Studied for 5 months to get my CISSP early April, took a week off then spent 75-100 hours over a month on the CISM.
Resources Used

1. Gwen's Review manual - 9/10: Just the right level of detail, good quiz questions. Would be a 10/10 if it had an index!
2. Pocket Prep app -8/10: Good for sneaking in questions throughout the day. Information was all correct, but format and level of detail we're quite the same as the live-fire test
3. QAE book version-superposition of 3/10 and 10/10: content was super targeted and closely resembled live fire text BUT the answers are printed in bold directly beneath the questions in a way that makes them difficult to avoid while reading options
4. All In One - 5/10: gave up on the book pretty much immediately, but the included Total Seminars test bank has 400ish solid questions presented in a quality format

Test Experience
I did the at-home version. Initial setup was annoying but not particularly difficult. Proctor reached out to me saying my camera had cut out at one point but within 15 seconds told me to resume without anything having changed. Powered through all questions in 90 minutes flagging about 10, changing a handful upon review.
Summary
Overall, very passable if you have the CISSP content fresh of mind. No idea what career impact it will have, but the extent of new material can be learned through Gwen's short manual and a read through of the QAE alone. Excuse any spelling/grammar issues, I'm on my 2nd celebratory margarita.

Finally got around sharing our wonderful experience in Kansai (1 Apr 2024 - 10 Apr 2024). We are a family of 4 from Perth, Australia (1 x Toddler turning 4 end of this month and 1 x Infant about 18 months old) joined by my MIL from Malaysia. It was our first time trip to Japan but the second time flying 6 hours long with 2 kids. We chose to travel during this period as it was during Easter holidays and also the most favourable weather for our kids. As we have 4 separate accommodations booked over 9 days, we try to travel as light as possible: 2 x large suitcase, 1 x medium suitcase, 2 x medium bags, 1 x bag pack, 1 x dedicated bag for infant carrier and kids' jumpers + 1 stroller. Our kids still take nap(s) during the day and our plan was having the toddler sleep on the stroller and the infant in the carrier or the stroller if toddler is not using.
After extensive research (mostly from this sub) we still found the first few days to be quite hectic and wish we know some of the things beforehand (listed below the itinerary). I hope this post can help young families who are considering travelling to Japan with kids or those who have travelled to Japan before kids came to the picture to do it again with confidence.

9 Day Itinerary (1 Apr 2024 - 10 Apr 2024)

Day 1 Osaka: Namba (Monday)
Our flight from KUL arrived KIX around 10am and boarded the Nankai Rapid (bought 1 month prior online) to Shin-Imamiya station after getting our luggage. We originally planned to take a taxi from there but failed to find any taxi for 20 mins so we end up walking to our accommodation as the kids were tired of waiting. After offloading our luggage we manage to hail a taxi and head to Namba Parks to rest and unwind. Had a refreshing lunch at Yasaiya Mei (mains + all you can eat side dishes including veg tempura) and went to explore the rooftop parks garden before putting the kids to nap. After the kids woke up we took a taxi back to check in officially. Everyone was quite tired thus we opted to stay in and get dinner from Life supermarket nearby. This was probably the most enjoyable part of the day for the kids wandering around a foreign supermarket as we bought dinner and some light snacks. After putting the kids to bed, we did some laundry and packed our 1st luggage to send away.
Day 2 Osaka: Tennoji (Tuesday)
While everyone was getting ready, I went to the nearby 7-Eleven to forward our 1st luggage to the 4th accommodation via Yamato transport. The shop attendant was helpful and guided me through the process as we communicated via deepL. We walked to the Lawson's at JR Imamiya to get brekkky before taking the Osaka loop Line to JR tennoji. We took quite a while to navigate towards Tennoji Zoo from JR Tennoji but eventually got there after a 15 min detour. It was quite crowded for a Tuesday morning but the kids get to roam around the Tenshiba garden while I queue up for tickets (500 yen per adult). One of the kids fell asleep in the zoo so we decided to just grab food to go at the supermarket outside the zoo for lunch. We then head towards Abeno Q's mall to shop and put the other kid to sleep. There was quite a lot of hot food along the way and we manage to grab some for the kids to snack on after their nap (butaman from Horai 555, mochi donut from Mister Donut, taiyaki etc). There's a fantastic area for kids to play (kid, play, study) at the ground floor with different sensory setup and soft blocks for stacking/ balancing. I spent close to 2 hours there with 2 kids while my wife and MIL went shopping. After that we had dinner at Grand Capital Toyoutei at the Kintetsu mall dining floor before heading to our final activity of the day: Abeno Harukas 300. Tickets were a bit steep (2000 yen per adult) but we end up staying there for quite a bit and the experience was pretty unique even though we missed the sunset timing. The elevator ride to the top though short left quite an impression. The kids enjoyed running around at the sky garden 2 floors below as we rest and enjoy the night view of the city from about 300m above ground. The journey back to our accommodation was pretty straightforward and the kids got knocked out when we got home. All in all Tennoji was a pleasantly great experience and we have a better understanding about JR station layout and navigating underground.
Day 3 Osaka - Kyoto (Wednesday)
This was a rather hectic day as it rained quite a bit and we struggled to get a taxi after checking out, getting turned down by several taxis with "空车". We eventually found one to bring us to JR Osaka station. Navigating at the station wasn't too difficult after yesterday but there were long queues when we arrived at 10am and I made the fatal mistake of leaving my physical credit card back in Perth and spent 45mins trying to redeem limited express tickets I reserved online. The JR staff were friendly and tried their best to help but they can only recommend me cancelling my initial reservation and buying new tickets (cancellation fee was about 2300 yen for 3 adults). As soon as we got our tickets we sprinted to the underground gate about 15 mins walk away. I even carried the stroller and kids through an escalator as we didn't want to waste time finding a lift and risk missing the train. We managed to board the limited express train on time and arrived at JR Kyoto which was even more crowded and larger than most international airports. The kids were quite cranky by now as it has been all rush and long waits since they woke up. I split up with my family with 2 luggage that we initially planned to forward to our Arashiyama accommodation via Sagawa. However I was told same day delivery service is only applicable to limited hotels so I stored the luggage at 2 coin lockers and then head to the Kintetsu line ticket counter to redeem the Kyoto-Nara and Nara-Osaka limited express tickets which fortunately doesn't require my credit card details (just reservation number). By the time I reunite with my family it was still raining and both kids fell asleep so we ditched the plan for Kyoto railway museum and instead went browsing for lunch at Porta and Isetan dining floor. We eventually queued to eat at Ejuan for about 25 minutes while one of the kid was still asleep. The wait was worthwhile as the grilled miso black cod was exceptional as was the kids' grilled chicken. Next we went to the skywalk at level 9 briefly before my family went to the toy section at Isetan while I retrieve our luggage from the coin lockers. We board the Saga line bound for Saga-Arashiyama and rested awhile at the accommodation before heading out for dinner after the rain stopped. We walked to Kijurou and fortunately they have space for us provided we order a main meal per adult. The yakiniku and Wagyu rib loin bowls were pretty good but we find the Hitsumabushi set a bit gimmicky. After dinner we stopped by Kimono Forest on our way back and this was probably the highlight of the kids day.
Day 4 Kyoto: Arashiyama (Thursday)
Had Lawson's for brekky before heading out to Kimono Rental Amuya to hired kimonos for my wife and toddler including hairstyling. The shop was actually a house with the living area turned into a studio and only the owner working by herself so we waited for about half an hour before walking towards the Bamboo Forest and Tenryu-ji gardens (500 yen entry from the north gate but well worth it for the blooming sakura and picturesque lake). It was crowded as expected and everyone was moving slowly so it took us about an hour to complete the loop back to the main tourist strip. We then had Udon for lunch at Ozuru, the chewy noodles were complemented by the broth which was a lot more flavourful than the kitsune Udon we are accustomed to back in Perth. After lunch we head home to put the kids to nap before venturing out in the evening towards Togetsukyo Bridge overlooking the pristine Katsura river flowing gracefully from Mt Arashi in the backdrop. The view was breathtaking and we crossed over to Arashiyama park where the kids had a great time running around free range. As the sun was setting, we head back to the town centre, took a novelty Randen ride and grab some food (Naruse's Unagi, Upit's Burger) en route to our accommodation to eat in before calling it a day.
Day 5 Kyoto (Friday)
After checking out we took the Saga line to JR Kyoto station and forwarded the medium sized luggage to the 4th accommodation in Osaka using Crosta. We then did some light shopping at Yodabashi Camera Kyoto as my MIL shoes had kick the bucket and we needed a replacement. Manage to sneak in the only ramen meal of the trip at Ramen Chabuton located upstairs. It was a fairly small shop but we were lucky to get a table just before the Friday lunch rush hour and our ramen cravings were thoroughly satiated. We put the kids down for a quick nap as we make our way back to JR Kyoto to take the Saga line towards Kyoto railway museum. This is an underrated attraction with so much to do and we could have spent the whole day here if I knew they had coin lockers. There were many interactive and educational displays relating to train components in addition to multiple play areas upstairs as well as an outdoor playground! There's also a mockup ticket gate for kids to learn how to purchase a ticket and pass through the gate. Our kids loved the ball pit, toy train area and large train simulator. We couldn't squeeze enough time to explore the 3rd floor or watch the diorama presentation or board the Steam Locomotive as it was getting late. We took a taxi to check-in at Kamoya Ryokan before taking the bus to Nishiki Market for dinner. It's about 6pm and most of the shops were shutting and the remaining ones that are open had queues building up quickly. We ended up waiting 30 mins to eat sushi at Sushi Say. There's a limited range of cooked food including skewers which we got for our kids while we share a nigiri platter and sashimi. After dinner we went to the basement of Daimaru Kyoto across the road to get some baked goods for brekky before taking the taxi home to crash.
Day 6 Kyoto (Saturday)
My MIL wanted to take it easy and explore the area at her own pace so we had a more spontaneous day. After brekky, we took the bus to Yasaka Shrine and started our trek towards Heian Jingu, stopping along the way to enjoy the blossoming park and munching on food from street vendors. We paid to enter the shrine garden (600 yen per adult) which was very worth it for a 30 minute stroll and escape from the bustling crowd outside. We grab some food to eat from the street vendors as one of the kid slept and then head to the playground across the road (Wagener Square) and spent a good 30 minutes there even though it was a bit basic (Perth is blessed with many great playgrounds). Once both kids are feeling refreshed we felt adventurous and took the bus to attempt the hike up Kiyomizu-dera. Since its a Saturday, the Sannenzaka path was packed with phenomenal crowds with the occasional car coming through and splitting the crowd apart. I carried the infant to sleep while my wife push our toddler on the stroller as we slowly make our way up, stopping by for a nice matcha latte and softserve at Here cafe to recharge. We eventually reached the base of the temple after 30 minutes and decided against entering due to the massive crowds (& stairs!). On the way down we reached the fork that branches into Ninenzaka and thought we try giving it a go. There were a lot more stairs over this side and we had to carry the stroller through the steps while waiting for the crowd to advance before us. As physically draining as it was, we felt a sense of achievement as we manage to snap a photo with the iconic Hokanji temple. We took the bus home after that and had an enjoyable dinner at Okonomiyaki Yoshino next door before an early night to recover.
Day 7 Kyoto - Nara - Osaka (Sunday)
We had some leftover food for brekky before checking out and heading to JR Kyoto via taxi. We head to the Kintetsu line and boarded the Vistacar limited express train to Nara. I've booked for the private room down stairs which was pretty spacious for the 5 of us and our luggage. After arriving at Kintetsu-Nara station, we took the 100 yen tourist bus to the famous Nara Deer Park and started exploring the area. There were plenty of deer roaming throughout/ resting on the ground and several vendors at the entrance selling deer crackers. After the kids were done feeding 2 sets of crackers, we head to Mizuya Chaya for lunch. There were limited seating so we sat by the side and ate with the bowl in our hands while feeding the kids. Probably the best Udon we had in our lives (level above Ozuru in Arashiyama and Hifumiya in Perth). Time for a nap so we put the kids down while making our way to have a closer look at Todaiji temple as there were too many stairs to Kasuga-taisha and we have yet to recover. We had our first Cremia here and it was amazing. After the kids woke up we took the bus back to Kintetsu-Nara station and explored the nearby street while waiting for our train. We then boarded the HINOTORI limited express bound for Osaka. While walking towards the hotel to check in, we were passing by Dotombori and opted to have a quick dinner and call it a day rather than coming out again after checking in and offloading our luggage. We ended up having curry at Hariju Dotombori Curry shop which taste d like a homely nourishing meal. After dinner we took the taxi to the hotel and fortunately our 2 other luggage that we forwarded days before are waiting for us to collect. Did some repacking and also laundry at a nearby laundromat before sleep.
Day 8 Osaka: Osaka Bay Area (Monday)
Started the day with brekky at MOS Burger just outside our hotel before taking the metro train to Osaka Bay Area. There were plenty to see as we approach the Kaiyukan, large LEGO animal displays, the large ferris wheel and Disney characters. The ticketing and entry time is staggered which is a good idea to control the amount of crowds going in and out. I started queueing at 1035am and got entry for 11am which was fair (opted not to book timeslot online as it can be unpredictable with kids and public transit) but we didn't felt like its a long wait as the kids were running around and enjoying the ocean view. The entry also have a photographer stationed to take a family polaroid with a whale shark replica for FREE. We were impressed with the aquarium's efficient layout where some prominent displays (Whale Shark, Seals etc) span across multiple floors so you can still enjoy them later on if you missed it earlier due to the crowds. Apart from sea creatures there are also Arctic mammals and birds (Puffins) from all over the world. The kids were over stimulated by lunch time so we head to the food court at Tempozan Market Place to refuel. After lunch we took the kids for a ferris wheel ride before putting both to sleep while we make our way to Shinsaibashisuji Shopping Street via metro line. As the kids were still asleep, I rested at Daimaru with my MIL while my wife went shopping. This turn out to be a fantastic place with a floor dedicated for kids (Pokemon centre, Pokemon cafe, BorneLund mini play area with many display toys available for sampling). The kids spent the rest of the day here after they woke up and we had dinner at the dining floor. There were queues everywhere and we chose to wait at Aozora Blue as they offer udon made with a higher wheat ratio here. Regrettably the kids didn't enjoy as much and prefer regular ones that we are used to. After dinner we took away cheescake from Rikuro for dessert back at our hotel. I made sure to online check in our flights before I go to bed.
Day 9 Osaka: Dotombori (Tuesday)
Our final day in Japan and we chose to do some shopping and take it easy. Tried Doutor Coffee for brekky (took a while to find as it was underground) before walking to Don Quijote at Dotombori. There's 6 floors crammed with various items: snacks, electronics, clothing, non prescription medication, toys, collectibles as well as a functional ferris wheel (operates after 2pm). That being said the kids got bored after awhile and didn't really enjoy much as there wasn't much space to move around. I brought them out to stroll around the Ebisu-bashi Bridge while my wife and MIL continue their haul. It was certainly a sight to behold: countless amount of large LCD screens with surround sound on full blast from every high rise building, street buskers vying for attention from crowds that were constantly on the move, tourists taking selfies in front of the iconic Glicoman. Sadly it started to drizzle so I quickly entered the Shinsaibashisuji Shopping Street undercover area and look for a place to have lunch. I stumbled across a Yoshinoya & Hanamaru joint food hall which was bustling with both locals and foreigners. You have to order and get your food from the counter before you can occupy a table so I waited for my wife and MIL to arrive before we start queueing up. We had the gyudon and beef Udon with onsen egg along with chicken karaage and tempura. There's also a condiment station with toppings to complement your udon as well as free tea and water. Everything was very affordable and best of all we didn't had to wait long. After lunch my wife continuing shopping while we head to Daimaru for the kids to have a nap and play afterwards. I noticed there's a bridge that connects each floor to the Parco next door and discovered a unique floor full of pop culture themed stores including a studio Ghibli store featuring Totoro and No-Face displays, a 2 ft tall Godzilla, Ultraman, Capcom superstore, Sanrio (Hello Kitty), Snoopy, Rilakkuma and also a LEGO store. The kids had a great time browsing and also playing with LEGO before my wife reunites with us. As it's nearing dinner time, I thought we try our luck getting a table at Ganko Dotombori and make our way towards Ebisu-bashi Bridge. The view here is even more spectacular at night with the contrasting lights as well as numerous LCD displays illuminating the area. Unfortunately there's a lengthy wait at Ganko and our party voted for street food instead which turn out surprising well. Kids devoured a dozen gyozas while we had takoyaki, kobe beef nigiri, yakitori and yakiniku skewers as we strolled along the street. It was still early so we made a detour towards Hozenji before walking back the hotel. Then we stumbled upon an arcade (Amuse Factory AXE) which naturally drawn the kids in, we got popcorn from a vending machine there and it was enough to keep the kids happy on our trek back. Before taking our last sleep in Japan, we organized our luggage and get them ready for check out the next day.
Day 10 Osaka: Sayonara (Wednesday)
Checked out of the hotel and took a private airport taxi to KIX. Had brekky at McD and Lawsons and surprised to find that the food here costs the same as outside (e.g. McD/ Hungry Jacks at Malaysian/ Australian airports cost more than the metro/ suburban outlets). Boarded the flight and bid Japan farewell for now while soaking in the surreal time we had.
List of accommodations for 3 adults and 1 child + 1 infant/ toddler
1. Orange House 701 (22,500 yen for 2 nights) 10/10
Location is not bad in a quiet area South of the bustling Dotombori area with Konbinis and JR Imamiya within walking distance. Washing machine, shower and stove took some time to figure out and my kid accidentally turned on the stove but luckily there's a safety button. Overall a brilliant accommodation at an affordable price and will consider returning if we come back to Osaka with kids.
2. Arashiyama bamboo guest house (55,650 yen for 2 nights + 1200 yen tax) 8/10
Prime location 1 min away from JR station, Lawson and walking distances to the local tourist strip, Bamboo Grove, Tenryu-ji and Togetsukyo Bridge. However the room is located on the 3rd floor with no lift so it can be a challenge for kids and older folk. The owner was kind enough to carry our 2 X 20kg luggage up and speaks a little English. The stay was rather comfortable even with futons to sleep on while my MIL slept on one of the single beds. We are unlikely returning to Arashiyama but would recommend this place if it suits your budget.
3. Kamoya Ryokan (35,400 yen for 2 nights + 2000 yen tax) 7.5/10
Not as central as the other accommodations but still within 10 mins walking distance to JR and bus lines. This is a shared accommodation so fridge, microwave and hot/ cold water is in the common area but we have a private bathroom to use. There are no beds so we all slept side by side on futons in the same room. For some reason kids are also taxed to stay a night here (200 yen) but the host was super friendly, spoke a bit of basic English and helped us with ordering a taxi when we checked out. For the price this is not a bad place for short term stay if cosleeping on futons together as a family is acceptable. Bonus: the okonomiyaki place next door is quite good albeit requiring a bit more effort to communicate but is worth it as plenty of locals seem to frequent there and our kids love the yakisoba.
4. Best Western Hotel Fino Osaka Shinsaibashi (40,450 yen for 3 nights) 8/10
Functional hotel relatively close to Shinsaibashi shopping street and Dotombori. 1 min walk away from Osaka metro station and 7 Eleven. There's also a 24 hour laundromat 5 mins walk away. Facilities are bare minimal but gets the job done as we only needed the place to crash and freshen up since there's a lot of shopping and remaining sightseeing to be done. All reception staff spoke English well and check in/ out was rather smooth. I would consider staying again if the rooms were larger but can't complain at this price point and location.
List of eateries we consider returning

• Yasaiya Mei
• Ejuan
• Kijurou
• Ozuru
• Upit's Burger
• Ramen Chabuton
• Okonomiyaki Yoshino
• Mizuya Chaya
• Yoshinoya & Hanamaru

Highlight of each day for the kids

1. Wandering around Life supermarket and exploring a new accommodation
2. Running around 300m above ground at the Abeno Harukas sky garden while having fruits/ snacks in between
3. Visiting Kimono Forest after dinner, watching the randen pass by at the crossing
4. Running around at Arashiyama park and watching the majestic Katsura river flowing rapidly
5. The outdoor playground at Kyoto railway museum among many other fun things there
6. The playground at Wagener Square across Heian Jingu
7. Interacting with deer and eating udon outdoors
8. Seeing different sea animals up close and ferris wheel ride after
9. Making friends at BorneLund and having imaginary play together despite the language barrier

Lessons learned (not in chronological order)

General tips

• We prepared about 160,000 yen cash before arriving at Japan but also have money via 1 x transfer wise debit card (digital), 1 x Westpac credit card (digital), 1 x ING debit card (physical). We ended up withdrawing a further 200,000 yen worth of cash. We opted not to bring any AUD as the rate is quite poor in Japan since most would prefer foreign exchangers would prefer USD.
• We didn't get to use our digital cards as most places in Kansai (Kanto might be different) that offer card payments still requires a physical card to read the chip.
• Please remember to bring the physical card of the credit card used for any online booking to avoid the stress I endured on day 3.
• We booked all the transit tickets online about a month prior and find it worthwhile rather than spending 15 - 30 mins in queue at the ticket counters. The limited express tickets go crazy fast and I recommend booking them the hour they become available (1 month prior your transit date and as soon as it is open in Japan time).
• We booked all 4 accommodations via booking.com and find the messenger via the app very handy in liaising with the owne receptionist on whether we can offload our luggage earlier or forward our luggage a few days in advance. One of them even told me that I can check in few hours earlier as the room was ready. Regardless of what platform you use, try to communicate with the accommodation prior your arrival if you are considering forwarding luggage or dropping them off before your official check in time.
• Booking multiple accommodations over a short span of time is very tiring as we are needing to worry about getting our luggage from A to B every second day but only able to check in the next place 5 - 6 hours after checking out the previous place (Most checkin starts from 3pm and checkout from 10am). Our transition days are always stressful as we don't get to do much due to the timing while handling multiple baggage so the kids are crankier.
• Rubbish/ garbage cans are mainly found on major train stations or shopping malls as well as konbinis. Most vending machines only have a recycle bin but we have plenty of disposable nappy bags which we use as rubbish bags if needed.
• We had 3 data Sims about 5GB each which was sufficient for the 9 days (navigation, Google translate, WhatsApp voice call). Free wifi is available at most places which we use whenever we need to photo dump on WhatsApp group chats or play YouTube for the kids.
• My eSim stopped working when we arrived at Kyoto from Osaka but luckily I tried rebooting my phone and it connected to the local network after. Another down side of data only Sim is there is no Japanese mobile number which can be handy (make reservations at restaurants or signing up for taxi apps to get taxi).
• We use Google Maps and Japan Travel by NAVITIME App to plan our overall route each day, public transit details is quite clear via Google Maps with several options for different J metro/ bus lines. While Japan Travel App is able to approximate cost of taxi which was useful for comparison.
• For translation, we used DeepL app when we wanted to converse with someone in Japanese and Google Translate for written Japanese translation via the camera.
• In Osaka, getting around via JR and Metro is optimal in terms of time and cost; In Kyoto, buses are more readily available but be prepared to stand shoulder to shoulder as the buses are not big and averages around 30 - 50 people. We recommend a taxi if travelling a short distance (<10 minutes) for a family that can fit into a single car.
• You can forward luggage at your hotel or local 7 eleven via Yamato transport within Osaka.
• The Jikan refreshing legs patch worked well for me but my wife got woken up few times as her feet felt cold due to the cooling effect. We got some heat patches the next day and it worked better for her.
• A few Japanese phrases go along way and perhaps it's why we mostly get friendly responses (arigato gozaimas, ohaiyo, konnichiwa, kore onegaishimas, doitashi mashite, hitotsu onegaishimas, daijorbudes, kodomo).
• The basement level of most department stores/ shopping malls sells a variety of package deserts and often a bakery opened till 8pm where we sometimes go to after dinner to get brekky for the next morning.
• Some malls have an express lift (stops only at 1F and 10F) and it may be quicker to use those in combination with escalators to get to the level you like quickly.
• Coin lockers are found is almost every major attraction and JR station but finding a large one that is available can be challenging so allow extra time. Most coin lockers only take 100 yen coins with the exception of newer ones which also takes IC cards as payment.
• Some food courts have drinkable water for you to refill your bottles but otherwise vending machines and konbinis will quench your hydration needs (the peach drink is pretty addictive).
• Other than Booking.com, Google maps, Google Translate, DeepL and Japan Travel by NAVITIME, we didn't really used the other apps we downloaded before hand but you might find a use for them: Mamamap, NERV, Ecbo cloak, Klook.

Child related tips

• Younger kids take awhile to acclimatize to a foreign environment and our kids were more lethargic than they normally are during the day, sometimes needing 2 naps instead of 1 so be prepared to adjust your plans and skip over some places that were catered specifically for them if needed.
• Google maps only tells you the distance to get you from Point A to Point B horizontally. Unfortunately it doesn't consider the routes involving travelling multiple floors to avoid heavy traffic even with wheelchair access enabled. For instance you can go across Tenshiba Garden from JR Tennoji via the overhead bridge (not ideal as the route is longer with a stroller) or underground (best with a stroller but unfortunately Google Maps doesn't show this route and we stumble across it by chance).
• Google maps navigation over multiple floors is also not very accurate but the local directory maps are very informative so take extra time to study it and find the nearest access (parents room, lift or exit to above ground/ underground).
• The lift (singular as most train station platforms only share one lift unless it's a major one like Osaka/ Kyoto etc), are often located at one end of the platform so allow additional 15 - 20 minutes when travelling with strollers or luggage.
• Most department stores/ shopping malls (Daimaru etc) have a floor suitable for kids with toy samples for playing and sometimes even a free play area (Bornelund).
• Our kids love the Butaman from Horai and we probably purchased from 5 different stores throughout the trip (they are located at almost every major station and department store). Find something that works for your kids that can be found readily (7-11, family mart, Lawson's, daily Yamazaki etc) as back up when they didn't want to eat where you were dining at or if they fell asleep and skipped a meal.
• 100 yen stores (Daiso, 3 coins, Seria, Can*Do, Watts) have plenty of cheap kid activities (e.g. sticker books, puzzles, bubble wand etc) that can entertain them throughout the day/ in restaurants/ in the showe in the accommodation before bed etc.
• Paid Attractions in Kansai that are worthwhile if your kids are under 5 (6 and above may be charged separately): Tennoji Zoo, Abeno Harukas 300, Kyoto Railway Museum, Osaka Kaiyukan, Tempozan Ferris Wheel.
• Other brekky alternatives that we liked apart from konbinis/ bakeries were MOS burgers and Doutor coffee. Gyudons (sukiya, matsuya, yoshinoya) morning menu was a bit too heavy for our kids and other options we would have tried were too far from where we stayed (Tully's, McDonalds, KoHiKan).
• Some places require you order a main meal per adult but we are small eaters so we make sure what we ordered was something our kids might eat (not spicy etc).
• Tabelog is useful to tell you the size of the restaurant and we avoided anywhere that seats less than 20 people to save time.
• We tried to eat at a restaurant for lunch and dinner the first few days but actually realize the kids enjoy munching on small eats from konbinis/ street vendors more than a casual sit down meal so we were a bit more spontaneous the second half of the trip.
• Watch out for deer poo at Nara especially when pushing your stroller! Most of the deer are quite friendly and let you pet them but don't touch their tail area as they can get defensive. If your kids are feeding away the crackers too quickly, break them in half so you have more 'ammunition'.
• Metro and JR Trains (including limited express ones) stop for less than 10 seconds. Please remember to unlock your stroller when you are approaching your next stop and prepare to jump out.

Finally got around sharing our wonderful experience in Kansai (1 Apr 2024 - 10 Apr 2024). We are a family of 4 from Perth, Australia (1 x Toddler turning 4 end of this month and 1 x Infant about 18 months old) joined by my MIL from Malaysia. It was our first time trip to Japan but the second time flying 6 hours long with 2 kids. We chose to travel during this period as it was during Easter holidays and also the most favourable weather for our kids. As we have 4 separate accommodations booked over 9 days, we try to travel as light as possible: 2 x large suitcase, 1 x medium suitcase, 2 x medium bags, 1 x bag pack, 1 x dedicated bag for infant carrier and kids' jumpers + 1 stroller. Our kids still take nap(s) during the day and our plan was having the toddler sleep on the stroller and the infant in the carrier or the stroller if toddler is not using.
After extensive research (mostly from this sub) we still found the first few days to be quite hectic and wish we know some of the things beforehand (listed below the itinerary). I hope this post can help young families who are considering travelling to Japan with kids or those who have travelled to Japan before kids came to the picture to do it again with confidence.

