At my work we have had a a Vantage Pro 2 Plus for a number of years sending the station data from the console to a PC using WeatherLink 6.05 software and then uploading it to our website for the general public (ie our customers - local sailors, kiters, windsurfers etc.) to view. Looking online at the Davis site it looks like the data logger DIY website option isn't really supported anymore in favor of a Weatherlink.com subscription.
The graphics and such of our site are pretty dated looking and our marketing and IT want a change. They are not willing to assist me beyond having a link on our new website site so I can't count on them helping with any design or coding.
We have also been sharing our data with the Citizen Weather Observer Program but just linking to that data online doesn't seem like the best option as I don't like the format any better.
Are there any options similar to what I have been doing to display on a website through the WeatherLink data logger that maybe would have an updated look of the data? And more importantly, how difficult would it be to set up? I was able to set up the current site lo these many years ago from the template supplied with the software but I've likely forgotten most of what little basic HTML skills I once had so I don't have much skill to bring to the table (and the company is not willing to let me pay someone to do the coding so that simple solution is out).
Are there any other options I might consider for sharing our weather data with the public before just going with the Weatherlink.com Pro+ pricing plan?

Elementor 8th Birthday Sale 2024 (May 28th – June 6th)

The Birthday sale of Elementor is live, just click the button below to claim your discount — they’re offering up to 30% off on their pro plugin and up to 75% off on WordPress hosting.
Get Elementor Birthday Offer
The Elementor Birthday Sale is going on now, and you can get a hefty discount of up to 75% on their page builder WordPress plugin or WordPress hosting.
Just stay with us to find out all about the latest deals and offers as Elementor turns E-I-G-H-T.
Usually, Elementor doesn’t give out coupon codes all the time, but on special occasions like this, they offer special discounts. So make sure you don’t miss out on this fantastic opportunity.
Elementor was started in June 2016 and since then they’ve been offering birthday sales, where you get the chance to save big on their paid plans. This year, they are offering discounts again. If you want to know what birthday offers they have, you came to the right place.
Let’s find out all the details without any further delay.

What is Elementor Birthday Sale?

Elementor Birthday Sale is an annual celebration of the popular WordPress page builder, Elementor. During this sale, users can get discounted pricing on Elementor WordPress hosting + Elementor Pro, which is the paid version of the plugin and includes additional features and functionalities.
It usually takes place around the anniversary of the company’s founding and offers users a chance to save money while using Elementor to build their websites. This year’s birthday sale is LIVE right now, and we have picked out the best deals for you below.

#1. Get up to 75% off Hosting and Builder

Take a look at the special discounts on Elementor Hosting during Elementor’s birthday sale in 2024.
https://preview.redd.it/eibhhknzz93d1.jpg?width=1277&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=497491a95dfe597b139991744d49d101fb702784

#2. Get up to 30% off Elementor Pro Plugin plans

Here are the anniversary discounts available for the Elementor Page Builder plugin (pro version).
https://preview.redd.it/cklr0vp60a3d1.jpg?width=1288&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=cea8eb6d77d3922b5a535f4b5fc46f97bdfa684d

How to Grab the Birthday Deal of Elementor Pro?

To get the special discount for Elementor’s birthday sale in 2024, all you need is to follow these instructions I’m going to tell you. Let’s start.

Step #1: Go to Elementor Website (Click here to jump)

First of all, you need to visit the official Birthday Sale landing page of Elementor, and from there choose what you want to purchase — Elementor hosting or Elementor Pro Plugin.

Step #2: Select your plan

On their Birthday landing page, you’ll see that Elementor is offering up to 30% off its pro plugin and up to 75% off its hosting plans. Here, you just pick your favourite plan that you’d like to go with and hit the Buy Now button.

Step #3: Create an Elementor account for free

You’ll now see your cart showing the plan you chose, and total pricing. The Elementor Birthday sale discount code will automatically be applied to your purchase. From here, you can now proceed to enter your valid email address and password for your Elementor account.

Step #4: Enter your billing info

Now, you have to complete your billing information. It includes your first name, last name, address, city, country, pin code, state, and company name. After filling in all these details, click the continue button.

Step #4: Finish your order

Elementor offers two ways to pay for your purchase. You can choose to pay with your credit card or use your PayPal account. Once you have entered all the necessary information, just click on the “Pay Now” button to complete the payment process.

Step #5: That’s all. Elementor Birthday 2024 Sale is yours…

If you’ve been following our instructions closely, you’ve already gotten the number one Website builder tool. There’s no more step after that.
Remember, this Birthday sale of Elementor is only available for a limited time (expiring on 7th June 2024), so don’t wait too long to take advantage of it.

Elementor Birthday Sale Price for Plugin and Hosting

Elementor has two products:

• WordPress Hosting
• Page Builder WordPress Plugin

Let’s look at each of them one by one and discuss their pricing plans.

Elementor Hosting Plans

Elementor is not just a page builder, but it also provides web hosting for WordPress websites. It’s like getting a package deal because when you buy web hosting from them, you also get the Elementor Pro page builder plugin.
So, if you’re still trying to decide on a web host or if you’re unhappy with your current one, Elementor’s cloud hosting could be a great choice for you.
Here’s how they have reduced the prices of their hosting plans during their special Birthday sale or anniversary celebrations.
https://preview.redd.it/g3l98gic0a3d1.jpg?width=1277&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=822563014987cbb2ba7df06c40cabbc19f4deab3
Click here to snag up to 75% discount on any Elementor WordPress hosting and get page builder and theme for FREE — all in one package.

Elementor Page Builder Plugin Plans

Elementor offers both a free and paid version of its website builder plugin. The cost of the paid version, Elementor Pro, starts at $59/year for a single-site license and goes up to $399/year for a 1000-site license.
Here’s a discounted plan for the Elementor Pro plugin during the Birthday sale.
https://preview.redd.it/blcbgpqf0a3d1.jpg?width=1288&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=5f7d347f8262219478b20bb39a5cc958a176a2fc
They also offer a 30-day money-back guarantee (for both hosting and plugin) so you can try it risk-free.
Click on this exclusive Birthday sale link to choose your favourite Elementor Pro Plan.

Get Your Elementor Birthday Deal 2024

No doubt Elementor is the #1 website builder tool available on the market that helps you make any type of website in less than one hour. They have a visual drag-and-drop editor that lets you easily change things on your website while you’re working on it.
And the best part is, when you make changes, you can see them live right away on your website. It also has ready-made designs and templates that you can use to make your website look professional without much effort. Overall, I would say Elementor is super simple to use and doesn’t require any coding skills.
From May 28th – June 7th, there’s a special sale on Elementor because it’s their birthday. So if you want to try it out, now is a great time. Just click the button below to sign up and get started.
Claim Elementor Birthday Discount Sale
Well, that’s all from this blog post. Now, I want to hear what you think about Elementor and its BIGGEST Birthday offer.
Did you like them (if you ask me, then yes, I especially like their plugin as well as the huge discounts they provide during their birthdays)? Let me know your thoughts in the comments section. Byeeeee…

Frequently Asked Questions – Elementor Anniversary Sale

Is Elementor Birthday Deal live?

Yes, Elementor’s birthday deal 2024 is live! This year they are celebrating their 8th birthday and offering a whopping up to 75% discount on all of their plans. The sale is only for a limited time so make sure to grab this opportunity before it ends.

When is the Elementor Birthday Sale happening?

The Elementor Birthday Sale typically takes place in late May or early June, around the time of Elementor’s official launch date. At the time of writing this article, the Elementor Birthday Sale is live (from 28th May – 7th June), you can check them out from here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P5HBx6PSjlY
‘THE GIANT’ https://salutis.kartra.com/page/oWP219
5x Classic strength & conditioning programs using the Clean + Press
Each program 4 weeks long
‘THE GIANT X’ https://salutis.kartra.com/page/giant-x
3x strength & conditioning programs using the Clean + Press and Press variations and more loading variety
Each program is 8 weeks long
Kettlebell GHFL https://go.chasingstrength.com/kettlebell-ghfl-4/
3x ballistics-based fat loss programs that incidentally make you more conditioned and stronger
Each program is 12 weeks long
Kettlebell MAXIMORUM https://go.chasingstrength.com/kettlebell-maximorum-e/
12-week “Ultimate” KB program
Uses Double Clean + Press, Double Front Squat, Single Snatch
3x Nutrition plans included
Strength coach Mark Rippetoe says, “Stronger people are harder to kill.”
StrongFirst says, “Be anything you want to be, but be strong first.”
And yet our society is OBSESSED with “weight loss.”
I’ve written recently about the importance of getting rid of stomach fat for health and staving off death.
I’ve even written over the last 6 months or so about getting rid of that stomach fat as fast as possible simply because it is so detrimental to your health, AND…
It inhibits your ability to get stronger.
Yet I’m known as the “double kettlebell strength guy.”
So what’s the deal?
Should YOU pick a side?
Do you HAVE TO pick a side?
Even though our modern world is hell-bent on “this vs. that”... “Us vs. Them”...
I say NO, you don’t HAVE to.
You can subtly (or not) BIAS your training to one side or the other, IF you know how to program correctly.
In fact, back in 2010, I put out the first “strength-based fat loss program” - Kettlebell Burn…
Which got people A LOT stronger, while stripping off body fat. (Many even used it for the RKC kettlebell certification prep and crushed their certs.)
And if you “dial in” your nutrition?
Well, that’s the “magic” right there:
Maximum Strength Training + Supportive Nutrition.
Case in point - got this email from Verrico about his experience using a “pure strength” program - ‘THE GIANT 3.0’ and cleaning up his nutrition:
As you can see, even though he lost 5.5lbs of scale weight and 1.5 inches from his waist… He turned his old 5RM into a brand spanking new 10RM in just 4 weeks.
So, look, you DON’T HAVE TO CHOOSE.
You can be STRONG and LEAN.
And more importantly, you CAN focus on both at the same time, if you know what you’re doing.
You CAN HAVE the BEST OF BOTH WORLDS.
You just have to know how to do it.
Hope this helps.
Stay Strong,
Geoff
P.S. One of the reasons Kettlebell Burn 2.0 worked so well for people was not JUST the programming, but it gave them an adjustable and customizable nutrition template that freed them from the “tyranny of dieting.”

