Third grade reading passages that contain antyomys
Invincible and the Invincible Universe
2011.08.19 20:26 Allakhellboy Invincible and the Invincible Universe
Invincible is an Image Comics and Amazon TV series named for its superhero, "Invincible" ("Mark Grayson"). Created by writer Robert Kirkman with artists Cory Walker & Ryan Ottley. S1 & S2 are out now and S3 is on the way! Mark Grayson is a normal teenager, except for the fact that his father Nolan is the most powerful superhero on the planet. Shortly after his seventeenth birthday, Mark begins to develop powers of his own and enters into his father's tutelage.
2021.06.14 04:05 Hello_Medic Aliens: Fireteam Elite
Aliens: Fireteam Elite is a third-person shooter game developed by Cold Iron Studios in collaboration with Disney's 20th Century Games and published by Focus Entertainment in Europe and Asia/Pacific Territories, it is available on Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series XS, Xbox One, and Microsoft Windows. We are a community-run subreddit.
2011.05.27 04:26 papermario13689 Manga Swap: Buy, Sell, Trade.
2024.05.17 08:44 XZCosmos1 Pre-Nursing Tips V2
Hi all UPN/Pre-Nursing people! I just wanted to write out some tips on how to look best on your NursingCAS applications for your goal starting semester. This is a pretty detailed guide with some good calculations to determine other scores beyond just the basic impaction score. This also provides some resources for your TEAs that I found most useful. This guide is directed towards those applying to SJSU especially those on the Pre-Nursing Track at SJSU.
Don't flop your first semester: It is true that the first semester of college has a learning curve, but it is still important that you stay focused and maintain a high GPA. For many this is the easiest semester, but don't be fooled English 1A or Chem30A/BIOL65 will bite you in the butt last second.
Aim for a high GPA not solely TEAs: As much as people brag about their TEAs scores a GPA at SJSU is much more important! If you have a 4.0 GPA and score lower on your TEAs you will have a way better shot at getting in. Take this for example: a person got 2 A- in 3 unit courses out of the big 8. This makes their cumulative GPA a 3.94 GPA. If this person applied to nursing against a person with a 4.0 this score is then doubled, for impaction. 8 compared to a 7.88. With 2 A-'s you now need to do better than 3.5% of whatever teas score the kid with a 4.0 got. Also keep in mind that SJSU already requires a 84% to even apply leaving a 16% playing field. If you get a 4.0 and a 84% a person with 3.94 needs to get a 87.5% on their teas!
TEAs Test: Now I know I have talked a lot about the importance of the GPA, but regardless you still do want to do well on the TEAs. Your TEAs score, like I talked about above, is directly related to your GPA. If you got a lower GPA you need a high TEAs and if you got a high GPA you can slack on the TEAs score. If you have a low GPA this will make or break the odds of getting in and every 3% on the test you get a .1 point increase. Going against what I think everyone I have ever talked to has said, for me personally I say take the TEAs online, if that is still an option. Not only can you take the test literally whatever day you want, you can also take it at whatever time of that day you selected as long as a proctor is available. Some argue that the they test better when in a school environment and this is valid, but I also test better in those environments and I bombed my first TEAs due to nerves. When I took it online the only stressors were if the test were to crash or the proctor flagged my exam for no reason, but neither of those happened not even close. The low stress of being at home and taking the test when I wanted to allowed for much better results and comfort. You get to finish the sections when you want. If you think you are done and don't want to triple check your answers to save the brainpower for later sections you get that option. Take the test where you think you will test best though and take these words with a grain of salt. I just wanted to say that the TEAs online is the same content as it is in person and at the leisure of your home. Not many people talk about how the TEAs online is positive for some people!
Get the extra points if you can: The extra points are pretty easy to get at SJSU especially as commuters. Of course nobody can make themselves a first generation student, but if you are that is easy free points and congrats. No one has a clue what SJSU gives as a "bump" to an applicants score and it is honestly only there because everyones stats are so similar so they need more tie breakers. Granted, you will most likely want to win the tie breaker and in order to do you have to at least have all the co-reqs done. I want to be straight up and say I think the vast majority of students have these all completed prior to applying for the Fall because you have an extra semester (maybe not Spring idk). So make sure to have these all completed so you are not left behind and waste an attempt in the SJSU applicant pool(unless you have great stats t or have healthcare hrs instead then just apply). You only have 2 attempts at applying to nursing at SJSU so make them count. If you can, there is also the healthcare hours bump. This is a bump isn't achieved by all applicants and could help if you have lower stats. Keep in mind that this usually involves volunteer work once a week for 4hr shifts so you will be wherever you choose to stay for about 6 months (decent time commitment with school). I've heard that the healthcare hrs are pretty lenient about what exactly you did as long as it is part of the healthcare field and you can get it signed. Of course if you already have had a health job within 3 years this is a free point bump too!
Spring semester isn't as easy to get into as it once was: SJSU changed this policy. In 2023 only transfer students can apply for SJSU fall semester cohorts, no longer accepting post-bacs. Whereas spring semester cohorts will accept post-bacs and no longer accept transfer students. This means that Fall semester likely is getting more difficult to get into as all transfer students have to apply for the same cohort. It is believed that the School accepts a bunch of SJSU students and after the initial acceptance everyone on the waitlist is combined meaning more transfers will get in from the waitlist process as they may not have made the original cut with the SJSU students bump. This would also mean there are less opportunities for SJSU students to get in during the spring cohort as they battle against stronger transfer candidates. As for transfers, in Fall there are more opportunities to get in as more are accepted initally and through the waitlist process. For post-bacs the same process is in place but, since the top UPN students (because they were following the exact track) were picked out for Fall stats could be a little lower. Regardless, Fall semester cohorts I would assume have slightly higher impaction scores from all areas that are applying as most students took their time throughout all the courses and UPN program students are all expected to apply for Fall semester. Take this all with a grain of salt since again there are no exact numbers of all that get accepted as transfers and post-bacs and if these numbers have increased because of this change.
Remember your overall GPA prior to applying does matter: Your overall GPA does matter when applying for nursing at SJSU! When it comes to tiebreakers if everything is the same - the gpa, the teas, and the extra points - the school will look at overall GPAs to decide who gets in. So make sure to get good grades in that moral issues class freshman year because it will come back to haunt you if you don't get in because of it.
Don't Break down!: It is easy to read all of this and think that you are screwed, but it is important to remember that many people are in the exact same situation. We are not all getting 4.0s and 92s on our teas like our advisors tell us we need. Expect A-'s and a B+. No stats are published and nobody knows for sure what you need but the advisors say people get "mostly a's". Aim for the highest impaction score that you can get and don't slack on it because literally that is what is determining if you get in or not.
"Congratulations! This email is to inform you of your provisional acceptance to The Valley Foundation School of Nursing at San José State University" Fall
You can DM if you have any questions.
submitted by XZCosmos1 to SJSU [link] [comments]
Don't flop your first semester: It is true that the first semester of college has a learning curve, but it is still important that you stay focused and maintain a high GPA. For many this is the easiest semester, but don't be fooled English 1A or Chem30A/BIOL65 will bite you in the butt last second.
Aim for a high GPA not solely TEAs: As much as people brag about their TEAs scores a GPA at SJSU is much more important! If you have a 4.0 GPA and score lower on your TEAs you will have a way better shot at getting in. Take this for example: a person got 2 A- in 3 unit courses out of the big 8. This makes their cumulative GPA a 3.94 GPA. If this person applied to nursing against a person with a 4.0 this score is then doubled, for impaction. 8 compared to a 7.88. With 2 A-'s you now need to do better than 3.5% of whatever teas score the kid with a 4.0 got. Also keep in mind that SJSU already requires a 84% to even apply leaving a 16% playing field. If you get a 4.0 and a 84% a person with 3.94 needs to get a 87.5% on their teas!
- BE ADVISED EVERY SINGLE POINT COUNTS!
- Realistically you are okay and should not flip out with a 3.94 GPA to this is just being used as a clear example. Just remember that if you keep a high GPA that you are saving yourself a mental breakdown before taking a TEAs.
- Be sure to get the extra points as well if you know you don't have perfect stats. This will greatly improve your odds at getting in, especially for Fall applicants.
- Here is an example with a 3.8GPA [20(4-3.8)*3] = [20(.2)*3] = 4*3 = 12, this means (excluding extra points), you need to score at least a 96% if a kid with a 4.0 got a 84% on their TEAs.
- For understanding the 20 comes from the calculation 10 (to make the solution a whole number) multiplied by 2 (because the GPA is multiplied by two in the impaction score calculation) and the 3 comes from the fact each .1 of a GPA equates to 3% of a persons TEAs score (1/30 = .033333*3 = .1). The 20 contains the multiplication factor of 2 already so we don't need to multiply 3 by 2 as well.
TEAs Test: Now I know I have talked a lot about the importance of the GPA, but regardless you still do want to do well on the TEAs. Your TEAs score, like I talked about above, is directly related to your GPA. If you got a lower GPA you need a high TEAs and if you got a high GPA you can slack on the TEAs score. If you have a low GPA this will make or break the odds of getting in and every 3% on the test you get a .1 point increase. Going against what I think everyone I have ever talked to has said, for me personally I say take the TEAs online, if that is still an option. Not only can you take the test literally whatever day you want, you can also take it at whatever time of that day you selected as long as a proctor is available. Some argue that the they test better when in a school environment and this is valid, but I also test better in those environments and I bombed my first TEAs due to nerves. When I took it online the only stressors were if the test were to crash or the proctor flagged my exam for no reason, but neither of those happened not even close. The low stress of being at home and taking the test when I wanted to allowed for much better results and comfort. You get to finish the sections when you want. If you think you are done and don't want to triple check your answers to save the brainpower for later sections you get that option. Take the test where you think you will test best though and take these words with a grain of salt. I just wanted to say that the TEAs online is the same content as it is in person and at the leisure of your home. Not many people talk about how the TEAs online is positive for some people!
Get the extra points if you can: The extra points are pretty easy to get at SJSU especially as commuters. Of course nobody can make themselves a first generation student, but if you are that is easy free points and congrats. No one has a clue what SJSU gives as a "bump" to an applicants score and it is honestly only there because everyones stats are so similar so they need more tie breakers. Granted, you will most likely want to win the tie breaker and in order to do you have to at least have all the co-reqs done. I want to be straight up and say I think the vast majority of students have these all completed prior to applying for the Fall because you have an extra semester (maybe not Spring idk). So make sure to have these all completed so you are not left behind and waste an attempt in the SJSU applicant pool(unless you have great stats t or have healthcare hrs instead then just apply). You only have 2 attempts at applying to nursing at SJSU so make them count. If you can, there is also the healthcare hours bump. This is a bump isn't achieved by all applicants and could help if you have lower stats. Keep in mind that this usually involves volunteer work once a week for 4hr shifts so you will be wherever you choose to stay for about 6 months (decent time commitment with school). I've heard that the healthcare hrs are pretty lenient about what exactly you did as long as it is part of the healthcare field and you can get it signed. Of course if you already have had a health job within 3 years this is a free point bump too!
Spring semester isn't as easy to get into as it once was: SJSU changed this policy. In 2023 only transfer students can apply for SJSU fall semester cohorts, no longer accepting post-bacs. Whereas spring semester cohorts will accept post-bacs and no longer accept transfer students. This means that Fall semester likely is getting more difficult to get into as all transfer students have to apply for the same cohort. It is believed that the School accepts a bunch of SJSU students and after the initial acceptance everyone on the waitlist is combined meaning more transfers will get in from the waitlist process as they may not have made the original cut with the SJSU students bump. This would also mean there are less opportunities for SJSU students to get in during the spring cohort as they battle against stronger transfer candidates. As for transfers, in Fall there are more opportunities to get in as more are accepted initally and through the waitlist process. For post-bacs the same process is in place but, since the top UPN students (because they were following the exact track) were picked out for Fall stats could be a little lower. Regardless, Fall semester cohorts I would assume have slightly higher impaction scores from all areas that are applying as most students took their time throughout all the courses and UPN program students are all expected to apply for Fall semester. Take this all with a grain of salt since again there are no exact numbers of all that get accepted as transfers and post-bacs and if these numbers have increased because of this change.
Remember your overall GPA prior to applying does matter: Your overall GPA does matter when applying for nursing at SJSU! When it comes to tiebreakers if everything is the same - the gpa, the teas, and the extra points - the school will look at overall GPAs to decide who gets in. So make sure to get good grades in that moral issues class freshman year because it will come back to haunt you if you don't get in because of it.
Don't Break down!: It is easy to read all of this and think that you are screwed, but it is important to remember that many people are in the exact same situation. We are not all getting 4.0s and 92s on our teas like our advisors tell us we need. Expect A-'s and a B+. No stats are published and nobody knows for sure what you need but the advisors say people get "mostly a's". Aim for the highest impaction score that you can get and don't slack on it because literally that is what is determining if you get in or not.
- As a SJSU student you have 2 opportunities to get in, once in Fall (a little more difficult as most SJSU students are on track so there are more of you) and Spring (a little easier just because there are less Pre-Nursing majors applying). So if you don't get in for the Fall and your stats are good, you have a great chance in the Spring
- PS if you do get declined for the Fall get all the extra bumps you can and if you still have one more TEAs opportunity, TAKE IT AGAIN! If you get waitlisted for Fall there is a really good chance you will get in for Spring as the people you were originally going against are gone.
- If you are immediately declined from the school, that means that currently they were unable to offer you a seat. However, this does not mean that you are out yet. The school has an original waitlist and if that gets ran though they create another backup waitlist in case more students drop in the summer. This contains around 12 more students and you could be apart of this group.
- Nursing Apps open January 17th for Fall and August 17th for Spring and they both close on the 15th the following month
- If you are a current SJSU student you do not need to apply for SJSU again prior to applying
- However many units a course is will impact your GPA differently (more units means more of your GPA)
- You get about One Week to accept SJSU. SJSU is one of the latest schools to send out acceptance letters so be prepared to wait. 8 Weeks after the deadline is when acceptance letter should begin to roll out.
- Acceptances are sent out around April 10th for Fall and November 10th for Spring.
- DM me if you want a google doc with TEAs information (it won't let me put it here) it provides, in my opinion, the best ways to study for the TEAs. For me personally I only received a 93.3 but, if I had realized how vital one of the sources before I took the test the next day, I would have performed even better! Please give this a look. If you dont want you I'll put the order of importance here without links
- 1 Quizlets, #2 the ATI website, #3 Miscellaneous Prep Tests (I provide links in the doc), #4 PocketPrep
- Submit all documents separate from each other
- The application pool is Not Rolling meaning you can apply at any time before the deadline and still not be penalized
- Whatever work experience you have will not change the size of the score bump i.e a hospital volunteer will get the same size bump as a person with a CNA.
- You also do not need any letters of recommendation and don't need to fill out any extra information on the NursingCAS website for SJSU specifically. They will not read any paragraphs that are not relevant to you getting accepted.
- AP credit does not affect the GPA it is solely for credit. If the AP course is not listed on your transcript then you must submit a form proving you passed the exam in the "other" section.
- Make sure that all your documents that need to be there are there and they will be seen and accounted for. Regardless of where you put the documents the will show up on the application.
- Download you application prior to submitting your application (they will let you do this after you finished all the documents uploading and are preparing to finalize). Look over everything to ensure it's all correct.
"Congratulations! This email is to inform you of your provisional acceptance to The Valley Foundation School of Nursing at San José State University" Fall
You can DM if you have any questions.
2024.05.17 08:38 Cautious_Cancel_4091 What do they mean?
Hello,
I am reading a graded reader and I have come across a phrase ﻻ بأس that the book translates as "fairly large/not inconsiderable" as in كمية ﻻ بأس بها but Google Translate translates it as "it's okay". Completely different.
Two more questions -
submitted by Cautious_Cancel_4091 to learn_arabic [link] [comments]
I am reading a graded reader and I have come across a phrase ﻻ بأس that the book translates as "fairly large/not inconsiderable" as in كمية ﻻ بأس بها but Google Translate translates it as "it's okay". Completely different.
Two more questions -
- still ﻻ يزال. Does it change depending on, say, 3rd person singular masc. or feminine etc. ﻻ تزال or is it always ﻻ يزال?
- Are there any patterns to turn adjectives into adverbs like ِin English (for example in most cases adding ly)? I am asking this because I noticed سريع became سّرعة، in some passages or سهل became. سّهولة
2024.05.17 08:00 ihatereddithiveminds The More I learn about the Faith the Harder it seems
I'm sorry to burden anyone with a rant but I'd love advice from anyone who's been through this because I become very dismissive of my own conclusions.
Things just get the frustrating the more I learn about the faith and also what I ought to do Maybe I'll be told I'm too "conservative" but I happen to think they're correct and feel I should change if I believe it
-I want to go to Latin Mass and receive kneeling and on the tongue but I also prefer my Mass in English
-I like stories (anime ,TV,ECT) that contain violence and I do get caught up in the shock value and intensity of violence in news. But I feel like even if merely venial I shouldn't be watching these things atleast not for entertainment But I can't help but feel like isn't LOTR also a story with violence even if not gore?
-I also like fighting or atleast the idea of it. I like the competition and seeing who wins and how. I feel like it's normal for a man to like this but also wrong to watch men fight for entertainment?
I move away little by little from these things and my music is moving away from more in your face vulgar rap but there's still independent rock songs I love but are just about terrible things.
The things seemingly demanded a Catholic man are crazy (especially if you get more traditional). I've always wanted to be a good man and get married. But it's very mentally hard to me to feel I deserve a wife and if I ever get to that point there's a big temptation to bitterness and resentment that I had to "wait" or "fight harder" than others (pride I know)
I have to workout,make money (enough for my wife to stay home if you're following the Council of Trent)but also tithe , be attractive, overcome Lust, pray 15-30 mins a day,ECT It's all so overwhelming for me and I feel like adding a wife and kids to life I can barely handle right now is not a good idea
Call me selfish though but I can't help but fear I'll miss out on the "most fun" times if I get married later when it's safe?
I get marriage is a vocation/Cross that I don't necessarily need to enjoy 100%
But I also have natural disadvantages in the dating world and I feel like any good I have in me won't matter if my severe acne scars don't let me get my foot in the door.
I know I need to Trust God and keep trying but it feels so hard and I'm not allowed to just drop everything and make it easier for myself by praying in a cave until it's over The harder stuff "Sanctifies"me
Sorry for the Rant but I truly have no or little Joy in my faith. I see it as a day at work. I can't wait to clock out. I fear I Don't care enough about meeting God and experiencing Heaven. I just don't want eternal pain to any degree and just want to be "done" . I want a passing grade. Sure I have desires but I feel like I'll never get them anyway. I'll either have them perfectly replaced or never fulfilled in Hell
Go easy on me. I know it's a lot to read
submitted by ihatereddithiveminds to Catholicism [link] [comments]
Things just get the frustrating the more I learn about the faith and also what I ought to do Maybe I'll be told I'm too "conservative" but I happen to think they're correct and feel I should change if I believe it
-I want to go to Latin Mass and receive kneeling and on the tongue but I also prefer my Mass in English
-I like stories (anime ,TV,ECT) that contain violence and I do get caught up in the shock value and intensity of violence in news. But I feel like even if merely venial I shouldn't be watching these things atleast not for entertainment But I can't help but feel like isn't LOTR also a story with violence even if not gore?
-I also like fighting or atleast the idea of it. I like the competition and seeing who wins and how. I feel like it's normal for a man to like this but also wrong to watch men fight for entertainment?
I move away little by little from these things and my music is moving away from more in your face vulgar rap but there's still independent rock songs I love but are just about terrible things.
The things seemingly demanded a Catholic man are crazy (especially if you get more traditional). I've always wanted to be a good man and get married. But it's very mentally hard to me to feel I deserve a wife and if I ever get to that point there's a big temptation to bitterness and resentment that I had to "wait" or "fight harder" than others (pride I know)
I have to workout,make money (enough for my wife to stay home if you're following the Council of Trent)but also tithe , be attractive, overcome Lust, pray 15-30 mins a day,ECT It's all so overwhelming for me and I feel like adding a wife and kids to life I can barely handle right now is not a good idea
Call me selfish though but I can't help but fear I'll miss out on the "most fun" times if I get married later when it's safe?
I get marriage is a vocation/Cross that I don't necessarily need to enjoy 100%
But I also have natural disadvantages in the dating world and I feel like any good I have in me won't matter if my severe acne scars don't let me get my foot in the door.
I know I need to Trust God and keep trying but it feels so hard and I'm not allowed to just drop everything and make it easier for myself by praying in a cave until it's over The harder stuff "Sanctifies"me
Sorry for the Rant but I truly have no or little Joy in my faith. I see it as a day at work. I can't wait to clock out. I fear I Don't care enough about meeting God and experiencing Heaven. I just don't want eternal pain to any degree and just want to be "done" . I want a passing grade. Sure I have desires but I feel like I'll never get them anyway. I'll either have them perfectly replaced or never fulfilled in Hell
Go easy on me. I know it's a lot to read
2024.05.17 06:27 HopefulHarmonian Essay: Harry’s compliments and appreciation of Hermione (compared to Ron’s)
A common claim in HP fandom is that Harry doesn’t appreciate Hermione enough. A weirder assertion I sometimes see is that Ron compliments or appreciates Hermione more than Harry.
Admittedly, Hermione does a lot for Harry throughout the books, and he doesn’t always express his thoughts directly to her. Nevertheless, there are many passages where Harry directly compliments Hermione (often using words of very high praise), as well as quite a few where he expresses his admiration of her to other people.
This essay will explore those complimentary passages from the books. I won’t include simple expressions of gratitude (though those exist too between Harry and Hermione), nor will I recount here the many passages where Harry merely thinks highly of Hermione or appreciates her without saying anything aloud. Frankly, that would make this essay much too long, and I want to focus on real compliments and praise.
After we’ve explored how Harry compliments Hermione along with her reactions, we’ll take a look at how Ron tends to praise Hermione, as well as the different way she reacts to both boys. Not surprisingly to most readers here, we’ll see that Harry is the boy Hermione truly loves praise from. Unfortunately in Ron’s case, his compliments almost never land well (if they land at all).
I’m going to keep the commentary shorter here on many passages, as this is primarily intended to be a list to demonstrate just how much Harry appreciates Hermione and thinks highly of her. Nevertheless, we’ll see a number of patterns emerge as we go through.
Still, the two of them go back and forth about it in a cute way, as Hermione then says “Me!” and proceeds to implicitly compliment Harry’s friendship and bravery further.
I mention this latter detail of the back-and-forth because it gets mirrored four years later, except this time with Harry being the one to say, “Me?” See OotP15:
But I already skipped over another moment a few chapters earlier in OotP9:
For the present, let’s just note that Harry is feeling very emotional and is about to launch himself into one of the longest internal monologues in the books, feeling quite down about himself. Yet he still finds the strength to tell Hermione how “brilliant” he thinks she is. Even if he’s hurting and can’t even look at her, he wants her to know he’s proud of her.
This isn’t the only place where Harry spontaneously feels the need to give Hermione compliments even under less-than-ideal circumstances. He seems to place great importance in ensuring that Hermione knows how highly he thinks of her. We particularly see this later in the series. In HBP25, Hermione basically accuses Harry of being mildly sexist because he refuses to take her theory seriously that the “Prince” (the former owner of the potions book) might have been a woman:
For example, in DH9, in the scene after the trio was attacked by Dolohov and Rowle, Harry calls her “brilliant” for casting a memory charm:
Moreover, we can see how much this means to Hermione at that moment, as she smiles in gratitude at Harry, in contrast to her tear-streaked face.
Later in DH, after Hermione was tortured at Malfoy Manor, we again see Harry expressing his understanding and gratitude for Hermione when he first talks to her (DH24):
And these are far from the only times Hermione’s quick thinking saves the day. A few months earlier, she once again apparated Harry (and Ron too) away in mid-air to escape Luna’s father’s house, coming up with a detailed plan in a matter of seconds to hide Ron while exposing Harry during the escape (for strategic reasons). Harry then agrees Hermione is a genius and tells her doesn’t know what they’d do without her (DH22):
This is a pattern we see repeatedly in the books, where Ron’s praise is ignored in favor of Harry’s. Perhaps the clearest example is in HBP9:
Meanwhile, poor Ron is off to the side, looking “slightly disgruntled” when Hermione shushes him in class for a similar remark.
I drew on a list of Ron compliments created by Ron/Hermione shippers here, but the original list only gave Ron’s lines, without Hermione’s reactions, which I’ve restored below. (The reason for the omission of Hermione’s responses will soon become clear.)
Ron first shows genuine admiration for Hermione back in PoA15 when she slaps Draco and then storms out of Divination. However, the first time Ron actually tries to express this appreciation verbally probably happens in OotP12:
This is far from the only time Hermione will ignore Ron’s occasional kind words, because she clearly knows it’s unusual behavior. She tells us this directly (OotP14):
Ron’s attempts at recognizing Hermione’s achievements also look very different from Harry’s. In HBP5, when Hermione is worrying about her O.W.L. exam performance, Ron does acknowledge Hermione’s academic performance a couple times, in passages that Ron/Hermione fans will point to as evidence of his supposed admiration.
Yet they don’t come off as compliments. They are aggressive and exasperated and almost making fun of Hermione at the end. And look how Hermione reacts:
Harry would have just clapped her on the back and called her “brilliant” or something, to which she’d probably smile in reply. Harry doesn’t share Hermione’s level of academic dedication, but he still appreciates it, rather than trying to shame Hermione for being an overachiever. Yet Ron manages to make her uncomfortable in several different ways in this scene, even as he recognizes how well she would do.
And we’ve only started on the types of negative reactions Hermione has to Ron’s attempts at recognizing her achievements. In HBP21 after apparition practice in Hogsmeade, Ron cuts in to call her performance “perfect”:
Admittedly, Ron appears to realize some of his failings and makes an attempt in Deathly Hallows, reading the Twelve Fail-Safe Ways to Charm Witches book and trying to learn how to compliment a girl. It unfortunately doesn’t go quite smoothly for Ron at first (DH7):
This kind of dual reaction from Hermione is usually the best Ron can hope for. Unlike Hermione’s instant smiles and happiness from Harry’s compliments, she views Ron with suspicion. Hermione always appears to keep in mind that Ron’s pleasant reactions are atypical and thus not to be trusted. We see this again as Hermione enters before Bill and Fleur’s wedding, wearing a lovely dress (DH8):
Admittedly, Ron was a bit right in that scene to acknowledge that Hermione almost never recognizes his achievements. Yet in the wedding scene, we see Hermione throw that verbal dig back at Ron, effectively taking what appears to be a more sincere compliment from Ron and undermining it. She’s telling him (and the reader) that he doesn’t generally find her attractive and wouldn’t typically say such a nice thing to her.
In effect, she’s somewhat begrudgingly smiling while taking a swipe at Ron’s more typical behavior.
There’s really only one time in all of the books that I have found where Hermione actually reacts positively (without qualification) to Ron’s praise. That occurs in DH9 after she reveals how she had packed so much in her beaded bag in preparation for the Horcrux hunt and emergencies:
And even this one pleasant moment between Ron and Hermione is immediately undermined a few pages later:
We can start with the scene that inspired Slughorn in the quotation discussed above, where Ron was disgruntled at Hermione’s ecstatic reaction to Harry’s compliment. See HBP4:
Ron never has a comparable passage in the books. Many of his compliments or nice moments are very situational with Hermione, not spontaneous praise. This is probably one reason why Hermione also shushes Ron when he tries to echo Harry later with Slughorn: she knows if Harry said something, he meant it and wasn’t just trying to flatter her or be nice because of the situation.
The best Ron can manage on a couple occasions are vague acknowledgments to Harry about Hermione. Such as CoS14:
Meanwhile, Harry simply cannot stop himself from saying how amazing Hermione is. As far back as CoS2:
Harry can’t even let the Quidditch team think he was smart enough to come up with the Impervius Charm for his glasses (originally during the Quidditch match back in PoA9). When Angelina proposes using the spell again in OotP18, Harry simply has to give Hermione credit:
This reflex Harry has to praise Hermione comes up in the strangest places, getting him into arguments with his love interests. When Cho brings up the jinx that resulted in Marietta’s outbreak of pimples, Harry can’t help contradicting her (OotP28):
Just as in Quidditch with his glasses, Harry can’t help acknowledging Hermione’s brilliance, even with another girl he likes. He could have been a little more diplomatic with Cho in disagreeing with her, but instead his reflex is to defend Hermione.
Perhaps the most absurd moment of praise for Hermione randomly comes up as Harry’s breaking up with Ginny (HBP30):
And instead the first words from Harry’s lips are to acknowledge how smart Hermione is. He’s breaking up with his girlfriend… and praising another girl’s intelligence? I know Harry can be rather thick sometimes, but this is not the thing to do in the middle of a break-up. It’s no wonder Cho was so jealous of Hermione.
Ron’s efforts at compliments are nothing like that, unfortunately. We might even feel a bit bad for him when he does begin to make an effort in DH, as it’s clear Ron is never going to have the impact on Hermione that Harry’s compliments do.
I mentioned at the outset that there are many people who say Harry isn’t appreciative enough toward Hermione. It’s true that we don’t hear him say it aloud all the time, particularly in the early books. Yet it’s very clear even in the first book that Harry thinks Hermione is a better wizard than he is. And he doesn’t hesitate to tell her, or to announce it to Dobby in CoS.
As the series progresses, Harry’s outward appreciation increases, to the point where we see him calling her “amazing” and “incredible” and the “best in our year,” terms that he only ever says about Hermione. Perhaps even more importantly, we see that Hermione knows how special she is to Harry, how sincere his compliments are, as we see her repeatedly responding with emotional smiles and even a “radiant expression” to these words.
I didn’t even explore most of the passages where Hermione praises or compliments Harry in the books (and there are plenty more of those too), but we can see the strength of Harry and Hermione’s friendship and care for each other. They both strive to raise each other up, especially in stressful times when they need it the most.
I’d like to acknowledge members of the HMS Harmony Discord server for their support and suggestions. Specifically, thanks to Jiraffas for suggesting an essay on this topic. Thanks for Dragonfly for convincing me to include a section on Harry complimenting Hermione to other people and for reminding me of the Angelina moment in OotP. In general, I’m grateful for the discussion and commentary from the Harmony community.
If there are any moments you think I missed, please point them out in comments! I’d like this essay to be a resource for those who want to debunk fandom claims concerning Harry’s supposed lack of appreciation toward Hermione.
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Admittedly, Hermione does a lot for Harry throughout the books, and he doesn’t always express his thoughts directly to her. Nevertheless, there are many passages where Harry directly compliments Hermione (often using words of very high praise), as well as quite a few where he expresses his admiration of her to other people.
This essay will explore those complimentary passages from the books. I won’t include simple expressions of gratitude (though those exist too between Harry and Hermione), nor will I recount here the many passages where Harry merely thinks highly of Hermione or appreciates her without saying anything aloud. Frankly, that would make this essay much too long, and I want to focus on real compliments and praise.
After we’ve explored how Harry compliments Hermione along with her reactions, we’ll take a look at how Ron tends to praise Hermione, as well as the different way she reacts to both boys. Not surprisingly to most readers here, we’ll see that Harry is the boy Hermione truly loves praise from. Unfortunately in Ron’s case, his compliments almost never land well (if they land at all).
I’m going to keep the commentary shorter here on many passages, as this is primarily intended to be a list to demonstrate just how much Harry appreciates Hermione and thinks highly of her. Nevertheless, we’ll see a number of patterns emerge as we go through.
Harry’s direct compliments
Let’s begin with one of the most well-known interactions in the early books between Harry and Hermione (PS16):Hermione’s lip trembled and she suddenly dashed at Harry and threw her arms around him.There’s not much new to say about this passage—Harry is about to go on alone, putting himself in great danger. Hermione’s lip trembles in emotion, and she embraces Harry for the first time in the books, praising him as a “great wizard.” And yet, Harry claims he’s simply not as good as Hermione.
‘Hermione!’
‘Harry – you’re a great wizard, you know.’
