Was playing American Stacks on Chumba earlier today and I normally do $1 spins with some $2 spins mixed in on that game, but I was on full tilt and was doing $5 spins. Hit a bonus early on and only won like $45 out of 15 free spins. Just brushed it off and kept playing. Hit another bonus on my $5 bets like 10 spins later. I fucking retriggered TWICE for a total of 45 free spins. Not once did I get any of the screaming eagle wilds added and only got one chance on a progressive spin. It was the snakes for the mini and of course did not land any addition snakes.
45 spins later and I ended up with $55. Pretty sure more than half of that was just from triggering the bonuses. Ended up losing the rest on goblin grand chasing that massive grand price. That’s probably why no one is winning in Chumba anymore, they have had several grand jackpots over a million dollars lately. I mean hell, the Major jackpot on goblin grand was at $40k this morning. No one is winning these things and I routinely see them get higher and higher now.

Exploit solution - Apple Bug Bounty Program. It has been solved and I don’t know why gaming companies do not do this. This is a perfect solution to eliminating exploits and the after effect they cause. CIG is not a trillion dollar company that could lose billions off of one exploit so they do not have to pay 2 million per exploit but imagine this. CIG has a link that you can report exploits to and if they find it to be credible they will pay the reporter 1k - 25k. I lean more towards 25k because of how much money/time/bad press/loss of a player they will save from a program like this. It is invaluable and is the reason Apple will pay 100k - 2 mill to someone who finds and reports exploits in their systems. Think of all of the after effects of these exploits. Scroll through this Reddit and you will see them. Problem solved. Cheap and effective. Your welcome.
Buying and selling currency - I don’t understand the issue with this especially at this stage in the game. It literally has zero effect on other players. Zero. It’s not pay to win at all. Pay to win would be buying the new f7c mk2 and wiping the floor with everyone in arena commander with no ability to earn it in game. I’m not even complaining about it I’m just throwing that out there. The pay to win angle is one the only counters I could think of so I’m not sure how it is applicable here. Please counter if you have any ideas. No matter which way about it, the work required to earn the money will be done. There is no getting around it. Someone did the work and they got rewarded, very simple. Why can’t the person who did the work sell the currency they earned to another player who either doesn’t want to do the work / doesn’t have the ability to do the work. Not every gamer has the time to make it to the end game through grinding. With game developers making games with the sole focus of player retention, it could take days if not years (Ark survival Evolved) to make it to the end game and a lot of games start at the endgame. Why exclude and lose a potential buyer? Especially a potential buyer that on average will have way more money to spend than an average full time gamer. I would go as far as keeping the player trading in house similar to the way steam does when it comes to buying and selling skins. Also CIG can take a nice tax from every transaction. Now imagine all the players that come here to play and make real money. They open a box and find at $300 dollar sniper or skin that they can sell to a willing buyer. Or they grind salvaging or one of the other game loops and sell their excess capital to willing buyers. Now pirates have an even bigger reason to rob and regular civs doing the lords work have a reason to pay for protection. Adds an entire new layer to the game that is extremely exciting and brings the star citizen world closer to reality. Last thing I will say is CIG can also still make money on their ships. Sell the ship for whatever price you want for real money only and then after say a year let it be buyable in game. Could even attach it to a subscription service such as Elder scrolls online. You can either pay $60 dollars for the dlc now or wait a year and you can pay a $15 a month subscription to be able to play all the dlc of the past. Let me know what you think.
That is all. My dms are open for job offers.

I was sitting here seeing a prada purse that was worth like $2,350 dollars, cute bag though. and im just sitting here trying to figure out what is the purpose of it being so expensive what part of it makes it luxury to the point of costing someones rent(at least here in the states anyway). where does luxury come from in items like bags and such that makes them able to be priced so highly?

First time posing here. So I've rented my place for 10 years now. Got the first 8 it was with a couple and it was their only property (besides their own home). It had been the wife's house after she divorced her first husband. She had the downstairs and rented the upstairs. When she got married she rented both units (older house from 1890s divided into 2 apartments).
Everything wa great. Rent was reasonable, they were good with maintenance (although the husband was t the best at fixing things and sometimes was a bit of an ass). And They sold 3 years ago and a local property management company took over. At the time the new company took over the upstairs s.central air broke and water.would poor into the bedroom.

1. The management didn't know anything about our property. They told us the upstairs.has tomtilt their AC out the window more. We explained that it's Central AC they need professional to come out. They finally got someone out but we had to beg them to fix the ceiling. Of course it's the managers special of white spray paint! Luckily there's no mold.
   
2. The weird thing about our property is that the water is all connected and their is 1 hot water heater for both units which is on my gas meter. So essentially we pay for the gas to heat the water the upstairs uses (and they take showed like 4 times a day it seems like).
   

The previous owners would pay the utility and give is a $25 credit for the hot water and we would just pay them the amount for gas for heating the water
Now there was a lot of trouble getting this straight with the new management. They first tried to bill upstairs people for out electric. Then they had to do an inspection because they didn't believe that there was only 1 water heater. Finally after like 4 months it's figured out. For the last 2 years we got utilities in our name and they just took $25 off the rent. So instead of $825 it was $800. Well rent went up to $850 and I asked about the $25. They said that it was included in the price. I said I was confused because in the past the lease always had the higher amount $825 listed and then their was a credit given. They said no you are getting the $25. Specifically "thats the offer. You can take it or you can vacate"
So now I'm paying for the upstairs A-Holes hot water. 3. I don't actually know if the water and sewer bill is correct. They say that it's split evenly between the 2 units but they don't show the bill from the city. I have half a mind to go down to city hall and show proof of residency and see if they will show me the amount. I feel like 3- 4 hundred dollars is a bit much (i live in Wisconsin so water is not as expensive or limited like other states). Our quarterly bill is anywhere between $75 to almost $200. If it is split it would be $150-$400