I have 8+ years of experience in commercial real estate lending. Naturally, my applications have been almost exclusively originations and underwriting roles, with a small amount of asset management applications as well. I've applied to 200+ roles over the last 6 months and only interviewed at 3 firms. One firm didn't email me back after 2 rounds of interviews (5 individual interviews). Two others interviewed me (3 interviews and 8 interviews, respectively) and offered roles different from the ones I applied for. I turned down those offers as they were obvious bait and switch postings and I have no desire to work for liars.
Undoubtedly, CRE is suffering from a downturn. But at this point, I can't help but think I'm being discriminated against because of my ethnic name and face. Please let me know what I can improve and how I can address this discrimination.
https://preview.redd.it/9uan9duw0a3d1.jpg?width=1700&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=7388540cd509549a1d074051538a1b312bca01fe

First Previous Wiki
Penny gazed at the quartet of Elders. They were all wearing the merchandise she remembered from the last Judgment, which was exceedingly awkward. Mainly because they were wearing shirts with her face on them. But it was also oddly endearing, in a way. Until now, she hadn't seen too many Elders that were on her side.
Elders that weren't just Kashaunta or the familiar faces she already knew, like Spentha or Rho and Sai, actually showing appreciation of her, felt odd. Even if these ones went a little too far in it.
"You're even more beautiful in person, Liberator," one said.
"Uh, thanks. I appreciate that. I'm glad that you all like me. Rho and Sai told me that you all are interested in something I can give you?"
"Yeah. Maybe a short interview? We won't be like that airhead reporter. We'll ask the good questions."
"Yep, we will."
"Right then," Penny said. "Well, I'm glad to meet you."
"Thank you. Now that we're here, we'd like to know how you plan on taking care of the gang leaders."
"Well, presumably by imprisoning them. I don't think they deserve to die, even if others do. I'll leave that decision up to Justicar and his various judges in the criminal system."
Penny didn't like having to lie blatantly. She wanted to kill the slavers quite brutally, but doing that was a bad idea right now. Saying it also was a bad idea, for a similar reason. And Justicar's system was worryingly preferential to Elders, from what she'd looked up after the meeting with Pundacrawla.
"Aren't you worried that the Judges won't give proper justice?"
"I trust Justicar to do everything that is necessary."
Another lie. Justicar would do whatever he could to maintain his image. Hopefully, that wouldn't be at the cost of the Alliance's very existence.
"Got it. By the way, what's it like being human? Walking on only two legs. It seems kind of unstable. Do you fall a lot?"
A genuine curiosity from them was another breath of fresh air. It was the kind of question a quadruped would definitely ask, which put her more at ease about the nature of what they were trying to do. Even more than their evident support of her, with all the merch they were wearing. Penny felt a smile crack at the corners of her lips, unbidden.
"Not really. We can use our arms to steady ourselves pretty well. Obviously it's not as easy to balance on our two legs as it is with your four, but it's still good enough. In fact, the sprinters in the Olympics use all four limbs, since running as fast as possible also requires pumping our arms. As for what it's like to be human, it's hard to describe. For many of us, it will feel colder or warmer than Sprilnav would feel in the same temperatures, due to thinner skin. Our eyesight is more frontal than yours, given our lack of snouts, so our blindspots are a lot bigger. Our feet require shoes for rough ground, and we heal slower than you by around 20%. We can't really clack our jaws to the scale that you can, though we can make them meet."
Penny bared her teeth, showing as she opened and closed her mouth. It was nice to be able to talk about things like this.
"The Olympics?" one of them asked.
"It's a competition about athletics," Penny said. "Running, jumping, throwing, diving, swimming, skiing, snowboarding, and a lot of sports. There's specific divisions, too. Like how there's a 100 meter dash, 200 meter dash, 400 meter dash, and even an 800 meter dash for those with high levels of psychic energy. Though really, psychic energy and genetic editing have been messing with the events for a while now. And there's a Winter, Summer, and Space Olympics, each with different sorts of events. They move from city to city, though the Space Olympics are pretty much always on either Luna, Ceres, or Mercury. There's a lot more information out there on various events, but it's an old cultural practice revered by the entire species. Even more so since Phoebe's increased the prize pools for everyone."
"How does your species handle space in general? I know that you guys did things way differently before First Contact."
"We did. Mining companies kept tight control on all asteroid mining, while nations controlled planets like Earth and Mars and large planetary bodies like Luna. Supposedly, a few people planned for a cloud city on Venus, but we couldn't risk having such a vulnerable population because they'd have to rely on giant balloons to survive. That would probably be the least secure way to live, given the existence of rogue organizations and all that.
As for spaceships, most of them since we really colonized Luna come equipped with spacesuit bays, zero gravity water and food packs, oxygen tanks, emergency seats, specialized anti-micrometeorite hulls, and radiation shielding. A lot of the older military ships also were equipped with big radiators until World War Three, when it all became masses of drone warfare, with the big ships kept mainly for cargo and lanes where mass drone control was impossible.
Once the Vinarii came and we got shields, we started building big again. After all, it provided a huge number of jobs, and in the post-war economies, especially with VIs in place, a lot of people needed work. But we still go and do asteroid and moon mining, star lifting, and energy gathering. We built an orbital ring around Mercury, the closest planet to Sol, to help with all of that. It doubles as a production hub, too. Now, it's all in more systems and with a lot more friends."
"Speaking of aliens, what theory does your people have on why so many creatures resemble one another? Our jaws are adapted for hard shelled creatures, and we're told that many planets have oddly similar variations of those."
"Crabs."
She guessed what they were getting at.
It is odd, isn't it? Nilnacrawla observed.
Perhaps that is another one of the Source's whims, Penny thought.
Maybe.
A few of the Elders made exclamations of shock.
"You even have a word for them that directly translates!"
Penny chuckled. "Yeah, carcinization is a bit of a meme in the science community. But I've heard the most mainstream theories since the First Contact are that the Source itself is uncreative. It has a certain template of creatures which it largely doesn't alter, though it can take in inputs from beings close to it, perhaps even influencing them."
"Influencing them?"
"Yes. Modern depictions of wendigoes, folkloric creatures from North America, a continent on Earth, are shockingly similar to the Knowers in appearance. The internet depictions of them in particular like to emphasize canine qualities, and often show them with skulls visible directly, and with dark brown or black fur. Recent depictions, as in the past 300 years, differ from their original appearances quite significantly, with the canine characteristics in particular being enhanced.
We have sorted through all known images of these creatures and found roughly 80% similarity with the Knowers and tens of thousands of images that are literally exactly the same as Knowers. The ones we searched all came before World War Three, far before even the First Contact with the Vinarii, much less the Knowers who were entirely underground at the time due to the radiation of their home star. We believe that the Source managed to influence this facet of human culture with the actual existence of a real creature.
Other examples exist, like how the Trikkec look very similar to Komodo Dragons, Vinarii look very similar to insects known as a mantis, and the Acuarfar look exactly like insects known as wasps with the single exception of their furry snouts and green instead of yellow markings. The Sprilnav species itself shares high amounts of similarity with a fictional species known as Elites in early 2000s culture, particularly with your jaws, though you all have red skin instead of grey or brown.
The Junyli, Dreedeen, and the wanderers are the main species without high amounts of appearance in our cultures at some point. This correlates with the idea of the Source being the influencer, as their predecessors all were used to fight it. Many species of the galaxy look like parts of our culture or Earth's creatures. The proximity of these examples makes this far more suspicious than if they were across the galaxy.
But since they existed first, the only answer must be that the Source brought the influence to us first and planted the ideas in our heads. As for the ones which look like Earth creatures, all of them are old enough evolutionary branches that copying from them to Earth makes more sense. Though the references centering around the early 2000s is quite odd, it is also roughly when the internet came into wide existence, so it is also possible the Source gave the ideas a push so they would propagate, for an unknown reason. Like if it seeded the ideas that propagated across the early global network Humanity used."
"Hmm. Fascinating. We've seen evidence of the 'seeding' process among some historical nations near the galactic region of Earth before. So the Source re-uses and alters depictions of life and also life itself?"
"Maybe," Penny said. "Unless the Source is more directly tied to life than we think. There's a conceptual Death, but no conceptual Life. Isn't that odd?"
"Conceptual Life died in the Source war."
How did that really work, though? Penny asked Nilnacrawla.
Imagine a conceptual being. A few of the Progenitors, as well as Narvravarana, went up to try to harvest its power. It refused, and Narvravarana used its unique abilities to try and force the deal.
Why was your civilization like this?
Excess and greed, partly. But we couldn't really do much more expansion. Vertical expansion also had its limits if we wanted to remain relevant for the remaining lifespan of the universe. So Narvravarana, along with a few of the greatest rulers and leaders of Sprilnav society, started looking to other dimensional planes. They figured it was best not to let the problem get too much worse. Or at least, that is what they say. I believe it was to harvest more resources to use against our surrounding enemies.
You didn't have any allies? Penny asked.
At that time, all the powers of the universe were enemies. All the allies eventually merged through millions of years of normalization. We happened to get on the universal stage the earliest, so other civilizations we encountered had little choice but to surrender their independence. Some fought, others didn't, but the outcome was the same.
That seems terrible.
It was, though the other universal civilizations were no better. Some of them just exterminated all alien life they found that couldn't fight back. In that sense, the pre-war Sprilnav civilization was one of the greatest, and that's why I fought for them. Obviously, I'm biased in that regard, though.
Thanks for telling me, father.
No problem, Penny.
She refocused back on the conversation at hand.
"But a thing cannot be alive if it dies. The concept of life doesn't work that way. So maybe the Source just... took in the concept of life? Or absorbed it into whatever psychic energy really is, considering that it's responsible for all of our existence?"
"That's so crazy it might actually be true," one of the Elders said. "You're incredible, Penny."
"Uh, thanks. You're all pretty great too." Her eyes drifted to the images of herself on their clothing. She couldn't really help it.
"I have a question for you."
"Yes?"
"Do you know what I'm fighting for?"
"I assume since you're asking it here, you don't just want a one word answer," an Elder said. "I would say yes, and for the liberation of the Sprilnav from the stain of slavery. Though going deeper into your history, you have also fought for other species, either in wars or just generally moving around. It does look aimless, mostly, since the galaxy's so big. But I'm sure you've got a way through that."
"In some way. Part of why I'm here isn't just about my people. It was at first, I admit that. But as I have lived here, on Justicar, for days and weeks, I've seen you less as alien. It makes it easier for sympathy and easier to break out of simple mindsets. So far, there are many problems, but there are distinct pieces. The first is that many people want to uphold slavery. I'm not sure why, but they do. It isn't profitable, and it isn't moral. Robots are cheaper in every way, and don't need food or water.
That means it's illogical or emotional. So I could try and solve the problem with violence alone, but it won't be addressing the cause, only the symptoms. I need to get to the heart of the matter. And I think it has to do with Elders' memories and the gradual woes they have accumulated going through life. I don't want to tear that away or drug them into believing they're fine. I want to find a way to outlet that productively. The second part I have identified is scale. The galaxy is enormous, and your species is incredibly numerous. I could fight planet by planet for the rest of my life, and liberation would still be difficult.
That also means I'd need a better way of doing things. Maybe an economic or political incentive. Emotional reasons will not work permanently, nor will logic, since we are in this situation. I have found several ways to address this. Sadly, since the gangs are likely monitoring this feed, I can't just outright say my strategy. All I can ask you all to do is to believe. Believe that I have a solution, and that I and those who stand with me are working on it. Believe in me because I believe in you."
None of the Elders questioned or ridiculed her words. Most of it was because they were fans of her. But one of them, an Elder named Rahautiti, had a distinct glint in his eye. Their gazes met only momentarily, but Penny could tell he knew.
And so she appeared in the mindscape, even as they concluded the interview, which would be the first of many. It was a ploy to just talk about human culture and ideals a bit more, to get it out there. Because the hivemind's theory was correct.
In the universe, ideas had power. That power could be weaponized against those who previously stood to gain. The first part of it was the image: Nova as an unbeatable bastion. Lecalicus as the Beast, a monster capable of star-crushing rage. Twilight as... whatever she did. Penny wasn't really familiar with the Progenitor's image too much, and the various names, like the Silent Night or the Smiling Darkness, were just so unbelievably edgy she cringed every time she recalled them.
But Rahautiti understood so she moved her mindscape avatar to see him.
