Hi!
I'm trying to understand the similarity between a theme statement and the conclusion of an argumentative essay. Can anyone explain the relationship between the two? I already want to finish my essay and hand it in, because this task is dragging on and is bothering me. Any advice or examples would really help.

Hey!
I`m working on an essay and need some advice on crafting a strong counterclaim. How can I effectively present the opposing view without weakening my main argument? Any advice or examples would be greatly appreciated!

Hey guys
I managed to score over 80 on Section 2 of the exam on my very first sit, and I believe I owe a huge part of my success to the lens technique that my tutor taught me and accordingly mastering two key sociocultural topics.
So, what exactly is the lens technique? It's a powerful strategy that involves analyzing and interpreting essay prompts through the lens of two sociocultural topics. By viewing the prompt from different perspectives, I was able to generate unique insights and develop well-rounded arguments that impressed the examiners.
Here's how I did it:

1. Topic Selection: I carefully selected two sociocultural topics that I was passionate about and really wanted to learn more about. These topics served as the foundation for my essays and allowed me to showcase my knowledge and critical thinking skills effectively.
2. Lens Application: When confronted with an essay prompt, I would analyze it through the lens of my chosen sociocultural topics. This involved identifying relevant themes, concepts, and real-world examples that could be used to support my arguments.
3. Argument Development: Armed with insights from my sociocultural lenses, I crafted compelling arguments that addressed the complexities of the prompt. I made sure to provide evidence and examples that demonstrated a thorough understanding of the topic and showcased my ability to think critically and analytically.
4. Essay Structure: Structure is key in Section 2, so I organized my essays in a clear and logical manner. I started with a strong introduction that outlined my main arguments, followed by well-developed body paragraphs that supported each argument with evidence and analysis. Finally, I concluded by summarizing my key points and reinforcing my main thesis.

By mastering the lens technique and delving deep into two sociocultural topics, I was able to approach Section 2 with confidence and deliver essays that stood out to the examiners. I encourage all of you to explore this technique and see how it can elevate your own GAMSAT performance.
Good luck to everyone on their GAMSAT journey! Lets Crush the SEPTEMBER GAMSAT!!!!

Its mid may there is like i think about 7 more weeks to prelims I am freaking out cos My L1 subject is not an A1. I am very bad at hmt so i cant use it unless miracles happen. So i am not so great at essay I mainly choose argumentative i have never gotten above 20 my ave score is 19/30. Same for sw. and my comprehension is also not that great. I am trying my best to improving taking feedback from various teachers rs but i see no improvement. Should I scrap eng and focus on hmt instead. Ik i cant improve eng over night. Idk ppl pls help me

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Hello everybody! I am trying out the WebUI Forge app on my Macbook Air M1 16GB, and after installing following the instructions, adding a model and some LoRas, and generating image, I am getting processing times up to 60min! Is this normal? Am I missing something in the installation process that may affect this long times?
Attaching logs:
 USERNAME@HOME      stable-diffusion-webui-forge  main  ./webui.sh
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Install script for stable-diffusion + Web UI
Tested on Debian 11 (Bullseye), Fedora 34+ and openSUSE Leap 15.4 or newer.
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Running on USERNAME user
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Repo already cloned, using it as install directory
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Create and activate python venv
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Launching launch.py...
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Python 3.10.14 (main, Mar 19 2024, 21:46:16) [Clang 15.0.0 (clang-1500.3.9.4)]
Version: f0.0.17v1.8.0rc-latest-276-g29be1da7
Commit hash: 29be1da7cf2b5dccfc70fbdd33eb35c56a31ffb7
Legacy Preprocessor init warning: Unable to install insightface automatically. Please try run \pip install insightface` manually.`
Launching Web UI with arguments: --skip-torch-cuda-test --upcast-sampling --no-half-vae --use-cpu interrogate
Total VRAM 16384 MB, total RAM 16384 MB
Set vram state to: SHARED
Device: mps
VAE dtype: torch.float32
CUDA Stream Activated: False
Warning: caught exception 'Torch not compiled with CUDA enabled', memory monitor disabled
Using sub quadratic optimization for cross attention, if you have memory or speed issues try using: --attention-split
==============================================================================
You are running torch 2.1.0.
The program is tested to work with torch 2.1.2.
To reinstall the desired version, run with commandline flag --reinstall-torch.
Beware that this will cause a lot of large files to be downloaded, as well as
there are reports of issues with training tab on the latest version.
Use --skip-version-check commandline argument to disable this check.
==============================================================================
ControlNet preprocessor location: /Users/USERNAME/Projects/stable-diffusion-webui-forge/models/ControlNetPreprocessor
Loading weights [67ab2fd8ec] from /Users/USERNAME/Projects/stable-diffusion-webui-forge/models/Stable-diffusion/ponyDiffusionV6XL_v6StartWithThisOne.safetensors
2024-05-16 08:24:35,896 - ControlNet - INFO - ControlNet UI callback registered.
Running on local URL: http://127.0.0.1:7860
To create a public link, set \share=True` in `launch()`.`
model_type EPS
UNet ADM Dimension 2816
Startup time: 10.9s (prepare environment: 0.6s, import torch: 3.4s, import gradio: 1.2s, setup paths: 1.3s, other imports: 1.6s, load scripts: 1.3s, create ui: 0.6s, gradio launch: 0.7s).
Using split attention in VAE
Working with z of shape (1, 4, 32, 32) = 4096 dimensions.
Using split attention in VAE
extra {'cond_stage_model.clip_g.transformer.text_model.embeddings.position_ids', 'cond_stage_model.clip_l.text_projection', 'cond_stage_model.clip_l.logit_scale'}
Loading VAE weights specified in settings: /Users/USERNAME/Projects/stable-diffusion-webui-forge/models/VAE/xlVAEC_f1.safetensors
To load target model SDXLClipModel
Begin to load 1 model
Moving model(s) has taken 0.01 seconds
Model loaded in 18.9s (load weights from disk: 0.9s, forge load real models: 15.0s, load VAE: 0.5s, calculate empty prompt: 2.4s).
[LORA] Loaded /Users/USERNAME/Projects/stable-diffusion-webui-forge/models/Lora/add-detail-xl.safetensors for SDXL-UNet with 722 keys at weight 1.0 (skipped 0 keys)
[LORA] Loaded /Users/USERNAME/Projects/stable-diffusion-webui-forge/models/Lora/add-detail-xl.safetensors for SDXL-CLIP with 264 keys at weight 1.0 (skipped 0 keys)
[LORA] Loaded /Users/USERNAME/Projects/stable-diffusion-webui-forge/models/Lora/Concept Art Twilight Style SDXL_LoRA_Pony Diffusion V6 XL.safetensors for SDXL-UNet with 722 keys at weight 1.0 (skipped 0 keys)
[LORA] Loaded /Users/USERNAME/Projects/stable-diffusion-webui-forge/models/Lora/Concept Art Twilight Style SDXL_LoRA_Pony Diffusion V6 XL.safetensors for SDXL-CLIP with 264 keys at weight 1.0 (skipped 0 keys)
[LORA] Loaded /Users/USERNAME/Projects/stable-diffusion-webui-forge/models/Lora/Expressive_H-000001.safetensors for SDXL-UNet with 722 keys at weight 0.8 (skipped 0 keys)
[LORA] Loaded /Users/USERNAME/Projects/stable-diffusion-webui-forge/models/Lora/Expressive_H-000001.safetensors for SDXL-CLIP with 264 keys at weight 0.8 (skipped 0 keys)
[LORA] Loaded /Users/USERNAME/Projects/stable-diffusion-webui-forge/models/Lora/Kenva.safetensors for SDXL-UNet with 722 keys at weight 0.7 (skipped 0 keys)
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[LORA] Loaded /Users/USERNAME/Projects/stable-diffusion-webui-forge/models/Lora/sinfully_stylish_SDXL.safetensors for SDXL-CLIP with 264 keys at weight 1.0 (skipped 0 keys)
[LORA] Loaded /Users/USERNAME/Projects/stable-diffusion-webui-forge/models/Lora/xl_more_art-full_v1.safetensors for SDXL-UNet with 788 keys at weight 0.7 (skipped 0 keys)
To load target model SDXLClipModel
Begin to load 1 model
Reuse 1 loaded models
Moving model(s) has taken 5.69 seconds
To load target model SDXL
Begin to load 1 model
Moving model(s) has taken 63.00 seconds
40%█████████████████▌ 8/20 [12:13<18:19, 91.65s/it]
To load target model AutoencoderKL 8/25 [13:31<29:04, 102.60s/it]
Begin to load 1 model
Moving model(s) has taken 2.36 seconds
Total progress: 32%████████▋ 8/25 [13:43<29:10, 102.97s/it]
Total progress: 32%████████▋ 8/25 [13:43<29:04, 102.60s/it]

In George Orwell’s Animal Farm which is on the subject of the existence of a society of animals living on the Manor Farm. One first thinks that this novel is about the animals living in a farm from the title. But as the story goes on, it gradually begins to make the readers understand the depth content of the workings of society in Communist Russia. George has accurately compared the society of human to the animals to the animals living in the Manor Farm. In this novel, author has compared the Russian revolution, where animals represent the significant personage and act as the leaders in the Russian Community. Animals are used to demonstrate the operation of the communist class system and how the citizens(people) respond to this and the effect of the leadership by early Russian leaders such as Stalin on the behavior of the people of Russia. For instance, the Old Major makes the speech to other animals about the idea of revolution. Since he dies before the beginning of the revolution, it could be compared to the Karl Marx, whose ideas set to the Communist revolution in motion. The seven commandments are consider as one of the important step in the revolution which changed by the rulers of the Farm. This paper talks about how the seven commandments were altered during throughout the story and whether it reflects the message of the Communist Manifesto.
After the rebellion took place in Manor Farm, it changed to Animal Farm where the set of laws was introduced to the citizens of the farm by the leaders. The set of laws which are known as The Seven Commandment are said to be “form an unalterable law by which all animals on Animal Farm must live forever after.”(Orwell) These Commandments were so important that they were painted by Snowball and Squealer “in giant white letters that could be read from thirty yards away.”(Orwell) The original Seven Commandments ran as:

1. Whatever goes upon two legs is an enemy.
2. Whatever goes upon four legs or has wings, is a friend.
3. No animal shall sleep in a bed
4. No animal shall drink alcohol.
5. No animal shall kill other animal.
6. No animal shall wear clothes.
7. All animals are equal.

