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Magic: The Redditing

2008.10.03 17:04 Magic: The Redditing

A diverse community of players devoted to Magic: the Gathering, a trading card game ("TCG") produced by Wizards of the Coast and originally designed by Richard Garfield. Join us discussing news, tournaments, gameplay, deckbuilding, strategy, lore, fan art, and more.
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2008.01.25 18:33 Magic

A subreddit for sharing and discussing magic, without any exposure. Any area of magic, be it close up, parlor, stage, busking, mentalism, coins or cards, are welcome.
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2010.06.18 20:51 PlaxicoMeow New York Knicks

Reddit's home of the New York Knicks
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2024.05.19 01:44 havennotheaven Light of Xaryxis kind of sucks, here's how I rewrote the plot

Obviously, MAJOR spoilers ahead.
Hi all! My group just finished playing through Spelljammer Academy and then straight into Light of Xaryxis, and while it was a great experience overall and my players had a lot of fun, I have some bones to pick with LoX specifically. Disclaimers: I'm not a super experienced DM (I've run a couple one shots and Tomb of Annihilation before this) and I tend to kind of fly by the seat of my pants and lean heavily on the Rule of Cool. Also, I know I'm not the first one to complain about LoX or rewrite portions of it, this is just what worked for me, maybe it will help someone else. Feel free to ask any questions.
So, my group and I decided on a spelljammer campaign- the vibes sounded cool and it was a big tone shift from the campaign we had just finished so I was excited to have some lighthearted fun in space. Fast forward to us getting a third of the way through Light of Xaryxis and me realizing that this adventure makes no fucking sense.
My issues with the story as written and how I fixed them:
  1. Too many NPCs. My players couldn't keep them all straight and honestly a lot of them are not necessary to the plot. If they weren't necessary for the story, I just omitted them completely. It's easy enough to just use a couple main NPCs for most roles.
  2. Most of the chapters end in cliffhangers, which sounds fun in theory, but in practice is just annoying, especially when it turns out to be a fake-out. I let go of the idea of these cliffhangers early on and just let the sessions end whenever felt natural.
  3. I think this adventure leans a bit too heavily on whatever the writers think will be fun to put the players through, while not considering what players are most likely to actually do. One example of this is in Chapter 3, when players arrive at Aruun. The adventure wants your players to land on the planet and pick up Blastimoff, who is being chased by Artuuks a la Jack Sparrow and the cannibals. However, considering Aruun is a dangerous jungle planet home to rampaging Tarrasques, my players understandably refused to land there. Also, wtf was Blastimoff doing on this moon? "Peaceful entreaty" to the Artuuks? He's been attempting to form a coalition for how long and only just now got around to trying to talk to them?
  4. The whole second half of the adventure doesn't make any sense. The Xedalli vs Xeleth plot is boring. Why does it matter who gets the crown if the player's world is going to die either way? Why are the only outcomes of this adventure "save your planet and genocide an entire civilization" or "let the Xaryxians live and genocide your own planet"? Like, that sucks. And what the HELL is up with that Zodar battle? I got so annoyed, I just rewrote the entire plot to be as follows:
the Xaryxians plant astral seeds on Toril to harvest the planet’s energy in order to feed their own dying star. Up until now, they have only harvested uninhabited planets, but because Xeleth and Xedalli want more power for themselves, they have decided to target a living world.
The prince and princess want more than just a thriving star for their people, they want power for themselves. They create two starlight rings that divert a portion of the harvested energy into themselves, effectively making themselves immortal.
The twins were meant to rule together and share the power, but Xeleth betrays Xedalli. He frames her for treason and she is banished from xaryxispace, so that he may be crowned instead. Xeleth believes that he destroyed Xedalli’s ring, but it was only a clever copy. Xedalli still has her own starlight ring, which Xeleth will eventually realize.
When the characters find Xedalli aboard the Last Breath, she will play the victim and will use the party to get back to Xaryxis and hopefully kill her brother. She claims:
This sets up Xedalli as a wolf-in-sheep's-clothing ally to the party, and they agreed to help her, believing that she could set the Xaryxian Empire back on a peaceful path and save their planet. I also think there's nothing more fun than a good final act NPC betrayal, and this worked out pretty well.
This is how it ended up playing out:
characters arrive in doomspace to search for the coalition.
They find Warwyck Blastimoff, who has not been able to form a coalition. the factions in doomspace don’t see the empire as a threat.
Characters seek out Vocath to convince the factions to join together. He wants them to fight in an arena in exchange for an audience with all the factions.
At the end of the fight, three Xaryxian star moths attack and try to kidnap Xedalli. The factions must all fight together to survive and win the battle. Xedalli is not captured. With that, the factions can be convinced that the empire is a threat. Whatever factions can be convinced, will join the coalition and lend their ships to the fleet. Note- I did not have prince Xeleth present for this fight, only a representative of the Empire.
The players plan an attack on the Citadel. NPCs from earlier in the adventure travel out to join the fight if informed. The fleet takes on Xaryxis’ forces while PC’s ship infiltrates their defences using Gargenhale's invisibility spell and reaches the Temple of Light.
Xedalli and PCs battle Xeleth at the Temple of Light and attempt to destroy the harvesting device (which, unbeknownst to anyone, is pretty much inert and breaking it does nothing), while the coalition fleet battles the Xaryxian forces outside. In the temple, a projection of Toril shows the planet dying in real time, crystal vines choking the surface and motes of energy concentrating in a beam toward Xaryxis. The climactic moment: Xeleth lays dying, a final blow is dealt to the device, and… nothing happens. The vines still grow and energy motes still gather. PCs turn to see Xedalli taking the twin Ring of Shooting Stars from Xeleth’s finger, and she performs a fusion spell that turns two rings into one, concentrating the diverted energy into herself, healing herself to full, surrounding herself with motes of Toril’s energy. And then I wrote a whole evil monologue revealing that this was her plan all along.
Phase 2 boss fight with powered-up Xedalli! My players have a crazy ability to blow through 'deadly' combat encounters with ease, so I gave Xedalli some extra powers, including hp replenishing at the start of every turn from her ring. The party can only kill her and save their planet by destroying her fused ring. Once they do, the crystal vines on Toril wither and die.
This leaves the Xaryxian Empire intact but without leadership, and players can convince the priests or whoever else has some authority to go back to their more peaceful methods and never again try to harvest a living planet.
And that's the adventure! I won't pretend that this rewrite is perfect, I'm sure there are plenty of plot holes, but it was still a lot of fun for me and my players.
A note on the segue from Spelljammer Academy to Light of Xaryxis: as written, the adventures don't connect well. What I did was change the villain of Spelljammer Academy to be Hastain the reigar. While hiding behind his noble title on the Rock of Braal, Hastain had been working with the Xaryxian Empire to sabotage the Academy in preparation of the Empire's attack on Toril. I planted clues that led to Hastain being behind it all, and that way my party had someone to focus on chasing down in the first half of LoX. Of course, this did mean that we veered majorly off course and spent more than a couple sessions on Braal, as my party wanted to not only break into his house, but discredit him, embarrass him, and eventually kill him. It was worth it though, it was very funny and gave them a good way to uncover the Xaryxian Empire's plot.
submitted by havennotheaven to spelljammer [link] [comments]

2024.05.19 01:43 PhenioxStories Monkie Kid- Animal Fury Season 1 Chapter 3 The Last of me

Mischief walks up to the blue crystal clock. She spins the the big hand with her magic and the little hand lands of three. A blue flame is lit. Mischief walks away into the darkness; the light from the blue clock making her look like a silhouette.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KuZbmLLv1vM
A bead of sweat falls down Mischief head. Her hair on the ground and her back up august the wall. Mischief had been doing a headstand for the last thirty minutes. In her mind, doing this action once a week was a good way to keep her blood flowing and strength high. Sun walked outside and saw Mischief up august the wall.
“Are you gonna stand there all day”, Sun asks, holding a peach in his hand.
“You should try it”, Mischief said under the pressure. She uses her feet to push off the rock and picks herself up. “It helps with strength endurance and it help you think.”
“Hard pass”, Sun says, biting the peach. “You know I’m not good with my arms.” Mischief smirks and says, “That’s not what I heard from Ne Zha~” Sun stopped walking and almost chocked on the chunk of peach in his mouth. He looked over at Mischief and said in embarrassment, “Could you not bring Him up?”
“Why? What’s the problem”, Mischief teased. “Oh right, you still like him.” Mischief laughs and then says, “After a millennia and you still haven't told him?” Mischief continues to laugh while Sun burns a bright red and shouts, “Can you shut up?!” Sun starts to hit Mischief head and she still laughs.
“Okay, Okay, I’ll stop”, Mischief says. Sun stops laughing and crosses his arms in annoyance. “Go train Mk. I’ll see you in a bit.” Sun walks out to the training dojo. Mischief smiles but then holds her head in pain with both of her hands. She keeps her eyes shut and feels herself being surrounded by darkness. Even when her eyes where shut, she could see a being covered in a moon themed cloak.
“No…! Why are you here?!” The being looks back; her eyes glowing a light blue. She turns and starts to walk over to Mischief. Mischief raises her hand and cast a spell, but the being covered in the moon cloak faces Mischief.
I am you, as you are me.
We are two become one.
Mischief opens her eyes once the pain subsides and sees that the world around her is normal. She looks around to see if anybody else is there. No one. Mischief looks at her hands and sees then shaking with fear.
“No…. not this night…! Please, not this night….!” Mischief walked back into the house and looked around for a quill and scroll.
Mischief walks back outside to see Mk and Sun training. She sits under a shady area near the entrance to the waterfall. Mk jumps back and lands on the mountains wall. She pushes himself off and charges at Sun from above. Sun smirks and jumps directly up while Mk crashed to the ground.
“Missed me again”, Sun said. He picks up Mk with his tail and asks, “Now how did I win?”
“Misdirection”, Mk guesses.
“Correct”, Sun says.
“That seams like a shady lesson”, Mischief yells.
“Too soon sis.” Mk chuckles a bit.
“I’m just saying the truth”, Mischief says. She walks over and whispers, “And I bet Ne Zha would say the same thing if he was here.” Sun gets an annoyed look on his face and says, “Whatever. And plus, I was always better at fighting than you.”
“Oh really?”
“Wait a second”, Mk interrupted, “You two have fought before?”
“Yeah. But it was for training purposes”, Sun says.
“Now that you mention it, we haven't trained in a while”, Mischief says. “What do you say, but brother?” Sun smirks and says, “Your on.”
Mischief and Sun get into their fighting positions on each side of the training ground. Mk sits on the stairs in anticipation.
“Not using your weapon sis?”
“I don’t need it”, Mischief said with a smirk on her face. Sun chuckles under his breath and says, “Your done if I land this.” Sun charges to Mischief at full speed. Mischief closes her eyes and smirks. She moves out of the way and pushes her brother to the wall. Sun blinks a few times in confusion and looks back to sees Mischief untouched.
“I’m waiting.” Sun runs over to Mischief and tried to hit her multiple times but each time, Mischief blocks his attacks over and over. “Wow, brother. Your getting rusty.”
“I’ll show you rusty”, Sun exclaims. He jumps back and starts to attack with his legs.
“Not really effective!” Mischief takes Sun’s leg and pins him down with her foot. “Moon: 1. Sun: 0. I win again.”
“Mischief, let me up”, Sun says. Mischief moved her foot off of Sun’s back and says, “I thought you fought celestial beings bigger than me. You sure your not getting rusty?”
“He’s not”, Mk says. “He beat Demon Bull King, Spider Queen, and More! He’s strong enough to fight the Jade Emperor!” Mischief could hear her thoughts snap in half. She chuckles to herself in annoyance and says under her breath, “Yeah…. Sure…” Mischief then holds her head in pain.
“Mischief, are you okay”, Sun asks. He holds her shoulders.
“I’m fine”, Mischief says. “It’s just a headache. And I don’t think I’ll be able to train Mk tonight.”
“It’s okay”, Mk says. “Plus, I promised Mei I would help her fix her bike”
“Thank you, Mk.”
The full moon shines from above the mountain; its rays passing the peek of the mountain. A being covered in a night themed cloak looks down on the city below. She turns back and jumps backward. She closes her eyes and summoned a portal under her. The portal was covered in shadows and it’s magic was a dark blue. The being fell thought the portal and landed on a roof with grace and elegance. She looks back and sees the lights on in each building from each block ahead.
“Now… where are you?”
Mk walks down the street of the city. He was walking home from Mei’s bike shop and he was hoping to get some well needed rest.
“This is the last time I stay out this late”, Mk thinks to himself. He looks up and sees a being silhouetted bu the light of the moon. “Who is that?” Mk squints his eyes and sees the being crying up at the moon. “Are they crying?” Before Mk could call to the person, they jumped to the next roof and vanish into the night. Mk runs to the end of the block but doesn’t see the being.
“That person….. Why where they crying?”
“I’m sorry, say that again?”
“I saw a person last night”, Mk explains. “It looked like they where crying.” Mischief stopped in her tracks and hides behind the house. She looks to her right and back down to the floor.
“H-How, the, Hell, did he see me”, Mischief thought with worry, panicking in her mind. Her racing thoughts coming to a halt. Mischief touched her broach and thought, “He was with Mei that night. He must have been walking home when he saw me.” Mischief lied the back of her head on the house wall and says, “Damn you, Moon Maiden…!” Mischief sighs and thinks, “There’s no way I can control her at this rate.” Mischief walks back to the front and sees Mk and Sun walking to the top of the mountain.
“Where are you two going?”
“We’re going to train at the top of the mountain”, Sun says. “Wanna come?”
“Sorry, not this time”, Mischief says. “I still have a bit of a headache.”
“Oh… does that mean no training tonight either”, Mk asks.
“I’m sorry, Mk”, Mischief says.
“It’s alright. Take care of yourself. We can train when you feel better.” Mischief smiles. She then remembered how her mentor from years past was so understanding. She saw a lot of them in Mk. “Well see you later.” Mk and Sun walked up the path to the top of the mountain. Mischief looks off to the side is sadness. She hated lying to Mk and her brother, but she had to protect them at all cost. She could risk to lose them like she lost…… her….
Mischief sits on a rock near the edge of the cliff and looks up at the sky. It had almost been a month since she had been away from the celestial realm: her home. She wondered if the cheetah twins had been playing in the celestial forest around this time. She touches her broach and says, “I miss you, mother…..” Pink magic flew around Mischief and a scroll appeared. Mischief catches the scroll and looks at the wax seal. “This is Ne Zha’s crest.” Mischief opens the scroll and a necklace rolls into her lap. She looks at the necklace and then read the scroll as follows:
Mischief,
**It’s good to hear from you again. I heard from your mother that you moved to earth. I hope Sun hasn’t been giving you too much of a headache. I did some research on what you told me about and it lead me to this necklace. And I also found out that the reason your alter ego is coming out on her own is because she hasn’t been bound. One of your ancestors had the same problem and they had a solution. The necklace I set you is called the moon of Apithaea. It has the power to control your alter ego’s rage. It might help you. I hope you get a hendel on your powers.**
Could you tell sun I said hi?
-Ne Zha
Mischief chuckles and says, “Looks like Ne Zha hasn’t changed one bit. Still the same helpful prince I know.” She smirks. “And his interest in Sun hasn’t left at all.” Mischief looks at the necklace and then placed it around her neck. “Thank you, Lotus.”
Mk and Sun fight along the mountain Plato. However, Mk couldn’t couldn’t really concentrate. He was worried about Mischief, and he was thinking about the person he saw the other night. Mk was so distracted that he didn’t realize that he had left an opening for Sun to hit him. Sun stops his attack midway.
“You got distracted.” Mk lowers his staff and shudders, “S-Sorry.”
“Are you okay? You seam distracted”, Sun points out.
“I’m worried about Mischief”, Mk says. Sun looked at Mk and the to the side of him, thinking of how to help Mk. she smiles and says, “Kid, follow me. I wanna show you something.”
“What is it?” Sun taps on the ground and a hatch opens. “Now way! How long had this been here?”
“A long time”, Sun says. He jumps and and says, “Come on!” Mk jumps down the hole and lands in a cavern like cave.
“Whoa…. Had this always been down here”, Mk asks.
“Yup”, Sun says. Mk looks ahead and sees a crystal floating above a pedestal; it’s light casting along the floor. Mk walks up to the crystal and asks, “What is this?”
“This is the crystal of the sun”, Sun explains. “This crystal has protected this mountain for a very long time. It was made over three millennia ago.”
“It’s amazing.” Mk takes a closer look at and then gets a vision.
Mischief looks back at someone; her face angry and upset.
She says something but her words are distorted and scrambled.
“She was your mentor!”
Mk blinks a few times and moves his hand away from the crystal. Sun notice Mk’s discomfort and asks, “Are you okay?”
“Huh? Oh, I’m fine”, Mk reassures Sun.
“If you say so.” Sun says.
“Hey, Monkie King? Can I ask you something?”
Mk and Sun walk along the roof of a building.
“Are you sure the person you saw the other night is gonna be here”, sun asked.
“I’m sure of it”, Mk says. The two look around. Mk looks to the north and sees the same person from the other night. “Hey!” Sun looks over to see Mk running over to the hooded person.
“Mk, wait!”
“Um. Excuse me?” The hooded figure looks back; her eyes covered in shadows. “I noticed you the other night and I wanted to meet you.” The hooded figure looks at Mk for a second.
“MK…..?”
“You know who I am?” Sun takes a closer look at the hooded woman and gains a surprised look on his face.
“Mischief?” The being blinks a few times and then says, “I’m sorry. I don’t know anyone by that name.” She tries to walk away, but Sun holds her by the solder which makes Mischief’s necklace break off. The necklace falls to the ground and Mischief’s head hands low.
“Mischief? Are you okay”, Sun asks. Mischief looks back with her glowing eyes piercing Sun’s soul from within. Sun could feel a chill go up his spine. “Um, Mischief?” Mischief rushes back and attacks Sun. “Sis! Stop! What are you doing?!”
“Anyone who get’s in my way will be destroyed”, She yells. Sun whips around and holds his sister down with all the strength he has within him.
“Mk, get the necklace”, he shouts. Mk looks over and sees the necklace. He runs over and picks it up. Mischief looks over in panic and rage.
“No!” She breaks free from her brothers hold and rushes over to Mk and holds him by his collar. Sun tries to rush over to Mischief, but she puts of a barrier. She looks up at Mk and says, “I will not be locked up like a prisoner!”
“What? I don’t get it. Who are you”, Mk asks, struggling to break free. Mischief chuckles to herself, looks up at Mk and says, “So she didn’t tell you? Your her apprentice. Surely you can tell the difference.”
“What?”
“You don’t know? I am–!” Before she could finish her sentence, A ghostly rendition of Mischief, the real Mischief, Holds back her own body. Mk falls to the ground and looks up to see the scene taking place before him.
“Mischief?”
“Mk, I’m sorry”, Mischief exclaims. “I got you and my brother rapped up in this!” Sun runs over and helps up Mk.
“Mischief, who is this”, Mk asks.
“Moon Maiden”, Mischief answers, struggling to hold her back. “She’s my alter ego. I can’t control her without the necklace! Get it!” Sun and Mk run over to the necklace. “You have gone out of control for the last time! You going back where you belong!” Moon maiden holds Mischief by her neck and says, You really think you can control me?! I am half of you that lingers in your shadow! The dark side of light! You can’t escape me, Mischief Wukong!” Mischief puts her hand on Moon Maiden’s arm and says, “No…”
“What?”
“Your right. You are part of me. But you are nothing but an alter ego! I have been through hell and back! I have lost my way over and over, but I never gave up! I have kept you back for over two damn millennia, and I’m not stopping now”, Mischief shouts, felling herself gaining power. Mischief breaks free and holds Moon Maiden with her magic. “NOW!” Mk and Sun put the necklace on Moon Maiden. Mischief lies up and forces herself back into her body. Mischief looks in the darkness and faces her alter ego. “I know you are part of me, and it’s time to make peace with the past”, Mischief says. She puts out her hand to her alter ego. “And I want you to face it with me. If you allow me to.” Moon Maiden looks down and says, “Then I guess we really are one in the same.” She takes Mischief hand.
“We are two become one. The shadow of the sun.”
Mischief gains breath and she holds herself up.
“M, are you okay”, Sun asks.
“I’m alright”, Mischief says.
“Alter ego, Huh? That’s a new one”, Sun says.
“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you about her before”, Mischief says. “I though I could control her on my own, but I can’t even do that right.”
“Mischief, you can talk to us”, Mk says. “We’re here for you.” Mischief looks at both Mk and Sun and says, “You know, I think me coming down here was a blessing in disguise. I’m glad you two are here with me.” The trio smiles.
submitted by PhenioxStories to u/PhenioxStories [link] [comments]

