URL: https://www.commonsensemedia.org/articles/parents-ultimate-guide-to-discord-2024
Title: “Parents' Ultimate Guide to Discord (2024)”
Author: Common Sense Media
Date Published: February 8, 2024
In today's digital age, Discord has emerged as a popular communication platform among children. It offers a place for children where they can connect and share interests. The app uses various forms of communication, including text, voice, and video. However, as with any social media, it is essential for parents to understand the potential benefits and risks that can come with it. The article, "Parents' Ultimate Guide to Discord," published by Common Sense Media on February 8th, 2024, provides a thorough look through of Discord's features and its impact on children.
First Media Key: Balance
In the book Infinite Bandwidth, the first media key emphasizes the importance of balance. When using media, It is important to have the virtue of temperance in order to maintain healthy media habits as “it ensures the will’s mastery over instincts and keeps desires within the limits of what is honorable.” (Gan, pg. 31). The article states that Discord can be a valuable tool for children to communicate and build a community with their peers as it “is a free app for mobile and PC that lets people chat via text, voice, or video in real time." (Common Sense Media, 2024). But, it is essential for children to balance their time on the app with other activities as Discord's features, such as chatting in servers, can lead to excessive use and detract from real-world interactions and responsibilities. With the ever growing use social media today, parents cannot stop their children from using apps for communication. Parents must be their children’s guide and example in learning to have a healthy balance of online and offline communication. So, parents must encourage their children to have temperance when using Discord so that they can still enjoy the app's benefits without it dominating or harming their lives.
Second Media Key: Attitude Awareness
When applying the second key of attitude awareness, prudence must be used as it “is the virtue that disposes practical reason to discern our true good in every circumstance and to choose the right means of achieving it.” (Gan, pg. 47). The article highlights the necessity of attitude awareness regarding the content and interactions on Discord. Children should be discerning about the communities they join and the conversations they engage in because “it's all user-generated, there's the potential for plenty of inappropriate content, like swearing and graphic language and images". (Common Sense Media, 2024). The article does a good job pointing out that while Discord has privacy settings and safety features, the open chat environment can expose children to inappropriate content and interactions with strangers. Parents must be their children's guardians, bringing awareness to the dangers of messages that could be sent to them. Parents should discuss with their children the importance of prudence, and help them learn to make good, wise decisions about who they communicate with and what they share.
Third Media Key: Dignity of the Human Person
The third media key centers on the dignity of the human person, which involves using the virtue of justice. Justice is an important virtue to have when using any form of social media as it “disposes one to respect the rights of each,” as well as, “promotes equity with regard to persons and to the common good.” (Gan, pg 62-63). Respecting the dignity of the human person means engaging in respectful, positive communication and avoiding harmful, negative behaviors. The article talks about the presence of both supportive and harmful interactions and that "Discord has privacy and safety settings that allow users to control who has the ability to send them direct messages or add them as a friend." (Common Sense Media, 2024). If not for these, children could receive harmful, or even dangerous messages. These features allow parents to protect their children and their dignity.
Fourth Media Key: Truth-filled
The fourth media key highlights the importance of truth. The virtue of fortitude is necessary for children to seek and uphold truth as it “strengthens the resolve to resist temptations and to overcome obstacles in the moral life” (Gan, pg. 79). The article explains that while Discord can be a good platform for talking to others by sharing knowledge and engaging in discussions,"There are several educational servers and as well as Student Hubs" (Common Sense Media, 2024). Discord can also be used to possibly spread misinformation and falsehoods as "Each server on Discord has both text and voice channels," and "You can share images, video, and GIFs on Discord" (Common Sense Media, 2024). Parents should encourage their children to lean on the virtue of fortitude to help them verify information and be cautious when using Discord.
Fifth Media Key: Inspiring
The fifth media key focuses on the inspiring potential of media, it “encourges us to expect the best from media” (Gan, pg. 94). Discord's communities and collaborative features can inspire children to learn, create, and connect with others who share their interests and help spread goodness and positivity. As previously mentioned in the article, Discord has educational servers and Student Hubs which “connects them with their classmates in a private server where they can create study groups and interest clubs." (Common Sense Media, 2024).
Sixth Media Key: Skillfully Developed
The sixth media key centers on the quality and creation of media. Discord's user-generated content varies widely in quality and appropriateness because “in this day and age, we all can be media-makers” (Gan, pg. 110). The article highlights the importance of properly managing children’s online environment in Discord. Children should be encouraged to join well-moderated servers that promote meaningful, positive interactions. This can easily be achieved with Discord as "Server owners can also set their own rules for what is or isn't allowed (for example, swearing or hate speech) and block from chat any users who break the rules." (Common Sense Media, 2024). Discord has also created many privacy settings and features "Family Center is a Discord feature that allows parents and caregivers to monitor their kids' activity on the app." (Common Sense Media, 2024), allowing Parents to help guide their children to use Discord thoughtfully and carefully. Discord has skillfully made it parents to monitor what their children are up to and who they are talking to, ensuring their safety online.
Seventh Media Key: Motivated by and Relevant to Experience
The seventh and final media key emphasizes the importance of creating an experience through media that appeals to children's thoughts and emotions. It inspires their actions and calls them to have the virtue of charity, which “is friendship and communion” (Gan, pg. 128). Discord follows this key through its features, where children can create meaningful interactions that resonate with each other. "Users also create private servers to chat with friends while they play together. For example, a team on Fortnite could create a private server on Discord to chat and strategize together" (Common Sense Media, 2024). Children can also form communities with each other around shared interests; "just about any topic is represented on Discord" (Common Sense Media, 2024). Discord is a great platform that motivates and is relevant to children. It enhances their real-world relationships and interests through communication and collaboration.

What kind of political party can be 100% transparent? What vulnerabilities will this create?
How can a party demand transparency of its politicians and hold them accountable to it?
A politically neutral party can do these things. A neutral party’s only interests are for managing the best way to govern. A neutral party recognizes that flexibility is needed, and that it can be corrupted by stating positions on contingent issues. The best way to avoid many corrupting behaviors is to avoid the establishment of a position.
However, a position is established. It’s a position that supports democratic values, such as freedom of speech, independent thought, plurality, and the rule of law. No faction organized around more narrow interests is capable of sustaining this position in the long run.
The foundation of a strong and functioning democracy lies in the ability to uphold these core values collectively. When a faction arises that prioritizes its own agenda over the broader principles of democracy, it undermines the very fabric of the system.
In order to maintain a position that supports democratic values, it is essential to foster a culture of open dialogue and respect for differing opinions. This allows for the exchange of ideas and the development of informed opinions. Our current climate dominated by competing factions without respect for one another is not reflective of the democratic values we claim to possess.
An independent judiciary and a robust legal framework are crucial to ensure that the rule of law prevails over individual interests. How can our judiciary be independent when they are subjected to the same factional pressures we are?
Promoting education and critical thinking is vital to encourage independent thought and discourage the manipulation of information for personal or factional gain. By equipping individuals with the tools to think critically and make informed choices, we empower them to resist the influence of factionalism and safeguard democratic principles. Only a neutral party can accomplish these goals without sacrificing its narrow interests.
We must work together to ensure that no faction with narrow interests can undermine the foundations of our democracy. The organization of a politically neutral party is an urgent necessity.

This subreddit is dedicated to creating a supportive and inclusive space for members of the Black trans community, as well as trans individuals of color. Here, you can share experiences, ask questions, and discuss topics that matter to our community.
Why We’re Here: Our goal is to build a community where members can find solidarity, support, and information relevant to their unique experiences. Whether you’re seeking advice on surgery, looking for media recommendations, or just want to engage in meaningful discussions, this is the place for you.
Important Note: We are not affiliated with any other groups, including the “Black Trans Connection” on Facebook, and have no business ties with them. This subreddit operates independently to provide a safe and supportive environment for our members.
Community Guidelines: To maintain a positive and safe environment, please follow these guidelines:

1. Be respectful and inclusive. 2. Avoid hate speech and discriminatory behavior. 3. Do not solicit funds or share personal fundraisers. 4. No violence or threats will be tolerated. 5. Keep content relevant to the community. 6. Questions should come from within our community. 7. Posting photos is optional. 8. News and media impacting the LGBTQIA community are welcome. 9. Use appropriate post flairs. 10. No spam or excessive self-promotion. 

We hope you find this subreddit to be a valuable resource and a welcoming community. Feel free to introduce yourself, share your story, and connect with others. Together, we can create a supportive space for all.
Welcome to blacktransconnection!

In the world of real estate investing, being a landlord can often feel like navigating a roller coaster of experiences. From the adrenaline-pumping highs of successful ventures to the gut-wrenching lows of unexpected disasters, each story offers valuable lessons and insights. As a multi-family real estate team specializing in selling apartment complexes across the United States, we’ve gathered some of the most memorable landlord success stories and nightmares to share with you.
The Victories: Success Stories That Inspire

Turning Around a Troubled Property

One of our clients, John, purchased an aging apartment complex in a less-than-desirable neighborhood. The property had a notorious reputation, with frequent complaints and high tenant turnover. However, John saw potential where others saw problems. He invested in significant renovations, improved security measures, and implemented community-building activities. Within a year, the complex transformed into a thriving community with happy tenants and a waiting list for new leases. John’s story is a testament to the power of vision and perseverance in real estate investing.

The Perfect Tenant

Emma, a landlord with several properties, shared her story of finding the perfect tenant. After dealing with numerous problematic tenants, she finally rented one of her units to Lisa, a young professional who treated the property as her own. Lisa consistently paid rent on time, maintained the property impeccably, and even added value by enhancing the garden. Emma’s experience highlights the importance of thorough tenant screening and the joy of finding a tenant who respects and cares for the property.

Record-Breaking Occupancy Rates

Sarah, an experienced real estate investor, managed to achieve record-breaking occupancy rates in her newly acquired apartment complex. She achieved this by focusing on tenant satisfaction, offering amenities such as a fitness center, and organizing community events. Her proactive management approach and attention to tenant needs led to low vacancy rates and high tenant retention, proving that investing in tenant experience pays off in the long run.

The Nightmares: Disastrous Stories That Serve as Warnings

The Tenant from Hell

Mark, a seasoned landlord, shared his harrowing experience with a tenant who caused extensive damage to his property. Despite a thorough screening process, the tenant managed to slip through the cracks and wreak havoc. From unauthorized pets to property damage and unpaid rent, the ordeal was a nightmare. Mark’s story underscores the importance of having a robust lease agreement, regular property inspections, and being prepared to take swift legal action when necessary.

