My family and I (24F) are going through a really bad time here in South Asia. It's been a real struggle lately, and our financial situation has hit rock bottom. I've been working remotely for the past three years, mostly as a copywriter and copy editor. Unfortunately, in the region I come from, the average monthly salary for a full-time remote job barely exceed $150.
Recently, things have taken a turn for the worse, and I'm finding it incredibly challenging to make ends meet. Right now, I don't have any work lined up, and if I can't turn things around soon, I might have to drop out of college. It feels like no matter how hard I try, I can't catch a break. I'm reaching a breaking point where I am seriously contemplating giving up, and it's taking a toll on my mental well-being.
I've been diligently applying to jobs; however, despite my best efforts, luck has not been on my side. Inflation is hitting us hard, and all we can think about is how we'll manage to pay rent and put food on the table. I am open to any remote opportunities that can provide a monthly income of around $150 to help me get back on my feet. Any suggestions or words of encouragement would be greatly appreciated.

I am sinking into the state of being an incel. I would never join a community, but I have so many bad feelings towards women that I feel like it is an endless cavalry to find anybody who would want me.
This really puts a burden on my everyday life, and I found I need some help. So I am struggling to get a partner (serious relationship or simply sexual) for myself for the last 3 years since I have been in a long relationship which was not fulfilling at all. The feedback from people is that I am a good looking, intelligent person with a sense of humour, I have hobbies and just started working in my first full-time job as an engineer, so on paper, I should have everything that is necessary for a man to be attractive. Last month I got to know a girl who seemed to be into me, all our friends said that we looked like we were a couple because when we were together on one of our little gatherings. She walked close to me, we sat next to each other all the time, then when we said goodbye, I hugged her and she put her face next to mine while hugging, so of course I had to make a move and set up a date with her like two weeks after. The meetup went alright, until the very end. I hugged her to say goodbye, then she looked in my eye without letting go, and then pulled my backpack back (we were in a park and I brought some juice, hence the backpack.) turns out she just lost her balance and did not want to fall, but I understood it so that she just made sure I did not kiss her. To which I only asked “no?” The response was “no.” I said “okay, I don’t mind waiting.” Then she texted me that she did not want a relationship and that she just thought of our meeting as a friendly meeting. This happened on thursday, now it is sunday and yesterday was not that bad, but I feel a constant resentment building up inside me. Every time I tried to do something with women, I failed miserably by hearing this reason, or just straight up got ghosted. The problem is that this time I really believed in it happening. It really broke me in a bad way. I curse a lot when I talk about this problem, I feel hate towards women because I always fail to be chosen. I simply am uncapable of finding love. Not only love, when people say they just go and have hook-ups, that is also impossible for my miserable ass. I used tinder and bumble a lot, I rarely got matches, the ones I get either don’t text back or separate the match immediately. I feel like crying but somehow I lost the ability to do it but it would just feel so good if I could let go of this feeling of never being wanted. My family always had trouble with finding relationships, most of my closest relatives are old and single. I want to give this up so badly but I just cannot do it. I feel like a complete loser who will never achieve anything meaningful because of this.
I posted this before, but it was not friday yet, a week or so has passed since then and I feel a bit better, but still the feeling tends to overwhelm me to the point I am not as energetic as I should be. I reached out to a therapist since then and I am waiting for our first appointment, although I have a slight doubt about anyone being able to tell me something that would soothe this feeling for me.

I am getting a gastric bypass in 2 weeks. I have had this planned for over a year when I got my insurance. It was a snap decision but my weight has been an issue my whole life and my GP has been pushing me to get the surgery after multiple failed attempts at trying to lose it myself and multiple health issues being made worse by my weight. A year ago I made the decision during my lunch break to get health insurance and the fortnightly payments have pretty much kept me motivated in my journey to better myself because OMFG ITS SO MUCH MONEY?!
My husband was so angry when I called and told him I signed up for the insurance. He told me it was a waste of my money and I didn't need to lose weight but after a short argument he didn't bring it up again. Months went by and I forgot about it because I had a whole year to wait before I could do anything but I was taking steps to better myself in other areas. I started dressing nicer, I went into a clothes store for the first time in a decade and spent a grand on a new wardrobe. Which sounds like a lot but I have hated myself for so long I only wore t-shirts and joggers. I went to the hairdresser for the first time in 6 years! I went to the dentist! I am looking into maybe braces? I started my bachelors of data science. Like when I say I have completely taken this as a chance to become a new person I'm not joking. I want to come out of this being proud of who I am and not just the same me in a skinnier body.
My husband is not supportive at all of any of this. Every step he has just told me I'm doing the wrong thing. I'm spending too much money. The clothes I wear don't look good. I'm not smart enough to do data science. I just ignored it because I thought maybe if I improved myself it would motivate him to do the same. He doesn't even need to get a better job or anything like that but maybe he could cook more or do stuff around the house or take care of things I can't because I'm so busy. But he won't. Like we are 25 and 26 we can do anything we want our life isn't over yet we have only just started it he doesn't have to spend the rest of his life doing nothing.
The closer we got to my surgery date the more he would send me videos of bariatric surgery patients telling their stories going wrong to scary me out of doing it. He would tell me statistics of me gaining weight back and that I'll probably still be fat so there is no point. After about a week of this I snapped and an argument ensued. I called him lazy and said that he's living off me money so I don't know why he complains so much. And he told me he hopes I don't wake up from the surgery and walked out. He won't answer me calls now and I think in 2 weeks I'm going to go come out of surgery without a stomach or a husband.

