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2017.03.28 04:33 td css
“I’m confident that Reddit could sway elections. We wouldn’t do it, of course. And I don’t know how many times we could get away with it. But, if we really wanted to, I’m sure Reddit could have swayed at least this election, this once.” - Reddit CEO
2024.05.19 20:11 thatmozzie_ Created A CyberPunk Dystopian Choose-Your-Own-Adventure Novel Set In The Year 2124 In Los Angeles
 | I was inspired after reading experience creating his own world, so I decided to give it a shot. I wanted to create a sort of interactive choose-your-own-adventure cyberpunk story set in 2124 Los Angeles. I prompted ChatGPT to essentially create a story and world that revolves around common themes within a typical CyberPunk setting such as rampant crime, corrupt cops and politicians, massive drug usage, mega-corporations out of control, poverty, and technology blurring the lines between humanity. One of my favorite video games lately of all time is CyberPunk 2077, so I just wanted to create something similar that I could experience and live through in a different interactive way while also testing out ChatGPT out of boredom. Here are some of the results from the simulation. I'll denote "USER INPUT" as anything I wrote or input, and "CHAT GPT" anytime it outputs anything. submitted by thatmozzie_ to ChatGPT [link] [comments] Rules: I will use minimal intervention / altering and mainly allow the program to pretty much lead me through the story barring any world-breaking narratives or plots:
Setting: Los Angeles, 2124General Environment
Society
Key Locations
Main Character: ZoeBackground
Appearance
Plot ElementsConflict
Themes
Character Profile: LucasName: Lucas "Luc" RainesBackground:
Skills and Abilities:
Relationships:
Additional World-Building Elements:Key Factions:
Key Locations:
Plot Hooks and Story Arcs:
New Character: Marcus "Iron Hand" KaneRole: Father Figure to Zoe and LucasBackground:
Additional Characters:1. Lila "Viper" Santos
New Locations:1. The Hub
New Scenes:1. The Heist
LUCAS MARCUS \"IRON HAND\" RIKO \"GHOST\" TANAKA LILA \"VIPER\" SANTOS THE HUB THE SPAWL NEOCORE HEADQUARTERS
Scene: Zoe's Apartment - Late Saturday MorningThe dim light filtering through the grime-covered windows of Zoe's apartment barely illuminates the cluttered room. The remnants of last night's celebration are scattered everywhere—empty bottles, discarded clothes, and the faint hum of old electronic music playing in the background. Zoe groans and sits up in bed, rubbing her temples to ease the throbbing in her head.Narration:Narrator: Zoe squinted at the holographic display, her vision still slightly blurry. The notifications were a mix of urgent messages and missed calls, each vying for her attention. She quickly scanned through them, her fingers moving with practiced ease over the interface.Zoe: (mumbling to herself) "Great, just what I need. More problems to deal with..." She swings her legs over the edge of the bed, stretching and wincing at the persistent hangover. With a sigh, she picks up her cybernetic arm from the nightstand and attaches it, feeling the familiar click as it integrates with her neural network. She taps her wristband, bringing up the missed messages and calls. Dialogue:Zoe: (talking to herself) "Let's see... job offers, updates from the underground... and what's this? 'Urgent Opportunity – High Reward.' Sounds promising."Her stomach growls, reminding her of her hunger. She heads to the small kitchenette, grabbing a protein bar and some instant coffee. As she munches on her makeshift breakfast, she taps the message to read the details. Zoe: (reading aloud) "High-risk, high-reward job, requiring a skilled netrunner. Substantial payout. Meet at The Hub tonight. Perfect." Her thoughts are interrupted by a knock at the door. She frowns, not expecting visitors this early. Cautiously, she approaches and peers through the peephole. Recognizing the familiar figure on the other side, she relaxes and opens the door. Lucas: (with a grin) "Morning, sunshine. You look like hell." Zoe: (rolling her eyes) "Thanks, Lucas. You’re a real charmer. Come in." Lucas steps inside, looking as rugged as ever with his scruff and tattoos. He drops a bag on the table and takes a seat. Lucas: "I brought breakfast. Figured you’d need it after last night." Zoe: "You’re a lifesaver. So, what’s up?" Lucas: "Got a tip about a job. Sounds like it could be worth our while. But first, you need to get your head straight. Eat up and let’s talk." They share a quick meal, discussing the potential job and catching up on recent events in the underground. Choice Point 1: Zoe's Response to the Job OfferOption A: Agree immediately and start planning. Option B: Ask for more details and express caution. Option C: Refuse the job and suggest looking for something safer.Please choose an option by typing "Option A," "Option B," or "Option C."
Choice: Option B - Ask for More Details and Express CautionZoe: (taking a sip of her coffee) "Hold on, Lucas. Before we jump in headfirst, I need to know more about this job. What exactly are we dealing with here?"Lucas: (nodding) "Fair enough. It's a high-stakes heist at NeoCore Headquarters. Our client wants us to steal some sensitive data from their secure servers. The payout is massive, but so are the risks. We'll need to get past top-tier security, both physical and digital." Zoe: (raising an eyebrow) "NeoCore, huh? That place is a fortress. Who's the client?" Lucas: "No name, just an anonymous contact. But they seem legit. They've provided detailed blueprints and security protocols. Still, I get it if you’re hesitant. This one's big." Choice Point 2: Zoe's Next ActionOption A: Accept the job but suggest taking extra precautions and planning thoroughly. Option B: Contact Marcus "Iron Hand" Kane for his advice and see if he has any additional information or support. Option C: Investigate the client further to ensure their legitimacy before making a decision.That's all i have so far but this was a super cool way to pass some time on a Sunday. I am considering starting a parallel story similar to this but a horror-survival one, similar to something like the original Silent Hill etc. What do you guys think - Anyone interested in seeing how this develops?! |
2024.05.19 15:06 PunishedByAnts Is there any reason to select the second option?
 | submitted by PunishedByAnts to RedAutumnSPD [link] [comments] |
2024.05.19 05:10 Puginator As Tesla layoffs continue, here are 600 jobs the company cut in California
As part of Tesla’s massive restructuring, the electric-vehicle maker notified the California Employment Development Department this week that it’s cutting approximately 600 more employees at its manufacturing facilities and engineering offices between Fremont and Palo Alto.
The latest round of layoffs eliminated roles across the board — from entry-level positions to directors — and hit an array of departments, impacting factory workers, software developers and robotics engineers.
The cuts were reported in a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification, or WARN, Act filing that CNBC obtained through a public records request.
Facing both weakening demand for Tesla electric vehicles and increased competition, the company has been slashing its headcount since at least January. CEO Elon Musk told employees in a memo in April that the company would cut more than 10% of its global workforce, which totaled 140,473 employees at the end of 2023.
Previous filings revealed that Tesla would cut more than 6,300 jobs across California; Austin, Texas; and Buffalo, New York.
Musk said on Tesla’s quarterly earnings call on April 23 that the company had built up a 25% to 30% “inefficiency” over the past several years, implying the layoffs underway could impact tens of thousands more employees than the 10% number would suggest.
According to the WARN filing, the 378 job cuts in Fremont, home to Tesla’s first U.S. manufacturing plant, included people involved in staffing and running vehicle assembly. There were 65 cuts at the company’s Kato Rd. battery development center.
Tesla didn’t respond to a request for comment.
Among the highest-level roles eliminated in Fremont were two environmental health and safety directors, and a user experience design director.
In Palo Alto, home to the company’s engineering headquarters, 233 more employees, including two directors of technical programs, lost their jobs.
Tesla has also terminated a majority of employees involved in designing and improving apps made for customers and employees, according to two former employees directly familiar with the matter. The WARN filing shows that to be the case, with many cut from the team at Tesla’s Hanover Street location in Palo Alto.
Tesla faces reduced demand for cars it makes in Fremont, including its older Model S and X vehicles and Model 3 sedan. Total deliveries dropped in the first quarter from a year earlier, and Tesla reported its steepest year-over-year revenue decline since 2012.
An onslaught of competition, especially in China, has continued to pressure Tesla’s sales in the second quarter. Xiaomi and Nio have each launched new EV models, which undercut the price of Tesla’s most popular vehicles.
Tesla’s stock price has tumbled about 30% so far this year, while the S&P 500 is up 11%.
Musk has been trying to convince investors not to focus on vehicle sales and instead to back Tesla’s potential to finally deliver self-driving software, a robotaxi, and a “sentient” humanoid robot. Musk and Tesla have long promised customers self-driving software that would turn their existing EVs into robotaxis, but the company’s systems still require constant human supervision.
Other recent job cuts at Tesla included the team responsible for building out the Supercharger, or electric-vehicle fast-charging network, in the U.S.
Tesla disclosed plans in its annual filing for 2023 to grow and optimize its charging infrastructure “to ensure cost effectiveness and customer satisfaction.” Tesla said in the filing that it needed to expand its “network in order to ensure adequate availability to meet customer demands,” after other auto companies announced plans to adopt the North American Charging Standard.
Since cutting most of its Supercharger team, Tesla has reportedly started to rehire at least some members, a move reminiscent of the job cuts Musk made at Twitter after he bought the company and later rebranded it as X. Musk told CNBC’s David Faber last year that he wanted to rehire some of those he let go.
Source: https://www.cnbc.com/2024/05/17/as-tesla-layoffs-continue-here-are-600-jobs-cut-in-california.html
submitted by Puginator to stocks [link] [comments]
The latest round of layoffs eliminated roles across the board — from entry-level positions to directors — and hit an array of departments, impacting factory workers, software developers and robotics engineers.
The cuts were reported in a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification, or WARN, Act filing that CNBC obtained through a public records request.
Facing both weakening demand for Tesla electric vehicles and increased competition, the company has been slashing its headcount since at least January. CEO Elon Musk told employees in a memo in April that the company would cut more than 10% of its global workforce, which totaled 140,473 employees at the end of 2023.
Previous filings revealed that Tesla would cut more than 6,300 jobs across California; Austin, Texas; and Buffalo, New York.
Musk said on Tesla’s quarterly earnings call on April 23 that the company had built up a 25% to 30% “inefficiency” over the past several years, implying the layoffs underway could impact tens of thousands more employees than the 10% number would suggest.
According to the WARN filing, the 378 job cuts in Fremont, home to Tesla’s first U.S. manufacturing plant, included people involved in staffing and running vehicle assembly. There were 65 cuts at the company’s Kato Rd. battery development center.
Tesla didn’t respond to a request for comment.
Among the highest-level roles eliminated in Fremont were two environmental health and safety directors, and a user experience design director.
In Palo Alto, home to the company’s engineering headquarters, 233 more employees, including two directors of technical programs, lost their jobs.
Tesla has also terminated a majority of employees involved in designing and improving apps made for customers and employees, according to two former employees directly familiar with the matter. The WARN filing shows that to be the case, with many cut from the team at Tesla’s Hanover Street location in Palo Alto.
Tesla faces reduced demand for cars it makes in Fremont, including its older Model S and X vehicles and Model 3 sedan. Total deliveries dropped in the first quarter from a year earlier, and Tesla reported its steepest year-over-year revenue decline since 2012.
An onslaught of competition, especially in China, has continued to pressure Tesla’s sales in the second quarter. Xiaomi and Nio have each launched new EV models, which undercut the price of Tesla’s most popular vehicles.
Tesla’s stock price has tumbled about 30% so far this year, while the S&P 500 is up 11%.
Musk has been trying to convince investors not to focus on vehicle sales and instead to back Tesla’s potential to finally deliver self-driving software, a robotaxi, and a “sentient” humanoid robot. Musk and Tesla have long promised customers self-driving software that would turn their existing EVs into robotaxis, but the company’s systems still require constant human supervision.
Other recent job cuts at Tesla included the team responsible for building out the Supercharger, or electric-vehicle fast-charging network, in the U.S.
Tesla disclosed plans in its annual filing for 2023 to grow and optimize its charging infrastructure “to ensure cost effectiveness and customer satisfaction.” Tesla said in the filing that it needed to expand its “network in order to ensure adequate availability to meet customer demands,” after other auto companies announced plans to adopt the North American Charging Standard.
Since cutting most of its Supercharger team, Tesla has reportedly started to rehire at least some members, a move reminiscent of the job cuts Musk made at Twitter after he bought the company and later rebranded it as X. Musk told CNBC’s David Faber last year that he wanted to rehire some of those he let go.
Source: https://www.cnbc.com/2024/05/17/as-tesla-layoffs-continue-here-are-600-jobs-cut-in-california.html
2024.05.19 02:30 zkidparks The guide to FOREVER (a photo/digital storage MLM)
Hello redditors of antiMLM,
Just this week, I received an email from a relation advertising FOREVER—not to be confused with Forever Living. Searching through this sub, I found a few short references over the last years with little detail. In one, a commentor described FOREVER stating "as mlms go, it seems ethical." Every red light went off while I looked into these “FOREVER Ambassadors.” I then began a search, with much of the ultimate work done by my spouse. It took longer than seemed acceptable to identify this MLM for people who glanced over the internet. FOREVER is not listed on any of the MLM databases I could find from this sub or elsewhere. Based on the mandatory “FOREVER Ambassador Community” on Facebook, now 8 years old, at least 2,500 people have gotten into their clutches at some point (I haven’t linked because I think it might be against the sub rules).
Thus, for the benefit and enjoyment of the people, here are references for the community to identify a yet-another-multi-level-marketing scheme. I am a sarcastic person, so be forewarned. All sources were publicly available and required no logins or access.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
(1) Background of the FOREVER business model
(2) The FOREVER Ambassador program
(3) Costs of serving as an Ambassador
(4) Compensation advertised for Ambassadors
(4a) Income in cash from personal sales
(4b) The downline system used by FOREVER
(4c) Non-monetary-achievement compensation
(5) FOREVER Ambassador Business Training
(6) Conclusion down to brass tax on FOREVER
STUDY OF FOREVER
(1) Background of the FOREVER business model
FOREVER is an online service that advertises it can be a “permanent digital home that lasts for many generations.”[1] This is to be accomplished via a so-called “FOREVER Guarantee Fund” that invests to pay for digital storage for over 100 years.[1] Their website promises me that “permanent” is “not a buzzword”—I think that’s the Platonian ideal of a buzzword.[1] Regardless, this is not a quality review post.
(2) The FOREVER Ambassador program
The sellers used by FOREVER are called “FOREVER Ambassadors.”[2] As advertised, it looks like a classic MLM pitch. You can “earn up to 35%” commission” while having “the freedom to work from home, and the flexibility to make money on your own schedule.”[2] FOREVER lists various opportunities, such as “trainings” and the ability to “learn and grow with friends,” as well as “make life-long friends.”[2] As part of the “Meet our Team” webpage for corporate FOREVER, there are multiple “Executive Ambassadors” listed.[3] There is no barrier to entry on experience required to become an Ambassador.[4] I observed that, throughout the internet and on the FOREVER website, the vast majority of Ambassadors are women—as you know, many MLMs target women and moms.
(3) Costs of serving as an Ambassador
FOREVER has, at minimum, an “Annual Ambassador Fee” that is the primary cost to entry of the program.[2] For $179 a year, one would receive “back office tools,” various marketing materials, and “countless opportunities”—maybe money, but more on that soon.[2] There is a link to an Ambassador’s own selling website.[5, at 22] This Ambassador fee “is subject to change over time.”[5, at 25] There is also a FOREVER Merchandise store where Ambassadors can get their supplies.[6] These include a 40-pack set of catalogs for $44.99 and a $144.99 tablecloth for potential customers during in-person events.[6]
For Ambassadors, FOREVER advertises there are “free training events.”[5, at 25] Each year, for $399 in 2024, Ambassadors can attend the 3-day “FOREVER Live!” event.[7] It is in the destination getaway of… next to their headquarters in Pittsburgh, PA (I’m sorry Pittsburgh, you’re a beautiful city).[5, at 24] It is also possible to pay for a “p2P Virtual Party” and “p2P Live Events,” but is unclear what those mean.[5, at 5] Various “ranks” of Ambassadors receive a “monthly stipend” starting at $25 a month after $15,000 total in personal plus team sales a year.[5, at 9]
(4) Compensation advertised for Ambassadors
(4a) Income in cash from personal sales
FOREVER pays its Ambassadors based on a “cash sales” versus “full sales” system.[5, at 5] The too-long-didn’t-read summary is that some products are paid less commission than others because of “margin” of different products.[5, at 5–6] Critically, the Personal Commission Rate is where our story kicks into gear. At the bottom, an Ambassador who sells less than $2,000 a year in sales receives the windfall of a 15% commission.[5, at 7] The number rises to 34% once sales are $90,000 or greater in one year (I don’t know where the 35% from earlier went).[5, at 7] However, to earn the 20% commission or more once one passes the $2,000 sales amount requires completion of the “FOREVER Ambassador Business (FAB) Training.”[5, at 7] I read it, more on that later.
You might ask, “Is there a sales quota for FOREVER® Ambassadors?” FOREVER says “no.”[8] However, the less one does the less FOREVER pays Ambassadors for what they do (this chart is older than the Compensation Guide cited).[8]
(4b) The downline system used by FOREVER
Of course, while it took forever to reach here, we come to the “downline” process—FOREVER’s words, not mine.[9] FOREVER immediately identified that new Ambassadors “choose another Ambassador to mentor you as you grow your business” (I do not know if this means an upline).[2] Nevertheless, “Team Sales” are compensated by FOREVER down to the 5th Line.[5, at 9] If an Ambassador does not build a team, then they do not earn Team Commissionable Cash Sales Commissions.[5, at 9] FOREVER states that getting new Ambassadors “to sign up under your name” is how you help “further your business.”[9]
However, even if an Ambassador builds a team, they receive a very restricted downline compensation if they do not make a minimum of personal sales.[5, at 9] For future reference, an “Associate Ambassador,” the bottom, makes less than $2,000 and earns no downline sales.[5, at 9] An “Ambassador,” second to last, is the first rank with a downline commission (4% for 1st Line), requiring $2,000/personal a year.[5, at 9] To reach “Senior Ambassador,” third to last, and above, a FOREVER Ambassador must start earning exponentially greater amounts of personal plus team sales to rise in the “ranks.”[5, at 9] A Senior Ambassador requires $8,000/personal but $15,000/gross, and is the first to get 2nd Line commission (4% for 1st Line and 2% for 2nd Line).[5, at 9] It is unclear to me if “new members” must be recruited “each month” to rankup—the website says so, but I see it nowhere in the Compensation Guide.[8]
At the top of hierarchy, there become two “Executive Ambassadors.”[5, at 9–10] These ranks start at $28,000/personal and $250,000/gross a year.[5, at 9] As well, one must have at least three “Team Leaders” in their 1st Line.[5, at 10] Team Leaders refers to Ambassadors who have themselves reached the rank of “Associate Lead Ambassador” ($12,000/personal and $30,000/gross).[5, at 9] FOREVER advertises that the Executive ranks are for—and I am not making this up—those Ambassadors who are “grooming FOREVER Leaders on your team below you.”[5, at 10] Irony is dead folks.
(4c) Non-monetary-achievement compensation
Because being paid to work is overrated, FOREVER will also provide “Additional Benefits” to its various ranks. As an Associate Ambassador, you can join the aforementioned Facebook Group and hear the CEO talk on a monthly phone call.[5, at 11] Regular Ambassadors also get a certificate to put on their wall.[5, at 11] Senior Ambassadors get a standing ovation at FOREVER Live!—you can even be ovated on stage as an Associate Lead Ambassador (I would pay $179 a year to not).[5, at 13–14] My observation is that a lot of ranks mostly provide additional types of standing ovations at FOREVER Live! and reserved seats for dinners there.
But then you can reach the pinnacle of Everest (that much like the real one, other people just carry you up there): the Million Dollar Club.[5, at 20] For making $1 million in personal and team sales in a year, one will earn a single $10,000 dollar bonus.[5, at 20] If you are then a “top-performing Ambassador,” one can be taken on the “Achievement Gathering,” to Jamaica in 2024, to mill around with other top-performing Ambassadors—and the corporate staff.[5, at 24] There is no mention how many people earn it or how much must be earned.[5, at 24]
(5) FOREVER Ambassador Business Training
I mentioned earlier that Ambassadors must complete a “FAB” training to receive more than 15% in commissions.[5, at 7] To hit this post home, I wanted to identify some highlights. The FAB training has 5 Steps to reach regular Ambassador status.[10, at 4] These Steps include such activities as “Meet with your Upline” (Step 1), “Connect with your Upline” (Step 2), “Meet with your Upline” (Step 3), “Meet with your Upline” (Step 4), and “Meet with your Upline” (Step 5).[10, at 7, 10, 12, 14, 16] You also have to join the FOREVER Facebook group and any created by your Team (just “ask your Upline” to find it).[10, at 6–7] There’s a task in Step 2 to create an introductory “Share List,” with five lines each for “Friends,” “Teachers,” and your own “Parents/Grandparents.”[10, at 7–9] For an unclear number of hours, you must attend multiple weekly and monthly “training opportunities” and “calls.”[10, at 6–7, 10] And one last item, to rank up in FOREVER, you must register for an upcoming event.[10, at 12] As of writing, the only one listed on the linked webpage is the $399 FOREVER Live! conference.[11]
(6) Conclusion down to brass tax on FOREVER
I was unable to find an Income Disclosure Statement for FOREVER. However, basic math tells us that an Associate Ambassador, the bottom, can only earn up to $300 a year.[5, at 11] To reach regular Ambassador, which includes signing up and beginning all the time sinks listed above, the maximum personal commission is $1,200, in addition to whatever downline (however big those are on average).[5, at 11] Without a downline, even the top-bracket personal sellers are the only ones to earn more than $30,000 a year.[5, at 7] The Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis estimates that the Real Median Personal Income in the United States for 2022 was $40,480.[12]
There is one way to make it with FOREVER: to build a downline. It’s a multi-level-marketing scheme, and no one should join it. Unless of course, you want to join my downline—I promise you'll be rich just like me.
LIST OF REFERENCES
[1] “Our Story,” FOREVER.com (accessed May 18, 2024), https://www.forever.com/our-story
[2] “Become a FOREVER Ambassador,” FOREVER.com (accessed May 18, 2024), https://www.forever.com/opportunity
[3] “Meet Our Team,” FOREVER.com (accessed May 18, 2024), https://www.forever.com/our-story/team
[4] “What is required of me as a FOREVER Ambassador?,” FOREVER.com Support (accessed May 18, 2024 [updated “2 years ago”]), https://support.forever.com/hc/en-us/articles/215823437-What-is-required-of-me-as-a-FOREVER-Ambassador
[5] Ambassador Compensation Guide, FOREVER (Jan. 31, 2024), https://www.forever.com/app/users/forevealbums/ambassador-kit/f3ii4wzeewd0nfwg4nb40kyw1/files/1043b0c6-de01-4aff-a1e3-83db7e6b1b17
[6] “FOREVER Merchandise,” FOREVER.com Ambassador Training (accessed May 18, 2024), https://www.training.forever.com/store
[7] “FOREVER Live! 2024,” FOREVER.com (accessed May 18, 2024), https://www.forever.com/events/forever-live-2024
[8] “Is there a sales quota for FOREVER® Ambassadors?,” FOREVER.com Support (accessed May 18, 2024 [updated “2 years ago”]), https://support.forever.com/hc/en-us/articles/215142548-Is-there-a-sales-quota-for-FOREVER-Ambassadors
[9] “Downline,” FOREVER.com Support (accessed May 18, 2024 [updated “2 years ago”]), https://support.forever.com/hc/en-us/articles/221072448-Downline
[10] FOREVER Ambassador Business Training, FOREVER (May 14, 2024), https://www.forever.com/app/users/ambassador-training/albums/02-forever-ambassador-business-training-booklet/qcg622q43zy6835w9ojq3wkw/files/f0bd2387-bb14-43a2-a46d-344a91470147
[11] “Events,” FOREVER.com (accessed May 18, 2024), https://www.forever.com/events
[12] “Real Median Personal Income in the United States,” Federal Reserve of St. Louis (accessed May 18, 2024), https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/MEPAINUSA672N
POST EDITS
A few formatting errors and a minor phrasing correction.
submitted by zkidparks to antiMLM [link] [comments]
Just this week, I received an email from a relation advertising FOREVER—not to be confused with Forever Living. Searching through this sub, I found a few short references over the last years with little detail. In one, a commentor described FOREVER stating "as mlms go, it seems ethical." Every red light went off while I looked into these “FOREVER Ambassadors.” I then began a search, with much of the ultimate work done by my spouse. It took longer than seemed acceptable to identify this MLM for people who glanced over the internet. FOREVER is not listed on any of the MLM databases I could find from this sub or elsewhere. Based on the mandatory “FOREVER Ambassador Community” on Facebook, now 8 years old, at least 2,500 people have gotten into their clutches at some point (I haven’t linked because I think it might be against the sub rules).
Thus, for the benefit and enjoyment of the people, here are references for the community to identify a yet-another-multi-level-marketing scheme. I am a sarcastic person, so be forewarned. All sources were publicly available and required no logins or access.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
(1) Background of the FOREVER business model
(2) The FOREVER Ambassador program
(3) Costs of serving as an Ambassador
(4) Compensation advertised for Ambassadors
(4a) Income in cash from personal sales
(4b) The downline system used by FOREVER
(4c) Non-monetary-achievement compensation
(5) FOREVER Ambassador Business Training
(6) Conclusion down to brass tax on FOREVER
STUDY OF FOREVER
(1) Background of the FOREVER business model
FOREVER is an online service that advertises it can be a “permanent digital home that lasts for many generations.”[1] This is to be accomplished via a so-called “FOREVER Guarantee Fund” that invests to pay for digital storage for over 100 years.[1] Their website promises me that “permanent” is “not a buzzword”—I think that’s the Platonian ideal of a buzzword.[1] Regardless, this is not a quality review post.
(2) The FOREVER Ambassador program
The sellers used by FOREVER are called “FOREVER Ambassadors.”[2] As advertised, it looks like a classic MLM pitch. You can “earn up to 35%” commission” while having “the freedom to work from home, and the flexibility to make money on your own schedule.”[2] FOREVER lists various opportunities, such as “trainings” and the ability to “learn and grow with friends,” as well as “make life-long friends.”[2] As part of the “Meet our Team” webpage for corporate FOREVER, there are multiple “Executive Ambassadors” listed.[3] There is no barrier to entry on experience required to become an Ambassador.[4] I observed that, throughout the internet and on the FOREVER website, the vast majority of Ambassadors are women—as you know, many MLMs target women and moms.