These commandments were to be followed by all the animals living on the farm at all times regardless. As one can think from the reading, the simplest phrase that explains these commandments is “Four legs good, two legs bad.” As time passed by, the commandments were altered by the rulers of the farm. Napoleon (the pig who emerges as the leader of Animal Farm after rebellion) who very cleverly broke the commandment and reintroduced as “four legs good, two legs are better” Even though the first two commandments state that anyone on two legs is bad and should not be allowed in the farm, they were wracked in the first year. Since the pigs started walking on two legs, the first commandment was violated and more over, the hero of the Battle of the Cowshed, Snowball turned into an enemy of the Farm as he was thrown out by Napoleon and allowing trading through Mr. Whymper resulting in violation of commandments .
The pigs moved back in to the farm house which result into alteration of the first commandments. The third commandment restricts animals of the farm to sleep in the bed which was forced to change by Napoleon with the modification of the commandment by adding “with sheets.” After the rebellion took place in the farm, the first commandment overruled which was being “all animals equal.” As we read thru out the story the pigs were keep on changing the “unalterable laws” for their comfort just like we saw above with sleeping in the bed. According to Napoleon, sleeping on beds is not a major change yet it was not allowed earlier since humans lived on the farm slept on the bed. The pigs changed the commandment so wisely that the other animals of the farm didn’t think as the violation of the commandment.
The next commandment to change is “No animal shall kill other animal”. This happens not long after the confessions and executions of animals on the farm that were supposed traitors and in league with Snowball. After these executions, again Muriel, Clover and also Benjamin plus some other animals felt this did not square with this commandment. Once again, the pigs have changed the Commandments in order to justify their actions. The animals read the Commandment they though did not agree, “No animal shall kill other animal without cause”, and then the animals see how really the Commandments had not been violated.
The next commandment to change is when Napoleon abuses his power and made life harder for other animals. The pigs impose more control while reserving privileges for themselves. Squealer justifies every statement Napoleon makes, even the pigs’ alteration of the Seven Commandments of Animalism. “No animal shall drink alcohol” is changed to “No animal shall drink alcohol to excess” when the pigs discover the farmer’s whisky.
One would never think that pigs ever made change to the commandment about the clothes as they were enough powerful to rule other animals. The seventh commandment explains that all animals in the world are treated equally without distinction. Instead of considering the commandments as “unalterable laws,” they were replaced by worthless slogan “All animals are equal, but some are more equal than others,” which is totally opposite to with what they were introduced to other animals.
Orwell has used images to make his argument stronger. He has used events to help readers to understand his thoughts. While reading, we develop a feeling of sadness inside getting attach emotionally to the story. Orwell writes in a way to targets readers emotions because they have the ability to experience and feel the pain suffered by the animals in the farm. The following scene could create a strong sorrow to the readers “So Napoleon, with the help of his dogs, slaughters anyone who is said to be disloyal. The tale of confessions and executions went on, until there was a pile of corpses lying before Napoleon’s feet and the air was heavy with the smell of blood, which had been unknown there since the expulsion of Jones.” To top it off, Napoleon outlaws Beasts of England, which had served as one of the only remaining ties between Animal Farm and old Major?” (Orwell 65).
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In conclusion, it is clear that George Orwell intended his novel to allegorically represent the figures and events of the Russian Revolution, and through the characters of Mr. Jones as Czar Nicholas, Old Major as Karl Marx, and Napoleon as Joseph Stalin, Animal Farm makes a profound statement regarding the abuse of power. The animals began their revolution with the best intentions. However, their noble ideas of a utopian society where “all animals are created equal” gradually deteriorated into a totalitarian state with a cruel and unjust dictator which, of course, mirrors the chain of events that turned Marx’s dream of a classless society into the nightmare of Stalin’s ruthless regime. This evil cycle of rebellion, power, and then corruption is best described by Barbara Tuchman: “Every successful revolution puts on in time the robes of the tyrant it has deposed.”
Work Cited
Orwell, George. George Orwell’s Animal Farm. New York: Nick Hern Books, 2004. Print
Coffin, Judith G., and Robert C. Stacey. Western Civilizations. 16th ed. Vol. 2. 500 Fifth Ave, New York, N.Y. 10110: Norton & Company, 2008. Print.

DC Next Proudly Presents:

NIGHTWING:

In Hunter Hybrid
Issue Fourteen: The Meek Shall Inherit
Written by AdamantAce
Edited by PatrollinTheMojave
 
<< First Issue < Prev. Next Issue > Coming Next Month
 
 
Dick's heart hammered against his chest like a pounding storm as he stood amidst the laboratory, flanked by Artemis and Barry Allen, the Flash. The weight of worry for Mar'i bore down on him unbearably, each moment without her amplifying his anxiety.
In the secluded closet hidden at the back of the lab, Dick and Artemis had found something haunting: a trove of withered seedlings, dead plants that looked alien in nature. Assuming the worst, but needing to confirm, Dick had quickly summoned a friend with a history of running genetic samples - none other than the Scarlet Speedster - to the scene.
Barry’s brow furrowed in concentration as he examined the specimens, having already run several tests.
“I'm limited in what I can do here; I'm a CSI, not a xenologist,” Barry admitted with regret, evoking his favourite chief medical officer of fiction. “Really, this really feels like a job for someone like Cadmus. Alien DNA is their whole deal.”
Dick could only grimace at the suggestion, reminded of the sickening experiments he had unearthed in the bowels of the Chicago cloning laboratory, of the dozens of aborted attempts at cloning Bruce Wayne. It was hard to stomach, especially knowing that he still had no idea who was responsible. “Not an option," he replied firmly. “Not Cadmus.”
Barry raised an eyebrow, his curiosity evident in his expression. “You don't believe those rumours about the Superboy clones, do you?" he asked. “They’re Reawakened through and through. Blame the other universes’ Cadmuses.”
In response, Dick shook his head. “It’s not that. It’s… something else.”
Barry then looked to Artemis and smiled. “It’s, uh… nice to meet you properly by the way,” he said. “I heard you, uh, shoot arrows.”
Despite the terrible situation they were in, Artemis allowed herself a snicker in response to the Flash’s awkwardness. “Among other things. It’s important to branch out, seeing as I know you already have an arrows guy.”
Just then, Tim emerged from behind a sliding door, draped in his red and black Rook gear, a stack of papers in hand. “Got the printouts you asked for,” he said, handing them over to Barry.
Barry swiftly flipped through the pages at super speed, his expression growing grim as he absorbed the information.
“What is it?” asked Artemis.
“What we feared,” he announced somberly. “The dead seedlings match the profile of alien species, with a significant DNA match for the Morning Eclipse sample you got from Starling’s fingernails.”
Dick's frustration boiled over, his voice dripping with anger. “Wilkof,” he spat, his jaw clenched in fury. “He let that damn killer plant loose.”
Tim struck himself in the shoulder in self-reproach. “I should've put it together sooner,” he muttered. “Wilkof knew plenty about Tamaran even before you let him speak to Mar’i.”
“It’s worse than we thought,” added Barry, and everyone’s blood turned cold. “This Dr Wilkof wasn't just releasing the Morning Eclipse, he was trying to propagate them; taking cuttings to grow more of them. We’re just lucky the Earth's sunlight is too diffuse for their growth.”
Dick's eyes widened in horror. “So he’s trying to create an army of killer plants?”
Barry nodded solemnly. “An army or a particularly menacing greenhouse.”
Artemis's brow furrowed as she pieced together a crucial detail. “Wait, a couple years ago they had me subbing in the bio department at school for a few months. I’m pretty sure plants grown from cuttings are meant to be genetically identical to the parent.”
Tim cursed under his breath and then reached for the printouts to give them a check over himself. “You’re right! Genetic variation only occurs after pollination. But these plants aren't self-pollinated. They're too distinct from the original sample taken from Mar'i’s attack.”
Barry's voice quivered as he raised a troubling possibility. “Could there be two adult killer plants on the loose?”
“No, it's not that,” Tim quickly replied again, his expression grave as he looked up from the stack of papers. “It's worse.”
Artemis' heart sank. “How could it possibly be worse?”
“The dead seedlings share identical DNA with each other. And every single one of their genes is present in the parent sample. But the parent also has additional chromosomes that all of the seedlings lack,” Tim explained as his eyes traced the text on the papers once more. “The parent had an extra 48 chromosomes.”
Barry's face paled. "48? Are you sure?”
“48? What does that mean?” asked Dick, looking rapidly back and forth between Tim and Barry.
Artemis gritted her teeth. “Humans have 48 chromosomes. The adult plant is half human.”
“Fully human,” Barry corrected. “And fully plant too. A symbiosis.”
“What does that mean?” asked Dick, scared of the answer he would soon receive.
“It means I think Wilkof merged himself with the plant.”
 
