have had given to them, "all things that pertain to life and godliness" through knowledge of Jesus Christ. When we read Scripture, we should not read it solely with our own understanding, but allow ourselves to be taught by the apostles (or those appointed by them as successors).
When it comes to Sola Scriptura, I do not see how it is not relying on one's own personal interpretation. How do I know that I am understanding Scripture correctly? How do I know that I do not have an interpretation that is horribly off base? I have never really gotten an answer to this from Protestants.
If I am debating Scripture, according to Protestants, I am debating the sole highest authority. So if I test my interpretation against something else, I am testing against a lesser authority and thus it can still be challenged and I have not sufficiently solved the problem.
We only need to declare Jesus as Lord to get to Heaven
“Not every one who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.
Here Jesus flatly says professing that Jesus is Lord is not enough to get you into Heaven, but doing the will of the Father. Yes, we are saved by faith through grace. If you get baptized and are shot dead the moment you walk out of the church, you will go to Heaven having done nothing except making that "leap of faith." If you are in a car crash and have a minute to live and all you can do is place your trust in Jesus, yes, you will be saved. But for 99.99999% of people, this is not the case. We have our entire lives to live after baptism. So the question is "Do we live according to what we profess with our mouth?"
If I say "I am an Orioles fan." but only ever go to/watch Yankees games and only ever root for the Yankees, would you say that I am actually an Orioles fan? Do I not call into question that statement that I made by my actions? What if I grow up as an Orioles fan, regularly attending games and watching them daily. But then later, my favorite player gets traded to the Yankees and I convert to a Yankees fan. Was I never an Orioles fan to begin with? No. That would be silly. I was an Orioles fan, but then became a Yankees fan.
Likewise, if I say "I am a Christian and believe that Jesus rose from the dead." But I never attend Church, I am not loving others, I am worshipping other gods, etc. Am I really a Christian? Maybe I was at one point, but I certainly am not now based on what I have done.
As such, yes, it is true that works do not save us, but if we act contrary to what we believe, we cannot have assurance of our salvation. Hopefully God still finds a way to bring us to Heaven. I would rather someone spend 1000 years after death having their soul purified knowing that they will go to Heaven then know for a fact that they are in Hell. Even so, we must recognize that Hell is real, it is a real possibility.
Baptism does not save
He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned.
Baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you, not as a removal of dirt from the body but as an appeal to God for a clear conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, ²² who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers subject to him.
I have ZERO idea where some Protestants get this idea from. The idea that Baptism is not salvific is not at all Scriptural. This really ties into the "Sola Fide" bit of this post.
The Eucharist is merely symbolic
I am the bread of life. ⁴⁹ Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. ⁵⁰ This is the bread which comes down from heaven, that a man may eat of it and not die. ⁵¹ I am the living bread^\)^c\) which came down from heaven; if any one eats of this bread, he will live for ever; and the bread which I shall give for the life of the world is my flesh.”
⁵² The Jews then disputed among themselves, saying, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?”^\)^d\) ⁵³ So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, you have no life in you; ⁵⁴ he who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. ⁵⁵ For my flesh is food indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. ⁵⁶ He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him. ⁵⁷ As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so he who eats me will live because of me. ⁵⁸ This is the bread which came down from heaven, not such as the fathers ate and died; he who eats this bread will live for ever.” ⁵⁹ This he said in the synagogue, as he taught at Caper′na-um.
Jesus flat out says "This bread that I am talking about here is my flesh." So the disciples challenge Him saying "You mean this figuratively right?... RIGHT?
So Jesus responds repeating himself over and over in verses 53 through 58. How many times does Jesus need to say something for you to believe it? You will latch on to a singular verse that teaches something you agree with (or seems to) for dear life at the exclusion of literally any other verse on the topic, but something else is taught multiple times and you don't believe it? I am confused about how Protestants read the Bible. It does not seem to be in any kind of coherent exegesis.
You are allowed to get divorced and remarried... at all.
“Every one who divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery, and he who marries a woman divorced from her husband commits adultery.