Major Maintenance Mishaps

Linda, a landlord with multiple properties, faced a major maintenance disaster when a water pipe burst in one of her apartment complexes. The flooding caused significant damage to several units and disrupted the lives of many tenants. The incident was a stark reminder of the importance of regular property maintenance and having an emergency response plan in place. Linda’s proactive communication and prompt repairs helped mitigate tenant frustration, but the financial impact was substantial.

Legal Battles and Evictions

James, an apartment complex owner, recounted his challenging experience with a tenant who refused to vacate the property despite multiple lease violations. The legal battle that ensued was lengthy and costly, highlighting the complexities of eviction processes. James’s story emphasizes the need for landlords to be well-versed in tenant laws and to have legal support readily available.

Lessons Learned: Tips for Aspiring Landlords

1. Thorough Tenant Screening: Invest time in screening potential tenants. Check references, conduct background checks, and verify income to minimize the risk of problematic tenants.
2. Regular Maintenance: Preventive maintenance can save you from costly repairs. Schedule regular inspections and address maintenance issues promptly.
3. Clear Lease Agreements: Ensure your lease agreements are comprehensive and legally sound. Clearly outline tenant responsibilities, rules, and consequences for violations.
4. Emergency Preparedness: Have a plan in place for emergencies, such as water leaks or natural disasters. Quick and effective responses can mitigate damage and tenant dissatisfaction.
5. Invest in Amenities: Enhancing your property with desirable amenities can attract quality tenants and improve tenant retention.
6. Legal Knowledge: Stay informed about tenant laws and regulations in your area. Having legal counsel can help you navigate disputes and evictions effectively.

Being a landlord is a journey filled with both triumphs and tribulations. From inspiring success stories to cautionary tales, each experience offers valuable insights that can help you become a more effective and resilient landlord. By learning from both victories and disasters, you can navigate the complexities of apartment complex management and real estate investing with greater confidence.
Are you ready to embark on your own real estate journey? Connect with us at [Your Real Estate Team Name] to explore investment opportunities and gain expert guidance in the world of multi-family investing. Let’s turn your real estate dreams into reality.

What's going on $FFIE family? I just wanted to post this video here and hope you all can check it out because the gentleman in it brings up some really interesting points that I wanted to outline.
Before we begin just a quick disclaimer:
**Disclaimer: I am in no way a financial advisor, nor am I giving you financial advice by writing this post. This post is just a reiteration of the YouTube video I'm posting here and am essentially just reiterating what this gentleman is suggesting in this video. So at your own discretion, please use this information for educational purposes ONLY and not to guide you in your financial decisions. As always, investing involves lots of risk. Any decisions you do make regarding investing is done at your own will and accord. I'm am making this post just to open up communication and discuss what you all think about this video and the information presented.
**Disclaimer 2: I am some random guy over the internet and the individual in the video is too. This is just one individual's thoughts on the matter and he or I could be totally wrong.
(please watch the original video from yesterday first) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZQbCyv9wIAk
(please watch the video from today that I reference in this post) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rHEU939Ncp8
Let's Begin!
Essentially, he discussed in a previous video that possibly millions of shares that don't exist are floating around out there, there was 95% short interest on $FFIE currently; however, these CAT numbers are likely not true and its possible that the short interest is actually a lot higher - while the short sellers are saying that they can sell off all of these shares in anywhere from 30-60 minutes. If you are paying attention to the price, we all know that these clowns cannot do this because they would:
a) have to take a massive loss if they did this.
b) this great community is gaining momentum over them and are owning more and more shares, which is causing us to control the supply of the shares available on the market
Part b) is very important because what the man in the video is explaining is that, the amount of shares that are being reported available are much more than what is actually in circulation. Why does this matter? Its possible that these guys are doing something called 'naked short selling'. This is an illegal practice which involves market manipulation. How does it work? Let's take the scenario we are in.
So to briefly summarize what the normal short sellers hope for is:

1. borrow $FFIE shares from their brokerage at a high price, with expectations price will fall
2. They sell off the shares for the high price
3. They buy the number of shares they need at the price the shares dropped to, return the borrowed shares back to the broker and profit the difference.

Where we get the drop on the short sellers:

1. short sellers borrow $FFIE shares from brokerage at a high price, with expectations price will fall
2. We buy lots and lots of shares and control the supply amount of shares that are available on market by holding them
3. short sellers need the price to come down, otherwise they sell at the higher price and lose money, but get the borrowed shares back to return to their broker to make them whole

What the man in the video is explaining may be happening:

1. short sellers originally and illegally said they had 'borrowed' shares from a broker and are looking to sell them (prior to our large movement or during and up until the present moment)
2. they then 'sell' the shares (that again they don't have) to a potential buyer. That buyer pays these naked short sellers money but they never receive the 'borrowed' shares they were promised.

Just a note before I go on:
I see a lot of people giving each other shit for panic selling. I'm not saying that this wasn't happening or called for, but some of these drops could have been from these naked short sellers who were manipulating the stock price downward illegally? How?

1. the hope of the naked short seller is that in general, they will do this to drive the price down forcibly, buy the stock back at the lower price and then provide the original buyer with the stock to make everyone whole. In turn, they pocket the difference. As you can tell, there is fraudulent behavior in this method and its also manipulating the stock negatively (which is of course an SEC no no).

Here is why: If these sellers come around and tell people they have stock that they don't actually have, this creates more supply of stock (although this isn't the case and this 'stock' that they 'own' doesn't exist. If we look at simple supply and demand, this means there is more supply of the stock, so this causes the price of the stock to drop, as a result).
So in our situation that we are in right now, is unique and as the days go on, we're exposing these naked short sellers. The reason for this is because we are getting to a point where volume is stabilizing and we are owning more and more stock as a community. So then you have to ask yourself, if this is the case, where are they even getting stock to sell and still bringing the price down at these levels? The answer is that they likely are naked short selling and bringing the stock price down illegally and manipulating the price.
Now before you all freak out (too late I'm sure) - this information may actually be a really great thing for us and these people who are working against our efforts. As Sun Tzu said in the Art of War, 'If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles.'
Why is this difficult for us:
Obviously, whether we hold or not, these individuals can drive the price down (so long as they can keep this charade up - BUT and its a big BUT - there is a time limit and problem with this (this is the good news, I promise)).
Why is this beneficial for us:

• It exposes the potential strategy of those on the other side of our trade - so we can create a counter strategy against this.
• According to FINRA's rules, there is something called a threshold list. If a company gets on this list (which $FFIE has made it on the list), it means that there are individuals that are shorting the stock, but not paying the shorts back over consecutive days. We know this is happening in general, but as the guy in the video discusses, the amount of shares that are being shorted (he says potentially hundreds of millions) and the short interest %, do not make sense, nor does it make anymore sense of how long they are saying it would take to pay the shorts off (30-60 minutes). So its likely that these individuals cannot cover these shorts at all, and there potentially could be reason to believe that they are way in over their head and likely are manipulating the stock to bring it down with their desperate attempts we've seen so far.
• Based on my second point, this is really important because opened shorts on the threshold list have a time limit to be FTD (Failure to Deliver). As of today, we are on day 5 of being on the threshold list with FTD (according to the man in the video). FINRA rules require that if the shorts on the company remain on the threshold list for 13 consecutive days, the short seller must immediately close out their positions by purchasing the shares and in the case of naked short sellers, they may be subject to margin calls with the broker if they can't buy the shares outright (in our situation, this would be the case because they are hesitant to buy, since we are keeping the price too high for them - in turn, this would cause the short seller's account to fall below a maintenance margin and the margin call would be initiated (again sometime after 13 consecutive trading days of them not buying the shares). Also, even in some rare occurrences, the brokerage can take a loan against them and will get the money from them by possibly taking other assets through legal action. The man in the video mentions that a lot of times, these individuals wind up also getting fined and write this off on their taxes.
• This is huge because this gives us somewhat of a timeline of about how long they potentially have to buy back their shares before they truly start running into problems. It doesn't mean on that day that this is it and we get our short squeeze, but I would think that this could possibly shorten our timeline down and gives us a better idea of how long they have to make a move and kind of how things may progress from there. It could take longer than this, its not set in stone.

**Remember: Those who are doing naked shorts are doing so illegally. They literally are telling people to give them money for shares that they don't have, with the hope that they will buy lower priced shares after they've driven the price of the shares down from a top, by introducing shares that don't even really exist into the market. They are in trouble if they cannot hand over the shares to the seller who gave them the money. That won't really last long. The pressure is definitely on because they are committing fraud. So there is that for them to deal with too.
So to summarize (TLDR):
Naked short sellers are potentially working against us by illegally driving the price down through selling shares that they don't have. Given that the amount of shares being short sold (in the hundreds of millions) probably cannot be delivered in general because they aren't real, the stock having very high short interest % (probably much more than what is actually being reported) and the CAT numbers are telling us that these individuals can buy the shares they borrowed back in anywhere from 30-60 minutes (despite us all owning, holding and in some ways controlling more and more of the supply of the stock), this is hard to believe that any of this is true. Since we now have this information, we can anticipate what these mfers are going to do, which is illegally drive the price down so that they can try and delist the stock from the Nasdaq and buy back the stock for cheap, and eventually get their way.
What can we do?

1. Keep the price above a dollar to avoid Nasdaq delisting.
2. Keep buying and holding shares to wait these fuckers out until sometime around June 4th or 5th because at that point, they will start feeling the pressure and according to FINRA, this would be 13 consecutive days of them not paying their shares back, which can result in potential margin calls and their brokerage may liquidate their assets to buy the shares back at the higher price or slap them with a loan against the naked short sellers, if it ever gets to that point (at a later date) - remember though, this may drag on past this point, its not a guarantee but something I'd like to ponder with you all more about.
3. Pay attention to any other news regarding the company and keep up to date with the fundamentals as well

I may have completely misinterpreted this video because the gentleman takes us in a legal direction and looking at the matter in that way. However, I feel that this information could still be favorable for us all.
He may be right, he may be wrong - but you all tell me what you think.
Let's discuss further!
P.S. I'd like to give a shoutout to ProfessionalAd's post (find it here: https://www.reddit.com/FFIE/comments/1cxcy4g/i\_swearif\_everyone\_would\_just\_read\_and\_comprehend/), where he discusses how to shut off lending of $FFIE and to set buy limits on orders to prevent short sellers from under bidding us. Please check it out whenever you have a minute.

