So, as the title suggests, this is my idea for the Indigo Park Timeline and Lore, including the time before, and the game's events. This will be one of three parts due to character limitations, this part dealing with the time before the events of the game.
BEFORE THE GAME
So, this game is clearly based loosely on Disney, if it wasn't obvious enough: a man by the name of Isaac Indigo opening Indigo Park (Walt Disney, Disney World, self-explanatory), starting out with cartoons in the early 1900s.
Mr. Isaac Indigo started out his business ventures in the cartoon sphere, specifically with Lloydford L. Lion, or more commonly known as Lloyd the Lion. The reason that it's Lloyd specifically, and not anyone else, can be seen when interacting with the Retro Lloyd Plush, both from the protagonist and Rambley the Raccoon, the modern day representative of Indigo Park.
Protagonist in regard to the Retro Lloyd Plush: "Lloyd obviously had an older look in the classic Indigo cartoons, but I'm not sure it looked like this. I guess nostalgia sells..."
Rambley AI in regard to the Retro Lloyd Plush: "Ugh...I don't get why we even have those. And why did they only make one of LLOYD? Is it because he's the loudest? I CAN BE LOUD TOO! WHERE'S MY LIMITED-EDITION THROWBACK PLUSH?! WHERE'S MOLLIE'S? WHERE'S FINLEY'S?"
Protagonist in regard to the Lloyd Plush: “I feel like as a kid, Indigo used Loyd a lot more.”
If it wasn't obvious enough by Rambley's rather frustrated demeanor regarding the plush, only Lloyd received this sort of plush, while none of the others received such a collectible. Well, it's possible Salem the Skunk received one, since Rambley didn't mention her, but that might be more representative of his intense dislike for Salem, something that will be discussed down the line. Another thing to note is that this plush does not look like the original Lloyd Lion, which is a detail I will discuss in depth towards the end.
Anyways, over the years, the other mascots we know and love, Mollie the Macaw, Finley the Sea Serpent, Salem the Skunk, and Rambley the Raccoon are added. I would like to put forth the idea that Mollie, Salem, and Rambley were all added in the same general time period, thanks to the Rambley Rush Arcade Game.
The quick rundown of the game is thus: Mollie Macaw crashes somewhere in the depths of Rambleberry Woods, and Rambley goes to find her. Along the way, he must jump across rivers and pits, collecting Rambleberries, and stomping upon evil purple squirrels, eventually reaching Mollie, who is still near her crashed plane. When she gets up, she claims that she crashed because her vision became rapidly obscured, at which point Salem Skunk appears and takes credit for that, claiming that she needed better test subjects for her potions than a bunch of squirrels. Infecting Mollie with the potion, Salem flees, not before Rambley and Salem exchange some barbs. Rambley eventually knocks Mollie out by stomping on her a few times, and the game glitches and crashes.
This arcade game is important for several reasons, one of which is that it introduces us to the dynamic that Rambley and Salem have: one of enemies, different than with Lloyd, because Rambley is merely jealous of the fact that Lloyd came before him, and was the main character for a long period of time. There is also the fact that Salem's area in the Rambley Railroad is completely destroyed. Not even Lloyd's area is so damaged.
From my basic understanding of early black and white television, based on the Chapter 1 opening cutscene of Isaac Indigo, Indigo Park opens somewhere in the 1940s to 1950s, as the grainy, blurry footage and somewhat muffled audio is reminiscent of such times. All sorts of rides and attractions are available for families to explore, such as Rambley's Railway, Jetstream Junction, Oceanic Odyssey, and Lloyd's Main Stage Theater. Again, interesting to note that Salem doesn't have such an area dedicated to her, though that might just be a way of putting off that area for later in the game. People in costumes (note, not called Mascots themselves, as I will use the term to address the replacements of these costumes) roam about the place, likely acting like modern day Disney Cast Members do today, interacting with guests in character.
After a long period of time, and possibly into the early 2000s, the focus is drawn away from Lloyd and onto Rambley, and specifically after the park was open, and not before, because in that same commercial that I dated to approximately the 1940s or 50s, the front gates are decorated with artwork of Lloyd, which is different than in game, where the Lloyd artwork has been replaced by art of Rambley. The reasoning for this is unclear, though I do have a few speculations. It is noted, both by the Rambley AI and the protagonist when interacting with the limited Golden Rambley Plush, that the idea is kind of cheap.
Protagonist: "So wait. They were so money hungry that they just recolored a regular Rambley plush and called it a new product? Kinda lazy don't you think?"
Rambley AI: "... Seriously, our employees had to clean up SO many stray teeth and nails. Hard to believe that there was all this demand for a regular Rambley Plush we blasted with gold spray paint..."
The idea of cutting corners and lowering costs comes up a fair bit. This might be the reason that they swapped main characters, after all: it's easier to animate a cute, small raccoon with a bandana than a large lion in a full on suit. This might also be the reason that the park transitions from costumed staff members, or "Ranglers", to Mascots.
Another reason for the change could have been growing awareness of animal welfare issues at the time, with many circuses and zoos facing criticism for how they treated their animals, lions and elephants specifically, and is an issue that is still ongoing, so perhaps Indigo Park didn't want the negative press to come to them, so they swapped. However, it is important to note that these are purely my speculations, and no concrete reason for the swap was ever introduced in Chapter 1 (to my knowledge).
A third possible reason could be in reference to what Indigo Park represented, at least in the time that it was built. According to Isaac Indigo:
Isaac Indigo, giving a press conference outside Indigo Park: “Indigo Park offers a slice of the American dream to call your own. In this place, echoes of days gone are brought back to life as a new generation captures a glimpse of the exciting potential of Tomorrow. Indigo Park pays homage to the values, dreams, and unwavering truths that gave rise to our great nation.”
Let’s take a step back. Remember how I dated the opening of Indigo Park to the 1940s or 1950s? If that was true, that means that Indigo Park opened in the shadow of the Second World War, the deadliest human conflict ever recorded, with a death toll of over 50 million people, both soldier and civilian. After the atomic bombs were dropped on Japan, it was eventually public knowledge that the USA still decided to drop the second one, even after Imperial Japan had surrendered after the first one had been cast.
It's entirely possible that Indigo Park was, in some way, propaganda. Think about it, Lloyd the Lion was the mascot. And what do lions represent? Strength, power, unity, leadership. Lloyd could have been a symbol to the American people that proclaimed themselves as leaders, people who thought of the future, while trying to sideline the negative press the USA received.
After a while, however, there was no need to justify their victory. People, for the most part, accepted their victory, and as the world headed into a Cold War, there was no need to justify themselves; many people were afraid of the Communists, the Red, and the influence it may have. Clearly, the USA and its allies were the good guys. Communism was a threat to democracy, everyone knew that! So there was a switch to a more child friendly character, Rambley, as the main man himself.
That might also explain why the retro plushie doesn’t look like how Lloyd did in the old cartoons, as stated explicitly by the protagonist; perhaps that older Lloyd was more mature, older, and signified some much darker. There’s no need to stir up bad memories of WW2, so they changed his design to be softer, younger, much more unassuming.
The Protagonist, regarding the Retro Lloyd Plushie: “I always find it weird when companies make merch that’s supposed to look old. Lloyd obviously had an older look in the classic Indigo cartoons, but I’m not sure Lloyd looked like this.”
There’s also a case to be made that Disney also participated in some good old propaganda of their own, mocking Nazi Germany and their ideals.
Now, disregarding politics, because that thing is a minefield to safely navigate, this is just my theory. I am not trying to radicalize the game, and if you hate this theory, you can go about ignoring it! I personally don’t think it’s the correct answer, just a potential answer.
Another change that soon occurred was the change from costumed "Ranglers" to living, breathing, flesh and bones Mascots, introduced to us in the Rambley AI interaction with the Rambley mask.
Rambley AI, playing an old tape in the database in regard to the costumes: "First Person - Hey Jackson! You hear about the new mascots? Jackson - Yeah, you think it will put us out of a job? First Person - I think so, Old Sport, and right after we got this damn raccoon costume."
An important note to this is that this interaction is considered an Easter Egg to a FNAF fan game called Dayshift at Freddy's, alongside some other references such as the Golden Rambley being a reference to Golden Freddy, and the Poodle Plush being a reference to another FNAF fan game Playtime with Percy. Despite this, these items seem to carry a bit of significant lore in them, something that I think is an interesting way of hiding it. It opens up the possibility to state that it should be disregarded, since it's supposed to be an Easter Egg to something else, but I don't think so.
This quote makes me think that the switch from costumes to Mascots happened quite early on in Indigo Park's lifetime, considering it's said that the Mascots should appear quite soon after the introduction of the costumes, perhaps yet another clue that Indigo Park was looking to cut costs. After all, why pay people when you can have Mascots roaming about, doing just the same, if not better, of a job?
And everything seems to be going fine for quite a while. The protagonist notes several times that his family, and especially his mother and himself, were avid fans of the place and characters, his mother liking Mollie Macaw the most, while the protagonist favored a few, such as Lloyd the Lion, while disliking Finley due to his large size, which was revealed when interacting with a few different collectibles.
When the protagonist interacts with the Lloyd the Lion plush: "I feel like as a kid, Indigo used Lloyd a lot more. He was always one of my favorites."
When the protagonist interacts with the Mollie the Macaw plush: "I remember when my mom took us to the parks one summer. Her favorite was always Mollie, so when they first opened new Mollie Meet & Greet in Jetstream Junction, we were some of the first in line."
When the protagonist interacts with the Rambley Ears: "My dad promised me he'd buy me a pair when we went."
When the protagonist interacts with the Souvenir Rambley Cup: "When I was a kid they used to have free unlimited refills on those things. I once drank so much Bird Up that I got sick and threw up while riding Rooftop Races. That poor kid behind me..."
Anyways, we got the point: the family went there often and were huge fans of the park. What could go wrong?
Well, apparently a huge evacuation and closure of the park with no explanation whatsoever, to the point where the authorities also were not able give any reasoning or answers.
This comes from the newspaper we see in the beginning cutscene, after the old video of Isaac Indigo introducing Indigo Park. So, let's theorize a bit. Out of everything in the park, what could possibly lead to such a drastic evacuation of a place so well loved? Oh, I don't know, maybe the killer Mascots that try to kill you in Chapter 1 ...
What isn't so clear is what happened to them. Clearly, they were well behaved and safe to be around, even for small children, as the park remained open for 50 years (minimum) without issue, and almost as long with the actual mascots themselves. Obviously, they went rogue, as can be seen when the protagonist has to run away from Lloyd the Lion's attempts to attack and have the Rambley AI save the protagonist from the Mollie the Macaw by killing the Mascot with a metal door. I don't think it had to do with resources such as food, since the Mascots remained by themselves in the park for 2920 days, exactly eight years, and only seemed feral. Besides that, we see a bunch of vendor stations and a few cafes, still with food in them. Moldy, perhaps, and expired, but there's still food. There's also water (possibly) available in those self serve drinking fountains. The last time the park was operational was October 7th, 20XX (with the exact year being a mystery), and the reason I say operational is because of an announcement seen on one of the Rangler monitors in the reception area.
Announcement: "Attention Ranglers. The date is October 7th, 20XX. Charge guests the SATURDAY pricing indicated in your Rookie Rangler Handbook! Thanks! - Management."
What jumps out immediately is the way Saturday is so bold. So, what can we assume? The last operational day we have knowledge of was Saturday, October 7th, somewhere in the 2000s. Unless this is the future (which we have no reason to believe), we can assume this Saturday occurred somewhere between 2000 and 2023 (2023 and not 2024 because the creator, in a livestream, ended up giving a vague message of the game taking place in 2023). Looking up old calendars and looking specifically for an October 7th that lands on a Saturday reveals a couple potential years: 2000, 2006, and 2023. We can discount 2023, as we know the park was closed for 8 years. I did try to find a date on those three monitors the protagonist uses in the opening cutscene, but only found the time, 7:32 pm. Unfortunately, Harmony, a knock off of Discord (antonyms) also doesn't have a date, or even a time, for that matter. And besides, we know that we're the first actual person to visit in quite some time. So, we're left with 2000, and 2006. Assuming this game takes place in 2024, I have a feeling the year it closed is actually 2006.
First foremost because of the Rambley AI. Having AI Rambley be as advanced as he is makes it seem like the park was closed in 2023, but again, there is no evidence to say the game takes place in the future. And AI's back in 2000s and 2010s eras were good, but nothing like we have today. They were capable of basic object identification, and navigation, but the capabilities were limited, compared to today. And in 2000, it was much more basic. Image recognition consisted of identifying edges. That's it. Edges, not distinct features, and even then, the accuracy was pretty bad. At the time, AI was mainly used for data retrieval and predictive modeling, mostly for things like language translation, text classification, and such. They were basically office assistants.
Of course, that's assuming that the AI was introduced back then. It is entirely possible, and likely plausible, that the AI was introduced later. After all, the park may have closed, but Ranglers were still visiting the place as late as 2015, which was the last time the AI Rambley notes an actual person arrived. So, if that's true, then I am still not too sure as to which of the two years the park closed.
Any ideas would be greatly appreciated. And the present of the game and my conclusions shall be posted in separate posts, as there is a 40k character limit. Leave any theories of your own in the comments, and I'll be happy to theorize regarding and questions or concerns yall have!

