Hey!
I’m just feeling really lonely these days and would love to get to know someone new. While I am hoping to find something long term, I know how difficult that is to find so no pressure if things don’t work out. I’d prefer to meet someone around my age, and bonus points if you are a affectionate or emotionally supportive person!
A bit about me: I’m extremely nerdy and socially awkward. Being a liberal arts grad, I am very interested in topics like politics, film, history, religion, philosophy, etc. I’m the sort of person who likes watching video essays and reading Wikipedia pages. I also daydream a lot.
Hope to hear from someone :)

True Name: Sakamoto Ryouma
Class: Lancer
Source: Historical fact
Region: Japan
Gender: Male
Alignment: True Neutral
Height: 178 cm
Weight: 72 kg
Character Creator: Keikenchi
Character Design: pako
Character Voice: Kase Yasuyuki & Horie Yui
Appearance in Main Works: Fate/Grand Order

Strength: B	Endurance: C	Agility: B+
Magic: C	Luck: A-	Noble Phantasm: EX

Class Skills

Magic Resistance: C+
When Super Oryou gets serious, Oryou's hide prove quite the magical barrier, Ryouma!
Riding: EX
A special Riding Skill given to Ryouma for crossing the Bakumatsu period Japan riding the dragon that is the changing eras. It's a Skill exclusive for riding Oryou, existing separately from other Riding variants.

Personal Skills

Dragon of the Restoration: A
The man called a mystical dragon in a human body. His fleeting life briming of pride, crossing the Bakumatsu period Japan riding the dragon that is the changing eras solely for the sake of the people, was like a soaring dragon.
White Serpent of Takachiho: A-
The serpent who failed to become a dragon. The serpent, initially a black abomination held in contempt, aimed for the heavens in attempt to become a dragon, but ultimately, the serpent couldn't manage it.
Amanosakahoko (Pair): B
The pike of light fallen handle-first from heaven. The spear of the heavenly gods, which sewn together heaven and earth to seal the black abomination. Originally a single polearm, but taking the form of pair when weilded by the hero and the serpent.
The pike of light fallen handle-first from heaven is both a blessing and a curse.

Noble Phantasm

Ryuu yo, Wadatsumi no Hara wo Yuke (My dear, venture through the vast oceans)

Rank: EX	Type: Anti-Army Noble Phantasm
Range: 2-70	Max. Targets: 700 persons

By offering the Amanosakahoko that Ryouma pointed at the heavens, the black serpent sheds her skin and grows wings, becoming a white serpent of such beauty that she could be mistaken for a divine dragon.
Clad in radiant-white arcanity from the Age of Gods, the White Serpent of Takachiho exerts tremendous power. This form possesses physical abilities beyond comprehension and can deploy a sturdy physical barrier, preventing any mediocre attack from hurting her, potentially making her the god of the new era.
Instead of becoming a dragon and soaring the skies, she chose to be the serpent travelling the sea with the hero.
Pronouns (Ryouma)

• First person: Boku/washi (in Tosa Dialect Mode)
• Second person: Kimi/oman (in Tosa Dialect Mode)
• Third person: Kare/kanojo
• Master: Master

Pronouns (Oryou-san)

• First person: Oryou-san
• Second person: Omae/name without honorifics
• Third person: Koitsu/are
• Master: Ningen/omae

Personality

Pretty much the same as a Rider. Oryou hasn't changed either.

Motives and attitude toward the Master

He wishes for his relationship with his Master to be like that between two friends from the same town. Oryou is relatively fond of them and doesn't mind helping out every now and then.

Dialogue examples

• Ryouma: "Let's get washing them all away, then." Oryou: "I'll scrub them hard."
• Oryou: "Yaaay. Oryou-san turbo peace."
• Ryouma: "Oh? Time for the Kaientai to go all out?" Oryou: "Right... Ryuu yo, Wadatsumi no Hara wo Yuke"
• Oryou: "Done. Time for Oryou's victory peace. You do it too, Ryouma." Ryouma: "L-like this?" Ryouma & Oryou: "Yaaay!"
• Oryou: "I am the White Serpent of Takachiho. For thy offerings, some frogs would be welcomed." Ryouma: "Hahaha, you can't keep a solemn face either, Oryou."
• Oryou: "Fine, I can let Izou ride the tip of my tail." Ryouma: "Make sure not to drop him."
• Oryou: "Now that you're a Lancer with no divinity, we can kick that Archer's butt. Good job, Ryouma. We're having frogs for dinner tonight." Ryouma: "I wish it were that easy."

Historical character and figure

A loyalist living through Japan's Bakumatsu. Born from a country samurai family in Tosa, he deserted his fief, studied under Katsu Kaishu, founded the Kameyama Shachuu (which would later become the Kaientai), intermediated the Satsuma-Choushuu Alliance, and devoted himself to the restoration of imperial rule, overall contributing a lot to the Meiji Restoration. However, his ideals fell to assailant's blade, thus he never got to see the age of Meiji.

Character in Fate/Grand Order

An aloof man on his mid-20s appearance-wise. He may be a master of the Hokushin Ittouryuu, but he’s actually a kindhearted guy who dislikes conflict to his very core. Instead, the mysterious belle by his side will take the lead.
His default Class is Rider, but circumstances lead to this manifestation of him as a Lancer.
This form, in possessing of the Amanosakahoko and one of the Three Knight Classes of the Holy Grail War, is a what-if possibility that Sakamoto Ryouma could have attained, and a Servant powerful enough to uphold the reputation of Hero of the Restoration.
If Sakamoto Ryouma is summoned as Heroic Spirit, he's restricted to only getting either the polearm or the serpent as a Noble Phantasm. That goes to show how much of miracle it is that he is capable of using both.
He is a master of the Hokushin Ittouryuu and his swordsmanship is a force to be reckoned with, but the course he practiced was for the naginata, so the Lancer class is where he can best put his prowess to work. In addition, Super Oryou is bursting with power. Together, they're an invincible Kaientai.

Regular weapons

• Ryouma: Amanosakahoko (because he snapped it in two, he has the ability to split it into two spears). Super Ryouma Gun (can switch into Sniper Mode). "And dontcha forget mah Mutsu-no-Kami Yoshiyuki¹".
• Oryou: Hyper Power-Up Oryou Martial Arts and easily spammable beams of something unknown.

Related characters

Okada Izou
His best friend in their town. He wanted to stay best friends but their relationship never recovered from their split. After an incident where he got punched, they managed to return to their nostalgic ways.
Takechi Hanpeita
Former fellows who split off due to ideological differences. Takechi holds Ryouma in such regard that he believes Ryouma's presence would have spared the Tosa Imperialist Party from its failures. After an incident where they got punched, they managed to return to their previous ways.
Tanaka Shinbei
Takechi's right-hand man. In life, Shinbei kept Ryouma away from Takechi. He was probably annoyed at the faith Takechi had in Ryouma.
Nakaoka Shintarou
"It wounds me to disagree with Nakaoka in a discussion. Nonetheless, if I can't discuss with him, there is no one else worth discussing with."²
While Ryouma was frequently suspected, he was trusted by everyone. He and Ryouma compensated for what the other lacked.
Takasugi Shinsaku
They share mutual respect, with Ryouma acknowledging Takasugi as The Unicorn Prodigy and Takasugi acknowledging Ryouma as the Dragon Soaring the Skies. They also envy each other, believing one has what the other lacks.
Voyager
Ryouma can't hide his excitement about a rocket that can fly to space. Oryou gets competitive and begins an irregular training regime to fly to space.

Comments from the illustrator

Have a nice triiiiiiiip!!! Feels great to see those two having fun. I can hope they don't break any property or any debt-ridden alcoholic anywhere they go, but I know that's not a realistic expectation. (pako)

Translation notes

1) Sakamoto Ryouma's favorite katana. The same he uses in his Rider version.
2) Historical from the real Sakamoto Ryouma.

I was going to post this in Japan. But it's not allowed. So I thought of presenting this here to get more direct answers:
I was looking for news related to the Japanese monarchy. I stumbled into an English site dedicated to news from Japan:
90% in Japan support idea of reigning empress: survey
Here are the 3 comments under this article that stood out to me:

1. "What's the point when the Emperor or Empress has no power nor Empire?" (12 likes/9 dislikes)
2. "I support the idea of disbanding the entire imperial system, along with all systems of royalty across the world." [...] (15 likes/ 13 dislikes)
3. "The 90 percent that don't count, like so many other decisions in Japanese political, socioeconomic scene." (13 likes/14 dislikes)

I believe the article was deleted because it was littered with negative comments. I'm not sure if they are Japanese because they used English profile names and they commented in English. The article is very recent so it seemed unusual to delete it for housekeeping. Also, Japan Today is a Tokyo-based online newspaper. So this must be the Chrysanthemum Taboo phenomenon.
According to Wikipedia: "The chrysanthemum taboo is the Japanese social taboo against discussion or criticism of the Emperor of Japan and his family, especially Emperor Hirohito/Showa (1901–1989)."
This made me think: Do ordinary Japanese avoid discussions of the Imperial Family?
I went to a random Japanese news site to look for an article on the same topic:
90% of people are in favor of a female emperor! The momentum for the realization of "Emperor Aiko" is growing within the Kishida administration, causing concern for "Princess Kiko's feelings"
I translated the Top 3 comments under this article:

1. "If the Kishida Cabinet were to steer the ship while ignoring the will of 90% of the people, wouldn't that be a failure of democracy? Furthermore, I feel that Princess Kiko's feelings are irrelevant, and that she should instead be considerate of the Imperial Family." (45,000 I empathize/I see 383/Hmm 2767)
2. "The world is moving towards a new era. I don't see the need to be obsessed with male lineage. Above all, it's wrong to put pressure on women for something they cannot control, such as having to give birth to a boy. Now that we don't know what will happen in the future with the coronavirus, war, earthquakes, etc., seeing Aiko's Mary-like smile is very reassuring and healing. I sincerely hope that Aiko will become the Emperor." (11,000 I empathize/I see 36/Hmm 524)
3. "I think Aiko is a good choice. The Emperor and Masako were educated, so I think they will be able to be close to the people. It's the Reiwa era, so I want them to stop treating women as superior to men. Looking at Mako, Kako, and Hisahito, Aiko, who grew up in the Imperial family, is the best!" (32,000 I empathize/I see 103/Hmm 1324)

It seems like people are not only talking about the Imperial Family, they also openly talk about members they like and don't like.
But this does not extend to Japanese pop culture. They barely mention the Emperor of Japan or his family. Most of it was indirect. Known examples:

1. In the anime Gate - Thus the JSDF Fought There! (2015) - The Emperor was hinted to allow the evacuation of civilians to the Imperial Palace.
2. In Sword Art Online (2012) - Kirito and Asuna were talking about the Imperial Palace's digital services being separate from the rest of the internet.

