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Beans In Things That Beans Shouldn't Be In

2017.03.02 06:20 SpareLiver Beans In Things That Beans Shouldn't Be In

Post pictures of beans in things that beans shouldn't be in. Inspired by, but no direct connection to the [Facebook group](https://www.facebook.com/BeansInThingsThatBeansShouldntBeIn/)
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2015.07.28 19:21 pauljamez Celebrating the greatness of Filipino cuisine!

A community that celebrates the wonderful food of and inspired by the Philippines!
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2016.05.13 03:32 -BirthdaySuitSamus Overwatch Memes

Welcome to Overwatch Memes. Please read the rules before posting!
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2024.05.19 11:13 tugga2timez I finally did it!

I finally did it!
me, 27 in June, current weight: 426. Last year I weighed in at around 450 all year, this year all I've done to reach toward my goal is change my diet up a bit, nothing crazy. But today marks the first day (in my whole life) I went to the gym with hopes of starting a new hobby with myself. I spent a good 10 minutes getting familiar with the options they had for me, next thing I know I had hit that start button on the treadmill for an hour long walk. might night seem like much, but even the smallest amount of progress felt amazing. My legs were burning, but really not all too bad as I'm used to moving around a lot at work and whatnot. So I powered through the hour increasing my incline for 20 min, back down halfway, then back up and bumped the incline up double the amount to power through the last 10 minutes. Stepping off when it was all over made me feel stumbly? like I was still moving a bit. but once I gained my footing again and caught my breath I realized, That really wasn't so bad. I wish I hadn't put it off this long at this point just cause of how easy it actually was for me. I gave myself a distraction also (watching a movie) really helps power though. I really hope to be able to come back to the pictures I took of myself and remember the way this first day has made me feel. Moral of the story is, if you don't think you can, you're wrong. I've been told this many times and I should know by now, but it's all in your head.
Not here to give any tips or anything other than the classic, I see you, you are not alone, and you can do this.
https://preview.redd.it/i4q5m8y9oc1d1.jpg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=d7f2bcb19741538c88c2904373c9168b91cf4a83
https://preview.redd.it/fegre8y9oc1d1.jpg?width=1980&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=3c3e2bf2aefacaaa6bc39f0e8d2b1915d0c75b72
https://preview.redd.it/ytlbs9y9oc1d1.jpg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=cab0215df6e99b6752ef1de5b6bdcff0bec26615
submitted by tugga2timez to WeightlossJourney [link] [comments]


2024.05.19 11:05 Asleep_Magazine_5528 I (25M) made a mistake with (24F) after second date. Was it the mistake or was she just not interested before this?

I (25M) matched with a girl (24F) on hinge. We were texting each other once every day or so for just over a week then organised to go on a date. The date went great - she did mention that she has accounting exams coming up soon with her job so she was going to be busy the next couple of months. But we both had a great time and I had no doubts we wanted to see eachother again after the date - she even gave me her umbrella to take home as it was raining and she got a taxi home.
We continued texting once a day - finding out more in common and I mentioned that I’m a fan of Mexican food and she said she is too and she said that could be our next date idea. She then asked when I was free and I booked a restaurant (2 weeks after the first date as she was busy due to a family wedding the weekend after the first date). She also mentioned that as it’s September now, it’s go time in terms of revision.
We met up at the restaurant and the date went fine, again no doubts and lots in common. She mentioned that due to a health condition she doesn’t like to drink alcohol when it’s super hot so she ordered a mocktail instead with her food.
We then went to a rooftop bar afterwards which I’d booked as the weather was really warm. When we got to the rooftop, the girl said it feels hotter up here than it does downstairs (which it did) and she asked me to push a button on my side of the table (I think she assumed it may have been connected to a fan). But when I pushed the button the outdoor heaters turned on which was quite embarrassing and the people in the bar started laughing. I laughed too but it did throw me off and make me feel awkward. The girl did apologise to me and them and was laughing too.
But we sat down and continued chatting - I felt the conversation wasn’t flowing as well due to the awkwardness but there were no awkward silences. I ordered a cocktail but the menu was a little limited for mocktails - I did ask her if she wanted to go somewhere else but she said don’t worry it’s ok. She ended up just having water.
Once i finished my drink, she said she’s going to head off so we walked to the train station together - we didn’t stay at the rooftop for very long. I was still feeling awkward as the last part of the date didn’t go how I’d hoped but I asked if she wanted to go out again and she said yeah definitely so I gave her a quick kiss and said bye.
I messaged her on instagram while I was on my way home and just gave her my phone number and said let me know when you’re home.
She texted me that evening and said ‘hey thanks for dinner tonight - honestly next time you have to let me get the bill! It was v good to see you again. Hope you got home okay x’.
I replied that Thursday evening and said ‘hey no worries it’s all good, but you’re organising the next one’. She then reacted to that message with a little heart on Saturday and said ‘how’s your Saturday been, sorry for the late reply been super busy my sister is visiting😂’ - she did mention that her sister was visiting before we went on the second date. I replied on the Sunday with general convo. She replied on the Monday as usual, being communicative, telling me about her weekend and all the things she did and also asking me more about what I was doing. She also said ‘so not a productive weekend in terms of revision😭’
I replied on the Tuesday, making general conversation again. I didn’t hear back from her on Wednesday, Thursday (which was when I started to get anxious) or Friday. I assumed she had a busy week with work and revision so I’d hear back Friday evening. I also noticed that at some point after the second date she changed one of her prompts on her hinge dating profile - a small change from ‘give me travel tips to Thailand’ to ‘give me travel tips to Miami’. She didn’t update any pictures or anything else and as we’d only been out twice I’m guessing this is normal? She also mentioned on the second date that she’d booked her Miami holiday.
I still didn’t hear back from her and then made a massive mistake Saturday morning and sent her another message which said ‘if you weren’t interested why not just say. You’re a bit of an arsehole to say you wanna go out again, pay and all that then just ignore me’. She responded an hour and a half later and said ‘I wasn’t trying to ignore you - I was genuinely busy this week. But you calling me an arsehole is so uncalled for and tbh I don’t want to see someone who’s going to call me names so I’d rather just call it a day’. I called to try and apologise but she didn’t pick up so I messaged ‘I get you’re busy with exams. Like I fully understand that but it takes 2 seconds to say hey I’m busy right now I’ll get back to you. Tbh it comes across like you’re not interested and a bit rude. So I’m sorry I called you an arsehole but I called you as I wanted to chat to you quickly’. She replied and said ‘sorry missed your call - I’m out. Yeah fairs I get that but the exams are my priority. I feel like I’ve said what I need to say and think it’s just best if we leave it here’. I messaged again trying to sort it out but she didn’t reply. I gave it three weeks and apologised more sincerely and she said it’s all good no hard feelings but she’s got a lot on right now so she doesn’t think it would be best to give it a second chance. I said if it’s the exams I don’t mind if you wanna speak again after they’re all done, but she didn’t reply to that message.
I reached out again after a couple months as I saw her on the same dating app and her profile was updated with new pictures and she said she just doesn’t see this going anywhere and good luck with everything - she then blocked me. I’m assuming she was finished with her exams by this point.
I fully understand that I was completely in the wrong with the way I reacted and I’ve learnt the lesson and won’t ever speak to anyone like that again - I regret it so much because I could see myself liking her and she honestly seemed like the most perfect girl, although we only went on 2 dates and spoke for a month. But do you think it was me calling her an arsehole that caused her to end it (completely valid if so) or if she just wasn’t feeling it before this and I gave her an easy way out?
submitted by Asleep_Magazine_5528 to relationship_advice [link] [comments]


2024.05.19 11:04 tugga2timez finally did it!

me, 27 in June, current weight: 426. Last year I weighed in at around 450 all year, this year all I've done to reach toward my goal is change my diet up a bit, nothing crazy. But today marks the first day (in my whole life) I went to the gym with hopes of starting a new hobby with myself. I spent a good 10 minutes getting familiar with the options they had for me, next thing I know I had hit that start button on the treadmill for an hour long walk. might night seem like much, but even the smallest amount of progress felt amazing. My legs were burning, but really not all too bad as I'm used to moving around a lot at work and whatnot. So I powered through the hour increasing my incline for 20 min, back down halfway, then back up and bumped the incline up double the amount to power through the last 10 minutes. Stepping off when it was all over made me feel stumbly? like I was still moving a bit. but once I gained my footing again and caught my breath I realized, That really wasn't so bad. I wish I hadn't put it off this long at this point just cause of how easy it actually was for me. I gave myself a distraction also (watching a movie) really helps power though. I really hope to be able to come back to the pictures I took of myself and remember the way this first day has made me feel. Moral of the story is, if you don't think you can, you're wrong. I've been told this many times and I should know by now, but it's all in your head.
my stats for my walk: 2 miles walked in 63.33 minutes, average bpm 139, est. calories burned 687.
Not here to give any tips or anything other than the classic, I see you, you are not alone, and you can do this.
submitted by tugga2timez to loseit [link] [comments]