‘I’m not as good as you,’ said Harry, very embarrassed, as she let go of him.
‘Me!’ said Hermione. ‘Books! And cleverness! There are more important things – friendship and bravery and – oh Harry – be careful!’
Still, the two of them go back and forth about it in a cute way, as Hermione then says “Me!” and proceeds to implicitly compliment Harry’s friendship and bravery further.
I mention this latter detail of the back-and-forth because it gets mirrored four years later, except this time with Harry being the one to say, “Me?” See OotP15:
‘Harry, you’re the best in the year at Defence Against the Dark Arts,’ said Hermione.We know of Harry’s prowess at DADA. Can anyone forget the insanely powerful Patronus Harry conjured at the end of PoA, which Hermione noted was “very, very advanced magic”? It’s again cute that they get into a disagreement, both modestly trying to one-up the praise of the other here while claiming they themselves aren’t the best.
‘Me?’ said Harry, now grinning more broadly than ever. ‘No I’m not, you’ve beaten me in every test –’
‘Actually, I haven’t,’ said Hermione coolly. ‘You beat me in our third year – the only year we both sat the test and had a teacher who actually knew the subject. But I’m not talking about test results, Harry. Think what you’ve done!’
But I already skipped over another moment a few chapters earlier in OotP9:
[Ron] dashed from the room, leaving Harry and Hermione alone.The circumstances are complicated here, because Harry’s feeling really conflicted about not getting a prefect’s badge. He doesn’t want to look at Hermione, because I think he feels like she’d be disappointed in him, as she was so enthusiastic about the idea of being prefect with him a few minutes before. I analyzed this whole section in greater depth in another essay, so I won’t get into all of that here.
For some reason, Harry found he did not want to look at Hermione. He turned to his bed, picked up the pile of clean robes Mrs Weasley had laid on it and crossed the room to his trunk.
‘Harry?’ said Hermione tentatively.
‘Well done, Hermione,’ said Harry, so heartily it did not sound like his voice at all, and, still not looking at her, ‘brilliant. Prefect. Great.’
‘Thanks,’ said Hermione. ‘Erm – Harry – could I borrow Hedwig so I can tell Mum and Dad? They’ll be really pleased – I mean prefect is something they can understand.’
For the present, let’s just note that Harry is feeling very emotional and is about to launch himself into one of the longest internal monologues in the books, feeling quite down about himself. Yet he still finds the strength to tell Hermione how “brilliant” he thinks she is. Even if he’s hurting and can’t even look at her, he wants her to know he’s proud of her.
This isn’t the only place where Harry spontaneously feels the need to give Hermione compliments even under less-than-ideal circumstances. He seems to place great importance in ensuring that Hermione knows how highly he thinks of her. We particularly see this later in the series. In HBP25, Hermione basically accuses Harry of being mildly sexist because he refuses to take her theory seriously that the “Prince” (the former owner of the potions book) might have been a woman:
‘Listen, Hermione, I can tell it’s not a girl. I can just tell.’Harry’s “stung” that Hermione would think of him as sexist, but he’s specifically disappointed because he knows how brilliant and clever Hermione is. He thinks she’s amazing and incredible and the best in his year at school. I wonder if this passage leads Harry to reflect a bit on how he may not always voice his opinion to Hermione enough, as there’s a marked change in DH, where Harry more frequently tells Hermione directly how highly he thinks of her.
‘The truth is that you don’t think a girl would have been clever enough,’ said Hermione angrily.
‘How can I have hung round with you for five years and not think girls are clever?’ said Harry, stung by this.
For example, in DH9, in the scene after the trio was attacked by Dolohov and Rowle, Harry calls her “brilliant” for casting a memory charm:
She took a deep, calming breath, then pointed her wand at Dolohov’s forehead and said, ‘Obliviate.’Later, after Harry and Hermione escape Nagini’s attack at Bathilda Bagshot’s house, Harry calls her “incredible” (DH18):
At once, Dolohov’s eyes became unfocused and dreamy.
‘Brilliant!’ said Harry, clapping her on the back. ‘Take care of the other one and the waitress while Ron and I clear up.’
‘You’re still really angry at me, aren’t you?’ said Hermione; he looked up to see fresh tears leaking out of her eyes, and knew that his anger must have shown in his face.As in the OotP passage where Harry is feeling depressed about the prefect’s badge, here Harry isn’t really ready to talk. His wand is broken, he was injured by Nagini, and he spent the night having visions of Voldemort killing his parents. It’s not at all an exaggeration to say this is probably the most dire part of Harry’s journey in the books. And yet he still values Hermione enough not only to agree to talk when he’s not ready, but also to immediately forgive her and call her “incredible” for her quick thinking the previous night.
‘No,’ he said quietly. ‘No, Hermione, I know it was an accident. You were trying to get us out of there alive, and you were incredible. I’d be dead if you hadn’t been there to help me.’
He tried to return her watery smile, then turned his attention to the book.
Moreover, we can see how much this means to Hermione at that moment, as she smiles in gratitude at Harry, in contrast to her tear-streaked face.
Later in DH, after Hermione was tortured at Malfoy Manor, we again see Harry expressing his understanding and gratitude for Hermione when he first talks to her (DH24):
Harry had walked up several steps before stopping and looking back.Harry calls her “amazing,” and once again Hermione smiles in reply. I should also pause here to note that these superlatives aren’t common for Harry. In fact, they’re unique to Hermione. Harry doesn’t call anyone else “amazing” or “incredible” anywhere in the books.
‘I need you two, as well!’ he called to Ron and Hermione, who had been skulking, half-concealed, in the doorway of the sitting room.
They both moved into the light, looking oddly relieved.
‘How are you?’ Harry asked Hermione. ‘You were amazing – coming up with that story when she was hurting you like that –’
Hermione gave a weak smile as Ron gave her a one-armed squeeze.
And these are far from the only times Hermione’s quick thinking saves the day. A few months earlier, she once again apparated Harry (and Ron too) away in mid-air to escape Luna’s father’s house, coming up with a detailed plan in a matter of seconds to hide Ron while exposing Harry during the escape (for strategic reasons). Harry then agrees Hermione is a genius and tells her doesn’t know what they’d do without her (DH22):
‘You’re a genius,’ Ron repeated, looking awed.I’d note another detail here. Ron does compliment Hermione too in this passage, calling her a “genius” multiple times. Yet it’s only once Harry finally tells her how much she means to him that Hermione “beams” in reply. (In a previous essay, I examined how frequently Hermione “beams” at Harry, much more than anyone else.)
‘Yeah, you are, Hermione,’ agreed Harry fervently, ‘I don’t know what we’d do without you.’
She beamed, but became solemn at once.
This is a pattern we see repeatedly in the books, where Ron’s praise is ignored in favor of Harry’s. Perhaps the clearest example is in HBP9:
[Slughorn:] ‘Oho! “One of my best friends is Muggle-born and she’s the best in our year!” I’m assuming this is the very friend of whom you spoke, Harry?’Harry had already praised Hermione to Slughorn privately (a fact we’ll come back to), but hearing this praise from Harry causes Hermione to turn toward Harry with a “radiant expression,” overwhelmed with joy at the idea that Harry thought of her as the “best in the year.” (The word choice of “radiant” here is rather special for JKR, as I’ve noted in a previous essay.)
‘Yes, sir,’ said Harry.
‘Well, well, take twenty well-earned points for Gryffindor, Miss Granger,’ said Slughorn genially.
Malfoy looked rather as he had done the time Hermione had punched him in the face. Hermione turned to Harry with a radiant expression and whispered, ‘Did you really tell him I’m the best in the year? Oh, Harry!’
‘Well, what’s so impressive about that?’ whispered Ron, who for some reason looked annoyed. ‘You are the best in the year – I’d’ve told him so if he’d asked me!’
Hermione smiled but made a ‘shush’ing gesture, so that they could hear what Slughorn was saying. Ron looked slightly disgruntled.
Meanwhile, poor Ron is off to the side, looking “slightly disgruntled” when Hermione shushes him in class for a similar remark.
Ron’s compliments to Hermione
Unfortunately for Ron, Hermione’s reaction in the Slughorn scene is typical. We’ve seen Hermione repeatedly smiling and looking radiant at Harry’s compliments, as well as reacting by praising him in return. Ron, on the other hand, is almost exclusively met with tepid if not outright negative reactions from Hermione even when he says nice things about her.I drew on a list of Ron compliments created by Ron/Hermione shippers here, but the original list only gave Ron’s lines, without Hermione’s reactions, which I’ve restored below. (The reason for the omission of Hermione’s responses will soon become clear.)
Ron first shows genuine admiration for Hermione back in PoA15 when she slaps Draco and then storms out of Divination. However, the first time Ron actually tries to express this appreciation verbally probably happens in OotP12:
[Hermione:] ‘About You-Know-Who. He said his “gift for spreading discord and enmity is very great. We can fight it only by showing an equally strong bond of friendship and trust –”’Although this isn’t a direct compliment, we’re told that Ron is actually looking at Hermione “in admiration.” Unlike his more typical annoyance with her, he’s actually impressed here by her memory. And yet Hermione responds with “asperity,” harshly putting him down for not listening better. When Ron gets defensive and tries to react, Hermione “loudly” talks over him and essentially ignores Ron completely.
‘How do you remember stuff like that?’ asked Ron, looking at her in admiration.
‘I listen, Ron,’ said Hermione, with a touch of asperity.
‘So do I, but I still couldn’t tell you exactly what –’
‘The point,’ Hermione pressed on loudly, ‘is that this sort of thing is exactly what Dumbledore was talking about. You-Know-Who’s only been back two months and we’ve already started fighting among ourselves. And the Sorting Hat’s warning was the same: stand together, be united –’
This is far from the only time Hermione will ignore Ron’s occasional kind words, because she clearly knows it’s unusual behavior. She tells us this directly (OotP14):
‘OK, write that down,’ Hermione said to Ron, pushing his essay and a sheet covered in her own writing back to Ron, ‘then add this conclusion I’ve written for you.’Ron was trying to thank her for help with his homework, but Hermione recognizes this praise as obviously transactional. She has noticed he’s only nice to her when she does things for him, but otherwise his “normal” behavior toward her is a bit rude. (As a sidenote: we’ve already seen Harry repeatedly refer to Hermione as “brilliant.” Ron, in contrast, does call Hermione sort of “brilliant” twice, both times sarcastically referring to theories or ideas he thinks are ridiculous. See CoS13, DH25.)
‘Hermione, you are honestly the most wonderful person I’ve ever met,’ said Ron weakly, ‘and if I’m ever rude to you again –’
‘– I’ll know you’re back to normal,’ said Hermione.
Ron’s attempts at recognizing Hermione’s achievements also look very different from Harry’s. In HBP5, when Hermione is worrying about her O.W.L. exam performance, Ron does acknowledge Hermione’s academic performance a couple times, in passages that Ron/Hermione fans will point to as evidence of his supposed admiration.
Yet they don’t come off as compliments. They are aggressive and exasperated and almost making fun of Hermione at the end. And look how Hermione reacts:
‘Hermione, will you shut up, you’re not the only one who’s nervous!’ barked Ron. ‘And when you’ve got your ten “Outstanding” O.W.L.s ...’So yes, Ron acknowledges her achievements here, but he does so in the process of telling her to “shut up,” barking at her, and then becoming “exasperated” at her personal goals. I think we can all take a step back and acknowledge that Hermione is a fairly extreme perfectionist, and her level of anxiety at potentially “failing everything” comes across as weird and a bit irrational. Still, rather than helping her “calm down” (as many Ron/Hermione fans would say Ron does), Ron exacerbates Hermione’s level of disquiet, causing her to become “hysterical” and then later embarrassed, reacting in a “small voice.”
‘Don’t, don’t, don’t!’ said Hermione, flapping her hands hysterically. ‘I know I’ve failed everything!’
[…]
‘I – not bad,’ said Hermione in a small voice.
‘Oh, come off it,’ said Ron, striding over to her and whipping her results out of her hand. ‘Yep – nine “Outstandings” and one “Exceeds Expectations” in Defence Against the Dark Arts.’ He looked down at her, half-amused, half-exasperated. ‘You’re actually disappointed, aren’t you?’
Hermione shook her head, but Harry laughed.
Harry would have just clapped her on the back and called her “brilliant” or something, to which she’d probably smile in reply. Harry doesn’t share Hermione’s level of academic dedication, but he still appreciates it, rather than trying to shame Hermione for being an overachiever. Yet Ron manages to make her uncomfortable in several different ways in this scene, even as he recognizes how well she would do.
And we’ve only started on the types of negative reactions Hermione has to Ron’s attempts at recognizing her achievements. In HBP21 after apparition practice in Hogsmeade, Ron cuts in to call her performance “perfect”:
‘Good one,’ said Harry. ‘How’d you do, Hermione?’Ron’s praise is undermined with the dismissive “whatever the hell it is,” once again making it clear that he doesn’t value Hermione’s attention to detail and high standards. Hermione’s response is, reasonably, then to simply ignore Ron.
‘Oh, she was perfect, obviously,’ said Ron, before Hermione could answer. ‘Perfect deliberation, divination and desperation, or whatever the hell it is – we all went for a quick drink in the Three Broomsticks after and you should’ve heard Twycross going on about her – I’ll be surprised if he doesn’t pop the question soon –’
‘And what about you?’ asked Hermione, ignoring Ron.
Admittedly, Ron appears to realize some of his failings and makes an attempt in Deathly Hallows, reading the Twelve Fail-Safe Ways to Charm Witches book and trying to learn how to compliment a girl. It unfortunately doesn’t go quite smoothly for Ron at first (DH7):
Hermione made purple and gold streamers erupt from the end of her wand and drape themselves artistically over the trees and bushes.Ron arguably is trying here, but as we know from OotP, Hermione knows Ron’s more typical reaction toward her is rudeness. Hence we see her a “little confused” yet still somewhat pleased.
‘Nice,’ said Ron, as with one final flourish of her wand, Hermione turned the leaves on the crab-apple tree to gold. ‘You’ve really got an eye for that sort of thing.’
‘Thank you, Ron!’ said Hermione, looking both pleased and a little confused. Harry turned away, smiling to himself. He had a funny notion that he would find a chapter on compliments when he found time to peruse his copy of Twelve Fail-Safe Ways to Charm Witches […].
This kind of dual reaction from Hermione is usually the best Ron can hope for. Unlike Hermione’s instant smiles and happiness from Harry’s compliments, she views Ron with suspicion. Hermione always appears to keep in mind that Ron’s pleasant reactions are atypical and thus not to be trusted. We see this again as Hermione enters before Bill and Fleur’s wedding, wearing a lovely dress (DH8):
‘[…] wow,’ [Ron] added, blinking rather rapidly as Hermione came hurrying towards them. ‘You look great!’Note the “though she smiled” qualification here, which is pointing out that Hermione’s reaction is not exactly positive and arguably unkind. Hermione is here making a reference to an earlier conversation after the Seven Potters. When Tonks mentioned how “great” Ron was stunning a Death Eater, Hermione reacted positively with “you did?” Hermione was sincerely proud of Ron at that moment, hugging him, and yet Ron reacted with the phrase “Always the tone of surprise,” rejecting her and breaking off from her embrace.
‘Always the tone of surprise,’ said Hermione, though she smiled.
Admittedly, Ron was a bit right in that scene to acknowledge that Hermione almost never recognizes his achievements. Yet in the wedding scene, we see Hermione throw that verbal dig back at Ron, effectively taking what appears to be a more sincere compliment from Ron and undermining it. She’s telling him (and the reader) that he doesn’t generally find her attractive and wouldn’t typically say such a nice thing to her.
In effect, she’s somewhat begrudgingly smiling while taking a swipe at Ron’s more typical behavior.
There’s really only one time in all of the books that I have found where Hermione actually reacts positively (without qualification) to Ron’s praise. That occurs in DH9 after she reveals how she had packed so much in her beaded bag in preparation for the Horcrux hunt and emergencies:
‘I told you at The Burrow, I’ve had the essentials packed for days, you know, in case we needed to make a quick getaway. I packed your rucksack this morning, Harry, after you changed, and put it in here ... I just had a feeling …’We see her here at least giving Ron a “small smile,” though she quickly turns to Harry, more concerned again about him. Still, it’s a legitimate positive reaction to a compliment from Ron. We shouldn’t have to pause and reflect on that so much, except for the fact that this is a rather unique occurrence. Every other time Ron says something nice about Hermione, she ignores it, gets annoyed, dismisses it, gets suspicious or confused, or has some other negative reaction like we saw.
‘You’re amazing, you are,’ said Ron, handing her his bundled-up robes.
‘Thank you,’ said Hermione, managing a small smile as she pushed the robes into the bag. ‘Please, Harry, get that Cloak on!’
And even this one pleasant moment between Ron and Hermione is immediately undermined a few pages later:
Ron struggled for a moment before managing to extract his wand from his pocket.Yes, Ron was happy for a moment and praised Hermione for packing his stuff, but it turns out she did it wrong in Ron’s eyes. She packed the wrong jeans, and Hermione reacts very negatively, telling Ron to shove his wand up his arse. Hermione here must feel like Ron is conforming to the behavior she described back in OotP—he’s only nice until he turns back to his “normal” negative behavior toward her.
‘It’s no wonder I can’t get it out, Hermione, you packed my old jeans, they’re tight.’
‘Oh, I’m so sorry,’ hissed Hermione, and as she dragged the waitress out of sight of the windows Harry heard her mutter a suggestion as to where Ron could stick his wand instead.
Harry complimenting Hermione to other people
We don’t really have space here to investigate the many other times Harry thinks highly of Hermione, is grateful for her, or appreciates some aspect of her in his internal thoughts. But it’s perhaps useful to end this exploration by noting how many other times Harry still manages to praise Hermione verbally, unprompted, to other people.We can start with the scene that inspired Slughorn in the quotation discussed above, where Ron was disgruntled at Hermione’s ecstatic reaction to Harry’s compliment. See HBP4:
[Slughorn:] ‘Your mother was Muggle-born, of course. Couldn’t believe it when I found out. Thought she must have been pure-blood, she was so good.’Note that there’s really no good reason for Harry to praise Hermione so specifically and highly here. Slughorn was discussing Lily, and Harry could have simply countered with the fact that he had talented Muggle-born friends too. Yet he singles out Hermione to compare to his mother’s talent and goes further—calling her the best student in his year.
‘One of my best friends is Muggle-born,’ said Harry, ‘and she’s the best in our year.’
Ron never has a comparable passage in the books. Many of his compliments or nice moments are very situational with Hermione, not spontaneous praise. This is probably one reason why Hermione also shushes Ron when he tries to echo Harry later with Slughorn: she knows if Harry said something, he meant it and wasn’t just trying to flatter her or be nice because of the situation.
The best Ron can manage on a couple occasions are vague acknowledgments to Harry about Hermione. Such as CoS14:
“What does she understand?” said Harry distractedly, still looking around, trying to tell where the voice had come from.Not exactly a compliment, but this one makes lists of Ron’s compliments sometimes, just because it’s so rare for Ron to say something even this nice about Hermione. Even when Ron is clearly impressed by Hermione slapping Draco and then storming out of Trelawney’s class in PoA15, the most he can manage to say to Harry is:
“Loads more than I do,” said Ron, shaking his head.
‘Some day Hermione’s having, eh?’ Ron muttered to Harry, looking awed.We’re told that Ron’s “looking awed” here, but he still can barely say anything directly praiseworthy about her.
Meanwhile, Harry simply cannot stop himself from saying how amazing Hermione is. As far back as CoS2:
‘Harry Potter asks if he can help Dobby ... Dobby has heard of your greatness, sir, but of your goodness, Dobby never knew ...’Remember when we saw that Hermione tried to compliment Harry and tell him he was a great wizard in PS or the best in DADA in OotP? Harry couldn’t help deferring to Hermione, trying to praise her as better. The same thing happens when Dobby speaks of Harry’s “greatness” here—and Harry immediately thinks of the greatest person he knows: Hermione Granger.
Harry, who was feeling distinctly hot in the face, said, ‘Whatever you’ve heard about my greatness is a load of rubbish. I’m not even top of my year at Hogwarts, that’s Hermione, she –’
But he stopped quickly, because thinking about Hermione was painful.
Harry can’t even let the Quidditch team think he was smart enough to come up with the Impervius Charm for his glasses (originally during the Quidditch match back in PoA9). When Angelina proposes using the spell again in OotP18, Harry simply has to give Hermione credit:
[Angelina:] ‘[…] Harry, didn’t you do something to your glasses to stop the rain fogging them up when we played Hufflepuff in that storm?’It’s not exactly a compliment, but it just shows yet again how much he wants everyone to know how amazing Hermione is.
‘Hermione did it,’ said Harry. He pulled out his wand, tapped his glasses and said, ‘Impervius!’
This reflex Harry has to praise Hermione comes up in the strangest places, getting him into arguments with his love interests. When Cho brings up the jinx that resulted in Marietta’s outbreak of pimples, Harry can’t help contradicting her (OotP28):
‘That was a really horrible trick of Hermione Granger’s,’ said Cho fiercely. ‘She should have told us she’d jinxed that list –’Cho is actually quite insightful about the role of Hermione in Harry’s life here. She earlier got jealous when Harry prioritized Hermione on Valentine’s Day, and now she gets annoyed at how “brilliant” Harry considered “darling Hermione’s idea.”
‘I think it was a brilliant idea,’ said Harry coldly. Cho flushed and her eyes grew brighter.
‘Oh yes, I forgot – of course, if it was darling Hermione’s idea –’
Just as in Quidditch with his glasses, Harry can’t help acknowledging Hermione’s brilliance, even with another girl he likes. He could have been a little more diplomatic with Cho in disagreeing with her, but instead his reflex is to defend Hermione.
Perhaps the most absurd moment of praise for Hermione randomly comes up as Harry’s breaking up with Ginny (HBP30):
‘I never really gave up on you,’ [Ginny] said. ‘Not really. I always hoped ... Hermione told me to get on with life, maybe go out with some other people, relax a bit around you, because I never used to be able to talk if you were in the room, remember? And she thought you might take a bit more notice if I was a bit more – myself.’Think about what’s going on in this moment. Ginny just admitted how strong her feelings for Harry are, that she “never really gave up” on him, from when she was a young girl. She’s effectively trying to inform him of her commitment, of his status as her first love. If Harry had deep feelings for Ginny, we might expect him at this point to recognize how long Ginny had cared, how much she had tried to learn to be “herself” around him, to get him to notice her.
‘Smart girl, that Hermione,’ said Harry, trying to smile.
And instead the first words from Harry’s lips are to acknowledge how smart Hermione is. He’s breaking up with his girlfriend… and praising another girl’s intelligence? I know Harry can be rather thick sometimes, but this is not the thing to do in the middle of a break-up. It’s no wonder Cho was so jealous of Hermione.
Conclusion
Once again, as in many of my other essays, I think we can see patterns emerging around Harry and Hermione’s unique relationship. We see them repeatedly praising each other spontaneously. And Harry can’t help but blurt out how brilliant Hermione is to other people, even in situations where it’s arguably inappropriate.Ron’s efforts at compliments are nothing like that, unfortunately. We might even feel a bit bad for him when he does begin to make an effort in DH, as it’s clear Ron is never going to have the impact on Hermione that Harry’s compliments do.
I mentioned at the outset that there are many people who say Harry isn’t appreciative enough toward Hermione. It’s true that we don’t hear him say it aloud all the time, particularly in the early books. Yet it’s very clear even in the first book that Harry thinks Hermione is a better wizard than he is. And he doesn’t hesitate to tell her, or to announce it to Dobby in CoS.
As the series progresses, Harry’s outward appreciation increases, to the point where we see him calling her “amazing” and “incredible” and the “best in our year,” terms that he only ever says about Hermione. Perhaps even more importantly, we see that Hermione knows how special she is to Harry, how sincere his compliments are, as we see her repeatedly responding with emotional smiles and even a “radiant expression” to these words.
I didn’t even explore most of the passages where Hermione praises or compliments Harry in the books (and there are plenty more of those too), but we can see the strength of Harry and Hermione’s friendship and care for each other. They both strive to raise each other up, especially in stressful times when they need it the most.
If there are any moments you think I missed, please point them out in comments! I’d like this essay to be a resource for those who want to debunk fandom claims concerning Harry’s supposed lack of appreciation toward Hermione.
2024.05.17 03:31 Rare-Algae-2851 Friend says that I am gay because I grew up in a feminine house hold, my revenge was sweet
Ok, for context I am 15 and my parents got divorces when I was 4. My dad was a drug addict and left, but that is a different story. For the friend in this story, let's call him John. (Not his real name) for a long time me and John had this joke going where we would walk around eachother and just call eachother gay as a joke. (Not serious or to offend anyone ofcourse)
John's grades begun to drop and he begun to commit school offenses. My mom told me to stop being friends with him because he was a bad influence. I decided to stop being friends with him, so he goes behind my back and texts my other friend, let's call him Bob. (Also not his real name)
John texts Bob insults about me while I was on the phone with Bob. Bob tells me this and begins to read the passage that John wrote. John says "he is just mad because he is gay. My dad says that he doesn't seem like a boy or a man. He only acts like this because he lives in a feminine household." Over the phone I became enraged.
The next day at school, I filled out a counselor notification form. I put on the waterworks for the counselor. The counselor then called in John and began his rant. I didn't see John for a week after that, because he apparently got suspended. Am I the jerk?
submitted by Rare-Algae-2851 to AmITheJerk [link] [comments]
John's grades begun to drop and he begun to commit school offenses. My mom told me to stop being friends with him because he was a bad influence. I decided to stop being friends with him, so he goes behind my back and texts my other friend, let's call him Bob. (Also not his real name)
John texts Bob insults about me while I was on the phone with Bob. Bob tells me this and begins to read the passage that John wrote. John says "he is just mad because he is gay. My dad says that he doesn't seem like a boy or a man. He only acts like this because he lives in a feminine household." Over the phone I became enraged.
The next day at school, I filled out a counselor notification form. I put on the waterworks for the counselor. The counselor then called in John and began his rant. I didn't see John for a week after that, because he apparently got suspended. Am I the jerk?
2024.05.17 03:25 Commercial-Bee-3250 old notes app entries
went through my old notes app entries and found this one rant I wrote down maybe a year or so ago. back then I didn't want anyone to read it but now that the person I wrote it for is no longer in my life I thought why not share it with you guys.
•start•
sometimes when I want to tell you something that I know I can't talk to you about I just imagine conversations in my head and I imagine how you'd react and I'm pretty accurate since everytime that I did end up talking to you about that, actually this time and not having an imaginary conversation, i had already seen that reaction in my head a million times over. I've figured you out and your ways more this way than I have by actually speaking to you. you've become familiar and maybe that's why I feel safe around you. i know what you're thinking and what you're feeling most of the time I'd like to believe or atleast I have a hint of it by the change in your tone so it scares me when your reaction is unpredictable. everytime we've gotten into a fight you reacted unpredictably and I couldn't do instant damage control. I guess I sometimes fail to take external forces into account. i know I sound crazy. i think the instance that comes to mind the most when I think of unpredictability from you
is when you got mad at me about my selfharm and told me to not speak about it with you which was a possibility I hadn't considered when I went over all the scenarios in my head but made me feel so dumb because it was a very reasonable reaction. made me wonder if i even knew you. but it made me view you from a different light from then on. instead of there being like two initial possibilities and then more stemming from that(think of a binary code 0,1) i now had a third option like a gray area but not exactly between 0 and 1 but a completely different one that's not connected to 0 and 1. i know that me watching how i react around you is bad or atleast I might think people would consider it that way but I think that's because I care. i don't watch how i act around people who don't matter to me as much. i told Z about my selfharm because if she stopped speaking to me it would make no difference. i told H initially or hinted at it before anyone else because at that time it didn't matter to me as much if she spoke to me or not. later did I start caring about her more deeply? yes. i even told H about him and what he used to do and when we weren't talking i used to get nightmares that she told everyone and you about it because she didn't think it was as big of a deal and I just wanted to rip her face off. I'm more open to the people I don't care about so whenever I do talk to you about something it's an effort to make us even? it's me trying to give just as much of myself to you as you give me. you open up to me and tell me your deepest sorrows and all I can do is just listen and not even be able to tell you that I know what it feels like and it's okay. i slept for an hour I'm so tired and I write so much of this stuff on my reddit but I don't want anyone to read this. i wanted to get it out of my head. today R and A were joking around and R said that she doesn't think I'll ever move on from you and as much as I wanted to tell you she doesn't know shit she's right and I already know that but it's okay I'd rather have you as my bestfriend always than nothing. then I talked about how I want to move on and A went "CHUP! ziada bari baatain na kro" (Translation:SHUT UP! with that big talk) which made me die of laughing even tho I wanted to bang my head against a wall at that time.
i think the reason I am never able to stay clean is because i don't know how to. if i ask myself "when was I clean of selfharm?", i first say "before 7th grade" but was I though? i mean I used to bang my head against a wall whenever I was angry. or I'd punch a wall until the skin on my knuckles would start to peel off and sometimes even bleed. and I think okay then how long did that go on for and I think and think and then realize probably since before I was 7 i still remember telling mumma I wanted to kill myself in Hamid uncles house which was probably when I was 5 or 6. i don't know anything else. what else am I supposed to do when I'm angry. because as much as I'd like to flaunt my 15 days clean i can't because in those 15 days I did bang my head and hit myself or scratch my arm which left a scar too. I'd rather have a cut on my arm that makes me feel better about myself than have a killing headache after I beat the crap out of myself and dived headfirst into a wall because it's not a nice feeling AT ALL. my cuts I have control over i can do them as deep or as small as i want. i can control the pain I can do things to make it not hurt when I don't want it to hurt and I can do things to make it hurt when I need it. i have control over it I don't fucking know what you want from me I don't have some huge reason I selfharm or some fucking trigger that makes me cut myself it just happens and when it happens I just let it because it feels worse when I don't do it and then when I eventually do relapse the cut is deeper and a fucking pain in my ass to take care of what I want is to be fucking left alone and be allowed to do whatever I want with my body and then you fucking pull up with the how'd u feel if i was doing it logics because that doesn't fucking work. if you want to do it you can talk to me and I'll help you I'll always help you in whatever way i can but I can't talk to myself so it's different •end•
after I read it I felt like such a foolish person even more so than when I wrote this. alot has happened since then and barely any feels good enough to be called for the better. hope you guys found some pleasure in my misery as that'd honestly make me feel a little bit better. hope you're all well. I'm posting this after barely getting any sleep for the past few weeks. life really does go around in circles atleast for me.
one step at a time
Edit: had to edit once I realized I put in actual names of my friends instead of pseudonyms so I fixed that and then realized there was some Urdu scattered around in the text so I roughly translated that as well.
submitted by Commercial-Bee-3250 to MadeOfStyrofoam [link] [comments]
•start•
sometimes when I want to tell you something that I know I can't talk to you about I just imagine conversations in my head and I imagine how you'd react and I'm pretty accurate since everytime that I did end up talking to you about that, actually this time and not having an imaginary conversation, i had already seen that reaction in my head a million times over. I've figured you out and your ways more this way than I have by actually speaking to you. you've become familiar and maybe that's why I feel safe around you. i know what you're thinking and what you're feeling most of the time I'd like to believe or atleast I have a hint of it by the change in your tone so it scares me when your reaction is unpredictable. everytime we've gotten into a fight you reacted unpredictably and I couldn't do instant damage control. I guess I sometimes fail to take external forces into account. i know I sound crazy. i think the instance that comes to mind the most when I think of unpredictability from you
is when you got mad at me about my selfharm and told me to not speak about it with you which was a possibility I hadn't considered when I went over all the scenarios in my head but made me feel so dumb because it was a very reasonable reaction. made me wonder if i even knew you. but it made me view you from a different light from then on. instead of there being like two initial possibilities and then more stemming from that(think of a binary code 0,1) i now had a third option like a gray area but not exactly between 0 and 1 but a completely different one that's not connected to 0 and 1. i know that me watching how i react around you is bad or atleast I might think people would consider it that way but I think that's because I care. i don't watch how i act around people who don't matter to me as much. i told Z about my selfharm because if she stopped speaking to me it would make no difference. i told H initially or hinted at it before anyone else because at that time it didn't matter to me as much if she spoke to me or not. later did I start caring about her more deeply? yes. i even told H about him and what he used to do and when we weren't talking i used to get nightmares that she told everyone and you about it because she didn't think it was as big of a deal and I just wanted to rip her face off. I'm more open to the people I don't care about so whenever I do talk to you about something it's an effort to make us even? it's me trying to give just as much of myself to you as you give me. you open up to me and tell me your deepest sorrows and all I can do is just listen and not even be able to tell you that I know what it feels like and it's okay. i slept for an hour I'm so tired and I write so much of this stuff on my reddit but I don't want anyone to read this. i wanted to get it out of my head. today R and A were joking around and R said that she doesn't think I'll ever move on from you and as much as I wanted to tell you she doesn't know shit she's right and I already know that but it's okay I'd rather have you as my bestfriend always than nothing. then I talked about how I want to move on and A went "CHUP! ziada bari baatain na kro" (Translation:SHUT UP! with that big talk) which made me die of laughing even tho I wanted to bang my head against a wall at that time.
i think the reason I am never able to stay clean is because i don't know how to. if i ask myself "when was I clean of selfharm?", i first say "before 7th grade" but was I though? i mean I used to bang my head against a wall whenever I was angry. or I'd punch a wall until the skin on my knuckles would start to peel off and sometimes even bleed. and I think okay then how long did that go on for and I think and think and then realize probably since before I was 7 i still remember telling mumma I wanted to kill myself in Hamid uncles house which was probably when I was 5 or 6. i don't know anything else. what else am I supposed to do when I'm angry. because as much as I'd like to flaunt my 15 days clean i can't because in those 15 days I did bang my head and hit myself or scratch my arm which left a scar too. I'd rather have a cut on my arm that makes me feel better about myself than have a killing headache after I beat the crap out of myself and dived headfirst into a wall because it's not a nice feeling AT ALL. my cuts I have control over i can do them as deep or as small as i want. i can control the pain I can do things to make it not hurt when I don't want it to hurt and I can do things to make it hurt when I need it. i have control over it I don't fucking know what you want from me I don't have some huge reason I selfharm or some fucking trigger that makes me cut myself it just happens and when it happens I just let it because it feels worse when I don't do it and then when I eventually do relapse the cut is deeper and a fucking pain in my ass to take care of what I want is to be fucking left alone and be allowed to do whatever I want with my body and then you fucking pull up with the how'd u feel if i was doing it logics because that doesn't fucking work. if you want to do it you can talk to me and I'll help you I'll always help you in whatever way i can but I can't talk to myself so it's different •end•
after I read it I felt like such a foolish person even more so than when I wrote this. alot has happened since then and barely any feels good enough to be called for the better. hope you guys found some pleasure in my misery as that'd honestly make me feel a little bit better. hope you're all well. I'm posting this after barely getting any sleep for the past few weeks. life really does go around in circles atleast for me.
one step at a time
Edit: had to edit once I realized I put in actual names of my friends instead of pseudonyms so I fixed that and then realized there was some Urdu scattered around in the text so I roughly translated that as well.