Yesterday, I had my graduation ceremony. After years of university with absolutely no help besides occasional rides to the bus stop and, very rarely, to campus, I finally graduated. Here's what my parents have done in the lead-up to graduation and the day after instead of supporting me.
My parents spent months leading up to the graduation freaking out about how I'll get a job, trying to control my hair and clothing (even implying I'm ugly when I choose my own hair and clothing), harassing me to hand out business cards to everyone I meet (especially if the situation would be an immense faux pas), grilling me on if my grades are good, lecturing me relentlessly about how I need to keep in contact with people in my class and it's soooo important and would I like to hear about how my dad got a job through nepotism for the eightieth time, asking me questions they already know the answers to (Yes, I'm still talking to my former classmates. Yes, I know that you worked in the Yukon when you were 18. Yes, I know about your friend who worked in a weather station. Yes, I know you had to move to find a job in the 1980s. Yes, I am aware that it is a possibility I might have to move too. Yes, I know that it's okay to invite people over to the house, you've only "informed" me about a hundred times. Yes, I know that school is important.) Every single thing that they "inform" me about is something I have very clearly expressed that I understand, and is just thinly veiled criticism. But my dad needs to lecture more than he needs oxygen.
Just constant nitpicking, criticism, and nothing I ever did was enough. I couldn't even focus on grades, because they would in their own words "put pressure on" me to do what they wanted. To handle their emotions for them. They're obsessed with the idea that I would have to move to a tiny town or work in a coal mine to find a job, because I'm more highly educated than my dad (who dropped out of university despite having all expenses paid by his father), and because my dad worked in the Yukon for two summers. He will never shut up about that, and he even goes so far as to hold us hostage with implicit threat of a massive tantrum to listen to him tell us the story again and again and again and to show us pictures of the place he worked on Google maps and point to everything he remembers. Sometimes he can go on for half an hour just repeating himself over and over.
Last summer, my parents even went and took action without my knowledge or approval to try and get a job set up for me cleaning up a mine contaminated with arsenic in the middle of nowhere, NWT. They tried to guilt and shame me into it ("What are your plans instead? Do you have another job lined up? Because you need to have a job. You can't sit around all day." This coming almost literally one week into summer vacation after my second-last year of university, when I could be using my energy to find interesting co-ops or explore hobbies or travel, instead dealing with their harassment and obsession with trying to literally trap me in a fucking arsenic mine.) They went on and on, lectured me over and over, implied that I would be embarrassing my grandfather if I didn't go, and so on. Eventually they said "You can go work or get a certification", and I picked the certification, but then they got grumpy anyways, and every week for the entire summer they would ask "Are you still working on the certification?". Of course, dipsh*t. I've told you fifty times how long the program lasts.
They don't care about what I'm learning in class, don't care about my hobbies or interests, only care about my friends as either a means to get backdoored into a job or a "nice French Canadian woman" to have babies with. They don't care if I'm struggling, and are completely unavailable to help in any regard. Any request for help would result in a guilt trip. Even if I actually couldn't eat dinner with the family for one day because I had a test, my father would get raw emotions and I'd have to walk on eggshells for a few days. The one time I mentioned I was having trouble studying, instead of shutting up and no longer ranting in the main floor where I could hear him or turning the TV off, he just dragged a table into the unfurnished boiler room (without asking me) and then told me that I would have to study there. I wasn't allowed to choose not to, because he'd already set it up. Ironically, my anger at him did let me study pretty well for the one day that I was forced there. He tried to keep me there long-term because he thought it was just such a great idea, but I managed to trick him into thinking I didn't need help studying anymore, so I got to study at a desk with a light on it and flooring that wasn't bare cement. Hooray for the most minor victory imaginable.
In the months leading up to graduation, did they care about how hard I was working at my capstone project and offer support? Absolutely not! Did they care about how well my sleep quality was, how many times the cat woke me up because they didn't play with her enough or give her enough attention? Nope! Did they care about how exhausting it was to deal with their constant lectures on the same topics, and to have to give them affirmations ("Yes, you're right, that's right, good job, nice, very tasty, good work, oh really?, neat, that's cool, how'd you make that?, mhm, I agree, you're being reasonable, they're being ridiculous, that's crazy") a hundred times a day? Not even in the slightest!
We spend more time talking about my dad's college friends than about anything I or my brother care about.
Then, leading up to graduation. all I've gotten are the most humiliating, infuriating, insulting messages and lectures from my parents. I get almost daily emails and texts saying "You need to get a job, it's important to look for a job" despite the fact I've told them I am looking probably fifty times. Too cowardly to say it to my face. I've been texted literal links to a Google search for "[degree name] jobs [city]" more than once. Both my parents treat me like I don't listen, when I do. They treat me like I'm lazy, when I've put myself through university with no help even after they lied to me about giving me financial aid and made me out to be a bully demanding more money when all I did was say "alright" and then pay for it myself. They must have sternly given me a talking to about how "I'm not going to pay for university, you know that, right? You need to pay. Don't expect us to pay. Because we paid for your first semesters, you know that, right? We've already paid for enough." thirty times, even after I'd made the final payment. They treat me like I'm stupid when I have expressed understanding before. They treat me like I'm a bully while I always bend over backwards for them, just because I don't play my role as "surrogate mommy but this time I get to tell her what to do" well enough.
It feels like they're almost raising me into a replacement or surrogate parent. Like my dad wants me to be his mom or dad, except this time he gets to be in charge. And my mom wants me to be her mom, except this time when she freaks out or has her deer in headlights look, she'll get someone to step up and take care of everything for her. I distinctly remember having to comfort her even for things she did to me, like tell me that a pair of comfortable shoes I picked out was good and she'd get them, and then immediately scream "take it out, take it out!" after it was scanned at the register. I could not have been older than twelve. And for my dad, he always rants and raves to me exactly like he does to his parents, except without including blame for them sending him to boarding school and instead having tons of old "life updates" like where he worked when he was 18 and what music he liked to listen to in high school, stuff like that. Then he expects me to praise him or be interested like his parents never were (he always tells me that his parents only cared about his car when they called).
So now I graduated. All they had to say in the days coming up to it was to grill me on the time I'd have to be at the venue and the time I was planning to leave the house to get there on time, with a distinct air of "you're too lazy to think of this in advance and too stupid to figure it out without a plan". Of course, I had to answer this question probably five times, because they don't care to ever listen to me. Before the ceremony I got text messages showing they were way more excited about themselves being here than anything relating to me, with multiple messages expressing how they arrived and it was exciting, then they asked me how the atmosphere was and their only reply was a one-word "nice" with no punctuation, because they don't care about me and only ask droll questions to segue into their next bit.
After grad, there was two generic sentences spoken with no emotion about how it was nice I graduated, and then they made a whole song and dance about the amazing gifts they got me. It was a degree frame I picked out myself that my dad presented as new and exciting (because he never pays attention to me, of course, when I told him I had picked one out and ordered it with my mother. Also she had another freakout about price and acted like I was holding her hostage by taking her unforced offer to buy me the second-cheapest degree frame on offer.). Then he presented the free gift small frame they got with it as though I should praise him for it, then a congratulation card that was alright I suppose if only because my brother drew a little creature in it that made me smile (my parents did not add anything special or meaningful to it). There was also a cap, which I genuinely enjoy and is nice, and a cheap ballpoint pen for some reason. He said there was more gifts at home, which okay, I don't care about gifts but I'd like him to at least be as excited for my graduation as he was for the picture frame. I didn't get any souvenirs from the bookstore because I knew if I got something he'd also gotten he'd freak out and accuse me of not listening to him or whatever, so I waited. When I got home my gift was Skittles. I don't know why I thought me might have gone to the bookstore and gotten me something special related to my actual interests. He doesn't care to know what those are anyways. I guess I hoped that at least this one day would be different.
Today, the day after graduation, all I've gotten from my parents is:
- Involved in a lecture and manufactured drama about my brother not using my car to drive to his job, even though my dad had the exact opposite position the entire rest of the year, because "what if you need to drive somewhere?", trying to manufacture a fight between my brother and me while also guilting and shaming me for not driving as a hobby like he does.
- A text message from my mother asking me if I'm awake because she wants more ammo to paint me as lazy. Nevermind that I barely slept the night before to make it to grad (of course neither of my parents would care enough about me to come with me as a family. I was literally the only person I saw who went on my own and without their family showing up early too, to support them. I walked past so many families in the parking lot knowing my mother couldn't be bothered to change out of her pajamas for me.) Nevermind I had a huge day that day, and that I was taking care of the cat's energy all that night too because attending my grad is apparently soooo draining my parents can't look after their own pet, and somehow it falls to me. All that matters is she woke up early and I didn't (after I handled all her inconveniences for her, funny how that works).
- Rapid knocks on my door because my dad is making bread as a hobby and apparently "needs" me there to help him with it, and then also "needed" me to stay and make cookies with him.
- A lecture about someone I never knew who apparently once threw something at another kid on my street when I was about 5, and about how he died and how his wife's hobby was really expensive or whatever and if I really don't remember him?
- I went to a showhome for fun and brought back the brochure. My dad jabbed his finger at the pictures on it to explain the house to me like I wasn't the one who literally brought the brochure back. Never asked if I cared or anything, just immediate launch into lecture and expecting me to stay and listen and praise him for being so smart or whatever.
- A lecture about D Day for some fucking reason. My dad is obsessed with history, and he doesn't have any friends to talk to (wonder why) so his lectures always fall on my ears.
- An email from my mother explaining in an extremely condescending way how important it is to have a cover letter when applying for jobs (just completely assuming I don't write them and also am too lazy or stupid to think about having them) including copy-pasted text from a sample cover letter that is no doubt one of the first results on google for "cover letter example"
- An angry email from my mother including a job she found on google
But, contrast that to my neighbors across the street. I was friends them in grade school, haven't seen them in like ten years, and just on my way past to the showhome we said hi and chatted in a genuinely nice conversation that wasn't a one-sided lecture like usual in my house. They could sense my emotions and didn't try to keep me there longer than I wanted to rant, they were genuinely interested in me and gave me space and interest to express myself, their mother even hugged me for graduating and it was the most genuine hug and congratulations I've ever received in person. Every other hug was my family members forcing me to hug them for their own sole benefit. I admit I cried a bit later on my walk thinking about it.
Compared to my parents, the parents of old friends care more about me, trust me more, believe in me more, have more hope for my future, are more interested in me, and understand me better. It's tremendously sad that all throughout my graduation ceremony I was worried about my parents becoming upset for some random reason and blowing up at me. I'm glad I at least focused and made myself feel some pride and joy in myself for graduating.
Even the random people I met who were also taking part in the open house were nicer and better conversationalists than my parents. A random elderly couple I have never seen in my life can have a better interaction with me than my own parents. The realtor was more chill and less perfectionistic than my parents by a mile. His million-dollar house sale was something he was less stressed and perfectionistic about and something he beat himself up over less than my parents are about my hairstyle when I'm going to class because "What if you meet someone in industry and they see you're not professional".
It's absurd.

DAY: MAY 31 2024
5-31-2024

RESEARCH SUGGESTS LEADERS’ SOCIAL MEDIA POSTS ARE TAKEN JUST AS SERIOUSLY AS FORMAL STATEMENTS

Over 180 world leaders maintain social media accounts, and some of them issue policy warnings to rivals and the public on these platforms rather than relying on traditional government statements. How seriously do people take such social media postings? A new study suggests the general public and policymakers alike take leaders’ social media posts just as seriously as they take formal government statements. The research, by MIT political scientists, deploys novel surveys of both the public and experienced foreign policy specialists. “What we find, which is really surprising, across both
5-31-2024

SCALE OF ONLINE HARM TO CHILDREN REVEALED IN GLOBAL STUDY

More than 300 million children a year are victims of online sexual exploitation and abuse, research indicates. Pupils in every classroom, in every school, in every country are victims of this hidden pandemic, according to researchers who have conducted the first global estimate of the scale of the crisis. The statistics, from the Childlight Global Child Safety Institute at the University of Edinburgh, amount to a clear and present danger to the world’s children, according to the crime agency Interpol. Online risks One in eight of the world’s children, about
5-31-2024

PRONATALISM IS THE LATEST SILICON VALLEY TREND. WHAT IS IT—AND WHY IS IT DISTURBING?