2024.05.19 11:01 MarkedMatt Answering popular questions related to the lore

Why didn't/couldn't Sidorovich, Barkeep and Sakharov recognize Strelok during SoC events?
This might seem like a plothole, but it actually isn't. Sid didn't know Strelok personally:
"Yeah, I've heard of a stalker by that name. Rumors is he's one of the few who went to the center of the Zone and made it back. Still, we got so many of these legendary stories about stalker heroes that I can't really guarantee anything. At any rate, I've never dealt with him personally. It seems he has his own trading channels. Anyhow, just ask the folks here in the Zone and you'll be sure to learn a lot more." Clear Sky confirms that his words are true, because during CS events it was Fang who had a business with Sidorovich and not Strelok.
Additional proof: https://snipboard.io/A4Pxgp.jpg https://snipboard.io/piHsac.jpg
Barkeep's dialogue:
"An experienced stalker as far as I know. He used to "work" through the northern exits from the Zone. He was hardly ever seen here but there are rumors that he took his group right into the center of the Zone."
Additional proof: https://snipboard.io/Y4EmM2.jpg
About Sakharov - There are plenty of possible explanations for the fact that he doesn't recognize Strelok, but the closest we have to an official explanation is included in the design document of the original storyline of the prequel, where it's said that Strelok's face was bandaged at the time:
"Strelok, whose face is still covered with bandages, comes to Sakharov and tells that he is planning a trip to the CNPP."
Of course, it's not really canon, but it still works.
Why won't military just bomb the Zone?
First of all, they already tried but failed:
"I can't really get into that - we've got some discipline in this place, after all. Our general Krylov certainly used to be a military man. I heard a few stories about how, just as the Zone formed, the government organized a military operation in here. They were sent to the very center of the Zone with an order to blow it all to hell with nuclear explosives. Can you imagine what that means? These guys were sent with no protection, no detectors, no information about what to expect in the Zone. Many perished in anomalies right off, and most of those who didn't were done in by an emission. The few survivors were left behind to die a slow death. General Krylov is one of those few. I don't know who he's pals with, but he hates the military ever since he and his buddies were sent straight to their deaths. He's got some connections in Spetsnaz though. Spetsnaz only got real men. Sometimes Duty crosses paths with them. That's pretty much it - consider it the abridged version." - Dialogue of Zvyagintsev
Additional proof: https://snipboard.io/HP1pVq.jpg
Second of all, it's obviously a very bad idea.
"Everyone who believes in the Monolith is completely nuts. They keep banging on about it but nobody actually knows what's in the center of the Zone. An invisible crystal that fell from the skies...ha-ha-ha! I reckon one of the secret labs blew up - I mean some stalkers used to work in a few of them. But, obviously, you can't bomb the Zone. Not only will the radiation spread all over the world, half of Europe would be flattened by the Zone's reaction. "Someone" has gone totally mad lately - I heard they're killing normal stalkers for no reason at all. How do you like that? Damn fanatics." - Dialogue of Random 100 Rads Bar Dutyer
Additional proof: https://snipboard.io/oWRgr0.jpg
Is the Zone growing?
Only SoC presents this idea. Neither Clear Sky nor Call of Pripyat mentioned anything about Zone's expansion. In fact, Hermann in CoP just said that Zone is evolving, while Loki directly said that it isn't getting bigger:
"They're idiots, that's what I think. I mean, why the hell would they want to destroy the Zone? it's not consuming precious resources or getting bigger... or anything. They could just sit there and study it to their heart's content - just think of how many scientific discoveries could be made... I mean, in the history of man-kind, no one has never been able to understand antigravitation, right? And in the Zone you've got ready-made antigravitation devices lying all over the place. It wouldn't hurt to kick their asses out of here, but it's too much hassle. By the way, don't be confused by our relations here at Yanov. We are at war... it's just that Yanov has been made neutral territory, if you know what I mean." - Loki
Additional proof: https://snipboard.io/UQ8ZEO.jpg
If The Zone is practically known globally then how come we aren't seeing other world governments trying to send people of their own to study it?
"Right... I seem to remember you asking me about something last night, though I can't recall... Ah, got it. You wanted to know why it's only our eggheads messing around in the Zone. Curious why the foreigners won't show up, even though there's enough stuff here for thousands of Nobles prizes... Alright, let's see. First of all, what the heck do they need coming down here for, when they can simply pay some of our guys and get the results on a silver plate? Second of all, they've actually been there themselves, and quite a lot of them, too. It's just that in the last two years these gringos have been badly scared of going into the Zone..." - Fragment from PDA entry called "The chronicles of egghead globalists"
"Ever heard about Station Thirty-Two? That's where they all bit the bullet. It was all quiet at first, pretty much normal... They'd be reading their meters, taking samples, poking their gear into anomalies... And then they all started going nuts. Every friggin one of them. Everyone slowly going off their rocker. One of ours, the one that retired eventually, told me about it... Some actually ripped their own throats open, other would smash their heads against the wall, and some would simply... Gun in their mouth and... And then the beasts started swarming all over them. Those few who were still sane enough barricaded themselves in the house. You get the picture, right? Dark night, all the local beasties outside, and people going nuts one after another inside. In short, in the morning those who still had it together broke out of there somehow. Went straight on, even got caught in some anomalies... Got to the Rotten Forest... But none of those who had been left behind have been found. they say loads of controllers were recorded in that area. that's how it was... Since then, no one goes anywhere near Station Thirty-Two, and the foreigners steer clear of the Zone... " - Another fragment from that entry
Additional proof: https://snipboard.io/ZEXgNy.jpg (Part 1) https://snipboard.io/gksjHB.jpg (Part 2) https://snipboard.io/Zc8W2G.jpg (Part 3.)
"There are always developments in the Zone, and they're always interesting. I already told you about Monolith - they're on everybody's tongue... Have you heard about a new major expedition into the Zone? Technically, they're environmental researchers from the UN, but that's just on paper. Sure, they got a couple four-eyed scientists, but just one look at all the others tells you they're seasoned fighters. No idea why they're here. Oh, and dig this: they're not using guides. Either they're being guided by satellite, or their mission is so secret that no one else could be let in on it. They seem to be approaching the Radar. I dunno how this will end, but I got a feeling it won't be pretty." - Dialogue of Hog
Additional proof: https://snipboard.io/oejv2a.jpg
What happened to Scar?
There can be many answers to this question. Scar's fate could have turned out in many ways - perhaps, if the brainwashing process failed, he became simply zombified; if it was successful, he could've died while being transported in the death truck; if this didn't happen, he had a clearly defined task to perform, and could die while trying to do it; if he survived, he might still be wandering around the Zone as an amnesiac.
It's also possible that he simply died during the emission, or was captured but somehow managed to overcome the brainwashing process and escaped from whatever laboratory it was taking place in.
Monolith's weaponry. How do they have so many guns?
It can be partially explained by a couple of things. First thing that should be noted is that Monolith before trilogy used to be different faction. It can be assumed that they already had decent weapons (I have another post which includes dialogues about older Monolith) https://www.reddit.com/stalkecomments/1ax5u7x/interesting_facts_about_the_monolith_faction/
Second thing is that even rookies know that they gotta get better equipment before going deeper into the Zone:
"For now I'm just gaining experience and saving up some coin. As soon as I have enough, I'll buy me a good shooter and armor, and head straight for the center of the Zone. Rumor has it some guys already made it there and found the Wish Granter. That's where I'm gonna go. And when I find it, I won't go wrong with my wish, you can bet on that!" - Dialogue of Cordon Loner in Clear Sky
Additional proof: https://snipboard.io/bqyuzA.jpg
And lastly, C-Consciousness Representative said "From the moment the Zone was formed, many people have tried to get to its center". Many people seem to think that Brain Scorcher only turns people into zombies, but it seems that it was also capable of converting them to Monolith:
"Brothers, as we were patrolling the outskirts of the Dark Forest we came upon an unfaithful loner. We did not kill him, seeing as he was already on his way to conversion, although he was still half-way in his animal state... Such is the wisdom of the Monolith: once again it revealed to us the true countenance of our enemies." - PDA entry called "A convert in the Black Forest"
Additional proof: https://snipboard.io/jC2MPJ.jpg
About their suits - there can be more than 1 answer.
It's interesting to point out that Monolith suit was located in lab X-18. Either the faction stashed them there, or they were here before. A possible explanation could be that such suits were used by guards of the secret facilities in the Zone before the 2nd disaster
I think this is important to point out too
"Stalker suit from the Monolith faction. The producer is unknown. Its protective properties are slightly worse then those of the PSZ-9a military bulletproof vest. Its structure is similar to the suit popular with neutral stalkers which combines a bulletproof vest and a radiation protection suit. It provides good protection from gunfire. Its level of anomaly protection is low due to the absence of an air" - Description of Monolith Suit
Additional proof: https://snipboard.io/XITJs4.jpg
"Stalker suit manufactured by "folk craftsmen". It is an effective combination of a light military bulletproof vest and of a rubberized fabric suit. It is reinforced with inserted kevlar plates and provides good protection from weak gunfire. All in all it is highly inefficient for carrying out deep raids and serious operations in the knots of the Zone." - Stalker Suit (Sunrise)
Additional proof: https://snipboard.io/zMGpqd.jpg
Lastly, Yantar loner NPCs in Clear Sky mention in their dialogue mention very interesting thing:
"I heard a whole faction went missing in the Zone. You ever heard of Monolith? Well, they used to protect the Zone from others, but they made a move towards the center right before the Emission. Nobody has heard from them since, but recently some real aggressive stalkers have been attacking from where the Scorcher is, killing everyone and asking no questions. I know because I saw them myself around the military warehouses, and I reckon they might be those same Monolithians who disappeared. It wouldn't surprise me, because their uniforms looked real similar." Other than a fact that Monolith faction of the trilogy had members from older Monolith who wore similar uniform, dead bodies of Monolithians in Clear Sky, that are scattered over the Zone very well could be the dead bodies of older Monolith faction
submitted by MarkedMatt to stalker [link] [comments]


2024.05.19 11:00 SmokeDry6001 I 22 F think that my boyfriend 23 M is gay after finding gay p on his phone

This is my first post I’m not really sure how redit works so bear with me, all of this also JUST happened tonight so my mind is everywhere, but I’m almost 99.999% positive my 22 F boyfriend 23 M is gay. Me and him have kind of always had a really rocky relationship that I’ve always kind of known wasn’t healthy, but we’ve been on and off for 7 years. I lost my virginity to him, he’s my first love, literally my first everything, and all of this doesn’t even feel real.
He’s always been uncomfortable with PDA and as we’ve gotten older he’s been more detached and not as loving as he once was. I just figured it was because we’ve broken up for months and (once) years at a time, so he’s just keeping his guard up. But as of lately it’s been even worse. I only see him once a week, and later in the night for example he’ll come over around 8 or 9pm and fall asleep around 11 or 12 and wake me up in the morning saying he’s going home. So in all I’m getting about 3 hours a week with him. I’ve brought it up several times and even broke up with him over it. Eventually we’ve gotten back together of course, but it’s just weird to me. He does work a lot, but he spends ALL of his free time with his friends, and I’ve never met them.
7 YEARS in each others lives and I’ve never met his closest friends besides a few mutuals.
Anyways, tonight he came over because we were talking on the phone late last night and decided to get back together after being broken up for about 2 weeks. When he got here (10:45pm btw) I felt so emotional and unwanted because of him coming over so late (he was with his friends) but tried to just brush it off as me being me. We messed around, and I immediately started crying after which is not normal for me. He didn’t notice bc he was overly tired from work and being a little drunk so we cuddled a bit and he fell asleep.
That’s when I got the urge to go through his phone. I know what most people will say about that, it was really shitty, but we haven’t done that to each other in years so it was very weird I suddenly felt like I needed to. It was completely clean and there was literally nothing that bothered me, until I went to his google search history.
It was ALL GAY P VIDEOS. Literally all of it. Shemale, femboy, straight up ‘regular’ gay p, you name it. There was NO hetero p from what I saw.
This isn’t the first time he’s done something that’s made me question his sexuality. We’ve explored peg ging, which he loved so much he got a bit obsessive about it, like touching his nether region is all he wanted at one point. I haven’t done it in a long time, and I think he’s picked up on that because he’s relaxed a lot. But still brings it up often.
Once he was looking through his camera roll with me next to him, and I saw pics of him in girls underwear. We had a long emotional talk, he explained it was just part of his fetish for butt stuff, and I asked him if he’s gay or at least bi, and he said no. I told him I would always love him no matter what and if he was he could tell me. He got really mad, and insisted that wasn’t the case. So I dropped it and we never talked about the pictures again.
He’s always made really overly homophobic comments, not only am I bisexual (he’s aware of this) but most of the people I’m closest to are some type of queer, so we would often get into heated arguments regarding the lgbt+ community. He would always just really over play it, and I let it slide bc I’d always had an inkling he was probably bi himself and not ready to admit like most people who grew up in religious settings like himself.
All of this has happened months and even a couple years apart. So up until the gay p I never really thought he was fully gay.
If anyone sees this PLEASE give me advice on how to approach this. I can’t just break up with him without reason, and especially without knowing for certain. After 7 years I need some type of clarity. I’ve tried to move on before and we ALWAYS come back together. I don’t know how to approach this situation, I get that it’s going to be VERY sensitive for him, I don’t want to force him to come out to me, but I need something after spending 1/3 of my life loving and being with him. Again sorry if this is poorly worded and doesn’t make sense.
TL;DR I found gay p on my boyfriend’s phone after 7 years of being together, and along with other incidents. I have no idea how to handle this situation, he’s always been a bit overly “homophobic” and I need advice on how to handle this without making him feel cornered or forcing him to come out if he isn’t ready.
submitted by SmokeDry6001 to relationships [link] [comments]


2024.05.19 10:59 exsapphi New Zealand needs to be looking towards a green future for our own economic viability (as told through the history of glass)

The thing about this climate crisis that no one talks about is that economically, this is not new. This is the same sort of shift as any other massive economic shift we've seen in history, whether resulting from technology or environment or society or any combination of the three. It will be rapid; as rapid as the economic expansion of Europe when it discovered just how profitable colonisation and slavery were. But it's not really anything unseen in an economic sense.
How markets work is this: everything is just supply and demand. If there is a known demand for something, in a roundabout way, the market will ensure that demand is supplied. It might melt a few glaciers in the meantime, or be delayed by a war or two, but it's a force akin to that of nature, or evolution, or cause and effect. The markets will balance. Eventually.

A detour through history

The Chinese never developed eye-glasses. They didn't have the need for glass, because their drink of choice was tea, so the materials they worked with were mostly ceramics. In Europe, the cultural drink of refinement was wine. This didn't need to be kept hot, or be brewed and poured perfectly and all that stuff I'm told is important with tea. But it had requirements and qualities of its own, and one of them is that it looks pretty on display -- and that's why Europe developed and refined glass so much faster than China.
Glass is an incredibly old invention. It's fragile, much more fragile than pottery, so we rarely find it in archeological digs. But it's been invented in and/or expanded to many many cultures throughout history since at least 2000 BC in Egypt, Mesopotamia, and Syria, followed by the Greeks, the Romans, the Canaan, and the Persians. Basically anyone with an empire, including the Chinese, was making glass. Unfortunately they'd only just discovered transparent glass by the late Bronze Age, when the Bronze Age collapsed due to a series of environmental, migratory and urban changes.
(A good reminder that historically, periods of mass technological advancement are followed by civilisation collapses and dark ages. Until the present, of course. But that's been true of every present.)
A lot of glass-making technology was lost, but some important things were saved and some new stuff was rediscovered, and most of this discovering happened in Europe because they had, as I mentioned, wine. And rich people wanted to show off their pretty, colourful wine, and that only worked if your glass was transparent. And Italy had access to pure silica quartz, plus soda ash via their trade with the Levant, and so some clever spark there developed the first pair of eyeglasses.
And that's how you have Mecca, Italy and Venice (the latter of whom had been producing the famous Venetian glass, but moved all their glassmakers to Italy because they'd built all their buildings out of wood) all mass producing eye-glasses with consistent standards for Europe and the Middle East by the 14th century.
This might seem like a small development, but gradual loss of sight used to be a disability. Like, it seriously disabled people from doing many things. Far-sightedness meant artisans couldn't create and scholars couldn't read -- I can't even imagine how many people died falling off a horse just because they were short-sighted. For civilisations to have access to devices that got them decade of productivity out of some of the most skilled people in their societies was massive. And that's part of how you get European dominance over Asia, because the Chinese economic powerhouses didn't care about glass as much as Europe did. It's not enough to just invent something. To develop a technology, a society needs both the resources to play with and the need to play with it. That's why we get so much advancement from war. You can thank Germany for your microwave.

How on earth is this relevant to the market or our climate crisis?

Glass will be invented, and then it will be forgotten, and then it will be invented again. But only some economies flourished from it.
We have no control over anything but us. And that's terrifying. The climate change that crippled the Bronze Age wasn't even their fault and they still got thrown back to the Dark Ages.
We are going to see our own change in the market. We are going to live it. And one thing is true, whether National or ACT or BP like it or not: fossil fuels cannot continue to be relied upon as a commodity. Not long-term. It's a dying industry, slowly but surely, and it'll die whether we manage to wean ourselves off petrol or whether we use it all up first.
To a lesser extent, this is true of other non-renewables too. We are not at critical mass yet with our lithium-ion batteries, but we're now at the stage where people in the third world all seem to have cellphones. This is not a sustainable practice for a limited metal we have to mine from the earth. When something is running out, we don't have to stop using that material in the things we build; if we start to use it all up, it will soon get too expensive to build with, and that will stop us.
And that's why we have to stop using it: because if you as a country or industry pour all your energy and resources into developing technology based off that now-scarce resource, you will be left with no usable technology when that resource runs out.

What are National doing?