Most people produce a product that people want to pay money for. You produce a product so contemptible that people will pay to get rid of it.
Every time we create some kind of social space where we feel free to communicate, advertisers enter and disrupt it. It is obviously seen as undesirable for people to be able to have conversations with each other without seeing paid advertisements.
Aren't you ashamed to produce something that is actively forced on people who don't want it as some kind of vague punishment for being poor and wanting to access information or socialize on the internet? To actively stand in between people and the information that they want, and the people they want to talk to, actively and intentionally annoying people with unwanted communications?
Wouldn't begging be more honest? That's what this amounts to. I'm going about my business, doing whatever. And you don't have anything to do, and you want money, so you've made a fancy sign of some kind and you want me to give you money to go away. OK. Are you starting to get the picture? Picture yourself waving your latest "work" on the side of the highway. Get it? I give money to bums all the time. You're not better. You're worse because you're lying, and you're annoying, you're in my way, you're taking more than your share, and you're ungrateful.
If this post seems like an unwanted and annoying communication to you, understand that it is nothing compared to the pointless misery you inflict on ordinary people every day of their lives. The fact that your industry will do everything it can to actively stop people from declining to see your unwanted and offensive products is disgusting. If you delete this post, but don't want me to be able to decline to see whatever annoying garbage you produce while I try to do Literally Anything on the internet, I want you to be in jail at this point. You've actually made me lose hope in humanity and technology. I genuinely believe you are committing a crime and you should be compelled to render justice to society through the seizure of your wealth and many hours of community service. You are fundamentally incompatible with the needs of our society. You have become a greater hazard to our collective future every year you have been allowed to exist and organize for your own benefit. You are actively and intentionally degrading our single most important resource for information and communication, in a way that is so annoying that I typically assume that you actually are intentionally trying to insult and psychologically damage your audience.
Many marketing websites exist to tell you that people don't hate advertising, but merely "irrelevant advertising". This allows you to pretend, somehow, apparently, that stalking people (I once received an ad for shampoo while trying to listen to a documentary in the shower, and I would really love if I could somehow find the person responsible for this) is actually an improved service, rather than something most people perceive as a form of harassment that should be illegal. You just ignore the fact that we don't like it, even though you know we don't, and so you just sell the data to intelligence agencies, hackers, stalkers, criminals, spies. This makes you rich which makes it easier for you to forget and not care (you will probably delete this post).
Supposedly we can't fund the internet without you, but that's impossible, because you generate negative value and therefore cannot be a source of funding for anything, only a drain on it. We should simply eliminate the source of corruption that your industry represents, and fund the internet with the savings from your total liquidation.

Apart from technical occupations, most people's work does not require creating content that does not currently exist, but rather involves following the workflow of their respective occupations, such as entering real-world data into computers (here, computers refer not only to PCs but also to those embedded in industrial equipment, medical devices, and service facilities).
I am not familiar with the working environment of developed countries; I am in China, where there is much lagging behind. Many devices require specialized personnel for operation (such as operating color ultrasound equipment and CT equipment in hospitals, operating pick-and-place machines and setting equipment parameters in factories, and entering customer loan and investment information in banks). In China, most people in real life are engaged in such occupations that require human operation of equipment or data entry. Due to the fixed operating processes, chatgpt's capabilities are limited in this regard.
Because I am in China, the market here is not as open and free as in developed countries. Due to the high degree of monopoly in the upstream and midstream industries (my friends in developed countries, you cannot imagine the extent of monopoly), salespeople here attach great importance to personal relationships with customers and suppliers. Although there is also formal email communication, many specific business decisions are often made through face-to-face meetings (with some tricks involved). Therefore, even though salespeople reply to emails and prepare product briefs, service briefs, etc., they almost never use artificial intelligence like chatgpt.
The people around me were amazed when they first encountered ChatGPT, saying it was so powerful, only Americans could create something like this. However, after using it for half an hour to an hour, some of them gave feedback that it was not useful and felt like a toy. I think this is related to their job types, as their job types have made them accustomed to a certain process or pattern for a long time, and as long as they apply this process or pattern, they can get the results they want. What they hope for is that ChatGPT can allow them to keep their hands off the keyboard and mouse, even automatically reply to emails, and just lie down to collect their salary.

