Practice measuring fractions of an inch on a ruler

The Best Type Of Fishing

2011.01.14 20:52 iPeeOnPeons The Best Type Of Fishing

Ice fishing is the practice of catching fish with lines and fish hooks through an opening in the ice on a frozen body of water.
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2011.07.11 08:35 XmarkstheNOLA r/Tropico: Vote El Presidente or Else

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2010.01.27 02:45 Wicca: Reconnecting with the Gods

Wicca is a neopagan religion based on ancient pagan beliefs. It's an earth-based religion that believes in a God and Goddess as representative of a greater pantheistic godhead. Wicca includes a system of ethics and teaches that we all are ultimately responsible for our own actions. We believe in gods. We believe in magic. We believe in multiple realities. We practice alone, or in groups. We practice witchcraft.
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2024.05.19 01:45 TheFalseViddaric The New Data Drug

I messed up. I messed up bad.
“Never get high on your own supply”. The human who sold me this data told me it was a saying from his world. But I had to be sure it was the real deal. After all, data drugs that worked on people without a brain interface installed? It was unheard of. But here I am [30 hours] later, and I no longer doubt. I feel utterly exhausted despite having barely moved. My every neuron feels fried. All 6 grasping appendages are sore from the repetitive motions, and my eyes are dry and unfocused from the long strain I have put them through. I feel intense pangs of hunger and thirst, as I haven’t eaten or drank since I started this test.
I still want more. But with a great effort of will I force myself away from the screen of my computing terminal and stumble to my pantry so I may attend to my body’s needs. As I gulp down nutrient drinks and chew some dried fruit, I reflect on the trance I’ve somehow barely managed to pull myself out of.
Simulations. A useful tool for engineers, scientists, and military strategists. We had never thought to teach storytellers or artists to use them. Humans had. And what they created was both miraculous and monstrous.
Humans decided to use simulation technology to create art and craft stories. It seemed that there was a human simulation… no, hundreds of human simulations, designed to invoke whatever feeling or emotion you could imagine. And possibly some you couldn’t.
I had started simple. A basic test of spatial reasoning, and later quick thinking, expressed through the medium of stacking colored blocks formed into geometric shapes. While comparable at first to a children's toy, as the speed and challenge increased I became increasingly hypnotized. The feeling of lining up and clearing four rows at once with the all too rare straight piece was intensely satisfying. Making a mistake, leaving a gap caused frustration and incompleteness like I had never felt before, and eventually fixing it gave a feeling of relief, of rightness. As the game sped up, I found myself more and more frantic to try and find places for every piece. The rush of success and agony of failure only increased as I prided and chided myself on my quick decisions.
Eventually, I could keep up no longer, leaving me only with a number. A score.
Could I push that score higher?
[4 hours] went by, and I barely noticed.
I should have stopped. I knew that what I had was genuine. But I wanted to know what else this data was capable of.
I navigated a colorful landscape, defying gravity with every action and finding joy in exploration and collection.
I slaughtered demons with a chaingun, turning the fear of being devoured into a rising sense of conquest and bloodlust.
I failed a single test of dexterity, sending me tumbling down a hole and erasing hours of progress, and I nearly knocked myself out from the shock of frustration.
I defeated a hulking warrior with a team of other adventurers, and the triumph of it was only amplified by the sting of failing several times before.
Freedom and entrapment.
Horror and domination.
Elation and sorrow.
Every new experience was an emotional high of a kind I’d never had before, and my hearts were racing with the myriad of feelings rushing through my mind. My imagination was going wild with the possibilities of all these new worlds of data and programming.
My self-reflection comes to a grinding halt. I need to stop. If I’m not careful I’ll get addicted and end up like one of those mindjackers, burning their brains out on data drugs. Supposedly these simulations can’t do that, but I wouldn’t have put it past the seller to lie about that kind of thing.
Well, one way or another, I’m gonna make a [alien animal that shares many traits with both giant squids and magpies]’s hoard selling these. Time to call my best clients…
[Time skip: approximately 25 solar years]
The Rise of the Galactic Game Industry: Fluke of the Black Market, or Human Marketing Genius? You Decide!
Dr’k-Nam, Head Investigative Critic for the Arts and Culture section of Twin Suns Newsgroup
Simulation games, also known as “video games”, have taken the galaxy by storm ever since their controversial introduction and subsequent series of bannings and legalizations across the galaxy. Simulation technology is nothing new of course, but galactic newcomers from the Sol system, Humans, used it in an extremely novel way: art and entertainment. According to their historical records, a significant amount of their entertainment industry is based around simulation games, and that portion has grown even further with their introduction to the galaxy at large.
At first, however, no one was interested. A simulation with little or no practical application, designed only to entertain? Most people preferred to stick with the entertainment they knew, or seek new experiences outside of sims. So what changed?
Simple: some anonymous human decided to sell them as data drugs instead of simulation games; data drugs usable by simply interacting with a computer program, rather than having to inject the data directly in through a neural interface. With this small, but completely false new branding, video games were ready to start spreading across virtual black markets like spoilers for the latest episode of Ace Flyer Kr’t-Kah on the galnet (side note: please have some courtesy to others and tag your spoilers).
Human governance and society at large had been reportedly as surprised to see a lack of simulation games from other species as they were that humans had them. But they were even more surprised when they started getting accused of pushing the latest data drug. This was an especially confusing accusation because neural interface technology was not widely adopted by humanity at the time, and only a fraction of a percent of their population even knew of the existence of data drugs in the first place. The revelation that most humans had video games of some sort on their PPDDs (personal portable data devices) threatened to cause an uproar in the galaxy, as paranoia around data drugs was at an all time high among many species.
After trying and failing to ignore the problem for long enough for it to go away, human governance, as well as human corporations producing video games, were forced to release statements, acknowledging that:
Ironically enough, the controversy made them much more popular, even in places that decided on banning them. The idea of a simulation that could act like a data drug without the risk of frying your mind like the real thing was enticing to many. The lack of side effects and ease with which the games could be distributed only increased both their spread and unregulatability. In short order, races throughout the galaxy were trying out a new pastime, and galnet connected multiplayer games were bridging the gaps between the stars. Now, several other races, including my own, are seeking advice from human developers in starting their own simulation game projects. Only time will tell what kind of games their unique perspectives will produce, but it’s unlikely that humans will lose their position as the most powerful and profitable storytellers through this new medium; they have generations of experience to draw upon, after all.
Rumors that the data drug sales pitch was a deliberate ploy by the human game industry (to drum up intergalactic sales) or by human governance (to spread human culture and influence) are still under investigation, but solid evidence for either has yet to emerge.
Edit: anyone posting untagged Ace Flyer Kr’t-Kah spoilers in the comments section of this article will receive an immediate, no-warning permaban.
submitted by TheFalseViddaric to HFY [link] [comments]


2024.05.19 00:59 GoAheadMMDay UPDATE 3: Torment Techniques Used by Canadian and US Militaries

UPDATE 3: Torment Techniques Used by Canadian and US Militaries
Update #3 appears at the bottom.
Due to numerous disparaging comments by multiple individuals, I have reposted my article.
Heckling does not change what occurred. People need to know these truths, especially those who have experienced the same. They need to know they are sane, that such things are indeed being perpetrated, and the perpetrators use shame to silence them and protect their activities.
I write to encourage them not to listen to disparaging people who speak without knowledge.
February 10, 2024
I am Joseph Cafariello, a Canadian citizen and ex-member of the Canadian military. Of sound mind, not on medication, not a drug user, not a marijuana smoker, not an alcohol drinker, with no mental disorders.
I recently posted to this Liberty subreddit experiences of harassment by Vancouver's police and fire departments (Vancouver, BC, Canada). I’m the fellow who was repeatedly ordered by police to stay out of Vancouver’s Stanley Park, and was continually harassed whenever I visited the park (which I do every second day on my early morning walks).
I'm happy to say their following me reduced to almost nothing immediately upon posting those experiences here, and people no longer exit their cars to stand on the path as I walk by (which I described in that post). They were either informed of my post or found it themselves, seeing as my internet activity, and phone activity for that matter, are under continuous surveillance (plenty of proof which I will not include here to avoid running off-topic).
In this post, I would like to shed some light on other harassment which is still ongoing, since it occurs in private, away from potential observers. It involves the Canadian and US militaries.
Havana Syndrome
In 2016, numerous employees of the Canadian and US embassies in Havana, Cuba, started experiencing head injuries ranging from mild headaches to concussions. It happened in their sleep, and came to be called Havana Syndrome.
Wikipedia explains (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Havana\_syndrome):
“Havana syndrome is a cluster of idiopathic symptoms experienced mostly abroad by U.S. government officials and military personnel. The symptoms range in severity from pain and ringing in the ears to cognitive dysfunction and were first reported in 2016 by U.S. and Canadian embassy staff in Havana, Cuba. Beginning in 2017, more people, including U.S. intelligence and military personnel and their families, reported having these symptoms in other places, such as China, India, Europe, and Washington, D.C. The U.S. Department of State, Department of Defense, and other federal entities have called the events "Anomalous Health Incidents" (AHI). Of over a thousand purported cases, the majority of US investigative bodies found only a few dozen cases to be suspicious.”
Ladies and gentlemen, I can tell you exactly what happens, because I have been experiencing this since I first joined the Canadian military back in 2002, and am still experiencing these “torments” (as I call them) to this day, already 3 years after leaving the military.
I go to bed. In about 15 minutes, just as I am on the cusp of falling asleep, a hear and feel a heavy thud reverberate and ultimately strike my skull. My body releases a sharp burst of adrenalin, my heart starts racing, and my blood’s circulation speeds up significantly. Depending on the severity of the blow, it can take me anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour to fall asleep again. Though there have been times I could not return to sleep for more than 2 hours.
A strong headache is felt immediately, and lasts for hours. There have been times when my heart felt like it was going to burst, having been startled as such.
The pulse to the head sometimes reverberates through the wall and my bed’s headboard. I distinctly feel as though I have been hit on the top of my skull. At other times, it feels as though the pulse has come through the air, striking the side of my skull.
This is not a sleep disorder, for it does not occur regularly. At times, my sleep is disturbed in this manner 3 or 4 days in a row. At other times, there is no disturbance for up to a week. But they never let me go more than a week without such interruptions to my sleep.
Neither is it sleep apnea, as I do not awaken gasping for breath. The pounding headaches, sudden release of adrenaline, and heart palpitations I experience are caused by external impacts of sound waves or air bursts.
Sonic Weapons
How these pulses are produced is not easy to identify. As Wikipedia explains:
“Once the story became public, various U.S. government representatives attributed the incidents to attacks by unidentified foreign actors, and various U.S. officials blamed the reported symptoms on a variety of unidentified and unknown technologies, including ultrasound and microwave weapons.”
Sonic weapons have been in use for many years by militaries, and by police in crowd control. As Wikipedia explains (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonic\_weapon):
“Some sonic weapons make a focused beam of sound or of ultrasound; others produce an area field of sound. As of 2023 military and police forces make some limited use of sonic weapons.”
(Do not believe the 2023 timeline. The Canadian military has been using these weapons since the early 2000’s at the latest.)
Wikipedia continues:
“Extremely high-power sound waves can disrupt or destroy the eardrums of a target and cause severe pain or disorientation. This is usually sufficient to incapacitate a person. Less powerful sound waves can cause humans to experience nausea or discomfort.”
The users of these technologies must also be using thermal detection equipment to monitor the target’s sleep. As I mentioned, I most often feel these blows the moment I am falling asleep. Body temperature drops when we sleep, and brain activity slows. Heat-detection equipment is likely being used to identify the point at which the target is falling asleep.
Why they prefer to strike at the start of someone’s sleep as opposed to the middle of their sleep, I do not know. Perhaps their intent is to deprive the body of early sleep, limiting the amount of deep sleep available to the person before their alarm rings in the morning.
Ordinary Hammers
Not all such “torments” (as I call them) are caused by high-tech equipment. I have heard and felt distinct hammer strikes running along the 2x4 beams inside my walls. These strikes can be a single hard strike, or several strikes in a row. It is definitely caused by a person with a hammer because the intervals between strikes are equidistant in time; that is, the time spacing between strikes is not random and does not change from strike to strike, but is constant between strikes, exactly as when someone is hammering. And no, it is not someone hanging pictures at 1:30 am, multiple times a week, for years.
On one occasion, when I was standing at my kitchen sink, I felt the floor-board directly under my feet pulse so sharply it felt like a brick had struck the soles of my feet. In this case, my military neighbour likely used a hammer to strike the floorboard on his side of the wall. It is the only plausible explanation.
Surveillance
This leads to surveillance of one’s activities at home. I have plenty of proofs of that. They seem insignificant on an individual basis. But when you put them all together, they present a clear picture of home surveillance.
My laptop computer’s lid cracked one night, at the bottom left corner of the screen. The next day at work, I heard my military supervisor relate to another co-worker that the night before, his laptop computer’s lid cracked at the bottom left corner. I swear to the Lord in Heaven, I am being truthful.
I tested my suspicion of being surveilled. At home one night, I blurted out-loud, “VW Passat. What an ugly sounding word, ‘Passat’”, I said. A few days later, my military colleagues at work started playing a card game at lunch, invented by one of them. The name he gave his game was “Passat”, and when he spoke it, he looked at me for a reaction. If you ever contact the Halifax military base, ask for the Claims Department and ask them if they are still playing Passat.
On another occasion, at a time when I frequented the gym every second day for a few years, I suspected my van had been fitted with a listening device. I suspected so because a number of things I had spoken with people about on my phone while in my van (nothing illegal) were repeated by people at the gym in conversations among themselves. Too many times, parts of other people's conversations matched parts of conversations I had had with others while I was in my van.
I already knew my phone was being tapped, but I also suspected my van was bugged. So one evening while driving in my van, I blurted out-loud a number of things I said I hated. "I hate (this or that)"; "I hate it when...". One of them was, "I hate when people chew gum with their mouths open." I then vocalized an exaggerated gnawing sound, "Gnaw. Gnaw. Gnaw."
The very next time I went to the gym, 2 days later, while I was at an exercise, a fellow sat at an exercise directly behind me. And sure enough, he started chewing with his mouth open, vocalizing that gnawing sound, "Gnaw. Gnaw. Gnaw." I didn't look behind at him, because I knew what was going on, and I wanted to avoid playing into his hand. So he repeated himself again and again until I was done and moved to a different station. Now, honestly, who chews gum at the gym? You can't. Or you run the risk of choking for the heavy breathing, not to mention when laying down on benches. And with precisely the same exaggerated vocalized gnawing sound I had made in my van just 2 days prior.
Their whole intent is to let you know you are being surveilled. They want you to know, as both a warning and a provocation. They want you to say something, to launch accusations, which they would readily deny, making you look paranoid. If you react too strongly, they could even have you diagnosed with some kind of disorder, and put you on medication, which further plays into their hand. (More regarding medications in the last section of this post.)
This is why, as I mentioned in my previous post, they would park their cars shining their high beams on me as I walked past them during my morning walk. And why on some occasions, a group of 3 or 4 would exit their cars and stand on my path just as I approached, forcing me to go around them. They would then remain standing on the path until my return trip through, and after I had passed by the second time, then would then return to their cars - making it absolutely clear I was their interest.
Their intent is not only to make me aware, but also to present themselves in close proximity to me, within easy reach, in the hope I would confront them, resulting in an altercation that could land me in a lot of hot water - 4 witnesses against me, all pleading innocence.
Again, it is all designed to make you look bad, and to warrant some kind of legal measure against you - preferably a medical diagnosis, discrediting you in everything you say about them. If they can't refute your claims, their only remaining option is to discredit you. That's what all of these tricks are designed to accomplish. Who would believe anything you say, once you have been diagnosed with a disorder?
There are plenty more examples. But who would really believe them? I’ll save them for the future.
Home Invasion
Both during and after my military service, I have had my apartments entered without any signs of break-ins. How? Lock-picking and duplicate keys. Indications? Missing objects; ie: money, phone adaptor, etc. Nothing major. Just something to make us understand we are being watched, and to make us understand what they can do.
But it is always something small, something for which you would be ridiculed for divulging.
Two more examples: I found my razor, which I always lay-down razor-end to the wall, turned around, razor-end toward me. Also, in one of my house slippers I found a small shoe sticker on the up-side of the heel. I had those slipper for years, and never had any shoe stickers on them. Yet there it was, clearly visible on the top surface of my slipper, not the bottom. Could I have stepped on a shoe sticker when barefoot in my apartment, only to have the sticker transfer itself to my slipper when I wore it? How many shoe stickers do you have laying around your apartment that you can accidentally step onto?
If I had stepped onto a sticker in my apartment and had it stick to my heel, that means the sticky side was up against my skin. This means the sticker would have had to flip upside down such that the sticky side would then be down, allowing the sticker to stick to the slipper. Do you really think that happened? That sticker was not there when I left my apartment, but it was there when I returned. And it was the wrong sticker, wrong brand, wrong size.
Again, what is their intent? To make someone look ridiculous so no one will believe them should they speak of other more sensitive things.
Staged Incidents
The above incidents clearly point to coordinated and staged events (at my work, my home, on my walks, etc). This is so frequently met with incredulity. "But that would require coordination on the part of so many people," the public dismisses. "They wouldn't do that."
Oh yes they would, and they have, as explained in https://fightgangstalking.com/. Note the documented cases involving the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS, Canada's equivalent to the US' CIA) and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP, Canada's national police force) in the second quote, which were reported in national newspapers.
From https://fightgangstalking.com/:
“Disruption operations often involve tactics which are illegal, but difficult to prove. These tactics include – but are not limited to – overt surveillance (stalking), slander, blacklisting, “mobbing” (intense, organized harassment in the workplace), “black bag jobs” [home invasions], abusive phone calls, computer hacking, framing, threats, blackmail, vandalism, “street theater” (staged physical and verbal interactions with minions of the people who orchestrate the stalking), harassment by noises, and other forms of bullying. Many of these tactics were used by the FBI during its illegal COINTELPRO operations, as documented by stolen official documents and subsequent Congressional investigations.
"Although the general public is mostly unfamiliar with the practice, references to “disruption” operations – described as such – do occasionally appear in the news media, even though that fact would apparently be news to the editors of The New York Times. In May 2006, for example, an article in The Globe and Mail, a Canadian national newspaper, reported that the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) used “Diffuse and Disrupt” tactics against suspects for whom they lacked sufficient evidence to prosecute. A criminal defense attorney stated that many of her clients complained of harassment by authorities, although they were never arrested."
She can add me to that list too.
For the Benefit of Others
The experiences I have recounted here seem so trivial, so insignificant, they make you look ridiculous if you talk about them. But if we don’t talk about such things, no one will ever know about them. Other people have experienced the same, and are forced to endure such torments in silence. They need encouragement to talk about their own experiences, and so I write about mine in the hope they will talk about theirs, even if I do look ridiculous. The perpetrators are more ridiculous for doing them.
I remember a military colleague being hauled away by military police one morning, as she was struggling and having a violent fit. A fellow on her floor told me she was throwing chairs at her walls screaming, “Stop it! Stop it! Stop it!”. When he mentioned that, I knew exactly what they had done to her. She was considered unruly, and was being watched intently. They wanted her out, and that is how they accomplished it. Through wall tapping and sleep deprivation, they push you to the breaking point. And when you finally lose control and do something rash, they pounce on you, and you’re out. Now she has a criminal record, considered a criminal when in reality she was a victim. Welcome to the Canadian military, and other militaries besides, I am sure.
There are dozens upon dozens of experiences I could present. But who will really read them? Worse still, who will really believe them? I overheard my military supervisor in Halifax whisper to another, “Do you think he knows?”, after I had mentioned one of the many “coincidences” I experienced, but with a tone of my being aware it was not a mere coincidence. As I turned my face to my computer screen, I whispered under my breath, but still loud enough for him to hear, “Yes, (rank) (name), I know.” A few minutes later, as he walked past my desk, he leaned in by my ear and whispered, “We’re just trying to help you.” I should have pressed him for answers right then and there, but you just don’t know how much trouble you can get into when making such accusations in the military. So I let it go. But I will never forget.
Should anyone reading this ever decide to launch some kind of inquiry, I can mention names of over 100 people to contact, including military personnel, family members, neighbours, building managers, and others who have been contacted by military personnel with false narratives about me. They flash their ID’s and other credentials, and people believe anything they say. They turn family, friends, co-workers and neighbours against you, even recruiting their participation. Your acquaintances not only participate, but actually feel justified and emboldened playing tricks on you. It isn't their fault, though; they have been misled. I would reference them solely for corroboration.
As a final thought, here are explanations of two military programs in which certain persons (sometimes military, sometimes civilian) are kept under constant surveillance, and are in some cases subjected to conditioning in an attempt to turn them into what is called a “sleeper agent”. Almost all of the tactics presented below have been experience by me, including constant surveillance (ie: my previous post here regarding being harassed on my morning walks) and sleep deprivation (as per the top portion of this post, which other military members in Cuba and elsewhere around the world have also experienced).
Pentagon’s Signature Reduction Program
See Newsweek’s article: https://www.newsweek.com/exclusive-inside-militarys-secret-undercover-army-1591881
Some excerpts from that Newsweek article, plus more background information on the Pentagon’s Signature Reduction Program, can be found here: https://fightgangstalking.com/
“The largest undercover force the world has ever known is the one created by the Pentagon over the past decade. Some 60,000 people now belong to this secret army, many working under masked identities and in low profile, all part of a broad program called “signature reduction.” The force, more than ten times the size of the clandestine elements of the CIA, carries out domestic and foreign assignments, both in military uniforms and under civilian cover, in real life and online, sometimes hiding in private businesses and consultancies, some of them household name companies.
“…a little-known sector of the American military, but also a completely unregulated practice. No one knows the program’s total size, and the explosion of signature reduction has never been examined for its impact on military policies and culture. Congress has never held a hearing on the subject. And yet the military developing this gigantic clandestine force challenges U.S. laws, the Geneva Conventions, the code of military conduct and basic accountability.
“…The signature reduction effort engages some 130 private companies to administer the new clandestine world. Dozens of little known and secret government organizations support the program, doling out classified contracts and overseeing publicly unacknowledged operations.
"Federal spy agencies are using Americans to spy on their fellow citizens – the same approach to governance famously employed by communist East Germany."
How to Develop a Hypnotic Sleeper Agent
By Dantalion Jones / Masters of Mind Control
The following “was” on the web, but has been removed. Surprise, surprise. But I saved its web files to my computer years ago, knowing that sooner or later it would be removed. I made a jpeg image of the web page as it once appeared, attached here.
Note that I have experienced almost all of the tactics described below, including the stalking I mentioned in my previous post here (regular walks in the park), the sleep deprivation noted at the top of this post, and the surveillance and intrusions described here as well.
Quoting the now-removed webpage: “How to Develop a Hypnotic Sleeper Agent” (from here to end of post):
Amid all the conspiracy theories one of the most feared is that there exist "sleeper agents" in our society who are programmed to come into service when they are triggered by a phone call or key word.
These alleged sleeper agents don't even know they are programmed to become saboteurs, soldiers, suicide bomber, etc because of the thoroughness of their programming. They are the feared "Manchurian Candidate" that the movies portray.
The question is "Are they real?"
If they are true sleeper agents there is no way of telling until they are activated. One can however theorize exactly how they are made.
Indoctrination
Using indoctrination a person can be made to embrace a religious or philosophical belief that would make becoming a sleeper agent possible.
This would be a person so committed to an ideal they would be willing to wait patiently as a member of society until they are called into action. These people would know their mission and consciously hold it secret while interacting with the rest of society.
Conditioning
Conditioning is a repetitive process where the desired responses are enforced and rewarded and unwanted responses are punished. This can be done consciously as part of training drill and it can be done subconsciously using hypnosis or drugs to create amnesia.
Hypnosis
It has been demonstrated that hypnosis can create "amnesia walls" in which the subject has no conscious memory of what happened in the hypnosis session. It has further been demonstrated that hypnosis can give post hypnotic instruction to be carried out automatically in the waking state without the subject knowing it or questioning the behavior.
What follows is conjecture and theory based on testimonials of people who were alleged to be sleeper agents and soldiers.
Continuous Supervisions
Continuous supervision doesn't mean that the subject is cut off completely from society. It means that they are constantly overseen and every aspect of their lives are managed (without their knowledge or consent) to support their hypnotic programming.
This would include:
• Repeated reinforcement of all hypnotic conditioning.
• Handlers. Handlers are people who help maintain the subjects environment to maintain all the programming. They can play the role of family, friends, lovers, psychologists, coaches or any roll the subject perceives as supportive. The truth is the handlers are their to support the successful fulfillment of the programming and not the subject as a person.
• Minimal sleep so that the mind/brain does not process all the sleeper conditioning during sleep.
• Creating constant environmental challenges like unemployment or poverty. This gives the subject something other than their programming to focus on.
• Frequent hospitalization. This gives overt opportunity to sedate the subject for conditioning. If the subject has a history of hospitalizations for mental disturbances all the better. No one will take them seriously.
Joseph Cafariello
PS... Today is the second day after this post (February 12, 2024). A garbage truck just slammed into my parked car.
PPS... I finish writing this post because I am satisfied with its shape and content; not because of what happened to my car.
It is similar to when you are reaching for your coat, and someone tells you, "Take your coat." Since you have to take your coat, your brain tells you it's ok to obey them, and you comply. They just created an instance where they led you, and you followed them. And your brain accepted it.
It's a technique the military uses all the time. It trains you to accept instructions from that person or group. Done enough times, you become comfortable obeying them.
I just say, "I take my coat because I choose to, not because you tell me to." It's important to make that clear, to block the conditioning and affirm our self-governance; not just to them, but to ourselves as well. Now our brain realizes we took our coat by our own choice; we are still in command.
So too, I say regarding today's event. "Thanks for the warning, but I had already finished writing my post. I finished by my own choosing."
UPDATES 1 & 2: February 26 & March 07, 2024:
My apartment was once again entered while I was out. Either a key was used or the lock was picked. This may or may not have included assistance from building staff. Home invasions are included in the list of their techniques noted above, referred to as "black bag jobs".
All tenants on my floor received new fridges a couple of weeks ago. I removed the tape securing the bins inside my new fridge, and also removed all styrofoam pads from the corners of the glass shelves when I repositioned them.
The person(s) who have been invading my living space on a regular basis have struck again. As you can see in the photo below, the styrofoam pads on the corners of my fridge's shelves were restored when I was out of my apartment. I had removed all pads when I repositioned the shelves. Yet now they are back.
It is a tactic used to undermine our observational awareness in an attempt to make us second-guess and doubt ourselves. The aim is to cause people to feel less sure not only of the things we have done, but also feel less sure of the things others have done. They want us to question the accuracy of our observations and memory.
The idea is to train you to dismiss any anomalies you may observe as being your own misperception of things. Once they convince you not to trust your own judgement, they are free to do whatever they want to you, and you will simply accept it without questioning.
UPDATE 3: May 18, 2024:
Confrontations with individuals keep occurring, at times potentially violent. Following are just 3 such encounters as of late.
1 - Kick-boxer in the park:
As I parked my car in one of the parking lots in Vancouver's Stanley Park one night, another vehicle drove up behind me and parked several spots away. A tall man exited that vehicle, and walked hastily along the path I always walk, down some steps to the water's sea wall path. I took my time and followed my usual walk, also down the steps down to the sea wall. The man knew my routine, and was in a hurry to get ahead of me.
As I walked along the sea wall, I saw the same man sitting on a bench, playing a loud Persian-sounding religious sermon on some device I did not clearly see. As I walked past him, he called out to me to stop and chat. I ignored him and continued walking past him. He rose and started walking behind me.
I opened my umbrella, turned, and walked past him the other way, returning to the stairs back to the parking lot. He also turned and continued following me. I started running. He also started running. I ran up the steps, as did he.
Being taller than I am, his legs are longer than mine, and he quickly caught up to me on a grassy patch at the top of the steps. I turned to him and asked, "Why are you following me?" He did not reply, but stood profile to me, the same stance a kick-boxer uses when ready to kick someone. He was tall, thin, and in excellent physical shape as you would see in a kick-boxer.
He did not speak at all, but was just waiting for me to make a move. I turned, entered my vehicle and left. The encounter continued with a chase through the park in our cars. Yes, that is correct. He chased me out of the park in his car.
2 - Told to keep quiet:
The perpetrators need to operate with as little detection as possible, and they repeatedly warn their subjects to keep their mouths shut about their experiences.
On another of my recent nightly walks, a man stood on the sidewalk ahead of me about half a block away, looked at me, and shouted into the sky at nobody, giving the appearance of being a homeless person shouting for no reason. He then started walking in my direction. I continued walking straight. As he passed me, he leaned into my face and shouted into my ear, "Shut the f_ck up!" I continued walking in my direction, and he resumed walking in his.
The idea is to make it seem as though he is just a deranged man wandering the streets at night, shouting at nothing, so that when he shouts at me, any observer would simply dismiss his actions. But in reality, he was sent to send me a message to stop publishing posts like this, which I had done many times on many sites, and continue to. They don't like it when we reveal their methods. But the truth must be known.
3 - You'll be sorry:
On another occasion, while returning from grocery shopping one afternoon, I walked past a man sitting by a storefront. He was clean-cut, wearing clean clothes, without any carts or wagons or any belongings of any kind. As I passed him, he asked me for some spare change. I replied, "I'm sorry," and continued walking past. He replied, "You will be."
There are numerous other experiences, like two seemingly unassociated men standing on the sea wall about 100 meters away from each other, each of them spitting just as I walked past each one.
There are too many experiences to mention. Looking at each experience individually, one would easily dismiss them as being unrelated and simply coincidental. But put them all together and a picture starts to form, like putting together the pieces of a puzzle.
As I hand you each piece of the puzzle one by one, you dismiss each piece, saying, "This could be anything." And you discard it. You keep discarding each piece as I hand it to you. By the end of it, you look down at the table and say, "You have nothing." That's because you looked at each piece as a separate item and threw it away. But if you leave the pieces on the table as I hand them to you and do not hastily discard them, you will see they form a clear picture when put all together.
We must look at all these events as a whole. Individually, each one could be anything. But when all of these experiences are put together and considered as a whole, they form an undeniable picture. Do not be quick to dismiss each piece. Leave the pieces on the table and look at the whole. The picture I present is sound. Remember, I have all the pieces; you do not. I see the picture more clearly than you do.
https://preview.redd.it/we31ymcsm91d1.jpg?width=966&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=3d56ac3dd3558a60d477ba9315104d1b66b139f8
submitted by GoAheadMMDay to Liberty [link] [comments]