This is a political sub, so I won't mince words: something's gone wrong with National. Something's always been wrong with ACT, but National's change is recent. Power has been centralised in the board and the candidate selection process is no longer in the hands of the rank and file after Steven Joyce's shakeup, instead dominated by corporate interests. And they have dominated. We have a cabinet of lobbyists, and not just on National's side of the board; Luxon has pulled together the whole industry.
When we attribute "intentions" to things like forces and political parties, it can be easy to forget there's not a concerted, rational mind at play behind their decisions, and their actions are influenced by all of the people and factors and forces that make them up. When I say, "National has been bought by lobbyists", I don't mean every single person in the party is corporate shill. I just mean that there is enough corporate, business, and big-money influence in the party that they are no longer being governed primarily by their voter base or even their party members.
Nothing makes this more obvious than National's direction in politics. When your LABOUR and GREEN parties are the ones proposing to fix your climate crisis via free-market ingenuity that we can patent, sell on and capitalise off, something has gone wrong. There is money to be made in climate change, and National are off chasing oil down the bottom of a well.
If we don't wean ourselves off fossil fuels, we will find ourselves paying for it the increased price for them when we don't have the green technology to utilise at the end of supply. If we don't put our minds to green tech and science, we won't have the environment-saving and cleaning and reinforcing products and knowledge to sell on when the demand for them peaks through the ceiling -- instead we will be buying from other countries at big prices, paying to ship their experts here to tell us how to manage our estuaries or dump sites or skink habitats or whatever it is we need to fix next. New Zealand got lucky with our green energy; we were already using renewables by sheer coincidence when the climate crisis struck, and it made our transition to this new world very smooth. We will not be that lucky again.
Look at what we produce as a country. We held on far too long to our wool market out of some idea that it was "what we were supposed to be doing", and it nearly wrecked the country. Because it took us so long to change, and because we'd converted all our land into pasture, the most effective market for us to turn to became beef. Now that market is thriving, and we are willfully ignoring the real economic costs that will come with being a beef export country, and that cost is methane. There is not a future where countries will be allowed to emit methane for free. And there are no methane-light cows to switch to. Not until we develop them.
And this is what people talk about when they talk about environmental solutions still to be developed -- as if other people are going to develop them. That is incorrect. WE are the Cow Country. WE are the ones that should be foremost of the cow-fart field. If we do, we will be the ones benefitting by selling our bio-engineered cows and our science that made it happen. But if we don't, if we trail behind, we let other countries get out in front, and then our industry relies on them, and their industry outgrows us.
And these are all individual product or problem examples, but we are dragging our feet across the entire green industry. Why?

Big Oil does not care if your tech is Green

I say big oil, but there are other anti-environment and pro-corporate interests at play here. And again, there's not some big puppetmaster moving his pawn pieces, but there is influence, and companies don't want the world to go green, because when they do, they stop getting money for all the things they're getting money from right now. They don't care about the environment because they don't have the capacity to care; they are not a they. They are a force, a conglomeration, a hivemind of workers breaking their back for the company, until they clock off and become their own person again.
Their only interest is keeping ahold of their incredibly profitable market, and that market needs machines that use oil, and consumers willing to buy those machines, and people who aren't thinking about switching to a non-oil version of their tractor that doesn't exist yet (because no one has found the need to invent it. Or had the right resources.)
Oil cares about oil. Mining cares about mining. Tobacco cares about tobacco. Beef cares about beef. And we get value out of these industries as a country, as a society, so when they say"This thing is bad for me", we do have to listen to that. Otherwise we won't get our beef, or our oil. But "This thing is bad for ME" isn't the same as "This thing is bad for YOU". And companies are relying on consumers to not know the difference.

Back to National

Tobacco lobbyists have bought out Parliament, and are literally drafting our tobacco laws. And they are just one interest around the table. But they have had a huge effect. Imagine what's happening to the interests of your politicians when you have your lobbyists working together. Imagine where the interests of lobbyists for mining and oil might meet. Now imagine fisheries has a guy in there too.
Our oceans should be feeling very nervous right now.
It's the small influences we can't see that make these big decisions later on. The people who select our future MPs. The people who decide, hey, I'm going to try this new glass technique. But it takes an awful lot of decisions to make a glassblowing society.
A lot of what we do, we don't do consciously, like developing eye-glasses. But the benefit of our open democries, of our information-based societies, of our unprecedented understanding of economies and markets and science and climate, should mean that when we choose to do something consciously, we can do it.
When we don't, something has gone wrong.

A Green Future

To get to the sort of green economy the non-business parties are picturing, you need someone who has the time and acumen to get us there.
That SHOULD be National. There is so much involved in politics; our politicians are running so much. And they're spending most of their time undoing the last guy's policies. Labour's policies sound like the Greens. National doesn't have any except "win". ACT are doing Charter Schools again. And the policies are being made are being made in the interests of business people.
Our politicians don't have visions like Hollyoake of a New Zealand forging our own future, or Muldoon's determination to make things better for the average kiwi, or (heaven help me), Roger Douglass's respect for politics. None of the old guard are happy with how politics is shaping up, and certainly not the right, or who eventually became the right, in Douglass's case -- this is what he had to say on the subject: “John Key lived by the polls and it’s very dangerous. If you want to help people, you have to tell them the truth. The problem is that the politicians of today, they want to help themselves. So they poll in order to know what to say and it’s disgusting.”
I think in that one sentence, Douglass sums up everything wrong with the modern National Party. Once upon a time, National were in it to help people. They're not anymore.

Where to now?

It's all just markets.
If National won't change, they'll kill their market and they'll be replaced by a new party, just like the Liberal Party and Reform Party and Social Credit Party before them. National and Labour have always around, but not always as these parties, or in these forms. The political spectrum will move to meet demand -- even when curtailed by corporate interests.
Or National will change, take control of their candidates and board, and live to fight for another century or so.
Either way, the economy will continue, and so will climate change. We will still need to develop new technologies using our available resources, and direct our technology-developing towards fixing environmental solutions. I hope New Zealand will benefit from this, and not just witness it. But if it's not National making the push, another political party will. We can see that happening right now, with the other parties suggesting their own green business ideas that National should be sweeping up votes for. There is voter and consumer demand for green businesses, and National are distracting us instead with shiny baubles because the corporations influencing them don't want you to see them.
Another thing Douglass was frustratingly right about: all our parties are doing at the moment is undoing each other's policies. It's hard to see New Zealand making any forwards progress at all if that's our direction.
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2024.05.19 10:58 ZealousidealLog6714 I need some advice

Hey, I 21F have been dating this guy will call him Dan 22M for about two months now. We first met on a dating app and originally only got together for one night stands but eventually fell in love with each other.
He is such a sweet person, he is so attractive, plays soccer so he is very fit, gorgeous blonde curly hair with blue eyes and he is super smart. He is the definition of Ken from barbie. I have met his family and they are caring and sweet. They are filthy rich as both of his parents have really great jobs. He is an only child, has two caring parents who are so in love with each other and who are happily married together.
One night after a sweet date, I got curious and asked Dan about his past intimate relationships and was horrified by his answer.
It took awhile to get him to tell me what he had done in the past but I eventually got it out of him.
I am being 100% serious and am not sugar coating or cutting any information out, I am cutting straight to the point.
Basically, Dan told me that him and his father would not only have intimate relationships with women at the same time, but they would also casually be intimate with each other. I am not talking about sweet kissing or hugging, I am talking about them being inside of each other type intimacy.
This came as a horrific shock to me but I continued to act like it wasn’t a big deal just so he could continue telling me more about his past relationships with people.
He would tell me that his dad would constantly cheat on his mother with Dan and other women. His mother was completely unaware of this as she is a specialised doctor and often travels the country to work, so he told me that they would usually bring women around to their house while she was gone and both Dan and his father and the long list of different women, would sleep together in Dan’s mothers bed while she was away.
He also mentioned that Dan and his father would casually sleep together with an average of 3-4 women a month for a year straight, all while going unnoticed by his mother.
I continued to act interested and pretended like it turned me on just so he would continue. One thing that made me SICK was when he told me that him, his father and a 57 year old woman hooked up in Dan’s mother’s room while his mother was in hospital.
He also told me that when he first introduced me to his family, his dad pulled him aside and asked if i would be keen to sleep with Dan and his father or if i would consider opening the relationship so that Dan and his father could continue their intimate relationships with other women. However, Dan quickly shut that idea down and told his father that he wouldn’t be continuing the intimate relationships with his father and women as long as me and him were together.
I feel extremely bad for his mother and am unsure of what to do. I am afraid that if i tell his mother she won’t believe me as it is a very serious and unbelievable situation. She is such a kind and sweet woman, she is all about her family and works to keep them safe, stable and up to date with the newest things.
Part of me believes that Dan’s father has groomed him and that this behaviour is extremely rare, disturbing and completely unacceptable. However, Dan swore that him and his father had never been intimate with each other until he reached the age of 20.
I am currently writing this while Dan sleeps peacefully next to me, I am unsure what to do and am asking for your guys advice. I do love Dan, he treats me like a princess and am dead set on this man. He is so kind and caring to me and has reassured me that this behaviour between him and his father has stopped the moment me and him started talking to each other. I honestly pictured us getting married but this is just something that I cannot get past.
submitted by ZealousidealLog6714 to stories [link] [comments]


2024.05.19 10:58 jenajiejing The Secret of Human Bodies – Examples Proving the Existence of the Greatest Creator