"Hello again, Penny. I am no threat."
"I know. I'm glad that your group is led by someone as capable as you, as well as the other groups you dabble within."
"Who discovered it?"
"Phoebe. You met with Ezeonwha, and the android wanted to ensure you weren't a way for Yasihaut to kill him."
"Yeah. We did get approached about that, actually. We're supposed to kill Ezeonwha when you walk into the Judgment hall. Of course, we won't do this, and she won't be able to retaliate against us easily while there."
"Thank you for your honesty, Elder," Penny said. "It seems I'm in your debt."
"Nonsense. 2,839. That is the number of children I have had. 2,626. That is the number of children of mine which were enslaved. The remaining 213 died in unrelated incidents, with nearly half of those involving slavers killing them. I remember all of their names, and all of their faces, Penny. I want all the slavers in this universe dead."
"I cannot achieve that."
"You cannot," Rahautiti agreed. "Not with my help or even that of Kashaunta and Lecalicus. And certainly not right now. I have not lived this long to be incapable of compromise or patchwork solutions. You show great promise. I understand your aversion to killing and the circumstantial reason why you are not doing so now. I will not grow upset if you do not resume killing when the Judgment ends. Nor do I harbor a grudge against you for the speeding space entity you left outside the room to avoid uncomfortable publicity. You are incredibly young.
A sliver of a life. But you are strong, and you are mature. That sliver of your lifespan already outshines all I could do with a trillion more years, Penny. You are right in that this isn't something you can punch your way through. Trauma is part of why slavery still exists, despite it being a wholly unjust reason for the Elders to make such a sport of it. I am sure you know the story of the war, with a great hero in your head and Kashaunta at your side. My line of work is what I started to help you. Every thought about you being the Liberator, every eye that glances on you freeing slaves, helps you to gather conceptual energy. My talent happens to be great enough to sense the Pact of Blades you have, as well. If you want, I can teach you how to hide the mark on your soul and your mind."
"I would like that, yes," Penny said. "And thank you for being so reasonable. I will ask Kashaunta to protect you from what consequences come for refusing the offer on Ezeonwha."
"There are going to be attacks on him, you know. Him and your ship."
Penny felt an odd feeling in her soul. Cardi's power flared around him, and she squinted at the sky. She just barely saw a sliver of a tentacle. Most would have mistaken it for a normal speeding space entity. But here? On Justicar, with Exile obviously not being the cause?
Only one being would cause that. Fate.
Given the subject of their conversation, it was obvious what was going on.
Penny tapped Rahautiti's jaw, adding a thin mark of conceptual power so she could easily find him again. She focused on the conceptual mark she'd left on Ezeonwha. A twinge of conceptual energy came from it. It was accompanied by various impressions, like fear, pain, and acceptance.
"I have to go," Penny said. "I will be back later. Displace."
She appeared next to the 102nd Visitor Welcome Office but not next to Ezeonwha. It was carnage everywhere she looked.
"Champion!" an unknown Elder yelled. "I am Elder Na-"
Her rising fury surged, and it took all she had not to dismember him. The distant thought of the Judgment stayed her hands, though only just.
Penny's fist collided with the Elder's jaw at twice the speed of sound. A piece of his jaws flew free. Bone fragments hit the ground behind him. Hundreds of soldiers fired on her, and she slammed them to the ground with pure will. Penny tore their guns away and sent them each to pummel the Elder in front of her with as much brutality as she could. His powerful armor wasn't as capable of defense against physical attacks as it was against her psychic energy, and so he fell.
"You... cannot save him," the Elder spat. Fields of psychic suppression fell upon her, reducing her power.
"Manipulation through Determination," Penny growled. "De-"
No! Nilnacrawla said. Do not kill him! Not yet!
"What goes up will go down."
Air hardened around the Elder and accelerated rapidly.
The Elder smashed into the shield five miles above with a speed just slow enough that he wouldn't die. He fell from it and then hit it again at a more modest speed. He'd bounce on that until the Guides came to get him.
But Penny had another target. One she had to save instead of attack.
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
High Judge Tassidonia awoke to the sound of explosions. He grabbed his swords, his main gun, and the personal shield he reserved for only the most dire occasions. The sky was erupting in war all around him, and buildings were already falling nearby. The spires of skyscrapers rained down upon the entrances to the Underground, crushing thousands of fleeing Sprilnav under their wide impacts.
His implant identified members of the gangs nearby, making their way to his home.
"Retribution Cycle!" Tassidonia cried. A hidden door opened, and he boarded a small hovercraft that sported a high amount of defensive and offensive technology, a gift from Justicar for dealing with all that he had related to the Judgment. Only this time, he wouldn't be on the next one. But already, the destruction was spreading.
Micro-missiles rained upon friend and foe alike. Several detonated against the layered shields. The mounted turrets on the side of his hoverbike shot lasers into the enemies his implant identified.
"Elder Tassidonia!" an Elder cried nearby. "For the crime of defying the will of-"
Tassidonia called his fury to bear. He rammed his mind into the enemy Elder, disorienting her. She reeled, about to attack, when a thick laser smashed into her chest. It pushed her against the wall, and Tassidonia kept the pressure up until her body melted. He listened to her screams impassively, occasionally sending blasts from his gun at the gangs when their members started to stray too close.
The thick red beam did its work within twenty pulses. His swords began to float beside him, keeping pace as he sped away from his home. The entire apartment complex shuddered and began to lean, its foundation being destroyed by some effect below. Tassidonia abandoned it with only minor regret. He'd known this moment would come. Everything he needed was already with him.
He linked into the Guide network, directing squadrons to attack the breaches he'd identified. Orbital strikes fell upon them in quick succession. Thick beams of light pierced through the lower planetary shields from orbital platforms, their guns honing in on Justicar's enemies. Tassidonia's implant was linked to the grid as well. So when he eyed buildings occupied with too many gang members, orbital strikes fell on them a few pulses later.
Fire and plasma rained all around him. Explosions and smoke blossomed all around him. More missiles fell from his hovercraft. A fighter ship appeared beside him, its simple stealth revealing itself to his eyes. Tassidonia waited for the pilot chamber to open, and his craft stowed itself behind him when he got in. It was fully equipped, so soon, Tassidonia was in full control of a weapon of war.
His first order of business was detecting the gangs' most fortified areas. He peppered those bases in shield-weakening mines, followed by bunker-buster missiles. Several anti-air turrets hit him, but his shields prevented them from taking him down. He dropped three high-end Butcher Androids into the fray of the largest battles.
One of the adjacent fighter wings in the separate shield sector dropped a nuke. At that moment, Tassidonia made a decision.
Whatever insanity was going on right now wasn't worth staying here on his own. He turned his ship upward, narrowly avoiding nearly fifty missiles shot from another gang fortress, which was really just the lower floors of a supermarket. Thick slabs of concrete were being set up by androids and slaves from the Underground. All he could do was watch from above and attempt to mark those that might be a problem.
Justicar's Grand Fleet was moving in, though only the carriers and their escorts were doing anything of any scale. The armies were mobilizing, and it seemed that war had finally broken out. Justicar, while isolated due to the Judgment, would have to win a war that threatened to topple his rule entirely.
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Ezeonwha woke when the walls around him shuddered.
An earthquake?
Groggily, he activated the lights in the room. Phoebe's android was charging in the wall. Her limbs swayed with the motion. The walls shuddered again, and the lights went out. Thin, tiny cracks spread in the walls, increasing his worry factors massively. His implant notified him that this wasn't a dream. Distant screams reached his ears, and he went to the window.
Hordes of Sprilnav were running on the ground, tripping over each other to escape. He heard the thump of footsteps approaching from outside. The android activated, standing up.
"Move away from the doo-"
An explosion tossed him across the room. A Sprilnav carrying some sort of mouth weapon faded into view for a moment, smoke recalibrating the stealth field. And then he was gone. Phoebe smashed into the Sprilnav, her fists pummeling the assassin faster than Ezeonwha could comprehend.
Phoebe's arms turned into swords, and she stabbed the Sprilnav at least fifty times in a single pulse. She turned to grab him, but before she reached him, a second explosion sent him flying out of the now-shattered window.
The massive skyscraper loomed large, and he saw the ground beneath it ripple. Dull thumps sounded from below, and large, circular caverns opened beneath the 102nd Visitor Welcome Office. The whole building started to list forward, and Ezeonwha frantically activated his emergency personal shield as he started falling faster and faster. A bullet hit the shield. And then a second one. Gunshots echoed out in the distance, and he saw other Sprilnav falling from broken windows in the falling skyscraper. Gunfire erupted on the streets as Guides engaged a growing army of attackers bubbling up from basements of shops and businesses.
He saw spurts of blood exit the Sprilnav nearest him, bullets tearing holes through the woman's body. Piercing screams surrounded him, a terrible chorus that reminded him of the worst wars he'd fought in. But here, his training could do nothing. She was already dead, and he knew that he was the target of this whole attack. His eyes watered, and Ezeonwha felt so powerless. So useless.
A Corrector emerged from the side of the tilting skyscraper, eyes fixed on Ezeonwha. Then he looked down. Somehow, Ezeonwha knew when the orders had been sent. He knew that it was Astipra in the distance, a jetpack on his shoulders burning a thick flame beneath him.
Astipra looked back at the building and flew toward it. Ezeonwha felt the wind rushing past the shield as pressure. Astipra, far above, vaporized falling chunks of the skyscraper with blasts from his arm cannons. He pressed back against the skyscraper, the jetpack going into overdrive. The metal bent inward, and the groaning and twisting structure continued its fall. Blasts of light from Astipra again vaporized the set of falling chunks.
"Penny," he said. It was almost a prayer, really. His desperate mind was scrambling for whatever it could get. "Please, save me!"
He didn't know if she could hear him. Logically, it was impossible. And in a battle such as this, unlikely as well. Rippling explosions erupted across the facade of the falling skyscraper as rockets struck it. More explosions bloomed as lasers from distant police vehicles, Guides, and Astipra destroyed more of the fast-flying missiles and rockets. They pounded on the world around him, a horde of madness threatening to break his brain. He could feel the wind and gravity equalize as he reached terminal velocity.
And all he could see was the world descending into war around him. The 102nd Visitor Welcome Office continued to slump and lean against Astipra's best efforts. More bullets hit Ezeonwha's personal shield, and peppered the Guides moving over to save him. Air ambulances were shot from the sky. Even small fighter crafts were shot down by powerful ground lasers. EMPs thumped, disabling all the higher functions of his implant before he could think to use it.
A much larger explosion bloomed out, and Ezeonwha followed the rocket's trail to an Elder on the ground, standing in the wreckage surrounding a sudden tunnel opening. The Elder stared at him in glee, and he lined up another shot. Two Guides fell upon the Elder, who flew up using a jetpack to cut them in half with his sword. A hard light hologram lifted a large gun, pointing at Ezeonwha as he fell.
His eyes widened. Ezeonwha did everything he could. He angled his legs and arms. He pushed at the air. He even hefted the meager psychic energy he had, struggling with all his soul to escape the death he could feel was coming to him.
Guides swarmed beyond the shield appearing, while gang soldiers died by the hundreds to carpet bombing. Personal shields sprang up to block the explosions, and the Elder had survived. A thick red laser cut one of the fighters in half from the smoke. Above him, the collapsing facade of the skyscraper consumed Astipra entirely, though large gouts of plasma and thick explosions emerged from within. He could survive if it fell upon him, but Ezonwha could not.
Penny materialized far below, closer to the field of battle. A sweeping wave of gang members began disappearing. A bullet smashed into her head and her stomach, detonating in bright explosions. A personal shield flared and disappeared. Missiles and lasers slammed into Penny by the thousands as psychic energy gathered. A constant roll of words fell from her tongue, but without his implant, they were not translated.
Missiles crumbled into dust. Lasers impacted raw space in front of Penny before bending down and back to their origins, destroying automated turrets. Bullets still hit Penny and the Guides by the thousands, firing too quickly and densely for her to entirely block. But the large ordnance from the gangs continued to work against them.
Penny looked around, confusion evident on her face. But amidst the thousands of wounded and dead Sprilnav falling from the broken windows, Ezeonwha was hidden too well.
Shattering glass could be constantly heard, and he could feel the distant screams in his soul. A bullet smashed into his personal shield again, disabling it. A pulse later, he lost feeling in his legs.
He tried to reach out to her mind, but the war in the mindscape was equally intense. Too many Elders and Guides battling it out along with various suppression artifacts made it all impossible. He could sense Penny's influence, but couldn't directly reach her.
He let out a breath, knowing it to be the final one.
I'm sorry, Penny, Ezeonwha thought.
I wish you luck in the Judgment, and I am sorry I caused this to happen to you.
Penny finally appeared in front of him, eyes wide-
Blood erupted. A searing pain in his head told him his implant had just shorted out. And in the mindscape, he saw a mental attack heading for him, its brutal power evident. He closed his eyes.