Post to Media Research/Study Website
URL: https://www.businessnewsdaily.com/2377-social-media-hiring.html
Title: Keep It Clean: Social Media Screenings Gain in Popularity
Author: David Cotriss
Date: November 20, 2023
Personal profile or professional profile? Social media is a fun way to express yourself and interact with family, friends, and new faces all over the world. It can be used as a way to keep people you can not see as often updated on your life, as well as give you a chance to step into the personal moments of your friends lives. However, while social media may seem like a very personal media that you are only sharing with specific people, it can still serve as a public link to your entire social media history of posts, likes and comments for the entire world to see. As it turns out many companies in the modern day hiring process go through what is known as a media screening for both their new and existing employees. This calls for people to start keeping their social media profiles more professional rather than personal. These screenings can range across all social media sites along with any online presences across the internet.
First Media Key: Balance
The first media key is Balance which is known as the foundation for all of the other media keys and is vital to understanding how to use the remaining six of the media keys correctly. When job recruiters or interviewers look at social media platforms there is a chance they can be looking to see if the profile has good balance. This means they will be looking at the media provided on the profile from all angles to try and see who the user truly is as a person and what their personality and work ethic could be like. This means that when posting, you too need to understand your use of social media and how what you are doing may look from an outside perspective. The level of understanding you have on your personal profile’s outside image will be determined by your combined understanding of all seven of the media keys.
Second Media Key: Attitude Awareness
Every media creator has an attitude and it is up to the creature to project the attitude they want to portray. This continues to apply to social media profiles so people should be aware of the attitude they portray on social media and if it is a professional one or one that could possibly hurt their experience as an employee. Employers when looking at a candidate's social media page will be keeping a close eye out for if they express any values or project any messages. Values can be seen in both a positive and negative light in the hiring process depending on what the value is and the situation it is brought up in. Whether it is blown up and in your face or more subtle, every media maker also has an agenda. Job recruiters will of course be looking to see if the candidate’s agenda and values align or contradict with the agendas and values of the company.
Third Media Key: The Dignity of the Human Person
Another quality job recruiters may be looking out for is how you show dignity to the human person. They will often be looking to see if the candidate exemplifies dignity through how they interact with people online and how they talk about other human beings through both posts and comment sections. All media put onto a social media profile should always reflect, uphold and enhance human dignity. The profile should also promote that you both understand and are trying to help other people understand communities and the human person. Recruiters will be looking to see how you positively shed light on what makes humans unique and interesting all in their own special, God given ways. The main way to show understanding of human dignity is to treat people as humans and not as objects. A good way to show this is by portraying anti-suicide and anti-abortion values because it will show a true understanding of the value of human life and why it is so precious and needs to be protected.
Fourth Media Key: Truth-Filled
Something that job recruiters will always be looking to see is if your social media presence is truth filled or if you are spreading false truths and misinformation. Media can be a great outlet in helping to spread truths from humanity to God and everything in between. However, the media being an open outlet for free speech also leads to a plethora of misinformation, rumors, and lies that get spread across the internet. Job interviewers in this case will be heavily checking profiles for if the user can be seen spreading false information and trying to mislead or confuse others. It is also important to note that users should not tell lies about the human condition through their media and that it is possible for their media to be truthful without being one hundred percent accurate.
Fifth Media Key: Inspiring
Another way to look at a social media profile is to see if it inspires others positively or negatively. If a profile only talks about or shows what’s wrong with the world with a negative outlook on mankind, then there is a good chance that what you are putting out on social media is inspiring people negatively and causing them to see the world in a more negative and down sided way. A better way to direct your profile is by showing more of the positive outlooks on life with more happy tones that will inspire people in a positive way. Good goals to have when creating a positively inspiring profile is asking can this be used to help point the way toward Heaven and can this be used to help someone pursue virtue in a relationship with God. Media at its worst will point people in the wrong direction and towards a bad life, but media at its best can enlighten people, raise questions, help people grow in virtue, and inspire them to live better, more holy lifestyles.
Sixth Media Key: Skillfully Developed
One key that can really help set a profile apart from the crowd is if it is skillfully developed. Social media profiles are something people do for fun so the aesthetic, level of detail, and depth of the profile is not a requirement and completely up to the user. With that being said, making your profile professional and quality is a great way of showing companies that you are a person who applies effort and achieves quality in everything that you do. Media should always be produced well so our personal profiles are no different. Producing quality is essential if you want job recruiters to see your profile positively and especially if you want them to pay attention to what you post and create.
Seventh Media Key: Motivated by and Relevant to Experience
When trying to keep a profile professional it can be important to keep in mind what is relevant to the human experience. What you post on social media should be rooted in the realities of the world and through our own human experiences. Ways to keep your profile likable while still keeping it professional is by presenting messages which are relevant to your audience or following. If viewers are able to relate positively to what you post then they are more likely to have a positive perspective of you which gives you a better chance of being hired. However, it is important to remember to appeal to positive senses and emotions rather than one’s that can be seen more negatively. With all of this in mind, however, it is still important to express yourself and who you are, but also very important to make sure that who you are showing yourself as is a good, motivated person.

This is not my confession, its a copy paste of a real confession
Today I want to come clean about something I feel very badly about. I cannot undo some of the things I have done, but hopefully this message will prevent other such occurrences in the future.
I am a paid basher.
Yes, it is true. Today is my last day at this company; I'm moving on to a new job. I've realized that there are more dignifying jobs out there that can pay me equally as well. But before I go, I want to explain a few things because this just isn't right and I won't feel good about myself until I expose this sham. It's hurt too many people and I don't want it on my conscience anymore. I can no longer live with a lie.
I work for a company called Global Calumny Funds in Stamford, CT. Basically, it's a Boiler Room much like the one in the movie of the same name. The idea behind my group is to bash the price of a company's stock down low enough to where the group of investors who retained our company's services can buy the stock really cheap and perhaps even take it over all together.
There are approximately 70 people at the company divided into several groups. My group, consisting of 5 people, is responsible for IDWD. While I probably shouldn't give any names of anyone working here now, what the heck, I'm leaving here, so what can they do? sue me? Ha! I can tell you that laptoptrader and janice shell were part of my group until he left last week, as was ninaturtle. Others who have been part of this include early bashers like hard data and Investorman. You may be interested to know that some hypsters, such as MONEYMADE and even Datatech!!, have also been part of the scam (more on that later).
There are several companies engaged in the bashing business, ours is not the only one. However, I can tell you that not every basher in here is a paid basher. Having done this for a year, I can usually tell who is a paid basher and who is merely someone having a little fun. While unpaid bashers have a different motive than someone like me, they can be unwilling accomplices to helping me achieve my ultimate goal and they also spread rumor and confusion throughout a room, which also helps me.
What is that goal? Well, I am merely a cog in a much larger machine, so my bosses never really explained the big picture to me, but I'd say essentially, Shaddowwatch2oo3 was right. There are several companies who are quite familiar with Jim Bishop and Janice Shell and who are deathly afraid of them.
There are three types of bashers here at Global Calumny Funds: Advanced, Intermediate and Beginner. An Advanced-level basher (also known as a Silver Tongued Devil) would spread false or misleading information about the company. They would deal in facts, countering every longs post with articles, news reports and opinion surveys that gave a negative impression about the company.
An Intermediate-level basher (also known as a Serpent) would try to weasel their way into the confidence of longs and create doubt using rumor or innuendo.
Finally, a Beginner-level basher (also known as a Pitchfork) would attempt to create confusion in the room by distracting other posters with satire, name calling and pointless arguments. The idea was to make sure no serious discussion of the stock could take place. A Pitchfork was usually a basher, but not always. Sometimes, we would throw in a hypster Pitchfork such as MONEYMADE and laptop and a pumper like Datatech to create the illusion of an argument going on. What was really funny (in a perverse way, I guess) was that Datatech and I sat next to each other, laughing the whole time.
I was a Serpent basher, because I am known for effective bashing based on solid facts and truth. I was paid a base wage of $18 an hour for my services. I was given a $1.25 bonus for every decent quality post over 100 per day as well as a monthly bonus of $100 for every penny the stock had dropped from the previous month. I was also paid a bonus for bashing on weekends. While this may not sound like much, I made a decent, though dishonorable, paycheck plus a nice Laptop with free wireless internet connection.
Each of us sat in a small half-cubicle in a cluster with our teammates. Each group (usually five people) was made of three beginners (two who would bash and one who would hype), one intermediate and one advanced level basher. Occasionally for some of the hotter stocks, one of the beginners would be replaced by an intermediate depending on how much the stock was rising. IDWD was a low-level stock, meaning it got the 3-1-1 configuration.
Honestly though, somehow, I get the feeling that WV Hillbilly may have worked for a basher company or knows someone who does because the fund websites he occasionally posts is eerily similar to our employer's websites. While not exact, I'd say it is about 90 percent the same. We do have certain rules that we follow.
First, we have to develop a character and stay within that character in order to build a "following." My character, "FogOfWar," was a humorous, sarcastic, obnoxious supporter of free speech and loved to portray himself as a truth-telling superhero, but only when it came to bashers.
Next, we had to follow certain guidelines on what we could say. We were urged to have an "answer" to every long's question, but we were to frame that answer in a way that ridiculed the questioner for asking such a question. However, we were never to use profanity or vulgarity because that would cause people to ignore us. We were to make fun of people, but in a civil way. The idea was to get "play," i.e. reaction from other posters. The more play we got, the more the room would be disrupted. Ignored posters get no play. One exception would be the hypsters since they were "defending" the stock against our onslaught, they got a little more leeway. People would side with the hypster because they thought he was real since he appeared to be on their side, but was really on ours, setting us up to disrupt the room. MoneyMade was quite good at this and gets paid very well.
I've worked on IDWD, VLO, AGII, QBID, BKMP for a few months now. In addition to the FogOfWar alias, I've used a few others on several other boards as well. I've used so many aliases that I can not remember the monikers or the passwords. I honestly lost track of everything. I stuck with FogOfWar because it was the one that got the most play from other posters.
In closing, I feel absolutely terrible about this. It's just awful how I've been part of a scam designed to cheat honest, hard-working people out of their investments all for the benefit of a few wealthy people who already have enough money to last a lifetime.
These greedy people MUST be stopped. That's why I'm posting this before I leave. I want to make up for some of the damage I've done. I can't live with this lie anymore. You can't imagine how hard it is to look at myself in the mirror each morning knowing my job is to cheat and lie.
I have to go now, I'm too broken up to continue. I hope this confession can make up for my sordid deeds; I would urge everyone who reads this to inform as many people as you can. Only by shining the light of truth can we drive these rats back into the darkness from whence they came. Believe me, they don't want publicity.
Good luck and I hope all of you the best in your investment endeavors.