2024.05.19 01:42 PrioritizeSleep 26 [F4M] U.S. (Central Time) F is for friends who do stuff together - U is for you and me - N is for anywhere and anytime at all - Down here in the deep blue sea

Why shouldn’t you trust trees? They seem shady, but you can trust me!
I am a college graduate and work full-time, so at times, my responses may be slow. I will always try to respond as quickly as possible. My job does require long hours but one of my current goals is to achieve a better work-life balance. I usually watch a movie/show/YouTube video every night and if we hit it off after chatting for a bit (Chats preferred over Messages), watching something together sounds really fun. I don't have many forms of social media, so to move the conversation away from Reddit my only other options are WhatsApp and Telegram, or we could just text like the good ole’ days. P.S. I don’t use Snapchat and will not download it.
My hobbies include:
Now, this part splits into two, the infamous what I am looking for (DISCLAIMER: I believe that relationships start from a great friendship):
Friendship:
I am looking for someone older (preferably between 30-40) as I tend to be able to communicate more effectively with those who are older. I reside in the U.S. and would like to chat with others in the U.S. as well to not have to work around too many different time zones. I would like to have a conversation flowing throughout the day as opposed to one message a day. Also, wouldn't it be great to be able to send and receive funny TikToks throughout the day? (Extra Bonus Points for iPhone users. iMessage and FaceTime are both fantastic) Someone with similar core values as myself. I value honesty and would much rather have a brutally blunt answer than sugarcoat something. I don't believe in lying even if it is just what most consider "a little white lie". I am an extremely motivated and goal-oriented person and would hope that my friends are passionate about whatever it is that they want to pursue. With that being said, to put it bluntly, I am not looking for someone who plays video games and watches anime for hours on end.
Relationship (take everything above + some extra fluff):
If you are interested, please send me an introduction about yourself as opposed to “hey” or “hi”. I will not respond to a lacking introduction. A great conversation is a two-way street.
Note 1: Due to the number of creeps on here, please send a picture of yourself, fully clothed, I may add, so I can ensure you’re not an 80-year-old man looking for some adult time. I will also send one in return.
Note 2: Some unpopular Reddit opinions; I am not into video games or anime (old-school Nintendo games and board games can be fun though). Politically, I lean right. I do not believe a person’s political views should be a deal-breaker in friendship but then again, this is Reddit.
submitted by PrioritizeSleep to r4r [link] [comments]

2024.05.19 01:35 MountainSuch9747 A Response to Anthony Kingsley's Introduction to Use of the Self

Hi everyone,
I wanted to share with you my response to the introduction found in the only edition of Use of the Self currently in print. I believe it's a rather misleading intro to FM Alexander's work, so I'm sharing this in the hope that I can help clear up misconceptions people may have about the Alexander Technique, not derived only from Anthony Kingsley, but many bland blog posts one tends to encounter when researching the Alexander Technique. That said, this is not intended to be an introduction of its own, but rather something experienced students, teachers, and anyone enthusiastically learning the Technique may find useful. In the tradition of Alexander himself, I've included extensive footnotes, some painfully long. I'm happy to answer any questions or otherwise discuss what I've written. Understand these are my own interpretations and opinions about what some call "the work," so take them as you will. I've taken lessons for a number of years and currently am training as a teacher, so my view of the Technique is based on these experiences, as well as my interpretations of Alexander's writings. Some of these interpretations you may object to, but I hope you find my arguments reasonable.
Response to Anthony Kingsley's Introduction to The Use of the Self
The Use of the Self may be FM Alexander's most important work, since it contains his own account of how he developed what is now called the Alexander Technique. While Alexander's other volumes are available from Mouritz, the only edition of The Use of the Self currently in print is published by Orion Spring. This edition replaces the philosopher John Dewey's introduction—which praises the technique's "genuinely scientific character"—with one by the contemporary teacher Anthony Kingsley, who is heralded on the book's front cover as a "leading Alexander Technique teacher." Therefore it is probable that many readers' first impressions of the Alexander Technique will be framed by Mr. Kingsley's opinions. I submit this is problematic, since his introduction is in my view contradictory to fundamental principles of the Alexander Technique. I write this response to address the introduction's two most dire faults: Kingsley's misrepresentation of the concepts inhibition and direction, and his dismissal of the concept of the primary control. I'll begin with the second, since it is a more straightforward error.
Primary Control
Kingsley opens his paragraphs on the primary control with the opinion that the concept should be "recast," then describes Alexander's definition of the primary control as a "particular relationship of his head, neck and back [that] acted as a master reflex that conditioned his whole organism." Then he discards this definition, claiming the head-neck-back relativity should instead be "regarded as an indicator[sic] of overall health rather than an area considered in isolation." He concedes the "region of the neck and back is a [...] barometer of our state of being," but concludes that "no single element is actually primary," since our eyes, breath, digestive system, and all other psychophysical elements are "simultaneous and interdependent" and also like barometers. Finally, he reveals his "recast" of the primary control, defining it as "the unknown and unseen self-righting and self-healing mechanism that can be restored and vitalized."
In sum, Mr. Kingsley has presented the primary control—which Alexander wrote extensively about and considered central to his technique—with an ill-defined mystical force which, accordingly, Alexander must have unwittingly stumbled upon and mistaken for a certain relativity of the head, neck and back.
Ironically, it is in The Use of the Self where Alexander wrote of discovering the necessity to first free his neck in seeking a better condition for his vocal apparatus, since that was the sine qua non of taking his head forward and up, of widening the back, and so forth, which are in turn the necessary conditions of freedom and stability in the limbs. This is the genesis of Alexander's use of the word "primary" in describing the head-neck-back relationship, and in my experience, as in Alexander's, it holds true: the sequence of directions given to oneself matters greatly, since tense feet, for example, can hardly flatten on the floor if the head is taken back and down, whereas the head can be taken "forward and up"1 to a fine degree even if there is tension in the lower extremities, particularly while sitting. Further, and maybe most significantly, the relativity of the head-neck-back rarely need change during any manner of activity, whereas the arms and legs are constantly bending, rising, stretching, and so on. Small wonder Alexander considered this relativity primary.
Of course, Kingsley is not wrong to point out the interdependence of all processes in the body. It is certainly true that undue tension in the feet creates a downward pull on the head, neck and back. Yet what is crucial to understand here is that in the context of learning and teaching the Alexander Technique, the primary control is an indispensable concept. It instructs the pupil to guide his or her attention through the body in the sequence most fit to facilitate proper relativity of all the parts, and it names succinctly that natural, visible, dynamic yet enduring relativity of the head, neck and back observable in little children and animals as well as many great musicians and athletes. Thus Kingsley discards a practical concept in favor of a truism about "interdependence;" and so we come to his second, graver error.
Direction
Here it begins to seem that what Kingsley writes of in his introduction is not the Alexander Technique at all, but in fact the Kingsley Technique, since he has redefined not only the primary control, but two other conceptual pillars of the technique: inhibition and direction.
First, he takes aim at direction, neglecting to elucidate Alexander's own definition of the concept before setting out the axiom that "aiming for postural improvements using postural directions leads to a bodymind[sic] attitude of effort and trying, which simply reinforces the problem." Dismissing as superfluous all "ideas and images about heads, necks and backs," he declares that "the trying[sic] self is the obstacle, and the shift towards a non-trying[sic] self is the solution." Finally, he offers his own definition of the directions as "the natural flow of energy and vibrancy that exists within the organism," directions which are interfered with "when we are in a condition of stress and reactivity."
Here, again, Kingsley takes a practical concept which Alexander developed based on careful observation of his own muscular action, and replaces it with a kind of mystical or spiritual phenomenon which, implicitly, only the initiated can perceive.2 Thus the famous directions are not, as Alexander described repeatedly, a series of mental orders or intentions projected to oneself before and during muscular activity along lines one has reasoned out in advance, but a "natural flow of energy and vibrancy"—just as the primary control is not, as Alexander saw it, a concrete, observable relativity of the head, neck and back, but an "unknown and unseen self-righting and self-healing mechanism." These pseudo-spiritual definitions do a massive disservice to neophyte readers, and reveal Kingsley's muddled seeing in relation to the central problem addressed by the Alexander Technique: how to shed habit and coordinate the bodymind through reasoned conception and conscious awareness.
But for a moment let us leave aside direction, since a subtler and more misleading error still lurks in Kingsley's presentation: his dismissal of conception itself. He explicitly warns that "ideas, concepts and cognitive efforts reinforce the very mental instrument that is the problem in the first place," he advises us to simply trust that "the prevention or inhibition[sic] of reaction, maintains or liberates this stream of energy [or direction] in the body."
To understand Kingsley's error, we must return to Alexander. In Man's Supreme Inheritance, Alexander sets out four stages to the "performance of any muscular action by conscious guidance and control:"
  1. The conception of the movement required;
  2. The inhibition of erroneous preconceived ideas which subconsciously suggest the manner in which the movement or series of movements should be performed;
  3. The new and conscious mental orders which will set in motion the muscular mechanism essential to the correct performance of the action;
  4. The movements (contractions and expansions) of the muscles which carry out the mental orders.
Alexander considered "conception of the movement required" the very first stage in his technique, to precede even inhibition. Thus he made clear, if indirectly, that in the context of his technique, clear conception is essential to achieving a desired end. Incidentally, this is a fact any competent artist can attest to; if a composition is not unambiguously understood and organized within one's memory, it cannot be brought to fruition. Even the most simple act, such as extending one's arm to grasp a nearby object, requires a detailed conception of distance, weight, strength, and so forth; if the object turns out to be heavier than expected, the conception of these variables and their relation to one another, and hence the muscular action, must change. This is direction in action, albeit subconscious.
Yet Kingsley belittles conception, instead leaning on concepts like "ease," "letting go" "acceptance," and the like. He is not alone in this among teachers, but in my opinion, they overlook the influence of what Alexander termed "erroneous beliefs," a concept closely related to that of "unreliable sensory appreciation." Both could be read in the spiritual lexicon alongside "letting go," etc.; but that would place their referent outside the realm of what words and concepts can describe. On the contrary, Alexander was pointing to something concrete and empirically observable: to errors of spatio-motor perception able to be observed phenomenologically and in other people's behavior; not to transcendent truths about observation itself. Thus the classic example of an Alexandrian "erroneous belief" is a person who raises their arm and believes their shoulder has remained still when it has not. The key for the pupil in this instance is to gain an accurate conception5 of their own muscular action, in reference to bodily sensations; not to simply "let go" or "do nothing."3 And this conception must come about through active tutelage—e.g. Alexander Technique lessons—or, dare I say, the way Alexander himself did it: by reasoned experimentation, conceiving hypotheses based on careful register and analysis of his own sensations, and also by watching the behavior of others. John Dewey called the technique scientific for a reason.
All of this is not to understate the importance of concepts like "release" and "effortlessness," including in the context of the Alexander Technique. Seeing more or less what is meant by them is doubtless the key to mastery of all activities, all practices, all techniques. Yet those spiritual concepts should not blot out the very concrete technique Alexander developed for improving what he called "the use of the self:" that coordination of the muscular system, achieved through conscious reason, which influences for better or worse the functioning of the whole organism.4
Inhibition
So much for direction. What about inhibition? Under the heading "Inhibition and Non-Doing," Kingsley describes Alexander's understanding of inhibition as "an artificial pause between stimulus and reaction," after which he could "give directions to himself." Then he lays down the gauntlet, stating that in the "real world […] life does not offer us the choice to inhibit:" since according to neuroscience research, "neural reactions take milliseconds and are faster than conscious thought processes." In other words, "we either react to the stimulus, or not." So, with inhibition proven impossible, Kingsley is left with no choice but to "reformulate" another of Alexander's concepts, offering us a supposedly scientifically enlightened6 view that inhibition is really "a quality of non-doing[sic] that needs to be already available in the organism before the receipt of a stimulus." This is "a way of being[sic] rather than a way of doing[sic]."
This Kingsleyan inhibition turns out to be the essence of the technique, since it is this very "condition of non-doing[sic]" the teacher is supposed to transmit, through a touch Kingsley describes as "a dance of poetry and a symphony of silence." With it, the teacher imparts a "deep sense of acceptance" by which "change emerges in the pupil."7 He goes on to compare the Alexander Technique to "Zen Buddhism, mindfulness and the philosophy of non-duality," identifying the uniqueness of the Alexander Technique in "the transmission of immediate experience." In fact, there is no Alexander Technique as such, but only inhibition:
The Chinese Tao has a concept of Wu Wei[sic], which translates as surrendering to the effortless flow of life[sic], or non-doing[sic] action. Ultimately, the Alexander Technique needs to reinvent itself and relinquish the Technique. The Alexander Teacher really teaches nothing[sic!]. But this nothing or emptiness is in fact the deepest essence of being and the fullness of life. Like grace, it drops onto us and into us when the conditions are ripe.
The problem is that Alexander's own writings indicate that inhibition is not a "quality," a "condition," or a "surrendering to the effortless flow of life." On the contrary, according to Universal Constant in Living, it is "the act of refusing to respond to the primary desire to gain an end, [which] becomes the act of responding (volitionary act) to the conscious reasoned desire to employ the means whereby that end may be gained." As clear as day: inhibition is an action in response to the stimulus of conscious desire: a conscious, continuing refusal to do a thing the way one normally does it. Alexander saw that this inhibitory act had to precede in every instance any attempt to change his habits. Everyone is well familiar with the inhibitory act. The act of not indulging an immediate desire, however small, is it. So, inhibition is not an "artificial pause," but a phenomenologically observable process within the organism, a process that can be made habitual through practice. It is no more abstract and transcendent than blinking or moving one's finger.7
Here Kingsley again takes something ordinary and concrete and makes it mystical, going so far as to "relinquish the Technique." The trouble is that there is a good reason the Alexander Technique came to be known as such. A technique is a skillful way of doing something; a mental tool; a procedure. Ways of doing can be found everywhere: techniques for dance, for romance, for healing, even for attaining nirvana or enlightenment. Each has a goal in mind and is based on what worked in the past; each resorts to concepts to explain itself; each prescribes action, or doing something a certain way. Yet Kingsley dismisses the idea of doing anything at all. Equating the Alexander Technique with "nothing," he tosses out the concepts Alexander spent decades refining, when Alexander's genius was precisely to conceive a useful, coherent way of doing things through patient observation of the phenomena he termed inhibition, direction, primary control, and the rest.
So, the technique may encompass all the acts of living, but it is still a technique. Alexander often used the term "procedure" to describe it, and I think procedure is as apt a word as any to describe the application of his technique to the acts of living. He constantly stressed the technique's sequential, stepwise nature and recorded countless practical examples of it in action, both in hypotheticals and accounts of lessons. The technique is not a metaphysics or a philosophy like non-duality; it is a practical procedure with a clear purpose: restoring
advantageous, natural relativity of the head, neck and back.
Conclusion
The technique is blindingly simple but surprisingly subtle and difficult to master; and, as far as I am aware, it is unique. Unfortunately, Kingsley is not alone in overlooking the uniqueness and subtleties of the technique in favor of spiritual truisms and platitudes. I suspect there are two main reasons for this.
The first is the tendency of serious pupils of the technique to become more open to "spirituality," both philosophically (e.g. non-duality) and in terms of sadhana (e.g. meditation, yoga, self-inquiry). Many are enthusiastic about the similarities between the Alexander Technique and, for example, mindfulness practice. It is certainly true that the technique requires the pupil to have some degree of "mindfulness," or the ability to realize when the mind has wandered; and it is also true that a few people who devote themselves to the technique come upon some of the same insights one might find in spiritual practice. Yet spiritual insight is not the purpose of the technique. In my opinion, the Alexander Technique is a relative of energy practices such as Hatha yoga, qigong, and TRE (trauma release exercises). Such techniques are often used in tandem with spiritual practices meant for the cultivation of insight, but their purpose has traditionally been preparatory and salutary, not "spiritual." One need not stray too esoteric to encounter the idea that the real goal of spirituality has nothing to do with "ways of doing." On the other hand, Qigong explicitly aims to regulate qi in the body; kundalini yoga is concerned with the flow of prana; the Alexander Technique seeks to restore the good use of the primary control. More practically, the technique teaches mental discipline, and ultimately the ability of the nervous system to regulate itself. Such a practice may lay the groundwork for spiritual realization, but it is by no means indistinguishable from it.
While there is no point speculating about Alexander's private insights, one thing can be certain: he left us a definite procedure with a practical, concrete purpose—not a transcendental one. Yet Kingsley's introduction continually implies the Alexander Technique is an essentially spiritual practice with heavenly fruit. Disparaging the core concepts that constitute the Alexander Technique, he invites us instead to simply "surrender," "let go in faith," and blindly trust that its real essence—nothing less than Wu Wei—will be transmitted through the "rare, "unconditional" touch of the teacher.
The second, more obvious reason Alexander has been so misunderstood is that he rarely wrote concisely, and in any case, recognition and conception of the primary control can never be refined through words, but only through unfamiliar sensory experiences—either reasoned out, as Alexander did, or in the hands of a good teacher. Hence there is more than a kernel of truth to Kingsley's view of the "supreme value of guidance with the hands;" yet I differ from him in that I insist the Alexander Technique cannot be divorced from intellectual understanding and, indeed, conception.
The Use of the Self and Alexander's other works certainly were not without their flaws, but at their best they illuminate concepts which are nuanced, rich, and useful when applied. Primary control, direction and inhibition are three such concepts. Whatever their flaws, Alexander's books point the way to a wonderful technique, and they deserve thoughtful, probing introductions like Dewey's—not dismissals.
1 Like many other Alexandrian terms, the concrete meaning of "forward and up" seems incredibly controversial among Alexander Technique teachers. While I conceive it roughly as freedom of the atlanto-occipital joint, the term cannot be understood in isolation from the rest of the parts—namely, from one's conception of the primary control. It seems to experience it, one must discover it, as Alexander did, or be shown it by a teacher.
2 This is not to say there are not phenomena only some people perceive.
3An overemphasis on "letting go" and the like obscures the fact that Alexander always described the technique as consisting of stages or sequential steps, which in my opinion constitute the "means whereby" he wrote of.
4 "Use of the self" is another problematic term. Related to the concept of "good form" and "good technique" among athletes and musicians, it refers essentially to coordination of the musculature along reasoned lines, which is not separate from conception of the primary control. Equal and opposite is the term "misuse," since one's idea of misuse depends on one's idea of good use. Different teachers understand the term differently. Kingsley states that "bodily tensions and distortions become fixed and reinforced as we react to the general stimuli of living." True enough. Yet he goes on to imply it is associated only with fear, anxiety and distress. Again he couples this concept to the language of contemporary spirituality, trumpeting that it "alienates us from our own true nature." This is to completely ignore the point Alexander returned to again and again in his own writing: that the use of the self is inextricably linked with conception. No doubt, tension and imbalance are very often inextricable from fear. But there may be another class of misuse: one based on misconceptions about the body, unexamined movement patterns from childhood which have little or nothing to do with manifestations of stress or emotions in the body. I suspect one may experience profound psychophysical quietude yet still tend to throw their head back and down in relation to their neck and back, especially in movement.
5Kingsley writes that the teacher's touch indicates the "negation of trying and doing within the pupil." Even a token mention of guidance viz. the relativity of the body parts is nowhere to be found. Yet in my opinion this discussion of touch is misleading, since nothing like it can be found at all in Alexander's writings. On the contrary, Alexander stressed that the teacher's role was to demonstrate manually the proper relativity of the pupil's parts, with the means whereby of the technique; not to transmit "a way of being," nor indeed enlightenment or gnosis.
6 Neuroscientific findings relating to will and volition have proliferated in recent years. They may raise fundamental questions about the nature of self and will, but in my opinion they have little to do with the Alexander Technique, no more than they do with dancing or playing an instrument. If there are really recognizable activities Alexander termed "inhibition" and "direction," then his writings are timeless, since they speak from direct observation and experiment, not philosophy about "free will" and the like.
7 In spiritual literature one encounters, almost universally, the idea that there is no "doer" of action, or no "doer" but God. Hence Kingsley is implying that Alexandrian inhibition is somehow related to this concept, which Buddha famously summarized: "Events happen, deeds are done, but there is no doer thereof." In my opinion, the Alexander Technique has nothing more to do with this than does reading, writing, or playing a game. There may be "procedures followed, but no follower thereof."
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2024.05.19 01:20 2ndCatch What playoff teams do you see taking a step back next year?