I've worked really hard on my first game, Maxwell, which is a Horror Text Adventure game (in C++) that only runs in VS 22's terminal. I really want this to be an official game that can be something I can publish online like Steam for example.
I'm currently working on a combat system and have plans to implement sound (fX, Audio Logs, Music) & background art.
Honestly, my biggest concern is grasping how exactly I can create an official game that can be played by anyone from where I am right now, which is just 3 files from Visual Studios 2022. I'm stuck on bridging that gap together.
I need help understanding these two things:
1) What method is best to have this accessible to anyone across the internet (Like Steam for example).
2) What method would be best to implement sound and images? I ask since I don't know If I should make the whole game in VS2022, switch to another IDE like VSCode, or just start fresh with a game engine like Unreal 5 (by creating the Text-Adventure by customizing the stock 'main menu' template).
Any responses are highly appreciated :D

I'm curious if anyone has attempted to incorporate the system prompts from the Fabric project into Crew. I was thinking they might make effective templates for tasks and agents. The identify and purpose sections of the system prompts could be used for backstories while the output could be used for tasks. I'm planning to experiment tonight. Will report back if anyone is interested.

I work for an organization that is going to be moving to Power BI. Right now, all of our data is siloed into disparate systems but we are going to purchase DataBricks and move to centralizing our data. The plan is then to build a common model or several common models for departments/business units to use in Power BI to build reports from. There will be a self-service workspace where the data models are published and a COE workspace for where the same models are published. Company-wide/executive-level reports will be going through the COE (Center of Excellence) and built on water-marked templates. Citizen Developers will be able to connect Live to the data models in self-service workspace or connect via DQ to build upon them. There will be a process for brining innovations from self-service workspace into the common model etc. This is the end goal.
Currently state of affairs: everyone does there work in excel, manages their own datasets or pulls in data from the relevant systems that pertain to their department. People are aware that we are moving to Power BI in the future and people have signed up for the Dashboard In A Day courses that the company I work for procured. Right now, we are giving people in certain departments Power BI Pro licenses so that they can see the few reports that exist. We will move to Premium in the next year. My worry is that after this DIAD course, people are going to be bombarding the COE asking how to share X, Y, or Z report that they threw together in Power BI. I am looking for help or suggestions on how to manage this Power BI rollout.
On one hand, they simply want to share what they are already doing in excel in Power BI. On the other hand, I don’t want the integrity of our Power BI program to be compromised by random reports from random datasets while the COE is still working on centralizing all the data in DataBricks. How do we allow for Power BI to be used as a tool to assist with the work already being done in Excel without inadvertently creating the wild west of reporting? Are we putting the cart before the horse? Should we rule with an iron fist and lock it all down even though a Power BI future has already been promised? Am I freaking out over nothing?
One solution I was thinking of would be, for now, to let people publish and share reports within their departments only. We would let them know that once our common model is ready that we will be migrating any reporting to that model and only then can reporting be shared to a wider audience with involvement of the COE. Any advice, help, or stories you have about power bi adoption, rollouts, or common sense guardrails would be greatly appreciated. Thank you so much!

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Check out Templatestool's Notion and digital planner templates! I love using their templates to stay on track. With Notion, I organize my tasks and projects easily, while digital planner templates help me plan my day effectively. Whether it's managing tasks or scheduling my time, Templatestool's templates have got me covered. Give them a try and watch your productivity skyrocket

Hey there!
I've just been offered a job at a small finance company to be a content creatosocial media manager for two brands they own. Don't know if I'm accepting yet but I'm leaning towards yes. How difficult is it to be responsible for a mix of social media pages for two brands on full time hours? I've been working in digital marketing for about 7 months now so I'm still learning and fairly new to the industry. Not super confident in my skills just yet but confident in my ability to learn.
In the interview they mentioned wanting to overhaul/refresh their social media pages. I'm wondering if you guys have any advice for planning this or resources to help me with it. How long should it take, what should I be looking at analytics-wise, what tools are good for managing/analysing multiple social media accounts, etc. I'm looking for websites with training or templates or something like that. I know Canva has some templates for social media strategy but they're not very fleshed out. I have experimented with using AI to plan this but it's not very helpful because it's not actually teaching me anything, it's just giving me the answer.
Any advice or help would be great.

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When it comes to maximizing efficiency, especially when you're juggling a ton of tasks, Templatestool's Notion and digital planner templates are absolute lifesavers. Here’s how you can make the most of them:
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For instance, the time-blocking templates help you allocate specific time slots for different tasks, ensuring you stay focused and manage your time effectively. I remember last semester, I had a crazy schedule with exams, assignments, and part-time work. Using Notion with Templatestool's templates, I managed to break down my workload into manageable chunks. It felt like I had a personal assistant keeping me on track!
Secondly, the digital planner templates are perfect for keeping everything in one place. They allow you to combine your task lists, calendars, and even habit trackers, so you can see your entire schedule at a glance. This holistic view helps you prioritize tasks better and avoid the overwhelm of having too much to do. For example, I used a daily planner template that had sections for top priorities, notes, and time slots. It helped me focus on what needed immediate attention while also keeping an eye on upcoming tasks.
This approach not only boosted my productivity but also reduced stress because I had a clear plan of action.
So, if you're looking to boost your efficiency, give Templatestool's Notion and digital planner templates a try. They make organizing your tasks and managing your time a breeze

When it comes to maximizing efficiency, especially when you're juggling a ton of tasks, Templatestool's Notion and digital planner templates are absolute lifesavers. Here’s how you can make the most of them:
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Secondly, the digital planner templates are perfect for keeping everything in one place. They allow you to combine your task lists, calendars, and even habit trackers, so you can see your entire schedule at a glance. This holistic view helps you prioritize tasks better and avoid the overwhelm of having too much to do. For example, I used a daily planner template that had sections for top priorities, notes, and time slots. It helped me focus on what needed immediate attention while also keeping an eye on upcoming tasks. This approach not only boosted my productivity but also reduced stress because I had a clear plan of action.
So, if you're looking to boost your efficiency, give Templatestool's Notion and digital planner templates a try. They make organizing your tasks and managing your time a breeze

So I've been working on this one for quite some time, running sessions here since November, so I thought I'd finally share with the class. My previous domains have all the highly streamlined into a specific gimmick (or if you're being less generous, one-trick ponies), and I wanted to transition to an episodic style campaign for scheduling and session-planning reasons. So I challenged myself to make something that had a lot of potential in the type of sessions, terrain, and factions. I'm pleased with the result and I have endless fun. Dragonmine dungeons, sea monster hunts, and up to my armpits in murder mysteries (Involving everything from serial killers, forced marriages to sea creatures, finding shipwrecks, and backstreet grafting, and their current conundrum involving medieval compacts and mining rights).
What I have here is the stripped down version, hence the lack of things like a detailed backstory, NPCs, or the factions I'm mentioned. These things all exist, but there's far too much for a random reddit post.

Caergwynt

Domain of cursed bloodlines and stolen flesh
Darklord: Dr James Pugh
Genres: Body horror, cosmic horror
Hallmarks: A cursed piscine populace, dragon-flesh grafting surgery, a seaside town.
Mist Talismans: A preserved dragon’s bladder, A piece of leather with a triple-eye tattoo, a carver’s blade

A thousand years ago the people of Dan-y-Mor bargained with the Deep Ones of Thol’Yth, a bargain that caused their home to sink into the sea and has left a corrupting mark on their bloodline to this day. But times have moved on, and in the seaside tourist town of Caergwynt the people try to throw off the chains of the sea and embrace modernity. Dr James Pugh, master surgeon, alchemist, and prodigal son of Caergwynt, brough home with him the discoveries of Dragon-flesh grafting, and how the power within draconic meat can counteract the curse that afflicts them as they age.