File System Directories to a SharePoint List
The PowerShell below will allow you to load a directory structure on a File System into a SharePoint List using Parent Child relationships
The script will provide you with all the information you need to analyse a file system directory structure.
Import into SharePoint List

• Open the CSV output file,
• Delete the first from,
• Select All,
• Convert to Table and Save as XLSX.
• Go to SharePoint site,
• Add new list
• Select import from the new XSLX file.

The spreadsheet above is build with the following PowerShell. Note we are Analyzing the directories and not the actual files. If a files has been modified within a folder then its last accessed data is updated, so you know the date it was last used.
Note the special syntax of the UNC to allow PowerShell to read paths on file systems, not accessible in the latest version of window server
Note- PowerShell has issues reading Mac hidden icon folders and will be skipped

cls #User the following format to read file shares that have very long folder structures in excess of 2048 characters #Use "\\?\UNC\MyFileServerHostName\Share\" ​ $path = 'C:\TESTADATA' $ouputPath = 'C:\powershell\SPIA\Operations' ​ $Error.Clear() $global:objectId = 0 $global:hashTable = @{ } $global:report = @() ​ function Get-DirectoryStart ($path) { $dir = Get-Item -LiteralPath $path ​ #$global:hashTable.Add($dir.FullName,$global:objectId) ​ Get-DirectoryStructure $dir ​ #$global:report Export-Csv -Path C:\Users\antho\allDirectories.csv } ​ ​ function Get-DirectoryStructure($dir) { ​ $global:objectId ++ ​ if(!$global:hashTable.ContainsKey($dir.FullName) ) { $global:hashTable.Add($dir.FullName,$global:objectId) } Write-FolderToCSV $dir ​ $dirItems = Get-ChildItem -LiteralPath $dir.FullName -Directory Select Name, Parent, LastWriteTime , FullName ​ foreach ($dirItem in $dirItems) { Get-DirectoryStructure $(Get-Item -LiteralPath $dirItem.FullName) } ​ } ​ ​ function Write-FolderToCSV ($dir){ ​ ​ Write-Host "Found directory : $($dir.FullName)" ​ $warning = "" try { $dirInfo = $dir Get-ChildItem -File Measure-Object -Sum Length -ErrorAction stop } catch { $dirInfo = $dir Get-ChildItem -File Measure-Object } ​ $parent = $global:hashTable[$dir.Parent.FullName] if ($parent -eq $null) { $parent = 0 } ​ $pathDepth = $dir.FullName.Split('\').length - $path.Split('\').length ​ $fileSize = 0 if ($dirInfo.Sum -ne $null) { $fileSize = $dirInfo.Sum } #Total number sub directories try { $folders = (Get-ChildItem -LiteralPath $dir -Directory -Force).Count } catch { $folders = 0 } #Total number of files $files = $dirInfo.Count ​ ​ # TODO: Get folder permissions #Get-Permissions $dir ​ ​ $folder = New-Object PSCustomObject ​ $hashKeyPath = $global:hashTable.ContainsKey($dir.Parent.FullName) ​ if (Check-DirectoryNameLength $dir.Name) { $warning += "filename to long; " } ​ if ($fileTotal -gt 5000) { $warning += "too many files; " } ​ $length = $dir.FullName.Length - $path.Length $warning += CheckFolderName( $dir.FullName ) $size = $fileSize/1024/1024 ​ Add-Member -InputObject $folder -NotePropertyName "id" -NotePropertyValue $global:objectId -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue Add-Member -InputObject $folder -NotePropertyName "parent" -NotePropertyValue $parent -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue Add-Member -InputObject $folder -NotePropertyName "folderName" -NotePropertyValue $dir.Name -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue Add-Member -InputObject $folder -NotePropertyName "createdDate" -NotePropertyValue $dir.CreationTime.ToString("dd/MM/yyyy") -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue Add-Member -InputObject $folder -NotePropertyName "modifiedDate" -NotePropertyValue $dir.LastWriteTime.ToString("dd/MM/yyyy") -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue Add-Member -InputObject $folder -NotePropertyName "accessedDate" -NotePropertyValue $dir.LastAccessTime.ToString("dd/MM/yyyy") -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue Add-Member -InputObject $folder -NotePropertyName "depth" -NotePropertyValue $pathDepth -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue Add-Member -InputObject $folder -NotePropertyName "folders" -NotePropertyValue $folders -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue Add-Member -InputObject $folder -NotePropertyName "files" -NotePropertyValue $files -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue Add-Member -InputObject $folder -NotePropertyName "size" -NotePropertyValue $size -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue Add-Member -InputObject $folder -NotePropertyName "length" -NotePropertyValue $length -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue Add-Member -InputObject $folder -NotePropertyName "WARNING" -NotePropertyValue $warning -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue Add-Member -InputObject $folder -NotePropertyName "path" -NotePropertyValue $dir.FullName -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue ​ $folder Export-Csv -Path "$($ouputPath)\Directories.csv" -Append ​ #$global:report += $folder ​ } ​ ​ ​ # Clean filename - replace special characters with a space function CheckFolderName ( $folderName ) { $warning #Special characters not allowed in filename or foldername $specialChars = '"*:<>?/\' #Remove leading or trailing spaces $folderName = $folderName.Trim() ​ #names do not need to be cases cleansed $newfolderName = $folderName -replace '"*:<>?/\' , '_' ​ if ($newfolderName -ne $folderName) { return "Special Characters; " } return "" } ​ ​ #SharePoint Online folder names can have up to 250 characters. function Check-DirectoryNameLength ( $name ) { if ($name.length > 250) { return "FileName to Long" } else { return "" } ​ } ​ function Get-Permissions ($folder) { (get-acl $folder).access select ` @{Label="Identity";Expression={$_.IdentityReference}}, ` @{Label="Right";Expression={$_.FileSystemRights}}, ` @{Label="Access";Expression={$_.AccessControlType}}, ` @{Label="Inherited";Expression={$_.IsInherited}}, ` @{Label="Inheritance Flags";Expression={$_.InheritanceFlags}}, ` @{Label="Propagation Flags";Expression={$_.PropagationFlags}} ft -auto } ​ ​ #Format irectory structure into a sharepoint list Get-DirectoryStart $path #Save Errors $Error Export-Csv "$($ouputPath)\DirectoriesErrors.txt" 

FAIR WARNING THIS WILL BE A WALL OF TEXT
Intro: In a series of reviews that will begin (or return) here; we are going to try and take a critical look at the Chuck series, especially the unfolding of the story as scene through the teleplay. In this case we are assuming multiple things about a potential watcher:

• The watcher is new to the series and does not know about future episodes, but there is an expectation any previous episodes have been watched.
• I will try not to point information out that becomes important for later episodes, though there may be times it's important because of how episodes are filmed and how episodes string together, I will however try and hide these behind a spoiler tag. I say this as a person who has watched Chuck dozens of times, so if I inadvertently spoiler, sorry.
• I will do my best to point out interesting references that are hidden within the Chuck universe, but not at the expense of extended expositions unless in-depth analysis is necessary as it relates to the scene.

What is this all for: This started as a project to improve my critical reviewing skills for a hobby of movie script writing and analysis. Chuck happens to have published 3 original scripts and all the text of every episode has been published to a searchable database. This affords an opportunity to break from my movie writing woes and infinite revisions to just have fun enjoying Chuck and trying to deepen my understanding of the intersection of script writing with filmography and visual editing. Having said this, it should be known I have no affiliation to the show, no additional insider knowledge, and I do not write scripts for a living. So, consequently, feel free to ignore everything I say :). I do hope, however, we can go on this journey together and appreciate the excellence that is a love story called Chuck.
So, don't freak out, and lets get started.
​
Chuck 01x04 (Chuck vs the Wookiee): TEASER - We open with the gang playing "Know Ya!", which isn't actually a real board game, but based on the game Paddles. It's amazing that Morgan can't stand Ellie/Awesome being in love/winning, but marches triumphantly whenever he gets a question correct. I also like we see, in frame, Chuck watching Sarah pick off olives; he's beginning to notice things just like a real spy. The deep sadness and yet storied confliction on Chuck's face when he discovers Peaches 1 and Peaches 2 was great.
For those who don't know about dogs:

• A cocker spaniel is typically smaller; by ~5inches and up to 30lbs lighter than a springer spaniel.
• Springer spaniels also have shorter fur across their bodies, with feathered hair under their chests and legs.
• Only a cocker spaniel will be solid colored
• Springer spaniels have longer muzzles, while cockers have fluffier ears.