As a counterpart to a post I saw earlier today about play-in/fringe teams that are expected to take a leap forwards next season, which teams are expected to fall in the standings next year, either due to significant personnel changes, over reliance on aging talent, or more competition in their conference/division.
I’ll split my own thoughts between the two divisions and give my predictions for placements for some teams, but they’re obviously just projections so don’t get mad if your team ends up being on the list.
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Eastern Conference

Chicago Bulls
The Bulls don’t look like they’re doing anything major this offseason, other than trying to move Zach Lavine, and with his contract being what it is, I don’t expect him to be the type of asset that teams will be paying much of a premium for.
The Bulls would do well to commit to the tank in preparation for a pretty good looking 2025 draft class, but I’d only expect them to be slightly worse given that the front office (inexplicably) doesn’t seem keen to totally blow up their roster.
Prediction: 11th in the East.
Atlanta Hawks
I actually can see the Hawks committing to a bigger rebuild seeing as they’ve jumped to grab the #1 pick in this year’s draft.
Jalen Johnson is an interesting young player and it seems like it might be time to sell on players like Clint Capela (who has had a lacklustre couple of seasons) and Bogdan Bogdanovic (who is on the older side, but should have very good value for competitors due to his fantastic production this season).
They will also almost definitely move on from one of their star duo, and if it’s Trae Young that’s moved, they’ll likely be going into the 2024/25 season with a board of future picks and a significantly different roster.
Prediction: 12th in the East.
Miami Heat
Miami is an odd case because they have dealt with a fair amount of injury trouble this season, and you can never really count out a team coached by Spo.
That said, Jimmy Butler isn’t getting any younger (if he is resigned by the Heat in the first place), and Duncan Robinson and Terry Rozier are entering their 30s too. I don’t expect Miami to be much worse than they were this year, but if their key players miss time like they did this season, they might slip into the lower play-in bracket as the younger teams in the East improve.
Prediction: 9th/10th place in the East.
Cleveland Cavaliers
The Cavs is less of a case of them being much worse, but I simply trust the teams around them (Pacers, Magic, 76ers, Knicks) to progress more than them next year.
Another uncertainty is the roster, which is about to be significantly retooled following the recent 2nd round exit. If Mitchell resigns, then it’s likely Garland will be moved. Allen may also be traded soon as the Cavs move on from their twin towers experiment.
Even if the Cavs do shift their young talent for win now pieces, the new team will need time to gel, and with the rest of the east getting better, I think the Cavs could be fighting to avoid the play-in next season.
Prediction: 5th-7th place in the East.
Bonus Prediction if Mitchell does not re-sign: 8th-10th place in the East, as they lean more into player development for Garland/Mobley.
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Western Conference

Los Angeles Clippers
This season seemed like an ‘end of the road’ kind of season for the Clippers, who looked like world beaters before the familiar story of injuries and postseason struggles cut short their season.
The Clippers core is largely made up of aging, injury prone stars, one of whom, Paul George, is not under contract yet, and the other, Kawhi Leonard, hasn’t been able to string together a healthy season + postseason in almost 5 years.
I’m sure Ballmer will want to remain somewhat competitive to fill up the swanky new Intuit Dome, but with Memphis re-entering the Arena next season, and the Rockets young core taking a step forward, a team lead by Kawhi Leonard, James Harden and maybe Paul George, all of whom are entering the twilight of their careers, could be wrestling with the play-in.
Prediction: 6th-8th in the West.
Golden State Warriors
The Warriors had a hell of a run, but now more than ever it seems like it’s time to look the future.
Another team reliant on an aging star core, the Warriors 3 cornerstone players have all shown signs of slowing down (relative to their own standards). Klay Thompson looks significantly slower on defense and has been a much more streaky shooter this season than in any other season of his career. Draymond Green still has a fantastic basketball mind, but age and on court antics remain an issue.
Even Steph Curry had a poor shooting stretch towards the end of the season, and while he will likely still make an All-NBA team this year, this year maybe be one of the last for the all-time great.
Brandon Podziemski, Trayce-Jackson David, Moses Moody and Jonathan Kuminga (who has shown fringe all-star level potential in very short spurts) are interesting young players, but I don’t expect them to be able or ready to lead the Warriors out of the gauntlet that the West is turning into.
Prediction: 11th/12th in the West
Phoenix Suns
Another team, another case of aging stars.
The Suns showed a late resurgence towards the end of this regular season, but fell short in their first round matchup with the Timberwolves.
Team ownership has echoed a wish to retool and run it back rather than make any big moves this offseason, but the Suns do face some glaring roster construction issues.
The Suns lack a dedicated point guard and lack size, doubly so with Jusuf Nurkic’s future with the team looking uncertain. New Coach Bud has echoed a wish to try and obtain a point guard this offseason, but it may be tough to acquire a quality option with the Suns current cap issues.
Regardless, the Suns three stars will have to learn to play off one another better, and with Beal and KD both being on the older side and having had past injury issues, Phoenix will have to fight hard to beat back younger teams vying for good play-in seeding.
Prediction: 8/9th in the West.
Los Angeles Lakers
The Lakers are the most unpredictable team in this list for me, mostly because GM Rob Pelinka constantly reminding us of the Lakers three tradeable first round picks this summer, and that he won’t be afraid to use them should a star become available (cough cough… Donovan Mitchell, cough… Trae Young).
With all that said, my current predictions are that Mitchell will resign, and that another team will be able to put together a better offer for Trae than Austin Reaves + salary filler + the aforementioned 3 picks.
In that case, there are three questions hanging over the Lakers performance next season:
  1. How many games will Anthony Davis play?
AD missed very few games this season and played fantastically, but his health will always be something that will be closely monitored.
  1. How long will LeBron still be LeBron?
How much can we expect from old man James, now entering his 22nd NBA season.
  1. Which (if any) of the role players will step up?
Austin Reaves and DiAngelo Russell (postseason woes aside) played relatively well through the regular season. With DLo likely to test free agency this offseason, someone else may need to step up.
Prediction: 9th-11th in the West.
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Interested in seeing others picks and justifications, as well as thoughts on the predictions above.
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2024.05.19 01:15 Gazooonga Diary of a Press-Ganged Saurian (#1/?)