🔹🔹 🪶 🔹🔹
 
Ker-tonk.
Ker-tonk.
Ker-tonk.
Mar’i lay in the darkness of the car’s trunk, helpless. She couldn’t tell how long it had been since she last felt the sun’s warmth on her skin. She tried to summon childhood memories of Tamaran, of the sun her father had found oppressive and her mother found liberating. But they were distant and blurred, echoes from another lifetime - and another timeline.
As the car rumbled on, she focused on her senses, trying to glean any information about her surroundings. The air was stale and musty, tinged with the scent of oil and rubber. The vibrations of the road beneath her reverberated through her body, a constant reminder of her captivity.
Eventually, the car came to a halt, and Mar’i braced herself as the trunk door creaked open, flooding the confined space with blinding light. Blinking rapidly, she squinted against the harsh glare, feeling the rejuvenating solar rays bathing her, a stark contrast to the cold darkness of her confinement.
Dr Wilkof loomed over her, his appearance now almost normal except for a slight pallor that hinted at something darker beneath the surface. He reached out, his hands enveloping her wrists, which were bound with withered rope. Thick, barbed vines extended from the sleeves of his coat, renewing her restraints and further draining what little power reserves she had left.
As he dragged her up out of the trunk, Mar’i found herself in the midst of a desolate car park, surrounded by nothing but empty space and the looming silhouette of a large hangar. She had nary a clue of where they were.
“It will be easier if you don’t struggle,” he said, his tone devoid of joy or malice, as if he were simply stating a fact. But Mar’i knew better than to trust his words.
As Wilkof led her towards the hangar, Mar’i stumbled along behind him, the vines around her wrists taut like a leash. She tried to reason with him, to appeal to the vestiges of his humanity buried beneath the madness that gripped him.
“You don’t have to do this,” she implored, unsure of how much of his humanity really remained. “The plant doesn’t have to control you.”
Wilkof's eyes gleamed with a haunted fervour as he shook his head, the vines’ grip tightening around Mar'i’s wrists. “I've sacrificed too much to stop now,” he muttered. Those words carried a strange quality,like they weren’t fully his. Maybe it was the plant talking, maybe they were words he had rehearsed to himself enough times for them to become hollow. “I won’t let it all be in vain.”
For a moment, Mar’i was left to wonder what he meant by that. Then she remembered what little she knew about him, and a shiver ran down her spine. (He had fed the rest of his team from the lab to the plant, a grim sacrifice to fuel his delusions of grandeur.*
“No one cared about mild-mannered Hunter Wilkof,” he continued, his voice cracking with bitterness. “The plant promised to make me someone special, to make me famous.”
Mar’i shook her head in disbelief as she continued to be lugged along. “The plant doesn’t speak,” she insisted with a rising urgency. “Its pheromones mess with your mind, make you see and hear things that aren’t there.”
But Wilkof brushed off her words with a scoff. “I don’t care,” he replied, his gaze fixed on the hangar ahead. “I fed the plant like I was told, but the fame never came. I let it eat the only thing I ever loved. But… nothing changed.”
Her heart yearned to find some way to free him of the plant’s clutches, to help him see the light, but she knew well what desperation could do to a person, if left unchecked. She knew how far someone could fall.
“Then I realised… I wasn’t meant for prizes and celebrity,” he continued, deranged. “That wasn’t what the plant had planned for us. It’s just like you said in your Tamaranean fairy tale, the Morning Eclipse and its legend. I knew we were meant for infamy, but just one plant and its keeper wouldn’t do the trick. We needed a bigger family.”
At this point, Hunter stopped, and the pair had finally reached the mouth of the hangar. Mar’i searched through the darkness, but was struggling to see straight at all thanks to the toxic, draining effect of her Morning Eclipse vine restraints.
Wilkof just stared into the darkness, and continued. “I tried taking cuttings, but no matter how much blood, meat or southern exposure I gave them… it wasn’t enough, and they wilted. It wouldn’t tell me why it wasn’t working, and all I knew was that the plant was from Tamaran,” he confessed, his voice growing hoarse with emotion. “So I went to look for Starfire, but she was in space. And then… then I found you. A hybrid like me.”
But throughout Hunter’s grim confession, Mar’i was still missing some important details. “How did you know the plant was from Tamaran?” She defied him, “It doesn’t have a mind of its own, so it couldn’t have told you.”
Hunter smiled. “I used to drive out into the countryside and just leave my car behind, go for these long walks to clear my head when city life got too much,” he explained, a shroud of something resembling peace slowly falling over him. “I always felt guilty for it, reasoning I should have been spending that time in the lab, looking for ways to help people. But this one day, a few years ago now, I realised it was all worth it.”
He then pulled a remote from his pocket and pressed a button at its centre. As the lights of the hangar flickered to life, they revealed a magnificent sight, something Mar’i immediately recognised as a First Class Vegan Star Cruiser - a Tamaranean space vessel from the shipyards of Okaara - resplendent in hues of silver and violet. The ship stood tall and proud, a beacon of extraterrestrial wonder amidst the mundane surroundings of the hangar. But why was it here? And how did Wilkof have it?
He gestured towards the ship with an odd gleam in his eyes. “Suddenly, and without warning, this spaceship came crashing down through the sky just a couple of miles away, out here, where it was just me there to see it,” he explained. “So I rushed over, I searched the wreckage… and that’s where I found it. It was only a sapling, a baby really, and it called out to me. I knew I needed to take it home, back to the lab, back for testing.”
Mar’i shook her head. How was he to have known back then that the plant was pulling his strings?
“I stashed the ship away, knowing its potential,” he confessed. “The ship’s computer confirmed its origins: Tamaran. Apparently it even used to belong to a princess named Komand’r.”
Mar’i's mind raced as she processed this revelation. Komand’r - also known as the tyrant queen Blackfire - was Koriand’r’s sister, and Mar’i’s aunt. Someone she had already come across early in her time in this universe. Then, just in time for him to answer it without her asking, Mar’i happened upon another awful question.
“I got some guys in to make repairs, and another guy to… basically hotwire the thing, before I fed them all to the plant. But the ship won’t fly without one final security measure,” continued Hunter, his gaze fixed on Mar’i. “A pilot with Tamaranean DNA.”
 
🔹🔹 🪶 🔹🔹
 
Back in the lab, Dick, Artemis and Tim continued to put the pieces together, now sans Barry who had raced off to join Wally in combing the city for either Mar’i or the Morning Eclipse, not knowing that both were far from the city limits.
“Why Mar’i?” Dick demanded. “What does Wilkof want with her? Her Starbolts could be used to fuel the plant and its cuttings, but that’d only make a difference at night, when they can’t get sunlight for themselves.”
Artemis nodded in agreement. “Surely they can survive a night without sunlight,” she surmised. “So what else would he come to Mar’i for?”
“Could it be her DNA?” posed Tim. “Maybe he has a use for DNA from a Tamanrean.”
“What kind of uses?” asked Dick. It wouldn’t be that, but his mind once again returned to the cloning vats of Cadmus. “No, it’s not that.”
“Then what else could it be?” Artemis sighed, frustrated. All of this analysis, brainstorming and scheming, and they were no closer to finding the missing Titan.
Then, Dick’s face blanched with fear. “She knows the way,” he said simply, his voice barely above a whisper.
“The way to what?” asked Tim, his own anxiety rising.
“To Tamaran,” Dick replied with dread. “A place where the sun shines bright enough for a hundred Morning Eclipses.”
 
🔹🔹 🪶 🔹🔹
 
In the dimly lit interior of what was once her aunt Komand'r's ship, Mar'i's heart raced with fear and uncertainty, now strapped into her seat beside the demented Dr Wilkof. The vessel, a marvel of Vega System technology, exuded an otherworldly aura, its sleek silver surfaces shimmering with an ethereal glow. Yet, to Mar'i, it felt more like a prison than a wonder.
She couldn't shake the sense of dread that gripped her. Tamaran, a place she once called home, now loomed before her as an unfamiliar and foreboding destination. She knew of the tumultuous history of this universe's Tamaran, the tales of military coups and the reign of the Orange Lantern Larfleeze, all of which added to her apprehension. The planet had hundreds of Morning Eclipses, but none had ever merged with a sapient vessel before. The killer plants were best survived by being completely ignored, which wouldn’t be possible with an intelligent host scheming and bringing the plants to their vulnerable prey. Could she inflict that threat on Tamaran?
Wilkof's jubilant smile did little to assuage her fears as he spoke. “When we reach the planet - with its gleaming sun - I’ll have everything I need. I'll create more Morning Eclipses, genetically superior ones, and they will bond with Tamaranean vessels to enhance their intelligence. And then there’ll be no more sacrifices, just feeding.”
Mar'i's stomach churned at the thought of being complicit in Wilkof's madness. But she also knew that she was in no position to bargain. And he knew it.
With a heavy heart and a sense of resignation, Mar'i steeled herself for the task ahead and the ship hummed to life around them, hurtling toward an uncertain destiny.
Then, as they quickly hit sonic speed, Hunter turned to his pilot and prisoner, keen to share a thought he hoped would bring her peace. “I want you to know… once we get to Tamaran, I’ll never have to return to Earth again. Don’t think about where we’re going, think about what we’re leaving behind. This is you saving planet Earth.”
 
 
Next: Sun it up in Nightwing #15
 

I was shared this while on a thankfully civilized talk. Here's the link, but I'll clean up the original text to be more digestible, maybe alter a few of it.
https://www.reddit.com/AcademicBiblical/comments/1c5ucxj/response_to_sikers_analysis_of_homosexuality_in
Here goes

1. Siker seems to be offering a scholarly version of Matthew Vines' argument
It being "Paul can't be condemning what we think of as committed loving homosexual relationships, because he was thinking of bad things like prostitution or uncontrolled-lust homosexuality."
So, the idea is to claim that Paul's letters can't be enlisted to authorize contemporary homophobia since he wouldn't have known about the kinds of relationships gay Christians want to have now.
I appreciate the contemporary ethics of Siker's approach since homophobia is dehumanizing and harmful, but the idea that this approach inherently reflects "liberal leanings" (Siker's claim) ignores how plenty of liberals reject homophobia without trying to enlist and sanitize the Bible as support.
2. I disagree with the Innocent Paul claim as Vines postulated
It is true that Greek, Roman, and Jewish sources do not often feature something resembling "a committed loving queer sexual relationship," but this is where confusion often sets in; there must be a distinction between

• Whether such queer relationships were really nonexistent in Mediterranean antiquity and if writers were aware and
• Whether what's going on is that the dominant Greco-Roman sexual ideologies that shape our texts have no room for such relationships