I find it very interesting how Sarah has "spidey sense" about potentially being watched. At no point previously did either Sarah nor Casey display this trait and I'm not totally sure how an open window was enough to do this; I wonder if Sarah's comfort being around Chuck's family is causing her to develop a "feeling of being watched" as she is comfortable with the Bartowski's? For those who missed it, Sarah talks about having a sister I think at the time this was just a throw-away line to protect her cover, but in season 5 Sarah does actually have a little sister if you count the little girl she rescues One last thing about Sarah here, when Bryce is being discussed, I really like how it was played where she acts quiet and shocked, but not saying anything. The facial expressions of Yvonne here are really special and you can tell Sarah lives a life of secrets. This is carried outside when Chuck asks Sarah about her relationship with Bryce. She is totally looking down and to the right, a classic indication of an emotional response searching for rationalization (ie. she is clearly lying)
As they end the game and exit to the courtyard, there teleplay of Chuck does something I've been wanting to see forever; they switch perspective to keep both characters in camera and follow them around from a 3rd perspective. We know this is supposed to indicate they are being watched, but I really enjoy getting to see them together reacting and talking instead of the constant close-ups and cuts. Normally Chuck will be shot with something between a medium close up (MCU) and Medium Shot (MS) to emphasize their characters and highlight their faces and expressions. This works really well because Chuck's cameras are typically either shoulder level or hip level based on the operators moving through their space. In many more modern TV shows, the technology of boom cranes and gyroscopic gimbals allows for content to be show from ground level to overhead giving directors the opportunity to tell their story through a variety of shifting profiles. If Chuck were shot today, we would see everything from full body shots all the way to extreme closeups without the need for continual jump-cuts and re-shoots because the technology is there. At least for this episode, it's nice to see the director explore more hip/knee level motion and more cowboy framed shots when having a distant observer perspective. https://www.studiobinder.com/blog/types-of-camera-shots-sizes-in-film/ does a fantastic breakdown of all the different shot type and camera perspectives for you want to read more!
As we transition into Sarah's hotel room, did anyone pick up on how NICE this is? She has double sinks, a king bed, a sitting mirror, free standing tub, and a great view. I doubt any agency in the "real world" would ever spring for something like this for multiple years for one of their agents, it's fancy! Enter Carina, tell me, who saw Sarah fight with a soap sock and think of iCarly and the famous "butter sock". Also during this fight, why is Sarah wearing a golden bikini? I know she is about to get into the shower, but what plausible reason is there for her to a) wear a bikini at all and b) it to be a bright golden yellow?? If you slow this fight scene way down, you will notice Yvonne's strikes actually come close to hitting Mimi as she has had a lot of training, whereas Mimi's strikes are miles from Yvonne and she just over-acts their impact. The most noticeable is the kick into her table, Sarah goes flying back, but we can tell from the angle, Carina missed her by a good 2 ft. This was just some sloppy editing and not getting the camera into position. I give it a pass because you have probably 3 camera operators wearing stabilized camera rigs trying to rotate around a room with 2 girls fighting and they just missed the angle by like 2 feet. I did really like at the end of the fight Carina had the option to go for the gun but instead went for the fish. If you didn't know they were not enemies before, this should have been a big clue! Carina calls Sarah's life in LA boring #1
​
ACT I
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Carina aka: Maria Elena Argalberdi was born Jun 16, 1978 in Alberdi Argentina with a Buenos Aires passport. Maria Elena is actually the name of a famous song in Mexico and eventually had a movie. This Chuck learns on Flash #1 and is the precursor to meeting the general for the first time. I know I've mentioned this before, but to reiterate; the pictures in Casey's apartment are all wrong; he has photos of Chuck and Morgan that don't happen until season 5 (lost footage) he has a map of Echo Park and Malibu already on display, and he has tactical information for each member of the Buy More (which he has no reason for at this time). It is interesting they talk about an opium cartel in Afghanistan as Afghanistan is known for it's huge poppy fields for heroin drug money.
The NADAN-I-NOOR diamond:

• The Nadan-I-Noor diamond has never been known to be bought or sold and ha only changed owners as a result of theft, conquest, or endowment
• It's listed as having 57 facets + 16 facets on girdle = 73. A facet is comparable with the brilliance of a diamond and is really the flat surfaces of a gemstone arranged in a geometrical pattern. In this case it helps characterize the refraction of light through the diamond interior. The girdle i the outer edge of a diamond surface, having 16 faces is quite large, as the girdle is the largest section of a gem, but also the thinnest when viewed from the side. In this case, having 73 facets puts the Nadan-I-Noor in either the Princess-Cut Diamond or Radiant Cut Diamond category, which are also the most expensive as they have the most possible facets.
• having 4-fold, mirror-image symmetry refers to how the light reflects internally to the diamond and indicates there are no impurities within the crystalline structure.
• interestingly a purity rating is not given, i would expect something like a F or IF (flawless/internally flawless) for a diamond described like this, but one isn't provided.
• the angles of incidence just describe the best way for light to enterefract from the diamond, these numbers are fake, but the metric is real
• there is a lot of sanscript written around the diamond markings, I can't figure out what if anything it means it looks like repeated nonsense
• could be a nod to the Koh-i-noor or "mountain of light" diamond, although this one in Persian is the "fool of light".