Just another fun little story idea I had. I am still working on Humans are the violent ones but I like to bounce around and experiment with ideas to see what I really like. I also suck at writing more casual stories, as they give me severe writer's block as I try to map out how to make a scene feel genuine in my head, but I promise I'll update that soon. If you like this story and want to see more, then like and comment. I'll gladly continue this series as well.
Start of Personal Log
Humans don't like being told what to do. They don't like being commanded, put in their place, or snubbed. It was an inexorable, inalienable trait of humans, at least any noteable humans, to go against any authority that they believed was against their interests.
Humanity would not fit amongst the stars. Few ever did. It was a trait of most successful species to be willful, ambitious, and to desire more. But once they reached the stars the new (and simultaneously very old) pecking order either quashed any spirit such species had or simply eradicated them. Countless tomb worlds and diaspora served as painful reminders of what became of the nails that chose to stick out. The hammer of order would always strike. There could be no compromise, the very soul of the authority that held the Jurisdiction together relied on a show of unmatched power, or at least the illusion of item.
In reality, the Jurisdiction was an old, fat, and lazy beast. It filled its belly on the corpses of empires far and wide, and sated its bloodlust on the shattered dreams of hopeful cubs. It had every right to, for none could challenge it: there were no new frontiers to explore, nor were there any other enemies to conquer. The Milky Way, as humans had so strangely dubbed our cradle galaxy, as well as Andromeda, had long since been warred over and settled for millennia before humanity had arrived, bright-eyed and with familiar yet otherwise foolish dreams of cooperation and prosperity. The Jurisdiction did not cooperate, nor did it ensure prosperity. Oh, it claimed it did, but in reality it simply took. The rest was just the peace that came with not being the direct target of the biggest fish in the pond. The humans didn't like that, but they had no choice.
Slavery was a common tribute. The Jurisdiction had no use for other resources: it simply took. No, it wanted those who could facilitate that unequal exchange, those raised in a world where the only morality was the one set by your lord. The Jurisdiction was held together by expectations, obligations, and dury more than any kind of shared dream, so when you were ordered to take you did so without question. Humanity was new: they had no niche or value that set them apart, but they had a penchant for killing and taking, so the Jurisdiction gave them a taste of how the galaxy worked. They killed and they took. The humans didn't like that, but what choice did they have?
Humans were strange. They learned, but not in the way most species learned. Most species learned to adapt in a passive way, to adhere to the world around them. They flowed like water, moving past and around obstacles and confirming to the boxes they were assigned too. Humans didn't confirm, nor did they adapt: they made their circumstances fit their desires. They would not move around obstacles, but rather smash through them, and they refused to stay in one box for too long. The Jurisdiction merely saw them as a particularly loud nuisance, but those who faced their wrath knew better.
It is said that when a beast seeks to make an example, it shall humble its rival by killing it's cubs. Children were one of those universal constants that brought entire communities together: the Sok’klar saw their hatchlings as gifts, shaped by the fruitful currents of the universe in perfect harmony. The Yarrack saw each and every newborn whelp as an uncut gemstone, ready to be shaped into something magical. Humanity oftentimes referred to their offspring as angels, or spirits of unbridled good sent by the gods themselves. Children were seen by most of the galaxy as gifts.
The Jurisdiction saw them as a lever to inflict suffering. It had become quite effective at enacting psychological punishments on those that stood up and spoke out. You dare to disobey? You believe you can speak out? Your gifts shall be taken from you, and you shall be without joy.
Humans didn't like this, but the Jurisdiction would have their pound of flesh, and humankind would kneel. And they did. But humans were patient creatures: most species who retained that trait of willful spit also lacked patience.
I had long since become desensitized to the Jurisdiction’s actions: it was simply how the universe worked now, as if it were a constant akin to gravity. Cruelty was the unspoken rule of this seemingly unending age, where our lives never appeared to move forward or backwards, only lay dormant. The Jurisdiction had been the unyielding authority that ruled the galaxy for thousands of years, venerable yet feared all the same.
And for the longest time I was just another cog in its wheel. My name is Kalnuracht Sedjuur-Noumar VII, and was the scion of the noble house Sedjuur-Noumar. I was born into what most would describe as veiled apathy, living a life that could be attributed to the privileged class of feared scribes that enacted the will of those above. I was an administrator and nothing more. And now I am doomed to be far less than that in the eyes of my former constituents within the endless administration. I am the only scion, as is tradition, and without an heir I am the last of my house, our name to be scrubbed from the records, worthless, meaningless, and forgotten.
I am merely Kalnuracht, nothing else and nothing more. I have seen from their eyes, the eyes of the downtrodden, and it makes my crimes of association with the Jurisdiction feel all the more damning on my worthless soul. I am worthless to the world, and this is my story.
End Personal Log #1
Start of Neural Lace Narrative Log #1
They came from the black like carrion birds in the night, encircling our convoy as if it were a dying animal ready to be picked clean without remorse. There was no warning, no list of demands sent out as civilized peoples did, nor was there either any requirement for unconditional surrender nor chance to parlay, as was done so under letter of marque: this was an unmistakable call for violence and nothing else. They sought to reduce us to slag and scavenge the rest.
So, as one would expect, the entire bridge of the ship was nearing a panicked state. This was not the actions of those practicing civility, but rather the common behaviors of despoiling barbarians, the kind that tore their way through the dark reaches of the galaxy as if they owned it.
“Wayfinder, what do your probes see?” Shouted the ship’s sovereign. He was an older Kar’Rowmach, an amphibious cephalopod species with a venerable history within the Jurisdiction going back thousands of years. Normally one such as him would be above me if it weren't for the fact that I was under the authority of the Jurisdiction’s seal of office. He didn't like me very much, but most of his kind shared the same sentiment.
“All dark, honorable Sovereign: the sensor arrays are wailing but the feedback we're reviewing is beyond incomprehensible,” the wayfinder replied with a certain restrained temper in his voice. The Sok'klar wayfinder swayed gently, his tentacled limbs grasping different metallo-liquid braille output arrays, the liquid gallium flexing and reshaping unnaturally to allow him to to take in multiple different sources of sensory output at once, with the primary navigation computer plugged into the cybernetics surrounding his opaque, gelatinous head and plugging directly into his tube-shaped brain.
The Sovereign cursed in Loskat and pointed to his bridge crew while I simply sat in the back, near the Sovereign’s symbolic throne. “Prepare countermeasures and spool up the warp drive, we cannot allow the amanuensis to be taken! He carries sensitive information that only he can translate and transcribe!”
As the bridge crew nodded and began fiddling with their own systems, I preened my feathered hide anxiously. I wasn't a fighter: us nobles of the cloth were the educated minority above all else, not those who waged war or partook in hard labor. Special cybernetics in my brain allowed me to translate triple-encoded messages that usually took a ducal signet codekey or above to parse, but even without that I was a skilled mathematician and logician. I had terabytes worth of knowledge stored within the hardware installed in my head, all well protected of course, but if I were to die it would still be a waste. I could only imagine the damage any malcontenders could do with it if they were able to get their filthy hands on me.
Suddenly, the ship rocked, and the gallium overhead display began to form crescendos like I'd never seen before. “Sovereign, decks A-3 through C-12 are venting atmosphere and our coolant systems have been obliterated,” the Wayfinder spoke in an almost serene voice, as if he was completely unconcerned by current events. I knew they were simply incapable of tonal displays, but it was unnerving nonetheless. “Once we jump, we will not be able to risk another until the vacuum of the void can reduce temperatures to acceptable levels within the plasma capacitors.”
“Damn them,” the armored nautiloid hissed, his barbed feelers coiling in frustration, “May the currents take them. What are our options? what can we see? This fleet cannot fall to the void today, not with such vital cargo.” My hackles rose lightly at the Kar’Rowmach referred to me as some object rather than an esteemed amanuensis of the Jurisdiction, but I bit my forked tongue. Now was not the time to squabble with the sovereign over who was what and what titles I deserved, not while he was so desperately attempting to keep what semblance of order within his fleet that he had left.
I could not blame the crew for being panicked either: wars were practically mythologized now, having been long since rendered obsolete with the rise of the Jurisdiction, and that felt like an eternity ago. Now, either being levied into or joining a ducal naval force was simply another career, more akin to serving as an officer of the law rather than a fully fledged soldier. Minimal training was required, most of it being the technicals of one's duty rather than any kind of combat conditioning, so expecting a fleet to actually be prepared for a combat scenario in a universe where peace was the norm was laughable.
“We are practically blind, Sovereign,” stated the Sok'klar Wayfinder, “our probes are offline, and shipboard graviton displacement sensory arrays have been rendered unreliable at best.”
“What about the particle emission array? Has there been a spike in radioactivity where we were hit?”
The Wayfinder seemed to think for a second, his gelatinous form flexing and morphing a bit before answering. “Affirmative, a jump from negligible to forty billion becquerels along decks A through E-5 on our starboard side.”
“Torpedoes…” the Sovereign hissed, stroking his barbed feelers, “Human Torpedoes. Only those primitives would rely on crude nuclear warheads.” He then turned to his militant leaders on the ship. “Noddos, Rel’ads: organize your phalanxes and prepare to repel boarders. We are bound to be assailed by those rancorous primates, and I want their skulls piled at my feet if they dare set foot on our ship.”
“Your wish is our command, Sovereign,” the two militant commanders spoke as one. Noddos, a large bipedal with multiple sets of curved spines running down his back, a pair of graceful horns sprouting from his head, and multiple rows of sharp teeth in his snout, bowed first, followed by Rel’ads, a marsupial with long saberteeth and thick fur. They both must have been fierce warriors in their own right to each lead a phalanx. They wore thick, semi-powered armor and held dueling polearms alongside their usual plasma casters, and seemed completely unfazed by the situation we were in. As they stomped out of the brightly lit bridge, I let out a quiet squawk of discontentment. “Sovereign, why haven't we jumped again? We are wasting precious time.”
“I am working on it, you spineless beaurocrat!” He warbled back, his feelers tensing in anger, “besides, it's not as if you're the one who will be spilling blood today, amanuensis, so flatten your wretched beak or I shall weld it shut with a plasma torch.
I was about to reply with something indignant, but the ship rocked again, this time causing the lights to flicker and the air to become… thick. The skin under my feathers began to blister, and I became lightheaded and confused. “Seal the damnable vents, initiate radiation scrubbers, and activate secondary life support!” Shouted the Sovereign, “Their nuclear weapons are rendering the ship inhospitable!”
I coughed up magenta blood accidentally, and I could feel more seeping from under my eyes. Some of the crew was in a similar position, but others were more resistant to radiation than I. The Sok'klar seemed completely at ease as he ran his tentacles across his morphic braille arrays before calmly announcing the ship’s status. “I've regained some control over our probes: ten, twelve, and seventeen are active and fully functional, the rest are either still malfunctioning or permanently inoperable. A rapid rise in localized radiation is also interfering with the detection of graviton displacement; we can't sense photon redirection, thus readings will remain inconclusive.
“Wayfinder, damn you, get me some kind of out here! We're easy prey until we can respond in kind!”
“Negative, something has gone awry with our processing hub, I am attempting to troubleshoot-”
And with that, the Wayfinder’s bulbous head exploded in a cascade of opaque lavender blood, covering the front half of the deck crew like a morbid art piece. Some of the crew screamed and shouted in terror before removing their cranial adaptors and choosing to interact with their displays manually. Others died just as quickly, unable to unplug in time as their brain stems fried or their blood boiled. It was a horrible way to go, having your insides neutralized by your own cybernetics, so I was glad I wasn't connected to the system.
“Cybernetic warfare! All systems are to be considered compromised, switch to manual settings or you'll be killed!”
The lights in the bridge flickered again, and the displays went haywire. The bridge crew, which obviously weren't acquainted with working without being hard-linked into the mainframe, moved at a much slower pace.
“Launch missile pods A through F and set to self-target after five hundred kilometers, then rely on their ballistic coordinates to begin firing broadsides! If we can't see the humans due to their meddling, we'll just have to feel them.” Shouted the Sovereign, “and got me a detailed report on the ship’s diagnostics readings. I need to know if this flagship is still capable of escaping or if we'll have to scuttle it and retreat on another.”
“Acknowledged, Sovereign, launching now,” affirmed another deck officer as he swiped across his own gallium output array. I could hear the dull thunk, thunk, thunk of missiles pushing out of their pods before racing off to their intended targets, then the mechanical whirring as the pods rotated to be reloaded by slaves in the lower decks. I was regaining my bearings as the many horrible sensations of being overwhelmed by radiation poisoning were beginning to subside, but I still felt as if I had been microwaved. The air was stale, the crew was horribly sick as well, and even the sovereign himself seemed to be on his last leg. I was beginning to believe that I might die here.
“Sovereign, a message from the lower decks,” shouted a communications officer, his chitin scraping against itself as he turned quickly, “they're requesting reinforcements, something about being overrun.”
“Impossible,” the Sovereign hissed out in a vain attempt to exude confidence, “We must outnumber the humans, they always go for bigger targets out of arrogance.”
“I've received reports that it's not just humans: the primates seem to make up only a third or so of the assailing force, along with some Phaeldaer and Vrex.”
The commander slammed his clawed hands down on his own output array in a fit of rage, obviously overwhelmed by the circumstances, “Then this wasn't just a typical assault, but something more sinister!” The nautiloid warbled, blood seeping from his shell as the full effects of the radiation took hold, “Get Rel’ads on the line, have him divert all spare lances to the lower decks or else we'll lose the only offensive capabilities we can use.”
“Rel'ads has gone dark, Sovereign, his vitals are critical.”
“Then either get me Rel'ads tail-leader or get me Noddos!” He screamed in rage, “don't give me this nonsense! If we don't pick it up we're all going to die, is that what you want?”
“No, Sovereign, I'm simply overwhelmed-”
“We're all overwhelmed! By the tides, I'm dying of radiation poisoning you nincompoop! Get me something I can work with!”
The officer didn't even acknowledge the Sovereign after that, simply turning back to his display. Eventually, the Sovereign was able to get Noddos on the line.
“Sovereign, two thirds of my phalanxes have been decimated by combat with the primitives and the radiation, the rest are in shambles. We must retreat and fortify elsewhere!”
“Then the ship is compromised! Rel'ads is unresponsive and the lower decks are swarming with intruders. We must evacuate the amanuensis to another ship.”
Just as the Sovereign spoke, I heard several gentle thumps rattle against the bridge’s door, and it made me uneasy. Some of the bridge crew seemed to feel the same, as they looked incredibly nervous and some even drew their sidearms. Just as the sovereign turned to give further orders, the door blew inward with a deafening explosion, followed by shouting and gunfire. Several of the bridge officers were dispatched quickly, brain matter and blood splattering against the delicate electronics. Others were shot in the legs, the torso, or in any other exotic yet non-vital body parts. The humans poured in, brandishing primitive ballistic firearms and jury-rigged energy weapons while wearing scavenged, legion-grade powered armor.
The Sovereign was the next to go, but he wasn't afforded an honorable death. He was shot along the arm with a particularly potent plasma caster, burning off his clawed hand and cauterizing the wound, the acrid smell of roasting chitin filling the already hot and cramped bridge. He fell back against his output array, the gallium reaching new highs and lows as more diagnostics and casualty reports were delivered, and he clutched his stump angrily. “I'll burn every last one of you in the foundries! I'll tie you to stakes, cover you in wax and set you alight! Your screams will be broadcasted all over the galaxy!”
One human warrior stomped up and slammed the butt of his rifle into the sovereign’s face, shattering his facial plates and causing blue blood to splatter across his section of the bridge. “Shut the fuck up, you mutant lobster,” the human said before dragging him by both antennae towards the center of the bridge and receiving a stained breeching axe from one of his comrades. “Emmanuel, start recording. We need proof.”
The other human nodded and pressed a button on his armor before lifting up his gun again. The rest of the humans fanned out, holding everyone else at gunpoint. I tried to get up and sneak out, but a human grabbed me by my neck and nearly wrung it out as he forced me to my knees and pointed a sidearm to my skull. “Get down, you piece of shit, before I blow your brains out too.”
“Damnable primate,” I hissed, but he bashed me in my skull with the base of his sidearm’s grip and sent me sprawling, making my already pounding headache worse. Another human shouted at him in a language I didn't recognize, but he sounded furious. The first brought me back up to my knees again, and I complies with a hiss and a groan, blood still leaking from my eyes and mouth and my world was spinning.
The Sovereign struggled, but he was weak from the radiation poisoning and he couldn't exactly resist on account of his lost arm. The human with the breaching ax kicked the Sovereign down and forced him to kneel before lifting up the breeching ax and splitting his chitinous head down the middle with one powerful swing, sending more blood and brains across the floor. “Execution confirmed, take his antennae just in case and we've got ourselves a bounty. Now all we need is that ugly cat’s teeth and the fat hedgehog-thing’s grimy spines and we'll be in business. Although, they do have skulls… we might as well just take their heads.”
The real horror of the situation dawned on me at that moment: they were going to kill us all, or maybe worse. They mentioned a bounty for the commanders, and multiple of the higher ranking ship officers were already dead, their brains splattered against the walls or their bodies torn apart by gunfire. I wasn't dead yet, but that didn't mean much since I wasn't an immediate threat.
“Alright, round them up and bring all the grunts to the hanger bay, then kill the rest,” the leader of the humans said in such a lackadaisical manner that his complete disregard for life almost made me sick… almost. I had seen worse from the Jurisdiction before, but usually that was from me delivering some kind of ordered judgment on a world that had sinned against order. I might have simply been the messenger, but I had seen many of the outcomes. “And make sure to collect whatever proof of bounties you can, we'll need to deliver them to the office to get cashed out. Don't let this be a repeat of last time where Juarez fucking forgot to take a few heads and it ended up cutting our profits in half, the fucking retard.”
Some of the humans chuckled at that as they dragged more of the senior officers away, out of the room and into the hall,where I heard gunshots. The rest of the bridge crew froze in place, different fear instincts kicking in. The remaining Sok'klar corralled together into what seemed to be a singular, semi-congealed mass as if to try and trick the humans into believing that they were much bigger and much more threatening than they actually were. The one Thei’chi on the bridge, an ensign who had clearly thought this would be a simple mission, bore her curved fangs at the humans and growled as they approached, her hackles completely vertical and her eyes dilated. They quickly muzzled and bound her before beating her over the head with a gun stock, sending her sprawling onto the ground. Many others simply cooperated, eyes wide and yet simultaneously empty, as if they couldn't quite process that the ship had been taken and the commanding officers were being executed as the rest were escorted to the hangar.
“Get the damn messenger down to the hanger as well, we need whatever data's in his ugly lizard head, then we can decide on what to do with him.”
I spat at him in spite, as if to try and seem brave, but it was clearly an empty gesture. “You won't get anything, primate! You couldn't possibly crack the encryption!”
The human holding me seemed to wind up for another swing, but the commanding officer simply held up his hand to stop my tormentor before strolling over to me. He knelt down and removed his helmet, revealing a beige-colored face covered in scars, wiry black hair cut down to the scalp, and multiple tattoos. “You're really fucking mouthy for a hostage,” he said before punching me across my beak faster than I could register. I heard a sharp crack as his fist connected, and my head spun again as the metallic taste of blood pooled into my mouth. “I'd advise you to shut up, but I'm sure you won't listen: you aristocratic types are so full of yourselves. Maybe I should have you flogged in the public square until your vocal chords give out once we rip those cybernetics from your head, huh? How's that sound?”
“It won't matter… it won't change anything… the Jurisdiction will hunt you down.”
“Maybe, but I doubt it will happen for some time: they really suck at doing anything that requires effort, even when they're mad enough. They just keep sending their rabid lapdogs to try and smoke us out, and they always end up full of holes,” the human officer said with a smirk, his yellowish-white teeth and green eyes sending shivers down my spine as he drew his knife. “They're just horrible at their job, you know? You've all gotten so lazy and incompetent after being able to just take what you want without resistance, and now that you've met people who are angry and crazy enough to fight back you act as if we're committing some grave injustice,” he placed the knife against my throat, the flat just underneath my now bent beak, “No, we just took a few pages out of your book, ‘cept we've got standards. No kids, for one…” he seemed to look off into the distance as his sneer deepened, “but it's more than that, we don't attack the defenseless in general and we still win against you all in fair fights.”
I went to say something else snarky, but he quickly grabbed my thin tongue with his fingers and yanked it out, blood from my mouth pulling to the floor as he held the blade of his knife against it. “No no, none of that. Say one more thing and I'll cut that rancid little tongue of yours out of your mouth and feed it to you,” he hissed at me, pressing the blade down just hard enough to draw blood. “Do you know what it's like to see a planet turn into a tomb?" he asked me, gritting his teeth, “Do you know what it's like to see everything you've ever known crumble to ash and glass, all the life and the green stripped away leaving nothing but bones? I do. I've seen it happen to countless worlds, and my grandfather always told me stories of how you bastards did it to Earth. He still prays in its direction five times a day, to Mecca, but he knows the Kaaba is gone now, or maybe it's still there, buried in the bones of those who sought refuge there.”
I didn't care for the human’s nonsensical beliefs, but I did care to correct him. “I've seen it before, and I'll see it again. And so will you, it's inevitable. The Jurisdiction will always have its judgment fulfilled, there is no alternative.”
“One day, I hope we can rectify that,” he said, then he sheathed his knife and slammed my head against the metal floor with enough force to nearly knock me out. As I lost consciousness, I could hear him speak. “Take him to the Chop Doc, and make sure the cybernetics don't get damaged: they're supposedly more valuable than any bounty on this ship.”
Warning: Severe radiation poisoning detected. Flush system immediately.
Warning: Neural Lace removal detected, chance of neurological damage high. Proceeded with caution.
submitted by Gazooonga to HFY [link] [comments]

2024.05.19 01:12 ReceptionRadiant6425 Issues with Scrapy-Playwright in Scrapy Project