2024.05.19 00:45 MyStoopidStuff Looking for help to test a new A1 Spares Case design

Looking for help to test a new A1 Spares Case design
A while ago, I designed an A1 Spares case and posted it up to Printables as a 3MF profile looking for feedback:
https://www.printables.com/model/861390-bambu-a1-and-a1-mini-spares-and-tool-case
The design is an A1 / A1 Mini version of my X1C/P1P/S tool case. However, I don't have an A1 or A1 mini, so although I was able to test the case design on my printer, I was unable to fully test the tool holder insert with the tools from the A1 series (I don't have, and cannot obtain, the tools that ship with the A1 series). So I've been looking for feedback on how the tools fit the case and the insert. Once I get feedback (and correct any issues that may be found), I plan to upload the design to MakerWorld.
If there are any A1 or A1 Mini owners out there, who would like to assist by printing and providing feedback on the design, it would help me complete the project.
It would be helpful if testers have a way to measure accurately, if there is an adjustment needed to the design (like a calipers or a good metric ruler). The 3MF is set up to use PLA, PETG and optional TPU parts. An AMS is not required, but there is an AMS option on some parts. The design only requires M3 SHCS and M3 BHCS screws to build.
If there are any issues found, I will work with testers on them, but cannot compensate for wasted time or materials. It's possible that some non-critical issues, such as finger cutouts that are too small for some folks, may not be re-worked unless absolutely necessary (due to the time to reconfigure the tool holder, and limited space to do so). The design is somewhat modular, so if there is a problem with the tools insert, only that part should need to be re-printed. I have done my best to make sure the design should work, and I've tested all parts of the case, except the tool holder insert. I was only able to post one pic here, however there are more pics of the case on my blog, including some pics of the prototype I printed to test the case.
submitted by MyStoopidStuff to BambuLab [link] [comments]


2024.05.18 23:59 Hour-Ad-2176 AITA for not apologizing to my sister and her husband?

Bit of context of how everything happened here: I recently broke up with my partner of 6 years, it was not a nice break up. My mom has started to date a man 20 years younger than her and invited us over for a dinner to meet him, and by us I mean my sister, my brother and me. There has always been bad blood between my sister and me, long story but we have never been close at all.
I want to make clear that I have not gotten over my ex yet, so regarding my feelings, i might be more sensitive than usual. My sister brought to the table the children topic, that she might want to have another child and stuff related to that. My mom decided to make one of her "spicy" jokes mentioning how she also practices on making children without getting pregnant any more, to which I responded that I found inappropriate what she was saying in such serious conversation.
All of a sudden my sister calls me salty and envious, and says the words that really triggered me "It's not mom's fault he left you for her". I instantly got in full fury mode and I had to tell her "Yeah sure, if im jealous its certainly not of you, with a husband that's an inch far from becoming part of the furniture and thinking about raising ANOTHER child functionally alone"
She called me names and left with my mother behind trying to calm her down, I left afterwards.
My mother has written me saying she does not want me anywhere near her house (I dont live there, she means visiting or talking to her) unless I apologize to both my sister and her husband for what I have said. I have no intentions in doing so. Why doesnt she have to apologize as well for being a witch? Would I be the ah here?
submitted by Hour-Ad-2176 to AmItheAsshole [link] [comments]


2024.05.18 23:58 Hour-Ad-2176 AITAH for not apologizing with my sister and her husband?

Bit of context of how everything happened here: I recently broke up with my partner of 6 years, it was not a nice break up. My mom has started to date a man 20 years younger than her and invited us over for a dinner to meet him, and by us I mean my sister, my brother and me. There has always been bad blood between my sister and me, long story but we have never been close at all.
I want to make clear that I have not gotten over my ex yet, so regarding my feelings, i might be more sensitive than usual. My sister brought to the table the children topic, that she might want to have another child and stuff related to that. My mom decided to make one of her "spicy" jokes mentioning how she also practices on making children without getting pregnant any more, to which I responded that I found inappropriate what she was saying in such serious conversation.
All of a sudden my sister calls me salty and envious, and says the words that really triggered me "It's not mom's fault he left you for her". I instantly got in full fury mode and I had to tell her "Yeah sure, if im jealous its certainly not of you, with a husband that's an inch far from becoming part of the furniture and thinking about raising ANOTHER child functionally alone"
She called me names and left with my mother behind trying to calm her down, I left afterwards.
My mother has written me saying she does not want me anywhere near her house (I dont live there, she means visiting or talking to her) unless I apologize to both my sister and her husband for what I have said. I have no intentions in doing so. Why doesnt she have to apologize as well for being a witch? Would I be the ah here?
submitted by Hour-Ad-2176 to AITAH [link] [comments]


2024.05.18 23:56 Meowtown236 Low fetal fraction NIPT followed by 2nd trimester miscarriage

Hi all. I wanted to see if anyone had a similar situation happen to them.
At 10 weeks I had my NIPT blood draw through natera that came back “high risk” low fetal fraction for t18, t13, triploidy.
I had my NT scan and there were no abnormal markers, other than the baby being a week behind. The MFM doctor wasn’t concerned because he said the baby was curled up in a ball.
I had a second blood draw with natera at 11 weeks and got the same “high risk” results. But knowing they never actual ran the dna. Just the stupid algorithm they use again.
Then at 12 weeks I had a third blood draw with MaterniT21 and had a fetal fraction at 4% and everything came back low risk.
Then last week I miscarried at 17w4d.
It is my understanding that natera is the only one that checks for triploidy. I thought maybe this was it, but when I miscarried the baby was measuring at 17 weeks. So really there was no indication that anything was off based off of scans.
The only thing I have really is the low fetal fraction, making me think it was an issue with my placenta. I’m just trying to make sense of all of this.
I see a lot of posts on here about people who have low FF and end up having normal pregnancies, but I wanted to see if anyone had a similar thing happen. This was just the only outlier the whole pregnancy so I can’t help but wonder if it could give me an answer.
We sent genetics and are waiting on those at this time. Thank you in advance.
submitted by Meowtown236 to NIPT [link] [comments]


2024.05.18 23:47 UnbiasedPashtun Human height continues to be measured in imperial units in many countries

In this post I'm only talking about countries that officially use the metric system but measure human height in feet and inches.
During the process of metrication, lots of different imperial/local units were phased out and replaced with metric ones. However, human height is one glaring exception (not necessarily the only one, but this post is going to focus on it).
Here is a post from an Australian sub where they talk about using the metric system for virtually everything besides human height. It isn't just Australia, but it seems to apply to most countries that are part of the British Commonwealth. Kenya, Nigeria, India, Pakistan, etc. from what I know all exclusively measure human height in the imperial system despite adopting the metric system decades ago and using it for everything else. There also doesn't seem to be any signs that the younger generation in those countries is going to make the switch to metric units for human height and it looks like they're going to continue measuring it in imperial units indefinitely.
So what would you say is the main reason that human height measurement was retained from the imperial system when the majority were phased out? What needs to be done to get human height to be measured in imperial units instead among countries that officially adopted the metric system at least? And why do you think that hasn't been done given that these countries made an effort to adopt the metric system that was mostly successful otherwise?
submitted by UnbiasedPashtun to Metric [link] [comments]


2024.05.18 23:34 Tesa_Tesanovic1988 Wellbeing as New Gross Domestic Product

Gross Domestic Product (GDP) has been the standard measure of economic growth since World War II. It is widely believed that accelerating economic growth as measured by the GDP will translate into improved living standards. However, this view is being challenged with the argument that it is better to focus on measures of wellbeing than GDP because, despite robust economic growth over the past several decades, there are still millions of citizens living in poverty.Gross Domestic Product (GDP) has been the standard measure of economic growth since World War II. It is widely believed that accelerating economic growth as measured by the GDP will translate into improved living standards. However, this view is being challenged with the argument that it is better to focus on measures of wellbeing than GDP because, despite robust economic growth over the past several decades, there are still millions of citizens living in poverty.

Besides, GDP measures perpetual growth, which is unattainable. Because GDP is an outdated proxy measure of economic growth, wellbeing, which is a multidimensional approach of measuring the most important aspects of people’s life, is gaining popularity.

Perpetual Growth

Stagflation is simultaneous economic stagnation combined with high inflation. In the long run, economic growth is dependent on two drivers; productivity and labor (Dolar). Productivity is affected by multiple factors. Improvements in many facets of productivity growth have decreased or reversed since the global financial crisis. The foremost factor is the demographic crisis of western countries that threatens the growth of GDP. Developed countries have experienced deceleration of working-age population, stabilization of educational attainment, and expansion into various forms of production. Furthermore, labor reallocation from less productive to more productive sectors has decelerated since the global financial crisis. Besides, radical disruptions to education and income losses are likely to affect human capital negatively. The waning demographics of western countries imply that acceleration of productivity growth is needed. The McKinsey Global Institute projected that 80% productivity growth is required to mitigate the effects of changing demographics (49). This projection is unlikely to be achieved given the dwindling working-age population in western countries. On the contrary, productivity growth is likely to continue decreasing because of the significant changes in the demographics unless the working-age population begins to grow again.

Perpetual Growth

GDP as a measurement is very outdated because it does not measure wellbeing. It is a statistical tool used to measure how well the economy is performing. However, it neglects important factors that determine the wellbeing, such as inequality and environmental services (Gallup). GDP as a proxy measure of economic growth ignores certain aspects that do not involve monetary transactions, does not assess changes in human capital, does not discriminate activities that enhance welfare from activities that reduce welfare, does not account for cultural difference, and omits the environmental costs and rates of depletion of resources (Giannetti et al. 14). The Measure of Economic Welfare is one of the alternatives for a gross domestic product as it measures consumption in the economy as a proxy for economic welfare. It adds up the benefits of goods and services consumption and subtracts the costs associated with the consumption, such as environmental pollution, providing a picture of economic welfare. Other economic welfare measures were developed after the Measure of Economic Welfare, such as the Index of the Economic Aspects of Welfare which incorporates environmental costs in estimating economic welfare (Giannetti et al. 15). Index of Sustainable Economic Welfare is an index developed to account for the current environmental issues while addressing the long-term ecosystem and natural resource sustainable use. More indices were developed with recent ones such as the State of Global Well-Being, the Better Life Index, and the Global Well-Being Index measuring a myriad of aspects of wellbeing. The Gallup Global Well-Being measures the behavioral economics of gross domestic product growth. It estimates the percentage “thriving,” “struggling,” and “suffering” of individuals in different countries and regions (Gallup). The indexes focus on the percent thriving in at least elements of wellbeing such as purpose (liking what they do), social (supportive relationships), physical (good health), community (liking the surrounding community), and financial (managing economic life well) aspects.
One in six adults worldwide are considered thriving – or strong and consistent — in at least three of the five elements of well-being, as measured by the Gallup-Healthways Global Well-Being Index. For example residents of the Singapore score quite low at the 19%, while New Zealand leads in Asia – Pacific with 67%.
The Gallup Global Well-Being measures have opened up new opportunities to study issues that affect people in different communities around the world in ways that GDP would not. For example, life satisfaction aspects of the Gallup World Poll data have been exploited to measure inequality in the distribution of subjective wellbeing (Gluzmann & Gasparini 2). Measuring inequality in subjective wellbeing might be complementary to the various approaches aimed at computing unfairness in a society because it may in some way have benefits over the usual income inequality measurements. Some perceived income inequalities may arise due to personal choices if all constraints are observed thus cannot be considered unfair. A case in point is when two individuals facing similar opportunities make different choices. One choice might lead to a better, healthier lifestyle while the other subjects the individual to poverty. Free choices resulting in socially acceptable income inequality should not be regarded as unfair. The assessment of subjective wellbeing is less likely to be susceptible to such differences. Under evaluation of subjective wellbeing, differences in perceived happiness may better estimate social unfairness rather than income unfairness (Gluzmann & Gasparini 4). Gallup World Poll provides data that can be used to compare wellbeing in different countries. It cures one of the most significant problems associated with compering inequality across countries and regions, namely, the generation of homogenous information. The poll poses the same question across all countries in all areas, which significantly reduces spurious differences in estimating comparisons. This reduces sources of measurement error significantly. It is noteworthy that people may not interpret and answer the standardized questions the same in different countries, leading to additional errors. However, the advantages of estimating subjective wellbeing and its rising popularity imply that improvements in the measurements will yield better results.

Technological Revolution

Usually, information and communication technologies are considered a key driver of economic growth and productivity. Different reviews indicate that technological effects tend to be positive at the organizational level (United Nations Conference on Trade and Development [UNCTAD 34]). However, it has been reported that productivity tends to drop as economies entrench technologies in every sector. In other words, the rapid digitization of economies has not translated into strong productivity. On the contrary, productivity growth appears to have stunted over the past few decades, with the slowdown more pronounced in developed countries and also in developing countries (UNCTAD 34). This is a productivity paradox because as technological advancement and use have increased, productivity growth has decreased, which is contrary to popular expectations (Remes et al.). The digitization of economies into digital economies has thus far not translated into increased productivity. The paradox in the digital economy is attributed to different reasons. A more pessimistic perspective considers the technological effects on productivity as having fewer impacts on productivity growth than the revolutionary technological advances of the past (UNCTAD 34). A more optimistic view links the slow growth of productivity to the time lags between the time the technologies are introduced and the time actual effects are felt (European CEO). As a result, more visible impacts on productivity will occur when technologies are adopted widely within the economy. An additional contributing factor to the productivity paradox is the difficulties associated with measuring the digital economy. The slow growth in productivity might be explained by the lack of proper recording of technological activities in that in overall GDP estimation. Consequently, the proper measurement would be reflected in increased productivity. In developed countries, demographic factors associated with the aging population are also linked to the slow growth in productivity (UNCTAD 34). Therefore, the productivity paradox related to the technological revolution arises from multiple factors.