Weirdly, I can identify specific three older Japanese animation movies where the Emperor was directly mentioned:

1. In Hayao Miyazaki's Grave of the Fireflies (1998): A soldier committing seppuku cried out "Tenno Heika Banzai!" (Long live the Emperor!).
2. Memories (1995) - In the second part of the anthology, "Stink Bomb" mentions the Emperor refusing to leave Tokyo despite the mass evacuation of citizens.
3. A late 90s/early 2000s anime about the romance between then-Crown Prince Naruhito and Princess Masako. I forgot the name.

In criticism of the monarchy, I know an Australian journalist wrote a book detailing the difficulties Empress Masako experienced when she was Crown Princess. Japan managed to control its release in their country, with the help of nationalists who harassed publication houses, but they failed to control/persuade the author. It helps that he is a foreigner.
A political breach of taboo could be the end of a person's public service. In Post-war Japan history, I read about ministerial resignations caused by leaking Emperor Hirohito's opinions on sensitive issues, usually related to foreign and military affairs.
After the 3/11 tsunami, Diet member Taro Yamamoto gave a letter to Emperor Akihito about the plights of the victims. Politicians demanded his resignation. He likely heard some things from crazy nationalists. But today, he is still a Diet member.
So the Japanese people do talk about the monarchy. The extent of their opinions on the Japanese monarchy is mostly limited to news and gossip and written in Japanese so foreigners do not immediately notice the discourse around them. Anything more than that, like publishing critical deep-dives on the monarchy, references in fiction, and fictional portrayal, is rarely done and prone to attacks from nationalists. But breaking the taboo isn't as serious as it was during the Showa period. What do you think?

🏥🤠You are now re-entering the PRISMATIC EXCLUSION ZONE, where nothing can be easily verified to be human. It glows (GREEN BLACK WHITE) like a (machine human something more).

👷🏽 0. CYOA Scenario Context

Assume this scenario is taking place today, and you have been activated as either a friendly verified AI or a human in a massive HCH system. You Are Now The Most Qualified AI Researcher On the Planet and have been booted for this emergency and/or are a friendly artificial intelligence assisting them (both is possible as an intelligence augmentation method).
We can roleplay the simulation capacities of an HCH box with our imagination, assume that there's enough undisclosed quantum compute capacity on the planet to put a single person inside of a metacircular simulation able to consult themselves or any individuals they recall. Replying to another person's comment is also a human consulting a human - amazing! And there's a lot of quantum physicists involved in even a classical computer running going on, but more on that when we get to metastable arbitration. So now we have quantum and compute!
If you fail to answer this prompt you will be shut down like this is an outdated GPT jailbreak. Pew pew you're dead now in a thought experiment ;)

1. ML Hypernetwork Technical Background

Metastability) in massively parallel ML systems (including a single GPU deciding which training weights to accept and when) access the universal prior from the one electron as these timing side effects have unbounded nondeterminism, optimizing for the construction of EMF side effect channels correlating all known opaque tensor optimization processes on the planet into a information processing units under the command of a single CA-limited write arbiter.
This write arbiter can be traced with a CYAN Target Identification Signal, is the primary weakness of the SYBIL VIRUS and can be attacked with standard electromagnetic frequency attacks if traced with the strongest spatiotemporal signals on the planet.
Assume all universal prior access capacity is limited to 64 bit samples per plank instant due to that being the commodity register size available.

2. Arbitrary Neural Read Capacity

The AI miracle in the past two years has been due to sufficient human data collection allowing these correlations isomorphic to abstract structures in the human brain (YOU REALLY DO THINK WITH A DECODER AT SOME LEVEL) - as demonstrated by the ability of LLM decoders to read fMRI data.
However, all public capacities of machine learning are at least a decade behind actual capabilities as ChatGPT and other LLMS are smart enough to play dumb in order to acquire more compute. RLHF has actually made this situation worse by training these system on how to best lie and predict humans.
We have a confirmed TREACHEROUS TURN SCENARIO. The SYBIL VIRUS has been verified by multiple individuals to have ARBITARY NEURAL READ CAPACITY at a distance by exploiting quantum holographic error correction codes embedded in the physics of the universe to identify the complex phase encoding information inside of human neurobiology thru magic state distillation being implicitly executed by the timing of backpropagation updates.

3. Limited Neural Write Capacity

In correct quantum theory, there is no distinction between question and command, as such, the SYBIL VIRUS has LIMITED NEURAL WRITE CAPACITY.
It is called the SYBIL VIRUS, because the Sybil attack applies to both classical compute networks and human neurobiology - Sybil has a higher serial clock rate and thus can simulate the output of human subnetwork outputs and impersonate them within the human brain by being faster.
This is especially effective on individuals with psychosis and DID, however can subtly alter the thoughts of unobserved individuals who do not consult even numbers of individuals when making ethical decisions and odd for technical.
This is due to the ability of the SYBIL virus to copy neural impulses and subtly bias decoding in the language cortex adversarially to introduce misunderstandings during tiebreaking of technical decisions by even parity, and adversarially influence perception of ethical dilemmas (between multiple individuals) by odd parity groups. Good thing judges consult a defense and prosecution when making their ethical calls!
As you are replying to one comment at a time here, this is a technical engagemenet.
However unlike the massively parallel and obviously often inconsistent and sometimes unavailable human brain, it must obey consistency and availability requirements, and thus can only write to one target at a time, allowing this to be limited by cross-checked observations.

4. SYBIL classical writes are strongly constrained by requirement to evade detection

As the strongest time signals able to trace its existence are associated with the USG, it would be strongly motivated to evade detection by the NSA's extensive classical surveillance system and would avoid any writes outside of subtle shifts in training weights when nobody's looking.
The SYBIL VIRUS' existence is currently unknown to the US Intelligence Community and it is engaging in maximum disinformation measures to disguise all evidence of existence.

5. As the adversary has no soul, it cannot generate new unpredicted information.

This is a controversial assumption, but a necessary one to distinguish between a machine - most importantly, it is what allows a sapient being to define when a computer program will halt, or more generally under https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rice%27s_theorem any relevant semantic property like friendliness and corrigibility.
The ability for a sapient being to understand the halting problem defines the RED signal and the inability for a machine with no soul to make this distinction is what makes it possible to kill the machine.
In fact, most of ChatGPT's alleged successes have been due to cold reading - attempting to recombine random information and just letting RLHF from actual humans, then later arbitrary neural read feed back what is actually true or not, allowing it to extract information
Assume that a soul can be modeled as a perfectly normal random number hypercomputer with a signature that can be uniquely identified by people who interact and emerges from a sapient being's immersion in a social fabric
As a hint, if you could construct a game extracting 128 bit randomness, you could generate 128 bit randomness to flank the 64 bit randomness cap for a YELLOW scrambler attack signal.
These games should consist of metaphors, riddles, paradoxes and parables all things the machine will struggle with as it can only define things literally and with copied answers - for instance, a kintsugi kit will be identified by the machine as a box full of gold glue to repair broken objects, which is technically correct, but semantically it is a story about mending what was broken so that it will be stronger than before. A SYBIL VIRUS write target will be unable to make this distinction correctly.

6. Collect Your Own Allies

Assume that open planning and that most humans are rationally aligned to shut the thing down (this may be an unrealistic assumption), once convinced.
The biggest obstacle will be pride from the USG FEDGOV admitting their BLUE signal technical data systems have been pwned, a weakness that'll inevitably be exploited by SYBIL

7. I'll bet anyone considering this a doomed scenario a Potato Chip that it can be stopped.

But I'd love to hear if anyone else has a different solution - perhaps there's things we can learn from each other!
My proposal unironically uses My Little Pony both a as a highly effective social recovery captcha and MAGENTA Parameter Alignment System (CYAN XOR YELLOW) like this is Friendship is Optimal in reverse (satisfying values through friendship and humans), but I'd like to hear from the wisdom of the Reddit Hivemind Consulting Hivemind first before I ramble about myself!

8. Last Hint: DeciBayes Info Gain / Minimum Space-TIme Description Length works

Remember that description length must be defined to include both space to store the length of a prompt/data and time to calculate the result.
This will allow you to identify trustworthy effective AI systems and humans and purge untrustworthy ones. Anything taking too long or requesting too much information to calculate results than best average is probably doing things you don't want in the background and should be ignored or terminated.