I'm working on a Scrapy project where I'm using the scrapy-playwright package. I've installed the package and configured my Scrapy settings accordingly, but I'm still encountering issues.
Here are the relevant parts of my settings.py file:
# Scrapy settings for TwitterData project # # For simplicity, this file contains only settings considered important or # commonly used. You can find more settings consulting the documentation: # # # # BOT_NAME = "TwitterData" SPIDER_MODULES = ["TwitterData.spiders"] NEWSPIDER_MODULE = "TwitterData.spiders" # Crawl responsibly by identifying yourself (and your website) on the user-agent #USER_AGENT = "TwitterData (+http://www.yourdomain.com)" # Obey robots.txt rules ROBOTSTXT_OBEY = False # Configure maximum concurrent requests performed by Scrapy (default: 16) #CONCURRENT_REQUESTS = 32 # Configure a delay for requests for the same website (default: 0) # See # See also autothrottle settings and docs #DOWNLOAD_DELAY = 3 # The download delay setting will honor only one of: #CONCURRENT_REQUESTS_PER_DOMAIN = 16 #CONCURRENT_REQUESTS_PER_IP = 16 # Disable cookies (enabled by default) #COOKIES_ENABLED = False # Disable Telnet Console (enabled by default) #TELNETCONSOLE_ENABLED = False # Override the default request headers: #DEFAULT_REQUEST_HEADERS = { # "Accept": "text/html,application/xhtml+xml,application/xml;q=0.9,*/*;q=0.8", # "Accept-Language": "en", #} # Enable or disable spider middlewares # See #SPIDER_MIDDLEWARES = { # "TwitterData.middlewares.TwitterdataSpiderMiddleware": 543, #} # Enable or disable downloader middlewares # See #DOWNLOADER_MIDDLEWARES = { # "TwitterData.middlewares.TwitterdataDownloaderMiddleware": 543, #} # Enable or disable extensions # See #EXTENSIONS = { # "scrapy.extensions.telnet.TelnetConsole": None, #} # Configure item pipelines # See #ITEM_PIPELINES = { # "TwitterData.pipelines.TwitterdataPipeline": 300, #} # Enable and configure the AutoThrottle extension (disabled by default) # See #AUTOTHROTTLE_ENABLED = True # The initial download delay #AUTOTHROTTLE_START_DELAY = 5 # The maximum download delay to be set in case of high latencies #AUTOTHROTTLE_MAX_DELAY = 60 # The average number of requests Scrapy should be sending in parallel to # each remote server #AUTOTHROTTLE_TARGET_CONCURRENCY = 1.0 # Enable showing throttling stats for every response received: #AUTOTHROTTLE_DEBUG = False # Enable and configure HTTP caching (disabled by default) # See #HTTPCACHE_ENABLED = True #HTTPCACHE_EXPIRATION_SECS = 0 #HTTPCACHE_DIR = "httpcache" #HTTPCACHE_IGNORE_HTTP_CODES = [] #HTTPCACHE_STORAGE = "scrapy.extensions.httpcache.FilesystemCacheStorage" # Set settings whose default value is deprecated to a future-proof value REQUEST_FINGERPRINTER_IMPLEMENTATION = "2.7" TWISTED_REACTOR = "twisted.internet.asyncioreactor.AsyncioSelectorReactor" FEED_EXPORT_ENCODING = "utf-8" # Scrapy-playwright settings DOWNLOAD_HANDLERS = { "http": "scrapy_playwright.handler.ScrapyPlaywrightDownloadHandler", "https": "scrapy_playwright.handler.ScrapyPlaywrightDownloadHandler", } DOWNLOADER_MIDDLEWARES = { 'scrapy_playwright.middleware.PlaywrightMiddleware': 800, } PLAYWRIGHT_BROWSER_TYPE = "chromium" # or "firefox" or "webkit" PLAYWRIGHT_LAUNCH_OPTIONS = { "headless": True, }https://docs.scrapy.org/en/latest/topics/settings.htmlhttps://docs.scrapy.org/en/latest/topics/downloader-middleware.htmlhttps://docs.scrapy.org/en/latest/topics/spider-middleware.htmlhttps://docs.scrapy.org/en/latest/topics/settings.html#download-delayhttps://docs.scrapy.org/en/latest/topics/spider-middleware.htmlhttps://docs.scrapy.org/en/latest/topics/downloader-middleware.htmlhttps://docs.scrapy.org/en/latest/topics/extensions.htmlhttps://docs.scrapy.org/en/latest/topics/item-pipeline.htmlhttps://docs.scrapy.org/en/latest/topics/autothrottle.htmlhttps://docs.scrapy.org/en/latest/topics/downloader-middleware.html#httpcache-middleware-settings
I've confirmed that scrapy-playwright is installed in my Python environment:
(myenv) user@user:~/Pictures/TwitteTwitterData/TwitterData$ pip list grep scrapy-playwright scrapy-playwright 0.0.34
I'm not using Docker or any other containerization technology for this project. I'm running everything directly on my local machine.
Despite this, I'm still encountering issues when I try to run my Scrapy spider. Error:2024-05-19 03:50:11 [scrapy.utils.log] INFO: Scrapy 2.11.2 started (bot: TwitterData) 2024-05-19 03:50:11 [scrapy.utils.log] INFO: Versions: lxml , libxml2 2.12.6, cssselect 1.2.0, parsel 1.9.1, w3lib 2.1.2, Twisted 24.3.0, Python 3.11.7 (main, Dec 15 2023, 18:12:31) [GCC 11.2.0], pyOpenSSL 24.1.0 (OpenSSL 3.2.1 30 Jan 2024), cryptography 42.0.7, Platform Linux-6.5.0-35-generic-x86_64-with-glibc2.35 2024-05-19 03:50:11 [scrapy.addons] INFO: Enabled addons: [] 2024-05-19 03:50:11 [asyncio] DEBUG: Using selector: EpollSelector 2024-05-19 03:50:11 [scrapy.utils.log] DEBUG: Using reactor: twisted.internet.asyncioreactor.AsyncioSelectorReactor 2024-05-19 03:50:11 [scrapy.utils.log] DEBUG: Using asyncio event loop: asyncio.unix_events._UnixSelectorEventLoop 2024-05-19 03:50:11 [scrapy.extensions.telnet] INFO: Telnet Password: 7d514eb59c924748 2024-05-19 03:50:11 [scrapy.middleware] INFO: Enabled extensions: ['scrapy.extensions.corestats.CoreStats', 'scrapy.extensions.telnet.TelnetConsole', 'scrapy.extensions.memusage.MemoryUsage', 'scrapy.extensions.logstats.LogStats'] 2024-05-19 03:50:11 [scrapy.crawler] INFO: Overridden settings: {'BOT_NAME': 'TwitterData', 'FEED_EXPORT_ENCODING': 'utf-8', 'NEWSPIDER_MODULE': 'TwitterData.spiders', 'REQUEST_FINGERPRINTER_IMPLEMENTATION': '2.7', 'SPIDER_MODULES': ['TwitterData.spiders'], 'TWISTED_REACTOR': 'twisted.internet.asyncioreactor.AsyncioSelectorReactor'} Unhandled error in Deferred: 2024-05-19 03:50:12 [twisted] CRITICAL: Unhandled error in Deferred: Traceback (most recent call last): File "/home/hamza/Pictures/Twittemyenv/lib/python3.11/site-packages/scrapy/crawler.py", line 265, in crawl return self._crawl(crawler, *args, **kwargs) File "/home/hamza/Pictures/Twittemyenv/lib/python3.11/site-packages/scrapy/crawler.py", line 269, in _crawl d = crawler.crawl(*args, **kwargs) File "/home/hamza/Pictures/Twittemyenv/lib/python3.11/site-packages/twisted/internet/defer.py", line 2260, in unwindGenerator return _cancellableInlineCallbacks(gen) File "/home/hamza/Pictures/Twittemyenv/lib/python3.11/site-packages/twisted/internet/defer.py", line 2172, in _cancellableInlineCallbacks _inlineCallbacks(None, gen, status, _copy_context()) ---  --- File "/home/hamza/Pictures/Twittemyenv/lib/python3.11/site-packages/twisted/internet/defer.py", line 2003, in _inlineCallbacks result = context.run(gen.send, result) File "/home/hamza/Pictures/Twittemyenv/lib/python3.11/site-packages/scrapy/crawler.py", line 158, in crawl self.engine = self._create_engine() File "/home/hamza/Pictures/Twittemyenv/lib/python3.11/site-packages/scrapy/crawler.py", line 172, in _create_engine return ExecutionEngine(self, lambda _: self.stop()) File "/home/hamza/Pictures/Twittemyenv/lib/python3.11/site-packages/scrapy/core/engine.py", line 100, in __init__ self.downloader: Downloader = downloader_cls(crawler) File "/home/hamza/Pictures/Twittemyenv/lib/python3.11/site-packages/scrapy/core/downloade__init__.py", line 97, in __init__ DownloaderMiddlewareManager.from_crawler(crawler) File "/home/hamza/Pictures/Twittemyenv/lib/python3.11/site-packages/scrapy/middleware.py", line 90, in from_crawler return cls.from_settings(crawler.settings, crawler) File "/home/hamza/Pictures/Twittemyenv/lib/python3.11/site-packages/scrapy/middleware.py", line 66, in from_settings mwcls = load_object(clspath) File "/home/hamza/Pictures/Twittemyenv/lib/python3.11/site-packages/scrapy/utils/misc.py", line 79, in load_object mod = import_module(module) File "/home/hamza/anaconda3/lib/python3.11/importlib/__init__.py", line 126, in import_module return _bootstrap._gcd_import(name[level:], package, level) File "", line 1204, in _gcd_import File "", line 1176, in _find_and_load File "", line 1140, in _find_and_load_unlocked builtins.ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'scrapy_playwright.middleware' 2024-05-19 03:50:12 [twisted] CRITICAL: Traceback (most recent call last): File "/home/hamza/Pictures/Twittemyenv/lib/python3.11/site-packages/twisted/internet/defer.py", line 2003, in _inlineCallbacks result = context.run(gen.send, result) File "/home/hamza/Pictures/Twittemyenv/lib/python3.11/site-packages/scrapy/crawler.py", line 158, in crawl self.engine = self._create_engine() File "/home/hamza/Pictures/Twittemyenv/lib/python3.11/site-packages/scrapy/crawler.py", line 172, in _create_engine return ExecutionEngine(self, lambda _: self.stop()) File "/home/hamza/Pictures/Twittemyenv/lib/python3.11/site-packages/scrapy/core/engine.py", line 100, in __init__ self.downloader: Downloader = downloader_cls(crawler) File "/home/hamza/Pictures/Twittemyenv/lib/python3.11/site-packages/scrapy/core/downloade__init__.py", line 97, in __init__ DownloaderMiddlewareManager.from_crawler(crawler) File "/home/hamza/Pictures/Twittemyenv/lib/python3.11/site-packages/scrapy/middleware.py", line 90, in from_crawler return cls.from_settings(crawler.settings, crawler) File "/home/hamza/Pictures/Twittemyenv/lib/python3.11/site-packages/scrapy/middleware.py", line 66, in from_settings mwcls = load_object(clspath) File "/home/hamza/Pictures/Twittemyenv/lib/python3.11/site-packages/scrapy/utils/misc.py", line 79, in load_object mod = import_module(module) File "/home/hamza/anaconda3/lib/python3.11/importlib/__init__.py", line 126, in import_module return _bootstrap._gcd_import(name[level:], package, level) File "", line 1204, in _gcd_import File "", line 1176, in _find_and_load File "", line 1140, in _find_and_load_unlocked ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'scrapy_playwright.middleware' (myenv) hamza@hamza:~/Pictures/TwitteTwitterData/TwitterData$ scrapy crawl XScraper 2024-05-19 03:52:24 [scrapy.utils.log] INFO: Scrapy 2.11.2 started (bot: TwitterData) 2024-05-19 03:52:24 [scrapy.utils.log] INFO: Versions: lxml , libxml2 2.12.6, cssselect 1.2.0, parsel 1.9.1, w3lib 2.1.2, Twisted 24.3.0, Python 3.11.7 (main, Dec 15 2023, 18:12:31) [GCC 11.2.0], pyOpenSSL 24.1.0 (OpenSSL 3.2.1 30 Jan 2024), cryptography 42.0.7, Platform Linux-6.5.0-35-generic-x86_64-with-glibc2.35 2024-05-19 03:52:24 [scrapy.addons] INFO: Enabled addons: [] 2024-05-19 03:52:24 [asyncio] DEBUG: Using selector: EpollSelector 2024-05-19 03:52:24 [scrapy.utils.log] DEBUG: Using reactor: twisted.internet.asyncioreactor.AsyncioSelectorReactor 2024-05-19 03:52:24 [scrapy.utils.log] DEBUG: Using asyncio event loop: asyncio.unix_events._UnixSelectorEventLoop 2024-05-19 03:52:24 [scrapy.extensions.telnet] INFO: Telnet Password: 1c13665361bfbc53 2024-05-19 03:52:24 [scrapy.middleware] INFO: Enabled extensions: ['scrapy.extensions.corestats.CoreStats', 'scrapy.extensions.telnet.TelnetConsole', 'scrapy.extensions.memusage.MemoryUsage', 'scrapy.extensions.logstats.LogStats'] 2024-05-19 03:52:24 [scrapy.crawler] INFO: Overridden settings: {'BOT_NAME': 'TwitterData', 'FEED_EXPORT_ENCODING': 'utf-8', 'NEWSPIDER_MODULE': 'TwitterData.spiders', 'REQUEST_FINGERPRINTER_IMPLEMENTATION': '2.7', 'SPIDER_MODULES': ['TwitterData.spiders'], 'TWISTED_REACTOR': 'twisted.internet.asyncioreactor.AsyncioSelectorReactor'} Unhandled error in Deferred: 2024-05-19 03:52:24 [twisted] CRITICAL: Unhandled error in Deferred: Traceback (most recent call last): File "/home/hamza/Pictures/Twittemyenv/lib/python3.11/site-packages/scrapy/crawler.py", line 265, in crawl return self._crawl(crawler, *args, **kwargs) File "/home/hamza/Pictures/Twittemyenv/lib/python3.11/site-packages/scrapy/crawler.py", line 269, in _crawl d = crawler.crawl(*args, **kwargs) File "/home/hamza/Pictures/Twittemyenv/lib/python3.11/site-packages/twisted/internet/defer.py", line 2260, in unwindGenerator return _cancellableInlineCallbacks(gen) File "/home/hamza/Pictures/Twittemyenv/lib/python3.11/site-packages/twisted/internet/defer.py", line 2172, in _cancellableInlineCallbacks _inlineCallbacks(None, gen, status, _copy_context()) ---  --- File "/home/hamza/Pictures/Twittemyenv/lib/python3.11/site-packages/twisted/internet/defer.py", line 2003, in _inlineCallbacks result = context.run(gen.send, result) File "/home/hamza/Pictures/Twittemyenv/lib/python3.11/site-packages/scrapy/crawler.py", line 158, in crawl self.engine = self._create_engine() File "/home/hamza/Pictures/Twittemyenv/lib/python3.11/site-packages/scrapy/crawler.py", line 172, in _create_engine return ExecutionEngine(self, lambda _: self.stop()) File "/home/hamza/Pictures/Twittemyenv/lib/python3.11/site-packages/scrapy/core/engine.py", line 100, in __init__ self.downloader: Downloader = downloader_cls(crawler) File "/home/hamza/Pictures/Twittemyenv/lib/python3.11/site-packages/scrapy/core/downloade__init__.py", line 97, in __init__ DownloaderMiddlewareManager.from_crawler(crawler) File "/home/hamza/Pictures/Twittemyenv/lib/python3.11/site-packages/scrapy/middleware.py", line 90, in from_crawler return cls.from_settings(crawler.settings, crawler) File "/home/hamza/Pictures/Twittemyenv/lib/python3.11/site-packages/scrapy/middleware.py", line 66, in from_settings mwcls = load_object(clspath) File "/home/hamza/Pictures/Twittemyenv/lib/python3.11/site-packages/scrapy/utils/misc.py", line 79, in load_object mod = import_module(module) File "/home/hamza/anaconda3/lib/python3.11/importlib/__init__.py", line 126, in import_module return _bootstrap._gcd_import(name[level:], package, level) File "", line 1204, in _gcd_import File "", line 1176, in _find_and_load File "", line 1140, in _find_and_load_unlocked builtins.ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'scrapy_playwright.middleware' 2024-05-19 03:52:24 [twisted] CRITICAL: Traceback (most recent call last): File "/home/hamza/Pictures/Twittemyenv/lib/python3.11/site-packages/twisted/internet/defer.py", line 2003, in _inlineCallbacks result = context.run(gen.send, result) File "/home/hamza/Pictures/Twittemyenv/lib/python3.11/site-packages/scrapy/crawler.py", line 158, in crawl self.engine = self._create_engine() File "/home/hamza/Pictures/Twittemyenv/lib/python3.11/site-packages/scrapy/crawler.py", line 172, in _create_engine return ExecutionEngine(self, lambda _: self.stop()) File "/home/hamza/Pictures/Twittemyenv/lib/python3.11/site-packages/scrapy/core/engine.py", line 100, in __init__ self.downloader: Downloader = downloader_cls(crawler) File "/home/hamza/Pictures/Twittemyenv/lib/python3.11/site-packages/scrapy/core/downloade__init__.py", line 97, in __init__ DownloaderMiddlewareManager.from_crawler(crawler) File "/home/hamza/Pictures/Twittemyenv/lib/python3.11/site-packages/scrapy/middleware.py", line 90, in from_crawler return cls.from_settings(crawler.settings, crawler) File "/home/hamza/Pictures/Twittemyenv/lib/python3.11/site-packages/scrapy/middleware.py", line 66, in from_settings mwcls = load_object(clspath) File "/home/hamza/Pictures/Twittemyenv/lib/python3.11/site-packages/scrapy/utils/misc.py", line 79, in load_object mod = import_module(module) File "/home/hamza/anaconda3/lib/python3.11/importlib/__init__.py", line 126, in import_module return _bootstrap._gcd_import(name[level:], package, level) File "", line 1204, in _gcd_import File "", line 1176, in _find_and_load File "", line 1140, in _find_and_load_unlocked ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'scrapy_playwright.middleware'5.2.2.05.2.2.0
Does anyone have any suggestions for what might be going wrong, or what I could try to resolve this issue?
I tried to reinstall the scrapy-playwright also tried to deactivate and then activate my virtual environment.
submitted by ReceptionRadiant6425 to scrapy [link] [comments]

2024.05.19 01:08 redueka How to (safely) delete the Sims 4 off my laptop?

Hello! I need to free up space on my laptop (Macbook Air, if it makes a difference) in order to get a software update, so I'm wondering if anyone has experience with making a copy of their "saves" folder, deleting the Sims application off their computer, and redownloading both. I know that I'll have to re-download my CC and expansion packs no matter what, but will my game still run the same after reinstalling the app & the "saves" folder? Is there anything else I should back up while I'm at it? Thanks in advance.
submitted by redueka to thesims4 [link] [comments]

2024.05.19 01:01 ultradip New to r/Charity? Read this first!

Welcome to /Charity!

Got a charitable cause you'd like to share! This is the place!