Quality of the GDP

Measuring economic growth in purely quantitative categories diminishes the significance of “high-quality growth.” High-quality growth encompasses increased technological self-reliance, significant production and welfare transformation, the establishment of a comprehensive safety net for the citizens, enhancement of quality healthcare, education, and employment, and reduction of inequality across regions and various demographic characteristics (Wärtsilä). It reflects a policy change that focuses on investment areas that guarantee increased productivity, such as production, consumption, healthcare, and education (Pfeffer). The concept of high-quality growth is being advanced by China to reorganize the economy in a way that focus on increased domestic consumption and investing in productive sectors to drive the overall economic growth. For example, after decades of heavy investments in infrastructural projects and the manufacturing sector, the country realizes that roads and bridges are not productive but rather facilitates productivity. Policy change to shift investment into more productive sectors of the economy might bring sustainable economic growth and wellbeing. At the sectorial level, administrative job control is one of the main factors impacting the health of the employees (Pfeffer). The return of line of sight to the work, workplace flexibility, autonomous fusion teams, fluidity in work practices, and organizational health can elevate the personal wellbeing of the employees. The functional organization provides an environment with less stress caused by micromanagement demands from the employees. Therefore, wellbeing is a product of economic policy at the national level and the contribution of the private sector in nurturing the wellbeing of employees.

Conclusion

The failure of GDP as a measurement proxy of economic growth is less effective in contemporary society. It assumes that an economy will experience perpetual growth, which is a difficult achievement. Even where economies have experienced phenomenal growth over the years, the economic expansion failed to transform the lives of millions of citizens. The technological revolution also has been unable to expand the GDP as it was initially believed despite the fact that the significant impacts technology has had on society. It led to the conclusion that GDP has limitations as a measure of economic growth because it does not account for the non-monetary aspects that matter to people. As a result, new indexes such as the Gallup Global Wellbeing have been developed and are experiencing rising popularity due to their ability to compute wellbeing. In particular, the estimation of subjective wellbeing creates opportunities for improved measurement of social inequality. Furthermore, the realization that wellbeing is important to citizens is supporting new ideas of measuring national economic growth. China’s shift to the assessment of the quality of economic growth indicates a paradigm shift where countries focus on national statistics that reflect their economic realities.

References

Dolar, Veronika. “Why stagflation is an economic nightmare – and could become a real headache for Biden and the Fed if it emerges in the US.” The Conversation (2022). https://theconversation.com/why-stagflation-is-an-economic-nightmare-and-could-become-a-real-headache-for-biden-and-the-fed-if-it-emerges-in-the-us-179036. Accessed 21 Mar. 2022.
European CEO. “Giving a voice to the digital revolution’s silent majority.” (2019). https://www.europeanceo.com/industry-outlook/giving-a-voice-to-the-digital-revolutions-silent-majority/. Accessed 21 Mar. 2022.
Gallup. “2014 Country Well-Being Rankings.”
Giannetti, Biagio F., et al. “A review of limitations of GDP and alternative indices to monitor human wellbeing and to manage ecosystem functionality.” Journal of cleaner production 87 (2015): 11-25.
Gluzmann, Pablo, and Leonardo Gasparini. “International inequality in subjective well‐being: An exploration with the Gallup World Poll.” Review of Development Economics 22.2 (2018): 610-631.
McKinsey Global Institute – “Global growth: Can productivity save the day in an aging world?” page 49
Pfeffer, Jeffrey. “The overlooked essentials of employee wellbeing.” McKinsey Global Institute (2018). https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/people-and-organizational-performance/our-insights/the-overlooked-essentials-of-employee-well-being. Accessed 21 Mar. 2022.
Remes, Jaana et al. “Solving the productivity puzzle.” McKinsey Global Institute (2018). https://www.mckinsey.com/featured-insights/regions-in-focus/solving-the-productivity-puzzle. Accessed 21 Mar. 2022.
Wärtsilä. “Going beyond GDP: China targets a new path to growth.” (2021). https://www.wartsila.com/insights/article/going-beyond-gdp-china-targets-a-new-path-to-growth. Accessed 21 Mar. 2022.
Authors

Paul Lalovich

Organizational Effectiveness and Strategy Execution Practice

Tesha Teshanovich

Organizational Effectiveness and Strategy Execution Practice
submitted by Tesa_Tesanovic1988 to Open_innovation_model [link] [comments]


2024.05.18 23:31 Tesa_Tesanovic1988 Venture Capital and Innovation Strategies

Innovation is the lifeblood of business growth and development. Without it, your organization will fall behind its competition and eventually die out. However, innovation is expensive, and many small and medium-sized organizations can’t afford to innovate unless they get financial help from external sources.

Investments in bio-engineering can be risky, as many startups and early-stage companies may face regulatory hurdles, intellectual property challenges, or other barriers to success. However, for investors with a long-term outlook and a strong appetite for innovation, bio-engineering can offer significant opportunities for growth and returns.
Venture capital is one of the most common sources of financing for organizations that want to invest in innovation. Venture capital is a type of dedicated financial help that funds businesses to make a capital gain until publicizing them or even selling them outright. A distinguishing feature of venture capital involves screening, monitoring, and advising on a portfolio of its businesses. These non-financial services enable venture capitalists to choose businesses with high growth potential and make them succeed. The three distinctive features discussed before add to the venture capital’s edge over other types of financing that are not as dedicated (Sorensen, 2007).
Venture capitalists normally select companies that they can exit fast enough. This means that they select innovative organizations whose ROI is expectedly high. Therefore, such organizations are those that use knowledge to generate innovative capabilities to create profit in the short term.
Innovation is a process of continuous improvement and growth. It leads to the creation of new value or business ideas, which in turn contributes to the growth of any organization. The ability to innovate helps in increasing the revenue and profit margins of an organization by making it competitive in its industry.
Venture capitalists are interested in investing in innovative startups because they believe this will help them achieve their financial goals faster compared to the companies that do not invest in innovation. Venture capitalists want their investment to grow fast so they can exit quickly after making their money back at a higher rate than what they invested initially into it.
In the age of the knowledge economy, innovation is a main source of competitiveness (Daghfous, 2004). Based on what is known as the knowledge-based vision, the performance of the organization lies in its capacity to create, blend, recombine, and make use of knowledge (Grant, 1996). Therefore unstated, knowledge is indispensable to the capacity of an organization to innovate and favorably compete with others, causing it to be a strategic resource (Ibarra-Cisneros et al., 2021). The knowledge inside a firm is normally formed internally or by the outward acquisition of information and know-how. Accordingly, the knowledge absorptive capacity (AC) of a firm is vital for the creation of value inside a firm (Xie et al., 2018).
According to Davenport and Prusak (1998), knowledge cannot be completely dispersed without the backing of absorptive capacity. At the same time, the transfer of knowledge within a firm will come up as a main hindrance without the backing of absorptive capacity, inserting value on the significance of absorptive capacity within firms (Wuryaningrat, 2013).
Absorptive capacity has been described as the capacity of an organization to acknowledge the value of fresh outward information, integrate it, and implement it for business goals. Besides, it has become amongst the most dominant research scopes in business management. Huang et al. (2015) also note that absorptive capacity refers to a group of organizational practices that need to recognize and use knowledge, stressing the significance of absorptive capacity in the process of managing knowledge.
Most studies back the idea of absorptive capacity directly or indirectly prompting innovation and organizational financial outcomes (Tseng et al., 2011). The procedures of absorption of outward knowledge have grown into key aspects for innovation in organizations, making them to better adjust to transformations within the competitive atmosphere. Because of this, there are still many opportunities for research within the scopes of relational learning, absorptive capacity, as well as the attainment of a competitive edge (Tseng et al., 2011).
According to Xie et al. (2018), two vital gaps restrict deep hypothetical and empirical progresses in the management of absorptive capacity. Foremost, some programs of research have considered diverse proportions of absorptive capacity, while this dimensional separation of the construct and its function is not clear, conceptually and practically. Nonetheless, some studies have concentrated on the relationship between the diverse measures of absorptive capability and the innovation performance of a firm (Yaseen, 2020). Absorptive capacity is a tacit and intricate concept, making it challenging to measure. Learning the connection between venture financing and absorptive capacity can hence enhance our comprehension concerning how the source of financing impacts the innovation tactic of entrepreneurial organizations.

Absorptive Capacity and Innovation

Companies are working within a very competitive setting and need great measures of knowledge, which has turned into one of their most vital resources (Lian and Wu, 2010). To compete favorably, organizations cannot depend only on their external knowledge web but must progress their absorptive capacities to dynamically source new knowledge (Sancho-Zamora et al., 2021). This imposes methods that enable learning, allowing them to disperse and use the knowledge that will offer them fresh organizational innovations. Furthermore, the merging of this acquired knowledge is decided by an organization’s absorptive capacity. Hence, firms are required to possess and create, internal absorptive capacity to enhance innovation performance. This is vital since this form of capacity can impact the efficiency of innovation actions.
The first parties to describe absorptive capacity as the ability of an organization to assess fresh knowledge from outside, integrate it, and use it for commercial reasons were Cohen and Levingthal in 1990 (Wuryaningrat, 2013). A firm can obtain and efficiently utilize external and internal knowledge that will impact its innovation. This style looks at absorptive capacity as an outcome of not just research and development activities but similarly the variety or depth of the knowledge base of an organization, its former learning encounter, a mutual language, the presence of cross-functional points, and the mental frameworks, as well as problem-solving capability of the members in an organization (Camison and Fores, 2010). In this manner, absorptive capacity is vital for organizations to utilize outward knowledge and hence trigger inner innovation (Dutse, 2013).
Knowledge has become the most vital resource for organizations; outward knowledge concerning markets and technologies is thought to be key for generating inner knowledge in research and development units. Using absorptive capacity, organizations can change outward knowledge into innovative capabilities. Originally, absorptive capacity begins with gaining knowledge from the environment and it culminates by getting the best out of it (Saebi and Foss, 2015). This dynamic ability enables organizations to be in a better place to grow any form of innovation. Organizational learning theory recommends that an organization’s innovation actions are an outcome of its knowledge base.
Earlier research discovered that organizations having a greater absorptive capacity were more predisposed to undertake product, process, organizational, or even marketing innovations. In the same way, Calero-Medina and Noyons (2008) mapped programs of research connected to absorptive capacity and its connection to diverse domains, identifying substantial relations between absorptive capacity and innovation within the organization.
More current work, like the one by Chen and Chang (2012) discovered that the more the level of absorptive capacity of the organization, the more the level of innovativeness within the organization. They also discovered within their systematized literature review that most prevailing research concerning innovation literature accentuates the capacity to use outward knowledge. Moreover, this relation with fresh external knowledge enhances the absorptive capacity.
According to a research program undertaken by Liao et al (2007), empirical proof was given that innovation stems from the necessity for sharing knowledge, instigated by its absorptive capacity. When absorptive capacity progresses, it becomes very simple for anyone to form a noteworthy innovation grounded on acquired knowledge. Indarti (2010) similarly notes that absorptive capacity can be observed as a procedure by which a certain entity establishes innovative business goals (Wuryaningrat, 2013).
Notwithstanding the proof connecting absorptive capacity to innovation, this notion has developed in due course. The most comprehensive reconceptualization was suggested by Indarti (2010). They connected the idea to a set of company-wide routines and strategic procedures by which organizations acquire, change, and utilize knowledge to establish an active organizational capacity.

Dimensions of Innovation Capacity

Innovation is a vital element of the research enterprise, is very developed, and exists in all business procedures (Alshanty and Emeagwali, 2019). Nonetheless, the function of innovations, a main driver concerning a venture’s performance, has transformed in the latest years because of globalization and improved foreign competition (Pustorvrh et al., 2017). As a result, we comprehend innovation as the capacity of a firm to use knowledge and create novel products, services, and processes. Nonetheless, innovation typically encompasses some level of risk, which explains why outcomes are not always satisfying.
Various studies have demonstrated that innovativeness allows organizations to attain results, for instance, enhancement of the organization’s performance; growing exports; making a competitive edge; and or adding to the growth of the business. Generally, innovation assists organizations to react to competitive difficulties in globalized settings.
Innovativeness is an intricate capacity through which fresh knowledge and ideas are constantly used to attain excellent business performance using the integration of new offertories, product innovation, and the development of new processes for creating and distributing those novel offerings, and process innovation. These improve or sustain their efficiency and competitiveness. Process innovation concentrates on enhancing the efficiency and inner operations of an organization’s procedures to produce, bring together, or deliver the product. In this manner, another process can lessen the expenses or bring about extra production ability for an organization. Product innovation, conversely, is where an organization can present improved, distinguished, or even new products to the market to satisfy the needs of the consumers. Product innovation concentrates on the market and depends on robust abilities like quality, efficiency, speed, and flexibility, whereas process innovation has its place within the space of technical innovation. Both forms of innovation are closely connected and make up intricate procedures that normally encompass all functional sections of the organization.

References

Alshanty, A. M., and Emeagwali, O. L. (2019). Market-sensing capability, knowledge creation and innovation: the moderating role of entrepreneurial-orientation. J. Innov. Knowl. 4, 171–178. doi: 10.1016/j.jik.2019.02.002
Calero-Medina, C., and Noyons, E. C. (2008). Combining mapping and citation network analysis for a better understanding of the scientific development: the case of the absorptive capacity field. J. Informetr. 2, 272–279. doi: 10.1016/j.joi.2008.09.005
Camisón, C., and Forés, B. (2010). Knowledge absorptive capacity: new insights for its conceptualization and measurement. J. Bus. Res. 63, 707–715. doi: 10.1016/j.jbusres.2009.04.022
Chen, S. T., and Chang, B. G. (2012). The effects of absorptive capacity and decision speed on organizational innovation: a study of organizational structure as an antecedent variable. Contemp. Manag. Res. 8:7996. doi: 10.7903/cmr.7996
Daghfous, A. (2004). Absorptive capacity and the implementation of knowledge-intensive best practices. S.A.M. Adv. Manag. J. 69, 21–27.
Davenport, T. H., and Prusak, L. (1998). Working Knowledge: How Organizations Manage What They Know. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Press.
Dutse, A. Y. (2013). Linking absorptive capacity with innovative capabilities: a survey of manufacturing firms in Nigeria. Int. J. Technol. Manag. 12, 167–183. doi: 10.1386/tmsd.12.2.167_1
Grant, R. M. (1996). Toward a knowledge based theory of frim. Strategic Management Journal, 17, 109–122. https://doi.org/10.2307/2486994
Huang, K. F., Lin, K. H., Wu, L. Y., and Yu, P. H. (2015). Absorptive capacity and autonomous R&D climate roles in firm innovation. J. Bus. Res. 68, 87–94. doi: 10.1016/j.jbusres.2014.05.002
Ibarra-Cisneros, M., Demuner-Flores, M. R., and Hernández-Perlines, F. (2021). Strategic orientations, firm performance, and the moderating effect of absorptive capacity. J. Strateg. Manag. doi: 10.1108/JSMA-05-2020-0121, [Epub ahead of print].
Indarti, N. (2010). The Effect of Knowledge Stickiness and Interaction on Absorptive Capacity. Groningen, The Netherlands: University of Groningen.
Liao, S. H., and Wu, C. C. (2010). System perspective of knowledge management, organizational learning, and organizational innovation. Expert Syst. Appl. 37, 1096–1103. doi: 10.1016/j.eswa.2009.06.109
Pustovrh, A., Jaklič, M., Martin, S. A., and Rašković, M. (2017). Antecedents and determinants of high-tech SMEs’ commercialisation enablers: opening the black box of open innovation practices. Econ. Res. 30, 1033–1056. doi: 10.1080/1331677X.2017.1305795
Saebi, T., and Foss, N. J. (2015). Business model for open innovation: matching heterogeneous open innovation strategies with business model dimensions. Eur. Manag. J. 33, 201–213. doi: 10.1016/j.emj.2014.11.002
Sancho-Zamora, R., Peña-García, I., Gutiérrez-Broncano, S., and Hernández-Perlines, F. (2021). Moderating effect of proactivity on firm absorptive capacity and performance: empirical evidence from Spanish firms. Mathematics 9:2099. doi: 10.3390/math9172099
Sørensen, Morten (2007) ‘How Smart is Smart Money: An Empirical Two-Sided Matching Model of Venture Capital,’ Journal of Finance, 62 (6), 2725–2762.
Tseng, C. Y., Chang Pai, D., and Hung, C. H. (2011). Knowledge absorptive capacity and innovation performance in KIBS. J. Knowl. Manag. 15, 971–983. doi: 10.1108/13673271111179316
Wuryaningrat, N. F. (2013). Knowledge sharing, absorptive capacity and innovation capabilities: an empirical study on small and medium enterprises in North Sulawesi. Indonesia. Gadjah Mada Int. J. Bus. 15, 61–77. doi: 10.22146/gamaijb.5402
Xie, X., Zoub, H., and Quick, G. (2018). Knowledge absorptive capacity and innovation performance in high-tech companies: a multi-mediating analysis. J. Bus. Res. 88, 289–297. doi: 10.1016/j.jbusres.2018.01.019
Yaseen, S. G. (2020). “Potential absorptive capacity, realized absorptive capacity and innovation performance,” in International Conference on Human Interaction and Emerging Technologies 2019, AISC 1018. ed. Ahram (Cham: Springer), 863–870.
Authors

Emilija Vukovic

Business Architecture Practice

Paul Lalovich

Organizational Effectiveness and Strategy Execution Practice
submitted by Tesa_Tesanovic1988 to Open_innovation_model [link] [comments]


2024.05.18 23:27 Phuun_ Newbie Questions: Bed Frame

Newbie Questions: Bed Frame
Hello,
I have minimal woodworking experience so want some opinions, me and my girlfriend are looking into a new bed frame, we decided that a 'loft' option was a decent idea for more space.
My program I use blends a lot of the pieces together, making it look like one so I'll do my best to describe them.
All measurements in Inches:
The legs are an outer 2x6 with 2x4 making a even L shape with a 1x4 with a 1x3 even L inside There are 2 2x6s resting on the 1x4 and 1x3 inner legs that hold up the middle mattress supports.
My mattress is a queen (whatever 80x60 is)
My questions, a. do these legs look structurally sound? b. I have 7 middle mattress support planks that will be holding up the mattress, these will be held into place by 'simpson strong-ties'? (Them bracket things) drilled into the 2 2x6s, does this sound like it will hold?
Thank you for any feedback!
https://preview.redd.it/ech4xr24691d1.png?width=1011&format=png&auto=webp&s=cf1eff7e630cd8edd6d8d194758abf048fdbb6f8
submitted by Phuun_ to woodworking [link] [comments]


2024.05.18 23:10 -_-weasel Inmotion rs quality of life mods

Inmotion rs quality of life mods
Today i finally swap the horrendous handlebars off the inmotion rs for some raceface carbon mtb ones, along with some new raceface grips to go with it. (On sale for a decent amount so why not.). (Becareful, the stock bar is 31.8mm. You need to get a 31.8mm handlebar if you change it. 35mm wont fit. Ask me how i know 🤣.)
These weight at best 1/8 of tge stock ones. But eliminating that gross backsweep was my main concern. These raceface does that well. Just having a straight bar feels amazing. Was initially gonna go for a bar with as much rise but then These where on sale and glad i got them.
Added an old s9 screenprotector i found in my house to the screen. What a turd that is. I lightly wiped it to remove dust and it got scratched up so easily. Screen protector should help. Hopefully it remains on it.
End bar mirros, though it looks nice, its meh. I order both end bars and normal ones you put on the handlebar to try both and i think ill prefer the on-bar ones. (Didnt receive them yet.) End bars is nice but the view is weird and that extra few centimeters/half inch they stick out makes it annoying to now take out my doors.
Next; bar extender to move lcd up a bit. Also gonna find a way to swap that headlight. Not enough flooding on it for my city. Roads are sh*t. Just for context, my city is known for orange cones and theres memes about it. 🤦‍♂️ Oh yeah, gotta drill out the back suspension shaft so i can adjust the suspension. Found screws that weren't tight and then found screws like this one that is practically stripped (which i didnt hold back once i got the spares because ill be changing the shaft). So gonna drill it out or maybe find a motorcycle shop whilling to do it considering they might have better tools than me.
Overall i been enjoying this beast. Almost able to jump large speed bumps
submitted by -_-weasel to ElectricScooters [link] [comments]


2024.05.18 23:04 Theo-Dorable Ideologies (and their descriptions)

A list of all the ideologies (within the game files), including their descriptions. Enjoy.

Conservatism

Conservatism is a political and social philosophy promoting traditional social institutions in the context of culture and civilization. The central tenets of conservatism include tradition, human imperfection, organic society, hierarchy and authority, and property rights. Conservatives seek to preserve a range of institutions such as monarchy, religion, parliamentary government, and property rights, with the aim of emphasizing social stability and continuity.
National Conservatism National conservatism is a variant of conservatism that concentrates more on national interests and upholding cultural or ethnic identity than most other conservatives. In Europe, national conservatives are usually Eurosceptics.
Gaullism
Gaullism is a French political stance based on the thought and action of World War II French Resistance leader General Charles de Gaulle, who would become the founding President of the Fifth French Republic.
Corporatism I do not know where the description for this is. Considering corporatism doesn't exactly fit within conservatism I believe this is a mistake, but I'm including it here anyway.
Republican Party [sic]
The Republican Party is one of the two major political parties in the United States, the other being its historic rival, the Democratic Party. The party is named after republicanism, a major ideology of the American Revolution. Founded by anti-slavery activists, economic modernizers, ex-National Republicans, ex-Free Soilers and Whigs in 1854, the Republicans largely dominated politics nationally and in the majority of northern states between 1860 and 1932.
Religious Zionism Formed as a nationalist opposition and acts as the basis of the Israeli right, Revisionist Zionism envisions territorial integrity over the historical Land of Israel and supports Jewish nationalism. Revisionist Zionists believed that Jews have sovereignty over both banks of the Jordan river and its followers question the legitimacy of the Kingdom of Jordan. Currently, Revisionist Zionism is regarded as a fringe ideology but its proponents have recently began a push to make the ideology more moderate and hence more electable.
Black Conservatism Black Conservatism is a type of conservative ideology popular among Africans in both hemispheres. Individuals which would promote black conservatism would likely be advocates of free market capitalism, promotion of traditional beliefs (generally in regards to Catholic and Protestant Christianity), and Patriotism or Jingoism. Black Conservatism generally is opposed to Pan-Africanism, Socialism, and Anti-Imperialism.

Liberal Conservatism

Liberal conservatism combines conservative policies with liberal stances, especially on economic, social and ethical issues. It incorporates the classical liberal view of minimal government intervention in the economy, according to which individuals should be free to participate in the market and generate wealth without government interference. However, individuals cannot be thoroughly depended on to act responsibly in other spheres of life, therefore liberal conservatives believe that a strong state is necessary to ensure law and order and social institutions are needed to nurture a sense of duty and responsibility to the nation. They also support civil liberties, along with some social conservative positions.
Conservative Liberalism Conservative liberalism is a variant of liberalism, combining liberal values and policies with conservative stances, or simply representing the right-wing of the liberal movement. It is a more positive and less radical variant of classical liberalism.