9 Day Itinerary (1 Apr 2024 - 10 Apr 2024)

Day 1 Osaka: Namba (Monday)
Our flight from KUL arrived KIX around 10am and boarded the Nankai Rapid (bought 1 month prior online) to Shin-Imamiya station after getting our luggage. We originally planned to take a taxi from there but failed to find any taxi for 20 mins so we end up walking to our accommodation as the kids were tired of waiting. After offloading our luggage we manage to hail a taxi and head to Namba Parks to rest and unwind. Had a refreshing lunch at Yasaiya Mei (mains + all you can eat side dishes including veg tempura) and went to explore the rooftop parks garden before putting the kids to nap. After the kids woke up we took a taxi back to check in officially. Everyone was quite tired thus we opted to stay in and get dinner from Life supermarket nearby. This was probably the most enjoyable part of the day for the kids wandering around a foreign supermarket as we bought dinner and some light snacks. After putting the kids to bed, we did some laundry and packed our 1st luggage to send away.
Day 2 Osaka: Tennoji (Tuesday)
While everyone was getting ready, I went to the nearby 7-Eleven to forward our 1st luggage to the 4th accommodation via Yamato transport. The shop attendant was helpful and guided me through the process as we communicated via deepL. We walked to the Lawson's at JR Imamiya to get brekkky before taking the Osaka loop Line to JR tennoji. We took quite a while to navigate towards Tennoji Zoo from JR Tennoji but eventually got there after a 15 min detour. It was quite crowded for a Tuesday morning but the kids get to roam around the Tenshiba garden while I queue up for tickets (500 yen per adult). One of the kids fell asleep in the zoo so we decided to just grab food to go at the supermarket outside the zoo for lunch. We then head towards Abeno Q's mall to shop and put the other kid to sleep. There was quite a lot of hot food along the way and we manage to grab some for the kids to snack on after their nap (butaman from Horai 555, mochi donut from Mister Donut, taiyaki etc). There's a fantastic area for kids to play (kid, play, study) at the ground floor with different sensory setup and soft blocks for stacking/ balancing. I spent close to 2 hours there with 2 kids while my wife and MIL went shopping. After that we had dinner at Grand Capital Toyoutei at the Kintetsu mall dining floor before heading to our final activity of the day: Abeno Harukas 300. Tickets were a bit steep (2000 yen per adult) but we end up staying there for quite a bit and the experience was pretty unique even though we missed the sunset timing. The elevator ride to the top though short left quite an impression. The kids enjoyed running around at the sky garden 2 floors below as we rest and enjoy the night view of the city from about 300m above ground. The journey back to our accommodation was pretty straightforward and the kids got knocked out when we got home. All in all Tennoji was a pleasantly great experience and we have a better understanding about JR station layout and navigating underground.
Day 3 Osaka - Kyoto (Wednesday)
This was a rather hectic day as it rained quite a bit and we struggled to get a taxi after checking out, getting turned down by several taxis with "空车". We eventually found one to bring us to JR Osaka station. Navigating at the station wasn't too difficult after yesterday but there were long queues when we arrived at 10am and I made the fatal mistake of leaving my physical credit card back in Perth and spent 45mins trying to redeem limited express tickets I reserved online. The JR staff were friendly and tried their best to help but they can only recommend me cancelling my initial reservation and buying new tickets (cancellation fee was about 2300 yen for 3 adults). As soon as we got our tickets we sprinted to the underground gate about 15 mins walk away. I even carried the stroller and kids through an escalator as we didn't want to waste time finding a lift and risk missing the train. We managed to board the limited express train on time and arrived at JR Kyoto which was even more crowded and larger than most international airports. The kids were quite cranky by now as it has been all rush and long waits since they woke up. I split up with my family with 2 luggage that we initially planned to forward to our Arashiyama accommodation via Sagawa. However I was told same day delivery service is only applicable to limited hotels so I stored the luggage at 2 coin lockers and then head to the Kintetsu line ticket counter to redeem the Kyoto-Nara and Nara-Osaka limited express tickets which fortunately doesn't require my credit card details (just reservation number). By the time I reunite with my family it was still raining and both kids fell asleep so we ditched the plan for Kyoto railway museum and instead went browsing for lunch at Porta and Isetan dining floor. We eventually queued to eat at Ejuan for about 25 minutes while one of the kid was still asleep. The wait was worthwhile as the grilled miso black cod was exceptional as was the kids' grilled chicken. Next we went to the skywalk at level 9 briefly before my family went to the toy section at Isetan while I retrieve our luggage from the coin lockers. We board the Saga line bound for Saga-Arashiyama and rested awhile at the accommodation before heading out for dinner after the rain stopped. We walked to Kijurou and fortunately they have space for us provided we order a main meal per adult. The yakiniku and Wagyu rib loin bowls were pretty good but we find the Hitsumabushi set a bit gimmicky. After dinner we stopped by Kimono Forest on our way back and this was probably the highlight of the kids day.
Day 4 Kyoto: Arashiyama (Thursday)
Had Lawson's for brekky before heading out to Kimono Rental Amuya to hired kimonos for my wife and toddler including hairstyling. The shop was actually a house with the living area turned into a studio and only the owner working by herself so we waited for about half an hour before walking towards the Bamboo Forest and Tenryu-ji gardens (500 yen entry from the north gate but well worth it for the blooming sakura and picturesque lake). It was crowded as expected and everyone was moving slowly so it took us about an hour to complete the loop back to the main tourist strip. We then had Udon for lunch at Ozuru, the chewy noodles were complemented by the broth which was a lot more flavourful than the kitsune Udon we are accustomed to back in Perth. After lunch we head home to put the kids to nap before venturing out in the evening towards Togetsukyo Bridge overlooking the pristine Katsura river flowing gracefully from Mt Arashi in the backdrop. The view was breathtaking and we crossed over to Arashiyama park where the kids had a great time running around free range. As the sun was setting, we head back to the town centre, took a novelty Randen ride and grab some food (Naruse's Unagi, Upit's Burger) en route to our accommodation to eat in before calling it a day.
Day 5 Kyoto (Friday)
After checking out we took the Saga line to JR Kyoto station and forwarded the medium sized luggage to the 4th accommodation in Osaka using Crosta. We then did some light shopping at Yodabashi Camera Kyoto as my MIL shoes had kick the bucket and we needed a replacement. Manage to sneak in the only ramen meal of the trip at Ramen Chabuton located upstairs. It was a fairly small shop but we were lucky to get a table just before the Friday lunch rush hour and our ramen cravings were thoroughly satiated. We put the kids down for a quick nap as we make our way back to JR Kyoto to take the Saga line towards Kyoto railway museum. This is an underrated attraction with so much to do and we could have spent the whole day here if I knew they had coin lockers. There were many interactive and educational displays relating to train components in addition to multiple play areas upstairs as well as an outdoor playground! There's also a mockup ticket gate for kids to learn how to purchase a ticket and pass through the gate. Our kids loved the ball pit, toy train area and large train simulator. We couldn't squeeze enough time to explore the 3rd floor or watch the diorama presentation or board the Steam Locomotive as it was getting late. We took a taxi to check-in at Kamoya Ryokan before taking the bus to Nishiki Market for dinner. It's about 6pm and most of the shops were shutting and the remaining ones that are open had queues building up quickly. We ended up waiting 30 mins to eat sushi at Sushi Say. There's a limited range of cooked food including skewers which we got for our kids while we share a nigiri platter and sashimi. After dinner we went to the basement of Daimaru Kyoto across the road to get some baked goods for brekky before taking the taxi home to crash.
Day 6 Kyoto (Saturday)
My MIL wanted to take it easy and explore the area at her own pace so we had a more spontaneous day. After brekky, we took the bus to Yasaka Shrine and started our trek towards Heian Jingu, stopping along the way to enjoy the blossoming park and munching on food from street vendors. We paid to enter the shrine garden (600 yen per adult) which was very worth it for a 30 minute stroll and escape from the bustling crowd outside. We grab some food to eat from the street vendors as one of the kid slept and then head to the playground across the road (Wagener Square) and spent a good 30 minutes there even though it was a bit basic (Perth is blessed with many great playgrounds). Once both kids are feeling refreshed we felt adventurous and took the bus to attempt the hike up Kiyomizu-dera. Since its a Saturday, the Sannenzaka path was packed with phenomenal crowds with the occasional car coming through and splitting the crowd apart. I carried the infant to sleep while my wife push our toddler on the stroller as we slowly make our way up, stopping by for a nice matcha latte and softserve at Here cafe to recharge. We eventually reached the base of the temple after 30 minutes and decided against entering due to the massive crowds (& stairs!). On the way down we reached the fork that branches into Ninenzaka and thought we try giving it a go. There were a lot more stairs over this side and we had to carry the stroller through the steps while waiting for the crowd to advance before us. As physically draining as it was, we felt a sense of achievement as we manage to snap a photo with the iconic Hokanji temple. We took the bus home after that and had an enjoyable dinner at Okonomiyaki Yoshino next door before an early night to recover.
Day 7 Kyoto - Nara - Osaka (Sunday)
We had some leftover food for brekky before checking out and heading to JR Kyoto via taxi. We head to the Kintetsu line and boarded the Vistacar limited express train to Nara. I've booked for the private room down stairs which was pretty spacious for the 5 of us and our luggage. After arriving at Kintetsu-Nara station, we took the 100 yen tourist bus to the famous Nara Deer Park and started exploring the area. There were plenty of deer roaming throughout/ resting on the ground and several vendors at the entrance selling deer crackers. After the kids were done feeding 2 sets of crackers, we head to Mizuya Chaya for lunch. There were limited seating so we sat by the side and ate with the bowl in our hands while feeding the kids. Probably the best Udon we had in our lives (level above Ozuru in Arashiyama and Hifumiya in Perth). Time for a nap so we put the kids down while making our way to have a closer look at Todaiji temple as there were too many stairs to Kasuga-taisha and we have yet to recover. We had our first Cremia here and it was amazing. After the kids woke up we took the bus back to Kintetsu-Nara station and explored the nearby street while waiting for our train. We then boarded the HINOTORI limited express bound for Osaka. While walking towards the hotel to check in, we were passing by Dotombori and opted to have a quick dinner and call it a day rather than coming out again after checking in and offloading our luggage. We ended up having curry at Hariju Dotombori Curry shop which taste d like a homely nourishing meal. After dinner we took the taxi to the hotel and fortunately our 2 other luggage that we forwarded days before are waiting for us to collect. Did some repacking and also laundry at a nearby laundromat before sleep.
Day 8 Osaka: Osaka Bay Area (Monday)
Started the day with brekky at MOS Burger just outside our hotel before taking the metro train to Osaka Bay Area. There were plenty to see as we approach the Kaiyukan, large LEGO animal displays, the large ferris wheel and Disney characters. The ticketing and entry time is staggered which is a good idea to control the amount of crowds going in and out. I started queueing at 1035am and got entry for 11am which was fair (opted not to book timeslot online as it can be unpredictable with kids and public transit) but we didn't felt like its a long wait as the kids were running around and enjoying the ocean view. The entry also have a photographer stationed to take a family polaroid with a whale shark replica for FREE. We were impressed with the aquarium's efficient layout where some prominent displays (Whale Shark, Seals etc) span across multiple floors so you can still enjoy them later on if you missed it earlier due to the crowds. Apart from sea creatures there are also Arctic mammals and birds (Puffins) from all over the world. The kids were over stimulated by lunch time so we head to the food court at Tempozan Market Place to refuel. After lunch we took the kids for a ferris wheel ride before putting both to sleep while we make our way to Shinsaibashisuji Shopping Street via metro line. As the kids were still asleep, I rested at Daimaru with my MIL while my wife went shopping. This turn out to be a fantastic place with a floor dedicated for kids (Pokemon centre, Pokemon cafe, BorneLund mini play area with many display toys available for sampling). The kids spent the rest of the day here after they woke up and we had dinner at the dining floor. There were queues everywhere and we chose to wait at Aozora Blue as they offer udon made with a higher wheat ratio here. Regrettably the kids didn't enjoy as much and prefer regular ones that we are used to. After dinner we took away cheescake from Rikuro for dessert back at our hotel. I made sure to online check in our flights before I go to bed.
Day 9 Osaka: Dotombori (Tuesday)
Our final day in Japan and we chose to do some shopping and take it easy. Tried Doutor Coffee for brekky (took a while to find as it was underground) before walking to Don Quijote at Dotombori. There's 6 floors crammed with various items: snacks, electronics, clothing, non prescription medication, toys, collectibles as well as a functional ferris wheel (operates after 2pm). That being said the kids got bored after awhile and didn't really enjoy much as there wasn't much space to move around. I brought them out to stroll around the Ebisu-bashi Bridge while my wife and MIL continue their haul. It was certainly a sight to behold: countless amount of large LCD screens with surround sound on full blast from every high rise building, street buskers vying for attention from crowds that were constantly on the move, tourists taking selfies in front of the iconic Glicoman. Sadly it started to drizzle so I quickly entered the Shinsaibashisuji Shopping Street undercover area and look for a place to have lunch. I stumbled across a Yoshinoya & Hanamaru joint food hall which was bustling with both locals and foreigners. You have to order and get your food from the counter before you can occupy a table so I waited for my wife and MIL to arrive before we start queueing up. We had the gyudon and beef Udon with onsen egg along with chicken karaage and tempura. There's also a condiment station with toppings to complement your udon as well as free tea and water. Everything was very affordable and best of all we didn't had to wait long. After lunch my wife continuing shopping while we head to Daimaru for the kids to have a nap and play afterwards. I noticed there's a bridge that connects each floor to the Parco next door and discovered a unique floor full of pop culture themed stores including a studio Ghibli store featuring Totoro and No-Face displays, a 2 ft tall Godzilla, Ultraman, Capcom superstore, Sanrio (Hello Kitty), Snoopy, Rilakkuma and also a LEGO store. The kids had a great time browsing and also playing with LEGO before my wife reunites with us. As it's nearing dinner time, I thought we try our luck getting a table at Ganko Dotombori and make our way towards Ebisu-bashi Bridge. The view here is even more spectacular at night with the contrasting lights as well as numerous LCD displays illuminating the area. Unfortunately there's a lengthy wait at Ganko and our party voted for street food instead which turn out surprising well. Kids devoured a dozen gyozas while we had takoyaki, kobe beef nigiri, yakitori and yakiniku skewers as we strolled along the street. It was still early so we made a detour towards Hozenji before walking back the hotel. Then we stumbled upon an arcade (Amuse Factory AXE) which naturally drawn the kids in, we got popcorn from a vending machine there and it was enough to keep the kids happy on our trek back. Before taking our last sleep in Japan, we organized our luggage and get them ready for check out the next day.
Day 10 Osaka: Sayonara (Wednesday)
Checked out of the hotel and took a private airport taxi to KIX. Had brekky at McD and Lawsons and surprised to find that the food here costs the same as outside (e.g. McD/ Hungry Jacks at Malaysian/ Australian airports cost more than the metro/ suburban outlets). Boarded the flight and bid Japan farewell for now while soaking in the surreal time we had.
List of accommodations for 3 adults and 1 child + 1 infant/ toddler
1. Orange House 701 (22,500 yen for 2 nights) 10/10
Location is not bad in a quiet area South of the bustling Dotombori area with Konbinis and JR Imamiya within walking distance. Washing machine, shower and stove took some time to figure out and my kid accidentally turned on the stove but luckily there's a safety button. Overall a brilliant accommodation at an affordable price and will consider returning if we come back to Osaka with kids.
2. Arashiyama bamboo guest house (55,650 yen for 2 nights + 1200 yen tax) 8/10
Prime location 1 min away from JR station, Lawson and walking distances to the local tourist strip, Bamboo Grove, Tenryu-ji and Togetsukyo Bridge. However the room is located on the 3rd floor with no lift so it can be a challenge for kids and older folk. The owner was kind enough to carry our 2 X 20kg luggage up and speaks a little English. The stay was rather comfortable even with futons to sleep on while my MIL slept on one of the single beds. We are unlikely returning to Arashiyama but would recommend this place if it suits your budget.
3. Kamoya Ryokan (35,400 yen for 2 nights + 2000 yen tax) 7.5/10
Not as central as the other accommodations but still within 10 mins walking distance to JR and bus lines. This is a shared accommodation so fridge, microwave and hot/ cold water is in the common area but we have a private bathroom to use. There are no beds so we all slept side by side on futons in the same room. For some reason kids are also taxed to stay a night here (200 yen) but the host was super friendly, spoke a bit of basic English and helped us with ordering a taxi when we checked out. For the price this is not a bad place for short term stay if cosleeping on futons together as a family is acceptable. Bonus: the okonomiyaki place next door is quite good albeit requiring a bit more effort to communicate but is worth it as plenty of locals seem to frequent there and our kids love the yakisoba.
4. Best Western Hotel Fino Osaka Shinsaibashi (40,450 yen for 3 nights) 8/10
Functional hotel relatively close to Shinsaibashi shopping street and Dotombori. 1 min walk away from Osaka metro station and 7 Eleven. There's also a 24 hour laundromat 5 mins walk away. Facilities are bare minimal but gets the job done as we only needed the place to crash and freshen up since there's a lot of shopping and remaining sightseeing to be done. All reception staff spoke English well and check in/ out was rather smooth. I would consider staying again if the rooms were larger but can't complain at this price point and location.
List of eateries we consider returning

• Yasaiya Mei
• Ejuan
• Kijurou
• Ozuru
• Upit's Burger
• Ramen Chabuton
• Okonomiyaki Yoshino
• Mizuya Chaya
• Yoshinoya & Hanamaru

Highlight of each day for the kids

1. Wandering around Life supermarket and exploring a new accommodation
2. Running around 300m above ground at the Abeno Harukas sky garden while having fruits/ snacks in between
3. Visiting Kimono Forest after dinner, watching the randen pass by at the crossing
4. Running around at Arashiyama park and watching the majestic Katsura river flowing rapidly
5. The outdoor playground at Kyoto railway museum among many other fun things there
6. The playground at Wagener Square across Heian Jingu
7. Interacting with deer and eating udon outdoors
8. Seeing different sea animals up close and ferris wheel ride after
9. Making friends at BorneLund and having imaginary play together despite the language barrier

Lessons learned (not in chronological order)

General tips

• We prepared about 160,000 yen cash before arriving at Japan but also have money via 1 x transfer wise debit card (digital), 1 x Westpac credit card (digital), 1 x ING debit card (physical). We ended up withdrawing a further 200,000 yen worth of cash. We opted not to bring any AUD as the rate is quite poor in Japan since most would prefer foreign exchangers would prefer USD.
• We didn't get to use our digital cards as most places in Kansai (Kanto might be different) that offer card payments still requires a physical card to read the chip.
• Please remember to bring the physical card of the credit card used for any online booking to avoid the stress I endured on day 3.
• We booked all the transit tickets online about a month prior and find it worthwhile rather than spending 15 - 30 mins in queue at the ticket counters. The limited express tickets go crazy fast and I recommend booking them the hour they become available (1 month prior your transit date and as soon as it is open in Japan time).
• We booked all 4 accommodations via booking.com and find the messenger via the app very handy in liaising with the owne receptionist on whether we can offload our luggage earlier or forward our luggage a few days in advance. One of them even told me that I can check in few hours earlier as the room was ready. Regardless of what platform you use, try to communicate with the accommodation prior your arrival if you are considering forwarding luggage or dropping them off before your official check in time.
• Booking multiple accommodations over a short span of time is very tiring as we are needing to worry about getting our luggage from A to B every second day but only able to check in the next place 5 - 6 hours after checking out the previous place (Most checkin starts from 3pm and checkout from 10am). Our transition days are always stressful as we don't get to do much due to the timing while handling multiple baggage so the kids are crankier.
• Rubbish/ garbage cans are mainly found on major train stations or shopping malls as well as konbinis. Most vending machines only have a recycle bin but we have plenty of disposable nappy bags which we use as rubbish bags if needed.
• We had 3 data Sims about 5GB each which was sufficient for the 9 days (navigation, Google translate, WhatsApp voice call). Free wifi is available at most places which we use whenever we need to photo dump on WhatsApp group chats or play YouTube for the kids.
• My eSim stopped working when we arrived at Kyoto from Osaka but luckily I tried rebooting my phone and it connected to the local network after. Another down side of data only Sim is there is no Japanese mobile number which can be handy (make reservations at restaurants or signing up for taxi apps to get taxi).
• We use Google Maps and Japan Travel by NAVITIME App to plan our overall route each day, public transit details is quite clear via Google Maps with several options for different J metro/ bus lines. While Japan Travel App is able to approximate cost of taxi which was useful for comparison.
• For translation, we used DeepL app when we wanted to converse with someone in Japanese and Google Translate for written Japanese translation via the camera.
• In Osaka, getting around via JR and Metro is optimal in terms of time and cost; In Kyoto, buses are more readily available but be prepared to stand shoulder to shoulder as the buses are not big and averages around 30 - 50 people. We recommend a taxi if travelling a short distance (<10 minutes) for a family that can fit into a single car.
• You can forward luggage at your hotel or local 7 eleven via Yamato transport within Osaka.
• The Jikan refreshing legs patch worked well for me but my wife got woken up few times as her feet felt cold due to the cooling effect. We got some heat patches the next day and it worked better for her.
• A few Japanese phrases go along way and perhaps it's why we mostly get friendly responses (arigato gozaimas, ohaiyo, konnichiwa, kore onegaishimas, doitashi mashite, hitotsu onegaishimas, daijorbudes, kodomo).
• The basement level of most department stores/ shopping malls sells a variety of package deserts and often a bakery opened till 8pm where we sometimes go to after dinner to get brekky for the next morning.
• Some malls have an express lift (stops only at 1F and 10F) and it may be quicker to use those in combination with escalators to get to the level you like quickly.
• Coin lockers are found is almost every major attraction and JR station but finding a large one that is available can be challenging so allow extra time. Most coin lockers only take 100 yen coins with the exception of newer ones which also takes IC cards as payment.
• Some food courts have drinkable water for you to refill your bottles but otherwise vending machines and konbinis will quench your hydration needs (the peach drink is pretty addictive).
• Other than Booking.com, Google maps, Google Translate, DeepL and Japan Travel by NAVITIME, we didn't really used the other apps we downloaded before hand but you might find a use for them: Mamamap, NERV, Ecbo cloak, Klook.

Child related tips

• Younger kids take awhile to acclimatize to a foreign environment and our kids were more lethargic than they normally are during the day, sometimes needing 2 naps instead of 1 so be prepared to adjust your plans and skip over some places that were catered specifically for them if needed.
• Google maps only tells you the distance to get you from Point A to Point B horizontally. Unfortunately it doesn't consider the routes involving travelling multiple floors to avoid heavy traffic even with wheelchair access enabled. For instance you can go across Tenshiba Garden from JR Tennoji via the overhead bridge (not ideal as the route is longer with a stroller) or underground (best with a stroller but unfortunately Google Maps doesn't show this route and we stumble across it by chance).
• Google maps navigation over multiple floors is also not very accurate but the local directory maps are very informative so take extra time to study it and find the nearest access (parents room, lift or exit to above ground/ underground).
• The lift (singular as most train station platforms only share one lift unless it's a major one like Osaka/ Kyoto etc), are often located at one end of the platform so allow additional 15 - 20 minutes when travelling with strollers or luggage.
• Most department stores/ shopping malls (Daimaru etc) have a floor suitable for kids with toy samples for playing and sometimes even a free play area (Bornelund).
• Our kids love the Butaman from Horai and we probably purchased from 5 different stores throughout the trip (they are located at almost every major station and department store). Find something that works for your kids that can be found readily (7-11, family mart, Lawson's, daily Yamazaki etc) as back up when they didn't want to eat where you were dining at or if they fell asleep and skipped a meal.
• 100 yen stores (Daiso, 3 coins, Seria, Can*Do, Watts) have plenty of cheap kid activities (e.g. sticker books, puzzles, bubble wand etc) that can entertain them throughout the day/ in restaurants/ in the showe in the accommodation before bed etc.
• Paid Attractions in Kansai that are worthwhile if your kids are under 5 (6 and above may be charged separately): Tennoji Zoo, Abeno Harukas 300, Kyoto Railway Museum, Osaka Kaiyukan, Tempozan Ferris Wheel.
• Other brekky alternatives that we liked apart from konbinis/ bakeries were MOS burgers and Doutor coffee. Gyudons (sukiya, matsuya, yoshinoya) morning menu was a bit too heavy for our kids and other options we would have tried were too far from where we stayed (Tully's, McDonalds, KoHiKan).
• Some places require you order a main meal per adult but we are small eaters so we make sure what we ordered was something our kids might eat (not spicy etc).
• Tabelog is useful to tell you the size of the restaurant and we avoided anywhere that seats less than 20 people to save time.
• We tried to eat at a restaurant for lunch and dinner the first few days but actually realize the kids enjoy munching on small eats from konbinis/ street vendors more than a casual sit down meal so we were a bit more spontaneous the second half of the trip.
• Watch out for deer poo at Nara especially when pushing your stroller! Most of the deer are quite friendly and let you pet them but don't touch their tail area as they can get defensive. If your kids are feeding away the crackers too quickly, break them in half so you have more 'ammunition'.
• Metro and JR Trains (including limited express ones) stop for less than 10 seconds. Please remember to unlock your stroller when you are approaching your next stop and prepare to jump out.

Monthly Summary of Department of Space for March 2024
[PDF] [Archived]
 
Few highlights from summary.
Space Transportation

(…)

• Vacuum ignition test of CE20 E13 without nozzle closure has been successfully conducted for a duration of 2.5 seconds in High altitude test condition on March 26, 2024. This is the first of a series of tests to validate the capability for restarting the cryogenic engine in space.

(…)

• Hot testing of a Monopropellant thruster realized out of Additive Manufacturing (AM) for a duration of 800 seconds was carried out and the performance achieved was satisfactory. The complete thruster assembly was realized through AM using Inconel 625 powder.

Human Spaceflight:

• Integrated structural qualification test of Crew Escape System (CES) Aft end structures for G1 Mission loads completed.
  
• HLVM3-L110 stage UDMH tank structural qualification test completed.
  
• Crew Module Up-righting System secondary float and Active Sea Marker Dye Ejection System interface generation activities completed on G1 Crew Module.
  
• Crew Module for G1 Mission received at ISITE, Bengaluru for further integration activities.
  
• Sling load test for IADT-01 completed. Mechanical interface generation activities completed on IADT-01 Crew Module.
  
• Cable Harness Evaluation System (CHES) completed for IADT-01 Crew Module.
  
• Media interaction training and Amateur radio training completed for Astronaut designates.
  

Space Sciences:

• The PAPA payload onboard Aditya-L1 has detected coronal mass ejections (CME). Further, studies carried out have brought out new insights on the behaviour of solar wind protons and alphas in the stream interaction region in solar cycle 23 and 24.
  
• An in-house numerical model has been built to study the atmosphere of Exoplanets.
  
• Workshop on Radio Probing of the Atmosphere was conducted during 11-22 March, 2024 at NARL Gadanki.
  
• 22nd National Space Science Symposium (NSSS 2024) was conducted at Goa University, Goa during 26th February to 1st March 2024.
  

Capacity Building:

(…)

• During the Month, 5 patents were granted and one patent application is filed at IPO.

Safe & Sustainable Space Operations:

• Daily SOPA (Space Object Proximity Analysis) and re-assessment of close approach situation for 3570 Conjunction Data Messages (CDM) from CSPOC/USSPACECOM were performed for 24 LEO and 30 GSO satellites. No Collision avoidance manoeuvres were necessitated in March, 2024.
  
• Re-entry prediction was carried out for 23 large objects that re-entered the atmosphere.
  
• Daily Radar tracking data for 100 space objects from LeoLabs were processed and analysed by in-house software at NETRA control centre. The initial assessments show good accuracy for the data processed.
  
• Factory Acceptance Test for the dome of NETRA telescope at Hanle, Ladakh was carried out at Bengaluru on 19th March 2024 and found acceptable.
  
• As part of Planetary Defense initiative, SSOM's first hands-on experience on ground-based optical tracking using 43cm telescope was performed at Mount Abu observatory, PRL during 7th 8th March, 2024. Two asteroids were successfully tracked.
  

International Cooperation:

• ISRO signed the Implementing Arrangements
  
  • for a strategic framework for human spaceflight cooperation with NASA
  • transfer of title of integrated Biak TTC station with BRIN, Indonesia
  • operation, maintenance and utilisation of integrated Biak TTC facilities with BRIN, Indonesia
  • joint plan of action on space cooperation with Government Technology Agency, Bhutan.
• The 2nd India - France Strategic Space Dialogue was organised on March 04, 2024 at New Delhi by MEA. The Dialogue was led by Foreign Secretary from Indian Side and Secretary General, Foreign Ministry from French side. Secretary DOS/ Chairman ISRO and President, French National Space Agency participated in the Dialogue and discussed space cooperation.
  
• The Joint Working Group meetings with
  
  • ESA for discussing cooperation in short duration human space flight mission (March 13 & 25, 2024)
  • JAXA for discussing the proposed joint lunar mission (March 27, 2024), were organised.
  • An ISRO - CNES workshop on launch vehicle cooperation was organised (March 21-22, 2024) to discuss future collaboration.
• Secretary DOS/ Chairman ISRO visited Paris, France (March 25-28, 2024) and had discussions with leaders of European and French Space Agencies.
  

IN-SPACe Activities:

(…)

• The RFP for SSLV ToT has been finalised and sent to the shortlisted Bidders.

(…)

• IN-SPACe has executed an MOU with Govt. of Tamil Nadu for establishing the Space Manufacturing Cluster in the state of Tamil Nadu.

(…)

• The provisional authorization issued to
  
  • M/s. Inmarsat India Private Limited for provisioning C and L Band capacity in MSS payload of INMARSAT-6F1 satellite over India, considering the continuity of the existing critical services being provided through the satellite in the Country was extended for a further period of one month
  • M/s. OrbitConnect India Pvt Ltd for authorization of SES-12 satellite to enable provisioning of its Ku-Ka Band HTS capacity for providing communication services over India for a further period of one month till April 07, 2024.
• IN-SPACe has issued advisory note to M/s. HEX20 Labs India Pvt. Ltd. to enable them to apply for the ITU filing through WPC Wing of DOT for the proposed Earth Observation Satellite.
  
• Hosted payloads from 11 NGE's has been selected by IN-SPACE for the upcoming POEM-3 on-board PSLV-C60.
  

NSIL Activities:

• As part of realization of 15 nos. of SSLV, NSIL floated tender for 8 items.
  
• NSIL is coordinating for launch of co-passenger satellites on-board PSLV C59 (Anvesha Mission).
  

(…)

• NSIL has signed Technology Transfer Agreement with SCL for technology of NavIC Receivers.