For Malcolm and Simone Collins, declining birth rates across many developed countries are an existential threat. The solution is to have “tons of kids,” and to use a hyperrational, data-driven approach to guide everything from genetic selection to baby names and day-to-day parenting. They don’t heat their Pennsylvania home in winter, because heating is a “pointless indulgence.” Their children wear iPads around their necks. And a Guardian journalist witnessed Malcolm strike their two-year-old across the face for misbehavior, a parenting style they apparently developed based on watching “tigers
5-31-2024

HOW SCIENCE, MATH, AND TECH CAN PROPEL SWIMMERS TO NEW HEIGHTS

One hundred years ago, in the 1924 Paris Olympics, American Johnny Weissmuller won the men’s 100m freestyle with a time of 59 seconds. Nearly 100 years later, in the most recent Olympics, the delayed 2020 Games in Tokyo, Caeleb Dressel took home the same event with a time that was 12 seconds faster than Weissmuller’s. Swimming times across the board have become much faster over the past century, a result of several factors, including innovations
5-31-2024

BANNING SEX CRIME OFFENDERS FROM CHANGING THEIR NAMES DOESN’T MAKE US SAFER

The government of British Columbia recently introduced a bill to ban people convicted of serious offenses from legally changing their name. The proposed amendment to the province’s Name Act would also prohibit those found not criminally responsible due to mental disorder from changing their name. The government announced the move after media reports that Allan Schoenborn legally changed his name to Ken Johnson. Schoenborn was found not criminally responsible for the deaths of his children in 2010 because of a delusional disorder, and was placed at a psychiatric hospital.
5-31-2024

SILICON VALLEY ISN’T THE START-UP UTOPIA WE THOUGHT, RESEARCH FINDS

Silicon Valley—considered the world’s hub of technology and innovation—can breed inequality and sameness among budding entrepreneurs, according to new research. Behind the multi-million-dollar deals and tales of start-up utopia, Silicon Valley’s “uneven” investment landscape is in fact a barrier to many budding businesses, says the study from the University of Stirling and Georg-August-University Göttingen. But the researchers suggest other countries could still learn from the more discerning entrepreneurial ecosystem that bred giants such as Apple and Google, to be more selective in backing start-ups. While it is not uncommon for
5-31-2024

I WANT TO KEEP MY CHILD SAFE FROM ABUSE—BUT RESEARCH TELLS ME I’M DOING IT WRONG

Child sexual abuse is uncomfortable to think about, much less talk about. The idea of an adult engaging in sexual behaviors with a child feels sickening. It’s easiest to believe that it rarely happens, and when it does, that it’s only to children whose parents aren’t protecting them. This belief stayed with me during my early days as a parent. I kept an eye out for creepy men at the playground and was skeptical of men who worked with young children, such as teachers and coaches. When my kids were
5-31-2024

OVER 300 MILLION YOUNG PEOPLE HAVE EXPERIENCED ONLINE SEXUAL ABUSE, EXPLOITATION, FINDS METASTUDY

It takes a lot to shock Kelvin Lay. My friend and colleague was responsible for setting up Africa’s first dedicated child exploitation and human trafficking units, and for many years he was a senior investigating officer for the Child Exploitation Online Protection Center at the UK’s National Crime Agency, specializing in extra territorial prosecutions on child exploitation across the globe. But what happened when he recently volunteered for a demonstration of cutting-edge identification software left him speechless. Within seconds of being fed with an image
5-31-2024

CYBERFLASHING IS A FORM OF GENDERED SEXUAL VIOLENCE THAT MUST BE TAKEN SERIOUSLY

Sexting—sending sexually suggestive or explicit messages and images—is now a widespread practice, and can be a healthy way to express and explore sexuality. However, there is a need to distinguish between consensual sexting and forms of sexual harassment like cyberflashing. Cyberflashing refers to the act of non-consensually sending sexual imagery (like nudes or “dick pics”) to another person. It is facilitated through communications technologies including text, AirDrop and social media applications like Snapchat and Tinder. Similar to flashing—when a person unexpectedly and deliberately “flashes” their genitals to others—that occurs in
5-31-2024

VIRTUAL TRAINING MAY BE AN EFFECTIVE, COST-EFFICIENT OPTION FOR CHILD EDUCATORS

Teachers and other child educators can benefit from regular professional development, but in-person training can be expensive. New research found that virtual training can be a budget-friendly alternative—and especially effective for certain groups of educators. The study—a collaboration between researchers at Penn State and the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and published in the International Journal of Professional Development, Learners and Learning—found that educators who took a virtual training reported feeling more confident in their abilities to implement practices shown to support positive youth development. In particular, after-school providers who did not
5-31-2024

HUMBLE LEADERS BOOST EMPLOYEES’ WORKPLACE STATUS AND LEADERSHIP POTENTIAL, FINDS STUDY

There are many different types of workplace leaders, from those who prioritize the needs of team members and the organization above their own, to authentic leaders who foster openness, trust and transparency. A recent study by the University of South Australia published in the Journal of Organizational Behavior has highlighted the significant benefits of humble leadership in the workplace. According to the study by UniSA’s Dr. Xiao Lin, humble leadership can effectively elevate the workplace status of employees by boosting their sense of respect and prominence. It also leads to
5-31-2024

WHY ARE GROCERY BILLS SO HIGH? A NEW STUDY LOOKS AT THE SCIENCE BEHIND FOOD PRICE REPORTING

Rising food costs are squeezing Canadians around the country. Nearly everyone is feeling the pinch, and it’s not just an inconvenience—high food prices are a major threat to food security for many Canadians. Understanding why food prices are so high and why they are changing is critical to the well-being of our society. Unfortunately, consensus on why food price are so high is in short supply. Explanations given in reports like Canada’s Food Price Report and the news media range widely, from the war in Ukraine to supply chain issues
5-31-2024

WILL GENERATIVE AI CHANGE THE WAY UNIVERSITIES COMMUNICATE?

Is artificial intelligence an unprecedented opportunity, or will it rob everyone of jobs and creativity? As we debate on social media (and perhaps use ChatGPT almost daily), generative AIs have also entered the arena of university communication. These tools—based on large language models that were optimized for interactive communication—can indeed support, expand, and innovate university communication offerings. Justus Henke has analyzed the situation of German realities about six months after the launch of ChatGPT 3. “The research was conducted about a year ago when enthusiasm was high, but it was
5-31-2024

STUDY SHOWS RELATIVELY LOW NUMBER OF SUPERSPREADERS RESPONSIBLE FOR LARGE PORTION OF MISINFORMATION ON TWITTER

Classification of superspreader accounts. A large portion (55.1%) of accounts are no longer active. For each class annotated with political affiliations, colors indicate the ideological split. The last group aggregates all accounts with political affiliations. Credit: PLOS ONE (2024). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0302201 A small team of social media analysts at Indiana University has found that a major portion of tweets spreading disinformation are sent by a surprisingly small percentage of a given userbase. In their study, published in PLOS ONE, the group conducted a review of 2,397,388 tweets posted on Twitter
5-31-2024

HOW LIFE’S BIG MOMENTS CAN CHALLENGE STARTUPS

Life-changing events like the birth of a child, the purchase of a new home, or a lottery win could threaten the survival of a new business venture, the positive family events had a comparatively greater influence, albeit negatively, on the survival of a new venture, compared with
5-31-2024

RUDE AT WORK? FEELING GUILTY CAN MAKE YOU A BETTER, KINDER WORKER

We’ve all done it. A bad night’s sleep or a tough commute made us cranky, and we lashed out at a coworker who did nothing wrong. What can we do to make up for it? According to a new study published in the Journal of Business Ethics, embracing our guilty feelings can help us make up for our bad behavior by encouraging us to act more politely and work harder the next day. “We found that anyone can be rude at work, because anyone can
5-31-2024

RESEARCHERS INTRODUCE A PLANETARY INCLUSION SCALE TO FOSTER BROADER ETHICAL THINKING

Social inclusion and having a sense of belonging with other people are key elements of a good life. However, the fate of humanity is a challenge that extends beyond our social reality. Experiences of belonging and inclusion, understood in a broader sense than before, may be crucial for a sustainable future. In an article published in the International Journal of Social Pedagogy, a team of researchers propose a new planetary inclusion scale that structures our planetary relationship three-dimensionally based on temporal, spatial and ethical orientation. The temporal element relates to
5-31-2024

‘LEAN IN’ MESSAGES CAN LOWER WOMEN’S MOTIVATION TO PROTEST GENDER INEQUALITY

Women in leadership are often told to “Lean In,” designed to be motivational messaging demonstrating that they are more confident, strategic and resilient to setback. However, new research indicates that such “lean in” messaging can hinder women’s motivation to protest gender equality. Popularized in a book by American technology executive Sherly Sandberg, the “Lean In” solution to gender inequality advises women that demonstrating personal resilience and perseverance in the face of setbacks is key to career advancement. Now, a new study led by the University of Exeter, Bath Spa University
5-31-2024

ALGORITHMS COULD HELP IMPROVE JUDICIAL DECISIONS

A new paper in the Quarterly Journal of Economics finds that replacing certain judicial decision-making functions with algorithms could improve outcomes for defendants by eliminating some of the systemic biases of judges. Decision makers make consequential choices based on predictions of unknown outcomes. Judges, in particular, make decisions about whether to grant bail to defendants or how to sentence those convicted. Companies now use machine learning based models increasingly in high-stakes decisions. There are various assumptions about human behavior underlying the deployment of such learning models that play out in
5-31-2024

DIGITAL CAMPAIGNING IS A HUGE PART OF ELECTIONS NOW—BUT GOING VIRAL ISN’T EVERYTHING

The election has commenced and the race is on—to amass as many likes, shares and comments as possible. Digital campaigning, particularly through social media, is now a key part of political candidates’ communication toolkit. In fact, every general election campaign since 1997 has at some point been lauded as the first to make effective use of digital campaigning. But it was in 2015 that David Cameron’s campaign first made strategic use of social media to drive an election victory. As political reporter Tim Ross outlines in his excellent book, Why
5-31-2024

WHY ARE ORGANIZATIONAL COVER-UPS SO COMMON?