According to dominant ideals, powerful men were supposed to actively penetrate those below themselves on the social and gender hierarchy; a man who delighted in being penetrated by another man was by relative definition effeminate, and thus not to be celebrated. Women loving and sexually engaging with other women meant they weren't being used by (the right) men, and thus Greek and Roman writers tended to disparage, ridicule, and reframe female homoeroticism.
But our texts aren't direct sociological data, they reflect and think with dominant sexual ideologies, which by definition erased/reframed divergent sexual and gender expressions. This is why the likes of Amy Richlin,[1] Bernadette Brooten,[2] Deborah Kamen and Sarah Levin-Richardson,[3] and Jimmy Hoke**[4]** have argued that even though our sources erase, reframe, and distort people who liked any non-normative sex and relationships in Mediterranean antiquity, they still existed.
Bottom line: Writers like Paul could certainly have been aware of queer sexualities and relationships that were not enslaved prostitution or pederasty. Folks like Vines and Siker unintentionally reinscribe the association between homoeroticism and pedophilia/sexual violence.
For what it's worth, everyone should read Richlin's article from 30 years ago. Doesn't matter whether you agree with all of her arguments, it's brilliant scholarship.
3. Corpus point of view
There's a related debate about whether our texts even have a category for something like sexual orientation or simply imagine sex via other grids like active vs. passive/penetrator vs. penetrated (e.g., see Craig Williams' excellent sketch of these paradigms in Roman literature**[5]**).
The most common scholarly opinion in terms of Greco-Roman antiquity gender-sex studies is that our sources don't reflect ideas like sexual orientation, so orientational categories aren't historically helpful for reading our texts.
Other scholars like Richlin and Brooten have critiqued these positions, though they still forcefully argue that our sources thought with overtly hierarchical patriarchal ideologies about sex, like penetrator and penetrated. This final point is something on which Richlin is often misrepresented, which is bizarre since she wrote one of the classic books for understanding such dominant sexual ideologies.[6]
4. Paul Romana
Romans 1:18-32's basic point is that Paul discussed the total moral failure of Gentiles by sketching their (feminizing) descent into being dominated by their passions, one of the resultant illustrations of the Gentiles being their domination by their passions through transgressing the gendered order, exemplified by Gentile men losing sexual control of "their women" (i.e., these men are failed men from this angle) and each other in 1:26-27 - an inversion of the normative sexual order.
Paul treated male-male anal penetration as a straight illustration of Gentile corruption and domination by their passions. It's part of his grander point that Gentiles became (effeminately) enslaved by their passions (see Stanley Stowers' classic articulation of this decline-of-civilization reading of Rom 1:18-32**[7]**).
The key issue here is that there's no literary reason to think he only had in mind enslaved prostitution or pederasty, ANY male-male anal penetration upended the normative gender order. If anything, he might have indicated elsewhere that free men penetrating (raping) their slaves (gender irrelevant) was okay since that use of slaves was acceptable within many moral schemes; Paul never objected to it, and some passages potentially align with treating enslaved humans as legitimate non-marriage sexual outlets (e.g., as argued by Jennifer Glancy**[8]** regarding 1 Thess 4:4's εἰδέναι ἕκαστον ὑμῶν τὸ ἑαυτοῦ σκεῦος κτᾶσθαι("that each of you know his own vessel to possess in sanctification and honor")).
5. Linguistic flexibility
There's no reason to limit οὔτε μαλακοὶ οὔτε ἀρσενοκοῖται of 1 Cor 6:9 to prostitution; "malakos" means "soft"/"effeminate." In Greek texts, it often does refer to men who are penetrated sexually - obviously effeminizing - but a man who was unrestrained or excessive in his penetrating of women is likewise an example of "effeminate" in Greek sources.
ἀρσενοκοίτης's meaning remains debated, but the etymological game of making it "man-bedders" is problematic; rather than get bogged down in this lexical discussion, the larger point regarding Siker is, again, that the issue of whether "committed same-sex relationships" are in view is irrelevant.
Paul listed effeminate Gentiles as those who will not inherit the kingdom of God; a male prostitute is by definition effeminate for these discourses, but so would a man in a "committed same-sex relationship" who is anally penetrated.
6. Futility
I don't get why "liberal-leaning" scholars think they can salvage a moral Bible by handwaving Paul's (what we can redescribe as) homophobia, even if all of Siker's claims were true, Paul's logic is entirely premised on reprehensibly misogynist gender ideologies that animate his other arguments, so even trying to save the dude from Those Two Bad Verses leaves you with the steaming animal manure that is said premise.
Hope this helps!
Sources
[1] "Not Before Homosexuality: The Materiality of the Cinaedus and the Roman Law against Love between Men," JHS 3 [1993]: 523-73
[2] Love Between Women: Early Christian Responses to Female Homoeroticism [Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1996]
[3] "Lusty Ladies in the Roman Literary Imaginary," in Ancient Sex: New Essays, ed R. Blondell and K. Ormand [Columbus: Ohio State University Press, 2015], 231-51
[4] Feminism, Queerness, Affect, and Romans: Under God? [Atlanta: SBL Press, 2021], 27-37
[5] Roman Homosexuality, 2d Ed [New York: Oxford University Press, 2010] [6] The Garden of Priapus: Sexuality and Aggression in Roman Humor, Rev. Ed. (New York: Oxford University Press, 1992)
[7] A Rereading of Romans: Justice, Jews, and Gentiles [New Haven: Yale University Press, 1994]
[8] Slavery in Early Christianity [New York: Oxford University Press, 2002]

Maybe take apart some/all points or even tell me how to cope.
I thought Paul was that based guy for giving credit to those two women (Phoebe and Priscilla) and stated that people regardless of origin or gender or status were one in the big IM

I was shared this while on a thankfully civilized talk. Here's the link, but I'll clean up the original text to be more digestible, maybe alter a few of it.
https://www.reddit.com/AcademicBiblical/comments/1c5ucxj/response_to_sikers_analysis_of_homosexuality_in
Here goes

1. Siker seems to be offering a scholarly version of Matthew Vines' argument
It being "Paul can't be condemning what we think of as committed loving homosexual relationships, because he was thinking of bad things like prostitution or uncontrolled-lust homosexuality."
So, the idea is to claim that Paul's letters can't be enlisted to authorize contemporary homophobia since he wouldn't have known about the kinds of relationships gay Christians want to have now.
I appreciate the contemporary ethics of Siker's approach since homophobia is dehumanizing and harmful, but the idea that this approach inherently reflects "liberal leanings" (Siker's claim) ignores how plenty of liberals reject homophobia without trying to enlist and sanitize the Bible as support.
2. I disagree with the Innocent Paul claim as Vines postulated
It is true that Greek, Roman, and Jewish sources do not often feature something resembling "a committed loving queer sexual relationship," but this is where confusion often sets in; there must be a distinction between

• Whether such queer relationships were really nonexistent in Mediterranean antiquity and if writers were aware and
• Whether what's going on is that the dominant Greco-Roman sexual ideologies that shape our texts have no room for such relationships

According to dominant ideals, powerful men were supposed to actively penetrate those below themselves on the social and gender hierarchy; a man who delighted in being penetrated by another man was by relative definition effeminate, and thus not to be celebrated. Women loving and sexually engaging with other women meant they weren't being used by (the right) men, and thus Greek and Roman writers tended to disparage, ridicule, and reframe female homoeroticism.
But our texts aren't direct sociological data, they reflect and think with dominant sexual ideologies, which by definition erased/reframed divergent sexual and gender expressions. This is why the likes of Amy Richlin,[1] Bernadette Brooten,[2] Deborah Kamen and Sarah Levin-Richardson,[3] and Jimmy Hoke**[4]** have argued that even though our sources erase, reframe, and distort people who liked any non-normative sex and relationships in Mediterranean antiquity, they still existed.
Bottom line: Writers like Paul could certainly have been aware of queer sexualities and relationships that were not enslaved prostitution or pederasty. Folks like Vines and Siker unintentionally reinscribe the association between homoeroticism and pedophilia/sexual violence.
For what it's worth, everyone should read Richlin's article from 30 years ago. Doesn't matter whether you agree with all of her arguments, it's brilliant scholarship.
3. Corpus point of view
There's a related debate about whether our texts even have a category for something like sexual orientation or simply imagine sex via other grids like active vs. passive/penetrator vs. penetrated (e.g., see Craig Williams' excellent sketch of these paradigms in Roman literature**[5]**).
The most common scholarly opinion in terms of Greco-Roman antiquity gender-sex studies is that our sources don't reflect ideas like sexual orientation, so orientational categories aren't historically helpful for reading our texts.
Other scholars like Richlin and Brooten have critiqued these positions, though they still forcefully argue that our sources thought with overtly hierarchical patriarchal ideologies about sex, like penetrator and penetrated. This final point is something on which Richlin is often misrepresented, which is bizarre since she wrote one of the classic books for understanding such dominant sexual ideologies.[6]
4. Paul Romana
Romans 1:18-32's basic point is that Paul discussed the total moral failure of Gentiles by sketching their (feminizing) descent into being dominated by their passions, one of the resultant illustrations of the Gentiles being their domination by their passions through transgressing the gendered order, exemplified by Gentile men losing sexual control of "their women" (i.e., these men are failed men from this angle) and each other in 1:26-27 - an inversion of the normative sexual order.
Paul treated male-male anal penetration as a straight illustration of Gentile corruption and domination by their passions. It's part of his grander point that Gentiles became (effeminately) enslaved by their passions (see Stanley Stowers' classic articulation of this decline-of-civilization reading of Rom 1:18-32**[7]**).
The key issue here is that there's no literary reason to think he only had in mind enslaved prostitution or pederasty, ANY male-male anal penetration upended the normative gender order. If anything, he might have indicated elsewhere that free men penetrating (raping) their slaves (gender irrelevant) was okay since that use of slaves was acceptable within many moral schemes; Paul never objected to it, and some passages potentially align with treating enslaved humans as legitimate non-marriage sexual outlets (e.g., as argued by Jennifer Glancy**[8]** regarding 1 Thess 4:4's εἰδέναι ἕκαστον ὑμῶν τὸ ἑαυτοῦ σκεῦος κτᾶσθαι("that each of you know his own vessel to possess in sanctification and honor")).
5. Linguistic flexibility
There's no reason to limit οὔτε μαλακοὶ οὔτε ἀρσενοκοῖται of 1 Cor 6:9 to prostitution; "malakos" means "soft"/"effeminate." In Greek texts, it often does refer to men who are penetrated sexually - obviously effeminizing - but a man who was unrestrained or excessive in his penetrating of women is likewise an example of "effeminate" in Greek sources.
ἀρσενοκοίτης's meaning remains debated, but the etymological game of making it "man-bedders" is problematic; rather than get bogged down in this lexical discussion, the larger point regarding Siker is, again, that the issue of whether "committed same-sex relationships" are in view is irrelevant.
Paul listed effeminate Gentiles as those who will not inherit the kingdom of God; a male prostitute is by definition effeminate for these discourses, but so would a man in a "committed same-sex relationship" who is anally penetrated.
6. Futility
I don't get why "liberal-leaning" scholars think they can salvage a moral Bible by handwaving Paul's (what we can redescribe as) homophobia, even if all of Siker's claims were true, Paul's logic is entirely premised on reprehensibly misogynist gender ideologies that animate his other arguments, so even trying to save the dude from Those Two Bad Verses leaves you with the steaming animal manure that is said premise.
Hope this helps!
Sources
[1] "Not Before Homosexuality: The Materiality of the Cinaedus and the Roman Law against Love between Men," JHS 3 [1993]: 523-73
[2] Love Between Women: Early Christian Responses to Female Homoeroticism [Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1996]
[3] "Lusty Ladies in the Roman Literary Imaginary," in Ancient Sex: New Essays, ed R. Blondell and K. Ormand [Columbus: Ohio State University Press, 2015], 231-51
[4] Feminism, Queerness, Affect, and Romans: Under God? [Atlanta: SBL Press, 2021], 27-37
[5] Roman Homosexuality, 2d Ed [New York: Oxford University Press, 2010] [6] The Garden of Priapus: Sexuality and Aggression in Roman Humor, Rev. Ed. (New York: Oxford University Press, 1992)
[7] A Rereading of Romans: Justice, Jews, and Gentiles [New Haven: Yale University Press, 1994]
[8] Slavery in Early Christianity [New York: Oxford University Press, 2002]