As the title says, I have been offered to take over the care of a 2 year old male chow chow. However, he has osteoarthritis and I have no experience taking care of a dog let alone one with a degenerative disease. He is expected to start a monthly injection of anti nerve growth factor shortly and will also need professional physical therapy once a month. A little about me, I am a hybrid office worker living alone in a smaller apartment mid city with a little too much free time.
So what I am asking for is some wisdom regarding if it is too big of a hurdle for me to take over the care for this qt and what I should expect if I do decide to do so?
Thank you in advance!

These are not in order.
1- When young Smurf tried to make young Baz jealous by going into a room with one of the young guys he invited to that party. I know he was not her son, but I genuinely wanted to puke. She was unbelievable!
2- When Smurf was checking on J whether he was sexually satisfied and whether his gf is doing what he likes in the bedroom. I was like WTF are you guna do about it, GRANDMA?!
3- When Smurf told the stranger teenager who found her daughter shaking and sweating after doing drugs for the first time on the beach where she could've died to go talk to someone who cared and simply hung up. I know she is a fictional character but did that woman care about anybody ever?!
4- When Julia yelled at young Baz: so that's it?! after he saw her pregnant for the first time and he said nothing and left.
5- EVERY SCENE of Baz with Lina after her mom died
6- Baz killing scene. I just hated that she killed him off. A part of me didn't expect that even Smurf could stoop so low
7- When J killed the lawyer, I was like this boy is too evil man!
8- When J killed that poor secretary, again, TOO EVIL! he literally didn't have to, he was fleeing the country with a fake passport man, you could've just left her be
9- When Smurf told Pope to kill Julia
10- When Pope killed Julia, funnily enough I was feeling bad for Pope as much as for Cath. Smurf fucked him up too bad, man
11- When Amy was kicking Pope out while he confessed to her that he killed Cath because he was feeling guilty and she kept giving him hope that all sins are forgivable, yet not his sin. It was heart breaking how guilty he felt and how much he wanted to repent.
12- When monster Baz told Pope who would wanna have a kid with you. Literally broke my heart for him
13- When Pope kept repeating to Baz that he wasn't a weirdo, knowing that Baz always thought he was the normal son Smurf didn't have for Baz to get away with the job and for Pope to be the one getting caught after. One thing I hated passionately about Baz is something Smurf said, he always thought he was smarter than he really way. Even when his own brothers kept calling him smart I was like NO HE'S NOT SHIT lol I just wish he was the one getting caught then, Pope WAS WAY SMARTER than Baz was ever guna be
14- When Lucy went right away to steal Baz's suitcases while he was fighting for his life in that OR. What a bitch, that's all I could say every time she claimed she loved him after he died.
15- When Andrew was actually relieved to be talked to by a professional after his psych eval, and for selfish J to snitch him just before he gets to be talked to again (I know Andrew could've spilled everything then which would be harmful for everyone) but that's something I could never get over with Pope, if only he could talk to someone when he started needing to, I just know he would've turned out to be way less problematic individual, was so sad to watch how many times Smurf made sure he never does, starting with the church and the priest, how she even sent Baz to his bible study to make sure he doesn't share too much, selfish bitch
16- When Billy was inviting Nicky to try heroine (that's what he was doing right?) I was literally yelling for her to stay away
17- When Deran said that he liked Craig high, waiting for him to fall off the wagon, made my blood boil
18- Literally when NOBODY encouraged Craig to remain clean, not even cared that he got clean. Was so sad to watch
19- Almost all Ren's scenes ever since she had the baby haha. Sucha destructive personality and awful AWFUL mom. I mean child protective services should've taken Nick from her LONG TIME AGO
20- When Pope was trying his best to be a good dad, it broke my heart, he tried so much! more than Baz was ever going to
21- When Smurf made fun of Pope taking care of Lina, doing and saying everything to make him feel like he didn't know what he was doing. That one broke my heart because its like she fed on that tactic, and always managed to make him question how capable he was without her around. Awful human being.
22- When Smurf took Pope to his family's (1. without even telling him he had one) for him to sit there all confused and irritated, then to start a shooting battle with the gang while having a death wish not caring that he was guna be a causality during, just because she believed he couldn't live without her so she simply decided he should die without even telling him. Could she be any more disgusting?!
23- Pope's confusion and embarrassment after he tried to kiss Julia and Julia looking at him like a weirdo for the first time ever which made him feel even worse, while he was living it a sick boundriesless house where his mom is getting WAY TOO COMFORTABLE around him and his ''supposedly'' adopted brother, while Julia sleeps with Baz, and then he's the weirdo?! the guy was obviously mentally challenged and nobody ever explained to him what's normal and everything around him is everything BUT, and then he's viewed as the weirdo? that was so tough to watch
24- This one was a abitter sweet one, its the episode where one call from the only girl that ever liked Pope back (Amy) put him in such a good mood that he made a whole breakfast for the skaters and wanted to sign J's non profit paper from weeks lol how he went to the restaurant beforehand because a stranger told him he had to make sure it had not so loud music was so heartbreaking because I just knew he had so much love to give but somehow he just will never be lucky enough to get it, just like the scene when Baz yells at him for leaving flowers for Cath just because he knew Baz would never get her any and even though she didn't choose Pope he'd still get her flowers. So heartbreaking.
25- J not only abandoning his uncles but telling on them gutted me like no other scene in the show. We all saw it coming, him ripping their money off, but again, that kid was so spiteful that he wanted them caught, killed even. J gave me the same feelings Smurf always gave me, heartless psychopath. I know they lived in poverty in comparison, but I thought that after the time he spent amongst them, he was guna realize that they were spoiled at best, not malicious or even the reason why his mom ended up the way she did and maybe that'd be enough for him not to want them dead the way they ended up to be. What a monster, man
26- It's not a secret by now how much I loved Pope's character, so the last one shouldn't be any scene but Pope's death. It just was tragic, for him to make it out of jail and still to die at his house because of a wound was just part of Pope's continuous bad luck. It was like that man was not destined to be happy, even temporarily, I hated how worse he always had it among all the boys, I wished him a semi-normal life, with someone who genuinely cared about him till the very last episodes, I hate that he never stood a chance.
Those are mine! what about you?

