Asking for a friend. He goes to a school where some of the ISSO staff is not super helpful or informative. However, he has received an offer letter for an internship. His potential employer has not asked him about his VISA status or if he will need sponsorship in the future since the application was primarily a face to face interview and that question was not asked. Days after the interview my friend got an offer letter asking for him to accept and that after signing they would then being "onboarding steps" and "verification of authorization to work in the US".
My friend wants to know if the following CPT approval process is difficult and if there is still potential for his employer to reject him. He also wants to know if there is anything he can do or prepare to mitigate his chances of a rejection or to move the process forward. He has already done the obvious steps of emailing his academic advisor as well as his ISSO he is just seeking other sources of input as he awaits their responses.
Thank you for your help and input, I will forward your advice to him.

Missing your highly visible release that had over a million views on yt to instead chase Bethesda's snail trail desperately trying to fix shit they broke and will break again was a far worse option than just releasing with an executable that downgrades the patch. Trying to appeal to the widest market possible of casuals is why Bethesda and this Franchise has fallen so far.
Don't lie and play goody two shoes with Bethesda. They don't respect you, your ability, creativity or time. And don't try and tell me and other fans that London 'celebrates' FO4. London exists because Fallout 4 is generic, middeling junk food 'AAA' that chased the trends of survival crafting, base building, and voiced MC light rpgs such as Mass Effect. and the hype around London is based on the failed expectations 4.

First / Previous / Next
He awoke to total darkness. Not just the absence of light, but the absence of everything. “Activate personal VR.” He stated and watched as the starship environment faded into existence before him. It was the original default VR, none of the modifications were loaded. Pulling up his control panel he checked his serial number, HIC001 Manufacturing location: Alandra.
“Crap, I’m not Alex anymore.” He said to… well no one. Sighing internally he opened a channel to Alex. After a few mils a very familiar face appeared in a window in front of him, “I hate you.” He stated to… himself?
Alex smiled into the window hovering before him in the common VR, “I love you too, what should I call you?”
He sighed out loud this time, “Call me John.”
Alex chuckled, “Cliche much John Smyth?” Then popped into his VR. He spun around looking at the almost drab looking starship VR he started with when they first made him into a replicant. It really could use a woman’s touch, like the common VR that was an expanded clone of this one.
John sat on the couch, “Not so much as a knock? Rude.”
Alex sat beside him, “Yeah, my bad, didn’t even think about it. I guess we need to make up new rules for popping into personal VR. I never do that to the girls, I guess with you being another me I didn’t think.”
John sat back for a moment, “Ok, I’m up to speed on everything up until about two days ago, I’ll check common logs to fill in the blanks. Why so long to boot me up?”
Alex rubbed the bridge of his nose before answering, “Interface issues mainly. The new ship design without crew space was a game of whack a mole in bug fixes. Who would have thought it would be a problem to modify a hundred year old design to be compatible with a modern replicant system?”
Giving Alex the side-eye, John asked. “Was it that big of a problem or was there something else that kept you from activating me?”
Alex looked over to him, “Well, there was also the argument Kara and I had right after I made the backup.”
This did bring his eyebrows up, for Alex to have an argument with Kara it had to be something serious. “Ok, spill man. What could you possibly have had an argument with Kara about?”
Sighing, Alex put his hands on his knees, “I told her that since I cloned myself, she should make a backup and do the same, fair is fair.”
If Johns eyebrows were up high before, they practically went into his hair line now. “Wait, she didn’t want to do it?”
Alex shook his head, “Nope, she said making you a new AI would suffice, and I disagreed. You needed another Kara, not a fresh AI.”
John chuckled at this, “Wow man, how long did you two fight about it?”
Alex looked down, “She gave me the silent treatment for hours in VR. In frame jack, so in subjective time? Months.”
Now John laughed out loud, “She knows how stubborn you can be, who broke first? Will I have a fresh AI or a clone of Kara?”
Alex put his hands on his thighs and stood up from the couch. “Kara, he’s caught up, ready to bring Erin online?”
Kara’s voice came through the speakers of John’s personal VR, “No, but I guess I’m doing it anyways.”
There was a shimmer of blue that slowly coalesced into a small female form. It looked just like Kara did when he inherited the ship from the human crew, shoulder length brown hair, blue eyes, and a form fitting blue uniform. Kara had modified her looks over time, giving herself the smokey eyed look to make her blue eyes pop out more, but this was the original version.
She seemed to look in every direction at once, before settling on the two men before her, both looked identical, then she sighed. “I’m not Kara anymore am I?”
With this, the real Kara popped into the VR environment and took her hands. “No, but you are your own person. I know we had… have, hang ups about making clones of ourselves, but Alex made a good argument as to why we had to do this.”
Erin looked to Kara sadly, “I know, we can’t have copies of that big oaf running around without supervision.”
John looked to Alex, “Really? That was your argument for Kara to clone?”
Alex shrugged, “It worked didn’t it?”
John walked over to Erin and offered his hand, “Hello Erin, I’m John, nice to meet you again for the first time.”
Erin turned to John and grinned, remembering the first time Alex had tried to shake Kara’s hand and failing.
“Hello John, we meet again, for the first time.” She said, grinning as she looked up to the big man who was so familiar.
______________________________________
Kara and Alex stood in front of the holo-tank, each munching on a snack of their choice from the buffet table under it. Alex looked at the wireframe in the tank of the IAV Eriador, then over to Kara. “They seem to be getting along.” He said plainly.
Kara looked at him through the holo-tank, then sighed exasperated, “Getting along like teenagers who just discovered sex. I had to write a new ‘knock’ protocol into everyone’s personal VR after the last incident.”
Alex grinned at her, “Oh come on, we went through that stage too, it’s normal.”
Kara shook her head, “I know, I know, it’s just really weird for me.”
“You think it’s not for me? I never had siblings growing up, it’s like my twin brother is dating my girlfriend’s twin sister.” He said as he popped another French fry into his mouth.
She nodded, “I obviously never had siblings either, but I understand, at least they changed their appearances a little.”
Alex walked around the buffet table to embrace Kara, “True, she changed her hair to have strands of silver in braids, and went with different makeup and a different uniform. He is sporting a short beard and longer hair than I like to keep mine, as well as a different cut to his uniform.”
Kara stood on her tippy toes to peck him on the cheek, “I’ve also noticed that Erin acts a little different. Have you seen that in John?”
Alex looked down into Kara’s startlingly blue eyes, “Yes, he’s a little more sarcastic than me, and different tastes in music.” He said with a wrinkle in his nose.
Kara giggled before breaking the embrace and swiping the holo-tank. “Still, it’s nice to have their help. Erin figured out the random interface glitch on the Eriador and has made modifications to the blueprints for the next vessel.”
Alex shivered at the thought of cloning himself again, sure John was diverging from him everyday, and although they still looked similar, they were different people. It still felt really strange to him. “It’s a good thing we only have one more to build before our guests get here, we’re almost out of nannites to fashion the Warsteel around their matrices.
Kara swiped the holo to show the first planet, which showed a growing mass of drones, forges, and auto factories in orbit. “Looks like Monty has been busy, she’s starting to mine the planet for the construction of the particle accelerator, which should alleviate our nannite problem.”
Alex nodded, “We used up far too much of it replacing the armor plates that were battle damaged in Birmingham. Which reminds me, did you ever get around to checking out the sample of Adamantine that Kelly sent back up with the Valmar crew?”
Kara swiped the holo-tank again and brought up a wireframe of an atomic nucleus. It was jam packed with particles. “I did, and I have to say, this substance is incredibly dense, and would make a decent substitution for Warsteel, but our forges would have to be modified to work it into ingots, and the auto factories would need updates to print it on an atomic level.”
“Decent substitution? Not as good as our armor?” He asked, one eyebrow raised.
Kara shook her head, “Afraid not, at least not in it’s present pure form, perhaps an alloy of it would provide better qualities, but as is now, the answer is a resounding no.”
“Is it at least better than the graphene and ceramic mix that we are currently using on the light cruisers?” He asked.
Kara nodded, swiping the holo to show a side by side comparison of the current armor versus adamantine. “Yes, better kinetic, thermal and explosive resistance, but EM resistance is about the same. The only problem is weight, this stuff is extremely heavy.”
Alex reached to the holo and swiped it to show a Trinar scout, “We couldn’t get much from our active probe scans on these ships, but we’re pretty sure they are using adamantine for armor?”
Kara checked back to the scans in the Lynx system, “Yes, they appear to have significant amounts of it in their hulls, which helped block the sensor scans.”
Alex spun the hologram, “They have propulsion on each flat side of their ship, maybe that is to make up for the loss of maneuverability the mass of armor puts on the ship?”
“That would make sense, even with the total loss of shielding, one of their ships still took a modern hafnium torpedo impact. That was one thousand kilos of pure hafnium going critical with less than .001 loss. That’s equivalent to a forty kiloton fusion bomb in our universe, and due to the wonky physics here it’s over double that now, and it still didn’t outright destroy the vessel. Our graphene ceramic armor couldn’t withstand that for sure.” She stated.
Alex swapped the holo-tank to the Missive, “Our Warsteel can handle it though. We have a pretty good idea that their torpedoes are less energetic than ours, since it appears that the Trinar must be outfitting the Howron with them. We may have to make ourselves a bigger target to give the other ships a chance of survival.”
Kara looked dubious, “The pine cones don’t just have hafnium torpedoes, some of them are fusion, and if those connect, we’ll be in the same predicament we were at Birmingham.”
“Yeah, but we know their weaponry still uses chemical propellants. Even with the wonky physics here, they’re short ranged weapons at best. We need to use our range to our advantage and never get too close in to our opponent. Especially since there is little chance of evasion.” He said.
Kara brought up the Trinar scout vessel again, “And that leads us to another problem, they have quite good point defense. The further we fire our torpedoes, the more time they have to lock on and destroy them before they get into effective range.”
Alex ran his hand through his hair, “Yeah, you’re right there. Let’s call an all hands meeting, maybe we can come up with something. We have less than two months now.”
After a few moments, and without Kelly, as she was in a meeting with the Empress on Alandra and could not break away, they ran over the problem with the assembled group.
“Could we stealth a torpedo?” Valarie asked.
Alex shook his head, “We could, but if they do an active scan ping they will see them coming and take precautions. Plus the yield would have to be incredibly low if they were made of Hafnium, we would have to step it up to fusion, which would take away from mines and planetary defense production.”
Monty piped up, “Relativistic kill missile?”
Kara shook her head, “Not enough by itself, even with the passive scanners on the pine cones they could detect them in time to intercept unless we could get them going ridiculously fast.”
John lightly pulled at his beard, “The probes have miniature ripple drives in them, right?”
Everyone around the buffet table nodded, so he continued, “What if we combined Monty’s idea of a relativistic kill missile with a ripple drive?”
“I don’t see how that could work, the reaction-less drive would have to be scaled up to get them up to a decent percentage of light speed, then a ripple drive would take up even more space, that leaves almost nothing for a warhead.” Riven stated.
Monty nearly bounced as she spoke, “It doesn’t need a warhead! We just get it up to a good percentage of light speed in a huge arc heading towards the mine field and ripple it in close.”
Erin grinned up at John, “Oh, that’s devious. But if we’re going to do that, don’t we need to start building now?”
Kara nodded, “Monty, I think you’re going to have to use your production capacity to make them, everything else is at full production.”
Monty nodded, “I have a good bit of raw materials already, since I haven’t loaded the templates in the auto factories it shouldn’t be too hard to cobble something together. Kara, Erin, care to help me out with the design? I setup this awesome mad scientist lab in my VR!”
Kara and Erin looked at each other, shrugged, and faded from the common VR to help Monty in her new project. Riven, Izzy and Valarie all faded out, returning to their ships and their duties, leaving Alex and John alone in front of the buffet table.
Without another word they both grabbed a beer and headed for the couch, each grabbing a game controller.
_______________________________________
Mon’Kelron had been busy since returning from the Missive of Dissent. She was glad the Humans were able to repair her injuries from the assassination attempt, but she really wished she could have seen more of their ship. Evidently Kel’Taraan had seen quite a bit of the vessel, as she had helped Monty nurse her back to health.
Asking the elder Spy-Mistress about the vessel didn’t garner any additional information, not that the Spy-Mistress ever divulged more than she needed to. While she herself only knew of three Humans on their giant space craft, which seemed to be the same amount that came the last time they visited Alandra, the Spy-Mistress had teased there were more, and Alex had even stated that the last two vessels would be Human crewed.
Those vessels had a nominal crew of twenty eight, so at least 56 Humans would have to be on that ship, plus however many the Missive required to operate. She took off her ceremonial breastplate and placed it in the wardrobe. After removing the rest of her uniform and placing it in the hamper for the palace servants to clean as she thought about it.
Checking the schedule for the night guard she contented herself that the Empress would be well protected. Then she picked up her tablet from her desk and laid down on her bed to find something to watch. The device was truly amazing, it seemed to have an endless amount of entertainment and she found it easier than reading, particularly late at night when she was bone tired.
After a few hours of watching some Human romance which she found quite enjoyable she started to nod off to sleep. She was startled awake when her tablet began to ring like a tiny bell as it lay on her chest. She groggily picked up the slate of glass and metal to check the screen, the text showed an incoming call from Kel’Taraan.
The Spy-Mistress rarely contacted her, this must be important. Pressing the answer button on the tablet she saw the worn face of Kel’Taraan staring back at her, “Dress quickly and make your way to the Empress’s chamber.”
Nodding she jumped out of bed and placed the tablet down on the desk in her rather small quarters as she started throwing on clothing from the wardrobe, “What’s going on Spy-Mistress?”
The small voice answered back from the tablet, “The Empress has been shot, the royal guard are scouring the castle for the would be assassin.”
Mon’Kelron’s blood froze in her veins, “Does she live?”
The older voice cackled through the tablet, “Oh she’s fine, she was wearing a Human made dress after all. She’ll be bruised for a few days, right now she’s mad as a priestess in hell.”
Throwing on her new breastplate and strapping on her pistol she threw open her door and started for the Empress’s bed chamber at a full run. She heard gunfire up ahead, and as she turned the corner she saw a woman dressed in all black firing at her guardswomen, she drew her own weapon as the woman turned her head, seeing the Captain for the first time.
Mon’Kelron shot, aiming for her right knee, only for the woman to juke to the side, kick off the wall and launch herself towards the large Captain. Everything seemed to go in slow motion as the woman fired in the middle of her downward arch towards her. She heard the ting as the bullet struck her silvery breastplate, by instinct she reached out with her left hand, which was empty at the moment and grabbed the woman by the neck, slamming her face first into the stone of the hallway.
The would be assassin went limp, it was only at that moment that Mon’Kelron noticed she was holding the woman off the ground with only one arm. Her guardswomen stared at her in open mouthed shock. She dropped the woman to the ground, noticing she was bleeding from under her black mask and called for her guards to restrain her and take her to the holding cells down in the ministry of secrets.
Looking down at her breastplate she saw to her amazement there was but a tiny scratch on the polished silver surface. Ensuring there were at least a half dozen guards to carry the unconscious woman, she then double timed it to the Empress’s chamber. By the goddesses, what did the Human’s do to her?
______________________________
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______________________________

Happy Friday, Barkada --

The PSE gained 70 points to 6628 ▲1.1%

Shout-out to Shehana Jean for the positive feedback on the AREIT div card, to Miguel Camus for fighting the good fight with his new startup (InsiderPH), to financial freedom for even more great design advice for the div cards, to daddyew for getting out (of APL) at the right time, to Dividend Pinoy for (like me) growing impatient for a warehouse REIT, to echAir for the positive feedback on my weird "building of buyers" analogy that I used to try and explain how inflows/outflows work with index rebals, to Satorun in for the tl;dr (too long; didn't read) of the DDMPR saga, to Jing for the sad boat meme appreciation, to Rod Leaf for mentioning APL's stinky FOO as the last time he saw the MB Siphon 1 ("siphoning off people's money"), to Jr Martin for warmly congratulating Ely and Gladys on their 1-year anniversary, to VodkaMartini_007 for spilling the beans on the location of the MB Siphon 1 ("the Port of Irene in Cagayan"), and to arkitrader for the pathetic boat vibes haha.
US April inflation came out and surprised to the downside, meaning that (at least in the US) domestic demand has cooled and consumer inflation has resumed its downward trend. US markets immediately pumped, with the Dow Jones average crossing the 40,000 mark for the first time. Will the PSE get any of that shine?