The TV dramatization of the UK Horizon Post Office scandal evoked outrage and disbelief. However, as another example of dysfunctional organizational behavior, it was expected rather than exceptional. The Post Office saga joins a long list of cover-ups or scandals that includes Hillsborough, Enron, Grenfell, the infected blood scandal, the Tuam babies scandal in the Republic of Ireland, Boeing 737 Max and Nasa (Columbia space shuttle). They represent what happens when there is a move within organizations and institutions to cover up the causes of
5-31-2024

AMONG GEN Z AUSTRALIANS, 38% IDENTIFY AS SPIRITUAL AND HALF BELIEVE IN KARMA. WHY IS SPIRITUALITY SO POPULAR?

Spirituality is increasingly popular with young Australians: recent research shows 38% of Gen Z Australians identify as spiritual. It also reports 50% of them believe in karma, 29% in reincarnation and 20% in astrology. When it comes to activities equated with spirituality, 28% of Gen Z Australians practice meditation and 22% practice yoga. In Australia, spirituality is strongly, enduringly central to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, and culturally and religiously diverse communities. Yet until recently, spirituality has received far less attention than religion. Spirituality may be
5-31-2024

COMPANIES CAN IMPROVE THE SUSTAINABILITY OF THEIR PRODUCTS IN THE EARLIEST PRODUCT-DESIGN STAGES

An interdisciplinary team of researchers from Lithuanian and Italian universities propose a tool that allows companies to assess the circularity of their future products. The self-assessment tool emphasizes the co-creation of circular design in the early (creative) stages of product development, encouraging entrepreneurs and designers to think more systematically and collaborate better by integrating related stakeholders into the product development process. The study is published in the Journal of Industrial Ecology. “The majority of existing practical tools (systems of indicators) are aimed at measuring the environmental impact of products already
5-31-2024

RESEARCH EXAMINES HOW RECREATIONAL MARIJUANA LEGALIZATION AFFECTS A STATE’S COLLEGE ENROLLMENT

New research has revealed up to a 9% increase in college first-year enrollments in US states that have legalized recreational marijuana compared with states without such legalization. The study, which is published in Economic Inquiry, found that the increase was from out-of-state enrollments, with early adopter states and public non-research institutions experiencing the most pronounced increases. Recreational marijuana legalization did not negatively impact degree completion or graduation rate, and it did not affect college prices, quality, or in?state enrollment. The findings suggest that some students perceive recreational marijuana legalization as
5-31-2024

RESEARCH EXAMINES HOW RECREATIONAL MARIJUANA LEGALIZATION AFFECTS A STATE’S COLLEGE ENROLLMENT

New research has revealed up to a 9% increase in college first-year enrollments in US states that have legalized recreational marijuana compared with states without such legalization. The study, which is published in Economic Inquiry, found that the increase was from out-of-state enrollments, with early adopter states and public non-research institutions experiencing the most pronounced increases. Recreational marijuana legalization did not negatively impact degree completion or graduation rate, and it did not affect college prices, quality, or in?state enrollment. The findings suggest that some students perceive recreational marijuana legalization as
5-31-2024

HOW THE ‘MODEL MINORITY’ MYTH HARMS ASIAN AMERICANS

May is Asian and Pacific American Heritage Month, a time when Americans celebrate the profound contributions of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders—a group that is commonly abbreviated as AAPI—to U.S. society. It’s also a time to acknowledge the complexity of AAPI experience. And as a professor who studies equity and inclusion in business, I think the focus on AAPI communities this month provides an excellent occasion to push back against a stereotype that has long misrepresented and marginalized a diverse range of people: the myth of the “model minority.” The
5-31-2024

WONDERING HOW TO TEACH YOUR KIDS ABOUT CONSENT? HERE’S AN AGE-BASED GUIDE TO GET YOU STARTED

The Australian government’s new campaign Consent Can’t Wait challenges us all to improve our understanding of consent. It asks a series of questions to illustrate this issue is more complex than simplistic “no means no” messaging. The campaign invites viewers to consider the nuances of consent, so we can raise these important issues with children and young people in our lives. But what is a good age to start talking about consent? How do parents tackle such conversations when this information probably wasn’t readily discussed in our own upbringing? How
5-31-2024

A PRODUCT OF NATURE OR NURTURE?

The concept of cultural entrepreneurship has many facets. It encompasses both the cultural and social impact of entrepreneurial training, and the environmental factors that influence its development. Some societies, such as the U.S., have a strong entrepreneurial culture. This means that certain characteristics are celebrated and encouraged, such as the ability of individuals to assume risks, patience when confronting challenges, and innovative problem solving, especially in uncertain situations. However, not all countries have such an entrepreneurial culture. Entrepreneurship struggles to take off in Europe In general, entrepreneurship can drive economic
5-31-2024

STUDY BRIDGES ANIMAL BEHAVIOR RESEARCH AND COMPUTER CODING TO ENGAGE CHILDREN IN STEM

A graphic depicting a student coding. Credit: Carnegie Mellon University Teachers today face a bit of a conundrum, according to a new study from researchers at Carnegie Mellon University and the Rochester Institute of Technology. Their goal is to prepare young students to enter a rapidly changing world. Even basic jobs require technical proficiency, which requires computational and analytical skills. To address this need, many educators are pushing to fold these important STEM skills into elementary curriculum. Here’s the problem. Young students can lose interest and even develop an aversion
5-31-2024

STUDY SHOWS VR CAN HELP TEACHERS BETTER DISTRIBUTE THEIR GAZE

On the left, a bird’s-eye view of the virtual classroom; on the right, screenshots of each of the four gaze-visualization conditions. Teachers need to know their material, but they must also keep their students engaged and interested. Part of that involves making eye contact with their students—all of them. A multidisciplinary team of researchers tested several methods of data visualization in an immersive virtual reality (VR) classroom, to give teachers a way to gauge
5-31-2024

MARKETERS CAN MANAGE ‘FEATURE CREEP’ SO CONSUMERS FEEL LESS INTIMIDATED BY TOO MANY FEATURES IN A PRODUCT

Wifi-enabled washing machines. Voice-controlled microwaves. App-enabled TVs, vacuum cleaners, and even window blinds you can control from the comfort of your couch. Many of the technological features now included in everyday products are useful and accessible. But research has shown that having too many can overwhelm potential buyers, making them less likely to make a purchase. In recent research, Wayne Hoyer, marketing professor and James L. Bayless/William S. Farrish Fund Chair for Free Enterprise at Texas McCombs, digs into the phenomenon of “feature creep” and its impact on consumer sentiment.
5-31-2024

RESEARCHERS EXPLAIN SOCIAL MEDIA’S ROLE IN RAPIDLY SHIFTING SOCIAL NORMS ON GENDER AND SEXUALITY

A new paper summarizing decades of research demonstrates how social media has supported an explosion of diversity in gender and sexuality in America during the 21st century, and also how these technologies have equally enabled a cultural backlash. The paper’s authors, UC Santa Cruz Psychology Department faculty members Phil Hammack and Adriana Manago, identified five main narratives about gender and sexuality that they believe emerged through social media as people have strived to be “authentic” on these platforms. The findings, along with resulting recommendations for psychology researchers and practitioners, were
5-31-2024

KEY FACTORS IN TRAINING ASSESSORS FOR ENHANCED PERFORMANCE RATINGS

New research is examining how organizations can improve their training programs by customizing frame-of-reference training to emphasize identifying negative behaviors critical to their goals. While assessors naturally identify positive behaviors, C. Allen Gorman, Ph.D., associate professor in UAB’s Department of Management, Information Systems and Quantitative Methods, says targeted training helps them recognize harmful actions that can hinder organizational objectives. Involving assessors in defining important performance dimensions and examples of behaviors, both good and
5-31-2024

STUDIES CHALLENGE WIDELY HELD BELIEFS ON APPLICANT DIVERSITY AND WOMEN IN THE WORKPLACE

Justin Frake is interested in cause-and-effect relationships in real-world data and the hidden dynamics that shape workplace behavior and equality—or inequality, as the case might be. His curiosity has led to research that challenges some popular beliefs as well as published studies related to women in the workforce. One study shows that firms promoting flatter hierarchies inadvertently discourage female applicants and another study counters several recent studies that claim women CEOs negatively impact career outcomes of other women. Both are published in the Strategic Management Journal. The assistant professor of
5-31-2024

CHALLENGING LEWIN’S MOTIVATIONAL CONFLICTS THEORY

A recent series of experiments challenges the longstanding theory of motivational conflict resolution introduced by Kurt Lewin. According to Lewin, conflicts between two undesirable outcomes (avoidance–avoidance conflicts) are typically harder to resolve than those between two desirable ones (approach–approach conflicts). Lewin posited that avoidance–avoidance conflicts, where individuals must choose between two undesirable outcomes, are typically more challenging to resolve compared to approach–approach conflicts, which involve choosing between two desirable options.
5-31-2024

MEN WITH ‘TOXIC MASCULINITY’ ARE MORE LIKELY TO MAKE SEXUAL ADVANCES WITHOUT CONSENT, STUDY FINDS

No means no when it comes to sex. But what happens when a woman makes a more passive response to a sexual advance? According to new research from Binghamton University, men differ in how they interpret these types of responses, and men who display hostile masculinity, known commonly as “toxic masculinity,” tend to act on them regardless of whether or not they think it’s consensual. A team of researchers, including Binghamton psychology professor Richard Mattson and graduate student Michael Shaw asked men between the ages of 18–25 to respond to
5-31-2024