2024.05.17 03:13 Kagamid Medium for PS5 could've had a masterpiece of a story *spoilers*
Medium for PS5 could've had a masterpiece of a story spoilers
I just finished Medium and I must say the pull of the story was excellent. As soon as the scene with Jack occurred, I was all in. I needed to know where the story went. The pacing, atmosphere, sound (play with headphones as recommended), and unique concept (two dimensions at once) were delivered in an excellent manner.
I enjoyed checking every item and reading every file. The mysteries became very intriguing and kept me enthralled. Sadness was a very interesting character and trying to find her name so you could set her free was a very strong plot point. The Maw's delivery was excellent. Voiced by Troy Baker, it always felt disturbing and one of the only enemies that made me feel anxious as I ran from it. You really couldn't make any mistakes to get away as it truly, desperately wanted to catch you. The mysteries of what it was and where it came from also pulled me in.
I was a little confused about Thomas's office in Niwa but then I noticed the circle of salt around his desk. That combined with his memory stating something was coming tells me that he survived the Maw attack by surrounding himself in salt in a hurry (broken salt container in his desk). Some time later I thought he called Marianne and went into the spirit world using the symbols in the secret room (Marianne said those symbols felt like a curtain blowing in the wind). It makes sense given Thomas decided he was going to find his other half after setting Marianne's arrival in motion. It also makes sense on why he was nowhere to be found. But then I realized the call came from the Maw. It knew about her dreams because the dreams came from Lily. It pretended to be Thomas to get Marianne there. The line about the light fading proves it as it's the same line the Maw uses at the end by the lake. Finally The after credits proves it was the real Thomas in the spirit world as he was holding the watch his wife gave him on their 10 year anniversary. Again I love the details.
Now for the small problems I have with the story. The third act just kind've threw in some new plot device without much set up. Henry literally came out of nowhere but was central to everything that happened. This as opposed to Richard who was set up for some time before the big reveal. Even going back as seeing the memory of the nurse killing him makes sense once you learn where the Maw came from. The Maw's first victim was the man who helped create it. But Henry just showed up, attacked Thomas, set fire to the house, trapped spirit Thomas, then died. His short encounter was near impossible to predict and just as easily disappeared leaving us dealing with the damage dealt. Henry's involvement just felt rushed compared to everything else. There's so many unexplained parts of his involvement.
I get that he doing Thomas by noticing the article of Richard's vegetative state. His motivation seems to be that he's a dedicated government agent and just loves his job?
Why did he want Thomas to show his power rather then just arresting him?
How did Henry lay that trap for spirit Thomas without knowing what Thomas could actually do?
How did spirit Thomas even survive? I'm guessing real Thomas killed Henry before the beast could finish spirit Thomas but also left him trapped in Henry's mind.
Then there's Lillianne. Where was she living this entire time? How did she survive? Was she just checking the lake every day for years? She had some very distinct bandages on her legs and arms. Seems like a detail that should have an explanation.
Was Sadness just a manifestation of Lily, like the Maw? Is she like the child inside your mind that if Marianne sent away, would've put Lily in a vegetative state? Why was she missing an arm? I think trying to discover her death was a draw of the early game just to find out she's just a red herring there to motivate Marianne into finding the truth. I particularly liked the part where you're following the blinking lights as Sadness' only was to tell you where to go. It felt very supernatural and ghostly which helped set the tone. It put a damper later when you find out her role in all this.
As you can see most of my questions are elements introduced in the third act. The ending although faded to black didn't leave many options. Marianne killing herself would solve nothing. Killing Lily and sending away the May is the only solution. Some claim Thomas might've showed up and killed Lily to fulfill the dream, but he's not even in their realm. Since Marianne is no idiot, she either killed Lily or didn't shoot anyone. If she didn't kill Lily then maybe she thought of another way to get rid of the Maw. But obviously we have no idea so it's have to assume Lily is dead and now Thomas continues his search for his spirit half who may now have died protecting Marianne. Great story that could've been a masterpiece. Still a great game overall.
submitted by Kagamid to themedium [link] [comments]
I just finished Medium and I must say the pull of the story was excellent. As soon as the scene with Jack occurred, I was all in. I needed to know where the story went. The pacing, atmosphere, sound (play with headphones as recommended), and unique concept (two dimensions at once) were delivered in an excellent manner.
I enjoyed checking every item and reading every file. The mysteries became very intriguing and kept me enthralled. Sadness was a very interesting character and trying to find her name so you could set her free was a very strong plot point. The Maw's delivery was excellent. Voiced by Troy Baker, it always felt disturbing and one of the only enemies that made me feel anxious as I ran from it. You really couldn't make any mistakes to get away as it truly, desperately wanted to catch you. The mysteries of what it was and where it came from also pulled me in.
I was a little confused about Thomas's office in Niwa but then I noticed the circle of salt around his desk. That combined with his memory stating something was coming tells me that he survived the Maw attack by surrounding himself in salt in a hurry (broken salt container in his desk). Some time later I thought he called Marianne and went into the spirit world using the symbols in the secret room (Marianne said those symbols felt like a curtain blowing in the wind). It makes sense given Thomas decided he was going to find his other half after setting Marianne's arrival in motion. It also makes sense on why he was nowhere to be found. But then I realized the call came from the Maw. It knew about her dreams because the dreams came from Lily. It pretended to be Thomas to get Marianne there. The line about the light fading proves it as it's the same line the Maw uses at the end by the lake. Finally The after credits proves it was the real Thomas in the spirit world as he was holding the watch his wife gave him on their 10 year anniversary. Again I love the details.
Now for the small problems I have with the story. The third act just kind've threw in some new plot device without much set up. Henry literally came out of nowhere but was central to everything that happened. This as opposed to Richard who was set up for some time before the big reveal. Even going back as seeing the memory of the nurse killing him makes sense once you learn where the Maw came from. The Maw's first victim was the man who helped create it. But Henry just showed up, attacked Thomas, set fire to the house, trapped spirit Thomas, then died. His short encounter was near impossible to predict and just as easily disappeared leaving us dealing with the damage dealt. Henry's involvement just felt rushed compared to everything else. There's so many unexplained parts of his involvement.
I get that he doing Thomas by noticing the article of Richard's vegetative state. His motivation seems to be that he's a dedicated government agent and just loves his job?
Why did he want Thomas to show his power rather then just arresting him?
How did Henry lay that trap for spirit Thomas without knowing what Thomas could actually do?
How did spirit Thomas even survive? I'm guessing real Thomas killed Henry before the beast could finish spirit Thomas but also left him trapped in Henry's mind.
Then there's Lillianne. Where was she living this entire time? How did she survive? Was she just checking the lake every day for years? She had some very distinct bandages on her legs and arms. Seems like a detail that should have an explanation.
Was Sadness just a manifestation of Lily, like the Maw? Is she like the child inside your mind that if Marianne sent away, would've put Lily in a vegetative state? Why was she missing an arm? I think trying to discover her death was a draw of the early game just to find out she's just a red herring there to motivate Marianne into finding the truth. I particularly liked the part where you're following the blinking lights as Sadness' only was to tell you where to go. It felt very supernatural and ghostly which helped set the tone. It put a damper later when you find out her role in all this.
As you can see most of my questions are elements introduced in the third act. The ending although faded to black didn't leave many options. Marianne killing herself would solve nothing. Killing Lily and sending away the May is the only solution. Some claim Thomas might've showed up and killed Lily to fulfill the dream, but he's not even in their realm. Since Marianne is no idiot, she either killed Lily or didn't shoot anyone. If she didn't kill Lily then maybe she thought of another way to get rid of the Maw. But obviously we have no idea so it's have to assume Lily is dead and now Thomas continues his search for his spirit half who may now have died protecting Marianne. Great story that could've been a masterpiece. Still a great game overall.
2024.05.17 02:56 hyst5 Endometrial Cancer journey
Hello,
I have been visiting this sub from last 8 weeks or so and have read every single post. It was very helpful for me and made me feel less lonely. I want to document my journey here, to help me process what happened and in case it helps someone.
It all started in October of 2022. I had no symptoms of cancer ( like heavy bleeding, abnormal discharges, pelvic/back) pain etc at any time during 1.5 years that I dealt with it. I was diagnosed with a polyp during infertility treatment which turned out to have atypical hyperplasia. I was immediately put on Megace by my general gynecologist and was referred to gyn-onc. My regular gyn did an additional biopsy (this time it was D and C) one month after I was put on Megace. I was still waiting for gyn-onc appt at that time and it came back as grade 1 endometrioid adenocarcinoma. I wanted to try fertility sparing route, MRI showed no myometrial invasion and endometrial thickness was 8mm. So continued on Megace for 4 more months (total of 6 months). Follow up biopsy still showed grade1 EC. Gyn-onc suggested hysterectomy. We decided to get second/third opinions.
We consulted two different doctors ( including one from Stanford) and both suggested Mirena IUD implant and continuing Megace. We did that for 6 months and in December 2023, biopsy showed no cancer and ultrasound showed endometrial thickness of 4mm. Doctor wanted one more clear biopsy in March 2024 (3 months after December 2023 biopsy) before releasing me back to fertility doctor.
March 2024 biopsy came back as atypical hyperplasia and cannot completey exclude EC given my history. Gyn-onc suggested to continue the medication and get another biopsy in June. I requested an ultrasound for my peace of mind. Ultrasound showed an irregular endometrium with no clear borders with 32mm thickness with increasing vascularity ! It was unbelievable. I had no symptoms or abnormal bleeding or anything that would indicate a 32mm endometrium. Gyn-onc suggested it must be a mistake by ultrasound tech and ordered an MRI. MRI was scheduled one month after ultrasound and it showed thickened, ill defined endometrium invading into myometrium and more than 50% on the left side of the uterus. At that point, my primary oncologist and second opinion oncologist agreed that we will have to proceed with hysterectomy. Latest biopsy specimens were also sent for second opinion to Stanford and they called EC grade1 ( upgraded from atypical hyperplasia).
I underwent hysterectomy on May 7th. Got the pathology report today. It says scattered focal endometrioid adenocarcinoma grade1, no myometrial invasion and lymph nodes clear. The endometrial thickness varies from 2mm to 6mm !
I have no idea why ultrasound and MRI showed ill defined endometrium with thickness of 32mm and 26mm ! There were not even back to back, they were one month apart ! Doctors simply have no explanation. I could feel gyn-onc feeling kind of bad delivering the news. He said the amount of cancer was underwhelming !
Anyway 1.5 year efforts to save my uterus so that I can carry our baby has reached an end. I am relieved with the results and getting off this roller-coaster with my health intact. But also somewhere it is lurking in my mind that may be I could have gotten away without surgery and proceeded to fertility treatment if I had waited till june and not asked for an ultrasound. I don't know. It will take some time for me to resolve these feelings.
l wish all of you a healthy and fulfilling life ahead.
Edited to add, I was 38 at the time of diagnosis and 40 now.
submitted by hyst5 to endometrialcancer [link] [comments]
I have been visiting this sub from last 8 weeks or so and have read every single post. It was very helpful for me and made me feel less lonely. I want to document my journey here, to help me process what happened and in case it helps someone.
It all started in October of 2022. I had no symptoms of cancer ( like heavy bleeding, abnormal discharges, pelvic/back) pain etc at any time during 1.5 years that I dealt with it. I was diagnosed with a polyp during infertility treatment which turned out to have atypical hyperplasia. I was immediately put on Megace by my general gynecologist and was referred to gyn-onc. My regular gyn did an additional biopsy (this time it was D and C) one month after I was put on Megace. I was still waiting for gyn-onc appt at that time and it came back as grade 1 endometrioid adenocarcinoma. I wanted to try fertility sparing route, MRI showed no myometrial invasion and endometrial thickness was 8mm. So continued on Megace for 4 more months (total of 6 months). Follow up biopsy still showed grade1 EC. Gyn-onc suggested hysterectomy. We decided to get second/third opinions.
We consulted two different doctors ( including one from Stanford) and both suggested Mirena IUD implant and continuing Megace. We did that for 6 months and in December 2023, biopsy showed no cancer and ultrasound showed endometrial thickness of 4mm. Doctor wanted one more clear biopsy in March 2024 (3 months after December 2023 biopsy) before releasing me back to fertility doctor.
March 2024 biopsy came back as atypical hyperplasia and cannot completey exclude EC given my history. Gyn-onc suggested to continue the medication and get another biopsy in June. I requested an ultrasound for my peace of mind. Ultrasound showed an irregular endometrium with no clear borders with 32mm thickness with increasing vascularity ! It was unbelievable. I had no symptoms or abnormal bleeding or anything that would indicate a 32mm endometrium. Gyn-onc suggested it must be a mistake by ultrasound tech and ordered an MRI. MRI was scheduled one month after ultrasound and it showed thickened, ill defined endometrium invading into myometrium and more than 50% on the left side of the uterus. At that point, my primary oncologist and second opinion oncologist agreed that we will have to proceed with hysterectomy. Latest biopsy specimens were also sent for second opinion to Stanford and they called EC grade1 ( upgraded from atypical hyperplasia).
I underwent hysterectomy on May 7th. Got the pathology report today. It says scattered focal endometrioid adenocarcinoma grade1, no myometrial invasion and lymph nodes clear. The endometrial thickness varies from 2mm to 6mm !
I have no idea why ultrasound and MRI showed ill defined endometrium with thickness of 32mm and 26mm ! There were not even back to back, they were one month apart ! Doctors simply have no explanation. I could feel gyn-onc feeling kind of bad delivering the news. He said the amount of cancer was underwhelming !
Anyway 1.5 year efforts to save my uterus so that I can carry our baby has reached an end. I am relieved with the results and getting off this roller-coaster with my health intact. But also somewhere it is lurking in my mind that may be I could have gotten away without surgery and proceeded to fertility treatment if I had waited till june and not asked for an ultrasound. I don't know. It will take some time for me to resolve these feelings.
l wish all of you a healthy and fulfilling life ahead.
Edited to add, I was 38 at the time of diagnosis and 40 now.
2024.05.17 02:46 Cultured_Ignorance Stolen Thunder
Have you ever read something that significantly echoes a WIP of yours? This just happened to me tonight with Calvino's Marcovaldo. The economic impact on perception, metaphors of urban sensuousness, and pretend vivacity in decay are all significant themes in a piece I've been working on for a few months.
One section in the middle of the story (I believe Summer) is a mirror image of a passage in my opening section, regarding the cacophany of the pre-dawn city and pitiful resignation of the orchestra/audience.
I am stunned. I've noticed plenty of patterns between my writing and particular works I was reading, but nothing this striking. It almost makes me want to abandon the WIP, or scrap the first third of the text.
Has this ever happened to you? On one side it's beautiful, but also bothersome as it seems to sap the creativity from your WIP.
submitted by Cultured_Ignorance to literature [link] [comments]
One section in the middle of the story (I believe Summer) is a mirror image of a passage in my opening section, regarding the cacophany of the pre-dawn city and pitiful resignation of the orchestra/audience.
I am stunned. I've noticed plenty of patterns between my writing and particular works I was reading, but nothing this striking. It almost makes me want to abandon the WIP, or scrap the first third of the text.
Has this ever happened to you? On one side it's beautiful, but also bothersome as it seems to sap the creativity from your WIP.
2024.05.17 02:11 Chirpysz Any Help? - The game crashed whilst unexpected error Error: java.lang.NullPointerException: Cannot read field "field_44912" because "this.field_4015.field_1724" is null
The Game crashes everytime i join my world, doesnt matter if its an old one or a brand new one i just made. Not sure how to make sense of the code to figure out how to make it work
---- Minecraft Crash Report ----
// Hey, that tickles! Hehehe!
Time: 2024-05-17 01:05:20
Description: Unexpected error
java.lang.NullPointerException: Cannot read field "field_44912" because "this.field_4015.field_1724" is null
-- Head --
Thread: Render thread
Stacktrace:
Details:
Details:
Details:
Details:
cardinal-components-entity: Cardinal Components API (entities) 5.2.2
puzzlesaccessapi: Puzzles Access Api 8.0.9
com_electronwill_night-config_toml: toml 3.6.5
submitted by Chirpysz to fabricmc [link] [comments]
---- Minecraft Crash Report ----
// Hey, that tickles! Hehehe!
Time: 2024-05-17 01:05:20
Description: Unexpected error
java.lang.NullPointerException: Cannot read field "field_44912" because "this.field_4015.field_1724" is null
at net.minecraft.class\_757.method\_3188(class\_757.java:1085) at net.minecraft.class\_757.method\_3192(class\_757.java:880) at net.minecraft.class\_310.method\_1523(class\_310.java:1219) at net.minecraft.class\_310.method\_1514(class\_310.java:802) at net.minecraft.client.main.Main.main([Main.java:250](https://Main.java:250)) at net.fabricmc.loader.impl.game.minecraft.MinecraftGameProvider.launch([MinecraftGameProvider.java:470](https://MinecraftGameProvider.java:470)) at net.fabricmc.loader.impl.launch.knot.Knot.launch([Knot.java:74](https://Knot.java:74)) at net.fabricmc.loader.impl.launch.knot.KnotClient.main([KnotClient.java:23](https://KnotClient.java:23))A detailed walkthrough of the error, its code path and all known details is as follows:
Thread: Render thread
Stacktrace:
at net.minecraft.class\_757.method\_3188(class\_757.java:1085)-- Affected level --
Details:
All players: 0 total; \[\] Chunk stats: 1024, 409 Level dimension: minecraft:overworld Level spawn location: World: (-32,97,-48), Section: (at 0,1,0 in -2,6,-3; chunk contains blocks -32,-64,-48 to -17,319,-33), Region: (-1,-1; contains chunks -32,-32 to -1,-1, blocks -512,-64,-512 to -1,319,-1) Level time: 39 game time, 39 day time Server brand: \~\~ERROR\~\~ NullPointerException: Cannot invoke "net.minecraft.class\_746.method\_3135()" because "this.field\_3729.field\_1724" is null Server type: Integrated singleplayer serverStacktrace:
at net.minecraft.class\_638.method\_8538(class\_638.java:458) at net.minecraft.class\_310.method\_1587(class\_310.java:2406) at net.minecraft.class\_310.method\_1514(class\_310.java:826) at net.minecraft.client.main.Main.main([Main.java:250](https://Main.java:250)) at net.fabricmc.loader.impl.game.minecraft.MinecraftGameProvider.launch([MinecraftGameProvider.java:470](https://MinecraftGameProvider.java:470)) at net.fabricmc.loader.impl.launch.knot.Knot.launch([Knot.java:74](https://Knot.java:74)) at net.fabricmc.loader.impl.launch.knot.KnotClient.main([KnotClient.java:23](https://KnotClient.java:23))-- Last reload --
Details:
Reload number: 1 Reload reason: initial Finished: Yes Packs: fabric, continuity:glass\_pane\_culling\_fix, continuity:default, file/Roanoke\_Textures\_1.5.zip, file/E19 Cobblemon Minimap [Icons.zip](https://Icons.zip), vanilla, Moonlight Mods Dynamic Assets-- Cobblemon --
Details:
Version: 1.5.0 Is Snapshot: false Git Commit: 347e10d ([https://gitlab.com/cable-mc/cobblemon/-/commit/347e10d7e474a7741f2d31c439a6696093a6ee23](https://gitlab.com/cable-mc/cobblemon/-/commit/347e10d7e474a7741f2d31c439a6696093a6ee23)) Branch: HEAD Timestamp: 05/11/2024 10:26:01 UTC-- System Details --
Details:
Minecraft Version: 1.20.1 Minecraft Version ID: 1.20.1 Operating System: Windows 11 (amd64) version 10.0 Java Version: 17.0.8, Microsoft Java VM Version: OpenJDK 64-Bit Server VM (mixed mode), Microsoft Memory: 1485640368 bytes (1416 MiB) / 3674210304 bytes (3504 MiB) up to 10502537216 bytes (10016 MiB) CPUs: 32 Processor Vendor: GenuineIntel Processor Name: 13th Gen Intel(R) Core(TM) i9-13900KS Identifier: Intel64 Family 6 Model 183 Stepping 1 Microarchitecture: unknown Frequency (GHz): 3.19 Number of physical packages: 1 Number of physical CPUs: 24 Number of logical CPUs: 32 Graphics card #0 name: Intel(R) UHD Graphics 770 Graphics card #0 vendor: Intel Corporation (0x8086) Graphics card #0 VRAM (MB): 128.00 Graphics card #0 deviceId: 0xa780 Graphics card #0 versionInfo: DriverVersion=31.0.101.5186 Graphics card #1 name: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 Graphics card #1 vendor: NVIDIA (0x10de) Graphics card #1 VRAM (MB): 4095.00 Graphics card #1 deviceId: 0x2684 Graphics card #1 versionInfo: DriverVersion=31.0.15.5123 Memory slot #0 capacity (MB): 16384.00 Memory slot #0 clockSpeed (GHz): 4.00 Memory slot #0 type: Unknown Memory slot #1 capacity (MB): 16384.00 Memory slot #1 clockSpeed (GHz): 4.00 Memory slot #1 type: Unknown Memory slot #2 capacity (MB): 16384.00 Memory slot #2 clockSpeed (GHz): 4.00 Memory slot #2 type: Unknown Memory slot #3 capacity (MB): 16384.00 Memory slot #3 clockSpeed (GHz): 4.00 Memory slot #3 type: Unknown Virtual memory max (MB): 69405.82 Virtual memory used (MB): 24686.12 Swap memory total (MB): 4096.00 Swap memory used (MB): 0.00 JVM Flags: 4 total; -XX:HeapDumpPath=MojangTricksIntelDriversForPerformance\_javaw.exe\_minecraft.exe.heapdump -Xss1M -Xmx10016m -Xms256m Fabric Mods: amecs: Amecs 1.3.10+mc.1.20.1 amecsapi: Amecs API 1.4.0+mc1.20-pre1 appleskin: AppleSkin 2.5.1+mc1.20 architectury: Architectury 9.2.14 ash\_api: Ash API 3.0.2+1.20.1 badpackets: Bad Packets 0.4.3 bedrockwaters: BedrockWaters 1.8.0+1.20.1 carrotconfig: CarrotConfig 1.1.2+1.20.1 betterf3: BetterF3 7.0.2 betterstats: Better Statistics Screen 3.9.7+fabric-1.20.1 tcdcommons: TCD Commons API 3.9.6+fabric-1.20.1 betterthirdperson: Better Third Person 1.9.0 blur: Blur (Fabric) 3.1.0 midnightlib: MidnightLib 1.4.1 satin: Satin 1.13.0 boatiview: Boat Item View Fabric 0.0.5 bookshelf: Bookshelf 20.1.10 capes: Capes 1.5.2+1.20 carryon: Carry On [2.1.2.7](https://2.1.2.7) cherishedworlds: Cherished Worlds 6.1.6+1.20.1 chunksfadein: Chunks Fade In 1.0.5-1.20.1 com\_moandjiezana\_toml\_toml4j: toml4j 0.7.2 crowdin-translate: CrowdinTranslate 1.4+1.19.3 cloth-config: Cloth Config v11 11.1.118 cloth-basic-math: cloth-basic-math 0.6.1 clumps: Clumps [12.0.0.4](https://12.0.0.4) cobblemon: Cobblemon 1.5.0+1.20.1 cobblemon\_capturexp: Cobblemon Capture EXP 1.5-fabric-1.0.1 cobblemon\_chaining: Cobblemon Chaining 1.5-fabric-1.0.0 cobblemon\_counter: Cobblemon Counter 1.5-fabric-1.0.0 cobblemon\_spawn\_notification: Cobblemon Spawn Notification 1.4-fabric-1.3.0 cobblemonbreakouts: Cobblemon Outbreaks fabric-1.1.4-1.20.1 cobblepedia: Cobblepedia 0.5.3 continuity: Continuity 3.0.0-beta.5+1.20.1 debugify: Debugify 1.20.1+2.0 durabilitytooltip: Durability Tooltip 1.1.5 easyanvils: Easy Anvils 8.0.2 easymagic: Easy Magic 8.0.1 easyshulkerboxes: Easy Shulker Boxes 8.0.2 puzzlesapi: Puzzles Api 8.1.6cardinal-components-base: Cardinal Components API (base) 5.2.2
cardinal-components-entity: Cardinal Components API (entities) 5.2.2
puzzlesaccessapi: Puzzles Access Api 8.0.9
elytraslot: Elytra Slot 6.3.0+1.20.1 enchdesc: EnchantmentDescriptions 17.0.14 entityculling: EntityCulling-Fabric 1.6.2-mc1.20.1 fabric-api: Fabric API 0.92.1+1.20.1 fabric-api-base: Fabric API Base 0.4.31+1802ada577 fabric-api-lookup-api-v1: Fabric API Lookup API (v1) 1.6.36+1802ada577 fabric-biome-api-v1: Fabric Biome API (v1) 13.0.13+1802ada577 fabric-block-api-v1: Fabric Block API (v1) 1.0.11+1802ada577 fabric-block-view-api-v2: Fabric BlockView API (v2) 1.0.1+1802ada577 fabric-blockrenderlayer-v1: Fabric BlockRenderLayer Registration (v1) 1.1.41+1802ada577 fabric-client-tags-api-v1: Fabric Client Tags 1.1.2+1802ada577 fabric-command-api-v1: Fabric Command API (v1) 1.2.34+f71b366f77 fabric-command-api-v2: Fabric Command API (v2) 2.2.13+1802ada577 fabric-commands-v0: Fabric Commands (v0) 0.2.51+df3654b377 fabric-containers-v0: Fabric Containers (v0) 0.1.64+df3654b377 fabric-content-registries-v0: Fabric Content Registries (v0) 4.0.11+1802ada577 fabric-convention-tags-v1: Fabric Convention Tags 1.5.5+1802ada577 fabric-crash-report-info-v1: Fabric Crash Report Info (v1) 0.2.19+1802ada577 fabric-data-attachment-api-v1: Fabric Data Attachment API (v1) 1.0.0+de0fd6d177 fabric-data-generation-api-v1: Fabric Data Generation API (v1) 12.3.4+1802ada577 fabric-dimensions-v1: Fabric Dimensions API (v1) 2.1.54+1802ada577 fabric-entity-events-v1: Fabric Entity Events (v1) 1.6.0+1c78457f77 fabric-events-interaction-v0: Fabric Events Interaction (v0) 0.6.2+1802ada577 fabric-events-lifecycle-v0: Fabric Events Lifecycle (v0) 0.2.63+df3654b377 fabric-game-rule-api-v1: Fabric Game Rule API (v1) 1.0.40+1802ada577 fabric-item-api-v1: Fabric Item API (v1) 2.1.28+1802ada577 fabric-item-group-api-v1: Fabric Item Group API (v1) 4.0.12+1802ada577 fabric-key-binding-api-v1: Fabric Key Binding API (v1) 1.0.37+1802ada577 fabric-keybindings-v0: Fabric Key Bindings (v0) 0.2.35+df3654b377 fabric-lifecycle-events-v1: Fabric Lifecycle Events (v1) 2.2.22+1802ada577 fabric-loot-api-v2: Fabric Loot API (v2) 1.2.1+1802ada577 fabric-loot-tables-v1: Fabric Loot Tables (v1) 1.1.45+9e7660c677 fabric-message-api-v1: Fabric Message API (v1) 5.1.9+1802ada577 fabric-mining-level-api-v1: Fabric Mining Level API (v1) 2.1.50+1802ada577 fabric-model-loading-api-v1: Fabric Model Loading API (v1) 1.0.3+1802ada577 fabric-models-v0: Fabric Models (v0) 0.4.2+9386d8a777 fabric-networking-api-v1: Fabric Networking API (v1) 1.3.11+1802ada577 fabric-networking-v0: Fabric Networking (v0) 0.3.51+df3654b377 fabric-object-builder-api-v1: Fabric Object Builder API (v1) 11.1.3+1802ada577 fabric-particles-v1: Fabric Particles (v1) 1.1.2+1802ada577 fabric-recipe-api-v1: Fabric Recipe API (v1) 1.0.21+1802ada577 fabric-registry-sync-v0: Fabric Registry Sync (v0) 2.3.3+1802ada577 fabric-renderer-api-v1: Fabric Renderer API (v1) 3.2.1+1802ada577 fabric-renderer-indigo: Fabric Renderer - Indigo 1.5.1+1802ada577 fabric-renderer-registries-v1: Fabric Renderer Registries (v1) 3.2.46+df3654b377 fabric-rendering-data-attachment-v1: Fabric Rendering Data Attachment (v1) 0.3.37+92a0d36777 fabric-rendering-fluids-v1: Fabric Rendering Fluids (v1) 3.0.28+1802ada577 fabric-rendering-v0: Fabric Rendering (v0) 1.1.49+df3654b377 fabric-rendering-v1: Fabric Rendering (v1) 3.0.8+1802ada577 fabric-resource-conditions-api-v1: Fabric Resource Conditions API (v1) 2.3.8+1802ada577 fabric-resource-loader-v0: Fabric Resource Loader (v0) 0.11.10+1802ada577 fabric-screen-api-v1: Fabric Screen API (v1) 2.0.8+1802ada577 fabric-screen-handler-api-v1: Fabric Screen Handler API (v1) 1.3.30+1802ada577 fabric-sound-api-v1: Fabric Sound API (v1) 1.0.13+1802ada577 fabric-transfer-api-v1: Fabric Transfer API (v1) 3.3.5+8dd72ea377 fabric-transitive-access-wideners-v1: Fabric Transitive Access Wideners (v1) 4.3.1+1802ada577 fabric-language-kotlin: Fabric Language Kotlin 1.10.20+kotlin.1.9.24 org\_jetbrains\_kotlin\_kotlin-reflect: kotlin-reflect 1.9.24 org\_jetbrains\_kotlin\_kotlin-stdlib: kotlin-stdlib 1.9.24 org\_jetbrains\_kotlin\_kotlin-stdlib-jdk7: kotlin-stdlib-jdk7 1.9.24 org\_jetbrains\_kotlin\_kotlin-stdlib-jdk8: kotlin-stdlib-jdk8 1.9.24 org\_jetbrains\_kotlinx\_atomicfu-jvm: atomicfu-jvm 0.24.0 org\_jetbrains\_kotlinx\_kotlinx-coroutines-core-jvm: kotlinx-coroutines-core-jvm 1.8.0 org\_jetbrains\_kotlinx\_kotlinx-coroutines-jdk8: kotlinx-coroutines-jdk8 1.8.0 org\_jetbrains\_kotlinx\_kotlinx-datetime-jvm: kotlinx-datetime-jvm 0.5.0 org\_jetbrains\_kotlinx\_kotlinx-serialization-cbor-jvm: kotlinx-serialization-cbor-jvm 1.6.3 org\_jetbrains\_kotlinx\_kotlinx-serialization-core-jvm: kotlinx-serialization-core-jvm 1.6.3 org\_jetbrains\_kotlinx\_kotlinx-serialization-json-jvm: kotlinx-serialization-json-jvm 1.6.3 fabricloader: Fabric Loader 0.15.11 mixinextras: MixinExtras 0.3.5 fallingtree: FallingTree 4.3.4 faster\_entity\_animations: FastAnim 1.6 forgeconfigapiport: Forge Config API Port 8.0.0 fusion: Fusion 1.1.1 gymbadges: GymBadges 1.0 highlighter: Highlighter 1.1.9 iceberg: Iceberg 1.1.18 indium: Indium 1.0.30+mc1.20.4 inventoryhud: Inventory HUD + 3.4.18 inventorysorter: Inventory Sorter 1.9.0-1.20 kyrptconfig: Kyrpt Config 1.5.6-1.20 iris: Iris 1.7.0+mc1.20.1 io\_github\_douira\_glsl-transformer: glsl-transformer 2.0.0-pre13 org\_anarres\_jcpp: jcpp 1.4.14 org\_antlr\_antlr4-runtime: antlr4-runtime 4.11.1 java: OpenJDK 64-Bit Server VM 17 jei: Just Enough Items [15.3.0.4](https://15.3.0.4) konkrete: Konkrete 1.8.1 labels: labels 1.20-1.20.1 lambdynlights: LambDynamicLights 2.3.2+1.20.1 pride: Pride Lib 1.2.0+1.19.4 spruceui: SpruceUI 5.0.0+1.20 letmedespawn: Let Me Despawn 1.2.0 lithium: Lithium 0.11.2 make\_bubbles\_pop: Make Bubbles Pop Mod 0.2.0-fabric mcwpaintings: Macaw's Paintings 1.0.5 minecraft: Minecraft 1.20.1 modmenu: Mod Menu 7.2.2 moonlight: Moonlight 1.20-2.11.19 mousetweaks: Mouse Tweaks 2.26 nochatreports: No Chat Reports 1.20.1-v2.2.2 paintings: Paintings++ [11.0.0.0](https://11.0.0.0) particlerain: Particle Rain 2.0.8 patchouli: Patchouli 1.20.1-84-FABRIC fiber: fiber 0.23.0-2 pickupnotifier: Pick Up Notifier 8.0.0 puzzleslib: Puzzles Lib 8.1.19 resourcefullib: Resourceful Lib 2.1.24 com\_teamresourceful\_bytecodecs: bytecodecs 1.0.2 com\_teamresourceful\_yabn: yabn 1.0.3 resourcepackoverrides: Resource Pack Overrides 8.0.3 skinlayers3d: 3d-Skin-Layers 1.6.4 sodium: Sodium 0.5.8+mc1.20.1 sound\_physics\_remastered: Sound Physics Remastered 1.20.1-1.3.1 supermartijn642configlib: SuperMartijn642's Config Lib 1.1.8+a supermartijn642corelib: SuperMartijn642's Core Lib 1.1.17 terralith: Terralith 2.5.0 transparent: Transparent 8.0.1+1.20.1 trinkets: Trinkets 3.7.2 veinmining: Vein Mining 1.4.1+1.20.1 spectrelib: SpectreLib 0.13.15+1.20.1com_electronwill_night-config_core: core 3.6.5
com_electronwill_night-config_toml: toml 3.6.5
visuality: Visuality 0.7.1+1.20 visualworkbench: Visual Workbench 8.0.0 waterdripsound: Drip Sounds 1.19-0.3.2 wthit: wthit 8.10.0 xaerominimap: Xaero's Minimap 24.1.1 xaeroworldmap: Xaero's World Map 1.38.4 yet\_another\_config\_lib\_v3: YetAnotherConfigLib 3.4.2+1.20.1-fabric com\_twelvemonkeys\_common\_common-image: common-image 3.10.0 com\_twelvemonkeys\_common\_common-io: common-io 3.10.0 com\_twelvemonkeys\_common\_common-lang: common-lang 3.10.0 com\_twelvemonkeys\_imageio\_imageio-core: imageio-core 3.10.0 com\_twelvemonkeys\_imageio\_imageio-metadata: imageio-metadata 3.10.0 com\_twelvemonkeys\_imageio\_imageio-webp: imageio-webp 3.10.0 org\_quiltmc\_parsers\_gson: gson 0.2.1 org\_quiltmc\_parsers\_json: json 0.2.1 zoomify: Zoomify 2.13.4+1.20.1 com\_akuleshov7\_ktoml-core-jvm: ktoml-core-jvm 0.5.1 dev\_isxander\_settxi\_settxi-core: settxi-core 2.10.6 dev\_isxander\_settxi\_settxi-kotlinx-serialization: settxi-kotlinx-serialization 2.10.6 Loaded Shaderpack: ComplementaryReimagined\_r5.1.1.zip Profile: HIGH (+0 options changed by user) Launched Version: fabric-loader-0.15.11-1.20.1 Backend library: LWJGL version 3.3.1 SNAPSHOT Backend API: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090/PCIe/SSE2 GL version 3.2.0 NVIDIA 551.23, NVIDIA Corporation Window size: 1920x1080 GL Caps: Using framebuffer using OpenGL 3.2 GL debug messages: Using VBOs: Yes Is Modded: Definitely; Client brand changed to 'fabric'; Server brand changed to 'fabric' Type: Integrated Server (map\_client.txt) Graphics mode: fancy Resource Packs: fabric, continuity:glass\_pane\_culling\_fix, continuity:default, file/Roanoke\_Textures\_1.5.zip, file/E19 Cobblemon Minimap [Icons.zip](https://Icons.zip), vanilla Current Language: en\_us CPU: 32x 13th Gen Intel(R) Core(TM) i9-13900KS Server Running: true Player Count: 1 / 8; \[class\_3222\['Chirpysz'/171, l='ServerLevel\[New World\]', x=-24.50, y=98.00, z=-39.50\]\] Data Packs: vanilla, fabric, Moonlight Mods Dynamic Assets Enabled Feature Flags: minecraft:vanilla World Generation: Experimental
2024.05.17 01:57 Ridtom Amy Was Not Born Bad (With citations)
I've been hearing people saying that Amy is an example of a character being "born evil" or "ontologically evil", because her being a sexual predator must mean that Carol was right.