Source: https://twitter.com/devsnest_/status/1664265684111736833

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This is probably a stupid question. But I have been learning backend using pure Nodejs and it is more difficult than using Nodejs-based frameworks such as Express or Nestjs.
But I'm seeing a lot of job postings and interview questions seemingly focusing only on pure Nodejs and it's rarer to see Express or Nest.
I'm a front-end dev currently learning backend to improve chances to get a dev job. To be honest I have no idea which framework to learn.
Can anyone give me some insights? Any help is appreciated.

Resources for this game have begun floating around and while I created something like this for BOTW for my own personal use, this game is a bit oversized so I thought I’d share my setup.
I present to you my TOTK reference workbook- which contains a spread of five worksheets:
A listing of all armor items, as well as my location notes, set bonus info, and a detailed breakdown for upgrading every armor item all the way through 4 stars
A calculation sheet that will dynamically update your material inventory needs as you upgrade your items should you use the breakdown sheet to track your upgrades (there's over 170 unique items to track!)
A cookbook with all the recipes I have found in-game or online (that I have tested), listing items, minimum heart recovery, minimum time added to an effect, and minimum time earned for all effects (hasty/tough/sneaky/etc). It also dynamically updates if you want to put in specific components to a recipe to see what you’ll get out for hearts or benefit duration
An elixir guide for max benefits - both with Dragon Horns and without. Admittedly, this sheet was used in BOTW and could use updating, but not today. For the most part, it still applies to TOTK - some things have expanded.
A miscellaneous reference sheet - Bargainer Statue coordinates, Koltin Upgrades, Horse Upgrade recipes, some locations and times for Dragon Appearances (note: incomplete and may not be standard across all games - my experience showed that their timing varied in BOTW between game files)
—
This spreadsheet is about 90% complete. I’ve personally verified about 60% of the armor upgrades and 95% of everything else. However, I am returning to work on Monday and won’t have 15 hours a day to play around with this absolute time sinkhole of a game so I figured I’d share what I have and I’ll update it when I complete it to my liking. I think it's still a good setup, even somewhat incomplete, no matter where you are in the game.
Details about use are also included as a note in each spreadsheet's top left corner cell. Look for the red triangle. I think it's pretty simple but feel free to also reach out with questions.
--
Credit where credit is due:
If the breakdown and calculation sheet look familiar, that’s because they are, kinda - they’re structured similarly to a spreadsheet shared by u/rarmeowz in 2018. However, this beefed-up setup came about because I found it incredibly frustrating that their version did not update totals as I upgraded armor items. I fixed that.
A big thank you to u/Entire_Definition_26 for completing the upgrades and sharing their notes on the spread so that I could finish what I was missing - they’re why this is complete!
--
I’m open to suggestions or feedback. I have my formulas protected mostly to ensure functionality for those who are unfamiliar with Excel. The workbook is 100% functional as it is. However, if you believe you can improve on my setup, feel free to reach out and I’ll send over the unlocked version!
I may cross-post this to other TOTK-based communities. Disclaimer: I try to be as accurate as possible but please remember that I am a human. Any and all errors are my own. Feel free to message me to let me know if this spreadsheet is helpful to you or to notify me of an error.
Enjoy!