Maybe take apart some/all points or even tell me how to cope.
I thought Paul was that based guy for giving credit to those two women (Phoebe and Priscilla) and stated that people regardless of origin or gender or status were one in the big IM

I was shared this while on a thankfully civilized talk. Here's the link, but I'll clean up the original text to be more digestible, maybe alter a few of it.
https://www.reddit.com/AcademicBiblical/comments/1c5ucxj/response_to_sikers_analysis_of_homosexuality_in
Here goes

1. Siker seems to be offering a scholarly version of Matthew Vines' argument
It being "Paul can't be condemning what we think of as committed loving homosexual relationships, because he was thinking of bad things like prostitution or uncontrolled-lust homosexuality."
So, the idea is to claim that Paul's letters can't be enlisted to authorize contemporary homophobia since he wouldn't have known about the kinds of relationships gay Christians want to have now.
I appreciate the contemporary ethics of Siker's approach since homophobia is dehumanizing and harmful, but the idea that this approach inherently reflects "liberal leanings" (Siker's claim) ignores how plenty of liberals reject homophobia without trying to enlist and sanitize the Bible as support.
2. I disagree with the Innocent Paul claim as Vines postulated
It is true that Greek, Roman, and Jewish sources do not often feature something resembling "a committed loving queer sexual relationship," but this is where confusion often sets in; there must be a distinction between

• Whether such queer relationships were really nonexistent in Mediterranean antiquity and if writers were aware and
• Whether what's going on is that the dominant Greco-Roman sexual ideologies that shape our texts have no room for such relationships

According to dominant ideals, powerful men were supposed to actively penetrate those below themselves on the social and gender hierarchy; a man who delighted in being penetrated by another man was by relative definition effeminate, and thus not to be celebrated. Women loving and sexually engaging with other women meant they weren't being used by (the right) men, and thus Greek and Roman writers tended to disparage, ridicule, and reframe female homoeroticism.
But our texts aren't direct sociological data, they reflect and think with dominant sexual ideologies, which by definition erased/reframed divergent sexual and gender expressions. This is why the likes of Amy Richlin,[1] Bernadette Brooten,[2] Deborah Kamen and Sarah Levin-Richardson,[3] and Jimmy Hoke**[4]** have argued that even though our sources erase, reframe, and distort people who liked any non-normative sex and relationships in Mediterranean antiquity, they still existed.
Bottom line: Writers like Paul could certainly have been aware of queer sexualities and relationships that were not enslaved prostitution or pederasty. Folks like Vines and Siker unintentionally reinscribe the association between homoeroticism and pedophilia/sexual violence.
For what it's worth, everyone should read Richlin's article from 30 years ago. Doesn't matter whether you agree with all of her arguments, it's brilliant scholarship.
3. Corpus point of view
There's a related debate about whether our texts even have a category for something like sexual orientation or simply imagine sex via other grids like active vs. passive/penetrator vs. penetrated (e.g., see Craig Williams' excellent sketch of these paradigms in Roman literature**[5]**).
The most common scholarly opinion in terms of Greco-Roman antiquity gender-sex studies is that our sources don't reflect ideas like sexual orientation, so orientational categories aren't historically helpful for reading our texts.
Other scholars like Richlin and Brooten have critiqued these positions, though they still forcefully argue that our sources thought with overtly hierarchical patriarchal ideologies about sex, like penetrator and penetrated. This final point is something on which Richlin is often misrepresented, which is bizarre since she wrote one of the classic books for understanding such dominant sexual ideologies.[6]
4. Paul Romana
Romans 1:18-32's basic point is that Paul discussed the total moral failure of Gentiles by sketching their (feminizing) descent into being dominated by their passions, one of the resultant illustrations of the Gentiles being their domination by their passions through transgressing the gendered order, exemplified by Gentile men losing sexual control of "their women" (i.e., these men are failed men from this angle) and each other in 1:26-27 - an inversion of the normative sexual order.
Paul treated male-male anal penetration as a straight illustration of Gentile corruption and domination by their passions. It's part of his grander point that Gentiles became (effeminately) enslaved by their passions (see Stanley Stowers' classic articulation of this decline-of-civilization reading of Rom 1:18-32**[7]**).
The key issue here is that there's no literary reason to think he only had in mind enslaved prostitution or pederasty, ANY male-male anal penetration upended the normative gender order. If anything, he might have indicated elsewhere that free men penetrating (raping) their slaves (gender irrelevant) was okay since that use of slaves was acceptable within many moral schemes; Paul never objected to it, and some passages potentially align with treating enslaved humans as legitimate non-marriage sexual outlets (e.g., as argued by Jennifer Glancy**[8]** regarding 1 Thess 4:4's εἰδέναι ἕκαστον ὑμῶν τὸ ἑαυτοῦ σκεῦος κτᾶσθαι("that each of you know his own vessel to possess in sanctification and honor")).
5. Linguistic flexibility
There's no reason to limit οὔτε μαλακοὶ οὔτε ἀρσενοκοῖται of 1 Cor 6:9 to prostitution; "malakos" means "soft"/"effeminate." In Greek texts, it often does refer to men who are penetrated sexually - obviously effeminizing - but a man who was unrestrained or excessive in his penetrating of women is likewise an example of "effeminate" in Greek sources.
ἀρσενοκοίτης's meaning remains debated, but the etymological game of making it "man-bedders" is problematic; rather than get bogged down in this lexical discussion, the larger point regarding Siker is, again, that the issue of whether "committed same-sex relationships" are in view is irrelevant.
Paul listed effeminate Gentiles as those who will not inherit the kingdom of God; a male prostitute is by definition effeminate for these discourses, but so would a man in a "committed same-sex relationship" who is anally penetrated.
6. Futility
I don't get why "liberal-leaning" scholars think they can salvage a moral Bible by handwaving Paul's (what we can redescribe as) homophobia, even if all of Siker's claims were true, Paul's logic is entirely premised on reprehensibly misogynist gender ideologies that animate his other arguments, so even trying to save the dude from Those Two Bad Verses leaves you with the steaming animal manure that is said premise.
Hope this helps!
Sources
[1] "Not Before Homosexuality: The Materiality of the Cinaedus and the Roman Law against Love between Men," JHS 3 [1993]: 523-73
[2] Love Between Women: Early Christian Responses to Female Homoeroticism [Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1996]
[3] "Lusty Ladies in the Roman Literary Imaginary," in Ancient Sex: New Essays, ed R. Blondell and K. Ormand [Columbus: Ohio State University Press, 2015], 231-51
[4] Feminism, Queerness, Affect, and Romans: Under God? [Atlanta: SBL Press, 2021], 27-37
[5] Roman Homosexuality, 2d Ed [New York: Oxford University Press, 2010] [6] The Garden of Priapus: Sexuality and Aggression in Roman Humor, Rev. Ed. (New York: Oxford University Press, 1992)
[7] A Rereading of Romans: Justice, Jews, and Gentiles [New Haven: Yale University Press, 1994]
[8] Slavery in Early Christianity [New York: Oxford University Press, 2002]

Maybe take apart some/all points or even tell me how to cope.
I thought Paul was that based guy for giving credit to those two women (Phoebe and Priscilla) and stated that people regardless of origin or gender or status were one in the big IM
I hope I chose the right tag

I am trying to publish data to pubsub in topic with schema type as Avro.
I have created a topic with a schema in Avro format specifying the fields, also created a subscriber.
Now to publish the messages I am writing the below code as per pubsub documentation.
I have a SampleTest.avsc file to has Avro schema in this format

{ "type": "record", "name": "Avro", "fields": [ { "name": "event_type", "type": [ "null", "string" ], "default": null }, { "name": "field1", "type": [ "null", "string" ], "default": null }, { "name": "field2", "type": [ "null", "int" ], "default": null }, { "name": "created_at", "type": "string" } ] } 

And my code is this:

import os import io import logging import json from avro.io import BinaryEncoder, DatumWriter, Validate import avro.schema as schema from google.cloud.pubsub import PublisherClient from google.api_core.exceptions import NotFound from datetime import datetime publisher_client = PublisherClient() data = { "event_type": "23", "field1": "test", "field2": 100000, "created_at": datetime.now().strftime("%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S") } def get_schema(): avsc_file = os.path.join(os.path.dirname(__file__), "SampleTest.avsc") print(avsc_file) with open(avsc_file, "r") as file: avro_schema = schema.parse(file.read()) def write_to_pub_sub(record: dict, publisher_client: PublisherClient): logging.debug(f"data to insert: {record}") project_id = get_project_id() topic_id = "SampleTest" avro_schema = get_schema() writer = DatumWriter(avro_schema) bout = io.BytesIO() encoder = BinaryEncoder(bout) writer.write(record, encoder) data = bout.getvalue() try: if data: topic_path = publisher_client.topic_path(project_id, topic_id) future = publisher_client.publish(topic_path, data) print(f"Published message ID: {future.result()}") except NotFound: print(f"{topic_id} not found.") write_to_pub_sub(data, publisher_client) 