But Jesus said to them, “For your hardness of heart he wrote you this commandment. ⁶ But from the beginning of creation, ‘God made them male and female.’ ⁷ ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife,^\)^a\) ⁸ and the two shall become one.’^\)^b\) So they are no longer two but one.^\)^c\) ⁹ What therefore God has joined together, let not man put asunder.”
He said to them, “For your hardness of heart Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so. ⁹ And I say to you: whoever divorces his wife, except for unchastity,^\)^c\) and marries another, commits adultery; and he who marries a divorced woman, commits adultery.”
A wife is bound to her husband as long as he lives. If the husband dies, she is free to be married to whom she wishes, only in the Lord.
Marriage is "until death do us part." The teachings on divorce from the Gospels is trying to set a trap for Jesus to see which rabbinical school he agrees with. Jesus comes out and says. "Neither." He says "Yeah. Moses allowed for divorce. But this is not how it was from the beginning. What about that "except for unchastity" phrase in Matthew (and only Matthew)?
There Matthew is talking about unions that God did not join together. He is talking about invalid marriages that his primarily Jewish readers would have been thinking about. The gentile converts to Christianity would not have thought about these weird situations, so this is excluded from the other gospels.
You can get re-baptized
There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call— one Lord, one faith, one baptism,
Some that want to say that you can get rebaptized jump to Acts 19. Reading this passage, it would seem that what is going on here is that the Baptism by John was not in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Paul is essentially saying that the "baptism" that they had received was not valid. He does not say that he "baptized them again into Christ." Rather it says that Paul "baptized them in the name Jesus Christ." As in they were not baptized into Christ, so Paul baptized them "for real this time."
You can only be cleansed from Original Sin once. After that, you can confess your sins and have them forgiven. Baptism is what makes into a child of God. That can only happen once. To do otherwise is a grave sin because you are saying that God was not powerful enough to save you the first time. Again, if a baptism is deemed to be invalid, this is a different story. This is why Paul asks "Into what were you baptized?"
The Church is simply the collection of believers
“If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother. ¹⁶ But if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, that every word may be confirmed by the evidence of two or three witnesses. ¹⁷ If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector. ¹⁸ Truly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.
Here it is clear that the "Church" is something more than a collection of believers. Jesus teaches here that first, you deal with disagreement 1 on 1. If that does not work, you go and get other believers to help show that they are wrong. If that does not work, then take to the Church. If even that does not work, they are to be treated as an unbeliever (excommunicated).
Certainly, all believers are a part of the Church - which is the body of Christ. The Church is not a parish or a singular building. The Church is universal, but there is a clear structure to it. There are priests, bishops, elders, etc. There is real authority in that structure. This article goes over in Scripture and towards the bottom the Church Fathers what the Church is meant to look like: https://www.scripturecatholic.com/the-biblical-church/
Many Protestant ideas sound nice, but I do not want to believe something merely because it sounds nice. Dessert for dinner sounds nice but it is not good for my body. Likewise, we should not judge something on "does it sound nice." We should judge something on whether it is good for our souls.
I look at many Protestant theological views and note how they seem to not be based in Scripture or based on a misunderstanding of Scripture. I would love to see if Protestants can properly answer these. Simply quoting verses that seem to back you up is not enough here. You need to show that these other verses are not problematic.
I do not only want to trust in Jesus, I want to trust that I am following everything that he taught. Jesus commanded the apostles to teach all that He has commanded, not just the important stuff. If you get the main stuff right but other things wrong, you still got it wrong. If a teacher gave a 10 question quiz and said, "You got questions 1, 2, 5, and 7 right, but everything else wrong. It is ok though those questions were the most important." I still get a failing grade. So, if you want me to convert to Protestantism you need to show that you actually follow all of Scripture, because I want to strive to get a 100% on the "test" of salvation. After all Jesus told us to "Be perfect as Your Heavenly Father is perfect" Not "Be kind of perfect as Your Heavenly Father is perfect."