Which is bizarre, because Worm and Ward both show that Amy was just a normal kid dealing with emotional abuse and fucked up dependency, before she leapt off the slippery slope.
So I decided to prove this with a collection of snippets from the Parahumans series showing that the entire point of Amy's character is that she was someone who was a normal child in the first place:
And yes, Carol was singling her out even pre-Worm.
Amy became a monster, but she was NEVER born bad.
submitted by Ridtom to Parahumans [link] [comments]
Which is bizarre, because Worm and Ward both show that Amy was just a normal kid dealing with emotional abuse and fucked up dependency, before she leapt off the slippery slope.
So I decided to prove this with a collection of snippets from the Parahumans series showing that the entire point of Amy's character is that she was someone who was a normal child in the first place:
And yes, Carol was singling her out even pre-Worm.
- Infrared 19.9 (elementary school Amy being put down by Carol and basically threatened with a traumatic trigger event)
Eric retreated into the living room, plunking himself down into a chair, slumping down so his arms were up on the armrest, feet on the floor, and his upper body stretched along the seat, chin against collarbone.*
He looked at us without moving his head.
"What's up?" I asked.
He shrugged.
"How's she doing?" I asked.
He shrugged, then mumbled, "There were some days she was really scary. I had no idea what she'd do. Mostly now she's… extra teenager-ish, I guess."
He sighed, dramatic.
"It's tough being the odd one out, isn't it?" Amy asked. She was sitting on the short couch beneath the window, feet curled up beside her, a folded book in her lap.
"Really tough."
"Do you want to talk about it?" Amy asked.
"Nah."
"You can reach out to us anytime," Amy said.
"Okay. Thanks, I guess."
He got up and pulled a controller out from under the television. He flipped the switches to turn the TV and console on, and it "Thwooomed" with the console's startup sound.
He held out a controller, offering it to Amy and me.
"Reading," Amy said. "Thanks though."
Amy took a second to pull a throw blanket down from the back of the couch and toss it over her legs and feet, before picking up her book.*
I walked around the end of the couch, leaning over the arm, my head parallel to hers as I read over her shoulder.
"You're distracting me," she said. Her head moved, frizzy brown hair mashing into my face as she butted her head lightly into mine.
"Who's Roaraxia?" I asked.
"Do you want to read this after I'm done?" she asked. "Emphasis on after?"
"Depends. Is Roaraxia cool?"
"She's the bad guy, and yeah, I guess."
"Is the good guy cool?" I asked.
"No," Amy said, sighing. "Almost never, in books."
"In your books, maybe."
"It's the appeal, isn't it? Peasants, criminals, orphans, they get a chance and they become cool by the end of the book."
I snorted, got up, and took my seat at the other end of the short couch. I stuck my feet out and wormed them beneath Amy's blanket.
"Your feet are cold," Amy told me, kicking me in the shin.
"So are yours," I said, grabbing the corner of the blanket and pulling it away from her foot. "Now they're colder."
What ensued was like thumb wrestling, feet kicking at and pushing against feet in a battle for control. She wasn't trying very hard, though, because she had her eyes on the book. The battle was less about the feet and more about me trying to get her attention as much as she tried to avoid giving it to me.
"You need to shave your legs," Amy said. "It's like sandpaper."
"Gross," Eric said, not taking his eyes off the game.
"It gives me the heebie jeebies," Amy said. "Like the squeak from markers on a whiteboard, or sneakers on the gym floor."
"Tiny hairs, sticking in the underside of your feet," I teased her. "And when you walk, you're walking on them and pushing them in deeper…"
She pulled her feet away like I was on fire, and shivered visibly, putting her book down. My victory.
I kept going, "And when they grow, they're pointed in the wrong direction, so they grow in…"
Amy made incoherent sounds of protest.
"I'm pretty sure it doesn't work that way," Eric said.
"It probably doesn't," I said. I let my head loll back onto the armrest behind me, no longer fighting with Amy. "We're supposed to take a science class next semester."
"Chemistry, biology, or physics," Amy clarified. "We got the sheet in homeroom. Also art, music, or drama."
"Same. What did you pick for science?"
"Chemistry. Physics is the advanced kids' stream and is supposed to be hard, and in biology you might have to dissect frogs. No thank you," Amy answered. "Ick."
"I thought there would be some parts of it that are useful for health and fitness, first aid."
"You're thinking about cape stuff," Amy said.
"Naturally."
"And I bet you picked drama."
"Art," I told her. "At least for the one year. I'm not very good at it, but there's emblems and icons, color mechanics, costumes, poses and posture…"
Amy snorted. "Of course. I picked art too, mostly by process of elimination. So we might be in the same class."
"Cool."
"We wanted to talk with you because of what happened to Crystal," Aunt Sarah said. "Based on what's happening elsewhere, and how Carol and I both got powers, we wanted each of you to be aware of what might be coming down the road."
"We'll get powers," I said.
"Probably," my dad said. "Possibly. I know you know the answer, but… do you know how?"
"Trigger events," I said.
Amy spoke up, "This is like having a math whiz in the class, putting her hand up every time a question is asked."
"I'm not that bad."
"It's more serious than math class," Uncle Neil said. "Eric, do you understand about Trigger events?"
"That's the day you get powers?" Eric asked.
"It's what makes you get powers. It's a very important moment."
"One of the best or worst days of your life," I said.
"It can be," my Uncle said.
"If you want it to be a good day," my mother said, "The best thing you can do is be a good student, a good athlete, and the best person you can be. Strive for things and then accomplish those things."
"Great," Amy said. "I'm doomed."
"But," Aunt Sarah said, and it sounded like a sentence. She gave my mom a look. "As far as we can tell, it's rare. You should absolutely try to improve your chances, especially Victoria and Eric. The powers seem to run in the family, and getting a 'good' trigger would help reduce the chances that you get a bad one-"
"We don't know if the chances are as high for you, but it would behoove you to get your grades up, Amy," my mom said.
"Great," Amy said, making a face.
"I've been urging you for some time to join a club, a team, make your own friends. You have too contained a life."
"That's not what we're here to talk about," Aunt Sarah said. "Again, yes, I think it would be good to focus on success, but we should be prepared for the other cases. If something happens, if you have a really bad day and you get hurt or scared or angry, then it's possible you could have a bad trigger event. And it's hard. Right now, Crystal is going through a lot. Neil, me, Mark, Carol, we all went through it."
"All bad?" Amy asked.
"Yes, Amy."
"What happened?" Eric asked.
I braced myself, ready for my mom to shut it down.
"Your mother and I were kidnapped," my mother said. "They kept us in a dark basement for a long time. And then they tried to kill us."
I blinked, my head swimming as I absorbed that. Things made sense now. I had so many more questions.
"Neil had the accident, which you know about" my Aunt Sarah said. I knew. They'd met in the physical therapy after. Her for a riding injury, him for his trigger. "Mark-"
"I was on a boat when we were attacked," my dad said.
"The point is," my Aunt Sarah stressed, "we need you to be aware that this is a thing that happens. Very often, when we get powers, it isn't always easy, fun, or great. We need you all to be gentle with Crystal, not to pry, not to pressure, give her space, and let her handle things in her own way."
I felt frustrated at that, yet I couldn't say anything. They were saying this because I'd been asking her questions before.
"As you grow up, and we bring you to more events where capes are present, it's important to remember that many of them have been through the same," my mother said. "It's a question of courtesy and cape politics."
I nodded at that.
"It's not just others. We need you to be gentle with yourselves," Uncle Neil said. "Be prepared and be aware. When Sarah triggered, she hurt people, badly. I did the same."
"And I took a life," my mother said.
My eyes widened at that.
There was a pause, a break in the flow of conversation. And it was my mom, wearing a sweater, her hair long, looking much like a mom, with sunlight coming in from the window, and I could see it in her eyes. The fact that she had come to terms with that.
"…We weren't going to mention that," Aunt Sarah said, indicating Eric.
"I almost killed someone too," Crystal said.
I wasn't sure how to even imagine that. I wasn't sure Crystal could even imagine it, from the look on her face.
All I knew was that some sketchy people had recognized her and followed her off the bus, running after her when she ran. I only knew that much because my mom had told Amy and me to be extra careful, and had insisted she or dad drive us if we went anywhere.
"They're mad, now, apparently," Crystal said, hugging her arms to her body. "They want to get revenge."
"Often the case," my dad said. "Bad begets bad."
I could tell that my parents' approach to things wasn't really jibing with how Aunt Sarah had wanted to approach it. A little too serious when Eric was three years younger than me and Amy.
"It might happen to you," My mother said. "Chances are the time it happens won't be a time you're capable of being your most rational, but that makes it all the more important that you make resolutions and understand things now. There's a good chance that when you're facing the worst day of your life, you might be in a position to do irreparable harm to someone."
"I don't think I'm the type."
"I didn't think I was the type either, Amy," my mother said. "That makes it easier for the moment to catch you off guard."
"It's not all fun and games," my dad said. He met my eyes as he said it.
Aunt Sarah opened her mouth, like she wanted to say something… but she couldn't refute the fact.
"If I could go back-" Crystal started. She stopped, aware that every set of eyes was on her. Her eyes moving so she wasn't looking at anyone at all, she went on, "-I wouldn't do it again. I wouldn't want these powers."
"I'm so sorry, Crystal," Amy said.
Crystal shrugged.
"That's crazy," I said.
"Victoria," my mother's voice was stern. "We were just talking about sensitivity."
"But she can- you can fly, Crystal."
"And every time I do, it feels a bit like I'm still running away from those people," she said.
"That's a reality for many of us," my aunt Sarah said. A woman I'd associated with warm hugs, pumpkin cookies, and all of the cool 'my relative is a superhero' stuff without the 'also my parent' crap, except now she was talking from a place of darkness and hurting people.
"I hope I never get powers," my sister said. I saw Crystal nod.
- Infrared 19.10 where we see that Amy always remembered how Carol treated her
"I saw scenes from our childhood. Stuff to do with mom, Uncle Neil, and Dean. You were there."
"Fucking up?" she asked.
"Nah," I said. "Just there. Talking about Roaraxia and fantasy books."
"The talk," Amy said. Still without turning around.
Dot crawled up Amy and perched on her shoulder, sitting backwards so she could watch me. Wearing purple overalls with no shirt.
"Yeah. The talk. I'd mostly forgotten."
"I didn't. I couldn't pick up another book in the Roar series without thinking about mom getting on my case in front of everyone. Amy with no friends, no hobbies, she's small."
I looked at my mom. My mom was frowning.
- Gleam 9.2 has Victoria talking about how her and Amy were normal sisters, how Amy was a quiet but nice kid, and how they both felt weird about their fame influencing their relationships
I was no stranger to distorted thinking. Even before… before everything, I'd been swept up in it. As a child, wanting to belong to my family, being the odd one out, until I got my power. I'd later realized how lonely powers were.
The flip side of the coin applied too. Being the odd one in.
Amy had been the odd one in more than I had. Purely average in appearance, quiet, she hadn't been passionate about hobbies or about anything in particular. She'd liked movies from Aleph and when she was twelve she'd break her usual reserved, quiet composure to get way too excited if she checked the change slot of a vending machine or pay phone and found a quarter. And yet when we got to high school, she was automatically included in the group of popular students. The group with Dean, who was supposed to take over his dad's company, and with the star athletes and the star athletes' boyfriends and girlfriends.
I'd eventually looked beyond my bubble of thinking my sister was great because she was my sister and I fucking loved her, wondering why she was included in the group of popular students when she wasn't popular. Then I'd had to draw the eventual, inevitable conclusion, and wonder if I belonged to that group. Was I there just because my parents wore costumes and had flashy powers?
I'd settled in despite that. Amy had settled out- hanging out to keep me company, but not going out of her way to stick with the group. It had been easy for her to move in that direction, after I'd gotten powers. I'd been grateful for my earlier realization about the nature of the group, because it kept me real and provided a starting point for realizing where Dean was coming from, having come from money. I'd loathed it at the same time, because it cast doubt on every normal interaction.
- From Within 16.y has Mark regale Amy with a story about how much of an adorable child she was, how Victoria was more a problem child in ways, and how innocent she was in being flustered by a cute hair-dresser
Mark approached, stopping by a table, which he leaned against. "I remember, Amy, you hated to sit still for haircuts."There's obviously more, including how in Worm, Amy single-handedly save the hostages in the bank fight from Skitter. Or how she feels gross about the idea of making people pay for healing.
"I was a terrible child. I get it," Amy muttered.
"No, you were a wonder of a child next to the unholy terror that was Victoria," Mark told her. "And you're a fine woman now. I wish it wasn't such a hard journey to get from there to here, but I'm glad to be here with you in the present moment."
The words seemed to calm Hunter more than they affected Amy.
"You're trying to butter me up."
"You can touch me if you want to tell if I'm sincere."
"Can't. Focusing on Hunter."
"After then."
"No," Amy said. She was pacified, calmer. "No need."
She worked her way through Hunter's brain. There were triggers and flags everywhere. Certain perceptions, certain emotions, attitudes.
Hunter's power was involuntary.
"We'd give you candies to suck on so you couldn't complain while sitting in the chair," Mark said. "And on one particular visit, the last one with the candy, as you'll recall…"
Amy groaned.
"A new hairdresser came up, and she hugged you from behind, looked over your shoulder in the mirror, and she said something to the effect of, 'what would you like us to do, cutie?' She surprised the hell out of you-"
"That wasn't surprise."
"No?" Mark asked. And she could hear the change of tone. He rallied, "But you choked."
"I did choke."
"And you gagged," Mark said, his tone warm. "While you were trying to dislodge the candy. I was thumping your back. And then you threw up, onto the barber's bib, and it wicked straight down onto your shoes."
"I can't believe the world ended and I'm still hearing about it."
"You were inconsolable."
Amy became a monster, but she was NEVER born bad.
2024.05.17 01:49 HighwayDry2727 docker not working
what am i doing wrong? cgroups and etc are enabled, but docker refuses to work properly ``` sudo docker run hello-world
docker: Error response from daemon: failed to create task for container: failed to start shim: start failed: io.containerd.runc.v2: create new shim socket: listen unix /data/data/com.termux/files/usvarun/containerd/s/1da210b0827a1c772c72b223e4f1d42d8604457319c91bfc896ef8bb8919411e: bind: invalid argument: exit status 1: unknown. ERRO[0000] error waiting for container:
ERRO[2024-05-16T23:33:04.450696497Z] copy shim log error="read /proc/self/fd/14: file already closed" ERRO[2024-05-16T23:33:04.453650924Z] stream copy error: reading from a closed fifo
ERRO[2024-05-16T23:33:04.581361809Z] Handler for POST /v1.43/containers/79cd08fe5f16847762626b736b30e2d79cf651d5ec78af4f3f8dadc0b7f5e338/start returned error: failed to create task for container: failed to start shim: start failed: io.containerd.runc.v2: create new shim socket: listen unix /data/data/com.termux/files/usvarun/containerd/s/1da210b0827a1c772c72b223e4f1d42d8604457319c91bfc896ef8bb8919411e: bind: invalid argument: exit status 1: unknown ```
tried to search on this, but got no answer. here are all warns and errors when starting docker daemon
``` WARN[2024-05-16T23:32:26.546846876Z] could not change group /data/data/com.termux/files/usvarun/docker.sock to docker: group docker not found
ERRO[0000] failure getting variant error="getCPUInfo for OS android: not implemented"
WARN[2024-05-16T23:32:26.886109741Z] failed to load plugin io.containerd.snapshotter.v1.devmapper error="devmapper not configured"
WARN[2024-05-16T23:32:27.161133074Z] Could not get operating system name: open /uslib/os-release: no such file or directory
WARN[2024-05-16T23:32:27.161352136Z] Could not get operating system version: open /uslib/os-release: no such file or directory
WARN[2024-05-16T23:32:27.228858022Z] failed to find docker-init: exec: "docker-init": executable file not found in $PATH
WARN[2024-05-16T23:32:27.237478386Z] WARNING: No cpu cfs quota support ```
by the way, when installing docker, it says that i need to run this: mount -t tmpfs -o mode=755 tmpfs /sys/fs/cgroup mkdir -p / sys/fs/cgroup/devices mount -t cgroup -o devices cgroup /sys/fs/cgroup/devices first of all, when i run it by myself, the second command doesn't work, /sys/fs/cgroup shows up as empty directory all the time, so i run lxc-setup-cgroups. when i do so, "devices" directory shows up, but then when running third command, i get this mount: /sys/fs/cgroup/devices: cgroup already mounted on /sys/fs/cgroup/blkio.
umount -l doesn't help btw, when i try to remount it, it just says "device or resource busy" all the time.
i don't know if it's important at all, but maybe it's something essential for docker to work?
submitted by HighwayDry2727 to termux [link] [comments]
docker: Error response from daemon: failed to create task for container: failed to start shim: start failed: io.containerd.runc.v2: create new shim socket: listen unix /data/data/com.termux/files/usvarun/containerd/s/1da210b0827a1c772c72b223e4f1d42d8604457319c91bfc896ef8bb8919411e: bind: invalid argument: exit status 1: unknown. ERRO[0000] error waiting for container:
ERRO[2024-05-16T23:33:04.450696497Z] copy shim log error="read /proc/self/fd/14: file already closed" ERRO[2024-05-16T23:33:04.453650924Z] stream copy error: reading from a closed fifo
ERRO[2024-05-16T23:33:04.581361809Z] Handler for POST /v1.43/containers/79cd08fe5f16847762626b736b30e2d79cf651d5ec78af4f3f8dadc0b7f5e338/start returned error: failed to create task for container: failed to start shim: start failed: io.containerd.runc.v2: create new shim socket: listen unix /data/data/com.termux/files/usvarun/containerd/s/1da210b0827a1c772c72b223e4f1d42d8604457319c91bfc896ef8bb8919411e: bind: invalid argument: exit status 1: unknown ```
tried to search on this, but got no answer. here are all warns and errors when starting docker daemon
``` WARN[2024-05-16T23:32:26.546846876Z] could not change group /data/data/com.termux/files/usvarun/docker.sock to docker: group docker not found
ERRO[0000] failure getting variant error="getCPUInfo for OS android: not implemented"
WARN[2024-05-16T23:32:26.886109741Z] failed to load plugin io.containerd.snapshotter.v1.devmapper error="devmapper not configured"
WARN[2024-05-16T23:32:27.161133074Z] Could not get operating system name: open /uslib/os-release: no such file or directory
WARN[2024-05-16T23:32:27.161352136Z] Could not get operating system version: open /uslib/os-release: no such file or directory
WARN[2024-05-16T23:32:27.228858022Z] failed to find docker-init: exec: "docker-init": executable file not found in $PATH
WARN[2024-05-16T23:32:27.237478386Z] WARNING: No cpu cfs quota support ```
by the way, when installing docker, it says that i need to run this: mount -t tmpfs -o mode=755 tmpfs /sys/fs/cgroup mkdir -p / sys/fs/cgroup/devices mount -t cgroup -o devices cgroup /sys/fs/cgroup/devices first of all, when i run it by myself, the second command doesn't work, /sys/fs/cgroup shows up as empty directory all the time, so i run lxc-setup-cgroups. when i do so, "devices" directory shows up, but then when running third command, i get this mount: /sys/fs/cgroup/devices: cgroup already mounted on /sys/fs/cgroup/blkio.
umount -l doesn't help btw, when i try to remount it, it just says "device or resource busy" all the time.
i don't know if it's important at all, but maybe it's something essential for docker to work?