Xue Feng Though the modern medicine has limited knowledge of human bodies, what we have known is enough for us to admire the excellent human body structure and functions. Each system and organ in the human body is designed by the Greatest Creator. Even those trivial body parts have great functions. For example, there are several types of hairs on human bodies with distinct forms and functions. The head hair is designed to protect and beautify the head. It can grow long. According to the Bible, “But if a woman has long hair, it is a glory to her: for her hair is given her for a covering.” The eyebrows can divert sweat and rain, preventing them into the eyes. That’s why they are lined above the two eyes. Eyelashes can prevent the dust and other things from entering the eyes. That’s why they are lined on the sides of the eyelids. Also they stand forward in a special curve because it wouldn’t hinder the eyesight or pierce into the eyes when closing the eyes. If the eyebrows and eyelashes are too long, they will hinder the eyesight. That’s why they wouldn’t grow as long as the hair or beards. The nasal hairs can filter the inhaled air. That’s why they grow inside the nostril and stand sideways and outwards. If they stand inwards, the other things will find it easy to come into the nostrils and difficult to go out. The armpit hairs can prevent the partial friction and help the sweat evaporate. Without the armpit hairs, we have to raise our arms. Otherwise the skin under the arm will become inflamed because of the friction and moist. Required by the function, the armpit hairs cannot grow as long as the head hairs, or as short as the eyebrows. Besides, they are soft and curving. If they are rigid and coarse, they will hurt the skin. And cilia grow on the intestinal epithelium. The cilia grow downward and vibrate together. The vibrating waves move downward from upward to help move down the intestinal contents. Cilia also grow on the airway and bronchus epithelium. However, they grow and vibrate in the opposite direction as those on the intestinal epithelium. Only in this way can they move the sputum upward to the throat and spit them. If they grow downward, the airway and bronchus would get stuck by the sputum and the humans would die from it. Now I wish to take two simple reflections of human bodies as an example. When foreign matters enter the nostrils or airways, they will arouse two protective reflections, sneeze or cough, which is designed to repel the foreign matters. But due to different situation, these two reflections differ in their approaches. The foreign matters in the nostrils are not urgent so the sneeze reflection can be prepared in a composed way. First, inhale slowly; open the mouth, and the soft place move upward to block the nostril. Then breathe in enough air through the mouth, and the pleural body contracts sharply to emit the air in the lungs quickly. When the emitting reaches its peak, the tongue rises abruptly to block the mouth to repel the air to go out swiftly through the nostrils. In this way the foreign matters in the nostrils are driven out. However, if the foreign matters enter the airway, it is an emergent situation. If the foreign matters are not driven out timely, the life will be put at risk. The inhaling is strictly forbidden because it will make the foreign matters go deeper and cause suffocation. So the cough doesn’t include the inhaling. Instead, the glottis closes immediately. At the same time, the pleural body contracts suddenly and adds the lung air pressure extremely. When the pressure is at its strongest point, the glottis opens suddenly and the lung air sends out explosively, compelling the foreign matters in the airway to the throat via the glottis. At this time, the soft place rises to block the nostrils. The foreign matters are spit out through the mouth. If the tongue and the soft place perform the same way as in the sneeze, the foreign matters emitted out of the airway will enter the nostrils, causing another trouble. In these two reflections, the body parts must cooperate closely. Any failure in the coordination will lead to the failure of the reflection, causing serious consequences. So these activities are not done freely. Instead, they are done as required by their functions and set procedures. These procedures are not learnt or practices. The program has been rooted in our brain nerve structure (nerve nucleus) when we are born. Otherwise, the babies will not survive. The advanced computer science has made it possible to simulate these activities. However, the simulation requires 3 conditions: 1. Device simulating the inhale and exhaling of human mouth, nose, throat, pleural and the sensing device; 2. The central control equipment simulating nerves and body system (compute, input and output devices). The above two devices are hardware. And software is also needed, namely (3). A program composed in strict compliance with the requirements to control the performance and procedure of each link, and arrange them in perfect coordination. All the three conditions are imperative. Otherwise the reflections can’t be realized. The program itself is not a substance structure. Instead, it is a smart use and spiritual result. There will be no such a thing as the program without the smart use. So we have to ask, the program is composed by the humans and stored in the computer, how about the control program in the human brain. Is it also composed by someone and stored in the human brain? Sneeze and cough are the simplest examples. There are numerous automatically controlled physical, bio-chemical and pathological human body activities, which are even more sophisticated than reflections of cough. Even today, some of them remain mysteries to us. So how are these sophisticated control programs composed? And where do they come from? Now let’s have a look at the sensory organs on human bodies. Why do we have two ears? The reason is that one ear is not able to identify the direction. With the ears lying on two sides of the head, the sound reaches the ears in sequence of time. Based on the slight receiving time difference, the brain can judge where the sound comes from. The auricle is the most outward component of the ear. It can introduce the sound into the external auditory canal. Within the auricle there is a thin layer of cartilage helping to retain the form of auricle, giving it wonderful elasticity and protecting it from the clashes. Without the cartilage, the auricle is just two useless pieces of skin hanging on the head side. If the thin bone is inside the auricle, it will break easily even if when you are sleeping on your side, damaging the auricle. There is fuzz on the outer segment of the external auditory canal preventing the sand and dust. The inner segment secretes cerumen to prevent insects. When foreign matters enter the external auditory canal, it will trigger head shaking, instead of sneeze or cough, to get the matters out. Because the external auditory canal is a blind passage, it is impossible to repel the foreign matters with air. Why don’t the foreign matters in the nostrils arouse the head-shaking reflection to repel them? That’s because the nostrils of humans almost lie in the middle of the head. The shaking is not able to produce enough centrifugal force. Besides, the human nostrils face downward and it is improper to repel the foreign matters by shaking the head. The sound is produced by the mechanical vibration of objects and is transmitted by the air fluctuation, or the sound waves. The human ears are actually working like a precise mechanical vibration monitor. In the inner ear there are a number of keyboards with different sizes, producing nerve impulses produced by echoing with corresponding frequencies. The brain, in accordance with the features of these impulses, identifies the strength, tunes and timbre of the sounds. We must note though there are many sensory organs in human bodies, only the inner ear is protected by the most solid and firm bones. In fact, it lies in the cave part of the temporal bone. Of all the sensory organs, only the ears monitor the mechanical vibration, which needs a relatively fixed position. Otherwise, it is not able to monitor the sound. If the inner ear lies in the soft tissues, when the sound wave arrives, the inner ear will vibrate with it. Thus it can hear nothing. Now the inner ear lies in the firm bone and it can’t sense the air vibration. So it is imperative to reduce the density waves to the mechanical vibrations before sending them to the inner ear. And there is such a reduction device at the middle bottom of the external auditory canal, which is called the eardrum. The eardrum has enough space to receive the air pressure. It is thin enough to vibrate when the sound wave arrives. Meanwhile, the eardrum is strong enough to push the transmission device. The long handle of the middle ear cartilage is attached to its inner side, the tensile force of which makes the eardrum sink inside slightly to maintain certain tension. This allows the eardrum to accurately reduce the arriving sound waves into the mechanical vibrations. No matter what the temperature is, the vibration function is not impacted. After the sound waves are reduced into the mechanical vibration, some rigid objects are needed to transmit the vibration to the inner ear. Of all body tissues, the most rigid objects are the bones. However, the bones are heavy in general and covered by the soft tissues, which are not suitable for the audio vibration. However, in the tympanic cavity between the eardrum and the inner ear, there are three unique tiny bones with delicate forms measured in millimeters. They are almost completely exposed to the air in the tympanic cavity. These three tiny bones are connected by ligament and form a transmission chain in curve with excellent audio vibration function, able to transmit accurately the vibration of the eardrum to the inner ear. The transmission device can properly multiply the weak vibration and reduce the strong sound wave. All of these structures are the super designs required by the acoustics. There are even smarter designs in the hearing organ. For example, to make the eardrum vibrate freely following the arriving sound waves, the two sides of the eardrums must be exposed to the air. As a result, there is a tympanic cavity full of air in the middle ear. If the cavity is filled by liquids, just as other cavities are, the eardrum is not able to vibrate because the liquids can’t contract. Besides, the cavity does not only need to be filled with air, but also needs to be connected to the outside world with a proper passage, to balance the static air pressure in the cavity with the outside air pressure. Otherwise, the air in the cavity will gradually be absorbed, causing the eardrum to sink excessively or damaging it. When the outside air pressure changes, (such as in mountain climbing, diving, the airplane takeoff or climate change), it will arouse uncomfortable feelings or lead to hearing malfunction. But the middle ear can’t be opened to the outside world directly, just like the external auditory canal or nostrils can. The reason is that the direct exposure will make the arriving waving sound reach the two sides of the eardrums at the same time via the external auditory canal and middle ear passage, counteracting the sound pressure. Thus the eardrums will not vibrate at all, unable to produce the hearing. So it is a difficult problem to connect the middle ear and the outside world. However, the human body, with a smart design, solves this problem. The middle ear is opened at the two sides in the upper rear of the pharynx via a half-opened passage (the so-called auditory tube). The auditory tube is locked in common times and only opened temporarily when taking the swallowing actions, balancing the air pressure in the middle ear shortly. After the swallowing action is over, the auditory tube is locked again. Apart from eating, human body would regularly take swallowing action unconsciously, even when he or she is sleeping. Thus the air pressure in the middle ear can be adjusted from time to time and avoid the hearing from being hindered. Besides, when swallowing, the swallowing segment and the soft palate will definitely rise, blocking the mouth and nostrils against the outside world. So on the moment when the ear and throat are opened shortly, though the air in the throat can enter the middle ear, the sound waves from the outside world are blocked against the middle ear. As a result, the hearing will not be interfered and can receive the outside sound and voice. Only the throat in the body can meet the special demand of the hearing organs. The throat is originally designed as part of the digestion and breathing system, it does not belong to sensory system. However, it can cooperate so smartly with the hearing organs. We have to admire the extremely delicate body-wise design. The vestibule in the inner ear controls the balance of the body. In the vestibule there are 3 semicircular canals. When the body loses balance, the mutually-vertical semicircular canals produce the balance impulse, which triggers the corresponding reflection via the balance center in the medulla brain. Why are there 3 semicircular canals instead of 2 or 4? And why are they mutually vertical? The reason is apparent. Humans live in the 3-dimensional space. There are 3 mutually-vertical movement directions, namely, front and rear, left and right, upward and downward. So the 3 mutually-vertical semicircular canals can monitor the movements. The number less than 3 or more than 3 would be insufficient or redundant. We can see the delicate and smart structure and function, and the supreme wisdom in them. They can’t be the accidental results. As the most important perception of human bodies, vision provides more information than that provided by all other perceptions. The vision is the perception of image and space and the visual organs must have the most precise and accurate structure completely different from other sensory organs. As a result, in the perspective of the embryo-genesis or neuro-anatomy, the main structure of the eyes is not just the common receptor. Instead, it is part of the cerebral cortex. The so-called optic nerves are completely different from other cerebrospinal nerves. In essence, the optic nerves are inner structure in the brain, transmitting the most sophisticated visual information. The eyes function like a precise camera. The retina composed of the photoreceptor cells is just like the films. The crystal, iris and the cornea works like the lens, diaphragm and the filter. However, the precision and automatic adjustment of the eyes is no match of any high-quality cameras. For example, the lens in modern cameras is made of special glass or hard plastics with fixed focal distance. When taking pictures for the landscapes with different distances, the lens position must be adjusted. Otherwise, the image will not be produced on the films. But this is an awkward approach. Imagine when the eyes are watching landscapes with different distances, the eyeballs have to protrude or recess alternatively, which looks ugly or damages the health and function of the eyes. However, the crystal in the eyes are transparent and elastic colloid, which can adjust automatically the focal distance in accordance with the distance of the objects to make sure all the objects can be imaged on the retina, without changing the position of the crystal. Such automatic adjustment function can’t be fulfilled by any camera. If we observe the eyes in the perspective of modern TV technologies, the eyes are more like the television camera, but thousands of times more precise than the television cameras. The TV image is composed of dense pixels (the mixed dark or brilliant light spots). Till now, the best TV image only contains less than 1 million pixels. However, the human eyes can produce image containing 20 billion pixels. Only the eyes can see the details of objects. No matter how clear or accurate the image is, it is still a plan view image. Then how the eyes can provide the dimensional image is a key issue of providing the complete vision. But it is not an easy task at all to convert the flat view image into the dimensional one. For a long time, people have been puzzled by how the conversion is done. Of course, we later knew the smartness and delicacy of the human body shown here. The two eyes send the flat view images they receive into the same nerve center, which contrasts and analyzes the images and judges the distance of the objects based on the slight visual angle difference caused by the position difference of the two eyes. Thus the dimensional image is produced. That’s why people have to have 2 eyes to establish the complete vision. Based on such understanding, humans have invented the dimensional movies. But the above is only the external process of how vision is formed. People have little knowledge about how the visual center works inside. We have to admit that the mysteries of human body structure and functions are beyond the intelligence of mankind. As a matter of fact, the distance judgment with two eyes is the triangulation technique which is precise and automatic. The accurate measurement needs two premises. First, the two eyes must focus on one object at the same time. Otherwise, there will be double vision, which means the one objects will be seen as two objects. As a result, the complete neuromuscular system is equipped on the outside of the eyeballs, making the eyeballs the most flexible and accurate organs. The ciliary muscle inside the eyeballs can adjust the conversion rate of the crystal at any time to focus on the object and form the clearest image. Second, the retina of the two eyes must be strictly symmetrical. Otherwise, the image contrast of the two eyes will become impossible. Furthermore, the images received by the two eyes must be transmitted at the same time to the same visual center for contrast and analysis. There are two visual nerves on the left and right side of the brain, supervising respectively the two sides of the vision field. The objects in the left of the vision field are reflected, via the eye pupil, on the retina of the right sides of the two eyeballs. The corresponding images in the two eyes, via the visual nerve, are sent to the visual center on the right side of the brain. The objects in the right of the vision field are reflected, via the eye pupil, on the retina of the left sides of the two eyeballs. The corresponding images in the two eyes, via the visual nerve, are sent to the visual center on the left side of the brain. The two visual nerves contrast the corresponding images coming from the eyes and produce the full-field dimensional images. The pairs of human parts are often symmetrical on the outside. Only the retinas are symmetrical in the same position. Namely, the left side is symmetrical to the left side and the right side symmetrical to the right side of the two retinas. That’s because the light rays come in directly. Otherwise, the visual centers can’t receive the corresponding images or get the coordinated vision. The structural symmetry of the retinas in the two eyes must be accurate to the utmost. Otherwise the images in the two eyes will not comply with each other and the ambiguity will occur. Besides, the corresponding images from the two eyes must be sent to the same visual center. Thus the optic nerves must have the corresponding special structure to realize the cross-transmission of the images. This is the unique “chiasma opticum” unique to the optic nerves. This function is not possessed by any other nervus cerebrospinalis because they don’t handle the information of images and space. If we use the computers and monitoring cameras to simulate the process of human vision, the input network of the computers has to have a similar chiasm. No other design can do it. Judging from the above, we can find all the human organs, structures and functions have shown the supreme wisdom. And these are the ways they should be. Some people think that human body has some useless organs, such as the thymus gland, appendix, tonsil and coccyx, in order to prove the human structure is imperfect. Some people used to believe that these organs were not that useful. Instead, they tend to arouse diseases such as appendicitis and tonsillitis. If these organs are cut off, it will not have much impact on the human body. In the past, people used to classify spleens and other organs into the useless organs. There was a list of useless organs in the past which included over 100 organs. But the list was long not because these organs are useless but because people at the time were ignorant. As more we know about the organs, most of them have been deleted from the list and there are only a few still remain in the list. Some people think that these organs are the leftovers of human evolution, which are called the “waste back organs” and use them as one of the evidences of evolution theory. This is a complete misunderstanding. Till not we have understood there are no such things as the “obsolescent organs”. It is simply the lack of knowledge of these organs. Take the thymus gland as an example. In the past, people didn’t know its function. Now we have understood it is the warning device of the human body against the inner and outer infection sources. As a result, the thymus gland contributes a lot to the human health. Another example, if the coccyx fractures, it will cause serious functional disturbance. So the coccyx is also an imperative part of human body. Some people might say these organs can trigger diseases. Then all human organs can lead to diseases, even brain and heart are of no exceptions. Why don’t we say the brain and heart are useless? Some organs, though they are not as important as the heart and brain and wouldn’t endanger life immediately when eliminated, are also useful. Just like if the hands or feet are lost, though not fatal, the human body is handicapped. After knowing the supreme and smart design of human structures and functions, you might want to know how they come into being. Who has designed and made such sophisticated and precise organs? We cannot avoid the question. Any truth-seeking person would admit that the extremely delicate organs and structures are not produced naturally or accidently. For instance, if someone gives you a top-class camera and tells you it is a natural one without designer or manufacturer; do you think his words are scientific and acceptable? The human body, which is even more delicate, accurate, flexible and practical, must have a supremely wise and capable creator behind it. On a spring Sunday morning in 1954, I saw a young stranger sitting in the chamber of a Church. When we started to talk, I knew that he was a student at Peking Union Medical College. He said to me, “Since I studied anatomy and physiology, I have felt the human body is really a wonder. It is not possible to understand it unless we interpret the wonder with a God.” He came to the church to seek an answer. The wonder of this young man is not the only example. I remember that when I was studying anatomy and physiology in school, some students surrounded our physiology teacher and kept asking him questions. Finally, the teacher, annoyed by so many questions, told us, “Please stop the questions because they will lead to religion in the end.” Because of the special political background at the time, the teacher’s warning silenced all the students. But his warning impressed me deeply and remained in my memory till today. My thought at that time was that the teacher was right because all the things were created by the God. Though he was not a Christian, he had to admit the truth and the further probe into the human body mysteries (part of the Universe mysteries) would definitely lead to the existence of the God (religion) in the end. Otherwise, it would be impossible to explain the wonders of the human body. The Bible says, “For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse.”(1:20 Romans 1) Was the teacher demonstrating his scientific spirit? No. The scientific spirit means the truth and boldly pursuit of the truth without avoiding any controversy. The teacher knew very clearly that one more step forward would lead to the God but he dared not move onto the path towards the truth. Instead, he asked his students to stop there. It has shown that many people refuse to admit the existence of God not because they don’t have the scientific spirit but because of the social pressure, individual consideration for their interest and prospect, just as what the teacher was doing at that time. Nevertheless, the existence of the God would not change. And we cannot live in such considerations for the reality forever. One day in the future, when we have to face the ultimate choice, we will have to face the supreme master who has created the Universe and the human beings. The Bible says, “And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment.” If we don’t accept the immoral God now, we have no excuse when it comes to the day. When we talk about the origin of all things in the Universe, some young people often ask, “You have said the humans are created by the God, then who has created the God?” The analogizing logics seem to be reasonable. But it is not true. Because the God is the creator instead of the created, you can’t link these together. The table is made by the carpenter. But you cannot say the carpenter and the table have the same origin. Human benings’ understand of the God is only limited to the enlightenment from the God to the humans. Otherwise, humans cannot understand the mystery of God’s nature. The God says, “I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty.” (Exodus 3:14 and Revelation 1:8). For the God, there is only the eternality, and there is no time, beginning or ending. Even in the scientific field, too many analogizing questions won’t be tolerated. One scholar was talking about the belief in the God with his students. One student asked suddenly and proudly, “Where does the Universe come from?” The scholar answers, “The Universe is created by the God.” The student continued to ask, “Who has created the God?” The scholar answered, “The God is Alpha and Omega and I am not created.” The student said, “This is not scientific at all.” The scholar then asked the student, “Where does the Earth come from?” The student answered, “The Earth comes from the Sun.” The scholar continued to ask, “Where does the Sun come from?” The student answered, “The Sun comes from the Galaxy.” The scholar asked again, “Where does the Galaxy come from?” The student hesitated and answered, “The Galaxy comes from the nature.” The scholar continued to ask, “Where does the nature come from?” The student couldn’t answer this question and said in anger, “The nature is the nature and comes naturally.” The scholar then laughed, “This is not scientific at all.” So we can conclude that the “scientific” answers are not scientific. Another example is that the sciences tell people that substances are composed of the molecules. Then what are the molecules composed of? The molecules are composed of the atoms. But what are the atoms composed of? They are composed of the electrons, protons and neutrons. Then what are the electrons, protons and neutrons composed of? Till now, we cannot find an answer to this question. The atomic physicists are now working hard to find the “elementary particle”. They are called “basic particles” because the scientists don’t expect the substances to be divided limitlessly. So they believe that one day they will find the ultimate component, the “elementary particle”. Of course, the scientists will not ask such question of “what is something composed of?” This is the extremity and everything ends here. The materialists claim that the Universe is limitless and that the materials are eternal and can be divided limitlessly, etc. They are simply the groundless conclusion of the philosophers. And there is an extremity in their logics, the materials. They say that the materials are Alpha and Omega but can’t tell where the materials come from. Now let’s have a look at the math. All numbers come from 1, followed by 2, 3…. You can’t ask what the 1 is because 1 is 1, and not other numbers. It means that 1 is the origin of all numbers. The Greatest Creator has created all things and the Greatest Creator is the origin of them. It will be meaningless to ask where the Greatest Creator comes from.
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2024.05.19 10:57 jenajiejing The Secret of Human Bodies – Examples Proving the Existence of the Greatest Creator