But along with innovations, Pugh has brought twisted ideals of supremacy, callousness, and self-loathing to the town. Behind the pastel painted houses and ice-cream stands, Pugh holds the domain in the grips of his ideology. In Caergwynt both beauty and ugliness are skin deep; horror lies beneath both.

And where are they getting this dragon flesh?

Noteworthy Features

Those familiar with [Domain Name] know these facts:
· The coastal population is cursed by their piscine ancestry. Though they appear human to begin with, they start to warp into fish-like beings as the enter middle-age, until eventually they can’t survive on land.
· Magic and the occult arts aren’t banned in the town, but they pride themselves in their modern thinking, and so both are rare and seen with suspicion. Alchemy is very popular, as is natural philosophy of all kinds, though scientific truth is often clouded in ideological bias.
· Minor surgeries involving dragon flesh is hugely popular in the town, primarily as it staves off the piscine transformation. Draconic virtues such as wealth, independence, and power are idealised, while meekness, poverty, and laziness are seen as the result of oceanic taint.
· The inland parts of the domain are mountainous and sparsely populated, but under the mountains dragons lie hibernating in the hundreds. Through use of industrial quantities of sedatives, mining teams, and the skilled blades of the ‘Carvers’, they remove the flesh of living dragons for sale to surgeons.

Geography and locations

At the heart of the domain lies the town of Caergwynt, for which the domain is named, though it extends well beyond the picturesque town. Coastline stretches to the north and south for 9 miles in each direction. Outside the town much of the coastline is steep cliffs with only occasional cove, until the northern most two miles, which level out into sand dunes and finally to an estuary, the river bisected by the mists.

The domain extends another 13 miles inland to the east, almost immediately rising into rolling mountain ranges worn smooth eons ago by glaciers. Beneath these mountains are rich veins of ore, usually lead, copper, tin, silver, and even gold. Not to mention another, slumbering, treasure. These ridges and valleys are mostly populated by sheep farmers and miners, and their distance from the civilised towns means the old traditions still hold strong. Travellers here are likely to be vexed by the remaining fey spirits, whom they have likely offended by breaking their baffling codes.

Lastly, to the west is 13 miles of sea. Beneath the sea here is the remains of Dan-y-Mor, the lands that were drowned. Legends tell that the dragon Rhodri Efydd drowned these lands to punish the people there for their pact with the Deep Ones, and that it’s the survivors of this event that settled in Caergwynt and established the cursed bloodlines that still dwell there. The ruins are now populated by the Deep Ones, and the seas are treacherous to those who do not pay tribute to them.

Caergwynt town The main settlement and namesake of the domain, Caergwynt town is the seat of James Pugh’s power, and the nexus for his ideas. A rail line connects the town to the wider world through the mists, bringing tourists from far and wide to enjoy its pastel houses, seaside attractions, and healthy sea air. The town has grown incredibly rapidly over the past fifty years, so many of the houses are relatively new, painted brightly, and have plumbing. Wealthier houses often have electricity even, as Pugh idealises technological progress as a means of freeing oneself from the overlords of old.

Along the seafront promenade one can find ice-cream stands, circus acts, and countless sun loungers. Many children paddle in the shallows, under the watchful eyes of the many lifeguards. An impressive pier thrusts out to sea over 600ft, hosting a bar, dancefloor, and bandstand, as well as being decorated by colourful electric lights along its whole length.

On an upward-thrust outcropping of stone overlooking the bay, the ruins of a medieval castle can be found. Though much of the old outer portions are now a pleasant picnic overlook, the ruins themselves act as a façade that conceals the home and workshop of Dr James Pugh, the regal remains cloaking the garish metal construction where Pugh conducts his experiments and surgeries.

Dan-y-Mor Long ago, these lands were cast into the sea for the betrayal of the people here to their own kin: In return for protection against floods, the elders of the town betrothed many of their younger relatives to the Deep Ones. When forced to confront the horror of what they’d done, they refused to repent, and so the dragon Rhodri Efydd flooded the land to try and kill off all those tainted by the deep.

Not only did he fail, but the Deep Ones now occupy the ruins in great numbers, growing their strength and plotting their control over the surface. Led by the high priest Xrilath, ancient human structures have been supplemented by cyclopean temples to unfathomable gods. Here Xrilath experiments in creating mutants for his legions, and plots to spread his insanity to all. His aristocrats constantly feud and war over slaves and territory, and his priests construct monuments to induce storms and curses over the ocean. Unnatural reefs and trenches can come and go under the force of their magic, and shipwrecks are a frequent sight.

To this day, the church bells of Dan-y-Mor can be heard when the sea mists are thick.

Llwyd North along the coastline, as the cliffs finally give way to pebbles and finally a sandy beach, sits the unfortunately named Llwyd. Behind the town lies the only flat terrain of the domain, but it is boggy and brackish and so of little use, without a safe harbour like it’s sibling settlement to nucleate around. Thus, it’s a stretched-out town of a few hundred, composing of only two streets running a mile each in parallel along the beach, with the only high ground occupied by a church and a small railway station.
Like Caergwynt, its populace are doomed to mutate as they age, but away from the most intense of Pugh’s influence, they see themselves as more at peace with their nature. Repulsed by their lack of self-repulsion, Pugh has successfully discredited the town as being run-down and dire, stalling its attempt to draw in tourists as Caergwynt has, despite superficially similar pastel houses and beach attractions. Without cash coming in, most of the town is now stuck in a cycle of dilapidation that makes true Pugh’s slander.
Of the ailing attractions, the most notable it the Abominarium, a fledgling zoo that pivoted to displaying captured cryptids and the occasional escaped carver’s pet when funds for proper zoo animals wasn’t available.

Porthniwl
This town lies at the very south of the domain, a ruined place that was bisected by the mists when they descended and never left. Formerly, it was the template that Caergwynt copied to reinvent itself, but now the ebb and flow of the mists leaves it inhospitable and maddening, populated only by aberrations, Aled Llias-y-mor’s Deep-One splinter faction, and insane pirates. The cultists worship and bargain with otherworldly entities that spawn from the mists, welcoming them as Xrilath’s distant kin.

Cwm Crith
Following the river Crith from its terminus in Caergwynt inland (Or better yet, simply taking the narrow-gauge train with the miners each morning) will eventually lead to Cwm Crith, the upper reaches of the Crith valley. Formerly a loose scattering of shepherds, the valley has become dominated by Pugh’s dragonflesh mines that have poked holes in the mountainside. Leaked poisons, smelting effluent, and the residue of toxic ores has rendered the river a pretty but toxic blue colour, and decimated the agriculture of the valley.
While not the only dragonflesh mining compound in the domain, Cwm Crith is by far the busiest and most profitable. Owned of course by Dr James Pugh, Cwm Crith Mining Company, and its subsidiary the Goldscale Carvers, is an economic powerhouse by the standards of the other businesses in the domain. Along with dragon flesh, the draconic influence that seeps into the rocks has imbued the region with rich veins of ore that facilitates the industry of the domain.

Dr James Pugh

_See biography for full account_
Having left the decrepit town as a teenager, Pugh returned with a surprising supply of cash, a doctorate, and ambitious ideas about how the town should enter the bold new world of industry that was emerging. When he returned with a mysterious supply of money, he quickly set to work rebuilding his hometown to fit his own ideas. Where as the curse of their bloodline was formerly an accepted fact of life in the town, he introduced shame of their heritage along with the pioneering surgeries that could counteract it.

Dr James Pugh's Powers and Dominion
Despite being over seventy years old, Pugh appears to be in excellent health. Tall and lean, it’s clear to anyone meeting him, and confirmed by any who knew him as a youth, that he has always possessed an angular but handsome face, one that has only ever expressed seriousness or coldly simmering rage.
However, while age hasn’t affected him too greatly, his own surgery has: He has reptilian eyes, shimmering gold in the irises, and faint golden flecks in all visible skin. Golden scales can be seen around his neck and hands, though his habitual long-sleeved shirts don’t reveal much else. While most grafting subjects are left with swollen and distorted scars to be covered with heavy layers of make-up, Pugh’s few visible stiches are immaculate.
He always wears well made but not flamboyant clothing, so that it is his body, not attire, that draws the eye. Always practical, he is never seen in anything other than the ideal apparel for the occasion.
Though Pugh’s physical self is as full of hypocrisy as his ideology. Despite every sign of refinement and control, he can only maintain this visage by regular consumption of an expensive dragon-blood potion.

His true form, a consequence of his self-inflicted experiments, is a monstrous brute, with heavy staples holding together draconic and human flesh. These wounds are rife with infections that causes him to ooze pus and blood as he moves. While his hulking asymmetrical frame is strong, he suffers greatly from migraines, and thus his intelligence is drowned out by pain and anger. In a mockery of a dragon’s breath weapon, he can vomit great quantities of phosphorescent acid that ignites on contact with air.

Despite seeming to be bursting at the seams, his constitution is remarkable. He has survived poisoning, blood loss, strangulation, and many of his own experimental procedures beyond any reasonable explanation. Grievous wounds will render him in an apparently dead state for several days, but so far he has always woken back up.
However Pugh doesn’t hold sway over the domain by brute force, for almost none know his true condition. His true power is ideological and economic.
With his stolen money, he made many early investments into the mining sector, paid for the rail line that feeds visitors into the town, is the landlord of many homes in the town, and financed most of the tourist attractions. From this he earns a reliable and steady fortune that frees him up to pursue his research, and gives him leverage over a significant amount of the town as their landlord or employer.

Whilst the domains police are not officially under his command, his generous donations, forensic assistance, and loyal local politicians means that they tend to act in his favour.
And when he needs direct actions take, he has the Goldscale Carvers.
As their owner, he has cultivated a collection of brutal and loyal men who aren’t afraid of dirty work. They are also the unofficial biohazard containment specialists of the domain, so Pugh will gladly invent some hazard the police are ill-suited to handle when he wants things handled by his goons.

If attacked, he can choose to transform into his monstrous true form, but will resist doing so at almost any cost. Instead, he is comfortable in using potions and a dueling pistol, along with some magic that resides in him from all his tampering with dragon’s blood.

Dr James Pugh's Torment
· Xrilath is occupied full time with undermining Pugh’s ideology and trying to engineer his fall from grace. The mad aboleth believes only by bringing Pugh down to his level will they all be free of the mists (He’s not wrong either).
· Pugh relies on the dragonflesh mines to not only make money, but also perpetuate his ideology of grafting. Yet he’s terrified one day a dragon will break loose and take revenge on him for his crimes against them.
· Despite all his talk, Pugh has the most monstrous, most obscene grafts of everyone. By his own preaching, if anyone found out, they’d cast him down for his weakness.