(3) Costs of serving as an Ambassador
FOREVER has, at minimum, an “Annual Ambassador Fee” that is the primary cost to entry of the program.[2] For $179 a year, one would receive “back office tools,” various marketing materials, and “countless opportunities”—maybe money, but more on that soon.[2] There is a link to an Ambassador’s own selling website.[5, at 22] This Ambassador fee “is subject to change over time.”[5, at 25] There is also a FOREVER Merchandise store where Ambassadors can get their supplies.[6] These include a 40-pack set of catalogs for $44.99 and a $144.99 tablecloth for potential customers during in-person events.[6]
For Ambassadors, FOREVER advertises there are “free training events.”[5, at 25] Each year, for $399 in 2024, Ambassadors can attend the 3-day “FOREVER Live!” event.[7] It is in the destination getaway of… next to their headquarters in Pittsburgh, PA (I’m sorry Pittsburgh, you’re a beautiful city).[5, at 24] It is also possible to pay for a “p2P Virtual Party” and “p2P Live Events,” but is unclear what those mean.[5, at 5] Various “ranks” of Ambassadors receive a “monthly stipend” starting at $25 a month after $15,000 total in personal plus team sales a year.[5, at 9]
(4) Compensation advertised for Ambassadors
(4a) Income in cash from personal sales
FOREVER pays its Ambassadors based on a “cash sales” versus “full sales” system.[5, at 5] The too-long-didn’t-read summary is that some products are paid less commission than others because of “margin” of different products.[5, at 5–6] Critically, the Personal Commission Rate is where our story kicks into gear. At the bottom, an Ambassador who sells less than $2,000 a year in sales receives the windfall of a 15% commission.[5, at 7] The number rises to 34% once sales are $90,000 or greater in one year (I don’t know where the 35% from earlier went).[5, at 7] However, to earn the 20% commission or more once one passes the $2,000 sales amount requires completion of the “FOREVER Ambassador Business (FAB) Training.”[5, at 7] I read it, more on that later.
You might ask, “Is there a sales quota for FOREVER® Ambassadors?” FOREVER says “no.”[8] However, the less one does the less FOREVER pays Ambassadors for what they do (this chart is older than the Compensation Guide cited).[8]
(4b) The downline system used by FOREVER
Of course, while it took forever to reach here, we come to the “downline” process—FOREVER’s words, not mine.[9] FOREVER immediately identified that new Ambassadors “choose another Ambassador to mentor you as you grow your business” (I do not know if this means an upline).[2] Nevertheless, “Team Sales” are compensated by FOREVER down to the 5th Line.[5, at 9] If an Ambassador does not build a team, then they do not earn Team Commissionable Cash Sales Commissions.[5, at 9] FOREVER states that getting new Ambassadors “to sign up under your name” is how you help “further your business.”[9]
However, even if an Ambassador builds a team, they receive a very restricted downline compensation if they do not make a minimum of personal sales.[5, at 9] For future reference, an “Associate Ambassador,” the bottom, makes less than $2,000 and earns no downline sales.[5, at 9] An “Ambassador,” second to last, is the first rank with a downline commission (4% for 1st Line), requiring $2,000/personal a year.[5, at 9] To reach “Senior Ambassador,” third to last, and above, a FOREVER Ambassador must start earning exponentially greater amounts of personal plus team sales to rise in the “ranks.”[5, at 9] A Senior Ambassador requires $8,000/personal but $15,000/gross, and is the first to get 2nd Line commission (4% for 1st Line and 2% for 2nd Line).[5, at 9] It is unclear to me if “new members” must be recruited “each month” to rankup—the website says so, but I see it nowhere in the Compensation Guide.[8]
At the top of hierarchy, there become two “Executive Ambassadors.”[5, at 9–10] These ranks start at $28,000/personal and $250,000/gross a year.[5, at 9] As well, one must have at least three “Team Leaders” in their 1st Line.[5, at 10] Team Leaders refers to Ambassadors who have themselves reached the rank of “Associate Lead Ambassador” ($12,000/personal and $30,000/gross).[5, at 9] FOREVER advertises that the Executive ranks are for—and I am not making this up—those Ambassadors who are “grooming FOREVER Leaders on your team below you.”[5, at 10] Irony is dead folks.
(4c) Non-monetary-achievement compensation
Because being paid to work is overrated, FOREVER will also provide “Additional Benefits” to its various ranks. As an Associate Ambassador, you can join the aforementioned Facebook Group and hear the CEO talk on a monthly phone call.[5, at 11] Regular Ambassadors also get a certificate to put on their wall.[5, at 11] Senior Ambassadors get a standing ovation at FOREVER Live!—you can even be ovated on stage as an Associate Lead Ambassador (I would pay $179 a year to not).[5, at 13–14] My observation is that a lot of ranks mostly provide additional types of standing ovations at FOREVER Live! and reserved seats for dinners there.
But then you can reach the pinnacle of Everest (that much like the real one, other people just carry you up there): the Million Dollar Club.[5, at 20] For making $1 million in personal and team sales in a year, one will earn a single $10,000 dollar bonus.[5, at 20] If you are then a “top-performing Ambassador,” one can be taken on the “Achievement Gathering,” to Jamaica in 2024, to mill around with other top-performing Ambassadors—and the corporate staff.[5, at 24] There is no mention how many people earn it or how much must be earned.[5, at 24]
(5) FOREVER Ambassador Business Training
I mentioned earlier that Ambassadors must complete a “FAB” training to receive more than 15% in commissions.[5, at 7] To hit this post home, I wanted to identify some highlights. The FAB training has 5 Steps to reach regular Ambassador status.[10, at 4] These Steps include such activities as “Meet with your Upline” (Step 1), “Connect with your Upline” (Step 2), “Meet with your Upline” (Step 3), “Meet with your Upline” (Step 4), and “Meet with your Upline” (Step 5).[10, at 7, 10, 12, 14, 16] You also have to join the FOREVER Facebook group and any created by your Team (just “ask your Upline” to find it).[10, at 6–7] There’s a task in Step 2 to create an introductory “Share List,” with five lines each for “Friends,” “Teachers,” and your own “Parents/Grandparents.”[10, at 7–9] For an unclear number of hours, you must attend multiple weekly and monthly “training opportunities” and “calls.”[10, at 6–7, 10] And one last item, to rank up in FOREVER, you must register for an upcoming event.[10, at 12] As of writing, the only one listed on the linked webpage is the $399 FOREVER Live! conference.[11]
(6) Conclusion down to brass tax on FOREVER
I was unable to find an Income Disclosure Statement for FOREVER. However, basic math tells us that an Associate Ambassador, the bottom, can only earn up to $300 a year.[5, at 11] To reach regular Ambassador, which includes signing up and beginning all the time sinks listed above, the maximum personal commission is $1,200, in addition to whatever downline (however big those are on average).[5, at 11] Without a downline, even the top-bracket personal sellers are the only ones to earn more than $30,000 a year.[5, at 7] The Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis estimates that the Real Median Personal Income in the United States for 2022 was $40,480.[12]
There is one way to make it with FOREVER: to build a downline. It’s a multi-level-marketing scheme, and no one should join it. Unless of course, you want to join my downline—I promise you'll be rich just like me.
LIST OF REFERENCES
[1] “Our Story,” FOREVER.com (accessed May 18, 2024), https://www.forever.com/our-story
[2] “Become a FOREVER Ambassador,” FOREVER.com (accessed May 18, 2024), https://www.forever.com/opportunity
[3] “Meet Our Team,” FOREVER.com (accessed May 18, 2024), https://www.forever.com/our-story/team
[4] “What is required of me as a FOREVER Ambassador?,” FOREVER.com Support (accessed May 18, 2024 [updated “2 years ago”]), https://support.forever.com/hc/en-us/articles/215823437-What-is-required-of-me-as-a-FOREVER-Ambassador
[5] Ambassador Compensation Guide, FOREVER (Jan. 31, 2024), https://www.forever.com/app/users/forevealbums/ambassador-kit/f3ii4wzeewd0nfwg4nb40kyw1/files/1043b0c6-de01-4aff-a1e3-83db7e6b1b17
[6] “FOREVER Merchandise,” FOREVER.com Ambassador Training (accessed May 18, 2024), https://www.training.forever.com/store
[7] “FOREVER Live! 2024,” FOREVER.com (accessed May 18, 2024), https://www.forever.com/events/forever-live-2024
[8] “Is there a sales quota for FOREVER® Ambassadors?,” FOREVER.com Support (accessed May 18, 2024 [updated “2 years ago”]), https://support.forever.com/hc/en-us/articles/215142548-Is-there-a-sales-quota-for-FOREVER-Ambassadors
[9] “Downline,” FOREVER.com Support (accessed May 18, 2024 [updated “2 years ago”]), https://support.forever.com/hc/en-us/articles/221072448-Downline
[10] FOREVER Ambassador Business Training, FOREVER (May 14, 2024), https://www.forever.com/app/users/ambassador-training/albums/02-forever-ambassador-business-training-booklet/qcg622q43zy6835w9ojq3wkw/files/f0bd2387-bb14-43a2-a46d-344a91470147
[11] “Events,” FOREVER.com (accessed May 18, 2024), https://www.forever.com/events
[12] “Real Median Personal Income in the United States,” Federal Reserve of St. Louis (accessed May 18, 2024), https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/MEPAINUSA672N
POST EDITS
A few formatting errors and a minor phrasing correction.
2024.05.19 00:11 eftozlped New Revenue Stream?
 | I’ve seen New York taxis at the TTC headquarters on Bathurst a couple of times. Is this a new program ? submitted by eftozlped to TTC [link] [comments] |
2024.05.18 21:25 Spooker0 The Next Line Will Hold (Human Military Advisors)
Location: Defense Line Husky, Datsot-3
POV: Motsotaer, Malgeir Federation Planetary Defense Force (Rank: Pack Member)The shrieking whistle of incoming artillery shell was among the most terrifying noises known to living beings.
Sheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeew. Boom. Boom. Boom.
But it meant you were still alive.
Pack Member Motsotaer wondered if the poor pups in the forward trenches heard them coming as the enemy high explosive pounded into their lines.
Boom. Boom. Boom.
One of their anti-aircraft concrete bunkers took a direct hit; its roof collapsed on itself with a loud crumble.
Grass Eater artillery was voluminous, destructive, but scariest of all, it was incredibly precise. Their intelligence assets in orbit knew all, saw all. Their kill chains were short. Once they saw you, they would call it in, and the remainder of your life was measured in minutes and seconds.
There was nothing vegetarian about the efficient and bloodthirsty way the long-eared Grass Eaters fought, and the numerous intelligent predator species they’d exterminated on their way to Datsot… some of those tales gave even Motsotaer nightmares.
The defenders of Datsot had no choice. No choice but to defend their homes against the psychotic enemies pounding their lines to bits. And the ones who remained had learned the hard lessons of war, either through experience earned by blood or via the process of not-so-natural selection.
Motsotaer clutched his rifle against his chest as he laid in his own shallow hole, eyes closed. If the end was going to come for him, there was nothing else he could do but huddle in his freshly-dug grave.
Boom. Boom. Boom.
The blasts continued walking across the defense lines, undoubtedly killing scores of his comrades. But he accompanied each shockwave with a sigh of relief; they let him know that he was still alive. Still breathing.
One final rumble. And then there was silence across the battlefield.
Motsotaer waited a minute before he peeked out — another lesson that smart defenders of Datsot had discovered the hard way. A couple brave medics were already on the move, their shouts left and right, pulling bodies and the groaning injured alike out of the rubble aftermath of the shelling.
With a grunt, he pulled himself out of his hole, rushing towards the neighboring anti-air bunker. The concrete roof had collapsed, but he could still hear cries from the dark. He squeezed through the cluttered entrance.
It was a mess on the inside. The lights were all gone. Scattered sandbags. It smelled like blood and death, and he pushed aside the still body of a Head Pack Leader he only knew of, only to find the corpse of yet another Pack Member, her limbs sprawled in an unnatural position.
“Anyone still alive in here?” he asked in the dark as his eyes adjusted. “Hello?”
There were a series of loud coughs. “I’m here. I’m here.”
“Pack Leader Nidvid!” he shouted as he recognized the familiar shrill voice. “Keep talking! Where are you?”
“Here. I’m here. Help me up.”
As she continued to cough, he had the sense to fish a flashlight out of his pocket, fumbling around until he found the on button. As the light activated, he could see Nidvid half-buried in the dirt, her lower limbs trapped beneath some sand from the broken sandbags.
“Pack Leader!” He got onto his front paws and started digging. “Are you injured?”
“I don’t think so,” she shook her head in the dim lighting as she experimentally wriggled her legs. “Here, I think I’m loose. Help me up.”
Motsotaer grasped her under her arms, and with a heavy grunt, pulled her out of the dirt.
“Whew,” she said, checking her body again for wounds. Nidvid looked around at the other bodies splayed in the bunker. “Oh no… Head Pack Leader…”
“That was a close one. I can’t believe you lived through that!”
“Yeah, me neither… Wait a second,” Nidvid said as she began rummaging through a pile of rubble near the Head Pack Leader’s body. “The radio…”
“What are you looking for?” he asked as he aimed his flashlight towards where she was looking.
“Oh no, no, no…” her voice trailed off as she picked up the device she’d been looking for. “Our hardline communicator…” It was clearly broken from the strike, its shell perforated with a hundred holes and its connection to the landline severed. In disgust, Nidvid threw it back to the ground.
“What uh— what did you need that for?” Motsotaer asked. “Were we supposed to tell them we were being attacked?”
“No… It was— before the strike, we got a high priority order.”
“A high priority order?”
Nidvid recalled, “There’s a special platoon in our salient… We were supposed to get an important message to them!”
“Special platoon?” Motsotaer asked. “Are you okay, Nidvid?”
“Yes, yes,” the Pack leader replied, visibly distraught. “They only had a physical line to us because they’re supposed to be keeping in the dark. Emissions control or something like that so they can activate the flying machine swarm in time. They said this was life and death and our whole defense line hinges on it!”
“Emissions control? Flying machines? Pack Leader, we should get you to a medic,” he said skeptically.
“No! Motsotaer, this is important. We need to get the message to them now. They’re only a couple kilometers south from our position. If we run over to their position now, it might not yet be—”
He looked up at her face in alarm. “Run to another position? Outside the trench line?”
“Yes! We have to go!” she said, as she peeked out of the concrete bunker towards the barren zone ahead of the trenches. “Now! Before they start their offensive.”
Motsotaer began to protest, “But that’s no creature’s land. If we get spotted by their troops, we’ll be hunted down by the Grass Eaters ships in orbit…”
She was insistent, “Pack Member Motsotaer, get it together. We still have a job to do. Are you with me or are you going to sit here and die like a coward to the long-ears?”
“Yes, ma’am,” he said, straightening up. Death or not, he was no coward. “I mean… I’m with you.”
“Good. Then let’s go.”
With a grunt, she leapt out of the trenches and jogged south, keeping to the defensive side of it for the modicum of cover it provided, and Motsotaer quickly followed. As they sprinted away from the tattered defenses, they ran into a thick tree line that hopefully provided them with some concealment from the Grass Eater ships above.
After a couple more minutes of running in the forest, Motsotaer started to tire and pant. He weighed his burning lung and how embarrassed he’d be if he complained. Luckily for his ego, Nidvid gestured for them to stop after another minute and tossed him her canteen. “Take a break before we get going.”
He chugged as much water as he could in a single swig, and returned the canteen to Nidvid. He gasped out, “How much further, Pack Leader?”
“About one more kilometer south,” she said, aiming her snout up at the treetops. “I recognize the smell of this area.”
“What’s this even about? The message… what was it?”
Nidvid exercised her limbs. “That Grass Eater artillery strike… it was to prepare for their offensive on our lines. They’ve gathered an armored division on the other side of that,” she pointed out into the barren fields beyond the trees. “We have an hour at most before they roll over us.”
“An armored division?!” Motsotaer squeaked. The enemy’s Longclaws — their armored vehicles — were legendary. They could kill from kilometers away. And their thick shells protected them against all but the most powerful artillery in the Federation’s arsenal. He’d never seen one of them personally. If he had, he suspected he wouldn’t be alive to tell anyone about it. “What can we do against a Grass Eater armored division?”
“That’s why we have to get to the special platoon,” Nidvid replied. She pointed in the southern direction, “You ready? Let’s go.”
They galloped for a few more minutes. Motsotaer’s limbs tired and his breaths shallowed as his lung burnt. As he was contemplating whether to ask for another break, Nidvid pointed at a shape in the distance. “There, that’s their position!”
He squinted at it. It was not easy to see, but buried in the tree line was what looked like a bunch of out-of-place branches and leaves over a small vehicle. Buoyed by the anticipation of the end of the marathon, he managed to keep up with Nidvid’s pace.
As they approached, there was a loud shout.
“Hi-yah! Stop!”
They halted their steps and looked for the source of the voice.
“Not one more paw step, deserter! This is a restricted area! Turn around or you’ll be shot!”
Motsotaer looked up at the voice hidden up in the branches. After a moment, with some help from his nose, he found the yeller. It was a short, stout middle-aged male with strange-looking green and brown paint smeared all over his fur and face. He had a rifle aimed squarely at the duo.
“Don’t shoot!” Nidvid yelled back. “We’re runners. We’ve got an important message! For your platoon commander.”
The male in the tree looked suspiciously at them as he leapt down. He lowered his rifle, but didn’t seem any less on guard. “A message?”
“Yes, we’ve got an urgent message for Special Platoon Commander Graunsa. Take us to him right now!”
He sized the two of them up. After a moment, he said slowly, “I am Graunsa. Why are you here, and what is the message?”
Nidvid recovered some of her breath and explained, “The Grass Eaters hit us hard with an artillery strike. Our Head Pack Leader is dead. Our landline is gone. We ran all the way over from our lines north of you.”
Graunsa nodded and gestured for her to continue.
“The Grass Eater armored offensive is about to start. They’re moving into position and ready to go, and there’s a special message embedded—”
“Wait a second,” Graunsa interrupted. “Give me the special message exactly, without omission or your own interpretations.”
“Yes, Platoon Commander,” Nidvid nodded. “The message is: bunny water carriers are in play, red-five-zero-eight; come out of the dark and introduce yourself. Authorization is three-three-greyhound.”
Graunsa looked thoughtful for a moment as he pondered it.
“What does the message mean?” Motsotaer whispered at Nidvid.
“I have no idea,” she shrugged, whispering back. “The Head Pack Leader just told me to memorize it.”
The platoon commander seemed to have made up his mind. “Alright, that seems legitimate. Thanks for the message.” He turned around to leave.
Motsotaer shouted behind him, “Wait, what are we supposed to do now?”
Graunsa turned around. “I don’t know. I’m not your commanding officer.” He paused for a moment. “I wouldn’t recommend going back to your lines though. Might not be there when you get back…”
“What?!”
“You can’t just leave us! Where else are we supposed to go?” Nidvid asked.
Graunsa seemed to contemplate the question for a few heartbeats and sighed, “You said you’re from the position up north?”
“Yup,” they replied in unison.
“And you’re a spotter, Pack Member?” he asked, looking at the rank and position patch on Motsotaer’s chest.
“Yes.”
Graunsa relented. “Fine. We might find a use for you. Get into the bunker… before the Grass Eaters in orbit see us dawdling out here.”
“What? Where?”
The officer pointed at a patch of dark green leaves on the forest floor. As they approached it, he grasped a latch and lifted it to reveal a ladder. The three of them descended into the darkness and Graunsa secured it behind them. With a quiet swoosh, a lamp mounted on the wall lit up to reveal a small hallway leading to a heavy-looking door.
Graunsa knocked on it twice. He turned around and looked at Motsotaer and Nidvid. “What you’re about to see in here is of the highest secrecy level of the Malgeir Federation. If you tell anyone what you see in here, you will be executed for treason. Do you understand?”
“Yes, Platoon Commander.”
“Swear it, on your honor.”
“We swear,” they replied in unison, their voices infused with growing excitement.
“Good enough for me.”
The heavy steel door swung open, showing a room that was vastly different from what its primitive exterior suggested. It resembled a command center far more than a field base, and Motsotaer felt a blast of cold air conditioning in his face as he passed the door threshold.
At the front, a main screen showed a map of the defensive lines in the sector. Facing it, two rows of sleek, new computer screens lit up the dark. Their operators worked busily at their controls, and only a couple faces looked their way in mild interest as they entered.
“What is this—” Motsotaer started to ask. Nidvid grasped his shoulder and shushed him.
Graunsa cleared his throat. Several faces looked towards him in anticipation. “Platoon, we just got the message. Activate the FTL handshake and authenticate us in the network.”
“Yes, sir.” A young-looking communication officer near the front operated a few controls on her console. “I’ve got the advisors on the line.”
Motsotaer read his nametag: Gassin. She was a Gamma Leader, much higher ranked than he, but she looked not a day over twenty. He noted that many of the people in the room sported high-ranking insignias despite their apparent youth.
“On screen,” Graunsa ordered.
A communication window appeared on the main screen, streaming video of someone in a jet-black EVA suit.
Motsotaer stiffened. It was obvious that the subject was alien; at around 1.7 or 1.8 meters, it was far too tall for being a Malgeir. Too small for a Granti. And from the side profile of the suit, it didn’t bulge nearly enough for the tails that the Malgeir’s Schpriss neighbors were known for. A strange new species of aliens.
From the blackened visor, it was obvious that whoever that was… it was the reason for all this tight secrecy.
“Special Platoon Commander Graunsa,” it transmitted in perfect Malgeirish. The alien was either a trained-from-birth Federation Channel One newscaster with a perfectly inoffensive accent, or its translator was far better than anything the Malgeir themselves had invented. “This call is encrypted, but the enemy Znosians in orbit are trying to find your location from the signals, so we’ll have to make it as quick as we can. Have your defensive lines completed your preparations?”
Graunsa stepped up to address the screen directly, “Yes, advisor. Our fire support platoon is ready for tasking.”
“Excellent. Transmitting the first batch of targets in your sector now.”
A series of symbols scrolled onto the screen, showing a number of coordinates.
“We’re getting the enemy positions now,” Gassin exclaimed.
Graunsa turned to her and nodded his appreciation, “Sixteen armored targets. Weapons free.”
“Yes, sir. Programming the sequence.”
A camera on the main screen activated, remotely showing a small hole with some machinery in it dug a few hundred meters away just at the edge of the tree line.
“Launching flying machine swarm!”
As Motsotaer watched, a thicket of metal erupted from the hole in a blur, roaring into the sky.
The main screen was replaced by a four-by-four of windows of black and white images. It took him a couple seconds to realize that he was looking at the battlefield from above. The Malgeir had rotary wing, airplanes, and jet — some were even armed, but they were usually much bigger. And their air assets had been grounded since the early days of the battle for Datsot when the enemy took the orbits.
Not these tiny devices though.
He focused on one of the sixteen windows.
The ground sped past below the camera’s vision, tree line after tree line, the flying machine seemed to know where it was going by itself: Motsotaer looked at the other occupants in the room. None of them seemed to be directly controlling it.
He stiffened.
Is this controlled by a thinking machine?
“We’re getting in range of the target coordinates, Platoon Commander,” Gassin updated the room a few minutes later.
As if on cue, the flying machines flew higher, and the trees on the ground grew smaller, as if further away. Until…
“Targets identified!” Gassin reported with excitement in her voice.
As an infantry spotter, Motsotaer had been trained — barely — to identify enemy armored vehicles. As in, he’d been given a cheatsheet containing the silhouettes of the different types of vehicles the enemy drove. But even he couldn’t tell at this distance what the white-hot smudges on the screen were.
The machine had no such issues though.
Several red boxes materialized on the screen, clearly marking several enemy vehicles in the thermal imagery and adorning them with detailed information.
The one Motsotaer was watching said:
Hostile vehicle, Longclaw MK4 (top armor: ~25mm), 4.2 km.
No hostile EW detected.
Without additional prompting, the flying machines raced in towards their targets, each recognizing a different one as its final destination. Afraid to blink, Motsotaer stared intently at one of the video streams.
A new line of text appeared at the top of the screen:
ETA 20 seconds.
It counted down the seconds, number by number.
The enemy Longclaw got larger and larger until… the screen went black, replaced by static. As he looked around, the other windows were similarly replaced with static one-by-one.
Motsotaer frowned, wondering where the videos had gone.
Then, it hit him. The flying machines were on one-way trips.
The sixteen windows disappeared, and another one appeared, showing the enemy assembly area from a much higher perspective. And instead of the vehicles he expected, he counted sixteen burning wrecks, the black smoke from their flames reaching up into the sky in columns.
“Targets destroyed, Commander,” Gassin said. Several of the officers in the room looked at each other excitedly, but their celebration was muted.
Graunsa nodded. “Call our advisors again.”
The alien appeared on the screen again. “Excellent work, Platoon Commander. We’re assessing the lines and getting the second batch of targets to you now.”
“Understood.”
As the new target coordinates scrolled onto the main screen, Gassin didn’t need additional prompting, “Launching flying machines!”
Another sixteen of them flashed out from the pre-dug position. Another sixteen windows appeared on the screen, replacing the odd-looking aliens’ video.
“Wait a minute,” the aliens’ voice cut into the quiet hum of the control room’s operation. “Switch back to the high-altitude drone. Something’s happening.”
The main screen’s image was replaced by the previous camera looking down at enemy lines. There was a flurry of activity in the enemy base area. Numerous dots representing the ground troops moved to-and-fro. And worryingly, the red squares that surrounded enemy armor began appearing en masse as enemy Longclaws drove out of their covered positions into the open.
Dozens of them.
Then, hundreds. And more appeared every second.
“What’s going on?” Graunsa asked, his voice reflecting Motsotaer’s worry.
The alien took a minute to get back to him, its black helmeted face filling up the screen again. “They’re attacking. They don’t know what hit them in the last strike. But they must have realized that they’re not safe in their assembly area, and they’re doing the only thing they can… We estimate they’ll get to your first lines in thirty minutes.”
“Can we stop them?” Graunsa asked. “We can—”
The alien looked directly into the video. “Not sixteen drones at a time. And if you launch the whole swarm at once, it’ll reflect enough signal for them to sniff out where you are with their counter-battery radars and take you out from orbit.”
Graunsa swallowed. “That’s— that’s— The machines can fly themselves without us, right?”
The alien didn’t say anything for a few heartbeats. “Theoretically, yes. But even if you evacuate your position now, your people won’t get out of range from the orbital strike they’ll call in.”