I've recently graduated from a Canadian university majoring in UX Design, Information Systems and Business. Altogether, I have around 5 years of experience in the design field. Long story short, I reached out to companies offering my skillset (product design, PM, strategy, etc) and someone got back to me. The person is a co-founder of a health tech startup/consultancy that seems well established but in an incubator program.
He is offering me to help him with two things 1) create master slides for his company and 2) create visuals that will better communicate the company's vision, operations, commercialization journey, etc - all of which he expects to be done in the next week. I asked him to give me a proposed rate and estimated length of time, but he sort of just tossed the ball back at me. So given the brief outline of the two tasks, I said it would take 20 hours total including reiterations and I charge $60/h, open to negotiations. I looked up rates according to my skillset and background and the web says $50-$100/h which isn't super helpful haha, so went with $60.
Did I propose a reasonable amount or did I mess up? Candidly, I now have anxiety when it comes to proposing wages and salary negotiations as recently I've had a company rescind my offer right off the bat as they thought I was 'overqualified' and asked for too much - $42 an hour. I was willing to work at their proposed rate ($10 lower than ask) as experience is what's most important to me right now but they asked me to just move on... That gig was to work as a growth marketing manager at a startup. As a new grad, it's difficult trying to determine how much I should be charging for this sort of work, so any guidance is much appreciated :)

16-minute read.

pro-West party leader says they met PM Pashinyan and discussed a referendum to solidify Armenia's shift to EU

KHZMALYAN (European Party of Armenia): The referendum is our suggestion and demand. We presented it to Pashinyan and expect a response within a reasonable timeframe. We advised making a public statement soon. A referendum would also make Pashinyan's job easier by allowing the people's will to decide Armenia's direction.
REPORTER: How did Pashinyan respond?
KHZMALYAN: He suggested the meeting be held in a closed format so I can't reveal all details. We hope that our voice, our offer, our demand, was heard. If we do not receive a positive response, we will take measures by employing the same methods currently used by anti-European forces [the ongoing protests led by pro-Russian ex-regime]. We will take to the streets and demand a referendum for Eurointegration if necessary.
REPORTER: How long are you ready to wait before taking action?
KHZMALYAN: A few months. Georgia will hold parliamentary elections in October, and Moldova will hold a similar Eurointegration referendum - also in October. The U.S. will hold presidential elections in November which will be important for Armenia's future. Even if the worst scenario unfolds in all three countries, Armenia must stand firm and not take a step back. Armenia could become the leader in democracy in all of Eastern Europe if you consider the situation in Georgia, Hungary, and Slovakia [pro-Russia populist leader]. Armenia could receive an unprecedented level of assistance from Europe under those circumstances.
REPORTER: Did Pashinyan say he plans to leave CSTO?
KHZMALYAN: We did not demand specific dates but we urged him to complete all these processes this year, preferably by November.
REPORTER: Did Pashinyan agree?
KHZMALYAN: The participants of the meeting are under the impression that we were able to present convincing arguments but time will show what actions he takes. The government functions very poorly but nevertheless, they are doing something, they are taking steps.
REPORTER: On May 9, Bagrat Galstanyan gave Pashinyan 1 hour to resign but it's May 21 and he is still here. Why wasn't the opposition able to remove him?
KHZMALYAN: The 3 former presidents and their surrogate forces, backed by 30 years of power, were unable to bring forward a figurehead, a single ideology, that could win the hearts of the people. They used various political technologies, they switched between black and white robes, and they extended the 1 hour to 7 days, but none of that helped because the Armenian people hate them more than they hate Nikol Pashinyan.
REPORTER: You used to be a lot harsher on Pashinyan but something appears to have changed in your tone after your recent meeting with him. What is the reason?
KHZMALYAN: We were able to present our demands and the timelines to accomplish them. Unlike the archbishop and the former regimes surrounding him, we did not give "one hour" for Pashinyan to accept our demands; we did not make ultimatums. We believe the current government is carrying out and will carry out the will of the people to overcome the status of a Russian colony and join the ranks of free nations. We did and do see steps [taken by the government] towards this; we cannot ignore this. We saw the Strassbourg, but also Moscow. We saw the [April 5 meeting in] Brussels, but also [the recent meeting between FMs in] Almaty. We are told this is an attempt to "balance" and we understand where they are coming from, but our factions speak on behalf of over 60% of Armenians who view Russia's policies as deadly for Armenia. We expect concrete actions and we have formed a platform to continue this work; there will be petitions and other actions from us. We are ready to assist Pashinyan, who may be constrained due to ongoing negotiations, by being the public voice and saying the things he cannot say. We will continue to work, to pressure, to influence, to demand. Our meetings also continue abroad. We will press on until we reach our goal - the Eurointegration of Armenia. //
Several prominent Western-oriented political parties recently formed an alliance to promote Armenia's Eurointegration.
video,

Pashinyan appoints a ruling party member as a deputy head of the newly formed Foreign Intelligence Service - the Armenian "CIA"

After the 2020 war, Pashinyan said Armenia will need a modern intel agency to gather information and analyze foreign threats, while the NSS -- described as historically a "pro-Russian" agency by many -- will focus on internal matters.
source,

Pashinyan met the deputy head of the United States CIA to discuss bilateral, international, and regional issues

A delegation led by David Cohen is in Yerevan. Cohen also met NatSec Armen Grigoryan.
source, source,

Armenia's Investigative Committee chief hosted U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary in the Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs

Qyaramyan and Yoder discussed bilateral cooperation, the recent retraining for Armenian agents and technical assistance, cooperation between law enforcement agencies of Armenia and the United States, anti-narcotrafficking, and the fight against gender-based violence.
Yoder also met Armenia's Interior Minister Ghazaryan to discuss the ongoing police reforms and formation of new divisions, the fight against narco-trafficking, technical assistance for rescuers, and retraining courses. Yoder emphasized effective cooperation, noting that the achievements within the framework of sectorial reforms are exceptional. The US wants to expand the agenda of cooperation.
source, source,

Armenian army officers continue to take part in NATO exercises titled Regex 2024 held in Moldova

GOOGLE TRANSLATE: The exercise is organized with the support of the NATO Joint Forces Command in Naples, Italy, and aims to train the military according to Western standards for planning and conducting exercises, crisis management, strengthening and assessing the level of interoperability of forces in a multinational environment.
We remind you that the exercise "Regex 2024" consists of several workshops during the current year. The first workshop took place between February 16 and March 1, and the second between 22 − April 26, 2024. //
source, source,

NATO and Armenia strengthen cooperation in defense education

Armenia's defense ministry representatives recently visited NATO headquarters to discuss NATO’s Defence Education Enhancement Programme (DEEP) for Armenia.
NATO: The DEEP programme is an excellent tool to support Armenian military education system reforms and strengthen the country’s cooperation with NATO.
ARMENIA: With the support of DEEP experts we implemented major changes in all levels of our educational curriculum at Military Academy, starting from cadets up to the most senior levels. It helped us to establish cooperation with many international partner institutions.
source,

Armenia is an emerging destination for UK and global investors: Armenia's Ambassador to London Business Matters

👔 Armenia is committed to building a knowledge-based, export-oriented, and inclusive economy.
👔 Armenia is diversifying its growing economy with pioneering sectors, creating ample investment opportunities.
👔 Armenia’s investment legislation grants equal treatment to foreign investors
👔 There are no restrictions on remittances and repatriation of profits, free exchange of foreign currencies and no limitations on staff recruitment
👔 The country’s favorable business climate and ‘open-door’ policy is also reflected in international reputable rankings where Armenia is ranked one of the highest in the region.
👔 Although Armenia has a relatively modest internal market, it offers different models of economic cooperation and serves as a gateway to major world markets
👔 Armenia has maintained a high level of cooperation with the EU through CEPA
👔 Armenia and UK will soon have a CEPA-like agreement
full article, source,

Turkey modernizes an Azerbaijani Su-25ML jet with guided bombs and Teber missiles

It uses KGK laser guidance for missiles and increases the reach to 110 km.
source,

Pashinyan's Chief of Staff hosted the French Ambassador to discuss defense, economy, infrastructure, and humanitarian topics

... also the upcoming events dedicated to the 100th anniversary of Charles Aznavour.
source,

Parliament Speakers of Armenia and Ukraine discuss the situation in the South Caucasus and Ukraine

source,

Q&A with ruling party MP Vahagn Alexanyan about the ongoing protests led by pro-Russian opposition

REPORTER: You continue to criticize the "holy movement"...
ALEXANYAN: The what now?
REPORTER: ... the "holy movement", by calling it a "pagan" movement. What is the ruling party's stance and do you discuss this internally?
ALEXANYAN: Of course we do, although I don't think Kocharyan's decision to name this movement "holy" is helping them. It's comical.
REPORTER: Do you have proof that Bagrat srbazan is [tied with Kocharyan]?
ALEXANYAN: Bagrat Galstanyan is surrounded by the entire political team of Robert Koharyan, he was a member of Kocharyan's 2022 protests and gave similar speeches he gives today, he received a praise from Russian propagandists, and he was named by a Russian propagandist Aram Gabrielyanov as a potential candidate for a new protest movement just a few months prior to these events, so it's beyond reasonable doubt that Bagrat Galstanyan is part of Kocharyan's team.
REPORTER: You were earlier accusing Galstanyan of being a Russian agent, and now Kocharyan's agent?
ALEXANYAN: Same thing.
REPORTER: The opposition gathered many thousands of supporters on May 9. What does the size of the crowd indicate?
ALEXANYAN: It was similar to Kocharyan's final rally before the 2021 elections. And?
REPORTER: The opposition created a video of "Pashinyan's lies" and broken promises. Will you respond?
ALEXANYAN: The clip itself is a lie and manipulation. For example, one of the supposed lies was Pashinyan's promise of an amnesty for overdue fines and penalties. You are a journalist, you tell me, was there an amnesty or not?
REPORTER: Pashinyan had also said that POWs could wait "just a few more months" and that he wouldn't "sacrifice Armenia's sovereignty" in exchange for bringing them back sooner. Why aren't they back?
ALEXANYAN: Dozens of POWs returned home in December, and efforts continue to bring back the rest. Literally 1-2 days before the POWs' return, the opposition claimed that the POWs were "forgotten" by the government. "Ոչ մի բան չեք անում:"
REPORTER: What about the Nagorno-Karabakh leadership?
ALEXANYAN: There are efforts to return them as well.
REPORTER: Why did the police form a wall to block entry to village Kirants [for nonresidents]?
ALEXANYAN: I think the NSS said they had to take action to prevent interference with the border work. From what I can tell, the protest leader himself went there yesterday and returned only 15 minutes later so there wasn't a big desire to stay there apparently.
REPORTER: They plan to hold a big rally on May 26 where they might nominate Bagrat srbazan as the PM's candidate to replace Pashinyan.
ALEXANYAN: Why not go straight for [alleged narco baron] Mihran Poghosyan [who publicly praised the protests]?
REPORTER: There appears to be a consensus around Bagrat srbazan after a meeting between several forces.
ALEXANYAN: Consensus minus one, where "minus one" is the people. Or to be more precise, "minus two", because the Constitution also prohibits Bagrat from serving as a prime minister. Congratulations on an initiative that's dead on arrival. It's absurd. They suggested replacing the Constitution to allow a dual citizen to serve as PM. Okay... To get Canadian citizenship you have to take an oath to serve the best interests of Canada. To allow dual citizens to serve as PM in Armenia we have to accept for the PM to have loyalty towards another state. The alternative is for the candidate [Bagrat] to admit that his word [oath to Canada] wasn't worth a dime. Երևի մատերը խաչ արած ա երդվել։
REPORTER: But don't you think you are manipulating because Galstanyan received Canadian citizenship just to be able to serve in the church in Canada? He didn't go there to live or conduct business.
ALEXANYAN: It doesn't matter why he went to Canada. He is a citizen of Canada and took an oath. Even religious leaders with dual citizenship cannot become prime ministers. I don't have an issue with him being a dual citizen, but it limits his office options. He still hasn't renounced his Canadian citizenship even after all these talks about a possible nomination.
REPORTER: Galstanyan said he is ready to renounce it as soon as there is a need for it.
ALEXANYAN: In other words, he seeks "guarantees" that he will be the candidate in order to renounce it?
full,source, source,