Christian Democracy

Christian democracy is a form of conservatism and a political ideology which emerged in 19th century Europe under the influence of Catholic social teaching, as well as Neo Calvinism. It was originally conceived as a combination of traditional Catholic beliefs and modern democratic ideas, and it grew to incorporate the social teaching of other Christian denominations, such as the Lutheran Church and the Reformed Church.
Vatican [sic]
The politics of Vatican City take place in a framework of an theocratic absolute elective monarchy, in which the Pope, religiously speaking, the leader of the Roman Catholic Church and Bishop of Rome, exercises ex officio supreme legislative, executive, and judicial power over the Vatican City, a rare case of non-hereditary monarchy.

Socialism

Socialism is a range of economic and social systems characterized by social ownership and workers' self-management of the means of production as well as the political theories and movements associated with them. Social ownership may refer to forms of public, collective or cooperative ownership, or to citizen ownership of equity. There are many varieties of socialism and there is no single definition encapsulating all of them, though social ownership is the common element shared by its various forms. Socialist economic systems can be divided into non-market and market forms. Non-market socialism involves the substitution of factor markets and money, with engineering and technical criteria, based on calculation performed in-kind, thereby producing an economic mechanism that functions according to different economic laws from those of capitalism. Non-market socialism aims to circumvent the inefficiencies and crises traditionally associated with capital accumulation and the profit system. By contrast, market socialism retains the use of monetary prices, factor markets and in some cases the profit motive, with respect to the operation of socially owned enterprises and the allocation of capital goods between them. Profits generated by these firms would be controlled directly by the workforce of each firm, or accrue to society at large in the form of a social dividend. The socialist calculation debate discusses the feasibility and methods of resource allocation for a socialist system.
Democratic Socialism Democratic socialism is a political philosophy that advocates political democracy alongside social ownership of the means of production, with an emphasis on self-management and democratic management of economic institutions within a market or some form of decentralized planned socialist economy.
Market Socialism Market socialism is a type of economic system involving the public, cooperative, or social ownership of the means of production in the framework of a market economy.
Royal Socialism No information in the game files. Probably a scrapped ideology, but still here for showcase purposes.
Neocommunism Ditto to above.
African Socialism African socialism is a belief in sharing economic resources in a traditional African way, as distinct from classical socialism. Common principles of African socialism are social development guided by a large public sector, incorporating the African identity and what it means to be African, and the avoidance of the development of social classes within society.
Ujamaa The Swahili word Ujamaa means 'extended family', 'brotherhood' or 'socialism'; as a political concept it asserts that a person becomes a person through the people or community. Ujamaa was a term made popular by the political philosophy applied under Julius Nyerere's social and economic development policies in Tanzania after it gained independence from Britain in 1961.
Labor Zionism (Mapai) Labor Zionism is the left-wing of the Zionist movement. For many years, it was the most significant tendency among Zionists and Zionist organizations. It saw itself as the Zionist sector of the historic Jewish labor movements of Eastern and Central Europe, eventually developing local units in most countries with sizable Jewish populations. Labor Zionists believe that a Jewish state could only be created through the efforts of the Jewish working class settling in the Land of Israel and constructing a state through the creation of a progressive Jewish society with rural kibbutzim and moshavim and an urban Jewish proletariat.
Kemalism Kemalism is the founding ideology of the Republic of Turkey. Kemalism, as it was implemented by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, was defined by sweeping political, social, cultural and religious reforms designed to separate the new Turkish state from its Ottoman predecessor and embrace a Westernized way of living, including the establishment of democracy, secularism, state support of the sciences and free education.
Oriental Personalism Oriental Personalism is the official ideology of Ngo Dinh Diem's Can-Lao Party in South Vietnam. Owing as much to the influence of his brother, Ngo Dinh Nhu as Diem himself, Oriental Personalism has diverse ideological influences, including Emannuel Mournier's theory of Personalism, Marxism, and the folk traditions and religions of Vietnam. The Can-Lao manifest calls for the gradual transformation of Vietnamese society through two phase. In the first phase, the Personalist Revolution, the Social and Working Classes will tear their divisions and join as one. Then comes the Social Revolution, where all forms of capitalism and colonial influence will be swept out on a triumphant march to a utopian, socialist, and proudly Vietnamese society.

Social Democracy

Social Democracy is a political, social and economic ideology that supports economic and social interventions to promote social justice within the framework of a capitalist economy, as well as a policy regime involving a commitment to representative democracy, measures for income redistribution, and regulation of the economy in the general interest and welfare state provisions.
Democratic Party [sic]
The Democratic Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. Tracing its heritage back to Thomas Jefferson and James Madison's Democratic-Republican Party, the modern-day Democratic Party was founded around 1828 by supporters of Andrew Jackson, making it the world's oldest active political party.
Labor Zionism Functionally the exact same as Labor Zionism (Mapai), with the same description. I have no clue why it's divided as such.

Social Liberalism

Social liberalism is a political ideology that believes individual liberty requires a level of social justice. Like classical liberalism, social liberalism endorses a market economy and the expansion of civil and political rights and liberties, but differs in that it believes the legitimate role of the government includes addressing economic and social issues such as poverty, health care, and education.

Progressivism

Progressivism is the support for or advocacy of improvement of society by reform. As a philosophy, it is based on the idea of progress, which asserts that advancements in science, technology, economic development and social organization are vital to the improvement of the human condition.
Green politics Green politics is a political ideology that aims to create an ecologically sustainable society rooted in environmentalism, nonviolence, social justice and grassroots democracy.

Centrism

Centrism is a political outlook or specific position that involves acceptance or support of a balance of a degree of social equality and a degree of social hierarchy, while opposing political changes which would result in a significant shift of society either strongly to the left or the right.

Classical Liberalism

Democracy (yes, that is the entire description)
Libertarianism Libertarianism is a collection of political philosophies and movements that uphold liberty as a core principle. Libertarians seek to maximize political freedom and autonomy, emphasizing freedom of choice, voluntary association, and individual judgment. Libertarians share a skepticism of authority and state power, but they diverge on the scope of their opposition to existing political and economic systems.
Zionism (General Zionism) Many people and parties chose not to follow any of the distinct Zionist schools of thought and chose to stick to the core ideology of Zionism, settling in Israel and the establishment of the Jewish State. Many of the parties that stick to the 'core' of Zionism are centrist parties that don't associate themselves with either the left nor the right and tend to be economically liberal.

Marxism-Leninism

Marxism-Leninism is the ideology combining Marxist socioeconomic theory and Leninist political praxis, which is the official ideology of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and of the Communist International. The purpose of Marxism-Leninism is the revolutionary development of a capitalist state into a socialist state, effected by the leadership of a vanguard party of professional revolutionaries from the working class.
Liberal Communism I can find no reference. I presume this refers to the like of Gorbachev.
Stalinism Stalinism is the means of governing and related policies implemented from around 1927 to 1953 by Joseph Stalin. Stalinist policies and ideas as developed in the Soviet Union included rapid industrialization, the theory of socialism in one country, a totalitarian state, collectivization of agriculture, a cult of personality and subordination of the interests of foreign communist parties to those of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, deemed by Stalinism to be the leading vanguard party of communist revolution at the time.
Juche Juche is the official state ideology of North Korea, described by the government as Kim Il-sung's original, brilliant and revolutionary contribution to national and international thought. It postulates that the Korean masses are to act as the masters of the revolution and construction and that by becoming self-reliant and strong a nation can achieve true socialism.
Ho Chi Minh Thought Ho Chi Minh Thought is the official ideology of the Communist Party of Vietnam under the leadership of Chairman Ho Chi Minh. Though firmly Marxist-Leninist, Ho believes in a more nationalistic reintepretation of Marxism for the unique conditions of the Vietnamese revolution, even taking some influence from Sun Yat-Sen's "Three Principles of the People" and the American revolutionaries. Ho Chi Minh Thought is as proudly Vietnamese as it is Communist, and calls for a "national democratic revolution" -- a truly Vietnamese path to socialism where worker, peasant, soldier, and merchant will unite against inequality and imperialism in all its forms.

Revolutionary Socialism

Revolutionary socialism is the socialist doctrine that social revolution is necessary in order to bring about structural changes to society. More specifically, it is the view that revolution is a necessary precondition for a transition from capitalism to socialism.
Revolutionary Islamic Socialism Your guess is as good as mine.
Trotskyism Trotskyism is the theory of Marxism as advocated by Russian Leon Trotsky. Trotsky identified as an orthodox Marxist and Bolshevik-Leninist. He supported founding a vanguard party of the proletariat, proletarian internationalism and a dictatorship of the proletariat based on working class self-emancipation and mass democracy.
Sartre Thought No description given.
Anarcho-Communism Anarcho-communism is a theory of anarchism which advocates the abolition of the state, capitalism, wage labor and private property in favor of common ownership of the means of production, direct democracy and a horizontal network of workers' councils with production and consumption based on the guiding principle: From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs.
Posadism No description. Another relic.
Titoism Titoism is described as the post-World War II policies and practices associated with Josip Broz Tito during the Cold War, characterized by an opposition to the Soviet Union. It usually represents Tito's Yugoslav doctrine in Cold War international politics. It emerged with the Yugoslav Partisans' liberation of Yugoslavia independently of the Red Army, resulting in Yugoslavia being the only Eastern European country to remain socialist, but independent after World War II as well as resisting Soviet Union pressure to become a member of the Warsaw Pact.
Left-wing Military Dictatorship a Left-wing Military Dictatorship is a government which may espouse specific socialistic beliefs to gain second world support, but is however a military-controlled oppressive autocratic state. [sic]
Person Dignity Theory (Nhuism) Person Dignity Theory, also known as Spiritualistic Marxism, describes the more radical worldview of Ngo Dinh Nhu. Influenced by his involvment with French syndicalism in the 1930s and the left-wing nationalism of the Viet Minh, Nhu's views are significantly to the left of his older brother. Nhu's interpretation of \"True Marxism\" calls for a total centralization of state power in the Can Lao Party and the complete destruction of traditional society in favor of the strict regimentation of the peasants in collectivist \"Strategic Hamlets\" and the city dwellers through \"Urban Revolutionary Syndicates\". Some believe Nhu's ambitions may lie beyond Vietnam, given his calls for a worldwide crusade against \"Materialistic Capitalism\". [sic]

Maoism (Mao Zedong Thought)

Actually clumps together "anti-revisionist" ideologies, but for our purposes we'll start with Mao Zedong Thought.
Mao Zedong thought is the product of the combination of the basic principles of Marxism Leninism and the specific reality of the Chinese revolution. It is the crystallization of the collective wisdom of the Chinese Communists. It is a political, military and development theory advocated by Mao Zedong and widely practiced in the Chinese revolution in the 20th century. It is generally considered to be the development of Marxism Leninism in China.
Anti-Revisionism A Marxist-Leninist position emerging after the XXth Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. Anti-revisionist movements oppose the reforms of the Khrushchev period and uphold Stalinist and Maoist developments in Marxism.
Marxism-Leninism-Maoism The synthesis of Marxism–Leninism–Maoism did not occur during the life of Mao Zedong. From the 1960s, groups that called themselves Maoist or which upheld Maoism were not unified around a common understanding of Maoism and had instead their own particular interpretations of the political, philosophical, economical and military works of Mao; these disorganized ideological trends comprised, and still comprise, Mao Zedong Thought.
Scientific Socialism Scientific Socialism was founded by Friedrich Engels and Karl Marx, but was widely used by Deng Xiaoping of the PRC to reform Maoism. It is often Maoism, but with a few reforms that add more emphasis on science, industrialization, and overall a new focus on the economy.
Hoxhaism Hoxhaism is a variant of anti-revisionist Marxism-Leninism that developed in the late 1970s due to a split in the Maoist movement, appearing after the ideological dispute between the Communist Party of China and the Party of Labor of Albania. The ideology is named after Enver Hoxha, a notable Albanian communist leader.
Guevarism Guevarism is a theory of communist revolution and a military strategy of guerrilla warfare associated with communist revolutionary Ernesto \"Che\" Guevara. The ideology promotes exporting revolution to any country whose leader is supported by the empire (United States) and has fallen out of favor with its citizens. The ideology has three main points, namely that the people can win with proper organization against a nation's army; that the conditions that make a revolution possible can be put in place by the popular forces; and that the popular forces always have an advantage in a non urban setting. [sic]

Third Positionism

Encompassing a variety of ultra-nationalist movements, third positionism typically venerates devotion to the state and uniting the people under a strong leader. Third Positionism is presented as its own unique ideology as a third option to capitalism or communism.
Falangism An authoritarian ideology with traits of fascism and conservatism, Falangist values national and Catholic identity.
Rexism Strongly opposed to both liberal and communist ideals, Rexism is a staunchly conservative nationalist movement who advocate a corporatist economic policy. Employing increasingly populist and authoritarian rhetoric, their ideals are shifting closer to other fascist movements.
Hindu Nationalism Hindu nationalism has been collectively referred to as the expression of social and political thought, based on the native spiritual and cultural traditions of the Indian subcontinent.
Salazarism Salazarism is a nationalist authoritarian ideology focusing on 'God, Fatherland and Family' and emphasizing the social role of Catholicism - setting it apart from mainstream variations of Fascism.
Neo-Nazism Neo-Nazism consists of post-World War II militant, social or political movements seeking to revive the ideology of Nazism. It borrows elements from Nazi doctrine, including ultranationalism, racism up to xenophobia, ableism, homophobia, anti-Romanyism, antisemitism, anti-communism and initiating the Fourth Reich. Holocaust denial is a common feature, as is the incorporation of Nazi symbols and admiration of Adolf Hitler.
National Bolshevism National Bolshevism is a political movement that combines elements of nationalism and Bolshevism.
Baathism Baathism is an Arab nationalist ideology that promotes the development and creation of a unified Arab state through the leadership of a vanguard party over a progressive revolutionary government.
Ku Klux Klan The Ku Klux Klan is an American white supremacist hate group. The Klan has existed in three distinct eras at different points in time during the history of the United States. Each has advocated extremist reactionary positions such as white supremacy, white nationalism, anti-immigration and-especially in later iterations-Nordicism and anti-Catholicism.
Kahanism No information.
Authenticité Ditto.
Trujillism Ditto.
Peronism Ditto.

Nationalism

Encompassing a variety of ultra nationalist movements, Nationalism typically venerates devotion to the state and uniting the people under a strong leader.
National Democracy no desc.
Pan-Africanism Pan-Africanism is a worldwide movement that aims to encourage and strengthen bonds of solidarity between all people of African descent. Based on a common fate going back to the Atlantic slave trade, the movement extends beyond continental Africans, with a substantial support base among the African diaspora in the Caribbean, Latin America and the United States.
Leftwing Nationalism Leftwing Nationalism is a form of nationalism which promotes the raising of societal standards for one's own national people generally through the introduction of social equality and government nationalization. Leftwing Nationalism is often anti-imperialist and can commonly represent national liberation fronts. Generally, Leftwing Nationalism will be a response to repeated exploitation of a nation by outside factors.
Bourguibism No desc.
Nasserism Nasserism is a revolutionary ideology, inspired by the second Egyptian President, Gamal Abdel Nasser; espousing the unification of what is referred to as the Arab world. It asserts that the Arab people constitute a single nation or federation, based upon a shared language and culture, transcending Islam and Christianity. Advocates of Nasserism have often been described representing political and economic positions which are secular, socialist, nationalistic, socially progressive, and anti-imperialist.
Revisionist Zionism See above.

Monarchism

A monarchy is a form of government in which a group, generally a family representing a dynasty, embodies the country's national identity and its head, the monarch, exercises the role of sovereignty.
Islamic Monarchy Islamic monarchies are a type of Islamic state which are monarchies. They are historically known by various names, such as Mamlakah, Caliphate, Sultanate, or Emirate.
Negusa Nagast
Negusa Nagast, or king of kings, is a type of selective hereditary imperial monarchy that became the prevalent leadership of Ethiopia since Negus Zemene Mesafint ended the Age of Princes period where Ethiopia was fractured between small principalities, kindoms, and sultanates.

Reactionary (also Neutrality)

In political science, a reactionary is a person who holds political views that favor a return to the status quo ante, the previous political state of society, which he or she believes possessed characteristics that are negatively absent from the contemporary status quo of a society.
Despotism Despotism is a form of government in which a single person rules with absolute power.
Military Dictatorship A military dictatorship is a form of government wherein a military force exerts complete or substantial control over political authority.
Oligarchic Oligarchy is a form of government in which a group of people rule with absolute power.
Colonialism Colonialism is the policy of a foreign polity seeking to extend or retain its authority over other people or territories, generally with the aim of opening trade opportunities. The colonizing country seeks to benefit whilst the colonized country or land mass, as many of the colonized countries were not countries at all, modernize in terms defined by the colonizers, especially in economics, religion, and health.
Independent An independent politician is an individual politician not affiliated with any political party.
Haredi no desc.
Vennamoism Vennamolaisuus, or Vennamoism in english is name given to the ideology and political movement of Veikko Vennamo, the leader of Finnish Rural Party. It is categorized by populism, reliance on slogans and support for agriculture.

Islamism

Sunni Islam is the largest denomination of Islam. Its name comes from the word Sunnah, referring to the exemplary behavior of the Islamic prophet Muhammad
Democratic Islamism Islamic democracy is a political ideology that seeks to apply Islamic principles to public policy within a democratic framework. Islamic political theory specifies three basic features of an Islamic democracy: leaders must be elected by the people, subject to sharia and committed to practicing \"shura\", a special form of consultation practiced by Prophet Muhammad
Ibadi Imamate no desc.

Radical Shiaism

Shia is a branch of Islam which holds that the Islamic prophet Muhammad designated Ali ibn Abi Talib as his successor (Imam).
Shia Monarchy no desc.
Houthiism
Houthiism is an armed movement stemming from a sect of Shia Islam, Zaidiism. Houthiism is almost nonexistent outside of Yemen. The Houthi movement strongly opposes Saudi Arabia, the US, and Israel and seeks to combat the 'underdevelopment and marginalization' of Yemen.

Salafism

Salafism is a reform branch or revivalist movement within Sunni Islam that developed in Egypt in the late 19th century as a response to Western European imperialism, with roots in the 18th-century Wahhabi movement that originated in the Najd region of modern day Saudi Arabia.
"Eereerhmm... where are the ideology tags?" NOWHERE! I will not add them.
submitted by Theo-Dorable to CWIC [link] [comments]