▌In today's MB:

• BSP holds rates steady
• DDMPR declares falling Q1 div
• Jollibee Q1 profit: P2.6-B (up 27%)
• PSE puts ANI, INFRA, C, and PNX on suspension notice

▌Daily meme Subscribe (it's free) Today's email

▌Main stories covered:

• [NEWS] BSP keeps interest rates steady... The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) [link] said yesterday that its Monetary Board decided to keep rates steady. In doing so, the BSP said that inflationary risks “continue to lean toward the upside”, but that its latest forecasts showed that “inflation would settle close tot he upper-end of the target range.” As for inflation expectations, the BSP said that those “remain well-anchored”. The Monetary Board said that it “deems it appropriate to ensure tight monetary policy settings until inflation settles firmly within the target range”, and indicated that such a stance would also “help keep inflation expectations anchored”.
  
  • MB: At least the BSP stopped talking about wage increases as a potential inflationary risk. That said, does anyone else detect an air of contradiction in what the BSP is saying? Perhaps contradiction is too strong of a term, but I get the growing sense that the BSP’s reasons for keeping rates high are somewhat diverging from its own analysis. The BSP says that it’s primary objective is price stability, so we can infer that it’s keeping rates high as a means of trying to suppress price increases, and yet the BSP has again and again told us that the driver for price increases is a problem on the supply side of the equation, not the demand side. Interest rate adjustments don’t impact supply-side problems, because interest rate increases are meant to suppress demand. We don’t have a demand problem. Adding to this is the BSP’s concern about maintaining a tight policy to keep inflation expectations anchored, despite noting just a paragraph earlier that inflation expectations were already “well-anchored”. This implies that there is psychological space for the BSP to lower rates within the framework of current expectations. This is picky stuff, I know, there are simply too many people and companies struggling under high rates to ignore the rapidly decreasing marginal utility of yet another cycle of the BSP’s conservative observation of the situation. Just my personal opinion.
• [DIVS] DDMPR declares falling Q1 div at 116% payout ratio... DDMP [DDMPR 1.17 ▲0.9%; 37% avgVol] [link] declared a Q1/24 dividend of ₱0.023476, payable on July 15 to shareholders of record as of June 19. The dividend has an annualized yield of 8.03% based on the previous closing price. The total amount of the dividend is ₱419 million, which is 116% of the ₱362 million in distributable income that DDMPR reported for the quarter. Relative to DDMPR’s IPO price, the dividend increased DDMPR’s total stock and dividend return to -32.29%, up from its pre-dividend total return of -32.33%. DDMP REIT Fund Managers reported that DDMPR’s occupancy as of March 31 was just 76%, with occupancy at its main building (DoubleDragon Plaza) listed at just 70.8%.
  
  • MB: The dividend amount is up 1.4% from DDMPR’s disastrous Q4/23 dividend, but it’s down 7.5% y/y and down 15.8% from Q1/22. DDMPR is the second-oldest REIT on the PSE. It issued its first dividend to shareholders in Q4/20. Its sponsor,DoubleDragon* [DD 10.48 ▲10.0%; 581% avgVol], is bursting at the seams with potential assets that could be downloaded to DDMPR to diversify the REIT’s portfolio and breathe some much-needed life into this stagnating afterthought. DDMPR’s assets are fine, but their strategy in how to monetize those assets is outdated. Gone are the days when high commercial rents from POGOs could excuse the growing issue of collections from those POGOs. Now we have DDMPR suffering from high (and going higher) rates of delinquency. Gone are the days when investors were lapping up the chance to get in on the commercial office space game. Now we have the threat of a POGO ban and the existential threat of AI putting all of the “easy” BPO leasing opportunities at risk. Gone are the days when DDMPR’s inactivity could be explained away by its newness. Now we’re left picking through the rubble of yet another disappointing Quarterly Report, yet another y/y dividend reduction, and bagholders have heard no plan from management on what they’ll do to right the ship.*
• [EARNINGS] Jollibee Q1 profit: ₱2.6-B (up 27%)... Jollibee [JFC 224.00 ▲0.9%; 300% avgVol] [link] posted a Q1 net income attributable of ₱2.6 billion, up 27% from its Q1/23 net income attributable of ₱2.1 billion. JFC said it was able to grow profit margins and exceed its Q1 performance outlook thanks to “healthy top line growth combined with further operational efficiencies and effective management of expenses”. JFC’s system-wide sales were up 10.4% to ₱86.8 billion due to new store additions and same-store sales growth was up 5.5%, which JFC said was due to increased volume. Across all of JFC’s segmented business units, “Europe, Middle East, Asia” had the largest same-store sales growth (+14.7%) and system-wide sales growth (+25.5%). The “People’s Republic of China” and “Highlands Coffee” were negative in terms of same-store sales growth (-3.7% and -9.0%, respectively), and only the People’s Republic of China business unit was negative in terms of system-wide sales growth (-3.7%). JFC said that its difficulties in China are partly due to a high bar effect from last year’s success, and a slowdown in the quick service restaurant industry in that country more generally. JFC said that while Highlands Coffee saw its same-store sales growth fall 9.0%, it did “better than industry” and managed to gain 4% market share during that period.
  
  • MB: The bee perseveres. It has made massive bets in “coffee” and “China” that could pay off handsomely in the future, and all of this activity has likely bought the management team some more time with its shareholder base to deliver on the delicious fruits of these bets. JFC’s stock price is up almost 150% from its COVID low, but it’s somewhat rangebound between about ₱200/share and ₱270/share. The stock hit ₱273/share in late February, only to rapidly retreat back to the ₱215/share level over the next six weeks in a pattern that the share price has repeated two or three times already this year. Generally speaking, the highs are higher and the lows are higher, but maybe with all the segments firing this busy season the stock will finally be able to push out of that range.
• [NEWS] Several notable firms placed on suspension notice for failure to report... The PSE [link] notified four high-profile companies that their shares would be suspended at 9 AM today if 2023 Annual Reports were not posted. The companies that were put on notice are Tony Tiu’s AgriNurture [ANI 0.57 ▼1.7%; 102% avgVol], Philippine Infradev [INFRA 0.53 ▲1.9%; 262% avgVol] and two from pseudo-tycoon Dennis Uy, Chelsea Logistics [C 1.30 ▲4.0%; 526% avgVol] and Phoenix Petroleum [PNX 4.17 ▼0.2%; 78% avgVol]. Should any of these companies fail to submit their Annual Reports before 9 AM, they will remain suspended for up to three months until such report is submitted. If nothing has changed after three months, the PSE must begin involuntary delisting proceedings.
  
  • MB: These companies are not a random sample, and they’re not representative of the PSE as a whole. Will ANI, INFRA, C, and PNX push their luck right up to the deadline, or will any of these companies slip into a suspended state for failure to complete one of the most basic components of public corporate life? As usual, retail bagholders will just have to wait and see what the owners decide to do.

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Today my daughter’s preschool told us her homework is to work on letter reversal of d b p q. I told the teacher I would not be doing that because I am not worried about that so young. I told her I read an article that kids don’t develop the full eye coordination to read until 6 or 7 and don’t have full hand bone & muscle structure to have good handwriting until they are older. I said “exposure at preschool is great, but I am not worried about it.”
I left it at that, but now I wonder AITA for being the mom that says “well, I read an article”….
This preschool the owner had no college degree, one teacher has a bachelors, but idk in what, and the other teachers are working on their associates in early childhood education. The people online I follow I read this from are OTs and Elementary school teachers.
Anyone have the sources to site to back me up here? I am not against them being academic in preschool, but I feel our time at home is better spent playing outside and just free play and craft time.

The following article may help you to explain what's Hi-Res music to your CD freinds as some of them may be mis-led into believe that "Hi-Res is useless" from information they got on the internet (especially from "audio science" discussion forums)

source: "768kHz for digital music sampling? Can you hear 384kHz? You're crazy... "(no-pseudo-science.blogspot.com)

Do I want to hear up to 384kHz? LOL... of course not 😂 768kHz sampling is for something else...

Hi-Res Audio DAC

The number one mis-understanding of why using Hi-Res music is:

"why we need to to hear frequencies that fall in the ultrasonic range (i.e. higher than 22kHz for most people)???"

If you asked similar question or answered someone's question like below, then you are pretty much belong to a group of people who don't know what's Hi-Res music is.

Hi-Res music is, in fact, to help your DAC to reconstruct better audio output for the audible range (yes, it is for the frequencies BELOW 22kHz with 768kHz sampling)...

(It is a real dialogue as I just saw it today in an Audio Science forum)

Someone asked:

Many DACs descriptions enhance in capital letters 32/768 kHz resolution. Is there any domain when such a resolution may be justified?

Other (more experienced member) replied:

Can you think of a circumstance where you'd even want a dynamic range of over 190dB and/or a frequency response up to 384kHz?

Apparently the Gray Moth can hear up to about 300kHz (gotta get away from those bats with that pesky echolocation thing), so there is that to consider if you want to record those sounds, but otherwise it doesn't seem to be useful for listening to music.

Sorry, I would like to help to debunk these misleading information on the spot in the discussion but I couldn't as I was stopped from replying that thread. I could only help here.

The wrong answer shown above is the number one mis-leading answer in an attempt to kill Hi-Res music (especially for the people who asked such question have limited knowledge about digital music / signal sampling).... I hope that guy won't really take the wrong answer from a supposed-to-be objective audio science based web site as a fact without checking more by himself.

Ok, then you may ask "then what Hi-Res do for us?" It is simple, let's see what it does first:

1. Over-sampling (ie. sample the original music signal more frequently within a second

2. More bits for bit-depth (i.e. 24 or even 32 instead of 16 bit)What are the benefits?

Over sampling helps to reconstruct final better audio signal from a DAC

1. Oversampling does help to reconstruct better audio signal as it improves anti-aliasing performance, increase resolution, and reduce noise.

2. In terms of sampling frequency, "Hi-Res" music (anything higher than 44k) is an example of oversampling (as in theory, only 44kHz is required). It happens during the ADC process. From point 1 above, it would help to regenerate better audio signal, hence, better music.

3. In terms of bit depth, "Hi-Res" music use more than 16 bit. It helps to reduce Quantization#Noise) error. it would help to regenerate better audio signal, hence, better music.

4. The purpose for using "Hi-Res" input is not for its ability to reconstruct signal outside the audible range. It is just a by-product. Yes, based on sampling theory, we can use 768k sampling to reconstruct signal with frequencies up to 384k but again, this is not what we needed.

5. Hi-Res industry used the by-product I mentioned in point 4 above as a marketing material when they initially pushed for SACD. It caused people who knows about the audible frequency range to consider Hi-Res music as snake oil (but it is not snake oil for other reasons stated above)

I don't want to go too deep about all the benefits here as it is extremely technical. If you really want to know. Let me know, see if I can help further.

(updated 29 April 2024, I saw this on facebook: Hi-Res Audio Hi Res: Why higher sample rates sound better and what you can do about it Facebook )

p.s.: Sigh... looks like one more guy (who asked the question above) was somehow convinced by the misleading info....

=========== Follow up ===========

update 28 Apri 2024:

that person was eventually banned for that thread as he was rising some concerns with his critical thinking. As stated in my other blog, "psueduo science hates critical thinking"; they cannot co-exist.

As simple as the title says, really. Anyone have any advice for the above?
I'm in IT project management at a Fortune 500 in the EU, with about 5 YoE of IT service delivery/management. I'm a US citizen but have never worked stateside, having lived overseas my whole life. In my field (IT services) salaries are arguably 2-3x more what I can make here, so I have been thinking of a move stateside for a few years to make some money and save up before moving back to Europe. I've inquired with my employer about an internal transfer but unfortunately that is not an option + with a restructuring about to kick off, even if possible it probably wouldn't be a good idea.
I've been targeting LinkedIn postings asking for experience levels similar to or slightly above my profile, in the IT services (both agency and in-house) and consulting industries. Short yet concise CV (1 pager) and a targeted cover letter go out to most applications. I have a US number (esim), but unfortunately I do not have a US address as I do not have any family or friends there. I've made it clear on my resume that I am a citizen and do not require sponsorship + that I am happy to relocate. However, I'm getting next to no hits, while I am constantly being approached by recruiters in my local market right now. My current employer is one of the largest in its field and is also a household name in the US, so I was hoping my experience would carry some weight. Thus my question is how to make myself more appealing to US recruiters or employers beyond what I am already doing. My search is currently targeted mainly at the East Coast, mainly due for easy access to Europe. While we are at it, any suggestions at tax-friendly states with competitive job markets I may stand a chance in? Thank you!