The link between Post-SSRI Sexual Dysfunction, Hard Flaccid Syndrome, Post Finasteride Syndrome, Pelvic Floor Dysfunction, Chronic Pelvic Pain Syndrome and advice on how to start your healing journey based on 8 years of research and personal experiences : pssdhealing (reddit.com)
Here are all my thoughts and advice based on my personal experiences, other people’s insight and helpful experiences, and research I have done on and off about pelvic floor issues from the past eight years or so. I am not claiming that any of this is revolutionary, but I hope it can help some of you out there to give you a head start on healing and advance our understanding of these conditions. As I am a 27 year old male with previous major problems with pelvic floor issues and hard flaccid, some of my advice may be biased towards my condition. However, I believe everyone can benefit from a lot of this because I really do think that all of these conditions that I mentioned are linked in at least some way, especially by pelvic floor dysfunction and sex hormone desensitization. I try not to come to these forums because it increases anxiety and negative emotions which leads to worse pelvic floor symptoms, so my apologies if I do not respond to your questions. For hard flaccid and pelvic floor affected people, follow my advice and I am confident you can heal and reach a place where your symptoms barely affect your life, if at all, which is where I am at now. The mentality of trying to find a 100% “magic cure” solution just leads to anxiety and catastrophic thinking if you have a set back which will only worsen your symptoms. You can and will heal. I know this is a lot of information, but try to implement just one or two things at a time. Focus on the present, and take it one day at a time. Don’t get overwhelmed. All of this is my opinion and not professional medical advice. Talk with your doctor before starting anything.
Post Finasteride Syndrome (PFS), Post-SSRI Sexual Dysfunction (PSSD), Hard Flaccid Syndrome (HFS), Pelvic Floor Dysfunction, and Chronic Pelvic Pain Syndrome all can have some similar symptoms. I believe that they are all either caused or can be exacerbated by androgen and estrogen receptor insensitivity and are triggered by medication, genital injury, and pelvic floor inflammation and dysfunction. The pelvic floor is rich in androgen receptors and estrogen receptors. However, without proper androgen receptor activation and sensitivity, the pelvic floor muscles don’t have enough DHT which line the tissues of the pelvic floor, genitalia, and lower urinary tract. DHT is vital for healthy sexual functioning in both sexes - it provides an anabolic effect to tissues to provide strength, stability, healing, and relaxation to tissues. As a result of androgen receptor insensitivity and lack of DHT, the pelvic floor can become chronically weakened, tight, and inflamed which reduces blood flow to the region leading to even more androgen receptor insensitivity and thus less DHT. These symptoms can cause psychological stress to the individual which tightens the pelvic floor further leading to more symptoms and less blood flow. One study found that androgen sensitivity has raised the possibility that androgens can be used to rebuild the weakened and/or damaged muscles comprising the pelvic floor - source. Some people may also have normal hormone levels in the blood when tested, but these hormones cannot reach or be effective in the pelvic floor tissues or brain due to sex hormone insensitivity and the lack of the blood flow in the region caused by pelvic floor tightness and dysfunction. It is also likely that there is a problem with desensitized estrogen receptors causing a similar mechanism of dysfunction because they are also found in the pelvic floor, genitals, and brain and are important for pelvic floor health, sexual functioning, cognition, and emotions in both sexes. The most important element to remember to help start the healing process for these disorders is to boost blood flow through supplements, stretches, and exercises which will increase both androgen and estrogen receptor sensitivity over time.
Many males with PFS, PSSD, and Pelvic Floor dysfunction are affected by the hard flaccid condition.
Post Finasteride Syndrome (PFS) caused by Finasteride, a 5-alpha-reductase inhibitor (5-ARI), plummets DHT levels in the body to try to help hair loss causing sexual dysfunction and pelvic floor issues. Androgen receptors that surround the pelvic floor, genitals, and brain become desensitized due to the Finasteride leading to less DHT binding to these receptors causing dysfunction and a tight, weak pelvic floor. The tight, dysfunctional pelvic floor now restricts blood flow which impacts healing and the delivery of testosterone to this area that further exacerbates androgen insensitivity leading to less DHT in these tissues. Since androgen receptors are found in the brain and androgens have neuroprotective effects, this could be one reason why some PFS and PSSD sufferers are also impacted cognitively. An herbal supplement called Saw Palmetto has also been reported to cause a disorder similar to PFS because it is also a 5-ARI that blocks the conversion of testosterone into DHT. Another disorder called Post Accutane Syndrome (PAS) is also similar to PFS and it reduces DHT as well through being a 5-ARI: “Isotretinoin, used to treat severe acne, has been shown to induce hormonal changes, especially to reduce 5 alpha-reductase in the production of the tissue-derived dihydrotestosterone (DHT) metabolite 3 alpha-Adiol G.”. PFS, PAS, and PSSD are thought to cause not only androgen receptor desensitization, but likely estrogen receptor desensitization as well.
For Post-SSRI Sexual Dysfunction (PSSD), SSRIs are also known to decrease androgens and down regulate androgen receptors. This study shows that SSRIs can have an anti-estrogenic effect as well and can even reduce the expression of estrogen receptors (ER), including in the hypothalamus.. As sex hormones get desensitized in the pelvic floor, genital region, and brain, it causes localized DHT and estrogen levels in these tissues to decrease causing emotional blunting, sexual dysfunction, pelvic floor issues, hard flaccid syndrome, and more. The pelvic floor dysfunction can then prevent the sex hormone receptors from being reactivated and sensitized due to restricting oxygen and sex hormone rich blood flow to the tissues. SSRIs can cause androgen receptor insensitivity and estrogen receptor insensitivity by severely inhibiting the serotonin transporter (SERT) leading to increased serotonin levels which desensitizes those receptors throughout the body. One key to help heal from PSSD is increasing androgen production, androgen receptor sensitivity, and blood flow to boost BDNF, SERT, and DHT levels to hopefully allow any estrogen receptor desensitization recover on its own over time after everything else is normalized. Once androgen levels in local tissues (pelvic floor, brain, genitals) are normalized again through androgen receptor activation and sensitivity, it will encourage the conversion of androgens into estrogens in these tissues via aromatase. It is also worth to mention that some community members are trying to restore estrogen receptor sensitivity via boosting estrogen in various ways including by taking hops extract which is a potent phytoestrogen. This is also interesting: Estradiol represents another important natural ligand for androgen receptors that may play an essential role for the androgen receptor function and the development of the male reproductive system.
As mentioned earlier, people with PSSD and other disorders might have normal looking hormone blood tests (testosterone, DHT, estrogen, etc), but the issue is that these hormones are not functioning in the brain, pelvic floor, and genitals properly due to androgen and estrogen receptor insensitivity. An important thing to also recognize is that the medical community still has no official explanation how exactly SSRIs cause all of these debilitating side effects, but they are still being readily prescribed without informed consent about the risks of PSSD. It is unfortunate that it is people like us on the internet leading the charge to investigate and inform. We all need to continue to do our part to spread awareness of these iatrogenic disorders to warn people about the risks of taking these medications because their medical providers aren’t likely going to. Thank you to the PSSD Network for helping to give a voice to the unheard.
Post-SSRI Sexual Dysfunction (PSSD): Biological Plausibility, Symptoms, Diagnosis, and Presumed Risk Factors
Androgen receptor (AR) inactivation in mice led to reduction in hypothalamic neural nitric oxide synthase (nNOS), indicating the regulatory sexual function of this neurotransmitter. Furthermore, activation of the pre and post-synaptic 5HT1A receptors was found to be correlated with inhibitory effect on erectile function. All of these factors are speculated to be involved in this symptom and might be related to epigenetic alteration of androgen receptor (AR) and estrogen receptor (ER) densities due to influence of SSRIs on the epigenome.
In male PSSD sufferers, the penile shaft can be rigid during erection, yet the glans of the penis remains flaccid.This symptom may arise from hypo-activation of the dopaminergic and oxytocinergic pathways. The glans of the penis, in particular, receives its blood supply from the deep dorsal artery. Perhaps this points to a selective arterial malfunction relative to pelvic floor dysfunction which usually accompanies PSSD.
Here is another interesting study that gives support to the importance of increasing blood flow to help heal:
If SSRIs produce sexual side effects by impairing vasocongestion to the genital region, it would be expected that pharmacologic agents that increase blood flow to the genital region would improve sexual functioning. Indeed, several anecdotal reports and studies have found that sildenafil (a drug designed to treat erectile failure by increasing blood flow into the penile tissue) was successful in reversing SSRI-induced sexual dysfunction in both men and women [8,9,87,88,109]. Sildenafil acts to increase blood flow into the genital tissue by facilitating c-GMP activity that is initiated by nitric oxide [19] and preliminary evidence suggests that the SSRIs may cause sexual difficulties by inhibiting nitric oxide synthase [39,118].
Here is a paper from a community member that hypothesizes that the main issue is lasting estrogen receptor insensitivity just to give another interesting perspective on Post-SSRI Sexual Dysfunction, Post-Finasteride Syndrome, and Post-Retinoid Sexual Dysfunction
As the body is starved of DHT, ARs upregulate in response. At the same time, ER activation is significantly increased as a result of the increased production of Estradiol during treatment (due to higher Testosterone availability by reduced 5a reduction to DHT) - eventually leading to ER downregulation.
Hard Flaccid Syndrome (HFS) - There are many men suffering from HFS and pelvic floor issues due to PSSD, PFS, heavy weight lifting, excess kegeling, or in the case I’m presenting here, physical damage to the genitals from excessive, vigorous sexual activity (my case) or penis enlargement exercises. When the genitals get damaged, an inflammatory process starts and the pelvic floor contracts to protect itself. Since the pelvic floor is now in a chronic, contracted state, it limits oxygen and sex hormone rich blood flow to the genitals and pelvic floor which leads to sex hormone insensitivity and negatively impacts healing, muscle relaxation, and DHT production in these tissues. Finasteride, Accutane, and SSRIs also desensitize sex hormone receptors in the genitals and pelvic floor tissues leading to hard flaccid and pelvic floor dysfunction. Since the pelvic floor tightness restricts blood flow, it is difficult for hard flaccid sufferers to reactivate and sensitize their pelvic floor muscle androgen receptors again to regain relaxation and strength in their pelvic floor muscles, including the ischiocavernosus (IC), bulbocavernosus (BC), and pubococcygeus (PC) which are in a contracted state; the IC muscle in particular is thought to be the most implicated in the cause of hard flaccid. We first need to promote relaxation in the pelvic floor by boosting blood flow through supplements and stretches because tight muscles are weak muscles. Once the pelvic floor is in a chronic state of tension, it is hard to heal from pelvic floor issues because you likely already had bad habits such as poor posture, unhealthy sexual practices, stiff muscles, sedentary lifestyle, unchecked anxiety, and other negative lifestyle factors. Along with supplements, exercises, and stretches, correcting these bad habits is necessary to heal to have an even healthier pelvic floor than you ever had before because it likely was already tight and dysfunctional to begin with before developing obvious issues, but it was more subtle and you had no awareness of your pelvic floor muscles until now. You have the potential to now become a much healthier person overall than you ever would have been without being affected by pelvic floor dysfunction and hard flaccid.
32% of women will develop a pelvic floor disorder in their lifetime which is double that of men. While childbirth and pregnancy plays a role in this discrepancy, women also have far less testosterone and DHT levels than men which I believe plays a major factor. Since women have less testosterone, their androgen receptors that line the pelvic floor don’t make enough DHT to adequately support these tissues compared to men. This makes them more prone to pelvic floor dysfunction that causes them a disparate amount of pain, tightness, and inflammation. Androgen receptors and their ability to convert testosterone into DHT play such a vital role in pelvic floor health and sexual functioning. This is mentioned in a research study: Prevailing scientific literature has indicated the presence of androgen receptors in the levator ani muscle and pelvic fascia. The existence of androgen receptors in the vaginal wall can play an essential role in the development of pelvic floor disorders in women.Thus, androgen-related disorders may interfere with the function of pelvic floor muscles. [Many people mistakenly believe that androgens are only important for male sexual health:](https://www.bumc.bu.edu/sexualmedicine/patientinformation-physicians/androgen-insuffiency-in-women/#:~:text=Androgen%20insufficiency%20syndrome%2C%20characterized%20by,of%20sexual%20dysfunction%20in%20women.] Androgens have a three-fold action on female sexual function. They (1) increase libido by providing the fuel for a woman’s psychosexual stimulation, (2) increase sensitivity and blood flow to the external genitalia, and (3) increase the intensity of sexual gratification.
What I see in all these conditions is that sex hormone receptors become desensitized in the pelvic floor and genital tissues either from a drug, pelvic tightness, or inflammation from injury leading to less hormones being produced causing sexual and pelvic floor dysfunction. The pelvic floor now goes into a chronic tightened state as a response, leading to less oxygen and testosterone rich blood flow to the genital and pelvic region which leads to more androgen insensitivity and subsequently less DHT. This all explains why many people who have these conditions are helped by supplements that improve androgen receptor sensitivity and blood flow, and why pelvic floor therapy and exercises are so helpful to many of them. Estrogen receptor insensitivity in the pelvic floor also appears to have a similar mechanical negative effect by leading to less estrogen levels in the pelvic floor and genital tissues. It is also possible that some people with PSSD/PFS may have subtle or no pelvic floor symptoms, but the medication still desensitizes sex hormone sensitivity in their genitals and pelvic floor tissues that is leading to sexual dysfunction.
Another study linking androgens and the pelvic floor: Levator ani and other muscles of the pelvic floor and lower urinary tract are sensitive to the anabolic effects of testosterone. Androgen receptors are also expressed in the pelvic floor and lower urinary tract of both animals and humans. Anabolic effects of androgens may play an important role in the female pelvic-floor and lower-urinary-tract disorders. Furthermore, the interactions between androgen and nitric oxide synthase and arginase have been demonstrated, suggesting that androgens may also participate in modulating the physiological functions of the lower urinary tract through nitric oxide. The action of androgens in the lower urinary tract and pelvic floor is complex and may depend on their anabolic effects, hormonal modulation, receptor expression, interaction with nitric oxide synthase, or a combination of these effects.
My solution to help heal and improve the well-being of people with these issues is to try to improve sex hormone receptor sensitivity and pelvic floor function through supplements, stretches, exercises, and boosting blood flow which will hopefully restore normal levels of estrogens and androgens in pelvic, genital, and brain tissues. The body has a tremendous capability of self-healing, but we need to support it through active recovery methods.
We will first start with supplements (this is not professional medical advice - talk with your doctor before taking):
L-citrulline - This is the precursor to l-arginine, and it will improve blood flow and levels of nitric oxide to help get oxygen and testosterone rich blood to the pelvic floor and genital tissues to increase androgen sensitivity. Nitric oxide can also induce smooth muscle relaxation which is important for relaxing the pelvic floor. Herein we report on a young man affected by PSSD who regained sexual functioning after 3-month treatment with EDOVIS, a dietary supplement containing L-citrulline and other commonly used aphrodisiacs.. I recommend taking at least 6000 mg daily by taking 2000mg three times throughout the day. The max dose is 10,000mg. Even potentially better, people report great results using Cialis to improve blood flow and healing rather than L-citrulline and some doctors will even prescribe it to women if you show them the evidence - talk with your doctor. “Tadalafil (Cialis) reversal of sexual dysfunction caused by serotonin enhancing medications in women”. L-Citrulline and Cialis are not recommended to be taken together.
L-Carnitine - This will improve the number of androgen receptors and their sensitivity to testosterone to increase levels of DHT in the pelvic floor, genital tissues, and brain. I recommend taking 2000mg daily. Acetyl-L-Carnitine can pass through the blood-brain barrier, while Propionyl-L-carnitine has a high degree of interaction with testosterone. Propionyl may be better for sexual and pelvic floor dysfunction, while Acetyl might help people suffering from the mental effects of PSSD. This study used each at 2000mg daily to improve erectile dysfunction along with Viagra.. I would work up to 2000mg each of Acetyl and Propionyl L-Carnitine along with Cialis instead of Viagra as it lasts in the body for much longer (36 hours) for increased blood flow healing purposes. You can also use L-Citrulline instead of Cialis as mentioned earlier. Discuss with your doctor before taking them.
Vitamin D - This vitamin, which acts more like a hormone, works directly with the endocrine system. It has its own receptors throughout the body and they are often in close proximity to androgen receptors. Deficiency in vitamin D is associated with a stunting of testosterone's effects on androgen receptors and a decline in testosterone levels. Vitamin D will encourage androgen receptor resensitization. One study found that higher vitamin D levels are associated with a decreased risk of pelvic floor disorders in women, and The levator ani and coccygeus muscles are skeletal muscles that are critical components of the pelvic floor and may be affected by vitamin D nutritional status. I recommend 4000IU of vitamin D daily or whatever gets your levels to 60 - 80 ng/ml.
If you have inflammatory issues or pain due to pelvic floor dysfunction, I recommend a fish oil supplement daily. I take fish oil, and I find that it helps limit pelvic inflammation. I also take Magnesium Glycinate to relax the smooth muscle that lines the pelvic floor and genital tissue. I recommend it for people with clear pelvic floor dysfunction, but others should be careful as research says magnesium is a 5-alpha-reductase inhibitor. Take quercetin and bromelain as needed if you experience pelvic inflammatory flare ups and pain, but just be careful as quercetin can also inhibit the production of DHT from testosterone as well. Some say fish oil blocks DHT too, but experiencing chronic pelvic floor pain and inflammation will do more harm to you than minimal DHT blocking. I recommend staying away from all DHT inhibiting foods and supplements for people with PSSD, PFS, and PAS unless you are experiencing pelvic pain and inflammation.
As always, discuss these supplements with your doctor to see if they are okay for you. Lower your supplement intake based on side effects. These aren’t a magic cure, but a tool to help you on your journey to recovery. Don’t do anything without doctor supervision, but this thread gives more evidence for the “cure” for PSSD/PFS being resensitizing androgen receptors and estrogen receptors along with enhancing blood flow as it details how some men recovered through taking high doses of androgens, post cycle therapy, and Cialis. This at least gives hope that a hormonal cure can be created one day by medical professionals. I would of course recommend trying to heal yourself naturally for a long time before doing any hormone treatments under the supervision of a doctor.
I also recommend doing some form of yoga or pelvic floor stretches daily to improve blood flow for pelvic floor relaxation and sex hormone receptor sensitivity. You also need to request to see a pelvic floor therapist for an evaluation and treatment. Learn how to do reverse kegels. Doing reverse kegels will be difficult at first because your pelvic floor is tight and you have little to no awareness of these muscles, so just focus on lengthening and relaxing the pelvic floor through stretches for now. Do not do regular kegels for pelvic floor issues. Learn how to diaphragmatically breathe in 360 degrees to create expansion in your rib cage and abdomen to encourage pelvic floor relaxation. Do not breathe through your chest, and “belly breathing” isn’t the right term because the ribs need to expand as well. You can learn how to diaphragmatically breathe through an exercise such as 4-7-8 breathing. Here is a great video on diaphragmatic breathing and another video. I cannot overstate it enough: retraining yourself to properly breathe diaphragmatically is the single most important thing that you can do to heal from pelvic floor issues. Be a student of breathing: study and take notes on how to breathe better.
Stretches/Yoga poses I recommend:
Hold the Malasana/hindi/yoga squat pose for at least 5-10 minutes at least twice a day, but doing it morning, mid-day, and at night would be the best. Some get great results holding it for 15-20 minutes.This is one of the most important things for your pelvic floor because it will help lengthen and release it. Doing them barefoot is also very beneficial to strengthen your ankles and feet which are connected to your pelvic floor. Again, remember to breathe deeply down into your belly and pelvic floor for all these stretches.
Begin your stretching routine with an Exercise ball ab stretch and Upward-facing dog/cobra pose. This will help stretch your lower abs and psoas muscles so that you can get more breath deeper down into your pelvic floor for the rest of your stretches. Some people say that these types of stretches aren’t great for people who have Anterior Pelvic Tilt, which we should fix, but I still do them as it is important to stretch the lower abs that are hard to get to. You can experiment with doing them sporadically instead of every time you stretch.
This is my current personal complete stretch routine I do in order 3+ days a week:
Myofascial release on my glutes with an orb massage ball but you can use any small hard ball (don’t do this if glutes are currently sore) > Calf stretch against a wall or a yoga block which is what I use > exercise ball ab stretch > upward facing dog > (optional) Do a handful of cat cows > Supine hamstring stretch with yoga strap or an IdealStretch tool which is what I use > Kneeling hip flexor stretch > flat on back supine single knee to chest stretch > then bring knee to opposite shoulder stretch > supine figure four > I do this stretch next right after figure four > Reclined bound angle pose > (optional) butterfly stretch > (optional) A little bit of downward facing dog to stretch the calves > (optional) Lizard Pose) > (optional) Half split stretch/Half monkey pose with yoga blocks > Half-pigeon pose > Child’s pose > Wall quad hip flexor stretch > Wall figure four stretch > Wall straddle pose > Wall happy baby pose > Flat on back while pulling knees apart > kneeling with one leg, other leg out to side for adductors > (optional) Frog pose with feet together > regular Frog pose with feet separated in line with the knees > Yoga squat/malasana > Corpse pose
All these stretches are the ones I found most useful in a routine. See what works for you and develop your own routine. Consistency is the most important. This long stretching routine may not be possible for you to complete regularly so make adjustments, but doing this routine at least 3 days a week is ideal. Stretches such as the yoga squat, supine hamstring stretch, hip flexor stretches, and wall stretches are vital and should be done most days to help relax the pelvic floor. For how long you should hold each stretch, just go by how you and your body feels. Really let go, breathe, and sink into every stretch. On rest days, doing some deep breathing in child’s pose, reclined bound angle pose, flat on back while pulling knees apart, and the happy baby wall pose is really great while trying to do gentle reverse kegels.
You can also work on more individualized stretches for posture to correct anterior pelvic tilt, muscle imbalances, and to release other tight muscles, such as the upper body. Listen to your body if you need to give yourself a rest day from stretching. Adding in a 30-60 minute walk/swim on rest days is incredibly beneficial as well. Eventually, you can also try to learn isometric PNF stretching to incorporate it into some of the stretches such as the kneeling hip flexor stretch and hamstring stretch.
After working to relax and lengthen your pelvic floor through yoga and stretches, I would begin gentle body strengthening exercises that are pelvic floor safe. The pelvic floor is a master compensator. So, if the glutes, adductors, deep hip rotators, transversus abdominis, and other supportive muscles are weak, then the pelvic floor is in the prime position to pick up the slack which leads to a lot of strain on the pelvic floor which results in tightness and dysfunction. You need to strengthen the surrounding muscles to relieve tightness in the pelvic floor. This is where working with a pelvic floor therapist would be helpful to point out safe individualized exercises for you. Yoga will help strengthen your muscles in a safe way too.
The glutes and transversus abdominis in particular are very important to strengthen. Glute bridge, single glute bridge, side lying leg raises, lateral band walks can help build up glute strength. Deadbugs, Bird Dog, 8- point planks, or planks with pelvic floor-friendly modifications, can help to strengthen the transversus abdominis (TVA). Abdominal work may be triggering to your pelvic floor symptoms, especially the 8 point plank, so you can instead look into hypopressive exercises to work the TVA without overworking the pelvic floor. These exercises will help you bring more awareness to your breathing, diaphragm, TVA, and pelvic floor which are all important for recovery. Here is how to find and become aware of the TVA. Do side planks for your oblique ab muscles.
For hip/abductors do the side lying hip abduction exercise, fire hydrants, and the shinbox lunge. For the adductors, do Copenhagen adductor exercise, cossack squats, and an exercise where you squeeze a soft ball between the knees just don’t do any crunch movements with pelvic floor issues. For hamstrings, Nordic hamstring curl/glute ham raises, and single leg bridge. For the back, do supine pelvic tilt. One person even reported that dorsiflexion exercises and stretches were one important element to solve his pelvic floor issues; this is most likely because the ankle bone, like everything else including even our jaw, is connected to the pelvic floor.
Like with anything, do all these exercises in moderation and stop if you sense your pelvic floor is not responding well to them - do them one at a time to see which ones your pelvic floor can handle for now. Here is an exercise routine from another poster that has helped many people. Just be careful of the ab exercises such as the ab wheel and 5 minute planks with your pelvic floor issues - don’t over do it or avoid it if they cause too many symptoms.
Myofascial release and foam rolling to release trigger points also helps a lot of people to relax their pelvic floor muscles and improve blood flow. The glutes are the most important area to target for pelvic floor issues when foam rolling in my experience if you only had limited time. Using a soft ball to lay on and breathe deeply can help release trigger points in the abdominal muscles and psoas which can help you breathe better and relax the pelvic floor. I haven’t done it, but you can also try out a massage gun for myofascial release; just be careful and don’t use it in sensitive pelvic areas. Some men and women also report success using a therawand to release internal trigger points that are causing them pelvic floor dysfunction symptoms.
Walking and swimming for 30-60 minutes are some of the best exercises to lengthen, relax, stretch, and release your pelvic floor, boost blood flow, and help to retain and build strength in muscles that give support to the pelvic floor. Walk or swim for 5+ days a week for the best results. The breaststroke and freestyle are very helpful for pelvic floor sufferers. Along with swimming, people also use an elliptical at a low resistance to help provide a cardio workout that is safer for your pelvic floor.
Fix your posture. Pelvic floor issues and hard flaccid syndrome are closely associated with Anterior Pelvic Tilt and other postural issues. Get evaluated by a physical therapist so that they can give you exercises and stretches to fix it. You could also look into the Postural Restoration institute and see one of their providers and try to implement some of their exercises. In the meantime, here is one video playlist on how to fix APT. Another video to fix APT says to stretch the hip flexors, lower back, while focusing on strengthening the abs, glutes, and hamstrings. Make sure that you sit and walk with good posture - watch this to learn how to walk correctly - activate your glutes during each step and push off with your back foot!. I also recommend getting a standing desk to try to avoid sitting for long periods of time.
Weight training can be effective for boosting active androgen receptors in the body to increase testosterone and DHT levels. However, you need to make sure that it isn’t making your pelvic floor symptoms worse which defeats the purpose. If you are going to lift weights with pelvic floor issues, don’t lift heavy, do any intensive ab workouts, or any other exercises that can put extra strain on your pelvic floor. Do lifts where you can sit down instead of standing up. Start with yoga, stretching, and gentle body exercises to relax your pelvic floor and strengthen surrounding muscles before incorporating consistent weight training. I highly recommend, however, just sticking with yoga and pelvic floor safe body weight exercises to build strength instead. Those with PSSD without pelvic floor dysfunction may benefit a lot from lifting weights, high-intensity interval training, and doing bodyweight exercises such as squats regularly to boost androgen receptors and DHT. Remember to see a pelvic floor therapist to get evaluated first before starting any weight lifting because many people have pelvic floor issues without even realizing it.
Work on your mental health. Anxiety can worsen pelvic floor issues. Just as dogs tuck and tense their tails when stressed, we tense our pelvic floors which are directly connected to our tailbone where we used to have tails ourselves in our evolutionary history. As we are impacted by sexual dysfunction and pelvic floor dysfunction symptoms, we become anxious along with other negative emotions which leads to more pelvic floor tension symptoms due to the fight or flight mode response causing even more anxiety leading to more symptoms. It is a vicious cycle that needs to break by not becoming anxious and negative when we experience pelvic floor symptoms or hard flaccid and instead let go, accept, and realize that it is a normal process when trying to heal because sometimes our muscles that are used to that tightness don't want to let go of the tension we hold in our pelvic floors. Daily yoga, meditation, stretching, and walking will help with anxiety. I would also see a mental health therapist because all of these issues are deeply traumatic and we cannot go through this alone. We often hold tension in the form of emotions and trauma in our bodies, especially our pelvic floor and genital areas. By openly talking about these issues with a therapist, it will help us process and release our emotions and trauma that we are holding inside our bodies to improve our anxiety, relax our pelvic floor, and to let go of all of our tension. Many people who healed their hard flaccid and pelvic floor issues said that solving their anxiety and negative thoughts by talking to a mental health counselor was vital in recovery. The mind-body connection is so powerful, and it directly impacts our pelvic floor. Those who are stuck in the cycle of experiencing pelvic floor symptoms leading to anxiety and negative thoughts will also benefit from Cognitive Behavioral Therapy you can do by yourself like in this video or preferably with a trained therapist. Here is an informative mini lecture on how stress impacts the pelvic floor.
I would also definitely go on a healthy anti-inflammatory diet. Avoid caffeine, alcohol, marijuana, and other substances. Avoid foods and liquids that can trigger pelvic floor inflammation such as highly acidic fruits and veggies, carbonated beverages, very spicy foods, and artificial sugars. To maintain a healthy gut to reduce inflammation in your body I recommend trying a low-histamine probiotic supplement along with eating healthy. You should also work on preventing or fixing constipation; eat a lot of soluble fiber to not get constipated - take a supplement such as metamucil if you have to. Check the Bristol stool shape chart to identify if you are constipated because even mild constipation can contribute to pelvic floor tension. This is because the constipation leads to a lot of pressure being put on your rectum and pelvic floor leading to the muscles becoming weak and dysfunctional. I am willing to bet many of you are constipated and don’t know it because it isn’t just whether you go regularly, it is also how your stool is shaped. People with pelvic floor disorders are at a high risk of constipation which makes their tension and dysfunction worse which then worsens the constipation, another cycle to fix. I recommend getting a Squatty Potty to reduce strain on the pelvic floor during elimination.
To help heal hard flaccid and pelvic floor issues, never watch pornography again (this is vital). Go on NoFap for 90+ days to help heal your brain and body from any unhealthy pornography and sexual habits you have partaken in. Pornography leads to involuntary kegels, a tight pelvic floor, desensitizes you, and messes up the dopamine and arousal circuitry in your brain. Don’t climax too often. Learn how to reverse kegel by yourself and during sexual activities. Never edge or regular kegel - it leads to pelvic floor tightness and dysfunction - just relax your arousal through a reverse kegel. Keep your pelvic floor relaxed during sexual activities.
Stay strong and never give up. You will heal. Thank you for reading.

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* OK with rotating category cards?: (Answer YES if you're OK using a card that has different bonus categories each quarter, e.g. 5% on gas from Jan - March, then 5% on groceries April - June) YES
* Estimate average monthly spend in the categories below. Only include what you can pay by credit card.
* Dining $300
* Groceries $400 a month at Kroger, for me and roommates, sometimes use Instacart due to IC+ membership provided with mother's CSP, spend about $100 a month at Costco as well
* Gas $120 a month, sometimes at Costco
* Travel $500-600 a month, a lot of it is reimbursed, usually on flights, some months $200-300 on hotels / AIrbnbs
* Do you plan on using this card abroad for a significant length of time (study abroad, digital nomad, expat, extended travel)?: Not really, use my Bilt and Amex for this, plus my CSP AU.
* Any other categories: $25 a month phone bill, $50-60 a month on Amazon
* Any other significant, regular credit card spend you didn't include above?: $
* Can you pay rent by credit card? If yes, list rent amount and if there's a fee for paying by credit card: $511 a month usually, $1800 a month for the summer, usually use Bilt for this, 3% fee with CC.
MEMBERSHIPS & SUBSCRIPTIONS (delete lines that don't apply). Also pay my gas bill via Paypal bill pay ($80/mo appx).
* Current member of Amazon Prime?: Yes
* Current Verizon postpaid customer?: No
* Current member of Costco or Sam's Club?: Costco Executice
* Currently paying $13.99/month or more for Disney Bundle (Disney+ / Hulu / EPSN+) or other Hulu services?: Disney bundle paid on AMEX Plat by streaming credit
* Current member of Chase, US Bank or any other big bank?: Chase checking
* Active US military?: no
* Are you open to Business Cards?: (these are an option if you have any kind of side gig, such as selling on eBay or Etsy): YES. Do DoorDash on the side and freelance web development.
PURPOSE
* What's the purpose of your next card (choose ONE)?: (first credit card, balance transfer, saving money, travel rewards):
Looking for a CC to put some upcoming large purchases on. Planning on buying an Apple MBP for $2000 soon, and will also be paying monthly rental fees on summer furniture ($500 a month), plus moving into a new apartment. Anticipating around $4000-5000 in total spend over the next 3 months that is comped by a company relocation, so would be amazing to get a card and grind out a SUB using this. Looking into business cards, particularly the CIU, and maybe some other cards I've been eyeing like the USBAR (would open a USB checking account before this).

Once again, I'm leaving some thoughts on how first year comp sci is on TMU, something I hope somebody out there may find useful cause I sure as hell was stressed out when I was about to start uni this year.
I barely showed up to any lectures this sem, partially cause I was binge watching AOT, but also because I had 2 days off in the middle of the week, and classes at 8am every day I did have school. Once again, if you do have the discipline to be able to wake up and get to class at 8am, you can get out early, or have 1or 2 days, and it's great, but I fucked up my sleep schedule early into the sem and my attendance tanked because of it.

CPS209 - Tim McInerney

Eh, Java is definitely a harder language to learn than python, but you should be alright, especially if you covered it in high school. I showed up a total of 2 lectures, didn't pay attention in either, and ended up with a 4.33. As long as you do the lab homework and assignments you should be fine, you however I will admit this review's biased as I wrote and scored a level 4 on the AP ICS exam, so I had a lot of experience beforehand, but a lot of my friends who didn't, were able to pick up Java without too much difficulty either. There's tons of resources out there if you want more practice outside of school, Codecademy is what I used to start learning how to code, and Codingbat is a good to practice the basics.
Don't pick an 8am Friday lab like me, they force you to show up for attendance even if the quiz takes 5 minutes to do. Even the TA's didn't wanna do it, but some guy was talking a little too much in the CS discord so they ended up having to.

CPS310 - Maryam Davoudpour

I'm sure there is some useful information to learn from this course but it sure as hell didn't feel like it. CPS213 was a lot more interesting working with logic gates and having an environment to build circuits in, but CPS310 is literally just a boring assembly class. You learn how computers can read bits and turn it into commands to be executed and yeah I thought that was interesting. But 3/4 labs was essentially just about hand writing code, which was easy, but so tedious I didn't wanna look at another 1 or 0.
Professor Davoudpour's a terrible lecturer as well, I stopped showing up after the first few weeks as she'd just read off of her slides in a monotone voice.I genuinely think she doesn't understand what she's teaching at times.
The content leading up to the midterm was pretty easy, lots of people scored around 80+% and walked out early. I didn't touch the class at all until a day before the midterm and did pretty decent, however the content after the midterm was a little more rough, and I indeed could not cram the entirety of the course into 1 day.

CPS412 - Preeti Raman

In the nicest way possible, a lot of majors will have boring and core courses they'll have to take, related to communications, codes, ethics, etc. but I genuinely think this class is the most brain dead course out there. You just talk about ethics and whatever garbage Prof Raman could think about to bundle together and make this class run, such as deepfakes, philosophy, privacy, etc. I get that it's essential to learn about codes and guidelines you have to follow when you are in your career, but I never fully paid attention to a single lecture, although I dragged myself against my will to showed up to many... You have to attend because there's in-class participation marks that account for 8% of your final grade! The group project was a bitch too, it was done in 3 phases for a total of 30% of your final grade, pretty easy stuff as long as you wrote a bunch of garbage and made it look nice, it was a bird course but you had to write a bunch of tedious discussions and essays.
Overall Professor Raman was nice, and I could tell she would try to get us engaged with the topics we covered through activities. There were a lot of guest speakers that came in from different companies and fields in the tech industry too, and even someone from TMU's co-op department to teach us how to make a resume.
Both the midterm and final exam were MCQ's from this question bank they give you. 70% of the questions are common sense, and the other 30 is just pure bullshit. Granted, it was my fault I didn't study for the midterm, but I was livid when I'd get a question such as "Who invented the pencil" or "What year was the rat trap invented", I just don't think trivial questions like those have any place in a university, where it can impact your chances of getting into co-op or keeping your scholarship. I was also cheesed when on the final, I wrote "morality" instead of "morals" and the Prof said I could't get any marks for it.

MTH207 - Dzung Ha

Be surprised if you ever see this man send an email with a body instead of just writing it in the subject. Pretty funny guy, he missed like 5 classes, one of which was because he didn't know we started this semester on a Friday. The class was pretty hard, but in a good challenging way. He'll teach you the concepts, but throws hard critical thinking questions on the final. Go to your labs, I forgot all of my algebra and stopped going to lectures pretty early on and got cooked in this course, genuinely didn't think I'd pass, but he was really generous giving everyone a 10% bonus as long as you did all of the assessments, and an additional bonus if you did better on the final compared to your midterm.
If you actually attend the lectures, go to the labs, and do the homework then you'll be fine, I have a terrible habit of not showing up to lectures and cramming every course the day before the final, and this is the one course you CANNOT cram. Ha's handwriting is pretty shit so good luck understanding it sometimes LMAO.

CPHL214 - Thomas Hart

So I decided to take my liberal online through Chang this sem to save a bit of money and time on commuting. It's not a bad move considering the shitty weather in winter, however the course selection may be smaller.
This course was async, and mostly common sense. Every week you'd write a discussion post, and do an assignment that'd take like 15-20 mins, with most of the content being google-able and easy to understand. There was an essay, 2 quizzes, then the final exam, all of which were online. To my surprise there was a lot of overlap in this course with comp sci first year, we covered truth tables and logic similar to discrete maths (p implies q, not q implies not p, etc).
The downside to this course, (maybe it's just a Philosophy thing) is that you don't really get any of your grades back at all, with no feedback. By the 50% refund drop date I got back 1 quiz and half of the assignment marks (you're guaranteed 100% if you submit them). I didn't get back any other grades until the very end of the course, with no feedback at all, so it can feel a bit discouraging when you don't know how you're doing in the course, or how to improve for the next assessment. You can also feel a bit lonely doing a course online, people don't really speak too much on the discussion boards, and you'll never make any friends in person.

Summary

Overall, if you stop showing up to school and trying in your classes I think it can get pretty depressing. You have to really go out of your way to make friends in TMU, especially comp sci cause I'm assuming most of us are introverted, so I'd recommend joining a club or a team if you can. Hell most of the friends I made this year are because of extra curriculars.
The curriculum isn't that hard first year, at least compared to second year so I'd recommend getting ahead and taking CMN300 or MTH380 in the Spring/Summer through Chang if possible, and WORK ON SIDE PROJECTS. It doesn't even have to be anything crazy, as long as you start somewhere, and learn on your own you'll beat everyone who doesn't have any projects outside of school when finding internships.

Hello! I started studying the guide last night and reached section 5.4 page 31 where you were supposed to add particle tracks. I copy-pasted the code yet no .ptracks file was created when the program was run either using the terminal or egs_gui. I encountered a similar problem for the very first sample program but the .ptracks file was created when egs_gui was used to run it. Below is the output which does not seem to indicate any error either.

 *************************************************** * * * tutor7pp * * * *************************************************** This is Tutor7_Application based on EGS_AdvancedApplication In initCrossSections(): spin effects = 1 ===> Photonuclear flag: 0 RAYLEIGH OPTION REQUESTED FOR MEDIUM NUMBER 1 RAYLEIGH OPTION REQUESTED FOR MEDIUM NUMBER 2 Found medium with gas pressure ***************** Warning: IN HATCH: REQUESTED RAYLEIGH OPTION FOR MEDIUM 2 BUT RAYLEIGH DATA NOT INCLUDED IN PEGS4 FILE. Rayleigh data available for medium 1 in PEGS4 data set. (Re)-initializing photon cross sections with files from the series: xcom Compton cross sections: default Using Compton cross sections from /home/anton/thesis/EGSnrc/HEN_HOUSE/data/compton_sigma.data Working on medium 1 ... -> 100 atomic ff values computed! preparing data for Rayleigh sampling ... done OK Working on medium 2 ... -> 100 atomic ff values computed! preparing data for Rayleigh sampling ... done OK Reading screened Rutherford MS data ............... done Reading spin data base from /home/anton/thesis/EGSnrc/HEN_HOUSE/data/spinms.data EGSnrc spin data, version 2.0 Data generated on a machine with 1234 endianess The endianess of this CPU is 1234 Ranges: 1.00 100.00 0.30054 1.00000 medium 1 ..................... done medium 2 ..................... done Medium 1 sige = 6.3784170227787529 6.1807995067678911 monotone = F F Medium 2 sige = 6.4595132015164030 6.2354615343201143 monotone = F F Initializing tmxs for estepe = 0.25000000000000000 and ximax = 0.50000000000000000 Bound Compton scattering requested, reading data ...... Done Initializing Bound Compton scattering ...... Medium 1 has 5 shells: 1 1 1 0.20000 0.116E+03 0.014 2 17 1 0.20000 0.155E+02 0.543 3 18 2 0.20000 0.793E+02 0.024 4 19 3 0.20000 0.479E+02 0.014 5 20 4 0.20000 0.479E+02 0.014 Medium 2 has 18 shells: 1 10 1 0.00004 0.210E+02 0.285 2 11 2 0.00004 0.110E+03 0.011 3 12 3 0.00004 0.669E+02 0.011 4 13 1 0.21603 0.178E+02 0.410 5 14 2 0.21603 0.921E+02 0.015 6 15 3 0.21603 0.558E+02 0.014 7 16 4 0.10801 0.558E+02 0.014 8 17 1 0.05805 0.155E+02 0.543 9 18 2 0.05805 0.793E+02 0.024 10 19 3 0.05805 0.479E+02 0.014 11 20 4 0.05805 0.479E+02 0.014 12 72 1 0.00129 0.671E+01 3.203 13 73 2 0.00129 0.271E+02 0.326 14 74 3 0.00129 0.142E+02 0.251 15 75 4 0.00257 0.142E+02 0.249 16 76 5 0.00129 0.889E+02 0.029 17 77 6 0.00129 0.606E+02 0.016 18 78 7 0.00257 0.606E+02 0.016 ...... Done. Output from subroutine EDGSET: ============================== Atomic relaxations requested! Reading simplified photo-absorption data ..... Done Reading simplified relaxation data ..... Done Reading parametrized XCOM photo cross section data ..... Done Reading EADL relaxation data ...... Z = 1 has 1 shells Z = 8 has 4 shells Z = 6 has 4 shells Z = 7 has 4 shells Z = 18 has 7 shells ...... Done. EGSnrc SUCCESSFULLY 'HATCHED' FOR 2 MEDIA. The following media are defined: ================================ 0 H2O521ICRU AE= 0.5210 AP= 0.0100 0 1 AIR521ICRU AE= 0.5210 AP= 0.0100 1 Transport parameter and cross section options: ============================================== Photon cross sections xcom Compton cross sections default Global Pcut 0.01 Pair cross sections BH Pair angular sampling Simple Triplet production Off Bound Compton scattering norej Radiative Compton corrections Off Rayleigh scattering On Atomic relaxations On Photoelectron angular sampling On Photonuclear attenuation Off Photonuclear cross sections default Global Ecut 0.521 Brems cross sections BH Brems angular sampling KM Spin effects On Electron Impact Ionization Off Global Smax 1e+10 ESTEPE 0.25 Ximax 0.5 Boundary crossing algorithm Exact Skin depth for BCA 3 Electron-step algorithm EGSnrc ============================================== ======================== geometry ===================== type = EGS_EnvelopeGeometry name = phantom_in_air number of regions = 2 base geometry = air_box (type EGS_Box) inscribed geometries: phantom (type EGS_NDGeometry) ======================================================= The simulation uses the following source: ========================================= Collimated source from a shape of type point onto a shape of type circle with monoenergetic 0.1 MeV, photons Random number generator: ============================================ type = ranmar high resolution = no initial seeds = 33 97 numbers used so far = 0 Run Control Object (RCO): ========================= type = simple The following ausgab objects are included in the simulation =========================================================== ******************************************* Dose Scoring Object (my_dose_scoring) ******************************************* - Regions in dose calculator :2 -------------------------------------- medium rho/(g/cm^3) -------------------------------------- H2O521ICRU 1.00000000 AIR521ICRU 0.00120480 -------------------------------------- ******************************************* Starting simulation on Sat Apr 27 17:49:14 2024 Fresh simulation of 10000 histories Running 10000 histories Batch CPU time Result Uncertainty(%) ========================================================== 1 0.00 0.227369 4.72 2 0.00 0.237129 3.25 3 0.00 0.248896 2.56 4 0.01 0.251466 2.20 5 0.01 0.250183 1.98 6 0.01 0.252799 1.79 7 0.02 0.251674 1.67 8 0.02 0.250893 1.56 9 0.02 0.25109 1.47 10 0.02 0.251375 1.40 Finished simulation Total cpu time for this run: 0.03 (sec.) 0.0000(hours) Histories per hour: 1.2e+09 Number of random numbers used: 609684 Number of electron CH steps: 21799 Number of all electron steps: 21960 last case = 10000 Etot = 7.83935 ====================================================== Energy fractions ====================================================== The first and last items in the following list of energy fractions are the reflected and transmitted energy, respectively. These two values are only meaningful if the source is directed in the positive z-direction. The remaining values are the deposited energy fractions in the regions of the geometry, but notice that the identifying index is the region number offset by 1 (ir+1). ir+1 Reflected, deposited, or transmitted energy fraction for 10000 particles: 0 2.514209e-01 +/- 3.507797e-03 1 9.772400e-03 +/- 5.591407e-04 2 1.900695e-01 +/- 2.225806e-03 3 5.487372e-01 +/- 4.519246e-03 ====================================================== Dose Scoring Object(my_dose_scoring) ====================================================== => last case = 10000 fluence = 1 ==> Summary of region dosimetry (per fluence) ir medium rho (g/cm^3) Volume (cm^3) Edep (MeV*cm^2) D (Gy*cm^2) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 0 AIR521ICRU 0.00120480 785.398163 7.6609e-02 +/- 5.722 % 1.2970e-11 +/- 5.722 % 1 H2O521ICRU 1.00000000 785.398163 1.4900e+00 +/- 1.171 % 3.0392e-13 +/- 1.171 % ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ====================================================== ================================================================================ Finished simulation Elapsed time: 0.1 s ( 0.000 h) CPU time: 0.1 s ( 0.000 h) Ratio: 1.047 End of run Sat Apr 27 17:49:14 2024 ================================================================================ finishSimulation(tutor7pp) 0 

And here is the egsinp file

##GEOMETRY :start geometry definition: :start geometry: library = egs_cylinders type = EGS_ZCylinders name = the_cylinder midpoint = 0 0 0 # in cm radii = 5 # in cm :stop geometry: :start geometry: library = egs_planes type = EGS_Zplanes name = the_planes positions = 0 10 # in cm :stop geometry: :start geometry: library = egs_ndgeometry name = phantom dimensions = the_planes the_cylinder :start media input: media = H2O521ICRU :stop media input: :stop geometry: simulation geometry = phantom_in_air :start geometry: library = egs_box box size = 500 500 500 name = air_box :start media input: media = AIR521ICRU :stop media input: :stop geometry: :start geometry: library = egs_genvelope name = phantom_in_air base geometry = air_box inscribed geometries = phantom :stop geometry: :stop geometry definition: ##SOURCE :start source definition: :start source: library = egs_point_source name = the_point_source position = 0, 0, -100 # in cm :start spectrum: type = monoenergetic energy = 0.1 # in MeV :stop spectrum: charge = 0 :stop source: :start source: library = egs_collimated_source name = my_collimated_source distance = 100 :start source shape: type = point position = 0 0 -100 :stop source shape: :start target shape: library = egs_circle radius = 5 :stop target shape: :start spectrum: type = monoenergetic energy = 0.1 :stop spectrum: charge = 0 :stop source: simulation source = my_collimated_source :stop source definition: :start ausgab object definition: :start ausgab object: library = egs_dose_scoring volume = 785.398163397 # in cm^3 region dose = yes name = my_dose_scoring :stop ausgab object: :stop ausgab object definition: :start run control: ncase = 10000 :stop run control: :start ausgab object: library = egs_track_scoring name = tracker score electrons = no score positrons = no score photons = yes # start scoring = 0 # default is 0 # stop scoring = 1024 # default is 1024 # buffer size = 1024 # default is 1024 :stop ausgab object: 

Any help is appreciated!