Roleplaying Dr Jame Pugh
Pugh is a man of many dualities, hypocrisy made flesh. He’s the tortured spirit of a man whose self-image and true self are incompatible. Pugh’s motives are a web of his enlightened philosophies and base desires. What welds them together is his determination, an iron rod that glows hot enough to burn but never bends.

Pugh believes that gracious physical form belies a noble mind, and vice versa. And that his surgeries are not simple jobs of stitching and cutting, but a means of balancing out a noble intellect with a suitable body, if said body has been unfairly tainted. He blames failed surgeries and the common madness that comes from them on the result of unworthy recipients trying to claim grander forms than they deserve. He practices phrenology, the pseudoscience of determining character from the shape of one’s skull. He will often offer to undertake a phrenological exam on new acquaintances and prospective clients, and fills in the results with assumptions and what knowledge he has gathered on them so far.

In another brazen display of circular logic, he believes that the taint of the deep ones hides the town’s true draconic ancestry, and that the surgery simply helps it rise to the surface. Yet his own true body is a mockery of his own art, the most gruesome of all his patients is himself, and his grandeur is only a façade.

Most tragically, is that from a young age, Pugh has adored the legends of old. He envies the way that the world used to make sense, that people could earn their place by their qualities, and that larger-than-life characters decided the fate of the world. Yet he’s too astute to be blind to the apathetic randomness of the modern world, where logic and science tell us that nobody is truly important. This manifests in his ideology of great people displaying draconic traits, and sometimes in his more crazed experiments…
For Dr James Pugh does go mad. Sometimes for days at a time, he’ll whip himself into a stupor of narcotics and paranoia, lock himself in his laboratory, and perform experiments that would sicken even himself in the light of day. Mockeries of beast of legends, such as drakes and chimeras, are a common result of this.
Bonds: “I have a lot of work still ahead of me: I must fend of the nefarious Deep Ones, perfect my work of removing their curse, and outs my rivals for this kingdom I have built.”
Ideals: “A man should be strong, unwavering, and bold. What he owns is proof of his power. A graceful visage belies a respectable heart.”
Flaws: “I’m surrounded by enemies at all time! I can’t trust anyone! Paranoid? I’ll show you paranoia!” “I’m terrified of dragons.” “My body and blood are tainted and I’m worried I won’t be able to undo any of it.”
Traits: “Yes I’m the smartest man in the room. Any room. All rooms. I take what I want, and by successfully doing so, I prove that I am right to do so.”

Despite his exhaustive list of flaws, Dr James Pugh is an extremely capable individual. Along with his academic brilliance, he has a keen mind for business, strategy, and social manipulation. He can be charming, though more often opts for an aloof commanding presence. Knowing how durable he’s become, he rarely shows fear.
Pugh will try to befriend anyone who seems well-learned, strong-willed, and bold. He’ll compliment those he believes are following his ideals, but the closer they come to being his ideal man, the more he’ll see them as a rival.


Adventures in Caergwynt
By its design, Caergwynt has a wide variety of locations to explore, and several factions to interact with. The ocean is riddled with the feuding Deep Ones, shipwrecks, and the mutated kin of Caergwynt. Inland is host to fey and ghosts that bedevil the simple farming folk, as well as with dragonflesh mines. Caergwynt town is a hotbed for backstreet surgeries, families torn apart by biology, and the clash of the old ways against the new. And while the domain is modern enough for gunpowder, steam trains, and even the odd electric bulb, the history of a thousand years ago still casts its shadow into the current day.

· A pair of serial killers have been abducting those with dragon grafts ripping out the valued flesh, and selling it on the black market. Can anyone track them down?
· A man driven mad by his grafts has become obsessed with a 30 year old shipwreck, claiming that the sunken treasure aboard is his hoard, and has hired help finding it and taking it from a Deep One noble.
· A valuable item has been hidden in an abandoned mineshaft, but the Goldscale carvers have started using it as a convenient place to farm their carrion crawlers.
· A washed-up sea monster has started an outbreak of a strange disease. Pugh is confident he can create a cure, but needs someone to hunt down a living specimen.
· Sightings of a strange creature have spread around the town. Is it a monster from the ocean, or was it created closer to home. To find out, one would have to race the carvers to find and kill it, lest any evidence disappear.

Dr Russel Norman produced this excellent summary of Luxon's War on Nature, links included.
It can be challenging to keep up with this many environmental attacks, coming from different Ministers and in different stages of development. To make it clearer, I have tried to list all the anti-nature policies below, provide some background, and give an indication of their stage in the policy process.
When you list them all like this, it really is entirely fair to describe it as a ‘war on nature’.

1. Fast track approvals bill is a fast track to destruction

The premier vehicle for the government’s anti-environmental war on nature is the Fast Track Approvals Bill, currently before Parliament’s Environment Select Committee. This Bill has been well traversed elsewhere but it is worth noting here a few things.
Firstly, this bill gives three individual ministers with no particular knowledge or expertise the ability to green light pretty much any project they like with almost zero environmental constraints.
There are panels who will provide advice to Ministers on individual projects, however these panels are handpicked by the Ministers and the Ministers are free to ignore the panels’ recommendations. The Ministers have publicly and clearly voiced their disdain for environmental considerations.

No public input

Secondly, there is no opportunity for public input.
They can approve an industrial incinerator next door and you don’t even have the right to make a submission on it. It’s a pretty wild level of disregard for the general public, but of course those who have connections to the government will have plenty of chances to lobby ministers at fundraising dinners and suchlike.
This results in poor decision making. One of the things about public submissions is that information comes to the surface that was otherwise hidden. In the Pakiri sand mining case for instance it was revealed through public submissions that the sandmining company was not telling the truth about its actual sandmining practices and that its expert had overestimated the annual sand replacement by a factor of ten.
Under this regime, it isn’t what you know, or whether you have a good project, it’s who you know.

Court decisions overturned

Thirdly, this process can overturn court decisions in which projects have already been declined due to environmental impacts.
This is patently the case with the South Taranaki seabed mining proposal which was rejected by the Supreme Court. Independent judges who tested evidence submitted and cross examined in open court found that the applicant simply couldn’t demonstrate that their project wouldn’t cause immense harm.
But this is all replaced by closed panels giving advice to Ministers who will make decisions with zero public scrutiny. It’s banana republic stuff.

Blocking renewable energy projects

One of the impacts of this kind of Government-by-Ministerial-Fiat is that that rational and evidence based decision making is put to one side in favour of individual favours.
An example of this is the conflict between seabed mining and offshore wind in the south Taranaki Bight. A normal rational decision-making process could look at both, but in this case, it will come down to which companies can woo the three Ministers the best.

Corruption

Finally, this is a process which is wide open to corruption, as corporations pushing projects that cause environmental harm seek to be placed on the fast track list, with a virtual guarantee of approval.
Ministers could be corruptly influenced by bribes in cash or in kind, by jobs for their families, by jobs for themselves post-politics, or by campaign donations. Advisers who provide access to Ministers and determine which corporations get onto the list will be equally incentivised to act corruptly.
Already, some of the companies that Ministers have invited to apply for fast track are their donors. Mining company executives have had secret dinners with Ministers that were only revealed by accident and journalists asking questions. How many secret dinners will we never find out about?
Even the Ministry for the Environment analysis can be summarised as the bill:
‘could diminish local voices, violate Treaty of Waitangi commitments, significantly impact human and environmental health, open legal risks for the ministers involved, provide an unprecedented back door for prohibited projects, and erode the value of conservation land’
This single bill, if it proceeds and if businesses have the gall to use it, will cause widespread harm. It could include seabed mining, incinerators imposed on local communities, mining most everywhere including the conservation estate, marine farms everywhere, industrial irrigation driving water pollution, etc etc etc. It is a war on nature but it is also diminishing democracy and opening the door to corruption.

2. Dismantling freshwater protections

One of the truly remarkable things about Aotearoa is the scale of ground and surface water pollution and its impact on biodiversity and human health. This government’s war on nature is set to make it worse.

Things are pretty bad already

The Ministry for the Environment concluded that ‘Most of our indigenous freshwater fish and freshwater bird species… are either threatened with extinction or at risk of becoming threatened’. Intensive industrial dairy has poisoned the well across much of the South Island – Canterbury, Otago and Southland have poisoned rivers and groundwater.
Land and Water Aotearoa found that ‘There is not a single monitored lake shallower than 10 metres in very good condition.’ Environment Canterbury in 2024 found nitrate levels increasing in 60% of the wells it tested. Many parts of the North Island with intensive dairying such as the Waikato are also heavily polluted.
Under pressure from the environment movement and the majority of New Zealanders, the last government brought in a series of national regulations to place some constraints on agribusiness pollution, particularly the National Policy Statement on Freshwater Management. Agribusiness virulently and vociferously opposed these regulations.
The new government is setting about undoing these regulations with its war on nature.

Delaying regional freshwater plans

This began in December 2023 when Andrew Hoggard, the former head of agribusiness lobby group Federated Farmers and now Associate Agriculture Minister, announced that regional councils would be given a further three years to update their freshwater plans to make the plans consistent with the new national regulations introduced by the last government.
The purpose of the delay is to weaken or remove the national regulations before the regional councils develop their new regional freshwater plans which must be consistent with the national regulations.

Replacing the National Policy Statement

He also announced that they would start the process of systematically weakening the national regulations by replacing the National Policy Statement on Freshwater Management (NPSFM) with a weaker version.

Removing rules on intensive winter grazing

This was followed up in April 2024 with the announcement of an amendment to the RMA which will remove the rules controlling intensive winter grazing.
Intensive winter grazing is a widespread practice in Otago and Southland in which feed crops are grazed intensively through winter. This results in cows, often pregnant, living in mud sometimes up to their bellies with massive sediment flows into rivers and lakes. The sediment smothers freshwater ecosystems.

Ensuring Te Mana o Te Wai doesn’t apply to consents

Also included in this amendment to the RMA is a direction to regional councils that a national regulatory instrument called Te Mana o Te Wai must not be applied to the assessment of individual resource consent applications. Te Mana o Te Wai states that, when making decisions on the allocation of freshwater, the needs of ecosystems come first, the needs of human health second, and other uses such as irrigation third.
Te Mana o te Wai was the foundation for hearing panels rejecting applications to take water and cause more pollution in Hawkes Bay and Southland recently. Giant dairy polluter Fonterra and agribusiness lobby groups objected to this use of Te Mana o Te Wai and appealed the decisions.
The new Government aims to ensure that commercial users can get first consideration ahead of ecosystems or human health. This also means the lessons of the world’s biggest crypospridiosis outbreak in Havelock North are abandoned .

Freshwater Farm plans to be weakened or abolished

Alongside this Freshwater Farm Plans, which were a requirement for agribusiness managers to plan to reduce their water pollution, will be weakened if not abolished altogether.
As you can see it is an intensive and extensive attack on the rules protecting freshwater as part of the broader war on nature.