The Secret of Human Bodies – Examples Proving the Existence of the Greatest Creator

Xue Feng

https://preview.redd.it/inye2mb6lc1d1.jpg?width=606&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=91a7161a35c1824c81442d04ca1efb17d2cbda20
Though the modern medicine has limited knowledge of human bodies, what we have known is enough for us to admire the excellent human body structure and functions. Each system and organ in the human body is designed by the Greatest Creator. Even those trivial body parts have great functions. For example, there are several types of hairs on human bodies with distinct forms and functions. The head hair is designed to protect and beautify the head. It can grow long. According to the Bible, “But if a woman has long hair, it is a glory to her: for her hair is given her for a covering.” The eyebrows can divert sweat and rain, preventing them into the eyes. That’s why they are lined above the two eyes. Eyelashes can prevent the dust and other things from entering the eyes. That’s why they are lined on the sides of the eyelids. Also they stand forward in a special curve because it wouldn’t hinder the eyesight or pierce into the eyes when closing the eyes. If the eyebrows and eyelashes are too long, they will hinder the eyesight. That’s why they wouldn’t grow as long as the hair or beards. The nasal hairs can filter the inhaled air. That’s why they grow inside the nostril and stand sideways and outwards. If they stand inwards, the other things will find it easy to come into the nostrils and difficult to go out. The armpit hairs can prevent the partial friction and help the sweat evaporate. Without the armpit hairs, we have to raise our arms. Otherwise the skin under the arm will become inflamed because of the friction and moist. Required by the function, the armpit hairs cannot grow as long as the head hairs, or as short as the eyebrows. Besides, they are soft and curving. If they are rigid and coarse, they will hurt the skin. And cilia grow on the intestinal epithelium. The cilia grow downward and vibrate together. The vibrating waves move downward from upward to help move down the intestinal contents. Cilia also grow on the airway and bronchus epithelium. However, they grow and vibrate in the opposite direction as those on the intestinal epithelium. Only in this way can they move the sputum upward to the throat and spit them. If they grow downward, the airway and bronchus would get stuck by the sputum and the humans would die from it.
Now I wish to take two simple reflections of human bodies as an example. When foreign matters enter the nostrils or airways, they will arouse two protective reflections, sneeze or cough, which is designed to repel the foreign matters. But due to different situation, these two reflections differ in their approaches. The foreign matters in the nostrils are not urgent so the sneeze reflection can be prepared in a composed way. First, inhale slowly; open the mouth, and the soft place move upward to block the nostril. Then breathe in enough air through the mouth, and the pleural body contracts sharply to emit the air in the lungs quickly. When the emitting reaches its peak, the tongue rises abruptly to block the mouth to repel the air to go out swiftly through the nostrils. In this way the foreign matters in the nostrils are driven out. However, if the foreign matters enter the airway, it is an emergent situation. If the foreign matters are not driven out timely, the life will be put at risk. The inhaling is strictly forbidden because it will make the foreign matters go deeper and cause suffocation. So the cough doesn’t include the inhaling. Instead, the glottis closes immediately. At the same time, the pleural body contracts suddenly and adds the lung air pressure extremely. When the pressure is at its strongest point, the glottis opens suddenly and the lung air sends out explosively, compelling the foreign matters in the airway to the throat via the glottis. At this time, the soft place rises to block the nostrils. The foreign matters are spit out through the mouth. If the tongue and the soft place perform the same way as in the sneeze, the foreign matters emitted out of the airway will enter the nostrils, causing another trouble. In these two reflections, the body parts must cooperate closely. Any failure in the coordination will lead to the failure of the reflection, causing serious consequences. So these activities are not done freely. Instead, they are done as required by their functions and set procedures. These procedures are not learnt or practices. The program has been rooted in our brain nerve structure (nerve nucleus) when we are born. Otherwise, the babies will not survive.
The advanced computer science has made it possible to simulate these activities. However, the simulation requires 3 conditions: 1. Device simulating the inhale and exhaling of human mouth, nose, throat, pleural and the sensing device; 2. The central control equipment simulating nerves and body system (compute, input and output devices). The above two devices are hardware. And software is also needed, namely (3). A program composed in strict compliance with the requirements to control the performance and procedure of each link, and arrange them in perfect coordination. All the three conditions are imperative. Otherwise the reflections can’t be realized. The program itself is not a substance structure. Instead, it is a smart use and spiritual result. There will be no such a thing as the program without the smart use. So we have to ask, the program is composed by the humans and stored in the computer, how about the control program in the human brain. Is it also composed by someone and stored in the human brain? Sneeze and cough are the simplest examples. There are numerous automatically controlled physical, bio-chemical and pathological human body activities, which are even more sophisticated than reflections of cough. Even today, some of them remain mysteries to us. So how are these sophisticated control programs composed? And where do they come from?
Now let’s have a look at the sensory organs on human bodies. Why do we have two ears? The reason is that one ear is not able to identify the direction. With the ears lying on two sides of the head, the sound reaches the ears in sequence of time. Based on the slight receiving time difference, the brain can judge where the sound comes from. The auricle is the most outward component of the ear. It can introduce the sound into the external auditory canal. Within the auricle there is a thin layer of cartilage helping to retain the form of auricle, giving it wonderful elasticity and protecting it from the clashes. Without the cartilage, the auricle is just two useless pieces of skin hanging on the head side. If the thin bone is inside the auricle, it will break easily even if when you are sleeping on your side, damaging the auricle. There is fuzz on the outer segment of the external auditory canal preventing the sand and dust. The inner segment secretes cerumen to prevent insects. When foreign matters enter the external auditory canal, it will trigger head shaking, instead of sneeze or cough, to get the matters out. Because the external auditory canal is a blind passage, it is impossible to repel the foreign matters with air.
Why don’t the foreign matters in the nostrils arouse the head-shaking reflection to repel them? That’s because the nostrils of humans almost lie in the middle of the head. The shaking is not able to produce enough centrifugal force. Besides, the human nostrils face downward and it is improper to repel the foreign matters by shaking the head. The sound is produced by the mechanical vibration of objects and is transmitted by the air fluctuation, or the sound waves. The human ears are actually working like a precise mechanical vibration monitor. In the inner ear there are a number of keyboards with different sizes, producing nerve impulses produced by echoing with corresponding frequencies. The brain, in accordance with the features of these impulses, identifies the strength, tunes and timbre of the sounds.
We must note though there are many sensory organs in human bodies, only the inner ear is protected by the most solid and firm bones. In fact, it lies in the cave part of the temporal bone. Of all the sensory organs, only the ears monitor the mechanical vibration, which needs a relatively fixed position. Otherwise, it is not able to monitor the sound. If the inner ear lies in the soft tissues, when the sound wave arrives, the inner ear will vibrate with it. Thus it can hear nothing. Now the inner ear lies in the firm bone and it can’t sense the air vibration. So it is imperative to reduce the density waves to the mechanical vibrations before sending them to the inner ear. And there is such a reduction device at the middle bottom of the external auditory canal, which is called the eardrum. The eardrum has enough space to receive the air pressure. It is thin enough to vibrate when the sound wave arrives. Meanwhile, the eardrum is strong enough to push the transmission device. The long handle of the middle ear cartilage is attached to its inner side, the tensile force of which makes the eardrum sink inside slightly to maintain certain tension. This allows the eardrum to accurately reduce the arriving sound waves into the mechanical vibrations. No matter what the temperature is, the vibration function is not impacted. After the sound waves are reduced into the mechanical vibration, some rigid objects are needed to transmit the vibration to the inner ear. Of all body tissues, the most rigid objects are the bones. However, the bones are heavy in general and covered by the soft tissues, which are not suitable for the audio vibration. However, in the tympanic cavity between the eardrum and the inner ear, there are three unique tiny bones with delicate forms measured in millimeters. They are almost completely exposed to the air in the tympanic cavity. These three tiny bones are connected by ligament and form a transmission chain in curve with excellent audio vibration function, able to transmit accurately the vibration of the eardrum to the inner ear. The transmission device can properly multiply the weak vibration and reduce the strong sound wave. All of these structures are the super designs required by the acoustics.
There are even smarter designs in the hearing organ. For example, to make the eardrum vibrate freely following the arriving sound waves, the two sides of the eardrums must be exposed to the air. As a result, there is a tympanic cavity full of air in the middle ear. If the cavity is filled by liquids, just as other cavities are, the eardrum is not able to vibrate because the liquids can’t contract. Besides, the cavity does not only need to be filled with air, but also needs to be connected to the outside world with a proper passage, to balance the static air pressure in the cavity with the outside air pressure. Otherwise, the air in the cavity will gradually be absorbed, causing the eardrum to sink excessively or damaging it. When the outside air pressure changes, (such as in mountain climbing, diving, the airplane takeoff or climate change), it will arouse uncomfortable feelings or lead to hearing malfunction. But the middle ear can’t be opened to the outside world directly, just like the external auditory canal or nostrils can. The reason is that the direct exposure will make the arriving waving sound reach the two sides of the eardrums at the same time via the external auditory canal and middle ear passage, counteracting the sound pressure. Thus the eardrums will not vibrate at all, unable to produce the hearing. So it is a difficult problem to connect the middle ear and the outside world. However, the human body, with a smart design, solves this problem. The middle ear is opened at the two sides in the upper rear of the pharynx via a half-opened passage (the so-called auditory tube). The auditory tube is locked in common times and only opened temporarily when taking the swallowing actions, balancing the air pressure in the middle ear shortly. After the swallowing action is over, the auditory tube is locked again. Apart from eating, human body would regularly take swallowing action unconsciously, even when he or she is sleeping. Thus the air pressure in the middle ear can be adjusted from time to time and avoid the hearing from being hindered. Besides, when swallowing, the swallowing segment and the soft palate will definitely rise, blocking the mouth and nostrils against the outside world. So on the moment when the ear and throat are opened shortly, though the air in the throat can enter the middle ear, the sound waves from the outside world are blocked against the middle ear. As a result, the hearing will not be interfered and can receive the outside sound and voice. Only the throat in the body can meet the special demand of the hearing organs. The throat is originally designed as part of the digestion and breathing system, it does not belong to sensory system. However, it can cooperate so smartly with the hearing organs. We have to admire the extremely delicate body-wise design.
The vestibule in the inner ear controls the balance of the body. In the vestibule there are 3 semicircular canals. When the body loses balance, the mutually-vertical semicircular canals produce the balance impulse, which triggers the corresponding reflection via the balance center in the medulla brain. Why are there 3 semicircular canals instead of 2 or 4? And why are they mutually vertical? The reason is apparent. Humans live in the 3-dimensional space. There are 3 mutually-vertical movement directions, namely, front and rear, left and right, upward and downward. So the 3 mutually-vertical semicircular canals can monitor the movements. The number less than 3 or more than 3 would be insufficient or redundant. We can see the delicate and smart structure and function, and the supreme wisdom in them. They can’t be the accidental results.
