A quick note about Karl Nell's SALT Conference audience today

There is literally zero possibility that Karl Nell gave his talk tonight without the express authorization of the United States Pentagon and White House, especially with the audience that attends the SALT Conference. Why? Read this post and his resume. You'll understand why. Karl Nell, today, has four (4) bosses over him.

• You may have heard of the top of the reporting chain Karl Nell works under.

What do you reckon the average net worth of a SALT guest in the crowd is? Eight figures? Nine? A number of the cell phones in the crowd for Nell will have personal phone numbers of United States Senators and House members. Guaranteed.
We were not the audience for Karl Nell tonight.
American industry and Congress were the audience.

What did Karl Nell have to say about David Grusch in 2023?

Source:

• https://thedebrief.org/intelligence-officials-say-u-s-has-retrieved-non-human-craft/

Quotes about Nell:

Karl E. Nell, a recently retired Army Colonel and current aerospace executive who was the Army’s liaison for the UAP Task Force from 2021 to 2022 and worked with Grusch there, characterizes Grusch as “beyond reproach.”
In a 2022 performance evaluation, Laura A. Potter, Deputy Chief of Staff for Intelligence, Headquarters, Department of the Army, described Nell as “an officer with the strongest possible moral compass.”

Karl Nell on David Grusch:

“His assertion concerning the existence of a terrestrial arms race occurring sub-rosa over the past eighty years focused on reverse engineering technologies of unknown origin is fundamentally correct, as is the indisputable realization that at least some of these technologies of unknown origin derive from non-human intelligence,” said Karl Nell, the retired Army Colonel who worked with Grusch on the UAP Task Force.

Who is Karl Nell?

He works here today:

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Army_Futures_Command

This is Karl Nell's boss:

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Rainey

The AFC reports directly to the Army Chief of Staff and the Secretary of the Army:

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chief_of_Staff_of_the_United_States_Army
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christine_Wormuth

Who do they report to?
United States Secretary of the Army reports to:

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Secretary_of_Defense

Which only reports to:

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/President_of_the_United_States

So the chain of command for Nell today is:

1. Joe Biden
2. Lloyd Austin
3. Christine Wormuth
4. James Rainey
5. Karl Nell

Karl Nell's full (known, public) resume

His full resume:
Modernization Advisor to Vice Chief of Staff of the Army
Army Futures Command 2018 - Present · 6 yrs 5 mos Pentagon

Key contributor to the most significant Army reorganization since 1973. Entrepreneurial leader successful in conceiving, shaping, orchestrating, implementing transformative national security strategies, business process improvements, organizational designs, and talent development initiatives. Recommended technical, programmatic, funding actions accelerating the 32 highest-priority (of 800) Army acquisitions. Orchestrated, led cross-organization digital engineering study quantifying gaps and opportunities within the Army Modernization Enterprise resulting in creation of new #1 top priority program – $100(+)-million multi-year Project Convergence – delivering national-to-tactical, sensor-to-shooter integration. Led SE&I advancing JADC2 collaborating with OSD, DARPA, NRO, USAF Rapid Capabilities Office, Space Security Defense Program. Only space-qualified Army participant in joint. Subject matter expert for Army Science Board (ASB) studies and AI/ML whole-of-government forums.

Deputy COO / Director, Special Programs (Colonel)
U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM) 2016 - 2018 · 2 yrs Stuttgart, Germany / National Capital Region

Managed daily business operations of a 2000-service member geographic Combatant Command headquarters including all strategic planning, human resources, logistics, finance, IT, legal, and public affairs departments. Represents Chief of Staff in his absence responsible for mediating and arbitrating all issues below flag officer-level. Responsible for orchestrating senior leader engagement process resulting in increased partnering agreements and longer-term stakeholder commitments with key influencers across the African continent. Selected by Presidentially-appointed officials at Assistant Secretary-level to serve in OSD. Provided key evidence-based policy recommendations in DoD Program Budget Review process identifying $3-billion in FYDP savings.

Vice President & General Manager (Corporate Officer)
ENSCO, Inc. 2015 - 2016 · 1 yr Falls Church, VA

Recruited by Board to rescue $100-million failing business; affected organizational transformation within complex portfolio (dozen contracts, multiple contract types, majority of IP creation) in less than two-years. Reporting to CEO, P&L leader of 100-employee, geographically-dispersed R&D division supporting AFC, AFTAC, DHS, DTRA, FBI, PFPA, and other elite NSS clients with disruptive technology solutions. Set conditions for sustained profitable growth (building leadership team, Shipley-based capture process, talent mobility, business strategy) winning all contracts during tenure following 2-years net losses under predecessor.

Chief Strategy Officer (CSO)
US Army Reserves 2013 - 2015 · 2 yrs Fort Knox, KY

Spearhead largest re-structuring of Army Reserve since 9/11 and inauguration of the "gold standard" for multi-echelon, multi-functional combat support training within the US Army. Led force modernization Task Force re-organizing and re-stationing dozens of units and thousands of personnel to build a two-star, 5000-soldier command across 23 states with annual budget of $32-million. Routinely briefed Army Reserve Executive Steering Committee (Board-level) forum.

Vice President, Solution Architecture, Capture, & BD
CACI International Inc 2011 - 2013 · 2 yrs Chantilly, VA

Led cross-company teams formulating campaigns winning critical $250(+)-million corporate bids; delivered support across a $4-billion, 15000-person enterprise successfully capturing new and re-compete business with tier one clients such as INSCOM, CECOM, DHS. Advised corporate officers in M&A review, championed digital engineering and space technology solutions, negotiated best-in-class cyber-security offerings. US Army Reserve: Served as Chief of Operations (G-3) for Army Reserve Counter-Terrorism Unit advising US Ambassadors abroad in whole-of-government preparations to overseas terrorist incidents.

Deputy CTO / Director, Systems Engineering & Integration
Northrop Grumman 1998 - 2011 · 13 yrs Chantilly, VA

Led Board strategic-thrusts developing, orchestrating, implementing: (1) operational excellence policy & process improvement, (2) digital engineering tools IR&D, (3) talent mobility & development for a $2-billion, 5000-person company rejuvenating TASC as a premier SE&I brand after corporate spin-off. Won >$100-million of new business with NRO through SE&I support to re-compete and take-away bids. Senior Program Manager responsible for all SE&I services required in $1-billion equity-backed, satellite & terrestrial, 4G-mobile start-up spanning multiple states encompassing over 70 multi-national sub-contractors. Spearheaded pursuit, capture, program management of >$25-million P&L within non-traditional markets – US Department of State Merida foreign assistance SATCOM SE&I (international) and TerreStar Networks (commercial) – the most significant new venture in company during that fiscal year.

TECHINT Operations Officer (C/J-2)
Defense Intelligence Agency 2001 - 2003 · 2 yrs Wasington, DC / Kuwait / Iraq

First person deployed from the DIA Directorate of Intelligence Production and Analysis to participate in multi-agency planning for Operation Iraqi Freedom as the Foreign Material Program command representative to USCENTCOM / CFLCC in Kuwait. Served as C/J-2 for the one-star Combined Joint Captured Materiel Exploitation Center (C/JCMEC) in Iraq. Enabled the safe and successful recovery of hundreds of conventional weapons systems of strategic value and successfully addressed the question of potential WMD-existence asked by the President of the United States while incurring zero mission fatalities.

Senior Systems Engineer / Lead SATCOM SRE
Lockheed Missiles and Space 1996 - 1998 · 2 yrs Newington, VA

Responsible for mission-critical operations of a sophisticated national satellite constellation; preserved unique capabilities by resolving satellite anomalous behavior in safest, most efficient, cost-effective manner. US Army Reserve: Commanded 80-soldier Special Operations Forces (SOF) PSYOP / MISO company training for possible USEUCOM peace operations to Bosnia-Herzegovina.

Member of Technical Staff (MTS)
AT&T Bell Telephone Laboratories 1994 - 1996 · 2 yrs Holmdel, NJ

Assembled and led teams of subject matter experts engineering new feature enhancements for improving AT&T's long distance switched network capabilities and services. Investigated alternate mechanisms for control of voice signal processing within the toll network. Published a benchmark study quantifying capacity over time of the primary AT&T network element – the 4ESS intertoll switch. Amended the AT&T Network Technology Development work process for certification under the ISO 9001 quality standard.

Commander / Operations Officer
U.S. Space Command 1990 - 1994 · 4 yrs US Army Space Command in Europe

Competitively selected for one of only three Army officer billets within US Space Command in Europe. Commanded a $14-million transportable Satellite Communications Control Central war-traced directly to the Joint Chiefs of Staff while serving as Operations Officer for a Defense Satellite Communications System Operations Center valued at over $38-million. Responsible for 63 soldiers.