WHY WE DEHUMANIZE OUR POLITICAL OPPONENTS

Some of human history’s greatest atrocities—genocide, slavery, ethnic cleanings—are rooted in our ability to dehumanize people from other social, political, or cultural groups. Whereas prior research has traced dehumanization to the belief that others think or feel less than we do, new research co-authored by Haas professor Sameer Srivastava shows that our tendency to dehumanize can also be influenced by how we think others view important facets of the world. The greater the difference between our perceptions of an outgroup’s worldview
5-31-2024

STUDY SUGGESTS CHILDREN ARE OFTEN EXPOSED TO PROBLEMATIC CLICK BAIT DURING YOUTUBE SEARCHES

When a child peruses YouTube, the content recommended to them is not always age appropriate, a new study suggests. Researchers mimicked search behaviors of children using popular search terms, such as memes, Minecraft and Fortnite, and captured video thumbnails recommended at the end of each video. Among the 2,880 thumbnails analyzed, many contained problematic click bait, such as violence or frightening images, according to the Michigan Medicine led research in JAMA Network Open. “Children spend a significant amount of time on free video sharing platforms that include user-generated content,” said
5-31-2024

STUDY FINDS WOMEN ARE VULNERABLE IN POST-WAR PEACE PROCESSES

Post-war peace processes are a dangerous period for women. Many are forced to live close to men who committed serious abuse during the war or are expected to testify in various types of truth commissions, which can be both retraumatizing and stigmatizing. These are the findings of a new study by peace researchers at Uppsala University, published in the journal PLOS ONE. “In short, peace projects can force women to live side by side with ex-combatants who committed atrocities during the war. This puts them at risk of further threat
5-31-2024

HOW EMBRACING THE CRINGE CAN HELP YOUR DATING LIFE

We can all agree that dating is hard. Getting to know people can feel vulnerable, but at the same time, exciting. We can also agree that feeling rejected can be one of the worst feelings, especially after we put ourselves out there. Dating can also expose us to a lot of cringey things, maybe even something we didn’t know we’d consider cringey. Think of cringe like something that makes you uncomfortable, or something about someone else that you don’t find attractive. Before dating, most of us consider what we’re looking
5-31-2024

PERSONAL CONNECTIONS AT WORK POSITIVELY IMPACT RETENTION AND MENTAL HEALTH, SAYS REPORT

New survey results from Wiley suggest people still feel connected at work despite the prevalence of hybrid and remote work environments and the rise of artificial intelligence (AI). According to the latest Wiley Workplace Intelligence report, “Human Connection: The Crucial Secret to Thriving in the Digital Age,” nearly 8 in 10 employees surveyed (78%) said they feel connected with their coworkers, and almost 7 in 10 (69%) said they also enjoy making connections with their colleagues. Around half even said they want to learn more about their coworkers by doing
5-31-2024

RESEARCHER DEVELOPS MODEL OF INFLUENCER IMPORTANCE WITHIN INSTAGRAM NETWORKS

A study has provided new insights into social media influencers, particularly focusing on those in the women’s fashion sector on the well-known image and video sharing platform Instagram. In a departure from the approach taken by earlier studies, Jens K. Perret of the International School of Management in Cologne, Germany, has used network statistics and centrality measures to establish a model of influencer importance within their network. Perret analyzed data from 255 influencers covering a four-year period. Influencers are loosely
5-31-2024

MOST PEOPLE TRUST ACCURATE SEARCH RESULTS WHEN THE STAKES ARE HIGH, STUDY FINDS

Rank (X-axis) does not affect the evaluation of trustworthiness (Y-axis, mean-centered) of accurate results. This lack of relationship is robust across experiments (columns) and for clicked results (top row, red) as well as non-clicked results (bottom row, blue). The trend lines represent the predicted change in trustworthiness ratings per unit decrease in rank fitted by the linear regression models. Credit: Scientific Reports (2024). DOI: 10.1038/s41598-024-61645-8 Using experiments with COVID-19 related queries, Cornell sociology and information science researchers found that in a public health emergency, most people pick out and click
5-31-2024

MISLEADING COVID-19 HEADLINES FROM MAINSTREAM SOURCES DID MORE HARM ON FACEBOOK THAN FAKE NEWS, STUDY FINDS

Despite the greater potency of “fake news” on Facebook to discourage Americans from taking the COVID-19 vaccine, users’ greater exposure to unflagged, vaccine-skeptical content meant the latter had a much greater negative effect on vaccine uptake. Credit: Jennifer Allen, Duncan Watts, David G. Rand Since the rollout of the COVID-19 vaccine in 2021, fake news on social media has been widely blamed for low vaccine uptake in the United States—but research by MIT Sloan School of Management Ph.D. candidate Jennifer Allen and Professor David Rand finds that the blame lies
5-31-2024

CRITICAL DIALOGUE HELPS STRAIGHT MEN CONFRONT SEXIST, HOMOPHOBIC BELIEFS

Adult heterosexual men with sexist and homophobic views can potentially improve their attitudes toward gay men and women by engaging in critical dialogues that use illustrations as a springboard, according to a new University of Michigan study. The work is published in the journal Sexual and Gender Diversity in Social Services. The process by which people shift from a prejudicial stance to one of relative acceptance is a key innovation of the study. Guided by trained facilitators, critical dialogues reflect illustrations depicting different gender roles and sexual identities. The images
5-31-2024

RELIEVING A FEAR OF PUBLIC SPEAKING

If you dread public speaking you are not alone. It is a leading social phobia, one that can cause a state of anxiety that reduces otherwise articulate people to nervous incoherence. A strong fear of public speaking is known as glossophobia. Academic studies estimate it affects 20% of the population, but depending on the sample and methodology, the figure could be as high as 40%. As American writer and humourist Mark Twain said, “There are two types of speakers: Those who get nervous and those who are liars.” But help
5-31-2024

HOW SOME PRIVATE COMPANIES ARE MARKETING TECH AND AI SOLUTIONS

How do universities and colleges decide who to admit? Given the earnings advantage of a post-secondary degree both globally and in Canada, this is an important social mobility question. While the answer varies from one institution to the next, most focus on education criteria like exam scores and grades. However, Canada’s new intake cap on study permit applications puts increased pressure on Canadian institutions to also consider immigration criteria when admitting international undergraduate students. This is just the latest example of immigration’s growing influence on the societal roles of Canadian

• New build or upgrade?

New build

• Existing parts/monitors to reuse? (List with models/links)

No existing parts to reuse, can't buy a new monitor right now, so I'm just going to use whatever I have for some months.

• PC purpose? (Gaming, editing, etc. List apps/games)

Mostly gaming and casual day-to-day use, with some work now and then.
I play Dota 2 for the most part, and then when this plague/curse disguised as a game eventually drains all the happiness hormones out of my brain i play games like :
Almost all paradox games like HOI4, Stellaris, CK etc, Oxygen Not Included, Factorio/DSP. Probably the most demanding game i want to play is Cities Skylines 2.
My brothers ocasionally play some demanding (i think) games aswell like Jedi Survivor, No mans sky, Hogwarts legacy and so on.
Apps used are just regular browsers, Office apps, some huge excel or PDF files are the only think that maybe will be "hard" on the pc.

• Purchase country? Near Micro Center? (If not US, list local vendors)

Brazil. The best vendors are: - https://www.pichau.com.b - https://kabum.com.b - https://www.terabyteshop.com.b Amazon is also good, but i dont know if people can filter the results for brazilian venders only?

• Monitors needed? (Number, size, resolution, refresh rate)

No.

• Budget range? (Include tax considerations)

In my currency, that would be around R$ 4.200 - R$ 4.400 Reais. I can go up to R$ 4.700 but id rather only do that if the performance jump is very good. That would be like from $700 to $900 US dollars but i doubt the prices translate like that.

• WiFi or wired connection?

Wired connection, but wifi could be a nice bonus if doesnt mess with the budget.

• Size/noise constraints?

No size constraints. Noise only if its something absurd and very high but otherwise its fine aswell

• Cololighting preferences?

No color preference at all, the standard black or white is good. I want as less RGB as possible, but it's not a dealbreaker, totally fine if there's RGB.

• Any other specific needs?

No specific needs, looking for the best i can do with that budget.

Edit: Just a heads up, when looking into the Brazilian vendors I listed, the value/price to watch is "Preço no Boleto" cause I'm gonna pay the components upfront and there's a sizeable discount. That's what I'm basing the budget limits on. For example, as you can see in the second build I posted in the comments, there's two totals: Total and Total no Boleto and it's the latter that matters

I’ve just been thinking, from the perspective of Disney executives, a buyout of Ludo studios to get full control over Bluey just makes too much business sense.
Get in on the lucrative merchandising rights, as well as integrating Bluey into the brand portfolio. Put her in the theme parks, etc.
And they have no artistic integrity, so you can start pumping out Bluey episodes in perpetuity.
And from the Ludo perspective, this would be very lucrative, based on valuation of the Bluey brand, I’d reckon a 3-4 billion dollar price tag for it.
I don’t know, it goes without saying this would really suck, but I’ve just got this feeling this will happen. Given the weirdness about the show’s future, I wouldn’t be entirely shocked if they were negotiating something now, to be honest.