3. Removal of requirement to identify important areas of biodiversity

A large part of New Zealand’s remaining biodiversity is on private land with very little legal protection, which is leading to dramatic losses. This happens through wetland drainage, agricultural intensification, subdivisions etc.
Even as recently as 2009 Landcare Research reported that ‘Agricultural intensification over the past 10 years has led to the highest rate of native vegetation loss since European colonisation.’ Landcare Research was deeply unpopular with the government and agribusiness after making this finding.
In response to the widespread destruction of biodiversity on private land the National Policy Statement on Indigenous Biodiversity was introduced in 2023 after many years of discussion and consultation. The purpose is ‘to maintain indigenous biodiversity across Aotearoa New Zealand so that there is at least no overall loss in indigenous biodiversity’. A part of this national policy statement is a requirement for councils to identify ‘Significant Natural Areas’ in their area as a precursor to providing for their protection.
The idea of rules to protect biodiversity ran up against agribusiness, the key driver of the ‘highest rate of native vegetation loss since European colonisation’, and hence Federated Farmers deeply opposed these rules.
As part of the RMA amendment bill announced in April 2024, the Luxon Government plans to remove the requirement that councils identify ‘’Significant Natural Areas’’, and hence biodiversity on private land will not even be identified let alone protected so its destruction can continue unabated.

4. Transport – more motorways, fewer cycleways and less public transport

Land transport is New Zealand’s second biggest climate polluter after agribusiness and yet this government has embarked on a radical policy agenda to increase pollution. The war on nature can be illustrated just by listing some of the initiatives:

Cuts to public transport

They have cut funding to public transport, walking and cycling and increased funding to motorways as part of the draft Government Policy Statement on land transport. Auckland Council pointed out that entire suburbs would be left without access to public transport as a result of the cuts and that fares would increase.
Across the whole country this draft policy statement will lead to more transport pollution and fewer trips by public transport walking and cycling. It also centralises much of the decision making around transport by preventing Councils from building cycleways alongside roads funded by central government money.
As part of the draft policy statement they removed climate as a requirement for consideration in transport decision making.

Impact on young people

They have removed the subsidies for young people to use public transport at discounted rates, not only making the cost of living crisis harder for them and their families but pushing them towards car transport.
They are moving to increase speeds around schools which not only increases injuries it discourages families from sending their kids to school by bike or foot because they know that speeding cars are more dangerous.
This sits alongside the attacks on traffic calming measures such as raised pedestrian crossings, which the NZ Herald has been busy providing misinformation about. Many Councils are resisting the idiots in Wellington, thank goodness, and are lowering speed limits anyway.

Interisland ferry funding removal

They cut the funding for the interisland ferry terminals and cancelled the new ferries which have lower emissions. The ferries connect the train network as well as the roading network.
Kiwirail lost its Climate Bonds certification as a result and will repay the $350m it borrowed plus interest.
The cost to the Government of breaking the ship build contracts is thought to be in the hundreds of millions. It’s an expensive mistake which a future government will have to fix.

Ending subsidies for low-emissions vehicles

They ended the subsidies for low emissions vehicles resulting in a collapse in EV and small car sales and once again Ford Rangers at the top of the list (guzzling gas and killing pedestrians and cyclists).
While we can’t simply replace traffic jams of internal combustion engine cars with traffic jams of electric cars, nonetheless EVs are part of the low carbon solution.

Removing council’s transport plans

The Government has moved to end Wellington’s transport plan with its focus on public transport walking and cycling and move towards more cars. There remains uncertainty as to the future solution but clearly they want more cars.
They abolished the Auckland Regional Fuel tax of ten cents a litre which was used mostly to fund the building of the first stages of the Eastern Busway and new commuter rail carriages. The Eastern Busway has now been reduced in size, as the fourth phase is unfunded.
They cancelled the Auckland light rail project. This project was troubled, with the previous government heading down the most expensive track, but there are still better options than just cancelling it.
There’s even more but you get the sense of it. Their transport policy is plainly designed to increase climate pollution as part of their war on nature.

5. The war on dolphins, seals and marine life

The government’s war on nature is not only being fought on land. It extends to the oceans too.

Marine biodiversity

The majority of Aotearoa’s biodiversity is to be found in the oceans around us and the main driver of biodiversity destruction in the oceans is the fishing industry.
This is particularly the case for practices like bottom trawling, where heavy nets are dragged along the ocean floor destroying corals and sponges in order to catch fish near the bottom.
Over the last decade the environment movement and the majority of New Zealanders have been slowly pushing governments towards improving oversight of the fishing industry and restrictions on their most destructive practices. But the new government wants to go backwards…

South Pacific Regional Fisheries Management Organisation

There is an obscure inter-governmental organisation called the South Pacific Regional Fisheries Management Organisation (SPRFMO) that is meant to regulate fisheries in the international waters of the South Pacific.
The other countries in this forum are trying to restrict bottom trawling because of the immense harm it causes. As the last country actively bottom trawling in the international waters of the South Pacific, New Zealand is opposing these constraints, but under the last government had agreed to some modest restrictions.
The new government has changed its position, opposing protection of vulnerable coral habitats from trawling, and does not support any kind of restrictions on bottom trawling.

Cameras on boats

After the various scandals led to a 2016 Ministerial Inquiry into the Ministry of Primary Industries’ regulation of the fishing industry, the Key Government agreed to implement cameras on boats to better monitor illegal behaviour such as fish dumping, dolphin killing etc.
These cameras were finally rolled out over the last few years to about 120 fishing vessels and have so far resulted in a dramatic increase in reporting of dolphin and bird killings and fish dumping.
But Shane Jones, Minister of Fishing and recipient of seafood industry campaign donations, doesn’t like them and wants to review them. Another option the government is canvassing is to hand them over to Fishserv, the fishing industry owned company that oversees the Quota Management System.
None of these are good options but where it ends is still unclear.

Increasing catch limits

In spite of the collapse of numerous fisheries, the Minister of Fisheries decided to increase catch limits.
The population of one of the species, the southern bluefin tuna, has collapsed 92% since the height of fishing madness in the 1960s. This follows the collapse of orange roughy fishery, hoki, scallops, crayfish etc etc.
And with regard to killing endangered New Zealand sea lions the new Government decided there would no longer be an upper limit on the number of sea lions that the fishing industry can drown in trawl nets.
This will no doubt be the tip of the iceberg as more change emerges from the Minister.

6. Increased climate pollution

Aside from the long list of policies above that will increase climate pollution (e.g. transport), the government has introduced other policies to increase emissions. The impacts from these policies mean the government’s war on nature will be felt internationally.

Restarting offshore oil and gas exploration

The global battle against fossil fuels has both a supply and demand side.
On the demand side are the battles around fossil fuel electricity generation and internal combustion engines vehicles.
But the supply side is also critical because, as the International Energy Agency found back in 2021, we can’t afford to bring more fossil fuel supply online if we are to avoid catastrophic warming. The head of the IEA said: “If governments are serious about the climate crisis, there can be no new investments in oil, gas and coal, from now – from this year.” We know that once oil companies spend vast amounts to find and develop new fossil fuel reserves they will continue to sell them into the global fossil fuel market.
Hence the decision by the New Zealand Government in 2018 to stop issuing new offshore oil and gas exploration permits was a critical step forward in the global fossil fuel battle. Other countries have now joined this movement and there is a growing group of governments and civil society groups supporting a Fossil Fuel Non Proliferation Treaty.
The announcement by the Luxon Government that it will restart the issuance of offshore oil and gas exploration permits is a global leap backwards. It’s another sign that their fighting a war on nature, not fossil fuels
The Government is looking to subsidise the industry by providing insurance against future policy changes. They are also looking to remove the requirement that oil companies provide a clean up bond to cover future clean up costs. These clean up bonds were introduced after Tamarind oil company went bankrupt leaving the taxpayer with a $300m bill to clean up after them.
The Government is falsely claiming that the recent electricity shortages are linked to the 2018 decision to stop issuing new permits for oil and gas exploration – an argument that is transparently false.

Changing the way methane warming is measured

The global livestock lobby has a policy agenda to change the way that the climate warming of methane is measured. This is to make it look like methane causes less warming than it really does.
They want to move away from the global standard accepted by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, as standard called GWP100. They want the world to adopt a standard called GWP*. Under GWP* New Zealand’s methane is recategorised as not causing warming! Agribusiness likes GWP* because they won’t need to cut emissions!
The New Zealand agribusiness lobby groups are part of this project, and now they have the former head of Federated Farmers in Government, they have their chance to push it. The Government has established a panel to look into the measurement of the warming of methane emissions. I would be very surprised if the panel does not recommend the adoption of GWP*.
Both the Climate Commission and the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment have concluded that there is no basis to review the science around the measurement of the warming effect of methane.

More cash for magic bullets

The New Zealand Government has given hundreds of millions of dollars to look for magic bullets to reduce methane emissions from dairy cattle and other livestock. So far no magic bullets have been discovered but the new Government has thrown another $18m at this greenwashing.
The purpose of all this is to avoid having to cut emissions by doing things that actually work like reducing fertiliser use and stocking rates.

Zero Carbon Act – greenwashing law retained

It is noteworthy that a Government conducting a war on climate and biodiversity policy has kept the Zero Carbon Act (ZCA) in place. But there is a good reason for that – the ZCA was largely a greenwashing exercise as was revealed once it was tested in court.
When Lawyers for Climate Action went to court to try to use the ZCA to actually force emissions cuts on the government, the Climate Minister, James Shaw, went to court to argue that the Paris Agreement climate goals referenced in the ZCA were merely ‘aspirational’ and not binding on the New Zealand government.
This was in spite of Shaw saying publicly that the ZCA made the Paris target legally binding on the government. Shaw won the case and the climate lawyers lost. The new Government is very fond of the ZCA because it is just ‘aspirational’.

He Waka Eke Noa – its job is done

One final piece of the puzzle is pricing agribusiness emissions. This was delayed throughout the course of the last government by the He Waka Eke Noa process. This will now be either quietly euthanised or kept as another greenwashing figleaf, but we can be sure there will be no price on agricultural emissions – they will be subsidised by the rest of us

Update

We have now found out that the politician chairing the select committee considering the fast track bill, David MacLeod, has illegally failed to declare $180,000 in donations. Moreover, some of those donations come from a major shareholder in the seabed mining company TTR. TTR is planning to use the fast track legislation to circumvent the Supreme Court decision blocking its seabed mining plans. In fact one of the decision-making Ministers under the Fast Track law, Chris Bishop, wrote to TTR inviting them to apply to use the fast track. So a major shareholder of TTR gave campaign money to the National Party MP who chaired the select committee on the fast track bill while the National Party Minister invited TTR to apply for a fast track.