“I understand. Feed us the enemy targets.”
“Delta Leader, we can’t ask you to—”
“I said, feed us the enemy targets,” Graunsa insisted.
Quietly, hundreds of coordinate pairs filed onto the main screen. Graunsa looked at the faces of the young officers under his command. Dozens of them. He turned around to look at his two guests. “I’m sorry,” he said.
“It’s the right choice,” Nidvid replied, shrugging.
Motsotaer nodded at him.
“I know,” Graunsa said, turning back to the main screen. “Just doesn’t make it any easier.”
“Sir, we’re ready to launch,” Gassin reported.
“Weapons free. Release everything.”
“Yes, sir.”
The ground shook and rumbled, hundreds of flying machines leaving their canisters for the sky. They were close enough to hear the outgoing buzzing as the munitions launched. This time, more and more windows filled up the screen with the visuals of the outgoing flying machines — hundreds of them, and Motsotaer was surprised that the computers could even handle it all.
The visage of the alien returned to their screen. It said calmly, “Enemy orbital launch spotted. Multiple launches. High yield. Missiles incoming to your location, ETA twelve minutes.”
“Understood, advisor.”
“Scramble! Scramble! Scramble!”
Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiing.
“What’s going on?” Longclaw Commander Slurskoch sat up in his turret cupola as the sirens rang loud through the hull.
“We’re under artillery attack!” his Controller yelled back at him through the roaring startup sequence of the turbine anti-grav engines. “The Lesser Predators… they’ve got some kind of new weapon! Took out a whole battalion’s worth of Longclaws in the 194!”
“But we’re not ready!” his Driver complained. “Our artillery is supposed to pound them for another hour before we—”
Slurskoch shook his head as he checked the friendly force tracker on his screen. “Doesn’t matter! If they’ve got some new weapon, we can’t sit still while we get pounded to bits by whatever they have. We gotta get out there. Hurry it up!”
It took them another two minutes to fully warm up the engines, and with a roar, the Longclaw burst out of its camouflaged emplacement, kicking up a curtain of dirt in front of it.
“Let’s go! Go! Go!” Slurskoch yelled as his lagging Longclaw joined the armored formation already on the move.
The Controller spoke with one of her ears in the radio, “Their artillery just launched… something at us. We’ve pinpointed their location, and orbital support is on its way.”
His Gunner whooped twice, and Slurskoch nodded silently in agreement. That’d flatten those carnivorous abominations where they stood. He drew a few symbols and circles on the digital battlemap as the Longclaws drove toward the enemy lines. “Gunner, watch those potential trench lines in front of us,” he instructed. “Their anti-armor may not look scary on paper, but their infantry can always get a lucky hit in.”
Slurskoch was taught in training that it was better to overestimate the enemy than underestimate them. Luckily, the predators usually fell below expectations, which was why the Dominion controlled the orbits of Datsot now and not them.
His Controller frowned at something in her radio, “They’re saying something about the enemy artillery… The engineers at the base assessed the strike aftermath. There’s something strange in the rubble. The attack was more precise than anything we’d ever seen.”
“What does that mean?” Slurskoch asked in confusion.
“The sensor officer in charge of the assembly area has taken full responsibility. They didn’t see the incoming at all. Higher ups are speculating that the Lesser Predators have a new weapon in their arsenal.”
“The predators made new weapons?” Slurskoch snorted. “Useful ones? That’ll be a first. Well, whatever it is, maybe our Design Bureau will get a good look at it when we finally cleanse this planet of their filth. Make our next battle a little easier when we have to take their home planet.”
His Gunner agreed, “And then, the Prophecy shall be fulfilled.”
The Driver, in his open hatch, looked up at the cloud of them flying over the enemy lines. “Looks like it. A nice juicy feast for them in the coming battle. The irony of the barbaric carnivores being eaten by themselves.”
A few thousand years ago, winged predators would have curdled the blood of any natural-born Znosian. On the original plains of Znos, they were one of the most dangerous threats a lone Znosian faced. Now, that fear had been completely bred out of the gene pool, replaced with contempt for predatory primitivism, the courage to face them in battle, and the drive to exterminate them all.
Curious, Slurskoch stared up into the cloud of winged predators with his Longclaw commander optics. He frowned.
One of them shimmered.
Shimmered.
He zoomed in.
Then, he saw a metallic glint. His whiskers tightened.
“That’s— those aren’t winged predators,” he barely made out in shock. “Incoming!”
“Huh?” his Driver asked, craning his head up to look at the dark shapes in the distance.
“Get inside! Secure the hatch!” Slurskoch shouted at him.
His Driver was not very good at thinking on his own, but he had been bred to follow direct orders without question. He ducked into his seat, quickly securing the hatch above him close with trained claws.
He barely secured the Longclaw as other commanders began yelling out similar instructions on their radios.
“Incoming!” his Controller advised, about ten seconds later than necessary. “Enemy… artillery?!”
“Gunner!” Slurskoch gestured in the general direction of the sky.
“I can’t get a shot on them. They’re too high up!” she screamed back at him.
A trio of air defense vehicles next to him opened up with their six barrels towards the sky, lines of bright tracers stabbing out at the dark swarm. He saw one of the… flying machines hit and fall out of the sky. Then another.
It wasn’t enough.
As Slurskoch’s optics tracked the incoming, he saw them dive. They were fast, and they flew erratic patterns, almost organically, like actual winged beasts. If he hadn’t had that specific fear bred out of his bloodline hundreds of years ago, he would have been frozen in shock. Instead, he yelled out, “Brace! Brace!”
Boom. Boom. Boom.
The world exploded around his Longclaw.
Through his friendly force tracker, Slurskoch watched an entire battalion disappear off the map on his right flank, and two Longclaws in his line of sight brewed up in massive fireballs, throwing their turrets into the sky as their plasma ammunition detonated. One of the anti-air vehicles brewed up next to his, splattering its parts against his hull.
His Driver drove for all he was worth, ducking and weaving in the open field. So did the other Longclaws. Some deployed curtains of smoke in front of them in desperation.
None of it seemed to help.
The shockwaves hit his Longclaw in quick succession, knocking him around the armored cabin and rattling his teeth.
Boom. Boom.
More Longclaws exploded. Many more. They were disappearing off his screen faster than the software could update the signals. He closed his eyes waiting for the end.
It didn’t come.
It was hard for Slurskoch to tell when the last Longclaw near them was hit. His hearing organs must have been damaged some time during the attack. His auditory senses ringed as they returned to normal, recovering when his Controller shook him with a paw on his shoulder. “—Five Whiskers! Five Whiskers!”
“What is it?” he snapped, keeping the quivering out of his voice.
“We’re alone in our company, and I can’t contact the six whiskers! And I’ve been trying to reach battalion without success!”
“Try the regiment commander!” he yelled out against the noise of the anti-grav engine.
“Can’t reach them either!”
“What about division headquarters?!”
“I think division’s gone, sir!”
“What?!”
“Nobody there has been responding. All I’ve got is a seven whiskers in the reserve infantry division behind us! They’re saying they see black smoke in the direction of our division field command!”
“What in the Prophecy? How is that possible?!”
“What do we do, Five Whiskers?”
Slurskoch had been trained for a wide variety of combat scenarios and contingencies, including losing his immediate superiors, losing most of his unit, and losing his communication link to command. But he’d never been trained for all of those combined at once. That was just not something predators were supposed to be able to do to you.
He fell back to the next best thing.
“What’s the combat computer say?” he asked.
His Controller operated the controls on her console, and after half a minute of querying, she replied, reading off the instructions, “Absent orders, continue the attack. Maybe we can push through.”
“What? Did it take our losses into account?” he protested as he checked the battlemap. Of the nearly five hundred Longclaws that had pushed out of the assembly area, only a quarter remained. At most. Some of the signals on the map were flagging themselves as mobility or mission killed.
She shrugged, “It did. That’s what it says.”
He squinted at her screen. That was indeed what it said.
Slurskoch thought for a moment, sighed, and bowed in prayer, “Our lives were forfeited the day we left our hatchling pools.”
The other crew members all did the same, lowering their heads to mutter the familiar mantra.
That ritual out of the way, he drew up to his full height of 1 meter and mustered all the confidence he could into his voice, “Attack! Attack! Attack!”
The command center watched glumly as the hundred or so surviving Grass Eater Longclaws emerged from the wrecks of their comrades and slowly resumed their charge across the open toward the defense lines.
The flying machines had gotten a lot of them. Quite a few disabled too. And they were disorganized from the loss of their command. Yet they still charged. Diminished as their numbers were, they rolled towards the battered defensive lines with psychotic determination.
We’ve failed.
Graunsa sat down heavily into his chair. He brought up his communication console, connecting it to the advisor network.
The alien appeared on the screen, and though he couldn’t see its face, he could hear the sympathy in its translated voice, “You’ve done all you can, Special Platoon Commander.”
“It wasn’t enough,” he said, shaking his ears sadly. “They’re going to break through our line. Our infantry can’t stop them.”
It tilted its head. “I wouldn’t count them out completely, Delta Leader. They might. They might not. But your next defensive line certainly will hold them. The city behind you will be held.”
“Tracking enemy orbit-to-ground. ETA three minutes,” Gassin reported quietly from next to him.
Graunsa sighed. He looked at the alien, “I think I understand your people now, advisor.”
“You… do?”
“Yeah, at first, when we were picked for this mission, I wondered why your people were doing this.”
“Doing this?” the alien asked, seeming confused.
“Helping us. The weapons. The equipment. The training. The targeting. It was all in secret, but you didn’t have to do it. The other species around us didn’t do it. The Schpriss…” Graunsa snorted, “The long-tails can’t even find it in their spines to send us field rations. I thought your species… your people were just generous. Or perhaps you simply enjoyed the craft of war, being so adept at it.”
“Are we… not?”
“Those reasons may be part of it,” he conceded. “But more importantly, I think your people understand one thing the other species don’t… that we might stop the enemy here. Or we might not.”
“We didn’t set you up to fail, if that’s what you think—”
“But the next defensive line certainly will hold them,” Graunsa said, staring the alien in the eye. “You will hold them. Isn’t that right?”
It sighed. “I would be lying if that wasn’t part of the strategic equation. Our star systems are indeed next in line — sometime in the next decade or two, probably — if these bloodthirsty Buns conquered your Federation. That harsh astropolitical realism. But there’s something else too.”
“Is there?”
“Yes,” it nodded its head firmly in a familiar manner. “Yes, there is. We aren’t a particularly long-sighted species, Graunsa. We can plan, yes, but wars are fought by true believers. People don’t sign up to put their lives on the line for a hypothetical, potential invasion of our Republic twenty years in the future. They— we signed up for this because we truly believe what’s happening to your people… it shouldn’t happen to anyone, ever.”
Graunsa looked at the helmeted head for a while, then nodded. “I believe you, advisor.”
“I’m sorry this didn’t pan out, Graunsa. If I could, I’d be down there with you. We’d have made them pay for this.”
Graunsa smiled. “I believe you about that too. Thank you, advisor, whatever your name is.”
“You may call me Kara,” it said simply. A deft snap of its paws — he hadn’t noticed how soft its claws were before — and it released a latch on its helmet with a hiss. Lifting it from its head, it revealed a soft, smooth face without much fur except a bundle of long, brown strands on its scalp tied up in a neat spherical shape. Its hazel forward-facing eyes stared at him with the empathy that only other predators were capable of, filling him with mild relief. “Don’t tell anyone though,” it joked lightly, mirroring his smile back at him.
You’re not as ugly as I thought you’d be. Not nearly.
Graunsa’s grin widened at the thought. He put it out of his mind. “Ah. One last thing, advisor— Kara.”
“Yes?”
His mind drifted to his cubs at home. Perhaps they were still alive. He chose to believe that. “Our people’s clans and packs…”
“We’ll let them know,” she interrupted him softly. “And when the information quarantine is lifted, we’ll let your clans and packs know what you did here — everything.”
“Good. Thank you.”
Gassin sat down next to him, “Delta Leader, enemy missiles incoming. ETA thirty seconds, they’re entering—” She stopped her report and stared at the unmasked alien on his screen with equal parts wonder and sadness.
“Take a closer look, Gassin,” he ordered softly. “That… that is who will avenge us.”
On screen, the alien put its gloved paw up to its temple, forming a stiff triangle with its arm in a recognizable salute. “It was an honor, Graunsa.”
Graunsa returned it crisply, letting a primitive fire shine through his face. “Happy hunting, Kara.”
Location: Atlas Naval Command, Luna
POV: “Kara”, Terran Reconnaissance OfficeKara watched solemnly as the green signal blinked off the battlemap. She closed her eyes for a moment in silent prayer for the fallen.
Beep. Beep.
Another light on her console blinked urgently for her attention. Four thousand kilometers from the previous one. The war raged on — day and night — across four continents on the besieged planet. Fifty light years from the Republic, its defenders’ sweat, tears, and blood lined the fields and valleys of the beautiful blue sphere not so different from her own. Tens of millions of them: many who she knew would not see the end of this war.
They didn’t all know it, and some might not have cared, but fifty light years away, someone recorded their names, and someone felt a pang of loss for their sacrifice. In the cold, dark forest of the galaxy, somebody heard their trees fall.
Kara collected her thoughts, adjusted the bun in her hair, and lowered the tinted EVA helmet over her face once more.
She cleared her throat as she glanced at the screen and activated the microphone in her helmet, “Special Platoon Commander Treiriu. This call is encrypted, but the enemy Znosians in orbit are trying to find your location from the signals, so we’ll have to make it as quick as we can. Have your defensive lines completed your preparations?”
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2024.05.18 15:15 como365 Republican infighting marked 2024 legislative session
JEFFERSON CITY — The 2024 legislative session that ended Friday seemed more a referendum on Republican Party loyalty than a collective venture toward policy.
Constant infighting among Republicans over priorities and which ones were truly conservative led to days-long filibusters, name calling and the death of many conservative bills, including a top party priority: making it more difficult to amend the Missouri Constitution.
The divisions were so ingrained that the Senate Democrats, holding 10 seats in a 34-person body, delivered the deciding votes on some of the session's most important bills.
The hard-right Freedom Caucus has said their issue with mainstream Republican leaders in the legislature is a lack of dedication to “big red” policies like reducing personal property tax and preventing foreign countries from owning Missouri land.
Looking back at previous sessions, that argument doesn’t quite stack up. In the last several years Republicans have passed one of the nation's most strict abortion bans, limitations on transgender health care and enacted several income tax cuts.
The Freedom Caucus went to great lengths to disrupt Senate procedure and strong-arm leadership in an effort to pass their highest priority, changes to the initiative petition process. The impact was that they were tossed off Senate committees by the Republican leadership and later in the session failed to convince their Republican colleagues to embrace their priorities.
Less than two weeks before the constitutional deadline for the budget and with an important federal health care reimbursement that creates over $4 billion in revenue, Freedom Caucus members filibustered for 41 hours with the demand that leadership first bring up a resolution changing the approval threshold for state constitutional amendments.
Going into the last week of session, initiative petition reform still had not passed.
This week, the Freedom Caucus supported a motion among Republicans to end the Democratic filibuster on the issue through an extraordinary motion — the previous question — that hasn’t been used in the Senate since 2020. But only 16 Republicans would support that plan, which needed 18 votes, so it was never brought before the floor.
With that failure on Wednesday, the resolution was sent back to the House, which refused to budge on Thursday and sent it back to the Senate. On Friday the Senate adjourned without any further action and the effort died.
The failure to pass the resolution making initiative petition changes showed the inability of even a supermajority to act when splintered on such chaotic, disruptive lines.
Senate President Pro Tem. Caleb Rowden, R-Columbia, said that this session showed that more can get done through compromise than confrontation.
"I'm walking out of here as a guy that has basically accomplished everything I wanted to accomplish and I did it in a way that was respectful and collegial," Rowden said in a press conference after adjournment.
Senate Minority Leader John Rizzo, R-Independence, backed up that point saying, "I don't think Democrats won or Republicans lost (the session), I think decorum won."
Fiscal Year 2025 budget
A set of constitutionally mandated bills that fund the state's operations passed just three hours before the May 10 deadline. The final budget is $51.7 billion, $1 billion less than what the governor proposed, and about $2 billion less than last year's budget.
Three things stuck out in this year's budget: Infrastructure continued to be a major focus, spending was reduced to come in line with revenue projects and numerous members on both sides of the aisle were frustrated by the lack of transparency in the process.
Over the last two years, about $3.5 billion has been put into widening I-70 to six lanes statewide and I-44 in the southwestern part of the state. Both projects are about equally funded through debt and general revenue. The budget that was approved is expected to reduce the state surplus to about $1.5 billion.
Up-to-date numbers from the Office of Administration show a more rosy revenue picture than anticipated. So far Fiscal Year 2024 revenue receipts are up 2.7% year over year. That's far higher than the projected .2% growth in revenue used to craft the budget. If that revenue continues at the same pace and with a current general fund balance of over $4 billion there is a chance the state's surplus will hardly be tapped over the next year.
The declining budget also represents a return to normal state budgeting. Since the pandemic, states have received an unprecedented influx of federal COVID relief and infrastructure cash. That has led to record high appropriations that oftentimes don't get spent. In the FY 2023 budget, $10 billion of the $48 billion appropriated was never used. In 2018, only $2 billion of the $28 billion budget was left unspent.
No public comment was taken during the budget process and meetings between the House and Senate where the final budget package was finalized only existed behind closed doors. Senators only had a few minutes to review the bills before voting on them and House members had little time to debate as they passed the budget just hours before the constitutional deadline.
This backdoor process drew criticism from Democrats, Freedom Caucus members and the governor as many felt out of the loop.
Elections and initiative changes Fighting over changes that would make it harder to amend the Missouri Constitution again put the brakes on normal operating procedures on the Senate floor this session.
The Freedom Caucus has more than once sent the Senate into disarray over a piece of legislation that again failed to cross the finish line after years of attempts.
The legislation, sponsored by Sen. Mary Elizabeth Coleman, R-Arnold, would have asked voters whether the current threshold to amend the state constitution — a simple majority, or 50% plus one — should be raised to also require a majority vote in at least five of the state’s eight congressional districts.
This year’s proposal included two provisions that led the chamber to several lengthy filibusters totaling more than 100 hours. In addition to the threshold requirement, the provisions would ask voters to bar noncitizens from voting on constitutional amendments and to ban constitutional amendments sponsored by foreign governments.
These provisions are already state law and Democrats made a point of filibustering against those provisions.
Republicans this session also pushed a resolution that would ban ranked-choice voting in Missouri. SJR 78 was passed by the House on Friday. The question will now go to voters to decide.
Ranked-choice voting is a practice where voters rank their preferred candidates on a single ballot until a winner is declared after receiving a majority of the vote. The idea is to give voters more options once their top-ranked choice is eliminated by distributing their vote to their next preferred candidates. Opponents said the practice does the exact opposite by splitting the vote.
While it is not in state law, St. Louis practices a version of ranked-choice voting that will be protected if the ban passes.
Education bill An omnibus education bill, SB 727, raising the minimum teacher salary, allowing charter schools in Boone County and providing private school scholarships to low-income students, has already been signed into law by Gov. Mike Parson. The provisions of the bill, approved by the minimum vote required in the House, are estimated to cost the state $468 million.
The new state minimum salary for teachers is set at $40,000 a year beginning with the next school year and includes additional incentives for teachers with longer careers and those with master’s degrees.
The voucher-like scholarship program for private school students offers up to $6,375 per child for expenses such as tuition, textbooks and transportation. The program is funded by private donors who can claim tax credits.
The size of the bill ballooned from 12 pages to more than 150 because of amendments in the Senate. House leaders blocked amendments so that the bill would not have to be returned for another vote in the Senate out of concern it would die because of filibusters on other topics.
The law requires a public vote to approve any switch to four-day school weeks while providing incentives to schools that stick with five-day weeks.
New crime provisions A major public safety bill that passed during the final House session on Friday made changes to how children are viewed in the court system, increased punishment for various crimes and limited the authority of citizen police review boards, among other items.
The bill tracks legislation passed last year, except for two technical provisions that prompted a veto by Parson. The law increases the age under which children could be considered adults in felony offenses from 12 to 14.
On July 4, 2011, Blair Shanahan Lane was killed by reckless celebratory gunfire. A portion of the bill dubbed "Blair's Law" creates penalties for such activity. After the bill passed on a bipartisan basis Friday, House members rose for a round of applause directed at Blair Lane's mother, who was in attendance.
The bill also creates "Valentine's Law" raising punishments for fleeing a law enforcement stop. It is named for St. Louis County Detective Antonio Valentine, who died in a crash pursuing a person fleeing police.
And there is a provision known as "Max's Law" that increases punishment for injuring or killing law enforcement K-9 dogs.
Sludge regulations House Bill 2134, which would create new regulations for wastewater sludge under the Missouri Clean Water Act, gained bipartisan approval and was signed by Parson.
The bill gained traction as concerns about waste lagoons and land application practices by Arkansas-based Denali Water Solutions have been brought to light. The new law prevents companies like Denali from applying waste as fertilizer without a regulatory process and testing.
Denali was previously forced to cease operations in Missouri after 6,000 gallons of slaughterhouse waste spilled into a field, causing residents to complain about the smell and runoff concerns.
Regulatory Sandbox Act The House Friday gave final approval to SB 894 creating an avenue for new companies offering innovative products to be excused from meeting some state regulations for the first 24 months that they begin offering innovative products to consumers.
Companies would be required to apply and meet certain criteria to participate in the program.
The bill also creates an Office of Entrepreneurship within the Department of Economic Development that will promote policies and initiatives to support the growth of entrepreneurship of Missouri-based businesses with less than ten employees.
Eviction moratorium A bill passed on Friday barred any municipality from enacting an eviction moratorium. The bill, SB 865, comes in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic when cities across the country prevented landlords from evicting tenets. Realtors and apartment associations spoke in favor of the bill as they feel moratoriums violate the rights of property owners.
National Guard deployment Parson signed a bill on May 8 approving additional funding for a Missouri National Guard deployment to the southern border. The governor traveled to Eagle Pass, Texas, to sign House Bill 2016 into law and visit with members who have been deployed since March.
“The battle that we’re fighting down here at the border is keeping it from happening in our own borders, in our own state in Missouri,” Parson said before signing the bill.
Members of the National Guard are assisting with Operation Lone Star after being invited by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott. Operation Lone Star is a state-level border security effort at the Texas-Mexico border that began in 2021.
The $2.2 million in funding supports the operations of approximately 200 National Guard members and 22 Missouri State Highway Patrol officers for 90 days. Since the start of their mission, only around 50 guardsmen and 22 members of the highway patrol have served in Texas.
Sports wagering moves ahead After years of failed attempts to get legalization through the Missouri General Assembly, sports gambling appears to have found a more promising path.
Early in May, the Winning for Missouri Education committee along with a coaltion of Missouri professional sports teams submitted over 340,000 signatures for a ballot initiative to the Secretary of State's office desk.
If the Secretary of State verifies that enough signatures are genuine, the question would be put to voters in November. Thirty-eight other states have legalized some form of sports wagering.
The petition proposes a 10% tax on wagers to be collected by the Department of Revenue, deposited into the state treasury and credit to the "Gaming Proceeds for Education Fund," raising a projected $35 million.
Approximately $5 million in funds from the sports wagering tax would go into a fund to help compulsive gamblers and the rest would go to public school and higher education programs.
Child tax credits Bipartisan support and a State of the State address plug by Parson helped two bills, SB 742 and HB 1488, which would add provisions allowing for tax credits related to child care services to reach the Senate floor for consideration.
However, opposition from Freedom Caucus members of the Senate stalled action both in an effort to advance bills they felt deserved more priority and out of a general dislike of tax credits. The Senate version is sponsored by Sen. Lauren Arthur, D-Kansas City, while the House bill is sponsored by Rep. Brenda Shields, R-St. Joseph.
Protecting IVF House and Senate bills to protect in vitro fertilization clinics got a flurry of attention but did not advance following an Alabama state court ruling that relied on a state abortion ban to restrict in vitro fertilization clinics.
The Missouri Court of Appeals in St. Louis ruled in 2016 that IVF-created embryos were a matter of “marital property of special order.” This has provided legal protection for doctors and patients in the IVF field.
However, that court ruling cited abortion protection offered by Roe Vs. Wade, which was overturned in 2022. With Missouri having a similar abortion ban to the one in Alabama, leading advocates and lawmakers alike are concerned about what could lie ahead.
Sen. Tracy McCreery, D-Olivette, filed SB 1486 which would specify that Missouri's abortion ban does not have a definition that includes in vitro fertilization embryos that have not been implanted in a body. Rep. Bill Allen, R-Kansas City, filed House Bill 2845 which states that the IVF process is protected under law and no one can be prosecuted for undergoing or administrating IVF.
Here is what happened to other legislative topics that garnered attention during the session but did not pass:
Protections for pesticide maker: HB 2763, sponsored by Rep. Dane Diehl, R-Butler, would have protected pesticide manufacturers from claims that they failed to warn consumers of possible cancer risks in their products as long as the federal Environmental Protection Agency has approved those products.
Much of the debate before the House approved the bill focused on Bayer, the company with U.S. headquarters in St. Louis that purchased Monsanto, the original manufacturer of RoundUp pesticide. According to The Associated Press, the company is seeking to stem a tide of lawsuits claiming that Bayer’s products cause cancer.
Diehl, a farmer, said he drafted the legislation out of fear that Bayer would be forced to pull RoundUp off of the market, harming farmers ability to grow crops. The bill never made it to the Senate floor for consideration.
Presidential primaries: New voting laws passed in 2022 eliminated the presidential primary in Missouri. Following low voter turnout in this year’s Republican presidential caucus, SB 1120 and HB 2618, which would reinstate presidential primaries, passed out of their respective committees. The House bill passed with amendments that would create new residency restrictions for candidates vying for U.S. Congress. Ultimately, neither bill got floor consideration.
The Taylor Swift Act: Bills in both the House and Senate sought to address the impact of problematic images created by artificial intelligence but did not make it into law. While ten states provide some form of retribution for this type of crime, only Minnesota and New York statutes allow for both civil and criminal relief.
The Taylor Swift Act, House Bill 2573, offered by Rep. Adam Schwadron, R-St. Charles, targeted fake pornographic images. The bill was approved by the Special Committee on Innovation and Technology but never received a floor vote. The name of the bill referred to explicit AI-created images of the singer that went viral in January.