I (29F) have been in a relationship with my boyfriend (34M) for 5 years now. He has a sister (27F) who has recently had a baby girl.
My boyfriend and his sister both grew up in an area in our city that is quite far from me, and they both still live there to be close to family. It takes around 1 hour 30 mins to travel there from where I live. The physical distance has been an issue for a while - not only does it take a long time to travel, but it gets expensive. My boyfriend and I talk about finding our own place together but it's not an option yet financially, and the rental market in our city is currently impossible.
My life has recently become very hectic. I work a full time job and I recently got accepted onto a full time graduate school programme that has been a dream of mine for years. I'm trying to balance the two full time commitments to the best of my abilities, but it's difficult having absolutely no free time to myself. I spend my evenings and weekends catching up on studying and writing papers. On top of that I have a freelance writing job and other extra-curriculars. I can't work less because I wouldn't be able to afford living here.
Before my studies started, I had told my boyfriend that it's unlikely I will be able to continue travelling to his place as often as I did once term begins, so he has started coming to my place more often during busy periods instead. I'm trying my best to make time for him alongside everything, which is already difficult.
His sister gave birth to her first child right around the time my first term was starting. She's a very sweet baby and I was delighted to see photos of her regularly. I hand made some baby clothes which my boyfriend took over to give to his sister as a gift. Unfortunately, I just didn't have the time to come and meet her for the first time until 3 months had passed.
My boyfriend expressed to me that his family thought it was rude that I didn't make the time to meet the baby in that 3 months. Though he insists it's not a big deal, I've noticed that they have stopped inviting me to family events and they aren't as happy to see me when I do show up to something. I feel like they think of me as being up my own *ss prioritising my work and studies over family, but I'm already spread so thin and can't be perfect at everything. AITA?

I have recently started a job and today was informed that I am expected to work all public holidays that fall on normal working days. That's... All of them for the rest of the year, except Xmas when we're closed.
I've only worked a salaried job once before but all public holidays were non-working days that we were paid for like a normal day if they fell on what would be normal working days. All my wage slave jobs have paid time and a half or double time, with a day in lieu.
I've checked Fairwork but there's a lot of "weasel words": employees may be entitled to time and a half and/or a day in lieu.
It feels shitty and unfair if not strictly illegal.
What say you, Reddit?
My contract says something about "reasonable" additional hours but is every public holiday with no additional reimbursement "reasonable"?

There is a tempting theory that Fromville is a government experiment. I would like to rule out this theory as best as I can, so we can move on to other theories. The most compelling evidence for the Government Experiment theory, in my opinion, is that all of the residents have been taken from somewhere in the continental United States. Let's talk about that.
Map of locations people arrived in the town from, showing no entry points from outside the continental US.
There's someone from San Diego, but nobody from Mexico, 17 miles away. There are pins tantalizingly close to the Canadian border too, but nobody was actually grabbed from Canada. Nobody from the Caribbean either, and nobody from Alaska or Hawaii.

Does it matter? Could it just be the writers catering to an US audience?

I think this map is intentional evidence of something. If they can have two characters (Kenny's Parents) who speak very little English, I don't think having a Mexican or a Canadian marked on a map would make Americans less likely to watch the show. Remember, these characters wouldn't even have to be still living or appear in the show. The pins on the map don't all correspond to still living characters, and it is an intentional choice to simply stop at the border.

How many people are counted here?

One thing worth mentioning is that these are only people who came after some undefined point, but I think given that this map is in the Sherriff's office we can assume they started keeping track after Boyd's arrival 2 years ago.
I can't quite make out most of the names, and my screenshot doesn't help, but I can't find any names from Colony House. Let me know if you can. It might help for someone who is better than me at reading handwritten text to open this in the actual show where you can get the best resolution. The questions to answer here are whether its only people from the town, and who is the longest staying resident we can find.

Why just the US?

Here are all of the theories I have for why this would only be happening to Americans.

1. Fromville is an experiment being carried out by the US Government.
2. The entrance to Fromville, being a wormhole or whatever else, has to be transported physically, by land, and it would be problematic to get it through customs.
3. Fromville is designed to punish Americans for something. This would have to be a punishment for something that Canadians and Mexicans didn't also do, which rules out settling the Americas.
4. Every country gets their own.
5. Its some mystical, paranormal force that for some reason cares about modern political borders. Maybe its the ghost of Osama Bin Laden or something.
6. Something cultural or logical prevents them from making it onto this map. If its only people who settled in the town that make it onto the map, maybe it was impossible to convince Spanish speakers to get inside. The problem with this is that Canada is not culturally different enough from the United States to create a filter here. Maybe Canadians are all lumberjacks and when they hit the tree in the road they just cut it up and haul it out. Who knows. I can't think of how this theory would work, but its still possible.
7. Its coincidence. Canada and Mexico have a lower populations than the United States, and if you squint the pins seem to have some correlation with regional population density. Maybe they just got lucky.
8. It has to do with the interstate system. All of these pins seem to be placed on interstates. Mexico and Canada do not have an interstate system the same way the US does. I heard somewhere that one motivation for building the interstates was the Cold War, as an efficient way to evacuate cities in case of a nuclear attack. Maybe there's something there.
9. Its a simulation so anything can happen, who cares.
10. The people running Fromville don't want to introduce a language barrier. This theory is also weak, considering Kenny's parents speak very little English, and people were taken from south Florida, south Texas, and San Diego, who could very easily have been Spanish speakers. America in general is not a monolingual country. On the other hand, if people are selected individually (which the bus with Krysti's fiancée implies) then Kenny's family could have been selected *because* they have Kenny to translate, and the people from heavily Spanish speaking parts of the United states could be collected at no risk of introducing a language barrier to isolate them.
11. It could be because of something I haven't thought of, let me know in the comments.

I don't like most of these answers, but they're what I've got.