This code returns this error message:

response = self._client._gapic_publish( ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ File "/Users/chandan.patra/Desktop/cloud-2/venv/lib/python3.11/site-packages/google/cloud/pubsub_v1/publisheclient.py", line 267, in _gapic_publish return super().publish(*args, **kwargs) ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ File "/Users/chandan.patra/Desktop/cloud-2/venv/lib/python3.11/site-packages/google/pubsub_v1/services/publisheclient.py", line 831, in publish response = rpc( ^^^^ File "/Users/chandan.patra/Desktop/cloud-2/venv/lib/python3.11/site-packages/google/api_core/gapic_v1/method.py", line 113, in __call__ return wrapped_func(*args, **kwargs) ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ File "/Users/chandan.patra/Desktop/cloud-2/venv/lib/python3.11/site-packages/google/api_core/retry.py", line 349, in retry_wrapped_func return retry_target( ^^^^^^^^^^^^^ File "/Users/chandan.patra/Desktop/cloud-2/venv/lib/python3.11/site-packages/google/api_core/retry.py", line 191, in retry_target return target() ^^^^^^^^ File "/Users/chandan.patra/Desktop/cloud-2/venv/lib/python3.11/site-packages/google/api_core/timeout.py", line 120, in func_with_timeout return func(*args, **kwargs) ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ File "/Users/chandan.patra/Desktop/cloud-2/venv/lib/python3.11/site-packages/google/api_core/grpc_helpers.py", line 74, in error_remapped_callable raise exceptions.from_grpc_error(exc) from exc google.api_core.exceptions.InvalidArgument: 400 Invalid data in message: Message failed schema validation. [reason: "INVALID_BINARY_AVRO_MESSAGE" domain: "pubsub.googleapis.com" metadata { key: "revisionInfo" value: "Could not validate message with any schema revision for schema: projects/903879460213/schemas/SampleTest, last checked revision: revision_id=6634ec3a failed with status: Invalid data in message: Got invalid index for union of size 2: 19." } metadata { key: "message" value: "Message failed schema validation" } ] 

It says message invalidation failed when rpc call is made to publisher but it doesn’t tells the actual fields on which it failed.
How can I know why schema validation failed and on which fields? If there is something wrong with data or in schema it doesn't show that.
Also is there any functions in this library or any 3rd party libraries that can validate my schema and write proper error messages which will be specific to debug it further?
Also tell me if I missed anything in code which can help me debug it better.

There is a general consensus on main points of the uber-killer one shot kill blood golemancer (Army of the Dead, Shadowblight passive, Blood Golem), but not so much on a general build. There are a lot of variations out there by different content creators, I want to kind of discuss the pros and cons and gather my thoughts on how to shape a minion necro that can still kill uber bosses relatively quickly without hampering the ability to speedfarm gear or push pit levels.
I'm not going to get in to the nitty gritty details about exact paragon placement and such, but more a high level overview of different takes on the Minionmancer.

Sources

• Mega Minion Guide
  • Seetod's Summoner
  • Bactyrael's Thorns Golemancer
• Kripp's Bone Golemancer - Youtube
• Rob's Golemless Minionmancer - Youtube
• Maxroll's Shadow Minionmancer - Youtube
  • Wudi's Variant - Youtube

Considerations

Attack Speed
According to the Mega Minion Guide, there are two buckets that can individually reach separate caps of 100%.

• The first bucket
  • Cult Leader board will almost always provide 10%, as it's on the way to a key legendary node
  • In contrast, the 5% on the Flesh Eater board is kind of out of the way and is likely not worth the 8-ish points required to unlock
  • The 25% on Hulking Monstrosity board can replace a gear roll, but that ONLY applies to Golem attack speed so is only relevant if you're focused on stacking golem damage over mage damage. The golem attack speed nodes are also pretty far away from the glyph slot and legendary node.
  • The rest (65 or 90%) must come from gear. Kalan's Edict key passive can effectively replace 2 gear rolls allowing us to focus masterworking stats on crit and int instead.
• The Second Bucket
  • There is no reasonable way to reach 100% here
  • Rapid and Rathma's Chosen aspects do not apply as minions don't have "basic attacks" and we're not casting overpowered blood skills
  • Enhanced Reap can give 30%, though won't help with single target fights
  • For Accelerating aspect Blight is the only Core skill we may be casting, but we won't be spamming it so it's probably not worth using it over other aspects for 10%
  • Frenzied Dead aspect is going to be an auto-include as it's an extra 45% with almost no restriction

Cooldown Acceleration
We have a few reliable ways of cheating out lower cooldowns

• Blood Orbs
  • Requires sacrificing a ring slot for the Fastblood Aspect and a defensive slot for the Embalmer Aspect
  • Not very many reliable ways to get Blood Orbs, need to run Blighted Corpse Tendrils and/or Hemorrhage basic skill alongside Embalmer
• Reaper Upgrade 1
  • More consistent on bosses and doesn't require two aspects.
  • We won't be able to rely on the other Skeletal Warrior paths to taunt or generate corpses
• Abhorrent Decrepify
  • We don't really want to focus our stats on lucky hit, this can supplement but shouldn't be relied on

Corpse Generation
When farming, corpses will be plentiful from random trash. When fighting bosses where are our corpses going to come from?

• Sever and Decompose basic skills both make corpses. Sever is slower (1 per 4s), but Decomposition (1 per 1s) requires channeling.
• Hulking Aspect spawns corpses on Golem attacks, good pick for a utility aspect
• Bone Golem Upgrade 1 makes 5 corpses on command, but this is a bit painful as many of the various golem upgrades have really good effects
• Army of the Dead is a long cooldown, but generates tons of corpses. Corpses will have to come from trash mobs between bosses. Taking this means losing Bonestorm.
• Reaper Upgrade 2 has pretty nice corpse generation, but would lose out on the lowered cooldowns from upgrade 1

Vulnerable Application

• Decompose basic skill is a reliable way to make the target vulnerable though channeled skills are a pain to use. Would lose out on Sever's attack speed boost in non-boss situations.
• Bone Golem Upgrade 2 applies vulnerable and does pretty decent damage to boot
• Plagued Corpse Tendrils isn't a bad utility option on top of grouping mobs together, but it does have a lengthy cooldown and requires a corpse
• Cold Mage Upgrade 2 is essentially permanent vulnerable, but losing the shadow damage limits our other options severely.
• Bone Prison This is probably only reasonable for the uber-killer one shot variant. Need to pair with Plunging Darkness Aspect

Ultimate Skill

• Army of the Dead
  • Very spiky gameplay going through peaks and valleys of damage.
  • This skill wants to stay unused until you reach a difficult encounter (especially a single target fight). Using this will then end that fight in moments
  • More damage than Bonestorm
• Bonestorm
  • Very reliable, best to use as often as possible
  • More triggers for Shadowblight key passive when paired with Ultimate Shadow Aspect
  • Much more defensive option compared to AotD (natural 15% DR and Shielding Storm Aspect can give barrier generation)

Key Passive

• Kalan's Edict gives a good chunk of Attack Speed, but is only equivalent to 1-2 gear slots worth after masterworking
• Shadowblight does amazing damage paired with Blighted Aspect, but you need enough shadow damage sources to keep it rolling

Support Skills
We have 2 skill slots left after Skeleton, Golem, Generator, and Ultimate. Maybe 3 if we decide to run without a generator.

• Blight (or Bone Prison+Plunging Darkness Aspect) This is almost an auto-include. It gives extra minion damage, plus is an excellent source of shadow damage ticks for Shadowblight.
• Decrepify is a pure survivability option. Very good at reducing incoming damage and is especially useful for pit pushing.
• Corpse Tendrils groups up mobs and can apply vulnerable or generate blood orbs, but this has a cooldown and will consume cooldown acceleration effects making your ultimate take longer to come up.
• (Blighted) Corpse Explosion is purely for more Shadowblight triggers

Book of the Dead

• Warriors
  • Both Reaper options are good. Taunting defenders are great for thorns builds. Skirmishers are bad.
• Mages
  • Shadowblight is such a crucial part of the build that going anything other than one of the two shadow variants seems like the wrong choice. Upgrade 1 is great for Golem focused builds, Upgrade 2 is (slightly) better for mage focused builds. Cold Mages with Upgrade 2 is viable if not running Shadowblight
• Golem (needs more verification on different golem attack speeds)
  • Bone Golem attacks quickly and does surprisingly good damage on top of taunting. Upgrade 2 seems to be the better option but an argument could be made for Upgrade 1 for builds lacking corpse generation and for fueling the Corpse-Eater legendary paragon node
  • Blood Golem Upgrade 1 is a massive amount of DR, with how rare it is now might be worth it in high pit levels. Upgrade 2 is for silly numbers and stacking pure golem damage to the detriment of minions. He attacks slower than the Bone Golem so the difference is not as large as it may appear.
  • Iron Golem Upgrade 1 may provide more damage than the Bone Golem, but loses the Vulnerability or Corpse generation utility.

2h vs 1h
Minions used to just take the weapon damage, so going big 2H scythe was the way to go. Now they also base their attack speed on the weapon speed so the DPS is equalized across all weapon types (verification needed)

• 2H (Scythe) is great for double dipping damage from the most valuable Aspect (usually Blighted)
• 1H (Wand) allows for faster minion attacks, which means more triggers for things like Hulking Aspect and Iron Golem Upgrade 1 which trigger base off of attacks NOT lucky hit. Allows for an additional aspect. Also necro offhands come with an implicit Cooldown reduction which is nice to have.

Aspects

• Offensive
  • Required:
    • Blighted - Shadowblight builds only, good option for the neck or 2H slot for the bonus
    • Frenzied Dead - Massive attack speed boost that does NOT compete with the attack speed cap from gear (verification needed)
    • Reanimation - Huge damage boost, good option for the neck or 2H slot for the bonus
    • Ultimate Shadow - Bonestorm builds only
    • Unyielding Commander's - Army of the Dead builds only
    • Needleflare - Thorns builds only
  • Situational:
    • Plunging Darkness - Bone Prison tech choice only
    • Conceited - Bonestorm builds only, also requires Shielding Storm aspect
    • Inner Calm - An OK choice but nothing amazing, better with Decompose basic skill since you're standing still to channel anyway
• Defensive
  • Required:
    • Hardened Bones - DR is so rare, each point is precious
    • Embalmer - Blood Orb builds only
  • Situational:
    • Shielding Storm - Bonestorm builds only
    • Might - Decent pick if you have nothing better
• Utility
  • Required:
    • Blood Getter's - This is double dips back to your minions!
    • Hulking Aspect - Decent way to get corpses and get your Golem skill off cooldown
    • Occult Dominion - More minions! Put this on the neck if you don't put blighted or reanimation there.
  • Situational:
    • Aphotic - An OK source of Shadow damage for Shadowblight if lacking otherwise
• Mobility/Resource
  • Required:
    • Fastblood - Blood Orb builds only
  • Situational:

Uniques?