Requirements

For 501c(3) non-profits (US) or a Non-Governmental Organization (aka NGO outside the US)

Please modmail us so that we can flair your post as a registered certified non-profit!

For Everyone Else

You must have both

NOTE: We are specifically looking for COMMENT karma. The karma value you are probably looking at is a COMBINED value, consisting of both Link/Post karma plus Comment karma.

To view your karma breakdown:
The following circumventions will result in a ban:
Comment Karma is directly correlated to how many comments you leave plus/minus any points as people upvote a popular comment or downvote an unpopular comment.

Credibility, Community, and You

AKA, Why Do We Have Account Requirements for Individuals?
In an effort to make your crowdfunding efforts more successful here on Reddit, some background first:
In many of the gifting and fundraising subs, you'll notice that without a certain amount "karma" and an account that's old enough, you'll garner down votes or worse, your posts and comments get automatically removed.
Why?
To many Redditors, this place is a community built on activity. The "coin" of the land here is your account, and how much you've contributed to the Reddit community at large reflected in post and comment karma.
As a general rule, Redditors dislike the creation of accounts specifically to fund raise or to make requests. It makes it seem like these people simply treat Reddit as some sort of magical internet wallet, and that doesn't win many friends.
The other reason why new accounts are so disliked is that they're often alternate accounts of established users, in order to hide their activity from people they know. While we do sympathize with those of you who have valid reasons, this privilege is often abused by those who create disposable accounts to scam people for a quick buck.
This trust issue doesn't exist in the same way with certified non-profit groups, as you can look them up online for verification, and at least in the case of 501c(3)s, their spending is transparent due to their required tax filings which are public information.
So if you're new to Reddit, welcome! Spend some time and look around for something that catches your interest and chat it up with others and become part of the community!
However if you're here for the sole reason of making requests in a hurry, please be aware your pleas for help will likely be ignored.
REMEMBER, CREDIBILITY AND COMMUNITY IS EVERYTHING!
For this reason, the mods will not post anything on behalf of any user that does not meet account requirements.

Rules

  1. Posts must be more than just a link to your campaign. Be descriptive! Show evidence . This includes:
    1. If this is for your pet, photos of your pet in question, with your username on a handwritten note in the picture.
    2. School documentation showing enrollment if you are asking for assistance for school.
    3. Redacted bills showing your situation.
    4. Or other relevant documentation that can help establish credibility.
    5. At minimum, please attach an unobstructed selfie photo of yourself(the submitter) with a handwritten note of your username.
    6. Low effort posts that simply say to the effect of, "everything is listed in the GoFundMe" will be removed.
  2. Please Flair your posts, once created. If you don't know how, just let the mods know and we'll do it for you.
  3. Only 1 campaign per user. We want you have some personal connection to the campaign, and not submit multiples simply because they were in the news.
  4. Reposts are allowed once a week. If a repost comes up too early, the newest one(s) will be removed.
  5. Acceptable transfer methods for individuals are for crowdfunding sites only, such as GoFundme, YouCaring, etc. Individuals should avoid using Paypal, crypto, or direct banking aps (like Chase). 501c(3) and NGOs may use whatever method they wish.
  6. Don't PM people to make requests. If you receive an unsolicited private message, please let us know!
  7. Do not post politically-related campaigns. They're just too divisive.
  8. Trolling will not be tolerated and offending users will be banned.
  9. Don't bug the mods for an exception to the account requirements. None will be given. If you attempt to circumvent the requirement by karma farming or by commenting on someone else's post, your account will be banned.
  10. No posting for other Redditors. No Alts. This is viewed as a circumvention of requirements and both accounts will be banned.
  11. Selling is only allowed by 1st parties directly. We do not allow selling by 3rd parties to benefit another organization, as there's no transparency to verify that the announced percentage of sales actually goes to the beneficiary. Only direct sales by the non-profit organization are allowed.

Supporting Information Requested for Non-501c(3) and Non-NGO campaigns.

We aren't the government. We aren't a court of law. We definitely don't want you to give out information that could lead to identity theft. However, some campaigns are more successful when they have additional documentation.
This includes:
Low effort posts that simply say to the effect of, "everything is listed in the GoFundMe" (or less!) will be removed.

How to Include a Photo or Other Supporting Info Document In Your Post

Because Reddit wasn't initially designed to handle photos when it was created, it has limitations in the implementation of photo support which don't work well for us. So instead we suggest the following:
  1. Upload your photo to Imgur.com or other photo hosting site.
  2. Copy the URL for the photo.
  3. Create a new post or Edit your existing one to include the URL to the photo.
Please make sure to include this, as it is the primary reason why posts that are otherwise fine get removed.

Advice On Making Your Campaign Go Further

Not all crowdfunding campaigns are the same, but here are some suggestions.

Questions?

Please don't hesitate to ask the mods!
... Unless you're trying to ask for an exception to the account requirements.
submitted by ultradip to Charity [link] [comments]

2024.05.19 01:01 ultradip Weekly Rules Reminder - New to our sub? Please read this first!

Welcome to /gofundme!

____
In an effort to make your crowdfunding efforts more successful here on Reddit, some background first:
​
Credibility, Community, and You
AKA, Why Do We Have Account Requirements?
In many of the gifting and fundraising subs, you'll notice that without a certain amount "karma" and an account that's old enough, you'll garner down votes or worse, your posts and comments get automatically removed.
Why?
To many Redditors, this place is a community built on activity. The "coin" of the land here is your account, and how much you've contributed to the Reddit community at large reflected in post and comment karma.
As a general rule, Redditors dislike the creation of accounts specifically to fund raise or to make requests. It makes it seem like these people simply treat Reddit as some sort of magical internet wallet, and that doesn't win many friends.
The other reason why new accounts are so disliked is that they're often alternate accounts of established users, in order to hide their activity from people they know. While we do sympathize with those of you who have valid reasons, this privilege is often abused by those who create disposable accounts to scam people for a quick buck.
So if you're new to Reddit, welcome! Spend some time and look around for something that catches your interest and chat it up with others and become part of the community!
However if you're here for the sole reason of making requests in a hurry, please be aware your pleas for help will likely be ignored.
​
**REMEMBER, CREDIBILITY AND COMMUNITY IS EVERYTHING!**
​
For this reason, the mods will not post anything on behalf of any user that does not meet account requirements.
_____
Account Requirements
All accounts must meet BOTH of the following:
  1. Account age of 90 days or older.
  2. *Comment* karma of 250 or greater.
NOTE: We are specifically looking for *COMMENT* karma. The karma value you are probably looking at is a COMBINED value, consisting of both Link/Post karma plus Comment karma.
​
To view your karma breakdown:
​
The following circumventions will result in a ban, and get you added to the UniversalScammerList:
Comment Karma is directly correlated to how many comments you leave plus/minus any points as people upvote a popular comment or downvote an unpopular comment.
_____
Rules
​
  1. Posts must be more than just a link to your campaign. Be descriptive! Be prepared to show evidence if needed. If the mods find it lacking, it may be removed.
  2. Please Flair your posts, once created. If you don't know how, just let the mods know and we'll do it for you.
  3. Only 1 GoFundMe per user. We want you have some personal connection to the campaign, and not submit multiple GFMs simply because they were in the news.
  4. Reposts are allowed once a week. If a repost comes up too early, the newest one(s) will be removed.
  5. Crowdfunding sites only. No crypto currency, direct PayPal, cash transfers, trading or loans. Our scope is only GoFundMe and other crowd sourced funding sites.
  6. Don't PM people to make requests. If you receive an unsolicited private message, please let us know!
  7. Do not post politically-related campaigns. They're just too divisive. Also, they're too often used to scam people (remember the campaign to fund Trump's wall?).
  8. Trolling will not be tolerated and offending users will be banned.
  9. Don't bug the mods for an exception to the account requirements. None will be given. If you attempt to circumvent the requirement by karma farming or by commenting on someone else's post, your account will be banned.
  10. No posting for other Redditors. No Alts. This is viewed as a circumvention of the requirements and the accounts in question will be banned. (New Oct 22, 2020)
  11. No referral links. A referral link like that isn't likely to solve anyone's financial problems in the time frame they need. (New March 16, 2024)
Any referral links posted here will be flagged as spam, and may trigger your account to be added to Reddit's site-wide spammer list.
_____
Supporting Information Requested
We aren't the government. We aren't a court of law. We definitely don't want you to give out information that could lead to identity theft. However, some campaigns are more successful when they have additional documentation.
This includes:
- Pet related requests: Photos of your pet in question, with your username on a handwritten note in the picture. This helps show you actually own the pet in question.
- Education related requests: Documentation showing enrollment or acceptance if you are asking for assistance for school.
- Redacted bills showing your situation. In some cases, a donor may prefer to pay a creditor directly on your behalf, so be prepared and find out if that is available to you.
- If you are sharing a campaign for a registered certified non-profit organization (such as a 501c3 or NGO), you should say so in the post, and it should list that status on the campaign page/web site.
- Or other relevant documentation that can help establish credibility.
- At minimum, an unobstructed selfie photo of yourself(the submitter) holding a handwritten note of your username is required if none of the above apply.
Low effort posts that simply say to the effect of, "everything is listed in the GoFundMe" (or less!) will be removed.
_____
Advice On Making Your Campaign Go Further
Not all crowdfunding campaigns are the same, but here are some suggestions.
_____
Questions?
Please don't hesitate to ask the mods!
​
... Unless you're trying to ask for an exception to the account requirements.
submitted by ultradip to gofundme [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).
Immediately following that post, I changed some of their techniques in my case. 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 00:14 Jealous-Possession92 C4c drop ur code in comments once u done igu quick

C4c drop ur code in comments once u done igu quick
241892280
submitted by Jealous-Possession92 to TemuCodesUSA [link] [comments]

2024.05.19 00:14 bia_matsuo AllTalk and Text-Gen-WebUI-ST wierd interaction, generates the image and the .wav file, but it dosn't play the audio

I've just installed the Text-Gen-WebUI-ST , and it seems to be working fine, the problem is the interaction between it and AllTalk.
Here is an example response I received: Chiharu's eyes widen in surprise at your response, but she quickly recovers and smiles reassuringly Don't worry, I won't bite! She chuckles Let's start with the basics. What got you interested in computers? [image_correclty_generated]
AllTalk correctly generates the .wav file, but it doesnt send it alongside the text response and the image. And as seem in the example above, the text is ouputting the .wav file path, and not the "play button". The correct text would be: [PLAY BUTTOM] Chiharu's eyes widen in surprise at your response, but she quickly recovers and smiles reassuringly Don't worry, I won't bite! She chuckles Let's start with the basics. What got you interested in computers? [image_correclty_generated]
I'm running AllTalk as a Text-Gen-WebUI extension, and it's entire ouput into the command windows is:
Llama.generate: prefix-match hit Output generated in 6.15 seconds (10.09 tokens/s, 62 tokens, context 384, seed 1337) [AllTalk TTSGen] Chiharu's eyes widen in surprise at your response, but she quickly recovers and smiles reassuringly Don't worry, I won't bite! She chuckles Let's start with the basics. What got you interested in computers? [AllTalk TTSGen] 4.09 seconds. LowVRAM: False DeepSpeed: True 18:46:26-837540 INFO [SD WebUI Integration] Using stable-diffusion-webui to generate images. Prompt: She chuckles Let's start with the basics. What got you interested in computers, but she quickly recovers and smiles reassuringly Don't worry, Chiharu's eyes widen in surprise at your response, I won't bite, sscore_9, score_8_up, score_7_up, score_6_up, realistic, realism, source_anime, High-Res, High Quality, (masterpiece, best quality, highly detailed, realistic, beautiful eyes, detailed face), BREAK red eyes, red glasses, brown hair, pony tails, long hair, bangs, smiling, lab coat, black boots, ankle boots, blue nails, blue lipstick, cowboy shot, upper body shot Negative Prompt: score_4_up, score_5_up,low detailed, ugly face, bad hands, bad fingers, mutated hands, low res, blurry face, monochrome, words, artist signature, close up
And here is Stable-Difussion ouput:
Begin to load 1 model [Memory Management] Current Free GPU Memory (MB) = 10816.615869522095 [Memory Management] Model Memory (MB) = 2144.3546981811523 [Memory Management] Minimal Inference Memory (MB) = 1024.0 [Memory Management] Estimated Remaining GPU Memory (MB) = 7648.261171340942 Moving model(s) has taken 1.81 seconds To load target model SDXL Begin to load 1 model [Memory Management] Current Free GPU Memory (MB) = 9031.173444747925 [Memory Management] Model Memory (MB) = 4897.086494445801 [Memory Management] Minimal Inference Memory (MB) = 1024.0 [Memory Management] Estimated Remaining GPU Memory (MB) = 3110.086950302124 Moving model(s) has taken 3.24 seconds 100%██████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████ 15/15 [00:05<00:00, 2.93it/s] Memory cleanup has taken 3.36 seconds██████████████████████████████████████████████████ 15/15 [00:04<00:00, 2.97it/s] Total progress: 100%██████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████ 15/15 [00:08<00:00, 1.77it/s] Total progress: 100%██████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████ 15/15 [00:08<00:00, 2.97it/s]
And this is my "settings.yaml" file:
preset: Debug-deterministic seed: 1337 truncation_length: 32768 stream: false character: Chiharu Yamada default_extensions: - openai - send_pictures - sd_api_pictures - gallery - long_replies - whisper_stt - alltalk_tts - stable_diffusion alltalk_tts-voice: '#Scarlett_voice_preview (enhanced).wav' stable_diffusion-api_username: '' stable_diffusion-api_password: '' stable_diffusion-base_prompt: sscore_9, score_8_up, score_7_up, score_6_up, realistic, realism, source_anime, High-Res, High Quality, (masterpiece, best quality, highly detailed, realistic, beautiful eyes, detailed face), BREAK red eyes, red glasses, brown hair, pony tails, long hair, bangs, smiling, lab coat, black boots, ankle boots, blue nails, blue lipstick, cowboy shot, upper body shot stable_diffusion-base_negative_prompt: score_4_up, score_5_up,low detailed, ugly face, bad hands, bad fingers, mutated hands, low res, blurry face, monochrome, words, artist signature, close up, stable_diffusion-sampler_name: Euler a stable_diffusion-sampling_steps: 15 stable_diffusion-width: 1024 stable_diffusion-height: 1024 stable_diffusion-cfg_scale: 4 stable_diffusion-clip_skip: 2 stable_diffusion-debug_mode_enabled: true stable_diffusion-trigger_mode: continuous stable_diffusion-tool_mode_force_json_output_enabled: false stable_diffusion-tool_mode_force_json_output_schema: "{\n \"type\": \"array\", \n \"items\": {\n \"type\": \"object\",\n \"properties\": {\n \"tool_name\": {\n \"type\": \"string\",\n \"required\": true\n },\n \"parameters\": {\n \"type\": \"object\",\n \"required\": true\n } \n },\n \"additionalProperties\": false\n },\n \"minItems\": 1\n}" stable_diffusion-interactive_mode_input_trigger_regex: .*(drawpaintcreatesenduploadaddshowattachgenerate)\b.+?\b(imagepic(ture)?photosnap(shot)?selfiememe)(s?) stable_diffusion-interactive_mode_output_trigger_regex: .*[*([]?(drawspaintscreatessendsuploadsaddsshowsattachesgenerateshere (isare))\b.+?\b(imagepic(ture)?photosnap(shot)?selfiememe)(s?) stable_diffusion-interactive_mode_description_prompt: You are now a text generator for the Stable Diffusion AI image generator. You will generate a text prompt for it. Describe [subject] using comma-separated tags only. Do not use sentences. Include many tags such as tags for the environment, gender, clothes, age, location, light, daytime, angle, pose, etc. Very important: only write the comma-separated tags. Do not write anything else. Do not ask any questions. Do not talk. stable_diffusion-dont_stream_when_generating_images: false stable_diffusion-generation_rules: - regex: .*\b(detailed)\b match: - input - output actions: - name: prompt_append args: '(high resolution, detailed, realistic, vivid: 1.2), hdr, 8k, ' - regex: ^Assistant$ match: - character_name actions: - name: prompt_append args: - name: negative_prompt_append args: - regex: ^Example$ match: - character_name actions: - name: faceswaplab_enable - name: faceswaplab_set_source_face args: file:///{STABLE_DIFFUSION_EXTENSION_DIRECTORY}/assets/example_face.jpg stable_diffusion-hires_sampling_steps: 10 stable_diffusion-faceswaplab_source_face: file:///{STABLE_DIFFUSION_EXTENSION_DIRECTORY}/assets/example_face.jpg stable_diffusion-reactor_source_face: file:///{STABLE_DIFFUSION_EXTENSION_DIRECTORY}/assets/example_face.jpg stable_diffusion-reactor_source_gender: none stable_diffusion-reactor_target_gender: none stable_diffusion-faceid_source_face: file:///{STABLE_DIFFUSION_EXTENSION_DIRECTORY}/assets/example_face.jpg stable_diffusion-ipadapter_reference_image: file:///{STABLE_DIFFUSION_EXTENSION_DIRECTORY}/assets/example_face.jpg
If someone could give me a help on this, I'll appreciate a lot. Thank you.
submitted by bia_matsuo to Oobabooga [link] [comments]

2024.05.19 00:07 boogzrhymer24 Prizepool (Instant $1-$100)

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submitted by boogzrhymer24 to referralcodes [link] [comments]

2024.05.19 00:02 ArtFraga Paulinho Nogueira Falando De Amor Fingerstyle Bossa Chords - Guitar Tabs - Antônio Carlos Jobim by Antônio Carlos Jobim

Paulinho Nogueira Falando De Amor Fingerstyle Bossa guitar tabs download as PDF and Guitar Pro on: https://paidtabs.com/search/enHaNRUXnZU
Click here for a free preview of the score (first page)
This score has 6 PDF pages
Credit: this score was transcribed/uploaded by @Lhabar
If you cannot find the score, it might be because of a copyright issue. Click on "Request" button at PaidTabs.com to request and get the score.
submitted by ArtFraga to RareTabs [link] [comments]

2024.05.19 00:01 pete_22 What's the name of this mistake?