Why just the continental US?

1. The US Government is running the experiment, but lacks the resources to do anything in Alaska or Hawaii despite having wormhole technology. Or they just don't care to run this experiment on Hawaiians and Alaskans, because they wouldn't get useful data from them for some reason.
2. The entrance to Fromville, being a wormhole or whatever else, has to be transported physically, by land, and it would be problematic to get it through customs.
3. Hawaii and Puerto Rico don't have long enough stretches of empty country roads, while Alaska just doesn't have enough people for it to be likely that one is here, the same reason why there's nobody from Wyoming, Idaho, or Nebraska.
4. The wormhole operates within some radius, you can draw a circle on a map which includes all of these pins but excludes Hawaii and Alaska.
5. It could be something I haven't thought of, let me know in the comments.

Again, none of these are great answers, but its all I've got.

Dating the beginning of Fromville.

If Fromville is 5 years old, the government experiment theory is plausible. The older Fromville is, the less likely it is that the US Government had the potential to create this kind of thing. Even setting aside the impossible geometry, we have seen wires that go nowhere but still power things. We've seen bioengineered superhumans who can shapeshift and rip a person apart in seconds, all while being impervious to bullets. Not to mention the ability to induce shared hallucinations and read minds.
Not only are these things beyond present technology, they are things a government would find extremely useful for projects that make a lot more money than torturing two dozen of its own citizens secretly. I think, without some kind of magic, we can rule out almost all human causes. Terror attacks, government experiments, basically every explanation of a manmade Fromville, except The Matrix or something supernatural, like magic. All we need to do is prove that Fromville is very old.
So, maybe the present-day government has this technology and is keeping it a secret, or its still being tested. In that case, did they have this technology in the 70's, when Victor arrived? As we go further back, it becomes less plausible.
We see Civil War uniforms on some of Jade's hallucinations, which would be dated to the 1880s, but these civil war soldiers may not necessarily have been trapped in Fromville or may not have actually existed at all.
What about the US Marine that Boyd meets in the tower? He doesn't recognize Boyd's style of pistol, presumably because its a semi automatic. The first semi automatic sidearm formally adopted by the US military was the Colt 1911, adopted in 1911. If you've seen a Colt 1911, you wouldn't look at Boyd's pistol and say "That doesn't look like any pistol I've seen.'(Or whatever his exact wording was.)
That marine was probably a civil war soldier or earlier, who would only have been familiar with revolvers. I doubt the technology we see in the show is older than the semi automatic pistol.
If we wanted to date Fromville older than this, we can get into things I can't prove.
​
A picture of the talismans.
When I first watched the show, my first thought was that these symbols were Rongorongo because of the human shapes. Then, I started thinking about writing systems that would more plausibly have been in North America at some time. Looking more into it, these look like they could be Icelandic staves. I am neither Icelandic nor am I an anthropologist, but I feel like there isn't enough discussion on who would have carved these so I'll try to at least say enough to get a discussion going.
Icelanders used to carve symbols into a form of stone called lignite. Lignite is a soft stone which, from google image searches, often has this same blueish-gray color. If these are Icelandic staves, they probably date back to around 1000 AD, the approximate possible date when Icelandic people settled Newfoundland. The middle of the talisman looks like the rune ᛝ and the dashes along the outside look like ᚫ, but with an extra notch. The only examples I was able to find with three notches were on this runic calendar dated around the 12th or 13th century AD found in Finland.
\"Sami Runic Calendar\" showing a character resembling ᚫ but with an extra notch. Look in the bottom right if you don't see it.
I have no idea what the significance of the extra notch is, or if its something that was only done on calendars. If the talismans are calendars, obviously the circular shape is significant. This could also be an older form of the rune, or any number of other possibilities because languages and writing systems are hard, constantly evolving, and I am not an anthropologist. Also, there are only so many shapes you can make when carving notches into a rock and the talismans don't necessarily have to be Icelandic just because they look like some runes.
One counterargument to all of this is that this same symbol appears on the cave writings by the monsters.
Victor showing the cave drawings.
My theory, assuming the talismans are Icelandic, is that the domain of Fromville either used to extend to Newfoundland 1000 years ago, or that some Vinlanders(which is what I will call Icelandic settlers in Newfoundland, I don't know if this is a real word) were blown off course and found their way into its domain. Obviously, if Fromland is over 1000 years old, sticking to the modern day boundaries of the continental United States would be extremely strange. It would also be extremely strange that there is evidence of Vinlanders but 0 evidence of any First Nations people despite Fromville being 1000 years old.
Regardless, these Vinlanders found themselves trapped, much like our modern day protagonists. They desperately designed staves that they hoped could ward off the creatures, and eventually someone managed to make one that worked. These staves were then passed down or dug up by more and more generations of Fromlanders, until eventually Boyd found them. Meanwhile, the monsters, either by somehow assimilating humans or through their observation of the talismans, came to draw these symbols themselves.
My theory on why the stave worked is that it could say some equivalent of "I'm not afraid of you", the same thing Darrel says to the creatures surrounding the bus.
The stick with three notches could also be depicting trees or waves, and not be a rune at all. On the cave drawing, surrounding the boats and spaced randomly, they look like waves. On the talisman, evenly spaced in a ring around the human figures, they look like trees
Regardless, if any of this holds up, a healthy majority of historians believe that the United States Federal Government was not functional or existent in 1000AD. At the very least, their technology was extremely limited.