A similar bill, Senate Bill 1424, sponsored by Sen. Travis Fitzwater, R-Holts Summit, did not get a hearing.
Media Literacy: Companion bills, House Bill 1513 and Senate Bill 1311, aimed to teach students about media and digital literacy. Neither bill advanced.
Danny's Law: Legislation that sought to protect 911 callers from prosecution when calling to report a hazing incident stalled in the House. The bill was named after former University of Missouri student Danny Santulli, who suffered irreparable brain damage after drinking too much when pledging a fraternity at MU in the fall of 2021.
Danny’s Law was meant to offer exoneration to those involved in hazing incidents if they’re the first to call for emergency help.
“As the mother of three college-age men, I understand this is a major issue,” said Rep. Jo Doll, D-St. Louis, who spoke during a March 7 committee hearing. “It’s really important to give kids the ability to call 911 without being afraid of the consequences to them.”
Protecting major water users: House Bill 2669, which sought to limit information being released to the public about major water users, was approved by a House committee but failed to get a floor vote. The bill was meant to protect the information of Missouri’s family farmers and would keep information about individually identifiable water users from being disclosed to the public.
Highway Commission changes: A bill, House Bill 2568, that would have changed the makeup of the Missouri Highways & Transportation Commission was voted down in a committee in Apri. Two other bills that would have either changed the makeup of the commission or done away with it altogether failed to move forward after being the subject of public hearings in early February.
Nursing restrictions: Missouri is one of only a few states not to allow nurse practitioners to practice independently without the authority of a physician. A House committee passed an amended version of one bill, HB 1773, sponsored by Rep. Chad Perkins, R-Bowling Green, that would allow nurses to practice independently after 6,000 hours of work under a physician's supervision. The bill was never placed on the House calendar, a roadblock which some nurses point to opposition from House Floor Leader Rep. Jonathan Patterson, R-Lee’s Summit.
Dmitry Martirosov, Molly Miller, Aidan Pittman, Grant Green and Madeline Shannon contributed to this story.
Cover image: State Representative Chantelle Nickson-Clark(cq) throws her papers at the end of the legislative session on Friday, May 17, 2024 at the Statehouse in Jefferson City. Nickson-Clark was the first Black woman elected to represent District 67 in St. Louis County in Nov. 2022.
submitted by como365 to missouri [link] [comments]
Constant infighting among Republicans over priorities and which ones were truly conservative led to days-long filibusters, name calling and the death of many conservative bills, including a top party priority: making it more difficult to amend the Missouri Constitution.
The divisions were so ingrained that the Senate Democrats, holding 10 seats in a 34-person body, delivered the deciding votes on some of the session's most important bills.
The hard-right Freedom Caucus has said their issue with mainstream Republican leaders in the legislature is a lack of dedication to “big red” policies like reducing personal property tax and preventing foreign countries from owning Missouri land.
Looking back at previous sessions, that argument doesn’t quite stack up. In the last several years Republicans have passed one of the nation's most strict abortion bans, limitations on transgender health care and enacted several income tax cuts.
The Freedom Caucus went to great lengths to disrupt Senate procedure and strong-arm leadership in an effort to pass their highest priority, changes to the initiative petition process. The impact was that they were tossed off Senate committees by the Republican leadership and later in the session failed to convince their Republican colleagues to embrace their priorities.
Less than two weeks before the constitutional deadline for the budget and with an important federal health care reimbursement that creates over $4 billion in revenue, Freedom Caucus members filibustered for 41 hours with the demand that leadership first bring up a resolution changing the approval threshold for state constitutional amendments.
Going into the last week of session, initiative petition reform still had not passed.
This week, the Freedom Caucus supported a motion among Republicans to end the Democratic filibuster on the issue through an extraordinary motion — the previous question — that hasn’t been used in the Senate since 2020. But only 16 Republicans would support that plan, which needed 18 votes, so it was never brought before the floor.
With that failure on Wednesday, the resolution was sent back to the House, which refused to budge on Thursday and sent it back to the Senate. On Friday the Senate adjourned without any further action and the effort died.
The failure to pass the resolution making initiative petition changes showed the inability of even a supermajority to act when splintered on such chaotic, disruptive lines.
Senate President Pro Tem. Caleb Rowden, R-Columbia, said that this session showed that more can get done through compromise than confrontation.
"I'm walking out of here as a guy that has basically accomplished everything I wanted to accomplish and I did it in a way that was respectful and collegial," Rowden said in a press conference after adjournment.
Senate Minority Leader John Rizzo, R-Independence, backed up that point saying, "I don't think Democrats won or Republicans lost (the session), I think decorum won."
Fiscal Year 2025 budget
A set of constitutionally mandated bills that fund the state's operations passed just three hours before the May 10 deadline. The final budget is $51.7 billion, $1 billion less than what the governor proposed, and about $2 billion less than last year's budget.
Three things stuck out in this year's budget: Infrastructure continued to be a major focus, spending was reduced to come in line with revenue projects and numerous members on both sides of the aisle were frustrated by the lack of transparency in the process.
Over the last two years, about $3.5 billion has been put into widening I-70 to six lanes statewide and I-44 in the southwestern part of the state. Both projects are about equally funded through debt and general revenue. The budget that was approved is expected to reduce the state surplus to about $1.5 billion.
Up-to-date numbers from the Office of Administration show a more rosy revenue picture than anticipated. So far Fiscal Year 2024 revenue receipts are up 2.7% year over year. That's far higher than the projected .2% growth in revenue used to craft the budget. If that revenue continues at the same pace and with a current general fund balance of over $4 billion there is a chance the state's surplus will hardly be tapped over the next year.
The declining budget also represents a return to normal state budgeting. Since the pandemic, states have received an unprecedented influx of federal COVID relief and infrastructure cash. That has led to record high appropriations that oftentimes don't get spent. In the FY 2023 budget, $10 billion of the $48 billion appropriated was never used. In 2018, only $2 billion of the $28 billion budget was left unspent.
No public comment was taken during the budget process and meetings between the House and Senate where the final budget package was finalized only existed behind closed doors. Senators only had a few minutes to review the bills before voting on them and House members had little time to debate as they passed the budget just hours before the constitutional deadline.
This backdoor process drew criticism from Democrats, Freedom Caucus members and the governor as many felt out of the loop.
Elections and initiative changes Fighting over changes that would make it harder to amend the Missouri Constitution again put the brakes on normal operating procedures on the Senate floor this session.
The Freedom Caucus has more than once sent the Senate into disarray over a piece of legislation that again failed to cross the finish line after years of attempts.
The legislation, sponsored by Sen. Mary Elizabeth Coleman, R-Arnold, would have asked voters whether the current threshold to amend the state constitution — a simple majority, or 50% plus one — should be raised to also require a majority vote in at least five of the state’s eight congressional districts.
This year’s proposal included two provisions that led the chamber to several lengthy filibusters totaling more than 100 hours. In addition to the threshold requirement, the provisions would ask voters to bar noncitizens from voting on constitutional amendments and to ban constitutional amendments sponsored by foreign governments.
These provisions are already state law and Democrats made a point of filibustering against those provisions.
Republicans this session also pushed a resolution that would ban ranked-choice voting in Missouri. SJR 78 was passed by the House on Friday. The question will now go to voters to decide.
Ranked-choice voting is a practice where voters rank their preferred candidates on a single ballot until a winner is declared after receiving a majority of the vote. The idea is to give voters more options once their top-ranked choice is eliminated by distributing their vote to their next preferred candidates. Opponents said the practice does the exact opposite by splitting the vote.
While it is not in state law, St. Louis practices a version of ranked-choice voting that will be protected if the ban passes.
Education bill An omnibus education bill, SB 727, raising the minimum teacher salary, allowing charter schools in Boone County and providing private school scholarships to low-income students, has already been signed into law by Gov. Mike Parson. The provisions of the bill, approved by the minimum vote required in the House, are estimated to cost the state $468 million.
The new state minimum salary for teachers is set at $40,000 a year beginning with the next school year and includes additional incentives for teachers with longer careers and those with master’s degrees.
The voucher-like scholarship program for private school students offers up to $6,375 per child for expenses such as tuition, textbooks and transportation. The program is funded by private donors who can claim tax credits.
The size of the bill ballooned from 12 pages to more than 150 because of amendments in the Senate. House leaders blocked amendments so that the bill would not have to be returned for another vote in the Senate out of concern it would die because of filibusters on other topics.
The law requires a public vote to approve any switch to four-day school weeks while providing incentives to schools that stick with five-day weeks.
New crime provisions A major public safety bill that passed during the final House session on Friday made changes to how children are viewed in the court system, increased punishment for various crimes and limited the authority of citizen police review boards, among other items.
The bill tracks legislation passed last year, except for two technical provisions that prompted a veto by Parson. The law increases the age under which children could be considered adults in felony offenses from 12 to 14.
On July 4, 2011, Blair Shanahan Lane was killed by reckless celebratory gunfire. A portion of the bill dubbed "Blair's Law" creates penalties for such activity. After the bill passed on a bipartisan basis Friday, House members rose for a round of applause directed at Blair Lane's mother, who was in attendance.
The bill also creates "Valentine's Law" raising punishments for fleeing a law enforcement stop. It is named for St. Louis County Detective Antonio Valentine, who died in a crash pursuing a person fleeing police.
And there is a provision known as "Max's Law" that increases punishment for injuring or killing law enforcement K-9 dogs.
Sludge regulations House Bill 2134, which would create new regulations for wastewater sludge under the Missouri Clean Water Act, gained bipartisan approval and was signed by Parson.
The bill gained traction as concerns about waste lagoons and land application practices by Arkansas-based Denali Water Solutions have been brought to light. The new law prevents companies like Denali from applying waste as fertilizer without a regulatory process and testing.
Denali was previously forced to cease operations in Missouri after 6,000 gallons of slaughterhouse waste spilled into a field, causing residents to complain about the smell and runoff concerns.
Regulatory Sandbox Act The House Friday gave final approval to SB 894 creating an avenue for new companies offering innovative products to be excused from meeting some state regulations for the first 24 months that they begin offering innovative products to consumers.
Companies would be required to apply and meet certain criteria to participate in the program.
The bill also creates an Office of Entrepreneurship within the Department of Economic Development that will promote policies and initiatives to support the growth of entrepreneurship of Missouri-based businesses with less than ten employees.
Eviction moratorium A bill passed on Friday barred any municipality from enacting an eviction moratorium. The bill, SB 865, comes in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic when cities across the country prevented landlords from evicting tenets. Realtors and apartment associations spoke in favor of the bill as they feel moratoriums violate the rights of property owners.
National Guard deployment Parson signed a bill on May 8 approving additional funding for a Missouri National Guard deployment to the southern border. The governor traveled to Eagle Pass, Texas, to sign House Bill 2016 into law and visit with members who have been deployed since March.
“The battle that we’re fighting down here at the border is keeping it from happening in our own borders, in our own state in Missouri,” Parson said before signing the bill.
Members of the National Guard are assisting with Operation Lone Star after being invited by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott. Operation Lone Star is a state-level border security effort at the Texas-Mexico border that began in 2021.
The $2.2 million in funding supports the operations of approximately 200 National Guard members and 22 Missouri State Highway Patrol officers for 90 days. Since the start of their mission, only around 50 guardsmen and 22 members of the highway patrol have served in Texas.
Sports wagering moves ahead After years of failed attempts to get legalization through the Missouri General Assembly, sports gambling appears to have found a more promising path.
Early in May, the Winning for Missouri Education committee along with a coaltion of Missouri professional sports teams submitted over 340,000 signatures for a ballot initiative to the Secretary of State's office desk.
If the Secretary of State verifies that enough signatures are genuine, the question would be put to voters in November. Thirty-eight other states have legalized some form of sports wagering.
The petition proposes a 10% tax on wagers to be collected by the Department of Revenue, deposited into the state treasury and credit to the "Gaming Proceeds for Education Fund," raising a projected $35 million.
Approximately $5 million in funds from the sports wagering tax would go into a fund to help compulsive gamblers and the rest would go to public school and higher education programs.
Child tax credits Bipartisan support and a State of the State address plug by Parson helped two bills, SB 742 and HB 1488, which would add provisions allowing for tax credits related to child care services to reach the Senate floor for consideration.
However, opposition from Freedom Caucus members of the Senate stalled action both in an effort to advance bills they felt deserved more priority and out of a general dislike of tax credits. The Senate version is sponsored by Sen. Lauren Arthur, D-Kansas City, while the House bill is sponsored by Rep. Brenda Shields, R-St. Joseph.
Protecting IVF House and Senate bills to protect in vitro fertilization clinics got a flurry of attention but did not advance following an Alabama state court ruling that relied on a state abortion ban to restrict in vitro fertilization clinics.
The Missouri Court of Appeals in St. Louis ruled in 2016 that IVF-created embryos were a matter of “marital property of special order.” This has provided legal protection for doctors and patients in the IVF field.
However, that court ruling cited abortion protection offered by Roe Vs. Wade, which was overturned in 2022. With Missouri having a similar abortion ban to the one in Alabama, leading advocates and lawmakers alike are concerned about what could lie ahead.
Sen. Tracy McCreery, D-Olivette, filed SB 1486 which would specify that Missouri's abortion ban does not have a definition that includes in vitro fertilization embryos that have not been implanted in a body. Rep. Bill Allen, R-Kansas City, filed House Bill 2845 which states that the IVF process is protected under law and no one can be prosecuted for undergoing or administrating IVF.
Here is what happened to other legislative topics that garnered attention during the session but did not pass:
Protections for pesticide maker: HB 2763, sponsored by Rep. Dane Diehl, R-Butler, would have protected pesticide manufacturers from claims that they failed to warn consumers of possible cancer risks in their products as long as the federal Environmental Protection Agency has approved those products.
Much of the debate before the House approved the bill focused on Bayer, the company with U.S. headquarters in St. Louis that purchased Monsanto, the original manufacturer of RoundUp pesticide. According to The Associated Press, the company is seeking to stem a tide of lawsuits claiming that Bayer’s products cause cancer.
Diehl, a farmer, said he drafted the legislation out of fear that Bayer would be forced to pull RoundUp off of the market, harming farmers ability to grow crops. The bill never made it to the Senate floor for consideration.
Presidential primaries: New voting laws passed in 2022 eliminated the presidential primary in Missouri. Following low voter turnout in this year’s Republican presidential caucus, SB 1120 and HB 2618, which would reinstate presidential primaries, passed out of their respective committees. The House bill passed with amendments that would create new residency restrictions for candidates vying for U.S. Congress. Ultimately, neither bill got floor consideration.
The Taylor Swift Act: Bills in both the House and Senate sought to address the impact of problematic images created by artificial intelligence but did not make it into law. While ten states provide some form of retribution for this type of crime, only Minnesota and New York statutes allow for both civil and criminal relief.
The Taylor Swift Act, House Bill 2573, offered by Rep. Adam Schwadron, R-St. Charles, targeted fake pornographic images. The bill was approved by the Special Committee on Innovation and Technology but never received a floor vote. The name of the bill referred to explicit AI-created images of the singer that went viral in January.
A similar bill, Senate Bill 1424, sponsored by Sen. Travis Fitzwater, R-Holts Summit, did not get a hearing.
Media Literacy: Companion bills, House Bill 1513 and Senate Bill 1311, aimed to teach students about media and digital literacy. Neither bill advanced.
Danny's Law: Legislation that sought to protect 911 callers from prosecution when calling to report a hazing incident stalled in the House. The bill was named after former University of Missouri student Danny Santulli, who suffered irreparable brain damage after drinking too much when pledging a fraternity at MU in the fall of 2021.
Danny’s Law was meant to offer exoneration to those involved in hazing incidents if they’re the first to call for emergency help.
“As the mother of three college-age men, I understand this is a major issue,” said Rep. Jo Doll, D-St. Louis, who spoke during a March 7 committee hearing. “It’s really important to give kids the ability to call 911 without being afraid of the consequences to them.”
Protecting major water users: House Bill 2669, which sought to limit information being released to the public about major water users, was approved by a House committee but failed to get a floor vote. The bill was meant to protect the information of Missouri’s family farmers and would keep information about individually identifiable water users from being disclosed to the public.
Highway Commission changes: A bill, House Bill 2568, that would have changed the makeup of the Missouri Highways & Transportation Commission was voted down in a committee in Apri. Two other bills that would have either changed the makeup of the commission or done away with it altogether failed to move forward after being the subject of public hearings in early February.
Nursing restrictions: Missouri is one of only a few states not to allow nurse practitioners to practice independently without the authority of a physician. A House committee passed an amended version of one bill, HB 1773, sponsored by Rep. Chad Perkins, R-Bowling Green, that would allow nurses to practice independently after 6,000 hours of work under a physician's supervision. The bill was never placed on the House calendar, a roadblock which some nurses point to opposition from House Floor Leader Rep. Jonathan Patterson, R-Lee’s Summit.
Dmitry Martirosov, Molly Miller, Aidan Pittman, Grant Green and Madeline Shannon contributed to this story.
Cover image: State Representative Chantelle Nickson-Clark(cq) throws her papers at the end of the legislative session on Friday, May 17, 2024 at the Statehouse in Jefferson City. Nickson-Clark was the first Black woman elected to represent District 67 in St. Louis County in Nov. 2022.
2024.05.18 14:36 DazzlingExperience11 RO COMPLAINTS ALWAYS MAKE SENSE😂😂
This the daily RO’s we get here.
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2024.05.18 08:15 JzaDragon X-Men’s Bastion (1 Artificer/19 Necromancy Wizard)
A build for 5th edition Dungeons & Dragons
Sebastian Gilberti, a.k.a. Bastion, is a human/sentinel hybrid, the product of combining a master mold and a nimrod into a living person. Bastion is thus far proven to be immortal, infinitely calculating and patient but with a singular hatred for mutantkind from his Nimrod programming. Prior defeats had only refocused him into grander and deadlier returns, one time sending time portals from a robot apocalypse future with an endless wave of Nimrod sentinels to the X-Men’s timeline, resulting in multiple main character deaths just to be forestalled. For Bastion, there’s no such thing as overkill. He is the future incarnate.
Bastion:
8/14/15/14/12/8 with a +2 in Intelligence and a +1 in Constitution
1st level goes to Artificer to start with con save proficiency and medium armor, then the rest goes into wizard. ASIs are spent on maxing intelligence, getting Resilient:Wisdom, War Caster, and Subtle metamagic.
Level 1:
Artificer spells: morning prepare, int mod +1, so start with four, gain one at 5, and one at 9
Cantrips:
Cantrips:
Mighty Fortress:
Bastion has a lot of army building to do, so first order of business is going to have to be Mighty Fortress. You can make these permanent and even avoid the material cost by using Wish over the course of a year, so selling one can bankroll everything else you’ll be getting up to. When he’s ready, a Mighty Fortress of his own will serve as his Operation Zero Tolerance secure lab. There he can have all manner of sentinel and prime sentinel manufactory as well as stash his emergency Clone.
Simulacrum:
You’re going to be very busy with the various sentinel-making schemes, so perhaps your best course is to start with Simulacrums of yourself to multiply your efforts. These are your Nimrod model sentinels, any one of them a match for the X-Men themselves. The Wish spell casts Simulacrum instantly, and even duplicates of yourself without a 9th slot gets things moving at a dizzying rate. A Boon of High Magic to have a spare 9th slot circumvents this, if desired.
True Polymorph:
Simulacrums have your Spell Masteries as at-will options but otherwise don’t get slots back, so a spent Simulacrum can still be made useful with True Polymorph, turning it into another creature of a cr equal to its level for one hour. Here I go with the Ogremoch, a cr 20 gargantuan earth elemental with over 500 hp, making them a kaiju-sized godzilla sentinel like the one that flattened Genosha, able to deal double AND maximized damage to structures due to the Siege Monster trait and its attacks being adamantine. It also resist magic, has legendary resistances and legendary actions. By taking from its own hp, Ogremach is able to also deploy a swarm of earth elementals and gargoyles as its own fleet of sentinels from its own body.
Awakening:
As detailed in my Sentinel build, I outlined a way to make a huge sized construct into a Warrior sidekick that is able to level up alongside you. With a Ravnica background you are able to add the Awaken spell, which with Nystul’s Magic Aura confusing what creature counts as a plant, you give intelligence and language to a cr 0 stone giant construct. If you can’t find a stone giant construct, True Polymorph’s object into creature option can make one for you, permanently. Nystul’s and Awakening and it then can qualify as a sidekick, helped with True Polymorph adding the detail that it is friendly to you, and it can then gain attack actions and the full breadth of leveling for a Warrior Sidekick which is basically a discount Fighter. Keep these alive through enough fights and these too can rise to level 20.
Command Undead:
If you won’t be leveling a sidekick from 1 and need a Sentinel on the fly, the object into creature option of True Polymorph has an upper cr limit of 9. A good contender here is a Barrowghast, a cr 7 huge undead with good hp, a slam attack and a strength drain that raises a zombie with each humanoid it can kill by draining. Conjure the Barrowghast and concentrate for 1 hour to make it permanent, then immediately use Command Undead. It has to fail a Charisma save in which it has -2, then becomes your loyal ally indefinitely, limit of 1.
Summon Greater Demon:
Bastion’s most important aspect is his ability to mass produce prime sentinels, a seemingly endless supply of human-sized minions to fight on his behalf. The Planar Binding spell helps make this possible, turning what is normally an hour summon into a year-long one. Using the secret lab home base, a Glyph of Warding with a precast Magic Circle to contain a demon has Summon Greater Demon cast over it, upcast to a 6th to be able to pull in a cr 7 Maurezhi. Maurezhi is able to assume the appearance of a humanoid it eats for 1d6 days, making them capable of assuming that person’s life. Its claws can paralyze and its bite can kill by draining a target’s Charisma score with no save, dying immediately if it drops to 0, and if that target is a humanoid, they are raised again as a Ghoul, a cr1 undead that can also paralyze with its attack.
Create Undead:
The 6th level spell Create Undead gives you the ability to make stronger undead minions. Cast as a 6th slot, you can raise three Ghouls; each level upcast increases the number and strength of your summons, up to a 9th slot raising six ghouls or three Ghasts, a cr 2 undead with a paralyzing attack and poisoning aura. Ghouls and Ghasts are significant because the Maurezhi reraises fallen Ghouls and Ghasts with a 5 or 6 recharge; by having multiple Planar Bound Maurezhis, you can keep this very frequent. Not reraisable by a Maurezhi but also available from upcasting Create Undead to an 8th slot are Wights which can raise their own set of zombies. They can control up to 12 but if you just don’t care about controlling zombies then it’s only limited by the number of humanoids they can slay.
Animate Dead:
Speaking of zombies, Animate Dead is doubly efficient for a Necro wizard. Raise Zombies for minions that can resist being destroyed or Skeletons for minions with a solid ranged attack. A single bonus action can command all zombies or skeletons within 60’ of you, potentially hundreds at a time, but if by the Sanctuary spell or a magic item mentioned below you aren’t concerned about who they attack, simply let them loose near to your enemies.
Demiplane:
A fun trick with hordes of undead is to pack them into a Demiplane spell. Demiplane is an 8th level spell that creates a 30 cubic foot pocket space. Skeletons and Zombies don’t need to breathe or be comfortable, so fill the whole thing up. Per Squeezing rule, a creature can squeeze into a space made for one size category smaller than itself, so a large creature that is 10’ long, wide, and high, could squeeze into a 5’ cube. Or to put it in other words, eight large creatures could cram into 10’ cubic feet if they all squeezed and stacked up neatly. Demiplane’s 30 cubic feet is 176 squares, meaning you could have up to one thousand, seven hundred and twenty-eight medium undead dudes all human pyramidding in there, floor to ceiling. The Demiplane then seals and remains that way until such time as you cast it again, opening it up for a veritable army of uncontrolled minions to pour out of. The door remains open for a full hour, giving them enough time to pop out and get running. Point the exit to any living victims and let their nature do the rest.
Sanctuary:
Whatever the size of Bastion’s army, targeting you won’t end it, as you have Contingency Dimension Door as well as Clone for exiting a losing fight, and your horde can operate just fine without you being present. You can also easily maintain Sanctuary on yourself, forcing casters to risk wasting slots, even with Dispel Magic. Furthermore, Wither and Bloom is a spell mastery for you and doesn’t have to deal damage at all for the healing to work, so you can spend every round healing a minion of your choice for 1 hit die + your int mod. Sanctuary doesn’t prevent AoE spells such as Fireball, but Charm Person cast before Sanctuary would, as the charmed condition prevents them from causing damage to you, thereby also protecting the minions in your immediate vicinity, and if you upcast Charm Person you can select multiple enemy casters at once. In short, you discourage quick solutions to dealing with you or your army, making every last hit point of your horde matter. If and when you choose to end Sanctuary so you can affect an enemy with damage or control, Bastion has a solid AC and can manage his own hp with Wither and Bloom, Cure Wounds, and Grim Harvest.
Magic Item Wishlist:
submitted by JzaDragon to 3d6 [link] [comments]
Sebastian Gilberti, a.k.a. Bastion, is a human/sentinel hybrid, the product of combining a master mold and a nimrod into a living person. Bastion is thus far proven to be immortal, infinitely calculating and patient but with a singular hatred for mutantkind from his Nimrod programming. Prior defeats had only refocused him into grander and deadlier returns, one time sending time portals from a robot apocalypse future with an endless wave of Nimrod sentinels to the X-Men’s timeline, resulting in multiple main character deaths just to be forestalled. For Bastion, there’s no such thing as overkill. He is the future incarnate.
Bastion:
8/14/15/14/12/8 with a +2 in Intelligence and a +1 in Constitution
- Kalashtar as race, getting the pink skin and white hair, resistance to psychic damage and advantage on wisdom saves, and the ability to telepathically communicate with your minions
- Arcana and Investigation as an Artificer, Smith’s (Tinker’s?) tools
- Selesnya Initiate background from Ravnica for a spell choice later
- Medicine and History from the Selesnya background
1st level goes to Artificer to start with con save proficiency and medium armor, then the rest goes into wizard. ASIs are spent on maxing intelligence, getting Resilient:Wisdom, War Caster, and Subtle metamagic.