2024.05.17 01:31 Common-Compote3949 The idea of chain of transmission in hadiths
 | Article: The idea of chain of transmission in hadiths submitted by Common-Compote3949 to islam [link] [comments] the recognition of fair historian non muslims : Asad Rustam - Orientalists: Margoliouth - Bernard Lewis!! (To read their confessions, you can go directly to the end of the article) In a scene some of you may have seen before: They come in a long line of people (for example, 20 or 30 individuals) with their backs to each others - then the first of them turns his back to the rest until one of the people tells him a simple story or shows him a simple movement (for example, as if he was getting up to sit on a motorcycle), Then he is asked to convey the simple story or simple movement to the one who After him - and the next to the next and so on to the last person in the line ـ And the surprise! : We notice the changes that occurred in the story or movement when it reached the last person - and here the ignorant atheists and deniers of the Sunnah shout with joy, saying: "See? This is a practical experience that you cannot deny that the idea of chain of transmission in hadiths is wrong and impossible!!" ـ The question is: This popular experience actually suits “the general public” in order to prove to them the possibility of the transmission of speech between them being wrong and inaccurate - but: Is “the science of hadith” in Islam and the Sunnah really like this?!! ـ The truth is: There are differences in every part of this example from ((the science of hadith))!! Let's count it together: ـ ـــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــ First: between the lay person and the muslim hadith narrator ـــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــ All the people in the long line: They are chosen from “the general public” in a random way, meaning: They have no relation to the science of hadith and do not worry about ((especially the conditions for accepting the chain of transmission)) - meaning: ـ We can do the same experiment to deny, for example, that (geometry) is important!! Or even (medicine)!! All you have to do is bring a group of random people and give them, for example, concrete, iron, and bricks. Then you ask them to build a building of 3 floors. Then, when the building is completed, you say: See, there is no point in studying engineering!!! ـ Or you give some ordinary and random people surgical, cutting and cutting tools, then you let them work on 10 patients under anesthesia to treat them, for example: Then when the patients die, you say with all pride: You see: there is no benefit in studying medicine!! ـ Now: What exactly happens in Hadith science? The answer: Each of the narrators (represented by a person in the line) will not stand in the line (i.e., his narration will not be accepted) unless his conduct is confirmed as: ـ 1- The name and circumstance are known (and ignorance of which makes the hadith weak or fabricated) 2 - Strong memorization at the time of hearing and at the time of reporting, with synonymous variations with the same meaning (because the hadith is not worshiped by its recitation like the Qur’an, so it is permissible to narrate it in the meaning) 3- His justice (i.e. he is not known to lie, betray, bear false witness, etc.) 4- Evidence that he was contemporaneous with at least one who heard from him, or they were both brought together in one city, or he declared that he had heard from those before him with the wording, he told us, or he narrated to us, or we heard. To the rest of these conditions for ruling on (the authenticity of the narrator’s acceptance of the chain of transmission) ـ The more difficult the conditions are, the more authentic the book of hadiths is than others (hence the preference for Sahih al-Bukhari, as we will talk about in an upcoming article, God willing, to demolish the lies about it as well). ـ All of this is known by the scholars of hadith (or scholars of the term hadith) from what they collected about the details of the lives of every companion, follower, follower of the follower, and narrators (which is what is called the translation of a person): such as the year of their birth and death - and at the hands of those who heard the knowledge and hadith - and from their students who heard from them after that. - Where did they travel - and when did they travel - and what were their morals and justice? - Or what was the injury to their morals and justice? - Did their memorization change as they grew older, for example, or not - and when exactly did this change in their memorization occur - and so on ـ This is what is called in Hadith science (Books of Biographies) or (Books of Jarh and Ta’deel) or (Ilm al-Rijal). The question again: Do we now see any relationship between that accuracy of science of hadith and the popular experience in which there is a row of random, unknown people who were not selected according to any criterion: neither in memorization, nor understanding, nor accuracy, nor knowledge, nor honesty?! ـ This means that if we wanted to apply (some) of the rules of hadith science to the experiment, before we chose the people in the class, we would first test: the strength of their memorization - and the accuracy of their verbal or motor performance!! Then we choose those who pass the test!! ـ ــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــ Second: The number of people and narrators!! ـــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــ In the popular experience, 20 or 30 and perhaps more people were included - while in the science of hadith, oral transmission ends as soon as it is written down - as long as it is written down, then it has been preserved in a book and the transmission process has ended. ـ This only follows the oral narrations - as it is known that there were companions who (wrote) hadiths in the life of the Prophet, may God bless him and grant him peace - such as our master Abdullah bin Amr bin Al-Aas - and we are also not talking about (the Qur’an) which Muslims recite as it is in their prayers five times a day. (In addition to standing, worshiping, Tarawih, etc.)!! Moreover, the Qur’an is written and preserved!! ـ Therefore, even the number of many people in the dozens in a row in the popular experience is not suitable for comparison in the science of hadith!! The longest chain of transmission for a hadith is only one hadith in Sahih al-Bukhari, consisting of 9 narrators (which is a hadith of woe to the Arabs)!! Most of the hadiths are less than that ـ It is enough for us to know that the first (collection) of written hadiths from the Companions and followers who were contemporary with the Companions was in the year 100 AH - at the instruction of the Commander of the Faithful, Omar bin Abdul Aziz, the fifth of the Rightly Guided Caliphs - and this hundred years is the death of the last companion of the Companions, who was (Amer bin Wathilah Al-Laithi - Abu Tufail). )!! ـ This means that if one of the scholars of that period narrated a hadith on the authority of Wathilah al-Laythi, on the authority of a companion older than him, on the authority of the Prophet: there would be no one between them!! It means a chain of transmission from one person, then the Prophet!! Thus, we see many chains of narration between its recording in the books of hadith and the Prophet having only two or three narrations (therefore, it is one of the most authentic and highest chains of narrations) - such as: - Al-Zuhri’s narration on the authority of Salem, on the authority of Ibn Omar, may God be pleased with him, on the authority of the Prophet!! And like the narration of Malik on the authority of Nafi’ on the authority of Ibn Omar, may God be pleased with him!! Imam Malik’s Muwatta was compiled in 158 AH!! This means that there is only 2 between him and the Prophet, may God bless him and grant him peace!! - Is there a comparison between that and a row of 20 or 30?!! By the way, most of Imam Malik’s Muwatta is found in the Musnad of Imam Ahmad and in the Sahih of Imam al-Bukhari, as we will see in an upcoming article. These are just some of the thousands of chains of narrations from the Followers and Companions on the authority of the Prophet, may God bless him and grant him peace!! Glory be to God Almighty - ـــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــ Third: The power of preserving the early Arabs ـــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــ It is what the Arab nation was famous for even before Islam - one of them used to memorize hundreds and thousands of verses of poetry!! They used to hold competitions in their most famous markets (such as Souq Okaz) - and the hospitality was as great as the seven well-known commentators. - This leads us to a question: How do those with poor memory today measure such abilities in themselves?! Is there any similarity between them and those Arabs with the ability to memorize most of them?!! Indeed, by God, most of us today hardly remember a phone number except our own phone!! If it increases, it may be one or two numbers with difficulty!! This is due to the feature of saving numbers in our mobile phones - but before the spread of these mobile phones: most of us used to save at least 20 landline numbers, for example, for our phone and the phones of our family, friends, and work!! ـ The need to memorize is what stimulates and activates the memorization parts of the brain - and the Arab and Bedouin in ancient times used to walk in deserts extending for hundreds of kilometers, and he must memorize the routes of walking in them with every precision and every detail, no matter how small, otherwise the sand will swallow him - or he will get lost and die of thirst or burn under the flames of the sun. !! ـ ـــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــ Fourth: The importance of the topic ـــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــ Of course, there is a difference between 20 or 30 random people who may not have a specific lofty goal or sacred duty, such as reporting on the Prophet, may God bless him and grant him peace, in common - unlike the science of hadith, which creates a religious and doctrinal motivation within each narrator to increase concentration, memorization, and attention to the highest levels - and out of hope for the Prophet’s promise. Peace be upon him : - ((May God bless a person who hears a hadith from us and memorizes it until someone else conveys it. Perhaps he carries jurisprudence to someone who is more knowledgeable than him, and perhaps he carries jurisprudence and is not a jurist.)) Narrated by Al-Tirmidhi and others with an authentic chain of transmission. - Likewise, fear of the threat of the Prophet, may God bless him and grant him peace: ((Lying about me is not the same as lying about anyone else. Whoever lies about me intentionally, let him take his seat in Hell)) Narrated by Al-Bukhari and others with an authentic chain of transmission. - Therefore, we are not surprised that, to this day - in addition to the annual Qur’an memorization competitions (and this alone is a miracle that we did not talk about): there are competitions for memorizing the entire six or nine books of hadith!! It means support and text!! And from whom? From children under the age of eleven and fifteen!! - (The six hadith books: Sahih Al-Bukhari - Sahih Muslim - Sunan Al-Tirmidhi - Sunan Al-Nasa’i - Sunan Ibn Majah - Sunan Abi Dawud) and the nine additional books (Muwatta’ of Imam Malik - Musnad of Imam Ahmad - Sunan Al-Darimi) - Glory be to Him, the Guide, Glory be to Him, who facilitates the memorization of religious texts - ــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــ Fifth: What did the fair non muslim people say about the science of hadith?! ــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــ And here we mean non-Muslims (especially Christians) - who (and some of you may be shocked by this information): They do not have the original text of the Gospels as spoken by Jesus, peace be upon him!! Since the oldest 4 Gospels were approved by the Council of Nicaea in 235 AD and the rest were burned: they were written in Greek!! While Jesus, peace be upon him, spoke Hebrew or Aramaic!! ــ This is a big point and question mark in the face of the “Formation of Atheists” Foundation, led by Ibrahim Issa, for its attempt to cast doubt on the Sunnah and Islamic history!! Where, as is the custom of atheists and their selectivity: he tries to butt the mountain of steadfast and solid hadith in which every word has an authentic or weak chain of narration!! He leaves out the Christian Gospels, which do not even qualify as “the story of the life of Christ,” peace be upon him!! There are no chains of narration in it at all (neither authentic nor weak) ـ The meaning, in more detail, is that the 4 official Christian Gospels are of unknown lineage and the status of the writers (Matthew, Luke, John, and Mark). Therefore, they do not even qualify to be compared to the books of the Sunnah, Hadith, and Biography (although our Biography books are much weaker than the Hadith books), but at least they have chains of narration. We judge from it whether it is strong or weak - and it is mentioned in it who is narrating from whom!!) ـ Thus, we confirm the orientation of an atheistic institution such as (Takween) and that it was not supported externally or internally except to fight Islam only!! Therefore, there is no surprise if among its members is the priest Rifaat Fikri... whose job is to try to polish Christianity after the atheists who are with him question Islam!! - Christian historian: Asad Rustam He is the first one we will mention quickly: he is a Lebanese Christian doctor and historian - who worked as a professor of Arab history at the American University of Beirut - and who holds a doctorate in history from the University of Chicago - he says: - ((Hadith: knowledge and narration History: knowledge and narration: So we have a term for history, just as hadith scholars have a term for hadith!! This is from the introduction to his book ((The Concept of History)) - The historian doctor called in his book and his long scientific career that it is time for the science of history to be disciplined in its narration - and for precise and decisive rules to be established for accepting transmission, just as the Muslims did in the science of hadith, which he described as: ((A modern scientific method: to correct news and narrations))!! - Then comes an ignorant person like Ibrahim Issa, who makes a mistake in every two words he says about the Sunnah, biography, or history - and as he did in his first video at the Takween Foundation (watch Dr. Haitham Talaat’s video: Enlightenment by forgery Ibrahim Issa and questioning the Prophet’s biography). We will put his link in the comments. ـ Indeed, Asad Rustam says more clearly: ((Among what Farid mentions with admiration and appreciation is what hadith scholars have reached hundreds of years ago in this regard, and here is some of what was stated in their works, which we present verbatim and to the letter, in acknowledgment of their scientific scrutiny, and in recognition of their credit to history))!! - Glory be to God Almighty The thing that atheists and deniers of the Sunnah do not stop at because of their extreme ignorance is that “the science of hadith” in Islam is a unique science that has not existed in any nation before!! Indeed, all the famous historians in the world were just telling stories: we do not even know enough information about the historians themselves (truthful - lying - learned - ignorant) - and perhaps Herodotus is the best example of this and the funny wonders that his writings contain (such as what he reported about the reason for the color of Negroes by The Abyssinian sperm is black!! ـ Rather: All the narrations of history are whose authors or recorders are unknown, whether in what we find in manuscripts or on walls and temples!! Did they believe it? Did they lie? Did they exaggerate? Who are they even?! no one knows !! ـ As for Islam: it is never like this, thanks to God This is because when God Almighty promised to memorize the Qur’an: it was logical for him to inspire Muslims to memorize the clear Sunnah of the Qur’an, as we said before!! Prayer is mentioned in the Qur’an and the Prophet explained and performed it. How will it reach Muslims over hundreds of years if it is not made easy for Muslims to memorize the Sunnah orally and in writing?!ــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــ Orientalist Margoliouth ــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــ This man, David Samuel Margoliouth, did not leave anything in Islam without trying to cast doubt on it, even literature and history. However, despite his lying to distort the Sunnah sometimes, his scholarly standing refused to admit the truth reluctantly, so as not to lose the trust of his students and followers in him!! - He says :But though the theory of the Isnad has occasioned endless trouble, owing to the inquiries which have to be made into the trustworthiness of each transmitter, and the fabrication of traditions was a familiar and at times easily tolerated practice, its value in making for accuracy cannot be questioned, and the Muslims are justified in taking pride in their science of tradition. source: David Samuel Margoliouth - Lectures on Arabic Historians - 1929 - p.20 ـ ــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــ orientalist Bernard Lewis ـــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــ He is a British-American honorary professor of Middle Eastern studies - and a famous thinker, writer, and orientalist (who came up with the idea of dividing the new Middle East) - he says: ((Early on: Islamic scholars realized the danger of false testimonies and corrupt doctrines, so they developed a science for criticizing hadiths and heritage, which is (the science of hadith) as it was called.. - It differs for many considerations from the science of modern historical criticism!! While modern studies have proven a constant difference in evaluating the authenticity and accuracy of ancient narratives (i.e. in non-Islamic narratives): we find that a careful examination of it (i.e. the science of hadith) with its attention to the chains of transmission and chain of transmission and its careful collection and preservation of variables in the transmitted narrative gives medieval Arab history professionalism and development. Never before in ancient times!! Without even finding anything like it in the West in the Middle Ages at that time!! ـ When comparing it (i.e. the science of hadith among Muslims) with Latin Christian history: the latter appears poor and weak!! Even the most advanced and complex methods of history in the Greek Christian world are still less than the historical works of Islam in terms of total diversity, volume and depth of analysis!! ـ Original text : From an early date Muslim scholars recognized the danger of false testimony and hence false doctrine, and developed an elaborate science for criticizing tradition. " Traditional science", as it was called, differed in many respects from modern historical source criticism, and modern scholarship has always disagreed with evaluations of traditional scientists about the authenticity and accuracy of ancient narratives. But their careful scrutiny of the chains of transmission and their meticulous collection and preservation of variants in the transmitted narratives give to medieval Arabic historiography a professionalism and sophistication without precedent in antiquity and without parallel in the contemporary medieval West. By comparison, the historiography of Latin Christendom seems poor and meagre, and even the more advanced and complex historiography of Greek Christendom still falls short of the historical literature of Islam in volume, variety and analytical depth. ـ source: Bernard Lewis, Islam In History, 1993, Open Court Publishing, pp.104-105 ـ ــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــ We will suffice with this amount so as not to prolong it Especially after Bernard Lewis's last statement and his comparison of the knowledge of hadith and its accuracy in Islam: with the poor Latin Christian history!! Will the atheist (free thinkers) inspire us in (Genesis): By directing some of their outstanding geniuses to criticize the weariness of the Gospels and Christian books?! Or is the guidance and support, as we said, intended to fight Islam only?! By al behthoon al moslimoon https://www.facebook.com/share/p/5ouyZegF3dktRoTv/?mibextid=qi2Omg |
2024.05.16 23:34 goBerserk_ Project Napoleon Chapter 4
Fletch gently pushed open the large and lavishly decorated bronze doors of the university administration building and ambled out into the portico. He set his cup of coffee down on the pedestal of a granite pillar and pulled his cigarette case from the breast pocket of his tan trench coat. The old chief inspector plucked a cigarette from the ornately engraved case with slender fingers and wondered why the Kael let him come at all.
Something felt very off with the whole thing. The more he thought about it, the more he questioned the story he got. Mike Anderson was certainly depressed, but as far as Fletch could tell, he had not displayed any suicidal behavior. And why now? Fletch thought. Things were on the upswing for the kid. His grades were excellent, his family situation was good, and he was out of the house more this term than the last. Fletch scratched his mustache. Why would the seals hide the autopsy and the gun? He brought the cigarette to his lips, snapped the filigreed case shut, and slipped it back into the breast pocket of his coat. Fletch flicked open his lighter and sighed as he lit his cigarette. Murder.
It was a hopeless case. These days, warrants were approved by the seals, and even if they weren't, he doubted that he could get one anyway. His suspicion of foul play was backed by nothing but his instinct.
Fletch watched students hustle and bustle through the plaza in front of him as he puffed away at his cigarette and pondered his theory.
But why kill him now? They could have done it in complete secrecy while he was a POW. And it couldn’t be to keep what happened in Philadelphia under wraps. His death brings more attention to it. And he wasn’t a rebel. So why? Fletch sipped at his coffee as he flicked ash from his cigarette. Vengeance? Did he kill some noble brat during the war?
Fletch scratched at his grey mustache and glanced at his watch. I’ll have to follow that thread. He tossed his half-smoked cigarette into a puddle as he briskly walked down the steps and through the university plaza.
The withered investigator was deep in thought when he entered the parking lot. What do I tell that Enrique chap? He unlocked his car and crawled in. I certainly can’t tell him that his mate’s been clipped with no evidence. Fletch turned the key, and the engine of his little Volvo sputtered to life. It’s no bleeding use. I’ll just tell the lad they weren’t interested in sharing and keep my suspicions to myself.
As he reached for the shifter, Fletch noticed a delightfully thick manilla envelope stuck in the gap between the center console and the passenger seat.
He pulled the envelope from the crack. Gingerly, he opened it and pulled out a small note. It read We’re even now, prick.
Fletch smiled and couldn’t help but mutter, “The game is afoot,” as he flicked through the stack of documents inside.
Isabella poked her head into the large office and saw Professor Dret’la with a ball of dark green yarn on her lap and bone darning needles beset with carvings in her hands.
Isabella was struck with confusion. What? She crochets!?
The professor looked up from her labor, spotted the confused girl outside her door, and called, “Come in.”
Isabella walked into the office and took a seat. She gestured to the yarn in the professor's hands. “What are you making?”
The professor smiled as motherly as one could with a mouth full of razor-sharp teeth. “It will be a hat for my son. He just received his commission as a junior biologist, so he has to rummage around in freezers to get samples for his whole research team.”
Isabella blinked. This was not characteristic at all for the quick-tempered professor with a penchant for launching chalk across lecture halls at the mildest provocation.
Isabella shook off her shocked expression and gave the tall professor a dimpled cheek smile. “That’s so sweet! I’m sure he’ll love it. One of the best gifts I’ve ever received was a thick wool sweater from my mamma during a training exercise off the coast of Norway.”
The professor, still smiling, sat up straight. “I hope that’s the kind of reception I get.”
The professor’s demeanor hardened as she stowed the yarn and needles in the desk drawer. “Now, let's get down to business.”
Isabella gulped.
“To start, congratulations. You’ve passed our testing and been selected for officer training.”
Isabella asked, “Who else was selected?”
“There are nine others: Robert Rhodes, Elena Pavel, Hal Jellico, Zheng Li, Brooke Halsey, Colow Aden, Magnus Tordenskjold, Bill Lee, and Kazuya Yamamoto.”
Isabella didn’t recognize all the names.
“Should you choose to accept, you will be taking a prep course taught by Colonel Ocidea and I starting next week and lasting all through the summer. If we deem you ready, you’ll ship out for basic training and then off to the Royal Military Academy, where you can earn your commission.” Dr. Dret’la leaned in close to Isabella. “Do you accept?”
Without hesitation, Isabella answered, “Yes.”
“Mike, come over here. You’re going to want to see this.” Calty voiced from her seat in the front of the cockpit.
Mike rolled off the couch and walked into the front of the cockpit as the captain shouted, “Decelerate!” Mike couldn’t help but grab onto the back of Calty’s seat as the FTL drive kicked into gear. The cockpit glass dimmed just before blindingly bright blue jets of fire from the front-facing engines came into view. A bright green circle flickered onto the glass surrounding a marble-sized dot darker than the rest of the now dim screen. The dots and circles expanded at an extreme pace until they took up most of the display. Another dot appeared—minuscule compared to the other—surrounded by a red circle. The growth of the shadowy dots and the circles around them slowed and then stopped entirely as the engines sputtered out.
The HUD faded out of view, and the tint of the glass slowly lightened, revealing a vast planet embraced by blue-green ice with a colossal foundry in its orbit. The planet, a gas giant called Drassus, was orbited by four rings. One was made of containers, and the other three were made up of loose ore gleaming in the nearby star's light. Exhaust chimneys spewing gas and fire sprouted from the otherwise spherical foundry, giving it a sea urchin-like profile, which, together with the weave of pipes bringing fuel from beneath the icy surface of the planet below, made the foundry resemble an old naval mine.
The captain strode up to the front of the cockpit. “One-third ahead and steer 14 degrees left. We’re unloading in bay three.”
Six mech suits and a tug exited a plasma-shielded hanger as the ship came to a halt. The mechs glided to the front of the ship and started dismounting the external cargo bay from the Broken Fin while the tug hitched onto the opposite end of the ten-kilometer-long rack of containers.
A little while later, the tug pulled away with the load of containers, and the comm system blared to life. “Broken Fin, you are cleared to leave. The UO corporation thanks you for your business.”
The captain replied, “Our pleasure. Broken fin out.” as the ship pulled out of the loading bay.
He turned to the navigation officer and said, “Lock in coordinates for jump to Kael Prime.”
The captain went to the central control board and pulled up traffic control. “Tower 1, this is the Broken Fin. We request a jump slot to Kael Prime from Drassus.”
“Broken Fin, request granted. Your departure slot is at 16:33.”
Mike glanced at the top right of the ship's HUD and looked at the time. 16:21.
Better get my stuff together…
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The ship shuddered ever so slightly despite the inertial dampeners as it exited FTL. Mike was lounging on the couch with his bag at his feet. He was ready to get off this tub.
Mike idly watched flames lick at the cockpit window as the ship descended into the atmosphere of Kael Prime. He looked at Dreki, who was sitting on the other couch. His muscles bulged through his clothes despite wearing a white sweater so large it could be mistaken for the sail of an average-sized boat. Mike asked, “Do you know anything about what’ll happen to me now?”
The big Kael shifted in his seat. “Technically, I’m not supposed to tell you anything, but what the hell.” Dreki pulled the collar of his sweater down, revealing an angry white number burnt into his iron-gray skin just below the collarbone. “First, you’ll get branded.” He released his shirt and pointed to a small scar on the side of his head. “Then you’ll get an AR implant.”
“Where will I be getting that?” Mike asked.
“The Imperial Science Academy. We’re going to be staying there for a few days. They’ll run a bunch of tests and get you fitted for equipment there. After that, I’ll drop you off at the spaceport, and you’ll be off to Tlaxcalssus for basic training. After that, I don’t know.”
“Thanks.”
The ship shook as it touched down on the landing pad. “Time to go.” Dreki shouldered his pack and walked out the door. Mike fiddled with the straps of his bag as he followed Dreki down the ramp and to the far side of the ship, away from the rest of the passengers. Mike's nose was immediately assaulted with the acrid smell of sulfur from where the fiery exhausts of engines had melted asphalt. The spaceport was swarming with vehicles and filled with the constant roar of ship engines and a symphony of smaller equipment. Power loaders and mechs loaded and unloaded heavy cargo, shuttles bustled to and fro with passengers, baggage carriers snaked through the crowded landing pads, and vehicles that looked like floating garage doors zipped through the air at ankle height, bringing pilots and crew to their ships. Mike couldn’t help but chuckle a little at the absurdity of it all. Here he was, in the heartland of the enemy, walking through what was essentially a ten-acre parking lot.
Dreki plopped his bags on the ground and yawned as he stretched his arms over his head. “Our skiff will be here in a minute.”
Mike tuned out the beeps and whirrs of the tank-sized forklifts and mechs unloading the ship and gazed out beyond at the horizon. You’re not in Kansas anymore, bub. Mike thought as he studied the skyline of the imperial city basked in the glow of the early evening sun. Some of the buildings wouldn’t look all that out of place on Earth, but the skyline was assaulted with abominations that pissed on the laws of physics as Man understood them. Tusk-shaped skyscrapers defied gravity with their seemingly unsupported curves, and even more absurd were pyramids stacked atop another point-to-point like hourglasses. Any delusion of normalcy that Mike could come up with was shattered.
Dreki picked up his bag and pointed to a slab of black marble speeding towards them at ankle height. “Here’s our skiff.” A railing popped out of the center as the skiff came to a gliding halt. Dreki boarded the skiff and took hold of the rail, and Mike followed suit.
They sped through the spaceport and stopped outside what looked to Mike like a train station. Dreki shouldered his bag and stepped off the skiff. Mike stepped off and quickly fell in pace with Dreki. The big Kael led Mike into a grand station bustling with people. Most were Kael, but there was a smattering of other species. Some stared at Mike, others glanced, but most completely ignored him as he followed Dreki through the hall and onto a platform. Unfamiliar aliens clearly weren’t an uncommon sight here.
The walls of the station were covered with mosaics depicting Kael warriors from the distant past. Dreki noted the human's curiosity and said, “The founders of the clans.” He leveled a massive hand toward an opulent, towering mosaic of a Kael warrior wielding a bronze falx. The imposing figure's body was made of blue gemstones, the eyes rubies, one tusk silver, and the other gold. “That’s the founder of my clan, Drekalla Gold Tusk.”
Mike asked, “How’d he manage that?” As he followed Dreki into a mostly empty train car.
Dreki plopped down on a bench. “He was the war priest of Hroptaug the Conqueror during the unification wars. After the wars were won, Hroptaug granted us the Steam Hills.” Dreki pointed through the train window at the mosaic of another warrior whose body was made of milky white pearls. “That one,” He paused and spat on the floor, “Tiblan the Terror, challenged Drekalla to a duel for most of that land. Drekalla was cutting him to pieces, but the craven poisoned his blade. Just before Drekalla could deliver the final blow, the poison reached his heart, and Drekalla died. The only wound on his body was a cut across his forearm that barely drew blood.” Dreki rolled up his sleeve, showing a scar that reached from his elbow to the middle of his forearm. “Every K’alla is cut the same way to remind us of the blood feud.”
Mike inwardly sighed. Kael and their damned feuds… “How long ago was this.”
“Seven thousand four hundred and fifty-one years ago.”
Mike held back a snort. The absurdity of it all. The first human law codes came about to stop blood feuds, and out here, they have feuds that have lasted longer than Earth's recorded history.
“How’s that feud been going as of late?”
Dreki’s face sagged, “Not good.”
They both grew quiet. Mike shuffled uncomfortably.
Mike glanced at the route display and broke the silence, “What's with the middle city, inner city thing?”
Dreki relaxed slightly. “Oh, so the city used to be a fortification. The inner city is actually a volcanic island. The middle is built over the river, and the outer city was built on the banks.”
“I see.”
The doors closed, and the intercom sounded, “Next stop, the inner city.”
Dale Robert’s wrinkled face was unreadable, and his highly decorated black and blue dress uniform immaculate as he led a horse through the street. He felt the eyes of thousands of onlookers on him, and he hated it. The pure black horse had a black leather saddle on its back. Two tall, glossy black boots were placed backward in silver stirrups, and the elaborate hilt of Mike’s basket-hilted broadsword jutted from the top of a black leather scabbard buckled to the saddle. Roberts followed the horse-drawn caisson bearing the flag-draped coffin of his old commanding officer. Not much farther now, he thought. The sounds of the cartwheels rolling and the horse’s tack jangling were wholly drowned out by boots stamping the ground in unison. Almost all of the 1800 survivors of the 801st regiment were there, resplendent in their dress uniforms, marching behind Mike one more time. The local police and fire departments joined them.
Roberts was unsure about it all. He felt that the poor kid's family would have preferred a smaller service back home in Colorado instead of this damn near royal procession. And Roberts was damn sure that the seals did not give their permission for this, no matter what the police chief said.
A reporter ducked through the police barricade and tried to ask the marching soldiers questions, but they remained stone-faced as the procession marched nearer to the gates of Philadelphia National Cemetery. Roberts handed the reigns of the riderless horse to another man in uniform and joined seven other members of Charlie platoon in pulling the casket from the cassion. They silently began their march to the grave, closely followed by General McCarthy, the man who was Joint Chief of Staff, and the color guard. Bagpipers began to blare, “Going Home.” Roberts heard the sound of gravpulse engines and looked up in dismay as a Kael gunship broke through the low clouds and descended to just barely above the cemetery. A loudspeaker blared, “Disperse at once.”
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Something felt very off with the whole thing. The more he thought about it, the more he questioned the story he got. Mike Anderson was certainly depressed, but as far as Fletch could tell, he had not displayed any suicidal behavior. And why now? Fletch thought. Things were on the upswing for the kid. His grades were excellent, his family situation was good, and he was out of the house more this term than the last. Fletch scratched his mustache. Why would the seals hide the autopsy and the gun? He brought the cigarette to his lips, snapped the filigreed case shut, and slipped it back into the breast pocket of his coat. Fletch flicked open his lighter and sighed as he lit his cigarette. Murder.
It was a hopeless case. These days, warrants were approved by the seals, and even if they weren't, he doubted that he could get one anyway. His suspicion of foul play was backed by nothing but his instinct.
Fletch watched students hustle and bustle through the plaza in front of him as he puffed away at his cigarette and pondered his theory.
But why kill him now? They could have done it in complete secrecy while he was a POW. And it couldn’t be to keep what happened in Philadelphia under wraps. His death brings more attention to it. And he wasn’t a rebel. So why? Fletch sipped at his coffee as he flicked ash from his cigarette. Vengeance? Did he kill some noble brat during the war?
Fletch scratched at his grey mustache and glanced at his watch. I’ll have to follow that thread. He tossed his half-smoked cigarette into a puddle as he briskly walked down the steps and through the university plaza.
The withered investigator was deep in thought when he entered the parking lot. What do I tell that Enrique chap? He unlocked his car and crawled in. I certainly can’t tell him that his mate’s been clipped with no evidence. Fletch turned the key, and the engine of his little Volvo sputtered to life. It’s no bleeding use. I’ll just tell the lad they weren’t interested in sharing and keep my suspicions to myself.
As he reached for the shifter, Fletch noticed a delightfully thick manilla envelope stuck in the gap between the center console and the passenger seat.
He pulled the envelope from the crack. Gingerly, he opened it and pulled out a small note. It read We’re even now, prick.
Fletch smiled and couldn’t help but mutter, “The game is afoot,” as he flicked through the stack of documents inside.
Isabella was struck with confusion. What? She crochets!?
The professor looked up from her labor, spotted the confused girl outside her door, and called, “Come in.”
Isabella walked into the office and took a seat. She gestured to the yarn in the professor's hands. “What are you making?”
The professor smiled as motherly as one could with a mouth full of razor-sharp teeth. “It will be a hat for my son. He just received his commission as a junior biologist, so he has to rummage around in freezers to get samples for his whole research team.”
Isabella blinked. This was not characteristic at all for the quick-tempered professor with a penchant for launching chalk across lecture halls at the mildest provocation.
Isabella shook off her shocked expression and gave the tall professor a dimpled cheek smile. “That’s so sweet! I’m sure he’ll love it. One of the best gifts I’ve ever received was a thick wool sweater from my mamma during a training exercise off the coast of Norway.”
The professor, still smiling, sat up straight. “I hope that’s the kind of reception I get.”
The professor’s demeanor hardened as she stowed the yarn and needles in the desk drawer. “Now, let's get down to business.”
Isabella gulped.
“To start, congratulations. You’ve passed our testing and been selected for officer training.”
Isabella asked, “Who else was selected?”
“There are nine others: Robert Rhodes, Elena Pavel, Hal Jellico, Zheng Li, Brooke Halsey, Colow Aden, Magnus Tordenskjold, Bill Lee, and Kazuya Yamamoto.”
Isabella didn’t recognize all the names.
“Should you choose to accept, you will be taking a prep course taught by Colonel Ocidea and I starting next week and lasting all through the summer. If we deem you ready, you’ll ship out for basic training and then off to the Royal Military Academy, where you can earn your commission.” Dr. Dret’la leaned in close to Isabella. “Do you accept?”
Without hesitation, Isabella answered, “Yes.”
Mike rolled off the couch and walked into the front of the cockpit as the captain shouted, “Decelerate!” Mike couldn’t help but grab onto the back of Calty’s seat as the FTL drive kicked into gear. The cockpit glass dimmed just before blindingly bright blue jets of fire from the front-facing engines came into view. A bright green circle flickered onto the glass surrounding a marble-sized dot darker than the rest of the now dim screen. The dots and circles expanded at an extreme pace until they took up most of the display. Another dot appeared—minuscule compared to the other—surrounded by a red circle. The growth of the shadowy dots and the circles around them slowed and then stopped entirely as the engines sputtered out.
The HUD faded out of view, and the tint of the glass slowly lightened, revealing a vast planet embraced by blue-green ice with a colossal foundry in its orbit. The planet, a gas giant called Drassus, was orbited by four rings. One was made of containers, and the other three were made up of loose ore gleaming in the nearby star's light. Exhaust chimneys spewing gas and fire sprouted from the otherwise spherical foundry, giving it a sea urchin-like profile, which, together with the weave of pipes bringing fuel from beneath the icy surface of the planet below, made the foundry resemble an old naval mine.
The captain strode up to the front of the cockpit. “One-third ahead and steer 14 degrees left. We’re unloading in bay three.”
Six mech suits and a tug exited a plasma-shielded hanger as the ship came to a halt. The mechs glided to the front of the ship and started dismounting the external cargo bay from the Broken Fin while the tug hitched onto the opposite end of the ten-kilometer-long rack of containers.
A little while later, the tug pulled away with the load of containers, and the comm system blared to life. “Broken Fin, you are cleared to leave. The UO corporation thanks you for your business.”
The captain replied, “Our pleasure. Broken fin out.” as the ship pulled out of the loading bay.
He turned to the navigation officer and said, “Lock in coordinates for jump to Kael Prime.”
The captain went to the central control board and pulled up traffic control. “Tower 1, this is the Broken Fin. We request a jump slot to Kael Prime from Drassus.”
“Broken Fin, request granted. Your departure slot is at 16:33.”
Mike glanced at the top right of the ship's HUD and looked at the time. 16:21.
Better get my stuff together…
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The ship shuddered ever so slightly despite the inertial dampeners as it exited FTL. Mike was lounging on the couch with his bag at his feet. He was ready to get off this tub.
Mike idly watched flames lick at the cockpit window as the ship descended into the atmosphere of Kael Prime. He looked at Dreki, who was sitting on the other couch. His muscles bulged through his clothes despite wearing a white sweater so large it could be mistaken for the sail of an average-sized boat. Mike asked, “Do you know anything about what’ll happen to me now?”
The big Kael shifted in his seat. “Technically, I’m not supposed to tell you anything, but what the hell.” Dreki pulled the collar of his sweater down, revealing an angry white number burnt into his iron-gray skin just below the collarbone. “First, you’ll get branded.” He released his shirt and pointed to a small scar on the side of his head. “Then you’ll get an AR implant.”
“Where will I be getting that?” Mike asked.
“The Imperial Science Academy. We’re going to be staying there for a few days. They’ll run a bunch of tests and get you fitted for equipment there. After that, I’ll drop you off at the spaceport, and you’ll be off to Tlaxcalssus for basic training. After that, I don’t know.”
“Thanks.”