My life is meaningless, I have no other way out. I’m thinking of swallowing a razor blade but I don’t know if it will hurt or not. Anyone have experience?

I want to buy some albums and the online store Paradise Collections has some of my favs for cheap (5-10 dollars per album) i thought the shipping would be expensive but it’s only 5 dollars. I’m suspicious because there is so refunds and no reviews. Has anyone bought from there and can you let me know your experience with it?

This is for my sister (22), she lives away from us in london and is currently doing her masters. Shes almost done and will have to move out of her accommodation soon. But she cant find a job at all, she has an undergrad in bio med science and a masters in global mba. Everywhere she applies always says ‘we dont want a student’ or that ‘we have people with better experience’. But to get a job you need experience and to get experience you need a job, so its basically just a cycle. The only option she has is an apprenticeship but she said that the money they offer wouldnt be enough for her to be financially stable, she already works 2 part time jobs too. What advice should i give her?

Hi everyone!
As title says, I'm gonna give another chance to the albums I like the least. This is the first of the the three other posts I'm going to write, as the albums I'd like to review are Origins, Evolve and Mercury Act 2.
Today I begin with Origins, not for any particular reason, but just because it's the albums I've been listening lately.
Here, I write a small review for each of the tracks and at the end I decide my final "verdict".
Also, don't take this review too seriously, as I won't go too much into technical details and I'd like to write something funny.
So, let's begin!
Natural: Among the other tracks, I think Natural works well as the album opener. I truly was into this song when I first discovered ID but now it feels to me a bit formulaic and shallow in lyrics. Overall, it's not that bad, but I've just got used to that sound.
Boomerang: It's the track that opens up to the "Origins Vibe". Many other songs from this album have these syncopated drum beats. I like how they've tried to be modern by experimenting with drum samples.
Machine: That's the track I considered to be one of the "rock songs" from Imagine Dragons, but I guess that my idea of rock music has changed over the years. Rhythmically it sounds like "We Will Rock You" by Queen, and that's probably the case considering that ID have always tried to make the definitive 21st century arena rock anthem. Lyrically it's as "edgy" as other lyrics I've heard from other modern pop-rock bands like Twenty One Pilots and so on. Definitively, it's not one of my favourite from that album.
Cool Out: I'm not as a pophead as I was before, but honestly it doesn't sound to me that bad. It's not the song that can revolutionize the pop music scene, but it feels... fresh (no pun intended). The production is pretty good for this kind of pop music and the drum samples are pretty unique. I'd rather listen to this kind of music rather than a generic pop-rock song that tries to be edgy.
Bad Liar: Ah, yes. The popular one. This is the song that made me discover ID. The production is coherent to other songs from this album, and that's good. At the end, it's another self-blaming ID song with pretty lame lyrics, but I must thank this song and radio stations for making me discover this band.
West Coast: It reminds me of some acoustic songs from Avicii and I bet my life. It's ok, but it's not the strongest track from the album.
Zero: Ah, yes. The Disney one. But honesty, it's not bad! I can definitively hear some reminisces of the old post-punk revival ID in there! I also love to listen to an ID song with this high-level professional production. Perhaps I'm crazy but, probably due to the drums, it also sounds like one of those post-soviet songs but just slightly overproduced, ahah. Would I listen to this song on my own? Well, no. But it's actually a funny song!
Bullet In A Gun: This song unveils Dan Reynolds' hip-hop background. It's essentially a pop-trap beat with lyrics about celebrity issues and how people have high expectations of them. It's not that great in my opinion, but they've tried to be experimental.
Digital: I don't get what's the purpose of that song as it sounds like a demo for the Ralph Breaks the Internet soundtrack which didn't made out. I can say that it's pretty experimental and the "they been saying the same thing" bridge somehow sound like a Radiohead song from the In Rainbows era? I know it's a strech, but I can hear that they've tried to bring something unique.
Only: Like I said for Cool Out, this is another fresh pop song from Origins. I would have loved this if I found it out during my EDM phase. The production it's yet again very polished and Ben's bare ass worked out pretty well!
Stuck: Omg, how's this possible. I know it has become a cliche, but this sounds to me like another 🌈 ID Children's music song 🌈. No, I'm not crazy, take a listen to this italian children's music song and you can find out that it's virtually similar to Stuck. They're even both in F Major and 115 BPM! Please, don't mind too much, I'm just a crazy listener with weird life experiences...
Love: It's just a generic love song called... "Love". Probably that's the beginning of the cheesy ID phase in MA1 and MA2. What a unique song title, btw.
Birds: Ohh, that was my song! This is instead the song which unveils ID morbid obsession with death. The production is yet again coherent with other songs in Origins. I also like the animated music video they made for this song.
Burn Out: I love the rythm of the piano and these kind of fooley samples truly makes this album. Lyrics are also quite interesting though.
Real Life: It didn't grow up on me and it was also the hardest one to review. It's another upbeat Imagine Dragons song about loss of faith and personal relationships.