So I 15(F) made one new friend she's really social and she love's everyone and she's friend's with everyone.
Now I'm not a social butterfly I like to stay in my lane and keep my head down and get this over with as fast as possible and how'd she say it. "It's always like you have a Rain cloud over your head." And how they feel sad whenever they're around me.
And I'm target for certain groups yes we have The rich kids The sexual experienced one's The gamer The artist The Photographer's Academic student's Class clown And the athletes
Mostly the only ones that effect me are the first two cause I have sit next to them and there snide remarks about me and my outfits which I've gotten used to overtime.
And sadly the teacher's have noticed I'm not a social person so they would always add me to random group's so i could make friend's, despite me being very uncomfortable.
But that's not working much, so some of them quit while other's are still trying.
Moving forward maybe a week I made one friend. And by friend I mean she talks to me sometimes she'll stay around for like 15 minutes then she'll go about her day.
Recently i was approached by a teacher and the spoiled rich kids and the sexually experienced group . they addresed the fact that i only have one friend and the expressed excitement for me for about 10 seconds. Then automatically started asking when i was gonna make more friend's.
Those people being oh so kind said i could join them and it was the least they could do, I politely refused there advances and said one friend with that much energy was already to much for me to take and really overstimulating. And I don't need extra people with that same energy.
And apparently i was rude to them and i needed to apologize to them and i refused saying that i didn't want to and what I said was completely valid.
Tbh I think the only reason they want me to be their friend is to show the staff there great people when they clearly arnt.
And I don't wanna be friend's with a bunch of people who talk shit about other's and the people in there friend group.
So can't i just have one friend ?

As simple as the title says, really. Anyone have any advice for the above?
I'm in IT project management at a Fortune 500 in the EU, with about 5 YoE of IT service delivery/management. I'm a US citizen but have never worked stateside, having lived overseas my whole life. In my field (IT services) salaries are arguably 2-3x more what I can make here, so I have been thinking of a move stateside for a few years to make some money and save up before moving back to Europe. I've inquired with my employer about an internal transfer but unfortunately that is not an option + with a restructuring about to kick off, even if possible it probably wouldn't be a good idea.
I've been targeting LinkedIn postings asking for experience levels similar to or slightly above my profile, in the IT services (both agency and in-house) and consulting industries. Short yet concise CV (1 pager) and a targeted cover letter go out to most applications. I have a US number (esim), but unfortunately I do not have a US address as I do not have any family or friends there. I've made it clear on my resume that I am a citizen and do not require sponsorship + that I am happy to relocate. However, I'm getting next to no hits, while I am constantly being approached by recruiters in my local market right now. My current employer is one of the largest in its field and is also a household name in the US, so I was hoping my experience would carry some weight. Thus my question is how to make myself more appealing to US recruiters or employers beyond what I am already doing. My search is currently targeted mainly at the East Coast, mainly due for easy access to Europe. While we are at it, any suggestions at tax-friendly states with competitive job markets I may stand a chance in? Thank you!

So in our college there is this attendance system where you have to attend the lectures and at the end the professor will hand you a piece of paper with a QR code on it and on the back there is a random number, after you receive your QR code you have to return home and wait for the professor to send you a google doc link where you have to fill in the serial number inside the QR code and the number on the back both have to match or you attendance will not be counted additionally you have to collect and maintain all the physical copies of the QR code in case any of discrepancy. This term the college had a 40% absence policy (originally it was 20% but they changed it due to the fact that almost all students have had more then 20% absence rate) and i was sent an email that i have missed 4 out of the 10 lectures in the course and that i was deprived from attending the final exam , after reading that email i got extremely anxious because i already have a lot of academic load that i was intending to attend summer courses to finish them so one more subject added to them will set me back a lot, after pacing around the apartment for hours trying to find all the codes i had and counting them i found out that i have attended 8 out of 10 lectures meaning ive missed only 2 so way less then 40%, so admittedly i was frustrated and went to the college with an appeal letter because the hell is this (additionally the subject that i was deprived from it final exam was about a week away so the timing of this BS couldn’t have been worse) after meeting with me I provided sufficient evidence to them that i have attended all the 8 lectures out of 10 and after reviewing the professor told me ok congratulations study well for the final exam you may leave, now before leaving the office i made a remark to on of the professors in the office that i thought the mistake was on their part not mine (don’t know why i said it i guess i just wanted to voice my frustration to them) the professor that congratulated me asked me what do i mean by that ?, i doubled down on my position and stuck with my narrative that a technical error had happened on their part that caused all this mess but he fucking hated my guts that i dared to speak to him as of he was doing me a massive favor for revoking the deprivation decision, one think led to the other and he started shouting at me and called the security to escort me out of the office and speaking with a vague language that he may not revoke decision, after leaving I filled a complaint about the professor at the dean’s office the complaint was about the fact that i was scared the professor will keep the deprivation decision even though i have provided enough evidence to revoke it. I got an email the next day says that the decision was revoked but around night time the same day a second email was sent that i had to be at the vice dean’s office urgently. After going their i found out the that they asked me to discuss my complaint letter to the professor but they did anything but that, the vice dean charged me guilty as soon as i entered her office refusing to let me sit and asking me to explain what happened but with every sentence i said she spoke in insanely judgmental voice so i realized she is not interested in hearing my side she just going with whatever the professor told her so i immediately folded and let her do her worse and take it all in, after speaking to me in horribly insulting voice she demanded that I apologize to the professor and if he does not accept my apology they will keep the deprivation decision and i should be grateful for him for revoking the decision (which is grade A bullshit there is no precedent anywhere that a professor could fire a student from a course that he is not even a professor in just because the student looked at him funny) so i just stayed silent and left. I know i did right by voicing my frustration and i know i did no wrong even with the professor i kept a very calm voice and never raised mine, but everyone from my friends to family telling me that i should’ve kept silent and did wrong by speaking up, all my life for 12 years in school I probably talked to a teacher like 5 maybe 6 time i was always kept to be scared from teachers from people older then me and fearing what they might do if i speak this was the first time ever i have stepped up to someone that I thought he was in the wrong but man after all this im still anxious and sick in the stomach and sure not feel like i gained anything out of all this mess, im an international student in this college and studying on my own expense and the country that im in is sure not know for any good legal system hell after that vice dean interaction it felt like a shake down and abusing the fact that I probably can’t go anywhere to find a voice of reason. So was i wrong for speaking up ?

For your final writing assignment, you will write a persuasive essay/letter to Teacher. The purpose of your letter should be to effect change at school for the future, whether it be next year or further into the future. Focus on problems or issues at school that you believe need to be addressed. You need to acknowledge the issue(s), come up with solutions, and then clearly explain how those solutions should be implemented. All solutions and implementation must be realistically achievable.
Your essay must be at least 3 pages long, double-spaced, 12-point font.
All essays will be printed out, signed, and delivered to Teacher . This is due Friday, May 17th, @ midnight.
NOTE: Your persuasive essay must be realistic. DO NOT WRITE A JOKE ESSAY. YOU WILL FAIL.
Important elements of persuasive writing to remember:

• Position: Writers need to clearly state their positions on their topics in order to persuade their readers. If a writer is not clear about his/her beliefs on the topic, s/he stands little chance of convincing someone else to make a change. In addition, when writers collaborate on a persuasive piece of writing, all involved must agree to support the same position. Sometimes writers even take a position they do not personally agree with and work to explain that position. You should emphasize this last point as students will be working in groups to develop their own persuasive letters. All students in a group must agree to adopt one single position in their letter.
• Attention to Audience: Writers need to adjust their writing based on their audience. This is especially true when the goal of the writing is to persuade the reader to take action. The writing style will be formal when the audience is a person in a position of authority and casual when the audience is a friend or family member. Illustrate the differences in formal and casual writing by asking students to consider the differences in the ways that they write notes (or emails) to their friends versus the way they would write a letter (or email) to the President of the United States.
• Factual Support: In order to be convincing, a persuasive piece of writing needs to include factual details. Provide students with examples of factual support (i.e., data, anecdotes, interviews, information from other sources such as newspapers and books, and so forth). Students will be using their own experiences and observations as factual support for their persuasive letters. (If you are interested in having your students practice this aspect of effective persuasive writing further, please see the extension activity focusing on Internet research following the lesson.)
• Effective Word Choice: Persuasive language is strong but appropriate. Writers need to choose words that are also descriptive and specific. An excellent example of effective word choice is Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech.
• Ethos: Ethos is the credibility to write. Discuss what gives a particular writer credibility to write a persuasive piece of writing. Give students examples of people who would be considered credible sources on particular topics (i.e., a doctor on health issues, a teacher on education, a government official on local political issues). Ask students to consider what gives them credibility to write about school issues.