• Ring of the Sacrilegious Soul can be a nice quality of life for farming. It also makes it so you can "cast" corpse tendrils without ever putting it on cooldown, meaning it won't eat your cooldown acceleration effects.
• Blood Moon Breeches lets you get some juicy curse effects without taking up a spot on the skill bar, massive extra source of DR as well.
• Razorplate mandatory for thorns builds.

Conclusions

With all that said, where does that leave us with regards to a general minionmancer?

• Kalan's Edict seems underpowered compared to Shadowblight. Maybe early game before you have attack speed rolls on gear, but after that Shadowblight seems like a clear winner. That also means we should probably avoid variations with cold or bone mages.
• Reapers seem like the winner of the melee skeleton options. Upgrade 1 seems especially hard to pass up. Corpse generation can come from elsewhere.
• Golems feel very well balanced to me. Any selection seems reasonable, no golem provides an irreplaceable effect or stands head and shoulders above the others.
• There are an unusually large number of Utility aspects which we want. This makes me lean away from using Blood Orbs as a method for reducing cooldown as it's really hard to fit in the two required aspects.
• 2H builds feel better when paired with AotD style of gameplay as they're both focused on spikes of damage. This might just be a me thing.
• Some sample variants: https://maxroll.gg/d4/planne8fokq02s#1

Imagine being prescribed a life-saving medication only to realize that its cost could drain your savings in a matter of months. This is the harsh reality for millions of Americans, who are forced to navigate a healthcare system where the prices of prescription drugs have reached astronomical heights. The issue of high drug prices is not just a matter of economics; it is a moral and ethical dilemma that affects the very fabric of society. This essay will argue that the exorbitant cost of prescription drugs in the United States is unjustifiable, driven by corporate greed and inadequate regulation, and propose viable solutions to ensure that life-saving medications are accessible to all.
To understand the gravity of the situation, one must first comprehend the extent of the problem. According to the American Journal of Managed Care, the average cost of prescription drugs in the United States is significantly higher than in other developed countries. For instance, a 2019 study by the House Committee on Oversight and Reform found that U.S. prices for the 50 most commonly prescribed drugs are nearly four times higher than in comparable high-income nations. This disparity is not merely an economic inconvenience; it is a life-threatening crisis for many individuals who cannot afford their medications. The high cost of drugs forces patients to make unimaginable choices between their health and their financial stability, often leading to poorer health outcomes and increased mortality rates.
At the heart of this issue lies the pharmaceutical industry's insatiable greed. Drug companies often justify high prices by citing the enormous costs associated with research and development (R&D). While it is true that developing new medications is an expensive endeavor, this argument loses its validity when one considers the profits these companies generate. A 2020 report from the Institute for New Economic Thinking highlighted that pharmaceutical companies consistently rank among the most profitable sectors in the U.S. economy. The same report noted that these companies spend more on marketing and lobbying than on R&D, indicating that profit, rather than innovation, is their primary motivator.
Moreover, pharmaceutical companies exploit the patent system to extend their monopolies on drugs, a practice known as "evergreening." By making minor modifications to existing drugs and obtaining new patents, companies can prevent generic competition and maintain high prices. This manipulation of the patent system undermines the very purpose of patents, which is to encourage innovation while eventually allowing for affordable generic alternatives. The result is a market where essential medications remain prohibitively expensive long after their initial patents should have expired.
The regulatory framework governing drug prices in the United States is another significant contributor to the problem. Unlike many other countries, the U.S. government does not regulate the prices of prescription drugs directly. Instead, it relies on market forces to determine prices, a strategy that has proven ineffective in a market where consumers often have no choice but to purchase life-saving medications regardless of cost. The lack of governmental intervention allows pharmaceutical companies to set prices at whatever level they believe the market can bear, often leading to exploitative pricing practices.
Additionally, the lack of transparency in drug pricing exacerbates the problem. Patients and healthcare providers frequently have no clear understanding of why a particular drug costs as much as it does. The pricing process is shrouded in secrecy, with drug companies rarely disclosing the factors that contribute to their pricing decisions. This opacity makes it difficult for consumers to make informed choices and undermines efforts to hold pharmaceutical companies accountable for their pricing practices.
Addressing the issue of high drug prices requires a multifaceted approach that includes both regulatory reform and market-based solutions. One of the most effective measures would be to grant Medicare the authority to negotiate drug prices directly with pharmaceutical companies. Currently, Medicare is prohibited from negotiating prices, a restriction that puts the U.S. at a disadvantage compared to other countries where governments negotiate prices on behalf of their citizens. Allowing Medicare to negotiate would leverage the program's significant purchasing power to secure lower prices for millions of Americans.
Another crucial step is to reform the patent system to prevent evergreening and encourage the timely introduction of generic drugs. This could involve stricter criteria for granting secondary patents and reducing the duration of market exclusivity for drugs that do not represent significant therapeutic advancements. By promoting genuine innovation and preventing patent abuse, these reforms would facilitate greater competition and lower prices.
Improving transparency in drug pricing is also essential. Legislation that requires pharmaceutical companies to disclose the costs associated with developing and marketing their drugs, as well as the factors influencing their pricing decisions, would provide much-needed clarity. This transparency would empower consumers and policymakers to make more informed decisions and hold companies accountable.
The issue of high drug prices is a complex and multifaceted problem that requires urgent attention and decisive action. It is driven by corporate greed, inadequate regulation, and a lack of transparency, all of which contribute to a healthcare system that often prioritizes profit over patients' well-being. By implementing regulatory reforms, promoting competition, and enhancing transparency, it is possible to create a more equitable system where life-saving medications are accessible to all who need them. The time to act is now, before the cost of survival becomes too high a price to pay.

I (17F) and my boyfriend (17M) have been together for almost a year. A little backstory about me: my mum kicked me out when I was 16, I had been living with a mates grandmother but ended up moving in with my partners sister and sil, he moved in with me. When we found out we were pregnant, I hid the test under my pillow. His neice (18F) and her friend (17F) (which is also his friend. They’d known her for years but they had a falling out and only recently started getting close again.) came into my room to look for something and found the test, they’re friend took a photo and sent it to his family and since they found out, his sil has been saying I should get an abortion. (I don’t have anything against abortions, I just personally won’t get one.)
Their friend Sarah and his niece Matilda (obviously not their real names for privacy reasons.)
I had a family dinner on Friday to celebrate my brothers birthday. One of the messaged me and asked to not bring my partner as he just wanted family there which is fair and even if he didn’t care, my partner wouldn’t have wanted to come anyways as he never wants to come to any of my family events but always wants me ti go to his family events. That night Sarah and Matilda were going bowling and my partner wanted to go with them. I said okay. They left at 5pm and the family dinner started at 6pm so I obviously left after them. I got back around 9pm (I told my family I was pregnant and they were quite rude about it) so I asked him to come back as he’d been gone for 3hrs and he was done bowling. He said no because he still wanted to hang out with them and he said he wanted “me time”. I checked his location and saw he was at a lookout (I had been telling him for months that I wanted to be the first to go to the lookouts with him) and they filmed a TikTok on Sarah’s phone (he never films TikTok’s with me) I obviously was getting mad and told him to get back, instead the went golfing. He came back around 11:30 and I was furious as I was begging him to come back the entire time and I was upset they didn’t want to invite me (they drove past the place we live multiple times) to come and film the TikTok with then it even go golfing. He kept saying he didn’t have to come back so early (mind you, anytime I went out with friends or family I had to be back before 6pm otherwise he’d get pissy and give me the silent treatment.)
About 3 days later, we had an argument and he screamed in my face, I started crying and his sil told him to stop and she took him for a drive. I rang my mum to come get me (we were on good terms as I still wanted to see my little sister.) when I got back he was telling me he was going to sleep in Matilda’s room, I was saying no because it was the night Sarah was also sleeping in there and I didn’t want him to be sleeping in the same bed as another female. They would’ve been sleeping next to each other and in his sleep he likes to cuddle up to the person next to him so I didn’t want him cuddling up to her. He kept saying “I want some me time.” And I said back “you had me time with them on Friday, you don’t always need some me time with them.” And to that he told me that no matter what I said, he wouldn’t be changing his mind. After 3hrs I said “if you do this, I don’t think this can continue.” He said he would still be sleeping in there. Later that night he didn’t end up sleeping in there, he came into our room and slept with me.
The day after, I went to mum mums as my little sister (3F) wanted to have a sleep over. He messages me saying “Okay and I’m gonna go to net ball with Sarah but I will be snapping you every time you snap me I promise please trust me xx” I said no ask I wasn’t comfortable with just him going with her alone. He went anyways and he wasn’t snapping me everytime I snapped him, he’d reply like 5mins after I sent it and I kept getting angry as he was just in the car. They went to the game and while he was there, I told him I don’t want him watching her play and when they get in the car, I said I want him to sit in the back as I wasn’t comfortable with him sitting next to her. He kept saying no and he’s sitting in the front. I kept saying “so you’re really going to sit next to her knowing it’s going to make me uncomfortable.” He said yes and I was mad. Later that night I told him to ring me and he said “I just want some me time.” I said no because he’s been having a lot of “me time.” This week (he’s never said he’s wanted me time before. It’s only been this past week and it’s always been after he hangs out with her.)
So AITA?
(Btw, I’m only a few weeks pregnant but I’m constantly feeling insecure and hating the way my body looks. He also knows I have really bad trust issues as in the past as soon as I’ve trusted a partner with someone they told me not to worry about, I’d get cheated on so I didn’t want to make the same mistake again as I really want to be with him. And he also has to keep telling Sarah about the things happening in our relationship like idk why, I don’t even tell my bsf but I’m asking redit now as Idk if I’m just over thinking or if this is a red flag.)