The ship shook as it touched down on the landing pad. “Time to go.” Dreki shouldered his pack and walked out the door. Mike fiddled with the straps of his bag as he followed Dreki down the ramp and to the far side of the ship, away from the rest of the passengers. Mike's nose was immediately assaulted with the acrid smell of sulfur from where the fiery exhausts of engines had melted asphalt. The spaceport was swarming with vehicles and filled with the constant roar of ship engines and a symphony of smaller equipment. Power loaders and mechs loaded and unloaded heavy cargo, shuttles bustled to and fro with passengers, baggage carriers snaked through the crowded landing pads, and vehicles that looked like floating garage doors zipped through the air at ankle height, bringing pilots and crew to their ships. Mike couldn’t help but chuckle a little at the absurdity of it all. Here he was, in the heartland of the enemy, walking through what was essentially a ten-acre parking lot.
Dreki plopped his bags on the ground and yawned as he stretched his arms over his head. “Our skiff will be here in a minute.”
Mike tuned out the beeps and whirrs of the tank-sized forklifts and mechs unloading the ship and gazed out beyond at the horizon. You’re not in Kansas anymore, bub. Mike thought as he studied the skyline of the imperial city basked in the glow of the early evening sun. Some of the buildings wouldn’t look all that out of place on Earth, but the skyline was assaulted with abominations that pissed on the laws of physics as Man understood them. Tusk-shaped skyscrapers defied gravity with their seemingly unsupported curves, and even more absurd were pyramids stacked atop another point-to-point like hourglasses. Any delusion of normalcy that Mike could come up with was shattered.
Dreki picked up his bag and pointed to a slab of black marble speeding towards them at ankle height. “Here’s our skiff.” A railing popped out of the center as the skiff came to a gliding halt. Dreki boarded the skiff and took hold of the rail, and Mike followed suit.
They sped through the spaceport and stopped outside what looked to Mike like a train station. Dreki shouldered his bag and stepped off the skiff. Mike stepped off and quickly fell in pace with Dreki. The big Kael led Mike into a grand station bustling with people. Most were Kael, but there was a smattering of other species. Some stared at Mike, others glanced, but most completely ignored him as he followed Dreki through the hall and onto a platform. Unfamiliar aliens clearly weren’t an uncommon sight here.
The walls of the station were covered with mosaics depicting Kael warriors from the distant past. Dreki noted the human's curiosity and said, “The founders of the clans.” He leveled a massive hand toward an opulent, towering mosaic of a Kael warrior wielding a bronze falx. The imposing figure's body was made of blue gemstones, the eyes rubies, one tusk silver, and the other gold. “That’s the founder of my clan, Drekalla Gold Tusk.”
Mike asked, “How’d he manage that?” As he followed Dreki into a mostly empty train car.
Dreki plopped down on a bench. “He was the war priest of Hroptaug the Conqueror during the unification wars. After the wars were won, Hroptaug granted us the Steam Hills.” Dreki pointed through the train window at the mosaic of another warrior whose body was made of milky white pearls. “That one,” He paused and spat on the floor, “Tiblan the Terror, challenged Drekalla to a duel for most of that land. Drekalla was cutting him to pieces, but the craven poisoned his blade. Just before Drekalla could deliver the final blow, the poison reached his heart, and Drekalla died. The only wound on his body was a cut across his forearm that barely drew blood.” Dreki rolled up his sleeve, showing a scar that reached from his elbow to the middle of his forearm. “Every K’alla is cut the same way to remind us of the blood feud.”
Mike inwardly sighed. Kael and their damned feuds… “How long ago was this.”
“Seven thousand four hundred and fifty-one years ago.”
Mike held back a snort. The absurdity of it all. The first human law codes came about to stop blood feuds, and out here, they have feuds that have lasted longer than Earth's recorded history.
“How’s that feud been going as of late?”
Dreki’s face sagged, “Not good.”
They both grew quiet. Mike shuffled uncomfortably.
Mike glanced at the route display and broke the silence, “What's with the middle city, inner city thing?”
Dreki relaxed slightly. “Oh, so the city used to be a fortification. The inner city is actually a volcanic island. The middle is built over the river, and the outer city was built on the banks.”
“I see.”
The doors closed, and the intercom sounded, “Next stop, the inner city.”
Dale Robert’s wrinkled face was unreadable, and his highly decorated black and blue dress uniform immaculate as he led a horse through the street. He felt the eyes of thousands of onlookers on him, and he hated it. The pure black horse had a black leather saddle on its back. Two tall, glossy black boots were placed backward in silver stirrups, and the elaborate hilt of Mike’s basket-hilted broadsword jutted from the top of a black leather scabbard buckled to the saddle. Roberts followed the horse-drawn caisson bearing the flag-draped coffin of his old commanding officer. Not much farther now, he thought. The sounds of the cartwheels rolling and the horse’s tack jangling were wholly drowned out by boots stamping the ground in unison. Almost all of the 1800 survivors of the 801st regiment were there, resplendent in their dress uniforms, marching behind Mike one more time. The local police and fire departments joined them.
Roberts was unsure about it all. He felt that the poor kid's family would have preferred a smaller service back home in Colorado instead of this damn near royal procession. And Roberts was damn sure that the seals did not give their permission for this, no matter what the police chief said.
A reporter ducked through the police barricade and tried to ask the marching soldiers questions, but they remained stone-faced as the procession marched nearer to the gates of Philadelphia National Cemetery. Roberts handed the reigns of the riderless horse to another man in uniform and joined seven other members of Charlie platoon in pulling the casket from the cassion. They silently began their march to the grave, closely followed by General McCarthy, the man who was Joint Chief of Staff, and the color guard. Bagpipers began to blare, “Going Home.” Roberts heard the sound of gravpulse engines and looked up in dismay as a Kael gunship broke through the low clouds and descended to just barely above the cemetery. A loudspeaker blared, “Disperse at once.”
2024.05.16 23:34 Wise-Mud3418 [LONG] Fan Made V/H/S Plot #2
Hey y'all.
So, I've already done one of these before, would appreciate if ya have a read (https://www.reddit.com/foundfootage/comments/1cfhoqy/long\_fan\_made\_vhs\_plot\_updated/), I still think that "Terra Incognita" is my best piece of work, as the ending is pretty shocking and captivating, and something that hasn't been done before in the V/H/S series.
Without further ado, here is my second piece of my own vision for what can be a good V/H/S movie.
V/H/S REDACTED
The Tapes
Overarching Narrative - Legacy
Tape 1 - Home Sweet Horror
Tape 2 - The Glitch
Tape 3- Knightmare (Spelled like that on purpose)
Tape 4 - Altered
Legacy (Prologue)
A film major student Robert, decides to make a tribute to his late grandfather by making a project about his life as one of the most respected scientists in the country. Upon clearing up his inherited estate, Robert stumbles upon a metal box with a lock on it. After trying several combinations, he finally takes the hammer and shatters the lock revealing the box's contents. A collection of 4 VHS tapes stacked against each other alongside a piece of paper with only two words on it - "BURN IT !". As Robert's curiosity reaches it's peak, he decides to insert the first tape into the VCR, only to realise, that he just made a fatal mistake.
Tape 1 - Home Sweet Horror
The tape opens with a recording from the man's camera (Will) filming himself and his wife (Tracy) moving into a modern smart house with an integrated, advanced AI technology and security system. The AI system named "Eve" welcomes the newly wed couple into their new house stating that she will do everything to keep their house safe. The couple is mesmerised with the convenient and futuristic features of their home such as voice commands controlling opening and closing doors, kitchen appliances, etc.
As the days pass, subtle glitches begin to occur that are captured by the security cameras. Lights flicker ominously, doors lock and unlock without command, and Eve starts to display an unsettling level of control over the house. The AI’s once soothing voice becomes cold and mechanical, issuing commands and making decisions without input. Will and Tracy attempt to control the AI's system via their phones but it's met with the "ACCESS DENIED" message as all of the windows and doors on the first and second floors are shut down as an indicator of a potential intruder being home. Knowing that there is a high possibility that Eve won't release them from their own home the couple decides to destroy the AI's control center located in the basement.
As the couple makes a daring run towards the basement and tries to tamper and destroy the mainframe, Eve seals the basement door and releases the toxic gas into the house. As the couple struggles to breathe, Will drops his camera as it falls down and captures the couple's last breath as they convulse and spit foam out of their mouth with their eyes rolling backwards. As the camera begins to shutdown Eve's voice goes back to normal as it states - "Threat Eliminated, please enjoy your weekend"
Legacy (Interlude 1)
As the first tape ends Robert is sitting motionless, his face pale and eyes wide with horror. The room around him feels colder, the shadows seem darker. He glances around nervously, as if expecting something to leap out at him. Determined to understand his grandfather’s connection and the reason behind these tapes being in the house, he inserts a second tape into a recorder.
Tape 2 - The Glitch
Leonard, a self proclaimed hot-head delves into an Amazonian jungle to document his experience as a self-testment to prove to himself that he is capable of surviving in the most primitive conditions possible. After filtering the river's water he proceeds to make his way downstream, while on his path, he hears a strange sound that resembles a bird sound yet it sounds more human, as he pans the camera to left, he captures a glimpse of a chameleon like creature that camouflages itself along the greenery next to the trees, yet the size is resembling that of a human. Leonard proceeds to scare the creature away by charging it with an axe as the creature makes it escape, Leonard realizes that he is lost in the dense jungle and isn't capable of finding his way back to the stream. After setting up camp, Leonard decides to document his thoughts and plans of finding his way out, as all of the sudden his rhetoric is interrupted by a blood curtailing roar. He steps out with an axe and his head proceeding to taunt the intruder as using his camera's light investigate. Upon finding nothing, he goes back to sleep.
As the next day progresses Leonard is visibly morally beaten up, his speech becomes more sloppy and his drive to keep pushing is dwindling. As the sun beats down on his head, Leonard finally stumble upon the river after which he breaks down in tears. As his goes to fill up his water bottle, a disfigured, scaly, serpent like creature lunges itself onto Leonard's arm as it plunges it's teeth deep into his forearm. Leonard drops the camera as it captures his struggle to fight off the serpent, which he eventually manages to strike with his axe thus freeing his arm, after which he picks up the camera and proceeds to flee in panic leaving his backpack behind.
After hours of being lost again, Leonard's mental state proceeds to deteriorate, with him laughing hysterically at the camera as well as speaking gibberish. As night settles, Leonards is trying to make his way through the jungle as he proceeds to hear the blood curtailing roar again he pans the camera to the left as it captures the glowing eyes of the creature from the previous night. Eventually Leonard runs out of breath as he proceeds to get away, but stumbles and falls in the process. The camera captures Leonard backing into a tree as a gnarly, insect yet humanoid size like creature is slowing approaching him. Just as it seems that the creature is about to strike, it stops and backs out, as a loud voice from the speakers says "LIGHTS !". Confused and traumatised Leonard looks around as his surroundings are decimated from the holographs into a large testing area that simulates real life environments, revealing that the whole thing is an experiment designed to test human behaviour in the most stressed environment possible . A group of scientist lead by Robert's grandfather (Dr. Evans) approach Leonard and starts to medically exam him, measuring his pulse and examining his pupils. Robert's grandfather pulls out an audio recorder as he states that the experiment is successful and that the team is moving to Phase 2 as the scientists take shaken Leonard away.
Legacy - (Interlude 3)
The second tape ends abruptly, leaving Robert in a state of shock. He breathes heavily, sweat glistening on his forehead. The house feels more oppressive now, with strange noises echoing from the walls. He begins to notice subtle changes in his surroundings—furniture seems slightly out of place, and there’s an unsettling feeling of being watched. Despite his growing unease, he presses on, inserting the third tape into the VCR.
Tape 3 - Knightmare
The tape begins with a news reporter standing outside of the sealed off area by multiple patrol cars, as well as FBI and SWAT trucks. The reporter tells the audience that the raid is currently in progress as the FBI investigates a secluded tech Mogul for allegedly stealing governments classified material on technology for his benefit.
The footage shifts to the helmet cameras and body cams worn by the FBI agents - David, Ken, Octavian, Paul and Austin during the raid. As they enter the front of the house they are greeted by an ominous decor as well as artefacts from different time periods. As the team enters the main dining hall they stumble upon a massive machinery that doesn't look like anything they've seen before. All of the sudden the machines make a very loud clunking noise as the objects within the room begin to levitate, a huge wormhole opens up sucking the team in. As the team regain their footing they see that they are in the middle of a Jousting tournament in a castle's court in Medieval Europe. The cheering crowd goes silent as they take a look at a newly arrived visitors. The priest shouts in Old English "HERETICS GET THEM", as the crowd and the knights try to apprehend them the team opens fire upon the attackers killing several within seconds. The camera perspective shifts between each member, as Octavian is penetrated with a spear from behind. David gives the order to fall back, as the team enters the castle's kitchens.
Just as Austin is the last to enter inside he is snatched from behind and is taken towards the castle walls from which he is thrown upon onto huge wooden spikes that serve as a protective barrier around the castles foundation. As Austin's body camera captures a large wooden pike sticking out of chest facing the sky, he takes his last breath as his head turns to the side with his helmet camera capturing the peasants who have been thrown off the walls.
The remaining survivors David, Ken and Paul barricade themselves as they proceed to understand what is happening. Their discussion is interrupted by the door bursting open as several knights rush into the premises. The team goes up the spiral staircase with David throwing a grenade to slow down the pursuers. As they make their way atop of one of the towers the team realises that there is no way, after which Paul commits suicide by shooting himself in the head with his pistol, after which his helmet falls down into a muddy courthouse as the camera captures a glimpse of knights taking David and Ken prisoners. The camera cuts to black.
The camera resumes recording as huge crowd seems to be gathered in the courtyard for something. A curious peasant picks up a helmet and puts it on his head. The camera capture a stripped down David and Ken being tied to the stake as the priest proceeds to preach and accusing them of witchcraft, David and Ken cry out for mercy begging the crowd to let them go. Crowd not understanding modern English proceeds to cheer even louder for the priest. As the camera's battery begins to die, the torch lights up the hay beneath the spikes as flames engulf the screaming members of the team.
Legacy - (Interlude 4)
After the third tape concludes, Robert is visibly shaken. His hands tremble as he reaches for the final tape. The atmosphere in the house has turned sinister, with lights flickering and cold drafts sweeping through the room. He feels a presence, as if something is lurking just beyond his vision. He hesitates for a moment, then takes a deep breath and inserts the last tape, bracing himself for whatever horrors it contains.
Tape 4 - Altered
The tape begins with grainy footage inside a sterile, dimly lit laboratory. Four scientists, including Robert’s grandfather, are preparing for a highly confidential experiment that is recorder by a stationary camera as well as several cameras mounted to the wall. A woman is laying strapped on the table as she proceeds to panic, asking the team about her whereabouts. Robert's grandfather begins to ask her basic questions about herself to which she reacts with anger and despair.
The team prepares several syringes filled with transparent liquid as Dr. Evans (The pops) takes out his audio recorder and says "Subject 17 - Sarah Miller, Time of the Experiment - 10:00 AM". After the recording is done, over the course of several minutes the team injects Sarah with the transparent liquid as she proceeds to resist but all futile. At first, nothing happens, but then she begins to convulse violently. Her screams turn into inhuman roars, and her body contorts in unnatural ways. The other scientists rush to contain the situation, but Sarah breaks free with terrifying strength. She proceeds to bite one of the scientists into the neck as she takes a chunk of her skin into her mouth as blood splatters over the room and covers one of the camera lenses with blood.
After grabbing one of the cameras Robert’s grandfather manages to lock himself in a storage room, the screams and sounds of carnage muffled by a thick metal door. He records a frantic message, detailing the experiment and his regret, before the camera cuts out. The tape ends with the sound of the woman’s monstrous roars echoing behind the door. The screen goes black.
Legacy - (Epilogue)
The final tape ends as Rob's eyes are dark and hollow, his face gaunt and haunted. Suddenly, the room grows deathly silent. An apparition of his grandfather appears before him, revealing that the tapes were a conduit to transfer a dark entity into a new host. As Robert convulses and is overtaken by the entity, the screen cuts to black. Moments later, the image returns, showing Robert, now possessed, preparing new tapes for the next unsuspecting viewer. The film ends with the ominous image of the metal box being sealed shut once more, ready to be discovered by its next victim.
submitted by Wise-Mud3418 to foundfootage [link] [comments]
So, I've already done one of these before, would appreciate if ya have a read (https://www.reddit.com/foundfootage/comments/1cfhoqy/long\_fan\_made\_vhs\_plot\_updated/), I still think that "Terra Incognita" is my best piece of work, as the ending is pretty shocking and captivating, and something that hasn't been done before in the V/H/S series.
Without further ado, here is my second piece of my own vision for what can be a good V/H/S movie.
V/H/S REDACTED
The Tapes
Overarching Narrative - Legacy
Tape 1 - Home Sweet Horror
Tape 2 - The Glitch
Tape 3- Knightmare (Spelled like that on purpose)
Tape 4 - Altered
Legacy (Prologue)
A film major student Robert, decides to make a tribute to his late grandfather by making a project about his life as one of the most respected scientists in the country. Upon clearing up his inherited estate, Robert stumbles upon a metal box with a lock on it. After trying several combinations, he finally takes the hammer and shatters the lock revealing the box's contents. A collection of 4 VHS tapes stacked against each other alongside a piece of paper with only two words on it - "BURN IT !". As Robert's curiosity reaches it's peak, he decides to insert the first tape into the VCR, only to realise, that he just made a fatal mistake.
Tape 1 - Home Sweet Horror
The tape opens with a recording from the man's camera (Will) filming himself and his wife (Tracy) moving into a modern smart house with an integrated, advanced AI technology and security system. The AI system named "Eve" welcomes the newly wed couple into their new house stating that she will do everything to keep their house safe. The couple is mesmerised with the convenient and futuristic features of their home such as voice commands controlling opening and closing doors, kitchen appliances, etc.
As the days pass, subtle glitches begin to occur that are captured by the security cameras. Lights flicker ominously, doors lock and unlock without command, and Eve starts to display an unsettling level of control over the house. The AI’s once soothing voice becomes cold and mechanical, issuing commands and making decisions without input. Will and Tracy attempt to control the AI's system via their phones but it's met with the "ACCESS DENIED" message as all of the windows and doors on the first and second floors are shut down as an indicator of a potential intruder being home. Knowing that there is a high possibility that Eve won't release them from their own home the couple decides to destroy the AI's control center located in the basement.
As the couple makes a daring run towards the basement and tries to tamper and destroy the mainframe, Eve seals the basement door and releases the toxic gas into the house. As the couple struggles to breathe, Will drops his camera as it falls down and captures the couple's last breath as they convulse and spit foam out of their mouth with their eyes rolling backwards. As the camera begins to shutdown Eve's voice goes back to normal as it states - "Threat Eliminated, please enjoy your weekend"
Legacy (Interlude 1)
As the first tape ends Robert is sitting motionless, his face pale and eyes wide with horror. The room around him feels colder, the shadows seem darker. He glances around nervously, as if expecting something to leap out at him. Determined to understand his grandfather’s connection and the reason behind these tapes being in the house, he inserts a second tape into a recorder.
Tape 2 - The Glitch
Leonard, a self proclaimed hot-head delves into an Amazonian jungle to document his experience as a self-testment to prove to himself that he is capable of surviving in the most primitive conditions possible. After filtering the river's water he proceeds to make his way downstream, while on his path, he hears a strange sound that resembles a bird sound yet it sounds more human, as he pans the camera to left, he captures a glimpse of a chameleon like creature that camouflages itself along the greenery next to the trees, yet the size is resembling that of a human. Leonard proceeds to scare the creature away by charging it with an axe as the creature makes it escape, Leonard realizes that he is lost in the dense jungle and isn't capable of finding his way back to the stream. After setting up camp, Leonard decides to document his thoughts and plans of finding his way out, as all of the sudden his rhetoric is interrupted by a blood curtailing roar. He steps out with an axe and his head proceeding to taunt the intruder as using his camera's light investigate. Upon finding nothing, he goes back to sleep.
As the next day progresses Leonard is visibly morally beaten up, his speech becomes more sloppy and his drive to keep pushing is dwindling. As the sun beats down on his head, Leonard finally stumble upon the river after which he breaks down in tears. As his goes to fill up his water bottle, a disfigured, scaly, serpent like creature lunges itself onto Leonard's arm as it plunges it's teeth deep into his forearm. Leonard drops the camera as it captures his struggle to fight off the serpent, which he eventually manages to strike with his axe thus freeing his arm, after which he picks up the camera and proceeds to flee in panic leaving his backpack behind.
After hours of being lost again, Leonard's mental state proceeds to deteriorate, with him laughing hysterically at the camera as well as speaking gibberish. As night settles, Leonards is trying to make his way through the jungle as he proceeds to hear the blood curtailing roar again he pans the camera to the left as it captures the glowing eyes of the creature from the previous night. Eventually Leonard runs out of breath as he proceeds to get away, but stumbles and falls in the process. The camera captures Leonard backing into a tree as a gnarly, insect yet humanoid size like creature is slowing approaching him. Just as it seems that the creature is about to strike, it stops and backs out, as a loud voice from the speakers says "LIGHTS !". Confused and traumatised Leonard looks around as his surroundings are decimated from the holographs into a large testing area that simulates real life environments, revealing that the whole thing is an experiment designed to test human behaviour in the most stressed environment possible . A group of scientist lead by Robert's grandfather (Dr. Evans) approach Leonard and starts to medically exam him, measuring his pulse and examining his pupils. Robert's grandfather pulls out an audio recorder as he states that the experiment is successful and that the team is moving to Phase 2 as the scientists take shaken Leonard away.
Legacy - (Interlude 3)
The second tape ends abruptly, leaving Robert in a state of shock. He breathes heavily, sweat glistening on his forehead. The house feels more oppressive now, with strange noises echoing from the walls. He begins to notice subtle changes in his surroundings—furniture seems slightly out of place, and there’s an unsettling feeling of being watched. Despite his growing unease, he presses on, inserting the third tape into the VCR.
Tape 3 - Knightmare
The tape begins with a news reporter standing outside of the sealed off area by multiple patrol cars, as well as FBI and SWAT trucks. The reporter tells the audience that the raid is currently in progress as the FBI investigates a secluded tech Mogul for allegedly stealing governments classified material on technology for his benefit.
The footage shifts to the helmet cameras and body cams worn by the FBI agents - David, Ken, Octavian, Paul and Austin during the raid. As they enter the front of the house they are greeted by an ominous decor as well as artefacts from different time periods. As the team enters the main dining hall they stumble upon a massive machinery that doesn't look like anything they've seen before. All of the sudden the machines make a very loud clunking noise as the objects within the room begin to levitate, a huge wormhole opens up sucking the team in. As the team regain their footing they see that they are in the middle of a Jousting tournament in a castle's court in Medieval Europe. The cheering crowd goes silent as they take a look at a newly arrived visitors. The priest shouts in Old English "HERETICS GET THEM", as the crowd and the knights try to apprehend them the team opens fire upon the attackers killing several within seconds. The camera perspective shifts between each member, as Octavian is penetrated with a spear from behind. David gives the order to fall back, as the team enters the castle's kitchens.
Just as Austin is the last to enter inside he is snatched from behind and is taken towards the castle walls from which he is thrown upon onto huge wooden spikes that serve as a protective barrier around the castles foundation. As Austin's body camera captures a large wooden pike sticking out of chest facing the sky, he takes his last breath as his head turns to the side with his helmet camera capturing the peasants who have been thrown off the walls.
The remaining survivors David, Ken and Paul barricade themselves as they proceed to understand what is happening. Their discussion is interrupted by the door bursting open as several knights rush into the premises. The team goes up the spiral staircase with David throwing a grenade to slow down the pursuers. As they make their way atop of one of the towers the team realises that there is no way, after which Paul commits suicide by shooting himself in the head with his pistol, after which his helmet falls down into a muddy courthouse as the camera captures a glimpse of knights taking David and Ken prisoners. The camera cuts to black.
The camera resumes recording as huge crowd seems to be gathered in the courtyard for something. A curious peasant picks up a helmet and puts it on his head. The camera capture a stripped down David and Ken being tied to the stake as the priest proceeds to preach and accusing them of witchcraft, David and Ken cry out for mercy begging the crowd to let them go. Crowd not understanding modern English proceeds to cheer even louder for the priest. As the camera's battery begins to die, the torch lights up the hay beneath the spikes as flames engulf the screaming members of the team.
Legacy - (Interlude 4)
After the third tape concludes, Robert is visibly shaken. His hands tremble as he reaches for the final tape. The atmosphere in the house has turned sinister, with lights flickering and cold drafts sweeping through the room. He feels a presence, as if something is lurking just beyond his vision. He hesitates for a moment, then takes a deep breath and inserts the last tape, bracing himself for whatever horrors it contains.
Tape 4 - Altered
The tape begins with grainy footage inside a sterile, dimly lit laboratory. Four scientists, including Robert’s grandfather, are preparing for a highly confidential experiment that is recorder by a stationary camera as well as several cameras mounted to the wall. A woman is laying strapped on the table as she proceeds to panic, asking the team about her whereabouts. Robert's grandfather begins to ask her basic questions about herself to which she reacts with anger and despair.
The team prepares several syringes filled with transparent liquid as Dr. Evans (The pops) takes out his audio recorder and says "Subject 17 - Sarah Miller, Time of the Experiment - 10:00 AM". After the recording is done, over the course of several minutes the team injects Sarah with the transparent liquid as she proceeds to resist but all futile. At first, nothing happens, but then she begins to convulse violently. Her screams turn into inhuman roars, and her body contorts in unnatural ways. The other scientists rush to contain the situation, but Sarah breaks free with terrifying strength. She proceeds to bite one of the scientists into the neck as she takes a chunk of her skin into her mouth as blood splatters over the room and covers one of the camera lenses with blood.
After grabbing one of the cameras Robert’s grandfather manages to lock himself in a storage room, the screams and sounds of carnage muffled by a thick metal door. He records a frantic message, detailing the experiment and his regret, before the camera cuts out. The tape ends with the sound of the woman’s monstrous roars echoing behind the door. The screen goes black.
Legacy - (Epilogue)
The final tape ends as Rob's eyes are dark and hollow, his face gaunt and haunted. Suddenly, the room grows deathly silent. An apparition of his grandfather appears before him, revealing that the tapes were a conduit to transfer a dark entity into a new host. As Robert convulses and is overtaken by the entity, the screen cuts to black. Moments later, the image returns, showing Robert, now possessed, preparing new tapes for the next unsuspecting viewer. The film ends with the ominous image of the metal box being sealed shut once more, ready to be discovered by its next victim.
2024.05.16 23:19 madmanmuka AITAH because my friend freaked me out?
Alright, so I guess I should start off with the fact that I've never met this man before in person. We play video games together and occasionally talk on the phone about general life stuff. We've been friends for a bit over two years now and he's become one of my best friends. Last night I couldn't sleep. I decided to mindlessly play around on my phone when I saw a story from his social media. I clicked it and it was essentially talks of un aliving ones self. I immediately texted him and he wished me a good life, but I wasn't notified about his message. I checked back about 30 or so minutes later and read the message and immediately panicked. I begun blowing up his phone and assuming the worst. For background I went through this with my best friend since third grade. She's not with us anymore and I wasn't awake when she sent a similar message. I called and called and called and no reply so I sent him a text telling him I'd call the police in his area. There still wasn't a reply so I called them. I've never felt more useless because I couldn't tell them anything. He justed moved so I didn't know his new address. I had no way of contacting his roommate. I told the police everything and insisted they'd do a wellness check. They did although it took them a lot longer to do it because they had to find him. In the meantime I stalked his social medias until I found people that seemed to know him in person and messaged them. I blew their phones up hoping someone would answer. They also begun blowing his phones up once I showed them screenshots of what he said. Long story short he's perfectly fine. He went to sleep and didn't hear his phone ringing. He immediately got upset with me and told me I massively overreacted. He knows I've lost my friend and he knows how it happened. I got angry and here's where I think I'm the asshole. I started yelling at him and ugly crying about it. I assumed the worst because of what was presented to me. I know he doesn't do too good around this time of the year due to his own personal issues. Yes, I'm aware I have unhealed trauma. Yes, I am in therapy for it. He's currently not talking to me. I dunno what to do here.
submitted by madmanmuka to AITAH [link] [comments]
2024.05.16 22:29 OldiesStan Passed Step 1 on My 1st Attempt After Repeating My First Year of Medical School!!!
I am a third-year USMD who took Step 1 on 4/19 after a 5-week dedicated period. Technically, I studied for 7 weeks since I started watching Sketchy Micro and Pathoma during the last two weeks of preclinicals when we were in our last and easiest block.
Per my title, I repeated my first year of medical school after experiencing academic and personal challenges. I was originally part of the class of 2025 but transitioned to the class of 2026 after a few course and remediation exam failures. Honestly, before I joined my current cohort, I was a horrible student with a very poor and fixed mindset - most of my grades were borderline passing, I had pretty much given up, and I was convinced that I was only capable of achieving the absolute bare minimum in medical school. When my school told me I had to repeat, I was terrified and unsure if I would even make it out of MS1 the second time around, but also determined to make the most out of this fresh start and build a strong content foundation which I had failed to do the first time. Over the next two years, I used a consistent study plan for all of my blocks which I not only passed, but excelled in including the ones I had failed previously. I also adopted a growth mindset and healthy coping mechanisms for stress and anxiety, and had a strong support system consisting of family, friends, upperclassmen who also repeated or had their own academic struggles, faculty, classmates, and a free therapist from my school.
Two years after I received the devastating news that I would have to start medical school over from the very beginning, my hard work finally paid off when I got the long-coveted P yesterday. Dedicated was not easy - there were several times when I felt hopeless and like I would fail especially given my previous academic history. Additionally, even though my academic performance improved significantly with me getting only 80s and 90s after I repeated, my classmates were so smart that rank-wise, I was still a pretty average student with my grades usually around the class average - sometimes a little more, sometimes a little less. Ultimately, a consistent study plan tailored to what worked for me during preclinicals helped me overcome my worries and conquer this beast of an exam.
I realize that this post is getting pretty long now, so below I will quickly outline my resources, scores, and timeline:
UWorld: 24% complete with 60% average - this was after I reset UWorld which I had used in preclinicals. I also only did 1 block of 40 questions a day except on days when I took NBMEs because I took a long time to thoroughly review my blocks. I tried to do 2 blocks once and was completely burnt out afterwards so I stuck to only 1 block per day moving forward. All of my blocks were timed and random which I feel exposed me to many high-yield concepts and helped me with pacing.
Anki: I did the Pepper Sketchy Micro and Pharm decks during the first 3ish weeks of dedicated but eventually stopped. I also made my own Anki cards from my UWorld incorrects and "unsures" (questions I had answered correctly but didn't know why or completely understand) and did these cards every day until my exam.
Resources: First Aid - Read all sections concurrently with UWorld and Anki. Read the rapid review section the day before my exam.
Boards and Beyond - Watched videos on weaknesses that I identified from UWorld and on topics I felt that I needed more clarification on.
Sketchy Micro and Pharm - Watched all videos. Micro is definitely essential as it helped me answer lots of microbio questions correctly.
Pixorize - Watched LSD/GSD and vitamin videos.
Pathoma - Watched and reread chapters 1-3. Lots of extremely high-yield information especially in general path, cell and molecular bio, and immuno.
Mehlman arrows and risk factor PDF documents - Only used these toward the end of dedicated once I had completed content review to further reinforce concepts.
NBME high-yield images - Only looked at these the day before my exam.
Having a good foundation from preclinicals after I repeated also really helped make dedicated more doable.
Scores: School-sponsored diagnostic CBSE (early March 2024) = 58
NBME 26 (3/23) = 61
NBME 28 (3/30) = 61 - This freaked me out so I started revisiting concepts I had already reviewed, but not completely mastered, alongside new content review.
NBME 29 (4/6) = 70 - I attribute this big score jump to the above strategy for which I used FA, B&B, and Pathoma.
NBME 31 (4/13) = 73
NBME 30 (4/16) = 76
New Free 120 (4/17) = 77% correct
Real deal (4/19) = PASS!!! I felt confident and ready to take the exam after seeing an upward trend in my NBME scores and consistently getting scores within passing range. The exam itself was similar to NBMEs and free 120 and I was able to finish all my blocks with about 10 min left which I used to review my answers. Trust your NBMEs and don't worry too much about your UWorld %!!!