Hi, betrayed partner (BP)! Please read what I have written. Sorry for the long post, but this is necessary in order for you to see the problem in its entirety.
I know that you are in a lot of pain and very bad right now. You have to make perhaps the most important decision in your life, and I want to help you. To begin to heal and survive, you need to accept the harsh truth.
No offensive comments, weird advice, just logic, cold sober logic. And a few facts.
……………………………………………………………………………
DISCLAIMER
Only pure logic - sober, cold logic allows us to objectively figure out what happened to our relationship, what happened to us, to the cheater, and answer eternal questions: "Why?", "How?" "Am I guilty of this tragedy?", "What should I do - leave or stay?"
The attraction of any emotions and feelings (except for rage, indignation and disgust) to the cheating as a phenomenon, to the assessment of the cheater's action leads to the justification of this horrible act, and as a result - to the justification of the cheater.
………………………………………………………………………
1.Cheaters VOLUNTARILY entered into exclusive monogamous relationships, legally registered (marriage) or by mutual agreement. They have VOLUNTARILY committed themselves not to engage in sexual relationships (emotional or physical) with others in these relationships.

1. If cheaters are not satisfied with something in the relationships with their partners or they want to enter into a sexual relationship with other persons (because the cheaters fell in love, cheaters wanted a sexual variety, had a lust after AP etc.), then they must either negotiate with their "official" partners to work on the relationship and stay, or honestly and openly break the deal (agreement) under paragraph 1 and leave.
   
2. It is necessary to clearly and strictly separate CHEATING as a person’s moral phenomenon from the "quality" of the relationship between partners and their conditions (stress, mental and physical health, the state of alcoholic and drug intoxication, mood, emotions, hypersexuality, anxiety, quarrels, fights, disadvantages as a relationship partner (spouse) etc.).
   

CONCLUSION 1
~So, it is necessary to separate cheating from the "environment".~
~In the same circumstances, in the same mental and physical states some people cheat and others don't.~
…………………………………………………..
JUST FACTS
1) It is not written in any medical reference book, textbook, monograph, manual that the symptoms, complications or consequences of any mental illness (including BPD, bipolarity, mania, etc.), diseases (brain tumor, cancer, etc.), abuse (SA, CSA), sex addiction, traumas, depressions, low self-esteem, drunkenness, drugs use, taking any medicines are the ability of a patient to betray their partner, cheat on their partner, lie, spit on their partner's feelings and on their own family in the name of sexual pleasure.
2) There are many people in the world with diagnoses of BPD, ADHS and other mental disorders, manias (manic episodes), with an addiction to alcohol and drugs, depression, with low self-esteem and other health problems (leukemia, brain tumor, cancer, etc.), as well as victims of sexual abuse in childhood, sex addicts who NEVER CHEAT ON THEIR PARTNERS.
There are also many people in the world who experience boredom in marriage, have lost the "spark", have problems with sex and communication with a partner who have NEVER cheat on their partners.
3) On the other hand, cases are described when cancer (and other dangerous or fatal diseases) patients cheat on their partners under the pretext that this is their last wish or they need to live a "full life".
4) Yes, children are often subjected to violence, including domestic violence. But again, as cruel as it may seem, even children behave differently. Some obey and suffer, but they are a minority. Others fight as best they can and come out victorious, most of them. They reveal the truth to adults who can be trusted, reveal the truth at school, in church, go to the police themselves, etc. Very often, you just need to firmly and consistently say "no" to the rapist. Very many people, after several years, even decades after violence, sue the abusers and send the scoundrel/villains to jail. Unfortunately, there are also children and teenagers who enjoy sex with the "abuser", and then lie, exposing themselves as victims. In every case, of course, we need to sympathize with the victim, but with our eyes open and watch how the victim of violence acts with their abusers.
5) Life is full of examples when cheaters did not have any aggravating circumstances in the form of violence committed against them, when their relationships (by their own admission!) were close to perfect, BUT THEY STILL STARTED FUCKING BEHIND THEIR PARTNERS' BACKS. According to such cheaters, they did it out of boredom, out of a desire for variety, "just like that" (!!!).
https://www.reddit.com/survivinginfidelity/comments/1ayaont/cheating_is_never_about_you_if_you_think_you/
CONCLUSION 2
~So obviously mental and body illnesses and disorders, SA (CSA), sex addiction, difficulties in the family, in relationships are not the causes of cheating.~
6) The state of alcoholic and drug intoxication is also not the reason for cheating and not its justification. This is just a pretext that makes it easier for a cheater to make decision to fuck someone, but the very nature of this choice lies in the morality of the cheater: «sober thoughts - drunken deeds». In addition, the cheater, consuming alcohol and drugs in the company of the certain "friends" of opposite gender, voluntarily and consciously puts themselves in a position where sex becomes inevitable. The cheater is ready to betray, unconsciously or consciously want to betray (most likely with the same AP) and does it when their psychological inhibition weakened.
7) Cheaters have a whole chain of choices: not to go to a party (or to a meeting) with a potential AP, to go to a party with their committed partners, not to get drunk until they lose consciousness and/or not to take drugs until they pass out, not to go to the house or get in the car of a person of the opposite sex while drunk (stoned) or with the intention of drinking (using drugs), not to be alone with the AP, resist, scream, fight. But the "victims" of alcohol and drugs, who almost always claim to have been raped, have made a number of choices leading to sex, moreover, unprotected sex.
8) There are numerous cases when people in a state of alcohol and drug intoxication DID NOT CHEAT ON THEIR PARTNERS.
9) The statement of some cheaters and their victims, seeking confirmation of their decision to "reconcile", that under the influence of the factors described above, cheaters were not responsible for their actions, is a complete fake. Adult people who are not responsible for their actions are called "incapacitated" in legal practice. Incapacity is established by the court on the basis of the conclusion of medical psychiatric facilities, and the incapacitated person receives an appropriate document exempting them from responsibility for certain actions in relation to others. But I do not know of any cheater who would have such a document. This is ridiculous.
CONCLUSION 3
~So alcoholic oand drugs intoxication are not the causes of cheating.~
10)At workplaces in any of the most "depraved" companies, in any other places where infidelity occurs (church, gym, trips, neighbors, friends, partner's family and cheater's own family, etc.) there are many people who never cheat on their partners.
So, the "place" and the environment affect people differently: some cheat always, again and again, others never.
CONCLUSION 4
~Environment serves as a catalyst, a pretext for infidelity, but not a determining factor, not a cause.~
~Therefore, everything depends on the person.~
11) How to distinguish cheating from rape?
It is possible to recognize sexual contact as rape (not cheating) if the following conditions are met simultaneously:

1. The alleged victim did not commit conscious actions to put themselves in a position that would inevitably end in sex (for example, emotional affair, getting drunk to the point of insensibility in a bar with someone, going to someone's house or car, a victim invites a person of the opposite sex home or to a hotel room one-on-one in order to have a good time, flirting obviously with a stranger, explicit sexual dancing, taking drugs with someone, etc.).
   
2. There are eyewitnesses to the rape or there is evidence of the alleged victim's struggle: bruises, scratches, torn clothes, torn hair, broken nails, cries for help, damage to the genitals or anal openings, etc. A video or audio recording of an act of violence can also serve as evidence. Alleged victim uses rape kit (if it's at hand).
   
3. The alleged victim immediately and voluntarily contacted the police and/or a medical institution, or immediately informed family and friends and contacted the police with their help.
   

..................................
Any claims of "rape" by alleged victims who have not fulfilled the above conditions are manipulation, fake or deliberate lies.
………………………………
CONCLUSION 5
~The full burden of proof of rape lies with the alleged victim and the police AND NOT WITH THE ALLEGED BETRAYED PARTNER.~
…………………………………………………..

1. The only reason for cheating is the twisted morality of cheaters, their stable character traits formed in childhood and adolescence under the influence of family, school, friends, social environment, literature, cinema and mass media. Therefore, such a "spoiled" morality cannot be corrected by popular methods* widely used in "reconciliation": IC, MC, books, frank conversations, movies, algorithms of romantic behavior (dates, walks, trips to resorts, gifts, flowers, love bombing, etc.)

Excellent therapist's comment on serial cheaters:
https://www.reddit.com/survivinginfidelity/comments/1aynyhd/comment/krw3ebi/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3
\Cheaters can change and become faithful partners (and there are enough examples of this), but for this they must experience a really strong mental shock that will change their morals and persistent character traits in the right direction. These people should have the mental strength and conviction that will be able to keep them from betrayal. However, not everyone is capable of this.*

1. An adult capable person should be fully and unconditionally responsible for all their actions, which are the result of their conscious choice. A person must be responsible for their actions, regardless of what happened in the past, regardless of their current condition, unless they have been declared incapacitated, according to current medical and legal procedures.

I do not know of a single case where a cheater would be declared incapacitated according to official procedures.

1. If cheaters choose betrayal, sex behind their partner's back (in various forms, including in the form of an emotional affair, even online), lies and actually a double life, they unilaterally violate the terms of the deal (agreement) under paragraph 1. They also intentionally violate their marriage vows (if married) and obligations.
   
2. A cheater's violation of an agreement under paragraph 1 unilaterally without warning the partner is a moral (and in some cases legally significant) crime.
   
3. This violation causes deep psychological trauma to the victim of cheating, destroys relationships (marriage), adversely affects children and members of both families.
   
4. There is no rational (logical) reason for cheating (see paragraph 2.1, 2.2, 2.3). Therefore, 100% of the blame for infidelity lies with the cheater.
   

The victim of cheating is 100% innocent in any case, under any circumstances, because a cheater ALWAYS has a real chance to leave their partner, rather than betray them or lie.

1. There is no rational (logical) reason to give a cheater a second chance coz:

a) the victim will never be able to trust the cheater 100%;
b) true reconciliation in the realm of feelings is impossible (love, emotions and pleasures during sex, mutual respect, sincere friendship will never return, if of course they were before the betrayal), the purity of the relationship will disappear forever;
…………………………………………………………………………….
JUST FACTS
1) Confessions of cheaters on the Internet, confessions of cheaters to their friends and relatives, BPs stories show that if BPs stay with cheaters in a relationship, then during sex cheaters always think about APs, not BPs! It often happens that during sex cheaters pronounce the names of their lovers /mistresses. This proves that cheaters experience orgasms not from BPs, but from APs!
2) In other words, after the affair (and during it, if sex with WP continued), BP actually turned into a sex toy, an inanimate object to irritate the vagina/penis of WP, and WP's satisfaction from sex comes from mental representations of AP, about their penis/vagina.
3) Of course, every cheater claims that sex (including online sex) with BP is the best, that they experience real satisfaction only with BP and even go so far as to claim that they have not experienced a real orgasm with AP. But ask the cheater just two questions: "Why did you fuck with AP (physically or imaginary) if sex with me is better? Who were you thinking about when you fucked with AP (physically or imaginary), getting an orgasm - about me or about them?". You probably already know the answer in advance and know the truth.
………………………………………………………………………………
c) сheater can be forgiven in the evangelical sense, but not on a personal level, because: the victim of cheating will never forget the affair and AP, will never come to terms with them (one African proverb says, 'The ax forgets, but the tree remembers.' Traumas of infidelity leave a scar that lasts a lifetime);
d) staying for the sake of children is fake coz: 1) children will never be happy in an unhappy family with unhappy parents; 2)children understand everything and feel the constant tension in the family, which is the cause of their mental problems; 3) cheaters can be good nannies, but they are not worthy parents in the full sense of the word, as they cannot teach children true moral values by their example, they demonstrate to children that it is possible to betray committed partners, lie to them, violate marital vows and obligations, that it is possible to spit on their feelings and on the families in the name of sexual pleasures, to treat innocent children’s fathers or mothers as a piece of garbage; 4) victims of cheating are unhappy people, as well as cheaters who remain in a relationship with their victims, they will never be truly happy with each other, and unhappy people cannot make anyone happy, especially children.
e) staying with a cheater because of money, real estate, career, status or shame is inherently similar to «prostitution», and we do not consider this vice here. From the point of view of morality, it is permissible to stay with a cheater for these reasons only temporarily, preparing and implementing an exit plan.
Read also the impressive testimony of the victim of cheating:
https://www.reddit.com/Infidelity/comments/195pd17/cautionary_tale/
https://www.reddit.com/survivinginfidelity/comments/1att60o/the_hard_truth_about_taking_back_a_cheater_a/
https://www.reddit.com/survivinginfidelity/comments/1avnl31/never_take_them_back_once_a_cheater_always_a/
https://www.reddit.com/Infidelity/comments/1baditd/the_2_reasons_to_not_reconcile/

1. Taking the cheater back by their victim has exclusively irrational reasons related only:

1) to victim’s character traits (penchant for martyrdom, cowardice, weakness, lack of pride and self-esteem etc.),
2) to victim’s beliefs (belief in the sanctity of marriage, belief in the need to observe marriage vows or obligations, etc.),
3) to victim’s emotions (anger, rage, affection, desire for everything to be as before, fear, uncertainty, etc.) and
4) to victim’s feelings (blind love, codependence, pity etc.).

1. Many people just want the absolutely impossible, for example, "to take their lives back", "to make the cheater fall in love with them again" etc.
   
2. Those who immediately think about "reconciliation" do not understand one very important thing. Real life, relationships are not a sports or computer game in which, no matter what happens, you can return to the starting position and start all over again, as if nothing had happened.
   

CONCLUSION 6
~So, all irrational reasons to stay with a cheater~ ~are absurd~ ~(beyond the control of logic) and therefore are a kind of faith, such as faith in God, in aliens, in UFOs, in the triumph of democracy in countries ruled by irremovable leaders/dictators/presidents.~
…………………………………………………………
JUST FACTS
1) Neither in life, nor on the Internet, including on Reddit subs, I have not met cases of true reconciliation in the realm of feelings (love, respect, friendship, purity of relationships) either in the short or long term. Trust was restored in the best case I've ever met, by no more than 98% 20 years after D-Day. I ALSO HAVE NOT MET CASES IN WHICH THE VICTIM OF CHEATING WOULD FORGET THE AFFAIR AND THE AP, WOULD PUT UP WITH THEM.
That's what one serious scientific study claims. Reconciliation fails in 80%+ attempts within 5 years of D-Day. Of the less than 20% that get beyond 5 years, another 1/2 will divorce before the 10 year mark. (“Infidelity and Behavioral Couple Therapy: Relationship Outcomes Over 5 Years Following Therapy (2014)”).
2) I also met several posts and comments in which victims of cheating 20 -30 - 35 years after the beginning of the "reconciliation" claimed that if it were possible to turn back the clock, they would undoubtedly leave the cheaters no matter what.
3) From time to time, there are also posts in which victims of cheating brag that after spending several years or decades with cheaters, they are happy. However, it follows from their posts that they never forgot anything, that they had more or less strong anxieties about the fidelity of cheaters, that the feelings they had experienced in their relationships with cheaters before the affair never returned to them. In addition, the question arises of their constant participation in subs dedicated to infidelity throughout the infinite period of their reconciliation: “If everything is so good, then why do they continue to stay in these specific communities?” In addition, these "lucky ones" of course do not know what the cheaters themselves truly think about the "happy reconciliation", coz cheaters, of course, pour into the ears of their victims what they want to hear because of their selfish interests.
4) I have seen examples on the Internet of a true successful reunion of former partners after cheating, but ONLY AFTER A COMPLETE BREAKUP OF THEIR RELATIONSHIP (DIVORCE) AND AFTER MANY YEARS (5 or more years) OF INDEPENDENT LIFE WITHOUT MUTUAL OBLIGATIONS. In all cases, they were essentially a new relationship from scratch.
……………………………………………..

1. Maintaining a relationship with a cheater for any irrational reason carries significant risks for a victim, because victim’s feelings, emotions, beliefs and even character traits may change in the future (after the decision on reconciliation) not to mention the behavior and intentions of the cheater, which with a high degree of probability can lead to the moral (or even physical) crash of a victim.

https://www.reddit.com/survivinginfidelity/comments/1b8hi7w/your_relationship_will_never_be_the_same_youll/
https://www.reddit.com/relationship_advice/comments/1alecle/wife41f_cheated_12_years_ago_now_i43m_want_a/

1. Each betrayed partner considers their case unique and does not listen to numerous recommendations literally written in the blood of victims of cheating, which contradict their original intentions (most often, this is "reconciliation"). And they decide to act contrary to logic and experience of tens of millions of people. It always ends the same way and very sorrowfully.
   
2. People who anonymously turn to Internet communities dedicated to infidelity, including on Reddit subs, are already those who cannot truly forgive a cheater in personal terms, that is, to put up with an affair and with AP. And they will never be able to. Those who accepted the affair, not considering it something important for various reasons (blind crazy love for a cheater, indifference to the cheater, their own similar sins, the convenience of staying in a relationship for money, real estate, prestige, etc.), just moved on. They have proved that they are worthy of their partners. It's their choice, and I don't blame them.
   

If I'm right (I can't imagine logical objections to paragraphs 1-15 although you may have a different opinion) then you should decide yourself whether reconciliation is worth:
a) your time (years and decades while you are next to the cheater, including: 1) endless discussions on the topic "how?", "why?", "who is better and in which is better - she/he or me", 2) finding out the full truth, 3) permanent stay in police mode, etc.);
b) mental health (obsessive thoughts, triggers, flashbacks, jealousy, suspicions etc.);
c) energy (constant hard "work on relationship", "work on yourself", etc.);
d) money (MC, IC, books, films about infidelity, "romantic actions", increased "quality" of providing the cheater with everything necessary, etc.).
………………………………………………………………

1. ALWAYS REMEMBER: while you have been stubbornly engaged in "reconciliation" for many years, perhaps for the rest of your life, wasting your potential on it, true life with all its challenges and wonders is rushing past you. And this is your life, which you will live only once.

CONCLUSION 7
~During reconciliation, you fight every day for a relationship (for marriage), you WORK hard to keep a relationship (marriage), but you don't live your life. This cannot be called happiness.~
Think about it: is it worth it?
See also:
Most Americans Not Willing to Forgive Unfaithful Spouse ~https://news.gallup.com/poll/105682/most-americans-willing-forgive-unfaithful-spouse.aspx~
………………………………………………………………
Perhaps, having comprehended what I wrote about cheating, you will decide to stay with the cheater (take back the cheater, give them 2, 3… chance), and perhaps not. Perhaps you have other strong reason for making a decision.
Your future is only in your hands, dear betrayed partner.

Background on the UAP hotspot

I had never heard of this, and searches on /UFOs show up virtually nothing of note. The internet is thin on information beyond generic Local News type "UFOs in Missouri!" type stuff. It is alternately variations on Marley Wood, Marley Woods, Marleys, and similar. It's not a name on a map or official, that's a nickname for some forested rural area somewhere around the Piedmont, Missouri area. Apparently the locals are very protective of it, and it is apparently a decades long ongoing UFO/UAP hotspot of even government interest, on the record.

Skinwalker Ranch and the UAPDA are related

But... in the past few weeks I remembered that place, Marley Wood, was highlighted by some government disclosure in an obscure passage as a place of continued interest and focus because of legitimately anomalous ongoing events, along with what sounded like Skinwalker Ranch. This was the first time I think we've seen officially government documentation highlight a given place as legitimately of value to the topic for their purposes.
I got to thinking about how Brandon Fugal, who bought Skinwalker Ranch from Robert Bigelowe, who was responsible for NIDs and KONA BLUE... worked reportedly with Travis Taylor to kill off the UAPDA. Whatever your thoughts on Skinwalker stuff, why exactly would an already extremely rich Utah real estate developer with a supposed "bullshit" paranormal ranch and TV show... fight like hell to keep the UAPDA from passing? And specifically, he called out the eminent domain portion, implying things of his would be taken, and would be wrong for that to happen.
Brandon Fugal has no aerospace, military, or IC role that we know of. What, exactly, would UAPDA passing lead to him having to worry about eminent domain?

Skinwalker and UAPDA rough tlimeline

Well, that document that mentioned an eponymous Utah ranch of some sort and "Marleys" (sic) Woods in Missouri were called out as of interest.

• Bigelow buys the ranch
• NIDs, Kona Blue, etc.
• Bigelow withdraws after not succeeding with Harry Reid in getting UFO-stuff access
• The ranch passes to Brandon Fugal, a real estate developer
• TV show, all that. "Skinwalker Ranch" has UAP stuff, is claimed.
• Lue, Grusch, leaks, 2022 and 2023 Congressional hearings, and finally the UAPDA.
• The UAPDA dies "for the most part", but especially anything to do with materials, and eminent domain.
• It is learned Fugal had a role in this and specifically about eminent domain.
• Unless he has a UFO hidden under a Salt Lake City building, Skinwalker is the only logical UAPDA eminent domain target to concern Fugal.
• But Skinwalker is just nonsense... except the document seems to call that location out, all the way to Bigelowes ownership.

Was the government looking into eminent domain against Brandon Fugal and Skinwalker Ranch?
I believe that is the first loosely closed loop of evidence we have in public?

Marley Woods

Good solid high level blog on this:

The Marley Woods is the name given to an undisclosed location in South Central Missouri by ufologist and scientific researcher Ted Phillips and members of his team. The residents don’t want to be disturbed by hordes of people, so they would only agree to having the site investigated if the location was kept secret. The site, which includes many farms and hundreds of acres of property, is a hot spot for paranormal activity with UFO sightings, crop circles, unseen forces that push people, hauntings, and even bigfoot sightings. It was given the name Marley Woods by Ted, but you won’t find it on a map.
One of the most misunderstood phenomena in this area are the strange balls of lights- or spook lights that appear after dusk. The lights have been reported by residents for many generations. In 1989 children playing on a trampoline were startled when they saw a glowing white ball of light that hovered in a nearby tree. The tree died within two weeks.
A man and wife who live in the area saw two balls of light approximately the size of basketballs on a fast collision course. The man threw himself and his wife to the ground, believing that there would be some type of explosion, but nothing occurred, and the lights simply dissipated after crashing into each other.
Ted and his team have witnessed strange unexplained lights dozens of times during night investigations. No source can ever be found for the phenomena and they ruled out car lights, helicopters, swamp gas, and flashlights. The lights continue to spook people to this day.
The Piedmont Lights have been seen in the area since the 1870s. Marilyn Jackson was age 93 at the time I interviewed her in 1996. She was fully cognizant and said that when she was a young child baseball sized white lights would come out of the woods at night, and she and her cousins would actually play with them. The children held out their hands and the lights would come forward and land on their palms. The kids then tossed the lights back into the woods, and they would return to the children. Marilyn said that she would often play with the lights for hours on end. The entire family, including her mother and grandmother said they played with the lights as children as well. The family associated the lights with UFO’s which sometimes appeared over their property.

• http://stateoftheozarks.net/showcase/2020/07/24/the-ozark-spooklights/

Spacetime forum and photo:
At Approximately 8:45 p.m. on Saturday May 3rd, SIU Investigator, Adam Johnson, accompanied by filmmakers/brothers Josh and Ron Johnson, and four residents of the “Marley Woods,” were able to witness a brilliant display of ‘Amber lights’. A total of 7-8 silent ‘Amber lights’ were witnessed. It began with one light appearing then suddenly blinking out after about 2-3 seconds. Next, another ‘Amber light’ appeared (approximately 500 feet east from the first object); it lasted a few seconds and was followed instantly by a light extremely close to the west and yet again by another light parallel to its position and within very close proximity (reminiscent of the ‘Phoenix Lights’.) After that, a light came on directly southwest of the other two lights position. They all lasted a few seconds and then disappeared. Approximately 5 minutes later, two more objects appeared subsequently after each other and lasted no longer than 10 seconds each.

• https://i.imgur.com/ImKGeVj.jpeg

On May 5, 2008 just two nights after SIU team members observed and imaged several large bright amber objects the following events took place.

• https://spacetime.forumotion.com/t281-marley-woods-missouri-s-secret-ufo-hotspot

MUFON Report

Piedmont Missouri Case - 1973
Starting in February 1973 police in Piedmont, Mo., received over 500 reports of UFO sightings in this rural area.
"YOU WON'T believe this," Reggie Bone told a FATE reporter, "but I don't think there's anyone around here who hasn't seen one."
Bone should know because his sighting on the night of February 21, 1973, precipitated the great Brushy Creek UFO scare and brought flying saucers back into the headlines four years after the Condon Committee declared them a dead issue. In sheer quantity of reports the Missouri flap parallels the famous waves of the mid-1960's. UFOS, whatever they are, probably are going to be as significant a part of the '70's.
The Incident (as reported)
Southeastern Missouri seems an unlikely place for something so out of the ordinary. In a heavily-forested section of Wayne County between two giant man-made lakes in the eastern Ozarks, Clearwater and Wappapello, the Brushy Creek area encompasses Piedmont (population 1500) to the north and Mill Spring (population 225) to the south. The region is rich in both natural beauty and lead deposits but is not known for much else. Certainly its friendly but skeptical inhabitants were unprepared for a UFO invasion or the international attention following in its wake.
High school basketball coach Bone was no believer in UFOs -- at least not before the night of February 21 when with two team managers and three of his players he was returning home along U.S. Highway 60 near Ellsinore, Mo., about 20 miles south of Piedmont. They were in poor spirits after losing a crucial tournament game by seven points and were rehashing their defeat. Suddenly Bone, who was driving, noticed a "bright shaft of light beaming down out of the sky."
A few miles later as the car passed through the Brushy Creek area, player Randal Holmes noticed something else. "Look!" he shouted. "There's that thing we saw back on Highway 60!" Bone pulled over to the side of the road and the six piled out.
It looked like it was about 200 yards off the road hovering over an open field," Bone said later. (Investigators from the International UFO Bureau (IUFOB) of Oklahoma City later estimated the object probably was about 400 feet above the ground.) "It was impossible to determine the size or shape because of the darkness. Anyway, we saw four lights that looked like portholes: red, green, amber and white. We figured they were about three or four feet apart, all in a row."
"We just stood there and watched it for about 10 minutes," Cary Barks, another witness, added. "Then all of a sudden the lights went directly up in the air with absolutely no noise and just disappeared over a hill.
Half an hour later Mrs. Edith Boatwright of nearby Mill Spring saw the same or a similar object flying low near her farmhouse. "It was about 10:00 P.M.," she told FATE. "I was lying on my bed -- I wasn't asleep -- when I saw a flashing light. We live close by the highway so I thought something had happened on the road. I got out of bed quickly and looked over the lower part of the curtain and I could see very plainly a craft just clearing the utility wires. It was in a horizontal position. I think there were people in it. I could see objects inside but could not make out any form of a person. It made a very quiet noise like a whoosh slowly and evenly. When it changed into a vertical position, it made a louder noise, like a quiet motor pulling.
"It didn't have any chopper blades on top like a helicopter, just some rotary-like blades in front where an umbrella-like part extended up. It was about 30 or more feet long -- very beautiful light-colored body with a darker tail. There were no lights on in our house at the time. I watched it for about one or two minutes. It was about 200 or 250 yards from my window, flying below the oak treetops."
At first Mrs. Boatwright thought the object was "some kind of new nuclear-powered helicopter" but changed her mind in the next few days when she heard about the flood of UFO sightings. It is worth noting, however, that the "whooshing" sound Mrs. Boatwright reported was not heard by other southeastern Missouri UFO witnesses. Conceivably helicopter blades could have made that sound and IUFOB's Daniel Garcia who interviewed the witness believes it is at least possible that the object was a military aircraft dispatched to the area to look for Bone's UFO. Arguing against this idea is the fact that the craft as described by Mrs. Boatwright did not look like a helicopter.
Whatever the case, in the next two months the Boatwrights' farm was to play host to other UFOs including one that apparently landed on a hill behind the house. "We didn't try to go near it as we had company coming at the time," Mrs. Boatwright explains.
On February 22, the night after the original Bone-Boatwright sightings. Roy and Beth Burch and Mrs. Kathy Keith, driving in the Brushy Creek area, spotted an object "blinking green, white, amber and red." Burch tried to chase the UFO along the highway.
"Roy started speeding up to get a close look at it," Mrs. Keith said. "He was doing about 70 miles an hour but we still lost it. We got to the Creek area and there were some other Piedmont people standing on the road looking at it."
One of them, Bob Smith, had binoculars focused on the UFO but he could not make out any shape. The lights were visible for 10 minutes longer and then sank over a hill.
Four nights later, on the 26th, Pat Toney and Will Freeman watched a luminous object moving over the trees near the Tip Top Mountains. The UFO about 500 yards away "was solid with prongs on it," Miss Toney informed the IUFOB. "A red light was on it."
By far the great majority of sightings in the Piedmont-Brushy Creek-Mill Spring area were the kind UFOlogists call "nocturnal lights" -- brilliant flashing lights far enough away that witnesses cannot discern their source.
From February 21 into late April sightings occurred almost nightly. The Piedmont police received over 500 reports and IUFOB director Hayden Hewes told FATE he and his associates, who conducted a detailed investigation, interviewed 200 witnesses. Most of the sightings were fairly routine as UFO reports go and not very revealing. We will concentrate on the more unusual sightings.
Most residents saw the UFOs more than once. Even so, Earl Turnbough's experience was unique for he had three unusually vivid sightings of more than just lights. His first encounter took place around 9:00 P.M. about the first of March. Turnbough had just passed over a hill on Highway 49 when he spotted something "lit up like a circus" hovering over the road in front of him. The lights went out within seconds and presumably the object escaped in the darkness.
Two weeks later on March 14 as Turnbough drove through the same area in a thunderstorm he saw an amber light hovering 30 feet above a field less than 200 yards from him.
"I slowed down and watched for five or 10 minutes," Turnbough said. "When the lightning flashed I could see a dome-shape with sort of an antenna at the top. This amber light was shining from the antenna. All the other lights were off. I would say the thing was between 15 and 20 feet in diameter. It wasn't making any noise at all."
He saw a UFO for the third time a week later. "I was feeding cattle at the farm just about dark and I saw this thing come down over Brushy Creek," he explained. "It was about a thousand feet in the air and shaped like a top. I couldn't tell if it was rotating or if the lights were just flashing. The lights were yellow, green and red. They could've been portholes for all I know. The object sailed over the farm and didn't make a sound."
March 14, the same night as Turnbough's second sighting, Mrs. Maude Jefferis, a photography teacher at Piedmont's Clearwater High School, took a series of pictures of "a small reddish ball" high in the air. She spotted the object around 11 o'clock and mounting a Crown Graphic 4x5 camera on a tripod, she took a 10-minute time exposure which unfortunately shows little more than a dot in the night sky.
"As a professional photographer," she said, "I cannot explain the object. It is not a lens flare or light reflection."
Mrs. Jefferis is referring to a theory proposed by Dr. J. Allen Hynek of Northwestern University, former U. S. Air Force UFO consultant, who arrived in Piedmont on March 31, talked briefly with eight persons and left 24 hours later. Hynek's suggested explanation also has been disputed by photographic experts at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, who say that a lens flare would be widespread over the entire negative rather than a small speck. They further point out that the lens in Mrs. Jefferis' camera is coated to prevent flares.
That same evening Carl Laxton saw an object shaped, he told IUFOB, "like a barrel with protrusions like arms sticking out of it . . .
"The only way I could see the shape of this thing was when the object seemed to tilt; a brilliant white light appeared to go behind it. The object was tilting from a vertical to a horizontal position and then back to a vertical position again. Then it moved straight up and disappeared into the night sky."
Seven days later, on March 21, Mrs. Jean Coleman and Mrs. Cathy Leach were crossing the Clearwater Dam about 9:00 P.M. when they saw an object rise out of the lake. Theirs is one of the most spectacular sightings reported.
They were first alerted by a "red flash" on the lake. Stopping their car, they got out to see blinking lights ascending. Each time a red light flashed, the object got brighter.
"We could see it climbing," Mrs. Coleman said. "It looked like the lights were red, white and yellow. There was no sound. We tried to make out the shape but each time the lights went out we could see nothing . . . We watched it for four or live minutes until it circled out of sight."
Ken Johnson, owner of the Piedmont Boat Dock, confirmed the women's story. Shortly be- fore they saw the UFO leaving the water, unnamed campers told Johnson they had seen a "bright light moving right under the surface of the lake." These latter "aimed a flashlight beam at the traveling light and it went out immediately."
Later in March two divers from the East Side Divers Supply Company of Granite City, Ill., made three attempts to explore the lake for evidence of the underwater UFO. Unfortunately, unusually heavy spring rainfall (seven inches in March) had raised the water level 30 feet above normal. The lake was extremely murky and the divers found nothing in its depths.
Grand Tower, Ill., on the Illinois-Missouri border, is almost 60 miles northeast of Piedmont but the UFO Oscar Wills sighted the evening of March 22 sounds very much like those from Brushy Creek.
Wills, an operating engineer at the Central Illinois Public Service Company's power generating station on the Mississippi one and a half miles from Grand Tower, first saw the object when fellow-employee, Willis Hughes called from his home to say something was hovering over the transformer yard.
"I went out by myself to take a look," Wills recounted in an interview with FATE, "and there it was, hovering about 1500 feet in the air and about 200 yards from me.
"It was a round saucer-shaped object about 25 to 30 feet in diameter. It looked like a high-intensity red light with a lot of lights coming out of what seemed to be portholes. The lights were flashing and causing a spinning effect. I couldn't see any image of its bottom, which may have been concave, I'm not sure. I kept walking and got to within 100 yards of it. I looked at it for two or three minutes until it darted behind the power plant almost like a blur. I went north of the power plant to see where it had gone and found it hovering over a water intake pump on the other side of the station. I stood there for a couple of minutes and watched it."
Wills' vigil was interrupted by a phone call from another employee (not Hughes) who wanted to know what was going on. By the time Wills got off the phone and enlisted two other men to go outside with him the UFO was gone.
Wills then called Hughes who informed him the object had flown across the river and disappeared into the Missouri hills. Within minutes, however, Wills and his crew saw four jet planes making passes over the plant area as if searching.
"The most amazing part," Wills says, " is the way this object moved rapidly with no effort and perfectly silently. I just can't get over that. I don't know what it was but I know this much: we don't have anything like this. "
Wills claimed that a nearly identical object appeared over Grand Tower nearly a month later, on the evening of April 16.
On the night of Wills' first encounter, March 22, back in Piedmont newsman Dennis Kenney of local radio station KPWB saw "a big orange light, glowing from white to orange. it appeared to just go out and then would come back on." Gary Sutton, who was with him, snapped eight pictures of it with a 35mm Petri camera loaded with black-and-white infrared film. These photographs show a ball-shaped object with a bright glowing band across its midsection. This sighting took place at 7:30 P.M.
Three hours earlier, at 4:30, a UFO had made a rare daytime appearance. Joe King of Mill Spring and Ron Miller of Piedmont, both students at Southeast Missouri State University (Cape Girardeau), were traveling along Highway 34 near Patterson (eight miles east of Piedmont) when they noticed an oval-shaped object above the nearby treetops. The UFO, "metallic" in appearance, flat on the bottom with a dome on the top, was moving rapidly and leaving no vapor trail.
The following evening, Friday, March 23, Leonard Adams and his 13-year-old daughter Alma of Piedmont encountered a "high-intensity, bright white light" at 7:10.
"It blinked on and off," Alma recounted, "and every time it blinked it shot up 10 feet. When it got about 300 to 500 feet in the air red and green lights came on and then the object flew horizontally.
"Actually the red and green lights were very dull in comparison with the white light, which was so intense that our eyes couldn't adjust to it. The light was almost blinding. The farther away the object got, the better you could see the other lights."
The UFO passed over radio station KPWB, which was not on the air at the time. The next morning the station was unable to sign on because one of its transformers had blown out. Hayden Hewes of IUFOB believes the Adamses' UFO may. have had something to do with the malfunction but the station's news director Dennis Hovis, who has conducted his own exhaustive probe into the Brushy Creek flap, disagrees. "It could have been from any number of causes," he says.
FATE could not confirm any reports of so-called electromagnetic effects but Hovis assured us that some local residents told him of radio and television interference when a UFO was close by. "These people say that when the TV starts rolling and reception gets bad, they can go outside and see a flying object," Hovis says, adding that some witnesses have heard sounds from the objects -- "a sort of high-speed drilling sound."
Among other reports Hovis has collected is one from a Patterson farm family who heard a high-pitched drilling sound which began around 10 o'clock in the evening all during April. Sometimes it was so loud it shook their house. Too frightened to go outside, they had not, at the time of this writing, discovered its cause. Hovis refuses to release their names to us, explaining that the family in question gave the story to him in confidence.
The single most important UFO sighting occurred on April 3 in the daylight. It involved a landing of sorts and provided some physical evidence.
Mrs. Raymond Stucker of Ellsinore traveling down Highway 60 at about noon "saw this thing in the air off to the side of the road," she told IUFOB investigators. ". . . It looked like something I never saw before. It was round, with the exception of a dome on top . . . three . . . one on top of the other. (*Hewes explains that this means the object had three Pyramiding domes on top, each one smaller than the one below It.) It appeared to have a dull band or something going around the center. The bottom had something like a tripod landing gear.
"The object was hovering just above treetop level off to the right of the road . . . There is a possibility that it came up from the ground and stopped right above the trees."
She said the UFO was silent and appeared to be made of aluminum.
Two days later Mrs. Stucker led IUFOB officials to the area where they found trees in a 35- foot circle turned counter-clockwise with some of their tips broken off. Geiger counters failed to pick up any unusual radiation but they found a mysterious "ash" near the tops of the trees although there was no evidence the trees had burned.
On Friday, April 13, newsman Hovis and a physicist from Southeast Missouri State University (who has asked not to be identified) made four sightings in the space of three and a half hours. The skeptical scientist had come from Cape Girardeau to see the UFOs for himself and he was not disappointed.
Hovis and the physicist had set up a telescope with a degree-finder on the side in an area near Black River seven miles south-east of Piedmont. At 7:18 P.M. the men saw what Hovis calls "a light -- no visible body or object attached to it -- white in color with some yellow." It was moving from north to south at a 10-degree angle off the horizon. The unnamed physicist speculated it might be a satellite.
At 7:28 a similar light appeared, moving in the same direction, five degrees off the horizon.
This time the scientist suggested that the booster had followed the satellite into orbit.
But by 9:30 when the third object cruised across the sky the man's faith in satellites was shaken. This object was traveling south to north, 10 degrees off the horizon and for a brief period it flew toward the witnesses before resuming its northbound course. A fourth UFO, heading from north to south at 10 degrees off the horizon, passed by at 10:45, leaving behind a deeply perplexed scientist.
While no one has reported seeing UFO occupants Reggie Bone does have a strange story to relate of something he, his wife and two other couples saw around Christmastime in 1971 when they were driving down a little-traveled road in a deserted section of the Brushy Creek area. The time was about 2:00 A.M. "Suddenly," Bone says, "we saw this fellow walking up the road toward us in a frogman's outfit. He was wearing flippers or something resembling them on his feet and he was carrying something in his hands.
"We couldn't see very well -- visibility was poor -- so we couldn't see his face but his body was completely covered. The suit didn't look wet. Black River is about a quarter-mile away from the road but it's rather inaccessible from the point where we ran into this figure.
"The temperature was well below freezing and I don't know of anyone who lives in that area. We were so taken aback that nobody even said anything for several miles. Finally somebody asked, 'Did you see that?'"
Bone, with Hovis, has carefully studied the local UFO situation and does not necessarily connect the figure with the mysterious aerial phenomena but he does admit that the recent sightings recalled the earlier incident to his mind. He says he and Hovis found that UFOs have been seen regularly in the more remote sections of Brushy Creek since 1967.
To the UFOlogist, Bone's 1971 encounter is reminiscent of numerous landing reports that include beings dressed in what witnesses almost invariably describe as "diving suits." A more mundane explanation for this incident may exist but the story deserves being recorded here for whatever it may be worth. Dennis Hovis offers the only possible commentary on Brushy Creek's flying saucer onslaught: "I don't know what we're seeing but I do know we're seeing something. It's not swamp gas and it's not satellites either. On the other hand, I can't say they're aliens -- I'm just a newsman, not a scientist.
"All I'll say is this, this is some kind of aerial phenomenon. It's simply unexplainable. From the reading I've done lately, I guess that these things always have been around and no one anywhere has ever been able to explain them."