2024.05.18 23:02 Klokinator The Cryopod to Hell 560: Ancient Domains

Author note: The Cryopod to Hell is a Reddit-exclusive story with over three years of editing and refining. As of this post, the total rewrite is 2,182,000+ words long! For more information, check out the link below:
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...................................
(Previous Part)
(Part 001)
"Hell yeah, I wanna go exploring." Jason says to Calanthra with a smile. "How do we navigate around Ripspace though? Traveling to other galaxies is going to take billions of years, right? Surely, there's a shortcut."
"Ripspace is not as it seems." Calanthra explains, gesturing grandly to the epic sight before them. "It is a connection between the past and the present; the near and far. The further away or the further back you want to travel, the higher the price you will have to pay."
Jason's smile vanishes. "Wait... you can use Ripspace to travel back in time?!"
"No." Calanthra clarifies. "Time is linear. We cannot travel through it. Some can slow it down or speed it up. A rare few can even pause it for a short while. But moving forward and backward is impossible. Countless have attempted to do so over the eons, but all have failed."
She looks at Jason meaningfully. "Many Rulers would wipe out galaxies if it might let them obtain such a power. The fact they still haven't proves it is impossible."
Jason nods slowly. "I won't lie. I have a lot of regrets. Sometimes I wish I could go back in time and save my daughter from dying."
"Everyone has regrets." Calanthra muses, looking off into the distance. "I have plenty, myself. But it's better this way. There would be pandemonium if time travel ever became possible."
She pauses before continuing with her explanation. "While we cannot go back in time, we can look back into time. Pinpointing exact moments in history is difficult, to say the least, but it is possible to use Ripspace to search for key moments in intergalactic history."
"So it's like a massive seer-stone." Jason muses aloud. "But wait, didn't you imply earlier that you used Ripspace to travel to the Milky Way from Andromeda? How does it allow you to jump between galaxies? Are other species using Ripspace for intergalactic travel?"
"You can indeed use Ripspace to travel to distant reaches of space." Calanthra explains. "But... you have to pay a certain price. Akasha's Barriers still protect every galaxy. Cosmics cannot travel between them easily. Mortals can, but the price we must pay is unimaginably steep. That is also the reason my mother perished not long after arriving in the Milky Way and giving birth to me."
The Fairy Monarch sighs softly.
"My people used the power of Ripspace to travel to several other galaxies. We were fortunate that the Creator had died, allowing us to take up residence here in secret, but the Angels, Titans, and Dragons were still a threat we could not overlook. Later, the Volgrim rose up too, and that was something that worried us for a while. Particularly when their Sentinels began to rapaciously erase the lives of innumerable Sentients."
She waves her hand. "Ultimately, very few galaxies didn't have a Ruler in power. Traveling to one that did meant flipping a coin and praying our people could avoid their gaze. Sadly, time has shown me that we were likely unsuccessful. I have lost contact with all my sisters across the cosmos."
The image of innumerable galaxies floating in the distance changes before Jason's eyes. Calanthra manipulates some unseen power, causing herself and Jason to suddenly materialize directly in front of a beautiful spiral galaxy.
"This is our Milky Way." Calanthra explains, waving her hand to conjure another, far bigger galaxy beside it. "And this is Andromeda."
"Is it just me or does Andromeda seem... brighter?" Jason asks.
"Andromeda contains far more interstellar particles, cosmic energy, and latent magical power than the Milky Way." Calanthra says. "Of course, in the ancient past, it had even more than it does now, but such is the way of entropy and Chaos."
Jason nods. "How exactly do galaxies lose power over time? Doesn't this feel self-defeating in a way?"
"Every Ruler enters the Unending War with a strategy." Calanthra says, motioning with her hands to disperse the galaxies and reveal images of ghostly creatures, some standing on two legs, some on four, and plenty that appear as mere blobs of energy. "I cannot pretend to know the thoughts of such high and mighty beings, especially as I am a mere mortal myself. Even so, I can definitively state that there are Rulers who seek to put as much galactic energy into their initial creations as possible, while others wish to adopt a more energy-efficient growth-model."
She pokes her finger against Jason's chest. "Take the angels and humans, for instance. The Creator poured the vast majority of his power into creating a galaxy full of Apex Cosmics. At their peak, the angels as a whole commanded enough power to flatten other galaxies. But what did they do instead? They fought with one another, killing themselves due to sheer boredom, if not outright ego."
"I see." Jason says, brushing Calanthra's finger away. "So the Creator dumped all the Milky Way's energy into the angels. I take it this is uncommon among Rulers?"
"Of course. It's a wasteful strategy and usually loses Rulers the War for that Eternity." Calanthra says dismissively. "The Timeless used a different strategy. She created the fairies as mere mortals that evolved over time, gaining greater and greater power through their own efforts. This meant that instead of devouring Andromeda's abundant Cosmic energy, they could slowly sap off its excess over time. For you see, the more energy a galaxy has, the more it can produce. If you ration it long enough, you can reap more of it across the duration of an Eternity."
"That makes sense." Jason concludes. "It's like a Rush build in an RTS versus an Economy build. You sacrifice long-term gains in exchange for short-term power. The problem is, with Akasha's Barriers preventing Rulers from attacking their enemies straight away, a Rush build is dumb because you're just wasting your resources and sacrificing Cosmic energy when you'll actually need it."
Calanthra blinks twice. She looks at Jason with a strange expression, then turns away for a moment, trying to understand the strange terms he's used. They mostly make sense, but some of them are a little...
She shakes her head and returns to the topic at hand. "Right. Rush strategy versus Economy. Of... course. Well, in any case, there is one advantage toward the first strategy. If you drain all the energy from your galaxy, it becomes less appealing for other Rulers to attack. Because Andromeda was so large and still filled with Cosmic power even billions of years after the Expansion Era, it stoked the hunger of the Dark Ones. Meanwhile, the Milky Way only needs to deal with the Plague, which is threatening for mortals, but manageable for Cosmics. In that respect, we've gotten off much luckier."
"I get the bigger picture now." Jason says with a nod. He turns to look back at the cosmos before him. "So, what about all this? Are we gonna go exploring, or what?"
"In order to explore the universe presented here, we would need to make sacrifices we cannot afford. I think you would find the price most disagreeable. But there is something we can explore freely..."
She waves her hand, and instantly, the brilliant and beautiful cosmic view of the universe vanishes.
In its place, Jason and Calanthra suddenly appear inside a dead, barren wasteland. Brown and grey dirt rises up in huge dunes stretching off into the distance. Fallen towers made of gold and stone lay on their sides, or stick into the ground, buried nearly up to their tops as they point diagonally toward the sky.
And speaking of the sky, it glows faintly grey, as if some weak, pale imitation of a star were trying to shine through a thin atmosphere clouded by dust and grime. The very air itself smells of sulfur and toxins, making Jason's nose curl up when he takes a breath.
"Ugh... what the hell? Where are we now?" Jason asks, as he turns and looks around at the dead world surrounding him.
"An Ancient Domain." Calanthra says softly. "A remnant of a dead universe. All life stripped away. All hope lost. Septillions of different Sentient species, gone. Their mortals, their Cosmics, reduced to dust by the Contraction."
The Wordsmith frowns. "This Ancient Domain represents a dead universe? But how can that be possible? If the Heat Death played out and all the galaxies faded to cosmic dust, then there already wouldn't be anything left. And then, if the entire universe collapsed into a singularity before exploding again, there definitely wouldn't be anything left behind resembling physical matter."
"You perceive reality through just three dimensions." Calanthra intones. "Time and space can be considered two dimensions. Cosmic Power is another dimension. I must admit I do not understand how Ancient Domains have continued to exist across countless Eternities, and I don't know how they retain a vaguely familiar form... but I can assure you that in spite of bending logic itself, they do exist and they can provide tangible benefits to those dedicated to exploring them."
"You've been exploring them, then?" Jason asks, turning away from the dead world to scrutinize Calanthra's phantasmal image.
"Me, a little. But often, I dispatch my descendants to scour these Ancient Domains for things of value. It may surprise you, but there are powerful artifacts, vengeful spirits, and all manner of other inter-dimensional horrors lurking within these so-called dead-lands."
Calanthra pauses. She shifts her posture to look at Jason deeply.
"And that is why I've brought you here, Jason. It's time for me to get down to the crux of the matter and breach the subject that I find most important."
He nods. "I'm listening."
"It's like this." Calanthra explains. "The Ancient Domains are unfathomably broad. Think of how large a universe is. Think of how many universes have existed. Think of how much space my people have yet to explore."
She pauses.
"The gains we have received have made my people stronger than you would expect. Among those gains are Yredelemnul's Eye and other leftover remnants of power that many dead ancient Rulers lost when their Existences became forfeit. While their tangible Existences may have perished, their spirits sometimes live on in these broad, unending dead universes..."
"That's why you approached me." Jason says, while crossing his arms and leaning on the ball of his heel. "You said you wanted an alliance with humanity. You... want humans to help you explore the Ancient Domains?"
"Trust is hard to come by among mortals, Cosmics, and Rulers." Calanthra says simply. "I never would have considered allying with the humans before, but you have shown me the broadness of your mind during the debate against your clone and the commander of your military. To some, you certainly appear naive, but to me I see an opportunity I would be foolish to ignore."
She continues. "The Fairies cannot reproduce efficiently. Every fairy we send into the Ancient Domain is one less fairy we have among our Empire. We already have a difficult time replenishing our numbers through the remaining Male Fairies, but do you think it is easy for us to reproduce with other species?"
Jason slowly shakes his head. "Blinker and Kar's children were all crocodiles, not fairies. From that, I can only imagine that most of the time, your mating attempts do not create more of yourselves, but instead more non-fairy children."
"That's exactly correct." Calanthra replies. "But that all changed recently when I found out one of your human males somehow spontaneously altered his genetic profile to become a fairy. There is no doubt about it; Samuel Baker harnesses all the capability to reproduce that you humans do, as well as the trueborn powers of any male fairy."
"So... are you seeking a marriage alliance with Samuel Baker?" Jason asks, scratching his head in confusion. "You could just ask him yourself, you know?"
"This is not about one man." Calanthra retorts. "Samuel Baker, if he were to join our ranks, would certainly help us stave off extinction for a while longer. But that is hardly worth all this melodrama and me taking you to the Ancient Domain in person..."
Jason's eyes widen in realization. "I see! You... you're thinking that if my magic could make one male fairy, I could surely make another, and another..."
"Yes, precisely." Calanthra says, revealing a beautiful smile. "Additionally, if humans were to assist us in scouring these Ancient Domains, we could make great gains together. There is plenty of room for another species to join ours in locating powerful artifacts and other items capable of Uplifting us."
"You want to become Cosmics still." Jason muses. "You haven't resigned yourselves to your current fate."
"Quite the opposite." Calanthra says. "The curse placed upon us is unbreakable by those beneath the realm of Ruler. As I said before, the fairies have lost this Eternity's war. However, while we cannot Ascend any longer, that does not mean the humans are subject to the same limitation. If we could groom a human into becoming the Milky Way's Ruler, we could finally break free of our shackles by virtue of having a powerful ally."
She pauses, looking meaningfully at the Wordsmith.
"If the Demons or the Volgrim were to become our Ruler, we would not enjoy such a benefit. At best, we would only maintain the status quo, and at worst, they might eradicate us out of fear of having an unsightly tumor in their midst."
"Haha." Jason laughs. "So you brought me here to show your sincerity. I get it. Well, I'm definitely not opposed to helping you. Blinker is my good friend. If she were to ask me, I'd definitely say yes to just about any request."
Jason turns away. He walks a few feet off to the side and pauses, standing to gaze out at the Ancient Domain and its endlessly rolling plains which stretches off into the infinite distance...
"Here's what I can do." Jason says. "My people are already working on laying out the options for humanity and where our fellow men and women will depart over the next few weeks. Some will travel to Maiura. Some will go to Sharmur. Some will stay on Tarus II. It's no trouble at all to put Pixiv on the list, especially as I was already planning to do that. I even have some other places I'd like to include, too..."
"Such as Camael's Cube?" Calanthra asks with a smile. "Or do you perhaps mean Chrona and Hope's Hall of Heroes?"
Jason nearly jumps out of his skin. He whirls around to look at Calanthra with shock in his eyes. "What?! How do you know about Chrona? How do you also know about where Hope has been hiding?? I don't even know that much!"
"For those who are talented in magic, it is possible to see through many lies and deceptions." Calanthra says calmly, unfazed by the alarm on Jason's face. "Your Spynet Sphere isn't so different from the many options I have at my disposal. I have many means to keep an eye on the galaxy. And while Diablo does not know exactly where or what Chrona is, he certainly knows of its general existence."
Her smile turns cold. "I would advise you not to take Unarin lightly either, Wordsmith. That ancient creature is more capable than you can imagine. He is hiding a great many secrets from the galaxy... secrets he does not know that I am aware of. If he were to learn of the true extent of my information web, I fear that he would dispatch a handful of High Psions to eliminate the fairy species tomorrow."
Calanthra's words truly rock Jason to his core. All along, he assumed the precautions he put on Chrona, precautions that fooled even Hope, would make his hidden dimension impossible to detect.
But how could he be so naive?
As the daughter of an Apex Cosmic, Calanthra must have her means, and that likely means Unarin and Diablo aren't too far behind either.
"Shit." Jason curses, lowering his head as a flicker of anger smolders in his heart. "I was too complacent. Chrona isn't secure, which means it's only a matter of time before more Cosmics learn of its existence. How long before they can find its exact location and invade it?"
"Calm yourself, child." Calanthra says soothingly. "The situation is not that dire. After all, Chrona still exists within a highly accelerated timespace. Any biological entity that wishes to travel there could suffer severe after-effects. Furthermore, the entities born inside will be too adapted to living within a higher dimension, so they won't pose much threat to the creatures of realspace."
She waves her hand. "Let's move on, Jason. I want to discuss other matters before dying of old age."
The Wordsmith cools himself off. He inhales deeply, then returns his attention to her.
"Alright. What next, then?"
"Fairies are not the only Sentients capable of entering Ancient Domains." Calanthra explains. "There are others who rarely appear inside here. That is why exploring these domains can be dangerous. The good news is that Cosmics have little need to enter these barren lands, as most of the heritages, treasures, and other such gains you might find inside are only useful to mortals. There are exceptions, but they are so rare as to be a needle found within ten million haystacks. A waste of effort better spent simply progressing one's Cosmic power the ordinary way."
"So what you're saying is, when you send fairies into an Ancient Domain, they can die as a result of crossing paths with Sentients from other galaxies." Jason concludes. "But if you had an army of humans to enter with you, your people would be a lot safer."
"Safety in numbers, yes. And you humans are... uniquely advantaged in Ancient Domain exploration." Calanthra says mysteriously. "Before that, though... do you know what the Power of Imagination is, Wordsmith?"
Jason raises an eyebrow. "Imagination? Like the mental ability to visualize stuff in your head? Yeah. It's not that complicated to understand."
"Ah, that's where you're wrong." Calanthra chides gently. "Imagination is the key to magical power. Imagination, Conception, Visualization, these are all key capabilities powerful maguses and sorcerors use to uplift their capabilities! And as it turns out, most Sentients are actually quite terrible at conceptualizing thoughts into imagery."
She gestures grandly. "Just take the Volgrim! You may think they are a powerful Sentient species, but in fact the Volgrim have terrible imaginations. They are stodgy, dull, and lack a great deal of creativity. All the gains their Technopaths make through technology are developed via brute force. They slowly improve their technological prowess by minute fractions over long periods of time, eventually resulting in a large and cohesive buildup."
"At the same time, the Psions Uplift themselves through meditation and sitting motionless for thousands of years at a time. Can a species capable of such incredible feats of drudgery also possess limitless imagination? I think not."
"Maybe the reason they're able to sit still for so long is because they live in their imagination?" Jason posits. "In which case their power of imagination should be quite formidable, right?"
"Possible, but unlikely." Calanthra says with a wave of her hand. "Never mind that. The point I'm trying to make is that humans have an extremely high affinity for magic. If your people were to ally with mine, we could teach you our ways. You could help us through your Wordsmithing and superior genetics, creating more fairies and humans alike. This would create a recursive cycle that would continually bolster both our species to greater and greater heights!"
She lowers her voice back to normal. "An alliance with humanity would have other benefits. You humans are equally adept in technology and magic both. You are versatile, capable of learning any skill provided you have time to devote to your studies. The bursts of inspiration you receive also allow you to make large jumps in capability as well, which could mean that in a relatively short period, you might even be capable of challenging the Volgrim."
Jason nods. "That does sound tempting, Calanthra. I'm willing to help you, but I won't demand my people join the fairies. It would be better if those who were the most interested did so instead."
Calanthra playfully twirls a finger through her hair. "Well. My daughters are all beautiful. Perhaps you should make mention that the fairies are... aggressively interested in copulation?"
"COUGH COUGH!" Jason wheezes, taking a step back as he asses her bold choice of words. "Yeah! Uh, I can probably- I'll let everyone know about that too. Obviously!"
Calanthra chuckles. "Such a cute boy. Well, it seems I've accomplished what I wanted. Let's return for now. You can always pay Ripspace a visit later."
"I will." Jason says, nodding seriously. "Waypoint."
Calanthra raises an eyebrow. "You think you can return here without a Ruler's power?"
"Won't know unless I try." Jason smiles back.
...
Not long after, Jason and Calanthra emerge back into Realspace. He shivers as he feels the Eye of Yredelemnul fixating on him from behind, but Calanthra quickly reactivates the Formation of Light, sending the sliver of a Ruler back to the shadows so it can no longer interact with the physical world.
"You know, Jason." Calanthra says. "You are a Candidate. You have the capability to become a Ruler someday."
"I am?" Jason asks, before thinking back to a conversation in the past. "Oh yeah, someone did mention that to me before. But... eh. I don't know. Becoming a Ruler sounds awful."
"Awful?" Calanthra asks. "How so?"
"It seems... lonely." Jason says, his voice softening. He looks at the space between the four statues, where Yredelemnul's Eye has disappeared. "Imagine all your loved ones dying, but you're stuck behind, living through the end of an Eternity, which takes trillions of years before Heat Death finally eradicates everything. Then comes the next Eternity, where you can remake your species again... but it won't be the same. Even if you remake your loved ones, it won't really be them."
Jason lowers and shakes his head. "That sort of life doesn't suit me."
"I understand why you'd think that way." Calanthra says. "In fact, you are suffering from the same affliction that plagues all Candidates who began their Existences as Biologicals. We have too many ties to the mortal world, so the majority of Biologicals who ascend to the rank of Ruler... fall to their non-biological opponents."
"As for the things which are not biological..." Calanthra says, looking at Jason with disgust. "You should already know what they are."
"Highly evolved Artificial Intelligences?" Jason guesses.
"That's right." Calanthra affirms. "There are several tiers of power a superintelligence can possess. The Volgrim have taken great care to prevent anything above a Beta Core from forming in the Milky Way, but once, a long time ago... they made a huge mess by accidentally creating the Milky Way's first Alpha Core Synthmind."
Calanthra chuckles. "The stupid fools didn't only create an Alpha Core, they gave it autonomy in the hopes it would be able to stop the wars between their factions. They built indestructible bipedal bodies for its splintered intelligences, and called them... Sentinels. Luckily, they were able to defeat the Alpha Core before it ascended further, but countless other biological species have failed at that juncture, creating an Alpha Core that ultimately devoured the full power of their galaxy for itself."
A chill trickles down Jason's spine. "You're saying the vast majority of Rulers are actually Alpha Core AIs? AIs that control entire galaxies?!"
"No, Jason." Calanthra counters. "Alpha Cores can defeat advanced civilizations. But there is one Existence higher than an Alpha Core, a tier that can only be reached once it has swallowed the power of a galaxy."
"That would be an Omega Core. a sentient artificial intelligence that has become Ruler over one or more galaxies. And in Akasha's game, more than 90% of all Rulers are estimated to be these superior lifeforms."
"It is for that reason that these highly adaptable entities are known as The Evolved."
submitted by Klokinator to HFY [link] [comments]