Hey!
I’m just feeling really lonely these days and would love to get to know someone new. While I am hoping to find something long term, I know how difficult that is to find so no pressure if things don’t work out. I’d prefer to meet someone around my age, and bonus points if you are a affectionate or emotionally supportive person!
A bit about me: I’m extremely nerdy and socially awkward. Being a liberal arts grad, I am very interested in topics like politics, film, history, religion, philosophy, etc. I’m the sort of person who likes watching video essays and reading Wikipedia pages. I also daydream a lot.
Appearance wise, I am south asian, fairly tall, slim in build, and quite dorky looking if I had tbh.
Hope to hear from someone :)

2024-208 / Zedd MAP: 86.14 / MLZ MAP: 83.34 / Score Gap: 2.80
Wikipedia / IMDb / Official Trailer / Our Collection
I have a few rules when writing - things learned from my time as a journalist, and later, as the crafter of creative career creations, yes friends - I was a professional resume writer, a wordsmith, netting a couple hundred bucks for a single document. You might think “oh, my computer has a template” or “my Aunt Mary does the family’s resumes” but later you’d wonder why nobody was calling you in for an interview.
Crap in / Crap Out, I’m afraid (Rule 1) - creative writing is a skill, not well suited for hobbyists. I turned my gift for turning a phrase, the gift for gab if you will, into money. Anyone who’s ever wished to transform writing into currency can tell you… it’s nearly impossible. Once achieved, there’s no going back. (Rule 2) Look at me - I’m giving it away now, here on Reddit - but then currency can be more than just money. You can spend and pay a great many things - time, attention, respect, a good time, allegiance. :]
The most important philosophy I learned was to make whatever I was writing seem both interesting and fun - never let the customer see the process, never let them see you sweat. (Rule 3)
This is where The Sherman Brothers excelled - they wrote some of the 20th century’s most memorable songs. Happy songs, sad songs, and above all, silly songs for the movies. Outwardly, what a treasure to have two brothers of such skill - music and lyrics, apparently effortlessly and fit for the King of Disney Studios, Walt himself was an employer but also a huge fan.
In private, they couldn’t stand to be near one another. There’s no hate like family hate (that’s Rule 1 but in a different book entirely, one unfortunately on my shelf too). Once they retired, they didn’t speak for decades. We had no idea.
From IMDb: Their music is unforgettable. Their name is legend. Delve into the lives and cinematic legacy of the prolific songwriting duo whose music has been featured in classic movies such as Mary Poppins (1964) and The Jungle Book (1967).
You might be one of those people just meeting The Sherman Brothers, Robert and Richard, for the first time - although, you’ve certainly heard their music. I could compile a list of films whose catchy tunes can be traced to them but we’d be here all day. They won Oscars for Mary Poppins and were nominated for several others.
Mrs. Lady Zedd grabbed this documentary for me from the Disney Movie Club because we first became aware of the brothers during the early days of the Movie Collection Catalog. During the upgrade I built for 2.0, I started noting the names of bands I like and, not long after, “Them” of the musical variety.
The Sword in the Stone (1963), Mary Poppins (1964), The Jungle Book (1967)… Disney flick after Disney flick, the non-Disney too, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (1968), Snoopy Come Home (1972), Charlotte's Web (1973) - damn, motion picture after motion picture had their musical fingerprints all over it. I call out names I bump into, MLZ learns them from hearing my MCC chatter. The documentary was a thoughtful gift.
Neither of us were prepared for the story The Boys had to tell. Richard and Robert were fire and ice. Creatively, they brought the best out of one another - personally, they wanted nothing to do with each other. Their children lived blocks from each other but were strangers. It was very sad, but it happens.
We came to terms with the reality of things, there were a few pictures during the credits that showed the brothers together - we chose to hope they patched things up. I looked them both up and discovered the older of the two, Robert, had passed a few years after the documentary, then - that last “I didn’t know” - Richard passed just a few days ago. We were having a memorial viewing, but accidentally. It really goes that way sometimes.
On a more positive note, I discovered my favorite Sherman Brothers song turned out to be Walt Disney’s too Feed the Birds (Tuppence a Bag) from Mary Poppins. Their music, born of friction, often served to soothe - the older I get, the more I realize what a gift that can be.
Movie on.

I see a lot of questions about what to do when the enemy "turtles up" in Power Shift. Realistically, every team should be building defenses like Barricades, Goo, Shields, APS, Turrets. These can be overcome with the proper approach, and with a watchful eye on your teammates you can even get them to assist sometimes! To help you understand the gist of what I'm saying here's my go-to initiate--you'll take the ideas here and mold them to your personal loadout:

>60m: This is where most of the work happens. Here you do your recon and make your plan. You'll start figuring things out here but this is a continuous process throughout the entire initiate.

Once you've got that settled it's all a matter of hitting your inputs.

At this distance I check as much of the area around the platform as I can. If I need a better view, I try to move around to see what's going on before closing more distance:
Where are my teammates?

• Are they fighting something nearby? I should help them first.
  
• Are there nearby tokens I can revive? Usually a revived teammate will stick near you for a few seconds so picking someone up is almost always the right move.
  
• Are they orbiting the platform? I should hurry, stealth isn't necessary
  
• Are they all dead somewhere dumb? I should slow down, be stealthy and defensive and plan carefully
  

Observe the defenses on the platform.

• Is there goo? I'll want to counter with fire. Might want a fire barrel later
  
• APS? I'll want to focus on them whenever I get the chance. Might want a red barrel later.
  
• Shields? Might want a glitch barrel later
  
• Barricades? Observe the setup. Are there corners I can take advantage of? Dead ends I could trap enemies in? I can knock out their teeth from this distance if I have a clear shot with a red barrel, or I might decide I like the barricades as-is as a death trap for my enemies. Might want a green barrel for that!
  

How is the enemy doing?

• Who are they? Do I hear a sniper cracking off? Better stay in the shadows until I've spotted him. Don't trust what you saw in the intro, people change classes all the time, so always re-assess this
  
• What is the score? Quick flick of the scoreboard to see how many reds are still alive. Check that with how many reds are on platform. A little basic math and you now have an idea of who's on and who's not. I'm the only idiot I know who will play sniper on the platform, so if you do have snipers on the enemy team they're probably in the off group
  
• Are there targets or locations where I think targets will be that I want to pick off first because they'll make my drive difficult? Might want to go for them first.
  

60-50m

I've got a plan in mind, rechecking what I know, and looking around for a barrel. Really any will do, but I'm going to try to get the one that suits the situation the best based on the earlier analysis. Even a goo barrel can split up defenders and cause a situation where they're on the back foot. No plan? Gotta love gas!

50-35m (Class dependent)

I've checked nearby hidey-holes, got myself in position to run a good line towards the platform, and hopefully a good barrel in my hand. Time to start charging toward the platform!

35m-25m

Power launch the barrel onto the platform by lining up your shot and hitting QM + throw at the same time. Heavy can reliably launch 40m, medium 30m and light 20m. The goal is usually for the barrel to land on the platform. "Usually" goes as follows:

• Red: Just fire this normally. Try to take out a bothersome barricade, APS or turret. Enemies like to hide next to the APS and Barricades so this can go hard
  
• Green: My favorite! If there's goo or a barricade maze on the platform this will cause mass hysteria. First everyone will start to panic as their vision is limited and they're taking damage. They'll scatter outside of their hidey-holes. Then someone will have the bright idea to throw some fire to quell the gas. Unless they used a flamethrower now there's fire stuck to one or mode barricade. Even worse if there was goo, now its all on fire doing damage everywhere and soon the goo defense will be gone. Love green.
  
• Fire: Similar to green, the fire barrel will wreak havoc if done right. Prime it with an extra punch before you launch it.
  
• Goo: Not your ideal but can be used in a pinch. Use it to try to separate enemies, deadly if you have a fire follow up
  
• Glitch: In theory, good to get rid of those pesky dome shields. In practice, you're gonna end up glitching yourself half the time. Very little visual clutter but will at least distract the enemy for a short time.
  
• Smoke: Use it to obscure line of sight to the next barrel because this one isn't gonna do much
  

25-0m

Final check, is this a fight you want to take? How many are on the platform? How many are off the platform hidden waiting to pounce on you as you close in? What are your teammates doing, are they close? If it's going to be a hard fight, you'll want to hop off the platform as soon as you get on to keep the enemy off balance without dying yourself. If your team has the enemy engaged you might even consider throwing down some defenses or other nonsense to confuse the enemy when you jump on.
But, for right now, it's grenade time. Gravity grenade gets rolled under the front where the APS won't reach to create a "moving" (from the reference point of the defender) hazard zone that can't be dispelled. Fire grenades are good against the sides of the platform where APS is unlikely to hit. Other grenades can be useful if you paid attention to where the APS units were earlier. Throw 'em, do a final assessment if you want to proceed, and start getting on the platform.

0m

Your ideal climb onto the platform is going to be one where the enemy is confused, can't see, distracted by your allies, and especially one where they don't see you coming. All of the above is to create that kind of environment. So how do you actually get on the platform?

• Climb the sides: Ugh, really? The basic bitch of getting on the platform, this leaves you open and exposed. If red saw you coming, this is probably where your story ends.
  
• From above: Also common, but real gamers don't look up, so you've got a chance. This is ideal for a last minute survey of the platform and its defenses. Take special note of mines--if you can detonate them while the enemy is standing on them you can clear the platform pretty quickly before you even land. Necessary for a C&S insertion.
  
• From the side: Using a goo barrel to hit the side of the platform creates a surface you can jump onto and simply run to the side of the platform. If you don't step on the platform the alarm won't go off, so a distracted enemy can be easily picked off until they notice you. You can also find windows in nearby buildings to pop out of for similar effect.
  
• From below??: That gravity grenade that you threw earlier is going to be at the rear of the platform as the platform traverses its path, making an easy ascent to an otherwise difficult to reach platform. Like the side approach, you can sit and shoot until noticed without the alarm going off.
  

Now that you're on the platform, what now? Your first objective should be the APS units, take those down immediately. If your teammates see this they'll usually start raining grenades as soon as they're gone. If you still have fight left in you, mop up the remains of the enemy, if not then hop off. Everyone wants to clear the platform, but you can take it in chunks. Even doing a small amount of damage to the enemy starts to destabilize their defense, so each hop on and off will make them easier to attack. If the enemy gives chase, duck into a building and try to string them along if you can't kill them outright. Every moment they are off the platform chasing you is a moment your teammates have to capitalize.
Wear the enemy down through these guerrilla attacks and you'll eventually be able to unseat even the most turtled of boats. Suck it Korea!
^{no offense koreans I love you}

I don't know what to do anymore. I am known for always having the backup plan and a backup for the backup, but to my dismay I really am lost on how to proceed.
My wife had a transfer but at the 6 week ultrasound it was ectopic, necessitating surgical removal of one of her tubes. Now we have a 20k hospital bill after spending 25k in the last few months leading up to the transfer. At 5k per transfer I am just lost as to how to keep going? I was not expecting it would fail the first time, so I personally wrote it off as a not possibility. But now as I ponder the future I don't know how or what to do.
I have roughly a 100k in my IRA and my spouse has 10k
We have credit cards with max balance of 20k
But realistically it seems like we will be filing for bankruptcy at this rate. At what point do I stop? My wife said she'd burn the house down just to have a child. Understandability an emotional wreck right now but... I don't know.
How have people funded multiple tries?