We open back to see Carina and Sarah looking at classified files within the restaurant. THIS IS AGAINST THE LAW, you do not look at classified files out in the open and especially not where there are clearly other customers around. Venturing into the BuyMore, there is a monster truck rally on the TV's showing grave digger and reaper, two famous trucks from this time period. Morgan wants to spread his wings and be the fourth wheel to the perpetual 3 wheel party and Sarah, ever the schemer, literally glows when she thinks of the plan to have Carina go on a date with Morgan. I THINK this was just to help maintain their cover, but also maybe Sarah is just needling Carina? If you look in the back of the store when Chuck is talking to Sarah and Carina, there is a really cool Nerd Herd poster that says "Bringing peace to your computer emergency". "if a yawn could yawn" is Carina calling Sarah's job boring #2. One thing I really like with the double data is the way the camera jumps between the couples: boy/girl, boy/boy, girl/girl. I think they way they try and keep private conversations via screen time is a really nice, typical, teleplay trick that really works well here. In a "real" environment, everyone could hear everything, but by splitting the camera focus or playing with perspective, the viewer clearly knows "this is a conversation between girls the boys don't hear it". We see Chuck noticing Sarah picking off olives #2 while they watch a movie about penguins: who mate for life, present their love in the form of rocks, and are pack animals. In Chuck's bedroom as he talks to Morgan, Chuck has a box of King Edward Invincible underneath bongos; for those who don't know this is a famous box for mild tobacco cigars. So I wonder what Chuck is up to in his free time :P.
On the Nerd Herd call with Carina, she opens a bottle of wine with a butter knife. This is actually a pretty famous thing that is done all over the world with everything from a key to a saber. In fact they make a specially type of knife with an extra wide blade for this it Italy. I do want to ask the question; is Carina dressed in red lingerie (Chuck's favorite color she stole from Sarah) really necessary for this scene? I know that Carina is all about improvising and she often uses her sexuality to progress her cause (Casey), but I think we could have gotten away with just the top. I can certainly see the rationalization for going this far, but I think as an artistic choice it wasn't necessary. What IS necessary however is to talk about how Chuck's world implodes when Carina tells him about Sarah and Bryce. Also the perfect act transition ending right at Chuck's jaw dropping and the work boyfriend!
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ACT II
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I'll say it again, the back an forth with Chuck and Sarah should have been a medium close up, shoulder level straight on shot instead of the constant cuts. Seeing their reaction in real time would have been easier and it would have allowed the Weinerlicious to be maybe 15 ft smaller to not need so many cameramen rotating. "Unless talking to your boyfriend is a matter of national security, the ketchup bottles won't refill themselves". Why yes it IS a mater of national security for Sarah to talk to Chuck... also if any one of us stood up to our boss like Sarah did, I'm pretty sure we'd be fired on the spot!
Malibu is ~2hours for Echo Park with standard LA traffic. Seriously, how do girls in high heels walk down stairs; we see Carina and Sarah walking sideways so there is enough space on each step to fit their shoes. Girls, how do you do that and not fall especially with narrow staircases and 3-6inch heels! Inside the room with the stone there is a bust of Cesare, archenemies, da vinci, and biblical David. There is also some famous paintings the best of which is Vemieer's "young girl with a pearl earring" which is rather appropriate considering it's meaning. There is also a Van Gogh of man in a wheat field and a Monet in one shot too. If ANY of these paintings were real instead of reproductions, they would be worth millions, in fact the young girl with a pearl is estimated at 40million, which is 1.5x the sell value of the Nadan-I-Noor! If we take a look at the engineering drawing of Flash #2 on the pedestal, we would see this design creates a closed circuit around the tongs the diamond rests on; which might explain it's red hue. If a person were to touch the diamond, it would close the circuit on their body allowing the 4000volts to travel through their heart. A person can die with ~20volts, though it's usually more like 50 in most occurrences. 4000volts is enough to kill a herd of elephants and completely overkill for a person. Also the amount of power that would take is more than the city of Malibu... this is to say the trap is real, the numbers are complete nonsense; thinking lightning! Nice shot by Sarah with the plate (there are some great bloopers on this too where she misses badly)! A remote controlled jet ski... i'm not even going to calculate the nonsense for this; it's just total nonsense. Almost as much nonsense as Casey using his phone to track Carina's call. That would take minutes, even with today's technology to back trace like that and way more power than just pushing a button on a razer flip-phone from the 90's!
back at the house, Chuck i playing halo with the legendary skulls as his weapon; this is nice because in the BuyMore at the end of the episode there are dudes dressed as master chief! I really like the changing perspective here with Chuck and Morgan. Chuck's reactions remain in focus while Morgan tells a story behind him, then it switches as Chuck starts to move around until bringing both into focus for the final line "we still have each other and that's really sad". The side cut to Sarah picking locks to the hotel door is classic early 2000's TV and i'm all for it, even if it is super cheezy. BTW as someone who used to lock pick in college, that's .... not how that works, but good try. We get our Flash #3 on the diamond in Morgan's back nuclear explosions. I wonder if the refractive capability of a diamond this pure is enough to focus laser to induce fission or if the value of selling the diamond is enough to buy nuclear material on the black market? Either way, we end the act with... the man with the golden gun!
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ACT III
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Chuck uses Sarah's plate move against Carina, nice inter-episode call back; he's clearly watching/learning, but his aim is terrible. This was actually clever as Sarah has perfect aim for she is a professional, while Chuck is still definitely a civilian and has no aptitude for fighting. I really like both these types of simple call backs but also how seemingly throw-away lines/actions help tell the broad story of the show. Chuck talking to Carina also shows Chuck has this weird, innate aptitude to get people to re-evaluate themselves and grow internally. You can watch Carina "grow in real-time. When we get to the hotel and Carina opens her trunk first there are a few glocks, a couple rugers, and a 1911; then she switches to blades and we see some folders, some strait blades, an illegal gravity blade (still illegal today), and a kbar... nice selection! Carina, always the flirt, gives Chuck some very insightful works about the nature of being a spy, but also maybe some way to get through to Sarah.
Inside the hotel we see Carina and Sarah speaking; Carina is speaking Swedish, while Sarah replies in Polish. "Om jag slänger nycklarna till dig, kommer du tappa dem då?" which is Swedish for "If I throw you the keys, will you drop them?" Sarah answered in Polish: "Tylko jak rzucisz jak twoja mamusia", which means "Only if you throw it like your mommy". This is just great!
I want to talk about how fast Chuck managed to find an address for DC, print a label, open a box, put the label on, and get the diamond there all before the door gets broken. Somehow on screen time this is like 10seconds, but in real life this would have to be like 3minutes minimum? Either that door is remarkably strong or... TV magic??
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ACT IV
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Even with all the flirting, as we say goodbye to Carina >! for now !< she is still joking with Casey and every the professional. I like how they show when it's "game time" it's all about the job, but spys can be people too! Carina still calls Sarah's life boring #3 (the common trifecta of episode repeats).
Sarah's face when Chuck brings the pizza with no olives is the reason I think Yvonne makes the perfect Sarah. She exudes the hidden beauty needed and has the acting to so such emotion for Chuck being sweet. The whole scene with Chuck and Sarah asking questions, then Chuck backing off, then Sarah acting stoic like she WANTS to open up but doesn't know if she can really trust Chuck, is ready to move on from Bryce, and should for the nature of her job. This was probably the most well acted 20seconds of the entire episode. Finally, we hear Sarah's middle name is Lisa. Now we never officially know if Chuck hears this or not both due to camera focus and distance, it's never officially confirmed in the entire show. When the intersect is updated in season 4 we see Sarah's picture and it lists Lisa as a middle name, so we assume it's official, but it's never confirmed at any point. Finally, I really like how they end the episode with Sarah closing her eyes as the fade to black.
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Few notes: There are 5 official songs in this episode:

• "Yea Yeah" by Matt and Kim - when the gang is playing board games during group date night. This song is about not worrying about the things you cannot change. Little things that build up and bum you out that you need to just let go.
• "Wild Girl" Matt Pond PA - Chuck and Morgan discussing their relationship problems. This song is about overcoming past struggles and finding hope in the present and future. Describing a sense of resilience and optimism
• "weird science" by does it offend you - Chuck and Carina talk at Peyman' Malibu Compound. This is a remind to break free and embrace individuality and live on your own terms. Be unapologetically ourselves.
• Shy by Mathew Dear - the double date
• "Fall into place" the apartment - the team say's goodby to Carina. Deals with growing up, taking (or not taking) chances. finding oneself in the unpredictability of life. I have to say, we don't actually hear the lyrics to any of these songs during the episode just the melody, but I don't really appreciate the music choices here. I feel like there were better options at key points, so that's a miss from me.
  
• On the DVD for Season One the word Wookiee is spelled incorrectly, leaving off the last E.
  
• "It used to be titled "Chuck Versus the Speedo" because the main bad guy in this show is this dude who wears a Speedo all the time. Then when the casting guy realized he had a good amount -- and by good, I mean healthy, a healthy amount of body hair -- they thought, why not call it "Chuck vs. the Wookiee". So it's this guy who's got this diamond, and we're trying to heist the diamond and all hell breaks loose." ―Zachary Levi quoted by Access Hollywood discussing this episode's title
  

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I think this was a great episode and really showcased what they can do when additional cast members join the team and when they are not afraid to play with perspective. Mimi as Carina is a great addition to the ensemble and I wish we saw her more, but every time she drops in, it's always a wild episode and it's fantastic. Watching Chuck learn about Sarah and seeing Sarah start to open up is a good way forward and heck Casey had some of the best humor in the episode. Overall, it was fast paced, had some nice character development, as funny in the best way, and moved the main theme along, 8/10.

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
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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
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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

I ordered DXP4800 Plus for home nas setup. I wanted to move away from icloud, google drive. I tested out plex server using my old mac mini as a home server to download torrents and was great hence thought would retire it and replace it with ugreen nas. I need suggestions from you all on how to achieve the below requirements.
My setup would be to have 1. Low power consuming server. How should sleep times be set to save power? How to setup ondemand wake? 2. High storage sufficient enough for my usage for next 5 years. I currently use 2TB personal data + 2TB timemachine backups + 500GB for mobile phone backups. How to pick a hdd size? Cost effectiveness going with small brands worth it? 3. How to lower overall cost of nas - operating costs+hdd costs? 4. RAID1 config with just 2 hdd to keep data protection since personal data is important while operating at low power and lowering hdd investment costs 5. Automated offline backups to external WD book via usb 6. Automated photo backup daily from all family devices across globe even while travelling 7. Automated/one-click sdcard data backup from camera from vacations 8. High quality lossless music streaming from personal flac collection on iphone 9. Must support daily full background snapshot backup of iphones, Android phones, Macs, iPad, Android Tablets when connected over wifi 10. Automated torrent data deleting post watch in Plex 11. Must be logging data from EV continuously for every drive 12. AI analysis and tagging of existing personal photo, video library and new backups 13. Google drive, One drive, iCloud continuous backups 14. Save hdd life by puting to power off/sleep since we dont use it most of days for streaming. When required 5-10s of wake time should be okay. 15. Low noise when not using 16. Private/locked folder access from other devices

Note: Info on monetization and more: An Introduction To The Book That Is Me : ASMRScriptHaven (reddit.com)
Note: My Library: Masterlist for edgiscript : ASMRScriptHaven (reddit.com)
Notes on this particular chapter: This is a 3-part series if you don't count this chapter. It's 4 if you count this one. I wrote this as a backstory so if anybody did want to perform what's to come, they'd know how the story got to the point where chapter 1 begins. You can feel free to perform this one if you want, but I figured it would be too loud with the fighting and the challenging and all of that to truly be an ASMR piece. And also, the listener isn't even really in this chapter until the end. This is designed as a setup, but I still treated it as an ASMR script just in case anybody felt like including it. Hope you enjoy reading it.
Behind the scenes note if you're interested: This takes place in the same universe as "Mage Protector." I've written a novel around that one and the main character here, Xartha, cameos in that book. The events of this story will be included in book 2.
More behind the scenes stuff if you're interested: When I began writing this, it was a yandere piece where the victim would intentionally lose. I like this as a fantasy, swords-and-sorcery type of thing, but I ended up not feeling satisfied with the victim giving himself to the "yandere" as Xartha really isn't a yandere. So, I ended up writing "Intentional Loss" immediately after this one to do that theme better.
----------------------------------------------------