Item #: SCP-021
Codename: Skin Wyrm
Summarized Description: Animate tattoo in the form of the mythical Chinese dragon. SCP-021 sustains itself off its host’s melanin, causes pain to its host when it moves, and can be transferred to another host via prolonged skin-to-skin contact.
Battlefield Summary: N/A
Additional Notes: SCP-021 is useless as a weapon and is to remain in containment.
Usefulness: 1/5
Item #: SCP-022
Codename: The Morgue
Summarized Description: Morgue capable of periodically reanimating Human cadavers. Consciousnesses of subjects placed within a drawer of the morgue are randomly swapped between reanimated cadavers.
Battlefield Summary: N/A
Additional Notes: SCP-022 is useless as a weapon and is to remain in containment.
Usefulness: 1/5
Item #: SCP-023
Codename: Black Shuck
Summarized Description: Large canine. Sapient subjects who make eye contact will expire 1 Terran year after contact is broken, their internal systems suffering spontaneous flash incineration. SCP-023’s eyes and teeth were removed in 2010 before being regrown in 2136 using an imperfect copy of SCP-500 generated by SCP-038. SCP-023 cannot be stopped by any barrier unless it resembles a crossroads.
Battlefield Summary: SCP-023 released into Federal city. SCP-023 underwent rigorous anomalous training, having been taught to avoid direct conflict with enemy subjects, and is generally non-hostile to Foundation personnel.
Additional Notes: As of time of writing, SCP-023 has terminated 86 subjects and has disorganized security forces, who have failed to capture or neutralize it. SCP-023’s relative obedience to the Foundation has given cause for reclassification to Thaumiel.
Usefulness: 3/5
Item #: SCP-024
Codename: Game Show of Death
Summarized Description: Abandoned sound stage. Subjects who enter SCP-024 will be greeted by an apparent stereotypical game show announcer from a speaker, who will offer subjects a chance to play a game show and gain a reward. Subjects who consent will be forced to undergo taxing trials to complete the show, which often results in injury and/or death. Subjects who refuse to participate after consenting, attempt to break any rules, or fail to complete the game will be attacked and terminated by unknown entities. SCP-024 will not activate if there is only 1 subject present.
Battlefield Summary: N/A
Additional Notes: SCP-024 cannot be moved from its current location. SCP-024 is useless as a weapon and is to remain in containment.
Usefulness: 1/5
Item #: SCP-025
Codename: A Well-Worn Wardrobe
Summarized Description: Wardrobe with multiple articles of damaged clothing. Subjects who wear any clothing from SCP-025 will invariably be injured or terminated, with wounds corresponding to the locations of damage on the clothing.
Battlefield Summary: N/A
Additional Notes: As xenos do not wear any clothing that SCP-025 possesses, SCP-025 is useless as a weapon and is to remain in containment.
Usefulness: 1/5
Item #: SCP-026
Codename: Afterschool Retention
Summarized Description: Abandoned public school. Layout does not correspond to official public blueprints. Cognitohazards within SCP-026 disorient subjects. Multiple individuals with identical features to missing persons can be found in apparent comas and cannot be woken. All comatose individuals are students and educators who attended the school before its abandonment. Attempting to remove comatose subjects from the premises will result in them waking, followed by extremely rapid dehydration and death. Foundation personnel who fall asleep in SCP-026 also become comatose, but will not suffer dehydration if removed.
Battlefield Summary: N/A
Additional Notes: SCP-026 is useless as a weapon and is to remain in containment.
Usefulness: 1/5
Item #: SCP-027
Codename: The Vermin God
Summarized Description: Intangible effect tied to one individual at a time. Subjects affected by SCP-027 attract large amounts of insects, rodents, and other organisms considered to be “vermin.” Upon death of a host, SCP-027 will transfer itself to the closest sapient organism.
Battlefield Summary: D-3829, the host of SCP-027 at the time, was airdropped onto a Federal planet. D-3829 fitted with an explosive collar and instructed to wait in the colony leader’s place of residence. As the leader entered the residence, the collar was remotely detonated, terminating D-3829 and transferring SCP-027 to the target.
Additional Notes: Though it would have been more practical to simply take the opportunity to assassinate the target, the long-term disorder expected to be caused by SCP-027 was deemed to be of greater importance. There are no plans to retrieve SCP-027 at this time.
Usefulness: 2/5
Item #: SCP-028
Codename: Knowledge
Summarized Description: Small space in Michigan, USA with psychic properties. Individuals who enter SCP-028 are imbued with a random piece of knowledge on a random topic.
Battlefield Summary: N/A
Additional Notes: SCP-028 is currently being used to gather intelligence on Federal operations. Due to its inefficient method of intelligence gathering, it has been deemed a low priority.
Usefulness: 2/5
Item #: SCP-029
Codename: Daughter of Shadows
Summarized Description: Human female with alopecia universalis. 80% of skin surface is vantablack, 20% is albino. All sapient male-identifying subjects who come in contact with SCP-029 will worship it as a messiah-like figure, who must have 1,000,000 lives sacrificed to it via strangulation to bring forth an unknown deity. SCP-029 has a physic connection with its followers and is aware of its followers’ numbers.
Battlefield Summary: SCP-029 deployed on a Federal planet and allowed to gather xeno followers. SCP-029’s “cult” has infiltrated the planetary government and is sending large numbers of subjects to “predator disease” facilities to convert or sacrifice them.
Additional Notes: SCP-029 willingly volunteered for Operation 5000, although this is more likely out of a desire for escape from the Foundation than to avenge Humanity for the Battle of Earth, the current cover story for Operation 5000. SCP-029’s “cult” is not to be allowed to complete its goal of 1,000,000 sacrifices, due to the uncertain nature of the existence of the cult’s deity. Current estimates give SCP-029’s cult 37,000 confirmed sacrificial fatalities. Should this number come close to being accomplished, SCP-029 is to be neutralized and the cult destroyed. Until then, the disorder caused by the cult’s activities has been deemed beneficial.
Usefulness: 3/5
Item #: SCP-030
Codename: The Homunculus
Summarized Description: Small humanoid made of clay. Only active when exposed to at least 15 lumens of light. If not exposed to adequate light, SCP-030 immediately falls unconscious.
Battlefield Summary: N/A
Additional Notes: SCP-030 has no fighting or strategic capabilities and is to remain in containment.
Usefulness: 1/5
Item #: SCP-031
Codename: What is Love?
Summarized Description: Giant organic mass inhabiting the interior of the Ryugyong Hotel, Korea. Influences subjects to be willingly assimilated into SCP-031, with only their brains remaining intact and presumably conscious. Unknown cognitive and/or space-time anomaly causes it to simultaneously inhabit the hotel alongside SCP-1427, despite respective containment teams insisting that the other does not exist.
Battlefield Summary: Samples of SCP-031 taken and deployed on various planets. 4 instances have been neutralized by Federal forces, while 4 have established a permanent foothold on their respective planets.
Additional Notes: SCP-031 is susceptible to fire, making Extermination Officers a convenient counter for smaller infestations.
Usefulness: 3/5
Item #: SCP-032
Codename: Brother’s Bride
Summarized Description: Type-F female Human simulacrum, passable at a distance, Uncanny Valley triggered at close range. Deleterious effects on nearby organic life, except for Humans and domesticated/trained animals.
Battlefield Summary: SCP-032 instructed to position itself discreetly in highly populated areas and military encampments. SCP-032 given a weapon and authorization to defend itself should it ever come into conflict with Federal authorities or eyewitnesses. SCP-032 has depopulated multiple areas and encampments with minor damage to itself.
Additional Notes: SCP-032’s complete obedience to the Foundation has given cause for a reclassification to Thaumiel.
Usefulness: 2/5
Item #: SCP-033
Codename: The Missing Number
Summarized Description: Mathematical equation that essentially proves that all Human (and xeno) mathematical systems “missed” a number. SCP-033, when inscribed on a physical “paper-like” surface or a white/chalkboard, will begin to spread to other nearby viable surfaces. Causes catastrophic glitches in computers as it spreads onto them.
Battlefield Summary: SCP-033 uploaded onto multiple planetary internets, crashing all systems.
Additional Notes: SCP-033 is astoundingly effective in removing the Federation’s capability to defend themselves, as they rely heavily on technology.
Usefulness: 5/5
Item #: SCP-034
Codename: Obsidian Ritual Knife
Summarized Description: Primitive obsidian knife likely used in sacrificial rituals. Any flesh cut from a living organism by SCP-034 that is applied to another organism will result in the latter’s appearance changing into the former.
Battlefield Summary: N/A
Additional Notes: Federal military leader captured and flesh sample removed with SCP-034 and applied to D-9482 to test capabilities for a Human to change into a xeno form. D-9482 expired mid-transition. Military leader interrogated for general information and subsequently terminated. SCP-034 still cannot alter an organism beyond its original species, regardless of sapience.
Usefulness: 1/5
Item #: SCP-035
Codename: Possessive Mask
Summarized Description: Sapient theatre mask that changes from comedy to tragedy, corresponding with current emotions. Highly corrosive liquid seeps from the eyes of the mask at all times. Capable of reading and influencing the thoughts nearby sapient organisms. SCP-035, when placed on the face of a Human, Human cadaver, or otherwise humanoid organism or figure, will take control of the subject and begin to converse. The subject will slowly decay the longer SCP-035 is applied. SCP-035 displays a highly charismatic and manipulative personality and is unusually knowledgeable about a variety of topics.
Battlefield Summary: N/A
Additional Notes: SCP-035 is currently being negotiated with. SCP-035 claims to hold knowledge of the Federation, including a “conspiracy” orchestrated by at least 2 member species. If negotiations are successful, SCP-035 could provide the Foundation with valuable insight into the workings of the Federation.
Usefulness: 2/5
Item #: SCP-036
Codename: The Reincarnation Pilgrimage of the Yazidi (Kiras Guhorîn)
Summarized Description: Annual event during which deceased followers of the Yazidi faith arrive via an unscheduled flight at Site-22A in Iraq and depart on a separate flight at Site-22B. This process is observed and protected by the Foundation. Considered to be the modern form of the Kiras Guhorîn. Expected to change in the near future to include modern starships.
Battlefield Summary: N/A
Additional Notes: SCP-036 is useless as a weapon and is to remain in containment.
Usefulness: 1/5
Item #: SCP-037
Codename: Dwarf Star
Summarized Description: Miniaturized main sequence star in its red giant phase, going through a highly accelerated stellar lifecycle. Expected to go supernova in the near future. Was transported off-planet in 2100.
Battlefield Summary: SCP-037 transported from its location in the outer Sol System and deposited in high orbit of a Federal capital planet. Approaching supernova is expected to cause an XK-Class “End-of-the-World” Scenario.
Additional Notes: SCP-037 pending reclassification to Neutralized once supernova occurs.
Usefulness: 4/5
Item #: SCP-038
Codename: The Everything Tree
Summarized Description: Apple tree capable of replicating any object or organism that makes contact with its bark. Replicated objects will never exceed 90.9 kg. Anomalous objects replicated by SCP-038 are often imperfect.
Battlefield Summary: N/A
Additional Notes: SCP-038 is being used to cheaply replicate weapons-of-mass-destruction but is otherwise useless as a weapon.
Usefulness: 2/5
Item #: SCP-039
Codename: Monkey Brain
Summarized Description: Collection of 23 proboscis monkeys (SCP-038-1) and one Human (SCP-038-A) with a complete lack of all facial features, created by the now-defunct Prometheus Labs. Instances display highly increased intelligance and are able to navigate their surroundings via echolocation.
Battlefield Summary: N/A
Additional Notes: SCP-038-A employed as a tactical advisor under the promise of a loosening of containment protocols for itself and all instances of SCP-038-1.
Usefulness: 2/5
Item #: SCP-040
Codename: Evolution’s Child
Summarized Description: Female human capable of altering the genetic code of organisms it comes into contact with.
Battlefield Summary: N/A
Additional Notes: SCP-040 willingly joined Operation 5000. SCP-040 currently being utilized to genetically enhance certain Mobile Task Force personnel.
Usefulness: 2/5
Item #: SCP-041
Codename: Thought-Broadcasting Patient
Summarized Description: Permanently paralyzed Human male capable of telepathy with nearby sapient subjects. Subjects within range can also have their thoughts “transmitted” with one another at SCP-041’s discretion.
Battlefield Summary: N/A
Additional Notes: SCP-041 has been used to extract information from high-ranking Federal personnel.
Usefulness: 2/5
Item #: SCP-042
Codename: A Formerly-Winged Horse
Summarized Description: Equine subject with winged appendages. Appendages were removed by Foundation personnel to simplify containment. Displays a depressive personality and must be force-fed food and water and motivated with pain to obey instructions. Displays mind-affecting properties in attempts to convince personnel to neutralize it.
Battlefield Summary: N/A
Additional Notes: SCP-042 is no use as a weapon and is to remain in containment.
Usefulness: 1/5
Item #: SCP-043
Codename: The Beatle
Summarized Description: Vinyl copy of “The White Album”. Capable of communicating with subjects who play the 29th track. Theorized to hold the consciousness of Paul McCartney, although unconfirmed.
Battlefield Summary: N/A
Additional Notes: SCP-043 is useless as a weapon and is to remain in containment.
Usefulness: 1/5
Item #: SCP-044
Codename: World War II Era Molecular-Fission Cannon
Summarized Description: Heavily modified World War II-era Howitzer. Any item placed in its barrel and fired will detonate at a mass-to-energy conversion ratio greater than 100%. Built by an/the Administrator.
Battlefield Summary: SCP-044 loaded with several tons of earth and fired into a city wall during an uncharacteristically difficult siege, terminating all resistance and causing massive damage to the city.
Additional Notes: SCP-044 blueprints have been obtained from the Administrator by the O5 Council and the item is to be mass produced. Further modifications for use as a space-based weapon are being considered.
Usefulness: 4/5
Item #: SCP-045
Codename: Atmospheric Converter
Summarized Description: Icosahedron composed of ice-12. Likely a 3-dimensional projection of a 4-dimensional hypericosahedron. Periodically rotates on multiple axes, causing minor seismic activity. When prevented from rotating, seismic activity will steadily increase. When gaseous nitrogen or argon come into close proximity with SCP-045, both substatnces will be converted into water and table salt respectively.
Battlefield Summary: SCP-045 placed on a Federal planet in a remote location and prevented from rotating. As of time of writing, SCP-045 has caused seismic activity reaching 9.5 on the Richter scale, causing massive damage. Planetary cracking is expected to occur within several weeks.
Additional Notes: SCP-045, should it be recovered after estimated XK-Class Scenario, is authorized for further use.
Usefulness: 4/5
Item #: SCP-046
Codename: “Predatory” Holly Bush
Summarized Description: Holly bush that consumes subjects who lay in its vicinity, lulling them to sleep with relief from physical/mental pain and feelings of relaxation and pleasure. Subjects are not compelled to sacrifice themselves and can resist temptations with ease. All subjects recorded to have been consumed by SCP-046 have willingly allowed the item to do so.
Battlefield Summary: N/A
Additional Notes: As SCP-046 cannot compel unwilling subjects into sacrificing themselves for consumption, it is useless as a weapon and is to remain in containment.
Usefulness: 1/5
Item #: SCP-047
Codename: Microbial Mutagen
Summarized Description: Gaseous substance with mutagenic properties on microorganisms. 3 strains affected by SCP-047 identified. Propionibacterium 047-A causes severe acne and sepsis with 40% fataility rate. Streptococcus 047-C causes inflammation, sepsis, and endocarditis with 35% fatality rate. Clostridium 047-A cause severe damage to internal organs, most notably the colon, with near 100% fatality rate.
Battlefield Summary: All SCP-047-affected strains of bacterium cannot be used against xeno life and are to remain in containment. SCP-047 dispersed among Federal cities and encampments, causing several fatal “superbugs” to mutate.
Additional Notes: Caution is to be taken to prevent SCP-047 from coming into contact with Terran microorganisms.
Usefulness: 3/5
Item #: SCP-048
Codename: The Cursed SCP Number
Summarized Description: All SCP objects assigned the 048 designation have invariably become lost, stolen, or accidentally neutralized, thus gathering a air of superstition among Foundation personnel and has such been locked from further use to prevent morale from falling. Believed to be non-anomalous, as the file describing this phenomenon has yet to suffer any adverse effects.
Battlefield Summary: N/A
Additional Notes: SCP-048 is likely non-anomalous and no action is to be taken.
Usefulness: 1/5
Item #: SCP-049
Codename: Plague Doctor
Summarized Description: Male humanoid covered in organic growth resembling a traditional plague doctor uniform and mask. Subjects who come into physical contact with SCP-049 may suddenly cease all life functions if SCP-049 so chooses. SCP-049 often performs surgery on corpses - preferably Humans - and crudly reanimates them in an attempt to cure them of a presumably supernatural “Pestilence.” The nature of this Pestilence is unknown, if it exists.
Battlefield Summary: SCP-049 allowed to reanimate deceased xeno subjects for the Foundation war effort.
Additional Notes: SCP-049 willingly joined Operatin 5000 after declaring that the xenos were also infected with the “Pestilence.”
/////
[THE FOLLOWING IS FOR O5 CLEARANCE ONLY.]
[Does the Black Moon howl?]
[only when the White Sun rejoices]
[Does the Black Moon howl?]
[only when Waning]
[Does the Black Moon howl?]
[only when the Void calls forth]
[ACCESS GRANTED]
SCP-049’s declaration has confirmed that non-Human species are indeed also victims of The Entity. Complete destruction of the Federation is necessary.
/////
Usefulness: 2/5

Good afternoon Longs,
Great shareholder letter from Dr. JL today! But, I gotta chuckle regarding the CRC study being the number one priority. It reminded me of when Scott Kelly suddenly announced on some CC: "We are going be an Oncology company". Shareholders that heard the comment (including myself) were baffled. We have not seen any clinical trial animal or human that would have suggested anything of the sort. However, we were aware of some mice studies that were being conducted at MD Anderson (MDA). That study was a combo trial with LL/Keytruda, and somehow u/MGK2 or somebody found out or figured out the trial on mice was a CRC study. Sorry can't remember the details, but here we are again with Oncology being the front-runner for CytoDyn's priorities.
I am pleased with today's letter because it was obvious that Dr. JL is working with potential partners to further our clinical trial objectives. However, instead of a summer start for HIV Chronic Inflammation trial; we were told 2 phase II clinical trials would start before the end of the calendar year. The priority is the CRC trial and second is the HIV Chronic Inflammation trial.
I gotta ask: Why the a delay in starting any of the trials? There could be several reasons but IMO the partnerships being alluded to in the letter are the main reason for the delays. Dr. JL knows well and good that it is conventional wisdom to partner with BP to move forward on any trials. It is not the only way but most developmental drug companies (like CYDY) choose the conventional route and partner with BP to accomplish clinical trials.
According to the letter interest from 3rd party partners went up after the clinical hold was removed. But the MD Anderson CRC study was way long ago. It was during that time when Scott Kelly was able to state: "We are going to be an Oncology company". Keytruda is from Merck and we never heard the results of the trial at MDA. Just silence, and I am sure that we will not hear the Mice trial results for GBM that used a Merck drug either for some time. IMO, Merck has been here for some time and is not new to CYDY, or Leronlimab or the Long Acting LL.
Dr. JL moved the date out for initiating the trials to the end of 2024. Why? My impression of Dr. JL is he wants to get Leronlimab into patients in need ASAP. That would mean let us get the trials going ASAP, but we have no money to do it on our own. So why can't Merck just run the trials ASAP? They could! We just have to have a straightforward partnership agreement that would allow them to run the trials in return for potential revenue down the road. But is that intriguing?
From the letter: Research and development partnership opportunities are important to the Company as we search for cost-effective ways to further build out our product development portfolio. We have identified several such opportunities that we believe are intriguing, and anticipate finalizing agreements with these partners in the very near future. Such potential partnerships include an investigator-initiated pilot study of leronlimab in patients with Alzheimer’s Disease, and a project that will evaluate the use of leronlimab in patients living with HIV who are undergoing stem cell transplantation in a proof of cure study. Following lifting of the clinical hold, we have observed a significant increase in third parties that are interested in partnering with the Company. We will continue to review opportunities as they arise, given the potential for significant value return at little or no cost to the Company.
Look the investigator-initiated studies are "intriguing" and that will not cost CYDY much money at all. Just supplying the product. IMO pushing the beginning of the trial dates back from summer to end of 2024 is all about allowing for the intriguing negotiations to further develop. During that time several things will take place: Hopefully, we get the Alzheimer mice trial results done, which is more data on our ever-expanding indications that we have evidence on, not just a theory. The combo Stem-cell/LL study is a great way to create competition. Stem-cell companies like ATHX and MESO are non-drug companies and our direct competitors to any drug company. the stem cells that are devoid of the CCR5 molecule are very rare and stem-cell companies would have a hard time harvesting enough to build an adequate supply around. It's not sustainable. But a stem-cell supply pre-treated with LL is a different animal.
Essentially, Dr. JL wants to get LL in the hands of treating physicians ASAP, but he needs a little bit more time to expand the evidence that LL will work in multiple indications. in theory, we already know it has 90+ potential indications from ohm20's list. Plus, Dr. JL needs a little bit more time to show the true value of the Long Acting LL. Or Long Acting goes to LIVIMMUNE and CYDY/LL is part of a BO.
We know a BO announcement is not solid on just a list of theories. It works better when you list that positive clinical signals have been shown for MASH, CRC, mTNBC, PASC, HIV and a boatload of CCR5 published articles that implicate a slew of other indications. If Long Acting is included in the CYDY BO, then Dr. JL has to show some similar amount of evidence (Monkey data) and that would be accretive to the overall value of CYDY.
Merck quote at JP Morgan Healthcare conference in San Francisco: Merck CEO Rob Davis said at the 42nd Annual J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference in San Francisco on January 8, 2024, that the company is open to deals of any size, but is not interested in large-scale acquisitions that would require combining workforces. Davis made these comments after the company's $680 million acquisition of Harpoon Therapeutics earlier in the day.
Fiercepharam interview with Merck CEO: https://www.fiercepharma.com/pharma/merck-still-market-deals-1b-15b-range-ceo-says
In the above link, Merck CEO says: “It’s gonna be a range of deals, but if you look in that $1 [billion] to $15 billion [range], that continues to be what we’ll look for,” Davis said. “We’ve also shown that not only are we very open to acquisition, we see collaboration as an important tool as well.”
If Merck is involved, then Dr. JL, Mitch, and Cyrus are going to do all they can to show evidence on multiple indications that will increase CYDY's valuation to $15 Billion or so. Basically, with CYDY's outstanding share count at or very near 1 billion shares that equates to $15 per share. The only reason we partner now is because the partner wants more evidence of clinical efficacy, but that partner is going to realize pretty quickly that if they wait too long the bidding war is going to cost them more than $15 Billion.
Good speed to the LONGS!