I am an entrepreneur looking for a full time software developer to create a protocol that i have a vision in. I am not necessarily well funded and I do plan to bootstrap the project via a fundraising in the future once the beta product is released and is optimal.
The project will be held on solana and it consists of a token contract creation and a web dapp that involves buying and selling tokens similar to pump.fun. Even better if the developer has experience with the website itself and knows exactly what I am looking for.
I am planning to add a layer 2 consensus to the tech that exists on that website and I do have a whole gitbook written out in detail entailing my vision for the project itself.
Rewards won't be given by the hourly or fixed at $10,000. I am looking for a developer who is keen on working on a profit sharing basis. I willl provide equity once the project launches and I will reimburse for the developer's effort when the time comes.
What I am particularly looking for: Developers who do not desire to work on multiple projects and focus on a single project that could potentially yield much more. -developers who share the same vision that I do, and are not profit driven. The rewards come later and since i am not liquid at the moment, I cannot guarantee the funding for your work. However, if you do a good job, and if the project suceeds, you will be handsomely rewarded. THE MAIN EMPHASIS IS THAT THE DEVELOPER WILL WANT TO WORK TOWARDS THE IDEALS OF THE PROJECT ITSELF -Transparency in work. Face to Face calls are essential. I will not tolerate any form of anonymity when it comes to business. I hope to form meaningful relationships and to cater to the interests between developers and myself so this project can suceed
Relevant skillsets -Must have had experience with blockchain development ( mainly SOLANA contracts, or RUST) - Must have experience creating websites that are optimized for high traffic. There isn't a need for complicated tech on the website end. -Must be efficient in delivering solidity code. To solve solutions within the least code as possible to reduce gas costs in the network and for efficient delivery -To have a proficiency of English and to communicate well. -To be idealistic and willing to think on a broad spectrum, being able to connect the dots. -To be goal driven and not Profit driven. This will potentially be a long term partnership, not just a "create and go".
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Race Information

• Name: Bluenose Emera Half-Marathon
• Date: May 19, 2024
• Distance: 21.1 km
• Location: Halifax, NS
• Time: 1:48:39

Goals

Goal	Description	Completed?
A	Complete	Yes
B	Sub 1:55	Yes
C	Sub 1:50	Yes

Splits

Kilometer	Time
1	5:20
2	5:05
3	5:14
4	5:01
5	5:03
6	4:57
7	5:15
8	5:07
9	5:16
10	5:04
11	5:07
12	5:17
13	5:00
14	5:08
15	5:33
16	5:14
17	5:22
18	4:53
19	4:55
20	5:13
21	4:59
22	4:23

This was my second half-marathon, and my first race report, so hopefully I figured out how to use the template correctly!
My first half was last fall, and I mainly focused on finishing. I came in with a sub-2 in that race, which was my stretch goal, and I felt pretty good the whole way through the race. This half was the first time I really felt like I pushed myself.

Training

I've been running fairly consistently for about 2 1/2 years but haven't been following a specific training plan. However, my runs largely align with most of the suggested programs I've reviewed. In any given week, I have 2 - 3 easy runs of about 10-12km, one tempo / interval style run, and a long run of about 16km or 1 1/2 hours. In 2024, I've been averaging about 175km a month so I felt pretty comfortable with my base.
I've suffered a little bit from indecision on what sort of goals I wanted to set for myself as a runner and competing in this half. Part of me really wants to just stay focused on being out, having fun and finishing a distance that would have felt completely unattainable to a younger me (I'm 42 now, and was a heavy smoker / drinker in my younger days - when I ran casually in my twenties, I'd have a smoke as soon as I finished, which makes me want to gag now). But another part of me wanted to see what would happened if I pushed myself a bit and finished without a lot of gas left in the tank.
I knew based on the training I was doing that I could likely push myself come race day. Two weeks prior to the event, I went for a tune up / check in run and did a full half to see how I was feeling. It was a PB of around 1:52:30, so I took this as a sign that I should go for it on race day and see what I could do!
One other aspect of my training is that I tend to do most of my runs around 9 to 9:30 in the morning, and would often be fasted (but with lots of water). I made sure to get used to eating some food before my longer runs though, so this wouldn't be an issue on race day. I knew if I really pushed myself I was taking a big risk not having adequate food before the race. I also don't take anything with me on my long runs, and decided that I would not stop for water / gatorade during the race. In the race last fall I stopped for some water about halfway through, choked on it from lack of experience drinking from a cup while moving and proceeded to have cramps for 10-15 minutes so I really wanted to avoid this!

Pre-race

The weather forecast leading up to race day wasn't great, showing a high chance of rain falling during the race itself, with cool temps in the low-40s / mid single digits (Celsius). This was tough, because the days before and after were glorious spring days, with a mix of sun / cloud and idyllic running temps. Last year, I did the Bluenose 10k and there was a vicious cold wind during the race - you had to push just to go downhills. And in the half last fall (the Valley half), a tropical storm was just wrapping up as the race got going. I'd hoped to finally have a run with decent weather, but I'm also living in Nova Scotia, so ...
Luckily as it got closer to rain day the chance of rain dwindled, until we were left with a cold, grey, windy morning. Classic Halifax day!
My plan was to take a bus which is about 10 minutes from my house and would get me to the start line about one hour before the gun. I set my alarm for 5AM and woke up at about 4:15. Overall slept pretty good the night before, so I just got up then and began my morning routine.
I had two rice cakes with peanut butter and a banana about 5:30, with my usual two cups of coffee. Also drank about 1L of water, and stopped drinking water about 6AM to avoid having a sloshy belly. I also had a lara bar as I left the house at 6:10 to walk to the bus station.
It was cold outside, with a lot of moisture in the air, making it feel that much colder. I didn't want to bring a bag or extra gear to the race so I was just wearing my race gear. Shorts, t-shirt, hat and airshed pro pullover (love this thing for spring running!). I was going to race in my Saucony Truimph 20, they'd been feeling really good on my long runs.
I get super paranoid about missing buses so I arrived at the station 25 min ahead of when it showed up. This would have been ok but the cool temp was bringing me down a bit. I did some light bouncing and otherwise huddled in the glass enclosure out of the wind. Luckily the bus was on time, unluckily the driver didn't think it necessary to have the heat on that morning.
When I got off, I couldn't believe how much colder it was in downtown Halifax, mainly on account of the wind being that much stronger. My teeth started chattering as I walked toward the start lines, and I started to feel legit worried that I may get cold enough before starting that it would affect my performance. I immediately went to a portapotty, as much to warm up but also to take advantage of the shorter lines at this time. I came out and walked around for a bit as it was too early to start truly warming up. I found a large tent that was going to house the post-race massage crew and went in there. It wasn't much warmer but it was out of the wind, and I was able to calm the shaking down finally.
The full marathon started at 8AM, the 10k at 8:10 and the half at 8:20. I headed back to the portapotty for a final wee break around 7:50 knowing the marathoners / 10k people would be heading to the queue. I proceeded to do my usual dynamic warmups with 4-5 min of light jogging to get the legs moving. Then to the corral!

Race

I lined up by the 1:55 pacer, and my initial plan was to stay a few steps ahead of him for the first 5-10km. I felt confident I could maintain at around the 5:20 to 5:25 mark and still have plenty left to get through the back half of the course. In addition to my sub 1:50, I wanted to try and run my fastest 5km at the very end of the race (more on that soon) so i needed to find that balance of moving well and conserving energy.
It was finally time and we were off! After being out in the cold for 1 1/2 hours, it felt amazing to finally be moving!
It was a new route this year for the half, and I was excited to give it a try. It had us going through the North End of Halifax for a few km before turning and heading down to the waterfront. It then went along the harbour on the wharf for km 6 - 11 before turning up towards Point Pleasant park. Then it was 1km up through a neighbourhood before starting a roughly 7km loop through Point Pleasant Park, a beautiful park on the south end of the Halifax peninsula. The final 2km were a very slight climb back up to the Emera Oval where the start / finish line were located. The route basically takes you through the whole Halifax peninsula, so it's a great way to catch some of the best sights for anyone who wants to visit!
Despite my initial strategy of hanging close to the 1:55 pacer, I also wanted to really try to listen to my body and energy levels, and adapt my effort on that. After 1km, I was feeling good! I decided to start to push my pace up ahead of schedule, and found myself about 100ft behind the 1:50 pacer. My new strategy was to basically hold there, and begin to push past that pacer later in the course.
Because of the colder weather, there weren't as may people out as there might otherwise be, but still some friendly faces and groups of people lined the route with some motivating cheers and signs. This is the part of the races that I have really loved! Knowing that all of that support is for everyone in the race regardless of time or ability is such a source of positivity for a community! I heard someone say that one of the things that sets running apart from other sports is you never hear anyone booing, and the cheers are equally for the person in first place and last place.
I continued to feel great and strong through the first half of the course. The waterfront was actually a bit tricky in spots due to narrowing sidewalks and sharp turns around buildings. Nothing too crazy, but you had to be mindful of your steps and direction to avoid bumping into people, although the crowd had thinned out a bit by this point.
As we got into Point Pleasant, there is a pretty decent hill that you need to climb that starts around 15km. I'm lucky (?) that my normal training routes include a lot of elevation gains, and while my pace slowed for the climb, this was also where I made my move and went past the 1:50 pacer. I knew if I could get out of the hill and still be feeling good that I had a solid chance to finish strong and hit my stretch goal!
As we left the park and had the final 5km to go, I started to really turn it on. I wanted to try and run my fastest times in the final parts of the race, and was also able to achieve that, with km 18 and 19 being 1st and 2nd splits of the day.
HOWEVER - as I passed the sign for 20km, my body communicated to my brain that I was a complete idiot, and should have settled for breaking 1:50 without the added push at the end. I have never in my life experienced this kind of split sensation (no pun intended) of wanting to push myself harder than I ever have physically, and wanting to just take my foot off the gas and cruise across the line without collapsing. I started to negotiate and motivate - "almost there, just go for it, etc etc" - but my gosh it was tough. As we got to the final km, the finish line was further than it was in my mind, but I kept pushing. A few other people were dropping to walks, and it was so hard to not slow it down.
Somehow, I kept going, and as we reached the final 100m or so I opened it up and was able to sprint across the finish where my family was waiting and cheering me on!

Post-race

It feels hard to say this kind of thing, but I was so damned proud of myself! Like I said, I have never truly pushed myself in my life the way that I did for this race, and I felt like I couldn't have done any better than I did.
I made my way to the refreshment tent and slammed some water, bananas, yogurt tubes and juice boxes. My sons love this part of the races, as they get to enjoy some cookies and other treats before lunch.
While I don't have any other races on the schedule right now, it's hard to no think about pushing for a sub 1:45 at the Valley half this fall. With less elevation and (maybe??) good weather, it seems doable. But I also want to try and just enjoy myself and the time I get to be outside moving.
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