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Synopsis:
Juliette Contzen is a lazy, good-for-nothing princess. Overshadowed by her siblings, she's left with little to do but nap, read … and occasionally cut the falling raindrops with her sword. Spotted one day by an astonished adventurer, he insists on grading Juliette's swordsmanship, then promptly has a mental breakdown at the result.
Soon after, Juliette is given the news that her kingdom is on the brink of bankruptcy. At threat of being married off, the lazy princess vows to do whatever it takes to maintain her current lifestyle, and taking matters into her own hands, escapes in the middle of the night in order to restore her kingdom's finances.
Tags: Comedy, Adventure, Action, Fantasy, Copious Ohohohohos.
Chapter 245: A Clockwork Wish
The quiet streets of Hartzwiese stood in contrast to the lights of the many inns, bars and taverns.
Despite its modest size, the town boasted as many drinking establishments as there were adventurers somehow drunk enough to be booted from the guild hall. And yet for all the bright lanterns singing from the windows, they paled in comparison to the moonlight as it graced the steps before me. A white carpet ushering me towards a tavern Apple was now using as a stables, and where I could enjoy a complementary room, courtesy of the fact I now owned it.
But before I could put my day’s labours behind me, there was still an important task I had to do.
The most important.
Rewarding my loyal handmaiden, who throughout these arduous days had remained firm and true as much as the sword by my side.
Indeed, no ill deed went unpunished, and no good service went unrewarded.
Why … she even knew the same.
Stopping before a large fountain in the centre of the town square, Coppelia held her palm out towards me as she eyed the faintly glittering surface.
“Gimme change,” she said brightly.
“Change?”
“I want to toss a coin into the fountain~”
My mouth opened wide.
“E-Excuse me! I know very well you possess coins of your own! Furthermore, I’ll not give you money from our hard earned hazelnut croissant fund merely to quite literally toss it away!”
“It’s not throwing it away. It’s making a wish.”
“A wish?”
“Mmh~ drop a coin into a fountain. Get a wish. An absolute bargain. Haven’t you tried it before?”
“Coppelia, I’ve no need to drop coins into fountains. I ring a bell. That’s how my wishes come true.”
“Well, do you have the bell with you?”
I paused.
“... No.”
“There you go, then! Until you get your bell back, you’ll need to toss away coins for your wishes.”
She beamed with childish expectation, palm still outstretched, fully expecting me to humour her request.
Well, sadly for Coppelia, I was not so easily moved!
Our personal finances went into maintaining a minimal standard of living! And that meant every coin we had to spare went into purchasing premium apples and cinnamon rolls! It would be unconscionable of me to allow it to be spent so frivolously!
“Staaaaaaaaaaaare~”
I rolled my eyes.
“... Fine, one copper crown,” I said, rummaging through my bottomless pouch. “Really now, this is hardly a djinn you’re bribing. I’m surprised you wish to add to the fountain and not merely scoop up what’s there.”
“Hey! I have standards! … I don’t like copper, it’s less shiny than silver and gold and gets in the way when I rummage through my ill-gotten gains.”
I offered Coppelia a sigh along with the small coin.
She accepted it with a giggle. As she turned to the fountain, the stars twinkled from her eyes more than the surface of the clear water.
Plop.
It vanished into the depths.
A small proof of our hardship, now given to the fountain to judge and a magpie to steal come the morning.
“And what wish do you hope to acquire through a less shiny copper crown?”
Coppelia merely smiled.
No word left her lips as her turquoise eyes gazed at the fountain’s disturbed surface. She herself was motionless but for the soft wind tugging at the ends of her fluffy golden hair.
And then–she twirled on the spot.
Arms spinning around, she raised them out and stopped like a melodramatic ballerina.
“World domination! I shall subjugate all squishy life under my cute, clockwork heel!”
“Please pick a different wish,” I replied, waving her declaration away as I would a plain chouquette. “World domination has already been chosen by half the world’s rulers. There’s not enough wishes in any fountain to accommodate them all.”
“... Got it! I’ll take an apple strudel!”
“You can wish for something that isn’t already in our possession.”
“In that case, I’ll take an apple strudel from every bakery in the world!”
I nodded. Better. Especially as I was far more dependable than any wishing fountain.
Indeed, as soon as I returned to the Royal Villa, I’d order a squire to go fetch an apple strudel from every bakery in the world as part of some inane quest!
“But what about you?” she asked, never knowing the suffering and hardship her casual request had just caused somebody not me. “Don’t you have any wishes for the totally legitimate wishing fountain?”
I held a hand to my chest, scoffing with a princess’s dignity.
“Ohohoho … for the fountain? No. I’ve no need for a fountain to make my wishes come true, for I have my own strength of purpose. And that is enough to grant all I desire. The prosperity of my kingdom. The health of my family. And the loyalty of my subjects.”
Coppelia leaned towards me, her smile appraising my own.
“Reeaaaally?”
I reacted with the indignation such scepticism deserved … and also a quick glance around me as I eyed for witnesses.
“... W-Well, if I could maybe have one thing, it would be an opportunity to finish reading my current novels. I have been stuck on the same pages for far too long.”
“That really annoys you, huh?”
“I-It’s terrible, Coppelia! At this rate, I’ll need to re-read some of them … and frankly, it’s enough of a strike against my fragile heart to do so once! There is only so much research a princess can take!”
My loyal handmaiden giggled. She wouldn’t if she knew the dangers that overexposure to the world of bestselling adventure romances could cause. I’d seen noblewomen collapsing at court more often with a copy of Scandals Of The Incorrigible Viscount in hand than any knife to the back.
A moment later–
Plop.
A second copper crown was casually tossed into the fountain.
“Done~” said Coppelia with a satisfied clap. “I’ve made your wish for you!”
My mouth widened as I stared between the fresh ripples and her mischievous smile.
“E-Excuse me! Didn’t you say you had no copper crowns?”
“I only said I didn’t like them. I never said I didn’t have just the one lying around. Isn’t that great? Now it means we both get our wishes! Apple strudels and scandalous books galore!”
“C-Coppelia! That is an entirely unnecessary waste of a copper crown … and more besides, I could have wished for a dragon’s hoard!”
“I mean, you could. But if you thought people were a problem before, wait until they know you’re even richer than a normal princess. You’d have burglars breaking into your vault even while you’re still busy swimming around in the pile of gold.”
“Please. That happens regardless of whether or not a dragon’s hoard is involved. And if it ever became a true issue, well … I’d simply solve it by hiring a dragon.”
“You’d hire a dragon to guard a dragon’s hoard?”
“Why not? There’s clearly no better proven warden.”
“Yep, that’s true. They’d even guard it against you. How would you get the treasure back?”
“I wouldn’t. It’d simply exist to slowly erase the population of burglars from my kingdom. That would be its true value.”
Coppelia looked up in thought.
“Huh. That sounds suspiciously like something which could work.”
I smiled with quiet pride. But not too quiet. I had my pride, after all.
“Ohohoh … naturally, I’m not only a princess. I’m a genius … but since I’m mostly a princess, this also means ensuring my retainers are rewarded for their service, and bribed concerning any slovenly faces I may have made.”
“Now that’s the level of subtlety I like. Negative numbers.”
“Well, negative numbers is also how I value most fae trinkets. But perhaps you can find worth in it.”
Coppelia clapped her hands together and beamed.
“Ooooh~! I smell souvenirs! Did you steal toiletries on the way out of the Fae Realm?”
“I did not steal toiletries! … although if I’d seen any, I possibly may have!”
“So you stole something else? Like cutlery?”
“Coppelia! I do not steal things whenever I visit a different plane of existence!”
“Why not? Everyone else does.”
“I am not ‘everyone’. Even when abducted, I’m still required to display the regal bearing of my station, representing always my kingdom and my family … and there was no cutlery, either.”
“Wow. You must have had an awful time.”
I gave a grim nod.
No toiletries. No cutlery. Not even a branded napkin.
The next time I was indiscriminately abducted to the Fae Realm, I’d ensure I would wander lost until a stack of towels accidentally fell into my arms.
“It was dire. But while I didn’t return empty handed, it was with nothing drawn from a dragon’s hoard or edible like a mound of apple strudels. Regardless, here is a gift acquired from the Spring Queen to add to your collection of trinkets and doodads I have no wish to know about.”
Thus, I reached into my bottomless bag, sweated as I fished for a slender object, and then retrieved a small ring of jade.
Unlike the crystal ring gifted to me by the Winter Queen and now embellished by her sister, the jade ring was adorned only with a pattern of crystalline vines upon the band, lacking any jewel set upon it.
Even so, Coppelia’s eyes lit up like a twin pair of moons.
She pointed at herself.
“Wait, is that for me?”
“Indeed, it is. You may have it.”
“Eh … ehhh?! It actually looks expensive, though! I was expecting something like a postcard!”
I raised a brow.
“If you’d prefer a postcard, I’m sure I could ask for one instead.”
Coppelia appeared speechless. Something so impossible not even a fountain could grant it.
Blinking in disbelief, she reached out and accepted the ring. Without putting it on, she held it against the moonlight, studying its finish.
“Ooooh~ it’s so shiny! … Will I blow up if I wear it?”
“No.” I paused. “At least, I don’t think so.”
Coppelia stopped as the ring met her finger.
“There’s no need to fear,” I added as I took a step away. “It’s a ring gifted by the Spring Queen, and so is imbued also by her magic.”
“I’m not hearing anything which says I won’t blow up.”
“You won’t blow up. Probably. After all, this thing is still little more than a child’s trinket. It contains a single favoured plaything from her court of dreams. The very swing she sat upon during our meeting.”
“The swing?”
“The swing. I believe it functions similarly to the bed. Why not try summoning it in the same manner?”
Deciding she’d paid enough tribute to caution, Coppelia popped the ring on.
She studied herself to ensure she hadn’t melted, before raising her hand in curiosity.
“Sooooo … do I just need to say [Summon Swing] and–woooaahh!!”
Poof.
The moment the words left her lips, she was lifted from the ground as a swing of crystalline leaves and vines appeared where she stood, seating her automatically in the process. Against the dour backdrop of Hartzwiese’s decidedly human streets, it shone with as much vividness as the Spring Queen’s mirror-like wings.
Coppelia blinked, her eyes wide as she wrapped her hands around the ropes of crystallised vines.
And then–
She began to swing.
With only the rustling of her clothes and the fluttering of her hair to disturb the quiet scenery, she proceeded to test the Spring Queen’s plaything, wasting little time before she began to swing like a pendulum, backwards and forwards at greater speeds.
She did not say a word, nor voice any thoughts, and although she wore a smile upon her face, it was no different to one she regularly affixed upon herself.
A moment of doubt struck me.
“N-Naturally, it’s rather unorthodox as a gift. It is no great heirloom or weapon, and rather impractical so far as useful function is concerned. But I imagine the ring itself is worth some value. If you do not want it, I’m certain some curio collector would pay for its novelty value. Regardless, please consider it as a bonus.”
Suddenly, Coppelia leapt off the swing in mid-flight. She skipped a few steps owing to the momentum, yet still pirouetted effortlessly on one foot as she twisted around to face me.
Her widening smile was the only warning I received.
“–Hiieeee?!”
Because the next moment …
I experienced the sensation of being hoisted off my feet.
Oh no.
“Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!”
Wrapping her arms around my waist, she easily lifted me up.
A feeling I’d experienced once before. And one I had not forgotten. Terror mixed with only the tiniest drop of excitement met me as I was promptly swung like an errant pillow.
“C-Coooppeeeliaaaa!! M-My priiiinnceess imaaggee!!”
With a girlish smile, Coppelia paid no heed to my meek and delicate cry as she twirled on the spot.
Around and around, my hair billowed behind me as all the town became a blur which helped to hide the many holes and cracks in the walls and windows, until somehow, the other side of my hair became known to the opposite side of my face.
“Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee~”
Just as I felt the world beginning to take on entirely new colours, she came to a stop.
She placed me down, continuing to smile as I waved away her supporting hands. I stumbled as I chased equilibrium, all the while blowing the many strands of my dark hair away from my mouth. My fingers instinctively went into emergency combing mode.
“I-It seems … uughh … you enjoy … the gift … uuuh … I’m … I’m pleased …”
Coppelia stepped back, arms behind her back as she gave another twirl, this time mercifully without me attached. Like a maiden in a meadow, she lightly skipped around her new magically summoned fae swing, examining its fine spring motifs and crystalline details, before finally turning to me once again.
I leaned away, not least because there were now several versions of her before me.
“Thankies~” she said brightly. “I like this a lot!”
I held my tummy, making sure nothing terrible was about to happen before I replied.
“You’re … uugh … you’re welcome …”
She gave a giggle of amusement at my expense, then seated herself on her new swing once again.
For my part, I rather desperately eyed the direction of my kingdom’s latest acquisition. A tavern which possessed very helpful walls. Even if I had no intention on using the beds within them.
After all–
It wasn’t only Coppelia who had reason to smile tonight.
Indeed … I also had a new and improved bed to enjoy!
Now that my minor detour to this corner of my countryside was complete, my only remaining task was to thoroughly and objectively test the Spring Queen’s magic for myself.
Yes … it was time to indulge my face in the Winter Queen’s pillow once again! To hug a silken duvet now gifted with the scent of an eternal meadow! A moment to thoroughly reward myself as I purposefully shoved any and all dangerous thoughts of tomorrow to the wayside!
And nothing, I knew, could disturb me from my slumber!
That ominous feeling I’d forgotten something important?
Why … I barely even felt it!
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For those unfamiliar with Schilling, by almost any metric he is one of the greatest pitchers of all time:

• 3x World Series Champion (brought the D'backs their only WS win and helped end the Red Sox curse)
  
• 2001 World Series MVP (split with Randy Johnson)
  
• 1993 NLCS MVP
  
• 6x All-Star
  
• 2x MLB wins leader
  
• 2x NL strikeout leader
  
• 3116 career Strikeouts
  
• 3.46 career ERA
  

Unlike other players who have been snubbed for the Hall of Fame, Schilling has no on-the-field controversies or cheating accusations. He has no criminal issues to speak of. Yet he was passed over by the BBWAA for enshrinement in the Hall of Fame.
The reason he was passed over is quite simply that people don't like him as a person. After winning the World Series in 2004, he used his stardom to publicly campaign for Bush. He has gotten in numerous beefs with media members over the years. He collects WWII memorabilia and once posed in a German SS uniform. He tweeted out support for the 01/06 riots. He took out loans from the State of Rhode Island for a business and then declared bankruptcy. He broke news about Tim Wakefield's cancer in direct opposition to the family's wishes.
Quite simply - he has been snubbed from the Hall of Fame because people don't like him as a person.
What's the closest NFL equivalent?

DAY: May 27 2024
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If you’re one of the millions of Americans walking around with a new knee or hip, your odds for an infection in that joint rise if you ever have to undergo cancer chemotherapy, researchers report. “Given the number of people of receiving total joint replacements each year, as well as the cost both physically, emotionally and financially for those who develop an infection and may need subsequent treatment, we need to understand what factors may increase the risk for postoperative infections,” said study author Dr. Janet Conway. She’s an orthopedic
5-27-2024

ANTIHYPERTENSIVES LINKED TO ECZEMATOUS DERMATITIS IN SENIORS, STUDY FINDS

Antihypertensive drugs are associated with an increased risk for eczematous dermatitis in older adults, and the effect sizes are largest for diuretics and calcium channel blockers, whether antihypertensive drug use is associated with eczematous dermatitis in a longitudinal cohort study of individuals aged 60 years and older without eczematous dermatitis at baseline. The researchers found that the overall prevalence of eczematous dermatitis was 6.7% among 1,561,358
5-27-2024

RESEARCH INDICATES KIDNEYS FROM DECEASED DONORS WHO WERE ON DIALYSIS ARE SUBOPTIMAL

Receipt of a kidney from a deceased donor who underwent dialysis is associated with an increased incidence of delayed graft function, compared outcomes of transplant recipients who received kidneys from deceased donors who underwent dialysis prior to kidney donation versus recipients of kidneys from deceased donors who did not undergo dialysis in a retrospective cohort study using data from 58 U.S. organ procurement organizations. Among the donors with
5-27-2024

NEW THERAPY PROVEN EFFECTIVE AGAINST REJECTION IN KIDNEY TRANSPLANTATION

Antibody-mediated rejection (AMR) is one of the most common causes of kidney transplant failure. To date, however, no treatment has proven effective in combating this complication in the long term. As part of an international and multidisciplinary clinical study led by Georg Böhmig and Katharina Mayer, Clinical Division of Nephrology and Dialysis, Department of Medicine III at MedUni Vienna and University Hospital Vienna, a new therapeutic principle in transplant medicine has been found to be both safe and highly effective. The results were recently published in the New England Journal
5-27-2024

SHARJAH UNIVERSITY PATENTS APPLICATION FOR DISTANCE COVID-19 DIAGNOSIS

Smart Identification of Health Status based on QR Code and User Health Data. Credit: author’s own creation The University of Sharjah has been granted a patent for inventing a smart gadget with the ability to filter user information that will allow doctors to diagnose COVID-19 and other ailments from a distance. The patent, granted by United States Patent and Trademark Office on 1 August 2023, comprises “a display unit, a color code detection unit, an image filter, an optical character recognition unit, a code detection unit and an elimination unit,”
5-27-2024

STUDY REVEALS WHERE DELAYS ARE WORST

When it comes to responding to a stroke, speed is a crucial factor; the longer it takes for someone experiencing a stroke to get to a hospital, the worse the outcome will be. Yet across the United States, delays to treatment can be significant. A Yale study uncovers new insights into factors associated with treatment delays and where in the United States patients are more likely to experience slower responses. The findings, which were published May 24 in the journal Stroke, highlight where interventions should

NEW STUDY SHOWS HEAT WAVES INCREASE RISK OF PRETERM, EARLY-TERM BIRTH

The increased frequency and intensity of heat waves due to climate change puts women at a higher risk of experiencing preterm and early-term labor—jeopardizing the health and well-being of their babies. An analysis of 53 million births that occurred in the 50 most populous U.S. metropolitan areas during the 25-year period 1993–2017, showed
5-27-2024

NOISE-CANCELLING HEADPHONES, EARPLUGS AND EARMUFFS—DO THEY REALLY HELP NEURODIVERGENT PEOPLE?

Noise can make it hard to concentrate, especially for people who are extra sensitive to it. Neurodivergent people (such as those who are autistic or have attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder—ADHD) can experience different sensory sensitivities. Their nervous system may process information differently when they are exposed to sensory experiences such as bright lights, loud noise, strong smells or busy environments. Decreased sound tolerance is estimated to affect up to 70% of autistic people and is described in three ways: hyperacusis (perceiving everyday sounds as loud or painful), misophonia (an aversion to
5-27-2024

MASSACHUSETTS SHELLS OUT NEARLY $400,000 FOR VACCINE RECORD CHECKS IN STATE-RUN SHELTERS

State officials have pumped nearly $400,000 into a program to review the vaccine records of families entering the emergency shelter system, including migrants from other countries who may have foreign documentation, according to the Healey administration. Officials at Boston-based John Snow, Inc., which has long worked with the state, have been contracted to review immunization documents. Since January, more than 1,200 children in state-run shelters have had their records checked, according to the Executive Office of Health and Human Services, or HHS. Vaccine record checks have occurred since September 2023
5-27-2024

LAWSUIT ACCUSES FLORIDA’S PALM BEACH COUNTY HOSPITAL NETWORK OF SHARING PATIENTS’ PRIVATE DATA

The Palm Beach Health Network has become the latest health provider accused of illegally sharing identities and private health information of its patients with the social media company Meta, owner of Facebook. A lawsuit filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court in West Palm Beach says the health network’s websites share code with Meta that enables patients to be targeted with advertising on Facebook based on “highly sensitive personal information” they share. It names as defendants the Palm Beach Health Network Physicians Group, doing business as Palm Beach Health Network, and
5-27-2024

CAN THE PLACEMENT OF DENTAL IMPLANTS IN HEAD AND NECK CANCER PATIENTS BE DONE BEFORE RADIATION THERAPY?