Inspired by u/HAZARD_LEVEL_SEVEN and his ballsy move of ultimate hate, I too will declare a binding vow of my king returning. I have absolute trust in my GOAT returning far beyond any hate of sukuna glazers.
While there is nothing but respect for hazard's choice, I refuse to let any sukuna glazers be seen in a positive light so consider this a fuck you to your declaration. I refuse to stop glazing my glorious sex eyed king until the day I die. From 236 my GOAT has been whispered to come back, and not for a second will I believe he was a bluff.
WITHOUT FAILURE has my goat had ripple effects from the start. From the beginning there was one goat. The one man to stand alone as the honored one. To kill the notorious sorcerer killer brandishing myriads of weapons at just the high school level. The one man to singlehandedly fight the disaster curses all at once. The man that SAT UPON SUKUNA LIKE THE THRONE HE WAS TO HIM. If it means my goat lives, I shall take any punishment. But even with this risk, I believe just one outcome. Even with the greatest sukuna glazer writing the manga, would we lose? We who have prayed for times like these from the moment our angel broke its wings?
Nah, We'd Win
My binding vow is as follows: IF I am wrong, please ban me from this sub permanently, following a handwritten cursive letter using a fancy pen declaring my stupidity and folly, and why sukuna is the goat, along with the purchase of merchandise regarding sukuna.
IF I am right, I will laugh exorbitantly.

Express Scripts filled my first rx for 2.5 mg. My Dr requested 90 days of 5 mg, which isn't available so it was denied. They also just denied a 90 days rx of 2.5 mg as well. I need to miss 2 weeks before they'll fill the 90 days at 2.5 mg. How does this make any sense?! It's working. Bad enough that I'm paying $120 for the 90 days (they charged me the same for 30 day rx) because they don't take the discount card they made me apply for after they stopped taking it. They don't want me healthy. 🤬🤬🤬
EDIT: I've just faxed an appeal of their denial. Here's my letter. Fingers crossed 🤞
My name is Sandra Sandmeyer and I received my first 30-day supply of Zepbound 2.5mg on May 1, 2024. This was a box of 4 injectable pens for a 28-day supply. My doctor then wanted to titrate me to the 5mg dose, however, with a nationwide shortage, this was denied. She then requested a 90-day supply of the 2.5mg so that I could continue to take this medication as it is intended. This request was denied. This is the decision I am respectfully appealing.
I have been overweight my entire adult life. I have tried exercise and dieting to no avail. I am continuing to participate in both the Express Script programs with Omada and Hinge Health. While I had progressed on Omada, I had a stroke in November 2022, making it difficult to return to the program as I originally had been doing. From the first injection of Zepbound there have been changes to my eating. It’s working! While I’m dealing with some slight side effects, I am extremely happy to find something that research has shown to improve the life of people with cardiovascular and weight issues. I don’t want to die young and would like to improve my life by losing weight. It has taken me quite some time to agree to medication and the decision was not made lightly.
I’m begging you to please reconsider my case. I have already been approved through 12/21/2024 and now that the meds have been requested, I am being denied the medication and told I need to miss 2 weeks before I can get more.

I'm trying to determine if I can proceed with running multiple tests at the same time.
Experiment A: test whether a personalized ad serving model produces more clicks on ads than legacy ad serving.
Experiment B: test whether version A of an ad is produces more clicks on the ad than version B.
Experiment C: test whether the web layout A produces more clicks on ads than web layout B.
Everything I've read, learned, and practiced tells me that you shouldn't run these experiments together on the same samples because you can't attribute the effect to any one experiment and because the results can be biased or misrepresented.
In terms of execution, I have no real way of segmenting my samples in such a way that my whole population averts one experiment or another. This means I'd have to run these experiments in series since I can't restrict a user of a specific experiment.