The verdict

This is probably the most experimental album from Imagine Dragons along with Mercury. It's a coherent and fluid album but, although it could have been an interesting release, this kind of experimentation hasn't took off the stigma of generic radio songs that ID suffer from.
Overall, for me it's a 6/10 as there some tracks which have surprised me positively.
Next time, I'll try to reconsider Evolve and see if it's really as bad as I remember it to be. So, see you later!

1. Problem: You have an important job somewhere, you make a lot of money, and you use social media regularly. In these sensitive times where everyone has a problem with everyone and what they post, your content could cause the online mob to cancel you and you might lose your job. The cancel mob may or may not cancel you, but the risk is there. So here is the solution, why isn’t there an insurance for these kind of things?

You may ask, how is this insurance going to work? It is simple. After someone signs up and buys an policy from you as a insurance seller, you will collect all the social media accounts they want to protect, you will get their authentication info, and you as a insurance company, will monitor everything that person posts, you hire people to look any potentially sensitive comments/videos that policy holder posts, using powerful python bots and AI to analyze every post that person submits to your web app before they are green-lighted to the the app the person wanted. Here is the workflow.

1. Someone buys an insurance policy from you.
   
2. They give their usernames and all their auth for every account they wanted to be protected
   
3. Each time they want to post something to their accounts, they will first come to your web app and write what they want to write, and submit for examination. If the platform approves, it will go live, otherwise the platform will notify the person the issue.
   
4. The platform will query all the platforms you use for your legal name/or username(s) to find any problem brewing and will notify you before anyone can take alarm. The platform will query with the use of AI to look anything that conceivably be controversial and let you know whether that content is problematic. The feature is called controversiality meter, in this feature, you set how sensetive the meter is: if you only want to look obvious offensive language, then you will set it to “low”, so this feature will catch anything you have ever wrote that contains the N word (if you are white), and if you set it to “high”, the feature will query everything you have wrote with in the limits of each platform’s content history and look anything that could be offensive to someone.
   

Depending on how advance the current AI gets, this insurance platform could even have bots that could “represent you in twitter court”, responding to the mob and trying to reason with them. But I don’t think that functionality is near, maybe the 22nd century .
So, what happens if something goes wrong?
Let’s say, you as a policy holder, you submitted something you thought was fine, the platform checked it and said it was fine, but later you woke up to find that you no longer have a job, that highly paid important job you bought insurance for, because of the online mob contacted your employer and caused your employer terminate your employment. What then? You will be in luck! Because of this insurance, you will be compensated for that loss up to the maximum amount you chose when you bought the policy, because essentially you won the bet against the insurance company.
So, here is how that process gonna work, and please keep in mind, I am not a lawyer and know fuck alll about how insurance works beyond a surface level, feel free to correct me if this idea is totally idiotic.

1. You bought a policy that insures $80k if you lose your job because of online mob. In order to get this, the loss of your job has to be connected to the content you wrote, and was insured under this policy. If you had a drunken fight in your local bar, called someone N word and someone recorded and then sent to your boss, that won’t qualify if you lose your job. You posted some content and never submitted to our platform and thus we didn’t “approve” it, that, too, won’t qualify.
   
2. Someone who is so thirsty for social media fame tries to lie about you, spread your pictures or videos without your consent, calling you a “Karen” or any flavor of the month, then under this policy, you have very powerful tools: first and most obvious benefit will because we manage your IP, we can force these apps to take down any content we want under the US Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) with our scary lawyers sending letters to them. If that doesn’t work (which is rare), we’ll threaten these social media upstarts with lawsuits which makes these people reconsider. And as our insurance company gains more notoriety so as our stature.
   
3. You will pay $2,500/month up to $10,000/month depending on the policy you choose. This policy will also have tools to hook up into the APIs of all these web apps so that you can edit, delete, or update any content you think is, or will be problematic.
   

What do we call this service? Parachute? Or some word that has the word “Para” to imply “together, or alongside”, maybe “Parahelper”? I don’t know, maybe that sounds more retarded, but you marketing geniuses can come up with something smart.
What is the fatal flaws of this business opportunity? Why hasn’t big insurance parasitic companies jumped in yet?