Quora:

• https://www.quora.com/What-was-the-1973-Piedmont-Lights-UFO-incident

MUFON:

• Original: https://mufon.com/piedmont-missouri-case---1973.html
• Archive: https://web.archive.org/web/20170207162058/https://mufon.com/piedmont-missouri-case---1973.html

Missing conversation

I cannot find the conversation now on /UFOs where I saw the mention of the ranch and Marleys Woods. I would appreciate that if you know, you can link it, so that I can update this post.
The gist of the discussion was people going through a very recent documents release, and someone very particularly noted the intersection of these places. I thought I had commented there, but apparently not.

Hello python 👋! Back in January, I've compiled a list of the most watched PyCon talks from 2023. I've received tons of positive feedback via DM, upvotes, and comments, so I decided to put together another compilation.
This time around, I've gathered not only PyCon, but all Python 2023 talks across +100 conferences (here's the list) that include PyCon (all locations), PyData (all locations), EuroPython, Conf42, and many more to give you a complete overview of the landscape. The list is gigantic and includes over 850 talks!
What's more, I've created a Google Sheets version of this post that gives more convenient sorting and filtering options.
If it turns to be useful, don't forget to share the list with friends / colleagues!

1. "Tutorials - Mario Munoz: Web Development With A Python-backed Frontend: Featuring HTMX and Tailwind" ⸱ +12k views ⸱ 02h 26m 00s
2. "Thomas Bierhance: Polars - make the switch to lightning-fast dataframes" ⸱ +11k views ⸱ 00h 29m 49s
3. "Mariatta Wijaya: Welcome to PyCon US 2023" ⸱ +11k views ⸱ 00h 29m 29s
4. "Scaling Python for Machine Learning: Beyond Data Parallelism • Holden Karau • GOTO 2023" ⸱ +10k views ⸱ 00h 39m 19s
5. "Tutorials - Matt Harrison: Getting Started with Polars" ⸱ +10k views ⸱ 02h 14m 28s
6. "Keynote Speaker - Ned Batchelder" ⸱ +7k views ⸱ 00h 47m 02s
7. "Gábor Szárnyas - DuckDB: The Power of a Data Warehouse in your Python Process" ⸱ +7k views ⸱ 00h 55m 27s
8. "Talks - Samuel Colvin: How Pydantic V2 leverages Rust's Superpowers" ⸱ +6k views ⸱ 00h 45m 55s
9. "Delta-rs, Apache Arrow, Polars, WASM: Is Rust the Future of Analytics?" ⸱ +6k views ⸱ 00h 31m 03s
10. "Tutorials - Simon Willison: Data analysis with SQLite and Python" ⸱ +5k views ⸱ 02h 45m 54s
11. "Talks - Hynek Schlawack: Subclassing, Composition, Python, and You" ⸱ +5k views ⸱ 00h 45m 42s
12. "Writing Python Bindings for C++ Libraries: Easy-to-use Performance - Saksham Sharma - CppCon 2023" ⸱ +5k views ⸱ 01h 01m 30s
13. "Pedro Holanda - DuckDB: Bringing analytical SQL directly to your Python shell" ⸱ +5k views ⸱ 00h 29m 31s
14. "Tutorials - Lisa Carpenter: How to create beautiful interactive GUIs and web apps" ⸱ +5k views ⸱ 01h 58m 05s
15. "Tutorials - Reuven M. Lerner: Comprehending comprehensions" ⸱ +5k views ⸱ 02h 17m 33s
16. "Keynote Speaker - Guido van Rossum" ⸱ +5k views ⸱ 00h 30m 51s
17. "PyData Heidelberg #11 - TimeSeries Forecasting & LLM Langchain" ⸱ +4k views ⸱ 02h 39m 06s
18. "Keynote Speaker - James Powell" ⸱ +4k views ⸱ 00h 25m 43s
19. "Use Spark from anywhere: A Spark client in Python powered by Spark Connect" ⸱ +4k views ⸱ 00h 56m 58s
20. "Cython 3 – Python at the speed of C — Stefan Behnel" ⸱ +4k views ⸱ 00h 31m 15s
21. "Patrick Blöbaum: Performing Root Cause Analysis with DoWhy, a Causal Machine-Learning Library" ⸱ +4k views ⸱ 00h 44m 38s
22. "Max Mergenthaler and Fede Garza - Quantifying Uncertainty in Time Series Forecasting" ⸱ +4k views ⸱ 00h 37m 25s
23. "Talks - Bruce Eckel: Rethinking Objects" ⸱ +4k views ⸱ 00h 32m 06s
24. "Rust for Python data engineers — Karim Jedda" ⸱ +4k views ⸱ 00h 27m 30s
25. "Matt Harrison - An Introduction to Pandas 2, Polars, and DuckDB PyData Global 2023" ⸱ +4k views ⸱ 01h 22m 15s
26. "Tutorials - Ted Patrick: Writing Serverless Python Web Apps with PyScript" ⸱ +3k views ⸱ 02h 55m 29s
27. "Tutorials - Trey Hunner: Intro to Python for Brand New Programmers" ⸱ +3k views ⸱ 02h 16m 41s
28. "Dr. Thomas Wiecki: Bayesian Marketing Science - Solving Marketing's 3 Biggest Problems" ⸱ +3k views ⸱ 00h 30m 35s
29. [**"Gaël Varoquaux: Prepping Tables for Machine Learning Gets Easier PyData Südwest]"** ⸱ +3k views ⸱ 00h 57m 54s
30. "Talks - Reuven M. Lerner: Generators, coroutines and nanoservices" ⸱ +3k views ⸱ 00h 26m 28s
31. "Talks - Brett Cannon: Python's syntactic sugar" ⸱ +3k views ⸱ 00h 31m 11s
32. "Bruno Vollmer: BLE and Python - How to build a simple BLE project on Linux with Python" ⸱ +3k views ⸱ 00h 29m 40s
33. "Vasileios Mourtakos - A data engineering framework in Python" ⸱ +3k views ⸱ 00h 35m 55s
34. "Talks - Eric Snow: A Per-Interpreter GIL: Concurrency and Parallelism with Subinterpreters" ⸱ +3k views ⸱ 00h 30m 29s
35. "Talks - Łukasz Langa: Working Around the GIL with asyncio" ⸱ +2k views ⸱ 00h 44m 26s
36. "Hajime Takeda - Media Mix Modeling:How to Measure the Effectiveness of Advertising" ⸱ +2k views ⸱ 00h 30m 37s
37. "Tutorials - Mike Müller: The How and Why of Object-oriented Programming in Python" ⸱ +2k views ⸱ 02h 45m 34s
38. "Shahriyar Rzayev: Building Hexagonal Python Services" ⸱ +2k views ⸱ 01h 29m 50s
39. "Performance tips by the FastAPI Expert — Marcelo Trylesinski" ⸱ +2k views ⸱ 00h 24m 59s
40. "Solving Multi-Objective Constrained Optimisation Problems using Pymoo — Pranjal Biyani" ⸱ +2k views ⸱ 00h 44m 23s
41. "Carsten Binnig: Towards Learned Database Systems" ⸱ +2k views ⸱ 00h 43m 34s
42. "Talks - Brandt Bucher: Inside CPython 3.11's new specializing, adaptive interpreter" ⸱ +2k views ⸱ 00h 23m 01s
43. "Carl Kadie - A Perfect, Infinite-Precision, Game Physics in Python PyData Seattle 2023" ⸱ +2k views ⸱ 00h 36m 26s
44. "From crontab to celery with no regrets by Marco Pavanelli" ⸱ +2k views ⸱ 00h 32m 03s
45. "Talks - Al Sweigart: An Overview of the Python Code Tool Landscape 2023" ⸱ +2k views ⸱ 00h 26m 58s
46. "Reinventing Machine Learning with Transformers and Hugging Face by Keynote speaker Julien Simon" ⸱ +2k views ⸱ 01h 08m 52s
47. "Empower your Spring Applications with Python Features on GraalVM by Johannes Link @ Spring I/O 2023" ⸱ +2k views ⸱ 00h 53m 00s
48. "Marysia Winkels - Data Storytelling through Visualization" ⸱ +2k views ⸱ 00h 30m 57s
49. "What polars does for you — Ritchie Vink" ⸱ +2k views ⸱ 00h 27m 45s
50. "Beyond Toy Datasets: Timeseries Forecasting for Real Business Problems - Robert Haase" ⸱ +2k views ⸱ 00h 33m 55s
51. "PyData Online - An AI assistant for football analytics - Petar Veličković (Google DeepMind)" ⸱ +2k views ⸱ 01h 02m 40s
52. "Talks - Mark Shannon: How we are making CPython faster. Past, present and future." ⸱ +2k views ⸱ 00h 29m 11s
53. "JIm Dowling - Build a production ML system with only Python on free serverless services" ⸱ +2k views ⸱ 01h 22m 35s
54. "Writing a Python interpreter from scratch, in half an hour — Tushar Sadhwani" ⸱ +2k views ⸱ 00h 43m 38s
55. "Dominika Basaj & Barbara Rychalska - Creating behavioral profiles of your customer" ⸱ +2k views ⸱ 00h 26m 55s
56. "Stephan Sahm: Accelerate Python with Julia" ⸱ +2k views ⸱ 01h 27m 14s
57. "Why Delta Lake is the Best Storage Format for Pandas Analyses" ⸱ +2k views ⸱ 00h 28m 25s
58. "Tutorials - Geir Arne Hjelle: Introduction to Decorators: Power Up Your Python Code" ⸱ +2k views ⸱ 02h 21m 20s
59. "Jeroen Overschie - How to create a Devcontainer for your Python project 🐳" ⸱ +2k views ⸱ 00h 36m 01s
60. "Wesley Boelrijk - Lowering the barrier for ML monitoring" ⸱ +2k views ⸱ 00h 36m 53s
61. "Talks - Dan Craig: Testing Spacecraft with Pytest" ⸱ +2k views ⸱ 00h 30m 12s
62. "Keynote Speaker - Margaret Mitchell" ⸱ +2k views ⸱ 00h 42m 29s
63. "Talks - Moshe Zadka: pyproject.toml, packaging, and you" ⸱ +2k views ⸱ 00h 30m 06s
64. "Tutorials - Juhi, Dana: Intro to Hugging Face: Fine-tuning BERT for NLP tasks" ⸱ +2k views ⸱ 02h 09m 52s
65. "Tutorials - Patrick Arminio: Build a production ready GraphQL API using Python" ⸱ +2k views ⸱ 02h 23m 14s
66. "Ryan Curtin - Lightweight, low-overhead, high-performance: machine learning directly in C++" ⸱ +2k views ⸱ 00h 43m 10s
67. "Python with Spark Connect" ⸱ +2k views ⸱ 00h 33m 27s
68. "David Qiu - Jupyter AI — Bringing Generative AI to Jupyter PyData Seattle 2023" ⸱ +1k views ⸱ 00h 39m 29s
69. "Polars: A highly optimized dataframe library Matt Harrison Conf42 Machine Learning 2023" ⸱ +1k views ⸱ 00h 20m 31s
70. "Nico Kreiling: Raised by Pandas, striving for more: An opinionated introduction to Polars" ⸱ +1k views ⸱ 00h 29m 47s
71. "Jiang et al. - Automated Machine Learning & Tuning with FLAML PyData Seattle 2023" ⸱ +1k views ⸱ 01h 21m 54s
72. "Alexander CS Hendorf: 5 Things about fastAPI I wish we had known beforehand" ⸱ +1k views ⸱ 00h 32m 31s
73. "Duarte Carmo - MLOps for the rest of us- A poor man's guide to putting models in production" ⸱ +1k views ⸱ 00h 26m 04s
74. [**"Ines Montani (spaCy) - Large Language Models from Prototype to Production PyData Südwest]"** ⸱ +1k views ⸱ 00h 39m 55s
75. "Robin Raymond: Rusty Python - A Case Study" ⸱ +1k views ⸱ 00h 28m 47s
76. "Tutorials - Leah Berg, Ray: Feature Engineering is for Everyone!" ⸱ +1k views ⸱ 02h 16m 35s
77. "Giles Weaver & Ian Ozsvald - Pandas 2, Dask or Polars? Tackling larger data on a single machine" ⸱ +1k views ⸱ 00h 16m 22s
78. "Talks - Glyph: How To Keep A Secret" ⸱ +1k views ⸱ 00h 26m 19s
79. "Maximilian M. - SHAPtivating Insights: unravelling blackbox AI models" ⸱ +1k views ⸱ 00h 35m 02s
80. "Vahan Huroyan - Recent Developments in Self-Supervised Learning for Computer Vision" ⸱ +1k views ⸱ 00h 36m 25s
81. "Lucas Durand - Building an Interactive Network Graph to Understand Communities PyData Seattle 2023" ⸱ +1k views ⸱ 01h 26m 14s
82. "Big PyData BBQ #5: LLMs feat. Ines Montani (spaCy) & Alejandro Saucedo (Zalando)" ⸱ +1k views ⸱ 03h 48m 21s
83. "Stop using print! Understanding and using the "logging" module — Reuven M. Lerner" ⸱ +1k views ⸱ 00h 29m 32s
84. "Joris Van den Bossche & Patrick Hoefler: Pandas 2.0 and beyond" ⸱ +1k views ⸱ 00h 37m 07s
85. "Structured output with large language models / Uri Goren (Argmax)" ⸱ +1k views ⸱ 00h 25m 09s
86. "PyData Chicago April 2023 Meetup Design and Analysis of (Backtest) Experiments with R and Python" ⸱ +1k views ⸱ 00h 50m 19s
87. "Sponsor Presentation - Python & Bloomberg: An Open Source Duo" ⸱ +1k views ⸱ 00h 57m 08s
88. "Soumith Chintala - Keynote: AI & the stuff built for AI - are they actually useful for data science?" ⸱ +1k views ⸱ 00h 31m 54s
89. "The Future of Microprocessors — Sophie Wilson" ⸱ +1k views ⸱ 00h 56m 45s
90. "Jia Yu - How Apache Sedona is Revolutionizing Geospatial Data Analysis PyData Seattle 2023" ⸱ +1k views ⸱ 00h 46m 12s
91. "Lightning Talks - April 21, 5pm" ⸱ +1k views ⸱ 01h 04m 16s
92. "How to Leverage the Full Potential of LLMs for Your Business with Langchain - Leon Ruddat" ⸱ +1k views ⸱ 00h 34m 40s
93. "Jay Chia & Sammy Sidhu: Daft - The Distributed Python Dataframe for Complex Data" ⸱ +1k views ⸱ 00h 23m 01s
94. "Talks - A. Jesse Jiryu Davis: Consistency and isolation for Python programmers" ⸱ +1k views ⸱ 00h 24m 23s
95. ""Python deployment with Docker and Poetry" - Cristian Heredia (PyBay 2023)" ⸱ +1k views ⸱ 00h 12m 24s
96. "Peterson & Qin - Contextual Multi-Arm Bandit and its applications to digital experiments PyData" ⸱ +1k views ⸱ 00h 44m 54s
97. "Tutorials - Ron Nathaniel: How To Troubleshoot and Monitor Applications using OpenTelemetry" ⸱ +1k views ⸱ 02h 01m 57s
98. "Keynote Speaker - Python Steering Council" ⸱ +1k views ⸱ 00h 20m 42s
99. "An unbiased evaluation of environment management and packaging tools — Anna-Lena Popkes" ⸱ +1k views ⸱ 00h 43m 14s
100. "Vincent Gosselin - Turning your Data/AI algorithms into full web apps in no time with Taipy" ⸱ +1k views ⸱ 00h 38m 18s
101. "Malte Tichy - Knowing what you don’t know matters- Uncertainty-aware model rating" ⸱ +1k views ⸱ 00h 30m 05s
102. "Talks - Andrew Godwin: Reconciling Everything" ⸱ +1k views ⸱ 00h 30m 16s
103. "Vincent Warmerdam - Bulk Labelling Techniques" ⸱ +1k views ⸱ 00h 32m 55s
104. "Hugo Bowne-Anderson - Full-stack Machine Learning and Generative AI for Data Scientists" ⸱ +1k views ⸱ 01h 28m 30s
105. "J.J. Allaire - Keynote: Dashboards with Jupyter and Quarto PyData NYC 2023" ⸱ +1k views ⸱ 00h 40m 15s
106. "Alejandro Saucedo - Industrial Strength DALLE-E:Scaling Complex Large Text & Image Models" ⸱ +1k views ⸱ 00h 28m 07s
107. "Subclassing, Composition, Python, and You — Hynek Schlawack" ⸱ +1k views ⸱ 00h 44m 59s
108. "Tutorials -Zac Hatfield-Dodds, Ryan Soklaski: Introduction to Property-Based Testing" ⸱ +1k views ⸱ 01h 31m 20s
109. [**"Furkan M. Torun - Become a Data Storyteller with Streamlit! PyData Prague 2023-11-20]"** ⸱ +1k views ⸱ 00h 23m 26s
110. "Anna-Lena Popkes: An unbiased evaluation of environment management and packaging tools" ⸱ +1k views ⸱ 00h 43m 53s
111. "PyData Chicago March 2023 Meetup Monte Carlo with QMCPy for Vector Functions of Integrals" ⸱ +1k views ⸱ 00h 46m 35s
112. "James Powell - Simple Simulators with pandas and Generator Coroutines PyData NYC 2023" ⸱ +1k views ⸱ 01h 21m 43s
113. "Polars is the Pandas killer / Igor Mintz (Viz.ai)" ⸱ +1k views ⸱ 00h 21m 46s
114. "Diving into Event-Driven Architectures with Python — Marc-André Lemburg" ⸱ +1k views ⸱ 00h 30m 59s
115. "Using Embeddings and Deep Neural Networks as a technique for AutoML Demand Forecasting PyData SW" ⸱ +1k views ⸱ 00h 36m 06s
116. "Leland McInnes - Data Mapping for Data Exploration PyData Seattle 2023" ⸱ +1k views ⸱ 00h 38m 16s
117. "Eduardo Blancas - Using embedded SQL engines for plotting massive datasets on a laptop" ⸱ +1k views ⸱ 00h 27m 00s
118. "Large Language Models: From Prototype to Production — Ines Montani" ⸱ +1k views ⸱ 00h 40m 20s
119. "Tutorials - Pavithra Eswaramoorthy, Dharhas Pothina: Data of Unusual Size: Interactive Visualization" ⸱ +1k views ⸱ 03h 06m 45s
120. "Moritz Meister - Data Validation for Feature pipelines: Using Great Expectations and Hopsworks" ⸱ +1k views ⸱ 00h 27m 40s
121. "Inge van den Ende-Leveraging conformal prediction for calibrated probabilistic time series forecasts" ⸱ +1k views ⸱ 00h 31m 33s
122. "Nick Sorros - A Tour of Large Language Models" ⸱ +1k views ⸱ 00h 46m 38s
123. "Thomas Frauholz: From notebook to pipeline in no time with LineaPy" ⸱ +1k views ⸱ 00h 43m 17s
124. "EuroPython 2023 Opening Session" ⸱ +1k views ⸱ 00h 20m 58s
125. "Optimizing Ad Conversions with DS / Yael Kiselman (DigitalTurbine)" ⸱ +1k views ⸱ 00h 51m 44s
126. "Harizo Rajaona - A Tour of the Many DataFrame Frameworks" ⸱ +1k views ⸱ 00h 34m 59s
127. "Andrei Alekseev - Why does everyone need to develop a machine learning package?" ⸱ +1k views ⸱ 00h 28m 07s
128. "Ties de Kok - Going beyond ChatGPT: introduction to prompt engineering & LLMs PyData Seattle 2023" ⸱ +1k views ⸱ 00h 59m 56s
129. "PyData Boston Sept session 1: Mike Woodward - Data sci done wrong: how/why scientists make mistakes." ⸱ +1k views ⸱ 00h 27m 14s
130. "Joe Cheng - Shiny: Data-centric web applications in Python PyData Seattle 2023" ⸱ +1k views ⸱ 00h 43m 56s
131. "Tutorials - Cheuk Ting Ho: Power up your work with compiling and profiling" ⸱ +1k views ⸱ 01h 33m 02s
132. "Talks -Algorithmic ideas, engineering tricks, and trivia behind CPython's new sorting algorithm" ⸱ +1k views ⸱ 00h 29m 39s
133. "Talks - Dawn Wages: Supercharge your Python Development Environment with VS Code + Dev Container" ⸱ +1k views ⸱ 00h 31m 01s
134. "Egor Romanov - Performance of Vector Databases" ⸱ +1k views ⸱ 00h 43m 09s
135. "Alexander CS Hendorf - Ten Years of Community Organizer PyData NYC 2023" ⸱ +1k views ⸱ 00h 42m 41s
136. "Talks - Nicholas H.Tollervey, Paul Everitt: Build Yourself a PyScript" ⸱ +1k views ⸱ 00h 39m 28s
137. "Emil Rijcken - FuzzyTM: a Python package for fuzzy topic models" ⸱ +1k views ⸱ 00h 28m 12s
138. "Nikolas Markou - Artificial Intelligence for Vision: A walkthrough of recent breakthroughs" ⸱ +1k views ⸱ 00h 42m 10s
139. "Would Rust make you a better Pythonista? — Alexys Jacob" ⸱ +1k views ⸱ 00h 47m 23s
140. "Simon Pressler: Getting started with JAX" ⸱ +1k views ⸱ 00h 29m 49s
141. "Sponsor Presentation - How to build stunning Data Science Web applications in Python" ⸱ +1k views ⸱ 00h 54m 10s
142. "Pavel Pleskov - All about ML competitions!" ⸱ +1k views ⸱ 01h 03m 13s
143. "Laszlo Sragner - Code Smells in Data Science: What can we do about them? PyData London 2023" ⸱ +1k views ⸱ 00h 39m 19s
144. "Talks - Jodie Burchell: Vectorize using linear algebra and NumPy to make your Python code fast" ⸱ +1k views ⸱ 00h 28m 32s
145. "Comparing Elixir and Python when working with Simple Neural Networks - A. Neto & L. C. Tavano" ⸱ +1k views ⸱ 00h 38m 11s
146. "Talks - Valerio Maggio: Pythonic functional (iter)tools for your data challenges" ⸱ +1k views ⸱ 00h 32m 38s
147. "Topaz Gilad - Classification Through Regression:Unlock the True Potential of Your Labels" ⸱ +1k views ⸱ 00h 28m 13s
148. "Running Python packages in the browser with Pyodide — Roman Yurchak" ⸱ +1k views ⸱ 00h 27m 49s
149. "J.J. Allaire - Publishing Jupyter Notebooks with Quarto PyData Seattle 2023" ⸱ +1k views ⸱ 00h 40m 47s
150. "ipyvizzu-story- a open-source tool to build create+share animated data stories w/ python in jupyter" ⸱ +1k views ⸱ 01h 25m 54s
151. Due to Reddit post length limit, see the remaining talks in this post or google sheet.

In the Name of God, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.
Peace to you all my brothers and dear believers!

Introduction:

I recently received a message from a brother of ours, who shared a documentary and some scholarly material with me regarding a controversial topic labeled as a "conspiracy": the notion that the Romans, during the Common Era, fabricated the Christian depiction of Jesus. Instead, this individual proposed that the real Jesus existed during the time of Moses and Aaron (peace be upon them all).
Initially, I was taken aback by these assertions and promptly raised objections, all of which were countered by the sender. This prompted me to delve deeper into research, and I've uncovered significant findings that I wish to share with you all. These findings are devastating to the beliefs of many, particularly Christians, but also various sects within Islam, primarily Sunnis. So I do warn you in advance, leave this post now if you're going to feel hurt by it and can't take facts like a man!
Christian doctrine asserts that Jesus and his mother Mary lived during the Roman rule in the Common Era. Discrediting this narrative implies that their religion is a fabrication. Furthermore, it suggests that the Sunnah (the Hadiths) of Sunni Islam, which also mention Jesus, Mary, and Joshua, place them in a timeframe much later than Aaron, contrary to the portrayal in the Quran (as I now genuinely 100% believe it does and can back it up with both Scriptures).
My previous article on this Let's call it the "Part 1", was also refuted by this brother and I have to agree that I didn't really bring any conclusive hardcore irrefutable evidence other than the line of messengers between Moses and Jesus, but 2-3 messengers can also be covered by "وَقَفَّيْنَا مِنۢ بَعْدِهِۦ بِٱلرُّسُلِ ۖ". It doesn't necessarily have to mean a very large amount of messengers.
And as for the name Amram and 'Imran, even though I wasn't wrong per say in part 1, it's still not the best response. The relationship between Hebrew and Arabic names can vary. While there are instances where the Arabic equivalent closely resembles the Hebrew name both phonetically and in meaning, there are also cases where the Arabic version may differ slightly in pronunciation or spelling, reflecting linguistic differences between the two languages. There's no rule saying two names between Hebrew and Arabic have to both sound and be defined the same way for them to be the same name.
With all of this being said, let's begin this article and let me show you all of what I've discovered, you'll wanna stick around for this one, trust me. It is literally groundbreaking and I can't even believe the things I've found.

1. The Jesus of Moses time:

The individual known as Jesus during that time is now referred to as "Joshua" in English. "Jesus" is simply the anglicized version of the Greek name "Iēsous" (Ἰησοῦς in Biblical Greek), which itself derives from the Hebrew name "Yeshua" (יֵשׁוּעַ). "Yeshua" is a shortened form of "Yehoshua." It's essentially the same name. Therefore, we can immediately deduce that there were individuals named "Jesus" and "Mary" (Miryam in Hebrew) during the era of Moses and Aaron. Dismissing this as mere coincidence seems unreasonable, given the striking parallel.
I have a strong intuition that my initial confusion about this topic was purposeful, perhaps to prompted by God to make me further research the topic leading to the revelation of truth. It's difficult for me to accept the idea of two individuals sharing these significant names across both the times of Moses/Aaron and the Roman era (Common era), especially considering their importance in Christianity, Islam, and Judaism. This becomes even more perplexing when we note that Joshua and Miryam are not mentioned in the Qur'an. Furthermore, the assertion by certain scholars that the Jesus of the Roman era was a total Roman fabrication adds another layer of complexity to the discussion.
If you're interested in a documentary that delves into this topic (i.e. the Roman false Jesus), see this one or this one, or read a book if you're more of a reader.
I'll delve further into this matter later in this post, so please continue reading as I've uncovered some revelations that are completely unfamiliar to humanity.

2. Revisiting Songs of Solomon 6:

- The mother in SoS 6 (the prophesied Mary) had siblings:
We read in SoS 6:8:

"One is my dove, my perfect one; one is her mother, the favorite to her who bore her. The daughters saw her and blessed her; the queens and the concubines, and they praised her."

Note: "the favorite to her who bore her"
The favorite child, meaning she had other children! Mary of Jesus time didn't have any siblings as far as we know. However, Miriam, from the time of Moses and Aaron, is said to have had siblings, with her being potentially favored among them by Jochebed, their mother.
- Only a fabricated figure would have their family members totally omitted in Scripture, literature and history books:
What's particularly unsettling is the absence of any mention of Mary's family in the entire New Testament or in the numerous existing apocryphal texts. Despite extensive research into these texts, only two apocryphal works mention Mary's father, with discrepancies in his name—either Joachim or Heli. This raises questions about why there is such inconsistency and why these mentions are limited to just two books, both of which are apocryphal and not widely accepted. One would expect that the family members of such prominent religious figures would be documented somewhere, especially given the abundance of literature produced by their followers during that time. It's perplexing that while details as specific as the colors of certain items are mentioned, the names of the family members of these revered figures are omitted.

3. Miriam was of Amminadab's lineage, as was the prophesied "mother" in SoS 6:

We read in SoS 6:12:

"There I will give you my breasts, my soul did not know it placed me in the chariots of Amminadab."