I won't disclose its actual location, so if that's why you're here, sorry to disappoint. It's not time for that yet. However, I do think it's time to start getting the word out. I've noticed an increase in what I'll call "Antennas" lately, or people who can detect cross-planar phase shifts. Without getting into all the math (some of which I don't even know), this is basically a phenomenon which refers to entropy seeping into our universe from other realms or universes or whatever you want to call it. Simply put, people think our universe is a closed system to entropy, meaning that the disorder of any variable in our universe can only increase or decrease in direct proportion to other variables in that same system (the universe). Under this precept, we can establish rules like the Laws of Thermodynamics, and for most people, they're effective. But not for Antennas.
Put another way, if you throw a bunch of bouncy balls into a box, there are a number of different configurations that the balls could take on, with different speeds and magnitudes. You can calculate all of those if you have the right numbers. Now let's say you throw in another set of balls that you don't consider in your calculations of the initial set. Well, then you're not going to get an accurate picture of what's happening. Most people only see the first set and calculate based on that, but some people can see two, three, four or more sets.
You'll understand the concept better when I tell you the story, but I wanted to give you a primer on an important concept that will help you understand why this place, which I'll call "Area X", exists, and what the goals of the people who work there are.
Also note that I'm going to be using the alias "Trent" moving forward. Please refer to me as such in any direct messages.
***
Eighteen years ago I started working as an independent Home Inspector. I dropped out of community college after my first semester (not because I didn't find some of the subjects interesting, but because deference to a man or woman has never been my style) and started working some odd jobs. I did construction work for a couple years, then plumbing. I even drove a garbage truck for six months. I've always found pleasure in using my hands, and getting dirty was never a problem for me. Still, having a boss really dragged ass, so I spent my free time working on creating my own business. It took a few years and lots of savings, but I finally managed to get basic set of Home Inspection equipment: Tyvek coveralls, a cheap half-face respirator, voltage & AFCI/GFCI testers, CO2 and radon monitors, an IR camera, and telescoping mirrors in addition to the boots, safety glasses, electric gloves, ladder, and toolkits I already had on hand.
My buddy at the time was in the business, but he was moving off to the coast, so he helped me get set up and even introduced me to some of his clients. Of course, by that time I had already gotten my State license, but I still was a bit apprehensive to work with insurance agencies. I thought I could make a living working independently, inspecting for mold or sizing up a house for a prospective buyer. Eventually, though, I realized I should probably take every job available to me.
Easing into the business went about as well as it could have. The clients my friend referred to me were very satisfied with my work, and I was able to retain them. Then, in order to increase my reach, I hired someone on Fiverr to build a website for my company which led to a marked increase in traffic and conversions. About six months through, I began to get on a first-name basis with the boys and girls down down at Allstate and Progressive, and they fed me some of the bigger cases. In fact, I got so booked by year's end that I had to hire someone to help manage my schedule and the Excel spreadsheet with all my finances. I capped off a successful year with a 5-star Google rating and a trip to Ireland to visit some family and friends and get piss drunk. When I got back, it was the grindstone all over again, until the summer when I discovered… well, you'll see.
First off, I want to say that I was never one to believe in the paranormal. I grew up watching the movies and hearing the ghost stories round the campfire like every other kid, but it never struck a chord with me. If I can't touch it or see it or hear it, does it really exist? Probably not. So don't go thinking this was a scared man seeing his own shadow. That being said, I had this sense that something was off about this house when I parked along the curb and looked through a large window, perhaps two times the size of my van, to a dingy, dark foyer.
The entire neighborhood was stacked with upper-middle class domiciles, though it seemed like only two thirds of them were occupied, mostly by professionals who commuted to the City every weekday, and the rest were empty. As a man who understands real estate, to say this was strange would be an understatement. Still, I had no problem appraising the mini-mansion for a couple of newlyweds looking to enter the community. I did some research on the property ahead of time, and it seems that it was owned by a couple of old timers who had gone off the grid some time ago. The water and electric bill were both unpaid dating back to 2004 (it was June of '06 now). The bank had repo'd the house (which only had about 100k left on it) and held it for a year and a half before putting it back on the market. I tried to find out more about the old couple who vanished, but there was nothing in the news.
I stepped out of the van in my coveralls and grabbed my suitcase which had my mask, gloves, and eye protection in it. I liked to do a preliminary survey first, running an eye test on the exterior then interior before bringing out the big guns (that way I could identify the areas where I think there could be problems instead of running a metal detector over the whole damn ocean seaboard). I was about to do just that when the window caught my eye again. It felt uncharacteristic of me to be so occupied with this window, but I detoured to the front porch and peeked inside anyway.
Most of the furniture had already been moved out, meaning all that was left was a single three-seater couch, a couple candlesticks on the fireplace mantle, a pristine chandelier overtop a dining room table, and the kitchenware: an oven, gas stovetop, marble countertops, and an island. I could see into the living room very clearly with the afternoon light, but the dining room was dim enough that there were a few structures I couldn't quite make out in the distance. One of them appeared to be some kind of china cabinet or bookshelf—I figured it was the former considering where it was located. The other shadow looked kind of like a grandfather clock. Or at least that's what I thought until it moved.
When I say it "moved", I don't mean to say that it picked up and walked away. If you're not familiar with the Necker Cube, I suggest you search it up, because that kind of illusion is the best way to describe what I saw. At first I was seeing the grandfather clock in a certain way—pushed into the corner of the room—and the next second my vision "corrected" and it was maybe five feet to the left of its former position. I shook my head and looked again and saw the grandfather clock in its second orientation, standing in the center of the room against the wall. I figured I was just seeing things, but even so I spent a little extra time dawdling around the Egress window, taking notes, and delaying the interior inspection.
When I finally grew a pair and went inside, I walked straight to the dining room. Sure enough, the grandfather clock was stowed away in the corner of the room. I spent a couple minutes watching it with my pencil and travel notebook out. I'm the kind of guy that likes to collect hard data when the chips are down. Unfortunately, the clock apparently already had enough fun and was content with sweating me. Oh, well.
I fitted my pencil behind my ear and pocketed my travel notebook, then flipped the rest of the first floor lights on and completed my prelim. I concluded that everything was pretty standard. If anything, the house was in better shape than I'd expect considering it presumably hasn't been lived in for a couple years. I say "presumably" because one can never count out squatters, even during those times. Mainly I was expecting more dust build up and cobwebs than there were. Perhaps someone from the department had come by recently. It's unlikely, but possible.
I did the same check upstairs and it came back mostly clean. There was a bit of staining near the attic I wanted to check for mold. Based on its color, it was probably just a minor case of Aspergillus, but better safe than sorry. Then I got to the basement, and, well, let's just count out the idea of anyone dropping by. I don't know what I was expecting, but it certainly wasn't what I found.
The first thing that caught my eye was the long, slender body of a birch tree lying pale and dead across a large portion of the even larger unfinished basement's cement flooring. I had to do a double take to make sure I wasn't dreaming, but, yep, there it was. Its crown was sealed up in the wall with only its trunk hanging out, which made me think of those medieval pillory devices which locked up people's heads and arms. Then confetti-scattered around the tree and all over the basement floor was a minefield of broken glass and ceramic tangled up with a set of random objects. And when I say random, I mean random. There was an unfurled Somali flag (the blue one with a single star in the center), some packaged drinks and condiments branded with all sorts of different languages (I could only make out Gaelic and Chinese or Japanese, I couldn't quite tell), a broken dome-shaped security camera, an otoscope (the thing the doc uses to check your ears), Hot Wheels cars (okay that one isn't so strange), and the list goes on.
At that moment, I wasn't freaked out or disgusted. I was more or less just confused. I started walking through the rubble, trying to avoid the sharp fragments but pretty confident that my steel toed boots would crush most the pieces anyway, when I heard a clink just up ahead. I was able to spot the coin in time, just before it jingled to a halt atop an old Life magazine. I picked it up and noted right away its oval shape and bronze color—clearly not American made. I tried reading it, but not only was the language not English, it appeared to be so old that most of the lettering had been filed down. I looked up at the ceiling to see if it dropped from a shelf, but there was nothing that could have been holding the coin. I considered for a moment, looking around at the other junk, and had the crazy idea that maybe all this stuff just appeared here. I popped the coin in my pocket and headed back to the van when I stopped by the tree and realized something. It wasn't a birch tree—it was a palm tree. I just didn't realize because of how ashy and decayed the bark was.
Now at this point you might think I've been acting a little nonchalant for such a strange occurrence, and I don't blame you, but if you're gonna stick around with me that's just something you're gonna have to get used to. I guess I was just born with a screw loose, but I really don't scare easily, and I tend to look at everything pragmatically. If you dig deep enough, you'll always find another plausible explanation. That being said, I do want to get to the part about Area X, so let me give you the rundown on what I learned about this basement.
I ended up trekking back to the van and picking up my gear. I was no longer running the routine inspection, obviously, but I figured I might as well throw 30 thousand dollars of scanning equipment at whatever the fuck anamoly existed in that basement. Most of it came back negative. There was a bit higher-than-usual EM interference as picked up on the voltmeters, but nothing that screamed danger close. Still, it was enough for me to set up my volt testers and IR camera while muddling through the rest of the junk. I won't bore you with another list of items, but I did find one thing of value: a diamond necklace. And not just any diamond necklace, it was one of those Queen-wearing, multi-row, big-jeweled necklaces like out of some Historical Fiction movie from the thirties. I almost didn't pocket it because I'm used to expensive items being owned by someone… someone who might want it back. But I figured if there was ever a place the finder's keeper's rule applied, it was probably in this Quantum graveyard.
7 O'clock rolled around and I hadn't eaten. I'm a pretty bulky guy, carrying my share of both muscle and fat, and most people think that means I need to eat a ton but that's really not the case. Mostly I just get dehydrated easily, especially in the summer. That said, I was bordering on famished territory and considered heading out for a bite when I heard another sound. The first thing I did was check my scanners, and sure enough the voltage needle was fully spun to the right side of the dial. EM interference. Then I went to see what had dropped. I was able to pick the object out pretty quickly since I had spent the last 6 hours staring at the mosaic of a basement floor. It was a silver briefcase, like one of those out of a crime novel, and it was cracked open.
I had this sense then that I was standing at a precipice, and if I opened the briefcase and looked inside, I wouldn't be able to stop whatever would come afterwards. Part of me deep down knew that I was just that type of guy that had to know, and maybe this was my Hamlet moment where it would be a trait gone a step too far. But then again I didn't really believe in any of that sentimental bullshit, so I opened the briefcase.
The gun surprised me a little, but not as much as the piece of paper laid atop a case file reading in large black font, "FIND ME". I expected the envelope to have some missing person file in it, but instead there were all these schematics and blueprints for some kind of device. Whatever it was, it was pretty massive. Some of the lengths were hundreds of meters long. And what's more strange is based on the blueprint's locale, it appeared to be underground. I looked back through the pages a couple times, then checked the note—nothing strange there. The gun appeared to be a simple glock. I was no gun expert, but I had been to the range pretty regularly with my construction buddies, so I got used to the feel of a pistol and rifle and some of the different names; however, I realized pretty quickly it wasn't your standard glock when I couldn't find mag-release. That's when I noticed how light the gun felt. I tried to chamber a round, but again, there was no hammer. What the hell kind of gun was this?
I ended up throwing everything back in the briefcase, including the necklace, coin, and a few Koozies I found that were branded with one of my favorite sports teams (never let an opportunity go to waste). I put up all my shit back in the van and spun over to a local burger joint, got my fill, and went home. I made sure to draft an email to the prospective buyers, telling them the house had several patches of black mold and a bit of a rat problem before drifting off to sleep. Although I really didn't do much of that.
When I woke up, I took a cold shower and downed a can of Reign, then commuted to my gym and got a lift and some sauna time in before making the trip back to the house. I brought some extra supplies with me for some experiments I cooked up while not sleeping the previous night.
First, I had two camcorders set up on a couple tripods in either corner of the basement. I wanted clear footage of these mystery objects spawning in. Then I set up a voltmeter in a similar fashion, but I had a wire extending out of it on a circuit which fed to an alarm that would blare when the reading was over 250 volts. Upstairs, I rearranged some of the furniture so that the small number of tables, chairs, clock, cabinets, and other little pillows or vases I could find were scattered across the living room, dining room, and kitchen. Then I pulled up a lawn chair to the front porch window and waited.
I didn't have to wait long though. In about a minute, I started to notice some of the objects moving. It was strange. When a few of them would shift simultaneously, it was like looking at a holographic card that would change shape depending on where your eyes were in relation to the image. Every time I saw a shift, I felt an awkward feeling in my eyes. They went blurry for a fraction of a second, then there was a twinge of pain, as if my brain couldn't handle the contradictory stimulus. It didn't get more crazy than that though—until the alarm went off.
I had cracked open the small rectangular window in the basement to the side of the house so I would hear it. It took four hours and several strange stares from passersby walking their dogs before it rang, so I was a bit lost in my thoughts, but when I heard the beep I perked up fast. It lasted for maybe 5 seconds total, but what I saw was truly miraculous. The best way I can describe it is a pool of silver or gray or translucent light emerging in the foreground between me and the objects in the different rooms. A series of twisting tentacles sprouted from the gray octopus-like head and spun in a way that reminded me of that little kids ride at the amusement parks. Then the objects started to "heat up" is the way I describe it. Their position became relative, meaning they were here one second, there another, then they popped out of existence entirely. Suddenly the rooms were all empty, then they were full of things I had never seen before. Then five seconds passed and the octopus vanished and it was back to the same old objects in their usual places.
It took a few minutes to process what I saw, and even then I wasn't sure I really saw it. I went inside and looked around at my distribution of the house's furnishings. They were all there, intact. Then I went downstairs to check the cams. I rewinded a couple minutes and played it back, but there was no flying object to be found. Instead, there was some gray static that lasted half a second and then the object, a kid's treasure chest toy, was there on the ground. But you want to know the really strange part? I rewinded the tape again, and when I watched the footage back, the treasure chest was always there.
I later came to understand that these poppings in-and-out of our reality are only conceivable to a conscious mind that can track the interference patterns—not rote computational instruments. In fact, even most people can't do it (although everyone has at least a slight awareness of it, even if only subconsciously). Plus, locations like the basement of this house are very rare and kept under tight lock. That became obvious to me two days later when, after my normal morning routine, I pulled up to a driveway and curbside filled with unmarked government vehicles. Either bravely or stupidly, I pulled up to a few officers (they were wearing suits in 85 degree weather, so I assumed…) who were idling by the large fence of crime scene tape and asked them what the score was.
"There was a crime," said the short man with a unibrow.
"Oh, is that right? Damn shame. Someone break in? I have a niece who lives nearby, so…"
The man looked at his two compatriots, both of whom were wearing sunglasses and a "get this civilian fuck out of here" expressions. "Oh, yeah," he started in a reassuring tone that was so condescending it would have annoyed anyone except me, "we found a body. We think it was a homicide. Best to keep your kids away from here for a while."
I thumbed the stubble on my chin, my other hand outstretched on the wheel, and considered moving on, but my mouth had other ideas. "That right? But uh, isn't this house vacant? I mean, I don't remember no one living in it."
The short man, now tall with temper, said, "Yeah, some squatters. We think there was a dispute over some drug money. Nothing for you to worry about though, we got it under control. Now if you wouldn't mind moving along, we have a lot of work to do."
Oh, I'm sure you do, I thought, but only said, "Of course, sir, sorry for keeping you from your job." Then I rolled up the window and cruised on, keeping my eyes on the house which slowly diminished in the side-view mirror.
Luckily I had been smart enough to break down my camp and lug home all my equipment each night, so I didn't leave anything incriminating. I didn't move the furniture back, so maybe that would come back to haunt me, but considering the kind of shit going down in that house, I didn't think they would notice.
For any of you wondering about the conclusion of the house story, I went back a couple weeks later after the suits had left and the tape was taken down and confirmed that not only was the basement entirely cleaned out, but it was no longer exhibiting any strange properties. I looked for a story related to the house, maybe a made up murder of some kind, but there was nothing. That bastard lied to me and didn't even bother to cover his story up.
Now, in the aftermath of an event such as this, I really only had one of two options. I could forget it, move on, continue living life. The necklace was surely worth a fortune. I could sell it and have enough to retire, or at least hire enough people and expand my business large enough to retire within ten or so years. Or I could take all that money and invest it in my own PI business with only a single objective: finding out what those people knew, and why they were hiding it.
I think you know me well enough by now to guess which line of reasoning appealed more to me.
***
For the sake of brevity, I'm going to omit most of my encounters along the journey to discovering Area X. There's a lot to tell, and if it appeals to you perhaps I'd be willing to share at a later date, but for now I want to get this part of the story, the more proximal part, out in the open.
Three years ago, I discovered the source of what I'll call "The Receiver". This is the device that was schematized in the documents that I found in the briefcase. What it does is a complex answer, and how it does it is pretty much all speculation, but here's what I've been able to find out: this universe we live in is a node in a network of many other spaces. These spaces exist in higher dimensions that we cannot directly perceive, but using a conceivable analogy, just think about a flower with petals. The petals are these other dimensions which bleed into our world, which is at the center. However, it's not that pretty. We see the physical world through the lens of spacetime: sizes, speeds, etc. These other dimensions don't necessarily have space or time. In fact, what actually exists there, I couldn't say. The only data I have on them is from two sources: correspondence information and server data from the secret agency (which I'll call "the Organization") that keeps this under wraps, and first-hand experience with realms from these other entities, either directly (I experience it) or through the eyes of someone else with the same or greater abilities than I possess.
I referred to these people with abilities earlier as "Antennas", and I will continue to use the term. Antennas really come in three flavors, marked by the strength of their ability: weak Antennas, like me, are able to observe spontaneous interactions between our universe and other dimensions (phase shifts) when there is a strong force of collision like existed in the basement; moderate Antennas may see phase shifts occur at any point, and they usually are able to retain memories from across the different transformations; strong Antennas, and I don't know if they exist yet, but they are able to consciously interact with these other realms and cause phase shifts to occur.
I mentioned that moderate Antennas are able to retain memories from before and after a phase shift. Technically, all Antennas have this ability, but it's about degree. I can recall only very specific instances and without much detail. Moderates are usually able to pick out much more nuanced minutiae. At the lower end of moderate scale, most of those details fade or get fuzzy over time, but for the very strong Antennas, they hold onto almost everything. One other property that scales with strength is interaction with other conscious entities. Only a small percentage of moderates are able to do this. What's interesting is that these entities can possess (yes, like ghosts) people who aren't even antennas, but no one is aware of such possession at this deep of a level. I have several companions now, and only two have had interactions with these otherworldly beings. Not all of them are malevolent, some of them are whimsical or kind, but there are a fair share of demons out there.
Getting back to the point, Area X started as a government funded project in the 70's. At that time, they were focused on a few subjects: Artificial Intelligence, DNA sequencing, and psychedelics. Yes, they were part of the infamous LSD experiments. But they looked at these subjects through a common lens—there was something that the burgeoning tech industry, fueled by the advent of a commercial computer market, was missing. As the tech giants rose in the early 2000's and began to collect mass amounts of data, this other agency was decades ahead in a different metric, although it was completely (and still is) hidden from the public. Their efforts to understand psychedelic experiences led to a formalized method of understanding interactions between multiple realities. They built certain scanning equipment to detect anomalies like the one I found in the basement; although their tools were much more sophisticated and didn't utilize voltage readings. Then they ran tests in these areas. One area in particular is a hot-bed of phase shift interactions. That's where Area X is located (and the Receiver).
The Receiver is a giant electromagnetic orb that has trapped the kind of multi-dimensional energy that causes the phase shifts; since the Organization seized control of the lab, it's effectively become a map of the Earth in relation to these other worlds. For the past twenty or so years, the Organization has been studying this map, using the data big Tech companies have collected to essentially develop a Rosetta Stone for interpreting the meaning of the fluctuations in their scanning equipment. Recently, the public, though going the long way round, was actually pretty close to a breakthrough in this same department until recently when ultra-powerful LLMs surfaced, and the whole world began going down what I'd argue is the wrong rabbit hole of language processing. But I digress.
Area X is essentially a private military base built for defending the most impactful piece of technology ever invented. With the Receiver, the Organization now has the power to essentially predict any and all future outcomes, the only thing holding them back is the limitations of their own scanning equipment which will get better with time. To put it into perspective, the Organization has access to a kind of data allocation tool which in one day can produce over ten thousand times that the Big Data companies combined would be able to filter through in the next decade. You might think, then, that the problem is merely asymmetric power, and that is certainly a concern, but it isn't the main concern. The main issue is that this organization is actively recruiting (and kidnapping) Antennas from around the world in an effort to find or make one of them into a strong Antenna. In other words, they want a subject who is able not only to see the future, but to manipulate it at will.
balance to the world. I've been working on amassing resources, capital, and building my own team, and now I'm ready. You might ask why I'm posting this here. Wouldn't it be better to keep all this secret? Well, yes, it would be. But that's the problem. Nothing is secret anymore. They know about me and the others, and if I don't make a move, they will. In a way, this is a letter directly to the organization that I know, and I'm coming.
In a different way, I wanted to release this information to the public. There are lots of people out there waking up and realizing that the world they experience is not the one others experience. If you think you might be an Antenna, don't be afraid—you have a special gift that can be controlled. If you want more details on how to control it, or if you're interested in my mission, don't be afraid to reach out. This hasn't always been my life's work, but it is now.
At least until I die.