Level 1:
Artificer spells: morning prepare, int mod +1, so start with four, gain one at 5, and one at 9
Cantrips:
- Fire Bolt - your standard energy beam
- Thorn Whip - snag and pull at an enemy
- Cure Wounds - for self-repair mid-combat
- Sanctuary - deter spells and attacks at you as well as your minions from turning on you
- Faerie Fire - aid the targeting of your minions
- Expeditious Retreat - activate your jet booster to swiftly navigate the battlefield
- Absorb Elements - raise a forcefield to deflect energy-based attacks
- Feather Fall - employ your jet heels to prevent falling from midair
- Arcane Recovery: restore a number of spell slots equal to half your wizard level (rounding up), effectively a second cast of your highest slot up to 6th level spells, or more plentiful lower slots if you need those more.
- Grim Harvest: heal after killing a creature with a leveled spell. Healing amount is twice the spell’s level, or three times if it was a necromancy spell. For instance Disintegrate at 6th level would heal 12 hp, but Circle of Death at 6th level would heal 18.
- 6: Undead Thralls: double the minions for casts of Animate Dead, and minions raised by a spell have your wizard level of extra HP and your proficiency bonus added to their damage
- 10: Inured to Death: gain necrotic damage resistance and your max hp can’t be reduced
- 14: Command Undead: as an action you can take control of any undead with no upper duration limit, and limited only by its intelligence score.
- Spell Mastery: choose a 1st and 2nd wizard spell to be at-will
- Mage Armor: I liken this to the cyborg appearance when a prime sentinel activates. Touch a creature and their AC will be 13+dex. Every minion gets 2 or 3 ac out of this.
- Wither and Bloom: for easy healing of your undead minions and extra value out of Grim Harvest; half damage on save means efficient clearing of commoners for some fast corpses. Ghasts in particular have 8 hit dice, so they can extent their hit points to a maximum of 8d8+40, or around 76 extra hp.
Cantrips:
- Chill Touch - fire a beam of concentrated darkness that deadens healing
- Minor Illusion - tune a nearby radio to play your favorite classic song
- Mage Hand - shape your electric cables into a hand to reach things with
- Mending - use your technopathy to repair broken parts
- Sword Burst - spin with your metallic wings to slash everything around you
- Magic Missile - produce several laser guns at once to fire a barrage
- Shield - raise a forcefield to deflect attacks
- Charm Person - you’re unsettlingly charmful and relaxed for someone so dangerous
- Disguise Self - for alternating looks between cyborg and man
- Hideous Laughter - hold a target helpless and prone in your wires
- Detect Magic - read tech with your technopathy and sense mutant powers with your Nimrod half
- Snare - a defensive trap to ensnare approaches in wires
- Identify - read tech with your technopathy, finding the inner workings of magic items
- Hold Person - paralyze an enemy in wires
- Levitate - lift some helplessly before you
- Misty Step - teleport in or out of spaces in combat
- Wither and Bloom - sap at your enemies while bolster
- Nystul’s Magic Aura - for making Sentinels, explained below
- Animate Dead - your base minions, in extra durable or ranged attacking varieties
- Glyph of Warding - to interact with Planar Binding
- Magic Circle - to interact with Planar Binding
- Counterspell - analyze mutant powers and deploy reactive countermeasures ala Nimrod
- Dispel Magic - disrupt mutant powers with a Nimrod energy blast
- Dimension Door - open a portal to teleport through
- Summon Greater Demon - upcast as a 6th slot to pull in a Maurezhi, explained below
- Awaken - picked up from the Selesnya Initiate background. For making Sentinels, explained below
- Planar Binding - for permanently retaining a Maurezhi summon
- Create Undead - Summon Ghouls and Ghasts which can be reraised by a summoned Maurezhi
- Arcane Gate - open a portal to teleport the whole army
- Contingency - an emergency Dimension Door to exit a losing fight
- Tasha’s Otherworldly Guise - take your Nimrod form and create metallic wings and armor fight and fly.
- Simulacrum - make a copy of yourself to speed up the prime sentinel making process
- Finger of Death - blast a heavy necrotic damage ray that raises a slain target as a permanently controlled zombie
- Clone - a backup body, effectively immortality
- Mighty Fortress - your hidden lab and headquarters
- Demiplane - zombie storage unit
- Wish - for expediting the army manufactory
- True Polymorph - for creating sentinels
- Imprisonment - for keeping Magnetos in their prison attire for their regular shaving
Mighty Fortress:
Bastion has a lot of army building to do, so first order of business is going to have to be Mighty Fortress. You can make these permanent and even avoid the material cost by using Wish over the course of a year, so selling one can bankroll everything else you’ll be getting up to. When he’s ready, a Mighty Fortress of his own will serve as his Operation Zero Tolerance secure lab. There he can have all manner of sentinel and prime sentinel manufactory as well as stash his emergency Clone.
Simulacrum:
You’re going to be very busy with the various sentinel-making schemes, so perhaps your best course is to start with Simulacrums of yourself to multiply your efforts. These are your Nimrod model sentinels, any one of them a match for the X-Men themselves. The Wish spell casts Simulacrum instantly, and even duplicates of yourself without a 9th slot gets things moving at a dizzying rate. A Boon of High Magic to have a spare 9th slot circumvents this, if desired.
True Polymorph:
Simulacrums have your Spell Masteries as at-will options but otherwise don’t get slots back, so a spent Simulacrum can still be made useful with True Polymorph, turning it into another creature of a cr equal to its level for one hour. Here I go with the Ogremoch, a cr 20 gargantuan earth elemental with over 500 hp, making them a kaiju-sized godzilla sentinel like the one that flattened Genosha, able to deal double AND maximized damage to structures due to the Siege Monster trait and its attacks being adamantine. It also resist magic, has legendary resistances and legendary actions. By taking from its own hp, Ogremach is able to also deploy a swarm of earth elementals and gargoyles as its own fleet of sentinels from its own body.
Awakening:
As detailed in my Sentinel build, I outlined a way to make a huge sized construct into a Warrior sidekick that is able to level up alongside you. With a Ravnica background you are able to add the Awaken spell, which with Nystul’s Magic Aura confusing what creature counts as a plant, you give intelligence and language to a cr 0 stone giant construct. If you can’t find a stone giant construct, True Polymorph’s object into creature option can make one for you, permanently. Nystul’s and Awakening and it then can qualify as a sidekick, helped with True Polymorph adding the detail that it is friendly to you, and it can then gain attack actions and the full breadth of leveling for a Warrior Sidekick which is basically a discount Fighter. Keep these alive through enough fights and these too can rise to level 20.
Command Undead:
If you won’t be leveling a sidekick from 1 and need a Sentinel on the fly, the object into creature option of True Polymorph has an upper cr limit of 9. A good contender here is a Barrowghast, a cr 7 huge undead with good hp, a slam attack and a strength drain that raises a zombie with each humanoid it can kill by draining. Conjure the Barrowghast and concentrate for 1 hour to make it permanent, then immediately use Command Undead. It has to fail a Charisma save in which it has -2, then becomes your loyal ally indefinitely, limit of 1.
Summon Greater Demon:
Bastion’s most important aspect is his ability to mass produce prime sentinels, a seemingly endless supply of human-sized minions to fight on his behalf. The Planar Binding spell helps make this possible, turning what is normally an hour summon into a year-long one. Using the secret lab home base, a Glyph of Warding with a precast Magic Circle to contain a demon has Summon Greater Demon cast over it, upcast to a 6th to be able to pull in a cr 7 Maurezhi. Maurezhi is able to assume the appearance of a humanoid it eats for 1d6 days, making them capable of assuming that person’s life. Its claws can paralyze and its bite can kill by draining a target’s Charisma score with no save, dying immediately if it drops to 0, and if that target is a humanoid, they are raised again as a Ghoul, a cr1 undead that can also paralyze with its attack.
Create Undead:
The 6th level spell Create Undead gives you the ability to make stronger undead minions. Cast as a 6th slot, you can raise three Ghouls; each level upcast increases the number and strength of your summons, up to a 9th slot raising six ghouls or three Ghasts, a cr 2 undead with a paralyzing attack and poisoning aura. Ghouls and Ghasts are significant because the Maurezhi reraises fallen Ghouls and Ghasts with a 5 or 6 recharge; by having multiple Planar Bound Maurezhis, you can keep this very frequent. Not reraisable by a Maurezhi but also available from upcasting Create Undead to an 8th slot are Wights which can raise their own set of zombies. They can control up to 12 but if you just don’t care about controlling zombies then it’s only limited by the number of humanoids they can slay.
Animate Dead:
Speaking of zombies, Animate Dead is doubly efficient for a Necro wizard. Raise Zombies for minions that can resist being destroyed or Skeletons for minions with a solid ranged attack. A single bonus action can command all zombies or skeletons within 60’ of you, potentially hundreds at a time, but if by the Sanctuary spell or a magic item mentioned below you aren’t concerned about who they attack, simply let them loose near to your enemies.
Demiplane:
A fun trick with hordes of undead is to pack them into a Demiplane spell. Demiplane is an 8th level spell that creates a 30 cubic foot pocket space. Skeletons and Zombies don’t need to breathe or be comfortable, so fill the whole thing up. Per Squeezing rule, a creature can squeeze into a space made for one size category smaller than itself, so a large creature that is 10’ long, wide, and high, could squeeze into a 5’ cube. Or to put it in other words, eight large creatures could cram into 10’ cubic feet if they all squeezed and stacked up neatly. Demiplane’s 30 cubic feet is 176 squares, meaning you could have up to one thousand, seven hundred and twenty-eight medium undead dudes all human pyramidding in there, floor to ceiling. The Demiplane then seals and remains that way until such time as you cast it again, opening it up for a veritable army of uncontrolled minions to pour out of. The door remains open for a full hour, giving them enough time to pop out and get running. Point the exit to any living victims and let their nature do the rest.
Sanctuary:
Whatever the size of Bastion’s army, targeting you won’t end it, as you have Contingency Dimension Door as well as Clone for exiting a losing fight, and your horde can operate just fine without you being present. You can also easily maintain Sanctuary on yourself, forcing casters to risk wasting slots, even with Dispel Magic. Furthermore, Wither and Bloom is a spell mastery for you and doesn’t have to deal damage at all for the healing to work, so you can spend every round healing a minion of your choice for 1 hit die + your int mod. Sanctuary doesn’t prevent AoE spells such as Fireball, but Charm Person cast before Sanctuary would, as the charmed condition prevents them from causing damage to you, thereby also protecting the minions in your immediate vicinity, and if you upcast Charm Person you can select multiple enemy casters at once. In short, you discourage quick solutions to dealing with you or your army, making every last hit point of your horde matter. If and when you choose to end Sanctuary so you can affect an enemy with damage or control, Bastion has a solid AC and can manage his own hp with Wither and Bloom, Cure Wounds, and Grim Harvest.
Magic Item Wishlist:
- Staff of the Forgotten One - undead cr 2 and lower won’t attack you. This includes all zombies, skeletons, ghouls and ghasts. Maurezhi are Planar Bound and can’t attack you anyway.
- Libram of Souls and Flesh - spellbook with several necromancy spells, swap a prepared
- +1/2/3 Arcane Grimoire
- +1/2/3 half-plate armor
- Portable Hole - keep a pocket dimension of extra humanoid corpses to raise as needed
- Cubic Gate - for time travel portals, portals to collect stone giant sentinels, and stronger Command Undeads such as Nightwalker
- Boon of High Magic - have an extra 9th slot, perfect for Wishing a simulacrum that can also immediately Wish up a simulacrum.
2024.05.18 08:00 r-nasa-mods New usajobs.gov NASA postings as of Saturday May 18, 2024
Aerospace Engineer, AST, Aerospace Flight Systems (Direct Hire)
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Grade: GS-13John F. Kennedy Space Center
The position of Aerospace Engineer, AST, Aerospace Flight Systems, in the Flight Dynamics Branch of the NASA Launch Services Program, requires experience in software coding practices for commercial launch vehicle providers and applicable industry and government software standards. These skills are employed to support requirements development/verification, independent assessment and analysis, process monitoring, and technical interchanges with launch service providers and spacecraft customers.General Engineer, AST, Technical Management (Direct Hire)
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Grade: GS-14Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center
You will serve as a Technical Management Engineer advising on, coordinating, monitoring, maintaining surveillance over, supervising and/or performing a variety of technical managerial functions of aerospace and aeronautical research, development, design, test, and operations efforts.Research Chemical Engineer, AST, Aerospace Polymeric Materials (Direct Hire)
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Grade: GS-12/13John Glenn Research Center at Lewis Field
As a Research Chemical Engineer with the Materials and Structures Division, Ceramic and Polymer Composites Branch, you will develop polymer-based materials for aerospace applications that support projects addressing both traditional NASA technology strengths and emerging materials for new applications, including thermoplastics development for exploration, advanced high-rate processes for polymers and polymer matrix composite through the understanding of material chemistry and process controls.Supervisory Information Technology Specialist (Direct Hire)
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Grade: GS-15George C. Marshall Space Flight Center
As a Supervisory IT Specialist (Office Chief), within the Networks and Telecommunications Services (NaTS) Service Line, you will be responsible for establishing modernization policies, procedures, schedules, resources, and security of the systems that deliver IT services. You will manage a team of highly skilled specialists in integrating, operating, securing, and planning of enterprise and mission network systems.Supervisory General Engineer (Direct Hire)
GSFC-24-DE-12415346-SF
Grade: GS-15Goddard Space Flight Center
This position serves as Head of the Planning Office with immediate responsibility of directing, coordinating and reviewing the planning for the Center's construction, modification, maintenance, and repair activities at the Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC). This Office plays the lead role in developing tangible justification and advocacy for design and construction funding from NASA Headquarters. The work involves the gathering and developing of requirements that define projects.Mechanical Engineer (Direct Hire)
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Grade: GS-12/13Goddard Space Flight Center
As a Mechanical Engineer with the Facilities Engineering Branch, you will serve as the junior Mechanical Engineer for all facilities at the Greenbelt campus of the Goddard Space Flight Center. You will support the Lead Mechanical Engineer and Engineering Branch Head in overseeing all campus mechanical system design and construction projects to include high and low pressure steam, chilled and domestic water, compressed air, HVAC systems, and specialty lab requirements.Lead Budget Analyst (Direct Hire)
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Grade: GS-14George C. Marshall Space Flight Center
As a lead Budget Analyst, assigned to the Office of Chief Financial Officer (OCFO), provides the overall planning, integration, expertise, and analysis of budget operations as well as all aspects of the Planning, Programming, Budgeting, and Execution (PPBE) to include the formulation, presentation, enactment and/or execution phases of the budgetary process. Is responsible to lead other analysts in the execution of their duties.Management and Program Analyst (Direct Hire)
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Grade: GS-13/14Headquarters, NASA
As a Management and Program Analyst with the Office of the Administrator, Office of the Executive Secretariat, Audit Liaison Program Team, you will be responsible for interfacing with external audit organizations to ensure timely, accurate and relevant communication and coordination of external audit activities among and between NASA's Audit Liaison Representatives, Agency management, and technical points-of-contact.2024.05.18 07:17 FancyInvestment397 Best Offshore Sportsbooks in 2024
 | With the best offshore sportsbooks legally available in almost every state, betting on sports has never been easier. Better yet, offshore sportsbooks provide early betting lines and the most competitive odds. submitted by FancyInvestment397 to GamblingSites [link] [comments] Sounds good so far, but let’s see what else these sites have to offer. And yes, there will be bonuses. Best Offshore Sportsbooks Top 10 Offshore Sportsbooks ComparedThe best offshore sportsbooks have a lot in common, but that doesn’t mean they’re all the same. Check out the table below to see the different features at the top 10 offshore sportsbooks in the US.
5 of the Best Offshore Sportsbooks ReviewedYou’ve seen a snapshot of our take on the best offshore betting sites. Now let’s take a deeper dive into why these bookmakers are top of the pile with our offshore betting reviews.1. BetOnline Sportsbook – The Best All-Round Offshore Sportsbook
Our Verdict 9.6/10BetOnline heads our list of top offshore online sportsbooks for several reasons. First off, it offers more markets than nearly all other offshore betting sites. It also goes well beyond the basics to cover niches like darts, handball, snooker, financials, and politics.BetOnline has been around for a long time and has built a reputation for providing early betting lines and super competitive odds.While we would like to see live streaming, the live betting lines are second to none. As far as banking options go, you’re well covered with card and cryptocurrencies support. The only drawback here is the credit card fees which are quite high. Features Overview
2. Bovada Sportsbook – The Leader in Live Betting Markets
Our Verdict 9.4/10When it comes to the best offshore sportsbooks, Bovada is perhaps the most recognizable brand. It’s a massively popular sportsbook with competitive odds and top coverage of sports including niche markets.Bovada has the best live betting lines in the industry with all odds and scores updated in real-time and a massive range of markets for each event.Bovada’s prop builder is another highlight that makes bet suggestion for your bet slip. There are very few ongoing promos, but there’s a great loyalty program that makes up for this. There’s a good range of banking options and a boosted welcome pack for signing up with crypto. Features Overview
3. BetWhale Sportsbook – Best for Live Streaming
Our Verdict 9.1/10BetWhale is one of the new kids on the block and offers big rewards for crypto users. In fact, there’s an unlimited crypto welcome bonus which is pretty amazing.One of the standout features at this offshore sportsbook is the live betting and live streaming features that work together seamlessly. You won’t get stream of all sports but there’s certainly enough to keep you going.As for payments, we;;, it stands to reason that there’s lots of support for crypto but you can also make card payments. Payouts here are super fast and can be processed in as little as a few minutes when using crypto. Features Overview
4. Everygame Sportsbook – Lots of Ongoing Promos
Our Verdict 9/10Everygame took its first bet in 1996 as Intertops. It’s one of the longest-running offshore sportsbooks in the world. And in that time this bookie has perfected its sports betting platform in every way imaginable.Everygame runs some great ongoing promos such as the weekly draws where you can pick up some free bets. These draws are for anyone that makes in-play parlay wagers.The selection of prop bets could improve while we’d also like to see live streaming. But the range of futures and other bets makes this a minor flaw in an otherwise perfect sportsbook. Features Overview
5. TG.Casino Sportsbook – Best Crypto Offshore Sportsbook
Our Verdict 8.9/10TG.Casino Sportsbook is unique among the best offshore sportsbooks for its long list of sports betting markets. For an offshore betting site that started out as a casino, this is one seriously impressive site.One of the unique features of TG.Casino is the markets if offers on esports leagues and tournaments. You’ll struggle to find another sportsbook that covers the likes of Rocket League and Call of Duty.On the banking side of things, this is a crypto offshore sportsbook, but you can buy crypto through the site using your card. There’s even a native coin $TGC that you can invest in and use to when betting. Features Overview
Bonuses Available at Offshore Sports Betting SitesOne of the best things about offshore online sports betting sites is that you get access to the best sportsbook bonuses in the industry. In fact, these offers are usually much higher in value that any you’ll find at state-licensed sportsbooks.Here are a few of the most common bonuses to look out for. Welcome BonusesIf you sign up for a new account you’ll get a nice big welcome bonus. This is usually a deposit match bonus but may also include a free bet or bonus bet. These bonuses can only be used once when you sign up and are often high in value.Deposit Match BonusesThis bonus matches your deposit by a certain percentage up to a max amount like 100% up to $500. It’s a very simple bonus that just rewards you for putting more money in your account.No Deposit BonusesThis is like the triple-double of sports betting bonuses in that it’s super rare. The no deposit bonus gives you free credit to use at the offshore sportsbook. It’s usually low in value, but hey, it’s free.Bonus BetsThese are free wagers that are sometimes part of a welcome package or thrown in with deposit match bonuses. Any winnings from a bonus bet are yours to keep minus the stake. So a $25 bonus bet that returns $75 will see you pocket $50.Ongoing PromotionsThese are offers that are available to you as a regular customer. They can be bonuses for making deposits, bonus bets, special bets on certain events or parlay offers. One of the most popular ongoing promos is the odds boosts… which brings us to our next bonus.Odds BoostsThis offer will enhance or ‘boost’ the odds for a particular wager which means more potential profits for you. These are almost always offered on a specific event or wager type for an event or sport.Parlay InsuranceA parlay bet is made up of legs and this promos insures your overall wager if you lose by one leg. You won’t get your winnings, but you will get your stake or part of your stake back.Loyalty BonusesThese are offers that are only available through a sportsbook loyalty program. These can be any of the bonuses listed above or even real world prizes like tickets to a game.Payment MethodsAvailable payment methods at top offshore sportsbooks generally fall into two main categories: crypto and traditional. Below, you can read more on these banking options and find out if there are any offshore sportsbooks that accept PayPal.CryptocurrenciesCrypto like Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Litecoin allow for fast deposits and withdrawals with no fees (outside of small mining charges). You also don’t have to worry about dealing with third parties like banks or credit card companies.Traditional Payment MethodsCredit cards and debit cards are easy to use, but they may come with fees and aren’t available for withdrawals. Some sportsbooks let you use bank wire, but you’re potentially looking at high fees here too.eWalletsAt the time of writing, there are no offshore sportsbooks that accept PayPal, or other popular eWallets like Neteller and Skrill. This is unfortunate on one hand because eWallets deliver fast withdrawals. But on the other hand, they charge up to 3% fees on sportsbook cashouts.Types of Bets at Offshore SportsbooksThe best offshore sports betting sites feature a wide range of bet types. Here’s what to expect regarding different kinds of wagers:
Popular Sports at the Best Offshore SportsbooksMost of the top offshore betting sites feature 20 sports or more. That means you’ll have no shortage of markets to wager on at these sportsbooks.Here are some of the most popular sports that boast the most markets at US offshore sportsbooks. NFL The NFL is the premier US sport in terms of fanfare and betting. Sportsbooks go crazy every fall with many NFL prop bets, live wagering options, spreads, and moneylines. Just about any offshore sportsbook will have an impressive selection. But if you’re looking for the absolute best NFL sportsbook, then you should head to BetOnline. This bookmaker covers pro football better than any other. NBA The NBA offers many wagering opportunities thanks to its 82-game season and lengthy postseason. Totals bets and player props are especially popular due to the NBA’s high-scoring nature. It’s always fun wagering on how many points a certain player will score. As for where you should bet on NBA games, Everygame stands out due to its consistent basketball coverage throughout the entire season. MLB Pro baseball takes the prize for the longest season at 162 games per team. MLB player props and same game parlays are quite popular among baseball bettors. You’ll commonly see props involving pitchers and home runs. This is especially true at Bovada, which has a loaded MLB betting section. NHL NHL betting is quite popular in northern states, or any metropolitan area with a good hockey team. It provides the chance to make unique bets like puck lines and period wagers. Of course, you can place common wagers on hockey too like moneylines, parlays, and live bets. And where is best to place these wagers? BetNow is a leading NHL sportsbook thanks to its massive range of hockey bets. NCAA Football & Basketball No restrictions exist on college sports betting at offshore sportsbook sites. Contrast this to some regulated markets, where you can’t bet on in-state teams or any college teams at all in some cases. NCAA football is extremely popular at offshore sports betting sites during fall while March Madness is the big draw for college basketball. BetUS is a good site for both college football and basketball wagering as it has lots of picks and predictions on its BetUS TV shows. Golf While golf may not featuring exciting dunks or home runs, it still pulls in a lot of action at sportsbooks. You’ll find lots of props, live wagers, and futures when the four Majors roll around. That said, mark your calendar for the PGA Championship, Masters, US Open, and British Open. You might also want to open a Bovada account because we’ve found it to be the top golf sportsbooks. Horse Racing Horse racing may feel like it’s past its glory days, but it still pulls in the crowds at sportsbooks. Major races for betting purposes include the Kentucky Derby, Belmont Stakes, Preakness, Breeders’ Cup, and Grand National. If you like horse racing betting, keep in mind that MyBookie provides an 8% rebate for horse bettors. Esports Esports betting gains more and more popularity with each passing year. It offers well over a dozen markets, with examples being LoL, CS:GO, Dota 2, Fortnite, and Rocket League. There are even live betting markets now for tournaments. As for where to bet, we like the esports market selection at TG.Casino. Other Sports Some other popular sports among American bettors include boxing, MMA, soccer, and tennis. These sports each have major events and fights (boxing/MMA) throughout the year. They’re also popular among international crowds and draw bettors from around the globe. Jazz Sportsbook is a nice sportsbook for these popular secondary markets because it caters so well to international bettors. What is an Offshore Sportsbook?Offshore sportsbooks are betting sites that are licensed by regulators outside the US such as Costa Rica, Curacao, or Panama. These licenses typically allow operators to serve multiple countries including the US.This means that offshore betting sites are not regulated at state level but they are regulated by those offshore gaming authorities. The best offshore sportsbooks offer the same betting products, odds, and services as their state-licensed counterparts. We’d even say they offer better in many cases, but more on that later. Are Offshore Sportsbooks Safe?That’s the big question, right? And the simple answer is a resounding yes.Top offshore sportsbooks are all fully licensed by respected gaming authorities. This means that they need to prove to the regulator that they are above board and have the right security measures in place to protect you and your money. This means that they are perfectly safe to use in the USA. The same also applies in other countries, such as the UK, where you can bet at betting sites that are not on Gamstop. These sites are not regulated by the UK Gambling Commission, but they are still safe and legal to use. Why Bet at Offshore Sportsbooks?Offshore betting sites have been hugely successful for a long time now, so why is it that bettors keep using them? Well, here are a few of the major benefits to using offshore sportsbooks.
Is Sports Betting Legal in the US?Sports betting is legal in the US. The Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act (PASPA) used to prevent sportsbooks on the internet from operating directly on American soil. But the 2018 repeal of PASPA gave states the right to regulate sports gambling. Many states have taken advantage of this opportunity since 2018.No federal laws ban offshore sports betting. As a result, some offshore sportsbooks have been legally serving Americans for decades. BetUS, for example, has been in the offshore betting industry since 1994. You can deposit and place wagers at the best offshore sportsbooks without any worries. This is because no US citizen has ever been prosecuted for offshore online betting. Offshore Sports Betting on MobileYou won’t find offshore sportsbook apps at any of our recommended bookmakers. But you can still wager through a smartphone or tablet at any of the best offshore sportsbooks. Our top 10 recommended operators offer mobile betting through their websites.You just need to visit your the site on your mobile device. From there, you can sign up, deposit, and start placing wagers. You’ll find that offshore mobile sportsbooks are every bit as good as dedicated apps. Pros & Cons of Mobile Offshore Sportsbooks vs DesktopWhile offshore sports betting apps are few and far between, you can still bet through offshore mobile sportsbook sites. But how do they compare to desktop sites?Pros
Do You Have to Pay Taxes on Offshore Sportsbooks?The IRS requires you to report any type of income, including winnings at gambling sites. State-licensed betting sites stick to this rule, reporting your winnings to the IRS if you make of over $600 in the year.By contrast, offshore sportsbooks don’t report anything to American tax authorities. We still recommend that you pay taxes on sports betting winnings for legal purposes and it is best to speak to a tax professional. Responsible GamblingThe best offshore sports betting sites make a commitment to responsible gambling. This includes tools that promote responsible betting such as:
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2024.05.18 00:32 stranglethebars How would you distribute the blame for the way the relationship between NATO/the US and Russia/the USSR developed from e.g. 1990 to 2004? Did, for instance, either side behave more provocatively than the other in the early 90s, thereby "starting it"?