2024.05.18 23:02 Klokinator Cryopod Refresh 560: Ancient Domains

"Hell yeah, I wanna go exploring." Jason says to Calanthra with a smile. "How do we navigate around Ripspace though? Traveling to other galaxies is going to take billions of years, right? Surely, there's a shortcut."
"Ripspace is not as it seems." Calanthra explains, gesturing grandly to the epic sight before them. "It is a connection between the past and the present; the near and far. The further away or the further back you want to travel, the higher the price you will have to pay."
Jason's smile vanishes. "Wait... you can use Ripspace to travel back in time?!"
"No." Calanthra clarifies. "Time is linear. We cannot travel through it. Some can slow it down or speed it up. A rare few can even pause it for a short while. But moving forward and backward is impossible. Countless have attempted to do so over the eons, but all have failed."
She looks at Jason meaningfully. "Many Rulers would wipe out galaxies if it might let them obtain such a power. The fact they still haven't proves it is impossible."
Jason nods slowly. "I won't lie. I have a lot of regrets. Sometimes I wish I could go back in time and save my daughter from dying."
"Everyone has regrets." Calanthra muses, looking off into the distance. "I have plenty, myself. But it's better this way. There would be pandemonium if time travel ever became possible."
She pauses before continuing with her explanation. "While we cannot go back in time, we can look back into time. Pinpointing exact moments in history is difficult, to say the least, but it is possible to use Ripspace to search for key moments in intergalactic history."
"So it's like a massive seer-stone." Jason muses aloud. "But wait, didn't you imply earlier that you used Ripspace to travel to the Milky Way from Andromeda? How does it allow you to jump between galaxies? Are other species using Ripspace for intergalactic travel?"
"You can indeed use Ripspace to travel to distant reaches of space." Calanthra explains. "But... you have to pay a certain price. Akasha's Barriers still protect every galaxy. Cosmics cannot travel between them easily. Mortals can, but the price we must pay is unimaginably steep. That is also the reason my mother perished not long after arriving in the Milky Way and giving birth to me."
The Fairy Monarch sighs softly.
"My people used the power of Ripspace to travel to several other galaxies. We were fortunate that the Creator had died, allowing us to take up residence here in secret, but the Angels, Titans, and Dragons were still a threat we could not overlook. Later, the Volgrim rose up too, and that was something that worried us for a while. Particularly when their Sentinels began to rapaciously erase the lives of innumerable Sentients."
She waves her hand. "Ultimately, very few galaxies didn't have a Ruler in power. Traveling to one that did meant flipping a coin and praying our people could avoid their gaze. Sadly, time has shown me that we were likely unsuccessful. I have lost contact with all my sisters across the cosmos."
The image of innumerable galaxies floating in the distance changes before Jason's eyes. Calanthra manipulates some unseen power, causing herself and Jason to suddenly materialize directly in front of a beautiful spiral galaxy.
"This is our Milky Way." Calanthra explains, waving her hand to conjure another, far bigger galaxy beside it. "And this is Andromeda."
"Is it just me or does Andromeda seem... brighter?" Jason asks.
"Andromeda contains far more interstellar particles, cosmic energy, and latent magical power than the Milky Way." Calanthra says. "Of course, in the ancient past, it had even more than it does now, but such is the way of entropy and Chaos."
Jason nods. "How exactly do galaxies lose power over time? Doesn't this feel self-defeating in a way?"
"Every Ruler enters the Unending War with a strategy." Calanthra says, motioning with her hands to disperse the galaxies and reveal images of ghostly creatures, some standing on two legs, some on four, and plenty that appear as mere blobs of energy. "I cannot pretend to know the thoughts of such high and mighty beings, especially as I am a mere mortal myself. Even so, I can definitively state that there are Rulers who seek to put as much galactic energy into their initial creations as possible, while others wish to adopt a more energy-efficient growth-model."
She pokes her finger against Jason's chest. "Take the angels and humans, for instance. The Creator poured the vast majority of his power into creating a galaxy full of Apex Cosmics. At their peak, the angels as a whole commanded enough power to flatten other galaxies. But what did they do instead? They fought with one another, killing themselves due to sheer boredom, if not outright ego."
"I see." Jason says, brushing Calanthra's finger away. "So the Creator dumped all the Milky Way's energy into the angels. I take it this is uncommon among Rulers?"
"Of course. It's a wasteful strategy and usually loses Rulers the War for that Eternity." Calanthra says dismissively. "The Timeless used a different strategy. She created the fairies as mere mortals that evolved over time, gaining greater and greater power through their own efforts. This meant that instead of devouring Andromeda's abundant Cosmic energy, they could slowly sap off its excess over time. For you see, the more energy a galaxy has, the more it can produce. If you ration it long enough, you can reap more of it across the duration of an Eternity."
"That makes sense." Jason concludes. "It's like a Rush build in an RTS versus an Economy build. You sacrifice long-term gains in exchange for short-term power. The problem is, with Akasha's Barriers preventing Rulers from attacking their enemies straight away, a Rush build is dumb because you're just wasting your resources and sacrificing Cosmic energy when you'll actually need it."
Calanthra blinks twice. She looks at Jason with a strange expression, then turns away for a moment, trying to understand the strange terms he's used. They mostly make sense, but some of them are a little...
She shakes her head and returns to the topic at hand. "Right. Rush strategy versus Economy. Of... course. Well, in any case, there is one advantage toward the first strategy. If you drain all the energy from your galaxy, it becomes less appealing for other Rulers to attack. Because Andromeda was so large and still filled with Cosmic power even billions of years after the Expansion Era, it stoked the hunger of the Dark Ones. Meanwhile, the Milky Way only needs to deal with the Plague, which is threatening for mortals, but manageable for Cosmics. In that respect, we've gotten off much luckier."
"I get the bigger picture now." Jason says with a nod. He turns to look back at the cosmos before him. "So, what about all this? Are we gonna go exploring, or what?"
"In order to explore the universe presented here, we would need to make sacrifices we cannot afford. I think you would find the price most disagreeable. But there is something we can explore freely..."
She waves her hand, and instantly, the brilliant and beautiful cosmic view of the universe vanishes.
In its place, Jason and Calanthra suddenly appear inside a dead, barren wasteland. Brown and grey dirt rises up in huge dunes stretching off into the distance. Fallen towers made of gold and stone lay on their sides, or stick into the ground, buried nearly up to their tops as they point diagonally toward the sky.
And speaking of the sky, it glows faintly grey, as if some weak, pale imitation of a star were trying to shine through a thin atmosphere clouded by dust and grime. The very air itself smells of sulfur and toxins, making Jason's nose curl up when he takes a breath.
"Ugh... what the hell? Where are we now?" Jason asks, as he turns and looks around at the dead world surrounding him.
"An Ancient Domain." Calanthra says softly. "A remnant of a dead universe. All life stripped away. All hope lost. Septillions of different Sentient species, gone. Their mortals, their Cosmics, reduced to dust by the Contraction."
The Wordsmith frowns. "This Ancient Domain represents a dead universe? But how can that be possible? If the Heat Death played out and all the galaxies faded to cosmic dust, then there already wouldn't be anything left. And then, if the entire universe collapsed into a singularity before exploding again, there definitely wouldn't be anything left behind resembling physical matter."
"You perceive reality through just three dimensions." Calanthra intones. "Time and space can be considered two dimensions. Cosmic Power is another dimension. I must admit I do not understand how Ancient Domains have continued to exist across countless Eternities, and I don't know how they retain a vaguely familiar form... but I can assure you that in spite of bending logic itself, they do exist and they can provide tangible benefits to those dedicated to exploring them."
"You've been exploring them, then?" Jason asks, turning away from the dead world to scrutinize Calanthra's phantasmal image.
"Me, a little. But often, I dispatch my descendants to scour these Ancient Domains for things of value. It may surprise you, but there are powerful artifacts, vengeful spirits, and all manner of other inter-dimensional horrors lurking within these so-called dead-lands."
Calanthra pauses. She shifts her posture to look at Jason deeply.
"And that is why I've brought you here, Jason. It's time for me to get down to the crux of the matter and breach the subject that I find most important."
He nods. "I'm listening."
"It's like this." Calanthra explains. "The Ancient Domains are unfathomably broad. Think of how large a universe is. Think of how many universes have existed. Think of how much space my people have yet to explore."
She pauses.
"The gains we have received have made my people stronger than you would expect. Among those gains are Yredelemnul's Eye and other leftover remnants of power that many dead ancient Rulers lost when their Existences became forfeit. While their tangible Existences may have perished, their spirits sometimes live on in these broad, unending dead universes..."
"That's why you approached me." Jason says, while crossing his arms and leaning on the ball of his heel. "You said you wanted an alliance with humanity. You... want humans to help you explore the Ancient Domains?"
"Trust is hard to come by among mortals, Cosmics, and Rulers." Calanthra says simply. "I never would have considered allying with the humans before, but you have shown me the broadness of your mind during the debate against your clone and the commander of your military. To some, you certainly appear naive, but to me I see an opportunity I would be foolish to ignore."
She continues. "The Fairies cannot reproduce efficiently. Every fairy we send into the Ancient Domain is one less fairy we have among our Empire. We already have a difficult time replenishing our numbers through the remaining Male Fairies, but do you think it is easy for us to reproduce with other species?"
Jason slowly shakes his head. "Blinker and Kar's children were all crocodiles, not fairies. From that, I can only imagine that most of the time, your mating attempts do not create more of yourselves, but instead more non-fairy children."
"That's exactly correct." Calanthra replies. "But that all changed recently when I found out one of your human males somehow spontaneously altered his genetic profile to become a fairy. There is no doubt about it; Samuel Baker harnesses all the capability to reproduce that you humans do, as well as the trueborn powers of any male fairy."
"So... are you seeking a marriage alliance with Samuel Baker?" Jason asks, scratching his head in confusion. "You could just ask him yourself, you know?"
"This is not about one man." Calanthra retorts. "Samuel Baker, if he were to join our ranks, would certainly help us stave off extinction for a while longer. But that is hardly worth all this melodrama and me taking you to the Ancient Domain in person..."
Jason's eyes widen in realization. "I see! You... you're thinking that if my magic could make one male fairy, I could surely make another, and another..."
"Yes, precisely." Calanthra says, revealing a beautiful smile. "Additionally, if humans were to assist us in scouring these Ancient Domains, we could make great gains together. There is plenty of room for another species to join ours in locating powerful artifacts and other items capable of Uplifting us."
"You want to become Cosmics still." Jason muses. "You haven't resigned yourselves to your current fate."
"Quite the opposite." Calanthra says. "The curse placed upon us is unbreakable by those beneath the realm of Ruler. As I said before, the fairies have lost this Eternity's war. However, while we cannot Ascend any longer, that does not mean the humans are subject to the same limitation. If we could groom a human into becoming the Milky Way's Ruler, we could finally break free of our shackles by virtue of having a powerful ally."
She pauses, looking meaningfully at the Wordsmith.
"If the Demons or the Volgrim were to become our Ruler, we would not enjoy such a benefit. At best, we would only maintain the status quo, and at worst, they might eradicate us out of fear of having an unsightly tumor in their midst."
"Haha." Jason laughs. "So you brought me here to show your sincerity. I get it. Well, I'm definitely not opposed to helping you. Blinker is my good friend. If she were to ask me, I'd definitely say yes to just about any request."
Jason turns away. He walks a few feet off to the side and pauses, standing to gaze out at the Ancient Domain and its endlessly rolling plains which stretches off into the infinite distance...
"Here's what I can do." Jason says. "My people are already working on laying out the options for humanity and where our fellow men and women will depart over the next few weeks. Some will travel to Maiura. Some will go to Sharmur. Some will stay on Tarus II. It's no trouble at all to put Pixiv on the list, especially as I was already planning to do that. I even have some other places I'd like to include, too..."
"Such as Camael's Cube?" Calanthra asks with a smile. "Or do you perhaps mean Chrona and Hope's Hall of Heroes?"
Jason nearly jumps out of his skin. He whirls around to look at Calanthra with shock in his eyes. "What?! How do you know about Chrona? How do you also know about where Hope has been hiding?? I don't even know that much!"
"For those who are talented in magic, it is possible to see through many lies and deceptions." Calanthra says calmly, unfazed by the alarm on Jason's face. "Your Spynet Sphere isn't so different from the many options I have at my disposal. I have many means to keep an eye on the galaxy. And while Diablo does not know exactly where or what Chrona is, he certainly knows of its general existence."
Her smile turns cold. "I would advise you not to take Unarin lightly either, Wordsmith. That ancient creature is more capable than you can imagine. He is hiding a great many secrets from the galaxy... secrets he does not know that I am aware of. If he were to learn of the true extent of my information web, I fear that he would dispatch a handful of High Psions to eliminate the fairy species tomorrow."
Calanthra's words truly rock Jason to his core. All along, he assumed the precautions he put on Chrona, precautions that fooled even Hope, would make his hidden dimension impossible to detect.
But how could he be so naive?
As the daughter of an Apex Cosmic, Calanthra must have her means, and that likely means Unarin and Diablo aren't too far behind either.
"Shit." Jason curses, lowering his head as a flicker of anger smolders in his heart. "I was too complacent. Chrona isn't secure, which means it's only a matter of time before more Cosmics learn of its existence. How long before they can find its exact location and invade it?"
"Calm yourself, child." Calanthra says soothingly. "The situation is not that dire. After all, Chrona still exists within a highly accelerated timespace. Any biological entity that wishes to travel there could suffer severe after-effects. Furthermore, the entities born inside will be too adapted to living within a higher dimension, so they won't pose much threat to the creatures of realspace."
She waves her hand. "Let's move on, Jason. I want to discuss other matters before dying of old age."
The Wordsmith cools himself off. He inhales deeply, then returns his attention to her.
"Alright. What next, then?"
"Fairies are not the only Sentients capable of entering Ancient Domains." Calanthra explains. "There are others who rarely appear inside here. That is why exploring these domains can be dangerous. The good news is that Cosmics have little need to enter these barren lands, as most of the heritages, treasures, and other such gains you might find inside are only useful to mortals. There are exceptions, but they are so rare as to be a needle found within ten million haystacks. A waste of effort better spent simply progressing one's Cosmic power the ordinary way."
"So what you're saying is, when you send fairies into an Ancient Domain, they can die as a result of crossing paths with Sentients from other galaxies." Jason concludes. "But if you had an army of humans to enter with you, your people would be a lot safer."
"Safety in numbers, yes. And you humans are... uniquely advantaged in Ancient Domain exploration." Calanthra says mysteriously. "Before that, though... do you know what the Power of Imagination is, Wordsmith?"
Jason raises an eyebrow. "Imagination? Like the mental ability to visualize stuff in your head? Yeah. It's not that complicated to understand."
"Ah, that's where you're wrong." Calanthra chides gently. "Imagination is the key to magical power. Imagination, Conception, Visualization, these are all key capabilities powerful maguses and sorcerors use to uplift their capabilities! And as it turns out, most Sentients are actually quite terrible at conceptualizing thoughts into imagery."
She gestures grandly. "Just take the Volgrim! You may think they are a powerful Sentient species, but in fact the Volgrim have terrible imaginations. They are stodgy, dull, and lack a great deal of creativity. All the gains their Technopaths make through technology are developed via brute force. They slowly improve their technological prowess by minute fractions over long periods of time, eventually resulting in a large and cohesive buildup."
"At the same time, the Psions Uplift themselves through meditation and sitting motionless for thousands of years at a time. Can a species capable of such incredible feats of drudgery also possess limitless imagination? I think not."
"Maybe the reason they're able to sit still for so long is because they live in their imagination?" Jason posits. "In which case their power of imagination should be quite formidable, right?"
"Possible, but unlikely." Calanthra says with a wave of her hand. "Never mind that. The point I'm trying to make is that humans have an extremely high affinity for magic. If your people were to ally with mine, we could teach you our ways. You could help us through your Wordsmithing and superior genetics, creating more fairies and humans alike. This would create a recursive cycle that would continually bolster both our species to greater and greater heights!"
She lowers her voice back to normal. "An alliance with humanity would have other benefits. You humans are equally adept in technology and magic both. You are versatile, capable of learning any skill provided you have time to devote to your studies. The bursts of inspiration you receive also allow you to make large jumps in capability as well, which could mean that in a relatively short period, you might even be capable of challenging the Volgrim."
Jason nods. "That does sound tempting, Calanthra. I'm willing to help you, but I won't demand my people join the fairies. It would be better if those who were the most interested did so instead."
Calanthra playfully twirls a finger through her hair. "Well. My daughters are all beautiful. Perhaps you should make mention that the fairies are... aggressively interested in copulation?"
"COUGH COUGH!" Jason wheezes, taking a step back as he asses her bold choice of words. "Yeah! Uh, I can probably- I'll let everyone know about that too. Obviously!"
Calanthra chuckles. "Such a cute boy. Well, it seems I've accomplished what I wanted. Let's return for now. You can always pay Ripspace a visit later."
"I will." Jason says, nodding seriously. "Waypoint."
Calanthra raises an eyebrow. "You think you can return here without a Ruler's power?"
"Won't know unless I try." Jason smiles back.
...
Not long after, Jason and Calanthra emerge back into Realspace. He shivers as he feels the Eye of Yredelemnul fixating on him from behind, but Calanthra quickly reactivates the Formation of Light, sending the sliver of a Ruler back to the shadows so it can no longer interact with the physical world.
"You know, Jason." Calanthra says. "You are a Candidate. You have the capability to become a Ruler someday."
"I am?" Jason asks, before thinking back to a conversation in the past. "Oh yeah, someone did mention that to me before. But... eh. I don't know. Becoming a Ruler sounds awful."
"Awful?" Calanthra asks. "How so?"
"It seems... lonely." Jason says, his voice softening. He looks at the space between the four statues, where Yredelemnul's Eye has disappeared. "Imagine all your loved ones dying, but you're stuck behind, living through the end of an Eternity, which takes trillions of years before Heat Death finally eradicates everything. Then comes the next Eternity, where you can remake your species again... but it won't be the same. Even if you remake your loved ones, it won't really be them."
Jason lowers and shakes his head. "That sort of life doesn't suit me."
"I understand why you'd think that way." Calanthra says. "In fact, you are suffering from the same affliction that plagues all Candidates who began their Existences as Biologicals. We have too many ties to the mortal world, so the majority of Biologicals who ascend to the rank of Ruler... fall to their non-biological opponents."
"As for the things which are not biological..." Calanthra says, looking at Jason with disgust. "You should already know what they are."
"Highly evolved Artificial Intelligences?" Jason guesses.
"That's right." Calanthra affirms. "There are several tiers of power a superintelligence can possess. The Volgrim have taken great care to prevent anything above a Beta Core from forming in the Milky Way, but once, a long time ago... they made a huge mess by accidentally creating the Milky Way's first Alpha Core Synthmind."
Calanthra chuckles. "The stupid fools didn't only create an Alpha Core, they gave it autonomy in the hopes it would be able to stop the wars between their factions. They built indestructible bipedal bodies for its splintered intelligences, and called them... Sentinels. Luckily, they were able to defeat the Alpha Core before it ascended further, but countless other biological species have failed at that juncture, creating an Alpha Core that ultimately devoured the full power of their galaxy for itself."
A chill trickles down Jason's spine. "You're saying the vast majority of Rulers are actually Alpha Core AIs? AIs that control entire galaxies?!"
"No, Jason." Calanthra counters. "Alpha Cores can defeat advanced civilizations. But there is one Existence higher than an Alpha Core, a tier that can only be reached once it has swallowed the power of a galaxy."
"That would be an Omega Core. a sentient artificial intelligence that has become Ruler over one or more galaxies. And in Akasha's game, more than 90% of all Rulers are estimated to be these superior lifeforms."
"It is for that reason that these highly adaptable entities are known as The Evolved."
submitted by Klokinator to TheCryopodToHell [link] [comments]


2024.05.18 22:29 Tesa_Tesanovic1988 Unlocking FDI potential in growth markets with RWA tokenization

Unlocking FDI potential in growth markets with RWA tokenization
Foreign direct investment (FDI) is a driving force behind economic growth. Four experts in the field – Henrik von Scheel, Paul Lalovich, Emilija Vukovic, and Tesha Teshanovich – outline how the innovative concepts of FDI-as-a-service and real world asset (RWA) tokenization can help growth markets beef up their FDI attractiveness.
The primary objective of FDI is to secure capital for investment. When conducive conditions are in place, FDI has the potential to foster job creation and sustainable development by enhancing an economy's productive capacity.
Still, regulatory hurdles, political instability, currency fluctuations, economic uncertainties, infrastructure limitations, cultural differences, and legal issues often hinder this goal.
https://preview.redd.it/a4vajp7uv81d1.jpg?width=900&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=cb84d502fc0753f00532cff2fdbbac0fbe57ecb4
Overcoming the obstacles of FDI requires innovative solutions that address the needs of investors, companies, and regulators. By engaging with local suppliers and forming partnerships with domestic businesses, foreign-owned companies can create additional benefits for the host economy, such as productivity spillovers through various channels.
According to FDI Markets, companies worldwide announced over $1.33 trillion worth of greenfield foreign direct investment in 2023, marking an increase of nearly 4% from the previous year.

The growth markets opportunity

We consider growth markets among the most undervalued asset classes worldwide, characterized by strong and improving earnings growth and financial metrics such as return on equity, free cash flow yield, and dividend yield. These markets benefit from an economic growth advantage over developed ones, with growth rates in emerging economies outpacing those in developed markets.
This growth trend is not solely reliant on China; other factors contribute, resulting in an upward trajectory for economic growth in growth markets while growth in developed markets decelerates. Globally, growth economies have typically rebounded from the global financial crisis faster than more advanced economies. Consequently, it's unsurprising that companies in developed nations are increasingly seeking avenues to expand their presence abroad.
This quest for new growth opportunities has brought attention to foreign direct investment policies worldwide, offering a promising outlook for investors.
According to the research conducted by Kearney, findings indicate a strong sense of investor optimism, with the potential for further growth over the next three years. A high percentage of respondents stated their intentions to boost their foreign direct investment in the coming years, and most expressed the view that FDI would play a more critical role in enhancing their corporate profitability and competitiveness over the next three years.
The realization of FDI advantages also hinges on the purpose behind the investment. Without responsible business practices and thorough research, FDI may lead to unintended consequences for the recipient nation. The presence of foreign multinational corporations can occasionally spark concerns regarding their potential social and environmental implications, particularly concerning the erosion of labor standards and their involvement in the unsustainable exploitation of natural resources.

Bringing FDI in

Challenges facing foreign direct investment include navigating complex regulatory frameworks, cultural differences, and political instability in some regions.
Developing countries encounter significant hurdles in attracting foreign direct investment, hindering their ability to fully capitalize on the associated benefits. In the past, developing countries have struggled to attract consistent foreign direct investment that could serve as a steady catalyst for economic growth, especially in sectors beyond oil and gas.
Additionally, foreign investors have shown restrained interest due to concerns regarding regulatory and political risks and shortcomings in economic fundamentals such as infrastructure and human capital. Investors in developed nations, where most private capital is concentrated, might lack familiarity with growth markets and developing economies. Consequently, the perceived risks associated with conducting business beyond their accustomed environment could lead to higher risk premiums.
This, in turn, has the potential to render projects non-bankable or non-viable for investors. However, developing nations should remain focused on enhancing the enabling environment. By doing so, they can attract greater private investment and ensure that these investments yield optimal outcomes and returns.
This, in turn, fosters a cycle of increased investment. To stimulate increased FDI in developing countries, mechanisms for de-risking are essential. De-risking involves reallocating, sharing, or mitigating the existing or potential risks linked to the investment.
In contrast, financial de-risking utilizes financial strategies to mitigate or diminish the risks linked with projects. This often entails public entities like donor governments, multilateral development banks, development financial institutions, and climate funds incentivizing private investors to invest capital by agreeing to assume a portion of the risk. De-risking can encompass various tactics, including debt, equity, and guarantees, distributing the risk among involved parties, or transferring it to a third party.

The operational framework

FDI has been increasingly utilized as a significant service for economic development, underscoring its crucial role in driving global economic growth and prosperity.
A critical aspect of this entails reimagining the operational framework – essentially redesigning the approach through which the country attracts foreign direct investment. In numerous transformations, countries may need to reconsider their fundamental approach to FDI attraction and reassess their value proposition: identifying the appropriate target investor segments to engage with, the incentives and services to provide, and the model that can optimize FDI inflows and economic benefits.
Moreover, FDI can act as a channel for the transfer of technology and aid in expediting digital transformation. It can enhance economic integration by bolstering access to global markets. Additionally, FDI plays a crucial role in supporting economies during and after economic downturns.
FDI as a service aims to outline the structure of tasks, responsibilities, and relationships between stakeholders, allowing for clear delineation of connections between its constituent investors and host countries. Providing foreign direct investment as a comprehensive, end-to-end service enhances the potential value realized in growth markets.
When executed effectively, this service facilitates seamless processes throughout the investment cycle, establishes methods for minimizing inefficiencies and maximizing effectiveness, sets standards for processes, integrates feedback mechanisms to encourage continual improvement, and optimizes handling of exceptions.
Although the potential for FDI spill-overs is widely recognized, it's important not to assume their positive impacts. The realization of FDI benefits in the host economy relies on various factors, including the competitiveness of local producers, the strategic decisions of foreign-owned firms, and the technological disparities between domestic and foreign-owned firms, thereby affecting the absorptive capacity of local producers.

FDI-as-a-service

This is where FDI-as-a-service comes in. This strategic approach involves top-down planning to optimize the outcomes of the investment portfolio by efficiently developing and delivering projects, with the aim to de-risk projects, scale investments, and optimize the overall outcome.
Providing FDI as a service through end-to-end solutions significantly leverages tokenization to transform and democratize foreign direct investment in growth markets.
Tokenization enables the fractional ownership of real-world assets, providing increased liquidity and democratizing access to sustainable investments for a wider range of investors. This process enhances asset management by enabling the automation and standardization of key operations through smart contracts.
Crucial steps such as compliance verifications, investor credential checks, and dividend distributions are automated, drastically reducing the burdens of manual documentation and inconsistent records. Blockchain technology facilitates rapid settlement, reducing risks associated with counterparty transactions. Its transparency and traceability ensure that each transaction is logged, simplifying audits and enhancing accountability, which in turn helps prevent fraud and strengthens transactional integrity.
The efficiencies gained through tokenization make the markets more accessible, lowering minimum investment sizes, diminishing geographical barriers, and allowing a wider range of participants. This increases both market volume and liquidity. Tokenization also supports nearly instantaneous settlements, further enhancing liquidity and benefiting both investors and traders.
By converting tangible and intangible assets into digital tokens, tokenization revolutionizes access to investments. It allows for fractional ownership, enabling the division of high-value assets into smaller, more affordable units. This transformation opens up investment opportunities to a broader, more diverse audience, democratizing access and reducing entry barriers, making it an ideal strategy for attracting FDI into emerging markets.