Expedition Yeltomar
Frank, a human male in his middle ages, sits in the pilot seat of the small single occupant shuttle. It had been a rather challenging descent so he was taking this time to catch his breath and settle his nerves. The Zeno-biologist has been exploring planets for the past year, jumping from system too system, cataloging planets for the galactic federation. He has already cataloged 3 other life bearing planets in the last 17 systems but this one was by far the most challenging.
Star system 2B38A-22 is a fairly mundane system with a larger K-class orange dwarf star at its heart. It contains a single gas giant and a common ice giant in its outer system with the molten metallic core of another gas giant circling in a 15 day orbit of its parent star. Just farther out is the planet he is currently landed on, being a sizable heavy gravity terrestrial world of 2.8 galactic standard gravity and having an unusually dense atmosphere of 8.1 galactic standard.
Frank takes a deep breath and pulls himself out of the seat. The high gravity of this world was proving difficult to fight against after his time in deep space. 'I really need to get more exercise. I'm getting weak here.'; he says too himself. Being an Earth born human, this world is only 1.6 times the gravity of Earth, so should not be this hard to manage. Walking slowly over too the science station he starts taking readings on the atmosphere of the planet too see if he will need the bulky atmosphere isolation suit, or just the re-breather. 'Hmmm. 40% Oxygen, 30% Carbon dioxide, 22% Methane, trace amount of Nitrogen, Neon, Helium, other gasses too low to make out. That's a novelty. Gravity and atmospheric pressure high enough to hold onto Helium.'; he thinks, starting to get into his elements again.
'Dangerously low biodiversity, mostly grasses and a few types of larger shrub and tree analogs. The limited animal life seems to be almost entirely evolved to use some type of flight. Almost no ground based life. But seems to be a stable marine biodiversity. Signs of a recent mass extinction event, no more then 1000 stellar cycles ago. No signs of civilization detected. No ruins or any forms of technology detected. Anomaly? Hmmm. What type of anomaly? Electromagnetic/Radio-logical. Odd... Close by as well. I'll have to check that one out.'; he reads off in his head. The results read out by the sensors were a bit erratic, changing a bit randomly as he watched them. The thick atmosphere and the shifting magnetic field of the planet are having negative effects on the shuttles sensors, making them unreliable.
"The atmosphere should be breathable, even without the re-breather. That's a nice change. But that high methane level will probably stink. Not so sure about the density though. It's thick as soup out there. Might want the re-breather just in case. Temperature seems fine and there isn't anything dangerous in the atmosphere so won't need the suit at least. Thank goodness for that. Wasn't looking forward to trying to move around in that bulky thing in this gravity."; Frank was starting too think out loud again. Being out here in unexplored space was starting to get too him. "Did you get the info dump Bimni? Is the info matching up with your reading up there?"; Frank calls out, having pushed the comms button in the science lab.
BrightEyesAtSea is a female Adelie Astor-geologist who is unfortunately stuck in their "mother-ship" due too the Adelie being unable to handle high gravity planets. She was quite displeased to say the least. So many different interesting mineral combinations to study and she was stuck ship side. Bimni was a name the human, Frank, had said when trying to shorten her name and it just kind of stuck. Not that she minded, but why couldn't he just use her full name? "Reading different up here. Not seeing that anomaly reading either. Blasted electromagnetic interference."; she Warbles out. The translation software working well to convert her Adelie churrs into human guttural speech, and vise verse. "This one is your call. You've got the more accurate atmospheric readings. Not sure about the rest. Something is off on this world, the chemistry just does not add up."
That did not bode well. If Bimni was having bad feelings, then he needed to be careful. Her gut feelings had proven more accurate then any sensor. "Noted. I'll be careful when out and about. Just keep Rover warmed up and send him down if anything goes wrong."; Frank responds in turn. Rover was a military robotic mech that, despite many attempts at reprogramming, they were not able to tone down its brutishly aggressive responses to stimuli. So they never use it for anything but hazardous environments or when things go wrong. "Just be sure to grab as many mineral samples as you can fit onto the shuttle. It would be so much easier if I could just be down there.": Bimni responds with a huff. Frank can feel her telepathic annoyance even from this range, so she must be truly furious about being stuck ship side.
Finding no other reasons to postpone this, Frank grabs the re-breather and walks, still slowly, over too the airlock. "Alright Bimni. I'm heading out. I'll keep in touch with you using the shuttle as a relay. Hopefully the interference doesn't get too bad."; Frank says after after linking up the mobile comms earpiece to the shuttles antenna. It's not like he was going to go far from the shuttle anyways. Not in this gravity. Just far enough to reach that anomaly. Cycling the airlock, he steps inside. Deciding to wait on the re-breather for now, he clips it too his belt. He would see how bad the atmosphere was and decide from there. Pushing the cycle button, he waits for the airlock to balance atmospheres with the outside, getting a taste of the atmosphere in the process.
As the airlock finishes cycling and opens, Frank is hit with the thick humid atmosphere and the raw smell of methane. Huh. The smell was not as bad as he thought it would be. But the thick humid air was another matter. "It's like pea soup out here."; Frank comments. "I could almost swim in this stuff. But at least its not hard too breathe." Bimni quickly responds with; "Gee thanks. Now I want a bowl of pea soup, and you know we ran out 5 cycles ago." She didn't sound any happier after that comment. "Well sorry for making you hungry, with all the good food being on the mother ship and me only having excursion rations."; he jokes back at her hoping to at least lessen her bad mood. "The only solace I have for being stuck up here."; Bimni coos back, seeming to have lost at least some of her bad mood.
Frank takes his first steps out of the airlock onto this new world and... \*SPLAT\* feels something wet and soft hit his head and slide down his side. Lifting a hand up to wipe the side of his head, he is met with a slimy substance with bits of plant matter and something else. Tentatively, he takes a sniff; "Fraaack...."; Frank lets out with a sigh. Looking up he sees a 2 meter long gasbag creature with undulating manta ray like wings slowly swimming away high above him. "First steps out of the shuttle and I get crapped on by an alien."; he says with a bit of disgust. This is quickly answered with a trilling chuckle from Bimni though the comms. "Not a word."; he says too Bimni, who continues to chuckle even louder. Retracing his steps back up to the shuttles airlock, he reaches inside and grabs one of the rag towels and wipes off the droppings from his head and side. What a great start this is...
20 minutes later, Frank has already loaded several unique looking rocks into the shuttle for Bimni to examine later and has determined that there are in fact TWO types of grass in the surrounding area. Wow. And what is that? Another one of those elongated gasbag creatures high above. Both of the grasses are very similar too each other it seems, both being nearly black in color too absorb as much of the very dim light given off by the orange sun in the sky as possible. It is quite dim out despite it being close too mid day with the sky being completely clear. The thick atmosphere dispersing a lot of the light and giving everything a red orange tint with blues being quite faint. In the distance he can see a cluster of shrubs that look like thick orange coral with yellowish black balloon like gas bags growing out of the ends of each branch. And beyond that, in the general direction of the anomaly readings, there is an unusual rock formation overgrown with some type of plants.
"Still not much too see here Bimni, other then a few odd rocks here and there. I grabbed several samples for you already before you ask. The lack of diversity here is quite disconcerting."; Frank comments to Bimni through the comms. In response he only hears the faint crunching of whatever she had found to munch on while he did all the hard work down here. "Still making my way towards the anomaly. Hopefully there will be something interesting there. At least the bushes ahead are something different. Seem to be a thick stemmed Ficus analog with inflated leaf structures that look like balloons. Some type of adaptation to the high gravity I'm sure."; he continues the running dialog he's been trying to keep up since the gasbag poo incident. Though it has been hard too due with how little there has been to discuss.
Closing in on the bushes, they are in fact, just as he though. Similar to a ficus with thick stems, and the leaves are gas filled balloon like structures that hold up the stems. Really not much to look at other then being completely alien with a fascinating symbiosis with a few benign bacteria that seem to produce the gas that fills its leaves. A sudden sound diverts his attention. Frank looks up just in time to track an unusual 1 foot long bird like creature taking off from the ground in a hurry. The creature has 2 pairs of feathered wings attached too a bird like body, a long swan like neck with a bird like beaked head that hangs down below it's body, no legs, and 2 highly aerodynamic gasbags on it's back. This bird is already moving fast and accelerating even faster as it moves at a right angle too him. "That's a new one. A bird like life form. Has both 2 sets of feathered wings and a pair of gasbags for lift. It's fast too!"; he excitedly says too Bimni.
His excitement is short lived though, as a loud POP is heard and a 3 clawed tentacle is suddenly attached through the birds gasbag, holding onto the bird. This tentacle is in turn part of a large wing shaped creature with an open mouth, filled with sharp teeth, attached too the bottom of its wing shaped body. The bird is quickly dragged backwards towards the open mouth and swallowed hole. The whole time this flying wing creature is rippling with different colors like an earth cuddle fish. Before Frank can even exclaim about it, there is a soft booming sound as trails of faint smoke start to come out of a cylindrical shaped bulge on each side of the wing shaped creature before it shoots forwards at high speed, climbing up upwards again before it's body ripples with color one last time then seems to fade into the sky as its body color quickly matches the color of the sky.
"By all that's holy! Your not going to believe this one..."; Frank says in a hushed tone. His excitement replaced with caution and a bit of fear. "There's a flying predator here that can camouflage to match the sky. Damn thing appeared in the sky out of no where and then was gone from sight just as quickly. Wolfed down that bird like you do with those sardines you like so much."
"Are you safe?"; Bimni responds with honest concern in her squawking voice.
"I think so. Don't see that thing anywhere. But you better make sure Rover is ready too launch on a moments notice in case that thing comes back. The damn thing seemed to be jet powered as well."; Frank responds, still a bit shaken up. He was not expecting anything like that, he wasn't going to lie. Looking around him, there was no shelter nearby other then the rock formation ahead.
"Can you take shelter for a bit somewhere? Just in case it's still around?"; Bimni asks, sounding quite concerned as she preps Rover for immediate launch.
"There's no where too take shelter. Closest is that rock formation. Hopefully there is some place to shelter near there."; Frank responds, not feeling very confident. But it's that or make a break for the shuttle, a good 15 minutes away though the open grasses.
"Do it. And by the gods, keep your human senses open!"; Bimni blurts out.
Frank didn't even bother with a response. He went into a full jog, the fastest he could move in the high gravity of this world. Even with his crazy human endurance, he was all too quickly winded and forced too slow down as he neared the rock formation. Finding an overhang with a shallow but human sized indent under it he ducks into it. It might not be much, but at least he only need to worry about what's in front of him now. "I'm there... Found a... overhang. In shelter."; he panted out. "No sign... of danger." He hasn't felt this winded since he used to run marathons back on Earth.
Having taken a moment to catch his breath again, Frank places his hands on the sides of the indent he's tucked into and only now realizes something is off. Pulling his eyes away from looking for danger, he glances at the surfaces around him. Too smooth. He runs his hands along it again and can feel the seams of... construction? "Uh Bimni? This rock formation is not natural. It was constructed."; he says in a slow quiet voice.
"What? Someone carved it?"; she asked. Frank ran his hands along the underside of the overhang while watching for danger, feeling the framework and paneling that was used too construct it. Metal. "No. It's a structure of some type. It's made of metal."; he responds. No ruins or technology my arse! "Wish you were down here even more now, your better with this stuff."
"I'm sending down Rover. I'll put it on manual and pilot it remotely myself."; Bimni states with a sharp chirp, leaving no room for argument. "Yeah, that's a good idea."; Frank responds softly. "I'll wait until Rover touches down before I start exploring. Don't need that big flying wing to catch me off guard."; he replies back.
Frank remains under the ledge while he waits for Rover to drop in, but luckily it's only a matter of a few minutes and the mech descends too the ground, curled into a ball, and under parachute. The mech is ready to go, being able to survive entry without the shuttle thanks to it's built in heat shield. Rover unrolls and stands up, being half the height of Frank, walking on 4 legs, with a manipulate arm on its back. With Rover there to help guard, Frank is able to leave his impromptu shelter. "Nice aim there Bimni. Landed Rover within meters."; he says to Bimni, a bit impressed. "Are you detecting anything new with Rovers sensors?"; Frank asks.
"Only getting the same reading, anomaly."; Bimni's voice comes from the speaker built into Rovers frame. "Now where did you find the metal?"; she asks as Frank gestures Rover over too the underside of the overhang and the indent he was tucked into before. "Back here, and above us. These surfaces are unnatural and the underside of this overhang is metal."; Frank points out.
Bimni pilots Rover under the overhang and uses the manipulator arm, with its light, to examine the surfaces more closely. "hmmm. Fascinating. These surfaces are of an alloy I've never seen before."; she says with a chirp of interest. As she is maneuvering to look at different parts of the surface, she accidentally bumps Rover into a panel on the side of the indent. There is a groaning noise from the back wall before the wall just as suddenly slides sideways revealing an opening. A soft glow is comming from inside along with the sounds of running machinery.
Giving each other a quick glance, both Frank, and Bimni piloting Rover, step in through the open doorway too figure out what is inside. There is a short corridor that leads too a room filled with softly glowing lights and what can only be a computer control room of some sort. Everything is marked with an alien language that is completely undecipherable. "Now this is interesting. And it's still running. Can you make anything of this?"; Frank says too Bimni before going to oe of the control panels and trying to figure out what it says. He doesn't notice Bimni's lack of response as he touches one of the displays.
There is a quick flash of the dim lighting in the room before all the sounds in the room go quite and the light turn off. "Did I touch the wrong thing?"; Frank asks. "Bimni, any idea? Bimni?"; he asks before turning around too see Rover standing un-moving in the corridor. "Hello. Bimni, you there?" There is no response but suddenly there is a burst of of some form of energy that even Frank can feel and an alarm starts blaring. Think now is the time to leave, Frank turns to Rover and grabs the handle on its back, pushing on it to try and get Rover's tactile override to move it. He's a bit grateful when it starts to back up through the corridor as its supposed to.
Once back outside, in the open air, there is a beep, as Bimni is able to reconnect too Rover. "What happened? I suddenly lost signal with Rover and lost your signal as well frank."; Bimni keels out, sounding quite worried.
"Not sure. Rover just stopped moving in the corridor while I was inside the room on the other side. Maybe some kind of shielding or interference?"; Frank responds while the alarm can still be clearly heard in the background.
"What did you do?"; Bimni demands now that the alarm sound can be heard clearly by her as well. "Nothing. I was just trying to see what the panels were and touched one, then the whole thing shut down and the alarm started going off. A growl is heard through Rovers speakers; "You humans have no common sense! You touch everything without even thinking..."; Bimni grumbles out. Frank can only shrug his shoulders sheepishly, can't really fight ones nature.
Any further comments from either of them is cut short as a pair of dragon like creatures land heavily beside them and let out a roar. These creatures are close too 4 feet tall at the shoulders, standing on four thin legs with 4 toed clawed feet. They both are black in color with thin, spindly looking bodies that are covered in very short, dense fur. They have a pair of wings on their back that are larger then their bodies and shaped like the wings of an albatross, and a single row of wide scales running along their backs from the top of their head too half way down their tail. The larger of the two stands up on it's hind legs and starts making shooing motions with its front legs and wings as it takes steps towards them. It is making strange animal vocalizations while it is doing this, sounding like many different animals, most unknown, but some sounding strangely familiar.
Bimni readies to defend Frank using Rover, but a quick gesture by Frank delays her. "Lets back away slowly and see how they respond first."; Frank says as he starts to back away from the structure. Begrudgingly, Bimni follows suit, backing Rover away from the building as well. Their actions are rewarded by the larger creature moving to stand in front of the open passage and crossing its front legs, like it is standing guard. The smaller of the two slips behind the larger one and hurries into the structure, still moving on all four legs. As it slips past, and into the structure, a series of marking can be seen over its back legs and tail. They are green in color and resemble lightning or electricity.
A loud series of animal noises is heard coming out from inside the structure. The larger creature blocking the passageway leans down, without taking its eyes off Rover and Frank and barks a series of noises back into the structure in turn. As it does this, marking can be seen on the sides and back of this creature as well, this time a red flame like pattern can be seen. A quick series of flashes is seen from the corridor and the sound of the alarm is silenced followed by the sounds of machinery starting up again. The smaller creature exits the structure shortly after, using its tail to hit the panel too close the doorway as it exits. Both creatures are now standing there staring at Frank and Rover, not looking too happy.
The smaller of the two creatures standing in front of Frank and Bimni turns too the larger one and lets out a series of barks, pops, clicks, and whistles which the larger one turns its head slightly towards it and gives off a purr sound. The smaller one stands up on it's hind legs and stretches up to rub it's nose on the chin of the larger one before dropping down too all 4 legs again and slipping behind the other. It quickly moves away from everyone and launches its self into the air with some visible effort, flying away on it's long thin wings.
"So what do you think Bimni? They don't seem like animals too me. Their actions seem a bit too civilized."; Frank says too Bimni, with a strange echo. "You think they are the ones who built this structure?"; Bimni responds with no echo from Rovers speaker. "I'm not sure. They might also be another species that found the structures already here."; Frank says with that odd echo again, while turning towards Rover. "I'm not sure."; is repeated in Franks voice. Frank freezes, looking around. Bimni also hears that, and has Rover turn completely around too scan the area. The creature in front of the structure has uncrossed it's front legs and is now standing less defensively with its head cocked too the side.
"I'm not sure."; is said again in Franks voice. This time it is definitely coming from the creature in front of the structure, as it tips its head too the other side. "Did it just copy your voice?"; Bimni asks, having turned Rover to face the creature again. "I think it did."; Frank responds, with no echo. Raising one of his hands up he points at himself and says; "Frank", then points at Rover and says; "Rover". Finally giving an open handed gesture towards the creature, he waits for a response. The creature seems to think about it for a bit and is about to give a response but suddenly turns it's head too the side as three more of the creatures fly in and land nearby.
One of the three that lands is the smaller one with green markings from earlier. Another is only slightly larger with blue markings that look like lightning, while the third is much larger. The largest of the three is even larger then the one standing in front of the structure. It has bright yellow flame markings on it's sides and tail and is carrying some sort of device. All three of them stand up on their hind legs shortly after landing and start talking to each other and the one that was there already quite heatedly. An unusual combination of different animal noises, mixed with pops, whistles, and barks and exchanged before the one at the structure stops and points at Frank and says; "Frank", then at Rover and says; "Rover" in a perfect imitation of Franks voice.
"Well, that settles it. If there was any doubt about intelligence..."; Bimni says after the obvious display. As soon as Bimni speaks, the largest of the beings taps a few times on the device it has and a projection appears above the device like a video screen. On this projected screen is the world they are standing on, seen from high orbit. The projection begins playing a video of sorts that shows a world lush with life. None of which has been seen anywhere. The video changes view, showing different versions of the 4 beings on different parts of the world, with cities and lots of advanced technology around them. Then the view changes again too high orbit where a powerful solar flare is shown flashing over the planet with several chunks of metalic asteroids being swept along with it.
The view changes again so the beings running in terror and crowding into bunkers and sturdy structures as asteroids rain down in fireballs, exploding high in the thick atmosphere. The sky turns flames as the atmosphere is ignited by the asteroids. The view changes again to a few survivors making their way out of bunkers to find a world flattened and burned empty. The view changes to high orbit again, but the view is getting closer too the planet as if what is giving the view is falling towards the planet. The lush planet appears burned barren and brown as the view goes static as the view source starts to burn up as well. Finally the view shifts too the few survivors giving up everything they have to build structures like the one in front of them as plants start to grow around the structures in slowly increasing circles. The 4 beings all turn too look at Rover and Frank while the one in front of the structure points at it then sweeps it's hands around at the general area.
Several days go by with the beings on the planet, soon known to call themselves Yeltarians, surprisingly quickly learning how to use the human language. Their own language involving implied meaning, and the sounds produced expressing that meaning instead of words. With the language barrier broken, the Yeltarians were able to fully explain what happened too their world. A massive solar flare had shattered the dieing inner planet of their system, flinging chunks of the planet outwards with the flare its self. Between the flare and the following planetary chunks, they had set the atmosphere ablaze, catastrophically altering the atmospheric composition. Most non aquatic life was decimated in the initial inferno while much more of the remaining life on the planet slowly dieing off from the atmospheric changes.
When the Yeltarian survivors finally left their bunkers, they found a world leveled by fire and chocked off by a nearly un-breathable atmosphere. Using all their advanced knowledge, the survivors hatched a plan to save both themselves and their world. A massive terraforming project over their entire planet. They built hundreds of terraforming machines around the world using every available scrap and surviving piece of technology they could find. Then to give their planet a chance to heal, they turned to their own culture and shifted it from a materialistic high tech one, to a minimalist druidic society. All this, just to save as much as they could of what life remained.
But the remaining biodiversity of their world is too low, and they continue to loose species to disease and failed genetic alterations. Their world will not last much longer with how few living things remain. Even their terraforming equipment is starting to fail. So this leaves them with only one hope, to find suitable life outside of their own world to balance the failing ecosystems. But, they had torn apart their only remaining spacecraft to build the equipment that sustains their world. And they have no way to rebuild them with all their technology regressed to the state it is in now.
They were also willing to explain their race as well. What had once been several different Yeltarian races, had all become one race after the cataclysm. They are of two different sexs, male and female, with the females being larger and stronger in general. While the males tend to be smaller and much lighter, but also faster and more maneuverable in flight. They also explained the meaning of the markings on their bodies. The color doesn't mean as much, but the pattern shows which of the two divergent genetic traits are active in their bodies. All Yeltarians have the genetics to use an organic fire through the production of alcohol in their bodies, and bio-electrics generated by specialized cells in their bodies. But only one of the two genetic traits ever manifests due to a special gene that randomly activates one trait genetic while blocking the other trait genetics when they reach maturity.
"So, would you be willing to help us out? Take one of us with you to help search for compatible life in the depths of space? Too save our dieing world?"; The leader of the local Yeltarians asks Frank and Bimni. "This is our only chance since we are unwilling to give up our dieing world. Our, Yeltomar."