I am interested in a beginner modular kayak (probably inflatable) that can seat me and my kid who will be 5 years old. Full size kayak isn’t a realistic option because we don’t have storage space or ability to transport it easily.
Use would be to travel on lakes and maybe light river traveling as a family, definitely not whitewater.
Not too concerned about speed of the kayak, but want something stable and rugged enough that it won’t likely spring a leak if it drags against a stick or a rock in the water, or dragging against grass and light gravel near the lake.
Do any budget modular kayaks like this (definitely under 500 dollars, preferably under 400 dollars) for 2 person seating exist with a strong resistance to tearing/damage? My biggest concern is getting an inflatable and then it getting a leak after 1-2 uses due to bumping against something unexpected either on the ground or while on the water.
I was looking potentially into either the Intex Excursion Pro 2, or the Sea Eagle SE370. The former I have seen mixed reviews about how resistant it is to damage, and the latter seems to have more positive reviews on it being sturdy enough to support whitewater (although not intending to use it for whitewater). Also looked at the TuckTec and Oru folding kayaks, but don’t want a single person kayak since intent is to travel on it with my kid. The Oru tandem kayaks appear well out of my price range.
Or if any other 2-person budget inflatable or folding/modular models you can recommend that are known for strong materials/damage resistance.

I was in contact with a used car site thru Facebook. The guy told me the price of the car was 800 dollars and was located in Henderson NV. They said send the delivery fee of 200 and when the car arrived pay for it. So I sent 200 dollars and delivery was underway when they told me I had to send another 150 that they wouldn't deliver the car until I did because the car was farther away than Henderson nv

No ones knows my password. I know not to give my password, I'm no NOOB.
My ratings are as solid as my ....... knowledge of security.
Proof and intimate videos: https://imgur.com/a/9UcJaeR
10oz Kookabura 2012 priced at $375 (Free Ship). In a capsule, never been touched, like a virgin!
10oz Sunshine Mint bar, only $315 (free ship), never been touched, wrapped in original plastic.... for your protection.
20 (not 10!) Canadian Silver Dollars from 1939 to 1967. So cool, so much history, hold it in your hand, King George VI, Young Queen, Mature Queen. Priced near bullion at $390 (free shipping).
Everything SHIPS MONDAY from Florida.
Payment is VENMO only.
Tracked shipping by USPS. BUY THE DIP and you won't be stuck with sloppy second.
Chat prefered.

( firstly, I'll be posting this for a friend of mine, the following is what they've typed up, just doesn't have a reddit themselves )
So back in April of 2023, I became friends with a “fursuit creator” on Tiktok. I really loved their content, specifically a tail they were making and I messaged them at first to see if I could use a similar style for one of my sonas(my first fursuit). They said I could and all was good. I kept in contact with them as a friend and since I was also really interested in their work. I loved their sonas and watching their progress. Anyway, they were looking for some dino masks and I had a few spares, so they offered a trade. I would give them three dinos, one of which was my first ever dino I got (and customized) and her nub tail. I also paid around $50 USD dollars(Not counting the shipping to the uk…) as extra for what they were making for me. In return, they were supposed to make me a nub tail and handpaws. After the design was picked, I decided to make a fursona to go with it. I then decided I wanted to add to the trade and make it an actual commission. We talked and settled on a price, almost $1000 USD(I paid $1000 USD flat, cause I wanted to give the extra support to them and I really really loved the sona she was making). I would like to add, I sold my first fursuit to pay for this one. While I was making payments they said they would start the work for the suit. According to them, they had trouble buying the first headbase(it was supposed to be a kimono style 3D printed head) so we settled and went for a foam head base instead. They got that headbase in September or August and I finished paying it off in July 2024. The last photo I saw of any progress was in August, and it was of the foam base they were cutting out to make the pattern for the teeth. I kept my cool for a while, I’d ask for updates but tried not to be pushy. It would always be some excuse and they'd tell me they would get me pictures in a few days, a few days would pass and there would be nothing. They also would tell me it would be done by one point and then something would come up that always pushed it back. In April of this year, I finally had enough waiting. I told them I wanted to see progress or I wanted a refund. I was told that according to their TOS I couldn't get a refund and that they would send photos when they could. They said its taken so long because of health reasons and because of complications with the other commission they are working on(They also told me at one point that the other commissioner wanted to back out in January or February). During the year in which they had to work on my suit, I have seen them make several other personal suits on their Tiktok. I can understand being sick or having too much of a workload, and I'm sympathetic to those things, but pairing it with everything else I just feel screwed over. It’s a lot of money that I have lost and since I sold my first suit to cover this one, I don't have any fursuit now. I still really love the character I made for this but I really don't want a suit from this person anymore. And I told them this, I also told them at this point just keep the money too since I just don't see it being worth the hassle to get back, and to that they responded with something along the lines of “I'm still making this suit and I'll let you know when it is done.” Even if she made the suit, would it be wrong of me to deny it? Cause I’d still have to pay shipping and putting more money into this isn't something I wanna do…I’m really lost and confused about all of this cause it's my first time commissioning something this big and it backfired so bad, I just would like some advice on how I should move forward on this.

Washington Post article said investors want lawmakers to have to disclose their stock market trades, that way average Americans can follow the money and what they know. Article below:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/06/01/congress-stock-trading-trackers-pelosi/
Members of Congress hear a lot of secrets: classified briefings, confidential previews of pending legislation and the private opinions of constituents, regulators, corporate executives and world leaders.
Watchdog groups have long believed that some lawmakers use that information to make money in the stock market. Now a loose alliance of traders, analysts and advocates is trying to let Americans mimic the trades elected officials make, offering tongue-in-cheek financial products — including one named for former House speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and another that refers to Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) — that track purchases and sales after lawmakers disclose them.
Collectively, these investment vehicles have attracted hundreds of millions of dollars. At times, congressional investigators have used them to keep tabs on suspicious trading activity, according to people familiar with these investigations who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to speak to the media.
“Our mission isn’t to make everyone millionaires — it’s actually to highlight the hypocrisy of congressional trading in an effort to bring more transparency and trust back into our government,” said Christopher Josephs, the founder of Autopilot, an app that allows ordinary investors to mimic the trades of leading politicians, top hedge funders and other famous traders. “Hopefully it’s helping, but our slogan is, if you can’t beat them, join them.”
Members of Congress are permitted to trade on the markets, but a 2012 law, the Stock Act, clarified insider trading restrictions for lawmakers and ramped up reporting requirements. Lawmakers are banned from trading based on material and nonpublic information they learn through their jobs and have 45 days to disclose any trades they or their immediate family members make.
Because the trackers rely on lawmakers’ legally mandated (and delayed) disclosures, they don’t allow the average American to make identical, same-day trades.
Those delays likely cut into users’ returns. That’s not the point, tracker boosters say. Their goal is to shine a light on congressional stock trading.
But the rise of these platforms is an alarming sign of distrust constituents have for their elected representatives, said Delaney Marsco, the director of ethics at the Campaign Legal Center, a nonpartisan government watchdog group.
“A lot more people than we would like” believe lawmakers use information gained from their positions to “make significant gains to their stock portfolios,” Marsco said. “That’s incredibly damaging to the public’s trust.”

A whole new product category

The push to allow ordinary investors to mimic lawmakers’ stock trading began in 2019, when an anonymous social media account called Unusual Whales began publishing reports analyzing politicians’ financial disclosures.
The account spotlighted trades it deemed suspicious, including some lawmakers’ decisions to sell large portions of their portfolios as the coronavirus spread across the globe.
Around the same time, James Kardatzke, an undergraduate at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, started scraping up congressional data. In 2020, he launched one of the first websites that tracked trades disclosed by Pelosi, whose venture capitalist husband, Paul, is a successful investor. (The former speaker has long maintained that she does not personally own any stock and has no knowledge of or involvement with her husband’s investments.)
Quiver Quantitative, the company Kardatzke co-founded that year with his twin brother, Chris, offers a data platform that highlights congressional trades and potential conflicts of interest, including lawmakers’ corporate donors, proposed legislation and net worth.
Josephs’s Autopilot originated as a social investment app called Iris that aimed to make it easier for ordinary investors to mimic their friends’ trades. But after copying famous investors’ trades proved more popular, the company pivoted.
According to Josephs, investors have so far routed some $130 million through Autopilot — $60 million of which has gone toward copying Pelosi, whose portfolio ranks as one of the app’s most popular, alongside Berkshire Hathaway’s Warren Buffett.
The Autopilot portfolio that mimics trades disclosed by Pelosi posted a 45 percent gain in 2023, above the S&P 500’s 24 percent gain that year.
Quiver and Autopilot allow ordinary investors to follow lawmakers’ trades and copy them if they choose. But last year, Christian Cooper, a derivatives trader and portfolio manager at Subversive Capital Advisor, partnered with Unusual Whales to launch products to make the process even simpler.
They launched two exchange-traded funds, or ETFs — investment funds that trade like stocks — that allow everyday investors to mimic lawmakers’ investment strategies. Unusual Whales Subversive Democratic ETF (NANC) and the Unusual Whales Subversive Republican ETF (KRUZ) — whose tickers nod to Pelosi and Cruz, a member who is not a prolific stock trader but has high name recognition — hit the market in February 2023.
NANC, which invests in stocks purchased by Democratic members of Congress, outperformed the overall U.S. stock market from its inception through April 30 of this year, according to an independent analysis by Elisabeth Kashner, director of global funds research and analytics at FactSet, a financial data and technology company. KRUZ, which invests in stocks purchased by Republican members, hasn’t done as well, underperforming the overall market. KRUZ ended April with $16 million of assets versus NANC’s $78 million. But Kashner argues that those outcomes should come with a caveat.
“While NANC’s run-up has been impressive, it’s statistically insignificant, meaning that there’s a decent chance that the outperformance to date has been random,” Kashner said. “Ditto for KRUZ’s underperformance.”