As the most important perception of human bodies, vision provides more information than that provided by all other perceptions. The vision is the perception of image and space and the visual organs must have the most precise and accurate structure completely different from other sensory organs. As a result, in the perspective of the embryo-genesis or neuro-anatomy, the main structure of the eyes is not just the common receptor. Instead, it is part of the cerebral cortex. The so-called optic nerves are completely different from other cerebrospinal nerves. In essence, the optic nerves are inner structure in the brain, transmitting the most sophisticated visual information. The eyes function like a precise camera. The retina composed of the photoreceptor cells is just like the films. The crystal, iris and the cornea works like the lens, diaphragm and the filter. However, the precision and automatic adjustment of the eyes is no match of any high-quality cameras. For example, the lens in modern cameras is made of special glass or hard plastics with fixed focal distance. When taking pictures for the landscapes with different distances, the lens position must be adjusted. Otherwise, the image will not be produced on the films. But this is an awkward approach. Imagine when the eyes are watching landscapes with different distances, the eyeballs have to protrude or recess alternatively, which looks ugly or damages the health and function of the eyes. However, the crystal in the eyes are transparent and elastic colloid, which can adjust automatically the focal distance in accordance with the distance of the objects to make sure all the objects can be imaged on the retina, without changing the position of the crystal. Such automatic adjustment function can’t be fulfilled by any camera.
If we observe the eyes in the perspective of modern TV technologies, the eyes are more like the television camera, but thousands of times more precise than the television cameras. The TV image is composed of dense pixels (the mixed dark or brilliant light spots). Till now, the best TV image only contains less than 1 million pixels. However, the human eyes can produce image containing 20 billion pixels. Only the eyes can see the details of objects. No matter how clear or accurate the image is, it is still a plan view image. Then how the eyes can provide the dimensional image is a key issue of providing the complete vision. But it is not an easy task at all to convert the flat view image into the dimensional one. For a long time, people have been puzzled by how the conversion is done. Of course, we later knew the smartness and delicacy of the human body shown here. The two eyes send the flat view images they receive into the same nerve center, which contrasts and analyzes the images and judges the distance of the objects based on the slight visual angle difference caused by the position difference of the two eyes. Thus the dimensional image is produced. That’s why people have to have 2 eyes to establish the complete vision. Based on such understanding, humans have invented the dimensional movies. But the above is only the external process of how vision is formed. People have little knowledge about how the visual center works inside. We have to admit that the mysteries of human body structure and functions are beyond the intelligence of mankind.
As a matter of fact, the distance judgment with two eyes is the triangulation technique which is precise and automatic. The accurate measurement needs two premises. First, the two eyes must focus on one object at the same time. Otherwise, there will be double vision, which means the one objects will be seen as two objects. As a result, the complete neuromuscular system is equipped on the outside of the eyeballs, making the eyeballs the most flexible and accurate organs. The ciliary muscle inside the eyeballs can adjust the conversion rate of the crystal at any time to focus on the object and form the clearest image. Second, the retina of the two eyes must be strictly symmetrical. Otherwise, the image contrast of the two eyes will become impossible. Furthermore, the images received by the two eyes must be transmitted at the same time to the same visual center for contrast and analysis. There are two visual nerves on the left and right side of the brain, supervising respectively the two sides of the vision field. The objects in the left of the vision field are reflected, via the eye pupil, on the retina of the right sides of the two eyeballs. The corresponding images in the two eyes, via the visual nerve, are sent to the visual center on the right side of the brain. The objects in the right of the vision field are reflected, via the eye pupil, on the retina of the left sides of the two eyeballs. The corresponding images in the two eyes, via the visual nerve, are sent to the visual center on the left side of the brain. The two visual nerves contrast the corresponding images coming from the eyes and produce the full-field dimensional images. The pairs of human parts are often symmetrical on the outside. Only the retinas are symmetrical in the same position. Namely, the left side is symmetrical to the left side and the right side symmetrical to the right side of the two retinas. That’s because the light rays come in directly. Otherwise, the visual centers can’t receive the corresponding images or get the coordinated vision. The structural symmetry of the retinas in the two eyes must be accurate to the utmost. Otherwise the images in the two eyes will not comply with each other and the ambiguity will occur. Besides, the corresponding images from the two eyes must be sent to the same visual center. Thus the optic nerves must have the corresponding special structure to realize the cross-transmission of the images. This is the unique “chiasma opticum” unique to the optic nerves. This function is not possessed by any other nervus cerebrospinalis because they don’t handle the information of images and space. If we use the computers and monitoring cameras to simulate the process of human vision, the input network of the computers has to have a similar chiasm. No other design can do it. Judging from the above, we can find all the human organs, structures and functions have shown the supreme wisdom. And these are the ways they should be.
Some people think that human body has some useless organs, such as the thymus gland, appendix, tonsil and coccyx, in order to prove the human structure is imperfect. Some people used to believe that these organs were not that useful. Instead, they tend to arouse diseases such as appendicitis and tonsillitis. If these organs are cut off, it will not have much impact on the human body. In the past, people used to classify spleens and other organs into the useless organs. There was a list of useless organs in the past which included over 100 organs. But the list was long not because these organs are useless but because people at the time were ignorant. As more we know about the organs, most of them have been deleted from the list and there are only a few still remain in the list. Some people think that these organs are the leftovers of human evolution, which are called the “waste back organs” and use them as one of the evidences of evolution theory. This is a complete misunderstanding. Till not we have understood there are no such things as the “obsolescent organs”. It is simply the lack of knowledge of these organs. Take the thymus gland as an example. In the past, people didn’t know its function. Now we have understood it is the warning device of the human body against the inner and outer infection sources. As a result, the thymus gland contributes a lot to the human health. Another example, if the coccyx fractures, it will cause serious functional disturbance. So the coccyx is also an imperative part of human body. Some people might say these organs can trigger diseases. Then all human organs can lead to diseases, even brain and heart are of no exceptions. Why don’t we say the brain and heart are useless? Some organs, though they are not as important as the heart and brain and wouldn’t endanger life immediately when eliminated, are also useful. Just like if the hands or feet are lost, though not fatal, the human body is handicapped.
After knowing the supreme and smart design of human structures and functions, you might want to know how they come into being. Who has designed and made such sophisticated and precise organs? We cannot avoid the question. Any truth-seeking person would admit that the extremely delicate organs and structures are not produced naturally or accidently. For instance, if someone gives you a top-class camera and tells you it is a natural one without designer or manufacturer; do you think his words are scientific and acceptable? The human body, which is even more delicate, accurate, flexible and practical, must have a supremely wise and capable creator behind it.
On a spring Sunday morning in 1954, I saw a young stranger sitting in the chamber of a Church. When we started to talk, I knew that he was a student at Peking Union Medical College. He said to me, “Since I studied anatomy and physiology, I have felt the human body is really a wonder. It is not possible to understand it unless we interpret the wonder with a God.” He came to the church to seek an answer. The wonder of this young man is not the only example. I remember that when I was studying anatomy and physiology in school, some students surrounded our physiology teacher and kept asking him questions. Finally, the teacher, annoyed by so many questions, told us, “Please stop the questions because they will lead to religion in the end.” Because of the special political background at the time, the teacher’s warning silenced all the students. But his warning impressed me deeply and remained in my memory till today. My thought at that time was that the teacher was right because all the things were created by the God. Though he was not a Christian, he had to admit the truth and the further probe into the human body mysteries (part of the Universe mysteries) would definitely lead to the existence of the God (religion) in the end. Otherwise, it would be impossible to explain the wonders of the human body. The Bible says, “For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse.”(1:20 Romans 1) Was the teacher demonstrating his scientific spirit? No. The scientific spirit means the truth and boldly pursuit of the truth without avoiding any controversy. The teacher knew very clearly that one more step forward would lead to the God but he dared not move onto the path towards the truth. Instead, he asked his students to stop there. It has shown that many people refuse to admit the existence of God not because they don’t have the scientific spirit but because of the social pressure, individual consideration for their interest and prospect, just as what the teacher was doing at that time. Nevertheless, the existence of the God would not change. And we cannot live in such considerations for the reality forever. One day in the future, when we have to face the ultimate choice, we will have to face the supreme master who has created the Universe and the human beings. The Bible says, “And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment.” If we don’t accept the immoral God now, we have no excuse when it comes to the day.
When we talk about the origin of all things in the Universe, some young people often ask, “You have said the humans are created by the God, then who has created the God?” The analogizing logics seem to be reasonable. But it is not true. Because the God is the creator instead of the created, you can’t link these together. The table is made by the carpenter. But you cannot say the carpenter and the table have the same origin. Human benings’ understand of the God is only limited to the enlightenment from the God to the humans. Otherwise, humans cannot understand the mystery of God’s nature. The God says, “I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty.” (Exodus 3:14 and Revelation 1:8). For the God, there is only the eternality, and there is no time, beginning or ending.
Even in the scientific field, too many analogizing questions won’t be tolerated. One scholar was talking about the belief in the God with his students. One student asked suddenly and proudly, “Where does the Universe come from?” The scholar answers, “The Universe is created by the God.” The student continued to ask, “Who has created the God?” The scholar answered, “The God is Alpha and Omega and I am not created.” The student said, “This is not scientific at all.” The scholar then asked the student, “Where does the Earth come from?” The student answered, “The Earth comes from the Sun.” The scholar continued to ask, “Where does the Sun come from?” The student answered, “The Sun comes from the Galaxy.” The scholar asked again, “Where does the Galaxy come from?” The student hesitated and answered, “The Galaxy comes from the nature.” The scholar continued to ask, “Where does the nature come from?” The student couldn’t answer this question and said in anger, “The nature is the nature and comes naturally.” The scholar then laughed, “This is not scientific at all.” So we can conclude that the “scientific” answers are not scientific. Another example is that the sciences tell people that substances are composed of the molecules. Then what are the molecules composed of? The molecules are composed of the atoms. But what are the atoms composed of? They are composed of the electrons, protons and neutrons. Then what are the electrons, protons and neutrons composed of? Till now, we cannot find an answer to this question. The atomic physicists are now working hard to find the “elementary particle”. They are called “basic particles” because the scientists don’t expect the substances to be divided limitlessly. So they believe that one day they will find the ultimate component, the “elementary particle”. Of course, the scientists will not ask such question of “what is something composed of?” This is the extremity and everything ends here. The materialists claim that the Universe is limitless and that the materials are eternal and can be divided limitlessly, etc. They are simply the groundless conclusion of the philosophers. And there is an extremity in their logics, the materials. They say that the materials are Alpha and Omega but can’t tell where the materials come from. Now let’s have a look at the math. All numbers come from 1, followed by 2, 3…. You can’t ask what the 1 is because 1 is 1, and not other numbers. It means that 1 is the origin of all numbers. The Greatest Creator has created all things and the Greatest Creator is the origin of them. It will be meaningless to ask where the Greatest Creator comes from.
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2024.05.19 10:56 vsfool The Windows