Like it picks up a signal and processes it and from that I can hear music. But is it just the variation in frequency? And if so, then how do stations work?

Hello,
I'm 26F living with a male housemate(30M). He(30M), his friends(27M, 31F) and I(25F) went on a 2 day trip and on the car ride back home, I called him stupid indirectly, and I regret it alot now.
This weekend, we went for bungee jumping on the trip, nobody except me did it, because everyone(this guy too) said they were scared. This guy went on to add, "I would do anything, river rafting, skydiving, cliff jumping, but I wouldnt do bungee jumping" and right after I finished the jump said, didnt look that hard, I think i could do it as well. I was annoyed but because I knew that he always does, i ignored that comment.
Later in the car, his friend(31F) was telling how she doesnt want to conceive, and the topic shifted towards feminism... and I said Society has been designed in a way, that makes men more privilaged than women and society also puts a lot of pressure and expects women to be perfect... and his friend(27M) said, "but things changed, its no more like that" to which I gave them a few examples... here the conversation was completely between me and his friend(27M), but this guy came in between saying "but why should I care, I live my life and dont care much about society", I was angry because he was not even trying to understand that he comes from a place of privilege(men have it a little easier than women)... that conversation was a little intense, so we all decided its for the best to leave it..
Later the topic moved to most hated qualities in a person and I said, "i find people who cant draw boundaries stupid and spineless, because they go with anything anyone says", and my housemate immediately said, "isnt that good", for which i replied "it shows they are foolish, because they have zero opinions, and care too much about other people, that their decision making process involves everybody but them"... and he didnt argue but one of his friend said "but isnt that selfless" and I retorted with "i think its the most selfish thing, because they want everybody to like them"... the guy was silent for a bit and said "u called me stupid, without calling me stupid" and i said "but how does it matter, what i think because you dont care about anyone, which is what you shud do" and now I regret calling him out, because I saw he actively ignored me for the rest of the trip(which I probably deserved).
Also, this guy proposed to me a few weeks ago, and I rejected him almost immediately, because the thought of getting into a relationship with him made me nauseous, because of a couple of reasons. He thought therapy was for weak, called a girl he hung out with, a gold digger(when she wasnt even in a relationship with him), is a people pleaser and has no boundaries whatsoever, he's a blatant misogynist and constantly tries to one up people(he has a story for EVERYTHING, and most of it, seems like a lie, bcoz the details change a lot), says he never gets offended, but gets offended even at the slightest remark on him, has an excuse for everything, and believes, he can only learn from his experiences(never learns from anyone's experiences). He also said "you never sent me any wrong signals, but if most male friends you have, proposed to you then maybe you are doing something wrong", when I shared "most men i do friendship with, end up liking me so i dont have male friendships anymore, but I thought since we have an age gap, i thought you'd be more mature to have a friendship". He said this right after he proposed.
I've been mean to him, because of his traits, but now I feel I might be just as bad, because I said mean things and I actively tried to put him in his place (before his friends), by bringing up the things he keeps changing in his stories.
I feel like I'm a bad person on one hand, and on another, feel he deserved it.
Should I apologize to him?

Hello,
I'm 26F living with a male housemate(30M). He(30M), his friends(27M, 31F) and I(25F) went on a 2 day trip and on the car ride back home, I called him stupid indirectly, and I regret it alot now.
This weekend, we went for bungee jumping on the trip, nobody except me did it, because everyone(this guy too) said they were scared. This guy went on to add, "I would do anything, river rafting, skydiving, cliff jumping, but I wouldnt do bungee jumping" and right after I finished the jump said, didnt look that hard, I think i could do it as well. I was annoyed but because I knew that he always does, i ignored that comment.
Later in the car, his friend(31F) was telling how she doesnt want to conceive, and the topic shifted towards feminism... and I said Society has been designed in a way, that makes men more privilaged than women and society also puts a lot of pressure and expects women to be perfect... and his friend(27M) said, "but things changed, its no more like that" to which I gave them a few examples... here the conversation was completely between me and his friend(27M), but this guy came in between saying "but why should I care, I live my life and dont care much about society", I was angry because he was not even trying to understand that he comes from a place of privilege(men have it a little easier than women)... that conversation was a little intense, so we all decided its for the best to leave it..
Later the topic moved to most hated qualities in a person and I said, "i find people who cant draw boundaries stupid and spineless, because they go with anything anyone says", and my housemate immediately said, "isnt that good", for which i replied "it shows they are foolish, because they have zero opinions, and care too much about other people, that their decision making process involves everybody but them"... and he didnt argue but one of his friend said "but isnt that selfless" and I retorted with "i think its the most selfish thing, because they want everybody to like them"... the guy was silent for a bit and said "u called me stupid, without calling me stupid" and i said "but how does it matter, what i think because you dont care about anyone, which is what you shud do" and now I regret calling him out, because I saw he actively ignored me for the rest of the trip(which I probably deserved).
Also, this guy proposed to me a few weeks ago, and I rejected him almost immediately, because the thought of getting into a relationship with him made me nauseous, because of a couple of reasons. He thought therapy was for weak, called a girl he hung out with, a gold digger(when she wasnt even in a relationship with him), is a people pleaser and has no boundaries whatsoever, he's a blatant misogynist and constantly tries to one up people(he has a story for EVERYTHING, and most of it, seems like a lie, bcoz the details change a lot), says he never gets offended, but gets offended even at the slightest remark on him, has an excuse for everything, and believes, he can only learn from his experiences(never learns from anyone's experiences). He also said "you never sent me any wrong signals, but if most male friends you have, proposed to you then maybe you are doing something wrong", when I shared "most men i do friendship with, end up liking me so i dont have male friendships anymore, but I thought since we have an age gap, i thought you'd be more mature to have a friendship". He said this right after he proposed.
I've been mean to him, because of his traits, but now I feel I might be just as bad, because I said mean things and I actively tried to put him in his place (before his friends), by bringing up the things he keeps changing in his stories.
I feel like I'm a bad person on one hand, and on another, feel he deserved it.
Should I apologize to him?

I saw someone else did something like this recently and thought that I might have something to add to the discussion to help people figure out whether they think this program is right for them, or for people currently in the program to help them plan out classes.
My background is very heavy in statistics and finance (I'm an actuary), so my grounding in calculus, statistics, linear algebra, and business topics was considerably better than most of the other people I interacted with in this program. Conversely, I'm sure my programming skills were probably about average or maybe a little bit below compared to someone with a more targeted background towards those skills.
I started in Fall of 2020 and just finished up this month, Spring 2024. I started out just taking one class a semester and never changed up that plan, would highly recommend doing the same if you're working full time alongside; there's no reason to rush this program. I got a 4.0 GPA overall, although I never really stressed that much about it and definitely did not shy away from "harder" classes in order to bolster GPA. I did this to learn, not to get good grades. The classes I took, in order (my memory of some of the earlier ones might be a bit jumbled as so much time has passed):

1. CSE 6040 - I mentioned how my programming background was weaker relative to my mathematical background. However, reflecting on my experience in this class, it was probably still pretty strong. This class is focused on generalized programming skills, you don't really get into the analytics and modeling that much; it's more of a primer on things like functions, recursion, computer memory management, etc. It's been a few years, but I don't remember struggling with this class at all, and most of the concepts covered (object oriented programming, things like byte encoding, hexadecimal forms, recursion, etc.) were things I was already familiar with in another programming language (this class was in Python) or was relatively easy to pick up. From what I remember, the assignments were auto-graded and you had unlimited attempts, not to mention the fact that most of the prompts were to produce some predetermined result... and, as long as you were able to verify that your code produced that result, you got full points. I didn't miss a single point in this entire class. I believe there were "final exams" which were really just timed window coding assignments much like the homework, and you could do the assignments at any point during a 4-day window or something like that.
2. ISYE 6501 - This class was R-based and focused on basic analytics models. The material was much more applied than 6040. Similarly, the material was not difficult, and I was familiar with a lot of the basic models already (such as GLMs) from having worked with them in my job. The grading was done on a peer-grading framework; based on who anonymously is assigned your homework to grade, you can get someone who's a stickler for every point on the guide, or people who are a bit more lenient. I never really worried much about how things were graded in this class; yeah, I did miss some points arbitrarily, but nothing that made that much of a difference. If you generally put in the work and understand the material, your peers will recognize that. I found this a bit more interesting than 6040 because, rather than a deterministic "right answer", there was some more creativity implied here to solve each problem. There was a final project for this class where you walked through a hypothetical analytics problem and explained how you would go about solving it. I found this an interesting thought exercise and enjoyed this class. The pacing felt a little fast, as you basically had an assignment due each week, but the assignments were small. Like 6040 I found this class to be quite easy but I didn't 100% it due to the peer grading thing.
3. MGT 8803 - I almost applied to be exempt from this class, as my background intersects a lot with the material. The accounting and finance modules for this class literally did not teach me anything new. Supply chain was new for me and I found it interesting. I'm trying to remember what the other module was. I think it was marketing? I didn't like it. Overall I found this class quite easy for the aforementioned reasons, however I've heard from a lot of the other folks without business backgrounds that this class was pretty tough so take my opinions with a grain of salt. Taking this in the summer cut out one of the modules, normally there are 5 but in Summer there are 4. I figured this made sense to take during the truncated semester because I was unlikely to cover that much new material, and it turns out I was right about that. Each module lasted 2 weeks (I think in a normal semester it lasts 3) and has a timed multiple-choice test at the end. A lot of people didn't like this format compared to ISYE 6501 and CSE 6040; I'm not really sure how else this material could've been covered. This class was OK, the material is not really that deep but it's a pretty good primer on a large number of business topics.
4. ISYE 6740 - The first class I took that was actually pretty challenging, which makes sense considering the first 3 courses were just the basic core. This is pretty much an intro to machine learning as a discipline, and the first time I remember digging into academic papers that discuss some machine learning topic and attempting to recreate the results (this is something we did a lot in the more advanced classes going forward and incidentally now that I have graduated is probably one of the best ways to go about learning a new topic). I remember this class as having a format similar to ISYE 6501/CSE6040 in that you had large programming assignments to do, as well as open-book "exams" which were really just timed programming assignments. Assignments are not auto-graded; TA's review each one and thus the assignments have much more of a focus on explaining your findings than producing the exact expected output (unlike 6040). Some of the theory questions have you applying complicated matrix algebra rules that I'm not surprised a lot of people struggled with. The TA responsiveness in this class was pretty good from what I remember, but your mileage may vary. I remember getting 3 weeks to do each assignment but I also remember not thinking that was a lot of time, these assignments are very extensive, have many parts, and take a long time to get through. Like with 6040 I ended up not missing a single point in this class but I did find it difficult and spent significantly more time working on it than in prior classes, probably 10-15 hrs a week, give or take.
5. ISYE 6644 - I was familiar with maybe 50% of the material we covered due to my extensive statistics background, however I was not aware of the exact mechanics of random number generation or the concept of a batched mean, for example. I remember this class having several "check your understanding" quizzes that focused on the mathematical foundations. Didn't struggle with this much in terms of difficulty and found the material very useful. Setting up custom simulation environments is very useful and arena is pretty cool even if it's unlikely you'll ever use it. Some assignments feature similar tools in Python (simpy). There might have been some coverage of R in this as well, or at least the accommodation for people that wanted to use it. There was a project for this class, but you didn't have to come up with the topic on your own, you could pick from a list, and you could do your project on your own if you wanted (which, given the option, was always the choice I made, due to the inherent randomness in picking the right members of a group). However you can do a group project if you want.
6. MGT 6203 - The first of the classes I took that required a group project. I recommend you are proactive in putting together groups in situations like these, posting threads on Ed/whatever the forum is as soon as the class begins. My group was alright; not everyone in it was great, but we had enough going overall to make up for the weaker group members. The project has some arbitrary guidelines from what I remember - you need to put together a midterm report and video presentation that is no more than ~2 minutes long or something like that (if it's 2:01 you get penalized) and the final report is 5 minutes or less, and everyone in the group needs to speak. I honestly don't remember much else about this class, it was pretty forgettable, but not horrible. Not overall that difficult, another business class so a lot of topics I was already familiar with, but there was more new here than in 8803.
7. CSE 6242 - Another class with a group project. Again, I was proactive, and again, overall, my group was... okay. Some people who were really good, some who were... not. This class is characterized by a lot of assignments that are autograded, like 6040, but the assignments are a bit more difficult. Overall not that difficult with the exception of the D3 assignment, but that's more due to the fact that I'm not really sure how the autograder works for that; it tries to determine based on some internal structure of your html code whether or not you're fulfilling the requirements. I got a perfect score on all of the assignments, and they give you the chance to score over 100% on I believe either assignment 1 or assignment 2. A lot of people bombed the D3 assignment (I think it's assignment 2) but still did well in the class because it's not that hard to do well on everything else, so keep that in mind. This class does a great job of exposing you to a lot of new technologies, but there isn't that much depth to it. That's not really the point of this kind of class though, it equips you with the tools to explore things deeper if you so choose.
8. ISYE 8803 - I was a big fan of this class. It's taught in MATLAB but you can use Python if you so choose, you'll see in reviews of this class that you should really just use MATLAB since a lot of the sample code etc. is not in other languages, so that's what I did. However, they must've recently added Python and R code for sample solutions, so feel free to use what you want. MATLAB was interesting, there were parts of one assignment I also used R for (grouped lasso in R is a lot more straightforward). This class is all about high dimensional data and representing it in a more simplified and comprehensive way, think about something like sonar which might have datapoints separated by milliseconds and thus a very dense representation of a signal captured over a short period of time. After ISYE 6740, I found this to be the class that taught me the most up to this point.
9. CS 7642 - Taking this class in summer is kind of rough. There's 6 homework assignments that are autograded, similar format to CSE 6040. There are 3 projects which are much larger programming assignments for which you'll write papers explaining methodology, results, etc. These projects take a while, particularly project 3. I did well on projects 1 and 2 and decently on 3, although I spent the most time on 3 by far; it involves reinforcement learning to simulate a soccer environment and train agents how to play against an AI developed externally. The AI baselines are hard to beat, and I didn't manage to beat them, but I wrote a decent paper explaining what I did. The final exam for this class should be dropped as it doesn't add value to the class, people regularly score extremely low on it, the average score in the class was something like a 45%. I scored a bit lower than average but still got an A in the class because it was heavily curved. Reinforcement learning is a very interesting topic, though, and I would highly recommend this class as a primer on the material. It's probably a good idea not to take it in the summer, though.
10. CS 7643 - This class was pretty difficult but I still think 6740 was tougher. The material is extremely dense. There are parts of programming assignments that are autograded, but also short answer portions that are reviewed by TAs. Grading on those were pretty subjective. This is the only class I can remember really needing to discuss things with TAs to understand what was being asked a little better. Unfortunately, the TAs in the semester I took this weren't the best. They seemed more concerned with unintentionally giving away a bit too much information in any of their responses. I can understand this, but it came off as intentionally opaque most of the time. There was a group project for this course as well, and my group was excellent, probably the best experience I had with a group in this program. I can imagine how much this course would've sucked if I would've had a mediocre/bad group. Based on discussions with my group, some of the grading seemed highly arbitrary, with some TAs grading similar responses to the same question differently. Like I said above, though, I never really worried about this. I never once in this program ever disputed a grade, and I continued with that in this class as well.
11. CSE 6748 - Practicum and final class. For this class you get to choose between a number of pre-determined Georgia Tech sponsors, or form your own project for your own employesome external entity. It was a lot more work to do this, so I just went with one of the pre-determined GTech ones. I really enjoyed this one, I had constant communication with the sponsor as I developed my project and came up with something that I was quite proud of. I wanted to explore a natural language processing task, so I picked a project that I thought would allow me to do this, and was very satisfied with the result. There's a number of videos you have to watch that explain some overarching aspect of analytics that were pretty interesting as well, you can watch all of these in a single day and then focus on the project if you like. It's possible to finish the entire semester's work in just a few weeks, I was able to do the entire project and write the final paper in about a month's time, at which point I coordinated with the sponsor to tailor the work I did to a format that they would be able to implement for their business problem if they wanted to.