Backstory

Pronunciation Note: “Tokla Ve” is pronounced Taw-kluh Vay. Xartha and Xantia are pronounced Zar-thuh and Zan-tee-uh. Confused about any other names. Give it your best shot. It can be whatever you want it to be.)
Xartha: Ronshu, please advise the High Council that we have arrived. Apologize for our late arrival and advise them that I desire to address the Seven with a pressing matter immediately. I will take my seat among them and wait for you there. Now go.
(A door opens to some minor conservational background sounds, but they go silent upon seeing Xartha enter and take her seat. Some footsteps are heard quickly approaching.)
Ronshu, you return. Did you successfully convey my message?
(Pause.)
Good. Then we shall wait for official proceedings to begin.
(Pause.)
Patience, Ronshu. I know you want to act now, as do I, but we need to move forward according to proper procedure and custom in order to remain on friendly terms with our allies. If we act on instinct, even as justified as we are, we could harm our beneficial relationships.
(Pause.)
Yes, I see it. Lord Tarkeen of the Skreet Empire. He is highly agitated, but I daresay he has regained a great deal of composure since the time I entered our delegation’s chamber and I took my seat. His gasp at my entrance was audible even at this great distance.
I am certain now of his guilt and I have decided to move forward with my plan to challenge Lord Tarkeen to Tokla Ve, trial by combat to the death.
(Pause.)
I understand the protocol, but I am certain that the High Council will allow it once we reveal the evidence of Tarkeen’s betrayal. The marauders that ambushed us in transit bore his mark, and the data shards collected from them reveal that he sent them to assassinate us. I believe now that Tarkeen is also responsible for the recent assassinations within the Malanayan Kingdom.
(Pause.)
Of course I am aware of the great risk to our nation and to myself. If I were to lose, death would be the best outcome I could hope for. Should Lord Tarkeen decide to keep me alive, as the loser of the challenge I would remain his possession for the remainder of my life.
But I am also aware of the equally great risk I take to every kingdom if I do nothing. Whatever Tarkeen’s ultimate goal is, it may succeed and destroy all of our nations.
Besides, my skills as a warrior are unrivaled and Tarkeen knows it. I doubt very much that he will even dare to do anything but cower at my challenge. Such cowardice will dishonor him among the other kingdoms, which will make convincing them of my cause that much easier.
(Pause.)
Yes, there was also a reaction from Prince…
I’m sorry, from King Shonray of Malanay when I arrived. However, it appeared to me to be one of… relief.
Interesting. I was already desiring to speak with him about a great many matters of interest between our kingdoms before our… incident. I wonder now if I have another reason to speak with him.
(Pause.)
Yes, he is the one I told you about.
(Pause.)
Yes, I suppose he is considered to be quite handsome in some circles.
(Pause.)
Oh, come now, Ronshu. I wouldn’t go so far as to say god-like.
(To herself.) At least not within earshot of others, I wouldn’t.
(Pause.)
What? I said nothing of the sort. You misheard.
(Pause.)
Come now, Ronshu, your smirk is most unbecoming for a gathering of this magnitude. Control yourself.
(Pause.)
Yes, I have spoken with him twice now, but only during social occasions. I found him to be a genuinely honorable individual,
(to herself) as well as a source of… other… interests.
(A grand door opens.)
(Hushed, speaking to Ronshu.) Excellent, the High Council has arrived and the Grand Chamberlain is taking his seat. We are about to begin.
Soon, Ronshu, we shall see justice.
(Pause.)
(Regular voice, speaking to the assembly.) That is correct, Grand Chamberlain. I, Queen Xartha of the Great Kingdom of Akaru, wish to make a statement before we begin.
(Pause.)
Very well. Honorable delegates, as you are well aware, we have all arrived today because of a great tragedy within the Malanayan Kingdom; the assassination of many important individuals, as well as King Jantofal.
Although we each individually mourn with the Malayan people for their great loss and their current suffering, we also each recognize that this is not an isolated incident.
It should be evident to all present that there is a greater plot at work here. Unexplainable tragedies have been occurring in every nation from sunken sailing vessels, to mysterious disappearances across our lands.
On this very day, in transit to this sacred location, I and my aide were ambushed by a band of marauders bearing the insignia of one of the nations present. Furthermore, data shards were discovered on their bodies with instructions to eliminate us before we arrived by any means necessary. Those instructions originated from one of us seated.
Following the sudden and unexpected rise to power of King Shonray, I have reason to believe that the mastermind of all of these events is attempting to destabilize all of our governments and, quite possibly, to unify us all under one banner; his.
(Pause.)
King Shonray, please, allow me to finish.
(Pause.)
No. That’s not what I’m saying. I’m not accusing you of…
(Pause.)
Please, your majesty, if I could be allowed to present my evidence, you’ll understand…
(Pause.)
(Shock.) What? Tokla Ve? You challenge me?
King Shonray, your honor has not been assaulted here today. I am not your enemy. Please reconsider.
(Pause.)
Yes, Grand Chamberlain. I do recognize the King’s right to make such a challenge, but...
(Pause.)
(Resigned.) Since the High Council allows it, I have no choice but to… accept the challenge.
(Pause.)
(Softly to Ronshu so no other delegates can hear. Very irritated.) Dammit! That was not expected. Why would he do such a thing? When one party loses consciousness, the victor gets to decide whether to end the loser’s life, or whether they will become the prize of victory.
Does he really believe that I am responsible in some way? Does he desire vengeance?
(Pause.)
No, I’m not afraid of losing, but I don’t want to hurt him, and defeating him accomplishes nothing.
I suppose at least I will get some answers as to why he challenged me once I defeat him, but Lord Tarkeen will still be free to continue acting upon his designs for our kingdom, for all of our kingdoms.
Well, there’s nothing for it now. Hand me that lightning staff. Ronshu.
Should something happen to me, the throne will belong to my sister Xantia. You are to return and inform her of all that has happened today. Now, it’s time for me to enter the arena.
(Pause.)
King Shonray, you have my apologies if you feel that I have offended you or your kingdom. Please, I beg of you, end this now. You still have the right to do so.
(Pause.)
You remain silent. So be it. Please know that I do not find pleasure in defeating you.
(Sounds of electrical zapping and staffs colliding.)
King Shonray, I’m impressed. You’ve parried all of my blows with such fluidity. Any other opponent would have been unconscious by now.
Well, let’s see what you can do about this.
(More sounds of battle followed by a yelp of pain from Xartha.)
You’re good. Very good. I’ve never met another champion of your caliber. How did I not know about you before this?
(More sounds of battle and another yelp of pain from Xartha. Now when she speaks, she’s clearly suffering and struggling.)
That’s two blows you’ve landed, two more than any other combatant I’ve ever faced. As well as two more than I’ve been able to land on you. Another first.
(Pause.)
What? What are you…?
(Sound of a final lunge and a prolonged electrical zap. A prolonged pause, then a staff clangs to the ground as it’s dropped.)
The victory is mine. King Shonray lies unconscious at my feet.
I refuse my right on his life and claim him instead as my prize. He is now my possession.
To any here that may seek to take advantage of this turn of events against the Kingdom of Malanay, know that I as the Queen of Akaru pledge to them my protection against any external threat.
Grand Chamberlain, High Council, I take my leave. Forgive my sudden departure, but with this unexpected turn of events, I feel that I need to see to my… guest.
(Aside to Ronshu.) Ronshu, please carry King Shonray gently to my craft. Let’s be off.
(Pause.)
Yes? You wish to speak with me? You are King Shonray’s aide, are you not?
This case is King Shonray’s you say. It contains something he’ll need.
Of course. I’ll be happy to give it to him when he wakes. Thank you.
And… please let your people know that what happened here today was not my desire. Thank you again. Good day.
Part 1 coming.