There are things like the gentlemen's agreement, according to which NATO wouldn't move an inch eastward if the USSR accepted Germany's unification:
From a Carnegie Endowment for International Peace article on Moldova/Transnistria:
submitted by stranglethebars to history [link] [comments]
Not once, but three times, Baker tried out the “not one inch eastward” formula with Gorbachev in the February 9, 1990, meeting. He agreed with Gorbachev’s statement in response to the assurances that “NATO expansion is unacceptable.” Baker assured Gorbachev that “neither the President nor I intend to extract any unilateral advantages from the processes that are taking place,” and that the Americans understood that “not only for the Soviet Union but for other European countries as well it is important to have guarantees that if the United States keeps its presence in Germany within the framework of NATO, not an inch of NATO’s present military jurisdiction will spread in an eastern direction.” (See Document 6)Also:
The idea that the Soviet Union was tricked in 1989-90 is at the heart of Russia’s confrontation with the west...
The current confrontation between Russia and the west is fuelled by many grievances, but the greatest is the belief in Moscow that the west tricked the former Soviet Union by breaking promises made at the end of the cold war in 1989-1990 that Nato would not expand to the east. In his now famous 2007 speech to the Munich Security Conference, Vladimir Putin accused the west of forgetting and breaking assurances, leaving international law in ruins.
What is the basis of the complaint?However, when exactly was the gentlemen's agreement broken according to Russia, and when did the USSRussia engage in debatable military activities? Russia intervened militarily in places like Georgia and Moldova in the early 90s. Meanwhile, the US intervened militarily in Panama in 1989 and in Iraq in 1991. I don't know to what extent events like the latter two influenced the Russians' attitudes.
At one level it narrowly focuses both on verbal commitments made by the US secretary of state James Baker under President George HW Bush and the terms of a treaty signed on 12 September 1990 setting out how Nato troops could operate in the territory of the former East Germany.
Putin claims that Baker, in a discussion on 9 February 1990 with the Soviet leader, Mikhail Gorbachev, made the promise that Nato would not expand to the east if Russia accepted Germany’s unification.
The following day Chancellor Helmut Kohl, ambiguous about Germany remaining in Nato after unification, also told Gorbachev “naturally Nato could not expand its territory to the current territory of the GDR”. The promise was repeated in a speech by the Nato secretary general on 17 May, a promise cited by Putin in his Munich speech. In his memoirs, Gorbachev described these assurances as the moment that cleared the way for compromise on Germany.
From a Carnegie Endowment for International Peace article on Moldova/Transnistria:
Transdniestria owes its existence as a quasi-independent entity to the brief war started in 1992 by Moscow-backed separatists who feared that Moldova would become part of Romania after the Soviet Union broke up. The war ended when Russia’s 14th Army, headquartered since the 1950s in what was the Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic (SSR), intervened on behalf of the separatists and defeated the forces of the newly independent Republic of Moldova.So, insofar as the NATO/US-Russia/USSR relationship developed for the worse from 1990 to 2004, would you attribute that mainly to factors related to US aggression/provocations, mainly to factors related to Russian aggression/provocations, or would you say that there's no obvious tendency? Either way, what do you consider the main events that contributed to increased tensions/hostility between the two sides?
2024.05.17 22:33 KillTheBatman2475 Reimagining The DCEU With "Superman Returns" As A Reboot To Kickstart The Franchise Earlier, Part 8 - Justice League: World's Finest Heroes
I've worked on a reimagining of the DCEU with the franchise starting in 2006 where the film for Superman released that year serves as a reboot. Phase 1 consists of Superman: Man Of Tomorrow, Wonder Woman: Warrior Of Truth, Batman: The Caped Crusader, Green Arrow: Emerald Archer, The Flash: Fastest Man Alive, Green Lantern Corps, and Superman II: Man Of Steel. Read each of these if you want to catch up.
Here's how Phase 1 brings each of the heroes together after they get their solo movies:
A few days later, Senator Finch heads to her office and is met by someone in her chair. The scene implies it's Lex Luthor, but we only see the sight of his mouth and not his full face. She demands to know what Lex wants and he wants her to approve a project he's working on that can provide better security and protection for the world, which Superman and other vigilantes can't. She refuses, at first, since she knows how it isn't about protecting the people and it's for himself, but he blackmails her by threatening her family and she's forced to comply with Lex's demands when threatened.
Cue Title Card: "Justice League: World's Finest Heroes"
The first scene has Lex Luthor bring the Legion of Doom together. He starts with Cheeta, Dark Archer, and Weather Wizard, whom he offers money and personal promises to convince them, then Scarecrow and Hector Hammond, last, who are a bit harder to persuade, but he finds ways around it to get them to join him. Hector Hammond is brought from his space prison when he's broken out by reprogrammed droids Brainiac used to control during the events of Superman II and are how Lex's property.
Lex has them gathered around a table with food for them and gives insight of his disdain for heroes and he wants their help in taking them down, in exchange he sticks to his promises for them. It's an uneasy alliance, but the villains have a common urge to get back at the heroes who've thwarted their goals, so they decide to agree to work together. Lex and Tommy Merlyn use their resources to give the villains upgrades. Scarecrow modifies his fear toxin & Hector Hammond rebuilds the body of Despotellis and has control over it instead of it controlling him while Weather Wizard, Cheeta, Dark Archer, and Lex are already strong in their own right, so they don't need many upgrades since their plan is coming into fruition.
The next scene shows Batman hearing about a heist taking place through the radio and taking the Batwing to investigate. It leads to a government facility and the closer he gets to the location, the worse the weather around him gets. He lands the Batwing out of sight & sneaks into the facility while using stealth to avoid being spotted by the intruders. He suspects an intruder following him and it's shown to be Green Arrow, who's annoyed by his snarkiness. They continue to use stealth to observe the intruders and at the right moment, they confront Scarecrow and Dark Archer, who are stealing robotic parts & weapons.
The first fight scene has Batman & Green Arrow work together against Scarecrow & Dark Archer, whose upgrades give them an advantage over the heroes. They hold their own as they fight them, but Scarecrow releases a dose of upgraded fear toxin and spreads it through the facility. Batman and Green Arrow relive their greatest fears, which is Bruce hallucinating a Gotham City in ruins from his failure to protect it and Oliver being stuck on the island he fought hard to escape and as the effects get worse, Batman finds an antidote in his utility belt while getting himself and Oliver out of the facility to cure him of the effects.
Scarecrow and Dark Archer are backed up by Weather Wizard and Dark Archer, so it seems they're outnumbered until Superman, Wonder Woman, and The Flash show up to stop them and it has the second fight scene shows the heroes trying to stop the villains. In contrast, the villains have an easier time syncing with each other to fulfill the tasks Lex gave to them while the heroes aren't off to a good start working together but are doing their best to communicate. Hector Hammond arrives in an airship provided by Lex with a rebuilt version of Despotellis, whom he orders to take them down. Hector Hammond's arrival gives the Legion of Doom an advantage over the heroes and Despotellis makes a challenging opponent for them to evade.
Just as it seems the heroes are outmatched, Green Lantern arrives to come to their aid and it forces the villains to quickly escape before they can be caught with help from Hector Hammond & a few of Lex's droids. The heroes recover from the damage dealt to them and their time regrouping has them get to know each other while Batman is a bit weary of their presence and investigates any traces left in the government facility. Batman uses detective vision to deduce how the villains stole the robotic parts and weapons from the facility and Superman meets with him to help. Batman shows the others what he deduced in the facility and believes whatever they're planning and whoever's in charge of them, it'll have them all targeted. Superman and Wonder Woman think it's best if they work together to find out why each of their villains is working together and they suspect different reasons as to why.
The heroes get on the same page and Superman tries convincing Batman to work with them, but he isn't willing to work with them yet since he prefers to settle his business in Gotham City to analyze what he found with his detective vision. Before Superman can try convincing Batman again, he enters the Batwing and leaves while the heroes are left to think of a plan. Superman suspects the person behind this is Lex Luthor from what his super-hearing gathered from the conversation between the villains during the heist.
Back in the Batcave, Bruce and Alfred analyze the evidence found in the government facility to deduce what the villains were after, and how and why Scarecrow is involved since it's part of something bigger than Gotham City. Alfred suggests he should work with the other heroes since he can't face them alone. Bruce refuses, at first, since while he can work with others, he doesn't feel comfortable with working alongside other heroes since Gotham City is where his business lies. Alfred persists in convincing Bruce to give it a chance since there's a bigger world out there amongst Gotham City and it's a chance to do more than just fight criminals since the situation is bigger than himself, which has Bruce reluctantly agree to give it a chance since he still feels skeptical of working with other heroes.
Superman and Wonder Woman bring together Green Arrow, Green Lantern, and The Flash with Batman secretly following them from the shadows to observe their capabilities and decide if it's right to join them. Superman gets a lead on an operation by Ceasar Carlini, a crime boss in Metropolis working for Lex to smuggle weapons for him. The heroes quickly dismantle their operation with Batman in the background who takes down a few of their men, unknown to them. Superman tries to interrogate Carlini, who tries to not be intimidated since he knows the heroes won't do anything rash until Batman appears and breaks a few of his bones to get answers, which has him admit he's working for someone, but the figure is anonymous and has power over his operations.
Superman suspects the figure he's talking about is Lex and tells Batman to let him go. Outside of the area while the police arrest Carlini and his men, Batman tells Superman he's decided to agree to work with them and says meet him in the Batcave for planning and strategy. Superman uses his X-ray vision to see who Batman is, but the material in his suit prevents him from getting an image of his identity, which makes him a bit suspicious of Batman accepting his offer, but he decides to trust him.
The heroes follow Batman to the Batcave and Alfred is above them in Wayne Manor so they don't know his identity yet. The Flash explores areas of the Batcave with this super speed and thinks it's quite cool, but Batman warns him to not break anything. Batman debriefs them on his findings from the government facility during their first encounter with them and the evidence he has is the robotic parts & weapons used to be part of a former government project Lex Luthor had developed before it was rejected for being deemed as too dangerous for them to use, which has them figure out Lex is behind this and it's why he formed his own "Legion of Doom" to distract them.
Batman asks for an explanation of what abilities the heroes have and they give a brief rundown of their capabilities. Superman's abilities concern Batman since he's one of the most powerful people on Earth, so he asks for their weaknesses, which the team is divided on sharing with him since it seems like a sign of distrust. Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, and Green Arrow object to it, but Superman and The Flash share their weaknesses with Batman as a sign of trust. When the strategy session ends, it's time for them to train to test their abilities and see if they'll be prepared. Before it starts, The Flash suggests team names like "Super-Friends", "The Syndicate" or "Avengers". Batman dismisses it and he says they'll go over that, later on.
The training session between the heroes has them learn about how they operate. Batman and Green Arrow spar in a fight, Wonder Woman and Green Lantern test their abilities in power-based sparring, and a race ensues between Superman and The Flash from across the river near the Batcave to test which one is the fastest, but they're tied by the time they return to the Batcave.
Just as it seems the heroes are learning to understand each other more, one of Lex's droids spots the race between Superman and The Flash. It alerts the other droids and Despotellis to secretly follow them back to the Batcave. A fight scene ensues for the heroes where they work together to fight against Lex's droids and find the weak spots of Despotellis, but it's more challenging than they thought since the droids and Despotellis know their weaknesses and use them to their advantage to exploit them. Batman uses the Batwing to help Green Lantern fight the large body of Despotellis in the sky while the other League members fight the droids below.
The droids blast them with Scarecrow's fear toxin, which has Superman, The Flash, & Wonder Woman experience their personal fears while Green Arrow finds a rare gas mask in the Batcave in a high area to avoid facing its effects again. Superman hallucinates his wife and son dead because of his inability to always be there for them, The Flash hallucinates a yellow silhouette with sparks of red lightning taunting him about how he isn't fast enough to save his loved ones, and Wonder Woman hallucinates the Amazons being disappointed in her.
Hector Hammond uses this to exploit their fears when he sees footage from Lex's droids by using telepathy to amplify it and turn them on each other. Batman, Green Arrow, and Green Lantern would work together to free them of the trance they're under by dodging their attacks to find the antidote for the fear toxin. While this happens, Green Lantern tries to hold Despotellis in place with the power of his ring but the pressure from the commotion makes it hard to concentrate. Before he can break, Bruce and Oliver find the antidote and spread it through the Batcave with a device that cures them of the effects and it helps the heroes regroup and face Despotellis together so it can be defeated.
The heroes regroup and there's a bit of tension from the fight, but they settle it and head out to find where the Legion of Doom is. The heroes track them to another government facility containing the final robotic parts Lex needs for what he's building. There's a shot of the heroes standing side by side when they reach the location and prepare for the intruders. When they enter the facility, they confront Lex Luthor in His Warsuit, Scarecrow, Cheeta, Weather Wizard, Hector Hammond, and Dark Archer, which enacts a fight sequence between the League members and the Legion of Doom.
While the fight between the heroes and villains occurs, Lex activates the robotic parts the villains collected to come together. It catches the heroes off guard since they find out Lex meant to distract them so his best creation can be built. Once it activates, the heroes try to attack it but it adapts to their every move and even copies their abilities to throw back at them. It buys the Legion of Doom time to escape while the heroes are occupied with the advanced android who's a step ahead of them. The heroes start getting overwhelmed, which forces them to fall back as they barely escape.
The android returns to Lex Luthor's base since it's under his command and he sees the schematics and programming of the android to see if it's functional so it works for their plan, which it does. The old project reactivated by Lex was labeled as "Anti Metahuman Adaptive Zootomic Organism", and Lex jokes about how the name's too long to feel threatening, so he shortens it to "A.M.A.Z.O". Lex visits Senator Finch and a big demand he has is to have A.M.A.Z.O approved by the government with him overseeing it, which she's forced to comply with. It'll have to be approved by a congress bill to pass an Anti-Metahuman bill, which will be worked on.
The heroes return to the Batcave to regroup. While Batman analyses what his detective vision found in the area, the heroes have a bit of a falling out over how they failed to beat the Legion of Doom and think it's from their inability to listen to each other. Superman tries to calm them down and before the argument can escalate, Batman interjects by sharing new information about the android and how it was a past government project Lex tried to work on and get approved by the government, but it never got approved when government officials found it too suspicious and risky as a form of national security, especially since Lex's background was too shady.
The heroes, especially Superman, are worried since if A.M.A.Z.O becomes unstoppable, no one will be able to stop Lex or the android, and every metahuman will be killed or captured. As a way to ease tension and rebuild the team's trust, Wonder Woman has the idea of giving each member the lasso of truth to have them open up to each other about what motivated them to use their power for good.
Batman is up first since the team doesn't know much about them. Bruce carefully considers and accepts the lasso, which has him open up about his secret identity, how the death of his parents drove him to prevent more tragedies from happening, working with others, and having the hidden fear and paranoia of the bigger world amongst Gotham City until they showed him why teamwork can make them stronger because individually, they are not enough, and the fear him and they feel can be used to make them stronger. He saw it in Dick Grayson, saw it in them, and especially sees it in Superman and Wonder Woman.
Diana takes the lasso and tells the truth about how she's worked with others for many centuries and saw the horrors and humanity of man's world and spent her whole life hiding from it, and as flawed as they are, they show humanity can still thrive if they keep pushing forward. Clark is given the lasso and talks about how he's always strived to make a Better Tomorrow for humanity but it can be tough to handle alone since he relies on all of his power to defend Earth, but good people like them make it worth fighting for, no matter what comes their way.
Hal Jordan is given the lasso and says he's felt fear in many ways whether it's blindly facing it, feeling it, or fearing the weight of expectations he has as part of the Green Lantern Corps, but a Green Lantern is always supposed to be fearless for himself and his allies. Lastly, Barry Allen is given the lasso and talks about how he spent his whole life searching for the impossible since there are many things in this world that are hard to explain since he was a child and chased it to do more, but instead of running from his past because of the death of his mom and his father being locked up, he runs towards a better future as they do. After the team vents on their past to regain trust in each other, they regroup and prepare to stop Lex Luthor, Amazo, and The Legion of Doom, once and for all.
The next scene shows Lex making the finishing touches to A.M.A.Z.O's programming so it functions right. The Legion of Doom questions Lex about whether he'll stick to his deal for them and supposedly promises to, but he seems too focused on A.M.A.Z.O. Cheeta asks if the android will target them or he'll make sure its programming will know they're on Lex's side since it's his creation. Lex assures her he has the android under control so he'll work on the kinks, but he doesn't seem to care about the Legion that much since they've had their usefulness.
Hector Hammond uses his telepathy to mind control the government officials and have them approve of A.M.A.Z.O when it's presented by Senator Finch as she's forced by Lex to show it in a positive light, but the villains learn the heroes have recovered and will arrive soon, so they get together and prepare for them while Lex has it recorded with a droid of his. The heroes use what they learned to make a better effort at fighting the Legion of Doom while switching between opponents. The team uses it to their advantage to finally defeat them so they can stop A.M.A.Z.O and find where Lex Luthor is,
Since Lex has no use of the Legion anymore, he gets his upgraded Warsuit ready, which now has A.M.A.Z.O's ability to copy the abilities of the heroes and it makes him and A.M.A.Z.O true threats to the heroes, so it has the team act cautiously when fighting Lex and Amazo. The final fight has Superman and Batman face with Lex Luthor while Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, Green Arrow, and The Flash are occupied with A.M.A.Z.O.
The League defeats A.M.A.Z.O when they identify weak spots and override its programming when copying their abilities, which leaves an opening for them to finally destroy it. They do the same for Lex's Warsuit to defeat him. Afterward, the police arrive to arrest the Legion of Doom and Lex Luthor, which enacts an epilogue where it shows the heroes helping to clean up the mess left by Lex and the Legion, congress thanking the heroes for saving them, and Lex Luthor being put on trial. Lex tries to lie, but since Senator Finch and the League show undeniable proof of his crimes, he's sentenced to life in prison so he'll be away for a long time.
The heroes meet in a building that becomes their headquarters since they're officially a team. They still wonder what their team name can be and Barry Allen comes up with a name called "the Justice League", which the team likes and agrees to call themselves. The movie ends with the heroes willing to work together and are labeled as the "World's Finest Heroes" by the media. The heroes learn about a robbery taking place and it's being caused by a group of criminals called the "Royal Flush Gang" and it has them rush into battle together as the screen cuts to black.
submitted by KillTheBatman2475 to fixingmovies [link] [comments]
Here's how Phase 1 brings each of the heroes together after they get their solo movies:
- Justice League: World's Finest Heroes (2010)
A few days later, Senator Finch heads to her office and is met by someone in her chair. The scene implies it's Lex Luthor, but we only see the sight of his mouth and not his full face. She demands to know what Lex wants and he wants her to approve a project he's working on that can provide better security and protection for the world, which Superman and other vigilantes can't. She refuses, at first, since she knows how it isn't about protecting the people and it's for himself, but he blackmails her by threatening her family and she's forced to comply with Lex's demands when threatened.
Cue Title Card: "Justice League: World's Finest Heroes"
The first scene has Lex Luthor bring the Legion of Doom together. He starts with Cheeta, Dark Archer, and Weather Wizard, whom he offers money and personal promises to convince them, then Scarecrow and Hector Hammond, last, who are a bit harder to persuade, but he finds ways around it to get them to join him. Hector Hammond is brought from his space prison when he's broken out by reprogrammed droids Brainiac used to control during the events of Superman II and are how Lex's property.
Lex has them gathered around a table with food for them and gives insight of his disdain for heroes and he wants their help in taking them down, in exchange he sticks to his promises for them. It's an uneasy alliance, but the villains have a common urge to get back at the heroes who've thwarted their goals, so they decide to agree to work together. Lex and Tommy Merlyn use their resources to give the villains upgrades. Scarecrow modifies his fear toxin & Hector Hammond rebuilds the body of Despotellis and has control over it instead of it controlling him while Weather Wizard, Cheeta, Dark Archer, and Lex are already strong in their own right, so they don't need many upgrades since their plan is coming into fruition.
The next scene shows Batman hearing about a heist taking place through the radio and taking the Batwing to investigate. It leads to a government facility and the closer he gets to the location, the worse the weather around him gets. He lands the Batwing out of sight & sneaks into the facility while using stealth to avoid being spotted by the intruders. He suspects an intruder following him and it's shown to be Green Arrow, who's annoyed by his snarkiness. They continue to use stealth to observe the intruders and at the right moment, they confront Scarecrow and Dark Archer, who are stealing robotic parts & weapons.
The first fight scene has Batman & Green Arrow work together against Scarecrow & Dark Archer, whose upgrades give them an advantage over the heroes. They hold their own as they fight them, but Scarecrow releases a dose of upgraded fear toxin and spreads it through the facility. Batman and Green Arrow relive their greatest fears, which is Bruce hallucinating a Gotham City in ruins from his failure to protect it and Oliver being stuck on the island he fought hard to escape and as the effects get worse, Batman finds an antidote in his utility belt while getting himself and Oliver out of the facility to cure him of the effects.
Scarecrow and Dark Archer are backed up by Weather Wizard and Dark Archer, so it seems they're outnumbered until Superman, Wonder Woman, and The Flash show up to stop them and it has the second fight scene shows the heroes trying to stop the villains. In contrast, the villains have an easier time syncing with each other to fulfill the tasks Lex gave to them while the heroes aren't off to a good start working together but are doing their best to communicate. Hector Hammond arrives in an airship provided by Lex with a rebuilt version of Despotellis, whom he orders to take them down. Hector Hammond's arrival gives the Legion of Doom an advantage over the heroes and Despotellis makes a challenging opponent for them to evade.
Just as it seems the heroes are outmatched, Green Lantern arrives to come to their aid and it forces the villains to quickly escape before they can be caught with help from Hector Hammond & a few of Lex's droids. The heroes recover from the damage dealt to them and their time regrouping has them get to know each other while Batman is a bit weary of their presence and investigates any traces left in the government facility. Batman uses detective vision to deduce how the villains stole the robotic parts and weapons from the facility and Superman meets with him to help. Batman shows the others what he deduced in the facility and believes whatever they're planning and whoever's in charge of them, it'll have them all targeted. Superman and Wonder Woman think it's best if they work together to find out why each of their villains is working together and they suspect different reasons as to why.
The heroes get on the same page and Superman tries convincing Batman to work with them, but he isn't willing to work with them yet since he prefers to settle his business in Gotham City to analyze what he found with his detective vision. Before Superman can try convincing Batman again, he enters the Batwing and leaves while the heroes are left to think of a plan. Superman suspects the person behind this is Lex Luthor from what his super-hearing gathered from the conversation between the villains during the heist.
Back in the Batcave, Bruce and Alfred analyze the evidence found in the government facility to deduce what the villains were after, and how and why Scarecrow is involved since it's part of something bigger than Gotham City. Alfred suggests he should work with the other heroes since he can't face them alone. Bruce refuses, at first, since while he can work with others, he doesn't feel comfortable with working alongside other heroes since Gotham City is where his business lies. Alfred persists in convincing Bruce to give it a chance since there's a bigger world out there amongst Gotham City and it's a chance to do more than just fight criminals since the situation is bigger than himself, which has Bruce reluctantly agree to give it a chance since he still feels skeptical of working with other heroes.
Superman and Wonder Woman bring together Green Arrow, Green Lantern, and The Flash with Batman secretly following them from the shadows to observe their capabilities and decide if it's right to join them. Superman gets a lead on an operation by Ceasar Carlini, a crime boss in Metropolis working for Lex to smuggle weapons for him. The heroes quickly dismantle their operation with Batman in the background who takes down a few of their men, unknown to them. Superman tries to interrogate Carlini, who tries to not be intimidated since he knows the heroes won't do anything rash until Batman appears and breaks a few of his bones to get answers, which has him admit he's working for someone, but the figure is anonymous and has power over his operations.
Superman suspects the figure he's talking about is Lex and tells Batman to let him go. Outside of the area while the police arrest Carlini and his men, Batman tells Superman he's decided to agree to work with them and says meet him in the Batcave for planning and strategy. Superman uses his X-ray vision to see who Batman is, but the material in his suit prevents him from getting an image of his identity, which makes him a bit suspicious of Batman accepting his offer, but he decides to trust him.
The heroes follow Batman to the Batcave and Alfred is above them in Wayne Manor so they don't know his identity yet. The Flash explores areas of the Batcave with this super speed and thinks it's quite cool, but Batman warns him to not break anything. Batman debriefs them on his findings from the government facility during their first encounter with them and the evidence he has is the robotic parts & weapons used to be part of a former government project Lex Luthor had developed before it was rejected for being deemed as too dangerous for them to use, which has them figure out Lex is behind this and it's why he formed his own "Legion of Doom" to distract them.
Batman asks for an explanation of what abilities the heroes have and they give a brief rundown of their capabilities. Superman's abilities concern Batman since he's one of the most powerful people on Earth, so he asks for their weaknesses, which the team is divided on sharing with him since it seems like a sign of distrust. Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, and Green Arrow object to it, but Superman and The Flash share their weaknesses with Batman as a sign of trust. When the strategy session ends, it's time for them to train to test their abilities and see if they'll be prepared. Before it starts, The Flash suggests team names like "Super-Friends", "The Syndicate" or "Avengers". Batman dismisses it and he says they'll go over that, later on.
The training session between the heroes has them learn about how they operate. Batman and Green Arrow spar in a fight, Wonder Woman and Green Lantern test their abilities in power-based sparring, and a race ensues between Superman and The Flash from across the river near the Batcave to test which one is the fastest, but they're tied by the time they return to the Batcave.
Just as it seems the heroes are learning to understand each other more, one of Lex's droids spots the race between Superman and The Flash. It alerts the other droids and Despotellis to secretly follow them back to the Batcave. A fight scene ensues for the heroes where they work together to fight against Lex's droids and find the weak spots of Despotellis, but it's more challenging than they thought since the droids and Despotellis know their weaknesses and use them to their advantage to exploit them. Batman uses the Batwing to help Green Lantern fight the large body of Despotellis in the sky while the other League members fight the droids below.