A push for further change

The trackers have proved popular. But without quicker, more up-to-the-minute disclosures, investors won’t ever be able to perfectly copy lawmakers’ trades — and anti-corruption advocates will have a harder time pinning down whether a trade was problematic, James Kardatzke said.
Because of this, some members of Congress have come to believe that the decade-old Stock Act is insufficient to restore Americans’ trust that lawmakers aren’t using their access to information for profit.
The penalties for those who violate the law are minimal: Members who are late to disclose stock activity, or sales and purchases of cryptocurrencies, generally face a $200 fine prescribed by the Stock Act. Rep. Pat Fallon (R-Tex.), who failed to disclose 122 transactions valued between $9 million and $21 million in 2021 in a timely manner, paid $600 in late filing fees and corrected the record though he refused to cooperate with the review conducted by the Office of Congressional Ethics.
More problematic, in the view of ethics watchdogs and people familiar with the ethics process in Congress, is that enforcement of the Stock Act lacks teeth and relies entirely on self-reporting.
“There does not seem to be much evidence of the Stock Act being violated, but on the other hand, anyone who truly wanted to violate the Stock Act with any degree of sophistication would be able to do it simply by not reporting it on your financial disclosures,” said a person involved with ethics investigations in Congress who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive and ongoing matter.
An effort to ban lawmakers and their families from owning individual stocks stalled out after Pelosi declined to bring a bipartisan change proposal to the floor at the end of her House speakership in 2022, claiming that she didn’t have the votes to pass it.
“It’s already hard for many members to raise a family and maintain homes in two cities on their salaries,” a senior congressional aide explained of member opposition to a ban, speaking on the condition of anonymity to talk candidly. “If you make it impossible for a member’s spouse to take a job that includes stock-based compensation, that is another burden that can drive talented people away from public service.”
That has not deterred a string of unusual pairings of politicians, including Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) in the House and Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) and Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) in the Senate, from introducing bills that would place stricter limits on congressional trading.
Rep. Abigail Spanberger (D-Va.), who is leaving Congress in January to run for governor, has been working closely with Rep. Chip Roy (R-Tex.) on another bill, the Trust in Congress Act, which would require members, their spouses and dependent children to put certain investment assets into a blind trust during their term.
Spanberger and Roy are strategizing how best to advance the bill and have discussed the possibility of trying to force a vote on the House floor before the end of this Congress.
“Transparency has created more questions than answers,” Spanberger said, referring to disclosures mandated by the Stock Act. “So now we have a situation where it actually looks like maybe there’s bad behavior when maybe there isn’t — or maybe there is.”
Interest in the bill ebbs and flows “based on the bad or quizzical behavior of our colleagues,” Spanberger said.
Banning lawmakers from owning stock is popular: Eighty percent of voters support a ban on stock ownership by members of Congress, the president, vice president, Supreme Court justices and their families, a poll released last year by the University of Maryland’s Program for Public Consultation found.
“There’s no reason we can’t address it,” Roy said in an interview. “It’s not going to be partisan. It’ll be split, and there will be Republicans who are for or against it and Democrats for it or against it.”
Spanberger lobbied House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), the rare member who disclosed no assets in his most recent financial disclosure report, to address the issue at the start of his speakership.
Johnson did not respond to a request for comment. “Mike understands that there’s a problem,” Roy said. “We’re just trying to work through on a bipartisan basis how we can address it.”

Insider-ish trading

Under current law, members rarely pay a real price for trading-related scandals.
The Office of Congressional Ethics concluded in 2021 that there was “substantial reason to believe” that the wife of Rep. Mike Kelly (R-Pa.) used nonpublic information obtained through her husband’s official duties to purchase stock in an Ohio steelmaker. OCE investigators found that Victoria Kelly purchased stock in Cleveland-Cliffs a day after her husband learned that Donald Trump’s Department of Commerce was set to grant trade protections to the company.
Then-Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross informed the Cleveland-Cliffs CEO on April 28, 2020, that the department’s actions would potentially help his company, prompting Cleveland-Cliffs to keep its operations in Mike Kelly’s district open. On April 29, Victoria Kelly made her first individual stock purchase in almost a year, buying between $15,001 and $50,000 in Cleveland-Cliffs stock.
But three years after the ethics office referred what some legal experts deemed a “textbook” case of trading off nonpublic information to the House Ethics Committee — the entity with the power to hold a lawmaker accountable for wrongdoing — the committee has yet to issue a determination as to whether a violation occurred. Tom Rust, the chief counsel and staff director of the committee, declined to comment on the status of the investigation. Mike Kelly’s office did not respond to a request for comment.
In a hyperpartisan environment with threadbare majorities in both chambers, the members of the House Ethics Committee have little incentive to hold other members accountable. The Senate faces even less pressure to investigate its members: It lacks an independent ethics enforcement body like the Office of Congressional Ethics, which has jurisdiction only over the House.
The Senate Ethics Committee has not issued a disciplinary sanction against a senator in over 15 years, even after a stock-trading scandal roiled the upper chamber. Sens. Richard Burr (R-N.C.), Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), James M. Inhofe (R-Okla.) and Kelly Loeffler (R-Ga.) came under scrutiny at the start of 2020 after they dumped vast stock holdings ahead of the coronavirus-induced market plunge. Neither the Senate Ethics Committee nor the Justice Department, whose investigators launched probes into the stock sales, pursued charges.
The “clear exoneration by the Department of Justice affirms what Sen. Loeffler has said all along — she did nothing wrong,” a spokesperson for Loeffler said at the conclusion of the investigation, adding that “she and her husband acted entirely appropriately and observed both the letter and the spirit of the law.”
But ethics experts have argued that the problem with lawmakers’ stock trading habits goes beyond the legal issue of insider trading, noting that even the appearance of improper trading can damage the public’s already record-low trust in lawmakers and government.
Members of Congress might not clear the high legal bar for insider trading, which would require making a trade based on material, nonpublic information. But they might still trade on information that the rest of the public doesn’t have meaningful access to, said Marsco of the Campaign Legal Center.
Some members routinely engage in trades that critics see as posing actual or potential conflicts with their committee assignments, where members often are privy to nonpublic — or even classified, sensitive, privileged or otherwise restricted — information. And some have gotten a lot richer — in part due to the gains made through the stock market — during their time in office.
Several trackers have noted that Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.) has in recent months disclosed trades of companies that have business before the committees he sits on. Mullin’s net worth has increased from roughly $5.9 million when he was elected to Congress in 2012 to an estimated $63.66 million today.
But Mullin’s case highlights the complexity of the issue. “Over 2 years ago, Sen. Mullin sold several of his companies,” a spokesperson for Mullin wrote in an email. “Any attempts to link an increase in net worth purely to investments outcomes, which are independently managed by a third-party operator, are completely inaccurate.”
Ideally, Mullin and other members of Congress who own stocks would put them in a blind trust, said Kedric Payne, former deputy chief counsel of the Office of Congressional Ethics, who now serves as the vice president of the Campaign Legal Center.
“That way, there’s no way for you to direct your broker to sell that defense contractor stock because you don’t even know you own it,” Payne said.
But the public’s perception of members’ conflicts of interest is the most important issue, Payne added.
“We are now at a new level where the members no longer have to be insider traders to profit — we are at a point where merely publishing what trades a member buys means the price of that stock goes up because other people are following their lead,” he said. “You have a problem that’s very hard to erase.”

Warbond Central
Lots of warbond CCU's, ships and paints available at reduced prices!
Buy any 3 upgrades and get further 10% discount!
💥💥CRAZY DEALS💥💥

From	To	Comment	Savings vs RSI	Your Price
F7C-M Super Hornet Heartseeker	Cutlass Steel		$ 27.50💥	$ 7.50
Freelancer DUR	Vulture		$ 20💥	$ 20
Starfarer Gemini	Hull C		$ 100💥	$ 60
Prowler	Hull D		$ 45💥	$ 65
Prowler	600i Explorer	IAE 2953 (Purple Paint)	Not purchaseable	$ 30💥
F7C-R Hornet Tracker	Prospector	+ Mining Career Kit (Armor + Multitool + Backpack)	$ 7.50	$ 7.50💥

*The above are exempt from the extra 10% discount
Looking for something specific? Ctrl+F and search for it quickly!
💥💥Best in Show💥💥

From	To	Comment	Your Price
Vulcan	Scorpius	IAE 2952 (Red Paint)	$ 50
Cutlass Steel	Mercury	IAE 2952 (Red Paint)	$ 40
MPUV Cargo	C8X Pisces Expedition	IAE 2952 (Red Paint)	$ 25
Aurora LX	C8X Pisces Expedition	IAE 2952 (Red Paint)	$ 25
Prospector	Vulture	IAE 2953 (Purple Paint)	$ 35
Defender	Corsair	IAE 2953 (Purple Paint)	$ 45
Eclipse	Redeemer	IAE 2953 (Purple Paint)	$ 55
Prowler	600i Explorer	IAE 2953 (Purple Paint)	$ 65

Need any upgrades to reach any of those above? - Reach out, I have them available as well.
Special & Warbond CCU's (and other cost-saving CCUs)
Need any upgrades to reach any of those below? - Reach out, I have them available as well.