opposition churchman Bagrat Galstanyan demands the Armenian government compensate the damage done to the church during USSR and "return" the properties "legally belonging" to the church

This was said as a response to the critics of the church leadership who accused the church of turning into a political party and suggested taxing the church like a business.
BAGRAT: We have 19th-century churches that were forcefully confiscated and turned into ruins. The properties of the Armenian church must be returned to the church. The area of Moscow Cinema belongs to the church, half of the Katoghike Church was demolished and belongs to the church, and part of the items in Matenadaran were taken away from the church. Instead of threatening us with taxes, they must think about how they plan to return our properties, fully renovated and ready for service.
source,

the church is actually paying taxes but they do have some exemptions

The church paid $1 million in income taxes last year.
There are tax exemptions to import certain goods deemed for charity. They also don't pay property tax, and taxes on income generated from the sales of ceremonial accessories. The latter two are the frequent targets of church critics.
source,

Armenia's Constitutional Court has a vacant seat. Pro-Russian opposition criticizes Pashinyan's ruling party for favoring a "George Soros-linked" judge who worked for U.S. State Department.

A Serj-era judge is leaving the Constitutional Court after receiving a job offer elsewhere so one seat is vacant. It is the judiciary's turn to nominate a CC judge, so hundreds of judges recently held a meeting and voted for Judge Balayan as their candidate. Balayan's father was a CC judge during Kocharyan's tenure. He was accused in the Wikileaks report of having inappropriate deals with President Kocharyan. Pashinyan's ruling party did not vote to approve Balayan. This led to a second gathering of hundreds of judges where they voted to nominate Judge Khachaturyan as their candidate. The parliament summoned him for Q&A on Tuesday.
SPEAKER: We invite the representative of the judiciary to present their nominee for CC.
JUDICIARY REP: 267 judges voted. Judge Davit Khachaturyan, a member of the Criminal Chamber of the Court of Cassation, won the majority votes.
2000-2005: [blah blah blah]
2003-2006: Legislative Assistance Project Manager at Southern Caucasus Anti-Drug (SCAD) Program, sponsored by European Union and implemented by United Nations Development Program
2006: Program Assistant at U.S. Embassy in Armenia, Bureau for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (INL)
2007-2013: U.S. Embassy in Armenia, U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), Legal Specialist
2014: Academy of Justice of the Republic of Armenian-Russian, Vice-Rector and Lecturer
2015-2016: Council of Europe Office in Yerevan, Program “Strengthening Health Care and Human Rights Protection in Prisons in Armenia”, Legal Expert
2016: EU project “Development and Strategic Studies”, Expert on Judiciary and Human Rights field reforms
2015-2017: EU project “ENP Progress Reports and Assessment Reports on Armenia´s Compliance with GSP+ obligations”. Expert on Rule of Law/Justice.
2013–2020: Law Faculty of Yerevan State University. Lecturer. Development and teaching of courses for the Master Program: “European Standards for the human rights protection in criminal proceedings”, and “Professional Skills of a Lawyer”
etc.
OPPOSITION MP: The ruling faction earlier chose not to confirm the appointment of Judge Davit Balayan; they obviously prefer Davit Khachaturyan. Can you explain why you didn't mention that Khachaturyan served on the board of directors and later as the president of the board at George Soros's Armenia-based Open Society Foundations? How will this record impact his work at CC?
JUDICIARY REP: I presented parts of his professional activities available on the court's public platforms. You can ask the candidate directly.
OPPOSITION MP: The Soros Foundation publicly listed him as a member so I don't understand why it's being hidden now. In your opinion, how will his work at the Soros Foundation affect his impartiality?
JUDICIARY REP: The majority of judges chose him and it's up to Parliament whether to confirm or reject.
RULING MP: Was the voting held in a closed session or can you see how each judge voted?
JUDICIARY REP: It's a closed format. My duty here is to present the candidate. [basically, leave me alone I'm just doing my job]
RULING MP: Why not make the court voting and internal discussions more transparent for the public to see so we will have fewer conspiracy theories on why one judge was preferred over the other?
JUDICIARY REP: I share the view that it needs to be as public as possible but the majority of judges voted to keep the session closed to the press.
RULING MP: Just because the discussions and the vote were behind closed doors that doesn't mean it was anti-democratic, but still, it's better to publicize the process. We hope to see a change in this approach.
JUDICIARY REP: The ballot casting will always be secret and I think that's the right approach in order to allow judges to express themselves without constraints, but I agree that the discussions and speeches should be public. Either way whatever we discuss behind closed doors always reaches the press so in practice there isn't really a major transparency issue there.
CANDIDATE KHACHATURYAN: First, every part of my biography has always been public and part of public discussions. Second, I have always voted in favor of making internal discussions open to the press; it's the best way to avoid incorrect assumptions. Full speech here.
OPPOSITION MP: Congratulations. The ruling party intends to approve your candidacy just as they voted for you in the past for other positions. In all of those instances, you didn't mention your work at the Сорос Foundation. Now, a very interesting coincidence [drumroll... are you guys ready for this bombshell?], during the same time while you worked at Сорос foundation, in 2006-2013, you were also a U.S. Embassy employee [got 'em]. //
Nikol Pashinyan has resigned.
Tavush stretches all the way to Russia.
Bagrat srbazan becomes the Supreme Leader of Historical Soil & Water and the Generalissimos of Slow-Melting Candles... and of course removes the speed cameras from highways.
OPPOSITION MP (continues): With this biography, how do we know you are not an agent of foreign influence?
CANDIDATE KHACHATURYAN: I was not an "employee" at the Soros Foundations. Other famous figures have served on the Board [mentions a famous doctor]. Everyone who was part of the Board had duties but it was not really an "employment". As for my simultaneous work with the U.S. Justice Department, there was no conflict with my membership or presidency at the Board because the latter was fully a public activity and we were only given a symbolic sum to compensate for our expenses; we are talking about less than $100/mo. I will let you be the judge regarding an agent of influence. There is a lot that's missing from my biography that was read here [lists some boring constitutional research work, etc.].
OPPOSITION MP: You keep being "promoted" by the ruling party without having the chance to finish your terms. The longest job you've ever held was at the Сорос Foundation - 8 years. The brother of the head of the Anti-Corruption Committee, who is about to join the CC, cannot be impartial. Again, what guarantees can you present that you are not a [Western] agent?
CANDIDATE KHACHATURYAN: Your expectation for guarantees stems from the assumption that the [Open Society Foundations] were engaged in activities other than the ones they were actually engaged in. I won't present any "guarantees" because there is no "threat" to begin with. As I've said, that part of my biography has always been discussed publicly and the activities were public and covered by the press.
RULING MP: In your speech you spoke about the judiciary in the U.S. and brought examples. The U.S. doesn't have a Constitutional Court. Don't you think we should also merge the Constitutional and [Cassations Court] with the upcoming referendum to have one Supreme Court with corresponding chambers?
CANDIDATE KHACHATURYAN: I support having one unified body like in the U.S., or clarifying the duties to prevent each body from interfering with the other. Lengthy answer.
OPPOSITION MP: A person [in Kirants] received permission [from USSR] to build a house and live in it. Then the [Armenian] government told him there was a mistake [after the clarification of borders]. Some 50 years after this incident, what would your verdict be in this case?
CANDIDATE KHACHATURYAN: I understand the context. This issue is the task of the Prime Minister and Foreign Minister and we cannot interfere in each other's institutions. I assume there will be a peace agreement eventually that will be sent to the Constitutional Court for examination, therefore I will refrain from making prejudgments now in order to be allowed to take part in future processes.
full video, source, source,

anti-corruption: Armenian authorities conclude that luxury Dubai property belonging to former regime MP's relative was not obtained illegally by him therefore will not be seized as part of an asset forfeiture case

Mher Sedrakyan (Tokhmakhi Mher) is a Serj-era MP whose family is going through an asset forfeiture case worth ֏7.5 billion ($19.3 million) that includes 22 real estate properties, cars, and company shares registered under his name and the names of immediate family members.
Additionally, investigative journalists recently found a luxury property in Dubai registered under the ex-MP's relative. Authorities have concluded that he is not the true ownebeneficiary of this Dubai apartment, therefore it won't be seized.
source,

the army concludes exercises for commanders

Context in May 14 news digest. The defense ministry says they have noted improvements and deficiencies and will take steps to correct them.
source,

Defense Minister Papikyan visited the frontlines and the newly built fortifications: PHOTO

The army continues to dig, asphalt, and build.
source,

Armenia's Foreign Minister met the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency during an international forum

ROSSI: Effective cooperation has been established between Armenia and the IAEA. We discussed several issues on the bilateral agenda, oncology and radiation medicine, safety, and reliable operation of the Armenian NPP.
MIRZOYAN: We plan to extend the lifespan of Metsamor NPP until 2036 while exploring new opportunities.
source,