The droids blast them with Scarecrow's fear toxin, which has Superman, The Flash, & Wonder Woman experience their personal fears while Green Arrow finds a rare gas mask in the Batcave in a high area to avoid facing its effects again. Superman hallucinates his wife and son dead because of his inability to always be there for them, The Flash hallucinates a yellow silhouette with sparks of red lightning taunting him about how he isn't fast enough to save his loved ones, and Wonder Woman hallucinates the Amazons being disappointed in her.
Hector Hammond uses this to exploit their fears when he sees footage from Lex's droids by using telepathy to amplify it and turn them on each other. Batman, Green Arrow, and Green Lantern would work together to free them of the trance they're under by dodging their attacks to find the antidote for the fear toxin. While this happens, Green Lantern tries to hold Despotellis in place with the power of his ring but the pressure from the commotion makes it hard to concentrate. Before he can break, Bruce and Oliver find the antidote and spread it through the Batcave with a device that cures them of the effects and it helps the heroes regroup and face Despotellis together so it can be defeated.
The heroes regroup and there's a bit of tension from the fight, but they settle it and head out to find where the Legion of Doom is. The heroes track them to another government facility containing the final robotic parts Lex needs for what he's building. There's a shot of the heroes standing side by side when they reach the location and prepare for the intruders. When they enter the facility, they confront Lex Luthor in His Warsuit, Scarecrow, Cheeta, Weather Wizard, Hector Hammond, and Dark Archer, which enacts a fight sequence between the League members and the Legion of Doom.
While the fight between the heroes and villains occurs, Lex activates the robotic parts the villains collected to come together. It catches the heroes off guard since they find out Lex meant to distract them so his best creation can be built. Once it activates, the heroes try to attack it but it adapts to their every move and even copies their abilities to throw back at them. It buys the Legion of Doom time to escape while the heroes are occupied with the advanced android who's a step ahead of them. The heroes start getting overwhelmed, which forces them to fall back as they barely escape.
The android returns to Lex Luthor's base since it's under his command and he sees the schematics and programming of the android to see if it's functional so it works for their plan, which it does. The old project reactivated by Lex was labeled as "Anti Metahuman Adaptive Zootomic Organism", and Lex jokes about how the name's too long to feel threatening, so he shortens it to "A.M.A.Z.O". Lex visits Senator Finch and a big demand he has is to have A.M.A.Z.O approved by the government with him overseeing it, which she's forced to comply with. It'll have to be approved by a congress bill to pass an Anti-Metahuman bill, which will be worked on.
The heroes return to the Batcave to regroup. While Batman analyses what his detective vision found in the area, the heroes have a bit of a falling out over how they failed to beat the Legion of Doom and think it's from their inability to listen to each other. Superman tries to calm them down and before the argument can escalate, Batman interjects by sharing new information about the android and how it was a past government project Lex tried to work on and get approved by the government, but it never got approved when government officials found it too suspicious and risky as a form of national security, especially since Lex's background was too shady.
The heroes, especially Superman, are worried since if A.M.A.Z.O becomes unstoppable, no one will be able to stop Lex or the android, and every metahuman will be killed or captured. As a way to ease tension and rebuild the team's trust, Wonder Woman has the idea of giving each member the lasso of truth to have them open up to each other about what motivated them to use their power for good.
Batman is up first since the team doesn't know much about them. Bruce carefully considers and accepts the lasso, which has him open up about his secret identity, how the death of his parents drove him to prevent more tragedies from happening, working with others, and having the hidden fear and paranoia of the bigger world amongst Gotham City until they showed him why teamwork can make them stronger because individually, they are not enough, and the fear him and they feel can be used to make them stronger. He saw it in Dick Grayson, saw it in them, and especially sees it in Superman and Wonder Woman.
Diana takes the lasso and tells the truth about how she's worked with others for many centuries and saw the horrors and humanity of man's world and spent her whole life hiding from it, and as flawed as they are, they show humanity can still thrive if they keep pushing forward. Clark is given the lasso and talks about how he's always strived to make a Better Tomorrow for humanity but it can be tough to handle alone since he relies on all of his power to defend Earth, but good people like them make it worth fighting for, no matter what comes their way.
Hal Jordan is given the lasso and says he's felt fear in many ways whether it's blindly facing it, feeling it, or fearing the weight of expectations he has as part of the Green Lantern Corps, but a Green Lantern is always supposed to be fearless for himself and his allies. Lastly, Barry Allen is given the lasso and talks about how he spent his whole life searching for the impossible since there are many things in this world that are hard to explain since he was a child and chased it to do more, but instead of running from his past because of the death of his mom and his father being locked up, he runs towards a better future as they do. After the team vents on their past to regain trust in each other, they regroup and prepare to stop Lex Luthor, Amazo, and The Legion of Doom, once and for all.
The next scene shows Lex making the finishing touches to A.M.A.Z.O's programming so it functions right. The Legion of Doom questions Lex about whether he'll stick to his deal for them and supposedly promises to, but he seems too focused on A.M.A.Z.O. Cheeta asks if the android will target them or he'll make sure its programming will know they're on Lex's side since it's his creation. Lex assures her he has the android under control so he'll work on the kinks, but he doesn't seem to care about the Legion that much since they've had their usefulness.
Hector Hammond uses his telepathy to mind control the government officials and have them approve of A.M.A.Z.O when it's presented by Senator Finch as she's forced by Lex to show it in a positive light, but the villains learn the heroes have recovered and will arrive soon, so they get together and prepare for them while Lex has it recorded with a droid of his. The heroes use what they learned to make a better effort at fighting the Legion of Doom while switching between opponents. The team uses it to their advantage to finally defeat them so they can stop A.M.A.Z.O and find where Lex Luthor is,
Since Lex has no use of the Legion anymore, he gets his upgraded Warsuit ready, which now has A.M.A.Z.O's ability to copy the abilities of the heroes and it makes him and A.M.A.Z.O true threats to the heroes, so it has the team act cautiously when fighting Lex and Amazo. The final fight has Superman and Batman face with Lex Luthor while Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, Green Arrow, and The Flash are occupied with A.M.A.Z.O.
The League defeats A.M.A.Z.O when they identify weak spots and override its programming when copying their abilities, which leaves an opening for them to finally destroy it. They do the same for Lex's Warsuit to defeat him. Afterward, the police arrive to arrest the Legion of Doom and Lex Luthor, which enacts an epilogue where it shows the heroes helping to clean up the mess left by Lex and the Legion, congress thanking the heroes for saving them, and Lex Luthor being put on trial. Lex tries to lie, but since Senator Finch and the League show undeniable proof of his crimes, he's sentenced to life in prison so he'll be away for a long time.
The heroes meet in a building that becomes their headquarters since they're officially a team. They still wonder what their team name can be and Barry Allen comes up with a name called "the Justice League", which the team likes and agrees to call themselves. The movie ends with the heroes willing to work together and are labeled as the "World's Finest Heroes" by the media. The heroes learn about a robbery taking place and it's being caused by a group of criminals called the "Royal Flush Gang" and it has them rush into battle together as the screen cuts to black.
- Mid-credits scene: Amanda Waller observes the news about the Justice League becoming popular among the locals after they stopped Lex Luthor and she analyses files over a variety of metahumans criminals, and mercenaries she has tabs on for a project she's working on for if these heroes were to over go rogue or if the world loses them, which is labeled as "Task Force X". This sets up the Suicide Squad as the government's secret countermeasure for the Justice League, going into Phase 2 and future phases.
- Post-credits scene: We're shown a planet that has burning firepits and is in a desolate state. A hologram of the accomplishments of the heroes is shown to its ruler by his disciple. He believes since Earth has new protectors like Kryptonians, Lanterns, Amazons, and humans with sheer willpower, it's time for them to strike when they have the chance. The ruler is shown as a dark silhouette and tells him to have patience since they'll need to prepare to challenge them as Earth will be his one day. The dark silhouette is implied to be Darkseid and his disciple is shown to be Steppenwolf, but he isn't shown yet and will be revealed much later in a future Phase.
2024.05.17 21:53 UniversalSurvivalist What does MK Ultra, 'You'll own nothing and be happy' WEF slogan and Nicole Kidman have in common?
 | "There will be in the next generation or so a pharmacological method of making people love their servitude and producing dictatorship without tears, so to speak, producing a kind of painless concentration camp for entire societies so that people will in fact have their liberties taken away from them but will rather enjoy it." submitted by UniversalSurvivalist to conspiracy [link] [comments] Julian Huxley, brother of Aldous (best known for his 1932 novel 'Brave New World'), was the first director of the United Nations (UN) Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). He was also the President of the British Eugenics Society. The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development is a set of international development goals from 2016 to 2030, which was adopted by the UN Sustainable Development Summit held in September 2015 which built on the success of Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Sustainable Development = The Great Reset! The Huxley's are one big satanic clan. Julian was one of the big promotors of transhumanism. Thomas Henry Huxley was one of Darwin's elite buddies, defending his satanic evolution theory hoax and was nicknamed 'Darwins Bulldog'. In 1956, Julian Huxley’s relative and MKULTRA Australia coordinator, Leonard G.H. Huxley, was elected to the Council of the AAS and he became Vice-President the following year. During this time, the headquarters of ASSA were located on the grounds of the ANU in Canberra, which Leonard was the Chairman of. ASSA was also influenced by the Carnegie Corporation and the pro-eugenics UNESCO which Julian Huxley founded. The ASSA council met with the heads of UNESCO Australia in October, 1956 and worked together to decide the direction of their eugenics program in Australia. Strehlow would go on to contribute the ‘Aborigines Project’ at ASSA with contributions from MKULTRA Doctors Ronald Taft and John Phillip Sutcliffe. The project was headed by Charles D. Rowley who was a founder and principal of the previously mentioned intelligence front, ASOPA. Leonard G.H. Huxley also supported weaponized anthropology outside of the AAS. In 1965 Huxley was the head of the Australian Fulbright Scholarship program at USEFA, which transferred MKULTRA doctors between Australia and the USA. In that year, Huxley accepts an application for a Scholarship from Dr. John D. McCaffrey from Stanford University. One of McCaffrey’s references was Gregory Bateson, a founder of the CIA and Project MKULTRA. McCaffrey’s proposed research outlined a visual approach where he would record feedback from Aborigines in the form of their artwork.[19] This study mirrored an unethical MKULTRA experiment by U.S. Military Doctor, Alexander H. Leighton at the Japanese War Relocation Center at Poston in the Mojave Desert.[20] Both studies aimed to learn about the concept of feedback which is important in understanding human personality. The role of feedback was discovered in a brainwashing experiment at McCaffrey’s Stanford University. The Institute of Psychiatry at Maudlsey Hospital – A base of Australian MKULTRA operations. In 1936, Julian Huxley’s friend Julian Treveleyan, took part in a mescaline study at the Institute of Psychiatry (IoP) at the Maudsley Hospital in London. Trevelyan’s son suggests Julian Huxley tipped him off about the experiment. Julian Huxley’s brother Aldous later wrote ‘The Doors of Perception’, which detailed his experiences after taking mescaline. Treveleyan and the Huxley’s were distantly related as he later married the great-granddaughter of Charles Darwin. Much of the IoP’s pre-WW2 finance came from the Rockefeller Foundation which enabled an exchange of doctors between the Maudsley and Nazi Germany. The IoP was originally a competitor to the notorious Tavistock clinic until it came under Tavistock control when the British Army & Intelligence crowd, including Dr. John Rawlings Rees and Eric Trist, started operating out of here. Julian Huxley later promoted the work of Dr. Eliot Slater at the IoP. At this point in time, Slater was the Vice-Chair of the British Eugenics Society and had a long history of working closely with MKULTRA Doctor, William Sargant. From the late 50’s onward, the IoP was the home of MKULTRA Sub-project 111, directed by Dr. Hans J. Eysenck. According to the book Undiscovered Paul Robeson: Quest for Freedom, Maudsley Hospital was the “staging ground for European and African MKULTRA operations”. There is evidence that strongly suggests it was also a staging ground for Australian operations. As Dr. Peter W. Sheehan explained, Prof. John Sutcliffe was the driving force behind MKULTRA Hypnosis research coming to Australia at The University of Sydney through his connections with Martin Orne. Prior to this, Sutcliffe was in contact with Eysenck who was Director of Subproject 111 at the time. Eysenck was an influential member of the British Psychological Society and so was an Australian Army Psychologist, Donald W. McElwain, who had carried out psychological experiments at Maudsley in the early 50’s. It’s no coincidence that McElwain was the President of the Australian Branch of the British Psychological Society at this time (1958-1959). While Eysenck had influence over Sutcliffe, Wendy A.F. Thorn was a student in Sutcliffe’s department studying hypnosis and multiple personality disorder with MKULTRA Sub-project 84 Doctor, Frederick J. Evans. She would later engage in research financed by the Australian Branch of the British Psychological Society (with assistance from Eysenck) at Leonard Huxley’s Australian National University, before travelling over to the IoP to begin research with Eysenck himself. The funding that helped Martin Orne establish Sub-project 84 at The University of Sydney was recieved through the Human Ecology Fund, specifically under a project titled, ‘Attitude Formation, Decision Matrices’. Eysenck also recieved his Sub-project 111 finance under the same title. It seems that both Sub-projects 84 and 111 were related and both had influence over Australian operations. In 1975, Dr. Martin Seligman went to the IoP at Maudsley on a ‘sabbatical’. It was here he was introduced to Eysenck and worked with IoP staff to study phobias and obsessions while developing his Learned Helplessness theory which later became the basis of the CIA’s 2001 torture program. Dr. Stanley Rachman was at the IoP at this time and he had published studies with Seligman that helped to develop his theory. Seligman’s work at the IoP was in the same year that Kidman was involved with Learned Helplessness research on sheep in Australia. In 1977, Eysenck gave a lecture at The University of Sydney on his Australian tour. Other Australian Maudsley connections are apparent from William Sargant’s involvement at the hospital. It was Sargant that had influence over the serial killer and MKULTRA Doctor, Harry Bailey. Dr. Ardie Lubin was based at the IoP until he left to study with Dr. Jacqueline Goodnow at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research.[53][54] Shortly after these studies, Jacquline Goodnow and her husband Robert would be working with Dr. John Gittinger at Psychological Assessments Associates (PAA) – before coming back to Australia in 1972. Their official association with PAA didn’t end until 1974, around the same time Fiona Barnett alleges Gittinger was in Australia working with Dr. Antony Kidman. Nicole Kidman recently created the ‘Dr. Antony Kidman Scholarship in Health Psychology’ at the IoP. This could only be a coincidence if you have your eyes wide shut… In March this year, Nicole paid a visit to the IoP (now the IoPPN) to create the ‘Dr Antony Kidman Scholarship in Health Psychology’. This was made in memory of her father who died less than a month after MKULTRA Victim, Fiona Barnett, complained to the Australian Health Practitioners Regulatory Agency (AHPRA) about Antony’s abuse. In that complaint, Fiona alleged that Antony Kidman and Australian Theater Legend, John Bell raped her at a party in 1984 at the Kidman Family House in North Sydney. Fiona also alleges that Nicole witnessed Antony physically assault her the morning after while shouting, “Do you remember, now?!” until Fiona said “No.”. Fiona suffered from Multiple Personality Disorder (or Dissociative Identity Disorder) as a result of abuse like this. Possibly due to her real world experience, Nicole later played a psychologist in ‘Batman Forever’ who specializes in Multiple Personality Disorder. Australian Positive Psychology & Buddhism conference has multiple links to the CIA. Since 2006, a series of yearly conferences that jointly promote Buddhism and Positive Psychology have been held in Sydney. They’re called the ‘Happiness and It’s Causes’ conferences and the chief organizer is the Dalai Lama (via the Vajrayana Institute). The Dalai Lama is a well documented CIA asset with a long history of financial support from the agency.[60] Interestingly, the first conference was held in the Sydney Masonic Centre. The featured line up usually includes a mixture of Positive Psychology promoting psychologists, Buddhist scholars, monks and a few Australian Broadcasting Corporation employees. These journalists and media figures promote Positive Psychology, Buddhism and other attendees in their own time. In 2008, CIA Doctors Seligman and Kidman attended the conference and gave talks which promoted Positive Psychology and its potential role in education.[63] School Principal of Geelong Grammar, Stephen Meek, was also in attendance and he was also selling the idea of ‘Positive Schools’. Meek was the first School Principal in Australia have approved the program. In 2015, Meek told the Child Abuse Royal Commission that he was more interested in protecting his schools reputation than exposing pedophiles existing within his school. Two CIA assets promote Positive Psychology & Buddhism at a conference in Sydney. Kidman’s emissary, Dr Sarah Edelman was there in 2007 with the Dalai Lama. (You can find Edelman’s meditation CD’s for sale at the Theosophical Society. Meditation can lead to mania, depression and psychosis.) Australian False Memory Association Advisor & Associate of Dr. Martin Orne, Dr. Graham Burrows, was also in attendance. Another 2007 speaker was B. Alan Wallace who is an expert in Tibetan Buddhism from Stanford University. Wallace works on the on the Cultivating Emotional Balance project with CIA & Military psychologist Paul Ekman and his daughter Eve Ekman. The Dalai Lama is a strong supporter of this project, having played a crucial role in its creation in 2000. Another speaker to be at the conferences was Bob Carr, who is a previous attendee of the Bohemian Grove and a CIA supporter. This years event headlined Eve Ekman.[78] She’s the daughter of former Chief Psychologist of the United States Army, Paul Ekman who owns the Paul Ekman Group, which has worked with the CIA and FBI. Eve works for her father’s group and so does an, ex-Secret Service, ex-Army Interrogation & PSYOP expert, Paul Kelly, as the Director of Law Enforcement and Security workshops in the USA.[81] Vice-President John Pearse is also connected with intelligence, working for the Anti-Terrorist Branch at New Scotland Yard in London and he has been responsible for the design and delivery of a number of counter-terrorism seminars. In the late 1960’s, Paul Ekman worked alongside The University of Western Australia (UWA) on weaponized anthropology in Papua New Guinea.[83] At this time, UWA was a hub of MKULTRA research with Prof. Ronald Taft making use of his CIA money in similar studies. Interestingly, Ekman’s research was on the exact same tribe that Dr. Leonas Petrauskas, Dr. Vin Zigas and Dr. Carelton Gadjusek had focused their MKNAOMI linked research on. Ekman’s finance for this study came from the Advanced Projects Research Agency (ARPA) and the Air Force Office of Scientific Research. Just a year after working with the Dalai Lama to create the CEB project, Ekman was approached to join the CIA’s torture program that started at Martin Seligman’s house. Ekman denies joining the program, however he does admit his research assists interrogators. The Ekman Group offers training to detect lies and analyse body language which becomes useful for interrogation and mind control purposes. Could Positive Psychology be MKULTRA Mind Control? The term ‘Positive Psychology’ was coined by MKULTRA doctor, Abraham Maslow to describe his work. Albert Ellis was the “unsung hero of positive psychology” and gave a seminar at the CIA’s Esalen Institute in the 60’s to demonstrate his original work. Albert Ellis was influential in the careers of CIA Doctors & Positive Psychology pioneers, Dr. Martin Seligman and Dr. Antony Kidman. Dr. Aaron T. Beck is the father of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) which was developed with Ellis and helped to form Positive Psychology.Beck was a Military Psychologist at Walter Reed Army Hospital who also went on to influence Seligman and Kidman. Beck ended up on the Advisory Board of the CIA’s False Memory Syndrome Foundation, having been personally invited by the head of MKULTRA Sub-project 84, Dr. Martin T. Orne. In 1998, Martin Seligman introduced Positive Psychology in his first address as President of the American Psychological Association with his fellow APA member, Dr. Antony Kidman in attendance. Three years later, Seligman would use his life’s research to develop the torture program with the CIA and SERE (Survival, Evasion and Resistance and Escape). SERE is an organisation which was developed using MKULTRA research from the Kubark Manual and the Phoenix Program. Positive Psychology is continuing to make its way into the Australian School System. In the 2015 Keynote Address of the Positive Schools Conference, Toni Noble, an attendee of the Happiness & it’s Causes Conferences and a lead author of the pro-paedophile ‘Safe Schools Framework‘, quoted the current director of ASIO and his desired need for ‘greater social cohesion’ to combat ‘youth militant extremism’. Noble proposed that Positive Psychology was the best way to achieve this objective. “American Soldiers Brainwashed with Positive Thinking.” A major red-flag against the introduction of such a program into schools would be the fact that the U.S. Military paid Seligman over $30 million dollars to create the ‘Comprehensive Soldier Fitness Program’ in 2008. This program was a blatantly unethical research project that used the guise of a fitness program to hide its true intentions. It effectively threw away the soldiers right to informed consent and turned them into human-guinea pigs. In this experiment, soldiers were taught to how to think and respond more obediently with the aid of Positive Psychology, rather than use their own critical thinking. The U.S. Army admits the purpose of this was an attempt to make an ‘indomitable army’. One component of the program was ‘Spiritual Fitness’. This inappropriately forced the idea that religion was essential to achieve better mental health. Positive Psychology promotes Buddhism from within its own core tenets and just like the conferences in Sydney, this seems to be an attempt to blur the lines between Eastern philosophy and Psychology. In his criticism of Seligman’s Positive Psychology, Dr. Kirk J. Schneider has shown that high levels of positive thinking correlate with Positive Illusion, which distorts reality: “What the researchers don’t help us to understand-and what will be essential to understand if we are ever to substantively broach human vitality-is how positivity ratios also appear to correlate with destructive human tendencies. For example, a growing body of research appears to suggest that what the researchers call high positivity-a disposition to pleasant, grateful, and upbeat feelings-is also correlative with a dimension called “positive illusion” (relative inaccuracy regarding reality); and that negativity (or what is generally characterized as mild to moderate depression) is correlated with relatively greater accuracy concerning reality. These findings, moreover, also appear to square with recent correlations between highly positive people and suppressed psychological growth, inability to self-reflect, and racial intolerance.” When we have a thought and behaviour modification program being implemented into schools that was designed by an MKULTRA Doctor and used for the purposes of mind-control by the CIA and the U.S. Military – organizations which have both been behind the largest mind control operations in history to be used on innocent civilians – it seems obvious that it might not actually be trying to improve peoples lives. Positive Psychology and Positive Schools will only serve to further reduce the ability of people to critically think and understand reality. These negative effects are consistent with the goals of the eugenics project we know as MKULTRA. |
2024.05.17 19:47 fark13 Software Developer (10019142) - Wargaming - United states
 | Job Overview submitted by fark13 to sports_jobs [link] [comments] WargamingUSA is seeking an experienced and innovative Mid-Senior Software Developer to join our HYBRID Business Intelligence team in Austin, TX. The ideal candidate will lead the development of advanced BI tools for data ingestion, monitoring, ETL processes, and creating intuitive user interfaces for our clients. This role demands a solid foundation in software development principles, proficiency in a modern programming language (preferably Python), and an in-depth interest in data engineering and architecture. Reports to Data Engineering Team Lead What will you do? Lead the design, development, and maintenance of BI tools and applications for data ingestion, transformation, and visualization. Collaborate with data engineers and data scientists to understand data sources, workflows, and requirements. Develop and optimize data collection modules for APIs, RDBMS, and Kafka. Create UI interfaces for BI Tools. Design and maintain scalable and efficient data storage solutions, including data lakes and warehouses. Ensure the high performance and responsiveness of BI tools. Take initiative in creating system architecture, component design, and modular development practices. Mentor junior developers and contribute to team knowledge-sharing efforts. Stay updated on and influence emerging BI technologies and methodologies. What are we looking for? Bachelor’s degree in computer science, Information Technology, or related field. At least 5 years of experience in software development with a strong track record in Python or similar modern programming languages. Advanced knowledge in object-oriented programming (OOP) and functional programming (FP) concepts. Proven experience with Continuous Integration/Continuous Deployment (CI/CD) pipelines. In-depth understanding of the software development life cycle (SDLC) and agile methodologies. Expertise in Data Structures and Algorithms: Proficient understanding of various data structures (such as arrays, linked lists, trees, graphs) and algorithms (such as sorting and searching), enabling efficient data manipulation and storage. Expert knowledge of Design Patterns (Singleton, Observer, Factory, Strategy, and Decorator etc.) and software architecture principles, including but not limited to SOLID principles. Experience in cloud application development and deployment, preferably with AWS. What additional skills will help you stand out? Advanced experience with data collection from APIs, RDBMS, and Kafka. Expertise in SQL and MPP databases like Snowflake, Athena, Impala. Deep understanding of data warehouse and data lake architectures (Lambda, Kappa). Comprehensive understanding of data modeling and ETL processes. Exceptional problem-solving and analytical skills. Strong leadership, communication, and collaboration abilities. Ability to work in a fast-paced and dynamic environment. Passion for continuous learning and embracing new technologies and methodologies. Benefits Benefits and perks are tailored to the local market and culture. Our benefits in Austin include: Video game areas, Table tennis set up and more... Health Insurance (including family coverage), 401k plan Mental well-being program (iFeel) Wellbeing perks (Dedicated Well-being room) Home internet partial reimbursement Career development and education opportunities within the company Employee discounts Personal Gaming Account Coffee, fruits, snacks in the office Company events Seniority Awards Referral program - you can recommend the best talents to the Company and receive a reward About Wargaming Wargaming is an award-winning online game developer and publisher headquartered in Nicosia, Cyprus. Operating since 1998, Wargaming has become one of the leaders in the gaming industry with 15 offices worldwide, including studios in Chicago, Prague, Shanghai, Tokyo, and Vilnius. Our diverse and multicultural team works together to deliver a top-class experience to millions of players who enjoy Wargaming's titles across all major gaming platforms. Our flagship products include free-to-play hits World of Tanks, World of Warships and World of Tanks Blitz. Please see Wargaming Candidate Privacy Policy for details on how Wargaming uses your personal data. |
2024.05.17 19:47 fark13 Big Data Engineer - Wargaming - Lithuania
We are looking for a Big Data EngineeETL Developer for the DWH department! The Data Warehouse department is aimed at helping projects to make smart business decisions by integrating and processing huge amounts of data and providing efficient calculations and reports based on stored information. Our team of experienced data-enthusiastic engineers wants to expand by hiring a committed and creative specialist. We use cutting-edge data processing technologies and improve through constant learning. Reports to Team Lead of Big Data What will you do?