Hello! Data here with another Data Dawg video! Probability happens and affects our lives whether we know it or not. It's important for us to know what probability is - and what it isn't, so we can better understand how it affects us!
I've taken a lot of feedback into consideration and hope that you enjoy this! Based on feedback, I'll be starting to add in a lot of shorts as well. Please let me know your thoughts!
https://youtu.be/tpFJZRrw-Kc

Hello! Data here with another Data Dawg video! Probability happens and affects our lives whether we know it or not. It's important for us to know what probability is - and what it isn't, so we can better understand how it affects us!
I've taken a lot of feedback into consideration and hope that you enjoy this! Based on feedback, I'll be starting to add in a lot of shorts as well. Please let me know your thoughts!
https://youtu.be/tpFJZRrw-Kc

I want to import a customers.CSV file that I previously created. The file is visible in Codio on the left panel. What is wrong with my code? See my screenshot.
These are the template instructions: 1. Import the data from each file into tables.
A. Use the Quantigration RMA database, the three tables you created, and the three CSV files preloaded into Codio.
B. Use the import utility of your database program to load the data from each file into the table of the same name. You'll perform this step three times, once for each table.
i. Reference notes for this step: Import the CSV File into the MySQL table. Use the following line terminators when importing: \r\n. Do not use IGNORE 1 LINES for data that does not have column headers in the first row.
https://preview.redd.it/f7ik3pcdo24d1.png?width=1175&format=png&auto=webp&s=c482c257fa2d207a011713a36abf97ae3114630b

chinese history can’t be separated from the problem of eunuchs, a political class, that was in theory supposed to be loyal to the emperor but turned out to be as self-interested as any other clique
a particularly messy rebellion against them
as a matter of interest, they also had the penis as well as the testicles removed giving rise to urinary tract problems that were highly unpleasant and even so, the imperial concubines usually took eunuchs as lovers
i think on balance they probably did facilitate many centuries of highly centralised rule, a role today filled by communications and surveillance technology
the bottom line of any addiction is what is it excluding ?
what is the opportunity cost ?
usually its so high because you have recognised it as an addiction
human beauty
i have none of
its not sadness that leads one to grasp it
too fragile to be held
but a deep melancholy
death is too close
to
beauty
the female world
sorta isolated
its own bubble
sorta tangential
to reality
propaganda and dictatorships work by controlling information and hence beliefs and opinions and it is amazing how easily we driven by these into various insanities
from the control point of view, any creativity is a threat or poison and is dealt with by the force of suppression or aversion
in delusian terms "creativity is an act of resistance"
when on reddit and you get downvoted, just repeat to yourself "a downvote is an upvote" which it really is since you have distressed an idiot !
the freedom
of good health
in old age
there
is
no
other
women
the burden of ovaries
undercuts
an entire life
seeker and sought
the religious parlance
meaning
nothing
"zen" is a wrapped up box with some writing on it saying "i promise the answer’s inside" and when you open it up, its empty
i would guess the royal family has been boosted to the gills for covid and king charles and princess catherine both getting cancer makes me wonder
the precipice’s edge
unstable
dangerous to be there
walking
back
takes
time
on the other hand
stability
is an illusion
st. isaac the syrian
quotes I
quotes II
“ for it is more expedient to be bruised than dead ”
he’s very underappreciated
the
female
need
for
faces
deep
genetic
programming
han china
umpteen million
one
grain of sand
amongst many
must alter your perspective
the
system
can
do
without
you
existential angst
when tears roll from a baby’s eyes
its a bit early to be thinking about these matters
pillars of salt
we are always looking behind
but at least we can see
what has gone behind
what we can’t see
is
what is behind
other pillars
of
salt
plucked from life
unto death
another state of being
the former from the latter
distinctive is
but how the latter
views the former
we can never know
ed. a poem i wrote on looking at a photo of emily dickinson’s nephew, gilbert dickinson who died of typhoid aged eight, the rhythms and semantics of the poem make it seem like it could have been written by emily ?
a non traumatic demonstration of how a caesarean delivery is done
its not a trivial procedure, i’ll say that
something i had never thought about
not surviving an operation
it happens
even
with
the
routine
the unwanted
stalks
us
everywhere
.
something i had never thought about
surviving an operation
it happens
even
with
the
routine
the unwanted
stalks
us
everywhere
feeling
the travesty
of how ill it fits
with the way this world works
the thought of nothing squared
halve it
then triple it again
is still nothing squared
travelling and living in a new place you like for a while and then leaving again
its like falling in love and then breaking up, what can you do ?
continuities
dreams
stitching together
what is discontinuous
interior stresses rend
apart
what is held together
for a while
all rivers run
as coleridge said
to oblivion
ed. these lines below from coleridge’s most famous poem have always puzzled me, now i think about it, my poem is an alternative, more abstract version of his full poem which has always puzzled me and now it has sort of solved itself, i can’t believe it has sat in my brain for thirty or forty years as a puzzle looking for a solution
where alph, the sacred river, ran
through caverns measureless to man
down to a sunless sea
i give credit to coleridge claiming the poem is unfinished, but i am not sure that level of intense creativity can be sustained and even in terms of the existing poem it was starting to fall apart by the end
this is such a zen/religious thing, taking other’s words and paintings, not a single thing is their own
this is because the moment they say something or draw something of their own its laughable
you can’t tell 'em, diet and exercise are extremely important in keeping good mental health “ recent research published in the journal clinical nutrition reveals a significant link between high consumption of ultra-processed foods and an increased risk of developing depression
this study, conducted in brazil, indicates that individuals adhering to diets rich in ultra-processed foods are more likely to experience depressive symptoms over time these findings underscore the potential mental health risks associated with dietary patterns characterized by processed and convenience foods ”
i nearly ran into a cyclist a week ago on a windy back road because neither of us was keeping far enough to the left, then a little later nearly hit a car because, again i was not keeping far enough to the left
hopefully i have learnt, i think i was driving like i drive at night when you can assume you will see any oncoming traffic well ahead because of their headlights
daylight gives no such clues and cutting blind corners seems to be a local habit
“ taken together, our data highlight the profound impact of exercise in rejuvenating aged microglia (ed. reverting their gene expression signature to that of young microglia), associated pro-neurogenic effects and on peripheral immune cell presence in the ageing female mouse brain ”
julliard
clone factory
squashes
creativity
assembly line
performance
when OP’s bleed
their writers
in denial
about their injury
but
a portion
of
their
brain
cries
ed. certified GPT-free
the double edged sword
cuts
its holder
as one brought up on a very patriarchal version of english history its interesting to see that william the conquerer’s success was in part due to having a very politically competent wife
ed. video has 3 parts
also interesting is that due to harold godwinson having been captured in normandy and kept there for a while, he knew both mitilda (possibly even having an affair with her) and william very well and should have been more au fait with norman battle tactics and strengths i have a theory that the middle ages and somewhat later had in effect a breeding program through intermarriage within the nobility/aristocracy creating a politically competent class, because politics is not a natural skill to the species, same thing for ancient egypt, in fact today’s international politics suffers a lot from people lacking any sort of the rationality and largeness of mind required

Hello,
I have a few questions below. I'll first provide some backstory, but feel free to just gloss over the questions; I cannot understate how much any help would be appreciated...
I've been continuously struggling to get a SparkFun GPS RTK (RPi PHat) to work for about 3 weeks now. I have it working somewhat reasonably, but I'm finding that the performance is rather underwhelming. At this point, I have also bought a SparkFun RTK SMA kit to create my own base-station. As such, my base station is no more than 20m away from my robot.
I should also mention that I am not using a caster. I have been sending RTCM3 bytes from the base station to the rover via LoRa or sockets (WiFi).
In some cases, my covariance (as reported by the unit) will be very low, despite the unit being 5 meters away from the reported position. Moreover, I can sometimes see drifting despite my robot being totally stationary. Due to the stated success of everyone else, I am very surprised to be seeing the positional drifting.
Questions

1. I have a WiFi antenna and a LoRa radio that are mounted close to both boards. Could there possibly be cross-talk/interference ?
2. Is it possible that a couple of bytes dropped here and there in the correction data are causing dramatic drifting. I can see that the number of bytes being received by my robot lags slightly.
3. How important are wheel ticks? Right now I am fusing my GPS output with wheel ticks through ROS. Could it be that I need to feed my RTK board a wheel tick signal in order to have a more stable output?
4. Does the receiver matter too much? I am using the GNSS Multi-Band Magnetic Mount Antenna for both of my modules. I understand that there are fancier receivers, but I was under the impression that the one would be sufficient.
5. Is it possible that I am receiving signals that have bounced off some other surface? I am pretty much out in the open with the exception that both modules are situated slightly close to a pool and that the base station has a glass panel somewhat close to it. In both cases, I am using the metal plate that comes with the modules. The other reason that I ask is I have calibrated my base station with both the survey-in as well as the PPP process (12 hours). When I calibrate with survey-in, my points seem to have drifted ~1m in a specific direction, which causes me to think there is some interference/reflection pulling measurements in that direction.
6. Is it possible that Google Maps, Azure, etc. have satellite images that are drifting from the actual coordinates? I understand that this is a silly question, but I'm pulling my hair out at the moment. Perhaps this is a reason my measurements seem off compared to visual landmarks.