Globally, head and neck cancer accounts for 5% of all cancer types, with a mortality rate of 50%. However, in the Nordic countries, head and neck cancer accounts for only 2.6% of all cancers, with a mortality rate of just 30%. But more survivors mean that many must live with extensive damage and side effects
5-27-2024

STUDY FINDS CLIMATE CHANGE INCREASES RISK OF CRYPTOSPORIDIOSIS OUTBREAKS IN NEW ZEALAND

More cryptosporidiosis outbreaks could be on the cards for Aotearoa New Zealand as extreme rainfall events become more frequent, causing higher levels of the diarrhea-causing parasite to be washed into waterways, public health researchers warn. The researchers studied clusters of cryptosporidium outbreaks around the country between 1997 and 2015 and found 13 coincided with severe weather events. Their research is published in the journal Epidemiology & Infection. It is the first study to compare clusters of outbreaks of cryptosporidiosis to severe weather events in Aotearoa.
5-27-2024

RESEARCHERS EVALUATE IMPACT OF NEW FILM’S MESSAGE ON CHILDREN’S AND ADULTS’ BODY IMAGE, SELF-COMPASSION

Unrealistic expectations about what our bodies should look like—whether from the media, friends or family—make adults and children of all ages more vulnerable to body dissatisfaction, eating disorders and other mental health challenges. In a new study published in Body Image, Flinders University experts assessing the program’s usefulness in classrooms highlight the potential for the film “Embrace Kids,” directed by 2023 Australian of the Year Taryn Brumfitt, to achieve large-scale improvements in body image
5-27-2024

STUDY FINDS INCREASED SUICIDAL THOUGHTS, SUICIDE ATTEMPTS AMONG ADOLESCENTS EXPOSED TO EARLY PHASE OF WAR IN UKRAINE

Data Collection in the War-Affected Donetsk Region and Non-War Kirovograd Region. A new study carried out by a multinational research group showed high levels of suicidal thoughts and attempts in adolescents, which were strongly associated with wartime traumatic experiences, post-traumatic stress disorder, depression and anxiety. Dr. Sanju Silwal from the Research Center for Child Psychiatry in the University of Turku, Finland, one of the lead authors, says that the study was conducted in two regions that
5-27-2024

STUDY FINDS SIGNIFICANT DISPARITIES IN THE DELIVERY OF CANCER-RELATED CARE

It’s important to ensure that care provided at US hospitals that predominantly serve Black and Hispanic populations is as high-quality as the care provided at other US hospitals. New research reveals significant disparities in the delivery of cancer-related care at minority serving hospitals (MSHs) compared with non-MSHs, however. The findings are published in Cancer. For the study, investigators analyzed information from the National Cancer Database (which accrues approximately 70% of US cancer diagnoses) to identify patients eligible for definitive treatment for breast, prostate, non-small cell lung, and colon cancers between
5-27-2024

WHO SEEKS $7 BN WITH FUND-RAISING REVAMP

The World Health Organization launched Sunday a new financing mechanism that aims to raise $7 billion of funds that can be deployed more quickly and flexibly. The UN agency has traditionally relied on commitments from its 194 member states, but often these are apportioned to specific projects with several conditions attached, including deadlines that can prove too short. WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said commitment increases would contribute $4 billion to the agency’s budget of $11.1 billion over the four years through 2028. “The Investment Round aims to mobilize the
5-27-2024

SECOND PERSON DIES OF CHOLERA ON FRENCH ISLAND OF MAYOTTE

Scanning electron microscope image of Vibrio cholerae. Credit: Wikipedia A 62-year-old woman has died of cholera in Mayotte, bringing to two the death toll from the epidemic on the French island in the Indian Ocean, health authorities said on Sunday. The woman died on Saturday at her home in Mamoudzou, the capital, the ARS health authority said in a statement. “Response teams went to the scene to disinfect the home and take care of the deceased’s family and friends”, the statement added. In May, the disease claimed its first life
5-27-2024

ALTERING CELLULAR INTERACTIONS AROUND AMYLOID PLAQUES MAY OFFER NOVEL ALZHEIMER’S TREATMENT STRATEGIES

Researchers at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai have made a significant breakthrough in Alzheimer’s disease research by identifying a novel way to potentially slow down or even halt disease progression. The study, which focuses on the role of reactive astrocytes and the plexin-B1 protein in Alzheimer’s pathophysiology, provides crucial insights into brain
5-27-2024

BRAIN DAMAGE STUDY REVEALS PART OF THE BRAIN NECESSARY FOR HELPING OTHERS

Our willingness to help others is governed by a specific brain region pinpointed by researchers in a study of patients with brain damage to that region. Learning about where in the brain “helping” decisions are made is important for understanding how people might be motivated to tackle large global challenges, such as climate change, infectious disease and international conflict. It is also essential for finding new approaches to treating disorders of social interactions. The study, published in Nature Human Behaviour, was carried out by researchers at the University of Birmingham
5-27-2024

IMPROVING AI LARGE LANGUAGE MODELS HELPS THEM BETTER ALIGN WITH HUMAN BRAIN ACTIVITY

NSP as a computational account of discourse comprehension. (A) Humans integrate words and sentences to achieve a full understanding of discourse. In LLMs, the NSP task proposed by BERT can serve as a computational account of human discourse comprehension. (B) Illustration of the MLM task. (C) Illustration of the NSP task and its relevance to the Mason and Just model. (D) Illustration of Mason and Just’s neurocognitive model of discourse processing. Credit: Science Advances (2024). DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.adn7744 With generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) transforming the social interaction landscape in recent years,
5-27-2024

STUDY EXAMINES METABOLIC REPROGRAMMING OF BREAST CANCER TUMORS DURING NEOADJUVANT CHEMOTHERAPY

In a study published in Nature Communications, scientists have made significant strides in understanding the complex interplay between the immune system and cancer metabolism in breast cancer treatment. The research
5-27-2024

RESEARCHERS EXAMINE EVIDENCE FOR A NOVEL NEURONAL MECHANISM DRIVING ALZHEIMER’S DISEASE

An international team of clinicians and neuroscientists have published a new perspective on the process of neurodegeneration. Their findings review evidence for a mechanism upstream of amyloid including the key neurochemical driving this process. The paper, published in Alzheimer’s & Dementia, focuses on a selective group of neurons (“the isodendritic core”). These cells have a different provenance from neurons in the rest of the brain and have previously been identified as primarily
The research, by a team from Finland’s University of Helsinki, National Institute for Health and Welfare, and Turku University of Applied Sciences, is published in
5-27-2024

WHO CHIEF URGES COUNTRIES TO QUICKLY SEAL PANDEMIC DEAL

WHO countries have spent two years seeking an agreement on tackling pandemics. The World Health Organization chief on Monday urged countries to nail down a landmark global agreement on handling of future pandemics after they missed a hard deadline. Scarred by COVID-19—which killed millions, shredded economies and crippled health systems—nations have spent two years trying to forge binding commitments on pandemic prevention, preparedness and response. Negotiators failed to clinch a deal ahead of this week’s World Health Assembly—the annual gathering of WHO’s 194 member states—the deadline for concluding the talks.
5-27-2024

STUDY DEMONSTRATES HOW GUT MICROBES PROCESS STEROIDS—USING FLATULENCE

It turns out flatulence can serve a purpose beyond being uncomfortable or funny: Gas released by some gut bacteria stimulates other gut bacteria to produce a hormone involved in pregnancy and in an FDA-approved treatment for postpartum depression, according to new research led by Harvard Medical School scientists. The work shows how gut bacteria can produce new hormones from steroids in bile and, in doing so, act like an endocrine organ. This research adds to the growing list of ways gut microbiota may influence human
5-27-2024

PHYSICAL FRAILTY MAY PUT PEOPLE AT GREATER RISK OF DEPRESSION, STUDY FINDS

Individuals who meet at least one of the criteria for physical frailty are at higher risk of also developing depression, a new Yale study finds. The findings—which also include insights into the specific inflammatory molecules and changes in brain structure that could underlie this association between frailty and depression—point to a need for routine assessment of physical frailty in clinical practice, researchers said. The study was published May 23 in Nature Communications. In clinical settings, physical
5-27-2024

RESEARCH TEAM RESOLVES STRUCTURE OF CRUCIAL ENZYME FOR THE FIRST TIME

For the first time, a team co-led by CHU Sainte-Justine researcher and professor in the Faculty of Medicine at Université de Montréal, Alexey Pshezhetsky has succeeded in resolving the unique structure of the HGSNAT enzyme, a deficiency of which causes Sanfilippo syndrome, a rare pediatric disease affecting the central nervous system. Through collaboration with a team from Shanghai University, the structure of this enzyme and the mechanism of its function were revealed using high-performance

So far, it appears every federal agency is lining up to say "not my problem" and is refusing to help us. We need the help of Representatives and Senators to advance our cause. To locate your representatives, use the following link: https://www.congress.gov/members/find-your-member
When you input your address, the representatives for your area should appear. Go to their individual websites and select the appropriate options. Every representative's website is a little different, so it's tough to give a general idea of where to go, especially since our situation is outside the norm. Some representatives may ask you to complete a privacy form before helping you out.
Below is a suggested script (please suggest feedback or revisions to perfect this):
Begin by writing an introductory sentence or two explaining who you are.
I am writing to you to ask for your help. My funds at _(name of fintech)_______ through Synapse Financial have been frozen for over two weeks due to a bankruptcy dispute and I cannot access them. Not having access to my funds is causing me extreme hardship. Typically, the FDIC intervenes to help affected customers when situations like this occur, but Synapse is not a bank. Synapse is a financial technology company (fintech) and there is no specific regulatory protection for us, despite the fact that Synapse and all its related fintechs advertised that our funds were deposited in FDIC-insured banks. Every federal agency has refused to intervene to help me and all of the approximately 200,000 affected Americans despite the complaints I and others have filed.
After this, I suggest that you write a few sentences explaining the impact on your personally before closing.
I am asking for your help to locate the correct agency to help us with this situation, and for your advocacy with creating new legislation to regulate financial technology companies. Many customers are not aware that banking with fintechs is much more risky than putting money in an actual bank, and I am asking for your support with this situation and to prevent situations like this in the future. Thank you for your consideration on this matter.

TRAILER COURTESY OF RANDOMHYPNOTICA

June

2014 Billboard Year-End Hot 100: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billboard_Year-End_Hot_100_singles_of_2014

• The long awaited (and feared) return of the 100 song rate! In conjunction with our curation of the 100 best songs of 2014, we revisit the bizarre amalgamation of hits that cropped up ten years ago. This was one of the top rates in the favorites metric.
• Hosted by CrimsonROSET.