I can't comment on the job placement prospects of this program, as I just finished it and was actively employed the entire time I was in it. As an actuary there's not much this program does that my exam certification process didn't in terms of career prospects. However, it did position me much better within the context of the expanding role of data and analytics in insurance going forward, and also opens me up to similarly mathematical roles with a firmer grounding in big data and also some business elements (quantitative finance/data science roles). There were also things I learned in this program that I was able to apply directly to my day-to-day work. If you're considering this program, I would recommend you think about a few things:

1. I'm pretty shocked at how many people I saw during my program who didn't really think that much about why they're doing this. I get that the barrier to entry is low, but it's a serious commitment if you're actually trying to graduate. Most of the people who start this program don't finish, so consider whether you're ready to spend almost 4 years going to school part-time, or if you're able to double up on classes for some of the semesters. Most of the people I know in the program doubled up at least once, I never did but I was never in a hurry. If you must double up, don't make it your first semester. Dip your toe in the water, see how it is, and then reassess. But, above all else, think about why you want to do this, and use that as your guiding goal to bring you through to the end.
2. Something I tended to see pretty much without fail in most of my classes - a lot of the graduate students in this program spend way too much time worrying about minute, particular details that don't really matter. Maybe it was just my philosophy that I would probably never dispute a grade, or that I was never really that concerned with getting a perfect GPA, etc. but I was always marveling at what I saw asked in Ed posts. People would ask whether they could use a certain programming language for an assignment, what packages they were allowed to use, would post screenshots of bugs and ask for TA's to help walk them through it, etc. Generally, without fail, the TAs would respond along the lines of: use whatever programming language you want, as long as you can display your output/submit it in a way that we can verify by running ourselves, we'll make the effort; use the debugger to step through your code to find the problem; etc. Generally, in most cases, the assignments and questions are designed in a way to teach you something, to get you to realize/understand some pattern or data concept that has some underlying logic that makes sense. For example, the idea of saliency maps on image processing takes the 3-channel RGB color pixel shading representation of an image and condenses it into a single channel, and, as a result of that, loses some resolution in suggesting parts of the image driving a model result that might be different depending on the channel; i.e., an image with a very heavily blue-shaded part that detracts from a certain result, but with a red-shaded part somewhere else that increases the probability of the modeled result. This was part of a conceptual question on how saliency maps differed from other pixel influence attribution methods in Deep Learning, and is part of what you should logically understand since it reduces the channels of the image representation from 3 (R, G, B) to 1 (usually grayscale). I think people tend to run to the TA the second they have difficulty with something and don't stop for a second to think it through, one exercise I might recommend is to consider: if you ran into this problem out in the world and you didn't have a TA/managesome other authority figure to explain the answer to you, what do you think it might be? Does the answer even matter? If it still matters and you have no idea how to solve it, maybe then you can go to the TA.
3. In every single group project I worked on, we had an initial planning session where we determined the scope of what we wanted to do. For most of the projects, this was an essential deliverable in addition to the final paper. However, in almost every case, someone in the group was always playing some game of runaway scope where they kept on wanting to add methods/questions to exploration beyond what was initially planned in ways that I intuitively knew would be impossible to manage in just one semester. I often had to say something along the lines of "if we have time we'll do that" or "when we write up our paper, we can put that in the avenues for future exploration section" or something similar. It turns out that we never had time to look into these things, and our initial scope was usually well-defined considering the time we had. I'm not sure why this was always so front-and-center in my focus, maybe since I used to work in consulting and project budgeting/scoping is so unbelievably important in that context. Whatever the case may be, understand that you won't be able to change the world every time you do a project. Make some incremental improvement, reflect on the results, and then include some notes in a "potential avenues for future exploration" section. I was pretty surprised at how many people had so much trouble putting the pencils down at the end. I can practically guarantee that, for the classes where I did a project on my own, I probably did substantially less work than other individual groups for precisely this reason. In general, you probably don't have to do as much work as you think you do.

So, would I recommend the program overall? Absolutely. It's not perfect, I found some of the formats annoying - CS 7642 has no business having that final exam, it adds nothing to the class at all, is arbitrarily extremely difficult and the class is good enough and complete enough with the removal of that exam that its inclusion to me appears to be the result of some arbitrary quota somewhere. I also don't really like the group project format and profoundly disagree with the reasoning that GTech and most other academic institutions give as to why group projects are even good or necessary, however I do acknowledge that from a logistics and resource standpoint it's unmanageable to grade individual projects for every single person in a given class and group projects do decrease the number of papers that TAs will have to read. Considering the scale of what GTech has managed to do, and how many students enroll each year, I'm surprised the program is as well-managed as it is. Yes, it does require a lot of self-teaching, but in most cases you can actively engage with TAs multiple times a week if you're struggling with topics and from what I've seen they were very responsive.
Anyways just wanted to give my perspective as someone who just finished this program and still thinks it's worthwhile despite its flaws.

I'm struggling to figure out what's causing the following issue and would love your input on how I might rectify it.
I have a 65"Samsung S90C OLED running the most current 1410 firmware. Using a certified HDMI 2.1 cable plugged into the eARC (HDMI 3 on the tv) it is connected to a Denon AVR-S760H receiver that supports Atmos etc up to a 7.2 configuration. I am running a 5.1.2 configuration speaker wise. I also have a PS5 plugged into the AVR, also using a 2,1 certified HDMI cable.
The TV has every setting enabled that should result in it passing an Atmos signal to the receiver when one is present. The receiver is fully setup to receive and process an Atmos signal. When I use the PS5 for movies (UHD Blu Ray or streaming) the receiver will correctly decode the audio and when Atmos is available the receiver shows Atmos on the panel and in the app as being received and output along with all the relevant speakers.
However... when I stream with any, and I mean any, app built directly into the TV itself the receiver always only shows a 5.1 PCM signal being received and it uses a Dolby Surround codec with no option to switch to Atmos. The receiver doesn't show any Atmos metadata being received from the TV regardless of the streaming program I use. All the streaming services are the premium paid tiers that should have the best available resolution and audio formats. All of the shows I'm using to test list Dolby Atmos as the audio codec of choice and yet I can't get it to send it as such and the receiver always defaults to just Dolby Surround.
I fully realize the lossy version of Atmos that streaming services use is lackluster at best and I'm much better off using UHD Blu Rays but I'd still like it to work as advertised.
I've thought it could be one of two things:

1. The TV doesn't actually pass Dolby Atmos and actually only sends a 5.1 PCM signal. The Dolby Atmos that it advertises is just a marketing ploy for the crappy built in TV speakers and not what it can send.
   
2. The receiver cannot decode an Atmos signal sent via the eARC HDMI port. I know this to not be true since Denon explicitly says it can not to mention most other receiver manufacturers claim this same feature and it's pretty much table stakes at this point.
   

Any ideas what's going on here? Would switching to an LG tv solve this issue? Would switching to a different receiver solve the problem?

I know they had their origins as metabolic slow life on their homeworld. But what does 'slow' mean exactly?
What I know, is that they had little energy to play with when they were still slugs because they didn't live close to the hydrothermal vents on the sea floor. What I'm straight up guessing however, is that because of the little energy they had, they had to be very efficient with it. So slow growth, slow reproduction, slow evolution, slow locomotion, slow reactions, slow thoughts. Basically their entire clocks were slowed down. And so they evolved the ability to pilfer genetic material to catch up to their faster cousins near the vents.
But then they started acquiring the fancy toys. How did their 'slow' nature interact with their new ability to generate light signals? When one of their nodes received light from surrounding nodes, did it take fucking forever to process the information before broadcasting its own light to the nodes it shared dendrite analogs with? Wouldn't this present a challenge to the emergence of the overall consciousness? I usually imagine their consciousness, indeed any consciousness, as a sort of a symphony that must be time limited between one note and the next. Otherwise it's just keys being played in sequence and not music, or a bunch of lights on a timer and not a moving picture.
Did they carry this slowness with them when they went post biological? Like how uploaded humans in fiction mostly choose human/humanoid avatars? A relic of times past that they can't help but keep? We know by the time the humans stumble onto them they are at least able to count a hundred and thirteen events in one second. But what if their clocks don't tick that much faster than that? What if they are only able to squeeze an eternity out of a day and not a second as we imagine emulated minds to be able to do? On any given power source, you can run some emulated minds very fast, or you can run a fuckton of them at a normal pace. Maybe the romans maximized on emulated nodes. Maybe they saw speed as a luxury to be traded for more of them. Maybe there is a limit on how fast you can run emulated minds in the Expanse universe. Maybe the energy-time uncertainty principle means you get a lot of noise if you try to orchestrate quantum interactions too fast and since consciousness is quantum in this verse all your minds die or something (Probably bullshite physics here but I'm not a physicist, put down the pitchforks please).
The entire reason this issue is nagging away at my brain is because the timeline of the roman-goth encounter seems weird to me. Why does the star killer capability of the slow zone station take so damn long to charge and fire? Where did the Romans get the time to build a black hole shotgun when the goths were shutting down systems left and right. Given how slowly we see the star killer capability of the slow zone station charge up before firing, how did the Romans get the time to fire and kill off entire systems as the goths were attacking them? We've seen the goths sterilize systems in an instant. How did the Romans get the time to do anything??
Tl,dr: The timeline of the Roman-Goth conflict made me suspect that the Romans somehow never managed to escape their slow life era. I'm very confused, send help!