Before I moved into my apartment I Iived in a rented house,it wasn't very big but I liked it a lot and it was more than enough for me. It was a litle bit of a longer drive to get to my job every day since the house was somewhat far from the city but still, I liked It. The neighbors were great as well, it was more or less a perfect little place to find peace, or so I thought. Now, my story is a prime example of things going downhill, here's where everything gets very interesting.
For a year and a half pretty much every day after work I would drive home, take a shower and have a cup of coffee to relax myself before doing anything. For the duration of my coffee, I would always sit by the window while reading a book or watching TV. Most days were the same, I would get caught up reading, lose track of time and I'd spend the last few moments of sunlight looking out the window. It was a peaceful sight; city noises were replaced with kids' laughter.
One day I fell asleep in the chair and woke up some time after midnight to find my TV still on and the remote inside of my coffee cup,I was just gonna go to the bedroom and continue the slumber when I saw a glimpse of light up on the hill.
There was an old church up there, or what was left of it, but I've never seen anyone get even close to those ruins before let alone see someone go inside. It appeared as if one of the windows had a candle near it. My mind wandered and to this day I don't know why but I just stood there and couldn't take my eyes off of it. Then out of thin air, like someone jumped toward the window impetuously a pair of eyes appeared. I was paralyzed, the distance between me and them wasn't there, I was naked in the dark and those red eyes were the only thing I could see. I don't remember anything about that night from that point on, the next morning I woke up in my bed upstairs and even the air in the room felt queer.
When you can't explain something and you're also not all that eager to explain it, you forget things strangely fast.
A week went by and it was Friday, my friend had come over to stay the weekend since we don't see each other that often. We stayed up late and had a few drinks,so naturally when I asked him about the red glowing eyes we saw in the window the next morning, he sald he didn't even remember when he got to my place. But I couldn't forget, it was driving me crazy, I was scared, and then I wasn't, I was angry, then scared again, and if anything, very bewildered. On Monday I had decided to wait and look, and look I did.
Sometime after midnight, my eyes started itching, I rubbed them and thought to myself what in the holy hell am I even doing, then looked back and there they were.
Describing something Ilike that feels wrong, words could never paint the picture the way fear does it.
This time I was sane, aware of what is happening, something demonic was looking at me, and through me, from that window. I felt the air get cold and got kind of dizzy, it didn't take long before I closed the curtains and ran off to bed, knowing full well there was going to be no sleep that night.
It continued happening for some time, I would stop and watch the light until the eyes appeared, then I'd look away. That chair by the window became my favorite and my least favorite place in that house. It wasn't curiosity, it was fear that kept me looking. Yet there was something comforting about it, knowing the eyes were up there on the hill and making sure they're up there every night, away from me, made me feel safe.
Then one day something happened that gave me a spark of hope. Hope. It's the only thing stronger than fear, but, if you cling onto it too hard, sometimes it can crush you.
I was walking to the local store in the early morning and heard noise up on the hill. I saw some workers and machines up there so I went to check it out. The man in charge told me the old ruins were getting demolished. I wasn't sure how I felt about that but nonetheless by the time I got back they had started the work. I thought that whatever has been happening for the past few weeks was going to stop, and if I never had to see it again, I didn't have to know what it was. That day I called in sick and decided that this is going to be the last time I ever look.
There I was again, in the chair by the window, drinking coffee and hoping that when I look outside that window in an hour and a half, all I see is darkness up on that hill. Midnight came fast and I looked, I didn't want to leave but even after 15 minutes nothing happened, the light wasn't there and the eyes were gone. It's done. I let myself think that for a small second, and regretted it immediately.
Across the street, in my neighbor's window I saw them watching me. "Is this real?" I thought. In that moment everything had fallen apart, the strange feeling of comfort I had before was gone, something was changing and I didn't know what to do about it. What I didn't realize at the time was, malevolent as they were, those eyes were not the worst of it, not compared to what could follow. Then for the first time something started to change, the air got cold again, out of the darkness beneath the eyes I could see a nose, just the tip of it.
Then it started getting bigger as if it was slowly getting pressed against the glass, l knew what was to follow but couldn't bring myself to look away. There it was, the single most terrifying thing l've ever seen, a face. Is it a demon from hell?I thought. The deepest darkest part of hell, because what else, could leave me petrified like this? I couldn't tell you what went through my head at that moment but it was probably blank, looking back at it, death seems gentler.
Then the human inside of me woke up and I shut the curtains driven by fear,I ran to turn on every light in the house and lock the door, then locked myself up in the bedroom upstairs. It was implanted in my mind and I couldn't make it go away, like the face was coming toward me, and l was going to die.
Time was a strange concept for me in the hours that followed but nothing happened, I was in my room until I could see the first rays of sun through the blinds, then I went outside. Nothing was waiting to kill me and I could breathe again, I went around the house and while still trying to put my thoughts back together I saw something strange.
My neighbor didn't have a window on that side of the house.
Of course there's no window, there never was. I never saw the eyes in the window of the church, I didn't see them in my neighbor's window. I saw them in my window.
It was there all along, in the house with me, breathing it's cold air behind my neck...
VS
submitted by vsfool to nosleep [link] [comments]


2024.05.19 10:54 ThatGuy1166 Neighbor threatens legal action after cutting tree

I am located in Arizona. My neighbor has a tree that hangs over the wall and leaves a mess. I have to go out every weekend to clean it up or my pool gets filled with the droppings. Last summer I attempted to go by their house and have a conversation with them and never got an answer. Finally one day I happened to catch them outside. I asked them if it was fine with me cutting the limbs and explained it made a mess in my yard and was making it hard to maintain the pool. They said it was fine that if any mess got in their yard they would clean it and not to worry about getting it. I did it last summer myself (very Minimal job due to not having proper tools) and then I hired someone a few days ago to do it properly. It tonight I had a get together and they looked over the wall to confront me about it. They are now mad saying they never agreed to let me do this and trying to back track and say that they said they would take care of it. They never mentioned that when I spoke with them nor was it taken care of so that right there is a lie. I would’ve loved to have them do it on their dime. They advised me they took pictures and sent it to HOA and threatened to get police involved along with legal action if the tree falls on their house(chances of that are extremely slim Lol). I also heard someone mention something about cutting my string lights.i highly doubt they will but pretty frustrating in general. Is this something I should ignore and mark it up as them being unreasonable or should I look into protecting myself with a lawyer? I am attaching a link with images.
https://imgur.com/a/V4v0pqX
submitted by ThatGuy1166 to legaladvice [link] [comments]


2024.05.19 10:44 Maya-VC Need to say this out loud: The Alchemy is NOT about Travis Kelce

This song is the song where I have the most issue with when it comes to the fans' interpretation of it. Their biggest argument for this is the football references, but they fail to consider that the football metaphors were just a way for Taylor Swift to draw parallels between the (American) football world and her situation.
In this analysis, I'll be doing a line-by-line breakdown of why this is not a Travis Kelce song, but is instead a song that she wrote where she is directly addressing her fans, much like how "But Daddy I Love Him", and "Who's Afraid of Little Old Me" were written.
Here it goes. Please bear with me!
This happens once every few lifetimes
These chemicals hit me like white wine
What if I told you I'm back?
The hospital was a drag / Worst sleep that I ever had
I circled you on a map
I haven't come around in so long / But I'm coming back so strong
So when I touch down / Call the amateurs and / Cut 'em from the team / Ditch the clowns, get the crown / Baby I'm the one to beat
Cause the sign on your heart / Said it's still reserved for me
Honestly, who are we to fight the alchemy?
Hey you, what if I told you we're cool? / That child's play back in school / Is forgiven under my rule
Now, let's move on to the bridge!
Shirts off, and your friends lift you up over their heads / Beer sticking to the floor / Cheers chanted, cause they said
There was no chance, trying to be / The greatest in the league / Where's the trophy? / He just comes running over to me
These blokes warm the benches / We been on a winning streak
He jokes that it's heroin but this time with an "E" / Cause the sign on your heart said it's still reserved for me
and finally, this line....

Addressing the (American) football references in this song:

As mentioned before, the football references in this song are simply metaphors to help illustrate the themes of competition, triumph, and teamwork.
TLDR: If you switched the "you" in this song to reference "the fans", this song will make complete sense. Now, try giving this song a listen, and think of "you" as "yourself" (the fans).
Taylor Swift's song "The Alchemy," is basically a powerful ode to her fans, chronicling her journey through public scrutiny and her triumphant return to the music industry. It draws parallels to her tumultuous period following the "snake gate" incident with Kim Kardashian and her subsequent hiatus before the release of "Reputation," the lyrics reflect a narrative of resilience, redemption, and the unwavering bond between Swift and her fans.
Once you are able to interpret "you" as "the fans", you'll be able to see, without having to do too much mental gymnastics, that the song is about the transformative and enduring connection Swift shares with her loyal supporters.
If you've made it this far, thank you for reading. Sorry for any typos or grammatical errors - but I hope I helped you made sense of the song!
submitted by Maya-VC to travisandtaylor [link] [comments]


2024.05.19 10:37 thebooksmith Maybe Dargunov had a childhood hero too

Maybe Dargunov had a childhood hero too
I’m sure someone who knows something about “real fighting” can tell me how I’m wrong but these moves look like they have about the same damage (which is 0)
submitted by thebooksmith to Wrasslin [link] [comments]


2024.05.19 10:32 roszii Employer refuses to pay money

Hello everyone, As a title say my new employer refuses to pay not just me but also 5 different workers who already "run away" from here, one by one every few weeks, because they haven't been paid. It's always the same pattern, the M. (Employer) Is always deleying signing a contract as much as possible with some weird "legal" bullshir arguments. Me and my girlfriend are pushing him about signing a contract for the last 3 weeks at least 3/4 times a week.
What happened already: -We already signed a document for a tax discount with all the details and pictures taken
-We have received one payslip with all the information of his company ours etc. but the amount was barley 50% of what he was supposed to pay us. (The same pattern appeared with all other employees who got paid for about 40-50% of hours they made, black and the best part, they got netto salary evenetho they paid them black without contract - explaining they need to pay taxes)
-We have an example of a contract, but completely wrong, with different pay that we agreed on and a duration for half a year except one month... Of course we did it sign it but yes, we are still waiting for the contract but I'm slowly losing hope
I'm conclusion I'm seeking any advice from people who might have been in similar situation. What can I do to secure myself and my girlfriend in terms of getting paid. M. just doesn't seem to be aware that it's illegal, wrong and just not fair to have people work for him and then not paying them. He literally speaks about it as all of there workers (whom I met and talked to) are trying to rip him off...
It's just sad and I'm a bit hopeless. I don't want to leave after working here almost a month with just getting paid for just one week out of four I've been here. Today I'm going to talk with him again and tell him that if he doesn't bring a contract for the next working day, sorry but we won't work for him anymore.
Don't get me wrong we're planning on leaving as soon as possible (probably next week) yet I want to leave knowing that we won't be fucked by him. That all. Thank you for reading this post mixed with a bit ot venting about the whole situation.
Any suggestions/advices would be appreciated🙏 Good day to everyone
submitted by roszii to Netherlands [link] [comments]


2024.05.19 10:28 Black_Cat_1111 Talking To Your Fiancee Before The Wedding Is A Bad Idea

I have had an arranged marriage with a girl. It's been a while since we have been talking and we have pretty much fallen in love by now.
Initially our conversations were very general and we were getting to know each other. We both wanted to be sure if we wanted to spend the rest of our life with the other person since our marriage was arranged by the parents and we knew nothing about the other.
Luckily feelings eventually caught us and we confessed what while it all started out as knowing each other we have started developing affection for each other.
On the surface it was good that we are two young boy and girl who have fallen in love after being introduced to each other and we will soon get married.
However as our wedding is getting closer the direction of our conversation has changed from getting to know each other to being romantic.
We express our affection for the other and how much we desire the other being with us and that we can't wait for nikkah.
However last night we had a conversation after which I have decided to block her.
Basically she went shopping with her family a few days ago and she was just showing off the stuff she bought. In between the conversation she showed me a purple lipstick that she had brought.
I really like lipsticks so I requested that she put it on and send me a picture. She complied and she looked absolutely stunning with that color.
She then proceeded to send me more photos with the lipstick making kissing face in a few and one even had her sticking out her tounge.
Naturally those photos turned me on and I called her. We spoke for an hour on the phone where I told her how seeing her in purple lipstick just made me sweat and that I love her so much and I can't wait to have her. She equally said tempting stuff that made me even more turned on.
Eventually I had to end the call becuz I felt I was going to do a sin after which I would require ghusl so I ended the call.
But even after the call was over I had a hard time going to sleep. All I could do was imagining her next to me on my bed.
So that took away hours of my sleep.
I felt guilty and sinful for these thoughts and have decided to block her until marriage.
My hormones take the better of me when I talk to her and I need more self control until nikkah.
submitted by Black_Cat_1111 to MuslimCorner [link] [comments]


2024.05.19 10:24 Y0ItsPeter Discussion on the overall macro market state and what should the fed do?