I moved into my new roommate (who is also my landlord)‘s place almost exactly two weeks ago. This was my first choice while I was apartment-hunting. I came from almost a full year of a really toxic and tense living environment with two people my age, one of whom was a former friend. When I first got here, it was the first time in a really long time that I felt happy and excited for life. It has made everything else that has been wrong with my life come to the forefront in a way I’m having trouble ignoring, which I take as a sign that I need to address and fix these things as well. That said, in my pessimistic fashion that’s always too reliable for my liking, I was wondering if and when the other shoe was going to drop. It seems like it either has or is trying now.
To put it simply, I feel like my new roommate is trying to fix my life with what she personally feels like I need. More frequently, when I’ve come back from work—and I’m the sort of person who wants to spend time alone and decompress, especially since the commute is longer than it was before, and my job is stressing me out a lot more, she has made more unsolicited and unprompted comments about what I’m doing “wrong”. For example, the day after I moved, I got a Walmart delivery that was just under $180. That’s definitely a lot of money for me, but I literally had no food at all and was trying to restock to be set for a while. That order also included household items we needed, like a bunch of rolls of paper towels. She has repeatedly made comments to me about this as if it’s so hilarious that I spent that much money and I don’t know what I’m doing. She has also repeatedly made comments about the food I eat. She keeps telling me not to get any more groceries because she’s going to get me on this illegal thing she does with food stamps, where she purchases them from another woman and you can buy whatever you want for half the price.
Additionally, she recently has been on my case to get my permit and actually going to practice driving around (I have never been behind the wheel ever before), because she doesn’t want me to use the buses anymore. Then yesterday, she, out-of-the-blue, started telling me I can’t stay in my room “and sleep” all day, and went on a whole kind of stereotypical older person rant about how my generation is “too soft” and “we need to let things go”. She kept saying she doesn’t know some of the things I’ve been through because I haven’t told her and she won’t pry, and then insinuated I don’t know what a real struggle is and she has been through hell and back and knows what does and doesn’t work. I have previously told her that I’m planning to get a new phone ASAP because the one I have is still being paid for by my mother, who I want to go NC with and don’t speak to, and she said “that’s not a bill I need”, “parents come around”, and the least I could do is give my mother a call to flex on her because she’s paying for my phone.
Now, these comments are just annoying more than anything else, especially because they strike me as “older person condescendingly sharing wisdom that’s outdated and not actually helpful” (for context, she is 46 and I’m 23). I also hate how they’re given when I literally just walked through the door. At least for now, I’m not actually triggered or really upset. But I just don’t see why she feels so comfortable making them, and I’m worried she will try to move from words to action, especially with the illegal food stamp thing and driving to force me to drive. I also just don’t like the authoritative comments about how I should be spending my time in the place I’m paying for. She has made other comments like “I couldn’t wait to get you into the palm of my hand” that implies she sees me as an experiment or something she’s going to have fun morphing.
One of the things that appealed to be about this place in particular was the fact that she kept saying it’s quiet and I would be left alone, which is something I definitely didn’t have at my last apartment (or anywhere I’ve lived honestly). I just want a place where I can just be me comfortably, have predictability and communication, and live my life in peace. To be frank, I’m generally exhausted and only working on improving my life now because I’m still alive and unfortunately look like I won’t be dying anytime soon. I spent the last year incredibly depressed and constantly planning and fantasizing about su!c!de because life was so bad; and it’s like someone who doesn’t know the full extent of that wants you all cheery and running around at the flip of a switch and is unpleasantly surprised that isn’t the case.
For clarity though, while I do spend a lot of time in my room—because I like having a space that’s really just mine, and also because this is the first time in a year where I’ve had a real and comfortable bed to sleep in and I honestly like just lying down on it—, I’m not sleeping the day away, or scared to come out like I was at my last place. I’m really just an introvert, but I’m also just worn out by people overall and don’t like to interact with them if I don’t have to. I also don’t see a need to tell her my life story, as we’re just roommates, and I’ve been burned a lot by telling those stories to people who didn’t actually need them. I also don’t know how she’s going to construe them, and whether or not they’ll be a “real struggle” or grounds for more unsolicited commentary.
Moreover, I don’t want or need the food stamps. Knowing my luck, that’s when someone is going to catch on and then I’ll have a record for fraud, theft, or whatever crime that would be. Yesterday, she said she would protect me if anything ever happened, but I have no reason to believe that. I also don’t want to learn how to drive right now. Maybe down the road, but I don’t mind and actually enjoy riding the buses. The things that I need to do that matter to me now are getting a new job and getting my own phone.
I don’t know, I guess I wanted some outside perspective. Am I being too pessimistic and unappreciative of what she’s saying? Do I have the right to not be super amused by what she’s saying? What should I do, or intend to do, moving forward?

Is it very important to have lots of connections in LinkedIn? I thought the point was to add people job related, not friends and family. In that case, I have no one to add. My colleagues do not have linkedIn. Any tips?

Hi all!
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I was wondering about the state of contemporary philosophical research on the question of personal identity over time (diachronic personal identity). More specifically, I was wondering whether most philosophers in this area think that personal identity is maintained over the course of a 'normal' life (that is, no branching/fission, no teletransportion, no severe memory loss, no brain transplant etc.)?
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I'm aware that there's a fair amount of contention over whether personal identity is maintained in these sci-fi style thought experiments where we're swapping and splitting brains or teleporting people to Mars or living for thousands of years, but I was wondering whether there was general agreement/disagreement over whether a person can be said to continue to exist over the course of a 'normal' human life.
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I'm aware of at least two philosophers who don't think this is the case, namely Ted Sider who thinks that persons are reducible to 'person stages' that exist only momentarily, and Galen Strawson who thinks that 'selves' are reducible to first person phenomenological experiences that exist only briefly. Are these marginal views or relatively well accepted? I've had trouble finding philosophers who directly respond to these accounts, as well as how popular they are.
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I'm familiar with the standard distinctions of brute physical theories and psychological views, as well as Parfit's argument that 'what matters' in survival is not personal identity. I also know that some Buddhist philosophers challenge the coherence of a concept of 'self' and its persistence.
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Essentially, as an outsider to the field it's tough to get a read on where the debate is at, so any help or guidance would be much appreciated.
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Would love to hear from you all!