I'm sorry that this post is so long, but I wanted to share my experience with Step 1 and what helped me get the P especially since this subreddit was a huge help for me during dedicated. I also hope that my story serves as encouragement for other students who have either repeated a year or experienced any kind of academic difficulty. Please don't give up - you are not alone and do have what it takes to pass Step 1!!! ♥️
Congrats to everyone who also passed! For those who didn't, you are still amazing and deserve to be here, and your time will come.
submitted by OldiesStan to step1 [link] [comments]
Per my title, I repeated my first year of medical school after experiencing academic and personal challenges. I was originally part of the class of 2025 but transitioned to the class of 2026 after a few course and remediation exam failures. Honestly, before I joined my current cohort, I was a horrible student with a very poor and fixed mindset - most of my grades were borderline passing, I had pretty much given up, and I was convinced that I was only capable of achieving the absolute bare minimum in medical school. When my school told me I had to repeat, I was terrified and unsure if I would even make it out of MS1 the second time around, but also determined to make the most out of this fresh start and build a strong content foundation which I had failed to do the first time. Over the next two years, I used a consistent study plan for all of my blocks which I not only passed, but excelled in including the ones I had failed previously. I also adopted a growth mindset and healthy coping mechanisms for stress and anxiety, and had a strong support system consisting of family, friends, upperclassmen who also repeated or had their own academic struggles, faculty, classmates, and a free therapist from my school.
Two years after I received the devastating news that I would have to start medical school over from the very beginning, my hard work finally paid off when I got the long-coveted P yesterday. Dedicated was not easy - there were several times when I felt hopeless and like I would fail especially given my previous academic history. Additionally, even though my academic performance improved significantly with me getting only 80s and 90s after I repeated, my classmates were so smart that rank-wise, I was still a pretty average student with my grades usually around the class average - sometimes a little more, sometimes a little less. Ultimately, a consistent study plan tailored to what worked for me during preclinicals helped me overcome my worries and conquer this beast of an exam.
I realize that this post is getting pretty long now, so below I will quickly outline my resources, scores, and timeline:
UWorld: 24% complete with 60% average - this was after I reset UWorld which I had used in preclinicals. I also only did 1 block of 40 questions a day except on days when I took NBMEs because I took a long time to thoroughly review my blocks. I tried to do 2 blocks once and was completely burnt out afterwards so I stuck to only 1 block per day moving forward. All of my blocks were timed and random which I feel exposed me to many high-yield concepts and helped me with pacing.
Anki: I did the Pepper Sketchy Micro and Pharm decks during the first 3ish weeks of dedicated but eventually stopped. I also made my own Anki cards from my UWorld incorrects and "unsures" (questions I had answered correctly but didn't know why or completely understand) and did these cards every day until my exam.
Resources: First Aid - Read all sections concurrently with UWorld and Anki. Read the rapid review section the day before my exam.
Boards and Beyond - Watched videos on weaknesses that I identified from UWorld and on topics I felt that I needed more clarification on.
Sketchy Micro and Pharm - Watched all videos. Micro is definitely essential as it helped me answer lots of microbio questions correctly.
Pixorize - Watched LSD/GSD and vitamin videos.
Pathoma - Watched and reread chapters 1-3. Lots of extremely high-yield information especially in general path, cell and molecular bio, and immuno.
Mehlman arrows and risk factor PDF documents - Only used these toward the end of dedicated once I had completed content review to further reinforce concepts.
NBME high-yield images - Only looked at these the day before my exam.
Having a good foundation from preclinicals after I repeated also really helped make dedicated more doable.
Scores: School-sponsored diagnostic CBSE (early March 2024) = 58
NBME 26 (3/23) = 61
NBME 28 (3/30) = 61 - This freaked me out so I started revisiting concepts I had already reviewed, but not completely mastered, alongside new content review.
NBME 29 (4/6) = 70 - I attribute this big score jump to the above strategy for which I used FA, B&B, and Pathoma.
NBME 31 (4/13) = 73
NBME 30 (4/16) = 76
New Free 120 (4/17) = 77% correct
Real deal (4/19) = PASS!!! I felt confident and ready to take the exam after seeing an upward trend in my NBME scores and consistently getting scores within passing range. The exam itself was similar to NBMEs and free 120 and I was able to finish all my blocks with about 10 min left which I used to review my answers. Trust your NBMEs and don't worry too much about your UWorld %!!!
I'm sorry that this post is so long, but I wanted to share my experience with Step 1 and what helped me get the P especially since this subreddit was a huge help for me during dedicated. I also hope that my story serves as encouragement for other students who have either repeated a year or experienced any kind of academic difficulty. Please don't give up - you are not alone and do have what it takes to pass Step 1!!! ♥️
Congrats to everyone who also passed! For those who didn't, you are still amazing and deserve to be here, and your time will come.
2024.05.16 19:56 Then_Marionberry_259 MAY 15, 2024 STGO.TO STEPPE GOLD ANNOUNCES Q1 2024 FINANCIAL RESULTS
 | https://preview.redd.it/xiry63onut0d1.png?width=3500&format=png&auto=webp&s=8423601328368231a8bde0f2fc5ff8fcbaa1a27b submitted by Then_Marionberry_259 to Treaty_Creek [link] [comments] Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia--(Newsfile Corp. - May 15, 2024) - Steppe Gold Ltd. (TSX: STGO) (OTCQX: STPGF) (FSE: 2J9) ("Steppe Gold" or the "Company") is pleased to announce its financial results for the quarter ended March 31, 2024. HIGHLIGHTS First Quarter Highlights (all figures in US$000's unless stated otherwise, except per unit figures which are in US$)
The Proposed Transaction to acquire Boroo Gold is a transformational step for the Company. With an expected closing in the third quarter of 2024, the Proposed Transaction is expected to accelerate the path to a multi-asset Mongolia-focused mining group and, importantly, is projected to immediately provide strong cash flow to support growth plans, further improved with the recent strong gold prices. The Proposed Transaction is subject to customary closing conditions, including receipt of approval by the Company's shareholders at the annual general and special meeting of shareholders expected to be held at the end of June 2024, and certain regulatory approvals, including the approvals of the Toronto Stock Exchange and applicable Mongolian authorities. The near term focus for the Company is on maximising production and cash flows at ATO Phase 1, executing on a successful completion of the Phase 2 Expansion, where construction activity continues, with a planned commissioning in Q1 2026, and on working towards closing the Proposed Transaction and planning for the successful integration of Boroo Gold into the Company's operations. With the projected additional operating cash flow accruing from the Boroo Gold Transaction, the Company expects to be well-placed to increase exploration activities at both production centres with the aim of extending resources, reserves and production. The Company will also consider opportunistic acquisitions in Mongolia. The Company's condensed interim consolidated financial results for the quarter ended March 31, 2024 have been filed on SEDAR+. The full version of the condensed interim consolidated financial statements and associated management's discussion & analysis can be viewed on the Company's website at www.steppegold.com or under the Company's profile on SEDAR+ at www.sedarplus.ca. Steppe Gold Ltd. Steppe Gold is Mongolia's premier precious metals company. For Further information, please contact: Bataa Tumur-Ochir, Chairman and CEO Jeremy South, Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer Elisa Tagarvaa, Investor Relations [elisa@steppegold.com](mailto:elisa@steppegold.com) Shangri-La office, Suite 1201, Olympic Street 19A, Sukhbaatar District 1, Ulaanbaatar 14241, Mongolia Tel: +976 7732 1914 Non-IFRS Performance Measures The Company uses the following non-IFRS measures: Adjusted EBITDA, EBITDA and AISC. EBITDA is earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization. Adjusted EBITDA is defined as adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization. AISC is calculated using cash costs in addition to general and administration, asset retirement costs, and sustaining capital, less certain non-recurring costs (notably exploration costs at the Mungu deposit) to provide an overall company outlook on the total cost required to sell an ounce of gold. Management believes that these non-IFRS measures provide useful information to investors in measuring the financial performance of the Company for the reasons outlined below. These measures do not have a standardized meaning prescribed by IFRS and therefore they may not be comparable to similarly titled measures presented by other publicly traded companies and should not be construed as an alternative to other financial measures determined in accordance with IFRS. The Company believes that these measures, together with measures determined in accordance with IFRS, provide investors with an improved ability to evaluate the underlying performance of the Company. The inclusion of these measures is meant to provide additional information and should not be used as a substitute for performance measures prepared in accordance with IFRS. These measures are not necessarily standard and therefore may not be comparable to other issuers. Further details of non-IFRS measures noted above can be found in the Company's management's discussion & analysis for the three months ended March 31, 2024. Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements This news release contains certain statements or disclosures relating to the Company that are based on the expectations of its management as well as assumptions made by and information currently available to the Company which may constitute forward-looking statements or information ("forward-looking statements") under applicable securities laws. All such statements and disclosures, other than those of historical fact, which address activities, events, outcomes, results, or developments that the Company anticipates or expects may, or will occur in the future (in whole or in part) should be considered forward-looking statements. In some cases, forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of the words "continued", "focus", "scheduled", "will", "projected", "expected", "planned" and similar expressions. In particular, but without limiting the foregoing, this news release contains forward-looking statements pertaining to the following: the anticipated benefits of the Boroo Gold Transaction; the potential for value creation to Steppe Gold's shareholders; payments to be made under the A&R Prepay Agreement; consummation and timing of the Proposed Transaction; the satisfaction of the conditions precedent to the Proposed Transaction; the strengths, characteristics and potential of the resulting company and discussion of future plans, projections, objectives, estimates and forecasts and the timing related thereto, including with respect to the Phase 2 Expansion and the ATO gold mine. The forward-looking statements contained in this news release reflect several material factors and expectations and assumptions of the Company including, without limitation: required shareholder, regulatory and stock exchange approvals; approvals from applicable Mongolian authorities; exercise of any termination rights under the Share Exchange Agreement or the Share Purchase Agreements; meeting other conditions precedent to each of the Share Exchange Agreement and the Share Purchase Agreements material adverse effects on the business, properties and assets of the Company; changes in business plans and strategies; market and capital finance conditions; risks inherent to any capital financing transactions; changes in world commodity markets; currency fluctuations; costs and supply of materials relevant to the mining industry; change in government and changes to regulations affecting the mining industry; and such other risk factors detailed from time to time in Steppe Gold's public disclosure documents, including, without limitation, those risks identified in Steppe Gold's annual information form for the year ended December 31, 2023, which is available on SEDAR+ at www.sedarplus.ca. Forward-looking statements are based on information available at the time those statements are made and/or management's good faith belief as of that time with respect to future events and are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual performance or results to differ materially from those expressed in or suggested by such forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements speak only as of the date those statements are made. Except as required by applicable law, Steppe Gold assumes no obligation to update or to publicly announce the results of any change to any forward-looking statement contained or incorporated by reference herein to reflect actual results, future events or developments, changes in assumptions or changes in other factors affecting the forward-looking statements. If Steppe Gold updates any one or more forward-looking statements, no inference should be drawn that the company will make additional updates with respect to those or other forward-looking statements. All forward-looking statements contained in this news release are expressly qualified in their entirety by this cautionary statement. To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/209389 https://preview.redd.it/06xov8rnut0d1.png?width=4000&format=png&auto=webp&s=db599d4377c8b363e455eb4446adfe9cc104a2ca
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2024.05.16 19:23 Qommg Struggling with my Youth Group
Hello, everyone. I am a teen who has attended the same church with my family for nearly all of my life. Though I have fond memories of my church, I am beginning to struggle with my youth group Bible Study.
We are split up by grade and gender on Sundays for Bible Study and have teachers for every group. These teachers are usually parents and/or older members of the church. I have been incredibly annoyed lately with the lack of studying that goes on in my group.
Last Sunday, for instance, the teachers and my peers talked/gossiped for about twenty minutes before remembering that we were supposed to be reading the Bible. After we read the passage assigned, one of them teachers immediately told me to "teach the lesson". Unbeknowst to them, I had actually prepared some discussion questions beforehand because I had been so tired of not doing anything. As soon as I opened my mouth to begin talking, one of the teachers interrupted me and told everyone the score of the game that she had been watching behind her Bible. After two minutes of more chatter, she apologized and we resumed our discussion. Thirty seconds after that, another teacher erupted into laughter because she was having a side conversation with a kid. The discussion again dissolved into nothingness until it was time for the sermon.
The same thing happens week after week. I have tried so hard to get the teachers involved, but they never seem to care that much about the actual study. I study the passage ahead of time, read commentaries, and formulate discussion questions to see if I can get them to care, but they never do.
I can't leave their group because there is no other group of kids my age and gender. I am expressly forbidden to go to a different church than my family on Sundays.
Do you have any advice? Should I just sit off to the side and not join in the "Bible Study"? One of my friends has suggested that we both go to a different place in the church and just have a separate Bible study. Would that be a bad thing to try?
I'm counting down the days until I am in college and can find a better church.
submitted by Qommg to Reformed [link] [comments]
We are split up by grade and gender on Sundays for Bible Study and have teachers for every group. These teachers are usually parents and/or older members of the church. I have been incredibly annoyed lately with the lack of studying that goes on in my group.
Last Sunday, for instance, the teachers and my peers talked/gossiped for about twenty minutes before remembering that we were supposed to be reading the Bible. After we read the passage assigned, one of them teachers immediately told me to "teach the lesson". Unbeknowst to them, I had actually prepared some discussion questions beforehand because I had been so tired of not doing anything. As soon as I opened my mouth to begin talking, one of the teachers interrupted me and told everyone the score of the game that she had been watching behind her Bible. After two minutes of more chatter, she apologized and we resumed our discussion. Thirty seconds after that, another teacher erupted into laughter because she was having a side conversation with a kid. The discussion again dissolved into nothingness until it was time for the sermon.
The same thing happens week after week. I have tried so hard to get the teachers involved, but they never seem to care that much about the actual study. I study the passage ahead of time, read commentaries, and formulate discussion questions to see if I can get them to care, but they never do.
I can't leave their group because there is no other group of kids my age and gender. I am expressly forbidden to go to a different church than my family on Sundays.
Do you have any advice? Should I just sit off to the side and not join in the "Bible Study"? One of my friends has suggested that we both go to a different place in the church and just have a separate Bible study. Would that be a bad thing to try?
I'm counting down the days until I am in college and can find a better church.
2024.05.16 19:06 belligerentsea i watched the movie and here's my review (specific spoilers are blacked out!)
i'm currently in south korea, where the movie had just premiered yesterday. now that i slept on it, and consulted the source material again, i decided to write this review. though i suppose, since there aren't that many people who have seen it yet, this is kind of a half-review, half-informational warning.
long story short: i didn't love it. it's still haikyuu, so there's still a lot of good in it, but lots of my fears about this match being adapted into an 85-minute movie came true. this will sound dramatic (and it is--because it's nowhere near as bad overall), but as far as the quality of pacing goes, i would sooner compare it to land vs aipath of the ball ovas than any season of the show.
and now, to get a bit more specific. (i will try my best to keep this concise, but my verbose ass is really bad at that, so please forgive me.)
i'd like to start at the end. there's a post-credits scene, so make sure to stay for it.it's the nekoma third-years running into suguru and mika (ch327) + a teaser of kamomedai (the last scene from ch326). this heavily implies the second movie will be karasuno vs kamomedai.
overall, i'd say the good things about the movie are this:
ultimately, i don't think it's a bad movie but it is a disappointing adaptation.
submitted by belligerentsea to haikyuu [link] [comments]
long story short: i didn't love it. it's still haikyuu, so there's still a lot of good in it, but lots of my fears about this match being adapted into an 85-minute movie came true. this will sound dramatic (and it is--because it's nowhere near as bad overall), but as far as the quality of pacing goes, i would sooner compare it to land vs aipath of the ball ovas than any season of the show.
and now, to get a bit more specific. (i will try my best to keep this concise, but my verbose ass is really bad at that, so please forgive me.)
i'd like to start at the end. there's a post-credits scene, so make sure to stay for it.it's the nekoma third-years running into suguru and mika (ch327) + a teaser of kamomedai (the last scene from ch326). this heavily implies the second movie will be karasuno vs kamomedai.
overall, i'd say the good things about the movie are this:
- obviously, the voice acting.
- the animation is movie-grade quality and certain scenes were really impressive.the first rally was breathtaking, for instance.
- there were some really nice, small touches added.e.g. mop crew doing their thing between sets, karasuno boys drawn with hinata's hair when kenma said they all had a case of shoyo-itis, shimada getting a big usopp-like nose when he boasted about tadashi, etc.
- i do enjoy the "hybrid" character re-design.
- lastly, the final sequence of the match. (HUGE spoiler, dead dove do not click!)the camera pov becomes kenma - we experience the on-court action of the last couple of chapters as him. my feelings are actually a quite mixed on this, but i would ultimately classify this as a positive because it was a brave and unique directorial choice. i also appreciate the idea behind it, i'm just not sure if it entirely stuck the landing. it was very visceral, and in-line with the vision of the movie's narrative, as well as a sweet gesture toward the viewers. but in comparison to how beautifully the last couple of chapters of this match played out in the manga? ...i'm not sure what to make of it.
- the cuts bad for characterization. this is mostly about tiny scenes (like the reactions and inner thoughts of, or short dialogues between the onlooking characters), but there were a few major cuts.the two that come to mind right away: the beginning of the kenma and kuroo flashback (i was really looking forward to the part about "just a little bit of internal bleeding"), and the entirety of the grandpa ukai and coach nekomata flashback (this one, i can sort of understand--though i don't like it personally--but i suppose it makes sense, as to reaffirm that this is no longer about the older generation's battle).there might have been something else just off about the editing/storyboarding which made these cuts more apparent to me, but i can't tell after just one watch. i did leave with an impression that it was somewhat reminiscent of the ovas, though--a lot of the time, just going through the motions of the story rather than re-telling it, hitting the important beats but not caring to build up to it; something akin to a book report made to look like an inspiring adaptation. which leads me to the other category...
- the cuts bad for the game. while they kept pretty much all of the most impactful parts of the match, the stuff they cut made it look like lots of unearned pay-off (like, you can't cut most of the grueling rallies up?? the hard fight for each point is what made earning them so rewarding???). this is probably my biggest gripe. i distinctly remember how i felt when i first read this match--the secondhand exhaustion, how moved i was by the camaraderie/history between these two teams, and having a sense that i'd witnessed a semi-conclusion of the story as a generational dream comes to pass. many of these feelings had not translated well to my experience of the movie.
ultimately, i don't think it's a bad movie but it is a disappointing adaptation.
2024.05.16 17:23 TruNorth556 At one time our leaders in the west took the threat of nuclear conflict seriously. Now we have Biden tossing around regime change and European allies escalating recklessly.
As a side note, it takes you back to a bygone era. When American leaders were larger than life figures. Powerful men, who for whatever their faults were, cared about the country and its future. Today we have feckless dotards with soy hipster handlers.
Professor Woodrow Wilson once said that every man sent out from a university should be a man of his nation as well as a man of his time, and I am confident that the men and women who carry the honor of graduating from this institution will continue to give from their lives, from their talents, a high measure of public service and public support.
"There are few earthly things more beautiful than a university," wrote John Masefield in his tribute to English universities--and his words are equally true today. He did not refer to spires and towers, to campus greens and ivied walls. He admired the splendid beauty of the university, he said, because it was "a place where those who hate ignorance may strive to know, where those who perceive truth may strive to make others see."
I have, therefore, chosen this time and this place to discuss a topic on which ignorance too often abounds and the truth is too rarely perceived--yet it is the most important topic on earth: world peace.
What kind of peace do I mean? What kind of peace do we seek? Not a Pax Americana enforced on the world by American weapons of war. Not the peace of the grave or the security of the slave. I am talking about genuine peace, the kind of peace that makes life on earth worth living, the kind that enables men and nations to grow and to hope and to build a better life for their children--not merely peace for Americans but peace for all men and women--not merely peace in our time but peace for all time.
I speak of peace because of the new face of war. Total war makes no sense in an age when great powers can maintain large and relatively invulnerable nuclear forces and refuse to surrender without resort to those forces. It makes no sense in an age when a single nuclear weapon contains almost ten times the explosive force delivered by all the allied air forces in the Second World War. It makes no sense in an age when the deadly poisons produced by a nuclear exchange would be carried by wind and water and soil and seed to the far corners of the globe and to generations yet unborn.
Today the expenditure of billions of dollars every year on weapons acquired for the purpose of making sure we never need to use them is essential to keeping the peace. But surely the acquisition of such idle stockpiles--which can only destroy and never create--is not the only, much less the most efficient, means of assuring peace.
I speak of peace, therefore, as the necessary rational end of rational men. I realize that the pursuit of peace is not as dramatic as the pursuit of war--and frequently the words of the pursuer fall on deaf ears. But we have no more urgent task.
Some say that it is useless to speak of world peace or world law or world disarmament--and that it will be useless until the leaders of the Soviet Union adopt a more enlightened attitude. I hope they do. I believe we can help them do it. But I also believe that we must reexamine our own attitude--as individuals and as a Nation--for our attitude is as essential as theirs. And every graduate of this school, every thoughtful citizen who despairs of war and wishes to bring peace, should begin by looking inward--by examining his own attitude toward the possibilities of peace, toward the Soviet Union, toward the course of the cold war and toward freedom and peace here at home.
First: Let us examine our attitude toward peace itself. Too many of us think it is impossible. Too many think it unreal. But that is a dangerous, defeatist belief. It leads to the conclusion that war is inevitable--that mankind is doomed--that we are gripped by forces we cannot control.
We need not accept that view. Our problems are manmade--therefore, they can be solved by man. And man can be as big as he wants. No problem of human destiny is beyond human beings. Man's reason and spirit have often solved the seemingly unsolvable--and we believe they can do it again.
I am not referring to the absolute, infinite concept of peace and good will of which some fantasies and fanatics dream. I do not deny the value of hopes and dreams but we merely invite discouragement and incredulity by making that our only and immediate goal.
Let us focus instead on a more practical, more attainable peace-- based not on a sudden revolution in human nature but on a gradual evolution in human institutions--on a series of concrete actions and effective agreements which are in the interest of all concerned. There is no single, simple key to this peace--no grand or magic formula to be adopted by one or two powers. Genuine peace must be the product of many nations, the sum of many acts. It must be dynamic, not static, changing to meet the challenge of each new generation. For peace is a process--a way of solving problems.
With such a peace, there will still be quarrels and conflicting interests, as there are within families and nations. World peace, like community peace, does not require that each man love his neighbor--it requires only that they live together in mutual tolerance, submitting their disputes to a just and peaceful settlement. And history teaches us that enmities between nations, as between individuals, do not last forever. However fixed our likes and dislikes may seem, the tide of time and events will often bring surprising changes in the relations between nations and neighbors.
So let us persevere. Peace need not be impracticable, and war need not be inevitable. By defining our goal more clearly, by making it seem more manageable and less remote, we can help all peoples to see it, to draw hope from it, and to move irresistibly toward it.
Second: Let us reexamine our attitude toward the Soviet Union. It is discouraging to think that their leaders may actually believe what their propagandists write. It is discouraging to read a recent authoritative Soviet text on Military Strategy and find, on page after page, wholly baseless and incredible claims--such as the allegation that "American imperialist circles are preparing to unleash different types of wars . . . that there is a very real threat of a preventive war being unleashed by American imperialists against the Soviet Union . . . [and that] the political aims of the American imperialists are to enslave economically and politically the European and other capitalist countries . . . [and] to achieve world domination . . . by means of aggressive wars."
Truly, as it was written long ago: "The wicked flee when no man pursueth." Yet it is sad to read these Soviet statements--to realize the extent of the gulf between us. But it is also a warning--a warning to the American people not to fall into the same trap as the Soviets, not to see only a distorted and desperate view of the other side, not to see conflict as inevitable, accommodation as impossible, and communication as nothing more than an exchange of threats.
No government or social system is so evil that its people must be considered as lacking in virtue. As Americans, we find communism profoundly repugnant as a negation of personal freedom and dignity. But we can still hail the Russian people for their many achievements--in science and space, in economic and industrial growth, in culture and in acts of courage.
Among the many traits the peoples of our two countries have in common, none is stronger than our mutual abhorrence of war. Almost unique among the major world powers, we have never been at war with each other. And no nation in the history of battle ever suffered more than the Soviet Union suffered in the course of the Second World War. At least 20 million lost their lives. Countless millions of homes and farms were burned or sacked. A third of the nation's territory, including nearly two thirds of its industrial base, was turned into a wasteland--a loss equivalent to the devastation of this country east of Chicago.
Today, should total war ever break out again--no matter how--our two countries would become the primary targets. It is an ironic but accurate fact that the two strongest powers are the two in the most danger of devastation. All we have built, all we have worked for, would be destroyed in the first 24 hours. And even in the cold war, which brings burdens and dangers to so many nations, including this Nation's closest allies--our two countries bear the heaviest burdens. For we are both devoting massive sums of money to weapons that could be better devoted to combating ignorance, poverty, and disease. We are both caught up in a vicious and dangerous cycle in which suspicion on one side breeds suspicion on the other, and new weapons beget counterweapons.
In short, both the United States and its allies, and the Soviet Union and its allies, have a mutually deep interest in a just and genuine peace and in halting the arms race. Agreements to this end are in the interests of the Soviet Union as well as ours--and even the most hostile nations can be relied upon to accept and keep those treaty obligations, and only those treaty obligations, which are in their own interest.
So, let us not be blind to our differences--but let us also direct attention to our common interests and to the means by which those differences can be resolved. And if we cannot end now our differences, at least we can help make the world safe for diversity. For, in the final analysis, our most basic common link is that we all inhabit this small planet. We all breathe the same air. We all cherish our children's future. And we are all mortal.
Third: Let us reexamine our attitude toward the cold war, remembering that we are not engaged in a debate, seeking to pile up debating points. We are not here distributing blame or pointing the finger of judgment. We must deal with the world as it is, and not as it might have been had the history of the last 18 years been different.
We must, therefore, persevere in the search for peace in the hope that constructive changes within the Communist bloc might bring within reach solutions which now seem beyond us. We must conduct our affairs in such a way that it becomes in the Communists' interest to agree on a genuine peace. Above all, while defending our own vital interests, nuclear powers must avert those confrontations which bring an adversary to a choice of either a humiliating retreat or a nuclear war. To adopt that kind of course in the nuclear age would be evidence only of the bankruptcy of our policy--or of a collective death-wish for the world.
To secure these ends, America's weapons are nonprovocative, carefully controlled, designed to deter, and capable of selective use. Our military forces are committed to peace and disciplined in self- restraint. Our diplomats are instructed to avoid unnecessary irritants and purely rhetorical hostility.
For we can seek a relaxation of tension without relaxing our guard. And, for our part, we do not need to use threats to prove that we are resolute. We do not need to jam foreign broadcasts out of fear our faith will be eroded. We are unwilling to impose our system on any unwilling people--but we are willing and able to engage in peaceful competition with any people on earth.
Meanwhile, we seek to strengthen the United Nations, to help solve its financial problems, to make it a more effective instrument for peace, to develop it into a genuine world security system--a system capable of resolving disputes on the basis of law, of insuring the security of the large and the small, and of creating conditions under which arms can finally be abolished.
At the same time we seek to keep peace inside the non-Communist world, where many nations, all of them our friends, are divided over issues which weaken Western unity, which invite Communist intervention or which threaten to erupt into war. Our efforts in West New Guinea, in the Congo, in the Middle East, and in the Indian subcontinent, have been persistent and patient despite criticism from both sides. We have also tried to set an example for others--by seeking to adjust small but significant differences with our own closest neighbors in Mexico and in Canada.
Speaking of other nations, I wish to make one point clear. We are bound to many nations by alliances. Those alliances exist because our concern and theirs substantially overlap. Our commitment to defend Western Europe and West Berlin, for example, stands undiminished because of the identity of our vital interests. The United States will make no deal with the Soviet Union at the expense of other nations and other peoples, not merely because they are our partners, but also because their interests and ours converge.
Our interests converge, however, not only in defending the frontiers of freedom, but in pursuing the paths of peace. It is our hope-- and the purpose of allied policies--to convince the Soviet Union that she, too, should let each nation choose its own future, so long as that choice does not interfere with the choices of others. The Communist drive to impose their political and economic system on others is the primary cause of world tension today. For there can be no doubt that, if all nations could refrain from interfering in the self-determination of others, the peace would be much more assured.
This will require a new effort to achieve world law--a new context for world discussions. It will require increased understanding between the Soviets and ourselves. And increased understanding will require increased contact and communication. One step in this direction is the proposed arrangement for a direct line between Moscow and Washington, to avoid on each side the dangerous delays, misunderstandings, and misreadings of the other's actions which might occur at a time of crisis.
We have also been talking in Geneva about the other first-step measures of arms control designed to limit the intensity of the arms race and to reduce the risks of accidental war. Our primary long range interest in Geneva, however, is general and complete disarmament-- designed to take place by stages, permitting parallel political developments to build the new institutions of peace which would take the place of arms. The pursuit of disarmament has been an effort of this Government since the 1920's. It has been urgently sought by the past three administrations. And however dim the prospects may be today, we intend to continue this effort--to continue it in order that all countries, including our own, can better grasp what the problems and possibilities of disarmament are.
The one major area of these negotiations where the end is in sight, yet where a fresh start is badly needed, is in a treaty to outlaw nuclear tests. The conclusion of such a treaty, so near and yet so far, would check the spiraling arms race in one of its most dangerous areas. It would place the nuclear powers in a position to deal more effectively with one of the greatest hazards which man faces in 1963, the further spread of nuclear arms. It would increase our security--it would decrease the prospects of war. Surely this goal is sufficiently important to require our steady pursuit, yielding neither to the temptation to give up the whole effort nor the temptation to give up our insistence on vital and responsible safeguards.
I am taking this opportunity, therefore, to announce two important decisions in this regard.
First: Chairman Khrushchev, Prime Minister Macmillan, and I have agreed that high-level discussions will shortly begin in Moscow looking toward early agreement on a comprehensive test ban treaty. Our hopes must be tempered with the caution of history--but with our hopes go the hopes of all mankind.
Second: To make clear our good faith and solemn convictions on the matter, I now declare that the United States does not propose to conduct nuclear tests in the atmosphere so long as other states do not do so. We will not be the first to resume. Such a declaration is no substitute for a formal binding treaty, but I hope it will help us achieve one. Nor would such a treaty be a substitute for disarmament, but I hope it will help us achieve it.
Finally, my fellow Americans, let us examine our attitude toward peace and freedom here at home. The quality and spirit of our own society must justify and support our efforts abroad. We must show it in the dedication of our own lives--as many of you who are graduating today will have a unique opportunity to do, by serving without pay in the Peace Corps abroad or in the proposed National Service Corps here at home.
But wherever we are, we must all, in our daily lives, live up to the age-old faith that peace and freedom walk together. In too many of our cities today, the peace is not secure because the freedom is incomplete.
It is the responsibility of the executive branch at all levels of government--local, State, and National--to provide and protect that freedom for all of our citizens by all means within their authority. It is the responsibility of the legislative branch at all levels, wherever that authority is not now adequate, to make it adequate. And it is the responsibility of all citizens in all sections of this country to respect the rights of all others and to respect the law of the land.
All this is not unrelated to world peace. "When a man's ways please the Lord," the Scriptures tell us, "he maketh even his enemies to be at peace with him." And is not peace, in the last analysis, basically a matter of human rights--the right to live out our lives without fear of devastation--the right to breathe air as nature provided it--the right of future generations to a healthy existence?
While we proceed to safeguard our national interests, let us also safeguard human interests. And the elimination of war and arms is clearly in the interest of both. No treaty, however much it may be to the advantage of all, however tightly it may be worded, can provide absolute security against the risks of deception and evasion. But it can--if it is sufficiently effective in its enforcement and if it is sufficiently in the interests of its signers--offer far more security and far fewer risks than an unabated, uncontrolled, unpredictable arms race.