Enhancements, new development, defect resolution, and production support of Big data ETL development Write ETLs to clean/transform data into clear data models (snowflake, Athena, using our python framework, a little bit Impala, Hive, Oracle) Work with and finalize the requestor’s requirements
60% of your work will relate to writing SQL queries, you should also understand what kind of data you work with and think about what kind of solution will solve the internal customer’s problem better. Who are we looking for?
3+ years of experience with DWH/BI Good knowledge of data querying and transformation: SQL, Oracle PL/SQL, impala/hive SQL, Snowflake SQL Experience with versioning systems (SVN, git) Ability to work with and finalize the requestor’s requirements Expertise in ETL processes design and implementation, data lifecycle management Desire to learn Fluency in English and Russian
What additional skills will help you stand out?
Performance tuning in any DBMS Experience with cloud data solutions Experience with Spark Experience using Python, S3, EC2, Athena in AWS environment.
Benefits Benefits and perks are tailored to the local market and culture. Our benefits in Vilnius include:
Up to 8 “Trust days” per calendar year that require no medical certificate Career development and education opportunities within the company Meal Allowance Premium Private Health Care (with Gym training / Wellness program…) Personal Gaming Account Coffee, fruits, and snacks in the office Company events Seniority Awards Referral program - You can recommend the best talents to the company and receive a reward
submitted by fark13 to sports_jobs [link] [comments]
Enhancements, new development, defect resolution, and production support of Big data ETL development Write ETLs to clean/transform data into clear data models (snowflake, Athena, using our python framework, a little bit Impala, Hive, Oracle) Work with and finalize the requestor’s requirements
60% of your work will relate to writing SQL queries, you should also understand what kind of data you work with and think about what kind of solution will solve the internal customer’s problem better. Who are we looking for?
3+ years of experience with DWH/BI Good knowledge of data querying and transformation: SQL, Oracle PL/SQL, impala/hive SQL, Snowflake SQL Experience with versioning systems (SVN, git) Ability to work with and finalize the requestor’s requirements Expertise in ETL processes design and implementation, data lifecycle management Desire to learn Fluency in English and Russian
What additional skills will help you stand out?
Performance tuning in any DBMS Experience with cloud data solutions Experience with Spark Experience using Python, S3, EC2, Athena in AWS environment.
Benefits Benefits and perks are tailored to the local market and culture. Our benefits in Vilnius include:
Up to 8 “Trust days” per calendar year that require no medical certificate Career development and education opportunities within the company Meal Allowance Premium Private Health Care (with Gym training / Wellness program…) Personal Gaming Account Coffee, fruits, and snacks in the office Company events Seniority Awards Referral program - You can recommend the best talents to the company and receive a reward
- The salary range for this position in Vilnius is 4.250 - 5.500 EUR monthly gross. About Wargaming Wargaming is an award-winning online game developer and publisher headquartered in Nicosia, Cyprus. Operating since 1998, Wargaming has become one of the leaders in the gaming industry with 15 offices worldwide, including studios in Chicago, Prague, Shanghai, Tokyo, and Vilnius. Our diverse and multicultural team works together to deliver a top-class experience to millions of players who enjoy Wargaming's titles across all major gaming platforms. Our flagship products include free-to-play hits World of Tanks, World of Warships and World of Tanks Blitz. Please see Wargaming Candidate Privacy Policy for details on how Wargaming uses your personal data.
2024.05.17 19:47 fark13 Big Data Engineer - Wargaming - Germany
We are looking for a Big Data EngineeETL Developer for the DWH department! The Data Warehouse department is aimed at helping projects to make smart business decisions by integrating and processing huge amounts of data and providing efficient calculations and reports based on stored information. Our team of experienced data-enthusiastic engineers wants to expand by hiring a committed and creative specialist. We use cutting-edge data processing technologies and improve through constant learning. Reports to Team Lead of Big Data What will you do?
Enhancements, new development, defect resolution, and production support of Big data ETL development Write ETLs to clean/transform data into clear data models (snowflake, Athena, using our python framework, a little bit Impala, Hive, Oracle) Work with and finalize the requestor’s requirements
60% of your work will relate to writing SQL queries, you should also understand what kind of data you work with and think about what kind of solution will solve the internal customer’s problem better. Who are we looking for?
3+ years of experience with DWH/BI Good knowledge of data querying and transformation: SQL, Oracle PL/SQL, impala/hive SQL, Snowflake SQL Experience with versioning systems (SVN, git) Ability to work with and finalize the requestor’s requirements Expertise in ETL processes design and implementation, data lifecycle management Desire to learn Fluency in English and Russian
What additional skills will help you stand out?
Performance tuning in any DBMS Experience with cloud data solutions Experience with Spark Experience using Python, S3, EC2, Athena in AWS environment.
Benefits Benefits and perks are tailored to the local market and culture. Our benefits in Berlin include:
Unlimited leave upon Manager's approval Career development and education opportunities within the company Home internet reimbursement Gym membership through Urban Sports Club - Package M Language classes Company pension scheme with a company contribution up to 150 EUR per month Personal Gaming Account Coffee, fruits, and snacks in the office Company events Seniority Awards Referral program - You can recommend the best talents to the company and receive a reward
About Wargaming Wargaming is an award-winning online game developer and publisher headquartered in Nicosia, Cyprus. Operating since 1998, Wargaming has become one of the leaders in the gaming industry with 15 offices worldwide, including studios in Chicago, Prague, Shanghai, Tokyo, and Vilnius. Our diverse and multicultural team works together to deliver a top-class experience to millions of players who enjoy Wargaming's titles across all major gaming platforms. Our flagship products include free-to-play hits World of Tanks, World of Warships and World of Tanks Blitz. Please see Wargaming Candidate Privacy Policy for details on how Wargaming uses your personal data.
submitted by fark13 to sports_jobs [link] [comments]
Enhancements, new development, defect resolution, and production support of Big data ETL development Write ETLs to clean/transform data into clear data models (snowflake, Athena, using our python framework, a little bit Impala, Hive, Oracle) Work with and finalize the requestor’s requirements
60% of your work will relate to writing SQL queries, you should also understand what kind of data you work with and think about what kind of solution will solve the internal customer’s problem better. Who are we looking for?
3+ years of experience with DWH/BI Good knowledge of data querying and transformation: SQL, Oracle PL/SQL, impala/hive SQL, Snowflake SQL Experience with versioning systems (SVN, git) Ability to work with and finalize the requestor’s requirements Expertise in ETL processes design and implementation, data lifecycle management Desire to learn Fluency in English and Russian
What additional skills will help you stand out?
Performance tuning in any DBMS Experience with cloud data solutions Experience with Spark Experience using Python, S3, EC2, Athena in AWS environment.
Benefits Benefits and perks are tailored to the local market and culture. Our benefits in Berlin include:
Unlimited leave upon Manager's approval Career development and education opportunities within the company Home internet reimbursement Gym membership through Urban Sports Club - Package M Language classes Company pension scheme with a company contribution up to 150 EUR per month Personal Gaming Account Coffee, fruits, and snacks in the office Company events Seniority Awards Referral program - You can recommend the best talents to the company and receive a reward
About Wargaming Wargaming is an award-winning online game developer and publisher headquartered in Nicosia, Cyprus. Operating since 1998, Wargaming has become one of the leaders in the gaming industry with 15 offices worldwide, including studios in Chicago, Prague, Shanghai, Tokyo, and Vilnius. Our diverse and multicultural team works together to deliver a top-class experience to millions of players who enjoy Wargaming's titles across all major gaming platforms. Our flagship products include free-to-play hits World of Tanks, World of Warships and World of Tanks Blitz. Please see Wargaming Candidate Privacy Policy for details on how Wargaming uses your personal data.
2024.05.17 19:47 fark13 Big Data Engineer - Wargaming - Cyprus
We are looking for a Big Data EngineeETL Developer for the DWH department! The Data Warehouse department is aimed at helping projects to make smart business decisions by integrating and processing huge amounts of data and providing efficient calculations and reports based on stored information. Our team of experienced data-enthusiastic engineers wants to expand by hiring a committed and creative specialist. We use cutting-edge data processing technologies and improve through constant learning. Reports to Team Lead of Big Data What will you do?
Enhancements, new development, defect resolution, and production support of Big data ETL development Write ETLs to clean/transform data into clear data models (snowflake, Athena, using our python framework, a little bit Impala, Hive, Oracle) Work with and finalize the requestor’s requirements
60% of your work will relate to writing SQL queries, you should also understand what kind of data you work with and think about what kind of solution will solve the internal customer’s problem better. Who are we looking for?
3+ years of experience with DWH/BI Good knowledge of data querying and transformation: SQL, Oracle PL/SQL, impala/hive SQL, Snowflake SQL Experience with versioning systems (SVN, git) Ability to work with and finalize the requestor’s requirements Expertise in ETL processes design and implementation, data lifecycle management Desire to learn Fluency in English and Russian
What additional skills will help you stand out?
Performance tuning in any DBMS Experience with cloud data solutions Experience with Spark Experience using Python, S3, EC2, Athena in AWS environment.
Benefits Benefits and perks are tailored to the local market and culture. Our benefits in Nicosia include:
21 days holiday (additional days based on years of service: up to 25 days) + 15 days as public holidays Paid Sick Leave up to a certain number of days, Marriage Leave Career development and education opportunities within the company English language courses fully covered by the company upon Manager's approval Premium Private Health Care Onsite gym and spa Free parking Free drinks-equipped kitchen in every floor building Hellenic Bank benefits Employee discounts (e.g. restaurants, bars, etc.) Personal Gaming Account Onsite canteen with subsidized prices for food and drinks Company events, Social Clubs Seniority Awards Referral program - You can recommend the best talents to the company and receive a reward
About Wargaming Wargaming is an award-winning online game developer and publisher headquartered in Nicosia, Cyprus. Operating since 1998, Wargaming has become one of the leaders in the gaming industry with 15 offices worldwide, including studios in Chicago, Prague, Shanghai, Tokyo, and Vilnius. Our diverse and multicultural team works together to deliver a top-class experience to millions of players who enjoy Wargaming's titles across all major gaming platforms. Our flagship products include free-to-play hits World of Tanks, World of Warships and World of Tanks Blitz. Please see Wargaming Candidate Privacy Policy for details on how Wargaming uses your personal data.
submitted by fark13 to sports_jobs [link] [comments]
Enhancements, new development, defect resolution, and production support of Big data ETL development Write ETLs to clean/transform data into clear data models (snowflake, Athena, using our python framework, a little bit Impala, Hive, Oracle) Work with and finalize the requestor’s requirements
60% of your work will relate to writing SQL queries, you should also understand what kind of data you work with and think about what kind of solution will solve the internal customer’s problem better. Who are we looking for?
3+ years of experience with DWH/BI Good knowledge of data querying and transformation: SQL, Oracle PL/SQL, impala/hive SQL, Snowflake SQL Experience with versioning systems (SVN, git) Ability to work with and finalize the requestor’s requirements Expertise in ETL processes design and implementation, data lifecycle management Desire to learn Fluency in English and Russian
What additional skills will help you stand out?
Performance tuning in any DBMS Experience with cloud data solutions Experience with Spark Experience using Python, S3, EC2, Athena in AWS environment.
Benefits Benefits and perks are tailored to the local market and culture. Our benefits in Nicosia include:
21 days holiday (additional days based on years of service: up to 25 days) + 15 days as public holidays Paid Sick Leave up to a certain number of days, Marriage Leave Career development and education opportunities within the company English language courses fully covered by the company upon Manager's approval Premium Private Health Care Onsite gym and spa Free parking Free drinks-equipped kitchen in every floor building Hellenic Bank benefits Employee discounts (e.g. restaurants, bars, etc.) Personal Gaming Account Onsite canteen with subsidized prices for food and drinks Company events, Social Clubs Seniority Awards Referral program - You can recommend the best talents to the company and receive a reward
About Wargaming Wargaming is an award-winning online game developer and publisher headquartered in Nicosia, Cyprus. Operating since 1998, Wargaming has become one of the leaders in the gaming industry with 15 offices worldwide, including studios in Chicago, Prague, Shanghai, Tokyo, and Vilnius. Our diverse and multicultural team works together to deliver a top-class experience to millions of players who enjoy Wargaming's titles across all major gaming platforms. Our flagship products include free-to-play hits World of Tanks, World of Warships and World of Tanks Blitz. Please see Wargaming Candidate Privacy Policy for details on how Wargaming uses your personal data.
2024.05.17 19:47 fark13 Big Data Engineer - Wargaming - United states
We are looking for a Big Data EngineeETL Developer for the DWH department! The Data Warehouse department is aimed at helping projects to make smart business decisions by integrating and processing huge amounts of data and providing efficient calculations and reports based on stored information. Our team of experienced data-enthusiastic engineers wants to expand by hiring a committed and creative specialist. We use cutting-edge data processing technologies and improve through constant learning. Reports to Team Lead of Big Data What will you do?
Enhancements, new development, defect resolution, and production support of Big data ETL development Write ETLs to clean/transform data into clear data models (snowflake, Athena, using our python framework, a little bit Impala, Hive, Oracle) Work with and finalize the requestor’s requirements
60% of your work will relate to writing SQL queries, you should also understand what kind of data you work with and think about what kind of solution will solve the internal customer’s problem better. Who are we looking for?
3+ years of experience with DWH/BI Good knowledge of data querying and transformation: SQL, Oracle PL/SQL, impala/hive SQL, Snowflake SQL Experience with versioning systems (SVN, git) Ability to work with and finalize the requestor’s requirements Expertise in ETL processes design and implementation, data lifecycle management Desire to learn Fluency in English and Russian
What additional skills will help you stand out?
Performance tuning in any DBMS Experience with cloud data solutions Experience with Spark Experience using Python, S3, EC2, Athena in AWS environment.
Benefits Benefits and perks are tailored to the local market and culture. Our benefits in Guildford include:
5 weeks of Annual Leave per calendar year Dog-friendly office Onsite canteen (with an endless supply of snacks and beverages) Video game areas, Warhammer painting station, a bespoke D&D table, Adjustable height desks Wellbeing perks (Mental Health Days, Dedicated Well-being room, Team of Mental Heath First Aiders, Professional counseling) Health Insurance (including family coverage), Life Insurance, Pension contribution Career development and education opportunities within the company Employee discounts Personal Gaming Account Company events Seniority Awards Referral program - you can recommend the best talents to the Company and receive a reward Working in one of the main European hubs for mobile game development Startup within a company with 25 years of experience on the market To learn more about our studio in Guildford, follow this link: https://dpsgames.com/studio
About Wargaming Wargaming is an award-winning online game developer and publisher headquartered in Nicosia, Cyprus. Operating since 1998, Wargaming has become one of the leaders in the gaming industry with 15 offices worldwide, including studios in Chicago, Prague, Shanghai, Tokyo, and Vilnius. Our diverse and multicultural team works together to deliver a top-class experience to millions of players who enjoy Wargaming's titles across all major gaming platforms. Our flagship products include free-to-play hits World of Tanks, World of Warships and World of Tanks Blitz. Please see Wargaming Candidate Privacy Policy for details on how Wargaming uses your personal data.
submitted by fark13 to sports_jobs [link] [comments]
Enhancements, new development, defect resolution, and production support of Big data ETL development Write ETLs to clean/transform data into clear data models (snowflake, Athena, using our python framework, a little bit Impala, Hive, Oracle) Work with and finalize the requestor’s requirements
60% of your work will relate to writing SQL queries, you should also understand what kind of data you work with and think about what kind of solution will solve the internal customer’s problem better. Who are we looking for?
3+ years of experience with DWH/BI Good knowledge of data querying and transformation: SQL, Oracle PL/SQL, impala/hive SQL, Snowflake SQL Experience with versioning systems (SVN, git) Ability to work with and finalize the requestor’s requirements Expertise in ETL processes design and implementation, data lifecycle management Desire to learn Fluency in English and Russian
What additional skills will help you stand out?
Performance tuning in any DBMS Experience with cloud data solutions Experience with Spark Experience using Python, S3, EC2, Athena in AWS environment.
Benefits Benefits and perks are tailored to the local market and culture. Our benefits in Guildford include:
5 weeks of Annual Leave per calendar year Dog-friendly office Onsite canteen (with an endless supply of snacks and beverages) Video game areas, Warhammer painting station, a bespoke D&D table, Adjustable height desks Wellbeing perks (Mental Health Days, Dedicated Well-being room, Team of Mental Heath First Aiders, Professional counseling) Health Insurance (including family coverage), Life Insurance, Pension contribution Career development and education opportunities within the company Employee discounts Personal Gaming Account Company events Seniority Awards Referral program - you can recommend the best talents to the Company and receive a reward Working in one of the main European hubs for mobile game development Startup within a company with 25 years of experience on the market To learn more about our studio in Guildford, follow this link: https://dpsgames.com/studio
About Wargaming Wargaming is an award-winning online game developer and publisher headquartered in Nicosia, Cyprus. Operating since 1998, Wargaming has become one of the leaders in the gaming industry with 15 offices worldwide, including studios in Chicago, Prague, Shanghai, Tokyo, and Vilnius. Our diverse and multicultural team works together to deliver a top-class experience to millions of players who enjoy Wargaming's titles across all major gaming platforms. Our flagship products include free-to-play hits World of Tanks, World of Warships and World of Tanks Blitz. Please see Wargaming Candidate Privacy Policy for details on how Wargaming uses your personal data.
2024.05.17 19:47 fark13 Big Data Engineer - Wargaming - Serbia
| | We are looking for a Big Data EngineeETL Developer for the DWH department! The Data Warehouse department is aimed at helping projects to make smart business decisions by integrating and processing huge amounts of data and providing efficient calculations and reports based on stored information. Our team of experienced data-enthusiastic engineers wants to expand by hiring a committed and creative specialist. We use cutting-edge data processing technologies and improve through constant learning. Reports to Team Lead of Big Data What will you do? submitted by fark13 to sports_jobs [link] [comments] Enhancements, new development, defect resolution, and production support of Big data ETL development Write ETLs to clean/transform data into clear data models (snowflake, Athena, using our python framework, a little bit Impala, Hive, Oracle) Work with and finalize the requestor’s requirements 60% of your work will relate to writing SQL queries, you should also understand what kind of data you work with and think about what kind of solution will solve the internal customer’s problem better. Who are we looking for? 3+ years of experience with DWH/BI Good knowledge of data querying and transformation: SQL, Oracle PL/SQL, impala/hive SQL, Snowflake SQL Experience with versioning systems (SVN, git) Ability to work with and finalize the requestor’s requirements Expertise in ETL processes design and implementation, data lifecycle management Desire to learn Fluency in English and Russian What additional skills will help you stand out? Performance tuning in any DBMS Experience with cloud data solutions Experience with Spark Experience using Python, S3, EC2, Athena in AWS environment. Benefits Benefits and perks are tailored to the local market and culture. Our benefits in Belgrade include: Additional Vacation days on top of the statutory minimum dependent on years of service with Wargaming Group) Up to 8 “Trust days” per calendar year that require no medical certificate Career development and education opportunities within the company English clubs and platform for learning languages Premium Private Health Care Commuting allowance Gym trainings / Wellness program Personal Gaming Account Coffee, fruits, and snacks in the office Company events Seniority Awards Referral program - you can recommend the best talents to the Company and receive a reward About Wargaming Wargaming is an award-winning online game developer and publisher headquartered in Nicosia, Cyprus. Operating since 1998, Wargaming has become one of the leaders in the gaming industry with 15 offices worldwide, including studios in Chicago, Prague, Shanghai, Tokyo, and Vilnius. Our diverse and multicultural team works together to deliver a top-class experience to millions of players who enjoy Wargaming's titles across all major gaming platforms. Our flagship products include free-to-play hits World of Tanks, World of Warships and World of Tanks Blitz. Please see Wargaming Candidate Privacy Policy for details on how Wargaming uses your personal data. |
2024.05.17 19:47 fark13 Big Data Engineer - Wargaming - Poland
We are looking for a Big Data EngineeETL Developer for the DWH department! The Data Warehouse department is aimed at helping projects to make smart business decisions by integrating and processing huge amounts of data and providing efficient calculations and reports based on stored information. Our team of experienced data-enthusiastic engineers wants to expand by hiring a committed and creative specialist. We use cutting-edge data processing technologies and improve through constant learning. Reports to Team Lead of Big Data What will you do?
Enhancements, new development, defect resolution, and production support of Big data ETL development Write ETLs to clean/transform data into clear data models (snowflake, Athena, using our python framework, a little bit Impala, Hive, Oracle) Work with and finalize the requestor’s requirements
60% of your work will relate to writing SQL queries, you should also understand what kind of data you work with and think about what kind of solution will solve the internal customer’s problem better. Who are we looking for?
3+ years of experience with DWH/BI Good knowledge of data querying and transformation: SQL, Oracle PL/SQL, impala/hive SQL, Snowflake SQL Experience with versioning systems (SVN, git) Ability to work with and finalize the requestor’s requirements Expertise in ETL processes design and implementation, data lifecycle management Desire to learn Fluency in English and Russian
What additional skills will help you stand out?
Performance tuning in any DBMS Experience with cloud data solutions Experience with Spark Experience using Python, S3, EC2, Athena in AWS environment.
Benefits Benefits and perks are tailored to the local market and culture. Our benefits in Warsaw include:
Career development and education opportunities within the company Premium Private Health Care Multisport card Remote work Personal Gaming Account Company events Seniority Awards Referral program - you can recommend the best talents to the Company and receive a reward
About Wargaming Wargaming is an award-winning online game developer and publisher headquartered in Nicosia, Cyprus. Operating since 1998, Wargaming has become one of the leaders in the gaming industry with 15 offices worldwide, including studios in Chicago, Prague, Shanghai, Tokyo, and Vilnius. Our diverse and multicultural team works together to deliver a top-class experience to millions of players who enjoy Wargaming's titles across all major gaming platforms. Our flagship products include free-to-play hits World of Tanks, World of Warships and World of Tanks Blitz. Please see Wargaming Candidate Privacy Policy for details on how Wargaming uses your personal data.
submitted by fark13 to sports_jobs [link] [comments]
Enhancements, new development, defect resolution, and production support of Big data ETL development Write ETLs to clean/transform data into clear data models (snowflake, Athena, using our python framework, a little bit Impala, Hive, Oracle) Work with and finalize the requestor’s requirements
60% of your work will relate to writing SQL queries, you should also understand what kind of data you work with and think about what kind of solution will solve the internal customer’s problem better. Who are we looking for?
3+ years of experience with DWH/BI Good knowledge of data querying and transformation: SQL, Oracle PL/SQL, impala/hive SQL, Snowflake SQL Experience with versioning systems (SVN, git) Ability to work with and finalize the requestor’s requirements Expertise in ETL processes design and implementation, data lifecycle management Desire to learn Fluency in English and Russian
What additional skills will help you stand out?
Performance tuning in any DBMS Experience with cloud data solutions Experience with Spark Experience using Python, S3, EC2, Athena in AWS environment.
Benefits Benefits and perks are tailored to the local market and culture. Our benefits in Warsaw include:
Career development and education opportunities within the company Premium Private Health Care Multisport card Remote work Personal Gaming Account Company events Seniority Awards Referral program - you can recommend the best talents to the Company and receive a reward
About Wargaming Wargaming is an award-winning online game developer and publisher headquartered in Nicosia, Cyprus. Operating since 1998, Wargaming has become one of the leaders in the gaming industry with 15 offices worldwide, including studios in Chicago, Prague, Shanghai, Tokyo, and Vilnius. Our diverse and multicultural team works together to deliver a top-class experience to millions of players who enjoy Wargaming's titles across all major gaming platforms. Our flagship products include free-to-play hits World of Tanks, World of Warships and World of Tanks Blitz. Please see Wargaming Candidate Privacy Policy for details on how Wargaming uses your personal data.
2024.05.17 19:47 fark13 Big Data Engineer - Wargaming - Czechia
| | We are looking for a Big Data EngineeETL Developer for the DWH department! The Data Warehouse department is aimed at helping projects to make smart business decisions by integrating and processing huge amounts of data and providing efficient calculations and reports based on stored information. Our team of experienced data-enthusiastic engineers wants to expand by hiring a committed and creative specialist. We use cutting-edge data processing technologies and improve through constant learning. Reports to Team Lead of Big Data What will you do? submitted by fark13 to sports_jobs [link] [comments] Enhancements, new development, defect resolution, and production support of Big data ETL development Write ETLs to clean/transform data into clear data models (snowflake, Athena, using our python framework, a little bit Impala, Hive, Oracle) Work with and finalize the requestor’s requirements 60% of your work will relate to writing SQL queries, you should also understand what kind of data you work with and think about what kind of solution will solve the internal customer’s problem better. Who are we looking for? 3+ years of experience with DWH/BI Good knowledge of data querying and transformation: SQL, Oracle PL/SQL, impala/hive SQL, Snowflake SQL Experience with versioning systems (SVN, git) Ability to work with and finalize the requestor’s requirements Expertise in ETL processes design and implementation, data lifecycle management Desire to learn Fluency in English and Russian What additional skills will help you stand out? Performance tuning in any DBMS Experience with cloud data solutions Experience with Spark Experience using Python, S3, EC2, Athena in AWS environment. Benefits Benefits and perks are tailored to the local market and culture. Our benefits in Prague include: 5 weeks of Annual Leave per calendar year Up to 10 Personal Days per calendar year Career development and education opportunities within the company Language courses (English, Russian, Czech) fully covered by the company upon Manager’s approval. Meal card – 150 CZK net contribution for each business day Multisport Employee discounts Personal Gaming Account Transportation allowance Premium private health care Coffee, fruits, snacks in the office Company events Seniority Awards Referral program - You can recommend the best talents to the company and receive a reward To learn more about our studio in Prague, follow this link: https://prague.wargaming.com/ About Wargaming Wargaming is an award-winning online game developer and publisher headquartered in Nicosia, Cyprus. Operating since 1998, Wargaming has become one of the leaders in the gaming industry with 15 offices worldwide, including studios in Chicago, Prague, Shanghai, Tokyo, and Vilnius. Our diverse and multicultural team works together to deliver a top-class experience to millions of players who enjoy Wargaming's titles across all major gaming platforms. Our flagship products include free-to-play hits World of Tanks, World of Warships and World of Tanks Blitz. Please see Wargaming Candidate Privacy Policy for details on how Wargaming uses your personal data. |