I won't disclose its actual location, so if that's why you're here, sorry to disappoint. It's not time for that yet. However, I do think it's time to start getting the word out. I've noticed an increase in what I'll call "Antennas" lately, or people who can detect cross-planar phase shifts. Without getting into all the math (some of which I don't even know), this is basically a phenomenon which refers to entropy seeping into our universe from other realms or universes or whatever you want to call it. Simply put, people think our universe is a closed system to entropy, meaning that the disorder of any variable in our universe can only increase or decrease in direct proportion to other variables in that same system (the universe). Under this precept, we can establish rules like the Laws of Thermodynamics, and for most people, they're effective. But not for Antennas.
Put another way, if you throw a bunch of bouncy balls into a box, there are a number of different configurations that the balls could take on, with different speeds and magnitudes. You can calculate all of those if you have the right numbers. Now let's say you throw in another set of balls that you don't consider in your calculations of the initial set. Well, then you're not going to get an accurate picture of what's happening. Most people only see the first set and calculate based on that, but some people can see two, three, four or more sets.
You'll understand the concept better when I tell you the story, but I wanted to give you a primer on an important concept that will help you understand why this place, which I'll call "Area X", exists, and what the goals of the people who work there are.
Also note that I'm going to be using the alias "Trent" moving forward. Please refer to me as such in any direct messages.
***
Eighteen years ago I started working as an independent Home Inspector. I dropped out of community college after my first semester (not because I didn't find some of the subjects interesting, but because deference to a man or woman has never been my style) and started working some odd jobs. I did construction work for a couple years, then plumbing. I even drove a garbage truck for six months. I've always found pleasure in using my hands, and getting dirty was never a problem for me. Still, having a boss really dragged ass, so I spent my free time working on creating my own business. It took a few years and lots of savings, but I finally managed to get basic set of Home Inspection equipment: Tyvek coveralls, a cheap half-face respirator, voltage & AFCI/GFCI testers, CO2 and radon monitors, an IR camera, and telescoping mirrors in addition to the boots, safety glasses, electric gloves, ladder, and toolkits I already had on hand.
My buddy at the time was in the business, but he was moving off to the coast, so he helped me get set up and even introduced me to some of his clients. Of course, by that time I had already gotten my State license, but I still was a bit apprehensive to work with insurance agencies. I thought I could make a living working independently, inspecting for mold or sizing up a house for a prospective buyer. Eventually, though, I realized I should probably take every job available to me.
Easing into the business went about as well as it could have. The clients my friend referred to me were very satisfied with my work, and I was able to retain them. Then, in order to increase my reach, I hired someone on Fiverr to build a website for my company which led to a marked increase in traffic and conversions. About six months through, I began to get on a first-name basis with the boys and girls down down at Allstate and Progressive, and they fed me some of the bigger cases. In fact, I got so booked by year's end that I had to hire someone to help manage my schedule and the Excel spreadsheet with all my finances. I capped off a successful year with a 5-star Google rating and a trip to Ireland to visit some family and friends and get piss drunk. When I got back, it was the grindstone all over again, until the summer when I discovered… well, you'll see.
First off, I want to say that I was never one to believe in the paranormal. I grew up watching the movies and hearing the ghost stories round the campfire like every other kid, but it never struck a chord with me. If I can't touch it or see it or hear it, does it really exist? Probably not. So don't go thinking this was a scared man seeing his own shadow. That being said, I had this sense that something was off about this house when I parked along the curb and looked through a large window, perhaps two times the size of my van, to a dingy, dark foyer.
The entire neighborhood was stacked with upper-middle class domiciles, though it seemed like only two thirds of them were occupied, mostly by professionals who commuted to the City every weekday, and the rest were empty. As a man who understands real estate, to say this was strange would be an understatement. Still, I had no problem appraising the mini-mansion for a couple of newlyweds looking to enter the community. I did some research on the property ahead of time, and it seems that it was owned by a couple of old timers who had gone off the grid some time ago. The water and electric bill were both unpaid dating back to 2004 (it was June of '06 now). The bank had repo'd the house (which only had about 100k left on it) and held it for a year and a half before putting it back on the market. I tried to find out more about the old couple who vanished, but there was nothing in the news.
I stepped out of the van in my coveralls and grabbed my suitcase which had my mask, gloves, and eye protection in it. I liked to do a preliminary survey first, running an eye test on the exterior then interior before bringing out the big guns (that way I could identify the areas where I think there could be problems instead of running a metal detector over the whole damn ocean seaboard). I was about to do just that when the window caught my eye again. It felt uncharacteristic of me to be so occupied with this window, but I detoured to the front porch and peeked inside anyway.
Most of the furniture had already been moved out, meaning all that was left was a single three-seater couch, a couple candlesticks on the fireplace mantle, a pristine chandelier overtop a dining room table, and the kitchenware: an oven, gas stovetop, marble countertops, and an island. I could see into the living room very clearly with the afternoon light, but the dining room was dim enough that there were a few structures I couldn't quite make out in the distance. One of them appeared to be some kind of china cabinet or bookshelf—I figured it was the former considering where it was located. The other shadow looked kind of like a grandfather clock. Or at least that's what I thought until it moved.
When I say it "moved", I don't mean to say that it picked up and walked away. If you're not familiar with the Necker Cube, I suggest you search it up, because that kind of illusion is the best way to describe what I saw. At first I was seeing the grandfather clock in a certain way—pushed into the corner of the room—and the next second my vision "corrected" and it was maybe five feet to the left of its former position. I shook my head and looked again and saw the grandfather clock in its second orientation, standing in the center of the room against the wall. I figured I was just seeing things, but even so I spent a little extra time dawdling around the Egress window, taking notes, and delaying the interior inspection.
When I finally grew a pair and went inside, I walked straight to the dining room. Sure enough, the grandfather clock was stowed away in the corner of the room. I spent a couple minutes watching it with my pencil and travel notebook out. I'm the kind of guy that likes to collect hard data when the chips are down. Unfortunately, the clock apparently already had enough fun and was content with sweating me. Oh, well.
I fitted my pencil behind my ear and pocketed my travel notebook, then flipped the rest of the first floor lights on and completed my prelim. I concluded that everything was pretty standard. If anything, the house was in better shape than I'd expect considering it presumably hasn't been lived in for a couple years. I say "presumably" because one can never count out squatters, even during those times. Mainly I was expecting more dust build up and cobwebs than there were. Perhaps someone from the department had come by recently. It's unlikely, but possible.
I did the same check upstairs and it came back mostly clean. There was a bit of staining near the attic I wanted to check for mold. Based on its color, it was probably just a minor case of Aspergillus, but better safe than sorry. Then I got to the basement, and, well, let's just count out the idea of anyone dropping by. I don't know what I was expecting, but it certainly wasn't what I found.
The first thing that caught my eye was the long, slender body of a birch tree lying pale and dead across a large portion of the even larger unfinished basement's cement flooring. I had to do a double take to make sure I wasn't dreaming, but, yep, there it was. Its crown was sealed up in the wall with only its trunk hanging out, which made me think of those medieval pillory devices which locked up people's heads and arms. Then confetti-scattered around the tree and all over the basement floor was a minefield of broken glass and ceramic tangled up with a set of random objects. And when I say random, I mean random. There was an unfurled Somali flag (the blue one with a single star in the center), some packaged drinks and condiments branded with all sorts of different languages (I could only make out Gaelic and Chinese or Japanese, I couldn't quite tell), a broken dome-shaped security camera, an otoscope (the thing the doc uses to check your ears), Hot Wheels cars (okay that one isn't so strange), and the list goes on.
At that moment, I wasn't freaked out or disgusted. I was more or less just confused. I started walking through the rubble, trying to avoid the sharp fragments but pretty confident that my steel toed boots would crush most the pieces anyway, when I heard a clink just up ahead. I was able to spot the coin in time, just before it jingled to a halt atop an old Life magazine. I picked it up and noted right away its oval shape and bronze color—clearly not American made. I tried reading it, but not only was the language not English, it appeared to be so old that most of the lettering had been filed down. I looked up at the ceiling to see if it dropped from a shelf, but there was nothing that could have been holding the coin. I considered for a moment, looking around at the other junk, and had the crazy idea that maybe all this stuff just appeared here. I popped the coin in my pocket and headed back to the van when I stopped by the tree and realized something. It wasn't a birch tree—it was a palm tree. I just didn't realize because of how ashy and decayed the bark was.
Now at this point you might think I've been acting a little nonchalant for such a strange occurrence, and I don't blame you, but if you're gonna stick around with me that's just something you're gonna have to get used to. I guess I was just born with a screw loose, but I really don't scare easily, and I tend to look at everything pragmatically. If you dig deep enough, you'll always find another plausible explanation. That being said, I do want to get to the part about Area X, so let me give you the rundown on what I learned about this basement.
I ended up trekking back to the van and picking up my gear. I was no longer running the routine inspection, obviously, but I figured I might as well throw 30 thousand dollars of scanning equipment at whatever the fuck anamoly existed in that basement. Most of it came back negative. There was a bit higher-than-usual EM interference as picked up on the voltmeters, but nothing that screamed danger close. Still, it was enough for me to set up my volt testers and IR camera while muddling through the rest of the junk. I won't bore you with another list of items, but I did find one thing of value: a diamond necklace. And not just any diamond necklace, it was one of those Queen-wearing, multi-row, big-jeweled necklaces like out of some Historical Fiction movie from the thirties. I almost didn't pocket it because I'm used to expensive items being owned by someone… someone who might want it back. But I figured if there was ever a place the finder's keeper's rule applied, it was probably in this Quantum graveyard.
7 O'clock rolled around and I hadn't eaten. I'm a pretty bulky guy, carrying my share of both muscle and fat, and most people think that means I need to eat a ton but that's really not the case. Mostly I just get dehydrated easily, especially in the summer. That said, I was bordering on famished territory and considered heading out for a bite when I heard another sound. The first thing I did was check my scanners, and sure enough the voltage needle was fully spun to the right side of the dial. EM interference. Then I went to see what had dropped. I was able to pick the object out pretty quickly since I had spent the last 6 hours staring at the mosaic of a basement floor. It was a silver briefcase, like one of those out of a crime novel, and it was cracked open.
I had this sense then that I was standing at a precipice, and if I opened the briefcase and looked inside, I wouldn't be able to stop whatever would come afterwards. Part of me deep down knew that I was just that type of guy that had to know, and maybe this was my Hamlet moment where it would be a trait gone a step too far. But then again I didn't really believe in any of that sentimental bullshit, so I opened the briefcase.
The gun surprised me a little, but not as much as the piece of paper laid atop a case file reading in large black font, "FIND ME". I expected the envelope to have some missing person file in it, but instead there were all these schematics and blueprints for some kind of device. Whatever it was, it was pretty massive. Some of the lengths were hundreds of meters long. And what's more strange is based on the blueprint's locale, it appeared to be underground. I looked back through the pages a couple times, then checked the note—nothing strange there. The gun appeared to be a simple glock. I was no gun expert, but I had been to the range pretty regularly with my construction buddies, so I got used to the feel of a pistol and rifle and some of the different names; however, I realized pretty quickly it wasn't your standard glock when I couldn't find mag-release. That's when I noticed how light the gun felt. I tried to chamber a round, but again, there was no hammer. What the hell kind of gun was this?
I ended up throwing everything back in the briefcase, including the necklace, coin, and a few Koozies I found that were branded with one of my favorite sports teams (never let an opportunity go to waste). I put up all my shit back in the van and spun over to a local burger joint, got my fill, and went home. I made sure to draft an email to the prospective buyers, telling them the house had several patches of black mold and a bit of a rat problem before drifting off to sleep. Although I really didn't do much of that.
When I woke up, I took a cold shower and downed a can of Reign, then commuted to my gym and got a lift and some sauna time in before making the trip back to the house. I brought some extra supplies with me for some experiments I cooked up while not sleeping the previous night.
First, I had two camcorders set up on a couple tripods in either corner of the basement. I wanted clear footage of these mystery objects spawning in. Then I set up a voltmeter in a similar fashion, but I had a wire extending out of it on a circuit which fed to an alarm that would blare when the reading was over 250 volts. Upstairs, I rearranged some of the furniture so that the small number of tables, chairs, clock, cabinets, and other little pillows or vases I could find were scattered across the living room, dining room, and kitchen. Then I pulled up a lawn chair to the front porch window and waited.
I didn't have to wait long though. In about a minute, I started to notice some of the objects moving. It was strange. When a few of them would shift simultaneously, it was like looking at a holographic card that would change shape depending on where your eyes were in relation to the image. Every time I saw a shift, I felt an awkward feeling in my eyes. They went blurry for a fraction of a second, then there was a twinge of pain, as if my brain couldn't handle the contradictory stimulus. It didn't get more crazy than that though—until the alarm went off.
I had cracked open the small rectangular window in the basement to the side of the house so I would hear it. It took four hours and several strange stares from passersby walking their dogs before it rang, so I was a bit lost in my thoughts, but when I heard the beep I perked up fast. It lasted for maybe 5 seconds total, but what I saw was truly miraculous. The best way I can describe it is a pool of silver or gray or translucent light emerging in the foreground between me and the objects in the different rooms. A series of twisting tentacles sprouted from the gray octopus-like head and spun in a way that reminded me of that little kids ride at the amusement parks. Then the objects started to "heat up" is the way I describe it. Their position became relative, meaning they were here one second, there another, then they popped out of existence entirely. Suddenly the rooms were all empty, then they were full of things I had never seen before. Then five seconds passed and the octopus vanished and it was back to the same old objects in their usual places.
It took a few minutes to process what I saw, and even then I wasn't sure I really saw it. I went inside and looked around at my distribution of the house's furnishings. They were all there, intact. Then I went downstairs to check the cams. I rewinded a couple minutes and played it back, but there was no flying object to be found. Instead, there was some gray static that lasted half a second and then the object, a kid's treasure chest toy, was there on the ground. But you want to know the really strange part? I rewinded the tape again, and when I watched the footage back, the treasure chest was always there.
I later came to understand that these poppings in-and-out of our reality are only conceivable to a conscious mind that can track the interference patterns—not rote computational instruments. In fact, even most people can't do it (although everyone has at least a slight awareness of it, even if only subconsciously). Plus, locations like the basement of this house are very rare and kept under tight lock. That became obvious to me two days later when, after my normal morning routine, I pulled up to a driveway and curbside filled with unmarked government vehicles. Either bravely or stupidly, I pulled up to a few officers (they were wearing suits in 85 degree weather, so I assumed…) who were idling by the large fence of crime scene tape and asked them what the score was.
"There was a crime," said the short man with a unibrow.
"Oh, is that right? Damn shame. Someone break in? I have a niece who lives nearby, so…"
The man looked at his two compatriots, both of whom were wearing sunglasses and a "get this civilian fuck out of here" expressions. "Oh, yeah," he started in a reassuring tone that was so condescending it would have annoyed anyone except me, "we found a body. We think it was a homicide. Best to keep your kids away from here for a while."
I thumbed the stubble on my chin, my other hand outstretched on the wheel, and considered moving on, but my mouth had other ideas. "That right? But uh, isn't this house vacant? I mean, I don't remember no one living in it."
The short man, now tall with temper, said, "Yeah, some squatters. We think there was a dispute over some drug money. Nothing for you to worry about though, we got it under control. Now if you wouldn't mind moving along, we have a lot of work to do."
Oh, I'm sure you do, I thought, but only said, "Of course, sir, sorry for keeping you from your job." Then I rolled up the window and cruised on, keeping my eyes on the house which slowly diminished in the side-view mirror.
Luckily I had been smart enough to break down my camp and lug home all my equipment each night, so I didn't leave anything incriminating. I didn't move the furniture back, so maybe that would come back to haunt me, but considering the kind of shit going down in that house, I didn't think they would notice.
For any of you wondering about the conclusion of the house story, I went back a couple weeks later after the suits had left and the tape was taken down and confirmed that not only was the basement entirely cleaned out, but it was no longer exhibiting any strange properties. I looked for a story related to the house, maybe a made up murder of some kind, but there was nothing. That bastard lied to me and didn't even bother to cover his story up.
Now, in the aftermath of an event such as this, I really only had one of two options. I could forget it, move on, continue living life. The necklace was surely worth a fortune. I could sell it and have enough to retire, or at least hire enough people and expand my business large enough to retire within ten or so years. Or I could take all that money and invest it in my own PI business with only a single objective: finding out what those people knew, and why they were hiding it.
I think you know me well enough by now to guess which line of reasoning appealed more to me.
***
For the sake of brevity, I'm going to omit most of my encounters along the journey to discovering Area X. There's a lot to tell, and if it appeals to you perhaps I'd be willing to share at a later date, but for now I want to get this part of the story, the more proximal part, out in the open.
Three years ago, I discovered the source of what I'll call "The Receiver". This is the device that was schematized in the documents that I found in the briefcase. What it does is a complex answer, and how it does it is pretty much all speculation, but here's what I've been able to find out: this universe we live in is a node in a network of many other spaces. These spaces exist in higher dimensions that we cannot directly perceive, but using a conceivable analogy, just think about a flower with petals. The petals are these other dimensions which bleed into our world, which is at the center. However, it's not that pretty. We see the physical world through the lens of spacetime: sizes, speeds, etc. These other dimensions don't necessarily have space or time. In fact, what actually exists there, I couldn't say. The only data I have on them is from two sources: correspondence information and server data from the secret agency (which I'll call "the Organization") that keeps this under wraps, and first-hand experience with realms from these other entities, either directly (I experience it) or through the eyes of someone else with the same or greater abilities than I possess.
I referred to these people with abilities earlier as "Antennas", and I will continue to use the term. Antennas really come in three flavors, marked by the strength of their ability: weak Antennas, like me, are able to observe spontaneous interactions between our universe and other dimensions (phase shifts) when there is a strong force of collision like existed in the basement; moderate Antennas may see phase shifts occur at any point, and they usually are able to retain memories from across the different transformations; strong Antennas, and I don't know if they exist yet, but they are able to consciously interact with these other realms and cause phase shifts to occur.
I mentioned that moderate Antennas are able to retain memories from before and after a phase shift. Technically, all Antennas have this ability, but it's about degree. I can recall only very specific instances and without much detail. Moderates are usually able to pick out much more nuanced minutiae. At the lower end of moderate scale, most of those details fade or get fuzzy over time, but for the very strong Antennas, they hold onto almost everything. One other property that scales with strength is interaction with other conscious entities. Only a small percentage of moderates are able to do this. What's interesting is that these entities can possess (yes, like ghosts) people who aren't even antennas, but no one is aware of such possession at this deep of a level. I have several companions now, and only two have had interactions with these otherworldly beings. Not all of them are malevolent, some of them are whimsical or kind, but there are a fair share of demons out there.
Getting back to the point, Area X started as a government funded project in the 70's. At that time, they were focused on a few subjects: Artificial Intelligence, DNA sequencing, and psychedelics. Yes, they were part of the infamous LSD experiments. But they looked at these subjects through a common lens—there was something that the burgeoning tech industry, fueled by the advent of a commercial computer market, was missing. As the tech giants rose in the early 2000's and began to collect mass amounts of data, this other agency was decades ahead in a different metric, although it was completely (and still is) hidden from the public. Their efforts to understand psychedelic experiences led to a formalized method of understanding interactions between multiple realities. They built certain scanning equipment to detect anomalies like the one I found in the basement; although their tools were much more sophisticated and didn't utilize voltage readings. Then they ran tests in these areas. One area in particular is a hot-bed of phase shift interactions. That's where Area X is located (and the Receiver).
The Receiver is a giant electromagnetic orb that has trapped the kind of multi-dimensional energy that causes the phase shifts; since the Organization seized control of the lab, it's effectively become a map of the Earth in relation to these other worlds. For the past twenty or so years, the Organization has been studying this map, using the data big Tech companies have collected to essentially develop a Rosetta Stone for interpreting the meaning of the fluctuations in their scanning equipment. Recently, the public, though going the long way round, was actually pretty close to a breakthrough in this same department until recently when ultra-powerful LLMs surfaced, and the whole world began going down what I'd argue is the wrong rabbit hole of language processing. But I digress.
Area X is essentially a private military base built for defending the most impactful piece of technology ever invented. With the Receiver, the Organization now has the power to essentially predict any and all future outcomes, the only thing holding them back is the limitations of their own scanning equipment which will get better with time. To put it into perspective, the Organization has access to a kind of data allocation tool which in one day can produce over ten thousand times that the Big Data companies combined would be able to filter through in the next decade. You might think, then, that the problem is merely asymmetric power, and that is certainly a concern, but it isn't the main concern. The main issue is that this organization is actively recruiting (and kidnapping) Antennas from around the world in an effort to find or make one of them into a strong Antenna. In other words, they want a subject who is able not only to see the future, but to manipulate it at will.
balance to the world. I've been working on amassing resources, capital, and building my own team, and now I'm ready. You might ask why I'm posting this here. Wouldn't it be better to keep all this secret? Well, yes, it would be. But that's the problem. Nothing is secret anymore. They know about me and the others, and if I don't make a move, they will. In a way, this is a letter directly to the organization that I know, and I'm coming.
In a different way, I wanted to release this information to the public. There are lots of people out there waking up and realizing that the world they experience is not the one others experience. If you think you might be an Antenna, don't be afraid—you have a special gift that can be controlled. If you want more details on how to control it, or if you're interested in my mission, don't be afraid to reach out. This hasn't always been my life's work, but it is now.
At least until I die.