I know this has been asked probably a handful of times but I seem to find different answers in each post depending on how old the post is. Today I just received my medium at home harvest Right freeze dryer and am currently doing the 1st bread run to break it in.
I will most likely be using this for a handful of things but a lot of it will be bubble hash. I realize I can freeze the bubble hash to speed up the process a little bit but I just wanted to know if he is new ones have the right firmware out of the box? From my understanding I need like a 9-hour freeze and 14-hour dry with a tray setting between 35 and 45. I have read that I need to download the pharmaceutical firmware in order to properly freeze dry the bubble hash? I forgot to look at the firmware before I ran the first test run so I don't 100% know what it was shipped with. But I ordered directly from harvest right and have done nothing to it but plug it in and get it started. So whatever ships standard on the medium is what I have. Any advice is much appreciated because I'm getting mixed signals. The old ones needed the firmware, then I heard the new ones with the screen on top didn't, then I heard the updated versions of those had the custom settings you needed removed and will now need to redownload the firmware for these 2022 or new models. I did set up an appointment for Thursday with a technician phone call but if I can avoid that by getting advice here even better. The press club website still has a downloadable firmware that I am told I'm supposed to use according to the website and from other redditors. Anyway now I'm just rambling. All advice is much appreciated. Thanks

I have been measuring the latency for my setup while using Amplitube 5 as a plugin in Reaper. I'm trying to decide if I need to upgrade my HW. I thought this data might be useful for somebody.
I recorded a guitar note directly into my interface. That's the unprocessed DI signal in the image below. I also used a mic to record the processed signal from my monitors. So the delay between those two waveforms should basically be the Amplitube latency (I think).
Here's an image of what I mean.
.

Buffer	Latency (44.1kHz)	Latency (96kHz)
64	0.012	0.007
128	0.015	0.008
256	0.024	0.012
512	0.039	0.019

.
My conclusion: The sweet spot for my system and my ear is at 96kHz and a buffer of 128.
.
My setup: i5 4690k, Presonus 22VSL, 16GB RAM, Windows 10 Pro, Reaper v7.06 64-bit, Amplitube 5 v5.7.5

Task Force Monarch - Discord
Task Force Monarch - Website
Who are we?
We are a UK based ArmA III MilSim that pride ourselves in creating compelling campaigns with the aid of real-life international hard-politics and inspiration from prior conflicts involving UK Elite Special Forces.
We have an extensive selection process that reflects the UKSF Joint Selection Process. We greatly pride ourselves on our use of extensive skills such as CQC, Air-Assault, Close Protection, HUMINT and more. We rely on heavily detailed, intel-orientated campaigns and rarely have deployments / operations with pre-determined endings.
We are capable on providing a realistic yet enjoyable operation to our members. Our Operations are every saturday at 17:30 EST/10:30 GMT.
Detachments and positions Within Our Unit

• B Squadron SAS: UKSF 22nd Special Air Service B Squadron [Direct Action, Close Protection, COIN]
  • Patrol I/C and 2I/C
  • SF Medic
  • Weapons Specialist
  • Signals - FO/JTAC
  • Trooper

​

• X Squadron SBS: UKSF Special Boat Service X Squadron [Direct Action, Close Protection, COIN, Maritime Ops]
  • Patrol I/C and 2I/C
  • SF Medic
  • Weapons Specialist
  • Signals - FO/JTAC
  • Marine

​

• O Squadron SRR: UKSF Special Recognisance Regiment [Direct Action, HUMINT, COIN, Long Range Recon, Close Recognisance, HUMINT]
  • Patrol 2I/C
  • SF Medic
  • Signals - FO/JTAC
  • Trooper

​

• JSFAW: Joint Special Forces Aviation Wing
  • Rotary-Wing pilots and crew
  • Drone Operator
  • Support Weapon Systems Operator

​

• Joint Task Force HQ: Mission Design & Zeusing
  • Intelligence & Operations OfficeAnalyst: Zeus & Roleplayers

​

• SIS-MI6: Intel

What are our Deployments like?
As a brief summary, our operations are fast-paced, well planned and well executed.
However, in more detail, our operations are greatly based on real-world situations that the UKSF detachments are involved in. The planning of our deployments usually commence upwards of 3 months before the first operation. This planning includes extensive research, "news reports" and intelligence documentation that our J-2 and SIS-MI6 staff create. Once our deployment has started, our operations are rich in detail, intel, and role-play interactions.
All of this culminates into a big picture which allows detachment commanders and staff to surgically strike to defeat or destabilise the enemy. If certain information is not accumulated or is not acted upon this could change the course and outcome of the campaign.
Our deployments can span over multiple maps to simulate multiple provinces and regions. We usually take between 6 to 8 weeks to complete our campaigns.
Availability within detachments
Task Force HQ (OPEN)
22nd SAS - BSqn 7 Troop (OPEN)
SBS - XSqn 8 Troop (OPEN)
SRR - 0Sqn 3 Troop (CLOSED)
JSFAW (OPEN)
Entry Requirements * You must be 18 or older (Exceptions can be made on a strict probationary period) * You must have a legal copy of Arma 3 * You must have a working microphone * You must be proficient in English * You must be willing to be mature and dedicated to the unit * You must own APEX DLC (Tanoa) * A new Member must be willing to go through training & selection. * A new member must be willing to conform to rules and regulations set out on our discord.
How to Join us To join us, all you need to do is simply go to the discord link bellow, wait for a recruiter to contact you in #recruitment-chat and apply on the website from the links bellow.
Task Force Monarch - Discord
Task Force Monarch - Website
CSgt. G. Bendall
X Squadron, 8 Troop SBS IC
Directing Staff

New Silver Items!! Kookaburra!! Kallen (from Code Geass + more
New Silver Keys, Anchor, Arrowheads, fidget spinners (BOGO 50% off) and more!!!
Please use “chat” to signal a buy and then send me a message.
Proof: https://imgur.com/a/f8QOqCv
All returning customers will receive a 5% off your order. (Forever ♾️)
I do this for fun but I am also doing this as my sole source of income. Absolutely any and all support is greatly appreciated 🫶
1- Large Key #1 - 17.5g ($30)
2- Large Key#2 - 16.6g ($30)
3- Large Key#1 - 19.1g ($30)
4- Large Key #2 - 18.6g ($30)
5- Lock - 18.4g ($25)
6- Sm. Key - 6.7g ($20)
7- Sm. Key - 6.5g ($20)
8- Anchor - 8.3g ($20)
9- Spartan Sword #1 - 7.1g ($15)
10- Spartan Sword #2 - 6.0g ($15)
11- Kallen Kozuki figure - 8.1g ($20)
12- Grecian Urn - 10.9g ($15)
13- Arrowhead - 20.2g ($30)
14- Arrowhead - 19.8 ($30)
15- Fidget Spinner ($25) 5-6g
16- Fidget Spinner ($25) 5-6g
17- Fidget Spinner ($25) 5-6g
18- Kookaburra (stands) - 35.1g ($45)
All purchases come with reference tag 🏷️, and extras mentioned later in post. Thank you for your continued support!!
💰 Payment: Accept Venmo, Cashapp, Chime, Cash & Zelle
Shipping: * Fed Ex Ground
✅ You only pay $7
✅ I cover the rest which comes out to around $14 but I can eat the shipping cost
✅ After shipping I will send tracking #
✅ Most orders processed and shipped same day.
Not liable for parcel accidents after the package is in the hands of FedEx I will ship securely with small box -(inside contents protected by bubble wrap) all of this sealed within an additional bubble mailer.
Package also to include:

• Mercury dime stickers
  
• Custom silver art stickers
  
• Multiple decorative silver tokens
  

Dear Applicant,
I trust this message finds you well. My name is Mrs. Erika Bogar King, and I'm a member of the HR Executive team at VXI Global Solutions. Your resume on the indeed database platform caught our attention, suggesting a potential fit for the Data Entry position we currently have available.
After carefully reviewing your qualifications and experience listed on the Indeed database, we are confident that your skills closely align with the requirements of this role. To proceed with our assessment process, we would like to invite you for a chat interview via Signal Messenger.
This interview presents an excellent opportunity for us to delve into your background, discuss your proficiency in scheduling, and gain insight into your commitment to delivering exceptional service. It will also provide a platform for us to introduce you to the values, culture, and exciting opportunities available at VXI Global Solutions.
Impressed by your achievements, we are eager to explore your potential further. If you're available, please click on the link below to proceed or schedule the interview.
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Job Code: VXI4505
For any queries or additional information, please don't hesitate to reach out. We eagerly anticipate connecting with you on Signal Messenger to discuss how your skills can contribute to our success at VXI Global Solutions.
Warm regards,
HR TEAM VXI Global Solutions 515 S Figueroa St UNIT 600 Los Angeles, CA 90071
1.jpg

For me, it's:
Year Negative Four

• J'onn J'onzz is accidentally teleported to Earth by Dr. Saul Erdel. He disguises himself as police detective John Jones, using his powers in secret, but never revealing his Martian identity to anyone.

Year Negative Two

• After years of exploring the world, Arthur Curry discovers Atlantis and is imprisoned by its current rulership for three years.

Year One

• Clark Kent debuts as Superman in Metropolis (he was never Superboy)
  • Other than Luthor, Gerald Shugel, Prankster, and Bizarro, Superman's first year is mostly spent intervening in ordinary crimes and crises, as not a lot of supervillains have come out of the woodwork yet.
  • By the end of the year, Clark learns of his Kryptonian heritage.
• Bruce Wayne returns to Gotham after training abroad and begins operating as the Batman.
  • Batman has his first encounters with Catwoman, Hugo Strange, the Mad Monk, and Dr. Death. Other than this, Batman is mostly fighting street and organized crime.
  • The Bat-Signal is established by the end of the year.
• Diana leaves Themyscira and begins operating as Wonder Woman.
  • Wonder Woman is mostly working to stop Aries' plot, but she also encounters Paula von Gunther, Angle Man, Dr. Poison, and The Cheetah (Priscilla Rich).
• Hal Jordan encounters Abin Sur and becomes the Green Lantern of Sector 2814.
  • Jordan first encounters Hector Hammond and Legion.
  • Sinestro begins mentoring Hal.
• Barry Allen becomes The Flash.
• Oliver Queen returns to Star City and becomes Green Arrow.

Year Two

• Arthur Curry escapes prison and makes his public debut as Aquaman.
• The wizard Shazam appoints Billy Batson to be Captain Marvel.
• Superman first encounters kryptonite, The Parasite, Metallo, Toyman, and Mister Mxyzptlk.
  • Superman and Batman first meet.
  • Superman later has his first encounters with other superheroes, teaming up with them when their paths cross.
• Batman first encounters The Joker, The Scarecrow, The Penguin, The Riddler, Poison Ivy, and Killer Croc.
  • The Holiday murders begin.
  • Batman wrestles with a venom addiction before kicking it.
  • By the end of the year, the Falcone and Maroni gangs are mostly dismantled, and Harvey Dent becomes Two-Face.
• Wonder Woman first encounters Dr. Psycho, Circe, Giganta, and The Cheetah (Barbara Minerva).
• Hal encounters the Puppeteer, Sonar, Black Hand, Evil Star, and the Invisible Destroyer.
  • Sinestro is stripped of his ring and exiled after it is revealed that he is misusing his power to rule Korugar.

Year Three

• Superman first encounters Brainiac, whom he stops from bottling Metropolis.
  • Superman first encounters General Zod and his confederates when they escape from the Phantom Zone.
  • Superman has his first encounters with the machinations of Darkseid, as Intergang begins using mysteriously advanced weaponry and emissaries of Darkseid begin to attack Project Cadmus.
    • Orion and the Forever People come to Earth to work against Darkseid.
    • Superman first encounters a Boom Tube and visits SuperTown, where he meets Lightray and other new Gods for the first time.
• Batman first encounters Mr. Freeze, Clayface, and the Mad Hatter.
  • Batman first encounters Mr. Freeze, Clayface, Deadshot, and Man-Bat.
  • Bruce Wayne adopts Dick Grayson, who starts operating as Robin.
• Roy Harper becomes Speedy.
• Guy Gardner is appointed as a back-up Green Lantern.
• Alec Holland becomes the Swamp Thing.

Year Four

• Wally West becomes Kid Flash.
• Kara Zor-El lands on Earth and becomes Supergirl.
• J'onn J'onzz unites Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, the Flash, and Aquaman to fend off a White Martian invasion. They temporarily operate out of a satellite Batcave in Rhode Island and form The Justice League.
  • No longer keeping his presence hidden, J'onn J'onzz starts operating publicly as "Martian Manhunter" at the encouragement of his teammates.
  • The League builds the Hall of Justice in Washington, D.C., which becomes their stable base of operations.
  • The League later encounters Starro, Kanjar-Ro, Doctor Destiny, the Royal Flush Gang, and other villains.
  • Green Arrow becomes the first League recruit and helps Bruce Wayne finance the Watchtower Satellite.
  • Zatanna discovers her magical powers and enlists various superheroes to help her find her father, reconnecting with Bruce Wayne in the process.
  • The League later recruits Black Lightning, Zatanna, Black Canary, The Atom, Hawkwoman, and Hawkman.
• Aquaman takes the throne as ruler of Atlantis.
  • Garth becomes Aqualad.
• Barbara Gordon becomes Batgirl.
• Jack Ryder becomes The Creeper and Boston Brand becomes Deadman.
• Superman first meets Darkseid face-to-face.
  • Superman encounters Mongul and War World.
  • Morgan Edge's WGBS buys out the Daily Planet.

Year Five

• Aquaman meets Mera.
• The League recruits Elongated Man, Red Tornado, Metamorpho, and Firestorm.
• Robin, Speedy, Aqualad, Wonder Girl, and Kid Flash form the Teen Titans.
• Oliver Queen loses his fortune, grows the goatee, and redesigns his costume from the Silver Age green-and-red suit to the Neal Adams suit.
• Batman first encounters Ra's al Ghul.
• Roman Sionis becomes Black Mask.
• Helena Bertinelli becomes The Huntress.

Year Six

• Hal Jordan and Oliver Queen go their road trip across the U.S., going from being mere colleagues to friends.
  • John Stewart is inducted as a Green Lantern.
• Nathaniel Adams returns and General Eilling starts Project Atom, blackmailing Adams to work as a government asset while posing as Captain Atom.

Year Seven

• Dick Grayson starts attending Hudson University, meaning that he and Batman begin to work together less frequently, though they still keep in touch and team up when Dick is on holidays.
  • Bruce Wayne moves from Wayne Manor to his downtown Penthouse.
• Raven unites Robin, Kid Flash, Wonder Girl, Cyborg, Beast Boy, and Starfire to form a new version of the Teen Titans.

Year Eight

• Dick Grayson becomes Nightwing.
• Jason Todd becomes Robin.
• Batman, Robin, and Wonder Woman visit Superman to celebrate his birthday, only to find that he has been captured by Mongul.
• Barry Allen dies saving the universe from the Anti-Monitor.
  • Wally West becomes The Flash.
• Power Girl from Earth-2 becomes stranded on Earth-0.
• Amanda Waller launches Task Force X.
• While the original Justice League is on hiatus, the U.N. forms the Justice League International.
• Green Arrow: The Longbow Hunters stuff starts happening now.
• Swamp Thing, Constantine, Etrigan the Demon, and the Phantom Stranger team up to fight the Great Darkness.