Armenian lawyers went on strike on Tuesday to protest a bill that would move them from a turnover tax-based system to a VAT-based taxation

Context on the gray economy and why the government wants to gradually abolish the turnover tax system in May 2 news digest.
A group of lawyers said on Tuesday that their 5% turnover tax [for annual turnover under ֏119M] will become 10% this year, and in 2025 they will be required to switch to a 20% VAT/18% profit tax. The cost of legal services for many clients could increase by over 38%, they warned.
The Ombudsman and the Justice Ministry reportedly oppose this bill by the Finance Ministry.
source, source, source, source,

video shows the new payment terminals in Yerevan subway station

They plan to replace all gates next month. The Soviet-era tokens (zheton) are being replaced with QR codes, an app, and later - bank cards.
All stations will have payment terminals to purchase QR tickets. It prints out a paper with QR. Telcell's app lets you buy a ticket and instantly get a QR on the phone's screen.
Seniors who can't use "high-tech" can approach the token sellers and get a QR paper instead of a token.
video,

Yerevan will host an exhibition on Charles Aznavour’s 100th anniversary

Hundreds of rare artifacts will present the life and legacy of the legendary artist.
Location: National Museum-Institute of Architecture
Date: May 22-July 22
source,

Germany wants to purchase an Armenian man

Dortmund Borussia is interested in the services of Armenian national Edward Spertsyan as a replacement for departing Marco Reus.
During this season, midfielder Spertsyan has played 32 matches, scored 11 goals, and made 7 assists. His ass is worth €18 million.
source,

Without exaggeration, the decision making at OpenAI in voicing Sky is shocking and very worrying.
I'm a data analytics professional, and occasionally come across issues with Personally Identifiable Information (PII) that can slide into unethical and illegal practices if not addressed. People have rights to privacy, and collecting PII around certain things (especially medical) requires a lot of care to not breach that privacy.
Similarly, people have rights to their likeness and it not being used without their permission.
"Oh," you (might) smugly reply "the voice for Sky comes from another voice actor - and actually it sounded more like Rashida Jones than Scarlett Johansson anyway!"
Storytime for how actual professionals handle things like this. I was the data analytics person attached to a cancer research study that had roughly 80 participants, about half of which were in the intervention group. We had a lot of data on these individuals that could easily breach PII and become unethical (as well as illegal). The idea came around to give them fake names to more easily outline the results for the individuals. So we just pick random names, right? Wrong. Because what if we accidentally assigned the correct name to one of the participants? So we had to have the names assigned by one of the HCPs that knew their real name and would assign what was specifically an incorrect name to each participant.
So not only did we not try to find PII of the individuals, we actively and painstakingly avoided it.
That is not at all what OpenAI did.
They were told "no you cannot use my voice". IF they were ethical professionals, they would have specifically not included a voice model that was even close to resembling the person that specifically did not give consent for their voice likeness to be used. In the very most charitable version of events, they accepted they could not use Scarlett Johannsson's voice, and then did a totally blind casting of voice actors regardless of how close to hers it was.
When offered the opportunity to wade into a morally grey area or to avoid it completely, the decision at OpenAI was to wade in.
And the stakes could NOT have been lower. This was all over being able to gin up a little extra marketing excitement. This wasn't about the quality of the product, how many people it could reach, or how it would impact users. This was all over a marketing gag.
So what about when it actually matters? And according to these same people, it will. According to the people that chose to potentially infringe on an individual's rights, the technology they're shepherding will have the greatest impact on humanity in generations.
We should be worried by this.

I searched and could not find anything so I'm posting the question. I (34M) broke off my engagement with my fiance (41F) last June and we lived together until she could recover financially and she moved out in April.
Although I told her she needed to wait to sign papers for vendors for our wedding, she went ahead signed them anyway. So when I broke things off, she asked me to reimburse her for the deposits. She told me it was $4,500 and I agreed. After I started paying her back for the deposits she said $4,500 was the deposits but since she was moving out she would feel more comfortable with a little more for expenses so she told me $8,000 and I told her that I wasn't going to commit financial suicide but I will do whatever extra that I can.
We've been "trying to work things out" since she "had an epiphany" when she moved out that I did love her and that maybe she was focused on the wrong things and she'd like to work towards getting our family back together. So I've been slowly letting her back in but still holding boundaries in place.
Her sister had an event for May birthdays out of town and she asked me to attend and I chose to go. While in transit, she asked me to place an order for a bunch of things and I made the remark that she was ordering a lot and she was going to have to take it off her child support. She responded "potentially how much was it costing" then she pivoted to "when can I expect a payment this month". I asked if she was expecting me to send her a full payment and she said I could deduct the expenses from this weekend. And I made a comment that "you're about to make me compare you to someone you don't like" (my oldest son's mother that I pay state mandated child support to). I knew this was going to cause a problem but I needed her to understand how things were coming across.
Fast-forward to today and things blew up (which I should've expected). She brought the conversation back up and I told her how I felt about the situation. I don't feel it's ok for me to use funds on us, her, the child(ren) and still expect a full payment. She didn't understand why I felt it was a problem. She said "she just needed to know and if I didn't have the funds, just let her know". "She understands I just got my car fixed, or anything could've happened. Either way, I should give her the heads up". She also said that it feels like I "just don't believe in child support", and she went on to acknowledge that our son spends equal if not more time with me.
Background: She didn't want to move in before we were married. She lived about an hour away but ended up forced to move in due to a natural disaster that ruined her apartment. This lead to a lot of resentment plus other issues along the way. I wasn't perfect myself I admit, but I was also the first non abusive and somewhat decent relationship that she's had. This was our second time dating (6 years) and the first time we dated a year then she ghosted me. We loved together for 3 years and she was never required to pay bills nor did she have to put groceries in the kitchen except a handful of times. I ended up with financial hardship and even through therapy things were up and down but I was never fully able to get over the resentment. There was an incident on the 4th of July that finally made me say I was done.
More background: she has a (13f) daughter and we have a (3m) son. Both of the kids are mentally mine as the daughters father is not really in the picture. Our son was born with a congenital heart defect which led to speech delays (known issue). I take him to speech therapy in the morning then he spends the rest of the day with me. He used to go to daycare after school/speech but we're preparing for his next heart surgery so we took him out due to germ ridden daycares are (if you know, you know). Mom works in the office 3 days a week and from home 2 days a week. I'm self employed and work from home. I usually do the volunteering and chauffeuring the kids around, etc.
Let me know if there's more information needed.

UK based.
TLDR: ongoing symptoms of MS for the last 4 weeks but I have now been diagnosed with FND.
It all started 4 weeks ago when I felt extremely fatigued and light headed. I drove home after work at 5pm and suddenly I had lost all control of the movement in my arms. It was like a partial paralysis. An ambulance was called and they took me to the stroke unit where they did a CT scan of the brain and kept me in overnight. The use of my arms came back at around 10pm.
The next day, they carried out MRI scans on my brain and in my spine, all of which ruled out a stroke. They referred me for an urgent neurology appointment (which was 4 weeks later).
Since then, I have experience at least one or more of the following symptoms daily: - loss of control in my arms - loss of control in my right leg - stabbing pains in my thigh - extreme fatigue - vertigo and dizziness - numbness of the muscles in my face - tingling and cold sensations through my upper body - muscle spasms and tremors in my hand
When I was younger, I had optic neuritis which lasted just over a week and the scan showed small lesions of MS. They had mentioned if I have other spells in the future that it would likely be diagnosed as MS. With this information and all the symptoms I have experienced we all assumed this would be the case. Every symptom I had is a symptom of MS, and in all honesty, I was waiting for the neurology appointment to confirm this.
Anyway, I had the appointment this morning and to my surprise he said the scans are clear and it is not MS (he was also an MS specialist). He told me that I have Functional Neurological Disorder. I was shown a web page that outlined this and not much further advice was able to be given in terms of how to manage my symptoms on a daily basis, particularly with work.
I am being sent for further bloods to check my vitamin levels and have a catch up appointment in a month’s time.
Having researched this throughout the day, I can see what a broad spectrum FND covers. Is it just a diagnosis they give when they don’t know what is wrong with the signals to your nervous system? Has anyone had a similar experience? Is it worth going private and getting a second opinion? Will the symptoms get better?

呪われたテクニック:ギャンブラーのガーディアン (Cursed Technique: Gambler's Guardians)

The Gambler's Guardians CT is a shikigami technique that employs the use of chance and a deck of cards to summon guardians to combat opponents. The user cannot choose which shikigami is summoned as the medium between summoning these shikigami is a deck of cards that the user always has. The user may withhold these cards to be used as a later date or to lead to the use of the user's DE.

Drawbacks Of Gambler's Guardians

1. Due to its unpredictability, you may not draw the right card for the situation or even be unable to summon a shikigami at all.
   
2. It's a very risky, yet powerful technique as the cards must physically be drawn for the shikigami to be summoned.
   
3. All the shikigami's main weakness is fire as they will become a pile of ash in a matter of seconds [as this is the main and almost only weakness for all the shikigami, it will not be repeated and only shikigami specific weaknesses will be mentioned going forward].
   

呪われた道具:プレイヤーの野望 (Cursed Tool: Player's Ambition)

The Player's Ambition Cursed Tool is a tool that is created directly from the user's CE. It is tied to the user's CE and can always be created again by the user whenever it is destroyed. The cards in this deck are extremely durable as if made of a titanium alloy while still retaining its flexibility. These cards can be very useful for other Sorcerers as the deck always has a full suit of cards [that never repeat until all have been used once] that can cause a lot of damage. As for the user, these cards serve as both the medium and a powerful offensive tool for combat. However, just like modern decks, two jokers have been placed. These two jokers are required for the user to activate their DE, if the user does not have a DE then these two jokers are used as diversions to trick or further damage opponents. When the shikigami is summoned, the card drops to the card and expands to the required size for the shikigami to exit the card as if it's a portal. Both the size and the body of the shikigami depends on how quickly it exits the card.

ギャンブラーのガーディアン:エース (Gambler's Guardians: Ace)

The Ace shikigami is a shikigami that helps smooth the flow of the user's CE and increase the user's CE output. The shikigami is in the form of a large skinny robed figure that bears the symbol of the card that is drawn [A spade for the Ace Of Spades, a heart for the Ace Of Hearts and so on]. Aceis quite physically powerful and smart as it will get very creative with its attack and almost never do something in the literal sense. The Ace is extremely lanky and has arms that almost drag on the ground on the floor. The boost from this shikigami lasts for a varying amount of time depending on which Ace is drawn. The Ace takes advantage of its long arms and powerful enhancement boosting abilities to quickly attack in swiping strikes from a distance. Ace is the manifestation of the user's grief and regret of indulging in their addiction as they have lost the love and warmth of those who were close, yet pushed away.