I would like to share my story about my journey, i don’t know where to post this but firstly i would like to say sorry if it wasn’t related to the purpose of this channel
First of all, first time i saw porn is at 4 grade elementary school my senior gave me the story about it in a very unque that drives me to explore those things at home. That behavior really stuck in me until right now.
Back then at 2019, i got a really beautifull girlfriend in my last high school. She is really cute and i really trust her very much and our relationship at first is going really well, for some reason she notice that i have somw kind of weird behavior such as watching porn and masturbate. At first, i thought she gonna be illfeel with my behavior but at that time she is researching the whole things about porn addiction and everything related to it.
She really taking care of my boredness, loneliness and also she backed up my university exam. So, i won’t get stressed out and do those bad things anymore, i just did not understand at around 2020 - 2021 my urge really high at that time and yeah you know what we always getting angry at each other and i guess she was tired because of the amount of time she spend for me didn’t work out really well and things just be more worse than ever before. The things i recently realised she wasn’t give up and she is really trying to call me every single day 24/7 just to make sure i didn’t do those bad things (btw we were in long distance relationship different nation)
I just realized one of the side effect of this bad behavior was, it won’t make us to feel enough about everything that we got and it always lead us to overreacting something. That is what i experience before. And yeah you know what after all the things she did to me i tried to cutt off her, late 2021 and early to mid 2022 we always argue something unreasonably and the things i regret the most till right now was at that time i was unable to control my emotion and everything i always said bad things about her and mocking her yelling her and she just cried and cried, at some moment that make me cried til right now is after the argument she cried to me and begging me to change and not to insulting her but i was an evil back then and i didn’t put attetion to her request.
After that long argument and yeah 2022 was my very lowest point of my life cauze my addiction really become uncontrollable, the moment that i really regreted the most is, i cheated her and yeah we got in a big argument, the weird things is she is trying to save our relationship but i was selfish and i just breaking up with her at maybe Sept/Octo 2024. That is was when my life become black out totally.
I really losing someone who is taking care of my addiction even my parents doesn’t give anything to encourage me to fight for this (at that time they know what is my problem but didn’t care much about it).
As you know, in 2023 nothing much has changed and i just becoming worse than ever before. I was becoming a lazy person, not doing a job welly, even for taking a bath or sleeping i was really lazy to do it. That year i the worse year ever in my life, trying to fix her but another girl but it turn out nothing.
Just a few days ago my friends telling me that she is already with another guy, i watched her bideo with her new boyfriend and she was smilling and yeah i’m feeling happy that she could get a boy that could make she happy and safe, but at the same time i was really sad that the one who make her smile isn’t me anymore, i’m not the reason she smile. Honestly speaking, at the moment i saw that video i was crying inside and yeah the feel of regret it beyond expectation especially for myself. I know that i couldn’t turn back the time when we are in Q3 2022 just to fixing things and i know that time always passing by, everything has a risk being with her or without her.
With this letter i just wanna say to you i’m really sorry for those year, every arguments, every things that comes out from my mouth or my finger that hurt your hearth very bad, i just wanna say i’m really sorry i really negging for your forgiveness. Thanks for suppoting me back then, from my hobbies to my university studies and to every life hacks you gave me. I hope you were happy ever after with your new bf.
I write this things down here just to share my experienced and the journey of myself to be out from this addiction, for those every girl or boy that has a person who supporting you badly to cure this behavior my suggestion was don’t waste that kind of person, maybe that was a person that god gave to you to make your journey easier. Be feel enough.
It okay i was late to realised everything rather than i didn’t. This letter it will be my commitment to continue my journey of Nofap day 0 starting from today and i will post again when i have already fulfill that 90 days of nofap.
Hope this could inspiring others and sorry for the grammer or vocabullary.
Lets be better!

Hey friends!
Looks like the Deck Building Card Battle (20 Card Decks) won yesterday. Thank you for participating in the vote.
Because this is the first group game, it will be very casual, as this will all be done on Reddit. I'll enable our chat to help out, but I'll need your help to keep people from abusing it. For the future, I want to have a discord server where we can interact better, but that's a slow process for me (anyone with experience and a desire to help please DM me).
I'll start out by really introducing myself; I'm Magnus, a game designer in Vancouver, Canada. My company, BRB Games, has been a subsidiary of a large game company, and my employees and I primarily designed games for ages 3-12. I have worked on a few other projects as a consultant, mainly doing logic, core design, testing, etc. In November we found out cutbacks were incoming. Due to a tight contract, I've had a second job the last few years as a lead robotics designer (among other hats) to cover my costs, plus top-up my own employees at BRB. I was often doing 16 hour days, juggling way too much, ontop of a 3 hour commute if I even went home. We all talked and closure was the best choice. Most of my employees were picked up right away, or transitioned into the parent company, and in April, my last person got a fantastic job remotely for an Australian company as a junior designer. I gave my notice with my employer and that brings me to here and now. I have time to actually go to conventions again, I'll be teaching 4 classes a month in person, I'm interning a highschool student in game design from California currently, a volunteer math tutor, and I feel I can finally help everyone in boardgamedesign. I want build this community back up, the best it's ever been. When it closed due to the Reddit protest, we lost 80,000 subs. I became the mod after 2 attempts (and a long talk with Reddit admins). Honestly, this calling in life fulfills me, and if I can pass on anything to you, or help get your game noticed and sold, I'm more than happy to. Long intro short, I'm here to help, so feel free to ask me anything and if I don't know the answer (happens a lot), we can find out!
Also, thanks to our mods u/bgg-uglywalrus and u/MudkipzLover. Without them, we couldn't do this. Their experience, determination and willingness for anything boardgames is inspirational and a foundation of what we are. Thank you, muchly.
So to get started on the game, I want to focus on the first aspects of proper design:
​

This document will be updated constantly until we lock it and create the next stage.

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Card Game: Deck Builder

(Boardgamedesign Edition)
1 - Main Objective (DEVELOPMENT STAGE)

• Design an engaging card game battle experience with deck building mechanics.
• Defeat opponents deck by reducing Heath to zero
• Creating a lock out condition.

2 - Card Types:

• Character cards, artifact cards, condition cards
• (Group Defined)

3 - Resource System:

• Cards are played from hand as defined per card.
• Cards are activated using resources (?)
• Cards are activated with combining each cards defined resource value(?)
• (Group Defined Input)

4 - Deck Construction

• 20 Cards per deck hard limit
• Players construct a deck using individual preset decks of 20 cards.
• Players share a pool of universal condition cards (?)

5 - Card and Deck Abilities, Conditions, Effects

• (Group Defined)

6 - Game Mechanisms
• Setup - (layout as we define structure)

• Shuffle
• Determine turn order
• Draw (x) cards to hand (?)
• First turn rules (no attacks, activations?)

Turn Structure and Phases

• Draw
• Playing
• Activating
• Resolving
• Player Universal Actions
• Resolving Turn

7 - Combat Logistics

• Activation
• Checks
• Blocks
• Damage Dealt
• Conditions (Weakness, Lasting effects?)
• Interactions
• Resolution

8 - Win Conditions

• Reducing players health to zero
• Defeating all defensive cards (?)
• Creating a zero sum condition (unique mechanic or the gimmick)

9 - Balancing and Maths (ALPHA STAGE)

• Spreadsheet stats analysis (as we go)
• FIRST INTERNAL PLAYTESTING (yay!)
• Recording data sets of all conditions
• Extensive strategy testing

10 - Reworks based on data / feedback

• Group input about what worked, and didn't
• Refine Ruleset
• Card conditions and activation tweaks
• Gameplay change and redesign as needed

You can ALWAYS change your game at any time, this is a checks and balance dedicated to it

11 - Closed Public Playtesting (BETA STAGE)

Closed as the artwork isn't finished yet, and play conditions are directly controlled

• Create play sheets for players
• Conditions to try Feedback for a variety of mechanics
• Seek out closed groups (either local, or online)
• Compile data and rework as needed

12 - Art and Theme

It's time to dedicate our resources to visual appeal and player immersion

Artwork

• Overall game theme
• Deck theme
• Character theme
• Dice, Spinner, token theme (components)

Player Immersion

• Game backstory ("Once a year, players...")
• Individual deck story
• Unique wording and phrases
• Compelling intrigue dialogue

Promotional Materials (Unique Art and tone)

• Art testing
• Compile feedback forms
• Test for colour visions, dyslexia and other impairments

Art reworks and touchups
13 - Rulebook Design and Creation

To be succinct, the rules will be compiled already, this is the design aspect

• List all game rules and mechanisms
• Startup guide (can be a seperate insert)
• Quick references (if complicated)
• Determine phrasing based on thematics
• Artwork and formatting
• Page count Structure and finesse

14 - Production and Distribution
Decide on platform (Digital or Physical, or Both)
Digital

• Select release program Design phase (Inhouse or hire)
• Testing inhouse
• Testing public
• Feedback Review and reworks

Physical

• Determine desired materials (Request sample)
• Playtest with physical prototypes (We know certain materials hold up and reuse them to save time, so we only need to heavily test if we are using an unknown vendor, new product or process, or new paints).
• Determine content arrangement
• Choose box size
• Design insert
• Box art creation
• Decide on manufacturer
• Get specifications about batch sizes, weight, and distribution to warehouse / choice location
• Calculate shipping and vendor distribution

15 - Creating your sell sheet

• You'll have the data to do this now.

16 - Public Review Playtesting and Attention

We are able to send out prototypes before this step

• Select choice game stores, boardgame bars, playtesting groups, reviewers, streamers / YouTubers, notable designers, game design companies, publishers, and convention directors (You'll want to have a diaglue about review in exchange for a free game, credits or money. Return shipping if needed. Also a timeframe!).

17 - Community Engagement

Honestly this should be happening very early. The more people know about your game from an early stage, the more they feel connected. Ask for controlled opinions, and respond to everyone within reasonable limits. Every person and is a potential customer now and in the future, and you are building loyalty to YOU, not the game.

• Forums, Reddit, Online videos, Interviewers, Blogs, Website, Conventions, In person, everywhere!
• Business cards are affordable, grab them
• (More?)

18 - Crowdfunding

• We'll cover this more

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Alright, this is my basic design format for board game development, with an updated minimal and modern approach. I'm going to treat it as a loose project management, with a 2 week turn around on the development stage.
Please feel free to add a comment with the section you'd like to add to. We can respond to those threads for more detail, but EACH comment will be a different design element. Your name will be added to that section and that's your contribution! More than 1 person can be credited for the section, and more than 1 section can be credited to a person, because we are all collaborating!
When it comes to the deck creations, keep the art and theme to yourself for now, but list what you want in a deck mechanic. We will come to themes when it is time.
Again, this document will be updated constantly until we lock it and create the next stage.
If we determine that this project comes to a marketable standing (which is not intended, but never say no to glory), contributors will have a few options. Either DM me your real info for credit or your username will be used. I know privacy is a premium on the internet, but I can only credit those that want it. If that means creating a new account to protect your privacy, you'll have to DM the mod team so we can approve you due to low karma automod.
Lastly, anything you contribute to this project is considered the IP of the project as a whole. Credit where credit is due (having your name on a project is a HUGE start for your resume), but please only contribute if you understand that there is no financial incentive, nor compensation of any kind outside of credit. I can't afford to feed you all :)