From	To	Comment	Savings vs RSI	Your Price
Defender	400i	120m Insurance	$ 2.50	$ 27.50
Prowler	600i Explorer	120m Insurance, Best in Show 2023	Not purchaseable	$ 65
Khartu-Al	A1 Spirit		$ 2.50	$ 27.50
Sabre	A1 Spirit		$ 2.50	$ 27.50
Orion	A2 Hercules		$ 10	$ 90
RAFT	Ballista		$ 2.50	$ 12.50
Constellation Andromeda	Blade		$ 5	$ 30
Scorpius	Blade		$ 5	$ 30
Hawk	C1 Spirit		$ 2.50	$ 22.50
M50	C1 Spirit		$ 2.50	$ 22.50
Storm AA	C1 Spirit		$ 2.50	$ 22.50
Cutlass Black	C1 Spirit		$ 2.50	$ 12.50
Freelancer	C1 Spirit		$ 2.50	$ 12.50
MPUV Cargo	C8X Pisces Expedition	120m Insurance, Best in Show 2022	Not purchaseable	$ 25
Aurora LX	C8X Pisces Expedition	120m Insurance, Best in Show 2022	Not purchaseable	$ 25
Hull D	Carrack		$ 10	$ 40
Vanguard Harbinger	Caterpillar		$ 5	$ 35
Vanguard Sentinel	Constellation Aquila		$ 5	$ 35
F7C-M Super Hornet	Constellation Taurus		$ 2.50	$ 12.50
Sabre Comet	Constellation Taurus		$ 2.50	$ 12.50
Defender	Corsair	120m Insurance,	$ 5	$ 25
Defender	Corsair	120m Insurance, Best in Show 2023	Not purchaseable	$ 45
Reliant Mako	Cutlass Black		$ 2.50	$ 12.50
Nova	Cutlass Red	+ Medical Career Kit	Same	$ 15
F7C-M Super Hornet Heartseeker	Cutlass Steel		$10	$ 30
F7C-M Super Hornet Heartseeker	Defender		$ 5	$ 20
Vulture	F7C-M Super Hornet Heartseeker			$ 32.50
Cutlass Red	F7C-R Hornet Tracker		$ 2.50	$ 12.50
Nova	F7C-S Hornet Ghost		$ 2.50	$ 15
Reliant Mako	Freelancer	+ Cargo Career Kit (Armor + Multitool + Backpack)	Same	$ 15
Cutlass Red	Freelancer MAX		$ 2.50	$ 12.50
Reliant Mako	Gladius Valiant		$ 2.50	$ 12.50
Orion	Hammerhead		$ 7.50	$ 67.50
Avenger Warlock	Hawk		$ 2.50	$ 12.50
Herald	Hawk		$ 2.50	$ 12.50
Prowler	Hull C		$ 10	$ 50
Starfarer Gemini	Hull C		$ 65	$ 85
Prowler	Hull D		$ 25	$ 75
F7C-M Super Hornet	Hurricane		$ 5	$ 25
Cutlass Red	Mantis	120m Insurance	$ 2.50	$ 12.50
Cutlass Red	Mantis		$ 2.50	$ 12.50
Freelancer DUR	Mantis		$ 2.50	$ 12.50
Liberator	Merchantman		$ 5	$ 70
Cutlass Steel	Mercury	120m Insurance, Best in Show 2022	Not purchaseable	$ 40
Cutlass Steel	Mercury		$ 5	$ 20
Vanguard Harbinger	MOLE	120m Insurance	$ 5	$ 20
M2 Hercules	Orion		$ 20	$ 110
Carrack	Perseus		$ 15	$ 60
Perseus	Polaris	120m Insurance	$ 10	$ 65
Ballista	Prospector	+ Mining Career Kit (Armor + Multitool + Backpack)	Same	$ 15
F7C-R Hornet Tracker	Prospector	+ Mining Career Kit (Armor + Multitool + Backpack)	$ 7.50	$ 7.5
C2 Hercules	Prowler		$ 10	$ 30
Cutlass Red	Razor LX	120m Insurance	$ 2.50	$ 12.50
Vanguard Harbinger	Redeemer		$ 5	$ 35
Eclipse	Redeemer	120m Insurance, Best in Show 2023	Not purchaseable	$ 55
Prospector	Retaliator		$ 10	$ 10
Razor	Retaliator		$ 15	$ 15
Mercury	Retaliator	+ Torpedo Modules Bow + Stern		$ 60
Vanguard Warden	Retaliator	+ Torpedo Modules Bow + Stern		$ 60
SRV	Sabre Firebird		$ 5	$ 15
A1 Spirit	San'tok.yāi	120m Insurance	$ 10	$ 30
Hurricane	San'tok.yāi		$ 5	$ 25
Hurricane	Scorpius		$ 5	$ 25
Vulcan	Scorpius	120m Insurance	$ 10	$ 25
Vulcan	Scorpius	120m Insurance, Best in Show 2022	Not purchaseable	$ 50
A1 Spirit	Scorpius Antares		$ 5	$ 25
Constellation Taurus	Scorpius Antares		$ 5	$ 25
F7C-M Super Hornet Heartseeker	Scorpius Antares		$ 5	$ 35
Razor	SRV		$ 5	$ 15
MOLE	Starfarer Gemini		$ 5	$ 20
Arrow	Storm		$ 2.50	$ 12.50
Cyclone MT	Storm		$ 2.50	$ 12.50
Starfarer Gemini	Valkyrie		$ 5	$ 30
Mercury	Vanguard Harbinger		$ 5	$ 25
Vanguard Warden	Vanguard Harbinger		$ 5	$ 25
Retaliator	Vanguard Harbinger		$ 50	$ 65
Corsair	Vanguard Sentinel		$ 2.50	$ 22.50
400i	Vanguard Sentinel		$ 2.50	$ 22.50
F7C-M Super Hornet MK I	Vulcan	120m Insurance	$ 2.50	$ 17.50
F7C-S Hornet Ghost	Vulture	120m Insurance	$ 2.50	$ 32.50
Cutlass Red	Vulture		$ 5	$ 35
Freelancer DUR	Vulture		$ 5	$ 35
Prospector	Vulture	120m Insurance, Best in Show 2023	Not purchaseable	$ 35
Prospector	Vulture	+ Salvage Career Kit (Armor + Multitool + Backpack)	Same	$ 20
RAFT	Vulture		$ 7.50	$ 42.50
Razor	Vulture		$ 5	$ 25
C8X Pisces Expedition	X1 Force		$ 1	$ 9

Need any upgrades to reach any of those above ? - Reach out, I have them available as well.
Original Concepts
Standalone Ships:

Ship	Comment	Your Price
Pioneer	120 Months	$1100
Orion	LTI OC	$995
Starfarer	LTI OC	$290
Starfarer Gemini	LTI OC	$355
Banu Defender	LTI OC	$220
Caterpillar	LTI OC	$375
Freelancer	LTI OC	$130
Endeavor Discovery-Class	LTI OC	$675

CCU'd Ships (LTI):I can do all ships just reach out - the few below just reflects a few examples.

Ship	Comment	Your Price
400i		$215
600i Explorer		$415
A2 Hercules		$545
Apollo Triage		$215
Ares Inferno		$215
Ares Ion		$215
Blade		$235
Corsair		$225
Crucible		$285
Endeavor		$305
Hammerhead		$525
Hull C		$405
Merchantman		$455
Mercury		$225
Nautilus		$525
Polaris		$545
Scorpius		$205
Vanguard Warden		$225

All ships available - so just reach out for a price regarding anything else
Endeavor Components

Components	Comment	Your Price
Telescope Array Pod	LTI	$200

Add-ons

Paints	Comment	Your Price
Invictus Paints	All of them available	ASK
Lovestruck Paints	All of them available	ASK
Fortuna Paints	All of them available	ASK
Auspicious Red Paints	All of them available	ASK
Skull and Crossbones	Cutlass Black Pirate Paint	ASK
Meridian Paints	All except 400i	ASK
Concierge Paints	Most of them	ASK

Before you reach out please beware that:
* I only trade with Verified accounts and PayPal verified people
* You have to PM me to initiate trading. Please do comment with PMd in the comments
* I will send out a PayPal Invoice after an agreement has been made in dollars ($), I pay the fees
* The gift will be sent after payment is received
* I expect us both to verify the exchange afterwards with +trade/+verify (currently down)
Let me know if you are searching for something specific - because i might have it. Backer since 2014.

I've bought some gold coins a few years back and want to convert them back into cash, for reasons. This is my first time selling so I'm trying to learn a bit before I go out and do it. One thing I can't quite wrap my head around is: If the price of gold changes constantly every second, how often does it change at gold dealers/coin shops? Every 5/10/60 minutes? Do they hold the price for the entire day?
If I check the price online and it's $2000 (Canadian dollars) per oz, and then drive 15min to the local dealer and now the online price is $1900 per oz, will I be getting around $1900 for my gold coin? Is that how it works? Are online and local dealers the same in that regard? Also I know a lot of people recommend selling online but with my current circumstances, selling locally is just a lot easier for me.