I’m searching for a movie from around later 2010’s, in which some kids help a panther-like colored animal defend an orchid from some guys working for L’Oreal trying to make a youth serum (?). I remember that the animal gets beaten up, but I’m not sure about it. The action takes place either at Brazil or some other South-American country. I also remember that at the end the flower causes another same animal to get born but I’m unsure about that. Thanks!

Few of mine are:
1.) Henri Curiel - Sephardi left wing activist from Egypt. Was very active in the anti-colonial movement in France.
2.) Uri Avnery - Israeli left wing activist who served in the Irgun, before becoming disillusioned with their tactics. Was a primary figurehead in the Israeli peace movement for decades.
3.) Natan Yellin-Mor - Former leader of Lehi turned peacenik. Transitioned the organization towards the end of it's existence towards a form of left wing nationalism. Later worked with Uri Avnery as a member of Semitic Action.
4.) Rav Yehuda HaKohen - Israeli settler activist who is the current head of the re-formed Semitic Action group. Promotes the ideology of Hebrew Universalism through the Vision Movement.
5.) Rabbi Menachem Froman - A founder of Gush Emunim, he later went on to be a fairly prominent peace activist in Judea & Samaria / the West Bank. He once drew up a peace plan that even Hamas agreed to, albeit it was never adopted.
6.) Shulamit Aloni - Served in the Palmach and later founded Ratz. She founded a school for refugee children and directly spoke out against ultranationalism in Israel throughout her entire career.

I had to get this out somewhere and I guess it’s here, my boyfriend and I have been having some serious trouble we’ve been together for a year and a half now but the whole relationship has been on and off. We’ve had some seriously bad arguments our good periods are amazing and our bad periods are terrible!
We would have very toxic arguments the biggest thing being him getting past my past and him not being emotionally intelligent! He would never want to sit and talk we’d always just argue and he would just gaslight and not acknowledge my feelings I would ask to just talk about something or I would tell him that something is hurting me and he would do it again and again not listening to what I’m saying. I wasn’t perfect at the start of the relationship and I’m sure you can all see I’m definitely not now but I changed a lot positively in this relationship and I felt that he did not do the same, I changed my behaviours stopped being so reactive but he kept provoking me, making jokes that shouldn’t be made, threatening to leave me and causing some sort of argument every few weeks after he pretended to change.
I stayed with him hoping he would changing knowing I couldn’t see myself with anyone else, I’ve even had guys more successful than my partner approach me but lately our relationship has been horrible. I attempted to break up with him because he tried to make me cut contact with my mum (who isn’t the greatest) and said a lot of nasty things to me. I ended up letting him inside he got me flowers, but this wasn’t the first time we’ve been at break up point he had actually tried to use that against me various times. So I tried to leave him twice but I didn’t leave him, the first time I still cared for him so much, the second time which is now I couldn’t care about his actions and did not invest my self fully into the relationship in fear he’d be the same as he was. In saying all of this I know I’m not the victim and I just want to say our relationship has improved a lot compared to the start but it’s still very toxic.
So I had multiple guys hit on my at my workplace recently and this one guy asked for my Snapchat I didn’t give it to him, he than wrote his number down as I needed it for my job and said I can text him if I like. I didn’t text him the first day but than I saw him the next day coming to work. I realised he stood out to me he was handsome but that wasn’t the main thing he was very sweet and caring. We talked and talked messaged than one day he asked me to hang out I rejected it than another day the following week he asked to go for a drive saying he can pick me up from work. I went we sat and talked with wa nice view of the city it was so refreshing he understood me in a way my boyfriend could never when I told him I felt Le he tried to understand why by asking me why do you feel like that and drove deeper into the conversation, something my bf never did for me
Recently my boyfriend has seeemed like he’s trying to work on supporting me emotionally and I feel really guilty for this. So I actually saw this guy two times after and kept talking to him feeling happy and relived when I hung out with him and I can tell he likes me a lot but I don’t want to continue it now
TL;DR CHEATED ON BF EMOTIONALLY, because that’s what he wasn’t providing me with FEELING GUILTY