Year Nine

• Deacon Blackfire's cult takes over Gotham, but he is stopped by Batman and Robin.
• Jason Todd is killed by The Joker.
• Barbara Gordon is paralyzed by The Joker.

Year Ten

• Anarky debuts.
• Tim Drake assumes the mantle of Robin.
• Virgil Hawkins becomes Static.

After the first decade or so, time starts being more amorphous and operating on some cross between a timeline that develops and a stationary Simpsons-like timeline where time doesn't really move. Some things progress, some things don't, everything is kept vague, and characters don't notice or call attention to this. Essentially, large amounts of time are zipped into small amounts of time, and both the longer and shorter time intervals between events are "correct" depending on how much we're zooming in on the timeline. For example, Kyle Rayner had a good number of years as a solo Green Lantern and Tim Drake was Robin for a solid amount of time before Hal Jordan returned and Damian Wayne showed up, but somehow, superheroes in general have only been operating for about 10 to 15 years, max. This is really the only way you can keep Batman perpetually in his 30s or 40s without having weird consequences like each Robin only holding the title for a year before he gets a new one.
So after this, I stop having specific "years" and it becomes more like "periods of time in which certain things co-occur." So there might be considerable time intervals between events, yet those events might also paradoxically be squished into some 10-15-year timeline.
The Fall of Heroes Era

• The Death and Return of Superman happen.
  • Superboy and Steel debut.
• Bane debuts and Knightfall happens.
• Diana is replaced by Artemis as Wonder Woman.
• Shortly after Clark and Bruce return, Hal becomes the Parallax.
  • Kyle Rayner becomes Earth's Green Lantern.
• Oliver Queen dies.
  • Connor Hawke becomes Green Arrow.

The Reconstruction Era

• Clark Kent and Lois Lane get married.
• Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern (Rayner), The Flash (West), Aquaman, and Martian Manhunter reform the Justice League.
  • Electric Superman Blue never happened, lol.
• Robin, Superboy, and Impulse form Young Justice.
• Cataclysm, Contagion, and No Man's Land happen (sorry for having so much destruction during the reconstruction era)
• Cassandra Cain becomes Batgirl.

The Millennium Era

• Obviously didn't happen around the turn of the millennium anymore because floating timeline.
• Our Worlds at War and Bruce Wayne: MurdereFugitive happen around here.
• Oliver Queen returns from the dead.

The Infinite Crisis Era

• Hal Jordan and the GLC return.
• Infinite Crisis, 52, and OYL happen.

The Final Crisis Era

• The War of Light (Sinestro Corps War through Blackest Night) stuff happens.
• The Black Glove/Leviathan Saga (Batman & Son through Batman Incorporated) stuff happens.
  • Bruce meets Damian Wayne.
• The New Krypton stuff happens.
• Katherine Kane becomes Batwoman.

There are things I'm on the fence on, such as whether the Golden Age heroes are part of this timeline. On the one hand, I like the idea of Superman being the world's very first superhero and the public never having had encountered anything fantastical until his debut. If the JSA existed before him, then his debut would be met with "hey look, I guess flying men are back" instead of "can you BELIEVE a man can fly?!" Batman's debut also seems more striking if Gotham was never patrolled by a Green Lantern (that guy probably would have single-handedly demolished Gotham's mob in the '40s instead of letting it grow to the size it would later become).
On the other hand, I wouldn't want to jettison the cool relationships that exist between the Golden Age and later characters, like Kyle Rayner knowing Jade. I think I lean toward "keep them on Earth-2, but allow them to have regular meetings and friendships with the Earth-0 guys." But if the walls between universes are that porous, that just raises the question of why Power Girl got stuck on Earth-0 when the rest of the Earth-2 people can go home whenever they want.

I've been lining up an industry transition out of postdoc for the better part of this past calendar year. In this current market, I'm a bit shellshocked and reluctant to count a good thing until its 100% certain. Not being in the biz or having run this gauntlet before, I wanted to cross-validate some of the signals I've received in my hiring process thus far.
Role is PhD level in clinical data science and I've cleared the three interview rounds initially described to me: 1) hiring manager interview (referred internally through network), 2) technical coding/test project round, and 3) presentation to senior team members for test project.
There was a two-week lull after I presented during which they interviewed their remaining candidates and asked me to hold on a bit longer. Having finished that, they've now come back talking about a previously undiscussed "final" round of 30 min interviews with HR, the lead project manager, operations president, and two technical leads collateral to my potential role.
My hiring manager described these interviews as "culture fit," but said certain stakeholders might ask technical Qs. Whole shebang has taken the better part of two months and the crawl has been agonizing w/ respect to planning over the next months.
Any pros want to give me their read on this? Am I close to closing this shit or is there any chance that this is some final strut down the catwalk because they're split between me and someone else? I'm proud of myself for seeing this through, but uncertain how I should understand what I've accomplished to this point (and what these final interviews mean).
Thanks for the advice!

Looking for a 2 ch oscilloscope. No budget for a really nice bench model. Ive been working on audio processing circuits and need to 'see ' what's going on. So frequencies in the audible range. Also looking at pwm Signals would be nice.
Found these two on Amazon and wondered if either is decent for my hobby leven expectations...
HDS242S Oscilloscope 2+1CH Digital Handheld Oscilloscope Multiumeter 40MHz Bandwidth with 3.5 Inch LCD https://a.co/d/a6Pu9se
Hantek 2D42 Handheld Oscilloscope 40MHz Waveform Generator Multimeter 3 in 1 Multifunction Tester 2CH+AFG+DMM Scope https://a.co/d/hirwxT6
Thanks!

Hello!
I currently have a flow as part of a retention strategy on Klaviyo that is triggered by a count of orders placed through Recharge (subscriptions platform). After a given number of orders through recharge, we reward the customer with one free order.
Our e-comm runs on Shopify.
How can I build that "signal/trigger" from Klaviyo to Shopify (not plus, regular) to let shopify know that a refund has to be processed for the last order once any given customer who entered that flow on Klaviyo reaches that FREE order milestone?
Many thanks!
Made for Living