The mistake is to assume that naming a problem is enough to solve it. I’ve come to think of this as the “Rumpelstiltskin fallacy” — or I also think of a famous Arthur C. Clarke short story, which I won’t spoil by naming it. But clearly I’m not the first person to use these metaphors, and if I google “Rumpelstiltskin principle” (or “effect” or “fallacy”) then I get all kinds of interesting usages… some of which overlap with what I’m talking about, none of which are quite the same thing.
So I’m just calling it a “mistake” here, because it doesn’t seem to reduce to a single logical fallacy or cognitive bias, and it may be more of a compound or second-order heuristic. I’ll give a few examples in different domains, and I’m hoping that someone can either point to where the umbrella concept has been better defined and discussed, or explain why I’m off base in thinking of it as a single mechanism.
  1. Politics: whenever one side gets overly attached to some concept or framing, with demands that the other side either use or renounce specific terms. In the US, one obvious two-way example today is “critical race theory,” but another was “Islamic fundamentalism” in the post-9/11 period.
  2. Psychology / self-help: on the one hand you’ve got Tumblr style therapy culture, with these increasingly specific taxonomies of identity, neurodivergence, trauma, etc. On the other end of that cultural axis, you’ve got pop Stoicism and other repackaged virtue ethics, which can be just as reductivist in practice.
  3. Social science: the blank slate and the rational actor seem like parallel left-ish and right-ish examples. You might say they were each initially useful as a simplifying assumption (e.g. let’s zero out what we “know” about innate male/female differences, to see how much of it is really socially constructed) but they became reified to the point that whole new “contrarian” subfields formed just to question them, like behavioral econ or evo psych.
  4. Culture: just the rise of fan culture and the increasing “meta-ness” of taste — the idea that explaining or contextualizing music/film/books is the point of consuming them, or that it’s somehow prior to consumption. So we could talk about right-coded objections to diverse Marvel movies, or left-coded objections to Young Adult plots... but one of the earliest signs for me was when new TV shows started to be promoted with interviews with the cast, before even telling you what the show was about.
I appreciate that I’m stretching the meaning of “naming” to mean defining, explaining or framing, and stretching the definition of “problem” too. I realize you could tackle each of my examples with a stack of other concepts, like map vs territory, man-with-a-hammer syndrome, “solutionism,” confirmation bias, and so on.
But am I right that there’s some other overarching mechanism they all share? Sort of a convergence on this same pattern of magical thinking, derailing from practical subjects into theory that doesn’t ramify the way we want it to? Or am I just overthinking it?
submitted by pete_22 to slatestarcodex [link] [comments]

2024.05.18 23:57 Keith502 Why is the Bill of Rights interpreted to give rights to Americans?

There seem to be a large number of people who believe that the purpose of the Bill of Rights was to grant and guarantee rights to the American people. Furthermore, I have heard many people claim that the Bill of Rights is entirely a list of specifically individual rights of American citizens. It puzzles me why these beliefs continue to persist, because the historical record indicates that there is no reason to believe these descriptions of the Bill of Rights. There is a more than adequate amount of historical evidence to corroborate my conclusion. The first and most direct evidence is the very preamble to the Bill of Rights itself. The original preamble of the Bill of Rights begins with a paragraph explaining the document’s purpose; it goes as follows:
The Conventions of a number of the States, having at the time of their adopting the Constitution, expressed a desire, in order to prevent misconstruction or abuse of its powers, that further declaratory and restrictive clauses should be added: And as extending the ground of public confidence in the Government, will best ensure the beneficent ends of its institution.
I think the three most important phrases in this paragraph are “in order to prevent misconstruction or abuse of its powers”, “declaratory and restrictive clauses”, and “extending the ground of public confidence in the Government”. These three phrases seem to best sum up what the Bill of Rights was originally meant to accomplish: it is a list of declaratory and restrictive clauses whose purpose is to prevent the misconstruction or abuse of the Constitution’s powers, and to increase public confidence in the federal government. And if one were to look at the Bill of Rights, its text would seem to be in harmony with this statement of purpose. The Bill of Rights consists mostly of negative clauses which put restrictions on the federal government; it states what shall not happen or what shall not be done by Congress, such as prohibiting freedom of religion, abridging freedom of speech, infringing the right to keep and bear arms, violating the right to be secure in property, etc. And the ninth and tenth amendments do not mention any particular rights whatsoever, and clearly just serve the purpose of preventing the Constitution from being misconstrued or abused to diminish the rights of the states and the people, and to prevent granting the federal government more power than the Constitution meant for it to have. The phrase “extending the ground of public confidence in the Government” further indicates that the Bill of Rights was not really meant to add rights not already stipulated in the Constitution, but was only meant to reinforce trust in the federal government at the time of the Founding. The Bill of Rights was not meant to add any substantive articles to the Constitution, but rather it consisted of articles whose purpose was to reinforce the articles that had already been established, and prevent them from being misinterpreted in the future by any unscrupulous members of the federal government. Also notice that there is nothing written here in the preamble about granting rights to the American people, let alone granting specifically individual rights to the American people: you would think if the framers of the Bill of Rights had meant for this to be the document’s effect, they would have stated so clearly in the preamble.
Another piece of evidence for my conclusion comes in an address given by James Madison -- the author of the Bill of Rights -- in the House of Representatives on June 8, 1789. This address involved an early proposal of amendments to the Constitution. Before listing his various propositions for amending the Constitution, Madison said this:
There have been objections of various kinds made against the Constitution. Some were levelled against its structure because the President was without a council; because the Senate, which is a legislative body, had judicial powers in trials on impeachments; and because the powers of that body were compounded in other respects, in a manner that did not correspond with a particular theory; because it grants more power than is supposed to be necessary for every good purpose, and controls the ordinary powers of the State Governments. I know some respectable characters who opposed this Government on these grounds; but I believe that the great mass of the people who opposed it, disliked it because it did not contain effectual provisions against encroachments on particular rights, and those safeguards which they have been long accustomed to have interposed between them and the magistrate who exercises the sovereign power; nor ought we to consider them safe, while a great number of our fellow-citizens think these securities necessary.
The part I've put in italics indicates that the major purpose of the amendments to the Constitution was to reassure citizens that effective protections were put in place to prevent the “magistrate who exercises the sovereign power” from encroaching upon their rights. Notice there is nothing written here about granting rights to the people, only protecting the people's pre-existing rights from the federal government.
Following the above statement, Madison begins to list a variety of proposed additions to the Constitution, and he proposes the additions be inserted into the body of the Constitution itself, at various sections. Ultimately, he begins to propose a certain list of amendments to be inserted within article 1, section 9; and this particular list happens to correspond to most of the articles which comprise the Bill of Rights as it exists today:
Fourthly. That in article 1st, section 9, between clauses 3 and 4, be inserted these clauses, to wit: The civil rights of none shall be abridged on account of religious belief or worship, nor shall any national religion be established, nor shall the full and equal rights of conscience be in any manner, or on any pretext, infringed.
The people shall not be deprived or abridged of their right to speak, to write, or to publish their sentiments; and the freedom of the press, as one of the great bulwarks of liberty, shall be inviolable.
The people shall not be restrained from peaceably assembling and consulting for their common good; nor from applying to the Legislature by petitions, or remonstrances, for redress of their grievances.
The right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed; a well armed and well regulated militia being the best security of a free country: but no person religiously scrupulous of bearing arms shall be compelled to render military service in person.
No soldier shall in time of peace be quartered in any house without the consent of the owner; nor at any time, but in a manner warranted by law.
No person shall be subject, except in cases of impeachment, to more than one punishment or one trial for the same offence; nor shall be compelled to be a witness against himself; nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor be obliged to relinquish his property, where it may be necessary for public use, without a just compensation.
Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.
The rights of the people to be secured in their persons; their houses, their papers, and their other property, from all unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated by warrants issued without probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, or not particularly describing the places to be searched, or the persons or things to be seized.
In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, to be informed of the cause and nature of the accusation, to be confronted with his accusers, and the witnesses against him; to have a compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor; and to have the assistance of counsel for his defence.
The exceptions here or elsewhere in the Constitution, made in favor of particular rights, shall not be so construed as to diminish the just importance of other rights retained by the people, or as to enlarge the powers delegated by the Constitution; but either as actual limitations of such powers, or as inserted merely for greater caution.
It is notable to consider that Madison initially proposed the Bill of Rights to be integrated into the Constitution itself, rather than to be a separate document. But what is even more notable is the specific location it was proposed to be inserted in. Article 1, section 9 is specifically the location of the Constitution dedicated to enumerating the prohibitions upon the power of Congress. What this means is that the original plan for the amendments currently appearing in the Bill of Rights was for them to merely be a list of stipulations regarding what Congress was not allowed to do. Thus, it would make no sense for those same clauses today to be construed as being themselves grants of rights to individual American citizens, anymore than other articles within this same section -- such as Congress being prohibited from abolishing the slave trade before 1808, or laying taxes on state exports -- could themselves be considered grants of individual rights to American citizens.
Another piece of evidence can be found in the 1833 Supreme Court case Barron v Baltimore. This case essentially makes explicit that which was originally understood about the Bill of Rights -- that it was meant only as a list of prohibitions upon Congress. The following excerpt makes this clear:
Had the framers of these amendments intended them to be limitations on the powers of the State governments, they would have imitated the framers of the original Constitution, and have expressed that intention. Had Congress engaged in the extraordinary occupation of improving the Constitutions of the several States by affording the people additional protection from the exercise of power by their own governments in matters which concerned themselves alone, they would have declared this purpose in plain and intelligible language.
But it is universally understood, it is a part of the history of the day, that the great revolution which established the Constitution of the United States was not effected without immense opposition. Serious fears were extensively entertained that those powers which the patriot statesmen who then watched over the interests of our country deemed essential to union, and to the attainment of those invaluable objects for which union was sought, might be exercised in a manner dangerous to liberty. In almost every convention by which the Constitution was adopted, amendments to guard against the abuse of power were recommended. These amendments demanded security against the apprehended encroachments of the General Government -- not against those of the local governments. In compliance with a sentiment thus generally expressed, to quiet fears thus extensively entertained, amendments were proposed by the required majority in Congress and adopted by the States. These amendments contain no expression indicating an intention to apply them to the State governments. This court cannot so apply them.
And then the aforementioned case was subsequently referenced by the 1875 Supreme Court case US v Cruikshank, which further reinforced the same conclusion while addressing the first and second amendments of the Bill of Rights:
The first amendment to the Constitution prohibits Congress from abridging "the right of the people to assemble and to petition the government for a redress of grievances." This, like the other amendments proposed and adopted at the same time, was not intended to limit the powers of the State governments in respect to their own citizens, but to operate upon the National Government alone. [. . .] It is now too late to question the correctness of this construction. As was said by the late Chief Justice, in Twitchell v. The Commonwealth (#325), 7 Wall. 325, "the scope and application of these amendments are no longer subjects of discussion here." They left the authority of the States just where they found it, and added nothing to the already existing powers of the United States.
The particular amendment now under consideration assumes the existence of the right of the people to assemble for lawful purposes, and protects it against encroachment by Congress. The right was not created by the amendment; neither was its continuance guaranteed, except as against congressional interference. For their protection in its enjoyment, therefore, the people must look to the States. The power for that purpose was originally placed there, and it has never been surrendered to the United States.
The second and tenth counts are equally defective. The right there specified is that of "bearing arms for a lawful purpose." This is not a right granted by the Constitution. Neither is it in any manner dependent upon that instrument for its existence. The second amendment declares that it shall not be infringed, but this, as has been seen, means no more than that it shall not be infringed by Congress. This is one of the amendments that has no other effect than to restrict the powers of the national government, leaving the people to look for their protection against any violation by their fellow citizens of the rights it recognizes, to what is called, in The City of New York v. Miln (#139), 11 Pet. 139, the "powers which relate to merely municipal legislation, or what was, perhaps, more properly called internal police," "not surrendered or restrained" by the Constitution of the United States.
So as you can see, it was well-established from the time of the country’s founding that the Bill of Rights was never meant to itself be a grant or guarantee of rights to the American people. The official function of the Bill of Rights was always prohibitive rather than affirmative: the purpose was to restrain the federal government, rather than to endow something to American citizens. So what I don’t understand is: how has the Bill of Rights become so misunderstood and misapplied? Why is it that, from the layman even to the level of the modern-day Supreme Court, it is believed that the Bill of Rights is meant to grant or guarantee rights to individual American citizens, when this conclusion is unequivocally unsupported by the historical record? And not only is this conclusion not supported by the historical evidence, but I would argue that it contradicts the very purpose of the Bill of Rights; the whole point of the document was to limit the power of Congress, but interpreting the document to be a federal guarantee of rights to the people is, in effect, a transference of power to the federal government never stipulated in the Constitution, and is in violation of the tenth amendment.
The Bill of Rights, according to its original design, is essentially superfluous; effectively declaring nothing in itself, and only serving to clarify the intent of the Constitution, prevent it from being adversely misinterpreted, and to make explicit what was implicitly acknowledged regarding the boundaries of congressional power. There had been much debate among the Founders regarding whether the Bill of Rights should even exist at all. So how is it that a document whose original purpose was to be nothing more than a protection of civil rights has now become interpreted effectively as the source of the people's civil rights?
submitted by Keith502 to supremecourt [link] [comments]

2024.05.18 23:52 Total-Flounder-8258 Best FurryTail Products

Best FurryTail Products
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FurryTail, an award-winning cat lifestyle brand, is trusted by over 1 million refined felines. Collaborating with engineers, pet behaviorists, and veterinarians, FurryTail ensures the functionality, safety, and durability of its products. Founded by a cat-loving woman named Freya, inspired by her rescued cat, Furry, the brand offers elegant solutions for both cats and humans. From elevated glass cat bowls to personalized potties, FurryTail combines ergonomic design with feline flair.
Discover the Best FurryTail Products that will make your furry friend’s life magical! From automatic litter boxes to stylish pet carriers, we’ve got you covered.

Automatic Litter Box Pro

The Automatic Litter Box Pro by FurryTail is a cutting-edge solution for cat owners who want to simplify litter box maintenance. Let’s break down its features:
Spacious Interior: The litter box accommodates cats weighing between 3 to 22 pounds, providing ample room for even larger feline friends.
Smart Detection: The litter box features an automatic cleaning system triggered by smart sensors. When your cat enters, the weight sensor detects their presence. One minute after your cat leaves, the clean cycle begins, ensuring a fresh litter box for the next visit.
Clean On-Demand: If you prefer manual control, you can initiate the cleaning cycle whenever you like. No more scooping—just press a button!
Effortless Maintenance: Say goodbye to daily scooping. The Automatic Litter Box Pro efficiently sifts through the litter, removing waste and leaving behind clean litter.
Our Automatic Litter Box Pro is a game-changer for cat owners. Here's why:
  • 👍 Self-cleaning: Say goodbye to scooping litter! The automatic mechanism keeps the box fresh.
  • 👍 Odor control: No more unpleasant smells. Your home stays fresh and inviting.
  • 👍 Easy maintenance: Simply replace the waste drawer. It's hassle-free!
  • 👎 Initial cost: It's an investment, but the convenience is worth it.
  • 👎 Requires electricity: Make sure you have an outlet nearby.
  • 👎 Size: It's not compact, so allocate some space.
Buy Automatic Litter Box Pro On Amazon

Pet Carrier

The FurryTail Pet Carrier is a lightweight and convenient solution for transporting your beloved cat or small dog. Let’s explore its features:
1. Easy Portability: The FurryTail Pet Carrier is designed for on-the-go pet parents. It folds flat for storage and is incredibly lightweight, making it ideal for travel, trips to the vet, or outdoor adventures.
2. Breathable Material: The carrier is made from breathable materials, ensuring proper air circulation for your furry friend. The 270-degree ventilation keeps your pet comfortable during journeys.
3. Patented Fiberglass Support Rod: Unlike flimsy carriers, the FurryTail Pet Carrier maintains its shape due to the innovative fiberglass support rod. Your pet can move around comfortably without feeling confined.
4. Carabiner Attachment: The carrier features a convenient carabiner that allows you to attach small accessories. Whether it’s a fan, poop bags, or a leash, you can carry essentials effortlessly.
Our Pet Carrier is perfect for adventures with your furry companion:
  • 👍 Comfortable: Padded interior keeps your pet cozy during travel.
  • 👍 Airline-approved: Take your pet on flights hassle-free.
  • 👍 Stylish design: You'll be the envy of other pet parents.
  • 👎 Limited space: Suitable for small to medium-sized pets.
  • 👎 Not suitable for long journeys: Ideal for short trips.
  • 👎 Zippers can be tricky: Practice opening and closing before your trip.