ギャンブラーのガーディアン:スペードのエース (Gambler's Guardians: Ace Of Spades)

The Spades variation of the Ace shikigami can be seen as the more base version of the Ace as it still retains all regular details aforementioned, but with the added detail of skin as white as snow and hands the size of a shovel’s blade. The enhancement ability aforementioned is not changed much as it still can enhance the flow of CE in the user and boost the overall strength of itself. Although it can now enhance the durability of different objects to the level of a titanium alloy.

Gambler's Guardians: Ace Of Hearts

The Hearts variation of Ace sees some very drastic changes when compared to the Spade variation. The Ace Of Hearts can be seen with the same snow white skin, but this time it seems to have brought red outlines where its nonexistent veins should be. These “veins” are visible all along its body. The Ace Of Hearts no longer smooths the flow of the user's CE, but instead is able to reverse some damages to both it and the user. The Ace Of Hearts takes advantage of this healing factor with its higher amount of agility, but this healing factor and agility come with the loss of strength. The Ace Of Hearts is much weaker and not suited for close hand to hand combat, but instead will use debris from the fight to throw at the opponents while at points jumping towards the user to heal them. The Ace Of Hearts is able to climb up buildings extremely quickly and is another very useful part of the user's chance filled arsenal.

Gambler's Guardians: Ace Of Diamonds

The Ace Of Diamonds is the more defensive variation and it will always put its life at bay to keep its master safe. It is much more bulky than its previous variations and uses this bulky-ness to shield the user with its body. The Ace Of Diamonds has the same snow white skin and the same blood red “veins”, but with the added factor of its major difference in size when compared to the other variations. The Ace Of Diamonds is also the most physically powerful variation as it can throw things like cars with ease, possibly even buses if it tried. This variation of Ace can reinforce its own skin to that of diamonds, at the cost of being unable to apply any boosts to others.

Gambler's Guardians: Ace Of Clubs

The Ace Of Clubs is the much more offensive variation of Ace as it trades away some of its high durability to gain more agility and muscle strength. Combining this increase in agility and muscle strength with its newfound aggressiveness and large hood, it can quickly apply large amounts of pressure onto anything as it mercilessly attacks the target. The Ace Of Clubs will also use it's surroundings heavily to apply further pressure, whether that be from grabbing and throwing the target into something, or picking up something and using it as a weapon.

Gambler’s Guardians: Two

These shikigami mainly focus on supporting the user as all of their variations focus on buffing their capabilities in some form, whether that be applying a protective CE shield over the user or simply healing the user. However, these shikigami are very weak and require something to protect them or else little value will be gained from summoning them. The shikigami almost look like [biblically accurate] angels about the size of a bike, the only difference is that they are made purely of the card they were summoned with, hence why their durability is so low and can very easily be shut down.

Gambler's Guardians: Two Of Spades

The Two Of Spades variation is [just like Ace Of Spades] the base variation of Two. The Two Of Spades summons two smaller shikigami that both can apply barriers of CE onto objects or even people. These barriers are not the strongest and can barely survive a single hit from something such as a grade 2 and above, but they can allow for some defense especially as it can tank at least a single hit which can potentially save the user's life.

Gambler's Guardians: Two Of Hearts

The Two Of Hearts variation allows the shikigami to be able to reverse damage to anything, but not the position [ex. If a wall was knocked down and shattered, these shikigami can reverse the damage it sustained to an extent, but not being it back to its upright position unless they somehow lift it back up] to a certain extent. No, these shikigami can NOT reverse death, the worst injury they can reverse on a human being or animal is a broken bone [unless the bone is completely shattered]. Anything more can potentially cause more pain for the user while killing the shikigami in the process.

Gambler's Guardians: Two Of Diamonds

The Two Of Diamonds variation can apply a much more durable shield than Two Of Spades, at the cost of its own speed and tapping into the user's CE reserves. This allows for a much stronger shield that can repair itself as long as the user’s CE reserves are full. These shields can survive multiple hits from a semi-grade 1 and potentially a few hits from a grade 1 sorcerer or curse. However, if the shikigami attempts to keep up the shield for too long, it will overload itself and burn up in a flash of CE. The CE used to summon these shikigami will be returned if this happens.

Gambler's Guardians: Two Of Clubs

The Two Of Clubs is the fastest variation of Two, but at the cost of its own durability. These shikigami often will apply a shield onto itself [rather than the user] and fly into a target to cause physical damage, taking advantage of its shield and speed. However, because it is so weak durability wise, so are its shields. Its shields cannot survive more than 2 hits from most sources without shattering. Even though these shields are weak, the shattering effect that happens when they break can potentially harm others [this includes the user].

Gambler's Guardians: Three

Three is a trio of shikigami that look similarly to the finger bearer cursed spirit, but Three are pure white with either black or red accents depending on which card was used to summon them and the symbol of the card on its back. They are also smaller than the finger bearer, reaching a height of about 4’4. Three is more so focused on being a supporting attacker to overwhelm an opponent, rather than taking the attention off of the user [with the exception of Three Of Clubs]. Three is very much average in all ways, but makes up for it with its speed, being able to quickly overwhelm a target.

Gambler's Guardians: Three Of Spades

The Three Of Spades is very fast and can even sneak up on opponents as it is able to dig its claws into objects and hold itself on ceilings or walls. Three Of Spades is very overwhelming as it takes advantage of its speed and strength to even break through walls to catch an opponent off guard, but will ultimately choose to protect the user even if it means death. Most of the time, Three Of Spades will stick closely to the user, but in a hidden position where they cannot be easily noticed while even hiding their own CE to an extent.

Gambler's Guardians: Three Of Hearts

The Three Of Hearts shikigami is the same looking shikigami, the only difference is that one of them specializes in physical attacks, one specializes in psychological confusion, and the last specializes in attacking the soul. The one that specializes in physical attacks is slightly above average in strength, speed and durability, but can grow claws on both its hands and feet to attempt to cause bleeding. The one that specializes in psychological confusion can release a gas that, if inhaled, will cause the victim to have hallucinations that could go from minor to severe depending on how much of the gas is inhaled. Finally, the one that specializes in attacking the soul is below average in physical strength and durability, but makes up for it with its speed and ability to cause irreversible damage.

Gambler's Guardians: Three Of Diamonds

The Three Of Diamonds are much more durable and physically powerful and the form they take represents that. They have a lot more visible muscle on them and the accents are less tattoos and actually are an unknown metallic material that is highly durable. This armour does not cover its whole body, but it does allow protection on the shikigami's arms, legs, and partially their chest. The armour is on these parts as it is a physical attacker rather than using some other ranged attack. The Three Of Diamonds are also a bit bigger than that of the rest of the variations of Three, reaching a height of 4’11.

Gambler's Guardians: Three Of Clubs

The Three Of Clubs variation can all merge together, forming a much larger and stronger shikigami, reaching the height of 5’8. Each summoned shikigami has a different part of the Clubs symbol on their back, when the three parts decide to form or the user tells them to merge, they become the powerful shikigami as mentioned before with the finished symbol of Clubs. More info on this combination will be stated below, for now information on Three Of Clubs will be talked about. The Three Of Clubs focuses more on hard hitting attacks, rather than stealthy ambushes. It loses its stealth, but instead it has a new merging gimmick and slightly increased strength and durability when compared to Three Of Spades.

Gambler's Guardians: Three Of A Kind

The Three Of A Kind shikigami is the result of when all three shikigami of Three Of Clubs merge together. The Three Of A Kind is very powerful and uses the same fighting style that the user does with the added benefits of a massive strength, durability and speed boost. The Three Of A Kind can apply a lot of pressure and can even revert back into the three separate shikigami it was before on command to dodge a potential hit from an enemy. However, the longer the shikigami are in this merged form, the weaker they will get as they have a time limit that is represented by the tattoo of the clubs on its back slowly fading from the top of the clubs down. It does slowly regenerate while not in the merged state and when it isn't even summoned. Trying to push past this state can allow a few extra seconds of strength, but ultimately will end with this shikigami to burn up in a flash of CE and the card used to summon it will be burned from the deck.

Gambler's Guardians: Four

Gambler's Guardians: Four Of Spades

Gambler's Guardians: Four Of Hearts

Gambler's Guardians: Four Of Diamonds

Gambler's Guardians: Four Of Clubs

Gambler's Guardians: Five

Gambler's Guardians: Five Of Spades

Gambler's Guardians: Five Of Hearts

Gambler's Guardians: Five Of Diamonds

Gambler's Guardians: Five Of Clubs

Gambler's Guardians: Six

Gambler's Guardians: Six Of Spades

Gambler's Guardians: Six Of Hearts

Gambler's Guardians: Six Of Diamonds

Gambler's Guardians: Six Of Clubs

Gambler's Guardians: Seven

Gambler's Guardians: Seven Of Spades

Gambler's Guardians: Seven Of Hearts

Gambler's Guardians: Seven Of Diamonds

Gambler's Guardians: Seven Of Clubs

Gambler's Guardians: Eight

Gambler's Guardians: Eight Of Spades

Gambler's Guardians: Eight Of Hearts

Gambler's Guardians: Eight Of Diamonds

Gambler's Guardians: Eight Of Clubs

Gambler's Guardians: Nine

Gambler's Guardians: Nine Of Spades

Gambler's Guardians: Nine Of Hearts

Gambler's Guardians: Nine Of Diamonds

Gambler's Guardians: Nine Of Clubs

Gambler's Guardians: Ten

Gambler's Guardians: Ten Of Spades

Gambler's Guardians: Ten Of Hearts

Gambler's Guardians: Ten Of Diamonds

Gambler's Guardians: Ten Of Clubs

Gambler's Guardians: Jack

Gambler's Guardians: Jack Of Spades

Gambler's Guardians: Jack Of Hearts

Gambler's Guardians: Jack Of Diamonds

Gambler's Guardians: Jack Of Clubs

Gambler's Guardians: Queen

Gambler's Guardians: Queen Of Spades

Gambler's Guardians: Queen Of Hearts

Gambler's Guardians: Queen Of Diamonds

Gambler's Guardians: Queen Of Clubs

Gambler's Guardians: King

Gambler's Guardians: King Of Spades

Gambler's Guardians: King Of Hearts

Gambler's Guardians: King Of Diamonds

Gambler's Guardians: King Of Clubs

Extension Technique: Full House

This Extension Technique allows the user to overload their cards with CE, allowing the capabilities of the shikigami to be heightened [ex. More durability, faster, stronger, special gimmicks have a stronger influence, ect], but burning the card after being used. When this happens, the card is less likely to be pulled again or even just not even to be pulled from that deck ever again, forcing the user to attempt to artificially create another deck they can use from their CE.