From 0 to 100 million+ impressions, 800k+ users, and $50k MRR, in a span of 6 months.
Declan and Derrick were undergrads at UC Berkeley and loved building side projects — Avo Alaram, YouUp, and Steady Soles to name a few.
One of their friends suggested they to focus on a single project and they chose JotBot — an AI essay generator that used writing samples to write like you which they built in a week.
Due to the nature and target Audience of the project, the most obvious marketing channel to go with is Titkok and they did the same. Committed to posting 6–10 short-form videos, every single day, on 3 platforms (Reels, TikTok, Shorts), advertising our product, but nothing worked.
After a lot of failed short-form content, they had a fun idea to get a super long and specific URL like ‘idontwanttodomyessay .com‘ and redirect it to their site, and it worked like a charm.
Here are some of their Tiktok templates (3.2m, 10m, 8.9m) which worked for them, they remade it, it worked again and even other products copied it and it worked for them too (you can use them too).
This pushed them to $25k MRR, but they didn’t want to look like a cheating app that students used and forgot about. Recently they pivoted again to a Research copilot and again with the same set of template with some changes pushing the MRR to $50k.
TikTok is a great marketing channel for B2C products, Trendy and Shareable Products. In the Umax story that we shared last week ($6m ARR), Tiktok was one of their main marketing channel too.
To read more such tips and stories around building on the Internet, consider subscribing to our free Newsletter BuilderOS :)

I feel so bad for Sarah Newlin and I’m sick of people defending how the writers treated her and the fate they gave her as Pam and Eric’s slave. So here's an essay deconstructing some common talking points against her.
The Sarah Newlin-Hitler argument doesn’t hold up:

• I’ve seen people compare Sarah to Hitler due to her ambitions of genocide towards vampires and placing of them in a prison-camp. Here’s the thing; You can not compare the Vampires of True Blood to a real-life oppressed class because Vampires are inherently and legitimately harmful to humans; They literally have to feed on people to survive. Couple this aspect of their nature with the fact that we consistently see that many of them can’t or won’t control their urges and blatantly disregard the value of human life, or in fact, enjoy harming human life, and it is completely reasonable for people like Sarah to fear or dehumanize Vampires. If pigs could imprison us in a camp for slaughtering and eating them, would it be fair for us to villainize the pigs? No, because we as a species make them into fuckin' bacon, pork, and sausage everyday. The show tries to push a vague allegory about how anti-Vampire discrimination is supposedly akin to racism, homophobia, etc. but this simply does not work. No real life minority inherently harms empowered classes like Vampires do Humans.

Other characters are anti-vampire and don’t suffer like Sarah does:

• Hitler argument aside, it’s also important to note that Sarah didn’t even start the campaign to exterminate vampires, Governor Burrell did. Yet, Burrell dies fairly quickly by Bill’s hands. Contrastingly, Sarah is tortured for the rest of her natural life.
• Steve Newlin, who led the Church of the Sun until he got turned into a vampire, also gets a painful but quick death, even rubbing his gayness for Jason in Sarah's face as a last laugh. Despite Eric killing him, Steve still has some sort of agency over his ending and it’s even portrayed as a triumphant moment because he uses his final words to insult and get back at his “evil” ex-wife, even though he was literally just as, if not more, “evil” and actively anti-Vampire as her before being turned.
• Shit, let’s even look at Jason. In Season 2, he indoctrinates himself into the Church of the Sun and wants to exterminate vampires just like Sarah does. He also consistently swings back and forth between empathizing with vampires and wanting to destroy their species throughout the overall course of the series, like when he goes full vampire-hunter in Season 5 and 6. The only difference between Sarah and Jason is that she actually had the means to enact her anti-vampire plans through being the wife of Steve Newlin and side-ho of Governor Burrell.
  • Both Jason and Sarah are impressionable people with underdeveloped moral compasses. But, because Jason’s the main character’s brother, and apparently just too lovably dumb to think for himself, the show gives him a pass and allows him opportunities to learn from his mistakes without serious consequences.

Sarah's fate is cruel in the greater context of her arc:

• The writers allow Sarah to escape retribution when the Vampires overthrow Burrell’s camp in season 6, just to extend her torture into the next season.
  • Sarah goes into hiding and finds peace and growth after assuming her false-identity of Noomi, only for her new life to be brutally uprooted when the Yakonomo Corporation, along with Eric and Pam, come after her. Sarah has her new boyfriend and later her entire fucking family killed at a point in her life where she is shown to be a genuinely changed person who regrets her past.
  • Sarah visits Amber, her estranged vampire sister who’s infected with Hep V, apologizes for disowning her, and heals her with her cure-infused blood. When Eric tracks Amber down, she even insists that Sarah is a good person at heart and begs him to not hurt her only to be staked and killed by him.
• Sarah is humanized for so much of Season 6 and is given multiple hope spots, only for her to be subjected to a cruel and torturous fate.
  • Eric and Pam secretly keep Sarah prisoner at Fangtasia, where vampires pay to feed on her, while also managing a wildly successful, lucrative, and legitimate corporation that distributes synthetic versions of Sarah’s blood as a cure to the Hep V pandemic. They replace the Yakonomo Corporation and the True Blood product itself, and live happily ever after as Sarah is doomed to rot in their club’s basement for the rest of her natural life, long forgotten by the world. Slowly going insane, Sarah is haunted by visions of Steve (as if to imply that she wronged him when the reality was that he was an abusive and cruel husband to her before he became a vampire that she imprisoned at her camp), and when her hallucination of him tauntingly asks her what she’s thankful for on Thanksgiving, she replies “nothing,” before bursting into tears. Sarah is truly broken and miserable, meanwhile we see shots of all the other characters living happy lives and communing for Thanksgiving dinner as peaceful music plays in the background.
  • Pam’s actress said in an interview, “[Eric and Pam] are gazillionaires, Sarah Newlin is being tortured. It was like the Old West: the bad guy gets it, and the good guy gets away with the girl and everything.” We’re not meant to feel bad for Sarah, but to revel in her pain and feel fuckin' righteous about her torment. We’re supposed to feel like Eric and Pam are part of the “good guy” group while Sarah, the “baddie” gets punished. But that simply isn’t accurate.
    • Pam and Eric, despite being part of the protagonists in the show, are evil, sadistic vampires. They enjoy causing pain to humans and satiating their blood lust by slaughtering innocent people. They’re disgusting rapist-murderers, and have been for over a century. The least malicious relationship they have with a human is with their Fangtasia bartender, Ginger, who they have emotionally manipulated and abused for decades. They are not “good” people, or “heroes” despite the narrative expecting us to disregard their vile nature that's been explicitly shown and alluded to time and time again. So, where’s their comeuppance? Where’s their torture? Why is Karma only reserved for Sarah Newlin, a religiously indoctrinated woman who has been around bad influences her entire life?

I had given up the night before so I didn't really look at the 'template' of each essay.
I COMPLETELY FORGOT ABOUT COUNTER ARGUMENTS- how bad is that???
And idk if my LOR was clear enough but I tried.
Did anyone else have the synthesis essay on like food services?? I was writing about how safety and accountability are most important since it ensures their customers are safe or something- did I read that prompt wrong? Idk what was going through my mind but those essays back to back were insane

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So hello everyone. I chose to join this community because I really need people to reach out with 😭
sorry if thus makes no sense logically in the way I write, I’m kinda burnt out and just had to write a really stressful essay so my brain is completelyfried ☠️
tw: physical and mental abuse, SH, possible SA
since I was about 6-7, I moved into a new home. My mom sort of restarted herself, joining social medias and such, reaching out to friends. My dad just… is my dad. The stereotypical homophobic guy you read about. iykyk. since then, my mom has basically believed everything she sees. At around 7 1/2, she established a 30 minute screen time rule. If I broke it, i’d be grounded for 2 weeks. Sometimes I’d sneak into their room and use it, but was often caught. i grew up in a family where talking about things I liked would criminalize me. So I didn’t. I learned To not talk, to not feel in front of them. To be a perfect little kid. I grew Up hiding pretty much everything I didn’t want them to see. the pretty basic ‘you can talk to me’, etc was constantly on me- lovebombing, then yelling, etc etc.
so far I have a couple undiagnosed mental issues my parents both refuse To akoknowlege- autism, adhd. I can TELL on everything I have some form of OCD. The only medical condition that is confirmed it Motor Tick. It’s annoying as hell. I’ll get into that later.
according to my mom, and my dad but specifically my mom, I am ‘too young’ to know if I should be evaluated for any of the things I’ve preciously listed. I suffer day to day with overstimulation and panic attacks. She refuses to even take notice. I recently got into NJHS and she made it very clear I had to join. It wasn’t even a choice anymore. I ended up very stressed, as always.
according to my mom, which, to her, I am nothing but a Cishet girl, I need to be ladylike. Formal, even for school, dresses and skirts only. Only because of my amazing friends and boyfriend have I managed to wear anything but. I’m very dysphoric and have pretty severe body issues. Because of this I often self harm, which is dangerous because I do competitive swim and soccer, so there is very little places to hide scars.
a lot of my life I’ve been manipulated, forced into beliefs I don’t believe in- my entire family is Christian and look down upon anyone who isn’t. I’m the entire opposite. This causes arguments, especially when my mom checks my phone.
on my phone my mom downloaded a parental service called bark. Parents on here, if any.
please, please, please please please please lPlease PLEASE IM BEGGING YOU NEVER GET THIS FOR YOUR CHILD. If you really want a tracker, use a different one, like life360 or something, only under 15-16 or so, PLEASE. Don’t. It’s ripped ALL of my privacy, all of my life. I cant talk to my only online friends- my strongest connections. My best friends. People I love like siblings. people who were more of a father to me than my own.
winding Back to Motor Tick. For me, it used to be a repetitive clearing of my throat, but now it’s a small twitch in my upper stomach. It makes me twitch like I’m jumping at something that surprises me, but only I little. It’s only noticeable in some cases. But my mom and dad? They always notice. I do it while eatign without thinking, and suddenly I’m getting yelled at for disrespecting them. all the time. riding my bike? My bike gets taken if I twitch, wether it be from Motor Tick or not. Everything gets taken. I’ve had my HOMEWORK confiscated and then yelled at by my teachers because they don’t believe me.
speaking of punishments. Some often include: pushing down stairs, not being allowed to sleep, no food until after bedtime (strictly not allowed to leave room after, not even for water.) I have to stock food in my room which is also very not allowed.
my doors aren’t allowed to be locked, not even when changing. (this is the SA part Following this) My dad sits outside the door when I shower , sometimes watching the curtain, sometimes watching ME. He sometimes, to rub it in, will make comments on my body. My weight fluctuates due to my instability in many factors, so I’m constantly dissed for my weight, wether it be under or over HIS beauty standard. His. My DAD.
honestly why I’m saying all this is because I’ve been gaslighted enough to still want my parents around, even though I want so bad to get out of here and cut them off. And I don’t know if this is abuse or not. Help, also thanks for reading!