[Chapter 1] ; [Previous Chapter] ; [Discord + Wiki] ; [Patreon]
​
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Chapter 168 – The moment to live and the moment to die
​
„Jumping!“ an Ensign announced loudly as the Sun's view-windows very briefly flickered into a dark black only to go back to a full view of the ongoing battle basically instantly, having barely shifted the ship's position at incomprehensible speed. „Shot clear of allied ships.“
Vice-Admiral Kazadi tapped his finger on one of the armrests of the Commander's seat that still felt anything but comfortable for him to sit in as the tight grid of flashing lights reflected in his eyes within the twilight of the bridge.
“Fire,” he then ordered. Not even a blink later, a burst of colorful light broke into his view from the side of his very own ship, lighting up the entirety of the bridge even through the automatically tinting windows that absorbed a lot of the harmful light so the crew wouldn't flashbang themselves with each shot.
The relativity canon fire tore through the enemy ship at an almost literal instant with any travel time barely being conceivable to a mortal mind. In a large unload of energy that left almost the entire stern-side of the zodiatos ship as a molten mass of dispersing slag, the main propulsion was taken out. Simultaneously, the two accompanying cruisers had also taken their shots; with the 'Civil' taking out the engine of one more enemy vessel while the 'of the roses' had instead used its shot to disperse one of the enemy projectiles in order to buy their own hunter ships more freedom of movement. Those huge ones didn't go down easy from one of the hunters' smaller shots, so using one of the large canons to dispatch it took some of the heat off them.
Meanwhile, smaller targets on the enemy vessels, such as their own canons, were gradually taken out by said hunters, whose own fire – while able to be quite destructive if intended no doubt – could be used in a far more precise manner. With more and more of their canons failing, the protective volleys the coreworld terrorists could fire to hide themselves away also became less and less effective.
“Send the fallback-beacon,” Kazadi then ordered, since close quarter attacks became less and less necessary.
It seemed that the zodiatos had a hard time adjusting to the combat style of the human unkindnesses, however that didn't mean they should take any unnecessary risks. Even if a pilot could've been able to avoid all enemy attacks in a perfect world, he knew that his pilots were only human.
Casualties of their own had been comparatively minimal so far, however as if to prove him right about his thoughts, he could see on his surveillance screen how, just in that moment, one of their ships was taken out by an enemy craft.
He grimaced to himself and let out a mild sigh. One more family who would never see one of their own again...
It took a moment before all the ships were reached by the beacon. Due to the nature of their own combat strategies, as well as the particular nature of hyperspace, it was entirely impossible to effectively contact any of their ships directly while they were out in the battle. Therefore, the order to fall back had to be broadcast as a general signal, that each of the pilots could individually pick up as soon as they would keep still for long enough so that it could reach them.
By now, the battle was already won. None of the zodiatos' weapons were able to match the relativity canons in effective range and without the larger ships to back them up, their small hunters wouldn't be able to launch an offensive – shields or not. They could just stay back and fire until surrender now. As the signal was picked up, one of their ships after another disappeared in one last flash of hyperspace as they joined back up with the larger vessels in an enclosing formation.
“Prepare for the retrieval of some of those projectiles,” the Vice-Admiral then ordered as he hoped they would be able to track some of those spent shots their enemies had fired. They would have to figure out what kind of tech that was.
In such a small-scale conflict, it was more than manageable to face it. However, it could offer some difficulties in larger fleets – especially since they didn't know how far this kind of tech could possible be expanded and refined. It was quite possible this was just some form of prototype.
While that order was followed, one of his Lieutenants suddenly spoke up.
“Sir, we have an incoming transmission from the planet. Civilian. Not encrypted, but they seemingly had an access code,” they related quickly.
“Is the earlier interference cleared up?” he immediately asked back, to which the answer was positive. “Put it through then,” he immediately ordered as soon as he heard that.
He rubbed one of his tight braids between his fingers as he waited for contact to be established. Once the line was clear, things remained quiet for a moment.
“What are we best at?” he then asked the silent line, his chest tightening ever so slightly, even if he didn't have to wait long for a reply.
“Topping from the bottom,” a very familiar voice replied from the other end, sounding incredibly strained but most certainly alive.
The code phrase was an old in-joke about something that had been said back during humanity's first contact with the tonamstrosites due to a slightly choppy translation. However, it more than sufficed here to tell Kazadi that the person on the other side of the line was not only genuine, but also not in any immediate distress – at least none that was brought onto her by someone else.
“Good to hear your voice Ma'am,” he greeted the Admiral after taking a brief moment to allow his heart to settle.
“The pleasure is all mine, Celestin,” Admiral Krieger replied in between heavy breaths that sounded like a combination between being ready to collapse and absolutely willing to tear anyone's throat out at a moment's notice. “Excuse me for the unorthodox contact, my own means of communication have all been destroyed. Update me.”
A brief smile played on the Vice-Admiral's lips.
“No problem, Ma'am. Things are under control up here, but multiple allied coluyvoree ships were destroyed and we suffered some casualties of our own which I will take full responsibility for,” he quickly complied. “By now, the enemy crafts have been largely disabled and our fighters are falling back. What's the situation on your end?”
There was a bit of a grunt from the other side of the line that seemed unrelated to the ongoing conversation.
“I'm sure you did everything by the books,” Krieger then replied a moment later. “Down here the situation is precarious but momentarily under control. We have an unconfirmed number of casualties after an attack with an unknown weapon. All squads are either KIA or unresponsive. We took down six enemy combatants but can't confirm if there's more. I'm going to need clean up, rescue teams, as well as pickup for me and two large offworlders asap.”
Celestin nodded.
“We're in a stable position, so we'll jump teams down right away. Hold out just a minute more,” he assured her while already signing in the necessary order to the troops they had on standby. “How bad are your injuries?”
There was another groan of pain from Krieger's side.
“Crushed cranberries,” she replied after a long moment that sounded like she needed to catch her breath.
“Copy that,” Kazadi replied with a grimace. “Sending muti-team with the evac.”
“Copy that,” Krieger confirmed. “Krieger out.”
With that, the call was hung up. On his screen, Celestin could see how the preparations for dispatch of the requested teams was already well underway. Jumping towards a planet at FTL was generally discouraged by the Galactic Community. However, this was an emergency. They couldn't wait for normal re-entry.
After watching the reported progress for just a moment, his eyes returned to the ongoing battle. He watched the enemy ships as they hovered dead in space, unable to maneuver.
They seemed to have recalled their own fighters back in order to form some sort of protective wall around the 'mother ships' with their own small shields. Obviously it wouldn't be very effective, so it seemed like needless cruelty to make their own soldiers get in the way of the incoming fire. Something within Kazadi told the Vice-Admiral they weren't going to stand down.
“Sir, we're getting some strange hyperspace-readings,” his Lieutenant suddenly announced, making him look up.
“Weapon-grade?” he immediately asked, knowing they had less than a moment to react if it was. However, he also figured there would've been more urgency to their voice had it been so.
“No, Sir. Travel-grade,” the Lieutenant quickly replied. “However the readings are unusual. It seems like they are creating a stretch solely around themselves.”
Kazadi's lips shifted a bit as he took that in and he briefly ran a hand over his mouth in thought. “Prepare to collapse,” he ordered. “Maybe they will attempt some sort of running start. We can't let them get away.”
Right then, the light of what was happening had not yet caught up to the spacial distortion that their sensors were detecting, meaning the ships still looked perfectly normal – if damaged – when he looked at them. However, they were planning something. And that made them appear all the more ominous.
His mind quickly went through their own protocols. The U.H.S.D.F. employed hyperspace in nearly all its possible facets in their tactics. If it was even close to sensible, they would have something that was akin to the maneuver their foes were attempting to execute right now.
A bubble of hyperspace solely around their ships...a dodge? Hardly, there was nothing to dodge like that. An attempt to hide away? No, they knew human ships could collapse hyperspace from the outside easily.
Before him, the windows of the ship once again automatically dimmed, protecting the crew's eyes as the colorful light of the created hyperspace-bubble finally reached them.
“Hyperspace collapsed!” the Lieutenant then suddenly announced, causing Kazadi to blink in surprise as his eyes shot up to his screen. He hadn't given any order to collapse it yet. But indeed, it was gone. For a moment, he thought that the stress had caused his officer to use the wrong term in haste, however no, they had been completely right. It had not been dispersed in a controlled manner. It had collapsed.
In a mild 'thud', the Vice-Admiral's fist descended on the armrest, hand firmly clenched into a fist.
“Those cowardly ba-” he began to growl but then bit his tongue and released a low, almost grunting exhale while his fist quivered from momentarily clenching tighter. “Prepare to search for survivors,” he instead said in a much more controlled manner a moment later. “Preserve lives.”
“Yessir,” multiple of his officers echoed back as he looked out of the window, where he could still see the ghostly afterimage of the hyperspace bubble linger for a bit longer. It was always a strange feeling, seeing someone in the distance who was already dead...
–
With her view darkened and her goggles momentarily pulled off her eyes, Shida stared at the glowing bubble of impossible colors. Her sensors had already told her what was about to happen at any moment now, however her eyes still heavily constricted as they finally witnessed what unfolded themselves.
In what could be described as nothing else than a 'snap' , the light of the hyperspace-stretch instantly condensed down into its original size as the universe all at once remembered that the laws of physics were a thing that existed and brutally forced space to conform to them once again – no matter what may have been in between it and its original form.
Anything within the strange, round stretch was mercilessly ripped along with the convulsion, forcing all the injected warships and fighters into the single, small point that the stretch had been generated from. Though not even a faction of a second later, it all exploded outwards again as the megatons of mass realized that they could not all exist in the same place at once, since the energy of the event was not quite potent enough to press it all into a neutron star or singularity.
No longer recognizable blotches of undefined, white-hot matter were instantly scattered in all directions like some sort of micro-supernova that accentuated the sometimes still burning nano-stars that the earlier battle had created from the opposing fighters.
It was almost pretty...but still, Shida couldn't help but let her ears hang as she wondered how many of the enemy combatants had known about the decision to end things this way. Had any of them even been asked?
Even if it was the far more disturbing answer in a way, Shida almost hoped that this had actually been one mutual suicide-pact instead of the decision of one single commander to choose death over dishonor. Especially while sitting in a ship that was technically under the command of someone else herself, that was certainly the less immediately petrifying option – even if it would probably spell far worse things in the long run.
As she said there, the 'shockwave' of the collapsing hyperspace suddenly hit her, spreading out through space even without any medium to carry it and rocking her ship gently while also penetrating all throughout her body. Of course the earlier relativity fire had already caused similar ripples and she was therefore quite used to the feeling, however these ones sure felt a bit more severe than those of the U.H.S.D.F.'s own canons. It was like she felt her own body distort while also remaining perfectly in palace – almost like she was a stiff container full of water that someone had given a heavy smack from the side, riling up the liquid without it actually having any place to plash to.
According to everything they knew, this phenomenon felt incredibly odd but was entirely harmless to living beings – which was instinctively very hard to believe when one felt it on their own body.
However, her dwelling thoughts were, perhaps luckily, interrupted as she – or more precisely one of her scanners - picked up on a peculiar signature that one of the scattered debris pieces was sending out.
Well, it was 'peculiar' to her that there was a signal at all at first, however then she quickly realized what it actually was. This particular signal was hammered into any pilot's head six ways to Sunday, and so she reacted relatively quickly when she glanced at the grid and realized that she was the closest ship to it. Firing up her engines, she turned her ship on the spot in a slight drift before activating her generator and making a jump right behind the flying object.
Once there, she allowed her computer to take aim for a second before firing out a harpoon that quickly struck the flying debris and latched her ship onto it through a long cable, allowing her to pull the thing along with her after slowly using her backwards thrusters to disperse its speed little by little. Pressing the indicator of her communication, she then spoke up.
“Scratches to Sun,” she announced. “I just recovered a black box. Permission to return for inspection?”
The black boxes of modern ships truly were among the most ridiculous pieces of tech out there, in Shida's humble opinion. Built to withstand almost everything that would likely take a ship out through a combination of brilliant engineering and extremely flexible material that only worked in its indented manner on very small scales. Well, very small compared to the ships they were built into. The things were about half the size of Shida in the end. For many years, armies of scientists had attempted their very best to make this same sort of defense useful in ways that could maybe be used to protect actual people from catastrophic events – but to no avail so far. For now, the only thing those little marvels could allow to survive even something as ludicrous as hyperspace collapsing was information.
“Permission granted, Lieutenant-Commander,” the answer came almost immediately. “Return to hangar three.”
“Copy,” Shida replied. “Scratches out.”
With that, she moved her ship around and prepared for her jump back to the Sun. Hopefully this thing would give them some answers on what exactly this whole thing was meant to accomplish...
–
Far away in another part of the galaxy, a pair of mildly glowing red eyes was laser-focused on a large screen that was just one of many that had merged all over Nedstaniot-Station to broadcast the breaking news to anyone willing to lift their eyes at a slight angle to look at them.
An attack on a coreworld. And not just any coreworld. Gewelitten itself. Something like this hadn't happened in...well, Curi didn't even know how long.
Details seemed to still be incredibly fuzzy as the battle so close to the coluyvoree homeworld had either just happened or was still happening at the moment of the broadcast, however what few details were known were already repeated on end in an endless scroll of text that was meant to catch as many people up to speed as was at all possible through the medium of television. Obviously the same emerging details could already be looked up on the net as well to find them in a more digestible format than the endlessly moving text next to the not exactly top quality footage of the occurring conflict.
However, despite the speed with which it went by, Curi had no problem following the scroll as they stared at the screen intensely.
“Attack was unannounced. Multiple Gewelitten fleet ships destroyed. Official sources confirm: Humanity NOT the aggressor. Attacking ships presumed to be of zodiatos origin. Unknown weapon technology deployed during the attack. U.H.S.D.F. ships engaged in combat after aggression. Myiat delegation ship confirmed unharmed. Attack on government facility on planet simultaneous to spacial attack. Councilman-Candidate Aldwin confirmed unharmed. Status of U.H.S.D.F. General Krieger unknown. Status of Gewelitten Governor H. Cierrophai unknown. Status of Acting-Councilman Afuéhner unknown. Allied coreworld defense fleets activated and inbound. General alert level raised to 8. Hyperspace-travel shut down around the system.”
“Mother, oh no...” Mueen said with absolute shock in his eyes, both of his hands clasped over this mouth as his wide pupils quivered in fear from what they witnessed.
Curi could understand his worry. Though Moar had supposedly been with James, so she would probably be fine. The cyborg was certainly more than just a little relieved that James was already confirmed to be safe. Though the idea that Admiral Krieger's situation was unknown was more than just a little disconcerting.
Though despite the supposed lack of their commanding officer, it seemed like the humans had decisively won out in the battle outside of the coreworld's atmosphere; unknown technology or not.
Given the sub-par footage that some drone was likely recording from quite far away from the actual conflict, it was very hard to tell just what sort of weapon the unknown but presumed to be zodiatos attackers had unleashed there. It looked like some sort of emanating energy that destroyed what it came into contact with but also interacted with it as if it had a physical presence.
Curi had never seen anything remotely like it before – not even in their wildest theories – and their mind immediately wanted to go wild with speculations and ideas about how such a thing might work now that they knew for a fact that it was possible from seeing it with their own eyes.
However, the cyborg pulled themselves together and successfully forced the briefly almost overwhelming desire to focus on nothing else down as they shifted their gaze slightly away from the screen to look over at their other currently nearby company.
Then again, as much as they knew they couldn't let their guard down around him, Reprig's eyes were just as immovably attached to the large screen as Mueen's were as he witnessed the unfolding battle with quivering horror.
His trunk was wiggling wildly in his face and one of his hands nervously scratched over the plate of the table they were all sitting and standing at and on, right next to a piece of paper with a hastily drawn sketch of a spring-like mechanical leg that was inspired by what humans called 'running blades'. The Warrant Officer's weapon also laid on the table, pushed a but further away from his hand so he wouldn't be able to easily reach it.
Though despite his focus, Curi couldn't quite help but speak up after a moment of watching him. “A coreworld attacking another coreworld,” they said to the man, who they knew either had to know far more than they did about this – or would be far more invested in it unfolding. “This is unprecedented.”
Reprig seemed to notice that they were talking to him, however he still remained silent and stared a good few moments longer before finally pulling his gaze away from the screen.
As his eyes met theirs, he looked a bit sick. It almost reminded the cyborg of one of the first interactions they had with the man, back when they nudged him slightly to hand his spy-device back to him after he tried to hide it in James' cabin. Though this time, the cyborg was quite sure that they were not the reason why the man seemed like most of his blood was currently rushing into his stomach.
Could he actually be shocked about what was happening? Was this not part of the plan?
“Unprecedented doesn't even come close to describing it...” he mumbled and couldn't hold the cyborg's gaze for long, looking down to the table's plate instead. “And these aren't just any coreworlds. Osontjar and Gewelitten have been allied for an unimaginably long time. The thought that they would even think of attacking each other...what sort of madness could've caused something like this?”
Curi was the first to admit to themselves that they were far from the best at reading people. If someone with even a modicum of skill in acting wanted to make them believe something untrue about the person they were talking to, they would never deny that there was a good chance of that person succeeding.
Still, Reprig's reaction felt...genuine to them. As if he had actually never expected something like this to happen. Not in a million years.
Maybe it was just skillful acting. And Curi knew that they should have been suspicious like that. However, despite everything he had done, they couldn't quite bring themselves to suspect that he was lying at that moment.
“I know it is unlikely you will give me an honest answer, but-” Curi began to say, however Reprig was more than able to anticipate what they were going to ask and replied long before they were finished.
“No. No. Never,” the sipusserleng said, shaking his head heavily and standing his trunk up while making a denying gesture with his hand that was so brash that he actually knocked his crutch off the small outcrop in the table it had been laid down on. “This must be some absolutely deranged people, no two ways about it. To attack a coreword...”
Curi noticed Reprig's gaze briefly twitching down, his eyes jumping onto the personal assistant strapped to his lower arm as if he suddenly got the urge to use it for something.
Curi suspected he likely wanted to call someone; question them to make extra sure that they had, in fact, nothing to do with this. Though the sipusserleng suppressed the urge and pulled his eyes away, bringing them back up to the screen.
Just at that moment, the implosion of collapsing hyperspace suddenly lit up the footage moments before the glowing remnants of what once had been the zodiatos ships were scattered across the star-system.
Mueen mumbled something in his home's language as his eyes remained affixed to the screen. Curi couldn't even begin to guess what he was saying. However, his voice sounded pleading.
“Suicide instead of surrender?” Reprig meanwhile mouthed breathlessly as his nervous tick of excessively licking his trunk began to show.
Although he had often been otherwise employed in recent times, Curi could see it in the man's eyes that he was still, in a way, military at heart. He knew the general values and doctrines that were conveyed to the soldiers of the Communal Military, both inside and out. And the idea of someone choosing death like this...it seemed to rock him to his very core.
Slowly, he turned his gaze over to Curi. His eyes were almost pleading with the cyborg, even if they seemed to already know that his next question would be asked in vain.
“Could it maybe have been the humans and their-” he began, but this time, it was Curi's term to cut him off after anticipating what was coming.
“While humans very much employ the collapsing of hyperspace as a tactic in war, the process is not invisible – or even subtle. Had the human ships caused that collapse, it would've been noticeable,” they explained succinctly. “It could've still been a mere unexpected failure of the hyperspace generation, of course. However, with the rarity of such events, the timing seems...unlikely.”
“They weren't even trying to generate a real stretch...” Reprig concurred dejectedly and left his head hanging, his trunk also sinking down limply. “I can't even imagine- Well...I hope they will at least find peace now, away from the madness.”
Curi paused for a long moment, staring at the Warrant Officer some more. Admittedly, the cyborg was a bit confounded at something. They knew for a fact the man had put his own life on the line for his orders, with a very real chance that they would lead to his death, more than just once. And yet the idea of being ordered to die seemed to disturb him. They couldn't quite figure out the difference that led to the results in reaction being so incredibly different, however it was still very clear that there was one.
And it seemed to hit the man hard.
Self-admittedly, Curi didn't exactly pity the man. They didn't quite have the capacity to. They knew about so many horrible things he had done that simply seeing him distressed was far from enough to stir such deep empathy for him within them.
Yet still, they weren't left entirely cold by it either – and if it was only because he seemed to be affected by these events in the ways a, for a lack of a better term, 'normal person' would be. He was shocked at the sudden, seemingly senseless violence, and concerned about the people involved.
Granted, it was likely only because they were people he considered worth being concerned about, yet still, the reaction was so...'normal', in a way they didn't quite expect from someone with such a capability for unceremonious acts of cruelty and violence. Even this person who had tried to kill them, or at least had been entirely comfortable with them getting killed, was capable of such a reaction.
And Curi...wasn't sure if that made things better or worse, if they were being honest.
It felt better because there was the capability for empathy there, however...it felt worse because they felt how they had been and likely still were willingly denied said empathy.
He could have cared...he just didn't want to.
Curi shook their body heavily, causing mild sounds from the engines running their legs' movements from the sudden force as they tried to shoo away emotions that they really didn't want to be feeling at that exact moment.
The thing that mostly kept them from following up on some of their uncomfortably aggressive thoughts at that moment was the fact that Mueen was still with them, the worry for his mother written across his features like a deep engraving in a metal plaque. He did not need anything like that around him right now, that much was clear.
Slowly, they moved over to him and reached up one of their long legs to run it along his arm while he still covered parts of his large face with both hands.
“She will be alright,” Curi then assured the dark-furred rafulite, switching from their usual voice box to their more “melodic” one to put on a gentle, calming tone. “She is stronger than she seems.”
Inhaling deeply as his nostrils flared, Mueen closed his dark eyes and swallowed heavily, taking his gaze off the large screen for the first time in many minutes while slowly hanging his head down.
“Yeah,” he said, seeming to force hopefulness into his tone. “Yes, she'll be fine. She made it his far. This won't get to her.”
Curi nodded with their entire body and continued to run the tip of their leg along his arm.
“She will be,” they repeated, both to the man and themselves as their own eyes moved upwards, their gaze falling back on the battlefield riddled with burning remnants of matter. “I'm sure of it.”
–
Never in his life had James felt so drunk and so sober at the same time. His mind was entirely clear, running a light-year a minute as it desperately tried to simultaneously process all the admittedly little information that he had in his current situation AND to not absolutely freak out while doing so somehow – a task he was ludicrously failing at. And it did NOT help that his body could barely keep itself on his own two feet.
He had avoided completely fainting by a hair earlier after reminding himself that, instead of being terrified for Shida's life, it would be much more fair towards her to simply focus on trusting in her skills to carry her through. However, that was barely a little patch on an enormous crack in his facade as he couldn't help but go over and over and over the fact of how much worse the situation that she needed to jump into here had been for her simply because it was his damn birthday and they wanted to indulge over it. He should've stopped that, but noooo, he just had to go and let himself be swayed so damn easily, as if he was still that little boy following Koko around whenever she visited the compound to try and get some attention.
Of course, a quiet voice in the back of his head tried to politely remind him that Shida had, in fact, not only taken part in the festivities as well but also encouraged him to do so, however it was easily overpowered by the screaming rest of his mind.
He briefly glanced over at the only somewhat conscious Commander. When she said that they should match each other's drinks, that should've been the moment he stopped. She was like half his weight, what the hell was he thinking?
His mechanical hand shot up, heavily gripping a fist full of hair as he tried to force himself to focus. What's done is done. There's no changing it. He should focus on anything else right now.
Though as he painfully pulled on his hair like that, his eyes suddenly went wide as he noticed something. Or, more precisely, didn't notice something.
When had the alarm stopped? Just now? Or had it been out and he just hadn't noticed?
Letting go of his hair, he lifted his face and looked around. If the alarm was over, then that meant...
The uncoordinated movement of soldiers reaching for their phones and radios with different speeds went through the room, and after brief confirmation, the uniformed forces began to move, having seemingly gotten new orders other than guarding the safe-rooms. Apparently, the threat was over.
James quickly fumbled for his own phone, his barely coordinated hands struggling extremely with the simple task of trying to call one of his contacts – much to the frustration of his already cleared mind. His finger trembled as he swiped it across the screen, trying to get it to the right damn place to make a simple god-damn call.
However, he froze in the motion at a quiet sound that was immediately followed by a sudden stir behind him as multiple people seemed to move quickly. And after just a second, James was among them as well.
Nearly tripping over his feet, he damn near threw himself onto the sickbed that didn't stand too far away from him, his phone momentarily forgotten and eyes wide open as they stared over at an endlessly familiar dark face, that however had life in it for the first time in what felt like an eternity at that moment.
Slowly and twitchy, Nia's eyes fluttered open as she let out quiet groans while mildly stirring in place while her doctors and nurses hurried around her and quickly began to take her vitals.
After flinching heavily as a flashlight was quite suddenly shone into her eyes to test her photopupillary reflex, she began to move even more. Meanwhile, James and Tuya were basically pressed shoulder to shoulder close to the foot of her bed, the only thing keeping them from dashing right up to her face being just enough awareness to not get in the doctor's way.
Still, although her movements were very slow, stiff, and groggy, Nia eventually lifted up her head, looking around with still somewhat hazy and half-closed eyes. But that didn't stop her from smiling when her gaze fell onto the two who so nervously stood at her bedside there.
“Hey,” she said in a quiet, croaky, but still very much cheerful voice as her unkempt hair fell down both sides of her face.
Though James didn't see much more than that, because just about at that moment, his vision was entirely taking away by welling-up waters sweeping him along.