Discussion on the overall macro market state and what should the fed do?
I wanted to see what everyone's thoughts were on the overall state of the markets and what they think the fed should do and what impacts it will have. In the chart I shared, we can see in the past that when the yield curve started to get near inversion at the 0 point the fed simply could just drop rates and inflation would come down and the yield curve would start to reverse. This has been something that has worked many times in the past, so why did it not work this time? I think one of the main reasons was that the Fed acted too late to raise rates but that's only part of the problem. Once the Fed started to finally raise rates, inflation and oil continued to rally hard. As to why inflation did not come down this time my guess is that it has to do with how strong oil was/is. So now looking at today's picture where inflation hasn't really made much headway what do you think the Fed should do, raise rates, hold, or do you think they could drop rates this year... I'm optimistic on the overall confidence that the Fed will cut rates but I would love to hear other opinions.
https://preview.redd.it/w3g2tpc8fc1d1.png?width=1812&format=png&auto=webp&s=45aaa9924578947d4783b7c2b057087f3a26163a
submitted by Y0ItsPeter to FuturesTrading [link] [comments]


2024.05.19 10:24 Various-Fennel5419 I do not know if anybody else feels betrayed, but I feel betrayed. I say we boycott VALVe by review bombing deadlock and bringing attention to #SAVETF2 by doing so. We can all feel the salt and pain in the air, and I think it is high time for #SAVETF2-2 cuz like tf2, the second one is so much better

As you all have already had your ears rung full of noise about how Deadlock is the next TF2 killer being cooked up, and it is being made by Valve no less, which makes it personally the most perfect passive-aggressive option to do our campaign of #SAVETF2.
I cannot begin to explain how HYPED I were for the TF2 update, and how infuriated I were when this update turned up being a fucking Engineer grill with a fucking giant ad campaign that literally attracted the attention of only the existing TF2 players, and of nobody else.
We genuinely did such an amazing job of getting people to actually talk about what has been going on with TF2 and with how little support we have been getting. And yet, despite all of our efforts, the media ran its high, until the waves cooled down, we got our fucking grill picture, and that were the end of it.
Our options of protesting are limited, as we as a community have a lot to lose and very little to threaten VALVe with. To them, the revenue from TF2 is not justified enough to even pump out proper fixed for the game. To them, TF2 is an asset that is pumping money to the best of its ability, and boycotting paying valve at large would lead to the game getting shut down for good.
Boycotting through Deadlock, is going to be a perfect way to send out a message, just the same Overwatch 2 did when it first came out on steam.
We have ALL seen the power of review bombing a game that has been abusing its players
This way, by review bombing Deadlock, we will be able to make a stand, all same the OW2 players did, and make an impact and bring attention to SAVETF2 once more
Review bombing this game, a game that hasn't even come out, and a game that hasn't even established itself as something even being worth to be hyped about beyond its name connection with VALVe as its parent company, makes it the most perfect peaceful way of gaining attention about the issues happening in tf2.
I genuinely would love to hear some input on what people think of this idea, I really love tf2 and just the other day I donated a War Dog to this random F2P kid, just like somebody donated me the Battle Booney when I were a F2P.
This game is amazing, and the coming future generations likewise deserve to have the right to have the same experience we did when this game first came out, instead of with braindead games like OW or Valorant.
Much love boys, and I would love to hear your guyses input
My name is mbars, and I approve of this message
submitted by Various-Fennel5419 to tf2 [link] [comments]


2024.05.19 10:22 albwalb Ethics of AI Superalignment

Let me first get started with a premise:
Human intelligence has a limit, that limit is slow to evolve due to biological reasons.
Given this and analysing the current situation with AI it’s clear that at some point we will top the overall human intelligence and even surpass it.
An example is already available in the wild: AlphaGo (AI that plays Go) won against the top player in the world and made a move that everyone considered a failure, yet the AI won by that move and later it was elected as the best move ever done in Go.
(Source: https://openai.com/index/our-approach-to-alignment-research/)
It’s clear that at some point in the future AI will be able to solve problems with approaches that are not available to humans and might be able to “see” more things than us.
Given this scenario and the neutrality of such machines is unlikely that they by themselves take any bad action, however the same can’t be said when a third party bad actor takes place in the picture and controls some parts of it. Then the risks get very real and potentially dangerous.
Here arises the problem of superalignment; how can humans review AI work when they do not have all the tools to fully grasp it?
OpenAI proposed a solution to this problem: using old model version to act as a supervisor to newer models.
(Source: https://openai.com/index/weak-to-strong-generalization/)
However this poses a underlying question:
Who shall be responsible to instructs ethics and human values to a machine capable of training others? Should it be a restricted amount of people having full control over such AIs or shall the AI be a public domain topic? How can we trust a large audience to take action for the future and help shaping the AIs to adapt to our core values? Isn’t it dangerous that ethics is just a derivative thought process of some engineers at a private company?
What is your stance on this? Given the safety implications should AI learn ethics and values exclusively from a restricted amount of people or should AIs be released (even with the safety implications) and rely on humans to shape the future of tomorrow?
submitted by albwalb to askphilosophy [link] [comments]


2024.05.19 10:18 Affectionate_Copy716 RJ is slowly eating me up (long post)

First of all, thanks to everyone who takes their time to read all of this, it means the world to me!
I (m30) met my GF (f30) a year ago on an online dating platform and we are now in a happy relationship since 10 months. She is all I could have ever dreamed of and is the love of my life. I am planning my proposal right now but there is something I just have to get rid of, my RJ. I had massive mental health issues in the past (severe depression) and suffered low self-worth.
My first 2 relationships shared the same „problem“. I had my first girlfriend at the age of 20. At the beginning of our relationship we talked about our sexual pasts. I was a virgin back then and she told me a number of people she slept with. Over the next months, due to conversations on parties, it became clear that the number she told me was a lie and the real number was much higher. I even found out, that she slept with a friend of mine, 3 weeks before we started dating. I started to develop trust issues and did something I am not proud about, looking through her phone. I found out the feeling that she is lying to me was right all along, she had slept with many more guys than she told me about and was even cheating on me, which is why we broke up.
My second girlfriend was the second woman I had slept with. Same problem as before (apart from the cheating stuff). We talked about our past experiences and, as time went by, it became clear that she also lied about her past experiences and has had many more guys, than she told me. Apart from that she was very abusive, attacked me both verbally and physically and drove me into mentioned depression over a course of 7 years. I broke up with her 2 years ago.
At this point it is important to state that both of my exes started the conversations about past experiences. It is nothing I check out when I start to date someone.
I now was 29, had encountered RJ in 2 relationships and thought it was due to my lack of sexual experiences myself. To prevent it from happening again I started dating and gained experience myself, until I met the love of my life 12 months ago.
Our relationship is perfect, aside from my RJ. When we started dating we showed us pictures of each others and I noticed a picture of her with a musician. I asked her, if they had hooked up and she told me no. She also told me that she never had a ons or any „casual“ sex experiences and doesn‘t like such stuff.
2 months into the relationship I stumbled upon her reddit profile (I didn‘t take her phone at this point). I was curious and read the things she had posted and comments she wrote, since it is all online and public. Then I saw the comment, which led to the situation I am in today. She had commented a post that she did have sex with the said musician. The moment I‘ve read this my heart sunk into my stomach and I was instantly reminded of my 2 previous relationships. So I did a mistake again. I took her phone while she was sleeping and looked for pictures, read chats etc. I found out that she also was lying about past experiences. She did had ons and casual sex and also lied about another guy she had told me she had dated, but didn‘t have sex with. In fact, they did have sex, several times. I confronted her about the musician and told her I looked through her phone. She was shocked and disappointed that I checked her phone (and I totally understand that, it isn‘t the right thing to do) but my gut feeling told me something was off and my feeling was right. She admitted that she had sex with the musician, but also didn‘t tell me the whole truth. She lied about the way that ons started out, but I didn‘t tell her that I know the truth. It shook my trust in her. Not my general trust, but the trust about everything she told me about her past. To this day she doesn‘t know that I‘ve read a lot more than just the chat with the musician, because back then I told her that I only read this chat (it was wrong for me to lie to her and I was no better than her, I know!).
Now to the real problem. This triggered something big in me, like a trauma or something. It has been 8 months since I‘ve searched her phone and not a single day has passed at which I haven‘t thought about this musician. I think about it a few times a day and sometimes I even imagine how they had sex when I am having sex with her. It is driving me crazy and I am slowly going insane because of it. Sometimes we randomly talk about things from our past and I catch her lying to me since I know better because I searched her phone. I don‘t tell her that I know better in these situations. I know she ist just lying because of 2 reasons:
  1. she does not want to destroy my picture of her and fears that I might view her differently.
  2. she wants to safe me from getting jealous/sad
What is in the past ist in the past, she didn’t know me back then so she did nothinh wrong back then. She could tell me the craziest sex stories and I would just love her the way she is, the most beautiful soul I‘ve ever met. But knowing that she is lying all the time about these things is slowly killing me from the inside. I can‘t get these things out of my head and I‘ve already told her about my past and how important the truth is for me because of that. She still decided to lie to me when I confronted her about the ons with the musician. I can‘t get over it because I know I‘m still getting lied to concerning this particular topic and my brain tries to figure out what the truth is all the time. I made the experiences that if my gf talks openly about a past story the puzzle in my head gets completed and I can stop thinking about it. I already started to search for a therapist (I will DEFINITELY start therapy again) but I feel like I need to confront her one more time to find peace and get her to lay down the lies and start being honest about her past.
She had an abusive ex, too. It is a very sensitive topic for her to search the phone because her ex did it all the time. He controlled who she is allowed to speak to and locked her up in the flat to make sure she can‘t have any interactions with another male. This is why I am afraid to confront her because I don‘t want to trigger her but we both fucked up (me looking through her phone / she constant lies about her past).
What should I do? Should I confront her? I tried to eat it up but 8 months have passed and it didn‘t get better, I feel like I need closure.
submitted by Affectionate_Copy716 to retroactivejealousy [link] [comments]


2024.05.19 10:12 maymay1566 .dng Conversion bash Script. Feedback?

Hey. I made this little script to convert .dng pictures to other formats. Any feedback/suggestions? I've only been doing this a few months.
#!/usbin/env bash # Convert .dng to other file format (jpg as default) main () { # get the filename (without the extension) file=${1##*/} # Remove leading directories file=${file%%.*} # Remove trailing extensions mkdir -p output # do conversion dcraw -c $1 convert - output/$file.$2 echo "Done!" } # Check if there are any arguments provided if [[ $# -eq 0 ]]; then echo "No input files provided." exit 1 fi # Check if dcraw is installed: if ! dpkg -l grep -qi "dcraw"; then echo "dcraw must be installed" echo "Use command: 'sudo apt install dcraw'" exit 1 fi # Check if imagemagick is installed if ! dpkg -l grep -qi "imagemagick"; then echo "imagemagick must be installed" echo "Use command: 'sudo apt install imagemagick'" exit 1 fi # Set format if provided and valid if [[ $# -eq 2 ]]; then if identify -list format grep -qi "$2"; then format="$2" else echo "Improper format provided. Defaulting to jpg" format="jpg" fi else format="jpg" fi # Check if provided argument is a directory if [[ -d $1 ]]; then # fill an array with all .dng files in the dir. Throw away ls error messages declare -a pictures=($(ls "$1"/* 2> /dev/null grep -i "\.dng")) # Check if there are any .dng files in the array if [[ ${#pictures[@]} -gt 0 ]]; then echo "Converting!" for picture in "${pictures[@]}"; do main "$picture" "$format" done exit 0 else echo "No pictures found in directory" exit 1 fi fi # Check if provided argument is a .dng file if [[ ${1,,} == *.dng ]]; then echo "Converting!" main "$1" "$format" exit 0 else echo "Photo must be a .dng file" exit 1 fi 
submitted by maymay1566 to linuxquestions [link] [comments]


2024.05.19 10:11 Quadriptych Really torn between RicohGR3 and Fujifilm X100VI.

So, the question is in the title.
My previous experience in photography was like this: I never owned a dedicated camera for anything. I always use my phone, whether traveling or simply in my daily life. During one trip to Japan, I made the decision to finally buy a camera. I chose the Fujifilm X100F for that time. I had a nice shooting experience, although I didn't fully commit to all the film recipes, file formats, and the whole professional side of things. I do not remember much else from this trip, as I got my wallet stolen (yes, in Japan, haha), and that kind of toned down all the excitement. I really liked the viewfinder, though, and now that I understand more, it would be cool to delve into the recipes and all that stuff. The one thing that bugged me (I think) in Fuji was the weight, and whether it was the material of the strap or the high temperature at the time, it was uncomfortable to wear it around my neck. So, after coming back from the trip and occasionally bringing Fuji to some exhibitions (I was a journalist at the time) to take photos, I decided to sell it to have some more money for my next trip to Japan. I sold it mainly because I realized that most of the time the camera was on the shelf, and I would only take it when I was going somewhere significant or exciting.
Fast forward 6 years, and last week I bought a Ricoh GRIII after watching some videos and thinking to myself, "Damn, this thing is small, shoots nice photos, looks cool, and what the hell, let's buy it. Street photography also sounds cool, but I don't completely understand its meaning," and here I am. Using this thing is cool, but I am a bit of a tinker, so during this one week I bought tons of additional accessories. Lens filter adapter, some filters, a neck strap, a case, a color ring, a wrist strap, extra batteries, and so on. I understood that with all that stuff mounted on it, this compact camera turns into yet another "not so compact, the one I will be still wearing around my neck with a box of accessories in a bag" type of thing. And that's where I started missing the VF of the Fuji, the shooting experience, and got the thought that, well, if I am still bringing all this stuff with me, why not trade it off for some more weight? Looking at all the nice extra features, such as weather sealing, tilting LCD, and other stuff, is amazing too. I watched like 10 videos about what is better, Fuji or Ricoh, read a couple of threads on both these and Fuji subbreddits, and still can't decide. I took some amazing pictures with the Ricoh too! I never managed to take them with Fuji; however, they still needed some time to post-process (and I am a total noob at that; I have never touched Lightroom before).
I know no one can decide for me, and I probably need to actually bring Ricoh on a trip with me to finally decide if this one suits my needs, but still.
I do not use the Snap Focus mode and usually take pictures of streets, buildings, landscapes, scenery, etc. at a relaxed pace, so to speak.
submitted by Quadriptych to ricohGR [link] [comments]


2024.05.19 10:06 salajaneidentiteet Tips for sewing with tulle

Tips for sewing with tulle
I am looking for tips for sewing with tulle.
I consider myself an advanced sewist when it comes to regular wovens, but tulle is a different veast with its large holes. The fabric I have has an especially large weave. The picture I have attatched is over a 1x1 cm grid.
The dress I will be making will have raglan sleeves, a gathered necline, gathered sleeves and two tier gathered skirt. The necline and sleeves will have viscose crepe bias binding (for looks and comfort), I will also add a tunnel for gathering in the waistline.
French seams would be the best way to go? Or hand stitching the seams down?
I think I saw somewhere that a zigzag stitch is the key to sewing tulle?
I have sewn tulle before, but I am making a special dress as a gift this time, so I want it to be incredibly well made.
I would aprechiate any tips you have to make it look as good as possible. Thank you in advance!
submitted by salajaneidentiteet to sewing [link] [comments]


http://rodzice.org/