The United States, as the world knows, will never start a war. We do not want a war. We do not now expect a war. This generation of Americans has already had enough--more than enough--of war and hate and oppression. We shall be prepared if others wish it. We shall be alert to try to stop it. But we shall also do our part to build a world of peace where the weak are safe and the strong are just. We are not helpless before that task or hopeless of its success. Confident and unafraid, we labor on--not toward a strategy of annihilation but toward a strategy of peace.
submitted by TruNorth556 to stupidpol [link] [comments]
Professor Woodrow Wilson once said that every man sent out from a university should be a man of his nation as well as a man of his time, and I am confident that the men and women who carry the honor of graduating from this institution will continue to give from their lives, from their talents, a high measure of public service and public support.
"There are few earthly things more beautiful than a university," wrote John Masefield in his tribute to English universities--and his words are equally true today. He did not refer to spires and towers, to campus greens and ivied walls. He admired the splendid beauty of the university, he said, because it was "a place where those who hate ignorance may strive to know, where those who perceive truth may strive to make others see."
I have, therefore, chosen this time and this place to discuss a topic on which ignorance too often abounds and the truth is too rarely perceived--yet it is the most important topic on earth: world peace.
What kind of peace do I mean? What kind of peace do we seek? Not a Pax Americana enforced on the world by American weapons of war. Not the peace of the grave or the security of the slave. I am talking about genuine peace, the kind of peace that makes life on earth worth living, the kind that enables men and nations to grow and to hope and to build a better life for their children--not merely peace for Americans but peace for all men and women--not merely peace in our time but peace for all time.
I speak of peace because of the new face of war. Total war makes no sense in an age when great powers can maintain large and relatively invulnerable nuclear forces and refuse to surrender without resort to those forces. It makes no sense in an age when a single nuclear weapon contains almost ten times the explosive force delivered by all the allied air forces in the Second World War. It makes no sense in an age when the deadly poisons produced by a nuclear exchange would be carried by wind and water and soil and seed to the far corners of the globe and to generations yet unborn.
Today the expenditure of billions of dollars every year on weapons acquired for the purpose of making sure we never need to use them is essential to keeping the peace. But surely the acquisition of such idle stockpiles--which can only destroy and never create--is not the only, much less the most efficient, means of assuring peace.
I speak of peace, therefore, as the necessary rational end of rational men. I realize that the pursuit of peace is not as dramatic as the pursuit of war--and frequently the words of the pursuer fall on deaf ears. But we have no more urgent task.
Some say that it is useless to speak of world peace or world law or world disarmament--and that it will be useless until the leaders of the Soviet Union adopt a more enlightened attitude. I hope they do. I believe we can help them do it. But I also believe that we must reexamine our own attitude--as individuals and as a Nation--for our attitude is as essential as theirs. And every graduate of this school, every thoughtful citizen who despairs of war and wishes to bring peace, should begin by looking inward--by examining his own attitude toward the possibilities of peace, toward the Soviet Union, toward the course of the cold war and toward freedom and peace here at home.
First: Let us examine our attitude toward peace itself. Too many of us think it is impossible. Too many think it unreal. But that is a dangerous, defeatist belief. It leads to the conclusion that war is inevitable--that mankind is doomed--that we are gripped by forces we cannot control.
We need not accept that view. Our problems are manmade--therefore, they can be solved by man. And man can be as big as he wants. No problem of human destiny is beyond human beings. Man's reason and spirit have often solved the seemingly unsolvable--and we believe they can do it again.
I am not referring to the absolute, infinite concept of peace and good will of which some fantasies and fanatics dream. I do not deny the value of hopes and dreams but we merely invite discouragement and incredulity by making that our only and immediate goal.
Let us focus instead on a more practical, more attainable peace-- based not on a sudden revolution in human nature but on a gradual evolution in human institutions--on a series of concrete actions and effective agreements which are in the interest of all concerned. There is no single, simple key to this peace--no grand or magic formula to be adopted by one or two powers. Genuine peace must be the product of many nations, the sum of many acts. It must be dynamic, not static, changing to meet the challenge of each new generation. For peace is a process--a way of solving problems.
With such a peace, there will still be quarrels and conflicting interests, as there are within families and nations. World peace, like community peace, does not require that each man love his neighbor--it requires only that they live together in mutual tolerance, submitting their disputes to a just and peaceful settlement. And history teaches us that enmities between nations, as between individuals, do not last forever. However fixed our likes and dislikes may seem, the tide of time and events will often bring surprising changes in the relations between nations and neighbors.
So let us persevere. Peace need not be impracticable, and war need not be inevitable. By defining our goal more clearly, by making it seem more manageable and less remote, we can help all peoples to see it, to draw hope from it, and to move irresistibly toward it.
Second: Let us reexamine our attitude toward the Soviet Union. It is discouraging to think that their leaders may actually believe what their propagandists write. It is discouraging to read a recent authoritative Soviet text on Military Strategy and find, on page after page, wholly baseless and incredible claims--such as the allegation that "American imperialist circles are preparing to unleash different types of wars . . . that there is a very real threat of a preventive war being unleashed by American imperialists against the Soviet Union . . . [and that] the political aims of the American imperialists are to enslave economically and politically the European and other capitalist countries . . . [and] to achieve world domination . . . by means of aggressive wars."
Truly, as it was written long ago: "The wicked flee when no man pursueth." Yet it is sad to read these Soviet statements--to realize the extent of the gulf between us. But it is also a warning--a warning to the American people not to fall into the same trap as the Soviets, not to see only a distorted and desperate view of the other side, not to see conflict as inevitable, accommodation as impossible, and communication as nothing more than an exchange of threats.
No government or social system is so evil that its people must be considered as lacking in virtue. As Americans, we find communism profoundly repugnant as a negation of personal freedom and dignity. But we can still hail the Russian people for their many achievements--in science and space, in economic and industrial growth, in culture and in acts of courage.
Among the many traits the peoples of our two countries have in common, none is stronger than our mutual abhorrence of war. Almost unique among the major world powers, we have never been at war with each other. And no nation in the history of battle ever suffered more than the Soviet Union suffered in the course of the Second World War. At least 20 million lost their lives. Countless millions of homes and farms were burned or sacked. A third of the nation's territory, including nearly two thirds of its industrial base, was turned into a wasteland--a loss equivalent to the devastation of this country east of Chicago.
Today, should total war ever break out again--no matter how--our two countries would become the primary targets. It is an ironic but accurate fact that the two strongest powers are the two in the most danger of devastation. All we have built, all we have worked for, would be destroyed in the first 24 hours. And even in the cold war, which brings burdens and dangers to so many nations, including this Nation's closest allies--our two countries bear the heaviest burdens. For we are both devoting massive sums of money to weapons that could be better devoted to combating ignorance, poverty, and disease. We are both caught up in a vicious and dangerous cycle in which suspicion on one side breeds suspicion on the other, and new weapons beget counterweapons.
In short, both the United States and its allies, and the Soviet Union and its allies, have a mutually deep interest in a just and genuine peace and in halting the arms race. Agreements to this end are in the interests of the Soviet Union as well as ours--and even the most hostile nations can be relied upon to accept and keep those treaty obligations, and only those treaty obligations, which are in their own interest.
So, let us not be blind to our differences--but let us also direct attention to our common interests and to the means by which those differences can be resolved. And if we cannot end now our differences, at least we can help make the world safe for diversity. For, in the final analysis, our most basic common link is that we all inhabit this small planet. We all breathe the same air. We all cherish our children's future. And we are all mortal.
Third: Let us reexamine our attitude toward the cold war, remembering that we are not engaged in a debate, seeking to pile up debating points. We are not here distributing blame or pointing the finger of judgment. We must deal with the world as it is, and not as it might have been had the history of the last 18 years been different.
We must, therefore, persevere in the search for peace in the hope that constructive changes within the Communist bloc might bring within reach solutions which now seem beyond us. We must conduct our affairs in such a way that it becomes in the Communists' interest to agree on a genuine peace. Above all, while defending our own vital interests, nuclear powers must avert those confrontations which bring an adversary to a choice of either a humiliating retreat or a nuclear war. To adopt that kind of course in the nuclear age would be evidence only of the bankruptcy of our policy--or of a collective death-wish for the world.
To secure these ends, America's weapons are nonprovocative, carefully controlled, designed to deter, and capable of selective use. Our military forces are committed to peace and disciplined in self- restraint. Our diplomats are instructed to avoid unnecessary irritants and purely rhetorical hostility.
For we can seek a relaxation of tension without relaxing our guard. And, for our part, we do not need to use threats to prove that we are resolute. We do not need to jam foreign broadcasts out of fear our faith will be eroded. We are unwilling to impose our system on any unwilling people--but we are willing and able to engage in peaceful competition with any people on earth.
Meanwhile, we seek to strengthen the United Nations, to help solve its financial problems, to make it a more effective instrument for peace, to develop it into a genuine world security system--a system capable of resolving disputes on the basis of law, of insuring the security of the large and the small, and of creating conditions under which arms can finally be abolished.
At the same time we seek to keep peace inside the non-Communist world, where many nations, all of them our friends, are divided over issues which weaken Western unity, which invite Communist intervention or which threaten to erupt into war. Our efforts in West New Guinea, in the Congo, in the Middle East, and in the Indian subcontinent, have been persistent and patient despite criticism from both sides. We have also tried to set an example for others--by seeking to adjust small but significant differences with our own closest neighbors in Mexico and in Canada.
Speaking of other nations, I wish to make one point clear. We are bound to many nations by alliances. Those alliances exist because our concern and theirs substantially overlap. Our commitment to defend Western Europe and West Berlin, for example, stands undiminished because of the identity of our vital interests. The United States will make no deal with the Soviet Union at the expense of other nations and other peoples, not merely because they are our partners, but also because their interests and ours converge.
Our interests converge, however, not only in defending the frontiers of freedom, but in pursuing the paths of peace. It is our hope-- and the purpose of allied policies--to convince the Soviet Union that she, too, should let each nation choose its own future, so long as that choice does not interfere with the choices of others. The Communist drive to impose their political and economic system on others is the primary cause of world tension today. For there can be no doubt that, if all nations could refrain from interfering in the self-determination of others, the peace would be much more assured.
This will require a new effort to achieve world law--a new context for world discussions. It will require increased understanding between the Soviets and ourselves. And increased understanding will require increased contact and communication. One step in this direction is the proposed arrangement for a direct line between Moscow and Washington, to avoid on each side the dangerous delays, misunderstandings, and misreadings of the other's actions which might occur at a time of crisis.
We have also been talking in Geneva about the other first-step measures of arms control designed to limit the intensity of the arms race and to reduce the risks of accidental war. Our primary long range interest in Geneva, however, is general and complete disarmament-- designed to take place by stages, permitting parallel political developments to build the new institutions of peace which would take the place of arms. The pursuit of disarmament has been an effort of this Government since the 1920's. It has been urgently sought by the past three administrations. And however dim the prospects may be today, we intend to continue this effort--to continue it in order that all countries, including our own, can better grasp what the problems and possibilities of disarmament are.
The one major area of these negotiations where the end is in sight, yet where a fresh start is badly needed, is in a treaty to outlaw nuclear tests. The conclusion of such a treaty, so near and yet so far, would check the spiraling arms race in one of its most dangerous areas. It would place the nuclear powers in a position to deal more effectively with one of the greatest hazards which man faces in 1963, the further spread of nuclear arms. It would increase our security--it would decrease the prospects of war. Surely this goal is sufficiently important to require our steady pursuit, yielding neither to the temptation to give up the whole effort nor the temptation to give up our insistence on vital and responsible safeguards.
I am taking this opportunity, therefore, to announce two important decisions in this regard.
First: Chairman Khrushchev, Prime Minister Macmillan, and I have agreed that high-level discussions will shortly begin in Moscow looking toward early agreement on a comprehensive test ban treaty. Our hopes must be tempered with the caution of history--but with our hopes go the hopes of all mankind.
Second: To make clear our good faith and solemn convictions on the matter, I now declare that the United States does not propose to conduct nuclear tests in the atmosphere so long as other states do not do so. We will not be the first to resume. Such a declaration is no substitute for a formal binding treaty, but I hope it will help us achieve one. Nor would such a treaty be a substitute for disarmament, but I hope it will help us achieve it.
Finally, my fellow Americans, let us examine our attitude toward peace and freedom here at home. The quality and spirit of our own society must justify and support our efforts abroad. We must show it in the dedication of our own lives--as many of you who are graduating today will have a unique opportunity to do, by serving without pay in the Peace Corps abroad or in the proposed National Service Corps here at home.
But wherever we are, we must all, in our daily lives, live up to the age-old faith that peace and freedom walk together. In too many of our cities today, the peace is not secure because the freedom is incomplete.
It is the responsibility of the executive branch at all levels of government--local, State, and National--to provide and protect that freedom for all of our citizens by all means within their authority. It is the responsibility of the legislative branch at all levels, wherever that authority is not now adequate, to make it adequate. And it is the responsibility of all citizens in all sections of this country to respect the rights of all others and to respect the law of the land.
All this is not unrelated to world peace. "When a man's ways please the Lord," the Scriptures tell us, "he maketh even his enemies to be at peace with him." And is not peace, in the last analysis, basically a matter of human rights--the right to live out our lives without fear of devastation--the right to breathe air as nature provided it--the right of future generations to a healthy existence?
While we proceed to safeguard our national interests, let us also safeguard human interests. And the elimination of war and arms is clearly in the interest of both. No treaty, however much it may be to the advantage of all, however tightly it may be worded, can provide absolute security against the risks of deception and evasion. But it can--if it is sufficiently effective in its enforcement and if it is sufficiently in the interests of its signers--offer far more security and far fewer risks than an unabated, uncontrolled, unpredictable arms race.
The United States, as the world knows, will never start a war. We do not want a war. We do not now expect a war. This generation of Americans has already had enough--more than enough--of war and hate and oppression. We shall be prepared if others wish it. We shall be alert to try to stop it. But we shall also do our part to build a world of peace where the weak are safe and the strong are just. We are not helpless before that task or hopeless of its success. Confident and unafraid, we labor on--not toward a strategy of annihilation but toward a strategy of peace.
2024.05.16 17:23 MolokoBespoko The unsuccessful search for Moors Murders victim, Keith Bennett, on Saddleworth Moor between September and October 2022
This story has been gaining some small online traction over the past couple of days, and Russell Edwards has been namedropped again by Keith Bennett’s brother, Alan Bennett, on social media. I want people to be in no doubt about what Edwards did back in 2022, and I want to make sure that the following ranks near the top of Google searches too so that people can easily find information that discredits this complete and utter charlatan.
Header photo description and credits: Greater Manchester Police employing a drone in the excavation of the site searched for the remains of Keith Bennett on Saddleworth Moor, 2nd October 2022. Manchester Evening News
Edwards also runs a Jack the Ripper guided walking tour in London. I won’t link to it because a) I don’t want to drive up clicks to it and b) the website contains a lot of misinformation as well as graphic autopsy images of Ripper victims without warning. I initially thought he had stopped doing these, but the most recent review listed on there was from January of this year.
He claimed to have started looking into Keith Bennett’s disappearance in 2015, but had been interested in the case since around the time the remains of another Moors Murders victim, Pauline Reade, were discovered in 1987.
I would strongly encourage everybody to read these FAQs around the search for Keith too. I wrote these up a while ago, and Alan himself has been kind enough to contribute to them as well after the fact.
In a statement published on 30th September 2022, GMP Force Review Officer Martin Bottomley said:
“At around 11.25am on Thursday 29th September 2022, Greater Manchester Police was contacted by the representative of an author who has been researching the murder of Keith Bennett, a victim of Ian Brady and Myra Hindley. Following direct contact with the author, we were informed that he had discovered what he believes are potential human remains in a remote location on the Moors and he agreed to meet with officers yesterday afternoon to elaborate on his find and direct us to a site of interest.
“The site was assessed late last night and, this morning, specialist officers have begun initial exploration activity. We are in the very early stages of assessing the information which has been brought to our attention but have made the decision to act on it in line with a normal response to a report of this kind.”
It was first reported in the Daily Mail that a “skull” had been found, although the same article then went on to say that “detectives are preparing to exhume a particular area where suspected skeletal remains have been found including what experts believe to be a child’s upper jaw with a full set of teeth”. It was also reported that a small piece of blue and white striped material, and potential samples of body tissue (although this was later discredited as a probable mixture of vegetation and muddy water), had been found.
Edwards had claimed he and his team had conducted extensive soil analysis of the area, which they had discovered 4 weeks before. There were high levels of calcium, which can indicate the presence of human remains (but the team did not mention that it also indicates the presence of limestone or another high calcium natural material). Describing the dig, he said “the smell hit me about 2ft down. Like a sewer, like ammonia. I worked as a gravedigger when I was 19. It hits you, that smell of death. It is distinctive.”
Alan Bennett later stated that the smell was probably methane - of which there are pockets containing it across the moor. Edwards also falsely stated that everything was left in situ - more on that in the paragraph after the next one.
On Saturday 1st October, Greater Manchester Police issued a statement saying that “no identifiable human remains have been found” - despite what several tabloid and local newspapers had been reporting. It was confirmed that drones were being used in the search on the 2nd October, and a statement issued by GMP later that day confirmed that excavation of the site will continue for the foreseeable future.
Edwards and members of his team started posting on Facebook and declaring that Keith Bennett had already been found. On 2nd October, Jari Louhelainen, a Senior Lecturer in Molecular Biology at Liverpool John Moores University and a member of Edwards’ team, posted a photo of himself analysing what he suspected was a “bunch of hair” from the dig site. He later confirmed in the comments of his post (after being called out for posting it in the first place) that it was a “look-a-like plant material”.
On 4th October, Detective Chief Inspector Cheryl Hughes, of GMP’s Force Review Unit, said: “Forensic Archaeologists and Forensic Anthropologists have now completed a methodical archaeological excavation and examination of the area previously dug and refilled by the member of the public. No bones, fabric or items of interest were recovered from the soil.
“These accredited and certified forensic experts are now continuing with a methodical and controlled excavation of the area immediately surrounding the original site to provide a higher level of assurance of the presence or absence of any items of interest. Further soil samples have been taken for analysis, but at this time there is no visible evidence to suggest the presence of human remains. The scene examination is ongoing.
“A report of possible human remains is always treated with seriousness. As such, we have deployed police search advisors who can support our scenes of crimes officers – this will result in more visible and high profile tactics, such as officers walking in lines to identify any potential sites of focus.
“GMP is committed to providing Keith’s family with answers following this report, both from the physical excavation and subsequent analysis of samples. This will take some time but we will keep the family updated at every stage and request that their privacy is respected.
“We have seen the outpouring of support since this news broke so know how our communities feel about this case but we are asking members of the public not to travel to the area and can assure them that we will provide timely and appropriate updates.”
At 2pm on 7th October 2022, Greater Manchester Police announced that they had closed the scene on Saddleworth Moor after finding no evidence to indicate the presence of human remains. “At this time, there is no evidence of the presence of human remains.”
Assistant Chief Constable Sarah Jackson, portfolio holder for crime, said: “We have always said that we would respond, in a timely and appropriate manner, to any credible information which may lead us towards finding Keith. Our actions in the last week or so are a highly visible example of what that response looks like, with the force utilising the knowledge and skills of accredited experts, specialist officers and staff. It is these accredited experts and specialists who have brought us to a position from where we can say that, despite a thorough search of the scene and ongoing analysis of samples taken both by ourselves and a third party, there is currently no evidence of the presence of human remains at, or surrounding, the identified site on Saddleworth Moor. However, I want to make it clear that our investigation to find answers for Keith’s family is not over.
“We understand how our communities in Greater Manchester feel about this case, the renewed interest in it and the shared desire to find Keith. Much of Saddleworth Moor is private land so we would ask that members of the public, in the first instance, report any perceived intelligence to their local police service. The discovery of suspected human remains must be reported immediately to enable the use of specialist resources to investigate appropriately.”
Senior Investigating Officer Detective Chief Inspector Cheryl Hughes said: “The investigation into Keith’s disappearance and murder has remained open since 1964 and it will not be closed until we have found the answers his family have deserved for so many years. We are thankful for their continued support of our ongoing enquiries. This has been a distressing time for them and we ask that their privacy is respected.
“We understand the confusion which may have been caused to Keith’s family and communities across Greater Manchester by reports to the contrary. We hope that by giving this detailed update today, we provide reassurance that GMP are committed to finding accurate answers for Keith’s family.
“In response to the report made on Thursday 29 September 2022, officers met with the member of the public who later provided us with samples and copies of the photographs he had taken. He also took officers to the location from which he had obtained these and provided grid references.
“In the days since, independent accredited forensic archaeologists and certified forensic anthropologists, together with GMP’s Crime Scene Investigators, have completed a methodical forensic archaeological excavation and examination of the identified area and beyond. An accredited forensic geologist also took a number of soil samples – analysis of which is ongoing.
“The items given to us by the member of the public have been examined by a forensic scientist and though this hasn’t yet indicated the presence of human remains – more analysis is required. With regards to the photograph, we have sought the assistance of a forensic botanist. We are now utilising the knowledge and skills of a forensic image expert to put a standard anthropological measurement to the object to assist with identification. At this stage, the indications are that it would be considerably smaller than a juvenile jaw and it cannot be ruled out that it is plant-based.
“The excavation and examination at the site is complete and, to reiterate, we have found no evidence that this is the burial location of Keith Bennett.”
“Any professional archaeologist would ask for a scale in any pictures or video taken at a scene [in reference to the fact that police confirmed the object found was too small to be a juvenile jaw], that was not the case here and the reason police had to call in a photographic specialist to determine the scale of the supposed jawbone..which turns out to be too small for a child from what I've been told so far and, of course couldn't be found anyway and could only have been vegetation if anything at all.”
I am not entirely sure what the “blue and white striped fabric” turned out to be - I assume that nothing was found.
Alan has since posted evidence that Russell Edwards had been planning the “discovery of Keith’s remains” as part of a stunt to promote his upcoming book on the case - a book that Edwards has been radio-silent about since all of this controversy.
Edwards has refused to apologise to Keith’s family and despite being proven wrong, and him and his team being called out for the charlatans they are (with even him admitting that his own reputation is in tatters), as of December 2022 he stood by his actions and his claims that he believed he had found Keith’s body.
To my own understanding (though I do not speak on behalf of Alan Bennett or on behalf of anybody who was involved in this whole debacle, let me be clear), there has been complete radio-silence on news of Edwards’ book since this date.
submitted by MolokoBespoko to MoorsMurders [link] [comments]
Header photo description and credits: Greater Manchester Police employing a drone in the excavation of the site searched for the remains of Keith Bennett on Saddleworth Moor, 2nd October 2022. Manchester Evening News
Who is Russell Edwards?
Edwards is a self-proclaimed “amateur detective”, who has for many years invested a lot of his own time and money in trying to get to the bottom of numerous infamous unsolved cases. He has claimed to have identified Jack the Ripper as a Polish barber named Aaron Kosminski, and wrote a book about his “findings” called “Naming Jack the Ripper” - which have since been called into question along with the credibility of both Edwards and the forensic scientist he collaborated with in regards to both Jack the Ripper and the Moors Murders, Jari Louhelainen.Edwards also runs a Jack the Ripper guided walking tour in London. I won’t link to it because a) I don’t want to drive up clicks to it and b) the website contains a lot of misinformation as well as graphic autopsy images of Ripper victims without warning. I initially thought he had stopped doing these, but the most recent review listed on there was from January of this year.
He claimed to have started looking into Keith Bennett’s disappearance in 2015, but had been interested in the case since around the time the remains of another Moors Murders victim, Pauline Reade, were discovered in 1987.
The known facts of Keith Bennett’s disappearance and murder
Keith was walking to his grandmother’s house on the evening of 16th June 1964 when he was abducted by Ian Brady and Myra Hindley. According to their accounts, he was driven up to Saddleworth Moor and endured sexual assault before he was strangled to death and buried in a shallow grave. There is a detailed and extensive write-up on Brady’s and Hindley’s conflicting accounts linked here. Tragically, to this day Keith Bennett remains the only one of the couple’s victims whose remains were never recovered.I would strongly encourage everybody to read these FAQs around the search for Keith too. I wrote these up a while ago, and Alan himself has been kind enough to contribute to them as well after the fact.
The 2022 “findings”
First off, here’s where exactly Edwards made his “discovery” in relation to where the other bodies were found. I should state that this area consists of plenty of gullies and peat soil. If you click on the 2022 Search on Saddleworth Moor flair, you‘ll see everything we discussed in this subreddit as the search was being carried out. But I will recap what happened anyway.In a statement published on 30th September 2022, GMP Force Review Officer Martin Bottomley said:
“At around 11.25am on Thursday 29th September 2022, Greater Manchester Police was contacted by the representative of an author who has been researching the murder of Keith Bennett, a victim of Ian Brady and Myra Hindley. Following direct contact with the author, we were informed that he had discovered what he believes are potential human remains in a remote location on the Moors and he agreed to meet with officers yesterday afternoon to elaborate on his find and direct us to a site of interest.
“The site was assessed late last night and, this morning, specialist officers have begun initial exploration activity. We are in the very early stages of assessing the information which has been brought to our attention but have made the decision to act on it in line with a normal response to a report of this kind.”
It was first reported in the Daily Mail that a “skull” had been found, although the same article then went on to say that “detectives are preparing to exhume a particular area where suspected skeletal remains have been found including what experts believe to be a child’s upper jaw with a full set of teeth”. It was also reported that a small piece of blue and white striped material, and potential samples of body tissue (although this was later discredited as a probable mixture of vegetation and muddy water), had been found.
Edwards had claimed he and his team had conducted extensive soil analysis of the area, which they had discovered 4 weeks before. There were high levels of calcium, which can indicate the presence of human remains (but the team did not mention that it also indicates the presence of limestone or another high calcium natural material). Describing the dig, he said “the smell hit me about 2ft down. Like a sewer, like ammonia. I worked as a gravedigger when I was 19. It hits you, that smell of death. It is distinctive.”
Alan Bennett later stated that the smell was probably methane - of which there are pockets containing it across the moor. Edwards also falsely stated that everything was left in situ - more on that in the paragraph after the next one.
On Saturday 1st October, Greater Manchester Police issued a statement saying that “no identifiable human remains have been found” - despite what several tabloid and local newspapers had been reporting. It was confirmed that drones were being used in the search on the 2nd October, and a statement issued by GMP later that day confirmed that excavation of the site will continue for the foreseeable future.
Edwards and members of his team started posting on Facebook and declaring that Keith Bennett had already been found. On 2nd October, Jari Louhelainen, a Senior Lecturer in Molecular Biology at Liverpool John Moores University and a member of Edwards’ team, posted a photo of himself analysing what he suspected was a “bunch of hair” from the dig site. He later confirmed in the comments of his post (after being called out for posting it in the first place) that it was a “look-a-like plant material”.
On 4th October, Detective Chief Inspector Cheryl Hughes, of GMP’s Force Review Unit, said: “Forensic Archaeologists and Forensic Anthropologists have now completed a methodical archaeological excavation and examination of the area previously dug and refilled by the member of the public. No bones, fabric or items of interest were recovered from the soil.
“These accredited and certified forensic experts are now continuing with a methodical and controlled excavation of the area immediately surrounding the original site to provide a higher level of assurance of the presence or absence of any items of interest. Further soil samples have been taken for analysis, but at this time there is no visible evidence to suggest the presence of human remains. The scene examination is ongoing.
“A report of possible human remains is always treated with seriousness. As such, we have deployed police search advisors who can support our scenes of crimes officers – this will result in more visible and high profile tactics, such as officers walking in lines to identify any potential sites of focus.
“GMP is committed to providing Keith’s family with answers following this report, both from the physical excavation and subsequent analysis of samples. This will take some time but we will keep the family updated at every stage and request that their privacy is respected.
“We have seen the outpouring of support since this news broke so know how our communities feel about this case but we are asking members of the public not to travel to the area and can assure them that we will provide timely and appropriate updates.”
At 2pm on 7th October 2022, Greater Manchester Police announced that they had closed the scene on Saddleworth Moor after finding no evidence to indicate the presence of human remains. “At this time, there is no evidence of the presence of human remains.”
Assistant Chief Constable Sarah Jackson, portfolio holder for crime, said: “We have always said that we would respond, in a timely and appropriate manner, to any credible information which may lead us towards finding Keith. Our actions in the last week or so are a highly visible example of what that response looks like, with the force utilising the knowledge and skills of accredited experts, specialist officers and staff. It is these accredited experts and specialists who have brought us to a position from where we can say that, despite a thorough search of the scene and ongoing analysis of samples taken both by ourselves and a third party, there is currently no evidence of the presence of human remains at, or surrounding, the identified site on Saddleworth Moor. However, I want to make it clear that our investigation to find answers for Keith’s family is not over.
“We understand how our communities in Greater Manchester feel about this case, the renewed interest in it and the shared desire to find Keith. Much of Saddleworth Moor is private land so we would ask that members of the public, in the first instance, report any perceived intelligence to their local police service. The discovery of suspected human remains must be reported immediately to enable the use of specialist resources to investigate appropriately.”
Senior Investigating Officer Detective Chief Inspector Cheryl Hughes said: “The investigation into Keith’s disappearance and murder has remained open since 1964 and it will not be closed until we have found the answers his family have deserved for so many years. We are thankful for their continued support of our ongoing enquiries. This has been a distressing time for them and we ask that their privacy is respected.
“We understand the confusion which may have been caused to Keith’s family and communities across Greater Manchester by reports to the contrary. We hope that by giving this detailed update today, we provide reassurance that GMP are committed to finding accurate answers for Keith’s family.
“In response to the report made on Thursday 29 September 2022, officers met with the member of the public who later provided us with samples and copies of the photographs he had taken. He also took officers to the location from which he had obtained these and provided grid references.
“In the days since, independent accredited forensic archaeologists and certified forensic anthropologists, together with GMP’s Crime Scene Investigators, have completed a methodical forensic archaeological excavation and examination of the identified area and beyond. An accredited forensic geologist also took a number of soil samples – analysis of which is ongoing.
“The items given to us by the member of the public have been examined by a forensic scientist and though this hasn’t yet indicated the presence of human remains – more analysis is required. With regards to the photograph, we have sought the assistance of a forensic botanist. We are now utilising the knowledge and skills of a forensic image expert to put a standard anthropological measurement to the object to assist with identification. At this stage, the indications are that it would be considerably smaller than a juvenile jaw and it cannot be ruled out that it is plant-based.
“The excavation and examination at the site is complete and, to reiterate, we have found no evidence that this is the burial location of Keith Bennett.”
Aftermath
It was discovered that two of Edwards’ team members, Lesley Dunlop (a geologist) and Dawn Keen (a forensic archaeologist) were not accredited professionals in their respective fields. Alan Bennett clarified in a Facebook post on 5th November 2022, in reference to Keen:“Any professional archaeologist would ask for a scale in any pictures or video taken at a scene [in reference to the fact that police confirmed the object found was too small to be a juvenile jaw], that was not the case here and the reason police had to call in a photographic specialist to determine the scale of the supposed jawbone..which turns out to be too small for a child from what I've been told so far and, of course couldn't be found anyway and could only have been vegetation if anything at all.”
I am not entirely sure what the “blue and white striped fabric” turned out to be - I assume that nothing was found.
Alan has since posted evidence that Russell Edwards had been planning the “discovery of Keith’s remains” as part of a stunt to promote his upcoming book on the case - a book that Edwards has been radio-silent about since all of this controversy.
Edwards has refused to apologise to Keith’s family and despite being proven wrong, and him and his team being called out for the charlatans they are (with even him admitting that his own reputation is in tatters), as of December 2022 he stood by his actions and his claims that he believed he had found Keith’s body.
To my own understanding (though I do not speak on behalf of Alan Bennett or on behalf of anybody who was involved in this whole debacle, let me be clear), there has been complete radio-silence on news of Edwards’ book since this date.