Putting 8.5 risers in my low rider s, Harley claims I won’t need throttle by wire extensions but only turn signals and hand control wires. Can anyone confirm is this is true? Dont want to start the process to only have the bike not be rideable for 2 weeks to wait on throttle by wire extensions to come in if i need to order it.

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92 Hours After the First Round of Interloper Interrogations. UNAFS Perseverance (HSR) - Shuttlecraft - 01. En Route to the New Lorisa Forests LZ.
Lysara
“Touching down in ten seconds.” I announced, my voice emanating from the encounter suit’s speakers in a language that, until just days ago, was an enigma.
Yet in a matter of days, this deceptively simple translation suite, a triumph of xenolinguistics, was now able to match my tone perhaps better than ever before.
Which explained exactly why Evina had responded in the way that she did. “Nervous, Lysara?” She offered in a snide, yet well-meaning jab.
I didn’t respond, not yet at least, as the last five minutes on approach were more often than not the most dangerous aspects of aeronautics; that much I learned from the pilots and armed service members I worked with over the years.
It was only after we’d touched down, and the final safety checks were complete, that I finally turned towards Evina. “I would be lying if I didn’t say I wasn’t at least a little bit unnerved about this whole situation.” I offered, gesturing towards the back of the shuttle, as the both of us unbuckled and left our seats. The whole mission was already memorized in our minds as we’d already run through every plan and backup plan we had over the entirety of the flight time down here. “And to be quite frank, I’m surprised you’re taking this whole thing so incredibly well.” I continued, going through the final checklists on the deployment of this platoon’s worth of combat drones as I did so.
“I think we’ve long since sailed past the point of no return the moment you told me that there was an intergalactic, eons-long war going on, Lysara.” The felinor offered with a shrug. “A bunker with potential ties with that aforementioned malevolent cosmic entity is nothing compared to that bombshell.”
“I’d have assumed that the nature of the bunker, and this mission being issued by said interloper, would’ve been the sticking point here.” I offered, genuinely curious as to the nonchalant attitude projected by the felinor.
“Eh. When you’ve lived in the wastes for this long, you’re bound to have heard the whole ‘the aliens did it’ conspiracy more often than you’d like. Now I’m not saying I believe every wastelander with a conspiracy theory… but I can’t admit the fact that the bunker has always been something that radiates a really weird aura about it. I mean, compared to literally everything else out there in the wastes? It exists in almost this time capsule of complete isolation. The beasts that roam the area, preying on anyone that gets close, don’t really help out much in that whole weird vibe either. So yeah, ever since my first iteration tried to drill her way into it, Far-Reach Point has been a point of great mystery amongst the survivors of the waste. Which lends itself really well to the possibility that your alien enemies could actually be behind it.” Evina shrugged once more, before adding a cheeky self deprecating comment. “The fact that it’s been broadcasting all this time should also be a dead giveaway to be honest. Because you definitely won’t see anything felinor-made still functional without constant maintenance after a few years into its lifespan.”
I chuckled at that statement, if only because it seemed to be made in genuine jest. “Well, we can’t say for certain that interloper tech is involved in its construction. What we do know is that the interloper has some vested interest in the facility.” I shot back, attempting to temper the felinor’s expectations and keeping everything to the limited facts we had on hand. “Or more specifically, the individual living within it.”
“And you got all of that just by putting two and two together huh? Your mission to find this person-of-interest, and the weird anomaly that is this signal station.” The felinor shot back with a disquietingly critical stare.
“It’s our one and only lead.” I shrugged. “It’s either that, or we comb through every living felinor on this planet. So in light of this massive lead, my hypothesis is that our person-of-interest, is in fact, somewhere within that facility.”
“Eh.” Evina once more shrugged. “A better conspiracy theory than the nutjobs. Or rather, good enough that I’d buy it.” She grinned, baring her teeth in the process which, at this point, I’d become accustomed to. If anything, it was after hours of ‘cat videos’, as Vir called them; that I finally started to become accustomed to these fangy grins. Moreover, it was becoming a point of endearment more than anything.
“In any case, drones are online and ready to go.” I continued, moving the conversation out of speculation and back into action, as the rear of the shuttle opened to a charred and lifeless forest floor.
“Man, Vir really did a number to this place, didn't he?” Evina whistled out.
“I… do apologize for all of the collateral damage we’ve incurred on your world-”
“Are you kidding me?!” The felinor interjected with a devious grin. “I hate forests! Heck, maybe it’s a carry-over from my perpetually-indoors first iteration, but forests have always been a place of danger and death lurking over every corner! So yeah, nah, don’t worry about it. If anything, Vir did us a favor by doing this; so be sure to like… let’s make sure to grab him a souvenir or something when we come back.”
The felinor’s frankly erratic behavior worried me sometimes.
But then again, this was to be expected given the nature of cultural barriers. As such, I simply ‘smiled’ back a smile of my own, bearing my blunt teeth as best as I could. “Noted, Evina.”
It was around that point where Evina finally donned her helmet, clasping it into place as she began testing the communications suite with surprisingly little difficult.
“Alright. Can you still hear me through this thing?”
“Loud and clear, Evina.” I nodded.
“Right, let’s get this party started.”

92 Hours After the First Round of Interloper Interrogations. New Lorisa Forests LZ, En Route to the Signal Station (Far-Reach Point).
Evina
We were parked approximately seven hundred or so meters from the signal station.
Though that distance was measured from point to point, and definitely didn’t account for the obstacles and terrain that stretched from here to the station.
Despite that, and what my memories had warned me was a treacherous trek through dense and uncompromising foliage, the world outside was now anything but.
However, despite the constant mission briefs and the logical part of my brain telling me that what awaited outside was nothing like my prior iterations recalled… the power of several lifetimes were just too powerful to overcome.
That was, until the exit ramp opened, and I saw the flattened devastation that awaited me. The charred forest, and the open landscape, quickly sent any doubts incurred by my prior iterations back to whence they came from.
So with one of the greatest obstacles out of the way, and the raw and unbridled power of human-driven alien technologies at our disposal, our deployment out of the shuttle and into the forest was a piece of cake.
More than that, I now had front row seats to the shock and uncompromising efficiency of automated combat.
Needless to say, I was more than happy to be on the other side of the barrel when it came to this engagement.
Four distinct squads of robots formed up and ran out of the back of the shuttle, forming into cohesive units comprised of ten or so felinoid bots, accompanied by a whole host of flying, crawling, slithering, and galloping machines that secured the perimeter for us within a matter of seconds.
Upon a single urging from Lysara, we walked out, flanked on all sides by a remaining detachment of bots, consisting of five felinoid units and a flight of five more drones.
For the first time in any of my prior iteration’s lifetimes, I finally felt like I was on the winning side.
It was a good feeling.
And one I hoped continued as we made our leisurely march through the decimated forests and up towards the station.
The whole scene was just so… jarring.
Especially as memory after memory came to the forefront of those trials and tribulations from the lives of my first, second, and third iterations that had all made this trek several times over.
The massive tileroot tree that dominated the area next to the station… was now just gone. The same could be said for the thick pipewood vines that obstructed the path every couple of steps, and even the earltail moss that kept growing thicker and thicker on the front entrance of the bunker.
Most importantly, the air around me was now silent and still, interrupted only by the near-silent whirrs from the robots and the crunching of ashen foliage beneath our boots.
This was perhaps the first time in my life I actually enjoyed the devastation, a thought that was both ironic as it was troubling.
Regardless, we eventually made our way to the front of the facility in a staggering seven minutes; arriving in front of a circular door with gear-like cogs that were sunken into the facility itself.
“So… why didn’t you try blasting through the walls or the other surfaces of the facility?” I inquired bluntly, pointing at parts of the facility that weren't built into the hillside.
“Countermeasures.” Lysara responded, his voice resonating into my ears, a weird and alien sensation that still sent shivers down my spine. “Our scans were incapable of determining the detailed makeup of what was inside. And as a result, we have the be on the lookout for potential countermeasures against unauthorized entry. In addition, given the fact the facility still has enough power to maintain that broadcast, we can be certain that we not only have to worry about passive countermeasures, but active ones as well.”
“Makes sense.” I nodded. “Is this why you wanted my expertise to begin with? In the hopes that I might have some intel on this place?”
“Correct.” Lysara nodded.
“Well thankfully, you’re in luck.” I responded with a cocky grin, pointing towards a not-so-insignificantly sized hole drilled into one of the door’s massive cog-like edges. “Like I told you in the briefing, my first iteration had tried her hand at breaking into this place. It didn’t work out, obviously, but she did have some theories as to how the whole door system works.” I began walking towards the hole, as a flood of memories from my first iteration slammed into me hard. “So, just beyond this hole should be an emergency release mechanism. Apparently most fallout shelter doors have this as a failsafe or something; accessible only from the inside but capable of being accessed from the outside if you're willing to dig through twenty or so meters of solid metal and rock. This is the mechanism I’m talking about here, so not actually the door itself. My memory’s a bit fuzzy on the specifics but… I’m sure that if we drill deeper into that, angling the hole sideways so we don’t actually go through the door itself, we should hit a mechanism that can be manipulated. Now if you have some fiber optic camera wire and a master lockpick or something, I’m sure you can do it in a few days. But considering we have the power of artificial intelligence on our side… I’m sure we can do it in five minutes.”
That vote of confidence for Vir was rewarded with a ping and a notification in front of my visual field. The existence of a HUD was again, just as jarring as literally everything else right now.
With a heavy breath from Lysara, who at this point was scanning the hole with a whole host of scientific instruments, I received my answer as to how it was we were going to proceed. “One of the bots can be repurposed as a multipurpose drone.” He gestured towards a combat bot that was quickly switching from its main weapon, to what looked to be a seriously well-kitted out multitool kit masquerading as a hand. “We should be able to bore through this in about five minutes, from there… I’ll switch things over to Vir, and I’m sure we’ll be inside that bunker in under fifteen.”
The confidence was palpable in Lysara’s voice, giving me hope that today was the day that the burning curiosity in my first iteration’s memories would finally be addressed.
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(Author’s Note: We arrive on the planet, and make our way towards the signal station! All the while, we observe the tireless preparations Vir has made in ensuring that the landing zone is cleared of threats! Evina elaborates further on exactly what her first iteration had done in order to try to get in, let's just hope that this time around, they can make more progress than her first iteration! :D The next chapter is already out on Patreon as well if you want to check it out!)
[If you guys want to help support me and these stories, here's my ko-fi ! And my Patreon for early chapter releases (Chapter 97 of this story is already out on there!)]

Hello everyone
I have an issue, is it possible to run the acquisition process without connecting LC (vanquish or nanoLC) to the mass spec? So i am doing direct infusion but still relying on Vanquish to send a signal for acquisition process. I am planning to eliminate vanquish, so I just use my device and then load my sampe into the mass spec directly.
Thanks