Tokenization on the blockchain

Tokenization of real-world assets, as part of FDI-as-a-service, involves converting tangible and intangible assets into digital tokens on a blockchain. These assets can include traditional ones like real estate, agricultural products, mining commodities, financial assets like equities and bonds, or even intellectual properties such as digital art.
This process may involve assets that are simultaneously represented in traditional record systems (off-chain), or those exclusively managed on the blockchain (on-chain). The tokenization process generally unfolds in four essential steps, each critical to ensuring the asset's successful digital representation and integration into growth markets through FDI services.
Tokenization of real-world assets as part of FDI-as-a-service boasts significant advantages, notably the democratization of access which potentially enhances liquidity through the fractionalization of assets, or the division of ownership into smaller, more manageable shares. This process can simplify previously labor-intensive manual procedures, reducing costs and making investment opportunities accessible to smaller investors within certain asset classes.
Nonetheless, regulatory constraints may limit access to these investments, often restricting tokenized assets to accredited investors. Although fractionalization enhances liquidity and is an attractive proposition, the distribution of tokenized assets must achieve a much larger scale to fully realize true democratization of access.
Furthermore, in the context of FDI as a service, the blockchain technology underlying the tokenization of real-world assets ensures complete transparency and immutability regarding ownership, transactions, and crucial market data, all verifiable by any participant.
We are confident in the future of tokenized assets. One estimate suggests the market could even grow 30-fold by 2030, when it may reach a value of over $28 trillion.Foreign direct investment (FDI) is a driving force behind economic growth. Four experts in the field – Henrik von Scheel, Paul Lalovich, Emilija Vukovic, and Tesha Teshanovich – outline how the innovative concepts of FDI-as-a-service and real world asset (RWA) tokenization can help growth markets beef up their FDI attractiveness. The primary objective of FDI is to secure capital for investment. When conducive conditions are in place, FDI has the potential to foster job creation and sustainable development by enhancing an economy's productive capacity. Still, regulatory hurdles, political instability, currency fluctuations, economic uncertainties, infrastructure limitations, cultural differences, and legal issues often hinder this goal.
Overcoming the obstacles of FDI requires innovative solutions that address the needs of investors, companies, and regulators. By engaging with local suppliers and forming partnerships with domestic businesses, foreign-owned companies can create additional benefits for the host economy, such as productivity spillovers through various channels. According to FDI Markets, companies worldwide announced over $1.33 trillion worth of greenfield foreign direct investment in 2023, marking an increase of nearly 4% from the previous year. The growth markets opportunity We consider growth markets among the most undervalued asset classes worldwide, characterized by strong and improving earnings growth and financial metrics such as return on equity, free cash flow yield, and dividend yield. These markets benefit from an economic growth advantage over developed ones, with growth rates in emerging economies outpacing those in developed markets. This growth trend is not solely reliant on China; other factors contribute, resulting in an upward trajectory for economic growth in growth markets while growth in developed markets decelerates. Globally, growth economies have typically rebounded from the global financial crisis faster than more advanced economies. Consequently, it's unsurprising that companies in developed nations are increasingly seeking avenues to expand their presence abroad. This quest for new growth opportunities has brought attention to foreign direct investment policies worldwide, offering a promising outlook for investors. According to the research conducted by Kearney, findings indicate a strong sense of investor optimism, with the potential for further growth over the next three years. A high percentage of respondents stated their intentions to boost their foreign direct investment in the coming years, and most expressed the view that FDI would play a more critical role in enhancing their corporate profitability and competitiveness over the next three years. The realization of FDI advantages also hinges on the purpose behind the investment. Without responsible business practices and thorough research, FDI may lead to unintended consequences for the recipient nation. The presence of foreign multinational corporations can occasionally spark concerns regarding their potential social and environmental implications, particularly concerning the erosion of labor standards and their involvement in the unsustainable exploitation of natural resources. Bringing FDI in Challenges facing foreign direct investment include navigating complex regulatory frameworks, cultural differences, and political instability in some regions. Developing countries encounter significant hurdles in attracting foreign direct investment, hindering their ability to fully capitalize on the associated benefits. In the past, developing countries have struggled to attract consistent foreign direct investment that could serve as a steady catalyst for economic growth, especially in sectors beyond oil and gas. Additionally, foreign investors have shown restrained interest due to concerns regarding regulatory and political risks and shortcomings in economic fundamentals such as infrastructure and human capital. Investors in developed nations, where most private capital is concentrated, might lack familiarity with growth markets and developing economies. Consequently, the perceived risks associated with conducting business beyond their accustomed environment could lead to higher risk premiums. This, in turn, has the potential to render projects non-bankable or non-viable for investors. However, developing nations should remain focused on enhancing the enabling environment. By doing so, they can attract greater private investment and ensure that these investments yield optimal outcomes and returns. This, in turn, fosters a cycle of increased investment. To stimulate increased FDI in developing countries, mechanisms for de-risking are essential. De-risking involves reallocating, sharing, or mitigating the existing or potential risks linked to the investment. In contrast, financial de-risking utilizes financial strategies to mitigate or diminish the risks linked with projects. This often entails public entities like donor governments, multilateral development banks, development financial institutions, and climate funds incentivizing private investors to invest capital by agreeing to assume a portion of the risk. De-risking can encompass various tactics, including debt, equity, and guarantees, distributing the risk among involved parties, or transferring it to a third party. The operational framework FDI has been increasingly utilized as a significant service for economic development, underscoring its crucial role in driving global economic growth and prosperity. A critical aspect of this entails reimagining the operational framework – essentially redesigning the approach through which the country attracts foreign direct investment. In numerous transformations, countries may need to reconsider their fundamental approach to FDI attraction and reassess their value proposition: identifying the appropriate target investor segments to engage with, the incentives and services to provide, and the model that can optimize FDI inflows and economic benefits. Moreover, FDI can act as a channel for the transfer of technology and aid in expediting digital transformation. It can enhance economic integration by bolstering access to global markets. Additionally, FDI plays a crucial role in supporting economies during and after economic downturns. FDI as a service aims to outline the structure of tasks, responsibilities, and relationships between stakeholders, allowing for clear delineation of connections between its constituent investors and host countries. Providing foreign direct investment as a comprehensive, end-to-end service enhances the potential value realized in growth markets. When executed effectively, this service facilitates seamless processes throughout the investment cycle, establishes methods for minimizing inefficiencies and maximizing effectiveness, sets standards for processes, integrates feedback mechanisms to encourage continual improvement, and optimizes handling of exceptions. Although the potential for FDI spill-overs is widely recognized, it's important not to assume their positive impacts. The realization of FDI benefits in the host economy relies on various factors, including the competitiveness of local producers, the strategic decisions of foreign-owned firms, and the technological disparities between domestic and foreign-owned firms, thereby affecting the absorptive capacity of local producers. FDI-as-a-service This is where FDI-as-a-service comes in. This strategic approach involves top-down planning to optimize the outcomes of the investment portfolio by efficiently developing and delivering projects, with the aim to de-risk projects, scale investments, and optimize the overall outcome. Providing FDI as a service through end-to-end solutions significantly leverages tokenization to transform and democratize foreign direct investment in growth markets. Tokenization enables the fractional ownership of real-world assets, providing increased liquidity and democratizing access to sustainable investments for a wider range of investors. This process enhances asset management by enabling the automation and standardization of key operations through smart contracts.
Crucial steps such as compliance verifications, investor credential checks, and dividend distributions are automated, drastically reducing the burdens of manual documentation and inconsistent records. Blockchain technology facilitates rapid settlement, reducing risks associated with counterparty transactions. Its transparency and traceability ensure that each transaction is logged, simplifying audits and enhancing accountability, which in turn helps prevent fraud and strengthens transactional integrity. The efficiencies gained through tokenization make the markets more accessible, lowering minimum investment sizes, diminishing geographical barriers, and allowing a wider range of participants. This increases both market volume and liquidity. Tokenization also supports nearly instantaneous settlements, further enhancing liquidity and benefiting both investors and traders. By converting tangible and intangible assets into digital tokens, tokenization revolutionizes access to investments. It allows for fractional ownership, enabling the division of high-value assets into smaller, more affordable units. This transformation opens up investment opportunities to a broader, more diverse audience, democratizing access and reducing entry barriers, making it an ideal strategy for attracting FDI into emerging markets. Tokenization on the blockchain Tokenization of real-world assets, as part of FDI-as-a-service, involves converting tangible and intangible assets into digital tokens on a blockchain. These assets can include traditional ones like real estate, agricultural products, mining commodities, financial assets like equities and bonds, or even intellectual properties such as digital art. This process may involve assets that are simultaneously represented in traditional record systems (off-chain), or those exclusively managed on the blockchain (on-chain). The tokenization process generally unfolds in four essential steps, each critical to ensuring the asset's successful digital representation and integration into growth markets through FDI services. Tokenization of real-world assets as part of FDI-as-a-service boasts significant advantages, notably the democratization of access which potentially enhances liquidity through the fractionalization of assets, or the division of ownership into smaller, more manageable shares. This process can simplify previously labor-intensive manual procedures, reducing costs and making investment opportunities accessible to smaller investors within certain asset classes. Nonetheless, regulatory constraints may limit access to these investments, often restricting tokenized assets to accredited investors. Although fractionalization enhances liquidity and is an attractive proposition, the distribution of tokenized assets must achieve a much larger scale to fully realize true democratization of access. Furthermore, in the context of FDI as a service, the blockchain technology underlying the tokenization of real-world assets ensures complete transparency and immutability regarding ownership, transactions, and crucial market data, all verifiable by any participant. We are confident in the future of tokenized assets. One estimate suggests the market could even grow 30-fold by 2030, when it may reach a value of over $28 trillion.
submitted by Tesa_Tesanovic1988 to Tokenization [link] [comments]


2024.05.18 22:02 constellation-hours [M4M] FICTION - an academic of the occult receives a letter from a disgruntled herbalist

In the sanctuary of your office, bathed in the soft glow of morning light, a mound of correspondence patiently awaits your perusal. The sea of mundane white envelopes is nothing out of the ordinary, but an emerald letter in golden script somewhere in there catches your eye. The return address bears the seal of the Royal Apothecary, an institution unknown to you, situated in the remote town of Jabuticaba—a name you have only ever encountered on maps, and it is addressed to you directly, a professor and researcher who has been working at the University of Mykon for over twenty years. With a measured hand, you unfurl the envelope.
Sir—
I write to convey a matter of grave concern, one that has regrettably eluded your attention since the publication of your dissertation entitled “the potential of elemental alchemy in mineral extraction” back in January. I am sincerely outstanded that a shadow hasn’t been cast upon your career and standing. I am therefore led to believe the academic standards of University of Mykon have gone down in the past thirty years since I last was an overseas student. In an ideal world, I would trust that, following your resignation, the vacant post would swiftly be filled by a learned and forward-thinking scholar, one who actually champions the cause of progressive sciences, thus illuminating the path for the minds of tomorrow. Yet, I am all too aware of the political machinations that often dictate the course of academia, where adherence to antiquated principles of elemental alchemy prevails within the hallowed halls of your establishment.
The oversight in question is no trifling matter. In your report, you assert that our continent lacks the requisite climatic and soil conditions for the growth of hyperaccumulative plants such as mimilus pangiens and mormine baratensis, therefore making it impossible to perform phytomining to extract metals from the soil. You advocate instead for the practice of elemental alchemy to obtain these vital compounds, a notion that I find preposterous. I write to you now surrounded by these very plants you claim are impossible to grow without the rarest of conditions, flourishing in abundance no more than 300 leagues from where you teach. The former blooms resplendent with its crimson tears and cadmium skirt, while the latter, though in nascent stages, has expanded its network of roots significantly. You may wonder at my methods, but I assure you, the truth lies within the realm of possibility.
That during your entire research process you ended up overlooking the vast network of exceptional herbalists active and thriving in all corners of our rich civilization is tragedy. That this omission also went unnoticed amidst the rigors of peer review is comedy.
I assure you, under different circumstances, I would not concern myself with the written ramblings of amateurs, fictionists, or charlatans who roam the corridors of your institution. It is not my duty to lead the willful pighead towards enlightenment, nor do I relish the prospect of engaging in fruitless endeavors. However, fate has intervened in the form of a promising protegee of mine, who, through diligent scholarship, earned a prestigious placement at your university. Imagine my astonishment upon her return, then, bearing your treatise, which to my dismay is now part of the national syllabus.
It is not with much of a heavy heart that I contemplate the necessity of addressing the errors that have crept into your research on phytomining. Were it not for the endearing praise and admiration bestowed upon you by my impressionable yet brilliant protegee, whose judgment I trust despite the fable quality of the tales she shares of your teachings, I would be compelled to raise my quill in defiance and expose these discrepancies to the discerning eyes of the intellectual community. Let this instead be a fair warning to do your due diligence and rectify the shortcomings of your life’s works.
With concern and scruple,
N.H. Al-Tamimi
submitted by constellation-hours to penpals [link] [comments]


2024.05.18 21:59 constellation-hours [M4M] An academic of the occult receives a letter from a disgruntled herbalist

In the sanctuary of your office, bathed in the soft glow of morning light, a mound of correspondence patiently awaits your perusal. The sea of mundane white envelopes is nothing out of the ordinary, but an emerald letter in golden script somewhere in there catches your eye. The return address bears the seal of the Royal Apothecary, an institution unknown to you, situated in the remote town of Jabuticaba—a name you have only ever encountered on maps, and it is addressed to you directly, a professor and researcher who has been working at the University of Mykon for over twenty years. With a measured hand, you unfurl the envelope.
Sir—
I write to convey a matter of grave concern, one that has regrettably eluded your attention since the publication of your dissertation entitled “the potential of elemental alchemy in mineral extraction” back in January. I am sincerely outstanded that a shadow hasn’t been cast upon your career and standing. I am therefore led to believe the academic standards of University of Mykon have gone down in the past thirty years since I last was an overseas student. In an ideal world, I would trust that, following your resignation, the vacant post would swiftly be filled by a learned and forward-thinking scholar, one who actually champions the cause of progressive sciences, thus illuminating the path for the minds of tomorrow. Yet, I am all too aware of the political machinations that often dictate the course of academia, where adherence to antiquated principles of elemental alchemy prevails within the hallowed halls of your establishment.
The oversight in question is no trifling matter. In your report, you assert that our continent lacks the requisite climatic and soil conditions for the growth of hyperaccumulative plants such as mimilus pangiens and mormine baratensis, therefore making it impossible to perform phytomining to extract metals from the soil. You advocate instead for the practice of elemental alchemy to obtain these vital compounds, a notion that I find preposterous. I write to you now surrounded by these very plants you claim are impossible to grow without the rarest of conditions, flourishing in abundance no more than 300 leagues from where you teach. The former blooms resplendent with its crimson tears and cadmium skirt, while the latter, though in nascent stages, has expanded its network of roots significantly. You may wonder at my methods, but I assure you, the truth lies within the realm of possibility.
That during your entire research process you ended up overlooking the vast network of exceptional herbalists active and thriving in all corners of our rich civilization is tragedy. That this omission also went unnoticed amidst the rigors of peer review is comedy.
I assure you, under different circumstances, I would not concern myself with the written ramblings of amateurs, fictionists, or charlatans who roam the corridors of your institution. It is not my duty to lead the willful pighead towards enlightenment, nor do I relish the prospect of engaging in fruitless endeavors. However, fate has intervened in the form of a promising protegee of mine, who, through diligent scholarship, earned a prestigious placement at your university. Imagine my astonishment upon her return, then, bearing your treatise, which to my dismay is now part of the national syllabus.
It is not with much of a heavy heart that I contemplate the necessity of addressing the errors that have crept into your research on phytomining. Were it not for the endearing praise and admiration bestowed upon you by my impressionable yet brilliant protegee, whose judgment I trust despite the fable quality of the tales she shares of your teachings, I would be compelled to raise my quill in defiance and expose these discrepancies to the discerning eyes of the intellectual community. Let this instead be a fair warning to do your due diligence and rectify the shortcomings of your life’s works.
With concern and scruple,
N.H. Al-Tamimi
submitted by constellation-hours to fictitious_letters [link] [comments]


2024.05.18 21:42 Tainavea Path of Stringed Bones

Dream and Shadow aspects
A puppetry Path. Taking control over non sapient Remnants and using them for combat.
Dream for dominating their minds; Shadow for its (overshadowing) domineering, binding (your shadow sticks to you) and copying (your shadow copies you) nature.
It's a Natural Spirit / Remnant utilizing Path, similar to those practiced in Everwood, but the relationship is a bit different - the Sacred Artist totally dominates the spirit rather than acting more like a partner, and the nature of their bond is also different, a Soul Oath Contract isn't necessary (but it is possible... assuming compatible madra types - unless you're comfortable switching Paths entirely).
It also resembles the Beast King's Path, but focused on spirits and Remnants, rather than Sacred Beasts, and it's angled towards control rather than communication and cooperation.
Madra is a dark violet in colour, with shining violet stars. Cycling this madra tends to make one feel more confident and possessive, similar to Blackflame of the Black Dragons and and Flowing Flame of the Gold Dragons respectively.
Goldsign from Stringed Bones Remnants tend to take the form of ethereal black ribbons tied above the joints of the fingers (that means every joint, of every individual finger), the wrists, elbows, shoulders, neck, waist, knees, ankles.
The Path is also compatible with Night-Drinking Peacocks, which may grant them its hypnotic tail feathers as their Goldsign; or the Moonlight Ensnaring Cuckoo bird, its vicious yet delicate talons; or the Snake-Eating Sagittarius bird, its dreamweaving crest to protect their own minds; and finally, there's also the Somnolent Songbird, which grants them a pharynx that allows them to imitate its birdsong which grants anyone sleeping and dreaming around it to become conscious in their dreams. They have been trying to get functional wings, but it seems the heavens themselves deny them their wish.
Strengths & Drawbacks
Though the Path offers great force multiplier benefits at lower levels of advancement, it requires significant resource investment to stay competitive at higher stages of the Sacred Arts. Also, while having a veritable swarm of Remnants to unleash upon your enemies - while you yourself remain safely further back - sounds amazing, there are some downsides to consider as well: this Path does not offer you direct personal combat power, you need to rely on your Remnant minions for that, which also means you need to catch stronger Remnants somehow and/or share advancement resources with your minions, on whom you depend on for protection, while keeping a careful balance to not let them get too powerful and slip the leash. Swarm tactics might work at the lower stages of the Sacred Arts, but it gets more and more unfeasible as you advance - as you have to deal with the Soulfire baptized bodies of your opponents, and even further up with willpower shenanigans.
Techniques
Shamanism: their spirit domination technique. Subjects the target's mind and spiritual functions to the artist's control, puppeteering them. It only works on Remnants and spirits. Their Path is not suited towards dominating the minds / living spirits of Sacred Artists, unless they're much weaker than you or weakened somehow - though attempting to do so can be used as a mental / spiritual attack. They technically can dominate Sacred Instruments, which could be very useful for dodging hits and taking an opponent by surprise.
Ventriloquism: their partial spirit domination technique, much faster than Shamanism and this speed is the main advantage of this technique, taking control of a Remnant quickly in an emergency. This technique is also used in (slightly) more partnership-like relationships between the artist and Remnant, as well as in situations where the Remnant's natural instincts would be more useful, or simply to reduce the number of minions they need to control directly - not totally suppressing their mind and power, but issuing them compulsion commands / subjecting them to your will.
Incarnation: allows a Sacred Artist to use a Remnant minion as an... "avatar", inhabiting their form / wearing their skin by utilising the connection between them and the Remnant's suppressed mind and will. It's basically a method to project their madra from a distance without needing an actual Soul Oath Contract. They mostly used it to subdue and induct new Remnant minions. Very madra intensive to perform; also the minion that served as the vessel would need to vent any remaining madra lest their core get permanently tainted.
Sovereignty: their Enforcer technique, allows them to oppose and undo any mind or spirit affecting techniques on themselves. Can also be used as a mental and spiritual focusing aid, keeping them on track while performing repetitive or exhausting tasks and for keener spiritual control.
False Darkness: their Ruler technique to hide in shadows, most effective in dense urban or forested or rocky terrain (because a random blob of darkness in the middle of a field is hardly inconspicuous). They hide using this technique while sending their Remnants ahead to fight or to scout around.
Jade Cycling Technique
Netherworld Karmic Ties: a Cycling Technique that has an binding and pulling in addition to a whirlpool to draw in a Remnant to advance to Gold. This characteristic association with strings also ties in to its benefits: it helps with long distance projection of madra.
Iron Body
Iron Fist Iron Body: a classic, simple and basic Iron Body that grants strength and durability benefits to the Sacred Artist. It's better suited for more directly physical combat focused Paths, but in this case it serves to offset the lack of personal power in the Path. Requires martial arts prowess to properly showcase its strength, which is dealing powerful physical blows.
submitted by Tainavea to AThousandPathsToPower [link] [comments]


2024.05.18 21:42 warmandcozysuff Interview Questions

I am going back to teaching after taking a year off (substituting) and applying in a completely different area than I used to teach in. I'm pretty nervous because I haven't done an interview like this in forever. I've seen several posts asking about what questions may be asked in interviews, with no responses. It's been a while since my interviews, but I remember nailing most of them (I did A LOT of interviews before I settled on my previous school). The reason I nailed them is because my classroom management teacher gave us a list of questions and let us practice answering them with a partner at the end of every class. I also wrote out the answers to every question, so I knew I had really thought them through, and I put the questions in a little cup and pulled one out every time I passed it to practice answering them.
Honestly, I think most of us will find a job even if we do not nail the interviews, but it could be the difference between getting the job you want and just taking the job you get. So, it is important IMO to practice questions a lot if you have your heart set on a specific school.
I'm not sure how much questions have changed since COVID and everything, but I thought I'd share the list I had from back then. I'd love to know any additional questions y'all may have encountered in interviews since then, so I can add them to my little cup. I'm also happy to listen if any incoming teachers want to bounce some answers off of me! Also, most of the questions on my list were never asked in my 20 or so interviews. The most common ones back then were strengths/weaknesses, what curriculum are you familiar with, and classroom management style. There were also some new questions at each interview, though I didn't add them to my list back then unfortunately. I'm interested to know if there are any specific questions y'all have gotten over and over.
So, without further ado, heres the list my teacher gave me all those years ago:
1. Why did you become a teacher?
2. Why do you want to work at this school?
3. What kind of qualities do students look for in a teacher?
4. What do you think it takes for a teacher to be successful?
5. What is your classroom management philosophy?
6. How will you plan to build positive relationships with parents?
7. How will you handle a parent who is overly involved in your classroom?
8. How well do you know and understand the Common Core State Standards?
9. What is your opinion of classroom technology and how do you plan to integrate it?
10. What are your strengths and weaknesses?
11. What is your personal philosophy of teaching?
12. How do you anticipate identifying a struggling student? What will you do to help that student?
13. Can you describe important events of the first day of school in your classroom?
14. What do you think about teachers working together to plan lessons and test? What will you be able to contribute to this collaboration?
15. What was the most difficult aspect of your student teaching experience?
16. What are the different ways you will assess students and measure their learning?
17. How will you modify your instruction to meet the needs of a gifted learner?
18. What is the most valuable lesson you learned from your student teaching experience?
19. How do you plan to continue growing as a professional?
20. How do you plan to accommodate a student with an IEP?
21. Can you tell me an example of a lesson you’ve planned and taught that models differentiated instruction?
22. How will you prepare your students for our standardized state assessments?
23. What type of communication do you plan to have with your parents?
24. How will you handle a student who continues to interrupt your instruction?
25. How will you handle a student with autism who is having a meltdown in class?
26. What grade and/or subject do you feel most comfortable teaching?
27. What subject area is your least favorite?
28. How will you handle conflict among fellow teachers?
29. What is one area where you hope to grow professionally?
30. What is your opinion of classroom observations?
31. What classroom rules and procedures do you consider important?
32. How do you plan to address bullying in your classroom?
33. Who was your most influential teacher and why?
submitted by warmandcozysuff to Teachers [link] [comments]


2024.05.18 21:19 SeekingHealth78 Help and Advice Sought if possible (UK)