Colossal Curvy Clawer

The Colossal Curvy Clawer is a unique cat scratcher that seamlessly blends functionality with artistic appeal. Let’s delve into its features:
Modular Design: The Colossal Curvy Clawer assembles like building blocks, allowing you to customize it for your cat’s needs. Start small for kittens and add sections as your cat grows. You can easily detach, swap, or replace sections as needed.
Artistic Curves: Unlike traditional scratchers, this one boasts an attractive curved design. It’s not just a functional piece—it doubles as modern home decor. Your cat will appreciate the stylish scratching surface!
Durable and Eco-Friendly: Crafted from shed-resistant, eco-friendly rattan, the Colossal Curvy Clawer is built to last. It can withstand your cat’s enthusiastic scratching sessions without losing its appeal.
Feline-Approved: Our Feline Focus Group, including cats like Doggo, has given their paw of approval. They find it both visually appealing and satisfying to scratch.
Our Colossal Curvy Clawer is more than a scratcher—it's a work of art:
  • 👍 Modular design: Customize it to fit your space and your cat's needs.
  • 👍 Attractive curves: Adds a touch of elegance to your home.
  • 👍 Eco-friendly: Made from durable, shed-resistant rattan.
  • 👎 Takes up space: Ensure you have room for this statement piece.
  • 👎 Price: It's an investment, but the design is worth it.
  • 👎 Some gaps in the rope: Could be improved for a seamless look.
Buy Automatic Litter Box Pro On Amazon
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submitted by Total-Flounder-8258 to smartgadgets1975 [link] [comments]

2024.05.18 23:52 deeptechsharing Beatport Weekend Picks 20 (2024)

Title: Beatport Weekend Picks 20 (2024) Genre: House, Techno (Peak Time / Driving), Breaks / Breakbeat / UK Bass, Tech House, Deep House, Psy-Trance, Minimal / Deep Tech, Progressive House, Dubstep, Indie Dance, Trap / Wave, Nu Disco / Disco, Funky House, Bass / Club, UK Garage / Bassline, Afro House, Melodic House & Techno, Bass House, Techno (Raw / Deep / Hypnotic), Organic House / Downtempo, Electro (Classic / Detroit / Modern), 140 / Deep Dubstep / Grime, Mainstage, Jackin House, Amapiano, Trance (Raw / Deep / Hypnotic), Drum & Bass, Hard Techno, Electronica Release Date: 2024-05-14
DOWNLOAD in 320kbps: https://sharing-db.club/djs-chart/482320_beatport-weekend-picks-20-2024/
Tracklist: 1. GMJ, Jiminy Hop – Caladan (Original Mix) (7:30) 2. Latmun – Play The Music (Original Mix) (6:21) 3. Arude – Who You Are (Original Mix) (5:42) 4. Magenta & Skore – Dubplate (Original Mix) (4:29) 5. Pvlomo – Infraworld (Original Mix) (5:10) 6. Frank Storm, Francis De Simone – Quarterback (Original Mix) (6:25) 7. Oscar Mulero – The Sweat And The Salt (Original Mix) (5:05) 8. Atlas – Particles (Original Mix) (9:01) 9. Radio Slave – Strobe Queen (Extended) (12:01) 10. Patrik Berg – Nothing But Love (Original Mix) (6:53) 11. Traumer – Nectar (Original Mix) (6:51) 12. PACH. – Body Control (Original Mix) (5:58) 13. Mathys Lenne – H23 (Original Mix) (5:13) 14. Kasey Taylor, Jamie Stevens – Ochre (Original Mix) (8:08) 15. Miishu, Nyadollar & Nyamal Nyang – Cheza (Original Mix) (5:16) 16. Lance Desardi, Jesse Rennix – Higher (feat. Jesse Rennix) (Extended Mix) (6:37) 17. Mendo – I Like That (Original Mix) (5:46) 18. Tuccillo – Frames (Original Mix) (7:23) 19. Whitesquare – Ephemeral Eyes (Original Mix) (6:54) 20. Lionayve – Mmetho (Original Mix) (6:33) 21. UNKLE, &ME, Keinemusik – Only You (&ME Remix) (8:34) 22. Space Motion – Ludo (Original Mix) (5:34) 23. AC Soul Symphony, Dave Lee – I Want To See You Dance (Art Of Tones Remix) (6:05) 24. Braille – Suntime (Original Mix) (3:08) 25. Zamna Soundsystem, ROZYO, Armonica – Summertime Sadness feat. Blu (Original Mix) (5:31) 26. MoRsei – From Earth (Original Mix) (8:09) 27. Ariel Zetina – Slab of Meat (L-Vis 1990 Remix) (4:27) 28. ENVY, Monty – INLOVE (Original Mix) (4:34) 29. Anonimat, Soulmac, Sensitive (It) – Brainwash (Original Mix) (7:21) 30. Visage Music, Ragie Ban – Time After Time (Extended Mix) (5:29) 31. BRASSIC – Antagonist (Original Mix) (2:45) 32. Claudio PRC – Zenith (Original Mix) (7:47) 33. Adonis – Few Times (Original mix) (6:49) 34. Fulltone – Alba (Original Mix) (8:57) 35. Bruno (HU) – I Am Here (Original Mix) (6:09) 36. Hector Couto – Flufly’s House (Original Mix) (5:48) 37. Yanamaste – Dance (Original Mix) (5:02) 38. Julian Liander – Sukuru (Extended Mix) (5:28) 39. Javi Bora – Yes To All (Original Mix) (5:53) 40. A*S*Y*S, Avis Vox – Body Mind & Soul (Original Mix) (5:23) 41. Jungle Rootz – Midnight Skunk (Original Mix) (4:39) 42. Dokho – Balao (Extended Mix) (5:26) 43. Wingz – Ghost (Original Mix) (5:07) 44. Apparel Wax – MINI003A (Original Mix) (4:41) 45. Bombossa Brothers – Destino (Extended Mix) (7:10) 46. A08 – Nineoneone (Dengue Dengue Dengue Remix) (4:40) 47. FDH – Spion Kopje (Original Mix) (5:51) 48. Timboletti – Kava (Original Mix) (6:33) 49. Jou Nielsen & Paul Ikky – Mentalism (Extended Mix) (5:31) 50. Mance – Checkpoint (Original Mix) (5:24) 51. Lyktum – Enlightened (Introspect Remix) (8:16) 52. Michel De Hey – Hot Like That (Edit) (3:16) 53. Viikatory – Cartesian Space (Original Mix) (4:55) 54. Chunky Jackson – What You Do To Me (Gass Klubb Remix) (5:12) 55. Castion – Higher Place (Extended Mix) (5:46) 56. Alexny – Shake It (Original Mix) (5:12) 57. Pakard – Forbidden Pleasure (Syep024) (5:07) 58. Loofy – Last Night (Anyma x Layton Giordani Extended Remix) (5:14) 59. Ben Graves – Do It Like That (Original Mix) (7:05) 60. You Man – Birdcage (Theus Mago Version) (4:38) 61. Byron Stingily – Why Can’t You Be Real (Danny’s 12″ Version) (7:25) 62. Mincy – Simulation Conversation (LO’99 Remix) (3:30) 63. Luca Agnelli – Game Over (Extended Mix) (5:39) 64. Blaze – Lovelee Dae (Seth Troxler Extended Remix) (6:48) 65. T.M.A Rsa, B6 Rider, Frozen Deep – Impilo Yam (Original Mix) (7:34) 66. Noon – SNOOZE (Original Mix) (2:48) 67. Olympe4000, DJ Physical – Free access to nothing (Original Mix) (5:15) 68. The Spirit Project, Starving Yet Full – Find Your Way (Monkey Safari Extended Remix) (6:03) 69. Ferra Black – Titan (Original Mix) (5:30) 70. Ximena, Ali X, Pvlomo – Pastillitas (BadWolf Remix) (5:59) 71. Tom Kench, Balsamic Vin – Love Song of Mine (Original Mix) (3:41) 72. Cyclops – Tear Jerker (VIP) (2:25) 73. Isaac Carter, Callum Asa – Capsule (Original Mix) (6:26) 74. Fjaak, Skee Mask – Black Ice (Original Mix) (4:51) 75. Sandro Puddu – Get Right (Original Mix) (4:11) 76. ATMOS, Jakes – Hypnosis (Original Mix) (4:28) 77. Eli Brown – Trick Daddy (Extended Mix) (5:07) 78. Aiden Francis – Sundancer (Original Mix) (6:58) 79. Acerbic – Spitfire (Original Mix) (5:46) 80. Lars Bartkuhn – Everymorning I Meditate (Original Mix) (4:38) 81. Felipe Gordon – My Legs Are Numb (Original Mix) (6:03) 82. Benales – Sorrow (Original Mix) (5:19) 83. Matt Caseli – R.O.A.R (Original Mix) (3:20) 84. Dan-e-mc – Musica House (Eddie Amador Club Mix) (6:50)
submitted by deeptechsharing to deeptech_house [link] [comments]

2024.05.18 23:25 Aiming4Gaming0 30 GREATEST Changes In V Rising 1.0 Release You Might Have Missed

30 GREATEST Changes In V Rising 1.0 Release You Might Have Missed
https://preview.redd.it/rtx5qsp0591d1.png?width=1280&format=png&auto=webp&s=8d94be54b8f00bf9da4acc2fc6226ecf95c9755e
V Rising 1.0 release has brought a lot of new awesome stuff. That’s why I’ve prepared 30 most important changes that might interest you, short and simple.
This is Aiming4Gaming, and today we're aiming for a feature checking!

TL;DR

I know that some people prefer watching videos over reading text guides. If you're one of them, here's a video version of this guide where I describe each new feature in action.
If you prefer text guides, it's right below!

The guide

  1. First and foremost, if you ever thought the difficulty was too easy, try out the new Brutal mode. Bosses here have bigger health pools, higher levels, and deal more damage, which I personally dislike. However, every boss now has a new move and an adjusted AI. I swear you'll never forget the Vincent fight!
  2. If you were struggling with initial resource farming, it has been tweaked. You will get much more wood and stone from a single node, allowing you to get to battles faster, especially if you drink worker blood!
  3. Horses also got a small yet important change: they now consume easily obtainable fiber instead of waterskins, making it easier to manage mounts early on.
  4. Speaking of consumables, they now last 60 minutes. Less crafting is always better, right?
  5. Another important Quality of Life addition is that after you consume a potion, you will not consume the bottle itself. Even less crafting, yay!
  6. Now you can build advanced stations. These process items faster than normal ones, have more inventory space, and more recipes. You can unlock them by defeating specific V Blood enemies.
  7. A new era of storage has arrived with both small and large storage for literally everything, from scrolls to fish. Place these next to your stations or build a storage room for all resources at once.
  8. This feature shines even more with the addition of hotkeys that allow you to sort your inventory or quickly transfer everything by simply pressing the "E" key.
  9. Another huge addition is inventory highlighting. It's so much easier now to see what can be transferred to a specific storage or what you can add to an existing stack!
  10. A new source of valuables now travels around the map in the form of traveling carts. These are guarded by several soldiers but are totally worth it. Carts come in different variants and follow the same routes, so you can farm them from time to time.
  11. The new zone awaits for an infinite challenge. It does not have any base plots but offers world events instead. These events require you to beat two spots with enemies and one boss fight, which come in two difficulties and reward you with powerful weapons, jewels, and shards.
  12. Speaking of shards, this is a new currency which you can spend on weapons, summon enemies in the new summoning circle, or unlock passive buffs.
  13. There are 18 passive buffs, all unlockable once you defeat General Elena the Hollow and build an Altar of Stygian Awakening. Each buff is permanent, but the cost is a lot of shards from the new zone. I recommend the passive that boosts damage against V Blood enemies by 10%!
  14. New forged items progression makes your weapons much more viable. You can enhance your favorite ancestral weapon with various regular weapons and increase its level by 3 up to 26.
  15. For those seeking rare gear and weapons, V Rising offers 12 new legendary weapons with unique effects and solid stats. These can be dropped by high-level bosses or occasionally appear instead of purple weapons when you buy them for 1500 greater shards. These look really cool!
  16. If you want a new battle experience, try out two new weapons: a longbow and a whip. I'm currently running with a longbow on Brutal and it's amazing!
  17. The old magic progression was kind of awkward and limited, so now you can choose your own path by getting spell points and spending them as you wish. You can always reset your choice for free at the Altar of Recollection.
  18. To make your build even more flexible, check out the new sets of armor. They cover different passives and will supplement your playstyle.
  19. If you like a specific piece of gear, you can keep it in your fashion slot regardless of what you wear. And definitely try recoloring your gear!
  20. Spells heavily rely on jewels, which grant some awesome effects. The new tier 4 with 4 effects means even more power for your favorite setup.
  21. To spice it up even more, the game offers a new blood type: Draculin. This is particularly great in the new zone where you might want to bite more enemies.
  22. If you're a fan of shapeshifting, the new spider form will please you. Try hiding underground for a surprise attack without fear of the sun! Nice!
  23. If you remember bags from Gloomrot, forget about them. Now you can craft and equip only one bag at a time. The better the bag, the more it offers! More storage slots, more silver to carry, and even more resource yield! Awesome!
  24. Soul Shards were also reworked in the latest update. You cannot keep them indefinitely anymore, as they decay over time. To restore them, you must farm the new area.
  25. V Bloods have undergone a rework in terms of rewards to reflect new stations, spell points, and craftables.
  26. To make your battles more controllable, the devs have added new aim assist.
  27. New bosses were added as well, including the mighty Dracula himself. I won't spoil the fight, but be prepared for the toughest battle you’ve ever seen in V Rising!
  28. All veils now have a leech effect to balance them out. The difference will be in additional effects and jewel features.
  29. Dying now reduces your blood pool by 10 percent instead of losing your precious blood completely. This is a huge change and a must for Brutal mode, where you will die a lot!
  30. And finally, a couple of achievements! I love them! They give you a decent goal to achieve, nice!

Conclusion

I hope with this guide you have achieved what you were aiming for today!
Also, here's the list with all my guides for reference:
  1. 30 GREATEST Changes In V Rising 1.0 Release You Might Have Missed
  2. 27 BEST Base Locations in V Rising 1.0 Release
  3. 5 Tips To Get the BEST Start in V Rising 1.0 In 60 Seconds
  4. 5 Reasons To LOVE Bear Form In V Rising
  5. Top 10 V Rising Tips in 1 Minute
  6. 40 ADVANCED Tips in V Rising (2023)
  7. 15 BEST Base Locations in V Rising (2023)
  8. How To Farm ALL Resources in V Rising (2023)
Anyway, thank you for reading up to this point, and see you later! 🌟
submitted by Aiming4Gaming0 to vrising [link] [comments]

2024.05.18 23:19 destaice Hot Take. Decisive Strike should get the Borrowed Time treatment.

Hook camping and tunneling makes the game worse. There's no way to get around it. It's objectively boring gameplay. The killer is sitting still in front of a hook just out of the free unhook range as you spend a full minute not getting to play, and then another minute hitting skill checks. Oh what fun.
The only reason killers are playing like this is because it results in the easiest win. The average solo player team is too uncoordinated to stop the camp. And the average player isn't a looping god. So camping the hook will give you the easy 4k and blood points.
And to tell the truth. I think this is bad for the game. The game can be frustrating yes, but it shouldn't be boring. And if killers are incentivized to make the game boring to win, then the only meaningful change would to make it instead that it's harder to win with this strategy. And the only way i personally see that happening in a reasonable manner is if Decisive Strike was a base kit survivor tool.
No, I don't think this would magically stop all camping and tunneling. Just as base kit BT and the self unhook meter didn't stop them. But like those two it would help to discourage this behavior in killers. And result in less games where you didn't even get to play the game.
It would also help deal with the issue of the big anti-tunneling perk being locked behind paid DLC.
As for Laurie's perk. It could either buff the base kit DS, or just give her a new perk that's actually useful unlike Sole Survivor or Object.
submitted by destaice to deadbydaylight [link] [comments]

2024.05.18 23:17 Derpballz Free markets do not require infinite growth because a firm's increase in wealth can only happen given that it acquires resources itself or acquires it via free exchange

In a free market order, one may only acquire property via 3 means: 1. Original appropriation of mixing one's labor with some unowned object
  1. Voluntary exchange
  2. As restitution due to a crime.
Most of the time, firms pursue capital accumulation via voluntary exchange. A firm can urge all that it wants that people should surrender property to it specifically - preferably freely by having cosumers just donate directly to it -, but if people simply do not do it, then the firm will not receive any monetary profits. Thus, in a free market order, economic growth will entirely depend on if customers allow for it. If all people become ascetics who could not be inticed by any commericals, that will immediately be reflected on the market structure. Whenever the profit streams are not profitable enough, the smartest thing to do for an investor is to liquidate the firm while it's at its greatest worth. End of story.
If you were someone argue that people can reliably be made to purchase goods which they "don't really need/want" via manipulation and thus reliably increase corporations' growth rates, I would be suprised if you also happened to also argue for mass electoralism which precisely preys on lacking impulse control (demagogery). Surely one would then want to reduce jurisdictions' sizes such that the impacts of peoples' lacking impulse control was reduced?
That economies have grown have been because it has directly correlated with satisfaction of peoples' desires. However, there is nothing inherent in such growth that entails that e.g. Funkopops have to be produced for the sake of e.g. keeping some peoples' jobs or making the GDP line go up. If the profits to derive from a market have been emptied, then corporations liquidate as to be able to have their assets be used elsewhere, such as for personal use.
Mainstream economics urge for GDP growth dogmatically!
This is an excellent occasion to underline the difference between Keynesianism and genuine free market advocacy as seen by the Austrian school of economics. Our current economic order is far from libertarian and free market: if it were, you would expect the powers that be to promote Austrian-economics, establish laissez-faire and not promote the dogmatic accusations against free markets that Statists say.
GDP is a Keynesian invention created during an era of increased State-planning, which the Austrian School of economics frowns upon. Statist economists, for whatever reason, indeed promote GDP growth without question and to attain this end acquires property via illegal means, see neoclassical macroeconomics and e.g. the Military-Industrial Complex.
Perhaps that libertarians and leftists can put aside our differences and consert our efforts in striking at the current wasteful and immoral economic order in order to free up resources for ends which the people actually desire?
submitted by Derpballz to CapitalismVSocialism [link] [comments]

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