Domain Expansion: Joker's Last Cabaret

When this DE is activated, both the user and the opponents will be placed in the midst of a casino filled with different cards flying everywhere extremely fast [fast enough to cut the skin on a human being]. As soon as one of these cards draws blood and they land flat on a surface [face down], the corresponding shikigami of that card will be summoned with the person the card had hit as their target. These shikigami will not target any other person until the original target is felled. Once that target is defeated the shikigami will explode into a flurry of cards, allowing for more shikigami to be summoned. The user can concentrate CE to slightly direct the cards into a target, but then these cards that were directed turn into blank cards that have no other use than as a physical weapon rather than an intermediary. The Joker cards will burn up after this DE is summoned, meaning this DE can never be used again unless the user can focus enough CE onto another set of Joker cards.

AGI Defined
An autonomous assistant that solves tasks you give it as well as or better than a human would. It has the reasoning, agency, learning capability, and ability to use tools like a human.
How AGI Solves Tasks
Problem Definition and Understanding:
Start by understanding the problem, desired outcomes, and constraints.
Planning:
Formulate a detailed plan outlining steps and strategies to address the problem.
Knowledge Acquisition:
Gather relevant information from its database, the internet, and through its own experiments.
Data Collection and Analysis:
Collect, clean, and analyze data to extract useful insights.
Reasoning and Planning:
Plan by simulating different strategies and evaluating their feasibility.
Creative Generation of Solutions:
Create innovative solutions by combining and extrapolating ideas.
Evaluation and Selection:
Evaluate solutions based on criteria like effectiveness and ethics.
Decision-Making:
Decide on the best solution by weighing pros and cons.
Implementation and Execution:
Implement the chosen solution with an action plan.
Iterative Feedback and Learning:
Adjust approach based on feedback during implementation.
Continuous Improvement:
Learn from experiences to improve problem-solving over time.
How Agi Is Smarter Than Humans In Discovering and Implementing New Knowledge
Enhanced Memory:
Have an extensive and perfect memory, allowing it to recall and use vast amounts of information instantly.
Processing Speed:
Analyze vast amounts of data and complex problems much faster than humans.
Integration:
Integrate information from diverse sources and disciplines more effectively, generating novel insights.
Pattern Recognition:
Detect subtle patterns and anomalies in data that humans might overlook.
Deep Learning:
Understand and learn from complex datasets, making connections and insights that are difficult for humans to grasp.
Hypothesis Generation:
Systematically generate and evaluate a vast number of hypotheses, including unconventional ones humans might not consider.
Simulations:
Run countless simulations of theoretical models quickly to test their validity.
Unbiased Exploration:
Explore hypotheses without cognitive biases that might influence human researchers.
Logical Consistency:
Maintain higher levels of logical consistency in reasoning, avoiding common cognitive fallacies and errors.
Advanced Problem-Solving:
Solve complex problems more effectively by using advanced algorithms and heuristic methods beyond human capability.
Feedback Loop:
Rapidly iterate and refine models based on new data, accelerating the cycle of discovery.
Innovative Thinking:
Generate truly novel ideas and solutions that go beyond conventional human thinking.
Continuous Operation:
Work continuously without breaks, accelerating the research process.
Innovations Needed For AGI
Hardware:
Better chips
Data centers
Energy production
Software:
Agents perform multi-step tasks and know what to do next for the task to be done without being asked to.
Self operating computer
Having every workflow application have the AI be able to use the tools rather than just give advice based on what it sees on the device and hears from the user.
Spoken Timelines: I didn't add links but you could just search what I said on Google.
Dan Schulman (former PayPal CEO): GPT-5 will be a freak out moment. 80% of the jobs out there will be reduced 80% in scope.
Sam Altman thinks GPT-4.5 will automate 100 million jobs globally.
In 2023, Sam Altman said he predicts job losses will begin in 2-3 years.
Sam Altman's AI Capabilities Projection:

• Multi-Modality: Somewhat with GPT 4o. Still needs an everything to everything model.
• Reasoning: Q-star, chain of thought, search tree. I’m sure more will come.
• Personalization: Most likely having the AI be trained on all your personal data by having it control your devices. (Bill Gates Interview)
• Reliability: Sam said that this is when the AI can always give you the best response. He remarks that if GPT-4 gives a good response 1 out of every 10k times, then he wants to ensure that one good response is given every time. (Bill Gates Interview)
• Agents: API calls with other apps. Ability to use tools in different applications.

AI that controls your computer is coming soon
Sam Altman said GPT 4 is really dumb. So he knows the next model is actually way better.
OpenAI is likely two years ahead of everyone.
OpenAI COO: Brad Lightcap

• We’ll get a major upgrade by May 2025 (Based on May 2024). Today’s systems are laughably bad.
• Models are capable of complex "work."
• OpenAI already has a desktop app with a conversational voice and can comprehend what’s on your screen. So they can be like your teammate.

Every company’s workflow would be reengineered by May 2026. Nvidia, Dell Are Building Their Own AI 'Factories' (Based on May 2024)
Project Stargate: Nuclear fusion to power the $100 billion data center to be released in 2028. This is likely for scaling for smarter models, make AI faster, cheaper, or getting it to as many hands as possible.
Many leaders in AI give AGI release dates between 2025-2030. Most people that think AI won't take jobs are thinking of todays tech for the future. They don't consider how AGI would be like for AI to take jobs. Like the required technology and how those innovations could be achieved. People don't consider how embodied humanoid robots with AGI could also eliminate many jobs. People think trade jobs are safe. NVIDIA's project groot is training robots in simulation. Who's to say that the robots can't learn to do all tasks. Maybe not in a year, but five years is a lot of progress with the rate AI is advancing. Even if we don't have AGI now, AI will be replacing jobs. If one person can use AI to do the work of one team, then those people who would have been on a team would be laid off. Especially when Agents roll around in 1-2 years.
Sometimes it really worries me about the people who go to college to get a high paying jobs, especially first gen college students from immigrant families. Imagine working hard for the dream of getting a high paying job only to be automated in six years. What happens to their drive? All their hard work for what? Sold a long gone dream and had the carpet pulled under them. In my opinion, even jobs like doctors could be automated if humanoid robots had embodied AGI. Sure it might not be wanted at first, but it has the potential too.
My Thoughts on AGI
AGI would just be the accumulation of all the different innovations needed to reach the requirements needed to meet the definition of what AGI is. Realistically, engineers could do this within six years. So even though I have a general idea of how AGI could be achieved by the end of the decade, I would just have to wait and see when these innovations are created.
Post Labor Info
Most people work to gain money because money is needed to survive and buy things that you want. The purpose of school is to provide people with a pathway to secure a high-paying job. When students say they work hard in school to be successful, it often means they want to get a high-paying career.
But if AI were to start taking over jobs, then our relationship with work would change. There would be mass unemployment, leading people to receive UBI. The government would be forced to give UBI unless they want societal collapse. No one would need to work to have money for survival and buying the things they want.
If everyone had free money, people would use the extra time on bettering their personal lives. They can spend more time with loved ones and do the things they want to do. There would be a paradigm shift in how society is set up. People wouldn’t have to work so hard at school or a job in the pursuit of money. A lot of people don’t like working anyway, especially since the cost of living is causing them to work harder and subsequently deal with mental health issues. Look at Gen Z doesn't want to work, antiwork, wage slavery, 9-5 rat race. Cost of living being unaffordable. People work so hard but can not get by. Hard work is not properly financially compensated and college grads can't find jobs. Meaning from work could be derived from work you want to do not work you do for a paycheck. Look at David Shapiro's YouTube channel for more info on Post-Labor and Post-AGI videos.
It would be better for the next generation of people born in this post-labor world. Nasa researchers found that 98% of 5-year-old children fell into the “genius category of imagination.” This number dropped to 12% for 15-year-olds and to 2% for adults. The reason for this drop is the education system killing creativity. But with the traditional education system gone, that generation is likely to remain geniuses.

I don't know how the YouTube algorithm works for you guys, but whenever I view even one video from a channel for the first time, no matter how obscure or small the channel might be, my homepage quickly becomes flooded with videos from that channel. Yet, only two videos on my channel have gone viral, one with 124,701 views and the other with 453,701 views. Meanwhile, the view counts on my other videos and shorts range from 17 to 2,474. It seems that the success of my two videos hasn't trickled down to my other videos. This isn't unexpected for the video with 124,701 views since I didn't direct viewers to my other content. Yet, despite implementing all the recommended strategies for the other viral video, the increased views haven't extended to my other videos.
A video I posted in December 2023 titled "How Hitler Would Sound Speaking English" quickly went viral and, even several months later, its view count continues to rise each day. In the video, AI is used together with the "Hiter and Mannerheim Recording" - the only known recording of Hitler speaking regularly - to clone Hitler's voice for English text-to-speech to give viewers an idea of how he would sound speaking English. Upon the video going viral, I made sure to implement a variety of strategies. Consequently, I uploaded three more videos directly connected to the viral video: one where the AI-cloned version of Hitler's actual voice was used to reproduce the famous Hitler rant scene from the film "Downfall," one that shows how Stalin would sound in English, and one that shows how Mao would sound in English. I linked these videos at the end screen of my viral video. I made the thumbnails for all of them enticing. Additionally, I included an information card about my second most viral video in my most viral video.
Yet, my first video's success differs greatly from my subsequent three videos in this series. In total, the first video has garnered 453,701 views, while the other three have garnered 2,026, 650, and 331 views, respectively. And this is despite the fact that the other three videos use more advanced AI software that does a better job of replicating their voices and are shorter and more concise. To be fair, the end screen strategy is somewhat working, since end screen clicks accounted for roughly 75%, 75%, 30% of views in the last 48 hours for each of the other three videos. Yet, with the hundreds and hundreds of thousands of views my one video has garnered in total, and the thousands and thousands of views it continues to garner each day even several months later, and the overwhelmingly positive feedback the video has generated, you'd think the number of people who would view my other videos as a result of watching this video would be much higher than a few hundred. What am I doing wrong? Thank you for your time and consideration.