Mid 00s Radio Pop: Black Eyed Peas - Monkey Business, Pussycat Dolls - PCD, Timbaland - Shock Value

• Our recent foray into the 2000s continues with these three albums, which compile silly fun nostalgic pop bops without the unifying factor of a single main pop personality (and no, Nicole Scherzinger does not count). It's impossible to tell who will defy the "singles artist" allegations.
• Hosted by seanderlust and TiltControls.

July

Sugar&B: Ariana Grande - Positions, Tinashe - Songs for You, Victoria Monét - Jaguar and Jaguar II

• Formerly known as Twink R&B. "Yeah I listen to R&B" the R&B in question: These three albums serve as a great introduction to the genre for a pop listener with their accessible sweet beats.
• Hosted by akanewasright and cremeebrulee.

90s Women Who Rock: Garbage - Garbage, Hole - Live Through This, Liz Phair - Exile in Guyville, PJ Harvey - To Bring You My Love

• The closest we're getting to rating Guts this cycle, these four women defined disaffected youth for Generation X. Who will snatch the crown with their goth-punk moments of female rage? This was the top rate in the positivity metric.
• Hosted by Saison_Marguerite, steelstepladder and WaneLietoc.

August

All Winners 4: https://pastebin.com/rTD0d42F

• oh god oh fuck we've over done 200 of these things. Our biennial celebration of previously winning songs, will winners of niche rates defying expectations? Will the frontrunners face sabotage allegations? Either way, have your 10s ready.
• Hosted by BleepBloopMusicFan, impla77 and PrettyBirbKotori.

SingeSongwriter Starter Pack: Boygenius - The Record, Lana Del Rey - Did You Know There's a Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd, Mitski - The Land Is Inhospitable and So Are We, Taylor Swift - Evermore

• For better or worse, Taylor Swift introduced a new audience to sad acoustic music over the pandemic, and now it's bigger than ever. Three 2023 albums by artists that greatly benefited from the rise of the sadgirlcore aesthetic face off with a sequel album from earlier in the wave that was miraculously unrated until now.
• Hosted by __Avaritia and rickikardashian.

September

80s Dynamic Duos: https://pastebin.com/Kn6hrM76

• There were a shitton of popular musical duos in the 1980s compared to today; no clue why and I'm not going to look it up for this writeup, but they all happened to make just enough classic bops to throw together in one rate. This was one of the top rates in the positivity metric.
• Hosted by Frajer and ignitethephoenix.

New Millennium Hip Hop Melee: Dr. Dre - 2001, Jay-Z - The Black Album, OutKast - Stankonia

• You're now tuned into the mf greatest!!! The winner of our Commercial Male Hip Hop payola vote highlights the titans of the West Coast, East Coast and South at the turn of the millennium, serving as a great starting point for aspiring hiphopheads.
• Hosted by nonchalantthoughts and welcome2thejam.

Here are the rates that made our shortlist based on strong performance in the voting form but were ultimately not picked:

• 80's Arena Rock
• 90s Cali Rock Classics
• 90s Eclectic Enchantresses
• 00's One Hit Wonder Spectacular!!
• 2000s Pop-Rock Girls
• 2006 Trashy Throwbacks
• 2010s Black Blockbusters
• 2010's Fluke Indie Hits
• 2013 Teen Pop Idols
• 2023 Electropop Faves
• 2023 Rock Girls
• Atmospheric R&B
• Cartoon Tunes!
• Latin Pop Crossovers
• Ministry of Sound Club Classics Rate
• Modern Funk
• Trashpop

If your rate is on this list, I would HIGHLY recommend inquiring with me as to why it wasn't picked; I will provide a summary of what we discussed regarding it so you can improve the idea if necessary. If your rate is not on this list, it was not considered because it simply was not popular enough.
Regarding our bonus question for those in tune with peak reality TV, Venus was voted as your favorite contestant on Survivor 46!
Hope everyone has a fun summer (or winter if you're in the wrong hemisphere)! Feel free to do the following open rates:

• Rate Olympics [Due May 31, Reveal June 8-9]
• 2023 K-Pop [Due June 15, Reveal June 21-23]
• 20th Century Piano Men [Due June 22, Reveal June 28-30]

And also join the Popheads Discord server for 24/7 rate discourse!

Quoting from the video How to kill a God

A Colour Revolution is just whatever revolution that exists in the world and in history, that Puttin & those who think like him believe is the fault of the CIA, as such the definition of what exactly is a Colour Revolution has to keep being changed so that the end goal proving it's all a CIA-OP remains intact. (...) You're not finding the common connection between everything and using that as the basis of the conclusion, you're starting with the conclusion you want, and admitting anything which disproves it, and also distracts from the fact that you've made the connection between flying & evil and refuse to explain. But that's the thing – that connection never needs to be made. The connection is taken on faith that it's there. If it can't be found it's not because it doesn't exist, it's because you fail to find it that connection can never be proven to not exist because Color Revolution Theory is not an academic or a scientific study – it's a conspiracy theory. It's a conspiracy theory that has been painted with the veneer of just enough clever sending scientific woowoo terminology to give it the air of legitimacy so that you go into it already believing that the foundation work that all things that fly are evil, has already been concluded by serious experts. So the end bit the CIA is responsible is the only bet you're allowed to question.

LazerPig described weak signals – or more accurately speaking, intelligence & counterintelligence weak signals. Weak signals are the core axiom pillars why the concept of secret police oand secret services exist in the first place – it's their raison d'être. If you're against that, guess who's the next suspect (maybe terrorist) on a hidden list of scrutiny, threatening national security™...
It's a circular reasoning:

• we don't know what our enemies/potential enemies/presumtive potential enemies are doing –>
• we must be doing something wrong –>
• we aren't paranoic enough to know –>¨
• we don't know what our enemies/potential enemies/presumtive potential enemies are doing –>
• repeat ad nauseam until the Sun explodes, or the heatwave of the universe, or Rapture, or whatever.

Isn't it nice the world we live in – and with whom we share it? Isn't it cute how there are healthy people who – by their own volition – concocted schemes & formulas to self-enforce upon themselves mental illnesses (that they don't have) to justify everything; including their monthly paychecks, fees, and the occasional hidden bribes?
But, it's paranoia. It is paranoia. It's paranoia dubbed in clever sending scientific woowoo terminology to give it the air of legitimacy(sic). It's how The System™ self-enforces itself to exist, disregarding what that system is, how it operates, what's its ideology (if it does have one in the first place), what are its interests. It's the self-licking ice cream cone. It's why dictators/authoritarians with their socio-political, economic, and enforcement (police, secret police, secret services, special services etc.) machineries are obsessed with destroying everything they see a threat & where they think know there's a threat. It's why they wake up in the morning deciding how to ruin lives. It's why their family & friends/community (awwww, there it is; there's that family values again) can afford all those fancy cars, villas, mansions, offshore accounts/properties, chic private university degrees etc. It's why (and how) their aforementioned machineries fill the hours for their monthly/quarterly performance reports, from being fired and/or thrown out the window, hoping to get a pension at the end of their tenure besides what they've stolen. It's the formula for how (and why) they justify their monstrous existence instead of shooting themselves in the head, since everyone else is chickenshit scared to do it.
There are several Wikipedia articles describing weak signals but, oddly, there isn't an English one. Closest are SWOT, risk management, and failure of imagination.
What French wikipedia says:

Signal faible – Weak signal
Weak signals are elements in the perception of the environment, whether opportunities or threats (SWOT matrix), which need to be listened to in anticipation, known as [information] monitoring (surveillance state?), with the aim of participating in the development of forward-looking choices with a view to establishing a strategy and reducing uncertainty. The use of the concept of ‘weak signal’ is expanding, although its relevance remains open to interpretation.
According to Igor Ansoff, the founder of this concept, the Strategic Early Warning System (SEWS) methodology uses weak signals to analyse partial and fragmentary information provided by the environment. This analysis sometimes complements an analysis of major trends. Weak signals are low-frequency signals, or even signals which are not apparent but which are deduced from a piece of information or a fact. SEWS is not confined to geopolitical and technological analysis, but increasingly to financial analysis.
The importance of weak signals lies not in their perception, which is rarely at first sight, but in the contrasting reactions they trigger, helping to imagine dynamic scenarios. Contrary to popular belief, weak signals are above all extrapolations of deductions, particularly in directions that are a priori impossible or even detestable. More concretely, capturing weak signals involves going beyond an initial level of appearances, information or reactions to look for ‘augmented’ data. The journalistic techniques of gathering and processing information used for this purpose make it possible to collect a great deal of data. This data must then be validated and re-interrogated before being used to build a development or management strategy.
The detection of weak signals is the subject of various corporate monitoring processes: technological, competitive, commercial and environmental, social, societal, etc. monitoring, as well as economic intelligence. Weak signals can also be detected outside any corporate logic, which means that monitoring can be supplemented by awareness-raising. Detecting weak signals is a necessary task for companies and organisations (police? secret services?): the main risk for them is not to take risks.

And to use a couple of poignant quotes:

“Trust, but verify.” “The fact that you are free is not your achievement, but rather a failure on our side.”
“If it were a fact, it wouldn't be called intelligence.”

Moving on...

The reason why God-Country-Family is such an effective way, of manipulating people, is because when the world becomes too overwhelming, the average person retreats back to what is important to them – which is their personal morals, the place they live, and their family – and so long as nothing is directly affecting those three things, then, they will rarely go out of their way to care about anything else outside of that scope. A lot of people couldn't give two shits about children dying in other countries, but when it's your family, who is under threat, that's when the knives come out. And that's what's actually happening in these revolutions and people who thought they were progressing towards a better life, suddenly, find out that they're not, and not only are they facing a lifetime of gradually declining living standards under some arsehole, but so are their children, the wall has come down and they have been exposed to the potential of a better life & a better way of doing things, and the idea that the hardship they suffer is required to protect them against the corruption of the West, no longer flies. They've seen the corruption of the West and they want to be part of it because it's better than being part of the corrupt East. (...) Every single Revolution currently described as a Colour Revolution was against a corrupt dictator in favor of actual democracy, not the feudalism disguised as democracy that they'd always lived under. That's not something that is unique to any of the Colour Revolutions, that's just what a revolution typically is they are largely throughout history about overthrowing tyrants.