Hello
Could I get some advice and guidance on what all these tests might mean and what I need to learn and know should my Endocrinologist head down the route of TRT, which is where she has indicated over the past couple of months whilst doing tests?
I apologise for the length, but I have tried to cover it as much as possible, as I accept nothing is simple. If more information is needed that I have missed, please ask.
Thanks

Stats
History
I was overweight for a good 20 years; we think this was when my thyroid started causing issues, and it took many years for the NHS to even consider that a problem. I also had no morning erections for a good ten years. I honestly cannot remember the last time I felt hungry, and that was after either an hour of weight lifting or hiking for a full day in the Austrian Alps (the longest one was a 10km round trip and a 1200m climb and then descent).
It took several years to sort the thyroid, and I was still unable to lose weight, although other things had resolved themselves. My GP refused to investigate further, saying simply I was too young. Plus, back in 2019, my Testosterone level was 17.1nmol/L, and now it is down to 7.5, and apart from being a few years older, nothing else has changed weight-wise or fitness, etc. I have had many Covid jabs as my father was extremely vulnerable, and I was his carer.
I am now under a different GP practice that started from scratch and said that, in their opinion, something underlying was causing the myriad of symptoms. They started testing and thought she knew what was wrong. It was agreed that, in computer terms, there was a tick box that needed ticking, but finding which one would take time.
However, their final idea saw her ask for guidance from Endocrinology; they said to do nothing and that they would take over. This was in 2023. However, Testosterone issues are an ultra-low priority in my area, so my expected appointment is in 2025.
For the past few months, I have seen an Endocrinologist privately with the agreement of my GP, who has done all the requested tests and agreed that if any prescriptions are needed, they will do it.
In addition to the above, dieticians have cleared me, having seen them privately and on the NHS.
I spent a year with a personal trainer at a bodybuilder gym, working out with him three times a week with no results and stopped through no results but with growing mental and physical fatigue. Walking 10,000 steps a day is not a problem for me.
I have had this all on hold for a while, what with COVID-19 and then a relative's very poor health. It is now time to focus back on myself, I think. I sleep a good 8 hours a night and get up feeling worse than going to bed – although randomly, I do have bouts of insomnia.
As mentioned to my GP and Endocrinologist, I have no problem putting in the hard work at the gym, but when that hard work does absolutely nothing for muscle mass or body shape, etc., it gets very depressing. I guess that does give me one direct question: How long do I need to leave it before going back if my Endocrinologist prescribes TRT—do I need to let my body recover a bit before stressing it by doing weights, etc.?
Tests (Using UK NHS Scales)
Testosterone has been done now 6 or 7 times, always within 0.2 or below and always done between 08:50 and 09:10 in the morning.
In addition, she requested an ultrasound, and the results came back as 29mm AP diameter and 19mm AP diameter, respectively, for the testes.
TestResultNHS Reference Range Testosterone7.5 nmol/L8.6 – 29.0 Calculated Free Testosterone180 pmol/L SHBG25 nmol/L18.3 - 54.1 Free T4 level21.7 pmol/L11 - 23 TSH level0.49 miu/L0.27 - 4.5 Haematocrit0.4190.387 – 0.492 Creatinine level71 umol/L59 - 104 Urea level3.9 mmol/L2.5 - 7.8 Potassium level4 mmol/L3.5 - 5.3 Albumin level39 g/L35 - 50 Total Protein level7460 - 80 Sodium level142 mmol/L133 - 146 Insulin-like growth factor 1 level11.5 nmol/L11.1 - 27.7 Growth hormone level0.1 ug/L Prolactin level241 mu/L86 - 324 Cortisol level Dexamethasone suppression test19 nmol/L Cholesterol level5.0 mmol/L Triglyceride level2.4 mmol/L HDL1.1 mmol/L LDL2.8 mmol/L Cholesterol / HDL ratio4.5 mmol B12563ng/l197 – 771


submitted by SeekingHealth78 to trt [link] [comments]


2024.05.18 21:18 ApprehensiveCap6525 Earth is a Lost Colony (28)

A/N: yeah I changed up the Alliance admiral's name from Shepard Adama to Sheparda Dama (so creative i know) because the old one was going to fuck me over badly at some point. It would be like trying to make a legitimate, serious fantasy novel with a wizard named Albus Gandalf. I was NOT cooking when I came up with that shit.
First Previous Wiki Next
It was said that no plan ever survived contact with the enemy. That, at least in the case of Marcus Wayne’s infiltration of Neldia, was proven entirely true.
His ship, the Peacemaker, had undergone an extensive refit before its jump to Neldia to both modify its sensor signature and repair its failing Aegis barrier. The first objective succeeded. The second did not.
One day later, leaving the derelict Ultimate Vigil behind in deep space, the United Human Alliance courier ship Winged Deliverance logged a real space entry at the edge of the Neldia system. Its crew, having spent their waking hours plagued by hallucinations and enduring horrible nightmares as they slept, found this shift very welcome. The worst, though they could hardly believe it, was still yet to come.
“The Neldian fleet is mustering for war,” rumbled the man who had once held the title and security codes of an Alliance sector admiral. Now, he was a traitor to his homeland. “Security will be high.”
“No need to worry, Admiral,” said Marcus Wayne. “Your code will get us through.” It would not.
It took two hours for the Peacemaker, disguised as the Winged Deliverance, to be challenged by the Neldian Armada. “Transmit clearance code,” said an automated voice. Marcus took out a data disc with the admiral's clearance code on it.
“Hold,” said Terris. She was clad in black, her active camouflage offline to save battery, and she had been sitting at the passive sensor console for the past three hours. “Look at this.” A news broadcast popped up in front of Marcus Wayne and his officers. Sector Admiral Sheparda Dama, or at least he was once a sector admiral, had been tried and convicted of high treason.
“It was a secret trial,” Dama said, still in shock at the revelation. “I had no knowledge of this.”
“Well, that tracks, but what do we do now? What code gets us through?”
“Transmit clearance code,” the voice said again, “or adjust course.”
Dama thought for a moment. “Change course,” he said. “We’re not getting through.”
They did. A great sense of defeat took hold in the hearts of the crew. They would never reach the Neldian hypercom. Sheparda Dama, who would have gladly given his life in defense of humankind, would never get the chance to be the man who broke their chains.
The Peacemaker was halfway out of the Neldia system before Terris spoke again. “Hold it,” she said. “I have an idea.”
That was why she had been placed where she was. Clad in an airtight stealth suit. Inside a hollowed-out asteroid. On a ballistic journey to the heart of Neldian space. It was the most insane idea that Marcus Wayne had ever seen.
But, sometimes, insanity was a symptom of genius.
Terris flew past the Neldian Armada undetected. Many asteroids entered the inner system this way, flung by outer-system prospecting ships to the foundries and shipyards in Neldian orbit, and they were thrown and caught so frequently that only the most cursory of inspections was put upon each one. Terris passed the Alliance fleet entirely undetected.
Terris’ chameleon suit could mimic the sensor return of the precious metals it was buried in, at least enough to fool a probing scan, and the cuts made by Protectoral engineers had been so precise that Terris had fit inside there with barely a centimeter of space to spare. She was effectively entombed inside sixty meters of solid rock.
Interstellar espionage was not a job for the claustrophobic.
Finally, after days of waiting, the signal came. She was in range. A mental command triggered a series of shaped charges in the rock above her, if such directions existed in microgravity, and forty pea-sized explosives blasted a circular tunnel all the way to the asteroid surface. If just one of them had failed, that rock might have been her tomb.
Terris tried not to think about that as she began climbing her way out. A brief burst from her suit’s EVA thrusters was enough to start her on her way, and the tunnel out was wide enough for her to use her arms and legs to speed things up. Finally, after too long a wait, Terris saw the Neldian sun for the very first time.
There was fire in the distance. Comm chatter on every band. Warships burning hard for the outer system. The Coalition fleet was here.
She zoomed in, far more than she had ever had to before, and she could pick out the faintest flashes of blue as warships exploded in the black. A brief crawl around the asteroid, which also helped to warm up her muscles after days of inactivity, let her discern an attack force engaging the Alliance fleet. After a moment’s hesitation, weighing the risks, Terris activated her passive sensor suite to try and decrypt Alliance military chatter.
Instantly, her sensors were flooded with noise from the defensive bastions. The fleet base at the L5 point was loudest, its comm operators screaming indecipherably at fellow Alliance elements fighting in the black. Neldian orbit, where the hypercom station was, seemed to be the centerpiece of all the communications traffic. The hypercom, unsurprisingly, was being used as a relay for comm traffic all across the system. Terris made a note to hack its server banks for intelligence, and perhaps leave a timed virus or two to shut down the system after she was gone.
Her suit bleeped, alerting her that she was in optimum position to make the leap to the hypercom. She zoomed in on it, a red and spiked thing just like everything else the Alliance made, and calculated the right trajectory to land right on its metal surface.
Trying to jump from a moving asteroid out past Neldia’s rings and hit a hypercom station barely three hundred meters in diameter was like shooting a rifle from a jumbo jet in hopes of hitting a mosquito down on Earth. A nearly impossible shot, even with Coalition computers to help make the jump, and anyone lucky enough to make it would have been better served bankrupting their local casino at the slot machines.
Terris gave a command to her suit, activating a set of ion thrusters to boost her off the asteroid and adjust her course mid-flight. She’d never believed in luck.
She coasted silent and graceful past the particle guns in high orbit, like a majestic swan flying on a summer wind. Their sensor arrays were directed out, past her, to the far distant parts of space where a trillion tons of steel were locked in deadly battle. Terris really did wish she could smile at the moment. She was about to have unrestricted access to the biggest communications relay in the star system, able to send out viruses and receive vital intelligence that could cripple the Alliance fleet if placed in the right hands. Terris, confident as ever, knew they would be.
She would make the Neldian Armada burn, and they had no idea she was even coming.
She reached the hypercom station in just under a day, agonizingly slow for a woman like her, hovering just above its surface to avoid triggering pressure sensors. After that, it was simple enough to get inside. Terris found it almost trivial to bypass the airlock sensor grid and trigger the outer bulkhead to open unnoticed, its report to the command room destroyed before it ever arrived. Entering the station itself was easy after that.
Here, there was gravity. She could not hover like she had on the outside of the station. But here, there were no pressure sensors. She really had no need to hover.
The corridor she found herself in was large enough, though nothing like the expansive halls of a dreadnought, and a patrol of marines in powered suits trundled towards her obliviously. Terris had made the right call not to wear a Phantom powered suit. She ducked into an alcove, the chameleon suit concealing her from even their impressive sensor batteries, and they passed by with no clue at all.
Terris made it to the server banks with ease. Most of the hypercom’s security measures took the form of warships in orbit, clustered tightly around the planet to prevent exactly this scenario from happening, but those warships were off waging war. The station defenses were hopeless now that she was actually inside.
The data was encrypted, and she could neither access it nor copy it without potentially fatal consequences, but she wasn’t there to steal data. A brief, milliseconds-long connection to the primary server was all it took to riddle the entire system with custom-tailored computer viruses. The viruses were self-replicating, rather like an electronic version of the biological ones on Earth. They worked similarly, too, meant to latch onto outgoing communications signals and remain inert for a certain amount of time before activating and wreaking havoc across cyberspace.
The program would be scoured from the net in seconds once it began its assault, but it would cause plenty of chaos before then. And, with another critical transmission being scheduled to send at around that time, Terris knew her mostly-ineffective virus attack would be just enough of a distraction to make sure its message was heard.
Terris planned to leave the station in approximately thirty minutes. Shortly after that, the fireworks would begin. It was going to be beautiful.
She heard footsteps. A maintenance worker, no doubt. It was time for her to go. She disconnected from the server, taking pains to hide her involvement, and snuck out of the server room like a ghost in the night.
Next was the transmission array. This room was better-guarded, its door being flanked by marines, but Terris slipped inside by trailing behind an officer as he entered on some unknown pretext. After that, her daring and sleight of hand made sure Admiral Dama’s pre-recorded propaganda transmission was uploaded to the hypercom transmitter. It came with a set of instructions bearing the Admiralty’s seal, changed to be anonymous, to ensure as many people as possible heard his message.
In just under one standard hour, the United Human Alliance would be shaken to its very core. Terris had just made sure of it.
It took longer than she had expected for the door to open again and give her a chance to slip out. Terris had spent that time quite productively, downloading as many incoming and outgoing messages as she could to the internal hard drive just by her spinal cord. Even if they were encrypted, they’d be useful intelligence once Coalition codebreakers took a crack at them.
After that, it was trivial to slip past marine patrols and escape to the hull of the hypercom station. Terris found her ride, an Alliance warship by the name of Brightest Thunder, holding orbit just near the hypercom station. Admiral Dama, even if he was no longer an admiral, still had connections.
She charged her ion thrusters by tapping into the station reactor, an act which did not go unnoticed, but by then it was too late to respond. She had completed her incursion. The damage had been done. Perhaps if the Alliance acted swiftly and accurately, they could undo it, but Terris was a careful woman. She had covered her tracks well.
Waving one final goodbye to the crew of the hypercom station, Terris triggered her thrust pack and shot off into the ink.
“You must be my passenger.” A man in an Alliance captain’s uniform was waiting for her in the Brightest Thunder’s airlock. He wore a helmet and gloves, hermetically sealed to his airtight outfit, so he felt no effects from the vacuum of space. “I was sent by Sector Admiral Sheparda Dama,” he announced after a period of silence, “To transport you and whatever you may have safely to the Coalition fleet.” Nothing. Apart from the dull thudding of the ship’s railgun batteries, firing missiles at range to ward off a strike force of Coalition ships, the airlock was quiet as a ghost.
“You cannot expect me to endanger my life and the lives of my crew without at least some identification that you are who you claim to be!” Silence. Captain Senar Trevy had been standing in that airlock for three and a half hours, while his ship was tasked with screening Neldia and her eighteen billion inhabitants from harm, and he was just now wondering if he had been talking to a ghost.
“I am,” came a voice. Cold. Sterile. Inhuman. Exactly the kind Trevy expected from the secret spies of his former admiral.
“So you are.” Captain Trevy thought for a moment. He cycled the airlock. If his guest held hostile intent, one steel bulkhead would make no difference. “I’ve been stocking the crew with handpicked men and women since I received word of the operation,” he explained as they walked through the ship’s corridors. The crewmen he passed thought him insane. “I can’t vouch for them all, but the ship as a whole will obey me.” No response. Sometimes, Captain Trevy thought himself insane as well.
“This is my personal quarters,” he told the specter, stepping inside and sealing the door behind him. “I must warn you, for your own safety, it would be best not to leave it. The crew are mostly still Alliance loyalists.” He looked around, paying no heed to the decorated furniture or artificial sky, and finally shrugged and sighed. “Are you even here, still?”
Terris decloaked. She stood between him and the door, winged and cloaked in black like a demon of ancient myth. “I am.”
“You’re a black angel.” Senar Trevy, to his credit, kept his composure well. “A spy for the Ierad Republic.” He questioned her purpose here. They both knew it.
“You weren’t told?”
“I was told an alien would be coming aboard, but…” Trevy shrugged again, as if to say ‘what am I supposed to do?’ “The admiral vouched for you. That much is enough for me.” He also knew he had no choice in the matter. From what he knew about black angels, his ship had been lost the moment she boarded.
“I could have impersonated him,” said Terris, voice a perfect replica of Captain Trevy’s own. Even his own mother could not have told the difference. “And I’m trained to lie.” She was testing him, gauging his reaction to assess his personality. She was good at that.
“I could have you screened for deception,” Trevy countered, pointing up at a pearl-sized camera in the ceiling. Terris made a note that it was disabled. “And I could have had the technology officers vet your transmission.”
“I’m trained to lie well.” Terris sat down on Captain Trevy’s bed, a spartan thing compared to the sleeping quarters of most officers. There were no chairs in the room, so her options were few. She took off her helmet and tried to at least appear relaxed. In reality, she was anything but. “It comes with the job, really.”
“Fair,” Trevy chuckled, feigning calm. “I suppose the question now becomes whether or not you can trust me.”
“It’s a safe gamble.” Terris made a mental calculation. It would take her between thirty and fifty seconds to kill Captain Trevy, take the bridge, and vent the ship. That was a very safe gamble. “Besides, that’s what a peace treaty is.” Trevy looked confused. “A leap of faith. You trust your enemy to back their word, and you trust them to trust you as well. If we can’t get along here, can’t put aside our differences to work toward a common goal, then the Alliance will be right. And I hate it when they’re right.”
“I’m speaking to you now because I know they are wrong.” That came as no surprise to either of them. “You know, I was once a foreman of a labor crew in the munitions factories. The most productive unit in my sector.” That one did come as a surprise. “As a foreman, you get leeway to make certain decisions regarding the… well, I suppose they are slaves, under your command. Food intake and the like.” Captain Trevy looked pained when he brought up such memories. Terris wasn’t convinced that was how he really felt. “They use it to weed out any potential xeno sympathizers from the populace. Of course, at the time, I wasn’t so empathetic.”
“So you were a slave driver, and you beat your slaves to make them work. I hope every one of those shells was sabotaged.” Terris’ voice dripped with disdain. She had almost forgotten the Alliance captain was her enemy.
“No, I showed mercy,” Trevy defended himself. “I was generous.” This made Terris reconsider. Perhaps Senar Trevy could be an ally, if not a friend. “I won’t say I was a good man, but I wasn’t cruel. I was practical. Strong, healthy, well-treated workers are more productive than the beaten sacks of flesh in the other factories. My crew’s output was unmatched.”
“And?” Terris cocked her head inquisitively. For a high-ranking officer in the space navy of a genocidal regime, Senar Trevy really did not seem so bad. To be fair, however, she had set the bar pretty low.
“I was investigated for anti-human activity.” Terris could have predicted that. She almost did, too. “They sent me to the fleet, and my labor crew was reacquainted with the energy whips and pain beams.” There was no carrot for an Alliance labor slave. Only the stick. “Their productivity fell thirty percent in the first two weeks alone.” He sounded almost mournful as he said that. He was not lamenting the loss in productivity.
“You see,” said Trevy, “Hatred is not natural. It has to be caused, sustained, nurtured from the day a man is born until the day he dies.” With that, at least, Terris agreed. “And, as you’re about to see, a nation built around cruelty or prejudice cannot sustain itself. It will have to apply pressure to maintain its flawed status quo, like it did with me, and the pressure will build and build until it cannot build anymore.” He tapped a few buttons on the data disc in his hand. It began projecting an image of the battle for Neldia. He placed it on the bed next to Terris. “Now it’s breaking.”
“I wonder if they’ll find themselves in need of more shells.” Terris knew it wasn’t just shells. Every time a slave driver prioritized hatred over hard work, put cruelty over their quota, or even just bowed their head and obeyed the traditional dogma, they hurt the Alliance. Across nine worlds, with billions of slaves not working as they could have, things started to add up. “You know, for a superior species, your fleet is really getting its ass kicked right now. Might want to work on that.”
Captain Trevy nodded. His data disc beeped. He was needed on the bridge. “Agreed,” he said. “I hope this war ends soon, and to our mutual benefit. I’d hate to face you on the battlefield.” He picked up the data disc and turned to leave.
“Oh, forgot to mention, there’s a virus embedded in the transmissions you’ve received. Self-replicating. Nasty piece of work.” Terris shifted a bit in her seat. “Almost forgot about that.”
“Well, better to know now than when it’s activated,” Trevy smiled. “I’ll have Technology Officer Galdir investigate it.” With that, he left. His duty to the Alliance was nonexistent, but the men and women under his command still needed him. He had waited too long in the stateroom.
Terris, with nothing better to do, got to work on cracking the encryption in the transmissions she had copied. She failed. A transmission from deep in unknown space, sent from a dreadnought at the head of a task force known only as the Deep Expedition Fleet, was the only message she could read. Its contents, while troubling, mattered little at the moment. What was far more crucial, however, was the message Terris could not decipher. The military battle plan of Janus Ora’s personal armada.
The battle plan that, when analyzed on a Republic starship, would reveal its terrible secret too late.
The Coalition fleet was walking into a trap.
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2024.05.18 20:54 PLpro12 How do I deal with negative reviews and feedback on my Amazon FBA listings reddit?

Prompt Response to Negative Feedback

Prompt and Polite Communication

Promptly respond to negative feedback in a polite and professional manner. Address the customer's concerns with empathy and sincerity. Acknowledge their experience and express your willingness to resolve the issue to their satisfaction.

Offer Solutions and Assistance

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Personalize Your Responses

Personalize your responses to negative feedback by addressing the customer by name whenever possible. This human touch shows that you value each customer's experience and are committed to resolving their concerns individually.

Proactive Approach to Minimize Negative Reviews

High-Quality Product Listings

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Superior Product Quality

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Proactive Customer Support

Offer proactive customer support to address potential issues before they escalate into negative reviews. Implement live chat, email, or phone support channels to promptly assist customers with inquiries or concerns. By being accessible and responsive, you can resolve issues before they impact your reputation.

Leveraging Positive Feedback to Mitigate Negative Reviews

Encourage Positive Reviews

Actively encourage satisfied customers to leave positive reviews on your Amazon FBA listings. Include a gentle call-to-action in post-purchase communications or packaging inserts to prompt customers to share their positive experiences. Increasing the volume of positive reviews can outweigh the impact of occasional negative feedback.

Showcase Testimonials and Success Stories

Highlight testimonials and success stories from satisfied customers on your product listings. Incorporate customer quotes and endorsements to showcase the value and benefits of your products. Positive social proof can reassure potential buyers and mitigate the influence of negative reviews.

Respond to Positive Feedback

Just as you respond to negative feedback, acknowledge and express gratitude for positive reviews. Thank customers for their support and feedback, reinforcing a positive relationship with your brand. Engaging with satisfied customers fosters loyalty and encourages repeat purchases.
Utilizing Amazon Seller Tools
Helium 10 offers a suite of tools tailored to assist Amazon FBA sellers, including managing negative reviews and feedback effectively. With its Review Insights feature, sellers gain real-time analysis of customer sentiments, helping them identify areas for improvement based on patterns in feedback.
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In essence, H10 equips Amazon FBA sellers with the resources needed to navigate negative feedback on their listings. From insightful analysis to proactive communication, this software empowers sellers to maintain a positive reputation and drive success in their e-commerce endeavors.

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Dealing with negative reviews and feedback on Amazon FBA listings is a reality of e-commerce business. However, by adopting proactive strategies and prioritizing customer satisfaction, you can turn these challenges into opportunities for growth and improvement. Remember, every interaction with a customer is a chance to strengthen your brand reputation and build long-term loyalty.
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