The reference to being placed in the chariots of Amminadab signifies being incorporated into the lineage associated with him (and could even be interpreted as "Family of Amminadab").
Additionally, when we examine:

Exodus 6:18: "And the sons of Kohath; Amram, and Izhar, and Hebron, and Uzziel: and the years of the life of Kohath were an hundred thirty and three years"

And:

1 Chronicles 6:22: "The sons of Kohath were Amminadab his son, Korah his son, Assir his son"

It becomes apparent that Amminadab and Amram were brothers, sharing the same father. Amram, who is the father of Miriam, married his father's sister, Jochebed, as indicated in Exodus 6:20:

"Amram married his father’s sister Jochebed, who bore him Aaron and Moses. Amram lived 137 years."

If Jochebed is the sister of Amram's father (Amminadab's brother), then this means that Jochebed is Amminadab's aunt. This means that Jochebed would be both the sister-in-law (through her marriage to Amram) and the aunt of Amminadab (through her familial relationship with Amram's father). If Miriam's mother, Jochebed, is the sister of Kohath, the father of Amminadab and Amram, then Miriam would be the niece of Amminadab, as Jochebed is the sister of Kohath. Given the close family relationship, Miriam would not only be the niece of Amminadab but also his first cousin once removed. This is because Miriam's mother, Jochebed, is the sister of Kohath, who is the father of both Amminadab and Amram. Therefore, Amminadab would be Miriam's uncle (her father's brother) and her first cousin once removed (as the son of her grandfather's brother). If Miriam's mother, Jochebed, is the sister of Kohath, who is the father of Amminadab, then Miriam would be descended from Amminadab. In this family lineage, Amminadab is Miriam's uncle (as the son of Kohath, Jochebed's brother), and therefore, Miriam is descended from him through her maternal line.
The prophecy of Mary in SoS 6 said "my soul did not know it placed me in the chariots of Amminadab." Brothers and sisters! Do you actually fathom what I have uncovered here? This changes everything now because all the puzzle pieces are falling into place and it is starting to look very difficult to deny that Mary actually is the same person as the Old Testament Mary.
Islamophobes saying "But... but... sister only means descendant" incoming in 3... 2...😂

Look how the tables have turned now:

Answering-Islam.org article:
Title: Mary, Sister of Aaron & Daughter of Amram
Apostate prophete's Youtube video (600k views):
Title: One Mistake Destroys Islam
Critiquing the Qur'an for referring to "Mary, sister of Aaron," and then vehemently asserting that "sister" in the Bible never implies ancestry, you'll now observe these same critics arguing that Jochebed, the wife of Amram, is merely a descendant of Amram's father, not his biological sister. This is after previously ridiculing Muslims for interpreting the Qur'an's mention of Mary as a biological sister in kinship (in lineage) of Aaron.
I wish someone would gather all the videos on youtube where they make fun of the Quran regarding this so we can make a compilation video, somebody, please.
It's ironic how God consistently refutes their criticisms of His Book every single time and turns it against them!
Mary, who was always Miriam, the prophetess of the Old Testament, should also (in my personal view) be recognized as a prophetess in Islam because she received a prophecy from Gabriel about Jesus. Why would she not be considered a prophetess? Just because the Hadiths say so? Disregard the Hadiths; they are concoctions devised by those who feared that this revelation would expose their god as a Roman fabrication. I'm trying to express these thoughts as gently as possible, but it's challenging because the truth inherently sounds harsh. Nonetheless, it must be spoken.

4. Very striking similarities between Mary vs Miryam and Jesus vs Joshua, and everything else revolving their respective eras:

The most striking one, of course, are the names of Mary/Miriam and Jesus/Joshua. Mary's name is a version that developed from the Hebrew name Miryam, and Jesus name is a anglicised version of the Greek version of the Hebrew name Joshua. This means that there was a Jesus and a Mary during both Moses and Aaron's time, as well as a Jesus and a Mary supposedly during the Common era. Insanely unlikely. But we've already talked about that, but there's tons of other "coincidences" that I will enumerate below:

The MIRACLE BIRTH OF JOSHUA:

In 1 Chronicles 7:27, we read:

"Non his son, and Joshua his son."

Why is "Non" being listed as a father of Joshua? Here's where it gets insanely interesting!
The word "נון" (nun) can be used as a prefix in Hebrew to form words with various meanings. For example, it can be used to form the word "נונס" (nun-s), which means "miracle." the "נון" (nun) in the phrase "נון בנו" (nun benu) is being used as a prefix to form a new word, "בנו" (benu), which means "our son". In this context, "נון" (nun) is being used as a possessive prefix, indicating that Nun is the possessor of the son being referred to. The word "בנו" (benu) is a construct form of the noun "בן" (ben), meaning "son", which is used to indicate possession.
So, the phrase "נון בנו יהושע בנו" (nun benu Yehoshua benu) can be translated as "Nun is our son, Joshua is our son".
The various Rabbinic commentaries are proof of this:
Chomat Anakh: "Nun is our son, Joshua is our son. The Sages said that Joshua did not have a son, but he had daughters, and prophets emerged from them."
Metzudat David: "Joshua is our son. This is Joshua son of Nun, the well-known one."
Minchat Shai: "Nun is our son. In most of the books [it says] 'in a dream'."
The Minchat Shai comment seems to be suggesting that there is a textual variant in the Hebrew text of I Chronicles 7:27, with some manuscripts reading "in a dream" instead of "Nun is our son".
Suppose I'm completely mistaken here, and it's just a theoretical possibility rather than an established fact. Why is it even conceivable? Do you see what I'm getting at? Why is Joshua referred to with the unusual title "Our son" instead of the name of his actual father in a genealogy chapter while documenting family descent or ancestry? It's quite disconcerting, and bears a striking resemblance to the way Jesus was called in Roman times. No matter how you analyze this, it's still perplexing and can't just be yet another "coincidence"!

Miriam THE MOTHER OF JOSHUA in Rabbinic traditions:

Said Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi:

"Why is the portion of the Torah in which the death of Moses is recorded juxtaposed with the portion in which the generation of the Exodus is listed? It is because when Moses died, Joshua was accepted as their leader and they repented of the sin of the spies. For they saw Joshua standing in the Tabernacle, and the pillar of cloud would come and rest upon his tent. They would say, 'Is this not the son of Miriam? As long as Miriam was alive, the pillar of cloud would rest upon her tent.'"

Source: Midrash Tanchuma, Vayelech 9
This next midrashic text presents a tradition linking Joshua's leadership role with the merit of Miriam's righteousness, mentioning "Her son," which is understood to refer to Joshua. The midrashic tradition interprets the events surrounding Miriam's death and the subsequent lack of water for the Israelites in the wilderness (Numbers 20:1-2) as a demonstration of the importance of Miriam's merit and her familial connections. In this interpretation, when Miriam died, there was a cessation of the miraculous well of water that had accompanied the Israelites throughout their journey. To restore the flow of water, Moses was instructed by God to take Miriam's "brother" (Aaron) and "her son" (interpreted as Joshua) to provide leadership and maintain the connection to Miriam's merit:
"Rabbi Yochanan said,

'The Holy One, blessed be He, said to Moses: “The merit of Miriam is greater than yours and Aaron’s. For because of her merit, Israel had water; and now that she has died, take her brother and her son, and give them to me in her place, so that the waters will return.”'"

Source: Midrash Rabba, Numbers 11:7

The blue dress:

Why do Mary paintings and Miriam paintings look oddly similar? They are both very often depicted wearing a blue dress in both Jewish and Christian paintings. Why are both associated with the color blue?!

The songs of praise:

Mary's Magnificat in the Gospel of Luke (Luke 1:46-55) is a hymn of praise and thanksgiving for the blessings bestowed upon her by God. Miriam also sings a song of praise after the Israelites safely cross the Red Sea (Exodus 15:20-21), known as the "Song of Miriam."

Joseph: The Old Testament one VS the New Testament one:

Upon receiving divine instruction, Moses departs Midian for Egypt, accompanied by his family, following the demise of those who previously sought his life (Exodus 4:19). Along the journey, a peculiar encounter and a divine admonition transpire, underscoring Israel's designation as God's firstborn (Exodus 4:22-23). These motifs find resonance in the Gospel of Matthew, where Joseph, similarly directed to return to his homeland, does so upon the passing of those who posed a threat to his son's life (Matthew 2:20). Similar to how God entrusted Moses with the custodianship of Israel, Joseph is portrayed as the guardian of his unique Son. Although Matthew's account doesn't mention a donkey, subsequent Christian reflections on the return from Egypt often incorporate such imagery.
The Romans literally just copied the Old Testament's "Israel, God's firstborn" and made Jesus God's firstborn as well (Romans 8:29; Colossians 1:15, 18; Hebrews 1:6; 12:23; Revelation 1:5), which also would explain this blatant contradiction between the OT and NT. And this title for Israel was just based on a mistranslation, as I have proven here in this article. They wanted to hide the fact that the Children of Israel descended from Bichri in Yemen.

The forty-day period post-resurrection:

This period, during which Jesus ascended to the heavenly temple, and the disciples' activities in the earthly temple, particularly their prayers and worship alongside women and Mary (Acts 1:3, 1:14), correspond to the ritual period of purification mandated by Leviticus 12:1-4 following the birth of a male child. Anna and Simeon during Jesus' presentation in the Temple and the disciples' activities leading up to Pentecost, resemble the presentation of the Spirit. Christians today claim that these striking similarities are mere "symbolic" similarities that serve as "prophetic" imagery or whatever but I'm just not buying that explanation.

Jesus' 12 disciples VS the 12 spies Joshua was part of:

There's a story involving twelve spies sent by Moses, of which Joshua and Caleb were part of, to scout the land of Canaan. Upon returning, Joshua and Caleb expressed faith in God's promise to deliver the land to them, but the other ten spies spread fear and doubt among the people. As a result, the Israelites murmured against Moses and Aaron, expressing a desire to return to Egypt rather than face the challenges of conquering Canaan (Numbers 13-14). The number 12 here can't just be a mere coincidence, Jesus 12 disciples and the 12 spies Joshua was part of.

The Israelites' rejection of Joshua and Jesus:

The Israelites rebelled and were in opposition against Joshua's leadership, such as the rebellion of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, who ultimately faced judgement (Numbers 16). Strikingly similar to how Jesus was treated by the Israelites.

Yahweh saves:

The name “Joshua” means “Yahweh saves" in Hebrew, yet another very striking "coincidence" to Jesus ministry.

The promised land:

Joshua leads to the Promised Land of Israel while Jesus leads to the "spiritual" Promised Land of Heaven. Yet another parallel that just cannot have been a mere coincidence.

The victory horns:

Joshua brought victory when the horns blew and the shouts came at Jericho (Joshua 5:13-6:27). Jesus will bring final victory when the trumpets blow and the shouts come when He returns (1 Thessalonians 4:16-18).

During a time when male infants were being targeted for elimination:

Mary protected Jesus in his infancy, just as Jochebed did with Moses. This period was marked by the Pharaoh's decree to execute male babies, fearing they would grow up to challenge his authority. Thus, Mary in the Quran concealed Jesus from public view initially not because of her virginity, but out of concern for her son's safety. This mirrors Jochebed's actions with Moses (she hid him for 3 months), suggesting they gave birth during the same era.
Let's ponder this thoughtfully: Why would Mary hide Jesus out of fear of being accused of adultery if his virgin birth was intended to be a miraculous sign?
If God had announced to her that the birth would serve as a miracle to the people, why would Mary fear the reaction of the people? Did Mary lack faith in God's plan? Why didn't any Sunni scholars of the past question this? They were too busy looking for honey in a sea of poison (i.e. classifying hadiths), that's why. She concealed him during a time of targeted infant killings, later revealing him as a miraculous child when the danger subsided.

Both Jesus and Joshua had no sons [end of lineages]:

Eruvin writes: "And it is written at the end of the list of the descendants of Ephraim: “Non his son, Joshua his son” (i Chronicles 7:27), which implies that Joshua himself had no children." (Eruvin 63b:1) Yet another striking "coincidence."

Joshua, Jesus, Joseph, and the Spirit of Wisdom:

Joshua, who came from the tribe of Joseph, was filled with the spirit of wisdom (Source) VS Jesus, whose legal father was Joseph, and he too was filled with the Spirit, And the Wisdom (Luke 2:40). Very strikingly similar lives.
Some more striking similarities:

• Miriam was a prophetess, and Mary is also seen as a prophetess in some Christian traditions.
• The Exodus story is seen as a story of new birth, Christians made Jesus' birth is also a story of new birth.

5. Songs of Solomon 1 is about Moses:

Here below, I will prove to you that SoS 1 is about Moses, which further strengthens my assertion that Songs of Solomon were prophecies and not mere songs about lovers, and that Songs of Solomon ch 6 is a prophecy of Jesus and Mary, and that Songs of Solomon ch 5 is a prophecy of Muhammad. And if anyone objects to this by saying "Solomon was much later than Moses," then I say to you: This was a recount of Moses, while the other two are prophecies.

Verse 1:

"This is Solomon’s Song of Songs."

Verse 2: בישקני מנשיקות פיהו כי־טובים דדיך מיין:

The first word in the verse, "בישקני" is a combination of the prefix "בי" (bi), meaning "in" or "with," and "שקני" (Shekhinah), the Divine Presence or the manifestation of God's presence in Jewish theology. An accurate and faithful translation would be "in the Shekhinah" or "with the Shekhinah," indicating a state of being or action in the presence of the Divine Presence. This is not how the Jews and Christians traditionally have translated this phrase though. They've erroneously interpreted it as "bishkani," a second-person masculine singular imperative form of the verb "shakan" (שָׁקַן), which means "to kiss." So in other words: "with kisses". But the following word is "מנשיקות" which means "from kisses," that would mean that it's saying "With kisses from kisses of his mouth..." a very awkward sentence that makes very little sense. With something from it too? That's like saying "With hugs from hugs of his body" or "With smiles from smiles of his face." Try and make sense of that.
The word "מנשיקות" (menashikot), in this context, it is not necessarily referring to physical kisses, but rather metaphorical or symbolic expressions of affection or blessings from the Divine Presence. A more accurate translation of "מנשיקות פיהו" in this context would be "from the utterances of His mouth" or "from the words of His mouth," reflecting the idea of divine communication or revelation rather than physical kisses.
See Hebrew dictionary:
Heb: נְשִׁיקוּת (f.)

1. (preced.) attachment, love. Cant. R. to I, 2 יוציא לי קול נ׳ וכ׳ may He issue forth unto me the voice of attachment.

Also:

Heb: נְשִׁיקָה f. (b. h.; נָשַׁק) 1) kissing, kiss. Gen. R. s. 70; Ex. R. s. 5, a. e. נ׳ של גדולה the kiss of homage; נ׳ של פרקים the kiss of meeting again; נ׳ של פרישות the kiss of parting; נ׳ של קריבות the kissing of relations. Deut. R. s. 11, end ונטל … בנְשִׁיקַת פה and took his (Moses’) soul with a kiss of the mouth. B. Bath. 17ᵃ מרים נמי בנ׳ מתה Miriam, likewise, died with a (divine) kiss (without agony); M. Kat. 28ᵃ. Ber. 8ᵃ נ׳ דמיא וכ׳ death without agony is like taking &c., v. בִּינְתָא II; a. fr.—Pl. נְשִׁיקוֹת. Ex. R. l. c. Cant. R. to I, 2 מה"ש אמרוהו יתן לנו מנ׳ וכ׳ the ministering angels said the verse, ‘May he give us of those kisses which he gave to his sons’ (at Mount Sinai). Ib. בסיני נאמרה יוציא לנו נ׳ מתוך פיהו at Mount Sinai the verse was said (by the Israelites), ‘May he let kisses go forth to us out of his mouth’; a. e. —2)

Source: Both in Jastrow's dictionary.
Upon reviewing the aforementioned texts, it becomes evident that they contain a prophetic or historical account of Moses. However, it appears that the Rabbis have neglected to disseminate this information to the wider world. The likely reason for this omission is the potential disruption it would cause to the traditional Judeo-Christian narrative, which erroneously portrays the Song of Solomon solely as a tale of romance and erotica between Solomon and his brides.
Sources:

- The Jewish Study Bible, published by Oxford University Press, provides commentary on Song of Solomon 1:2 acknowledging the possibility of a more metaphorical interpretation, referencing other biblical passages where the imagery of kisses is used metaphorically.
- "The Jewish Publication Society's Hebrew-English Tanakh," as well.

In other words, this chapter begins by mentioning Moses, the "Shekinah" and the Revelation of the Holy Torah:

Accurate translation: "With the Shekinah, from the utterances of His mouth, for thy love is better than wine."

Verse 3: גלריח שמניך טובים שמן תורק שמך על־כן עלמות אהבוך

The phrase "גלריח שמניך טובים שמן תורק שמך":
The interpretation, as a classical Rabbi has it:
Ezra ben Solomon on Song of Songs 1:3:2:

"Your name is like oil poured forth: Your name is like fine oil, poured from one vessel into another. The seventy names are emanated from the seven sefirot. tiferet and the Crown are for Israel, the singular people, for Israel nurse from the trunk of the tree, tiferet and Crown, all joined as one. But its aroma travels a great distance. So too Your name increases and is poured forth as pure light to shekhinah, which is contained and sealed into all. Counting her they are seventy-two. This is the meaning of “therefore the maidens love you.”

Now that we know what the first part of the verse means, let's see what the actual meaning of Moses' name is according to Jews themselves:

"The first and most obvious is the definition of Moses, draw out of water. Pharaoh’s daughter indeed drew Moses out of water, the waters of the Nile. She drew him out of the one of the most significant gods of Egypt, Hepi a fertility god who was the god of the annual flooding of the Nile. The flood deposited fertile soil on the river banks. Why was Pharaoh’s daughter’s at the Nile? It says in Exodus 2:5 that she came to wash herself or to bathe. Bathe in the sacred waters, not likely, especially a daughter of Pharaoh who took luxurious baths in tubs filled with all sorts of fragrances like myrrh and frankincense. The word used in Hebrew here for washing or bathing is rachats which means to pour water upon yourself. "

Source: https://www.chaimbentorah.com/2018/04/hebrew-word-study-moses/
Note: "to pour water upon yourself."
The third verse mentions Moses' name poetically and metaphorically but in such an explicit way that it becomes clear that it has to refer to none other than Moses, especially considering the fact that Moses is the anointing of Aaron and his sons as priests. In Exodus 29:7, Moses is instructed by God to take the anointing oil and anoint Aaron and his sons to consecrate them for the priesthood:

"Then take the anointing oil and anoint him by pouring it on his head."

Another significant event is the anointing of the Tabernacle and its furnishings. In Exodus 40:9-11, Moses is instructed to anoint the Tabernacle and everything in it with oil:

"Then take the anointing oil and anoint the tabernacle and everything in it; consecrate it and all its furnishings, and it will be holy."

Additionally, it is noteworthy to mention the passage, "Counting her they are seventy-two. This is the meaning of 'therefore the maidens love you.'" This passage is likely the origin of the '72-virgins' Hadith, suggesting that its authors were likely ancient Arab Jews, contrary to traditional Sunni beliefs and claims. They probably derived this notion from the same Midrashic and/or Talmudic sources referenced earlier. Who else but these individuals would have been familiar with and read these seldom-translated Midrashim and Talmuds? It seems unlikely that Arab Muslims would have possessed this knowledge. Moreover, the number "72 maidens" lacks biblical corroboration and is exclusively found in the Hadiths of the Rabbis.

Verse 4: משכני אחריך נרוצה הביאני המלך חדריו נגילה ונשמחה בך נזכירה דדיך מיין מישרים אהבוך:

The KJV translation:

"Draw me, we will run after thee: the king hath brought me into his chambers: we will be glad and rejoice in thee, we will remember thy love more than wine: the upright love thee."

My translation:

"Draw me after you(1), we will desire the king to bring me his chambers, we will rejoice in Baka(2), we will remember your love, my Egyptian(3), my beloved."

1: Heb: † רוּץ vb. run (NH id. (rare); Ethiopic ሮጸ Zinj. Pf. 1 s. רצת; = Aramaic רְהַט; ܪܗܰܛ (WSG 47); cf. Assyrian râṣu, be helpful (i.e. run to help?));— (BDB Dictionary) - This could be about Moses helping the two daughters of Jethro as the story goes in both the Bible and the Quran. And no, the Bible does not say that he had seven daughters, that was a mistranslation of the word "Shava" (i.e. Saba, the Yemeni city). The Masoretes made it into "Sheva" (Seven) most likely just because the Qur'an spoke of two daughters. This is how far they went!
2: The Hebrew is "ונשמחה בך" but I believe they've tampered with this verse because the Codex Sinaiticus clearly says "βοωϲιν" (Bocin), which translates to "to cry" ("Bakka" בך means "Cry" in Hebrew and Arabic). The Greek word "βοωϲιν" can also mean "heifer" or "young cow," which some root in the verb "βοάω" (boaō), which also means "to cry out," again relating to the word "cry."
The Codex Sinaiticus:

"βοωϲιν το ονομα τηϲ νυμ"

Google refuses to say that specific word, with or without any other words next to it when you try and play it through audio. Google also refuses to search it and replaces it with "βοώσιν." You can do a little experiment yourself and ask any AI chat bot to help you find a definition of this word, it will most certainly gives you a definition to "βοώσιν" instead of "βοώσιν" because it's been programmed to do so.
3: The word "משרי" (mishri) is translated as "Egyptian" or "from Egypt", it is also how one would say "Egyptian" in Arabic (i.e. Masri).
It has by now become tremendously evident that this is about Moses.

Verse 5: השחורה אני ונאוה בנות ירושלים כאהלי קדר כיריעות שלמה:

The bride says (Translation):

"I am black, but comely, O ye daughters of Jerusalem, as the tents of Kedar, as the curtains of Solomon."

Zipporah (the wife of Moses) was a black woman from Ethiopia. And she lived in Arabia (where the tents of Kedar were located). It just doesn't get any clearer than this.
This chapter is about Moses, there's no doubt about it. But I think I have already managed to convince you that by now, but I'll keep translating this chapter in the coming days to fully solidify it for you so you can be as convinced as I am (if you already aren't).

Conclusion (Until part 2):

I'm going to end this post without a conclusion, and continue it ASAP.
/By your brother, Exion.

People ask, "What are the 'chill' transitional years?" every year. I'm here to help guide you in the correct direction. ◡̈

Notoriously chill transitional years:

• - Riverside Regional Medical Center (Virginia)
  
  • 6 blocks electives, tons of free food, great benefits ($1000 moving stipend, education fund, reimburse step 3, 20 days PTO (5 used during holidays), 12 sick days, free parking, etc.
  • 3 blocks – 1 inpatient FM, 2 internal medicine.
  • 2 blocks EM – 1 pediatric, 1 not pediatric
  • 1 block – ambulatory care/urgent care
  • 1 block selective – MICU, SICU, gen surg, NICU, or one-on-one hospitalist
  • 6 blocks electives
• Aurora Health Care Program(Wisconsin - Milwaukee)
  
  • 6 blocks electives, free food, great pay ($66,000), 28 days PTO (Vacation, holiday, sick), $450 education fund, $1000 conference fund (at PD’s discretion), NO ICU, NO SURGERY
  • 4 blocks internal medicine teaching service (q4 call with rotating overnight coverage)
  • + 1 block internal medicine teaching service wards at another hospital OR 1 block ICU
  • 1 block ambulatory medicine
  • 1 block EM
  • 6 blocks electives
• Gundersen Lutheran Medical Foundation Program(Wisconsin – La Crosse)
  
  • Retirement contributions (5% matched at 4%), $500 wellness fund, $1000 education fund (step 3 funded out of this ($945)), 4 half-day wellness days, 15 days PTO, 5 days CME, 2 days off for Step 3, $1800 meal stipend, free gym membership, slightly tougher schedule than historically
  • 3 blocks - inpatient medicine (admit until 4 pm, max of 3 per day; patient cap: 6) each block with 1-week inpatient medicine night float (10 pm-7 am)
  • 3 blocks - inpatient medicine (admit until 4 pm, max of 3 per day; patient cap: 6) each block with 1-week inpatient medicine night float (10p-7 am))
  • 1 block cardiology consults 7a-6p with 1-week cardiology consults night float 6p-7a
  • 1 block general surgery (530 am-4/5 pm) - can do consults/floor work, don't have to scrub in
  • 1 block EM
  • 1 block ambulatory medicine
  • 5 blocks electives – can do away/research elective.
• University of Texas at Austin Dell Medical School (Texas): NEW INFO
  
  • 4 electives, can do away electives, 15 days of vacation and CME, 10 days sick leave, free parking, $650 education stipend, $8/day for breakfast, $12/day for lunch and dinner ($20/day food), $1000 for step prep, reimburse step 3, employer matching retirement plan
  • 2 blocks inpatient IM
  • 1 block pediatric wards
  • 1 block Peds EM
  • 1 block EM
  • 1 block surgery (acute care or pediatric)
  • 1 block ICU (SICU)- q3 24 hour call
  • 1 block ambulatory -medicine
  • 1 block neurology or psychiatry
  • 4 blocks electives (includes 1 required research elective)
• University of South Dakota
  
  • 7 electives, $1000 stipend for orientation, health/dental/vision insurance premiums all covered by program. 15 days’ vacation, 10 sick days.
  • 4 blocks inpatient IM
  • 1 block ambulatory medicine
  • 1 block emergency medicine
  • 7 blocks electives
• Spartanburg Regional Healthcare System(Spartanburg, SC)
  
  • 4 electives, 20 days PTO, 6 paid holidays, free meals, $2500 moving stipend, pay for license fees, ACLS, Step 3, other cool benefits like golf course access
  • 4 blocks inpatient internal medicine
  • 1 block emergency medicine
  • 1 block night float
  • 1 block ambulatory pediatrics
  • 2 blocks selectives – choose from: critical care surgery, EM, IM, ob/gyn, peds, peds ICU/clinic
  • 4 blocks electives
• University of North Dakota (Fargo, ND)
  
  • physician's lounge access with free food; $500 stipend for place with candy and stuff, 21 days vacation + holiday block, 5 CME days, 12 sick day, $150 education stipend lol, 4 wellness days, free parking, free health insurance (premium paid by UND), 5 electives and 2 weeks of QI/research
  • 4 blocks inpatient IM (7 am-4 pm with q4 7 am -730 pm; pt cap = 7)
  • 0.5 blocks NF (8 pm-8 am)
  • 0.5 blocks "Practice-Based Learning and Improvement (PBLI)" = research/QI
  • 1 block ICU (7-430p with Q3 evening call til ?; patient cap = 5)
  • 1 block EM
  • 1 block ambulatory medicine
  • 5 blocks electives - can do away electives.

Others to check out:

• West Virginia University Program (West Virginia) - seems less chill than historically.
  
  • 3 months electives
  • 2.5 months IM
  • 2 months primary care specialty (FM wards, gen surg wards, IM wards, Peds wards, labor & delivery
  • 1 month ICU (MICU, SICU, Pediatric Step down)
  • 1 month selective (neuro consults, trauma surgery, plastic surgery)
  • 1 month VA ambulatory clinic
  • 0.5 months transitions of care clinic
• Ascension Resurrection (Illinois)
  
  • 20 PTO, meal allowance, educational stipend, Chicago
    • 3 blocks internal medicine (5-6 nights per block)
    • 1 block ICU (5-6 nights)
    • 1 block EM (5-6 nights)
    • 1 block pulmonary service
    • 1 block ambulatory care
    • 1 block ICU Float Elective (5-6 nights)
    • 5 blocks electives
• AdventHealth Redmond Program (Rome, Georgia)
  
  • Moving allowance ($1000), step 3 reimbursed, 6 months UWorld, $1000 for electronic device, $600 for cell phone, free food, 21 d PTO, 5 d CME, 7 sick days, EPIC
  • 2.5 blocks inpatient IM (630a-630p, 6/d week)
  • 1 block night float (630p-630a, 6d/week)
  • 0.5 blocks MICU (630a-4, 630a-530p, 630a-630p (long call))
  • 1.5 blocks ambulatory IM – Monday-Thursday (always have Friday off
  • 1 block EM – 16 shifts/mo (pick shifts but can’t front load, none on Wednesday (that’s AHD))
  • 0.5 blocks venous surgery – outpatient, chill
  • 5.5 blocks – electives (cannot do away electives!)
• Northside (GA)
  
  • $1000 CME, $500 toward UWorld, $100/mo phone stipend, 15 days PTO, 5 days PTO for conference, Laptop/iPad provided, free parking, Free food provided in Physician’s Lounge 24/7/365 with buffet-style meals for breakfast and lunch during the work week + some catered lunches during didactics
  • 2 blocks of wards
  • 1 block ICU
  • 1 block of OB but is easy
  • 1 block gen surg: could be 8a/9a-12p M-F just scrubbing cases or shadowing.
  • 1 block NF
  • 1 block ambulatory IM
  • 1 block EM
  • 5 blocks electives ish? They have some cool electives (CDC or in atlanta w/ healthcare advocacy)
• WellStar Kennestone GA - chill
  
  • 5 months of electives. No surgery, no obgyn. 3 weeks vacay, 1 week CME, uses EPIC.
• Intermountain – (Murray, UT) → historically not chill. Now, fairly chill + great location.
  
  • Orientation paid, $1500 education fund (pay for step 3 with this), free covered, gated garage, food allowance on call + 2 meals/day all weekdays + unlimited “monopoly money” for cafeteria, 20 days PTO, 12 sick days, 5 CME days, if you like to ski, this is the place to be (residents have clocked 54 days skiing in the past), CERNER.
  • 1.5 blocks IM (630-2p alternate with 630a-630p)
  • 0.5 blocks night float (630p-630a) → “most hours you'll work.”
  • 2 blocks shock trauma ICU (STICU): patient cap = 5, 3 day shifts, 2 night shifts, 2 days off, repeated (in 2 week blocks)
  • 1 block general surgery: q3 28-hour call (this is rough)
  • 8 BLOCKS NO CALL
    • 2 selectives – chill outpatient stuff
    • 3 electives – can do away electives, research electives, etc.
• Grand Strand (Myrtle Beach, SC)
  
  • 6 blocks of electives. 20 days’ vacation & sick days, 5 days CME, refund Step 3, $1000 for orientation, $3000 meal stipend or $25/day, dictation device, laptop, cellphone, MEDITECH
  • 2 blocks IM
  • 1 block night float
  • 1 block MICU
  • 1 block EM (18, 8-hour shifts)
  • 1 block ambulatory medicine
  • 1 block QI/jeopardy
  • 6 blocks electives
• Loyola MacNeal (Berwyn, IL)
  
  • 20 d vacation, 5 d CME, 12 d sick, free parking, on-call meals, education stipend, near Chicago
  • 2.5 blocks IM
  • 2 blocks IC
  • 1 block general surgery
  • 1 block family medicine inpatient
  • 1 block ambulatory medicine
  • 1 block EM
  • 3.5 blocks electives (can do research elective)
  • 1 block vacation
• Kettering Health Network/Kettering Medical Center Program (Kettering, OH)
  
  • 20 d vacation, sick leave, technology allowance, meal stipend, book allowance, free parking
  • 6 blocks general internal medicine (q4 14 hr. call; 3 weeks of night float within these 6 blocks)
  • 1 block pulmonary/ICU
  • 1 block EM
  • 1 block ambulatory medicine
  • 0.25 blocks intro to quality and safety
  • 4 blocks electives – up to 2 can be away electives.
• St. Joseph's (Syracuse, NY) - historically chill; maybe less so now?
  
  • 4 weeks of vacation (with the weekend before and after off so 9 days *4 = 36 days). $500 moving allowance, CME stipend for conferences, study materials, etc., some 24 hr call with post call day, meal allowance
  • 4 blocks inpatient medicine
    • 2 blocks with FM
    • 2 blocks with internists
    • capped at 6-8 patients
    • leave at 4-5 p.m. otherwise, long call til 7 p.m. q4 ish.
    • Some 24-hour call with a post-call day some 24-hour call with a post-call day.
  • 1 block family medicine clinic
  • 1.5 blocks b/gyn
  • 1 block inpatient peds (most brutal rotation of the year; done at Golisano Children's Hospital at Upstate)
  • 1 block EM
  • 4.5-5 blocks of elective time

west coast (best coast? nah):

• UHS SoCal: (Temecula, CA)
  
  • 3 blocks electives. Chill wards months (out by 2/3 pm). (20 days PTO on electives.) Education stipend for Step 3.
  • 3 blocks inpatient IM
  • 1 block ICU
  • 1 block outpatient cardiology
  • 1 block outpatient pediatrics
  • 1 block outpatient ortho
  • 1 block EM
  • 1 block surgery (FM?)
  • 1 block ambulatory IM
• Sutter Roseville Medical Center (Roseville, CA)
  
  • 6 blocks electives! $2000 relocation stipend, $6,000 housing stipend, $2,000 licensing fees, $2,000 CME, $35/day for meals if not provided, $100/mo for parking if required
  • 4 blocks IM
  • 1 block EM
  • 1 block ambulatory medicine
  • 1 block surgery
  • 6 blocks electives
• HCA Riverside Community (Riverside, CA)
  
  • idk they have 5 blocks of electives, tho. 15 vacation days, 5 sick days, 5 CME, free parking, meal stipend, education stipend, probs other benefits. MEDITECH & does NOT count for PSLF
  • 2 block emergency medicin
  • 2 block emergency medicinein
  • 1 block of adult ambulatory
  • 1 block Flex rotation (Choose Wards, Surgery, or ICU)
  • 0.5 blocks of night float
  • 0.5 block ICU
  • 0.5 block peds ambulatory
  • 0.5 block peds emergency medicine
  • 5 blocks electives
• Santa Clara Valley Medical Center Program(San Jose, CA)
  
  • 3-4 blocks of medicine wards. 20 days sick leave, $57/week meal allowance, $1000 educational allowance, $1,500 relocation allowance (only if there for multiple years), and 100% reimbursement for medical licensure fees. Idk if this one is chill, tbh.
  • 1 block of EM
  • 1 block of ambulatory medicine (adult, pediatric, or surgery)
  • 2 blocks electives (vacation broken up into 2 two week blocks...during electives)
  • 3-4 blocks medicine wards
    • can substitute 1 IM block with an ICU block
  • 2-3 blocks of OB, peds, or surgery
  • 0.5-1.5 blocks medicine subspecialty
  • 0.25-0.5 blocks night float
  • 1 block vacation (3 weeks vacation, 1 week GME time)

COMPETITIVE TYs WHERE YOU WORK HARD(or not)/BUT PEOPLE LIKE THE LOCATION

• Memorial Sloan Kettering (NY, NY),
• Scripps Mercy Hospital Program (San Diego, CA),
• BIDMC (Brockton, MA)
• Cambridge Health Alliance Program (Cambridge, MA)
• Mass General Brigham/Newton-Wellesley Hospital Program (Newton, MA),
• WellStar Kennestone Regional Medical Center Program (Marietta, GA) - not a work-hard program
• Emory University School of Medicine (Atlanta, GA)
• WellStar Kennestone Regional Medical Center Program (Marietta, GA) - not a work-hard program interviewed 60) - mid for "chillness factor," awesome location
• Santa Clara Valley Medical Center (San Jose, CA)

DO NOT PASS GO, DO NOT APPLY:
CROZER CHESTER- They're being sold right now and their surgery residency got shut down by the ACGME at the end of 2023. They're financially in a bad position. They're not nearly as chill of a program as advertised and the program director is strange.
LOOK FOR PROGRAMS THAT HAVE 5+ ELECTIVE BLOCKS!
I'm sure I missed some along the way. Feel free to leave comments or additions if you have any.
Best of luck, Class of 2025 🤠

"Whenever there's a head of hair being threatened by a criminal clipper, I'll be there."

Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo

Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo is the cool and incomprehensible hero, swarthy and musclebound, sporting sunglasses and a large golden afro. He is called "Bo-bobo" for short, as he refuses to let people call him "Bo".

• Mid series Bo-Bobo receives a power up that makes him as powerful as all 5634 supermarkets in Japan with an aura stronger than anyone in the series before. These feats are easy to pick out as Bo-Bobo will be wearing his black jacket instead of his normal outfit.

Hanage Shinken

Bo-bobo's primary form of offense is a technique called the "Hanage Shinken". This technique involves stretching out his nose hairs in order to whip or constrict his enemies. He is one of the few people who knows this technique, so he believes that it is sacred and that he shouldn't overuse it. It is powered by Taiyaki.

• To explain why this section is about to be VERY large, Bo-Bobo has a wide of array of techniques.

Offensive

Merciless Nose Hair Fist
Burning Hair Spirit Deadly Armpit Hair Fist
Nose-Hair Revolution
Kamemura Suibotsu
A long equation I am not typing out
That's Goro! That's Goro!
Destruction of the Fried Chinese (Deep Fried) Faction
Armpit Chop
Nosehair Alley
Yes I'm Leaving Hakata
A Decided Can't Tell Me Where to Go On My Journey: Pure Story
Burning Hand Hell-Fire
Hell Shrike Fall
Friendship Power
Ikemen
Fighting Double Punishment
Nosehair Victory
Leg Snap
Tetori Legtris Fist
Pinappudding
Gesopotamia Civilization
Yie Ar Kung-Fu
Our Friendship is Eternal
Wherever Nata De Coco Is It's Still Alive
Violent Nosehair Fist
Destiny
Planet Judge
Kitten Fist
Hell Nosehair Drop
Lightning Nosehair Ball
Super Godly Strong-Fanged Beast Smash Shot
Tokoro Nosehair
Bontan Bontan Bontan Bontan Bontan Bontan Bontan Bomb
Please! Drench Me!
Super Sonic Stupid Beigoma
Bo-Bobo Wave
Legendary Hustler Shot
Dummy Bomb
Bagworm Laser
Dosukoi Bungee
20-Ton Press
Keristian Dior
Wan-Wan Giant Slalom
Slipper Sole Flap
Southern Cross
Shinderera
Bosses' Chair Great Rotating Attack
Seal Release
Dance of the Angry Bears
[Super Bo-Bobo] Thousand Nosehair Wave
[Super Bo-Bobo] Unnamed Attack
[Super Bo-Bobo] Nosehair Sword
[Super Bo-Bobo] Flap Flap Kamaitachii
[Super Bo-Bobo] Look Look Hello There
[Super Bo-Bobo] Pleasant Plate Destruction
[Super Bo-Bobo] Bo-Bobo Big Eruption
[Super Bo-Bobo] Carp Waterfall Climb
[Super Bo-Bobo] Cross Goddess
[Super Bo-Bobo] Mecha Nosehair Lock-On!
[Super Bo-Bobo] Fire the Stupid Satellite!
[Super Bo-Bobo] Needle Sandbag
[Super Bo-Bobo] Sleep Flames
[Super Bo-Bobo] Kome Shinken
[Super Bo-Bobo] Great School Field Trip
[Super Bo-Bobo] Monkey Year End Gift Attack
[Super Bo-Bobo] Golden Awakening
[Super Bo-Bobo] Romantic Sensation Movement
[Super Bo-Bobo] Judgement of Me Judged By Tennosuke Judged By Don Patch Judged By Babylon
[Super Bo-Bobo] Desperation Mirrorball
[Super Bo-Bobo] Buyou Of Darkness: First Dance!
[Super Bo-Bobo] We've Done It! Mechanical Attack Electro Destructive Mecha Three Plates!!!
[Super Bo-Bobo] Eat Hard-Boiled Egg
[Super Bo-Bobo] Return the Hanpen
[Super Bo-Bobo] Dozaemon Kick
[Super Bo-Bobo] Ekiben for Sale
[Super Bo-Bobo] Twinkling Star Shou
[Super Bo-Bobo] Mysterious Chiropractor Dr. Bo's Wild Treatment
[Super Bo-Bobo] Weapon Dance
[Super Bo-Bobo] Triangle High Tension
[Super Bo-Bobo] Super Powerful 3-Idiot Bazooka
[Super Bo-Bobo] Hundred Animal King Fist
[Super Bo-Bobo] Zitabata Beam
[Super Bo-Bobo] Leg Pin
[Super Bo-Bobo] Unnamed Bear Attack
[Super Bo-Bobo] Double Dentists
[Super Bo-Bobo] Human Express by Nosehair!
[Super Bo-Bobo] Master! The Daughter's Way Over There Get Service from Me
[Super Bo-Bobo] Nosehair from under a Kotatsu
[Super Bo-Bobo] Babylon
[Super Bo-Bobo] Taiyaki to the Future
[Super Bo-Bobo] Hairy Heavens
[Super Bo-Bobo] We Two Colors Enter the Rainbow Typhoon
[Super Bo-Bobo] Bo-Bobo Monster House
[Super Bo-Bobo] Diablos Hand
[Super Bo-Bobo] Dog Punch! Dog Punch! Dog Punch! Dog Punch! Dog Punch! Dog Punch!
[Super Bo-Bobo] Flyswatter
[Super Bo-Bobo] Aim to be a Bump Big Leaguer
[Super Bo-Bobo] Gutsy Bat
[Super Bo-Bobo] Nosehair Style Welcoming Party
[Super Bo-Bobo] Huge Wafer Toppings
[Super Bo-Bobo] Yansu Gansu Revolution
[Super Bo-Bobo] Sharks Gnawing Underwater
[Super Bo-Bobo] Dream of Raising Tiles in Janki Ryu Dance
[Super Bo-Bobo] I Recently Was Put in Charge of The Work Phone and I Always Use It for Mahjong Instead.
[Super Bo-Bobo] Pig Emptying Attack
[Super Bo-Bobo] One-Night Dinner Show
[Super Bo-Bobo] Random 360-Degree Tokoroten Magnum
[Super Bo-Bobo] Stealth Slash
[Super Bo-Bobo] Metro Destruction
[Super Bo-Bobo] Sorrowful Tofu Impact!
[Super Bo-Bobo] Bull's Eye Scooping
[Super Bo-Bobo] Missed Wrestle Ball
[Bo-Bobo 100%] BoBo-BoBoBoBoBoBo-BoBoBoBo-BoBo
[Shintetsu Bo-Bobo] Smashing the Top of his Head
[Shintetsu Bo-Bobo] Booger Machine-gun
[Shintetsu Bo-Bobo] Drop It Down
[Shintetsu Bo-Bobo] Hanage Musou
[Shintetsu Bo-Bobo] Lunch Providing Duty of the Sky
[Shintetsu Bo-Bobo] Delete Commando
[Shintetsu Bo-Bobo] Cow Shower
[Shintetsu Bo-Bobo] Bo-Bobo Sports Premiere Issue!
[Shintetsu Bo-Bobo] The Forest's Three Squirrel Children
[Shintetsu Bo-Bobo] Good Morning Teacher!
[Shintetsu Bo-Bobo] Tokoroten Impact
[Shintetsu Bo-Bobo] Congratulate Jump Super Stars Newest Game, Creating Excitement for Winter
[Shintetsu Bo-Bobo] Ninety-Nine Nights: Nagoya Edition
[Shintetsu Bo-Bobo] Himeji Castle! Himeji Slice!
[Shintetsu Bo-Bobo] The Teachings of Mori are Absolute
[Shintetsu Bo-Bobo] The Sightseeing Arranged Commemorative Photograph Immediate to the Left Side as You Enter the Main Gate of Nagoya Castle
[Shintetsu Bo-Bobo] I Want to Do Thrusting Professional Sumo After A Long Time
[Shintetsu Bo-Bobo] We're the Strgonest Bo-Bobo Army Corp
[Shintetsu Bo-Bobo] A Passing Through Leopald
[Shintetsu Bo-Bobo] Fierce World Cup 2006: The Summer of Germany
[Shintetsu Bo-Bobo] Western Game Scramble
[Shintetsu Bo-Bobo] Nosehair Style Hyakke Rokujuuyonshou
[Shintetsu Bo-Bobo] Astro Bobo Sasa
[Shintetsu Bo-Bobo] The Royal Family's Conviction
[Shintetsu Bo-Bobo] Honekko Machinegun
[Shintetsu Bo-Bobo] Boinal Boight Boy
[Shintetsu Bo-Bobo] Running Wild Takuan Young-Tough Gang
[Shintetsu Bo-Bobo] It's Terrible For Even the Author To Draw a Large Quantity of Hair Hunters
[Shintetsu Bo-Bobo] Personal Experience of the In-Vogue Balance Ball
[Shintetsu Bo-Bobo] The Great Parade of Nostalgic Stickers
[Shintetsu Bo-Bobo] Perfect Hanpen-Shou!
[Shintetsu Bo-Bobo] The Angels Who Call Out for Victory Pure Prayer
[Shintetsu Bo-Bobo] Water Boys Three
[Shintetsu Bo-Bobo] Crackling Great-Flame Shuriken.
[Shintetsu Bo-Bobo] Daikon Whole Sale is Humble
[Shintetsu Bo-Bobo] Jump Ultimate Stars Bo-Bobo Strongest Dream Deck Demon Combo S
[Shintetsu Bo-Bobo] Have a Merry Shitmas and Go To Sleep
[Shintetsu Bo-Bobo: After-Training Perfect-Edition] Onigawara Bomber
[Shintetsu Bo-Bobo: After-Training Perfect-Edition] Present for You
[Shintetsu Bo-Bobo: After-Training Perfect-Edition] A Man's Tokoroten Magnum
[Shintetsu Bo-Bobo: After-Training Perfect-Edition] Length-Wise Tokoroten Magnum
[Shintetsu Bo-Bobo: After-Training Perfect-Edition] King Nosehair Typhoon
[Shintetsu Bo-Bobo: After-Training Perfect-Edition] I Can't Forgive Foolishness
[Shintetsu Bo-Bobo: After-Training Perfect-Edition] Disorderly Kabosu of OVER
[Shintetsu Bo-Bobo: After-Training Perfect Edition] Pokomi's Scribble Cannon Wave
[Shintetsu Bo-Bobo: After-Training Perfect Edition] The Wave That Begins the Tonkatsu Revolution
[Shintetsu Bo-Bobo: After-Training Perfect Edition] The Wave That Starts Formula-1 Japan
[Shintetsu Bo-Bobo: After-Training Perfect Edition] Kamehameha
[Shintetsu Bo-Bobo: After-Training Perfect Edition] The Beauty of Japan
[Shintetsu Bo-Bobo: After-Training Perfect Edition] Geneha Rush
[Shintetsu Bo-Bobo: After-Training Perfect Edition] Digest the Anger of Hair
[Shintetsu Bo-Bobo: After-Training Perfect Edition] Armpit Chop
[Shintetsu Bo-Bobo: After-Training Perfect Edition] Nosehair Violent Fist

Defensive

Stress Relief Fist
Ma-Ma-Defense
Bo-Bobo Armor
Equipped: Battle Armor "Faith": Chaos of Oden
Tokoroten Guard
Don Patch Guard
Hidden Talent
Bagworm Defense
School Curtain
Love-Love Umbrella
[Super Bo-Bobo] Snack Time
[Super Bo-Bobo] Coating of Life
[Super Bo-Bobo] Angel's Bathroom
[Super Bo-Bobo] Wildlands Lasso Johnny
[Super Bo-Bobo] Ora-Ora Aura
[Super Bo-Bobo] Spinning Old Man and Old Woman Dining Table
[Super Bo-Bobo] Konnyaku Guard
[Super Bo-Bobo] Nice Butt Defense
[Super Bo-Bobo] Teru Teru Bo-Bobo
[Super Bo-Bobo] Gum Stick
[Super Bo-Bobo] Strong Wind! Carry Out A Kite Flying Tournament!
[Super Bo-Bobo] Bamboo Shoot Jump
[Super Bo-Bobo] Outrageous Barbecue Brawl
[Super Bo-Bobo] Fishing Key Attack
[Super Bo-Bobo] Bean Changing Technique
[Shintetsu Bo-Bobo] Unnamed Brush Attack
[Shintetsu Bo-Bobo] Bo-Bobo Omikuji
[Shintetsu Bo-Bobo] Perfect Defense Reborns S.D.C. (Sakurayama Defense Club)
[Shintetsu Bo-Bobo] Dummy Guard
[Shintetsu Bo-Bobo: After-Training Perfect-Edition] Stance of Heaven and Earth
[Shintetsu Bo-Bobo: After-Training Perfect-Edition] Full-Armor Bo-Bobo
[Shintetsu Bo-Bobo: After-Training Perfect-Edition] I Think It's Great When It's Funny
[Shintetsu Bo-Bobo: After-Training Perfect-Edition] Yodel Step

Utility

Fishy Fish Manipulation Dance
Hanage Bunshin
Bo-Bobo World

• Defeats Softon when he is not able to release his soul.
  
• Marks people who have entered with a Bo-Bobo-Chan Mark.
  
• Can be instantly shut down by Be-Bebe due to Leg Hair being superior to Nose Hair. Leg Hair is also powered by the moon. Duh.
  

[Super Bo-Bobo] Bo-Bobo World: Nightmare
[Shintetsu Bo-Bobo] Shintetsu Bo-Bobo World
Becoming Giant!
Big Gojo Bridge
Legend of Kage Jump
Fidgeting Typhoon
Cooked Sanma Hour
Bo-Bobo Roulette
Bo-Bobo Typhoon
Nosehair Bridge
Skating Rink
Hopping Jump
Tororo Field
Nosehair Spider-Harden
Snack Time!
Floating Angels
Super Flash
Cinderella Story
Bo-Bobo Elevator
[Super Bo-Bobo] Spike Cultivation
[Super Bo-Bobo] Weekly Shonen Jump
[Super Bo-Bobo] Phantom Shutter
[Super Bo-Bobo] Bo-Bobo TV-Chan Nel Hour
[Super Bo-Bobo] Nice to Meet You! Ero-Grappa!
[Super Bo-Bobo] Tame the Rowdy Wind
[Super Bo-Bobo] Love Attack
[Super Bo-Bobo] Torpedo Quiz
[Super Bo-Bobo] Hanage Change
[Super Bo-Bobo] Okama Bar
[Super Bo-Bobo] Bo-Bobo Pinball
[Super Bo-Bobo] Light of Hope!
[Super Bo-Bobo] Retro Game Playing
[Super Bo-Bobo] Party of the Tennyo
[Super Bo-Bobo] Giant Slalom Lock
[Super Bo-Bobo] Afterburner
[Super Bo-Bobo] Afro Golden Village
[Super Bo-Bobo] Bo-Bobo Tufts
[Super Bo-Bobo] Hair Manipulation Jutsu
[Super Bo-Bobo] Gutsy Cycling
[Super Bo-Bobo] A Greedy Boy Eats Meat
[Super Bo-Bobo] A Ban Order on Dolphin Nightlife!
[Super Bo-Bobo] Big Orange Tower
[Super Bo-Bobo] Scaffold Jump
[Super Bo-Bobo] Physical Sensation Paradise Game Zone: X Summer Version
[Super Bo-Bobo] Joumon People Every Day
[Super Bo-Bobo] Shika Senbei Introduction Technique
[Super Bo-Bobo] Climbing University Mountain Circle Like Uezono-San
[Super Bo-Bobo] Our Tenth Ally...Pickles Great Spy Operation
[Bo-Bobo 100%] Secret Fairy-Tail Flowerbed
[Shintetsu Bo-Bobo] Our Workplace * Expedition Log
[Shintetsu Bo-Bobo] Mid-Winter Courage Test Tournament
[Shintetsu Bo-Bobo] Tender Memory Lesson
[Shintetsu Bo-Bobo] A.D.H.B.
[Shintetsu Bo-Bobo] Patched Patch
[Shintetsu Bo-Bobo] The Eight Legendary Nurses
[Shintetsu Bo-Bobo] Transfer of Arts of the Blue Sky.
[Shintetsu Bo-Bobo] Speed-Of-Sound Arcadia "Unfinished Manga"
[Shintetsu Bo-Bobo] Legend of Kage Jump
[Shintetsu Bo-Bobo] 70's Period Anime-Like Jump
[Shintetsu Bo-Bobo] 70's Period Gag Manga Running Method
[Shintetsu Bo-Bobo] Super High-Grade Tactics
[Shintetsu Bo-Bobo] Newly on Sale! The Rumored Bokkuriman Stickers
[Shintetsu Bo-Bobo] Nostalgic Retro Game Killing Match S
[Shintetsu Bo-Bobo] Hell's Train Train
[Shintetsu Bo-Bobo] Hair Hummings
[Shintetsu Bo-Bobo: After-Training Perfect-Edition] Future Pitch Dark Darkness
[Shintetsu Bo-Bobo: After-Training Perfect-Edition] Active Adventure RPG: Underwear Thief II
[Shintetsu Bo-Bobo: After-Training Perfect-Edition] The New Discovery
[Shintetsu Bo-Bobo: After-Training Perfect-Edition] Dummy World
[Shintetsu Bo-Bobo: After-Training Perfect-Edition] Hot-Blooded Yelling Soul! Fight, Ouendan!!!.
[Shintetsu Bo-Bobo: After-Training Perfect-Edition] Gal Circle 2007

????

These are Hanage Shinken techniques that have no explanation, use, or are just plain weird.
Black Snake
Squeezing Nose Hair Fist
School Trip
Metamorphosis
The Three Bo-Bobo Pigs
Nosehair Festival
Principal Speech
Kamehameha
Ca Is Whom I'm Showing Hana no Asuka-Gumi
Summon Goat
Gondola Tour
Golden Phoenix
Funny Sugoroku
Nosehair Jumprope
Money Tree
Wonderful Nosehair Seven Days!
Hondarapo I's HogeHoge Po
Bo-Bobo Mystery Box
Great March of the 300 High School Girls
Massively Aesthetic Objet Summon
The Crab and The Monkey 2003
The Art of the Tanaka House
[Super Bo-Bobo] Revived Tennosuke
[Super Bo-Bobo] E-Su E-Fu
[Super Bo-Bobo] 7 Extraordinary Phenomenon Traveler
[Super Bo-Bobo] Tokoro Balloon of Friendship
[Super Bo-Bobo] Send Out The Peep Peep Corp!
[Super Bo-Bobo] Challenge the World Record in Dominoes!
[Super Bo-Bobo] Go On A Hike
[Super Bo-Bobo] Baka Saver
[Super Bo-Bobo] J-Melody Great Thanks Ritual!
[Super Bo-Bobo] My Amazing Home
[Super Bo-Bobo] 400-Character Gekkou Youshi Festival
[Super Bo-Bobo] Hair Growth
[Super Bo-Bobo] Starry Sky Glittering Dinner
[Super Bo-Bobo] Here Comes the Groom!
[Super Bo-Bobo] Great Tickling
[Super Bo-Bobo] Cormorant Training Hell
[Super Bo-Bobo] Rolling Movie Appreciation
[Super Bo-Bobo] The Kappa's Super Spartan Studying Group
[Super Bo-Bobo] Cute Peepers Appear
[Shintetsu Bo-Bobo] Healthy Nametake
[Shintetsu Bo-Bobo] Midnight Torture SL
[Shintetsu Bo-Bobo] Kansai Explosive Demon Young Toughs Gang
[Shintetsu Bo-Bobo] Tokoroten's Great Counterattack!
[Shintetsu Bo-Bobo] Pretty Transformation Love Dreamer!!!
[Shintetsu Bo-Bobo] Adult DP Training for Disciplining Nosehairs
[Shintetsu Bo-Bobo] Super Dimensions Custom Lifeform Boidon
[Shintetsu Bo-Bobo] Octopus-San
[Shintetsu Bo-Bobo] The Legendary Ora Ora Ora
[Shintetsu Bo-Bobo] The 53-Stages of the Tokaido Grenade-Throwing Bontarou
[Shintetsu Bo-Bobo] Youkai Legend: A Tour of Hell
[Shintetsu Bo-Bobo] 24-Hour Police Siege Network Simultaneous Control
[Shintetsu Bo-Bobo] Luffa Cultivation Diary
[Shintetsu Bo-Bobo] Legend of Discovering the Tokugawa Buried Treasure
[Shintetsu Bo-Bobo] Super Gamble: A Match of Hitting Good Music in Cover-Buying A CD of Western Music
[Shintetsu Bo-Bobo] Super Gamble: Russian Mayonaisse
[Shintetsu Bo-Bobo] Mission Hanpossible: Camoflagued Dice Operation
[Shintetsu Bo-Bobo: After-Training Perfect-Edition] Go To Bear-San's Home

Hajike

In the world of Bo-bobo, Hajike is the art and philosophy of doing bizarre or unexpected things in order to confuse, fight, out-do others, or as a regular way of life. It is the main fighting style of several characters including Bo-Bobo, Don Patch, Tennosuke, and multiple Hair Hunters.

• Wins a Hajike duel with the Dynomite Brothers by haphazardly spending 5 hundred million Yen in random stocks.
  
• Defeats Don Patch in a Hajike battle despite Patch's very strong initial showing.
  
• Is controlled by a person inside of him
  
• Can turn into a tank and has a crew that manages him.
  
• Summons King Nose Hair and then frees him so he is able to pursue his dream of riding a bike.
  
• Can use his connections to summon a car driven by a bear in a hat.
  
• Nose contains the Kanagawa Prefecture Sakurayama Business High School Defense Club, led by Captain of the Defense Club: Kaneda Tatsuji.
  
• Appears as a troop transport for the Afro Team, a group of robotic soldiers but then also immediately commits a hit-and-run on them.
  
• Produces an aura of fighting spirit that pushes Heppokomaru back while eating Tokoroten.
  
• Took second place in a "saying Ah in front of an electric fan" competition.
  
• Summons a flamethrower.
  
• Turns into a bus again and runs over Calendar.
  
• Defeats Calendar by reminding him it's 2002.
  
• Summons a gun that turns people into kamaboko.
  
• Piloted by a dragon.
  
• Hangs out on the moon.
  
• Becomes a magical fairy godmother.
  
• Commands a fire to go out by shouting.
  
• Transforms into Riki Choushuu and delivers a lariat.
  
• Might be a vampire. After he disappears, he reappears as Bobobo Double Twin Mark II Second, the incarnation of a Death God.
  
• Transforms into a shoddy Phoenix.
  
• Out hajike's a guard from the Hajike base.
  
• Catches a Hajike Bird, an animal that represents how strong someone's Hajike Frequency is by transforming into something.. Bo - Bobo's turns into a piece of construction equipment.
  
• Produces a bazooka.
  
• Can fly using a broom and can also fly without one.
  
• Keeps a pair of swords up his nose.
  
• Creates a real crane out of paper.
  
• Summons a massive hand to slap Pana
  
• Turns into a car again.
  
• Transforms into a futuristic vehicle to attack Giga.
  
• [Super Bo-Bobo] Counters a tulip attack by destroying the environment.
  
• [Super Bo-Bobo] Turns into a worm to dodge an attack
  
• [Super Bo-Bobo] Fires a pair of eye lasers.
  
• [Super Bo-Bobo] Summons an army of cats to counter Be-Bebe's army of rabbits.
  
• [Super Bo-Bobo] Drives the Tiger Bus.
  
• [Super Bo-Bobo] Performs motocross surgery.
  
• [Super Bo-Bobo] Banishes a spirit.
  
• [Super Bo-Bobo] Drives the king of tofu, Tamago Dofu.
  
• [Super Bo-Bobo] Survived by his sunglasses after his death. They temporarily power up Beauty and allow her to wail on Bi-Bibi.
  
• [Shintetsu Bo-Bobo] Turns into Sunshine.
  
• [Shintetsu Bo-Bobo: After-Training Perfect-Edition] Enters the Hajike Field with Don Patch and Hiragi. The Hajike Field can only be activated when three candidates for King of Hajikeist unite.
  

Ganeme

When Super Bo-Bobo is pushed to his limit against his brother Be-Bebe, he does the unthinkable; turns his sunglasses upside down and declares "Ganeme!" after shouting his name a bunch.

• [Super Bo-Bobo] Attacks Tennosuke by clawing at his face, covering him in Kabuki paint and a fresh pair of glasses.
  
• [Super Bo-Bobo] Bo-Bobo produces the Ganeme Instrumentality Project, a projection of his memories he is able to alter by throwing pairs of glasses into them. Those who are effected by the Ganeme are heavily damaged.
  
• [Super Bo-Bobo] Fuses all of his memories together into a giant pair of glasses which he uses to crash into Be-Bebe. This destroys his fighting spirit and renders everything as Ganeme.
  

Landmine Dandy

When Bo-Bobo is killed by Bi-Bibi he is quickly revived by Torpedo Girl's father, Landmine Dandy, who becomes his Stand for the final battle with Bi-Bibi.

• [Bo-Bobo 100%] Destroys Bi-Bibi's attack without taking his hands out of his pockets.
  
• [Bo-Bobo 100%] Forces Bi-Bibi to the ground with just his aura.
  
• [Bo-Bobo 100%] Can control him remotely.
  
• [Bo-Bobo 100%] Summons a massive minefield.
  

Genaha Break

After training for a year with Torpedo Girl, Bo-Bobo acquires a more serious fighting style, the Genaha Break. This form is powered by the Shintetsu Jacket, a jacket that increases his power times 3 and draws out the eight forces that hide within his body: Roppongi, Yukhoe, Oolong Tea, 300 Bikkuriman Stickers, Viagra, A Weather Forecaster, 2 glasses of Campari Orange, and a red DS Lite

• [Shintetsu Bo-Bobo] Can make barriers with his snot.
  
• [Shintetsu Bo-Bobo] Plucks a pair of nosehairs and fights evenly with the possessed Namerou.
  
• [Shintetsu Bo-Bobo] While training, breaks through a tidal wave by kicking a sand-filled ball.
  
• [Shintetsu Bo-Bobo] Absolutely wrecks Namerou with the Genaha Rush, a flurry of punches thrown while shouting his own name.
  
• [Shintetsu Bo-Bobo] Plucks a nosehair and throws it like a heavy lance.
  
• [Shintetsu Bo-Bobo] Dodges a massive Ougi and has time to replace himself with Tennosuke, clothes and all.
  
• [Shintetsu Bo-Bobo] Slashed and bitten by a vampire.
  
• [Shintetsu Bo-Bobo] Finishes Postroi with a massive 4-hit combo
  
• [Shintetsu Bo-Bobo] Has a built-in time limit of 10 minutes.
  

16-minute read.

anti-corruption: authorities reach an asset forfeiture settlement with ex-Governor of Tavush

The Anti-Corruption Court read a verdict to reaffirm the settlement reached between authorities and a Serj-era governor accused of possessing properties with illegal origins. The ex-Gov Hovik Abovyan will transfer 75% of the assets, a total of ֏609 million, to the state.
In 2021 the ex-Gov was charged with falsifying income declaration documents during his tenure. Prosecutors began investigating his assets shortly afterward.
P.S. One of the listed "illegal" properties is a cubic Mercedes-Benz G500.
source, source,

police will use cameras to catch drivers not wearing seat belts

POLICE: Speeding is the most common cause of fatal car accidents. However, your chances of surviving a speeding accident are far greater if you and all the passengers are wearing seat belts. Unless we see progress soon, we're going to start using cameras to hold every violating driver accountable. Once again, we urge everyone to follow the seat belt rules unconditionally.
source,

desperate residents of Nagorno-Karabakh were mixing wood dust with scarce food to survive during the 2022-2023 hunger blockade by Azerbaijan that ended with total ethnic cleansing in September: VIDEO

video, video,

Glory to Arstotzka

Russia and Belarus continue to integrate into a Union State. Russian press writes that a joint media holding will be launched by 2025 as part of the "Union State" efforts. The organization will receive ₽1 billion in funding to kickstart.
source,

Armenia sent election observers to the U.S.

Los Angeles invited ranking members of Armenia's electoral commission to observe the presidential Primaries earlier this month.
source,

Armenia did not send election observers to Russia as part of a CSTO mission

source,

Russians formed "kilometer-long" lines in Yerevan and Gyumri under the rain to vote in Russia's "presidential elections"

There were five polling stations across Armenia. The lines were particularly long in the noon as part of a Russian opposition campaign "Noon against Putin". The idea was to convince anti-Putin voters to get out to vote together as a silent protest.

... Russian election results in Armenia

Yerevan had 6,002 voters: Davankov 50%, Putin 33%.
Gyumri had 1,234 voters: Putin 58%, Davankov 31%.
Russian opposition figures, including a survey organizer, implied that the organizers might have falsified the election results to boost Putin's numbers. They said the exit polls showed only 20% support for Putin in Gyumri. However, the survey organizer added that many elderly voters and dual citizens refused to take part in exit polls and that some of them said they "still maintain connection with Russia."

... the percentage of votes captured by Putin in various capitals

Baku 77%
Bishkek 74%
Tashkent 58%
Yerevan 33%
video, source, source, video, video, video, Rotenberg, video, source, source, source, source, source,

Ilham Aliyev congratulates Putin

Putin thanked Aliyev for paying attention.
source,

Russian economist Guriyev about the economy of Russia and protests by the families of mobilized troops

REPORTER: Putin announced tax increases during the speech to parliament. Is this an unpopular but necessary decision?
GURIYEV: Exactly. Tax hikes are not popular in any country. Putin understands that the sanctions have, after all, limited the amount of cash in his pocket. Let me remind you that Putin drastically increased military expenditures in 2024 and he is worried now about running out of money.
The liquid portion of the National Welfare Fund as of January was approximately $56 billion. Half of it is in Chinese yuans and the other half in gold. Gold is not easy to sell. That's why Putin is raising the taxes.
When you look at the deficit and the funds necessary to fund the war, Putin will run out of money by early 2025 without raising taxes. He has decided to raise the taxes and reduce expenditures on healthcare instead of stopping the war. He is relying on OMON to suppress any public protests to tax hikes. The killing of Navalny and more recently the physical attack on dissident Volkov is part of the strategy to deprive the dissatisfied population of leaders.
Tax hikes will not only take wealth from citizens but will also reduce economic growth in the civilian sector. This is a blow to the civilian workforce. The unemployment rate is currently low partly because of high levels of defense manufacturing, but anyone not in this sector is going to suffer from the tax hikes.
REPORTER: Will the tax hike weaken or strengthen Putin's grip on power?
GURIYEV: There will be more public dissatisfaction and more resources to suppress it.
REPORTER: Is Putin distracting the public from the war, especially ahead of the presidential elections?
GURIYEV: Putin cannot lose this war. Nobody else needs this war, it's unpopular. Protests are growing among families of mobilized troops who want them returned. Putin is cash-strapped here because he needs more money to hire mercenaries to replace them. Putin cannot afford to lose this war, otherwise, the generals will begin to wonder why they have to continue to serve someone who sacrificed hundreds of thousands of their men in vain. "I could do better than Putin. I did a great job leading my army while Putin sabotaged us by not supplying tanks and soldiers. Maybe we should replace Putin with someone who is more determined." There is a real physical threat to Putin, so he will do anything unpopular, like raising taxes, to deliver those tanks and mercenaries. No one else needs this war.
REPORTER: Could Putin lose the war despite these efforts?
GURIYEV: I'm not a military expert. I don't know how many missiles and jets Ukraine would need to win the war. The situation is currently difficult for Ukraine. There have been no major movements on LoC for around a year and Ukraine is short of ammunition. This is why here in Paris there is a discussion about significantly escalating the type of support for Ukraine if there is a threat to Odesa or Kyiv.
REPORTER: Is there any imminent threat to Putin?
GURIYEV: He has many problems but there is currently no "Prigozhin", no cracks in the system, and no visible conspiracy brewing against him. If there was a process against him we wouldn't read about it in newspapers, it would be a secret process, so maybe there is a process that we are not aware of.
Today the biggest threat to Putin is the growing movement by the families of mobilized troops. The regime can't publicly beat the soldiers' wives with batons like they do others because the soldiers on the frontlines wouldn't like it, which is why so far the regime has chosen to scare or bribe the leaders of this movement. They are also detaining the journalists covering the families' protests to prevent the story from spreading.
Putin doesn't have many options here. These mobilized troops have been on the frontlines for 1.5 years. To replace them he'd need to announce a highly unpopular mobilization or spend a lot of money to hire their replacements. This is why Putin is facing economic and political problems.
This is also why it's so important to raise awareness about the protests by the families of mobilized troops. We remember the important role that soldiers' mothers played during the war in Chechnya. Imperial wars always work the same way: no resistance initially but protests grow as more coffins and wounded return from frontlines. This was the case for the USSR in Afghanistan, the U.S. in Vietnam, and France in Algiers.
There have been instances of Putin's regime threatening and scaring the families of soldiers to prevent them from being as outspoken. There have been instances of "bribing" them. They will also promote fake family members who will claim everything is great with their sons. It's necessary to spread the word about this growing movement so other families will know they aren't alone, that they can join a movement, and that it's relatively safe. //
source,

High-Tech Minister Hayrapetyan about possibly restricting Russian state television channels in Armenian public multiplex for anti-Armenian coverage

REPORTER: Russia24 television channel recently broadcasted yet another anti-Armenian program. How do you plan to address this issue?
MINISTER: Soon we will hold consultations in Moscow to discuss the bilateral broadcasting agreement. Armenia will present solutions to protect Armenia's state interests. No broadcasted content should meddle in Armenia's internal affairs or insult the symbols of the Republic of Armenia or the dignity of the Armenian population.
REPORTER: There was a similar meeting earlier [under the former High-Tech Minister, fired a few months ago] but Russia claimed Armenia did not present any examples.
MINISTER: Correct. There were negotiations in December. We haven't seen any improvement in the quality of the broadcasted content and problematic content is aired frequently. That means the mechanisms of control envisaged under the AM-RU broadcasting agreement aren't functioning. The Armenian side will present solutions. We will present examples of violations.
REPORTER: Will you remove Russian state channels from Armenia's public multiplex?
MINISTER: I will refrain from disclosing the details of the proposals we plan to submit to the Russian side.
source,

man arrested after breaking a government building window with a stone

[Նիկօլ դավաջան?]
video,

government launches a tender to select a company for the implementation of the new biometric passport & ID system with European eIDAS 2.0 standards

It's mandatory for visa liberalization with the EU.
source,

Armenia-Kazakhstan relations

Kazakh FM visited Yerevan on Monday to meet his Armenian counterpart. They discussed the Crossroads of Peace logistics project, direct AM-KZ flights, the AM-AZ peace efforts, and the idea of forming an AM-KZ business and investment council.
KAZAKH FM: Our exports to Armenia grew by 23% to only $58 million. We have the potential to increase it by $350 million. Armenia has over 100 businesses with Kazakh capital, and Kazakhstan has 435 companies with Armenian capital. We intend to launch direct Yerevan-Astana flights to boost these ties.
Armenia's Crossroads of Peace project is a complementary opportunity for our countries. We intend to cooperate with Armenia so that the middle corridor can operate at its full potential.
The 25,000-strong Armenian diaspora of Kazakhstan plays an important role in strengthening cultural and business ties. //
The foreign ministers signed a 2024-2025 cooperation plan.
source, source, source, source,

PM Pashinyan visited Tavush border villages to discuss the upcoming border delimitation plans with residents

Pashinyan announced the visit last week during the press conference. Residents said almost every family residing in the villages of Voskepar and Kirants sent a member to participate in the Q&A with Pashinyan on Monday.
PASHINYAN: The border delimitation process is entering a practical phase. Delimitation is a process to reaffirm where the countries are on the ground. Why am I in village Voskepar today? We see a realistic opportunity to begin the AM-AZ delimitation from this area: Baghanis-Berkaber. What is unique about this area? As you are aware, Azerbaijan has raised the question of 4 non-enclave villages. In turn, we have raised the issue of lands belonging to 31 Armenian villages. In response to our demands, Azerbaijan says none of the "immediate" areas of these villages, in other words, the areas where people live, are under the control of Azerbaijan. Azerbaijan has suggested addressing "living" areas of villages first, followed by pastures and other territories. We argue that all territories of a village are important. But we shouldn't fight a war over this. We have decided to launch the delimitation process from this section of the border. It will strengthen the security of Armenia and nearby villagers. //
MAYOR Of NOYEMBERYAN: The 4 Azerbaijani ex-villages are: Baghanis Ayrum, Ayrumnel [?], Kheyrimli [?], Nerkin Aksipara [?]. Pashinyan said there might be war if the borders aren't delimited. [Audio quality is bad] There are 4 Armenian houses that fall into Azerbaijani territory, 3 of which are populated. This area will be neutral [no soldiers on either side] so an entire district will be a neutral zone. They offered to cover the cost of moving those [presumably 4] houses but we are against it. Our [villagers'] suggestion is to exchange with Azerbaijan the 850-hectare Armenian area near the Berkaber reservoir currently under Azeri control with the highway near Voskepar so our houses won't be affected. //
MAYOR of KIRANTS (on the border): The only thing villagers care about is peace. Pashinyan informed us that [Armenian] villages won't be surrendered and that this is a delimitation process. As for Azerbaijan's demands, it's about 4 villages of Azerbaijan. We also have Armenian territories currently under Azerbaijani control. We need to delimit the borders and return our territories. Pashinyan agrees with us. We need to return territories belonging to 31 Armenian villages. //
Since the borders are twisted in this region, some villagers wanted to know if they'll be able to use existing roads to reach pastures or neighboring settlements without having to cross the Azeri border after the delimitation. Pashinyan collected the residents' questions and will meet them again "several times" with more answers "before a decision is made", said the participants. "There is no final decision on anything yet."
AREG KOCHINYAN (analyst): The topic is the delimitation of territories immediately on the border, not the enclaves. Azerbaijan wants "4 Azerbaijani villages" that are immediately on the border. The first step is to agree to use maps that hold legal power. It will be a great diplomatic accomplishment if Azerbaijan agrees to use legal maps and principles for the entire AM-AZ border delimitation process in exchange for starting the delimitation from these 4 villages. Lack of agreement around legal maps is the #1 issue stalling the peace process today. The #2 issue is the unblocking of communications. It's worth noting that Turkey's Foreign Minister Fidan recently used the term "route" instead of "corridor". I have noticed a similar trend in Azerbaijan as well.
REPORTER: Why are the political forces that always accuse Pashinyan of "surrendering" things, for example, HHK Edward Sharmazanov, also criticizing Pashinyan for NOT surrendering a Zangezur corridor to Russia? Sharmazanov said we would not have lost Nagorno-Karabakh had Pashinyan agreed to give the Zangezur corridor.
AREG KOCHINYAN: It's not really "surrendering" when you fight until the end and sometimes are forced to step back. We did not surrender Nagorno-Karabakh, which is why we had the war. As for surrendering a corridor to Russia, we have surrendered many things to Russia over the last 30 years. Did that help us? Armenian leaders, including Pashinyan, took steps to appease Russia, up until mid-2022. And what was the result of that? Just accept the fact that Turkey and Azerbaijan are far more valuable to Russia. This is the root of problems. Period. To blame Armenia for the deeds of others is mankurtism.
REPORTER: Ukraine chose Europe. See what happened to Ukraine?
AREG KOCHINYAN: Armenia chose Russia over Europe in 2013. See what happened to Armenia? Why do we need Russia anymore if we don't have Nagorno-Karabakh?
REPORTER: ... so they can protect our border with Turkey.
AREG KOCHINYAN: Does anyone believe the Russian army will open fire at the Turkish army and stop them if they decide to invade Armenia? How long are we going to be this naïve?
source, source, video, source, source, source, source,

did Israel cancel the sale of some weapons to Azerbaijan?