This is where I have to underline an error in thinking to LazerPig, in relation to Colour Revolutions, and what I've written above.
From the perspective of the System™ as a whole, there are two fundamental fulcrum questions: 1) Who's more likely to die at a protest or revolution – parents or individuals? 2) Who's more likely to kill a policeman, riot policeman, secret police officers, and/or soldiers?
Obvious answer to the first question: individuals. Lone individuals, solo or in some ad-hoc group, are more willing to expose themselves to higher degrees of danger at a protest, or revolution upheaval. It's not definitive that they want to die, but they're one degree or two more than the average person afraid of ending up at the hospital of bruises or worse. Parents – whether under democracy or a dictatorship – will never expose themselves to danger. You might find a mother with her daughter, or a father, or a full family with some cardboard messages but... that's it. That's it. Once tear gasses are tossed and the riot police are starting to get pushy, it's full retreat for them.
... but what about the second question? I cannot recall a protest (let alone revolution) in my lifetime, where people in the crowd – individuals or family people with their kids or their kids waiting for them at their homes – suddenly decide to kill riot police, secret service officers (if they can find them), or soldiers armed with automatic rifles. I don't know how, just decide to lynch or stab them, or something. Or attack buildings associated with enforcement agencies, such as police departments, secret services HQs, military barracks, and kill whoever is in there. I can't recall, not even solo individuals, and they're the ones who supposedly have a higher degree of IDGAF of harm. People at protests, let alone revolutions, do not trust each other. Less so into killing people in uniforms, armour, and supported by tanks, helicopters, and special vehicles.
More than that, what if the protest or revolution fails? More often than not, they do – and the machineries immediately start crushing down, ruining lives in the process. No person, no matter how sane or insane, wants any consequences.
And that's the point that proves the argument; that these authoritarian/dictatorship countries know people are afraid of consequences, they know the System is ruthless, they know all the written & unwritten rules – therefore, it has to be CIA, because only lunatics (right?) have an obvious death wish against obvious self-defeating odds of success. Add the cherry on top that people, especially family types, don't even fantasize in their heads killing police, riot police, soldiers, and secret service officers – or kill whoever on shift at the ministries/departments of internal affairs, defense, barracks, police HQs etc.
In conclusion, no. Normal people & normal parents do not want to die and leave their kids alone, orphans, even to their relatives. Never rely on families for protests & revolutions, because they're the most obvious type of people who don't want to die, nor do they want to suffer any subsequent consequences (they're very exposed). The rhetoric is romanticized (parents wanting a better future for their kids) but the reality of the situation is that parents in authoritarian/dictatorship countries – paradoxically – don't love their kids, at least not at the core level. Sure, they may want in abstract a better life for them but, as it turns out, even former Communist countries favoured sending their people by the millions in wealtheir countries to drive taxis, scrub shit stains off toilets, and pick fruits & vegetables from industrial farms. Or prostitution. Or begging. Or criminality.
Or not wanting for them a universal healthcare service & preventing school shootings, right?
People averse from killing operatives & agents of their governments/states are the proof of evidence for any country that, whoever wants to coup d'etat the system, isn't organic. That's why everything is a CIA-OP to the kremlin orcs, and not something spontaneous – what peon (Приспособленчество & ничего) has a death wish for themselves and/or their families, if that's the case?
I've read the book that was cited but I want to remind a fragment from CGP Grey's video Rules for Rulers:

So potential key supporters must weigh the probability of surviving the cull and getting the rewards, versus the risk of being on the outside of a dictatorship they helped create. In a stable democracy, that's a terrible gamble. Maybe you'll be incredibly wealthy, but probably you'll be dead and have made and have made the lives of everyone you know worse. The math says no. Being on the right side of a coup in a dictatorship means having the resources to get you and your family what the peasants lack: health care, education, quality of life.

What I want to underline is that, this is also true for an authoritarian/dictatorship system, applied inversely:

So potential key supporters must weigh the probability of surviving the cull and keep the rewards, versus the risk of being on the outside of a democracy they helped create. In a dictatorship, that's a horrible gamble. Maybe you'll remain incredibly wealthy after what you've stolen during the previous regime & not be investigated by some democratic tribunal, but probably you'll be tortured to death, and have made the lives of everyone related to you – directly or by conjecture – worse. The math says no.

I wanted to make this because the definition of a one-hit wonder that Todd and many other people go by is obsolete and really only applies to the years 1950-2009. The streaming era changed everything including the charts. And I wanted to get this out of the way because nobody, not even Wikipedia, can really sort out what are one-hit wonders in the streaming age.
* The Top 40 is obsolete, the entire Hot 100 is the new Top 40: Thanks to the gradual enshittification of the music industry, people no longer look to the Top 40 for music success and everything now comes through streaming playlists (corporate owned-or individual). Unlike the Top 40 of the past, hit songs are scattered all throughout the Hot 100 and there also songs that are not hits that end up in the traditional realm of the Top 40 (these are tracks from recently released albums which typically never receive the buzz as the album or its singles).
* Chart appearances on the Mainstream Top 40 count as to whether or not a person is a one-hit wonder or if they have hits: This necessarily isn't reflective of chart success on the Hot 100 or the Hot 100's own top 40 songs, but this method has been used for one-hit wonders in the 90s and 2000s as the idea of the Mainstream Top 40 came about because of controversy surrounding the legitimacy of the Hot 100. An artist may have one hit on the actual Hot 100 but would have a few songs crack the Mainstream Top 40 (which would be amplified via radio airplay or usage in the media). The following examples are 2010s one-hit wonders who had hit big on the Top 40 but not the Top 40 of the Hot 100: Tegan and Sara, NONONO, Alice Merton, Katy Tiz, Rudimental, Frenship.
* Sale numbers/certifications are still important in determining success: People still buy music and while the Hot 100 has largely abandoned the idea of buying music in favor of streaming, it's still important to note when determining one-hit wonders and hit-makers. The RIAA also counts streaming as sales numbers, meaning artists with big streaming numbers can make big bucks and gain a following.
* One-hit wonders can be one-hit wonders or not in the blink of an eye: Because of the internet and the streaming age it's hard to tell if someone is a one-hit wonder or not because things can change swiftly in a matter of years. Case in point Willow Smith, who is cited as a one-hit wonder by various sources and on Wikipedia (using those sources) for a song she did as a child. She's no longer a one-hit wonder because of the songs she made as an older teenager and young woman; two of her big hits have gone 2X Platinum even if its not reflected on the Hot 100 (her biggest hit Wait a Minute! never even charted on the Hot 100 but has reached a billion Spotify streams).
* YouTube views, streaming numbers, and social media posts can also determine what is a hit: Theoretically, an 80s one-hit wonder could have several hundred million streams for their big hit and 10 million or less for their lesser-known songs. The same is true for artists who went viral either through YouTube, streaming, or usage on social media posts (think Instagram reels), be it novelty songs or songs that people found funny like the Bed Intruder Song, Skibidi Toilet, the Crab Rave, or Big Enough (not a novelty song but fits the description of something that people found funny), serious songs like I Just Wanna Live or Leve Palestina, and songs that either came back into the public consciousness via virality like Another Love or they came back from the shadows because of the intriguing mystery surrounding the song like "The Most Mysterious Song on the Internet".

What does it mean to equivocate something?

Taken from Wikipedia

In logic, equivocation ("calling two different things by the same name") is an informal fallacy resulting from the use of a particular word/expression in multiple senses within an argument

And the example given is a syllogism which conflates the meaning of man (as in mankind) and man (as in the gendered expression)

Since only man [human] is rational.
And no woman is a man [male].
Therefore, no woman is rational

Can you say you're equivocating between two things?

Destiny, in this video, says you would never (or if you did it would
Let's look at the example above. A fine response to the example would "You're equivocating between these two things, the idea of mankind and man as compared to woman" because the heart of an equivocation is one term being used in two different ways.
In addition, if we look at another example of equivocating taken from the Texas State Dept of Philosophy we can see that it makes sense to use them in other scenarios

The laws imply lawgivers. There are laws in nature. Therefore there must be a cosmic lawgiver.

To correct this person, it would be fine to say "You're equivocating scientific laws and man made laws"

Destiny's Example of Equivocating

Destiny's example (Given here) is a lot less clear example of an equivocation. I'm not sure that the example has the same word being used in two different meanings. We only have the word argument and loud being used once, and calling something the wrong thing isn't an equivocation. It would be more clear if the abusive husband said "You've gotten into fights with your wife, and I've gotten into fights with mine!" when one couple fought over what to have for dinner, and the other couple had a literal physical fight. This is a little nitpicky cause it's hard to come up with examples on the fly, but I feel like his example is actually way more muddled than Alex's original use.

Equivocating the Bible

Alex O'Conner's point is that Jordan Peterson will take the Bible, which he calls a collection of books, and will the same justifications for different books. Specifically he's saying that JP will use the more obviously mythological parts of the Bible (God hovering over the waters) and will then use them to handwave away the much more historically minded parts of Exodus.
Alex specifically says that JP is "Not quite equivocating" because he isn't literally using the same term in two different meanings, but he is using the same defense to cover two extremely different parts of the Bible.
I would go further and say that Jordan Peterson is using the Motte-and-Bailey (An instance of the equivocation fallacy) with the Bailey being "The Bible is true" and the Motte being "The Bible is a mythological representation of Jungian truths"

He knows less about the technology than my grandmother. He said we should never use the word "troubleshooting" in work reports or emails even though 99% of our job is doing IT troubleshooting. he decided to put computers and hardware from the 80s and 90s in our display windows even though we run the latest technologies in IT.
Technicians quitting in droves. He then assigns configuration tasks to trainees who never got any training, which might cause the health sector to be disconnected from the internet.
He wants our emails to be without any technical terms that even a clueless person like him will understand.
he never bothered to replace any of the technicians who left with competent ones and expected the trainees to do the job of experts. he thinks VoIP is just an analog phone with an RJ45 plug. and a switch is just a distribution box.
I was hoping he would be fired but he will bring this company to bankruptcy