Anyways, I am at a loss. Again, I would be in a huge debt to anyone can help me.

Growing up in Scarborough on Midland Avenue, we were acquaintances with another Chinese family down the street that happened to live next door to a Toronto Hydro-electric substation. Mom knew and worked with the parents, us kids knew of and played with the kids. We weren't that close but it was still a shock to us when three generations of their family died in close succession of eachother due to illness. A teenage girl, the mother and the grandmother.
Sometime in the late 1990s, the 16 year old girl of the family suddenly fell ill , passing away and never returned to class at school, to this day a scholarship at the nearby RH King Academy is still awarded in her honour. Then her mother dies. Then her grandmother. My mum said the mother was also usually sick and not feeling well when they did work together.
Of course, everyone looked at their house and that giant chain linked fence filled to the top with grey metal pipes next to their house and asked the obvious question whether electromagnetic fields had something to do with their family's misfortunes? Then of course, everyone agreed that these substations exist everywhere and there are no mass reports of entire families suddenly dying so it was quickly chalked up to genetics and misfortune.
The hydro substation was eventually decommissioned in the early 2000s and the space next to the home was converted to landscaped grass.
From the early 2000s to around 2013, the hydroelectric substation was decommissioned and the land was returned to landscaped grass (you can still see the abandoned access roadway) https://www.google.com/maps/@43.7152405,-79.2504054,3a,75y,358.79h,77.24t/data=!3m8!1e1!3m6!1sVWzwqFIU659MoRpiB3es5Q!2e0!5s20090401T000000!6shttps:%2F%2Fstreetviewpixels-pa.googleapis.com%2Fv1%2Fthumbnail%3Fpanoid%3DVWzwqFIU659MoRpiB3es5Q%26cb_client%3Dmaps_sv.share%26w%3D900%26h%3D600%26yaw%3D358.79188001897757%26pitch%3D12.75547918816757%26thumbfov%3D90!7i13312!8i6656?coh=205410&entry=ttu
From around 2014, it becomes apparent something is wrong with the land the substation once stood. The grass and earth is completely dug up and disposed of. It is replace with gravel. https://www.google.com/maps/@43.7155401,-79.2499845,3a,75y,262.27h,90t/data=!3m8!1e1!3m6!1sH5_-9st8fBA9ZlKv4bhYww!2e0!5s20140801T000000!6shttps:%2F%2Fstreetviewpixels-pa.googleapis.com%2Fv1%2Fthumbnail%3Fpanoid%3DH5_-9st8fBA9ZlKv4bhYww%26cb_client%3Dmaps_sv.share%26w%3D900%26h%3D600%26yaw%3D262.27374%26pitch%3D0%26thumbfov%3D90!7i13312!8i6656?coh=205410&entry=ttu
It is now 2024. I recently found out Toronto Hydro purchased the home the family once lived in and is currently demolishing the house and remediating "environmental impacts" with regards to the land. "In a letter submitted requesting the demolition permit, the owner states that Toronto Hydro-Electric System Limited purchased the property on July 16, 2021. Toronto Hydro-Electric System Limited is obligated to remediate the environmental impacts identified on the Midland Property prior to disposing it alongside the Toronto Hydro-owned adjacent property at 70 Wilkie Avenue formerly a decommissioned electrical substation. https://www.toronto.ca/legdocs/mmis/2022/sc/bgrd/backgroundfile-227089.pdf
I guess my question to ASK TO is: -Is this normal for Toronto Hydro to buy an entire house and demolish it because of environmental issues from a neighboring property of theirs? -What kind of environmental issues could a hydro substation have? I have heard of PCBs and nasty transformer oils used at substations. -Is 16 years of exposure to this stuff enough to kill multiple members of a family? -Have the extended family members of this deceased family been notified by Toronto Hydro? Are there any legal obligations for them to put any effort into contacting past affected residents? -Is there a City Of Toronto public database where you can find out what exactly is wrong with the land and what chemicals are leaching into the earth at this location? Would a Freedom of Information request suffice? -I just find it strange that they mention "environmental impacts" but don't exactly mention to the public what exactly those impacts are. I think it's important something like this isn't simply brushed under the rug or covered up considering thousands of people live next to these things scattered across the city.

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If you have read my posts, there won’t be anything new here. I generally go through my thoughts a couple of times a month on this case so I figured I would do it publicly. I am no one in this case. I’m not a lawyer. I’m not law enforcement. I am an asshole on the internet, so take my opinion for what it’s worth.
I think we need to start with a basic statement. This statement will come as a surprise to some people who know my posts but I hope you follow my reasoning.
I start with:
Richard Allen did not kill Libby and Abby.
Then I test that:
-Richard Allen could not have killed Libby and Abby, because he was not on the trails that day.
Allen placed himself on the trails that day. He identified witnesses that later identified the man known as bridge guy on the trail. This statement is false.
-Richard Allen could not have killed the girls, because he was not on the trail at the same time as the girls.
Initially Allen placed himself on the trails at the same time as the girls. This initial time was confirmed by the witnesses on the trail who had time stamped evidence that placed them where they said they were when they saw bridge guy and another witness saw them after that further along the trail.
-Richard Allen is could not have killed the girls because he told the truth to police.
Richard Allen told police he was on the trails, that he saw the initial witnesses and did not see the girls. We know from the PCA and the Defense Franks motion that Allen changed the stated time that he was on the trail to an earlier time. We know he was not on the trail at the earlier time: a. Because the witness that he identified, saw him there at a later time. b. Had timestamped photographic proof of their location on that day. c. Had photographic evidence of the place where Allen said he was at that time. Allen indicated he was on the bridge and was seen on the bridge prior to the girls crossing the bridge. He was witnessed on the bridge. The witness then saw the girls approaching the bridge. Allen said he did not see the girls, however it is not possible that he could not see the girls as the passed him on the bridge, as he claimed.
-Richard Allen could not have killed the girls because he was sitting on a bench watching a stock ticker on his phone.
Richard Allen was not seen again by any witnesses until after bridge guy was seen walking along the road muddy and bloody. His story can not be confirmed by witness testimony, nor by cell phone data. We know this because in the defenses Franks motion, evidence of witness testimony or cell phone data was not used to prove that the PCA for the search warrant had lies and misinformation in it.

• Richard Allen could not have killed the girls because he did not know the area.

Richard Allen was a hunter. He was reportedly very familiar with the trails and the area around it.
-Richard Allen could not have killed the girls because he did not own a .40 cal pistol.
Richard Allen not only owned a gun of the correct caliber, the one he owned was ruled by an expert to be the exact weapon the cartridge came from.
-Richard Allen could not have killed the girls because he was not wearing the same outfit as bridge guy.
Richard Allen placed himself in the same clothes as bridge guy. Additionally the witnesses he saw and who confirmed a part of his story saw him wearing those clothes and identified that they saw bridge guy.
-Richard Allen could not have killed the girls because his car was not parked at the CPS building.
Richard Allen’s car was parked at the CPS building he mis-identified the building when he named it. Additionally a car, very likely his was seen in the farm store video feed arriving slightly before when the first witnesses saw Allen on the trail additionally confirming the time and also lending support to Allen’s car being at the CPS building.
Now we start to get to some more complex things:
-Richard Allen could not have killed the girls because he had no contact with them prior to them being killed.
This is why I argue so hard against the Anthony Shots theories. There is no need for Allen to have contacted the girls prior to their deaths. There is no indication that this was a targeted killing. All known evidence suggests this was a lone psychopathic individual with sexual sadistic tendencies. The location of the abduction and the scene of the murder suggests a trap, with the girls in the wrong place at the wrong time.
-Richard Allen could not have killed the girls because he had no contact with Kegan Kline before the murders.
There is no evidence that Kegan Kline or anyone else was involved in the murder. There is no evidence that someone else was on the trail. There is no evidence that anyone else was at the murder scene. There is no need for Allen to have contacted anyone before the murder.
-Richard Allen could not have killed the girls because he is not an Odinist.
Contrary to what the defense would have you believe. There is no evidence that Odinists were involved in this crime. Allen did not need to be an Odinist to commit this crime.
-Richard Allen could not have killed the girls because he did not admit to killing the girls.
Allen has reportedly confessed to this crime upwards of thirty time, to other inmates, prison officials, his mother, his wife, and a therapist. At this point those confessions appear un-coerced.
*** Important*** These are only my thoughts. I need to stress again, these are things I can think of. I am not an expert. I am sure there are people that can think of other statements and I am sure there is more evidence we haven’t seen.