On March 11 the press reported that Israel sold a Sky Dew "flying radar" to Azerbaijan. It's a system manufactured jointly with the US. Unnamed Israeli sources have since informed Shepher Media that the report was false.
The source says Israel is exercising caution because of the US's heavy diplomatic involvement in the AM-AZ peace process. There is no outright "order" from Washington not to sell weapons, but Israel has decided not to approve the sale of certain systems, says the source.
The source says Azerbaijan is also attempting to purchase heavier warheads and electronic warfare systems.
The source confirmed the earlier reports that Azerbaijan wants to acquire two surveillance satellites with a resolution of <1 meter.
source,

Azerbaijan agreed to host U.S. envoy Bono after shunning him earlier this year

Bono and FM Bayramov discussed the AM-AZ peace process in Baku despite Aliyev's earlier complaints that the U.S. is "biased".
source,

Armenian manufacturer begins producing toothpaste with fruit flavor

The manufacturer imports the ingredients from the UK and Germany and produces 5,000/day with flavors of apricot, watermelon, etc. They plan to export some of it to CIS and the Middle East.
The production launched in December after a $0.5 million investment and tax breaks with the help of Enterprise Armenia - the country's National Investment Agency.
video,

Yerevan municipality goes berserk on illegal ad banners and billboards: VIDEO

2,000 removed in 2 months. They were removed from streets, bus stops, and building façades.
It's a result of a new ordinance approved last year that gave non-compliant ad owners until the end of the year to remedy the issue to avoid removal.
The new law specifies the locations authorized for ads and their aesthetic standards. Shop owners are given example images showing where the entrance ads are allowed, the ratios, the height from the ground, etc.
The city sent inspectors to remove non-compliant ads from Baghramyan Ave last year. Similar enforcement is planned elsewhere this year: Halabyan, Kievyan St, Kievyan Bridge & adjacent, Sasna Tsrer, Tigran Petrosyan, Komitas, and Hrachya Kochar.
video,

Yerevan municipality continues to replace illegal garages and fences in condo backyards with playgrounds and gardens: VIDEO

video,

Yerevan is bribing dog owners ahead of a potentially unpopular decision: VIDEO

The city is building a dog park in the Arabkir district, similar to the ones built in several other districts.
The city says they soon plan to require dog owners to microchip666BillGates their pets, so these parks are a bribe to keep the potentially unhappy owners quiet.
The city will also launch the construction of a large concentration camp for stray dogs.
Glory to Arstotzka.
Long live cats.
video,

3D model of the proposed renovation and expansion of Yerevan Zoo: VIDEO

Last year the government delimited the Zoo's borders and realized it owns an additional 5 hectares adjacent to it. A development plan was drafted.
The zoo is buying new cages because it has animals that aren't being displayed to visitors due to a lack of appropriate enclosures.
New animals: White tiger, African goats, African hyena-like wild dogs.
This year: New alleys, POIs, educational guides, new cages.
A bus in front of Yeritasardakan subway station will take you to the zoo free of charge on weekends, starting in May.
Bunka the elephant needs sexy time so they are going to get a female after expanding the enclosure this year.
video,

government discussed the Academic City

PASHINYAN: In the long run, every university should move out of Yerevan and Kentron to the Academic City [15-20 minutes with public transport]. There should be no university in Armenia outside of Academic City. Today we have 60 "universities" across Armenia with a massive administrative overhead, 60 rectors, 120 vice-rectors, hundreds of deans, and close to a thousand vice-deans.
So it is not surprising that whenever we talk about the reforms of the university system, certain tensions arise because we are talking about depriving thousands of people of their statuses from their point of view.
This is a strategic area for Armenia yet none of these universities meet international standards; they would all shut down if we were to introduce EU standards today, or if we attempted to enforce our domestic requirements. That is how the idea of Academic City was born. They simply don't meet the standards, even physical facility standards. Their infrastructure and modern education are incompatible.
By the way, these 60 universities sometimes drag us into international scandals that affect Armenia's reputation. There are tens of publications on international outlets about the corruption and fake diplomas by Armenian universities. We can't enforce the rules on universities selectively so the entire field needs a rework.
After the reforms and the relocation to the Academic City, the existing university buildings must be managed by a reputable international organization and the revenue from their utilization should be used for the development of universities. //
The Academic City will have 6 clusters: educational, arts, technology, classic, medical, and military. The arts cluster will include the Conservatory, the Academy of Fine Arts, Taterakan, and several other cultural structures. The government is cooperating with Western universities to form the clusters.
PASHINYAN (November): We should focus on quality over quantity. Today we have "universities" in provinces with standards so low that they shouldn't be called universities at all. After the establishment of Academic City, the only place you will find universities in Armenia will be the Academic City. In provinces, we will develop colleges with higher standards to train experts so people can remain in their communities and find jobs if they wish. You won't be required to attend a university to be skilled and financially successful. Today Armenia has a shortage of skilled welders. They get paid very high wages but this field has been neglected for years and there is not enough interest in it. We can't have a so-called "university" on every corner. It has led to quality issues that we are forced to deal with today. Those who want to study will be able to study. This isn't about there not being a university "close enough" to someone's community and them having to travel to Yerevan. They will be able to get admitted, travel there, and study in a large academic environment that promotes education. I'm from a province myself. When you travel to a new environment and become part of a big educational system, it changes your mindset, it becomes part of your education. We need to teach young students to get out of their homes and see the world. Gaining this experience is part of becoming an adult. After all, mom and dad aren't going to hold your hand your entire life. Living an independent life and having to gain new skills to resolve your new problems is also education. When I was a newspaper editor, one time a man in his 50s entered my office with his daughter in her 20s. "Hello. I want my daughter to work at your publication." I told him that the job of a journalist is a very serious one. If your adult child doesn't have the determination to independently come and apply, are you going to sit down with her during interviews and write the articles with her? We need to end the practice of holding a child's hand forever. Let them go see the world. Then you wonder why they don't have a job and courage. You are not giving them an opportunity to face challenges. Release them from the incubator. They need to travel to the Academic City, enter the new campus, engage with new people and a new environment, and learn to resolve new problems. Our students will cooperate with foreign students in Academic City and gain new experiences. Engaging with a foreigner, a foreign culture, is also a prerequisite for training good diplomats. //
source, source, source,

German scientists bring 2 robots to Armenia to test them for Mars mission

The Austrian Space Agency recently launched a project called "Amadee-24" in Armenia to train international astronauts for future Mars missions. Germans are testing new robots and astronaut suits. Scientists believe that humanity needs another 15 years to set foot on Mars.
Deutsche Forscher üben Suche nach Außerirdischen, soure,

this winter was the hottest in 57 years in Armenia

2023-2024: -1.48C avg.
1961-1990: -5.5C avg.
source,

Current Major: Biomedical Engineering (BME)
Transfer Major: Electrical and Computer Engineering
Sophomore transfer (currently a freshman)
HS GPA: 101.63 / 100 weighted (HS doesn't list 4.0 scale gpa but I believe I had a 3.9 unweighted) - I had a low GPA my freshman year but had nearly perfect grades throughout the rest of high school, so upward trend?
HS Rank: 12 / ~450
College GPA: 4.0 / 4.0
SAT: 1460 (don't think I'll submit)
ECs:
Research under BME professor who's developing laser technology to display patients’ cerebral blood flow during neurosurgery (college)
Research under BME professor who’s researching the extracellular matrix of Glioblastoma, an aggressive brain cancer (college)
Tech startup club - working on a health technology solution startup, will present the startup at the end of the semester and compete against other teams in the club (college)
Accepted to be a paid researcher at an R1 university during Summer 2024
Service Org - Volunteer to comfort kids who have had cancer affect them / their family (college)
Service Org - Volunteer to build homes for low-income community members (college)
Surgical ICU Volunteer - Assisted nurses by restocking general supplies and answering patient phone calls (college)
Pretty cool passion projects I built on my own: Chess GUI and an AI to play against, an 8-bit computer built solely on breadboards (college)
President of my school district’s HOSA chapter (high school)
Student representative of my school district’s student health committee (high school)
Treasurer of PB&J club - prepared 500 PB&J sandwiches for a local food bank (high school)
Treasurer of Student Council (high school)
A few coding passion projects - built a database for a family friend, and built a chemistry tool for my AP chem class to use (high school)
Reasons for transferring:
UT Austin has a really good engineering program. I tried applying to switch from BME to ECE but was rejected, so I’m looking to study ECE at another university (is this a good reason to transfer?).
UT Austin’s class size is too big for my liking. It’s hard to get personal with professors
Schools I'm applying to:
Northwestern
Stanford
Georgia Tech
Cornell
Rice
UPenn Any other schools I should consider for this cycle?
LORs:
One letter from my intro to biomedical engineering professor. He told me I was one of his best students that semester. I believe it’ll be pretty strong but can’t say so for sure.
One letter from my postdoc with whom I do research. We know each other quite personally so I believe it’ll be pretty strong.
Do I have any chances at these schools?

Current Major: Biomedical Engineering (BME)
Transfer Major: Electrical and Computer Engineering
Sophomore transfer (currently a freshman)
HS GPA: 101.63 / 100 weighted (HS doesn't list 4.0 scale gpa but I believe I had a 3.9 unweighted)
- I had a low GPA my freshman year but had nearly perfect grades throughout the rest of high school, so upward trend?
HS Rank: 12 / ~450
College GPA: 4.0 / 4.0
SAT: 1460 (don't think I'll submit)
ECs:

1. Research under BME professor who's developing laser technology to display patients’ cerebral blood flow during neurosurgery (college)
2. Research under BME professor who’s researching the extracellular matrix of Glioblastoma, an aggressive brain cancer (college)
3. Tech startup club - working on a health technology solution startup, will present the startup at the end of the semester and compete against other teams in the club (college)
4. Accepted to be a paid researcher at an R1 university during Summer 2024
5. Service Org - Volunteer to comfort kids who have had cancer affect them / their family (college)
6. Service Org - Volunteer to build homes for low-income community members (college)
7. Surgical ICU Volunteer - Assisted nurses by restocking general supplies and answering patient phone calls (college)
8. Pretty cool passion projects I built on my own: Chess GUI and an AI to play against, an 8-bit computer built solely on breadboards (college)
9. President of my school district’s HOSA chapter (high school)
10. Student representative of my school district’s student health committee (high school)
11. Treasurer of PB&J club - prepared 500 PB&J sandwiches for a local food bank (high school)
12. Treasurer of Student Council (high school)
13. A few coding passion projects - built a database for a family friend, and built a chemistry tool for my AP chem class to use (high school)

Reasons for transferring:

• UT Austin has a really good engineering program. I tried applying to switch from BME to ECE but was rejected, so I’m looking to study ECE at another university (is this a good reason to transfer?).
• UT Austin’s class size is too big for my liking. It’s hard to get personal with professors

Schools I'm applying to:

• Northwestern
• Stanford
• Georgia Tech
• Cornell
• Rice
• Any other schools I should consider for this cycle?

LORs:

• One letter from my intro to biomedical engineering professor. He told me I was one of his best students that semester. I believe it’ll be pretty strong but can’t say so for sure.
• One letter from my postdoc with whom I do research. We know each other quite personally so I believe it’ll be pretty strong.

Do I have any chances at these schools?

I have sources I swear--feel free to digest and discuss! And to ease the skepticism, I will link stuff for those that want to fact check me or deep dive. Last week I gave a really in depth Pew Research post on Atheists and Irreligion in the U.S. (in depth if you actually clicked links and read articles lol) However, that was very 'Merica centric so here is me trying to give something to the multi-cultured americans and just people that live in... not U.S.A lol.
Someone asked me why I like doing these last week--because I love learning about people! Because the best step forward is having informed discussions, not the petty, divisive nonsense we see in the world every day. For example, let's say an atheist sees this information. Yes, they can choose to assume that I posted this in an ex-atheist sub because I have a bias against atheism--but they can also look at HOW I present the information and see that I am not an atheist, BUT I am also providing scientific studies and that I am giving them easy access to fact check. It's more about WHY these results are this way and WHAT we choose to do with it.
Peace and Love ya'll. 💞🐺🌴Scroll to the bottom for my past subreddit polls.
NOTE: Like last week, I have paraphrased and copy pasted from the links provided. Please click and read for better and FULL context. :) There are TWO main topics here that I numbered 1) and 2)
DISCLAIMER: I'm not happy that I went back as far as 2017, but these thoughts are still commonly held today so I found it relevant still. Ideally, I like more current data.
1) Survey Finds Most People Are Biased Against Atheists, Including Atheists ✨2017✨
By Smithsonian Magazine - Media Bias, Donors for Smithsonian Institution
The findings revealed that the bias was strongest in more religious countries including the United States, United Arab Emirates and India
Summary: Across North America, Europe, Asia and the Middle East 3,256 people of varied background were given a series of questions and brain teasers. Splitting this group in half they gave two scenarios and compared the results. These were the two scenarios:
A brief description was given about a man who tortured animals as a child and as an adult went on to abduct and kill five homeless people who are buried in his basement.
Which is more probable? 1) The man is a teacher; or 2) The man is a teacher and does not believe in any gods.
Which is more probable? 1) The man is a teacher; or 2) The man is a teacher and a religious believer
60% answered the man is atheist, 30% answered religious believer
The bias was strongest in more religious countries including the United States, United Arab Emirates and India. New Zealand and Finland, both very secular nations, were the only countries in the study that did not show a bias against non-believers.
Why the bias? Arizona State University psychologists note that most relationships are not as cut and dry as the survey question presents. “Atheism is rarely the only piece of information known about interaction partners,” they write, “and it is possible that, when included with the social information that individuals collect naturally, atheism will be perceived as less indicative of immoral behavior.”
Also, U.S.A might have a harsher bias against atheism compared to the rest of the world-- In the United States, at least, the social stigma around atheism may have caused people to choose to hide their non-belief. According to data referenced in the article, researchers suggest that number of people who identify as atheist in the U.S. might actually be as high as 20 percent to even 35 percent.
Ryan F. Mandelbaum from Gizmodo (referenced in the article and published their own article on atheism) quotes an explanation from another Nature study: “Entrenched moral suspicion of atheists suggests that religion’s powerful influence on moral judgements persists,” the authors write in the article, published today in the journal Nature Human Behaviour, “even among non-believers in secular societies.” (Gizmodo Media Bias)
Main Study referenced: Global evidence of extreme intuitive moral prejudice against atheists
By Nature.com (Media Bias)
A Guardian article referenced - courtesy of Agence France-Presse (AFP) (Media bias)
FiveThirtyEight archived article by Daniel Cox referenced (Media Bias)
2) Key Findings From the Global Religious Futures Project ✨2022✨
By Pew-Templeton Global Religious Futures project: a collab of Pew Research (Media Bias) and The Global Religious Futures (GRF) (About) (Potential Bias)

• Surveys in more than 95 countries (and 130 languages) asking nearly 200,000 people about their religious identities, beliefs and practices
• Demographic studies that use censuses and other data sources to estimate the size of religious groups, project how fast they are growing or shrinking, and analyze mechanisms of religious change
• Annual tracking of restrictions on religion in 198 countries and territories

A trend also noticeable in the U.S., Western Europeans are generally less religious than Americans, having started along a similar path a few decades earlier. And the same secularizing trends are found in other economically advanced countries, as indicated by recent census data from Australia and New Zealand.
Check out this color coded graphic that Pew Research titles "Religion is Very Important to People in Africa, the Middle East, South Asia, Latin America"
Vast majority of world’s population is projected to have a religion
Differing fertility rates and other demographic data are factored into our population growth projections for the world’s major religious groups, which forecast that the percentage of the global population that is religiously unaffiliated will shrink in the decades ahead – in contrast with the trend seen in the U.S. and Western Europe.
The projections anticipate that the vast majority of the world’s people will continue to identify with a religion, including about six-in-ten who will be either Christian (31%) or Muslim (30%) in 2050. Just 13% are projected to have no religion.
Sub-Saharan Africa is the region with the fastest population growth. Its high birth rates are a major contributor to the increasing size of the world’s Christian and Muslim populations. In coming decades, Muslims are expected to grow faster than any other major religious group, rivaling or surpassing Christians as the world’s largest religious group before the end of this century.
Meanwhile, rapid population growth in Africa – along with much slower growth or even declines in Europe and North America – will shift the geographic center of Christianity. By 2060, more than four-in-ten of the world’s Christians are projected to live in sub-Saharan Africa, while fewer than a quarter will live in Europe and North America combined, if current trends continue.
Religious Composition by Country, 2010-2050
Graphic labeled "People in North America, Europe, and Australia say religion plays a less important role today" by Pew Research
In most countries surveyed – including the U.S. – more people said the role of religion has decreased than said it had increased. But there were plenty of exceptions, including such countries as Indonesia, Kenya, Brazil and Israel, where the balance of public opinion was that religion’s role in their societies had increased in recent decades.
Religion also appears to have made a partial resurgence in the former Soviet Union, where it was long repressed under communist rule. The share of people identifying as Christians rose rapidly in several former Soviet republics after the collapse of the USSR in 1991. In Vladimir Putin’s Russia, the Russian Orthodox Church has returned to political prominence, becoming an important element of national identity for many citizens there.
China is another country where communist politics led to repression of religion and where it remains difficult to obtain reliable measures of religious activity. Pew Research Center has been tracking restrictions on religion around the world for more than a decade, and China’s government has consistently ranked among the most restrictive, alongside Egypt, Iran and other countries.
More than 80 countries have either an official state religion or a clearly favored religion. And among the 43 countries with state religions, a majority – 27 (or 63%) – are Islamic, including a broad swath of countries stretching across North Africa, the Middle East and South Asia, from Morocco to Pakistan.
For many people in these countries, religion can’t be separated from the power of the state.
Religion’s role as a uniter and divider.
Graphic labeled "The fastest growing countries are highly religious, while those with shrinking populations tend to be less religious"
This suggests that, at least for a time, the share of the world’s population that is religious may rise, not fall. In many countries around the world, younger people are less religious than older people. (Of more than 100 countries surveyed, there are 46 in which people ages 18 to 39 consider religion less important than those 40 and older. In 58 countries, there is no statistically significant difference between age groups. There are just two countries – Georgia and Ghana – where younger people consider religion more important than older people do.) Of course, this could be because human beings tend to become more religious as they age. But it’s also exactly the pattern one would expect to see if many countries are gradually becoming more secular, generation by generation.
On average, women are notably more religious than men in the United States and many other countries, particularly in places with Christian majorities. But it’s far from a universal pattern. Men display higher levels of religious commitment than women in some countries and religious groups, and in other contexts, there are few, if any, gender differences.
The relationship between education and religion is also more complex than it might seem on the surface. In the United States, people with college and post-graduate degrees tend to be less religious than those with only a high school education. Globally, our studies show that some world religions lag considerably behind others in terms of average education levels, as well as that Muslim and Hindu women tend to have fewer years of schooling than men in those same religious groups. But there are strong signs of progress across the board: All major faiths have made gains in average years of schooling, and the gender gaps have started to narrow.
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Here are the top two answers from my other polls:
Why Did You Become an Atheist? (ExAtheist Edition)
93 total votes
F) Something else. (Comment if you wish)
D) Convincing arguments/evidence
Worn Out Atheist "Arguments"--Which One Deserves the Circular File the Most, Huh?
76 total votes
B) Only the UNEDUCATED/GULLIBLE are DUPED into belief. :)
D) Just look at history, religion is the biggest cause of evil in the world.
Science vs. Religion
81 votes
A) Science itself is neutral. I just philosophically disagree with atheists.
C) Science itself is neutral, but atheists make it their religion.

Sorry for the late upload everyone, I somehow lost track of time.
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Book 1
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"All ships are reporting ready," Affinity announced. "They are just waiting on us to confirm we're ready before we can execute the plan."
"Even the marine ships the Trailmaker called in?" Daniel asked as he looked at Milla, who was focussing hard as she continued her jump preparations.
"Them as well," Affinity confirmed.
"Gotta admire their speed," Daniel replied as he sense a wave of relief from Milla.
"Ok, I'm ready to jump. Notify them," Milla ordered.
"Yes, Captain," Affinity replied, sending the message and waiting a moment. "... The Trailmaker is ordering a synchronised jump at 09:26."
"20 seconds, everyone," Milla announced. "Red alert. Be ready to get us clear, Hannah'rah, and remember that we aren't to fight unless things go South."
"Yes, Ma'am," Hannah'rah agreed.
"Alright, time to jump," Milla warned everyone as she completed her portal spell, instantly transporting the Spectre and her surprise.
In an instant, eight Navy ships appeared in the pirate's secret system, though the Spectre remained invisible as she rapidly broke away from the group and out of the way of any weapons fire. A moment later, five of the seven other ships immediately opened fire, destroying all of the drones in sight, before all comms channels blurted to life.
"This is Captain Harris of the CNS Trailmaker. You are all under arrest on suspicion of piracy. Power down and surrender for processing. Use of lethal force is authorised if you do not comply," Captain Harris announced.
The response came seconds later, in the form of a barrage of missiles and gunfire at the direction of the seven visible ships. The ships began to take evasive action except the Trailmaker, which relied on point defence to intercept anything that was actually a threat, and the surprise the Spectre had brought with her.
Despite being able to easily evade everything thrown at it, Affinity's destroyer simply shrugged off everything that hit its shields, regenerating them faster than they were damaged. In response, it began firing its three main turrets, spearing ship after ship straight through with a beam of near light speed plasma from its reverse engineered Leshnat-trevarn weapons. The weapons were slow firing, but every activation was a successful kill shot, slowly cutting down the numbers as it drew more and more of the remaining fire as it was quickly identified as the primary threat. The alien-designed shields began to feel the brunt of the pirates' power as they began to deplete, but Affinity didn't wait for them to start dropping lower, and began to dip and weave around ever shot made at the ship, almost matching the Spectre in terms of manoeuvrability.
The other Navy ships didn't wait around for Affinity to do all the work, and engaged in combat themselves, with their far less powerful weapons still making short work of their attackers. The marine destroyer and frigate that had been invited along both focussed on getting as close to the spire shaped station, managing to quickly slip inside of their defensive perimeter and into spots where the large guns couldn't hit them, where they began to unload distortion beams onto the station slowly draining its shields as the Rastaban, Hecchu, and Vurzten all moved in to keep ships off of their backs. The Trailmaker kept herself out in the open though, being the big flashy target that drew the undisciplined attention away from the actual threat.
Or at least the Trailmaker would have if Affinity's destroyer wasn't rhythmically and relentlessly picking off ship after ship, becoming the prime target for the pirate's fearful attacks. As it sailed closer and closer to the bulk of the pirates' force, many began to break formation and flee, finding that a warp interdiction field was preventing them from doing so. Seeing no alternative, many began to power down as they drifted away from the fighting, being spared from the rhythmic destruction of Affinity's guns.
"I have to say, this live combat trial is going far better than I expected, even if it is just against weak pirates," Affinity commented as the Spectre continued to observe the battle from another angle, providing tactical data to the other ships. "All systems are stable and the ship responds exactly like I expect it to. Thank you for asking on my behalf."
"No problem," Milla replied. "Honestly, they wanted even more ships, but this was a hard enough jump as it was, else I'd have brought one of your frigates as well."
"Just having one ship go through this is invaluable. Much of the core technology of all my ships share some sort of similarity, so knowing any design flaws with this ship tells me what areas to check on my other ships. A lot of this technology is also brand new with essentially no live data, and the best we have is observations of the parts that we reverse engineered from the Leshnat-trevarn, and that's before the modifications we had to make to make it compatible with our technology."
"We?" Daniel asked.
"I didn't want to seem self-important. Other people have been researching this, and someone already figured out a few things before I got hold of the technology. It didn't feel right to focus on myself and ignore their groundwork," Affinity explained.
"Fair enough. I was just wondering if the Deities pitched in more than they said," Daniel replied.
"No, they've been almost completely hands off, except for when it comes to interacting with people on my behalf."
"I see. Back to the action though, we should notify the judiciary ships that we've got people that have surrendered, though it's not quite the right time for them to jump in," Daniel told Milla as he watched the remaining ships either surrender or get destroyed, but the stations showed no signs of relenting. "It's a shame we can't silence those big guns without doing too much damage to the stations."
"No way to hack into them?" Milla asked.
"I've got scripts searching, but I've got nothing just yet. There's definitely some vulnerabilities that have appeared after they powered up more systems for combat, but nothing worth showing my hand for," he replied. "I don't want them to start locking things down over making the guns that aren't doing much slightly less effective."
"Oh hello, a nice little gift has just been delivered to one of my systems," Affinity announced showing a feed from one of her systems. "One high speed accelerator secured for study."
"That's good to hear, but focus on the battle though," Milla requested.
"I am very good at multitasking, and I already have far more focus here than I really need," Affinity replied as her destroyer began to assist with disabling the station the marines were trying to board, leveraging her own three power disruption beams to drain the shields away.
After a few minutes of continued draining, the shields began to waiver, and then shut down as the disruption effect built to a level they were incapable of operating in, and the marines immediately began launching boarding pods, delivering over 100 marines and their drones to the station into various critical locations.
"Huh, got some useful signals now," Daniel commented as his programs began to return some more vulnerabilities. "... Oh shit! The stations have been rigged to self-destruct!"
"Warn the other ships!" Milla ordered. "Hardbrooks, can you stop it?"
"I'm trying," he replied as he frantically began to run scripts to exploit every vulnerability he found. "I've got none for the research station, the marines are going to have to work that one out. The accelerator builder has the shortest timer, I'm focusing on that one."
"How long?"
"20 seconds," he replied, watching as the few escape pods ejected and began to burn away as fast as they could. "... No, too much bespoke software, I don't have time to figure that out. Switching to the manufacturing station."
"Just do what you can."
"I am, but I need to focus," he told her, vaguely aware of the first station detonating.
"I'll lend you some spare processing power," Affinity offered.
"Thank you," he simply replied.
He began to crack open the weak security on someone's bootleg personal holo device, using it to gain access to one of the station's networks. From there, he immediately broke into the station's jury rigged self-destruct security system, throwing everything he had at the admin account's stored encrypted password and watching the timer tick down below a minute as more and more escape pods began to launch. He waited with bated breath as the decryption algorithm continued to brute force the password, heavily relying on Affinity's immense supercomputer to try every combination far faster than any computer in the UPC could. When the timer crossed the 30 second mark, he got a notification that the password had been cracked, and quickly used it to log into the security system, accessing the hastily made GUI and navigating through until he found the self destruct controls, disarming them with around 10 seconds on the clock.
"Manufacturing station is safe," he sighed with relief, turning his attention to the station the marines were assaulting. "I don't think I'm going to be able to do too much, but I'll give it a go. 3:28 on the clock."
"Affinity, what's the status of the marines?" Milla asked.
"They're closing in on what has been identified as the station's command centre, primary reactor, and laboratory," Affinity replied, displaying the map of the station and the locations of the various marines.
"Whoever is in charge of that station knows how to take digital security seriously," Daniel grumbled. "Not a single fucking hole. I'd need a physical connection to shut down that self-destruct in time."
"I still have plenty of spare processing power if you need it?" Affinity offered.
"I'm going to throw it at an older computer that I found, not that I think it will get me any results for another 30 minutes without extreme luck," Daniel replied. "I hate not being able to help them."
"I get that, but I'm not sure you're going to need to," Milla replied, pointing to the marines stacking up on the door to the command centre.
Everyone watched with bated breath as the marines detonated a breaching charge, and stormed into the room, dropping all but two people who had raised their hands, who were promptly arrested and searched as the rest of the marines set about getting into the station's systems. As they watched the timer cross the two minute mark, hacking tools had begun to be inserted into various ports, one of which appeared as specifically available to Daniel. He immediately jumped on the opportunity, testing the credentials he'd obtained from his previous hack to find they were rejected, and then running the same script he'd used to cancel the self-destruct of the other station, brute forcing the new password. Thanks to the raw processing power Affinity was providing him, it took no time at all to get the password, and he quickly logged in and disarmed the self-destruct with over a minute left on the clock.
"Crisis averted," Daniel declared with relief. "I'm surprised they'd go that far though."
"Why?" Oprin asked.
"Well, not the part about destroying the stations, but them staying behind with it, instead of just jumping into escape pods and surviving. I'm sure some of them would have preferred to die, but given the rates of surrender out in space, I would have assumed some of them on the station would have tried to flee, especially with many of them surrendering like that," Daniel explained, getting a sinking feeling in his stomach. "Please don't tell me…. Affinity, is there a pattern with where people are surrendering?"
"40% of the surrendering people have been very close to the laboratory, Sir," Affinity replied.
"And how big of a delay has that caused for the marines in that area?"
"Approximately two minutes so far."
"Shit…. They're destroying their research, aren't they?" Daniel realised, poking through the command computer he still had access to and locating the computers in the research wing, to find them all recently disconnected. "Damn, I bet you the self-destruct was to stop people like me from copying their drives."
"What can we do?" Milla asked.
"Nothing. What we get is down to the marines and how fast the pirates can destroy it all," Daniel replied, watching as the marines finally reached the lab doors.
As they breached, the marines quickly eliminated everyone that showed signs of preparing to retaliate, leaving only a single person in a ragged lab coat standing that had their hands up in surrender, who quickly complied with all orders given to them. The marines then conducted a thorough sweep, with a pair questioning the detainee, who slowly and carefully produced a data chip from his pocket and handed it over to one of the marines.
A few minutes later, the crew of the Spectre finally began to relax a little, especially as the judiciary forces jumped in and started capturing the surrendered pirate ships. They unfortunately weren't privy to everything going on, but it wasn't too long before they were hailed by the Trailmaker.
"Captain Milla, mission successful. I wasn't expecting to find such a high value target here, but we have one Dr Langrave in custody," Captain Harris announced.
"That name rings, but I don't know why," Milla replied.
"Dr Langrave was a scientist specialising in warp technology that disappeared years ago, highly suspected of assisting the pirates after the discovery of their advanced accelerators. Most of his research was destroyed, but he has handed over some of his latest research that he had on his person when everything else was destroyed. He claims to have been made to do this against his will, though I'm sure we'll discern if that's the truth soon."
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